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Film

127 Hours

I’ve given a link to my blog to two people today, and in both instances, felt the need to apologize for the lack of current content, and as such, I should actually write something here. We’re going to start with the backlog of film reviews. So, ladies, and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time to review… 127 Hours Alright, so this slightly annoying, dude1 goes out to the middle of nowhere, playing in this series of caves, and rocks, and shit, he falls, his arm is pinned between a rock, and the stone wall. He spends 127 hours alone, until he finally cuts his arm off and gets to freedom.… Read More »127 Hours

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Banksy’s film tells the story of Thierry Guetta, an immigrant in Los Angeles from France, who started filming graffiti artists, and with a push from Banksy emerged as an artist. I went into this film without any preconceived notions, I didn’t really know what to expect, hell, I thought it was a documentary on Banksy. The film was funny and interesting, and an absolutely fabulous watch. The story of all these graffiti artists who Guetta trailed with his camera, and his quest to finally meet the shy Banksy is intriguing, but it’s not until the last half hour of the film, where Guetta decides to become an artist himself, does… Read More »Exit Through the Gift Shop

Oh hi, Mark.

I went to see The Room on Friday night. I don’t really know how to describe this film. Let’s let a scene from the film help you out. It’s one of the worst films ever made. It’s hard to watch, but fortunately if you see this film in a theatre, you won’t hear much of the dialogue, as the audience is screaming at the screen, asking questions about continuity, or saying “Hi Danny,” whenever Danny walks into shot, throwing plastic spoons in the air whenever you see a framed photo of a spoon in the set decoration. Fortunately at key points in the film, there were a few people with… Read More »Oh hi, Mark.

Film Roundup

True Grit A young girl’s father dies, and she heads to the town to finalize his affairs, and hire a US Marshall to track down the murderer. While it seems that Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon are the stars of the film, within a few minutes of watching, you see that their only purpose is to support the real star Elizabeth Marvel who plays Mattie Ross, the young girl. Her performance is brilliant, and it’s quite the gripping film. While the Coen brothers can be hit or miss, this might be their best yet. In my mind their only competition is O Brother, Where Art Thou? See this as soon… Read More »Film Roundup

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

For a long time I’ve refrained from seeing the final instalment of the second Star Wars trilogy. I was under the impression that the only way the trilogy could redeem itself after the catastrophes that were The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones was if they did two things: Yoda is a Muppet again. Yoda says “Wocka wocka!” While I knew neither of these things would happen, I could pretend they did if I didn’t watch the film. I would hear others bandying about complimentary terms like “surprisingly good,” “not bad,” and “could be worse;” these compliments were said in vain. I think Revenge of the Sith can best… Read More »Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

How To Train Your Dragon

A tale of a Viking boy, who’s not quite the Viking-image his father wishes for him. While his village is filled with the strong, big warriors, he’s the weakling of the bunch. More clever than strong, Hiccup is the inventor of the group, but brute strength is what they believe to be the only way to conquer the invading dragons. Hiccup captures a dragon and learns from it. Eventually leading to the discovery that the dragons are enslaved by a mightier dragon, and that they only raid the village to get food for the King Dragon. The story leads to the obvious conclusion of the Humans deposing the King Dragon,… Read More »How To Train Your Dragon

Easy A

I didn’t expect to so thoroughly enjoy this film, but the film is a lot of fun with a great cast of to compliment it. Specifically the adults in the film, who are only in the movie to compliment Olive (Emma Stone) and have little character of their own, are so well played with excellent comic timing. The film centres on Olive, a high school girl who makes a quick excuse to excuse herself from her BFF’s family camping extravaganza. Her excuse being a date… EEE! When she denies losing her virginity to this college boy, her friend assumes the worst1. Olive figures she might as well play along, and… Read More »Easy A

Black Swan

When I was invited out to see one of the new buzz films Black Swan, I really had no idea what to expect. I had heard the name bandied about, always with something good to say, and I had seen that it was a ballet film, but I hadn’t even seen the trailer. After watching the trailer, I was underwhelmed, but I felt the same way based on the trailer for Inception, and was blown away by the film. Black Swan did the same. Who would’ve thought a ballet film could be this good? Black Swan is about a ballet dancer in a major metropolis’ company, forever dancing on the… Read More »Black Swan

Le Déclin de l’empire américain

Le Declin de l’empire americain is a film about eight friends who work together in the History department of the Université de Montréal. These four men and four women share two other things in common, they speak French, and they’re perverted. One of these two things I also share with them1. While the women are at the gym discussing their sex lives, the men are at home cooking for the women. They regale one another with stories of their conquests and flashbacks to their trysts. While Diane tells of her new lover Mario, with whom she has gone to new levels of lust and submission; Pierre tells of his experiences trolling… Read More »Le Déclin de l’empire américain

Johnny Guitar

I went to the Lightbox theatre on the weekend, and saw the classic western Johnny Guitar. I had never seen it, or heard about it before, and honestly I’m not much of a fan of westerns, but this wasn’t your normal cowboy film. For one thing, the protagonist is not the titular character, but instead Joan Crawford as Vienna. The antagonist is Mercedes McCambridge as Emma. Vienna has built a saloon in the middle of nowhere, with the advance knowledge that the railroad will soon be coming right by there. She’s prostituted herself to get business information and favours to help her build her saloon. However in the near town is… Read More »Johnny Guitar