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david-parkes7
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Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
what were they thinking.
this review will contain spoilers. from the start this movie was OK, Chris Hemsworths Scottish narration through the 1st 10 Min's opening up the scenes for the evil queen to take over, but as my daughter said "so the king met her and within 1 day married her, thats weird" So the evil queen marries the king kills him and takes over, locking up young snow white.
Raffey Cassidy played young snow white with a depth that made Kristin Stewarts performance look strained, and for all the 20 Min's she is in the movie she nearly gets as many lines.
so after an unspecified number of years we meet the older snow white, stuck in a tower saying the lords prayer (not sure why or what a Christian prayer has to do with anything else in the movie) we then have an escape, with a nail to the queens creepy brothers face (found with the help of some magpies) down the sewers, a chase scene ripped directly from LOTR complete with dark riders, a drugged out trip in the dark forest and Chris Hemsworth being hired to hunt snow white down. then a change of heart an escape a fight with a troll ripped from fable III were we 1st learn the Snow white is not all she appears to be, a rescue by some scarred women who's village then get burned to the ground, and then the dwarfs... who were played quite well by the likes of Bob Hoskins, Ian Mcshane, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost and others. but you are always aware that these are full sized adults playing 3 foot dwarfs by computer wizardry and as soon as I saw them i wondered how they did it and it took my attention from the movie. I actually agree with a statement from Warwick Davis that the producers should have found dwarf actors, there are plenty and some of them are fantastic actors. so we meet the dwarfs they argue about what to do then take SW and the huntsmen to a enchanted glade with fairy's, turtles, magic butterflies and a giant white deer, who lets everyone know that SN is special. Then an attack by the queens brother and henchmen who now include SW childhood companion who escaped when he was younger, and who is trying to make up for however many years of not doing anything.
what follows is a death a reunion the apple the kiss and a speech from SW that made me and my daughter look at each other and say "what". then a full frontal assault on a castle that seems to keep changing location and is so well guarded and protected that guess what a load of soldiers die but when they do get through suddenly there are 100's more soldiers than there should have been. so SW take on the queen and wins gets crowned. but by the end you just don't care.
Charlize Theron is great and as pretty as always, Chris Hemsworth can be forgiven his accent but he looks embarrassed every time he is with SW. the dwarfs are played well but by the wrong type of actors. BUT Kristin Stewart is terrible, she reminded me towards the end of the movie of an actor from the Brian blessed school of actors. 1 positive she plays a corpse brilliantly.
the effects are mostly well done, the script is mostly OK, the acting is mostly OK, but the lead let this down badly and you are sat watching her pulling faces in close up and saying about 30 lines throughout the entire movie. if you want a snow white movie get the DVD of Mirror Mirror, if you want a movie with trolls, dwarfs, a script and good acting watch LOTR.if you want to wast 127minutes watch this movie.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
great start, sappy ending
I will always try to make sure no spoilers.
this movie is a great popcorn movie, nothing more nothing less. it starts with a great set piece which sets up the rest of the movie, but you don't find out why the start happened until about 20mins towards the end. The acting is okay with Tom Cruise stealing the show. It seems like he has his energy back but you cant watch him on screen without the baggage he brings from his private life clouding your belief in his character. Simon Pegg does Simon Pegg the same character he plays in all his movies. Paula patton is a pretty filler with a part to play which you just cant believe in. Jeremy Renner just doesn't seem right, it's like he did this part as an audition for the new bourne movie. The biggest issue with the cast is Anil Kapoor he was fantastic in 24, brilliant in slumdog but in this he's just sleazy and not in a comic way, just lucky his part is only 5 mins or so. The locations are fantastic some of which you remember long before you forgot what the movie was about. and i think thats the problem, the locations steal the show. It also has a little to much product placement BMW's all over the place including the new electric sports car the Vision, considering one of the locations it just doesn't feel right. You'll realise what I mean when you watch the movie, not a Italian sports car in site.
A good entry, a fun movie. just what you would expect.
Chrysalis (2007)
An enjoyable movie, almost live action anime
This movie started out by setting up the viewer nicely for the following 90 minutes, some very good acting and some good scripting. not wanting to put any spoilers within this review the film does grip you till the end, with a nice conclusion.
The Science fiction for the most part actually seemed not that far in the future which is always nice as having to suspend belief can sometimes be tiresome. The set pieces seemed to be well directed and the fight scenes especially the one on one between "David" and "Nicolov" were gritty/bloody and very realistic, not clean martial art which we've seen in so many movies.
The last lines said by "david" to "maria" seemed perfect and totally within the character that has been created. Having an actor like Patrick Bauchau in any movie would almost guarantee me watching, Albert Dupontel is very good as the damaged police officer "david"
That said the movie did feel rushed in the last 15 minutes. It did seem that the director spent to much time on the first 3/4 of the movie and tried to speed it up when all the threads of the story were weaved together.
Overall and enjoyable movie subtle sci-fi with a good script and good action. An excellent cast.
If you don't understand french then watch a version with English subtitles as the dub is not good.
If you like you sci-fi on the not mainstream side and you like to be able to think a little about a story then try this.