Sunday 5 February 2012

Great start to the year

January had 31 days and I'm proud to say that I managed a very pleasing 26 films this month.  4 found footage horrors for my PhD, 3 watched on a plane to New York, 3 at preview screenings, 2 documentaries, only 4 in the cinema, 3 classics, 1 animated.  Stay tuned in the next few days for a more detailed breakdown.  For now, here's my best and worst of the month:


Best of the month:
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011)
Better than Bond, better than Bourne.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ethan Hunt could take out Batman and The Avengers after watching this.  After uninspiring efforts from De Palma, Woo and Abrams, finally this is an impossible mission to truly savour.  Cruise control is switched off as the foot is placed firmly on the gas for mad stunts, huge explosions, great gadgets and one of the biggest stars in the world hanging off the biggest building in the world.  Pegg, Renner and Patton are welcome additions, but Cruise and his super spy Hunt keep the most nail-biting and incredible set-pieces focused.  And Hunt is really off the chain this time.  Best action movie of 2011?  Mission Accomplished.

Worst of the month:
Monster (Erik Estenberg, 2007)
Dreadful, penniless attempt to re-create Cloverfield's thrills with no budget, even less story, passable acting and virtually no effects shots.  Something attacks Japan and two documentary makers stumble about the city not really filming anything of any importance or significance until they finally bumble into an anti-climactic ending.  Avoid like the plague.

8 comments:

  1. Chronicle will provide something different in the found footage department for your Phd....

    p/s: I've tried to add your blog url "http://ilovethatfilm.blogspot.com/" into my blogger reading list but it keeps redirecting to "http://splittingreels.blogspot.com/". Any ideas why?

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  2. @asrap yeah i can't wait to see it. I hadn't realised the whole thing was in this style. I love the sound of the controlling the camera through telekinesis thing. Though I'm focussing on horror, it will definitely be interesting to see.

    The splitting reels address is an old one. Thanks for letting me know, I'll see if I can figure out what's going on!

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  3. Impressive number of movies seen! I'm really lucky when I make to 12-15 a month... Have yet to see MI4 but been hearing a lot of good things, looking forward to renting it!

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  4. @Castor I think I'm the same usually with about 15/16 a month. I got lucky this month because I had a day off work sick, a 7 hour journey on a plane and a few free screenings. I highly recommend MI4. I didn't really like the others in the series but this one blew me away!

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  5. It certainly has been a good start to the year. The Descendants kicked things off nicely and I'm really looking forward to Martha Marcy May Marlene. Chronicle looks good too.

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  6. @Dan Haven't seen Descendants or Chronicle yet. Really looking forward to Chronicle and must catch Descendants before the Oscars. Just watched MMMMM on a plane to NY and loved it. A little dissapointed by the end but still a great film.

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  7. Wow, Pete, that's a ton of movies! Very cool. Glad you liked MI4 so much. Definitely had to be my favorite action film of the year as well! Ahh, it was so good. Seriously, I loved it.

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  8. @Kristin Yeah I couldn't get the grin off my face from the second Sawyer from Lost jumped off that building. Wish more action flicks could be more like it!

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