Movie watching and writing in April 2013

I watched 16 films this month but write the most amount of posts I've ever written in one month. It was also the second biggest month for page views in the history of I Love That Film with over 16,500 views in April. Anyway that's enough statistical excitement and here's what I watched this last month along with a rating I've just decided on right now. Click any of the title to be magically transported to my reviews wherever they may be:

Evil Dead (8/10)
Spring Breakers (8/10)
The Lost Coast Tapes (5/10)
Olympus Has Fallen (8/10)
The Gatekeepers (8/10)
Excision (7/10)
Iron Man 3 (8/10)
Rock of Ages (2/10) (There was very little 'rock' about it and it took ages to finish)
Bait (5/10)
The Look of Love (7/10)
Bernie (7/10)
Everybody Has a Plan (7/10) (I will be reviewing this for Static Mass Emporium in May)
21 & Over (6/10)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (9/10) Just brilliant in every way. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Side by Side (9/10)
Sound City (7/10)

My The Lords of Salem  and Rebellion reviews were also published at Filmoria.

I covered news of a couple of new posters at Filmoria: the new World War Z poster and the new Made of Stone poster.

I also got to meet and interview one of my favourite filmmakers Mathieu Kassovitz for Filmoria.

I wrote a couple of box office reports for Tastic Film: Week of Magical Action and The Scare Off.

I also had my first articles for Yahoo Movies published about the Fast and Furious 7 director shortlist, James Wan getting the job and why I'd like to see Zack Snyder direct Justice League. I also wrote pieces for Yahoo on cheating in sports, marathon training, the death of Thatcher and cold caller chuminess.

This month I've also just started writing for Starburst Magazine and they have published a horrible little short story I wrote called Woman on the Wind and some news stories on Byzantium poster and trailer, Star Trek Into Darkness character posters and Michael Bay on Ninja Turtles and Transformers 4. I also reviewed the book The Art of Epic. Hopefully another of my short stories is going in the print edition of the magazine soon!

It's been a hectic but very exciting month! A couple of my college students have also started to write about and review films on their own blogs so I'm really happy to be helping them and hopefully inspiring them a bit too.

I've watched 66 new to me films this year so far and Beasts of the Southern Wild is certainly one of the absolute best. I cannot believe they gave the Oscar to Jennifer Lawrence over Quvenzhané Wallis. She was incredible. No offense to JLaw who I also like very much.

I'm now going to have to re-think my best of 2012 list after seeing both Beasts of the Southern Wild and Side by Side which would both make my top 10.

April Round-Up: Part 2

Welcome back!  Just to be unconventional, here's my top 11 films of April!  If you missed the bottom 11, please click here.

11. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Lasse Hallstrom, 2012)

Fortunately this is not the world’s dullest documentary.  It’s actually an ok film about faith with a bit of romance.  Review here.

10. The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1990)

Pretty ridiculous tale of a man obsessed with finding out what happened to his vanishing girlfriend.  The lengths this guy finally goes to are absurd but do lead to a brilliantly bleak ending.

9. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)

The kids aren’t alright.  They’re being chased by a lunatic.  A classic that stands the test of time... mostly.  In many ways this is way ahead of it's time.  I could see them remaking this quite effectively but they would be hard pushed to find someone to beat Robert Mitchum's eerie performance.  I never realised just how huge a homage Spike Lee was giving this film with the Radio Raheem Love Hate speech in Do the Right Thing.

8. Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2008)

Or Ryan Gosling and the surprisingly understanding community.  When an odd but pleasant chap brings home a blow up doll, the community goes along with his declaration that she is a real person.  It's a sweet and sympathetic film that relishes in the goodness of people.  Therefore it's hard not to like.

7. Vanishing Point (Richard C. Sarafian, 1971)

Like Easy Rider but with just one guy and a car.  The death of the sixties never looked so cool or so exciting.  Great car action, a naked girl on a motorbike and an outstanding soundtrack.  Existentialist cinema at its best.

6. A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker, 1958)

And a film to remember too.  James Cameron bought the rights to this before making his ‘version’ and clearly took notes from this impressive production.

5. The Day After (Nicholas Meyer, 1983)

One hour into this drama you have a spectacular series of explosive shots that send this film spiralling down into chaos and calamity.  It then turns harrowing and unforgettable.  An important film.

4. Tomboy (Celine Sciamma, 2011)

A beautifully observed slice of life about a little French girl who just wants to be one of the boys. Really well observed and engaging.  Features absolutely perfect performances from it's young leads, particularly the titular tomboy.  A little bit heartbreaking but also incredibly inspiring.

3. 21 Jump Street (Phil Lord, Chris Miller, 2012)

Laughed my ass off.  Haven’t seen so many dick jokes in a film for awhile but when they’re this funny, who am I to complain?  The sequence when the two protagonists take the new recreational drug of choice had me laughing harder than I have in a film for a long time.  Side-splitting, and totally irresponsible stuff.

2. Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)

Plays with horror conventions while playfully mocking the horror movie audience.  Smart, funny and probably even cool for non-horror fans.  See review here.

1. Titanic 3D (James Cameron, 2012)

Ok so it's not a new film but it has been upgraded and I did see it in the cinema.  Still unbelievably epic.  I have lost absolutely no love for this film and it was a great experience to see it while being very aware that the Titanic was on its voyage 100 years ago to that very night.  The 3D works brilliantly in places and not so great in a few others.  Nevertheless my heart will go on for this and you can read why here and here.  I’ll never let go Jim Cameron.  I’ll never let go.

To top it all off, I am in the process of arranging a meeting with legendary production designer Peter Lamont of Titanic and Bond film fame.  You can be sure I will be blogging about this if I make it happen.

So what do you think of my list and rankings?  Should the infamous Human Centipede 2 have been top of the list?  Is it unfair to put Titanic 3D as number one?  Am I clinically insane?  How come I don't rate old films as high as new films?  What have you seen from this list and what's your favourite?

April Round-Up: Part 1

This month, despite the pouring rain that never stopped, I only managed 22 films.  Here is the bottom 11.  Please check back tomorrow for the top 11 featuring classics with strangely similar titles such as The Vanishing,Vanishing Point, A Night to Remember and Night of the Hunter.  And then there's the new films including 21 Jump Street, Tomboy and Cabin in the Woods.  But what will take the top spot?  Come back tomorrow to find out!

22. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Troy Nixey, 2011)

...or this movie.  Actually no do be afraid.  Be afraid that you have just lost a precious piece of your life sitting through it.  It’s ok really.  Just a bit dependent on little CGI monsters that aren’t scary.  And Katie Holmes.  No offence but how does she keep getting work?

21. Apollo 18 (Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, 2011)

Found footage from space.  Whenever a franchise or trend gets tired, they make the next instalment in space.  Jason X was ridiculous fun.  This is a bit too serious for its own good.  Not the worst ‘found footage’ horror ever made but still not that good.

20. Episode 50 (Joe Smalley, Tess Smalley, 2011)

Another found footage horror.  Not great but like most of them, it has a couple of pretty scary moments.  Looks like this and the recent Grave Encounters are very similar.  TV crews in an abandoned hospital full of spooks and the cameras keep rolling to capture all the fun.

19. Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence (Tom Six, 2011)

Sick Six Sucks.  But you might admire the director for taking horror to extremes.  If you want to watch sick stuff, this film really pushes the boundaries of taste.  If you know the idea, you’ll be pleased or disturbed to know that this time there are laxatives involved.  Lots of laxatives.  Truly and unbelievably sick stuff.  And this is the cut version fortunately.  Thank you BBFC.

18. Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)

Found this quote from IMDb: ‘Field of Dreams is one of the strangest films I've seen, and possibly one of the best. When it throws its subject matter at you, you wonder how a story so preposterous can ever work’ No I don’t.  It didn’t.  Preposterous, overly sentimental and weird.  Not quite sure what the fuss is about.

17. Semi-Pro (Kent Alterman, 2008)

The weakest of Will Ferrell’s sports movies.  Then again I haven’t seen Kicking and Screaming yet. Hoping to right an article about Ferrell's sports movies and their representation of masculinity.

16. Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2007)

Flawed but fun.  Timberlake lip syncing to The Killers is the stand out scene but The Rock also delivers a funny performance throughout.  Great music and some stunning visuals but neither can hide the films obvious messiness.

15. Saturday Night Fever (John Badham, 1977)

Great dancing but deeply disturbing raping.  Despite the still hugely impressive dance scenes and the social realist vibe, the scene where a girl gets raped but then totally forgotten about as the action moves to bridge stumbling antics reeks of misogyny.  Yes the film is about certain attitudes held by many members of society and does tackle this with the father telling the son washing up is ‘women’s work’ but then this rape scene comes along and is almost completely forgotten about moments later.  It felt ridiculous that the girl in question would stick with these guys after being mistreated so badly.  Left a bad taste in my mouth.

14. Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011)

Graphic gay romance.  I might be being a prude as I’ve not seen a lot of gay sex in films before but this film delved deep into two interesting characters before delving deep into their sexual activities.  It’s sweet and engaging but nothing too special.  A very real modern romance.

13. Martin (George A. Romero, 1976)

The magic of vampires takes a stake to the heart in Romero’s realist take on the monsters.  It is dated but still an original and interesting take on the vampire.

12. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Rob Marshall, 2011)

Killer mermaids, Captain Jack and the hunt for the Holy Grail.  BIG DUMB LOUD FUN.

That's it.  See you tomorrow with the top 11 films I watched in April.  What did you think of these movies?  Any surprises here?  Anything controversial?  Let me know below...