26. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

I was interested in seeing this movie mainly because I have bipolar & I wanted to see how Hollywood would depict this mental illness.
Bradley Cooper plays the lead character who has bipolar and I thought he was pretty good. I particularly liked the scene where he is looking for his wedding video and I was impressed with the kind of handheld camera shaky erratic filming that is obviously trying to show you what it 'feels' like to be manic.
I'm not sure if Jennifer Lawrence's character was meant to have bipolar or not. I don't think so. I like Jennifer Lawrence but her character felt really YOUNG in this movie to me. Reminded me a bit of a young Juliette Lewis.
But the stand out character for me was Robert DeNiro as the father who has OCD. Brilliant.
All in all I thought it was a bit too SOFT and nicey nice.  I didn't think there was enough DEPRESSION. 
The first half of the movie really had me in and then the last half for me just got all chick-flick and sappy.
3 STARS

21. Little Voice (1998)

This is such a lovely movie with a fabulous cast. Michael Caine, Ewan Macgregor, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent & Jane Horrocks who play LV or Little Voice.  All the way through I was wondering if Jane Horrocks is actually singing or if she is lip-syncing. At the end credits tell you that it is actually her singing which makes this film even more impressive.
Brenda Blethyn  is, as usual, fantastic as LV's horrific loud mouth alcho abusive mother. Her character is funny-as hell but just awful.
Funny quotes include:  "Bangers and bubble and a fuck hot tea, ta. Twice."  "Listen. Then it's down to the harbor for a pronto snog. Oh, lip-lappin' like old hell. But at least he knows how to slide and dart and take a throat. And at least there's the thick wad of his wallet...Up against your tit for comfort."
And Michael Caine's character isn't that much better as the sleaze ball agent who wants to exploit LV.
I really enjoyed this movie. It's not a big expensive budget film but if you want a nice film to watch this a great. Fabulous soundtrack of Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe.
I would suggest to watch it with the subtitles on though because their pommy accents are very very thick.
3 STARS

19. RED HILL (2010)

 

Hmmm for some reason youtube won't let me upload the trailer...

This is the link to it:

http://youtu.be/9vafKLgdg94

 

I'd heard good things about this movie and the trailer makes it look really good.

It's KIND OF a cowboy western but set in Australia.  The scenery is really awesome & I would love to know where it was filmed because the buildings are gorgeous.

It's hard to review this movie without kind of spoiling it.

Be warned.... It's corny as all get out and the acting is pretty bloody average but I really liked the concept of the film. It's sort of a The Good The Bad & The Ugly but with more "streuth mates" and " farkin' hell mates".  There is a bizarre sub-plot that I don't really understand what the hell it was included for. I don't want to give it away but it is to do with something strange living in The High Country.

Hubby pointed out to be that in keeping with the salute to old western films most of the firearms in the film are really old western styles . I wouldn't have noticed that. The soundtrack is really good too.

 

I was really impressed that in this P.C. age of not offending anyone that the 'bad' guy is an Aboriginal.

It's pretty predictable and towards the end I could totally predict what was going to happen & even what the next script line would be ... but.......

I liked it. I'm not sure why but I liked it.

 

If you like a good Aussie flick and this one isn't too bad.

3 STARS

 

17. Sylvia (2004)

As a person with Bipolar I'm always intrigued by movies that deal with the subject of mental illness.
I must admit that up until about two weeks ago I'd never even heard of Sylvia Plath. I was on Pinterest surfing the net for new & interesting shit when I came upon some poetry quotes.
These short poems really moved and spoke to me and I was surprised to learn that they all were written by Mz Plath.  This prompted me to investigate more about this writer which in turn lead me to this movie. 
I'm not a big Gweneth Paltrow fan but she does a great job in this film. Daniel Craig is pretty good too. It's a slow movie but if you are interested in the live of Sylvia Plath I think you will find it interesting.
I wish they would have included more of her actually poetry which is very dark and lovely.
It's sad that alot of the most incredible minds usually suffer for it. It's ironic that such a creative woman was driven mad by the demons of her mind and yet it was in this depression that her best work came about.
"I took a breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am.  I am."
3 STARS

14. The Counterfeiters (2007)

Another film which showcases the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. It still blows my mind that events such as these actually happened.
I wanted to see this film because I had never heard about this part of the war.
It is all about the nazi's Operation Bernhard in which they decided to secretly flood the United Kingdom with counterfeit money in order to destabilize its economy. So they enlisted experienced Jews in the camps to do this. The fact that this movie is based on actual events is amazing.
The acting is unreal. I really enjoyed the way it was filmed and the musical score.
The lead Karl Markovics is great as the professional counterfeiter who has to sacrifice his morals to stay alive. It's not an action packed movie and is slightly drawn out but it held my attention.
If you are interested in World War II history you might find this movie interesting as it lends yet another slant to an already horrific period in history.

3 STARS

13. LOOPER (2012)

I added Looper onto my list for a number of reasons.

1. Bruce Willis. Man I love Bruce. He's spunky. He's just so freaking cool and a spunk-rat.
2. I'm a sucker for novels & movies set in a dystopian future. I love seeing what people's ideas of what the future will be. Plagues, Hunger Games, Mutant Flus ... love it. How come the future is always complete shit though?
3. I like weird time travel distorted reality sci-fi movies eg: Memento, Inception. In other words, movies that make you THINK.

I thought Looper was great. Not awesome but really good. I must say that during the movie I had to ask hubby to pause the movie a number of time while I wrapped my brain around the time travel plot.
"So if he does this then he won't be able to come back but then he did come back so in the future he must not do this ... but then how can he do that??!"
Hubby had to spell it out to me like a teacher explaining algerba to a preschool kid.
"Ooohhhhh . OK press play again".
Joseph Gordon-Levitt really nails the speech & idiosyncrasies of a young Bruce Willis including the fake nose LOL.
The little boy is really really good. His real name is Pierce Gagnon and I thought his acting was awesome. Scary little bastard.

This is quite a good time travel film and action movie. I liked the concept of it.
Very enjoyable ... a wee bit hard to follow in parts but .....

3 STARS

12. Django Unchained (2013)

I quite like Quentin Tarantino films. I LOVED "Inglorious Bastards" and "Kill Bill" so, of course I was interested to see what his new film was like.
Long.  It's Long. 165 minutes. Don't do what I did and drink a large skinny flat white while watching because my bladder was about ready to explode by the end.  I think that the incredible discomfort of my busting for a wee was very distracting. I guess it must mean that the movie was alright that I didn't want to miss any of it.
So? WAS it any good?
Christoph Waltz is fan-bloody-tastic. I love him as an actor and he is great in this movie.
But, I thought the movie was. just.... ok.
It was just too bloody long.  As I've said in previous reviews I like it when the bad guy is REALLY REALLY bad and well, I thought that Leonardo just wasn't that convincing as a bad guy. Yes his character is a total bastard but .... I don't know... Same with Samuel J Jackson whose character was more comical than repulsive.
The shoot outs are, of course, pretty bloody but I just didn't give a shit about the characters.
I was also a bit dissapointed with the soundtrack and didn't think it was up to Quentin's usual standard.
There are also a couple of scenes in it that I just don't understand what the hell Mr Tarantino was on about especially a sudden appearance by a popular Australian actor that I won't name. I didn't know what the point of his being there was.
It is quite black in its humour but I thought the film was pretty average.
Jamie Foxx was alright but not great.

I would have given it 2 stars but for Mr Waltz who really made the movie really worth watching.

3 STARS

10. Bronson (2009)

I've been chaffing at the bit to see this film. For one thing it's a "Madman Entertainment" film and I tend to really like most of what they put out and the other thing was it starred Tom Hardy.
None of our videos stores stock it & the young things behind the counter just looked at me blankly when I asked about it. So I went online & bought a copy.

I was a bit dissappointed with it. It just dragged on & on with not much storyline except Bronson in various prisons & institutions beating the living shit out of pretty much everybody and screaming like a looney.
The other complaint I had was that the DVD didn't offer subtitles and alot of the talking was really hard to understand. A bit muffled and a really thick cockney accent so half the time we were saying "What the hell did he say??? Bloody Hell!!! "
It is quite terrifying to think that this Charlie Bronson is an ACTUAL person. *shudder*

I did really like the "talking straight to camera" & the cut-aways to his 'on stage' personas though particulary the half man & woman one.
Tom Hardy's acting in it was totally utterly brilliant and I must admit that I found him to be very very attractive as Bronson. He had quite the dandy / vintage circus weight lifter look about him.
I'm a wee bit disturbed that I find characters like this sexy.
I felt the same way about Edward Norton in American History X and Russell Crowe in Romper Stomper.. I must have a sick attraction to arsehole skinhead characters.. (bit of a worry).

I kind of regret buying this movie as I don't think I would watch it again and I certainly wouldn't let my poor husband (who HATED this film) to watch it again.

I thought it was average. Shit movie but with great acting and eye candy.

 

3 STARS

 

 

8. Brighton Rock (2011)

 

You know what I like? I like a really really good bad guy. Some movies have 'bad' guys but they are almost comical and you kinda like them in a weird way.

In Brighton Rock the lead character Pinkie is the most brilliant BAD guy. His character is one of the most horrible dispicable revolting characters ever.... Absolutely fantastic!

A 100 % arsehole. It's great to see a character with NO redeeming qualities that you really feel hatred toward when watching.

The female lead Rose is equally as impressive as a pathetic zero self esteem girl.

I was also attracted to the fact that it is set around the Mods Vs Rockers riots of Brighton. I was a bit disappointed to find that besides one of members of his gang being a Teddy boy you don't really see much in the way of Mods V Rockers even in the riot scene.

This is NOT a love story even though the trailer makes it look at way. This is a violent mob movie.

I really enjoyed it... mainly because of just how loathesome Pinkie is. I'm surprised Sam Riley who plays him hasn't been in much else because he was great.

Helen Mirram is gorgeous looking and is wonderful (as always).

 

3 STARS

 

2. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Well I just finished watching The Dark Knight Rises. It was hard to watch it and not compare it to "The Dark Knight" which after watching this, I think "The Dark Knight" is a FAR superior movie.

Now I KNOW that this is a comic and you need to suspend reality but I just found it to be SO very predictable.  I did like Bain as a baddy (loved the voice) but I'm not sure if this was because I just kept visulising Tom Hardy (hubba hubba) under that mask.  I thought he was a pretty rad bad guy.

I must admit I was pretty dissapointed in "Cat Woman". She really wasn't Cat Woman at all except for the fact that she was a "cat" burglar and wore tight black clothes. Again I couldn't help but compare her to Michelle Pfeiffer's brilliant super super sexy cat woman or even Julie Newmar. I just find Anne Hathaway really boring and AS one dimensional as a piece of wet cardboard.

It was also surprising to see Ben Mendelsohn. It's always good to see an Aussie actor getting good roles in big budget films.

Without giving away anything I must say I was impressed by a few surprises I didn't see coming but most of the time I was saying "I bet this will happen" and it did.

In saying this I didn't think the movie was total shit. It is a crackin' good action film & the special effects were great. It would have been pretty cool to see on the big screen.
It wasn't totally disspointing just really really wanky in lot of places. I found myself slappin my forhead going "Oh bloody hell!" alot.

Good movie.. not great.
3 STARS