Category Archives: Film

The Tree of Life {Film Review}

Posted on by

Terrence Malick has been a unique filmmaker, always distancing himself from conventions to bring his own artistic license. From his 38 years of being in the industry, he has only made five films. It took him a full 20 years from Days of Heaven (1978) to The Thin Red Line (1998). He is infamous for shooting footage the length of a football field and also not being part of the publicity spot-light. The Tree of Life is his new movie since 2005’s The New World, barely any details were released for the film. Only two posters and a trailer were only shown to various multiplexes. It finally got screened at 2011 Cannes Film Festival, and it was received mixed reactions of boos and applause. I, however, thought it was worth the wait.

The Tree of Life is quite simply a breathtaking experience, a beautifully crafted film that doesn’t really give you straight answers but really makes you think. The film will be, inevitably, be compared to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey but it also reminded me of Koyaanisqatsi. The film deals with questions that the characters imply through-out; what is the meaning of our existance? What is our purpose in life? The story revolves around Jack (Sean Penn), who works as an architect in modern day America. He starts to think back during his childhood during the 50s, with his parents and going through different phases in his life. His parents are played by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, who resemble two things that runs the theme during the duration; nature and grace. Nature is unpredictable and harsh, which Pitt tries at one point make his sons strong and confident. Grace is the complete opposite, it is elegant and calm as Chastain becomes supportive to her sons. Young Jack (Hunter McCracken) is very conflicted from the two, he leans towards nature but as an adult, he starts to feel more empathetic (shown through his sub-conscious walking through a desert and eventually ends up in a beach)

The performances from the entire cast is superb. They are barely given any dialogue, but their natural reactions and expressions are subtle. It is the meaning of the phrase; show, don’t tell. McCracken impresses as the Young Jack, showing the childhood curiosity and frustration everyone deals with. Such as a scene where he walks with his mother in town and notices police officers taking convicts away in their patrol cars. Looks up to his mother and asks in a worried tone if he’ll ever be like them? Sean Penn doesn’t get as much screen-time but he makes a presence when he’s thinking about his childhood experiences.

The film has a non-linear narrative, often cutting away from Jack’s story to shots of the formation of the universe and how the planets are created. Then it views when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, continuing Malick’s trademark on showing nature as a major element. All of these sequences are shot beautifully. Legendary special photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull (who was responsible for the effects in 2001 and Blade Runner), was a consultant on the effects of this film. The effects in this film look organic and believable, a film to be big in scale requires believability (especially when dealing with a theme about creation and existence) The scenes with Jack’s family comes across as a family home movie, a sense of nostalgic memorabilia.

There is not much I want to say to reveal too much of the film, it really is something to see to believe. To put simply; if you are fan of Terrence Malick or want a film that has a deep message that is subtle, there is no excuse not to miss this film.

Overall; The film may divide opinions; some may find it pretentious, others may find it as a work of art. I, however, find it to be a meditating and philosophical film that is just as beautiful to watch. A huge change from the summer blockbuster season and strongly recommended.

5 out of 5

Our Family Wedding Review & Competition.

Posted on by

Frost is doing a competition to win one of three copies of wedding comedy Our Family Wedding, starring America Ferrara and Forest Whittaker. All you have to do is go to the homepage and subscribe.

Our Family Wedding is very funny, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the cover and didn’t know anything about it. However, I am a huge fan of Forest Whittaker and America Ferrara. I wasn’t disappointed in the film. It is a well scripted, well acted movie built around a funny premise. I laughed all the way through the not PC at all film. With all of the weddings happening at the moment (Kate’s Moss and Middleton to name just two) makes it also timely.

Check out the trailer below.

Harry Potter Premiere: Early Films Embarrass Emma Watson

Posted on by

Emma Watson feels like a “different person” to the girl in the early ‘Harry Potter’ films.

The 21-year-old actress – who was just nine years old when she appeared as Hermione Granger in the first movie in the franchise, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ – finds it “embarrassing” to look back on her early performances because she has changed so much.

Speaking ahead of the release on the eighth and final film in the series, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ she told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I look back at the early films and see that little girl, and I know it’s me, but it seems like a different person.

“It’s somewhat embarrassing to see myself go through all the awkward stages of growing up. So much time has passed and so much has happened that it seems that I don’t know her, but it’s interesting to see how the character has evolved and how much I have changed.”

Since completing filming on the series wrapped last year, Emma, now 21, has moved on, studying at university and signing up to appear in ‘My Week with Marilyn’ and ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’, but her cast mate Rupert Grint has admitted he’s found it harder to move on.

He said: “I loved every minute of it, and I’m really going to miss it. I felt empty and a bit lost, and it’s taken me a while to accept it’s over.

“When Harry Potter started, I wanted to be an ice-cream man, but the films showed me that I wanted to be an actor, although for the first three I didn’t take it very seriously. I just stood where I was told and read my lines. Then with the fourth film I started caring more about my performance.”

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’ had its world premiere in London last night.

Emma Watson Hysterical At Harry Potter Ending.

Posted on by

Emma Watson “cried” uncontrollably when finished filming the last ‘Harry Potter’ film.

The actress – who was just 10 when she first played Hermione Granger in the wizard franchise – couldn’t control her emotions when she had to hang up her Hogwarts outfit for the last time when shooting on ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’ wrapped.

Speaking on UK TV show ‘Daybreak’, she said: “It was so strange … I kind of felt quite numb, I couldn’t really – it doesn’t seem like your feeling anything. And it was when they said, ‘That’s Emma down and Rupert wrapped,’ on ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, and it just hit me and it was incredibly emotional obviously.

“I cried, cried, cried, cried, cried – it was really emotional and overwhelming.”

Although she is sad the ‘Harry Potter’ movies have come to an end, Emma, now 21, is looking forward to taking on new roles – as long as they don’t require so many years of her life.

She said: “I mean it’s so funny, when I’ve signed on for other projects, other things, people don’t really understand why I get quite jumpy and quite concerned and I think it’s because I’ve signed on for one thing and it turns into a 12-year project. And I realise that everything else won’t be like that, but I just can’t believe what it turned into.”

Emma – who starred in the movies alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint – will always be proud to have portrayed witch Hermione and isn’t worried about being typecast in the future.

She said: “If I’m going to be associated with anything, I’m so thrilled that it would be her and it would be this.”

Chris Evans – 'Brutal' Pecs Appeal For ‘Captain America’

Posted on by

The actor had to bulk up to take on the role of the titular superhero in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and although Chris usually loves exercise, the punishing regime was tough on his body and especially his pectoral muscles.

He said: “I don’t think my body is supposed to be as big as it got for Captain America. There was a strain on some joints. After a month and a half of training I found my right shoulder would click and my left pec would hurt. It was an ever-evolving workout, in which we always found ways to work around the parts of me that were sore. There are certain things that hurt more than others. But that seems to be pretty universal. Every guy I know has some sort of freak injury in their body.

“I’m a big fan of working out on my own. I put my headphones on and I’m pretty good at self- motivating. At the end of the day, I enjoy it. Once I’m there and once I get going, I tend to love it, and I feel good. If I don’t work out for a couple of days I feel lousy.”

Although he was happy with the results, Chris won’t be rushing to bulk up quite so much again, admitting the daily workouts were “brutal”.

He explained to Men’s Health magazine: ““It was gruelling, it was brutal and I’d find any excuse possible not to go. But I had to do it. I wasn’t trying to lose or tone – I was just looking to gain. The rule of thumb was: if you’re not eating, go get something.”

The full interview appears in the August issue of Men’s Health magazine, on sale Monday July 4.

Green Lantern {Film Review}

Posted on by

*WARNING! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!*

Marvel has been long releasing their most cherished superheroes – X-Men, Spider-Man, Blade, Punisher, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and recently, Thor. Most have been successful and spawned many sequels (unlike Daredevil, which wasn’t well-received by critics and audiences, but led to the Elektra spin-off,  which did worse). So it was about time Warner Bros./DC Comics finally brought a superhero of theirs to the big screen who wasn’t Batman or Superman. Enter Green Lantern.

Created by Bill Finger and Martin Nodell in 1940, there have been many Green Lanterns, most notably the first, Alan Scott (1940) and John Stewart (1972). But it’s 1959’s fan-favourite Hal Jordan who makes the Emerald Crusader’s live-action movie debut.

The movie begins with an expositional monologue by Tomar-Re (voiced by Geoffrey Rush), explaining about the planet Oa, the Green Lantern Corps, the ring they wear that harnesses the power of will and how they are spread out among 3,600 sectors in the universe.

He explains that one of their warriors, Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) fought against Parallax (voiced by Clancy Brown) – an enemy who absorbs and uses the power of fear from living beings – and defeated him. Parallax is imprisoned in the Lost Sector (Sector 666. . . . foreshadowing much?), but it all goes downhill when an alien spacecraft crash-lands where Parallax is kept and he escapes (shouldn’t they have made that sector a no fly zone if they had the most dangerous being in the universe?).

Six months later, Parrallax attacks Abin Sur and mortally wounds him. Abin Sur luckily escapes, crashes on Earth and commands his ring to find a successor. Enter Ryan Reynolds playing our main protagonist, Hal Jordan.

Jordan is a cocky fighter pilot who just happens to have daddy issues (father died in a fighter jet accident) and thus causes his fear. Unfortunately, since Reynolds is known for comedy roles, it’s hard to take him seriously when he tries to bring dramatic weight in a scene. It’s not terrible by any means, but it doesn’t feel convincing enough. Most of the time he’s smiling at the camera and joking around (which really makes the tone of this film go off at times).

Blake Lively plays Jordan’s childhood friend/love interest, Carol Ferris. She works for her father’s company and is also a fighter pilot. Despite apparently having the chops to fly aircraft, she is still shamefully used as the damsel in distress at times. But it is amusing when she quickly realises Hal Jordan is Green Lantern (thereby trashing the ridiculous notions of heroes using a small mask to conceal their identity).

In the blue corner, Peter Sarsgaard plays our antagonist, Dr. Hector Hammond. You can see he is having fun playing the role, but comes across as hammy and chewing the scenery. Instead, the most impressive performance in the film is from Mark Strong as Sinestro (it was the 50s, having unimaginative evil names made it straight-forward). He gives much more emotion and conviction but unfortunately, doesn’t get enough development or screen-time.

What about the rest of the cast, you say? Tim Robbins? Angela Bassett? Michael Clark Duncan as Kilowog? Barely get enough screen-time to make them memorable or worth caring about. The problem with this film is that it goes at such a quick pace, there’s not enough time to take it all in. Bassett’s character vanishes near the end of the second act never to be mentioned again! Even the main characters are barely developed, so new information springs out of nowhere, such as Hal, Carol and Hector all apparently knowing each other as kids.

Ah, now. The visual effects. I have never seen a comic book movie that looked so fake and artificial since Fantastic Four in 2005. I was desperately optimistic about the CGI Green Lantern suit, but whenever Hal Jordan’s touring Oa, I couldn’t help but see Ryan Reynolds’ head just floating in a sea of digital imagery, which became really distracting. Even the sets on Earth looked cheap, especially the scenes between Hal and Carol.

The climactic battle was severely lacking entertainment. Yeah, the sequences where Hal springs a fuel truck in the air and then forms an AA gun to blow it up in front of Parallax was creative, but there was no excitement, jeopardy and no feeling about the possibility of Hal dying.

Overall; hugely disappointing! Martin Campbell has done some seriously good films in the past (GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro and Casino Royale) but here, it seems he has absolutely no idea what to do with the character. It is upsetting that Warner Bros./DC Comics only have this film this year, when Marvel has Thor, X-Men: First Class (both really good films, worth watching) and still have Captain America: The First Avenger waiting in the wings. I guess DC fans will have to wait for their old favourites in The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel next year.

Worst comic book hero film in 2011 summer blockbuster season.

2 out of 5

Bridesmaids Review: Is The Tide Turning For Women In Film?

Posted on by

Women in films used to be sassy, brilliant, full of quips, But somewhere along the way, we lost it all. Rosalind Russell was replaced with Shannon Elizabeth (The actress in American Pie, who was there to be a sex object and show her breasts), and Katherine Hepburn, replaced by, oh, all those actresses in those dire 1980’s films, too many to name, who were there solely to take their clothes off.

Some people think the film Bridesmaids is ‘ground-breaking’. It is, because Bridesmaids just became a Box Office hit, taking a smidge below $150 million – so far. It was a mainstream comedy written by women, starring women, about women, which won in the only way Hollywood recognises, by making money.

Helen Mirren once said that Hollywood wasn’t sexist, it just made films that people wanted to see. Young men go to the cinema more often and go to see films they liked. Women will only see more films with women if they go out and see them. Vote with your purses!

Bridesmaids is funny, it has wowed critics and audiences alike and it breaks even more boundaries, the actresses are (shock, horror!) not all 21 and a size zero. Some of them are in their 30s and are beautifully curvy. There is nothing wrong with being thin (I have been discriminated against for being thin, so I know it works both ways), I am just sick of my friends thinking they are fat when they are not.

Zoe Williams said this film was more feminist that Thelma and Louise and urged everyone to go and see it.  I am doing the same. Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams went even further, saying the film is ‘your first black president of female-driven comedies’.

It is ironic that as women have progressed, on screen we’ve only gone backwards. As an actress, I know more than most about what people cast and what they want. Women have to be between a size 8-12. Size 12 being a grey area, it hurts an actress to be more than a size 10. I was told by one casting director than anything above a size 10 meant ‘character actor’.

Some people have attacked Bridesmaids for not being ‘feminine’. Do they ever attack men for not being ‘gentlemen’?  I think not. Women have to be celebrated, we have to have our stories told and not just as naked, skinny, 21-year-olds. I will soon be making my own movie about women and their lives, and I thank Bridesmaids for clearing the way.

1.Bridesmaids
2.Production year: 2011
3.Country: USA
4.Cert (UK): 15
5.Runtime: 125 mins
6.Directors: Paul Feig
7.Cast: Chris O’Dowd, Ellie Kemper, Jill Clayburgh, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Matt Lucas, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Terry Crews, Wendi McLendon-Covey

Green Lantern – Movie Review

Posted on by

The light  burns,  but nowhere near as bright as it could have.

You can tell it is the summer blockbuster season can’t you? We have had one superhero movie a month so far and still got a couple more to go. None of this is a problem for me. I love a good superhero movie as much as the next child. When I took my Godchildren to see this film, one could almost say I was more excited than they were. I bounced into the cinema with excitement, flung on my 3D glasses with almost wild abandon and had the biggest bag of popcorn the girl behind the counter could create firmly in my lap.

The film started and it wasn’t like I was disappointed, just more like I expected more. You see, when so many films come out with people having special powers, a film needs to be unique to stand above what you have seen before. Otherwise, like quite a lot of the Michael Bay films, everything turns into something you have seen before.

To be fair, it is arguable that the Green Lantern is perhaps the lesser known superhero from the DC World and Martin Campbell, the director behind Casino Royale, does a good job with the opening sequence bringing those new to the Green Lantern world up to date.

Basically, throughout the universe exists a galactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. Created by the Guardians, each member has a power ring, which grants the bearer the ability to create anything their mind imagines. When the guardian’s ancient enemy – a huge all consuming yellow cloud known as Parallax – is released and begins to feed on fear, Green Lantern Abin Sur (played by Temuera Morrison), takes on the threat and in the ensuing battle is gravely wounded. He pilots his ship to the nearest habitable planet so he can send the ring off to choose a worthy replacement.

Enter Hal Jordan (played by Ryan Reynolds), a test pilot whose brash and arrogant attitude lands him in all sorts of trouble and whose recent failures almost cause his employers to go bankrupt. In short, he is one step away from being a bum. It is after a bar brawl with some of his ex-colleagues that incredibly, the ring finds him and zap, the real story begins. I say the real story because it takes a whopping 40 minutes to get this far and before this, although there are special effects, things are far from interesting.

Once the film does get going, it does so with gusto and we see some interesting dynamics played out. While the ring chose Hal, Abin Sur’s other pupil, Sinestro (played by Mark Strong), sees only weakness in Jordan. And with Parallax threatening the universe and the existence of the Green Lanterns, Jordan has to overcome his fear and desire to run away from responsibility and commit to being a hero.

Ryan Reynolds does a good job as Green Lantern. He certainly looks the part and I think if anything, the script lets him down. Some of the arguments and some of the things that his character does just doesn’t make sense, whether he is on the road to being a bum or not, and it is these barriers which stop you from empathising with him or feeling anything at all for what is going on.

Blake Lively plays the lovely Carol Ferris, Hal’s co-pilot, co-worker and budding love interest. She is very charismatic on screen, yet strong-willed and feisty. In many ways you believe she is the one to bring Hal round to taking on the responsibly he has been given. I don’t mind saying I could just look at her all day and not say a word, but that would be rather stalker-ish of me.

From the start, there is a great deal of respect for the source material. DC, the producers, and the director stay close to the mythos of the comic book. This is a good and a bad thing. The characters, names, and places are pretty much all there, the effects, whilst not Avatar quality, are fairly decent and it is good to see the realisation of characters such as Kilowog, and Abin Sur looking and sounding every inch their comic counterpart.

The film does suffer from over use of CGI in places. For example, the homeworld Oa just looks like a giant screensaver. Only Parallax looks genuinely scary. As for the flight sequences – well actually, you get no feeling of flight whatsoever and most of the battles just seem average.

3D has its place in the movie and truly comes into its own when Jordan uses his ring and the power of his will is created on screen. Other than that, 3D effects are sparse and to be fair, the special effects are good enough without it. The problem is, that despite all the special effects, I was never truly left in awe by the Green Lantern’s power, I never truly believed in Hal Jordan’s cause and never truly felt like he was up against the odds or that he couldn’t win. If anything, I only felt annoyed by the length of time it took the filmmakers to get to the point where they could create a scenario big enough for him to believe in himself.

I know my Godchildren enjoyed the film tremendously, but compared to the other summer releases I would say that Green Lantern is a lot less involving than Thor and nowhere near as good as X-Men: First Class. Having said that, it might not be the worst superhero movie of the summer, after all Transformers and Captain America are both just round the corner.

My Final Verdict
Go watch it, but only if you really have to.

7 / 10