Micro Review: Mission Impossible 4

A fun film with some great action set pieces. Convoluted though. Suitable for family viewing. 3.5
Enjoy the trailer below!

Happy Birthday Robert De Niro and Sean Penn!

Today is the 68th birthday of one of my all time favourite actors - Robert De Niro (if not my favourite). He has collaborated eight times with my all time favourite director Martin Scorsese (I have still not seen 'Mean Streets', 'New York, New York' or 'Cape Fear'). 'Casino' was a masterpiece, but three of the pair's films, in my opinion, top 'Casino' - they are some of the greatest films ever - 'Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull' and 'Goodfellas'. I have studied all of these films in depth, particularly 'Taxi Driver', which is my favourite film of all time. Plus I have also had a screenwriting masterclass from the writer of 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull', Paul Schrader. I intend to one day post in depth articles about some, if not all, of these three films.

Above: De Niro in 'Taxi Driver' (1976) (top) and 'Raging Bull' (1980); he won an Oscar for his performance in Raging Bull.

It is also the 51st birthday of two time Academy Award winner Sean Penn (he won the awards for 'Mystic River' (2003) and 'Milk' (2008)).

Above: Sean Penn in 'Mystic River' (top) and 'Milk', both of which I am yet to see.

Anyone else ever notice that these 2 look exactly the same?!

Nevermind "Step Brothers", Chilli Peppers' drummer Chad Smith and Hollywood funnyman Will Ferrell, look like 'full brothers'. I've thought this for years!

Film Reviews - 'Eyes Wide Shut' is by far the more psychologically captivating film, when compared to 'Gone Baby Gone'

Compared to what other critics opine, my film reviews here differ to a lot to general opinions of them. The ratings I gave for the films reviewed below are almost the complete opposite of what other critics would give them. If I was to compile a list of the ratings I gave for these films, a lot of other critics may tear the list apart and put it in reverse order i.e. put the film I gave the lowest rating, as their highest rated film (‘Gone Baby Gone’ got 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 7.9 on IMDB – I rated it 1.5 out of 5).

Here are the films and their reviews:

Gone Baby Gone: I was expecting a lot more from this film, considering the impressive cast, which included Casey Affleck and Morgan Freeman. The film did, to be fair, have a couple of spine tingling moments, but in general the acting was very poor, and the dialogue was heavily stilted and unrealistic. The plot (the final act in particular) lacked a lot of credibility too. Had the potential to be a much better film, given its premise and cast. Rating: 1.5.

American Pie: Very funny teen movie which does its job; entertain young people via the use of crude humour, entangled within several coming-of-age tales. Rating: 3.5.

Road to Las Vegas: An extremely moving documentary about a homeless African-American family who move to Vegas in search of a better life. You genuinely become attached to this family, as you watch their highs and (extreme) lows over the course of four years (2005-2009). Rating: 3.5.

Watch the film on 4oD here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/road-to-las-vegas/4od

The Terminal: I thought that a lot of the things that happened in this film were completely unrealistic. I accepted the given (unrealistic) premise of the film, in order to actively remove myself from reality, but I still found many moments of the film to be rather silly - for instance (SPOILER alert) the bit towards the end when the security are lined up to stop Tom Hanks from leaving the airport. When you think it's all over for Tom, Barry Shabaka Henley, spontaneously gives him his coat, and tells him he'll need it because 'it's cold outside'. Furthermore there is an unrealistic marriage within the film, and the bit where Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones do not speak to each other at the end is also unrealistic. I agreed with Salon.com, when they stated that it was "the worst-directed film Spielberg has ever made." (http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2004/06/18/terminal/index.html)
However, the film did have some bright moments, like the shaving scene in the toilets; Hanks and another man are both shaving. The other man quips to Hanks, "Do you ever feel like you're living in an airport?" Ironically Hanks is living in an airport. Still, that scene alone does not save this film for me. There were some fine performances in this film, from Hanks and Stanley Tucci in particular, but the plot was far too poor; towards the end a lot of what happened seemed to be made up just to increase the film's running time. Rating: 2.

Eyes Wide Shut: For me this film is a genuine masterpiece. Kubrick’s final film – he certainly left his mark on the world of cinema with this one. It was like ‘Taxi Driver’ but with a razor sharp surreal edge; ‘American Psycho’ but with more realism – fantastic amalgamations for the big screen, which created a dream like vision of New York. My only criticism of this film, would be that the final scene was slightly disappointing. Besides that I can’t really complain; with slick and seductive production values and fantastic performances from Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, this film is definitely worth watching. Rating: 5.

Note: I may write an in depth article on this film, when I get the time.

Check out this chilling scene from the film below!

I also watched ‘The Boat That Rocked’ recently. I will publish my review of it for a special UK film post, when I have watched ‘In the Loop’.

Film: “Slacker” Review

Someone I know who also writes a blog has given herself a challenge of watching a lot of films over the summer, and then reviewing them (‘Summer of Film’). As a university film student, and an aspiring filmmaker, I already watch a lot of films, and have wanted to write more about film on this blog for a while. I have thus decided to do a similar challenge, as there are still many films I have not seen that I intend to see. I will commence this side project by reviewing “Slacker” (dir. Richard Linklater, 1990), which Empire named as the 20^th greatest independent film of all time.

I found this film to be highly influenced by Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”. However, I believe that “Slackers” in turn influenced Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”; all three involve spaghetti narratives of different tales across a particular city/borough; Brooklyn, New York (“Do the Right Thing”), Los Angeles, California (“Pulp Fiction”), and Austin, Texas, in the case of “Slacker”. 


In “Pulp Fiction” the tales intertwine within a non-linear structure; the plot revolves around a stolen suitcase with unknown contents. In “Do the Right Thing”, the plot is more condensed mainly staying with Spike Lee’s character, due to its location being more confined than the other two (it takes place in one neighbourhood; Bedford-Stuyvesant). In “Slackers”, however, the tales do not intertwine. Once we have heard from a particular group of characters we do not hear from them again. There seems to be no particular plot line. From what I have read about the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, this approach seems to have been inspired by him to a certain extent (and also by French New Wave director Jean Luc Godard); it is like real life in which there is also no definitive structure, apart from the basic normalities of everyday experience. Antonioni and Godard’s films tend to focus on a much smaller group of characters though. Because of the ensemble cast, with no lead characters, this is a refreshing piece of cinema which follows various misfits and bohemians.


My favourite scene is at beginning of the film; it features the director’s character, ‘Should Have Stayed at Bus Station’. This character talks to the taxi driver about various different parallel universes and alternate realities that could possibly be created (he formed a theory relating to this in a dream he had the night before this particular taxi ride); a lot of what happens in our lives depends on the choices we make, the people we meet, and luck. If we made different choices we would meet different people, and we may be lucky or unlucky along the way also. The passenger believes he ‘Should Have Stayed at (the) Bus Station’. The taxi driver does not respond once to the passenger’s conversation; if the passenger got in another taxi, he would have had a different taxi driver, who may have been more appreciative of his theory.

Note: Another thing shared between this film, “Do the Right Thing” and “Pulp Fiction”, is that they all feature their directors; Tarantino and Linklater have small cameos, whereas Lee has the lead role.

Rating (out of 5): I was thinking perhaps giving 3.5, as there are times when the film becomes a little bit boring, but as I mentioned, it is about the normalities of everyday life; not just for one particular person – for various different people. As it features so many different people for only a few minutes each at most, you know that there will be an engaging scene just around the corner (such as the one with the UFO conspiracy theorist). For the pure innovations in the film making, and also because I believe that people should watch it, I am going to give it a 4.

You can watch the film on youtube for free, with the link provided below: 

Slacker