Lots

I have watched a few films since my last post, and for some reason haven't got around to blogging. I always blog and write 'has blogged' on Facebook at 1am when no-one's online to read and end up posting it again in the morning making me look arrogant, when, in fact, I just enjoy people reading ma shit.

Ghost Town (2008).

Interestingly, Ghost Town was the first film that Ricky Gervais decided to take a starring role in since his meteoric rise to fame. He's cameo'd in a few films, such as Stardust and For Your Consideration, but never taken the lead role because he'd never found a part worthy enough. The role of Bertram Pincus appealed to him, somehow, probably because it was just HIM.
I get annoyed at Ricky Gervais being called a King Of Comedy because he is not adaptable, but then I think to myself...which other famous television comedians have gone far by adapting the role that they rose to fame being? And I think of none. The very few that spring to mind have always stayed in 'comfortable' roles based on their original act. Lee Evans stayed the same. As did John Cleese. And how often do Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell act as anything other than manchildren?

Ghost Town is about Pincus, a dentist, who undergoes a routine operation but momentarily dies, giving him the ability to see ghosts. Greg Kinnear pesters Pincus into helping him separate his widow (he's a ghost, you see) from marrying a new man, with an agreement that he will stop all other ghosts from annoying Pincus. Pincus ends up falling for the widow and it carries on from their. I must say, this film is good. Thoroughly enjoyable. It has a good handful of incredibly laughable moments that easily make the film worth watching. It has physical comedy, and the comic timing of Gervais mixed with drama. I wouldn't really call this film a comedy. Despite not being Marxist, about the working classes, or realistic as it has ghosts, this film contains some of the most socially realistic scenes I've ever scene. Gervais' knack of being himself has paid of incredibly well in this movie, in the way that the conversations he has on screen seem so real and improvised (which I feel may have happened, Gervais is a genius, apparently) that you feel strongly for the characters and their ups and downs.

It may not be the best film I've watched recently, but it's certainly funny and emotional and a brilliant christmas present for a mother or older sister for you people who haven't bought presents yet. I'm not saying it's girly, but two of my closest female companions both admitted to shedding tears behind their boyfriend's (one of them being me) backs

Passengers. (2008)

You won't have heard of this, and neither did I. Thanks to Anne Hathaway's Oscar buzz from "Rachel Getting Married", this film was kept on the hush hush and not promoted. Mainly due to it being shit.

Passengers is a 2008 'thriller' about a therapist helping survivors of a plane crash come to terms with the trauma. After mysterious circumstances cause some of the survivors to disappear, Hathway gets into a web of deceit that only takes her further into the cover up surrounding the crash.

No matter how much I play it up, this film is shit. The plot is sub-par, the acting is particulary terrible (leaving me with dashed hopes for Patrick Wilson as Daniel Dreiberg. He's good in Lakeview Terrace, but crap in this). I feel incredibly sorry for the people who put their hard work into this film only for it to be shunned by Sony because of Hathaway's potential Oscar nod. But then again, I don't because they made a shit film. And did I mention this film was shit?

The thriller elements of the movie are APPALLING. They let the 'twist' go far far FAR too early in a most obvious way, so even Helen Keller could guess the end. The tense scenes are about as tense as watching a grape about to roll off the edge of a table, and so flat it's unbelievable.

I'm not going to say anything more about this film because it's not going to get a major release, you aren't going to see it, and you shouldn't because IT'S SHIT.

Mirrormask (2005)

Visual spectacle, pointless story.

Mirrormask is a 2005 film directed by artist Dave McKean, written by himself and Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Princess Mononoke [he wrote the English translation]).

It's the third of the staple 'Alice in Wonderland' films I've watched recently (which I should call Wizard of Oz's but that'd be bigging them up because that film's AWESOME and the others are just good). It's about a girl, Helena, who's parents (Rob Brydon and Gina 'Mary Cox from Our Friends in the North' McKee) run a circus in Brighton. She desires running away and wishes her mother dead, and subsequently dreams a crazy dream after he mother becomes ill.

Her dream reflects the future of her real life, but all the while her real life continues on the other side of mirrors in her dream. An evil princess from, I'll call it, the mirror world has stolen her life using a mirrormask and sucked Helena into the mirror world. The mirror world is made up of Helena's doodles (mostly McKeans art) and she starts to recognise her own work and fathoms a way out of the world, and back into her own.

Visually, this film is AWESOME. It's a combination of collage art, mostly creating creatures, with sculpture, animation and sketch. If you're a McKean fan, seeing his art come to life must have been fantastic. The film was produced by the Jim Henson Co., who produced Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal in the 80's, and they were hoping to create another 'sleeper' such as them. Neither of those films did particularly well in cinemas, but video sales made them cult classics for years to come. With Mirrormask, the releases were limited to festivals and independent cinemas, hoping to create a 'word of mouth' effect making more people purchase the movie. As far as I'm aware, it failed, but Gaiman went on to gain success with Stardust, of which he wrote the novel, and McKean had already created conceptual art for The Prisoner of Azkaban, and his comics and art are well collected.

Mirrormask is a strange one, I'd say it was for fans of The Fall etc, but it's a different kettle of fish. It's an incredibly childing movie, and would be fantastic for young children's imaginations, but fans of art and cinematic art would also enjoy this film for the spectacle that it is. There's not much story to hold on to, and you really need to appreciate the visuals in order to desire to stay with this movie. I can imagine the story alone would bore someone as it's not deep, but the original plan of creating a movie in the same vein of Labyrinth did work, creating a world for both children and adults to enjoy, albeit in different manners.

It's good, and definately one to own if you have seen and enjoyed it.