Tuesday 10 June 2008

5 movies which I expected to be lame but were awesome

It seems as if I may be stuck in writing these things in lists, but its easier that way.

This post will be 5 movies which I really expected to suck, and avoided them because of it, whether it be the title of the films, or the trailers were shit, or something else was crappy about the films marketing. But as this list proves, I probably shouldn't be so quick to judge a film by the title, as some of the films I'm listing are now some my personal faves.

5.
10 Things I Hate About You -


I do like a well made, very and offensive teen film. One that shows Teens as close to real teens as possible, and i think that's why American Pie did well, because it does remind you of a lot of people and situations that we all know. But unfortunately, studios realised that they could churn out substandard teen movies for cheap and just about make profit on it, with cheap "gross out" jokes and nudity, and this is what I expected from "10 things...". Like many of the films on this list I saw on Sky Movies when I had nothing better to do, and its great! It has a really great story, courtesy of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", is genuinely funny, and is well written. I like this film so much, that even bought the DVD, fair enough, it was only for £3, but I fucking bought it! And this clip is still great:



4.
Smoking Aces -



I watched the abomination of a film called "Lucky Number Slevin" a year or so ago, and it was soooooo bad, that I wanted to take a shit, just so I could see a lump of shit that isn't pretending to be anything else but shit, just pure shit. It left such a bad effect on me, that I avoided any film that I thought even looked similar, in any way, to it. So I avoided "Smokin' Aces". I also stayed out of its way because, judging by the title, it has a fear of the letter "G", and looked like a cliched, big budget, badly scripted action film, and it has Ben Affleck "starring" in it, who is one of the most infuriating and worst actors in film history.

However! despite the affliction of Ben Asslick and lack of "G"s it is a solid, slick and fun action film. Every so often you need to sit down and turn your brain off for a while and watch something that is just plain entertainment. The film equivalent of a good burger and chips.

"Smokin' Aces" has a really good cast, with some fantastic characters, and more explosions and cool cinematography than you can shake a stick at. Its funny, sad and it has Ben Asslick being killed! What more could you want!

Here's the trailer:



3.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) -



I am a HUGE fan of George A. Romero's original Dawn of the Dead made in 1978. It is the best zombie film ever made, bar none. I has the humour, the script, the performances, the gore and the message. IT IS PERFECT. So when I found out that they had done a remake of it, I was pissed off... really pissed of. I just thought it was completely unnecessary, and that they would just fuck up the whole point of the original. But then one night, I found myself at a friends house, and the majority wanted it on, I thought "I'll give it a go" and I'm glad I did!

I was right in my assumption that it would not be a patch on the original, but I was pleasantly surprised by the level of gore and violence, which is very high, the zombies themselves and the performances put in. It doesn't make you think at all, and unlike the original which has an overall theme/message of consumerism, the remake barely touches at this theme, or really any subversive or undercurrent theme at all. It is just a balls to wall zombie action movie, with brains and limbs flying left right and centre. Not harrowing or emotive, just fucking good fun, and very well made good fun at that. Just look at this clip as evidence:



And also, without this film being successful, it is unlikely that the director, Zack Snider, wouldn't of been able to go on and make one of the greatest action films ever made;
300

2. Transformers (2007)



As some of you probably know, I like Transformers a lot. In fact I like Transformers so much, i even have a Transformers tattoo:



But when the big budget Michael Bay version got announced, I wasn't looking forward to it at all, I just thought it would be like every other Michael Bay film - shit. But it really isn't at all, they really got the Transformers down, Optimus Prime is perfect in the film, just like the cartoon, and the idea of having bumblebee speak through the radio is fantastic.

I only have 2 problems with the film, is that Michael Bay CANNOT direct people, it always falls into cliches, and Transformers was no different, luckily for us though, the people bits were minimal, and the giant talking robots smashing each other bits took up most of the film, and I felt that the characters of the Autobots and Decepticons are, in some cases, greatly different from the cartoon, like Starscream for example. The characters are perfectly formed in the cartoon, and in the film we only get characterisation in one of the Tranformers, and that's Bumblebee.

I am really looking forward to the sequel to this, as I hope that much more time is spent with the characters of the Transformers themselves, as they really should be the stars of these movies, as they are with the rest of the franchise. And hopefully Michael Bay will stop being racist in the second one. Did anyone else notice that all the black characters are there for comedy value, or get killed quickly? Even the black Autobot, Jazz, gets killed without getting barely any screen time!

1. The 40 Year Old Virgin -



I fucking love this film. It is one of the funniest comedies to come out in the last 15 years or so, and is just brilliant. None of it is cheap laughs, ALL of it is well written, the characters are perfectly formed, and the stories kicks ass. But when the film first came out I avoided it like the plague, because it has such a dumb title, I could picture the entire film in my head already, cheap "gross out" jokes, nudity and embarrassing "old my god he doesn't know what to do with girls" scenarios. But I was so so so so wrong.

I also saw this film on sky movies, when i had nothing better to do, and was blown away. Some scenes in this literally put me on the floor with laughter. I LOVE this film! And what is best of all, is that Judd Apatow has gone on to make consistently funny films, and out-did "The 40 year..." with "Knocked Up" which is even funnier and sidesplitting.


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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Ben Affleck gets killed in Smokin Aces I may just have to watch it...or atleast that scene!
I couldn't get into the 40 year old virgin but i did enjoy knocked up, although the bitch scene was a bit of a shocker, wasn't expecting that at all!
By the way sometimes its hard to read the text cause of the black on the background.