‘Paranormal Activity’

As a big indie film fan i was excited to see this movie after all the hype it was given and i was interested to find out if it would earn its billing as the scariest indie movie ever made. And would it do all of that for just 11 thousand dollars (apparently thats how much it costs to produce).

The movie is filmed in the style of such movies as the blair witch project, cloverfield etc… with the hand held camera being the main tool to blur the line between fiction and realism. The fact that this style has been done before gives you the sense throughout the movie that you’ve seen it all before.

When the blair witch project was first released it was a big event, it was the first major picture to be filmed in this style and thus it went on to bring in one of the biggest box office grosses ever. Our primal fear of darkness and the woods is what made it such a hit and ‘Paranormal Activity’ attempts to draw upon our fear of spirits and the unknown.

The movie is about a young couple, who, from what i gather have recently moved into their new home. During the relationship ‘Katie’ had told ‘Micah’ (the boyfriend) that she had had an entity or a spirit connected to her since childhood. MIcah is sceptical about this declaration and proceeds to purchase a Camera and technical equipment to film he and Katie throughout the day and night as a type of video diary on the spirit.

During the day things are pretty mundane and we get introduced to the couple and their occupations through the medium of the portable handheld camera under the pre-tense that’Micah’ becomes obsessed with it and cannot put it down. The daytime scenes just feel like fillers between what happens at night, and as the viewer you are constantly wanting the daytime to be over so that you get to see what happens whilst they are sleeping. This is the movies main downfall, because not a great deal happens at night after you spend all your time looking forward to the scenes. The director builds up the suspense at night really well with slow calculated buildups and it makes the viewer watch with silent concentration setting them up to be shocked and scared, but sadly it never delivers. The scenes in the movie that are supposed to be scary end up being boring and even a little comical through very poor acting and a very poor script.

The only positive i can refer to is that the production value of the movie was very high if indeed it did cost 11,000 dollars. I find this hard to believe since something of the same indie style (Blair witch) cost 100,000 dollars to make in a time when things were cheaper and we weren’t in a financial crisis.

I would avoid paying to go and see this movie, and i implore you to ignore its billing as the scariest indie movie of all time.

1/10

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Well….where do i start ? No seriously, tell me because i have absolutely no idea.

Prior to the movies release the guy in charge of publicity for the movie came out and said it is impossible to advertise this movie, when i read this i laughed thinking ”how hard can Heath Ledgers last movie be to advertise?”

Now i know, because half way through the movie the thought kept on playing in my mind, how would you advertise this movie?  It felt like scene after scene of randomised nonsense that was edited the way it was because they tried to throw in every scene that heath ledger managed to film before his untimely death,

Terry Gilliam (monty python) is known for being , lets say ‘kooky’ and the character doctor parnasus could well be based loosely on himself in that they are both eccentrics. I expected a weird fantasy movie from him after reading previews and such, but just how weird wouldn’t become apparent until watching it.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus is a fantasy adventure which takes place in present day England. Doctor Parnasus is a man gifted with the ability to guide peoples imaginations into making a choice between light and joy or darkness and depression. However, when he was younger he made a bet with the Devil in which he won immortality, the thing he wanted the most. The world soon changed on him though, times moved on and his services became surplus and he started to see Immortality as a curse, until one day he saw his one true love and made another deal with the devil. The deal this time was that he was to give up his daughter on her 16th birthday in exchange for his youth, doctor parnasus accepted this deal and was granted his youth and soon wooed the love of his life and had a daughter.

The movie focusses on his struggle to win yet another bet with the Devil so he is able to keep his daughter as her 16th Birthday is quickly approaching. Heath Ledger plays a man who can’t remember anything after someone attempts to hang him from a bridge. Doctor parnasus and co take him in and he begins to help in their struggle to win the bet with the devil.

All the scenes that take place outside of the imaginarium were filmed by Heath Ledger and as a result the movie works better in that it is more understandable when the actors change whilst still being the same character. The actors alternate between each other whilst inside the imaginarium and the smoothest of these changes was when Johnny Depp took over the part, i realised in the cinema that the people around me took a couple of minutes to notice that it was him and the person i saw the movie with noted this and suggested that he would be perfect to take up Ledgers role as the Joker in the next batman movie.

After Johnny Depp’s part in the movie was over it was jude law’s turn, he was considerably weaker than Johnny Depp and felt he really didn’t work in the part and removed you from the character. Next came Colin Farrell, he gave an equally weak performance and the only thing he and Jude Law achieved was showing us all how good Heath Ledger and Johnny Depp are.

There really isn’t much else i can say about the movie, i cant talk about cinematography because there really wasn’t much in it due to the CGI in the imaginarium. I felt it was poorly edited though and my friend and i found ourselves frequently turning to each other with puzzled looks on our faces, puzzling because we just didn’t know what was going on, on-screen.

I’d ask you all to see it just so that i can hear your opinions on it, other than that i really can’t see anyone enjoying it and i will not find myself buying it on bluray and watching it again.

2/10

’9′

9…..When I heard Tim Burton was co-producing this project I thought I’d give it a chance and settle down to watch it.

It has a running time of 79 minutes and because of this short length I didn’t mind giving it a chance.

9 is an animated movie set in a post apocalyptic world where machines have turned on their creators and thus destroyed human existance. One inventors dieing legacywas to give life to 9 “rag dolls” (i genuinly wouldnt know what else to call them), these creations are the only thing left of humanity and they must fight the machine’s who are trying to destroy them too.

From the very beginning it felt like a race against time for the creators, the very brief description of what had happened to the earth at the start of the movie was barely enough to set you up and pull you into the world of the ’9′.

This ‘brief’ attitude then spills over into each of the characters portrayed in the movie, the ninth character (voiced by Elijah Wood) wakes up at the start of the movie and you follow his exploits from there so this excuses the lack of character development on his part because you effectively see him from birth. However, this does not excuse the lack of work put into creating the other characters that you are meant to follow and care for, you are told practically nothing about what they have been doing since the war with the machines started, just brief little comments and i think it was literally one flash back when their leader was telling the vague story.

I really didn’t enjoy the movie because of its amateurish feel and afterwards i researched the director and screenplay writer only to have my suspicions confirmed when i found that they are indeed very inexperienced.

The animation is nice and the scenery is something you’d expect from a Tim Burton project. It creates the apocalyptic feel nicely without being too dull, but I am surprised Tim Burton still wanted his name attached to it after seeing how bad the screenplay was. With such a good cast including Jennifer Connelly, John C reilly, Elijah Wood and Christopher plummer, they still somehow failed to make you care for the plight of the characters and the only thing you can think is “How long is left” , and luckily the end comes sooner rather than later.

I would be hard pressed to recommend you go and see this movie, although it has chosen its release nicely as there really aren’t many options at this moment in time.

2/10

Zombieland (2009)

The movie starts out with the main characters narration of the events that have changed the world into what he calls “Zombieland”.

As with many zombie movies, a virus has been spread from person to person via bites and scratches until the whole world is mutated and inevitably over run with zombies. The movie then cuts to the young “Columbus” played by New yorker Jesse Eisenberg, Columbus explains the rules he has given himself for surviving Zombieland and we get a demonstration of the benefits of a number of those rules in a comical run in with a zombie.

Right from the very beginning though, it feels as if he is trying to act like Superbad’s Michael Cera, which he pulls off well and does a very good imitation of him but as the movie goes on it becomes very irritating and i began to dislike the character you’re meant to love.

Columbus (Jessie Eisenberg) runs into Tallahassee played by the very talented and very funny Woody Harrelson, after their run in they decide to stick together for a little while and Tallahassee offers the young man a ride. From this point on the movie becomes a hilarious take on the Zombie genre, i guess it’s Americas answer to Shaun of the dead and ill be honest, i prefered this flick.

The humor more than makes up for the lack of shock horror and frightening scenes, with most of it coming from Woody Harrelson, he gives a brilliant comical performance that is epitomised when his character meets with a great small cameo from Bill Murray playing himself, and they proceed to get high and act out a scene from Bill Murrays Classic “Ghost Busters”.

As one of their fellow survivors Bill murray lets them all stay at his mansion, by now Columbus and Tallahassee have gathered 2 young sisters to their band of survivors, the elder of the 2 played by another Superbad throwback “Emma Stone” and the younger sister is played by 13 year old Abigail Breslin.

Emma stone plays Jessie Eisenberg’s love interested “Wichita”, this plays out throughout the film and while cliché

and overdone, it does not take away from the films overall feel and comedy.
If you go into this movie with the right attitude and know what you should be taking from it, you will have a very enjoyable 80 minutes of entertainment and will come out feeling happy and satisfied.

7/10