Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Extremely Loud Incredibly Close

SF: This film should be called 'Sometimes depressing at other points quirky'. I've no idea how to rate this or if I liked it. I wish I could give this two separate reviews, at some points I was heart broken and others I really enjoyed but in a disjointed way. A confused 6/10

50 Eggs: n/a

DonkeyB: Maybe I'm being a total bozo but I really liked Max von Sydow in this. Unfortunately that was about it. 4/10

Overall: 5/10

Thursday, February 16, 2012

2011 Award Winners and Nominees

So here are our 2011 Nominations, in order of preference and Winners.

To all the Winners, we humbly ask that you accept our applause because we can't afford actual awards.

Best Picture:
SF: Warrior, The Deep Blue Sea, True Grit
50 Eggs: Source Code, The Ides of March, We Need To Talk About Kevin
DonkeyB: The Deep Blue Sea, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Senna
Winner: The Deep Blue Sea (Despite the lack of sharks)

Best Director:
SF: Tomas Alfredson (Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy), Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin), George Clooney (The Ides of March)
50 Eggs: George Clooney (The Ides of March), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin)
DonkeyB: Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea), Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin), George Clooney (The Ides of March)
Winner: TIE: Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin) & George Clooney (The Ides of March)

Best Actor in a Leading Role:
SF: Tom Hardy (Warrior), Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double), Brendan Glesson (The Guard)
50 Eggs: Ryan Gosling (The Ides of March), Ezra Miller (We Need To Talk About Kevin), James Franco (127 Hours)
DonkeyB: Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double), Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy), Ryan Gosling (The Ides of March)
Winner: Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
SF: Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy), Jamie Bell (The Eagle), Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes),
50 Eggs: Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go), Ryan Gosling (Crazy Stupid Love), George Clooney (The Ides of March)
DonkeyB: Andy Serkis (Tintin & Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Moneyball), Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)
Winner: Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)

Best Actress in a Leading Role:
SF: Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea), Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin), Viola Davies (The Help)
50 Eggs: Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch)
DonkeyB: Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea), Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Winner: Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
SF: Jessica Chastain (The Help), Haylee Atwell (Captain American), Octavian Williams (The Help),
50 Eggs: Jennifer Anniston (Horrible Bosses), Natalie Portman (Your Highness), Emma Watson (Harry Potter 7 Part 2),
DonkeyB: Jessica Chastain (The Help), Octavia Spencer (The Help), Alison Janey (The Help) because she's amazing.
Winner: The Help- It was a good ensemble cast so would be unfair to choose one over any other so we've decided they all get a joint award.

Best Animated Film:
SF: Tintin, Tangled, Arrietty
50 Eggs: Tangled, Tintin, Rango
DonkeyB: Tintin
Winner: Tintin

Best Cinematography:
SF: True Grit, Another Earth, Midnight in Paris
50 Eggs: Immortals, 127 Hours, Black Swan
DonkeyB: True Grit, Tree of Life, We Need To Talk About Kevin
Winner: True Grit

Best Documentary Feature:

SF: Senna, The Greatest Movie ever Sold, Turtle the Incredible Journey
50 Eggs: Senna, And er…, Senna?
DonkeyB: Senna
Winner: Senna

Best Original Score:
SF: Daft Punk (Tron Legacy), Atli Orvarsson (The Eagle), Alan Silvestri (Captain America)
50 Eggs: Daft Punk (Tron Legacy), Alan Silvestri (Captain America), Michael Giacchino (Super 8)
DonkeyB: Michael Giacchino (Super 8), Antonio pinto (Senna)
Winner: Daft Punk (Tron Legacy)

Best Visual Effects:
SF: Tron Legacy, Thor, Real Steel
50 Eggs: Immortals, Real Steal, Sucker Punch
DonkeyB: Tron Legacy, Super 8, Troll Hunter
Winner: TIE: Real Steel & Tron Legacy

Best Adapted Screenplay:
SF: We Need To Talk About Kevin, Moneyball, The Help
50 Eggs: We Need To Talk About Kevin, Money Ball, Limitless
DonkeyB: The Ides of March, Moneyball, The Deep Blue Sea
Winner: TIE (DonkeyB loves ties) We Need To Talk About Kevin & Moneyball

Best Original Screenplay:
SF: The Guard, Devil's Double, Attack the Block
50 eggs: Source Code, The Ides of March, 127 Hours*
DonkeyB: The Guard, Attack the Block, The Devil’s Double
Winner: The Guard
*Some of the choices may not be original material so this category is subject to change

**** Now some fun awards****

Most divisive film:
X-men: First Class
Tangled
Real Steel
Winner: Tangled

Worst Film:
SF: Tree of life, Drive, Green Lantern
50 Eggs: Hugo, Tree of Life, Drive
DonkeyB: Immortals, Immortals, Immortals
Winner: Tree of Life (DonkeyB still insists worst film should be Immortals)

Worst actor:
SF: Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern), Shia LeBouf (Transformers 3: The Dark of the Moon), Nicholas Cage (Season of the Witch)
50 Eggs: The London kids in Hereafter, Jason Mamoa (Conan)
DonkeyB: Mickey Rourke (Immortal), Sasha Baron-Cohen (Hugo), The Rock (Fast 5) out acted by a car, Special mention goes to Hugh Jackman (Real Steel) out shone by a robot.
Winner: We would like to invite all nine nominees into the appropriate circle of hell for their respective crimes against cinema and our sensibilities.

Worst actress:
SF: Rachel Nichols and Rose McGowan (Conan), Jennifer Aniston (Just Go with It), Carrey Mulligan (Drive)
50 Eggs: Carrey Mulligan (Drive), no contest.
DonkeyB: Mandy Moore (Tangled), Jennifer Aniston (Horrible bosses), January Jones (X-men: First Class)
Winner: TIE Carey Mulligan & Jennifer Aniston

Most awful contribution to cinema in 2011:
SF: The Dinosaurs in Tree of life
50 Eggs: The ‘chemistry’ between Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan in Drive
DonkeyB: 3D
Winner: 3D - it wasn’t close, 3D is the worst thing ever, nothing else could compete.

Chronicle

SF: this started alright but descended into painful predictability and even though the running time was rather short it felt long - bad sign. I like the idea but they did nothing interesting. 5/10

50 Eggs: I’m not sure that this needed to be a ‘found footage’ film. The format is redundant after 20 mins and the script is strong enough to hold it's own without a gimmick. Having said that I really enjoyed this, and its nice to see a different take on the superhero movie. 8/10

DonkeyB: In a word- awful. We need to talk about Kevin crossed with heroes. Eugch. The way the horrible geeky kid everyone hates turns into the most popular guy in school is by doing a slightly shit magic show at the talent contest! What's with the found footage? It's either found footage or it isn't, make up your mind. 4/10

Overall - 5.67/10

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The Woman in Black

SF: The stage show left me rather unnerved, the film however was dull. Everything was long and drawn out, probably for dramatic effect. Even the bits when you were supposed to jump were easily seen coming. I'll give credit to the additional character development, it did keep the story going but I can't say I enjoyed this, average movie really. Nice eerie cinematography though. 5/10

50 Eggs: Good. A ghost story with an unsettling atmosphere, genuine scares & plausible motivations. The play is the best thing I've ever seen onstage, & though this dilutes the recipe somewhat, the essence remains. [Spoiler] Those familiar with the source material will be anticipating the Haymaker ending. Unfortunately, whilst the film dons the knuckleduster, it then pulls its punch at the last second. A cop-out, and so marked down to 8/10.

DonkeyB: n/a

Overall - 6.5/10

Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Muppets

SF: it's time to play the the music. I can't stress how much I enjoyed this. Muppet Christmas Carol is still the best but this is a close second. 9/10

50Eggs: n/a

DonkeyB: I've been exited about the muppets movie for months. I was not disappointed; I smiled throughout. Laughed a lot a lot of times. Great cameos. 8/10

Overall: 8.5/10


Thursday, February 2, 2012

Decendants

SF: I laughed at the most inappropriate moments but that's okay, so did everyone else. Delivers a fairly depressing story in an unusual way, rather unexpected - made me rather contemplative. Recommended. 7.5/10

50 Eggs: What I particularly liked about this film was it's emotional realism. Sometimes life throws events at you that are not black and white and cause conflicting feelings, and the Decendants portrayed this really well. It's a rather sad film though so it's probably not one to watch on when you need cheering up on a Sunday afternoon. Having said that there are one or two funny moments thrown in (not jarringly) and it's well worth renting on DVD. 7/10

DonkeyB: the first part was very green and then they restarted it and it was full of commercials. Creepy fingers dude in front couldn't keep his hands off either his girlfriend or his iPhone; I think his name might have been Jonathon. It's important we spell it right in case he is reading. Once the R of the RGB projector was back to full functioning order, the film was both funnier and sadder than I thought it would be. There should be more grandparents punching teenagers in the movies. This is now way too long. 6.5/10

Overall: 7/10