Other Films Watched in August

Curse of The Golden Flower (Yimou Zhang, 2006)- Very Good

Step up 3 (John M Chu, 2010)- Okay

Clash of The Titans (Louis Leterrier, 2010)- Good

The Marine (John Bonito, 2006)- Good

Two Can Play That Game (Mark Brown, 2001)- Very Good

The Best Man (Malcolm D. Lee, 1999)- Very Good

Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003)

Cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney

Summary: Jimmy, Dave, Sean. Friends who grew up in working-class Boston, they drift apart after a terrible tragedy. Years later, brutal events reconnect them. Jimmy’s 19-year-old daughter is coldly murdered. Dave is a suspect. And Sean, now a cop, scrambles to solve the crime before volatile Jimmy takes the law into his own hands.

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Drama

A friend of my mums recommended this film to me and considering how brilliant I thought the last film she recommended was (The Mist) I thought this one would be just as good.

Mystic River is very character focused, focuses mainly on the lives of childhood best friends Jimmy (Sean Penn), Dave (Tim Robbins) and Sean (Kevin Bacon) who drift apart and lose contact after a terrible tragedy that occurs in their childhood. Despite this character focus when the three reunite some years later it feels as though crucial background information about one of the characters is missing, due to the fact that the film introduces an incredibly sensitive/taboo topic and then somewhat ignores it.

The mystery of the whodunit is absolutely fantastic and will leave you with a sour taste in your mouth, and once again Marcia Gay Harden’s performance is incredible as she plays a woman battling her emotions involving her husbands troubled past.

For me this film for me packs an absolute punch with its incredibly talented cast and gripping story, it's definitely up there as one of the best films I’ve seen.

My Rating: 10/10
One Final Word: BRILLIANT!

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)

Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood

Summary: Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery

The only reason I bought this film was because my media teacher said that it is one of the greatest films ever made, and I thought oh let me give this a watch then.

I didn't like the film and most of the time it was just background noise. I was completely confused, I didn't understand half of what was going on and to make it worse there was no talking for the majority of the film which made it even harder for me to try and follow what was happening.

I do have to admit that although I lost interest pretty quickly the one thing that I did like was the sound, and how different sounds were used like speech and to identify various items.

My Rating: 2/10

The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)

Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler

Summary: After a mysterious mist envelopes a small New England town, a group of locals trapped in a supermarket must battle a siege of otherworldly creatures and fear that threaten to tear them apart.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller

Beware there are spoilers!!

This is definitely one of the best films I have ever seen. My best friend’s mum (who funnily enough is my mum's best friend) said that she wanted me to watch it so that she could ask me a few questions about it after I had watched it.

What did you think of the film?

I really enjoyed this film, I think it introduced the main characters and set up the story very well. I liked how it gave the impression that David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and Mr Norton (Andre Braugher) were going to become friends during thier trip to the supermarket but after the mist envelops them, you find out that that is not the case. After the mist enveloped the town you could instantly see which of the towns people would stick with David and those who wouldn’t. There was one point in the film when a character mad a point that I totally agree with he said, “If you scare people badly enough, you can get them to do anything. They’ll turn to whoever promises a solution…”

Which characters helped to build the tension most?

I think the character that helped to build the most tension was Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden). At first she doesn’t really say much but then she starts going on about how this is the work of God and how he is punishing you for going against his word. Before this point many of the towns people already believed she was crazy. After the night attack people start to listen to her and begin to believe her teachings of how the creatures would attack in the night, but we really know that the night attack only happened because of the creatures attraction to light. It was just before she began gathering followers that David said something that was only too true, “I count four. She’s preaching to them now by the afternoon she’ll have four more.”

Were you surprised by the ending?

Yes and no. I knew that when they left the supermarket that they still had the gun so they would be able to kill each other should they need to and I thought it was typical that there would only be four bullets in the gun. At this point I have to say I was thinking up all different kinds of ways to kill them all, including the idea of smothering the child that way there would still be enough bullets to kill each of the adults.
I have to say that I wasn’t expecting what happened after the shootings and that right after he does what he has to do the army comes up behind him though the clearing mist. Here we also see the woman who left the supermarket earlier just after the mist enveloped the town to go and get her two children, on a rescue truck with her two children.

I do think that he/they gave up too early and they possibly could have waited till the there was no other options, or at least listened to my advice about the smothering, but we will never know.

My Rating: 10/10
One Final Word: One of the Best!