Review the Last Film you saw

[0-0-17]

As the title say, this is a thread for writing concise reviews of films you've seen recently, tell us what you thought of it any why we should or shouldn't go see it if we haven't already.

To get the ball rolling
Moonrise Kingdom: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/
This one completely slipped under my radar during its initial release, despite having Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Bill Murray heading the cast! Nonetheless, the University's on-campus cinema showed it as the opening to the new term so I managed to catch it then. Directed by Wes Anderson whose work is highly acclaimed but with which I am generally unfamiliar except for his fantastic 2005 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Moonrise Kingdom is a light hearted comedy-drama that follows a lot of what I am assured (by the head of Film and Theatre, whose season opening talk was enough to convince me that film studies would have killed my love of cinema) are Anderson's stylistic trademarks such as the constant 90 degree angular shots, deliberately dry dialogue and subdued humour.

The story itself revolved around a troubled orphan boyscout and his attempts to find freedom along with his equally troubled pen-pal on a small island off the edge of the USA. The story follows the boyscout troop, accompanied by the local police officer and the girls parents, in their efforts to find the runaway couple and the aftermath of their inevitable success. Often funny in a very dry, subdued way and very whimsical in style, despite a fairly flat script laden with wooden acting (which I can only assume is deliberate) the film actually has a great deal of emotional depth to it, albeit within a very confined spectrum of light warmth to light melancholy. Its not going to have you crying in the isles or leave you despondent (like e.g. Tyrannosaur) but will likely surprise you by just how much it manages to resonate within Andersons very clinical directing style.

There aren't really and stand out performances as most of the dialogue and acting is overtly wooden, to an almost comical manner ("So, I'm just going to find a tree to cut down."). But as always Bruce Willis proves he's a better actor than his CV may give him credit for and Edward Norton is fantastic as always, although its the leading duo of child actors; Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward in their cinematic débuts. While they're not exactly Kirsten Dunst (circa Interview with a Vampire) this may be down to the limits of Andersons scripting style but nonetheless props to him for getting the best out of two young relatively screen inexperienced actors.

All in all, I liked Moonrise Kingdom but much preferred The Life Aquatic with its fantasmic visuals and generally stronger story which wasn't quite as rigidly scripted. But nonetheless its certainly worth seeing and fans of Anderson will no doubt get a lot more out of it, although if you've not seen his work before then start with The Life Aquatic.

[Aeaka]

Movie: Easy A http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1282140/

I've avoided seeing this movie since it came out. Even though my friends have said it was good.... but I caught it on TV last night... had nothing else to do sooo I watched it. Honestly it wasn't that bad. Truly shocked me that it actual had some kind of depth in it's plot. Rather showed a realistic few of how people treat other people. While Olive went around helping people at the expense of herself, when she needed help no one wanted to give up their newly acquired 'coolness' for her. It made me sad that such a simple lie slowly snowballed into truly making her dislike herself, when in fact she wasn't a slut.

It isn't a movie I would say people of all ages should go watch, by far. The sexual part of it can be really bad. -shrugs- However, most movies are going that way. >.>

So yeah... not the worst, but wasn't awe inspiring either. : P

[The Tony Stark]

Movie: Hotel Transylvania http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0837562/

I've been a fan of classic horror films for about four years. Hotel Transylvania was the first Adam Sandler film I truly enjoyed. It was charming to watch. There were nods to the horror films. The film has a straightforward plot to follow. It has nods to the classic horror films. The humor in the film was not over the top and for that I was grateful. It's a film you can take a family to see and not have to worry about it. Although I recommend the lowest age be 8 but if you think your kid can handle seeing a "monster" (not scary but it does have a sad moment) film go for it. Overall I give the film a 8 out of 10. It's not a perfect film but it is a good film. See it in 2-D or on DVD. I saw it in 3-D but the 3-D was not gimmacky. I just perfer 2-D unless it's Tron Legacy or Avatar or Hopeful the upcomming The Hobbit most 3D films aren't done right.