Grainy Greenberg

B+ (8.2)


Picture this. You're a man who's in his 40s. You have accomplished nothing, do not care about life, refuse to do anything social because it has moral implications but you just got out from a mental hospital. This is a life where no human being would take even if he has mental health issues.

Ben Stiller is Roger Greenberg, a New Yorker in his 40s who arrives at Los Angeles to house keep his brothers house while he and his family are on vacation. He's unemployed, but works as a carpenter. He does nothing, has no ambition, but at least he's write complaint letters to companies, which is doing something (insert sarcasm). He meets up with his former bandmate (Rhys Ifan) who suprisingly still talk to him despite Greenberg responsible for breaking up the band. As he cannot tolerate parties, he doesn't want to talk to people, he wants to find a connection. He forces himself to connecting with his brother's personal assistant Florence (Greata Gerwig) where it's her whose trying to restart his life.

Greenberg is the omega male. Opposite to the alpha male, he's the lowest person of the male social structure. He doesn't want to be held responsible, socially inept and doesn't want to keep up with his peers. Ben Stiller nails this intriging character study. You don't need to like his character because of his anti-social and possibly strange behaviour, but at least you could understand why he's doing it because he's a damaged person who suffer from anxiety. Greenberg may be autistic (in that case he's Aspergers) since he doesn't want to adopt to social gatherings yet he's intelligent in many things (which may be the only positive note of the character).

A film directed by Noah Baumbach whose a frequent collaborator with Wes Anderson, the dude knows dysfunction to his characters and it is well written and so has it been directed. The supporting cast is also great especially Greta Gurwig whose character's in and out of a relationship who's on the verge of becoming an "it"girl and the best thing is that she kindly reflects on Greenberg who can be at times prickly. Rhys Ifans does a good job, but I really want to see more of his presence of his character.

I myself reflect to Greenberg. Like him, he hates everything around his world. Like him, I want to find a connection. And like him, he quotes "hurt people hurt people" which I do.

IF you don't enjoy characters whose behaviours are certainly strange yet they are perfectly norman, then you're not going to like this film. But if you have anxiety or who want to connect with people and at the same time forget about the past, see this movie.

Movie Shorts: Satan's holding a satire fest

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Unless you're a pro-moralist, South Park is a show that's hard to dislike. Take the creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone up to the notch on the big screen and you'll have a usual episode of the show. The difference is as the title states is that's longer with 71 minutes in length, and it's more obscene. The latter is the whole point of the movie where the town of South Park comes into a state of emergency when Kyle, Catman, Stan and Kenny all go to see the Terrence and Phillip movie Asses of Fire through which they imitate them by speaking the phoney, swearing language they say. Kyle's mom leads a coalition of concerned parents to not only kill Terrence and Phillip, but also to go to war at Canada. At many times, Parker and Stone uses their usual shock and toilet humour in here and unlike many other comedies which uses the same kind of humor, it works. It's interesting to see that South Park ends up being a musical where it's both hilarious and catchy. It satires society's prudeness and over-tolerance (the town trying to rip Terrence and Phillip), freedom of speech and also the fact that society wants us to conform especially with the controls of the media. The relationship between Satan and Saddam Hussein is however at times grim and tedious with Hussein often pulling gay jokes. But still. This is a hilarious comedy even the fain of hear will enjoy.

B+ (8.4)

A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick is well known for taking risks in cinematic history. He casted a young girl to play a promiscious tween in Lolita and used little dialogue in the science fiction flick 2001: A Space Oddysey. With satire, he made Dr. Strangelove where it was released in the beginning of the Cold War. Here's a Kubrick film that does both risk and satire. A Clockwork Orange does both as it is set in a distant future (just like 2001) in London where Alex Delarge, a teenager leads a youth gang called the Droogs where they go haywire in the evenings and rape women. When Delarge attempts to rob a woman (apparently she's the Minister for Interior) she accidently murdered her and in the process he gets arrested, sent to jail and then he becomes part of a government experient where they treat criminals to act like normal human citizens and that's where his life changes forever. Beautifully directed and written by Kubrick, the dynamic approach and character study of Alex is played brilliantly by Malcolm Mcdowell, who's a sociopath to his world with a love of Beethoven and it's hard to see Alex make people suffer from his behaviour and suffer by the same people he victimised. It's a condescending look of the future especially when at the 60s people were optimistic of a happy life out there and also to test the free will of the ultraviolent Alex. A Clockwork Orange is anarchic but at the same time tragic by the end

A+ (10.0)

Sucker Punch - This is a movie KO'd

C- (2.8)

Picture this. You're a 20 year old girl whose sent to an asylum after your stepfather framed you for murdering your sister and attempting to rape you before he does. In that mental asylum you're trained by a douche as a burlesque dancer given that half the asylum is a burlesque club and as you do, you enter a fantasy that involves destroying everything so you can escape from that asylum.

In an acronym, WTF?!?!

That is the entire plot of Sucker Punch about a group of mental patients/erotic dancers led by Babydoll (Emily Browning) going into a range of fantasies to find four valuable items not only free themselves from their pains, but also to escape the mental institution they're situated. The asylum is headed by an Eastern European psychiatrist (Carla Gugino) and Blu (Oscar Issacs)

When it comes to director Zack Snyder, it is truly polarising. Some people love or hate his visual style. Some say it's boring, others find it more artistic. But I don't get the entire hatred against him by geeks and internet critics because Snyder used to direct the magnificent yet flawed graphic novel adaptation Watchmen and the well-crafted animation Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Gahoole.

In here however Snyder just truly messes up.

Let me requote the last sentence because to say this is truly a mess is an understatement. It's not entirely awful. It's just terrible. First of all, full marks for Snyder crafting every action sequence to such a high level of art. It's brilliantly cinematographed and as much as you hate Snyder, you'll no doubt know that his movies are somewhat visually stimulating. Unfortunately every sequence feels like a video game.

But this movie is never stimulating to the entire point that it's not even a movie. This is a poorly acted, poorly plotted and poorly placed piece that has gave you no point to why you should be even watching this film. It feels like Snyder is so obsessed with his "achievement" for directing Watchmen that he just brings in the most unnessary elements here. As soon as we entered the lives of these girls, the tackiness shows and becomes a watermark in the history of contemporary cinema. It has no plot, no characters and  the action becomes so ludicrous.

When you have a cast of young and really hot actresses that includes Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone and Vanessa Hudgens and assign these women to Snyder, to me, I'll be damned. He's never a director of actresses since all of the heroines are terrible as they have no character, no growth and no emotion. Seeing Carla Gugino whipping up a phony European accent as a burlesque teacher shows that she's offered the most ridiculous characters to be played since Nicholas Cage. Not even Oscar Issacs can help. I just hated him playing the owner Blu of the mental asylum.

The plot. There is no way that you can comprehend the movie without the plot even if it has an outline. It is so illogical in many ways like how did one of the girls plan to find these items in fantasies. And how does Babydoll enter into a fantasy. All I get was Browning closing her eyes and imagine a WWII scenery and at the end the audience gave a standing ovation when she is doing nothing. When Snyder wrote the screenplay (this is his first orignal film), he hadn't realize how many movies he rips off. The mental institution is from Shutter Island, the fantasies came from Inception and the opening sequence turns Chicago into tastless cold soup

As soon as the movie reaches it's last half hour, where Blu's about to rape Babydoll, it just feels so blantant and offensive.

This is a curse for Snyder as there is a dash of doubt upon him as he directs the upcoming Superman movie with Christopher Nolan as the producer. Sucker Punch is a failure and not even a single sample of music could help.

RANT: Top Ten people who should never be in Hollywood... from now

2011 will never be a great year for movies because every movie chucked right at us are terrible and the people responsible for making these films is Hollywood. Hollywood used to be the epitome of what everyone wanted to be in the 20th Century. They want to be famous actors, directors making an income and clinging their Oscars. These days, I cannot imagine how it's free to be in Hollywood and do whatever you want with your movies no matter how bad it is and yet the studios don't even care. They're manipulating the public to such a sense of pleasure that it's hard to resist and dislike. They're damaging tastes and senses.

So here are the directors, actors, producers and people that makes up our entertainment industry who should take one step away from Hollywood.

10. Jennifer Aniston

I'm suprised that this actress, 40, is still doing movies when a) her personal life is being shoved down our throats through brief relationships and b) she plays the same character in every one of her movie. From 1994, she was considered a style icon revolutionising everybody's hair with the"Rachel"named after the character she plays in Friends. Now ever since Friends had it's finale and Aniston was dumped by Brad Pitt, she appears in countless rom-bombs like The Break Up, The Bounty Hunter and every movie starting with "The" I believe. And there's a pattern, no matter what movie she's in, she's seem to have an infactuation with her co-stars and the gossip mags get that from the fact that she's still an icon. Aniston, your time is up.



9. Michael Bay.

This dude is the most manipulative, misogynistic director I have ever heard. Look at his films like Bad Boys, Pearl Harbor and Transformers and you know what you get. This dude's bring his inner frat boy to life by bringing up explosions from tanks, robots and girls running with cleavage simultaneously. When he thinks we're about to walk out, he puts in an emotionally setimental scene that had us by the end saying "best movie ever" which is what every kid at my high school say and thinking he's the best director yet. And also he's the highest earning director with $500 million. That's a joke.

Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson had regrets with making films with you and so did Shia Labeouf. Even apologising for making the atrocious sequel to Transformers doesn't help. No wonder Megan Fox had went out...


8. Megan Fox

... which automatically makes her into this list as well. I don't get the whole hotness of her. Her face constantly change from eyelid surgery and since how did he become the attention of our dumb youth. Lindsay Lohan was better than her for crying out loud, in terms of acting (they both appear in Confessions Of A Drama Queen). Seeing that her latest films Jonah Hex and Passion Play both bombed critically and commercially, shows a true testament that a) she's not an actor b) we had enough of her and c) that she has no potential in show business given her negligable talent. But I still cannot believe that boys are still going gaga for her. What is wrong with them. There are better actresses currently working who are also hot at the same time (Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, Blake Lively are some examples)


7. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

God, do you have to bring these two nutjobs here and let them do whatever they want with no order. Keeping in fact they both turned into a franchise with every dead parody movie coming with Meet The Spartans, Disaster Movie, and Epic movie become box-office hits having a hint of what's popular and then putting it in their movies, I was frustrated and it wasn't funny at all. I had the same feelings when they release Vampires Suck, the Twilight parody. Not only did I felt so angry when it made Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World a disaster, but made Twilight more special to the haters in a good way. There's an online petition to make these two stop filming. I'm signing it right now.

6. Miley Cyrus

 This so-called "singer" is starting a movie career when she already had a film based on her TV show Hannah Montana with The Last Song, then after that film, which is deservedly bashed, she smokes a bong and the next thing you'll know she will be appearing in the sequel The Last Bong. This girl came from Disney. What do you expect from these kids? They do the most stupid thing taking nude photos and drugs which is what she's doing at the moment. This girl can't sing and "Party In The USA" is supposed to be the dumbest anthem I've ever listened. She's a talentless nobody and 20 years from now we will regret for liking this girl. A message to her: you have all the money in the world and yet you spend the fame on shit. Now I'm going to scorn about Cyrus when she's coming to Australia.


5. Charlie Sheen

Recently the most creepiest rambling from this attention-seeking whore was when he asked Mila Kunis to become one of his goddesses. His goddesses are two porn stars and to tell you the truth the only way that we are going to stop Sheen is to ignore him no matter what kind of philosophy this whore will tell you. I had enough of Sheen when he's still not changing his ways from being both a junkie and a whore before and after Two And A Half Men. The dude had some potential in the 80s as this up and coming actor performing from Platoon to Wall Street. Now he's on a tour for no apparent reason other than to overly justify how he's winning. Why do some people feels that Sheen is an inspiration to their lives? Is it because living you life as an asshole is fun. Picking up girls is cool. Mr. Sheen, you're just a train wreck who couldn't stop.

4. The Academy members

The Academy had never been right for so long. OK. I confess. I was disappointed that The King's Speech won over The Social Network over the Oscars. The reason why TKS won was because of the voters and how they love feel good movies. These voters do not belong to the Academy but do they know anything about movies? No. This reminds me of how Forrest Gump tramped Pulp Fiction and how Crash won over Brokeback Mountain. Would TKS be considered one of the greatest movies of all time just because it won Best Picture. No.

3. Rob Schneider

I don't understand why this douche is given a lifetime free pass to let him do whatever he thinks its funny. COS IT'S NOT! Just because he work with Adam Sandler frequently doesn't help out. Schneider brings in all of the lowest forms of humor that is not only unfunny, but cruel as well.

Have you seen I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry where Schneider plays an Asian priest who conducts gay weddings? That's just brutal. When I saw Male Gigalo, probably his directorial debut, I just don't get it. Schneider should never be entitled as a director, a screenwriter or an actor because like Friedberg and Seltzer he brings in the utterly pointless and dastardly stupid to movie goers.


2. Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is torture. She's only made famous because of a sex tape that was released and now it's too much. She's appearing in every magazine that's in existence. What next? Time magazine? What makes her so good is that her reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians isn't popular like the Jersey Shore in which they're both the same show except that Kardashian and her sisters (who are the B-grade versions of her) do not start up a fight. I can't believe idiots would go searching for her ass online which is just so unimportant to Western civilisation. And appearing in every award ceremony with her big dress (no pun intended) just skims the limelight to actors whose there to show their graceful acting talent. And you lady got nothing. Appearing in Disaster movie does not start off your acting career.



And finally the NO.1 douche to take one step off Hollywood is...


Harvey Weinstein

This prick here comes to Hollywood to produce movies that are supposed to be good. I loved Pulp Fiction, one the few films in his resume as a 'producer' with the clever direction and script of Quentin Tarantino and such. Pulp Fiction was the only film I liked that has this dude credited. It would've won Best Picture had Forrest Gump didn't exist as a movie (by the way, I actually like that movie). But it's 1999 and Weinstein bribed every dumb voter of the Academy a luxury of lifestyle so that his film, Shakespeare In Love, one of the few movies served as producer, would win Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. Why?

What bags me out about the Oscars is that for five years straight, no Hollywood film had won the Best Picture. The last film to do so was Martin Scorsese's The Departed which was made by Warner. Weinstein just comes to Hollywood to entertain the voters so they can reward his movies to the maximum amount. He may be revolutionizing how the Oscars would pick which ones are the best and it's usually arthouse junk. In 2009, you're responsible for sunbbing WALL-E and The Dark Knight at the Oscars for Best Picture. The Academy had enough of you so that's why they doubled the number of Best Picture nominees.

But it's the 83rd Academy Awards that captures everything I hate about Harvey Weinstein. The King's Speech, which he was an executive producer had won over The Social Network (which should've won Best Picture and Best Director, talking about social media and how it changes people lives for the better or worst). The Oscars is supposed to be about rewarding films based on its artistic aspects and entertainment. Because of this, I retract praise for TKS except for the outstanding performances of its cast. The Academy probably voted for that film only because it was a feel-good film and they are 57. But maybe because WEINSTEIN just gave them the same luxurious lifestyle to these dumbasses who don't know anything about movies. Harvey Weinstein is corrupting Hollywood because of his campaigns that has nothing to do with the greatness of his films.

People I wouldn't put on the list, but are close to being part of Hollywood.


The cast of Jersey Shore
Justin Bieber
Lindsay Lohan
Uwe Boll
Paris Hilton
Jennifer Lopez
Adam Sandler
Perez Hilton

Watchmen (revised)

B (7.2)


Watchmen can never be a perfect movie. As many fans of the acclaimed graphic novel had been anticipating upon its initial release, this is what they got and it was polarising to watch.

The one main argument for and against is director Zach Snyder, who directed 300 and this time Sucker Punch. The pros for Snyder is that he's visually gifted, there's no denying that the cinematography, slow mo timing captures a graphic novella. Unfortunately, the cons are that he's not a director of actors. More specifically, a director of actresses as I'll review, his writing often mismatch with his gift and then the list would keep growing.

This year, 2011 would be huge with supercapers following the releases of Green Latern, X Men: First Class, Captain America and Thor. Watchmen would count along with X Men Origins: Wolverine as the two superhero films released in 2009.

Watchmen was a movie that could never be made following disputes with author Alan Moore (who still holds a grudge against Hollywood following his disapproval of each of his adaptation), budget and crew.

But there it is. 20 years later. Watchmen starts off with an opening sequence that features two vigilante/superhero groups the Watchmen through historic events (the man on the moon, JFK Assassination and the hippie movement). So superheroes exist but are then outlawed by the government. The only member who appeared in both Watchmen was the Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan) who's a sadistic, misogynistic, gun toting vigilante. Set in 1985 he's murdered spectacularly and one of the Watchmen Roscharch (Jackie Earl Haley) investigates the mystery and revealing his secret identity but at the same time unravels as the fate of the Comedian, the relationships between Silk Spetre (Malin Akerman) and Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) as well as Dr. Manhattan (voiced by Billy Crudup) and the tensions between Russia and America (still led by Richard Nixon in his thrid term) increase, it brings everyone back to action.

Keeping up with this movie is dificult as it is 150 minutes in length. But I was never bored. After all I was pulled in by the cynical themes and angst of these characters and Snyder's noirish input of this movie. The movie i incredibly similar to The Incredibles as much of the premise, characters and style

Jackie Earl Haley and Jeffery Dean Morgan are excellent as Roscharch and the Comedian who are the most interesting character and more so the important characters of this film. Dr. Manhattan is also interesting with a back story of his origins.

But now I'm onto the actresses and mentioned above, Snyder is not a great director of actresses. The main actress is Malin Akerman. With Akerman as Silk Spetre, it's very difficult to like her and find what to like about her because the only thing that was interesting about her was her relationships between Dr. MAnhattan and the Nite Owl in which the chemistries between each character are greater. However they don't need to have a sex scene. It's uneccessary and just brings the anti up. The other actress I have trouble with is Carla Gugino, the mother of Silk Spetre where she's doing a Nicholas Cage. Doing these ridiculous roles as she plays a 60 year mother (even though she plays her age in a flashback) who just rambles about her life as a superhero.

However there are two scenes that I have difficulties with: the Comedian's funeral and the ending. The Comedian's relationships between much of the Watchmen especially with every flashback of him and Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl and I forgot to mention Ozymadias (Matthew Goode). There isn't any detail about them and are way too short to know what are the conflicts between them. The ending though is pretty hard to explain as well.

Watchmen is a dark, noirish superhero flick that is unpredictable even if you read the graphic novel. But let's face it. Watchmen was a long awaited movie put in 1989, was shelved several times and had no hopes to be shown on the big screen. In 20 years time this will give itself a 'cult' film status given how little there is to like about to film and doesn't perform well in its budget. Had it been directed by someone else like David Fincher or Darren Arronofsky, this would've been a perfect dedication to all the superhero movies that were generic. But the laws of life state that everything would never be perfect.

RANT: The Kids should get this Straight (no pun intended)

The Kids Are All Right


C- (3.1)


When The Kids Are All Right was released in the summer of last year, I was wondering what was the hype about this flick until I'd discovered its premise about a lesbian couple and their kids and given how much acclaim this get from the critics, I was dumbfounded by what they are talking about. This is a film with a subject matter that has a 90% success chance of getting an Oscar nomination especially Best Picture. Homosexuality is a darling with the critics and the Academy members which is just one thing I'd hate about these people. Critics would use a film's subject matter depending on how shocking or how observed, they could give this a high to low rating. While the members of each organisation that is active from December would give this a thumbs up just to boast again and again how liberal Hollywood had become. The problems I had with celbrities and politics is that they are so bias to one politics and the hypocritical thing is they don't usually support it even if they attend conventions or lectures of one.

Anyway, there are the very low expectations I have for and against this film and given that I was too mean for this film since it is indie and has an all star cast. Whatever. When I saw it, just at the end credits, I was right the first time and I am pissed.

The Kids Are All Right are about a family headed by a lesbian couple Nic and Jules (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) with their teenage kids Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson). They look perfect and privilaged. Joni's heading off straight to college and Laser ask her if they could find their sperm donor and that person is Paul (Mark Ruffalo). With Paul, he;'s a hedonistic man of such desires and interests and when he meets Nic and Jules, they become polorised with one another. Nic believes that he is corrupting their kids and ruining them, while Jules was just happy to meet him.

The Kids Are All Right has to be the most pretentious, overrated film of last year. No matter what morals they give out, no matter how universally acclaimed this film is and no matter how observing this film is, it's neither special nor effective. What'll you'll see is a movie filled with liberal cliches thrown at you by Nic and Jules complaining and whining about what they think of Paul and what he's going to do to get their attention. The story of the film feels like a pilot episode of a kids show where the main kid is tired of life with her parents and try to find her real parents but then it's jumbled up.

I may be the only person on this entire planet not to like this film, but there are some issues and points people are missing out on. One point is where this film is completely misandrist - this is a man-hating movie. Ruffalo is a stag, Laser is the stupidest kid while his buddy is some adrenaline skate punk.

There is nothing humourous I find here. Bening and Moore having sex together. We already get that they've been together for 20 years but you can't bring up their infactuation of gay porn. That just make it cheesy. The relationships between Ruffalo and the two women makes this movie feel like watching a film that has the structure of a soap opera.

Despite the fact that the performances from the cast are good, The Kids Are All Right reminds me of being new at a prep school with the most over privilaged kids in town but then you realise that the only reason why you're at that school is not only your family's middle class, but that your parents are homosexuals.

But the good thing is at least the director got the balls to bring this topic up. This is an indie flick and they know what to do here. To be fair, I support gay rights. I really do. But every day and into the future, we get misleading stereotypes of these people. They're interested in fashion musicals, anything in the opposite gender. But in ten years time, the new stereotype of gay couples (and those who have a family) will be modelled as the family in this movie. Over-privileged, middle-class and educated aristocratic families. That's what they are.

Whatever the message The Kids are sending here, it was real. At least they are functioning as a conventional family and its high time that they stop portraying gay couples as overreative. But the worst thing is that this takes itself way too seriously. As you get into the matter, you'll gradually be forced to understand the concept about families all over and over again.

Look. It's an overrated film with no meaning and cannot be counted as a comedy. When this film is shown around your TV, no one will remember it and they never will!

Pulp Fiction - Is This It? The Greatest Movie IMO

A+ (10.0)


Before Inception, before Avatar, before we seen risque in American Beauty and Fight Club, and a philosophical science fiction The Matrix, Pulp was not only the most talked about film of its time and had caused a phenomenon, but also the most influential.

Quentin Tarantino's magnus opus is a pop culture sandwich, an arthouse that has irony everywhere, a web that spreads multiple storylines, a church with morality and immorality, an encyclopaedia of great movies and a study of nihilism, betrayal and loyalty.

It starts out as a couple sit together at a restaurant discussing about robbing it and they did. That was just the start of the film. The film then goes into the ramblings of Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta) two henchmen working for crime lord Marcella Wallace (Ving Rhames) with Vincent having to take Marcella's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) and entertain her. It then goes with an associate of Marcella, Butch (Bruce Willis) then go find his watch only to be coincidently involved with something unrelated.

I don't want to spoil the whole film so here's what I hate about this movie.

Nothing

This is an absolutely flawless film that I definitely enjoyed and showed us what contemporary cinema is all about. It goes beyond conventions of its unpredictable nature and story structure, dialogue but sustaining what's great about each genre of movies. Bringing in an ironic mix of humor and violence (trust me. There is just a few bits of violence) there is.

Tarantino brings the film to such an unique direction making it a neo-noir in its own right with a superb script from himself and Roger Avery. The dialogue is pitch perfect. Smart and witty and memorable. IT has fascinating observations of pop culture such as Mcdonalds and its Quarter Pounders and its competition, the Bible especially the famous verse from the book of Ezekiel delivered great by Jackson. But the script delivers themes of loyalty, morality and betrayal. Tarantino gives us heart that you shouldn't like, but by the time they open their mouths, both hitmen have deep heart inside them.

John Travolta is acting here like he was in the 70s and this is a film that ressurected his career as an actor. He shows that by how much personality his character has, but also the great dialogue from Tarantino. It worked. Jackson is utterly hilarious and thrilling as his partner Jules and has a role of a lifetime in this flick. Everyone in the cast is great here especially Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel.

Also adding flavour to Pulp is the soundtrack which I definitely enjoyed and the lighting makes the movie so cynical and gritty. The well-known dance scene with Travolta and Thurman is greatly choreographed.

More so this should be a guide on how to make a great movie. For all film buffs all from those who has started watching classics to those with the film brain of Tarantino, this is a film that is a definite must see and put into your personal favourites list. It's a landmark movie that redeemed Hollywood (even if it was made independently) to the far top.

This is a movie that defined a generation that watches movies the way they wanted to.

Never Let Me Go - It just couldn't move

B (6.9)


Warning... Spoilers ahead!


Never Let Me Go is a movie that took so long to be released in Australia. For once I wasn't interested in this film even if it had Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley in the cast until I realise that the film involves science fiction and it is science fiction and romance that blends together.


It is based on an acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and in 1952 a medical breakthrough had risen the human life expectancy to over a 100. NLMG is three films in one. First, it is 1978 and three children from a boarding school in Hailsham, Kathy (Mulligan), Ruth (Knightley) and Tommy (Garfield) are set to become donors when they've become adults. Their teacher Ms. Lucy (Sally Hawkins) tell them that when they do, they'll never live a happy life or have a longer one. WE then realize that Hailsham is actually a prison and that the kids are clones of middle class citizens. The second section is where Kathy, Ruth and Tommy are teenagers and are set out to their fates whereas Ruth and Tommy become a couple while Kathy watches. Lastly Kathy and Tommy fall in love after Kathy had donated her organs and Tommy set out for his final days


Now I have never read the book but it has a great concept about being human and fate. Before I went and saw it, I presume that this film will have the same appeal to a lot of people as The Notebook. This movie is a romance and pretty much the chemistry between Mulligan, Knightley and Garfield is so poignant and cold at the same time. 


Never Let Me Go has an approach simlar to Blade Runner and Gattaca. It all has to do with not being human. Blade Runner deals with human replicas rebelling against humans for putting them invto slavery. Never Let Me Go has that concept but the trio doesn't go against anything. 


Screenwriter Alex Garland doesn't explain the situation the trio's in and facing and the real world or people who set that up leaving it so dull and dry. And without that, you are dumbfounded into thinking that it was a science fiction flick.


However this film has an excellent cast with Mulligan and Garfield who are both endearing and conflicted respectively while Knightley is great as the selfless Ruth. But all of them has to bring in a sentiment to this adaptation and only give more to the audience and not to the whole movie itself. This could not set up a tone for the film and ends up being a soap opera


Never Let Me Go is a romantic if yet beautifully directed by Mark Romanek and acted out by a young cast. If only it had more.