8 Mile

2002

Eminem, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Kim Basinger

B- Rabbit (Eminem) is down and out. He lives in a trailer park in Detroit with his mum (Basinger) and his daughter Lily. On top of all that, he has just choked at the local rap battle and is slowly losing any credibility as the white boy in a black neighbourhood. He needs his friends around him but some are causing him grief behind his back.......he needs to man up for his own sanity.

Eminem actually does a really decent job here. If you didn't know that he was a multi- million doller  recording artist, you would think he was just an unknown actor. He is very convincing.

Brittany Murphy is good in the role as the love interest although she looks like she is stoned through most of it.

Kim Basinger's is probably the best performance.  She portrays the role of a desperate single mother very well.

Mekhi Phifer is fantastic as the best friend. Always trying to do the best for Rabbit, even when he doesn't show his apprecation.

Im not the biggest fan of Hip Hop ever, but the rap battles are amazing. It really does take a great talent, which i couldn't ever emulate and Eminem's music fits perfectly throughout.

8/10 - Only because of the wholly uneccesary sex scene.

Leon 'The Professional'

1994


Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Jean Reno

One of my all time fave films. It is so very french....

Leon (Reno) is a loner hitman who likes nothing more then drinking milk and caring for his plant. When he meets the 12 year old Mathilda (Portman), he seems intreagued by her but thinks nothing of it...When Mathilda's family is killed in a midday raid orchestrated by the enigmatic, corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield (Oldman) , Leon finds himself playing dad.....Mathilda wants revenge and only Leon can teach her how to carry it out...

Natalie Portman's first big screen role. She is fantastic as Mathilda......and for her age at the time, is a fantastic actress.

Reno is so wonderful as the adopted father Leon. However, at the back of your mind, he is and always will be a killer.

Hats off to Oldman once again though, because if you remember anything about this film, it is the rantings of Stansfield. He loves to listen to Beethoven while shooting people and likes to take pills before hand to liven up the action.....people say he overacts but how else would you play such an over the top character. This is another role which should have got him an Oscar nod.

Fantastic scenery, realtionships between the characters and the music is so very Luc Besson.

10/10

State of Grace

1990

Gary Oldman, Robin Wright, Sean Penn, Ed Harris

By far, my fave performance by Gary Oldman....the oscar should have gone to him for this..the fact this is his fave performance speaks millions.


This movie should have got more coverage but when up against the might of Goodfellas it never really stood a chance...which is a shame, because i think this is better.

Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) returns to Hell's Kitchen and hooks up with his  best friend Jackie Flannery (Oldman), his brother Frankie Flannery (Ed Harris), and his first love, Kathleen (Robin Wright).
The neighbourhood Terry grew up in has changed alot and the Irish are no longer the big mob that they once were. Terry soon gets embroiled in Jackie and Frankie's business, which gets out of control....but Terry is hiding a big big secret.

The acting from the 3 male leads is top notch. Ed Harris is cold and scary, Sean Penn is good as the man who might be found out but hats off to Oldman....Jackie Flannery always makes me smile......Oldman is the master of flying off the handle at a moments notice type acting. Jackie is a nutter but you love him anyway.


My only gripe is Robin Wright...she is a very weak actress for me.....and the love story with her and Penn could have easily not have been included and the movie would have still worked.

Fast paced and gritty......10/10

Shaun of The Dead

2004

Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy


A British rom-com with zombies.....pretty much sums it up

Taking the mick out of every zombie movie ever created, Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead etc...Shaun of the Dead manages to roll every emotion into one movie, instead of just gore.
 Shaun has no life. He works as a sales assistant and hates it. He lives with his manky unemployed bum of a best friend Ed (Frost) whose claim to fame is impersonating an ape and their longsuffering flatmate Pete (Serafinowicz) who just wants them both to get a life and grow up.

Shaun can't do anything right and when he screws things up with his girlfriend Liz(Ashfield) he decides the best thing to do is to go out and get pissed with Ed...after all "It's not the end of the world" Waking up, he decides to get his life in order......there is only one problem....just a minor one.....zombies have taken over the UK.

Its funny, it's crude, its sad and involves a very funny scene with pool cues and Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. I could watch it over and over and not be bored.
In fact, ive watched it so much, i know it off by heart.

Its very British humour, brought to you by the same bunch who made the cult tv show Spaced (also one i would recommend you watch).

Pegg is very cute as the misguided Shaun, you do feel very sorry for him. He does try his best.
Frost is hilarious as the oaf Ed....again, complete waste of space, but you want him to succeed.

Highly recommended, watch with a group of friends. It does not dissapoint....

10/10

Hide and Seek

2005

Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning

One of my 'Oh this looks good, i will buy this' moments when i was in HMV...


I am very glad i did.  I have watched this many many times and even though i know the outcome i still enjoy it.
David Callaway (De Niro) is a widowed Psychologist, who, after the suicide of his wife, decides to take his traumatised daughter Emily (Fanning) to live in the country to try and get her to forget her past. She has no friends, so when she starts taking an interest in the imaginary 'Charlie', David is initially happy to acknowledge him. Soon, David realises that Charlie is not all he seems and things take a sinister turn.

I always find psychological thrillers scarier than slasher movies so this ticks all the boxes for me...the music and lighting create quite a spooky atmosphere. Noone i have watched this with has twigged what is going to happen in the end which amuses me.

De Niro is brilliant in this, i like him best when he is a man on the edge. Fanning, well i think this is her best film to date.....I don't want to shut her up, which i have done in every other one (think War of the Worlds - argh she is so annoying). Her acting is mature and has depth and she really is the best actress of her age.

9/10 - Just because there are some annoying plot holes, that's my only gripe

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

2007

Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner

Jean-Do has a perfect life. He is the editor of top fashion magazine Elle.Has 3 beautiful children and can get any woman he wants. However, his perfect life comes crashing down when he wakes up to find that he can't move his body. He has suffered a major stroke and is now the victim of 'locked in' syndrome, where the mind is functioning perfectly but the rest of the body can't function at all.Through the discovery that he can blink his left eye, he communicates his every need to the outside world.

This is the heartbreaking but uplifting true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby who overcame everything to prove everyone wrong. It is truely fascinating to see Jean-Do blink outa single sentence, never mind an entire book. His humour always shines through and it gives the watcher an insight into what it is like for a grown man to be washed by nurses (very interesting for the fundamentals of care to a student nurse in training :) )

It is not easy to watch but i beg you to give it a chance. It is thought provoking and yes, i did cry ( i seem to be doing that alot lately)

10/10

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton

This is one of those films that i could watch over and over again and not be bored.
Andy Dufresne (Robbins) has been wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and is has been handed 2 life sentances at Shawshank prison for his troubles.  Upon arrival, Warden Norton (Gunton) informs the new inmates that they will recieve the bible and discipline at Shawshank and throughout the film we see the warden, and the guards use their power and the lords name to intimedate and threaten the inmates. Dufresne befriends Red (Freeman), who is the man who knows how to get things but has given up on hope. Through their friendship, they learn that hope is really a good thing and help to make life better at Shawshank.

The music is beautiful...Thomas Newman pulls another one off here.(listening to the end song as i write this and YES it makes me cry)
The lighting in the prison is used very well and almost makes you feel closed in and unable to escape, just like the  inmates.

Tim Robbins plays the part of wrongly convicted man, just beautifully...you feel for him in so many ways.
Morgan Freeman was just made for this part...the man who can get you whatever you want on the inside but on the outside he is just a man.
Bob Gunton is quite quite evil in this role. Using his power and religion to manipulate the minds of the inmates...you truely do hate him.

 I always feel happy after watching this film...although my face is usually soaking because i have been crying so much.

Definatly not overrated..see it

10/10

The Truman Show

1998

Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris

Ever feel that you are going round in circles? Truman Burbank (Carrey)  is increasingly feeling this day by day. He lives in the sleepy town of Seahaven in a perfect house, has a perfect wife and a perfect job. Almost to perfect in fact. When things start happening that are out of the oridinary, we see Truman spiralling into depression and questioning his own existence. Who is he? What is he?
Well, what he is in fact is the star of a huge television show based entirely on his life. The show is the brainchild of Christof (Harris). The Truman show is watched and obbsessed over by millions of people and Christof knows exactly how to manipulate the audience with beautiful music and lighting. Every person in Truman's life is an actor, he is the only real person in Seahaven. He needs to get out...but that proves harder than it sounds.

Carrey is amazing as Truman and proves how good an actor he really is. His acting at the end is heartbreaking.

Ed Harris is great as the passionate but cold producer and Laura Linney is fabulous as Truman's 'wife' who thinks nothing of doing an advert for cocoa in the middle of a serious conversation.

Philip Glass's music, as always, is beautiful and  the artifical 50's look of Seahaven is very interesting.

Big Brother is watching.........

10/10

Wall-E

Disney Pixar - 2008

Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, John Ratzenberger

Quite possibly the cutest Disney Pixar film in my opinion. It is far far into the future and the earth has been abandoned due to the Buy n Large company using up every viable resource. Wall-E is a little robot (who resembles Johnny 5 from Short Circuit) who spends every day crushing all the junk lying about into little cubes and listening to old musicals on his makeshift television set. One day he finds a little plant growing in a fridge and decides to give it a new home. No sooner has he taken it back to his house then an alien spaceship lands and drops off a girl robot whose directive is to find sustainable life on earth. Wall-E attempts to win her affections by showing her his new plant but unintentionally sends the pair on a whirlwind adventure full of mishaps and space travel.......

Visually very beautiful to watch, and is one I should have really seen in the cinema to fully appreciate the colours used.

There is not much talking, which might not catch the attention of a young child. This one, i think, is more for the adults...but have your kids sitting next to you, just so you have an excuse :)

10/10