Mission: Impossible III

By Mal -
7 out of 10
Pretty much a by-the-numbers spy romp – silly but entertaining. In other words, exactly what I’d expected and hoped for. Tom Cruise might be a bit of a dick in real life, but he does these films very well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tales From Earthsea

By Mal -
4 out of 10 Another Ghibli animation; not bad, but far from the studio's best. Earthsea follows the tale of a young boy who... kills his father... for whatever reason... and is then taken in by some good wizard dude while he's effectively on the run. Some other bad wizard dude then steps in and... well, I'd better not give too much away. Besides, I'm struggling to recall the finer points of the sometimes-meandering plot. Suffice it to say it's the usual Ghibli fable of struggling with inner demons and how a more spiritual, less greedy, less materialistic outlook can be your salvation. Sadly, it just never really took off for me. Perhaps the books would be better?
Read more

Big

By Mal -
10 out of 10 Caught this while channel-surfing last weekend and realised I just had to watch it again. And you know what? It's still a great film. In fact, it struck me just how little it had aged. For something that came out of the 80's, that's no mean feat. Granted, some of the leading lady's fashion choices were noticeably... wrong (shoulder pads ahoy!), but on the whole, it could've been from any era. Of course, a large part of what makes it work so well is Tom Hanks . He's utterly believable as a suddenly-grown-up boy and makes the film the charming experience it is. Yes, it's a bit cheesey, but so what? It works, dammit. Top marks.
Read more

Watchmen

By Mal -
5 out of 10 How can a film with so many good things in it be so... average? Tricky one, but Watchmen manages it. And it pains me to give such a low mark. :( For those not in the know, it's a dark, noir-like story of crime-fighting, superheroes-cum-vigilantes — although some of these characters hardly deserve to be called heroes. Based on a graphic novel whose tone is said to have inspired the latest Batman movies, it sounds like it should be brilliant, but... it just feels pretty flat throughout. The pacing isn't exactly snappy and a good chunk of the first hour or so is spent filling in backstory. And then there's the narration from one of the key characters, given in the form of journal entries, which had me thinking more of Dick Spanner than the developing story. Rounding off the negatives, a few of the superheroes are... well... a bit wet, frankly. And, for people who are superpower-free, they're all unrealistically able to withstand long falls. Must have a ...
Read more