They're Gonna Make A Big Star Out Of Me...

#8. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

The second in the National Treasure series. Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) is on the treasure trail again in this movie, trying to prove that his great-grandfather was not implicated in the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln. The chase leads them to Buckingham Palace, the Oval Office, the Library of Congress, Mount Rushmore and a hunt for the Lost City of Gold: Cibola.



Yeah, not bad. Having seen the first film it was much as I expected it to be. Family fun along the same vein as Indiana Jones type films (although it'll never be as good as Indie!). Suspend your disbelief for a bit and get carried away with it all.

Nicolas Cage is starting to show his age a bit though (not that he was ever my cup of tea) but there is Justin Bartha wearing geeky brainy specs playing Riley Poole :P

Labels: 100 films

posted by Hayley on Sunday, February 01, 2009 @ 9:22 PM 

They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies

#6. The Ugly Duckling and Me! (2006)

I expect everybody knows the basic tale of Hans Christian Andersen's The Ugly Duckling, so I won't bother going over that aspect of the plot here. It's basically the same storyline but with the additional element of a dubious rat (imaginately called Ratso) who the ugly duckling takes to be his father.



Awful, awful, awful. Do not watch this movie unless your only alternative is setting fire to your house for entertainment.

The animation was poor even for it's time; none of the attention to detail and little touches that Pixar put in, and none of the charm and wit of Dreamworks Animation movies.

The less said about the script the better. Parts of this film made me cringe, and not even in a funny way like The Office did. Little kids might like it I suppose, but that's only because they don't know any better.

#7. Magnolia (1999)

Bit of a difficult film to define this one, but here is my best shot: Set in Los Angeles, this film follows the lives of several people and we watch as these lives intertwine and coincidence brings them together at different points during the course of this epic movie. Some of these meetings are brief and some of a longer duration but all are significant.
A dying man with an estranged son and a much younger wife, a lonely cop, a troubled ex-quiz show kid genius and a trouble current one, a veteran quiz host and fearful daughter are but a few of the characters that are at the core of this story.



I quite liked this film although it was very long and I got a bit restless half way through! I found it a little difficult to follow at first because of the chopping and changing through the individual threads portrayed by this giant cast. I don't think I've ever seen a film with so many protagonists in it! But once I familiarised myself with the faces and names I really started to get into it.
Watching this film again will no doubt show details which I missed in the first watching; links between the characters will become more visible and with hindsight things which I thought were not that significant the first watch will gain deeper meaning.

And also, any film which contains scenes where it is raining frogs has got to be worth a watch, surely? ;)

Labels: 100 films

posted by Hayley on Thursday, January 29, 2009 @ 2:50 PM 

Let's Go See the Stars

God, this whole 100 films in 2009 thing would have been so much easier if I'd actually started my blog at the same time I started watching these films! And, I haven't even started thinking about writing my books up yet (although, I only have two of those so far - lol). Anyway, enough of my complaining about something which I have chosen to do and on to the movies!

#4 Mamma Mia (2008)

Based on the hit stage show, which itself is based around the songs of ABBA, this movie follows the story of Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) trying to discover who her real father is in time for her wedding.



Ok, so this was just pure indulgence for me. I saw this at the cinema and just loved it, and to my joy I got the DVD for Christmas. It's a ridiculous feel-good film so you shouldn't watch it and expect anything more than that! Acting is of course great which is to be expected with such a fab acting cast (with the likes of Colin Firth, Meryl Streep & Julie Walters) but the singing is a little ropey in parts, although for me this adds to the charm of the whole thing; hinting at what it would be like if real people just suddenly burst into song in their everyday lives. Fun and frivilous, probably not one for the boys, but definitely a girlie night in, a few bottles of wine and this movie and I'll be proper happy ;)

#5 Definitely, Maybe (2008)

In the middle of his divorce Will Hayes' (Ryan Reynolds) 10 year old daughter asks him to tell her the story of how he met her mother. And so, we follow him and his love life (the women he dates and those he nearly does but doesn't) all set against the background of his work for the Clinton presidental campaign.



Fairly typical romantic comedy. Nothing to write home about. It was all a bit blah, so blah in fact that I can't really thing of anything else to say about it. Maybe that's a little harsh, but having seen dozens of chick flicks in my life this one doesn't really stand out. The main thing I remember from this film is how Ryan Reynold's teeth can look a little weird sometimes. I think he reminds me of a chipmunk or something.

Labels: 100 films

posted by Hayley on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 @ 10:04 PM 

Let's go to the Movies

Still in an endeavour to catch up with the films I've already watched this year this is another post about them. I'm going to do two this time though to try and get me up to speed faster!

#2 1408 (2007)

Based on a Stephen King short story, and starring John Cusack as a paranormal myth debunking author and sceptic. For research for his next book he checks in to room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel where 56 mysterious and horrible deaths (both suicides & murders) have occured. Determinded to prove the stories wrong he vows to stay the night.



Not usually my sort of film, I found myself at a loss on a Thursday night and saw this film in the Sky Anytime selection. I'm usually such a wuss when it comes to supernatural type horror films that I stopped watching them a few years back,
but knowing that I had vowed to try and watch 100 films this year, I bit the bullet and pressed play.

More a psychological type thriller than a gore-fest (which I was happy about) it wasn't jumpy either, but rather got me thinking about what would happen next and how else this room could try and drive Mike Enslin (Cusack) to despair.

It wasn't bad. Not one I'd particularly recommend to anyone, but equally I won't actively be trying to put people off watching it either. I'm glad I watched it though, definitely not a film I would have watched had it not been for my 100 films vow!

#3 Rear Window (1954)

A classic Hitchcock thriller to add to my list this time. This film follows the story of L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart), a photographic journalist. Jeffries has badly broken his leg and is confined to a wheelchair leaving him with little to do in the sweltering New York summer other than watch his neighbours through his open rear window. Equipt with his best photographic lens as a telescope, Jeffries is convinced, when the wife of one of his neighbours seems to have vanished, that the husband is a murderer.



This is a film I had wanted to watch for an age and it had been sitting on my Sky planner since I don't know when. This 100 film pledge gave me just the excuse to finally get around to watching it, and I have to say I was also quite pleased to add a little variety to the list!

This is definitely a film you need to sit down and give your full attention to. Large chunks of it have little or no dialogue as you watch through Jeffries' telescopic lens at the lives of his neighbours in his apartment building and these are amongst the best bits of the film. They give you a real sense of atmosphere and seem to place the time and the feel of the film as well as showing off the artistry of the direction. The set used is amazing which it would have to be as you never leave it for the whole duration of the film adding to the claustrophobic feeling of the piece.

All in all an excellent film, I won't be buying it on DVD though, but I will give it another watch next time it's on the TV.

Labels: 100 films

posted by Hayley on Monday, January 26, 2009 @ 11:56 AM 

First Post!

Right, well this is the first time I've put a blog up in a million years. I'm going to try and keep it updated, but in reality I might not ;)

In order to help me along the way I'm going to try and blog about my quest to watch 100 films (movies) in 2009, read 40 books (about 1 every 9 days - eep!), post up anything that I cross stitch or otherwise make, and any other random crap that I think of at the time ;D

I have comments up on here if anyone wants to make any. But I'm not really expecting anyone to ;)

And, to make this post worthwhile, I'll write about the first film of the 8 I've already built up on my list;

#1. St. Trinians (2007)

Where can I start? Pretty dire. The only thing that eased the pain of watching this was seeing Colin Firth in a wet shirt! But, frankly I'd rather watch the glorious BBC mini-series of Pride and Prejudice to see that :)

Dreadful stereotyping of school groups (emos, posh kids, geeks etc etc etc) but all of them wearing tiny skirts and slutty clothing. I'm no way a prude, (not by any means, lol!) but seeing a load of school girls dressed up like they were cheap prostitutes made this little more than soft porn for pervs (or school age boys, I suppose!)

Jokes were bad, script only just passable and on the whole the acting was ok. It was sad to see such a terrible remake (especially of a British film) of such a good original film starring the wonderful Alastair Sim. Definitely not recommended and one I won't be watching again.

Labels: 100 films

posted by Hayley on Sunday, January 25, 2009 @ 8:46 PM