Reviews by filmbuilder

‘Howards End’ is worthy of its three Oscar wins. Based off the 1910 novel, the film focuses on Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson) who is left a house Howards End, in a will but the rest of the family doesn’t want her to have the house. There’s various love stories between characters as well, including Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham Carter) and Leonard Bast (Samuel West), and there’s a great ensemble cast including Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Joseph Bennett and the actors mentioned above. The music and visual style are also great!

‘The Hangover’ is pretty hilarious most of the time. It’s quite possibly the best comedy film since ‘Borat’ and features some funny comedic performances from Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Mike Epps, Justin Bartha and Jeffrey Tambor.

The film tells the story of Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper), Dr. Stu Price (Ed Helms) and Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to celebrate Doug Billing (Justin Bartha)’s planned marriage. But the three have no memory of the previous night and need to find Doug before the wedding.

Throughout the film, they encounter various scary or unusual things such as a tiger in their bathroom and they end up buying a police car. The film never runs out of humour and is hilarious most of the time.

Because it’s hard to think what to say about ‘Now, Voyager’, I will say that while it’s hard it is still a good movie. It features a very good ensemble cast that includes Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Paul Henried and Gladys Cooper, and features an intelligent script about taking your own life back.

‘The Queen’ depicts the British Royal Family’s response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and stars Helen Mirren as the titular protagonist Queen Elizabeth II. Mirren’s performance as the Queen is amazing and one of the most noteworthy film performances of all time.

The film mixes in acted out footage and real life footage, including several news reports on Diana and her death, and footage of her funeral. So at times it seems like a biographical film, and at other times a documentary film. But it’s definitely a great one.

With great acting, screenplay, costumes and music, ‘The Queen’ is one of the best films of 2006 and definitely a masterpiece.

‘The Truman Show’ focuses on a man named Truman (Jim Carrey) who is unaware of his fame as the star of a long running TV series known as ‘The Truman Show’ in which everything he does in his life has been filmed before he was born. The show is broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, around the globe, with Truman becoming suspicious of his fame as various things happen, including a light falling down before him, and his dad dressed like a bum.

‘The Truman Show’ is probably the best film Jim Carrey will ever make in his career, and his performance is great as well. Carrey knows what kind of performance to give at the right moment. Laura Linney and Ed Harris are also very good in their supporting roles. Like ‘Forrest Gump’ or ‘Juno’, the film balances comedy and drama perfectly. The script is also rather intelligent with everyone on the island in which Truman lives, being aware of Truman’s popularity with the exception of Truman, and their attempts to stop him leaving the island. It would be hard to say what audience the show is written for, as it films every aspect of Truman’s life.

‘Inside Out’ takes place inside the mind of a girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) after she moves house with her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) to a new city. The emotions in her head Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Fear (Bill Hader) control what goes on in her life.

‘Inside Out’ is the greatest Pixar film since ‘Toy Story 3’, released five years ago, and one of the more intelligent Pixar films! The script features drama and comedy, and balances them perfectly. There’s scenes of hilarity and scenes of emotion, and a message that you can’t always be happy in life, or sad, or angry. Throughout the film Riley’s memories are stored in her head where her emotions work and they try to help her bring up old memories, such as her love for ice skating.

The film never runs out of ideas, and features some amazing voice acting, animation and plot points. Thank you Pixar, for coming back with a great animated feature after five years.

The comedy team Monty Python (consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin) made comedy entertainment, including sketches such as the dead parrot, as well as films like ‘The Meaning of Life’ and ‘Holy Grail’, and also…’Life of Brian’, quite possibly the greatest comedy film of all time, and also one of the best films of all time for that matter.

‘Life of Brian’ focuses on a man named Brian (Graham Chapman) who is born in a stable next to Jesus (Kenneth Colley), and at the same time, and is ultimately mistaken for the Messiah. The film features some offensive but hilarious dialogue, along with hilarious comedic performances by the whole writing team for the film, along with additional actors such as Kenneth Colley and Sue Jones-Davies. There’s also the iconic song ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’ which originated from this film, and has had people struggling to find a clean version of the song for years.

Hilarious and smart, ‘Life of Brian’ is one of the best comedy films out there, if not the best.

Many people love ‘From Russia With Love’, they call it one of the best movie sequels of all time, and one of the best James Bond films for that matter. And for me…I happen to be one of the few people who doesn’t like ‘From Russia With Love’

I didn’t like ‘From Russia With Love’, I certainly didn’t hate it though. I don’t think there was anything bad about this film but it just didn’t hold a candle to ‘Dr. No’. This film really disappointed me as I thought I would really enjoy it!

What I didn’t like about the film was the plot was pretty boring, it has some relevance to James Bond, and the first film, but it didn’t catch my eye. The script was also overlong and pretty boring, and I don’t think there were really any action scenes that lightened me up. Those are some big parts of the film, and ones that I just didn’t like

But as usual for me, just because I don’t like or even hate a film, doesn’t mean that there’s nothing good about it. In fact some of these features prevented this film becoming more average. Once again, Sean Connery is charming as James Bond, and is really the best thing about this movie. It also has some nice cinematography and music.

To be honest, I thought the film was too long and as if there was too much going on. The dialogue really felt like several boring conversations. So my opinion of this film was that I definitely don’t hate it but it’s barely decent. But then that’s my opinion, lots of people love this film and I’m not against their opinions.

There are films that everyone loves except me, and there are films that everyone hates except me (e.g. ‘The Flintstones’, ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’) but if you chose to like a film, then that’s your choice. You may have an argument with someone over your different opinions of a film, but you should accept their opinion and not get so angry about it (although it’s madness to me and the public that ‘The LEGO Movie’ got snubbed at the Oscars for Best Animated Feature).

Earlier today, I watched ‘Akira’, and that along with ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ and ‘Spirited Away’, prove that Japan produce the best animated movies (or anime as they call it). This one happens to be my second favourite animated movie ever (‘Spirited Away’ is still my favourite)

The film focuses on a boy named Seita (J. Robert Spencer; English) and his younger sister Setsuko (Rhoda Chrosite; English) who struggle to survive after their mother (Veronica Taylor; English) is killed in an explosion near the end of World War II. Throughout the film Seita has to trade things for or steal food in order to feed himself and Setsuko. The film features some serious dialogue and various scenes of emotion.

The film features scenes of shock and upset, such as when buildings are blown up in bombings and when Seita’s mother gets burned and later dies. There’s also some scenes which show negative characters, like their aunt, who criticises how they do nothing to earn their rice and spites them for playing the piano. There’s also disturbing images such as Setsuko receiving rashes everywhere and when Seita gets assaulted after being caught stealing.

Something new for me was that, of all the films I’ve ever seen before (and I’ve seen hundreds, including ‘Titanic’, ‘Up’, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and ‘West Side Story’), I’ve never cried at a film before. The biggest scene of emotion was when Setsuko dies of starvation and Seita buries her body and possessions and has them cremated . I’ll admit that scene had me crying, but I have definitely never cried at any other film before! The film opens with the dead Seita narrating as he died of starvation at Sannomiya Station, meaning that he died shortly after.

‘Grave of the Fireflies’ and ‘Akira’ are both disturbing films, in their own ways, with both having some disturbing acts of violence. They’re violent and unpleasant in different ways, but with ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, it’s much more emotional and even though ‘Akira’ is more violent and gross, ‘Grave of the Fireflies’s themes make it harder to watch due to it being themed around war. ‘Akira’ is themed around World War III, but there’s very little bomb dropping at all (except the beginning), ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ features deaths of young children and families.

It’s amazing how a movie based on a musical based on a Shakespeare play managed to win so many Academy Awards, but in this case there’s little surprise, seeing as this film is the film adaptation of ‘West Side Story’, based on the musical of the same name, which was based off the Shakespeare play ‘Romeo & Juliet’

Similar to ‘Romeo & Juliet’, there’s a rivalry between two groups, in R&J, it was between two families in Italy – the Montagues and the Capulets, in WSS, it’s between two teenage gangs – the Jets and the Sharks. However the Jets and Sharks have no women in either groups, although Bernardo (George Chakiris), the leader of the Sharks, is the brother to Maria (Natalie Wood), who Tony (Richard Beymer), a member of the Jets, falls for. The film and musical bare more similarities to ‘Romeo & Juliet’, but in my opinion, if you were to go along ‘West Side Story’, you would spot the similarities between it and ‘Romeo & Juliet’

While neither the film nor musical have a completely original plot, this film takes the musical numbers from the play and makes them more popular around those who have never seen the original musical. The film also features an amazing score, a great visual style, intelligent directing by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, some mind-blowing cinematography from Daniel L. Fapp, amazing dance scenes and a talented cast that includes Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn.

With the cinematography, you look at the overview of Manhattan, New York, and it amazes you how they got those shots. With the dancing, you stare at it and think that these actors have gone through lots of dancing lessons. These actors have also worked really hard to get this far into this acting, in which every single cast member demonstrates how amazing they can get! Listening to the original music, you feel glad that this film had something original to offer! And they did it so well!