It's a Boy Girl Thing: "They've turned into the things they hated most.. each other."

Not sure that there's enough going on in this film for me to make many comments. Tween comedy, another body switching plot with the same principals, ideas and similar gags. Surprisingly, thought the marketing for this was a little strange. Although it seems like it's presented to a reasonably young age there's a lot of jokes, obvious ones, that are intended for a older audience. And nudity and bad language. Which, yeah is pretty expected for this sort of comedy but the whole thing feels pretty juvenile.

Rivals Woody and Nell are always at each other's throat until on a school trip, a mysterious statue switches their brains (or their souls) and they're forced to live out the next few weeks in each other's bodies. 'Hilarius' events ensue.

Nothing special amongst tween movies in general. Some parts made me chuckle, some parts made me cringe and I suppose at the heart of it, the film does explore the two main character's relationship, and whilst heartfelt, the film was generally too shallow for me to care too much about anyone.



No amazing acting involved either, naturally. Although I raved a little about Kevin Zegers in my last post, this film had no sort of role that he couldn't really excel in. Mediocre performance from both leads, or at least once again, nothing special. Samaire Armstrong was slightly better at playing the opposite gender but, sadly, no break through roles here.

Pretty senseless, slightly moving comedy with nothing you haven't seen before. Worth a watch if you're in for some light hearted, non-brain inducing comedy but it's certainly not going to wow you.

Transamerica: "Life is a journey. Bring an open mind."

Transamerica documents the story of middle-aged pre-op transgender woman who is just a week away from getting the final surgery that will complete her journey to womanhood. Unfortunately, her life is turned upside down when she gets a terribly timed phone call about a son she didn't know she had who is being thrown into jail and she's the only one responsible for him. His mother is dead and his step father is (unknown to her) abusive. Thus sparks the touching and family-driven road trip across America with her him at her side. His aspiration is to be a gay porn star whereas hers is simply to have a sense of normality in her life. The son, Toby (Kevin Zegers), has absolutely no idea the female 'Christian Missionary' that Bree is pretending to be is actually, technically, a male. Oh, and his father. The plot revolves around their dysfunctional relationship, the ethics of family development and sexuality.

I thought Felicity Huffman excelled as Bree Osbourne, previously know as Stanley, the star of the film. I've never seen her in anything other that Desperate Housewives and it was both a pleasure and a surprise to see her completely stealing every scene she's in (which is almost every one). I've definitely gained a new respect for this amazing actress because she's absolutely superb playing Bree. I actually found it very, very effective to have a woman playing a male playing a woman. Confused? Yeah, but it's the perfect casting choice. Kevin Zegers, although he gets much less screentime, remained a terrorific actor in potraying emotionally ruined Toby, the bisexual street hustler.

Felicity and Kevin

Like most people, I didn't expect to be able to relate to this. The plight of somebody who is so completely different to myself, and probably most people that watch this film, seems a little alienating. Fortunately, with the help of the talented actors/actresses and fantastic writing, the film focuses on the journey the two troubled characters are undertaking rather than making the transgender issue the obvious catalyst. Everything is done tastefully and thoughtfully; although there are a few scenes which are rather disturbing. And even though they are, they're completely valid and needed.

At the heart, this film is about love. About loving yourself and loving others. Bree is desperate to love someone, to be loved but mostly just to love herself. Toby has never had any affection shown to him other than sex which he is completely dependent on and his ability to form relationships with people is completely destroyed.



Transamerica is real without being gritty, it's much less difficult to watch than other films that tackle the same issues (The Crying Game) and isn't essentially a tragedy. And despite the fact it brings up many issues (drugs, prostitution, questionable parenting) the film never goes off on a tangent but focuses on Bree and Toby's relationship. The acting is amazing, the dialog is realistic and witty and the overall product is a very heart warming, touching film. I recommend it to anyone, especially to people who want to broaden their minds or might have negative views on the transgender community.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. This film looks pretty shit, right? Another teeny-bopper fiasco that you won't be interested in... and you're probably right. I'm not going to recommend this to everyone, definitely no. This does only cater to one market, actually, make that two: teenage girls and people-that-aren't-teenage-girls that still love teenage-girl films. Unfortunately, I'm the latter.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging follows the tale of our Heroine, Georgia Groome, who is - as many people were at that age - only focused on three things: boys, boys... and boys. Yeah, it's a tried-and-tested recipe but I thought this one had some fairly surprising results.

If you can get over the cheesy plot, corny acting, screaming 14-year-old girls, the fact I'm sure it deviates from the book (I've never read them, though) and the slightly.. 5-years-ago script, it's actually a quite pleasant, feel good film.
For teenage girls and the like. But I digress.

The great costume failure.

I went in with no expectations, if however a little cynical. The teeny-bopper, tween films never really deliver. And if they do, they're delivering the wrong thing. However, I was charmed to pieces and completely won over by these British, screaming, loud fourteen year olds. Totally and utterly.

The film is a total cringe fest, there's no doubt about it. Is there any doubt from the synopsis?

"The story centers on a 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary about the ups and downs of being a teenager, including the things she learns about kissing."

But beneath the cringe, there's a certain sense of motherly protection over our leading lady. Whether you're a girl, or a boy, we've all been 14. We've all made total idiots of ourselves, done silly things and generally expected the world to end for us. This film, in my opinion, manages to capture the horrifically embarrassing moments of pre-teenhood in a charming, cute fashion and really makes you root for a happy ending.

And, as with all forms of this genre, there is one. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging does not try to break molds, but remains a good salute to the genre and the phrase "don't try to fix what's not broken."

The girls.

If you feel like having a film completely set out for you, makes you cringe and roll your eyes (but secretly think this is actually really good, but I'm not going to let anyone think I'm enjoying myself!) then you should check this out. And, as a person with an extremely dry sense of humor, this teenyboopertweenyhyper film actually managed to make me laugh out loud.
More than once.

Doomsday

This movie earns a giant 'what the fuck were they thinking.' I'm sure, loyal readers, that you know that when a review starts off like that you shouldn't hope for much. And you really shouldn't regarding this bizarre mindfuck of a movie. Let's start with the plot synopsis, shall we?

"A futuristic action thriller where a team of people work to prevent a disaster threatening the future of the human race."

Sound familiar? It only just describes about a million films in the last decade with exactly the same plots. 28 Days/Weeks later, Planet Terror, Resident Evil, etc, etc, etc. The only difference being is that Doomsday doesn't create zombies, but rather decimates the human race like a good little virus. No, the antagonists in this film aren't raised from the dead, infected with rage... they're fucking faux-punk-rock, metalhead, crazy cannibals.

Although this film is described as a homage to older, similar films (Mad Max, Escape from New York..) the film takes no creative liberty and creates a film I felt I'd seen a million times before. Somebody has said; "Homage without innovation isn't homage. It's karaoke." Which I think describes the film perfectly.

This film suffers from an identity crisis of the highest value, if you turn yourself off completely from the plot and just want to enjoy a bit of action and gore. Go for it. But unlike films that do this well (here's looking at you Planet Terror), the characters are dull, the scenarios unbelievable and distracting (medieval castles, what?!). The whole thing was just... eh.

The best bits were the intentional gore-comedic parts and some of the fights. So you'll come out of this movie with approximately three laughs and two 'omg's at the action scenes. Joy.

If you want to watch this, for god's sake make sure you rent it and don't waste the time and effort to see it at the cinema.

Gay Cinema

If you know anything about me then you should have accepted this post sooner or later. It was just a matter of time before I tried to tackle to bombshell that is gay cinema, or if you want to be really politically correct; LGBT cinema. (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.. blah blah.) Let me start with saying that as gay cinema isn't nearly as mainstream as, y'know, mainstream cinema, it's actually quite hard to obtain the good stuff. Seriously, can you remember the last publicized, widely seen and media-accepted LGBT film? Brokeback Mountain, right? Shocking. I don't claim to be a connoisseur of this particular niche in the market, but here's some I've seen recently.

BOY CULTURE.

We'll start with an actual full feature film. Boy Culture. Where do I start.. Hm, right. Boy Culture follows the almost-biographical journey of a highly successful male escort. Not throughout his whole life, but the film entails a look into a few of his relationships; those being with his two gay roommates and a older, enigmatic client. Of course, there are some twists. One of his roommates is in love with our character - who remains known as 'X' - whereas X is in love with the other. Cue trashy comments, romantic comedy like unbelievable situations, blahblah. Wrong. The film actually manages to create 3-dimensional, believable characters. Although the premise might be a tad hard to believe - 3 gay men in 1 apartment sounds a little bit.. 'eh' - but then again, the USA has a much bigger gay culture. The film manages to stay charming throughout and lacks (most of) the cliches that gay films seem to pick up. This film doesn't become a joke, but a real and engaging film. If you're interested in a romance without the slapstick, try this.

STARCROSSED

I'm sure if you've ever heard of Romeo & Juliet you'll immediately know the meaning behind the term 'star crossed lovers.' If you're not that educated (or thought Shakespeare's a load of shit) then it's a loose term meaning a relationship doomed from the start. This little mini-feature right here hits home. .. The only thing that some people might have trouble with is that this is the story of two brothers who fall completely and infallibly in love. Sexually, romantically, emotionally.. Yeah, you get it I'm sure. This film - only a whopping fifteen minutes long - managed to tackle homosexuality, coming out, incest, abuse at the home and suicide. A pretty big field for a film that, even at it's best, is quite amateurish. The good thing about this film is that it hits hard emotionally, despite the shoddy acting in some parts and the awkward script, it still managed to transcend that and make you grieve for the characters. Some people argue that the film's too short for you to invest in the characters; I disagree. If you can overcome the rather taboo issue it centers around, and the poor acting/script (only in some parts, though, the actors seem very heartfelt about their characters) then this film is, quite simply, beautiful. In it's 15 minutes it manages to challenge beliefs of very publicly unacceptable issues. To me, that's more important than a perfect script.
(I'm not gonna lie.. I cried like a baby. Multiple times.)

BEAUTIFUL THING

Hm. In a nutshell, 'Beautiful Thing' has the making of a classic gay genre to a tee. Set during a long and hot British summer, it's the coming of age of 3 people. One of them is our main character Jamie and how be begins dealing with his apparent sexuality with his best friend Stee; the abused boy next door who frequently seeks refuge with Jamie and his pub-manager mother. The third teen, and my favourite, is Leah, the african-american, drug using, school-expelled-from, Mama Cass loving girl next-door-but-one. It's a pretty typical plot within gay films, boy meets boy who is confused, boy falls in love and boy eventually stops being confused. If you're gay or know anyone who is, you/they can vouch that this is a pretty common theme. The charming thing about this film is that it's very gritty and believable, there's nothing far fetched about it so it's very easy to relate to. The acting is simple, but fine. The script is good and Leah's witticisms and quick mouth provide the comic relief. I'm not quite sure what to say about this film, it's good.. but not amazing. But if you're not in the mood for something;
a) indepth
b) a film that takes the piss out of gay people
c) something sweet without being sleazy
then it's a very good film. The end scene in particular is quite a fantastic shot given the premise of the film. Extremely sweet, truthful coming of age story. It delivers what it says on the tin.

Planet Terror: "Humanity's last hope... Rests on a high power machine gun."

Planet Terror is one half of the Grindhouse feature by the mastermind that is Robert Rodriguez. Who, if you live under a cinema-sheltered rock, brought us "Sin City." Which is awesome, you should watch that too. But yeah, Planet Terror. This film is pure dedication to the zombie genre, and as you can imagine it's a extremely competitive genre. With films like "Dawn of the Dead", "Day of the Dead", "Hour of the Dead", "Birthday of the Dead," blah blah blah etc etc etc, you get the point. With such a huge amount of films, good and bad, that make up this genre, Planet Terror is perhaps one of the best out at the moment. Basically, if you like gore, sexy ladies and fucking loads of action then you should really check out this film. The other half of the Grindhouse feature is "Deathproof" - which I thought was kind lackluster but whatever.

In all honesty though, this film fucking rocks. The homage to Grindhouse cinema is amazingly well done, complete with damaged film and even a missing reel which immediately makes viewers think WHAT THE FUCK. You might want to know what the film's actually about, right?
Here, taken shamelessly from IMDB;
"After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it's up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release."

I'm not gonna give you a more in depth look because it'll take away the shock factor. You need to watch it with as little expectations as possible so you take the full effect. I randomly watched it and thought it was amazing, basically the image of a hot chick with a machine gun for a leg enticed me. What can I say? I'm simple.

This film is basically a marmite effect, you either love it or you hate it. The haters probably think "blah blah another Tarantino/Rodriguez gorefest, yawn." Although this does have some truth, the biggest entertainment in this film isn't the well-developed plot or answers that it gives you. It's the fact that it's basically a total zombie gorefest. But this is, I think, exactly what it's SUPPOSED to be. Remember the last ~mainstream~ zombie film with a 'plot'? No? It's probably "Resident Evil." Which is fine if you like a zombie film but the plot is questionable and the endings laughable.

If you like a good, non-challenging Zombie!fest with minimal character development then fucking watch this. If you like to be totally engrossed in the finesse of a finely-created plot... then find another film.
This is pure, bloody, zombie entertainment at it's fucking finest. Don't get invested in it, don't take it seriously, don't question the logic behind it. Just enjoy the ride.

International trailer: