My Week in Film

A week of surprizes at the theatre this week was. First up I caught Tokyo Drifter at Cinematheque which is a wild 60's non-gangster gangster flick by Seijun Suzuki. I'd be lying if I said I 'got' it all, but I did enjoy it. Enigmatic protagonist, beautiful use of colour and a fantastic soundtrack which I wish I could get my hands on. It did have a fair amount of violence and gender stuff, but I wouldn't have expected otherwise with the theme and timeframe.

Next up are two happy surprizes with Mamma Mia! and Wall-E. Both were for outings for my birthday, neither were my choices, and both rocked! Mamma Mia! was fantastic, the story is endearing, the players are charismatic and it was lovely to see something shot on location. I haven't listened to ABBA in ages and I didn't see the theatrical production it is based on but I sure as heck enjoyed this. It made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me want to see it again. High chance this will make it on my top films of the year. Big thanks to Danette for inviting me to see it! The next surprize was really enjoying Wall-E (I got outvoted on re-watching Mongol or Son of Rambow, ah wells!) but it all worked out. Yes, I know - you all saw it and all loved it but did I listen? No. I sat back and said: Robots? Animated? Why would I like this? But oh how I did. Cute, witty and with bucketloads of social commentary this film raised my spirits and produced many a gigglefest. The animation was spectacular, and I'm not one to normally comment on that. Pixar has brought us another winner.

After the cuteness and giggles it was time to try and get a bit of a scare on with some supernatural fun. That brings us to Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and X-Files: I Want to Believe. Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer was very close to what I expected it to be, a fun Canadian horror film. Monsters, flannel and campy fun. David Fox sneaks in there with a great performance as an old storyteller that no one wants to listen to, priceless. Next we have one of the films I was really looking forward to this summer X-Files: I Want to Believe. Has it been said already a million times that people wanted to believe in it? I really did. I was a big X-Files fan, albeit only for the first few seasons which is part of the reason I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I could have. But then again, it could have been made more accessible to the casual viewer. Overall I didn't find the story that interesting and to be honest it wasn't very logical and I can't say why without literally spoiling it. But, it was great to see Mulder and Scully back in action and it did encourage me to revisit the series which I am looking forward to.



I got through a few older films this week as well including the 2004 version of Phantom of the Opera starring Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler. The film looks spectacular with amazing sets & costumes and I did really enjoy the music from a nostalgic point of view as my sister Suzie loved it and I heard it many times when living at home. It's weird that it's a period piece yet also a 'rock opera' and sounds late 80's. It was pretty surreal to watch as I know the soundtrack off by heart from listening, singing and even playing the piano to the music but I had only see the stage production once therefore didn't remember the plot that. Overall I really enjoyed it and look forward to listening and seeing it again.

Last up for the week is the pirate film Against All Flags. This was recommended to me ages ago and I looked for it at the time but had no luck. Alas, then it turned up on Mpix. A fun adventure film with Anthony Quinn, Errol Flynn and Maureen O'Hara as 'Spitfire' a woman with her own boat and a temper to go with it! It was a perfect selection for a weekend afternoon.

Trailer watch: Nothing new and interesting popped up in the theatres this week, but never fear I did find an awesome trailer online for Chandni Chowk Goes to China thanks to Twitch.

What did you watch this week?



Hulk Smash! Movie Moxie Smile! Maybe I should have growled instead, Grrr!!