Movie Monday – Rise of the Planet of the Apes

August 30, 2011
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Image by aresryo via Flickr

Over the past week i found myself once again in the cinema. This is becoming a very regular occurring for me it seems! Up until i started to talk about the films i have been watching here on my blog, i didn’t really go to the cinema too often, that was also partially contributed to the fact that there wasn’t too many decent / interesting films out at the time. But i feel more up to seeing films these days!

This week i went to the local cinema to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes, i managed to go at a bargain of a price, tickets were only €4 thanks to o2 (Irish Phone Network) and including my popcorn and drink it was a little under €10, i can’t remember the last time i spent so little in the cinema! For once i wasn’t broke leaving the place.

I had been really looking forward to seeing this film, i had seen a lot of preview trailers on TV, when going to see other movies in the cinema and of course through YouTube where a large campaign was setup with the popular YouTubers who go to see the behind the scenes stuff which helped create a lot of buzz around the film. So before going to see the film i had heard a lot of things about it, some people had good reviews, while other had other opinions.

As usual i like to form my own opinion of a film, you could tell me it was terrible, but i had intended on seeing it i would watch it anyway, no matter what the reviews were!

The plot of the film is fairly simple (probably going to have spoilers so skip this paragraph if you haven’t seen the film!), scientists are have been trying for years to try and find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, they think they have finally achieved a cure and were testing their treatment of Apes/Chimpanzees. Unknown to them the cure had other effects which not only led to a cure of Alzheimer’s but also improved peoples cognitive abilities, a chimpanzee happened to be the first user of the new Alzheimer’s drug and began to show rapid development and soon became smarter and smarter over time. Later this ‘super-intelligent’ chimp gets forced into a cage where other chimps & apes are being held and realises how different he is and sets out to set them free from the people who are keeping them captive and choose to rebel against the human race in order to gain their freedom.

I thought this was a brilliant film, really interesting to watch, the special effects used were brilliant, the effects i refer to are the fact that humans play the role of the apes and are then digitally made into apes on computers as opposed to simply making the apes fully on the computer. I feel that by using a bit of both it makes it more realistic with the movements etc.

There are a few great actors in this film, i am sure others are popular but i haven’t seen any films that i would recognise them from. The three i recognised are James Franco who played the likes of Harry Osborn in the Spiderman films, Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter Series and John Lithgow who up until recently i only knew him for the role he played in the TV-Show Dexter which he acted brilliantly in, but i looked him up and realised he has been in a lot of popular films, one that i was surprised to see was that he played the voice of Lord Farquaad in Shrek! I would never of guessed it was him, i will have to listen out for him next time i watch those films.

Overall i really enjoyed this film, it’s something different i felt from other films i have watched, especially given that the main stars of the film are animals! If you haven’t already seen the film, i highly recommend this one, you won’t be disappointed! Again here is the trailer below!

And on another note, if this ever happened, we would be screwed!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbCoDf44oCE

Movie Monday – A Marathon!

August 08, 2011

Since last week i have watched so many film, i seem to be getting more into watching films these days. Even though i have only started doing these Monday ‘challenges’ for me to watch more film i feel like it is working. When i first started with these blog posts i said that i rarely find time to sit down and watch a film, now though or at least in the last week i have gone mad watching films.

So for today’s Movie Monday, i have not just watched 1 film, or just two but 5 films in the last 7 days! Thats just insane! and unheard of for me. I now enjoying sitting down and relaxing after work and throwing on a film, but for the most part of the films i watched over the last week, the majority were on T.V! Thats an even more uncommon thing for me, i never watch films that are on T.V, i hate watching films when there are ads in them! and i was surprised to see so many films that i like were on T.V.

Out of all the 5 films i watched, only 2 of them was new to me, all the other ones i had seen previously, but i liked them so much that i decided to watch them again, couldn’t resist watching them when i saw that they were coming on T.V.

Children of Men

The first film i watched was last monday night, the film was Children of Men, this is a brilliant film. I first saw this film a few months back, my brother showed it to me. If you havnt seen this film i would highly recommend that you do watch it. The film’s plot revolves around the concept that humans have not been able to reproduce for years and when a young woman manages to fall pregnant, the film follows her on her journey. The camera work in this film is amazing, in one scene the camera shot must go on for about 10 minutes straight without breaking, which gives a powerful impact and makes you really aware of what is happening.

Clive Owen and Michael Caine are in this film and they are a perfect match for the film. This is the film description from IMDB;

“In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child’s birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.”

Men of Honor

The next film i watched stars Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr., the plot of this films is about the first African American to become a Navy Diver.

The film description from IMDB reads;

The story of Carl Brashear, the first African American, then also the first amputee, US Navy Diver and the man who trained him.

Speed

Speed is a film i heard a lot about but never got around to watching it. This film came on T.V last week and myself and my family sat down and watched it. To be honest it wasnt for me, i had always wanted to watch this film but i didnt really enjoy it. I found it more humorous than i should have, its probably the fact that its a relatively old film and the acting and style is just old and cheesey and the plot and how it is performed is insane and simply impossible.

I am still glad that i have managed to see the film, and i might watch the next film in the series, Speed 2, not sure if it is going to be an improvement but i might as well give it the benefit of the doubt!

The IMDB plot outline is as follows;

A young cop must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.

Speed has some great actors in it thought, including Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper and Sandra Bullock .

The Guard

The guard is the second of the five films that i hadnt seen before last week, this is the newest out of the lot, it is still in the cinema, so i made sure i went to see it. i had heard a lot of good feedback about the film, and seeing that it is an irish film i had to go and check it out, you know, support the local cinema!

The film obviously follows a guard around, and the plot is how a drug smuggling group re trying to get drugs into Ireland, with Brendan Gleeson playing the main actor, he is out to find out the truth. This film is hilarious and simply one of the best films i have seen in a long time, and probably the best Irish film that i have seen. The cast also includes Don Cheadle who plays the role of an FBI agent who has been following the drug smuggling operation for some time now. You would recognise Don from films such as Iron Man and Reign over Me.

The IMDB plot outline is as follows;

An unorthodox Irish policeman with a confrontational personality is teamed up with an uptight FBI agent to investigate an international drug-smuggling ring.

The Social Network

The final film which i watched last week was the Social Network, a film based on the success of Facebook and follows how the idea came about and through to the success and court cases revolving around Facebook.

I have lost count to the amount of times i have watched this film, i really enjoy this film, i like the storyline although bits have been changed to dramatise the storyline a lot. I watched this film with a friend of mine who had not seen the film, i especially enjoy the watching the special features of the film, it shows the challenges of filming the social network along with how special effects were used to replicate one actor to play both the twins in the film!

Movie Monday – Sherlock Holmes

August 02, 2011

Over the last week i finally got to watch a film which has been on my ‘to watch’ list for a long time. Ever since Sherlock Holmes first came out in 2009 i had wanted to watch it, but for some reason i didn’t make it to the cinema in time and for some reason it took until now for me to get around to watching it!

Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)

Image via Wikipedia

I was really looking forward to watching this film, myself and a friend sat down on Saturday night to watch it. From the very start i could tell it was going to be a great film. The way the sets and locations were decorated and with the brilliant cast including Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams it was acted perfectly and just like i imagined Sherlock would be, i had never read anything relating to Sherlock before, but knew what he was about.

The fight scenes were very well done, Sherlock at one stage found himself in a boxing ring (underground as it seemed) and was taking a fairly big beating. Suddenly the film went in slow motion and explained step by step how to disable the opponent then would replay the moves in real-time speeds. Simply excellent camera work and acting by all the actors involved.

The plot of the film was that Sherlock and his partner Dr. Watson had to prevent an overturn of the government by a man who they thought they killed at the start of the film.

I really enjoyed this film and am certainly looking forward to the second film in the series coming out later this year (December), i am sure that i will definitely make it to the cinema this time to see it!