Films what I seen last year

No More lists, one’s enough methinks, however, over the next week or so I’ll be posting a fair bit about the past year and a little about the year to come…first, as the title of this post may have suggested…films.
Ah, Orange Wednesdays, Ah, City Screen Membership, how I love you so.
We’ve seen some absolutely wonderful films this year, where to begin….

‘(500) Days Of Summer’ is probably as good a place as any…starring Joseph Gordon Levitt as Tom and Zooey Deschanel as the eponymous Summer, it’s a rom-com Jim, but not as we know it. The narrative jumps back and forth before, during and after the couple’s relationship. It even features a choreographed dance to Halls & Oates' ‘You Make My Dreams' . It’s sweet, tender and very very funny in places.

I’ve already written a little about ‘An Education’, so I won’t repeat myself. I’m very much looking forward to getting this little gem on DVD; hopefully it’ll be as good the second time.

Sam Mendes’ ‘Away We Go’, is a rather lovely film. Burt (hehe) and Verona (who is heavily pregnant) are moving so they can raise their child near Burt’s parents. Who, oh dear, are moving to Antwerp for two years. So begins a road trip, the couple trying to find the perfect place to bring up their unborn child. Suffice to say, after visiting various friends and ex work colleagues, they do find that perfect place and a very happy, but not at all mawkish ending.
I laughed quite a lot, and very nearly cried…

‘District 9’ is set in Jo’burg, South Africa where an alien ship hangs ominously in the skyline, it follows the plan to move the aliens, referred to as ‘Prawns’ from District 9, a shanty town for all intents and purposes, to District 10, essentially a concentration camp. This film could have only been set in South Africa. I’ll leave it at that, no spoilers. I don’t like spoilers. It was nice to see a non-hollywood Sci-Fi film seemingly come out of nowhere and achieve such success. Despite how much I enjoyed it, I do hope there’s no sequel.
What did I learn from this film? That saying “F*ck” over and ever again in a South African accent is very very funny indeed.

Based on a novel, by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, ‘Let the Right One In’ is a story of friendship first, a story about vampires second, which is perhaps why it was so utterly engrossing, and probably the best film I saw last year. An American remake is due out later in 2010, which doesn’t bode well, but considering who’s directing it (Matt Reeves, Cloverfield) and who is playing the young boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee, 'The Road') and girl (Chloe Mortez '(500) Days of Summer' ) it might not be complete and utter horse sh*t

I only watched the original ‘Star Trek’ series occasionally as a child (I don’t think, prior to seeing the film, I’d seen an episode in 10-15 years), and thought the more recent incarnations of the franchise were a bit….meh. It was the involvement of JJ Abrahams, Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg that got me interested…thank a fictional deity they did. From start to finish, ‘Star Trek’ is an absolute blast, Quinto and Chris Pine getting the young Spock and Kirk spot on, Leonard Nimoy looking surprisingly sprightly for his age, Pegg and Anton Yelchin as Scotty and Chekov offering light relief, and Eric Bana as a pesky womulan, there’s not a weak performance amongst them.
It’s made me reassess my position on ‘Star Trek’ all together, and now I cannot wait for no.2

I Didn’t see ‘Avatar’ until the third day of this year, but it came out last year, so what the hell. I enjoyed it, Sam Worthington is incredibly wooden, the story was a little…predictable, a harmless enough piece of Sci-Fi fluff…BUT MY GOD… James Cameron’s many years working on his 3D technology has really paid off, I found myself ducking and flinching time and time again. Even in the scenes where nothing really happens, it almost feels like you’re there. I can only imagine how stunning this would look on an IMAX screen. This is a film that HAS to be seen in a cinema.

A real life Spinal Tap. The drummer’s called Rob Reiner for crying out loud. ‘Anvil! The Story of Anvil’ is a feel-good film if ever I saw one…just watch it…for the love of all things metal…just watch it.