Reviews by SJMJ91

After the masterpiece that was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, expectations were exceedingly high for the sequel of this underrated Millennium trilogy but it really did take a lot for The Girl Who Played With Fire to beat this one. However, it didn't quite manage to do just that but it still is a great sequel that was noble enough to its predecessor that became a great build-up to the final installment of the trilogy. Despite that the film had the same characters played by the same actors, the dialogue of this is almost completely different to its predecessor and we learn more into the past of the main characters. Once again like the predecessor, I watched it in the original Swedish language because then would still feel real and would sound pretty fake if in English. Besides, there already is a Hollywood version of the first film and maybe even a Hollywood version of the trilogy itself.


One bit of credit that I will give The Girl Who Played With Fire over The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and that is that because the predecessor had in many ways, a very similar dialogue to some films that we have seen in the past, The Girl Who Played With Fire felt more like a film on its own and was something that we hadn't really seen before until now. Also, this was perhaps a bit more emotional but despite that those two main key points where the sequel is better than the predecessor, I do still think that the first one is better because it is a lot more powerful and the acting, directing and screenplay was better.


After spending a year abroad, Lisbeth Salander returns to Sweden. She calls on her court-appointed guardian to remind him, in her own way, of his promise to submit satisfactory reports on her behavior. Mikael Blomkvist continues as an editor of Millenium magazine and they are onto a major story about prostitution and trafficking in women from Eastern Europe. When the investigative journalist working on that story is killed, the police announce that Lisbeth is their prime suspect. Lisbeth and Mikael work independently trying to find who is behind the murders. They not only learn the identity of the culprits but also some of Lisbeth's family secrets.


The same duo Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace return in the sequel and despite that both of their performances were still great, I didn't find them as serious or as committed as they were in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Blomkvist is once again on the trail of solving a mystery but this time, about his former allie and work partner so to speak Lisbeth Salander. There were moments where Blomkvist wanted to investigate for the Millennium magazine he works for but because he once had a close relationship with Lisbeth and still has feelings for her so he wants to clear her name as innocent. As for Noomi Rapace reprising her role as Lisbeth Salander, she makes a fantastic return but this time we see a slightly different person this time. Not only do we go deeper into Lisbeth's past and childhood but we also see what she has become due to this. She also looked a lot better in this than the one before so a lot sexier! She really is an extremely underrated actress and she should have been a strong contender for Best Leading Actress for both in 2010 and 2009.


Niels Arden Oplev, who directed The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo unfortunately did not return as director of The Girl Who Played With Fire and it perhaps was a better idea if he did return because new director Daniel Alfredson who still did a good job didn't quite deliver in the sequel exactly what Oplev did in the predecessor. Alfredson also directed The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest so let's see how that turns out. Jonas Frykberg wrote a great script and adapted raw emotion with tension and on a few occasions some scary moments. Frykberg has only written scripts for TV programmes (teleplays, basically) until now so it isn't bad and is a good start.


Overall, The Girl Who Played With Fire is a great sequel that perhaps doesn't quite beat The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but I still enjoyed it. This as well as its predecessor (and presumably the final instalment of the trilogy) proves that the Swedes do the best foreign language films. This should have got a lot of recognition and awards like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo did and should have got also but perhaps a bit more. An underrated sequel that was noble towards its predecessor and now excited about seeing the final instalment The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest now.

My curiosity was instantly aroused when reading about The Pianist especially the fact it is a bio-pic set during World War II and is like another Holocaust film after Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Schindler's List. When you watch it, you are literally on the journey with Szpilman and you yourself feel like a victim who are suffering almost the same as the Jews within the film. In the majority of bio-pics, there are scenes where we see evil and ugliness between people especially in this one the ugliness and cold-hearted attitudes of Nazi Germany towards the Jews. However, on the bright side, we also see the good in the world and how Szpilman hung on the best way he could to survive.


The Pianist really could have turned out a great disappointment seeing as it is a true story set in Warsaw, Poland about Polish and German people and the fact that the majority of the film is spoken in the English language and still speaking in their normal accents but thankfully, there was some German language used. Plus, the way it was filmed, the pacing of it was it was precise and the very strong and powerful script still made it an absolutely outstanding film to watch.


Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a gifted classical pianist born to a wealthy Jewish family in Poland. The Szpilmans have a large and comfortable flat in Warsaw which Wladyslaw shares with his mother and father (Maureen Lipman and Frank Finlay), his sisters Halina and Regina (Jessica Kate Meyer and Julia Rayner), and his brother, Henryk (Ed Stoppard). While Wladyslaw and his family are aware of the looming presence of German forces and Hitler's designs on Poland, they're convinced that the Nazis are a menace which will pass, and that England and France will step forward to aid Poland in the event of a real crisis. Wladyslaw's naïveté is shattered when a German bomb rips through a radio studio while he performs a recital for broadcast. During the early stages of the Nazi occupation, as a respected artist, he still imagines himself above the danger, using his pull to obtain employment papers for his father and landing a supposedly safe job playing piano in a restaurant. But as the German grip tightens upon Poland, Wladyslaw and his family are selected for deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to face a certain death, Wladyslaw goes into hiding in a comfortable apartment provided by a friend. However, when his benefactor goes missing, Wladyslaw is left to fend for himself and he spends the next several years dashing from one abandoned home to another, desperate to avoid capture by German occupation troops.


Ok, first thoughts on the brink of The Pianist's release were ''Who is Adrien Brody?'' but even now after earning the Academy Award for Best Leading Actor for his outstanding performance as Wladyslaw Szpilman and appearing in the King Kong remake by Peter Jackson and in Predator's second sequel Predators, he still remains one of the most underrated actors of our time. I think that almost the exact same thing could be said for Roberto Benigni for his role and Academy Award Best Leading Actor win in Life Is Beautiful. Anyway, Brody's role as Szpilman doesn't only demonstrate the heartbreak that the Jews felt during the Holocaust but also the sign of faith and courage of those Jews who survived and aside from the Jews, Brody as Szpilman and especially the late Wladyslaw Szpilman himself expressed the beauty, bravery, inspiration and a sign of hope in the world that was such a dark time. Also, Brody's dedication to the film was an inspiration especially the fact that he had to lose quite a bit of weight due to Szpilman slowly starving in the ruins of Warsaw during World War II.


You know what the strange but ironic thing is? It is that there aren't that many characters in the film that we go great depth into and that the main characters are a Jew and a Nazi who was really a good man at heart despite his occupation and duty to his country. Thomas Kretschmann's performance as Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (later revealed in the ending credits and if you read into the story) was fantastic! Despite that the film is, in fact, mostly in the English language, I am very glad that even in both of their scenes together, there is spoken German language in it. Hosenfeld mainly showed us that, sure most Nazi's were racist and cold-hearted killers but Hosenfeld showed that there were perhaps a few who were good at heart. Another example, Oskar Schindler! He saved all of those Jews and still being friends with Nazi officers at the same time while doing so. It perhaps is unusual knowing that a Nazi helped a Jew during World War II but as I said, despite the fact that are still some sick people out there but there are a lot of good people out there.


Despite the man had a troubled personal life back in the 70s, Roman Palonski is still a great and hugely underrated director! Polanski as a boy grew up in Poland watching while the Nazis devastated his country during World War II, directed this downbeat drama based on the true story of a privileged musician who spent five years struggling against the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. His work on The Pianist was perhaps a gamble for both his career and for the film itself despite what he witnessed as a child and the great book and true story by Wladyslaw Szpilman seeing as it is a Polish book about a Polish man during World War II. However, he has crafted a film that isn't just something genuinely heartfelt and inspiring but the fact that it pretty much involves one guy, it is a suspenseful thriller at the same time and Polanski is a great director of thrillers (which he saw from him in Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby). As for the script, Ronald Harwood could have written a disaster script and a Polish/German screenwriter could have written it even better but he proved that only he could have pulled it off at the very highest standard especially his win for his Academy Award win for Best Adapted Screenplay.


Overall, The Pianist is a beautifully heartbreaking story that had back in the 40s and still has now a sign of hope in the world that we thought we had lost. The Pianist is an extremely underrated film despite its Academy Award wins and nominations (including a Best Picture nomination but shockingly lost to Chicago), but nevertheless it certainly rises up to the landmark standard of Steven Spielberg's World War II masterpiece Schindler's List or maybe even surpasses it.

Out of pretty much every single film that Mike Leigh has done, they have always been the dark-horses and perhaps the underrated ones of the years of when they're released. However, this is the first film that I have seen from Mike Leigh and for a beginner at seeing films from this guy, Another Year is a decent start. His directing in Another Year bought back familiar sites that reminded me of Sam Mendes's work on both his suburban dramas American Beauty and Revolutionary Road but Leigh wasn't quite as good as Mendes was in those films. Time and time again over the years we have seen dramas set in the modern era with either very similar and identical dialogues or the same thing for the characters involved. However, Another Year blends quite well because the film does have its leading characters but we experience people who are in mid-life crisis’s and people who do go through those even now.


Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) are a couple who are drifting past middle age into their sixties; he's a geologist and she's a psychotherapist. Tom and Gerri have a stable and happy marriage and a grown son, Joe (Oliver Maltman), an activist lawyer who hasn't settled down yet, much to his mother's chagrin. One of Gerri's co-workers and close friends is Mary (Lesley Manville), who puts up a facade of desperate good cheer despite the fact she's been very lonely since her husband left her and has been drowning her anxieties in wine. Gerri has unsuccessfully tried to fix Mary up with Tom's sloppy but good natured pal Ken (Peter Wight), and she's startled when Mary begins openly flirting with Joe, more than 20 years her junior. Mary's troubles only grow worse when she stops by Tom and Gerri's place only to be introduced to Katie (Karina Fernandez), Joe's new girlfriend. 


Jim Broadbent, an actor who has previously won an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor in Iris) and has appeared in many British films over the years but has starred in some underrated films over the years with great performances and I'm afraid to say that Another Year is another one of those. Broadbent was perhaps the best actor for the role of Tom because he has that genuinely nice touch to him and friendly face we all like talking to and need comforting from. It is definitely one of his finest roles and is definitely his most underrated one thus far in his career. Lesley Manville, the star of the film, delivers an absolutely fantastic performance as Mary. that should have earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress although she was a contender for that award. Ruth Sheen was good as well as Gerri. It is a strange coincidence, really, because the husband and wife's names are Tom and Gerri (just like in the classic TV show Tom And Jerry except the latter name is spelt different). Actor David Bradley has always played one kind of character: scruffy, dirty and either grumpy or depressed (or both in some films) old man.


It is a film that isn't only set in four different seasons but the film is also split into four different stories where the leading characters are comforting their friends in their life problems and they are all different. The script was absolutely fantastic and rightfully deserved the Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. If there is any message that Another Year has, it is that friendship is and must always be a firm bond in everybody's lives and that it is extremely important to have friends and loved ones always in one's life. On the other hand, the main flaw that Another Year is worn down by is that it felt quite dry and I just couldn't feel any deep sympathy or not that many feelings towards some of the characters within the film so it just wasn't a very emotional film to watch like the trailer suggested it was going to be.


Overall, Another Year is an extremely underrated British film that perhaps isn't one of the best films of 2010 but still is a decent one that needn't be missed. If you're a fan of dramas and perhaps even stage plays, I think you will like this one. It is neither a film to take very seriously not something that was made just to entertain and get a bit of good fun from. It perhaps isn't for all ages but I think perhaps the best target audience in terms of age and generation is that this film would be a very friendly film for the elderly folk (especially British) to watch.

So, what instantly came to mind about Easy A? Well, let's think: it just looked another teen comedy about teenagers going through sexual phases such as puberty, sexual identity or orientation or even sex itself and it really didn't look any different from any film that we have seen in the past so it isn't that much of a triumph but it isn't a disappointment either. It is actually one of those teen-based films that I would call neither a comedy nor a drama because I couldn't even bring myself to laugh out loud barely at all. Where I think Easy A tries and almost completely fails the most is that I think it tries to show that there is something Juno-like about it with a troubled teenage girl in a phase and has an involvement with a geek but what Easy A lacked was heart and some drama in it. It had a message but didn't really express it every well was that whether someone loses their virginity or not, it is not really anybody's business because (like the message in American Pie) sex isn't that important and that there are more important things in life.


High school student Olive Penderghast finds herself the victim of her school's "rumor mill" when she lies to her best friend Rhiannon about a weekend tryst with a fictional college freshman. Word quickly spreads of Olive's promiscuity and, much to her surprise, she welcomes the attention. When she agrees to help out a bullied friend by pretending to sleep with him, her image rapidly degrades to a more lascivious state and her world begins to spin out of control. As she helps more and more of her classmates and her lies continue to escalate, Olive must find a way to save face before the school's religious fanatic Marianne gets her expelled and she loses a shot at attaining her own happiness.


Emma Stone really is becoming one of the great young actresses of this generation after her roles in Zombieland, Superbad (even though I didn't like the latter film very much) and the upcoming Spider-Man reboot The Amazing Spider-Man and Easy A is another great role of hers! It was her performance as Olive that was easily the best quality that the film had overall and she rightfully deserved her Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress Musical/Comedy. Anyway, in many ways girls like Olive are incredibly annoying who brag about having sex whether lying about it or telling the truth but only one thing she said made the entire school think different about who she really is. About that, the second message is that not everybody can be trusted and even one revelation, whether it's a lie or the truth, can affect a friendship, a relationship or anything like that. She is a very likable character because she is, lets face it, a woman who some men want her to be (well, apart from the fact she lies about losing her virginity). Unfortunately, we didn't see all that much of the other characters because the entire film was pretty much all-Olive but of what we saw, it was at least satisfying with some decent performances.


Will Gluck, a guy who is beginning his career as a film director and seems to be going for teen comedies seeing as he previously made Fired Up! before Easy A. I've not seen that one but that doesn't look anywhere near as good as this one even though Easy A wasn't that good. I guess where I think some might not like this one is that it has its very basic and easy dialogue and not many differences from other teen comedies but it does have a good script and a good message to all teens so that makes it good enough to enjoy.


Overall, Easy A is a decent teen comedy that I did enjoy but didn't love. If you love American Pie, Superbad and perhaps Knocked Up as well, you will really like this one! It is just a bit of fun that does deliver despite a few flaws that it has.

Back when as a child, I never thought there would be a Toy Story 3 but it was simply thrilling news when pre-production of the film was beginning. However, when pre-production of Toy Story 3 began, this perhaps became the riskiest project of all time especially after almost a decade since the first two Toy Story films were released and how they both turned out. Toy Story 3 is a film for literally every single person to enjoy but I think the most affected by this film are those who are born in the early or mid 1990s because a final film when those in that generation watched the first two films as children and now that a third instalment has come out, those people are now grown up and have got to move on so it became a very important film that does define a generation. Having grown up with Toy Story and Toy Story 2 myself, my excitement was perhaps the highest I have ever felt watching a film but as far as I am concerned, they couldn't have ended the series any better than this.


In terms of dialogue, the way Toy Story 3 is thought-up and crafted together, it does have close similarities with the two predecessors but I personally think that was the best idea for this film to succeed especially when this is almost like a farewell goodbye film. It is a very deep, emotional film that would make you cry and what makes it even more of a stronger film is that it is over plastic toys that a young man used to play with! That is how taken the viewers are by the trilogy. I thought that the film was pretty damn funny especially the model scene with Barbie and Ken and most of all: Spanish Buzz. I, also, happened to notice that there are a few innuendos within the film and it is ironic that it is only when you're an adult or teenager, you notice this in some children's films. The animation was just outstanding and was a lot clearer and even more enchanting than the animation in the first two films. Well, that's obviously because they were made roughly 10 years before the third instalment. I am sure most people saw Toy Story 3 in 3D and they should because it was pleasurable to watch in that experience but the even better experience is watching it on blu-ray! It is extremely important that every Pixar film needs to be owned on blu-ray because you won't ever get a better animated experience than Pixar on blu-ray!


Andy is now 17 and ready to head off to college, leaving Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the toy-box gang to ponder their uncertain futures. When the toys are accidentally donated to the Sunnyside Daycare center they're initially overjoyed to once again be played with, but their enthusiasm quickly gives way to horror as they discover the true nature of the establishment under the rule of the deceptively welcoming "Lotso" Bear. Now, all of the toys must band together in one final, crazy scheme to escape their confines and return home to Andy.


Once again, we meet new characters (approximately 150 new ones in total) in Toy Story 3 and we experience another point of view of a toy and the innocence of children and we are taken back to our childhoods. As far as I am concerned, teenagers of the late noughties are just like Andy: now grown-up, have to put childhood behind and need to move on and take a new step ahead in life. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and the rest of the gang go through yet another adventure where they come across new friends and new enemies where they end up separating once again. There are a few toys that were in the predecessors that aren't in Toy Story 3 such as Bo Peep, Wheezy and Etch but it was just great to see Woody, Buzz Lightyear etc return. Tom Hanks needed another breakthrough film in his career seeing as he didn't do all that well in the noughties (except for Cast Away and maybe The Terminal) and he, once again, provides his voice as Woody and goes a great job again! Tim Allen was basically the same, really, and he had almost disappeared from Hollywood throughout the decade and he was great once again as Buzz Lightyear. Other actors Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn and John Ratzenberger make good returns in their respective roles. New actors that have been joined to the cast such as … as Slinky Dog (he replaced … who died in 2000), Ned Beatty as Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear aka Lotso, Michael Keaton as Barbie's counterpart Ken and Timothy Dalton as thespian hedgehog called Mr. Pricklepants.


Lee Unkrich has never directed a Pixar animated film by himself before although he was part of a few in the past. However, his work on Toy Story 3 was simply magnificent and he did as much of a fantastic job with Toy Story 3 as John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Brad Bird did with the films they did so making the film for 4 years certainly was worth it. Toy Story 3 made history by becoming the 3rd animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (the 1st was Beauty And The Beast in 1991 and fellow Pixar film Up in 2009) but the first and only film in the Toy Story franchise to be nominated in that category.


Overall, Toy Story 3 is an outstanding film that ended the Toy Story series perfectly and would make you shed a tear or two so you need to be emotionally prepared for this one. It is a film that literally has it all and there isn't one weakness that Toy Story 3 has, like at all. It surprisingly became like an loose animated version of The Great Escape and it is definitely one of the most personal films one will ever watch as well as one of the greatest animated films of all time. Please, let there NOT be a Toy Story 4 because this ended perfectly and there doesn't even need to be because their story is completely told now so I think it is now time to leave the series alone.

After the minor critical disappointment that was Cars, Pixar have been on a roll! First with Ratatouille directed by Brad Bird about a rat who cooks and then WALL-E directed by Andrew Stanton about a mute robot in a post-apocalyptic environment and now we have got a story about an old man who ties balloons to his house and floats his house across the world. So, what did we get from Up apart from that it is Pixar's most extraordinary motion picture to date? Well, first of all, it is a lot more child-friendly than those other two films and it is even more emotional and perhaps more sophisticating than both WALL-E and Ratatouille. I was really surprised at how emotional Up really is! I mean, it has (but didn't quite get me) got the audience crying after just 10 minutes. It also made history by becoming the 2nd animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (the 1st was Beauty And The Beast in 1991).


Another thing what this had and perhaps hadn't seen very much from Pixar ever since Cars or maybe even since The Incredibles is laugh-out-loud comedy! Up did have its hilarious jokes as well as its very easy and imaginative dialogue and characters. I mean, because it is a very fictional film and that it involves a very easy story and with extraordinary characters, that is the meaning of adventure and that is the main key theme of Up. The animated effects were just outstanding and it was so colourful with such enchanting picture especially the scene where the balloons appeared out of the roof of the house. It felt like you could literally reach out and crap the balloons from the screen. Another technical quality that was superb was the music! I thought the best scene was perhaps the life scene so to speak where the music was telling the dialogue instead of the characters talking because we would be here all day if that was the case. It is an absolute pleasure to watch Up in 3D at the cinema but it is even better to have it in your possession at top high definition quality on blu-ray so it definitely is worth checking out at the ultimate experience!


Carl Fredricksen is a 78-year-old balloon salesman. His entire life, Carl has longed to wander the wilds of South America. Then, one day, the irascible senior citizen shocks his neighbors by tying thousands of balloons to his home and finally taking flight. But Carl isn't alone on his once-in-a-lifetime journey, because stowed away on his front porch is an excitable eight-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell. Later, as the house touches down on the world's second largest continent, Carl and his unlikely traveling companion step outside to discover that not only is their new front lawn considerably larger, but that the predators therein are much more ferocious than anything they ever faced back home.


Carl Fredricksen is just an ordinary, miserable old man to everyone around him after his wife died but when alone or when he tells a story, he is more than just that. He is a man who not only had a passion for exploring the world but because of his age and the fact he never went to Paradise Falls in South America with his wife seeing as they both dreamed of it as children, it was desperation from Carl and he would do anything to reach that life goal! Now that Ellie has passed on, we see Carl talk to his house and call it Ellie so in his mind, her presence is still there. Edward Asner provided the voice of Carl and after that performance, I reckon that Asner could perhaps be like Carl in real-life (apart from that he doesn't take his house across the world but you know what I mean). Russell is one of those lovely little boys with a dream but needs to commit himself a bit more but because he is overweight, that makes it a little more difficult for him. The relationship between Carl and Russell really is like how a grandfather and grandson would act together especially when they started to get closer to each other and when they meet talking dog Dug and tropical bird Kevin (who actually is really female), they become like a family. A talking dog is a great idea for a kids story and thankfully that didn't make this film seem stupid or daft. Dug just makes the film even funnier and even more of an adventure because we're experiencing something new. Not only is the venue where the majority of the film is set an adventure, the characters are an adventure.


Pete Docter returns to directing another Pixar Animation Studios film after Monsters, Inc. and this time I feel that he did an even better job with Up. I don't know who my favourite Pixar director is out of Pete Docter, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter and now Lee Unkrich because they are all just fantastic filmmakers who just never fail! Anyway, as for Up, Docter crafts together something very cute that is friendly enough for both adults and kids but for the first time in a while, Pixar have made a film that is more friendly towards children. I do deeply admire how all of the Pixar directors think of these stories together and write them all together hence the exact reason why they don't ever fail at screenwriting and I hope they never do either!


Overall, Up is a beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming and hilarious adventure that is, in my mind, a mixed combination of James And The Giant Peach and Gran Torino. Indeed, that is a unique combination but if you like both of those films or at least one of them, you'll love Up. It is definitely one of Pixar's finest films and will take an even better masterpiece from Pixar to beat this one!

Over the years, Pixar Animation Studios have charmed us with their beautiful stories and strong characters but I think Ratatouille became their most extraordinary and perhaps their most adult friendly picture at the time so at first I wasn't really sure what to expect out of this one. However, I watched it and despite that it is perhaps more for adults than for kids, there still are many child-friendly moments within the film. Of course, people are going to find it a tad bit odd where a rat cooks but the deep story behind it makes it an underdog story that is an inspiration. The only weakness that Ratatouille has is that it lacked humour. According to critics and to Pixar themselves, they class this as a comedy but I wouldn't really call it a comedy at all because the film is too serious to be funny.


How often do we see films based on food or chefs? I can only think of this one, obviously, and Julie & Julia so food is a very rare theme for cinema. The only way where films about food can work are either ones based on true stories or animated films (which is exactly what Ratatouille and Julie & Julia are). Plus, it can be quite hard to write a film about food without them being too similar to each other. Anyway, Ratatouille is literally a film on its own and no other film in the future based on this theme can ever be repeated or even surpassed.


Ratatouille tells the story of a young country rat called Remy who desires to be a French chef but because he is a rat and how badly humans treat rodents around food and around the kitchen, it is an almost impossible dream. He is surrounded by his father and brother who are bewildered at Remy and want him to act like them who just steal and eat garbage. One day when Remy and his brother Emile are in the kitchen of an elderly lady (in the same house where the rats are staying but up in her attic), they are forced to evacuate and move away which leads to Remy's separation from his family and friends so he ends up in Paris and finds his hero Auguste Gusteau's restaurant. Whilst there, he encounters Linguini while trying to fix a soup that Linguini himself actually messed up. When they both discover that neither can work alone so together they form a pact and work together in the restaurant but who will get all the fame and come out on top?


Many times over the years we have seen films made in a certain country by a certain organization but is set somewhere else with different characters who either speak that language or at least speak the same language in the country where it was made but with an accent but at the same time, there are films that are set in a different country to what organization made the film and some actors speak in either that very accent or language. Ratatouille was made by an American organization but is set in Paris, France and the majority of actors who are American themselves speak English but with a French accent and that makes the film even better, even more understanding for children and doesn't wreck the realism of the film at all. The only characters who don't speak in French accents are Remy, Linguini, Emile and Remy and Emile's father Django. In every Pixar film, there is normally at least one Hollywood actor or for that matter, at least one famous actor but I hadn't even heard of one single actor involved in Ratatouille except for Ian Holm who provided the voice of Skinner. If there is any message that the characters within bring out is that even one so small and one who perhaps has the opposite chance of succeeding, if you've got your heart set on something, don't give up and that is exactly what Remy did.


Director Brad Bird became a huge success after superhero action-comedy The Incredibles and he once again, manages to do the same thing all over again but this time, he gave us something more personal but not something funnier than before. Bird rightfully deserves his award for Best Animated Picture for both films and if he decides to direct another Pixar animated film, I will definitely be there to see it! Ratatouille is perhaps the closest to a foreign film because every other Pixar film (even WALL-E despite it is set in space and Monsters, Inc. which is set in a totally different world) are very American. The script was incredible and for the first time, Pixar used narration. I think the reason for this was because it was Remy telling his story from the very beginning and then we see him at the present time towards the very end of the film. His narrated speeches and when Ego narrated his review on Gusteau's restaurant was written perfectly!


Overall, Ratatouille is Pixar's most adult film to date, one of their best films and it is a very powerful story on inspiration, courage and pride. It may have quite an adult story but it is charming enough for both adults and children to enjoy. The entire film is a pleasure to watch but another moment of pleasure you will get whilst watching Ratatouille is that you will feel hungry! I hope there won't be a sequel to this because, quite frankly, there doesn't even need to be.

First of all, I must say that you really need to have a very strong stomach to watch The Elephant Man; not so much because of Merrick's deformity but what had happened to him, what does happen to him and when we explore his past and who he really is, you need to be brave and watch this. I have seen many films in my time but this is the one film where I have felt almost incredibly sick because of the sympathy I have for John and what he goes through in the film. Those who are watching it for the first time or are at least giving it a long overdue re-watch, you perhaps might need to watch it with subtitles because you can't always understand what John is saying.


The most appalling side of the film's release is that it is a PG! I am astounded at that rating decision because there literally is nothing PG about it, like at all! It needs to be an R/15 rating at least. There are many segments that do and would terrify the audiences and would feel rather intense such as when specifically we will see John's severely deformed face for the first time. What makes the film even more terrifying is the music especially in that sickening bullying and abusive scene and that it was filmed in black-and-white over colour because I think it would have felt like a totally different film if it was filmed in colour.


John Merrick (real-life name was Joseph Merrick), Hideously deformed 19th century Londoner known as "The Elephant Man". Treated as a sideshow freak, Merrick is assumed to be retarded as well as misshapen because of his inability to speak coherently. In fact, he is highly intelligent and sensitive, a fact made public when one Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) rescues Merrick from a carnival and brings him to a hospital for analysis. Alas, even after being recognized as a man of advanced intellect, Merrick is still treated like a freak; no matter his station in life, he will forever be a prisoner of his own malformed body. 


Anthony Hopkins gave an outstanding performance as kind and considerate Dr. Frederick Treves. I saw Hopkins as a villain before I saw The Elephant Man; most notably his Academy Award winning performance as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs. As for his performance in The Elephant Man, Hopkins was the perfect actor for that character because he perfectly showed his affection, his sympathy and his respect for John. How he wasn't nominated for Best Leading Actor, I don't think I'll ever know. John Hurt was even better as severely deformed John Merrick (real-life name Joseph Merrick) and where he was just outstanding in this film is that he provides a performance where he makes John/Joseph Merrick his own character and it is like the audience perhaps felt more affection towards John in this film than the real one. The effects on the face of John looked so real! I think it was perhaps a combination of both a mask, make-up and perhaps some computer effects. The message is simple; that John is a real man with feelings and has a lot of respect for those around him; even those who don't show him any and it also shows that just because one may not be the most attractive person in the world, there is and can be beauty and peace in one's heart which is exactly who John/Joseph was. Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud and Wendy Hiller all gave great performances as well.


When The Elephant Man was made, David Lynch was at the early stages of his career and after that extremely bizarre sci-fi/horror Eraserhead which, quite frankly, I wasn't impressed by but this time he goes on to something different than he had done before and hasn't made anything similar to since. Despite the fact that it is a true story, Lynch still goes to his traditional style of a rather horrifying character to look at with quite a disturbing and uneasy dialogue and for me, has created his finest film ever. He co-wrote the script with Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren and they all did a fantastic job! There were many scenes in The Elephant Man that didn't even feel scripted! On some occasions, it felt like casual conversation especially when Treves was trying to teach John how to speak English properly and I love moments like that in a film. Many have and still argue that both The Elephant Man and Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull were robbed of Best Picture by Ordinary People and despite the fact I haven't seen Ordinary People yet, they were both truly robbed! For me, this was the Best Picture winner of the films released in 1980 (well, of those nominated anyway - best film of 1980 - Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back).


Overall, The Elephant Man is a tale of pure heartbreak, tragedy and the evil side of human beings but on the bright side, it is a beautiful, inspiring and thought-provoking story that could perhaps make the viewers cry with both beauty and tragedy. It also proves itself to be one of the most remarkable true stories of our time and will touch all hearts and make us all realise who the good people are and who the bad people are in the world.

In the eighties, there was the dawning of a new generation awaiting us in the film industry and in my humble opinion, A Fish Called Wanda perfectly demonstrates that. Where we are sent back into the older generation of comedy is that there are many slapstick segments involved with some rather unique characters but amongst that, it is set in modern day England where it still looks the same right now as it did over 20 years ago when A Fish Called Wanda was made. Crime-comedy is a combination of two genres that are almost the exact opposite to each other and even now, crime-comedy is quite a rare genre but A Fish Called Wanda is just the most perfect example of that.


It really takes somebody with the weakest sense of humour to not at least chuckle during this film especially the fact that this film actually killed a Danish audiologist in 1989 because he couldn't stop laughing while watching before it was cardiac arrest that killed but it was due to the film. No, this film isn't to scare anybody that they will die while watching the film, I am just pointing out how much laughter and fun you will get out of watching this one. On many occasions, I had to walk out the room when I was watching it because I just could not stop laughing! Yep, that is how funny it really is.


Wanda brings her new secret lover, Otto to England to help her and her lover George and stuttering animal lover Ken steal $20 million in diamonds. Wanda and Otto then turn in George to the police so they can have the loot for themselves, but George has already moved the diamonds and only he knows where they are. All four of the criminals start double-crossing each other to try to get to the diamonds before anyone else. Wanda tries to find them by "getting close" to George's barrister, Archie Leach, because if George pleads guilty he will tell Archie where the diamonds are to cut his sentence. Absolute hilarity ensues. 


The respect for John Cleese in comedies when portraying characters such as this with slapstick segments, a guy who is deep-down an idiot despite his profession and because John can play this kind of character so perfectly, that is the main reason why he has always been and always will be such a fantastic and successful actor! John also bought us a similar character that we have seen him portray in the past and the example for this is when portrayed Basil Fawlty in 1970s British sitcom Fawlty Towers. It is the awkward and often frustrating moments where characters Archie Leach and Basil Fawlty have the most in common. Jamie Lee Curtis was rising into fame, not only because of her very famous parents (Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh) but because she is becoming a role model and a sex symbol of the 1980s and that is quite possibly the main reason why she was cast as Wanda in this film. She is literally the perfect bitch because she easily takes advantage of all the men around her, mostly it is seducing them to at least retrieve some information about the loot location and it goes to show how easily led on men (particularly older men seeing as all the actors and characters she is involved with are perhaps at least a decade older than her) are by her. She should have had an Academy Award nomination for Best Leading Actress!


Kevin Kline's performance as Otto is definitely the best performance out of all the actors in A Fish Called Wanda because he literally cracked me up when I first watched this and still manages to do so now! Otto is definitely the best developed character because he thinks he is a very clever guy after being a former member of the CIA but deep-down, he is an incredibly dumb idiot who almost has no clue at all and perhaps has a few psychological problems. The scenes where he was jealous of Archie during those romantic scenes with Wanda were probably the funniest scenes. Kline's performance as Otto not only cracked the audience up but it also became a breakthrough in the comedy genre because for at least a very rare time (or the first (and only) time), he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1989 and that hardly ever happens at all so now I don't think any comedy performance will be better than Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda. Michael Palin was another addition to the cast but portrays a character that, in my mind, has a slight split personality. When he is with gangster George (who is Wanda's original lover), he commits crimes (such as the robbery and tries to kill the old lady but accidentally kills her dogs instead one by one), he is a rather cold-hearted guy but when he is away from that, he is a very affectionate animal lover with a bad stutter. It normally takes a great actor with strong commitment to a film to play a stuttering character so brilliantly and that is exactly what Michael Palin did in this film. I never thought that he'd be beaten at playing a stuttering character but I think Colin Firth as George VI has surpassed him but just about.


Together, the late Charles Crichton and John Cleese thought up this fantastic story and have created a comedy that is unfortunately a rather underrated one but has everything that a comedy should have but even better. It really was brilliantly filmed and directed but I did notice some bad bloopers! Then again, every film has at least one and that didn't affect my liking or wreck the realism of the film in any way whatsoever so that proves how taken I really was by A Fish Called Wanda. It is a very clever story that was written ingeniously by two guys who along the way wrote the film like it was stupid but because the characters (especially Otto) are stupid and how brilliantly it was written and filmed, it is something rather unique to pull off and after seeing it, I can't ever see anybody turning even one bit of stupidity into absolute classic and ingenious comedy! Another unique key point about the story and the way it was written was how Cleese and Crichton made the English and the Americans almost like enemies in this film but they are allies in real-life and were back in the eighties.


Overall, A Fish Called Wanda is an absolutely amazing, hilarious and clever comedy that is easily one of my favourite films of all time. Not only does it feature one of the best ensemble cast members but they all deliver performances that are perfect for the characters they are playing. There are some outstanding British films but this is definitely up there with some of the best, it is both one of the best crime films as well as one of the funniest films ever made. In fact, A Fish Called Wanda truly is the funniest film on this planet and I don't think there ever will be a funnier film that I will see in the future than this!

I first saw The Green Mile in a time when I was becoming a huge fan of Stephen King and his work and also a fan of Tom Hanks when he was once my favourite actor and believe me, if you are not moved, shocked or even blown away by this, you seriously are the most bitter person on the face of this Earth. No, this really isn't for the fainted heart folk out there and it really is a very depressing story but I like depressing stories because they really are a lot stronger than light hearted films. Anyway, The Green Mile is a film (as well as a novel) that mixes real life and what happens in the world with fiction and perhaps some life theories that does involve the Bible and questions the audiences about life, miracles and it reveals that there are some sick people in this world. I think the main message that The Green Mile shows is what life we have got and who we have got in our lives and that we need to make the most of it because we only live once (well, we presume so anyway).


Paul Edgecomb is a slightly cynical veteran prison guard on Death row in the 1930's. His faith, and sanity, deteriorated by watching men live and die, Edgecomb is about to have a complete turn around in attitude. Enter John Coffey, He's eight feet tall. He has hands the size of waffle irons. He's been accused of the murder of two children... and he's afraid to sleep in a cell without a night-light. And Edgecomb, as well as the other prison guards - Brutus, a sympathetic guard, and Percy, a stuck up, perverse, and violent person, are in for a strange experience that involves intelligent mice, brutal executions, and the revelation about Coffey's innocence and his true identity


For me, Tom Hanks was the best actor of the 1990s who became a rising star with two Academy Award back-to-back wins and has starred in many blockbusters. As for The Green Mile, he may not have received glory for his performance as Paul Edgecomb like has done with his other films in the past but he rightfully deserved at least a few awards for his role in The Green Mile. One thing that Paul Edgecomb and Tom Hanks have in common is (no, not because they're both the same person) that they are both great leaders in their own ways. Paul is a very noble, honourable and wise leader of the other prison guards in E Block and Tom has played characters where he has been a leader of a group such as Saving Private Ryan, Apollo 13 and a few others. He also shows that he can lead a cast and make them perform at their very best and haven't performed any better since. In my opinion, The Green Mile is easily his most underrated performance and is one of his best. Michael Clarke Duncan was the star of the show in this one as big, black criminal John Coffey. He is on death row for the rape and murder of two young girls but when he starts healing and performing miracles, he doesn't seem to be all that he was out to be from the very beginning. The seriously strong fact about the John Coffey character is that he is the one bit of hope that the world never saw and would make the world more of a better place and his theory on life as well as his beliefs about God makes us all think about it really hard and. He certainly deserved that Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.


The rest of the cast features the likes of David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Michael Jeter, Graham Greene, Doug Hutchison, Sam Rockwell, Barry Pepper, Jeffrey DeMunn, Patricia Clarkson and Harry Dean Stanton and they all gave awesome performances. Apart from Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, the other fantastic performances that should have been Oscar contenders are Doug Hutchison as Percy Wetmore and Sam Rockwell as William 'Wild Bill' Wharton! Hutchison demonstrated the Percy character as someone who you really would like to hurt so badly you'd enjoy it because Percy is the one film character who thinks he is the big man and is a very cruel and evil young man in an environment like the Green Mile but he is really is a coward so he is one of those stupid people who can give people grief but can't take it back in return. Sam Rockwell has given his breakthrough performance as psycho Wild Bill! Despite he is an evil and psychotic man, I couldn't help but laugh at what he did in the prison so he is a disturbingly funny character and Sam Rockwell unfortunately didn't get strong acclaim for his performance just like he hasn't for any of the films he has done and makes him one of the most underrated actors of all time. Despite all performances were great, the main key character for me is the little mouse Mr. Jingles and there are a few reasons for this. One: he has a mind of his own by showing up in a death row prison block and shows his clever side, two: in some ways, he is treated like another person (especially by Eduard 'Del' Delacroix and Paul) but in others, he is just a mouse and three: he also shows the extraordinary side of not only mice but rodents in general and that are quite intelligent creatures.


After his huge successful directorial debut in The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont directs and writes another screenplay based on another Stephen King prison novel but this time, we go on a more depressing, emotional and magical journey! The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are perhaps Darabont's most famous works and unfortunately he didn't receive a Best Director Academy Award nomination for either of the films. It is impressive how he wrote the script from someone else's work and still manages to write it in a way that does make us believe that it is real and is really set in the 1930s when we all know it was really made in the late 1990s but especially with the script, he mixes both the pre-war/post-war era with the modern era really well and I hope that Stephen King would be proud of Darabont for directing and writing The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption so well! Well, at least more pleased than King was with Stanley Kubrick when he did The Shining.


Overall, The Green Mile is a heartbreaking and magical tale that I think all would enjoy despite its long duration. I didn't even want the film to end because I enjoyed it so much. You are taken by this film very quickly and it is almost impossible to not at least feel moved or entertained by this film but there is no denying that it is a masterpiece that I, as well as many, have and could watch countless times.