Reviews by SJMJ91

In the past 4-5 years, DreamWorks Animation have created films that have been just satisfactory, average or crap but How To Train Your Dragon is the film that needed to be made for them to achieve a breakthrough. To be honest, I was expecting it to be like other DreamWorks animated films like Kung Fu Panda, Over The Hedge, Bee Movie and even Monsters Vs. Aliens: a random piece of entertainment that lacks magic and mature humour. How To Train Your Dragon turned out to be a lovely film with the magic that Pixar would use, really good humour, intense and in a lot of ways grown up and a very personal story. The 3D experience of How To Train Your Dragon was like a roller coaster because there was lots of intense action almost all the way through the film. To be honest, I found How To Train Your Dragon as good in 3D as Avatar.


How To Train Your Dragon tells the story of a young Viking teenager called Hiccup who is intending to follow after his father by becoming a dragon slayer. After he catches his first dragon, he begins to realise that he has no desire to kill it so he befriends it like a pet. Hiccup is a main character DreamWorks Animation needed: a colourful, emotional hero with a big heart. His relationship with mysterious dragon Toothless reminded me a lot of Elliott and E.T. in the Steven Spielberg classic. Gerard Butler (pretty much the only well-known actor in the film) provides the voice of Stoick The Vast who is the father of Hiccup. Butler returns to a character who is like a heroic war leader like he was in 300. I noticed that some of the male Vikings had Scottish accents.


Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders have made a film that is suitable for all ages! I think they have created it for teenagers as well which is something that DreamWorks Animation haven't done for quite a while. I will be really really annoyed if How To Train Your Dragon isn't nominated for Best Animated Picture as well as Toy Story 3!


Overall, How To Train Your Dragon is a fantastic animated film! I have high expectations for DreamWorks animated films now (except the rest of the Shrek films). It is definitely DreamWorks Animations' best film since Wallace And Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and a breakthrough for that studio!

To be honest, I was thinking that this was going to be just another wacky and hilarious Jim Carrey comedy but when I watched it, I was surprised by it. I mean, the film is funny but I wouldn't call a comedy. It is more of a dramatic love story. It will leave you jaw-dropped because of the heartbreaking drama within it plus the heart warming pleasure too. To be fair, this probably isn't as underestimated like Brokeback Mountain and Milk are because it looks like a comedy and it stars two very famous Hollywood actors.


Steven starts off as a happily married police officer who spends his hours off work searching for his biological mother who gave him up as a child. But after a car crash, Steven leaves his life and family behind to go out into the world and be his true self. He moves to Miami and finds a boyfriend and from then on he starts living a gay life as well as being a conman. When his work as a conman catches up with him, he is sent to prison and falls in love with Phillip Morris. After that, Steven and Phillip try and keep their relationship intact but severe consequences lie ahead. I couldn't believe Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in this film! I mean, them two are a gay couple! When I was watching this, it really did look like they were in love as in real life. They are another two special actors who are straight who portray characters that are gay (Examples: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Sean Penn, James Franco). Jim Carrey's performance as Steven Russell was absolutely fantastic! I Love You Phillip Morris is one of the three films that shows that Carrey can be an actor of drama as well as comedy. The other two I am referring to are Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and The Truman Show. Ewan McGregor was like "My God, Ewan!" because, like Jim, playing a gay character was the last thing I was expecting him to play and what a fine job he did! Together, Jim and Ewan worked together very hard to send the public a very important message. I'll be damned if either one of those two actors aren't nominated for at least a Golden Globe for Best Actor Drama or Best Supporting Actor.


In all honesty, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa together create something that I think everyone would enjoy because of the comedy involved. It perhaps isn't as good as Brokeback Mountain or Milk but it was still awesome! I'll be keeping an eye on those two directors to see what is next on their list.


Overall, I Love You Phillip Morris is a beautiful yet heartbreaking true story that will low you away due to performances from Carrey and McGregor but will make you chuckle on occasions. Jim Carrey's best performance since Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and perhaps Ewan McGregor's most emotional performance so far.

I was in complete awww with this film all the way through! I think, like most British films that cap off a few Oscar nominations are very underrated even if it gets a Best Picture nomination. An Education is a very beautiful film that is very heartfelt and emotional. The film itself is an educational lesson because it teaches teenagers who are 16-17 to make the most of the rest of their childhood before they grow into adulthood. There were quite a few unexpected twists in this film which I was surprised about from a film like this.


An Education tells the story of a young 16 year old schoolgirl called Jenny. When she meets older Jewish man David, they build a relationship and he tries to take her away from her childhood life to move towards her adult life. Newcomer Carey Mulligan delivers a performance that I think should have got her the Academy Award for Best Leading Actress instead of Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side! Mulligan is 24 years old and she was playing a 16 year old! Watching her as Jenny, she really did look 16. I would say that this is one of the best breakthrough performances that I have seen. Peter Sarsgaard was good as David. It isn't an Oscar worthy performances from him but it certainly was satisfying. Alfred Molina was AWESOME! His performance was very powerful and should've been nominated Best Supporting Actor. He obviously wasn't going to win but still deserved to be one of the 5 actors nominated.


An Education was directed by somebody who has only been involved in directing episodes in the TV so this film was like a breakthrough for Lone Scherfig despite she didn't get a Golden Globe or Oscar Best Director nomination. Now with the film's success, we are only to expect another Oscar worthy film. I guess her breakthrough success was like Jason Reitman when he did Juno and then gave us Up In The Air. The film is based on an autobiographical memoir of the same name written by British journalist Lynn Barber. An Education was nominated for 3 Academy Awards: Best Picture 2009, Best Leading Actress (Carey Mulligan) and Best Adapted Screenplay.


Overall, An Education is a life-teaching lesson for teenagers that is very powerful and emotional to watch. One of the best films of 2009.

After seeing bad vampire films in the past, I was about to give this one a miss but seeing as it was receiving so many positive reviews and that it, according to many critics is "one of the best films of 2008". When I saw it, I absolutely loved it! Let The Right One In is the perfect example of how vampire films should be made. In the past, there have been bad vampire films that lack focus on story, have bad script/directing/acting or doesn’t involve any drama, tension or horror. Let The Right One In is basically what Twilight and especially New Moon should have been.


Let The Right One In tells the story of a young 12-year-old boy called Oskar who is going through a bad time in his life at the moment due to bullying from his classmates and spending his evenings imagining revenge against them. His life changes around completely when one night he meets a girl called Eli who reveals herself to be a vampire who is centuries older than Oskar. She just looks the same age as him. Their relationship becomes jeopardised due to this. Kåre Hedebrant's performance as Oskar was absolutely awesome! He was an almost perfect match with the character because he was all sweet and innocent but also in some ways psychologically dangerous. Lina Leandersson was FANTASTIC as Eli! She actually was the perfect match for Eli's character because she also was good at playing the sweet and innocent type but a very dangerous individual too especially when things started to change around and become increasingly dangerous for the public. It is a rather cute story as well as disturbing because it is a love story that involves children. It could've really failed by it being too cute or the story going way out of place by this but thankfully it didn't!


Tomas Alfredson did an absolutely fabulous job! He has basically single handedly grabbed the work of Catherine Hardwicke, Chris Weitz and David Slade in The Twilight films by the throat and ripped them apart! The film is extremely underrated mostly because it’s a foreign film. According to magazines and websites, Let The Right One In is the best Swedish film ever. It isn't only a scary film and romantic film but there is a lesson that is being told in this film which is mostly about bullying and that the bullying victims should stand up against them. The film has a lot of key focuses. Examples are bullying, drugs, paedophilia, prostitution and murder.


Let The Right One In is a beautifully disturbing film that will melt your heart due to relationship between the two kids but will break your heart and grip you due to its horror and violence. Without a doubt one of the best films of 2008, one of the best horror films and one of my favourite foreign language films of all time.

This film was really good with a lot of wacky slapstick and a really weird story. The places where this film was funny was where there were awkward events for the characters. This film had a lot of typical black comedy humour but I personally think it had a slight lack of character development. I mean, the characters were good but it had a few moments where they didn't really show who they are. Also, there were scenes that dragged on a bit which were very few scenes. It is a rather bizarre prison film because it is a comedy where three escapees were after some sort of treasure. Most prison films are really emotional and depressing but this one is neither which is after all part of the story.


George Clooney delivers a well deserved Golden Globe nominated performance as Everett. He looked really funny. I am not a fan of George Clooney but after seeing him in O Brother Where Art Thou and Burn After Reading, I am starting to like him in black comedies especially ones from the Coen brothers. John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson were really funny as well as Everett's escapee accomplices Pete and Delmar. John Goodman was funny as always as Big Dan Teague but he was funnier in The Big Lebowski and Monsters, Inc. Holly Hunter makes a mild appearance as Penny. This was the first time I ever SAW her speak. She did in The Incredibles but that was her voice and she didn't speak at all in The Piano.


This is very original of the Coens to make a film like this. It was very well directed and produced. The story is very different compared to other Coen films but they made it as original to their taste as they could in which they greatly succeeded. The Coens revealed that they can direct and write a film that can have all different themes but the same genre within it. The only Coen films I can think of that doesn't have any comedy in it at all are Blood Simple and No Country For Old Men.


This is a really good Coen film but unfortunately its my least favourite film from the Coens so far. I really liked George Clooney surprisingly in O Brother Where Art Thou but I liked him more in Burn After Reading. I find that some people won't appreciate this film because pretty much every prison film is serious whereas this one isn't at all really but it is made by experts of dark black comedies: the Coen brothers. So, I would tell everyone to at least try it.

I was so desperate to watch this film over a year ago and I am now ever so glad I did watch it because it is one of my all-time favourite comedies as well as romantic films of all time. It is a beautiful film that kept me gripped to it from the opening credits up until the ending credits. I have to say that Notting Hill is a hilarious film that I think is absolutely typical from the British. I think that the comedy within it is the exact kind of humour that the British would use. In my opinion, Notting Hill is one of the best British films ever made and it totally deserves to be!


Julia Roberts is one of my all-time favourite actresses mostly because of her pure beauty as well as her amazing acting talent! Notting Hill is one of Julia's best films because Anna was an absolutely perfect character for Julia. I like to consider Julia Roberts as "the actress of romantic-comedies" because she pulls a great performance in almost every single character she plays in a romantic-comedy especially in Pretty Woman which is why Pretty Woman and Notting Hill are my favourite Julia Roberts films. I am nota big fan of Hugh Grant but I like him a lot in this film, Love Actually and Four Weddings And A Funeral. No, Hugh isn't one of my favourite actors ever but he is in my opinion "the actor of romantic-comedies". I really could see the love between the two actors in real-life as well as the characters because both actors were playing their characters with such energy that makes it sound so real.


The directing was absolutely brilliant! Notting Hill, Love Actually and Four Weddings And A Funeral are three completely different kinds of romantic comedies but they all have the same producer. I think that this film showed how powerful love is and what people would do to keep the love of their life and how to show them how much they love them. The script was very original by it being a romantic-comedy.


Overall, Notting Hill is one of the best romantic comedies ever made that features two great performances and rightly deserving to be one of my favourite British films of all time.

Wow! What an intense action-packed thrill ride this film turned out to be. It is a really fun adventure that takes you cross-country and finding different ways to survive. I just love cat-and-mouse aka films involving fugitives and hostages because they are really suspensful and they are always packed with entertainment. I loved pretty much everything about North By Northwest. It is an absolute masterpiece from a director and actor who have been really well remembered for this film. Once, the opening credits rolled in this film, I was literally glued to it for the rest of the film because it was so good and also because of the intense thrill ride that it was.


This was my first Cary Grant film that I saw and I am glad I saw him in North By Northwest first because I think it is his most famous film along with Arsenic And Old Lace, None But The Lonely Heart and Penny Serenade. Cary Grant was probably the best fit for this film especially with the classic image of him running in the countryside with a plane behind and rushing towards him which appears on my picture review. Eva Marie Saint has risen even higher after her Oscar winning performance in On The Waterfront and she was absolutely fantastic in this film which I was sort of expecting.


Hitchcock doesn't make North By Northwest as suspensful in a scary way as he has done with some of his films like Psycho and The Birds. It is probably just as tense as Rear Window, Rebecca and Vertigo but obviously in a different way because all of the stories are different. Hitchcock always uses suspense in his films that makes us feel the same way because they're thrillers but all of his films are different kinds of thrillers. Some are scary, some are funny and some are tense but neither scary nor funny. Because there have been a few Hitchcock remakes such as Rear Window and Psycho, I seriously hope that there won't be a remake of North By Northwest or Vertigo, Rebecca or Shadow Of A Doubt. There is a The Birds remake coming out which is bloody annoying but it is pretty predictable that it is going to be shite anyway. Two of my 5-star Hitchcock films are his two most underrated films because they don't earn as much credit as one of the late great directors best films like Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo do.


It is my fourth favourite Hitchcock film after Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho. It is my favourite film of 1959 and that was a great year for a cinema from the very early past of the world of cinema. North By Northwest is one of the best thrillers ever made and it is one of the best films ever made as well. Masterpiece!!!

When I saw this film for the first time on DVD about 2 years ago, I absolutely loved it! After a rewatch, I still really enjoyed it but not quite as much as I did before. Jackie Brown is a more complex, tense but not cooler film than Pulp Fiction. There are a lot of people who say that Quentin Tarantino's career went downfall after this film. However, I don't necessarily think that's true. Jackie Brown didn't become as much of a success regarding money as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.


Pam Grier was amazing as Jackie Brown! I was unsure whether I'd like Jackie Brown's character in this film for some reason but I really got into it. Pam made Jackie seem irresistible for a mid 40-year-old and also seems like a bit of a bitch who takes advantage of the men around her so she can have all the money to herself. Samuel L. Jackson is starting to be a great actor in Quentin Tarantino films. He was obviously phenomenal in Pulp Fiction but his performance in this film wasn't that far off from being as good as Jules. I love seeing Jackson play characters who swear a lot and have that cold personality because he makes me laugh. Marc Forster was awesome in this film too as Max Cherry. He was nominated for an Academy Award in this film for Best Supporting Actor. Bridget Fonda was awesome in this film too. She was a real slut because of her pure beauty which is what I liked the most about the character. Robert De Niro was awesome too as Louis but I don't think Robert De Niro exactly matches in a Quentin Tarantino film.


Quentin Tarantino's work is very similar yet very different in comparison to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs because some of the characters are slightly similar but the plot is totally different even though it is the same genre. One main thing that I have learned about Quentin Tarantino and that is that you know a film by Tarantino when you see one. I think Tarantino thought that this film was a failure because of it not earning as much money as his first two films did which lead to the large success that were Kill Bill: Volumes 1+2.


Overall, Jackie Brown is another very enjoyable Quentin Tarantino film that is cool in its own way like the other Tarantino films are.

This film was very heartwarming in my opinion because I believe it shows true character. I find that it is a film with a really big heart and a big meaning to life and what it really means. It is one of those films that is just a classic that can touch people in a romantic way, a funny way and also an emotional way too as it did for me. To me, It Happened One Night is one of the best romantic comedies ever made and is probably the first of all romantic comedies out there. It almost has the great qualities to become a family film.


Clark Gable delivers an outstanding performance as Peter Warne. One thing that I love about Clark Gable is that in every single film he has been in, he has always brought that charm to every character he has portrayed. Rhett Butler is another character that he is like this. He makes some of his characters have very similar sort of personalities especially with women. He is like an irrisitable actor. But Clarks performance doesnt beat Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind at all. Claudette Colbert is really good in this film too as Ellie Andrews. I thought that her character and her looks were a bit like Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard because she was a bitter character and was quite a half attractive and half ugly character too.


The direction from Frank Capra was absolutely outstanding. He has done some great films in the past that are really heartwarming and beautiful. After seeing Its A Wonderful Life and It Happened One Night, he is now on the list of one of my favourite directors. I think he is the director for inspiration. The script was really clever because I thought that this film was really funny and it was really cleverly written to make it not only the first but probably the best romantic comedy of all time.


This is my second favourite Clark Gable film after Gone With The Wind and is my second favourite Frank Capra film too after Its A Wonderful Life. It certainly is on the list for one of my favourite films from the 1930s and also one of my favourite romantic comedies of all time. It Happened One Night is and always will be a masterpiece that deserves to be remembered forever!

This film is one of the most beautiful films that I have seen in a long time. It is not only beautiful because of being in the wild but of the connections and the friendships between Chris/Alex and the characters of the film and this film are very thought-provoking aswell. Chris/Alex has friendships with Rainey and Jan Burres, Tracy, Kevin and most of all Ron Franz. Most people would say that this film is a real inspiration to them but it was a little inspiration to me but not that much. The plot is extremely well put together from famous Oscar winning actor Sean Penn. He wrote the script and directed it ever so well. Its 1992, and straight-A graduate Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) destroys his ID, donates his savings to charity and, with no warning to friends and family, drops off the radar to bum around the US under the monicker Alexander Supertramp.


Why didnt Emile Hirsch earn an Oscar nor Golden Globe nomination in this film as Christopher McCandless? His performance is the best out of everybody even better than Hal Holbrook in his Oscar nominated performance. Hal was awesome but I dont think he was in the film long enough to earn an Oscar nomination. I would have said either Alan Rickman in Sweeney Todd or Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood. This film should have had an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Music Score, Best Song, Best Director and Best Screenplay because this film had it all. This is a film was snubbed for the Oscar Best Picture nominations. So was Sweeney Todd. I love 4 of the 5 nominees but I would say I would swap Sweeney Todd and Into The Wild for Michael Clayton (the one I dont like that much) and probably Atonement.


2007 is an amazing year for films because there have been masterpieces from various directors, outstanding performances and awesome winter and summer blockbusters. This is one film of 2007 that should have earned more credit than it earned. It has reached on my favourite films of 2007 list but not on favourite list of all time. I might watch some more Sean Penn director films like The Crossing Guard, The Indian Runner and The Pledge. Last thing I would like to say is that it can make people think about a lot of things in life like making your decisions about what you have a destiny and a great passion for like Chris had a destiny to live in the wild and experience a life of his own. It is a true story which is another reason why I really liked this film.