Reviews by SJMJ91

Insomnia is in my opinion one of the most underrated films of all time. It is a film that has a very enjoyable, fate-deciding and twisted story that I found deeply interesting from start to finish. I think the reason why I loved this film so much was that it was one of my kinds of films: murder mystery without being too complex, twists, tense and dramatic and a great ensemble cast. Insomnia is one of those films that I wasn't expecting to love as much as I actually did. It is a film that you will get totally gripped with especially with a shocking twist that affects the whole film as well as the characters within the film. It isn't a complex murder mystery film like Zodiac but it is just a simple film that just entertains and thrills audiences all the way through. This is the sort of film that would keep you awake if you are falling asleep watching it which is another reason why I really love this film a lot.


This film features three outstanding actors who are all Oscar winners: Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. Al Pacino's performance is one that some people would be disappointed by but I personally think it wasn't disappointing at all because I was gripped with Detective Will Dormer and what his fate and the fate of the rest of the film would be which is what attracted Pacino's performance to the character meant to me. It isn't Al Pacino's best performance but in my opinion it is one of my favourites from him. Robin Williams' performance as Walter Finch actually surprised me. He made a good impression of playing a villain in this film. One thing that was rather strange was that I personally believe Robin made Walter's character a pretty predictable one because I knew he was the villain even though he was denying it to begin with until he revealed he was in fact the murderer. Robin should consider in portraying some more villains in films because he is actually pretty good at doing that. Hilary Swank gives another awesome performance which is pretty predictable because she is one of those actresses who doesn't disappoint at all. Ellie Burr is like the rookie of the investigation so she learns from Will Dormer and his partner Hap Eckhart but when Eckhart is accidentally shot by Dormer and she slowly learns the truth she sees a darker side to being a detective than just seeing criminals in the outside world.


I love Nolan's work in all of his films because he hasn't done one bad film yet. It's the same thing with David Fincher too. Nolan's Insomnia is Fincher's Zodiac and it's that simple apart from Insomnia is better. Nolan's work on Insomnia wasn't like his work on Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Memento and The Prestige because he only directed Insomnia but he wrote and/or produced the other films. Chris Nolan has always been a director of creating visual dark stories but this is the only one that isn't so. The awesome cast, story and script were the things that didn't make this a disappointment to me at all. I didn't know George Clooney was one of the executive producers of Insomnia until writing this review now. I was surprised that he did produce it but to be fair he and other producers within the film actually did quite a good job. I know that some people might critisize me and have critisized me for saying that Insomnia is Nolan's second best film after The Dark Knight and Memento is his least best work even though that is still amazing but it is one's opinion.


Insomnia is a really fun film that I just loved for its entertaining story, interesting characters and the way it was filmed. Out of the three Oscar winning actors in Insomnia, Hilary Swank is the best out of them. Her performance is still obviously better in Boys Don't Cry. I find it to be one of the best films from Robin Williams and Al Pacino too. Insomnia is one of my favourite films for those reasons and other reasons in my review. It is one of my favourites of 2002 as well. I find it to be one of those rare intense, thrilling, murder mystery masterpieces that people can appreciate for being what it is: entertainment.

I was unsure what my expectations were going to be of this film at first because it seems quite a weird film but what draw my attention to If.... was that Stanley Kubrick was fascinated and inspired by Malcolm McDowell's performance which lead to Malcolm's part in A Clockwork Orange. Anyway about If...., I thought this film was just really good that had a lot of hard to watch scenes including some bullying and also of the gunfights and that aggressive making out in the café between Mick Travis and that young girl like they were fighting and literally biting each other. It was very well filmed especially when some of the scenes went into black-and-white. That reminded me a lot of Memento because those scenes were scenes at a dark time or an important time for Mick. This film ends like there is going to be more. I am now going to watch it's two sequels O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital.


Malcolm McDowell's performance in his first film as Mick Travis started in a huge way with a very powerful performance that made the character very realistic and quite fearful as well. Mick is a young man who is a student at the school but is a bit of a troublemaker. The way Mick was lead down to using guns and murdering people was a lot like how Travis Bickle's life started to go downfall. Malcolm made a very good impression as Mick for Kubrick to cast him as Alex DeLarge. His character was very similar to Alex because of the badass side to his personality and also of the way he behaves with people. He looks rather evil with that badass side. Despite of how villainous he ends up becoming, he is really cool. He has that Harry Callahan sort of cool taste to his character. In this film and also in A Clockwork Orange, I don't think Malcolm had a very big problem appearing nude in his early films. He has a brave talent for that as well. After all, it is only acting and acting isn't real-life.


Personally, I think that Lindsay Anderson's directing in If.... was just really awesome. It was really awesome as well because his directing regarding Malcolm McDowell leads him to Alex DeLarge and led Kubrick to his best film character as well. Lindsay makes the story very believable and very thrilling as well. It is rather strange because If.... is apparently the first of a trilogy but the trilogy are supposed to slightly fall apart. That's what I heard about it anyway. It was a very well filmed piece of filmmaking that is an underrated Malcolm McDowell film and a bit of an underrated trilogy as well from Anderson.


Malcolm McDowell is best remembered for the films he was in the past when he was a lot younger. A Clockwork Orange is his most famous film and is his best performance but If.... is a great film with a really solid performance from McDowell and he didn't really earn as much credit as he should have such as a special award for best newcomer or something. It is one of the best films from the British. The British have always been probably the best at making normal comedies and black-comedies as well but we are good at making crime thrillers as well. This is definite recommendation to those people who are fans of Malcolm McDowell. Also for people who love crime thrillers from the British. I haven't seen it but after reading a synopsis, if any of you have seen The History Boys then you should watch If.... It is a really good piece of 1 hour 40 minutes pure entertainment that you can just sit back and enjoy. See this film when you get chance.

Grave Of The Fireflies truly is one of the most powerful animated films ever made. It is a film that shows us all what love really is. It tells an heroic and yet tragic tale of a young teenage boy who looks after his little sister during World War II. There havent been that many animated films that havent been half as emotional as this film was. This is the second most emotional non-Disney animated film after Shrek. This film made me feel really proud of myself because I have a little sister who is only 3 years old and it showed me how I can look after her. So, I have to say that this is one of the biggest inspirations to me. It is a story that a lot of people love because of the story and also of how affective it can be to peoples lives in general. Also, it is a film that can break peoples hearts because of the atmosphere of the film and what actually happens within it. This film was well directed but I was hoping that it would be directed by Hayao Miyazaki. But it was still a good direction from Isao Takahata. The script was good aswell because it truly seemed like a very heartfelt and epic animated fairy tale aswell. I would say that this is very similar to Miyazakis animated films because they are obviously animés. As far as live aciton war films are concerned, this one is quite similar to Life Is Beautiful because of an older close relative looking after a child apart from that it is brother looking after sister in Grave Of The Fireflies and father looking after son in Life Is Beautiful but they have quite a similar sort of meaning to it.

The chemistry between Sensuko and Senita was adorable because obviously all brothers and sister argue in real life but in this one, it shows that they can get along really well at times. It sort of helped me with my relationship with my 15 year old sister which is great. This was just so heartwarming without any violence, sex nor bad language. It shows us beauty aswell as the horror of WWII that is really was. It shows beauty of discovering about themselves. The animated effects were superb indeed which reached over my expectations because there werent really any animé films in the 1980s. This is like the start of great animated films. This is my second favourite animé film after Miyazakis Spirited Away. Masterpiece!!

The sequel surprised me because there are some sequels in family films that aren't very good but this one was really good. One thing where I enjoyed this one but not as much as the first one was pretty much the whole plot was the same all over again with almost the exact same events occuring. I think that is where some people might not be that fond of this one because of the plot being pretty much the same. I think that is something that most people love about the Home Alone series like every time it is experienced on TV, it must be a hilarious yet quite scary experience in real life. The endings of both films are pretty much the same but in different environments and different problems but Kevin still has the same problem. The only difference is that it is Kevin is in Manhattan New York and has to look after himself and also some of the traps that Kevin sets up for Harry and Marv are quite different too whereas there are very few that are the same. If they were all the same, the film would've been an ultimate failer. If they made it slightly different, it could have been a bit better than the first one but because it was pretty much the same of everything as the first one it didn't seem as brilliant. It is a wacky coincidence that in all of the Home Alone films that the main child character in the film gets lost or goes missing every Christmas. Like I said in my review of this first film: The traps that Kevin sets for Harry and Marv are so dangerous and they hurt themselves so badly like falling down the stairs, falling of buildings, slipping off ladders etc, you could just think "How are they not dead?" The stunts and traps in this one are more dangerous because there is fire used, lots of tins and a lot of falling too.


Macaulay Culkin's return as Kevin was a fantastic one. He is still playing that over-intelligent young child who seems to know everything. Sometimes, he doesn't even seem to be real because of the unusual intelligence of the child at such a young age. It seems like it's a person with a 10-year-old body but the brain of a 17/18-year-old. Just like before, he wasn't that bothered when he lost his family again but as time drags on and especially when Harry and Marv come into the picture he begins to really miss them and wish they were with him. Culkin was 10-years-old in the first film but is 12-years-old in the second film but to be perfectly honest he doesn?t look or behave any different and neither does the Kevin character. Just like in the first film, there is someone Kevin becomes freaked out by at the start but when he speaks to them properly he becomes good friends with them. It was Marley in the first one and the Bird Lady who both help Kevin fight off Harry and Marv in each of the films. Joe Pesci and David Stern return once again as Harry and Marv. I worked it out that David Stern is exactly a foot taller than Joe Pesci. They both remind me a lot of Horace and Jasper in 101 Dalmatians: one short and fat and the other really tall and skinny. Harry's surname is Lime. Harry Lime is a very famous character in the classic film The Third Man. Marv's surname is Merchants. We find out their surnames in the sequel not in the first film. Catherine O'Hara made another irritating return as Kate McCallister.


Chris Columbus directs another brilliant Home Alone film and doesn't fail in the slightest. I am glad that Columbus only directed the first two because if he directed the third and fourth without Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, David Stern and Catherine O'Hara starring it, I think that Columbus' great works of the Home Alone films would have been a massive waste.


Home Alone 2: Lost In New York is another brilliant Home Alone film that I really enjoyed but isn't as good as the first one. The first one is better than the second by about a mile. Home Alone 2: Lost In New York is a really exciting, hilarious sequel to a family phenomenon that I really enjoyed watching.

Home Alone is a classic phenomenon that is one of the most memorable family films that have ever been made. I can't fully remember whether I saw this film as a very young child or not but when I saw it around November 2007 and after a few rewatches, Home Alone turned out to be a masterpiece that is absolutely hilarious that literally made me cry with laughter. To me, Home Alone is almost a perfect family film because it is filled with magic, witty humour and wacky slapstick. It is a very clumsy story but it is perfect for a family. What I think is so funny about this film is that it's packed with slapstick and wit, it almost becomes like a magic dream. The traps that Kevin sets for Harry and Marv are so dangerous and they hurt themselves so badly like falling down the stairs, falling of buildings, slipping off ladders etc, you could just think "How are they not dead?" That is where this film becomes a slight comical film that does become quite graphic at times.


Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister is one of the most iconic child performances of all time. One thing that is still cool but is rather mindless about this film is that there is no such thing as an 8-year-old being that intelligent who oustmarts two burglars with traps, looks after himself by going shopping, washing his clothes etc. Kevin is a young boy who is the most sensitive and most dis-obedient child in the family but he is really a good kid. When he ends up in a fight with a member of his family, his mother makes him sleep upstairs in the cellar. The next morning, the whole family go on holiday and don't even notice he's not there until they're on the plane half way through their journey. Joe Pesci is absolutely fantastic in this film as crook Harry. He really does seem like the short, fat, slimey, greedy kind of person to in a film like this. Danny DeVito would have done a good job in this film too. David Stern is the other crook who attempts to break into the McCallister house called Marv. Stern is the tall skinny one which is exactly the opposite to Joe Pesci. They are both idiots but Marv is the really stupid one. Harry tries to act smart especially with Kevin but most of the time he fails. I am unsure whether Pesci and Stern perform their own stunts in this film with the traps that they are put under when playing the characters but from what I can see, they do. Another thing that is so good about Kevin's character is because he never tells his family about Harry and Marv because he pretends they never happen because they're both such idiots and pieces of entertainment for him.


Chris Columbus is a fantastic director of family films especially over the 1990s particularly in the 1990s. This was his breakthrough film. He directed the Home Alone sequel and Mrs. Doubtfire. Columbus is a genius for creating such a fantastic masterpiece! I think the best technical quality this film has is the music involved.


Home Alone is a family phenomenon that is better than the sequel but isn't far from that spot. Home Alone is Columbus' finest film. Yes, even better than Mrs. Doubtfire but only just because I do love that film. It is better than the sequel and is probably better than the third and fourth film too. Home Alone is one of my very close favourite comedy and family films. Home Alone is one of the best achieved family classics that have ever come to the screen. It is the second best Christmas film of all time after The Classic Of Classics It's A Wonderful Life. Home Alone is a beautiful, hilariously tearjerking and rather life-teaching film that I recommend to not every family but to every person on Earth.

Heavenly Creatures is a really terrifying story about a true story that happened quite a long time ago. This film wasn't so much scary but it was just a really psychological story to watch. It was a film that is very hard to watch. It seems a very peaceful story to start with during the first 20 minutes of the film but when the two girls were getting closer from best friends into a lesbian relationship it became a very dark story that gives a very heartfelt and tragic conclusion. It was a really romantic story between the two girls which reminded me quite a bit of Aileen and Selby in Monster. That is where it was beautiful but only by reading the synopsis and the way the film carried on, I knew that it was going to end in a very effective and hard way. The title of the film is very genuine and very heartfelt but it is as bright and beautiful as it seems. It is very psychological because the two girls literally become obsessed with each other and won't let anyone come between them. Both of the young women give solid performances but are both very different types of characters and they portray them in different ways.


Melanie Lynskey gives a very good performance as Pauline Parker. Pauline was the psychological woman within the film who despises her mother for getting too deeply involved with her relationship with Juliet. What I really loved about Melanie as Pauline was because she was actually really terrifying to watch which not many people have actually made me feel when playing a really psychological character. Kate Winslet's performance as Juliet Hulme was without a single doubt one of the best acting debuts of all time. People took more consideration into Sense And Sensibility as her acting debut which lead to top blockbuster Titanic. Kate's performance as Juliet was very emotional and heartbreaking. They both bonded really well and each girl became the other's way as the film carried on. Pauline is the psychological character and Juliet is the emotional and heartbreaking character. They are both the leading roles for the film. They are a bit like the villainous Thelma & Louise apart from that they are obviously villains but are also lesbians. Their relationship leads objection from both of their families but it is a story that tells the audience that there is a price that must be paid to one of the characters.


Peter Jackson has created one of the extremely most underrated films of all time. He will be best remembered for Lord Of The Rings obviously and also King Kong but he should be remembered for Heavenly Creatures as well. To me, Peter Jackson has given me a brief idea from Heavenly Creatures of what his upcoming film The Lovely Bones will be like because that is a psychological thriller. It was really clever the way Peter got Harry Lime from The Third Man involved in this film. Peter Jackson's direction was just amazing. He directs this film like no other director could but unfortunately it is very underrated. I find it to be the most underrated film of all time. This is a really awesome film from Peter Jackson but it is my least favourite film from him. I do prefer Lord Of The Rings and King Kong a lot more. I might give his other pre-Lord Of The Rings films a chance as well such as Meet The Feebles, Braindead, Bad Taste, Forgotten Silver and The Frighteners.


This is an underrated Kate Winslet performance as well. Her performance was very Oscar worthy just like Melanie Lynskey's performance was also. Despite how good Kate was in this film, as far as live-action films are concerned, Heavenly Creatures is my least favourite live-action film from her. She has been in 5 other masterpieces. She has never disappointed in all of her career thus far. Overall, this film was very dramatic, very tense and even quite scary. This is a high recommendation to those people who love psychological thrillers and also those people who just love Peter Jackson or Kate Winslet's work. I wouldn't call Heavenly Creatures a masterpiece but I would call it a film that I could watch more than once. Also, I would call it THE most underrated film of all time.

Happy-Go-Lucky is a fantastic film with such an inspiring feeling to it. It is a film that truly would make you feel good. It is a story about life-changing, love, friendship and even manipulation. It made me feel really great because of the beautiful characters, the very delightful plot and the message it gives out. It is quite emotional because Poppy loves being her jolly, cheerful self. It is a film also about enjoying life and actually getting on with it. Happy-Go-Lucky is this year's Juno and Little Miss Sunshine.


Sally Hawkins gives the best female comedy performance of 2008 thus far. Poppy is a year old primary school teacher who just gets on with life like a lazy gift. She is hilarious in which Sally was really fantastic at when playing Poppy. When I saw her Golden Globe nomination and her possible Oscar nominated performance, I couldn't believe it was that woman from British TV sketch comedy show Little Britain. Sally is a delightful, intelligent and extremely sexy actress and so is Poppy as a character which makes Sally Hawkins the perfect actress to play Poppy. The name 'Poppy' is a bright and delightful name which connects well with her personality. She seems like a nice person to meet but Poppy acts like a bitch at times so that is the negativity of the character especially when she is with driving instructor Scott. Sally will win Golden Globe and will hopefully earn Oscar nomination too. Eddie Marsan delivers a hard hitting performance as driving instructor Scott because Eddie looks like that strict and stubborn type.


This is the first of Mike Leigh films that I've seen. He directs this film mostly to how Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directed Little Miss Sunshine. He creates a new scenery so to speak of characters to come across and face. Most comedies are original with original scripts. The script was very good, very emotional and very humourous. Happy-Go-Lucky is the second best comedy of 2008 after In Bruges. Sally Hawkins has drawn my attention to her now just like Ellen Page did in Juno last year. One of my top films of 2008. Deserves quite a lot of Oscar chances. It was underrated when released in UK in April but isn't anymore after Globe nominations were announced and the attention the Academy has given to it. Masterpiece!!

I really loved this film! Happy Gilmore is a very fun, exciting, hilarious, dramatic and heartwarming film that I think would be perfect for a family who have children who are at least over 11 years old. Happy Gilmore is a hilarious film that I think is a bit underrated as far as Adam Sandler films are concerned. Happy Gilmore has a very thoughtless plot but is a plot that is so thoughtless it's really fun. This is one of those films that are aimed at anybody just to entertain and make all people enjoy and experience. Also, it is one of those typical entertainment films that are great for Saturday night pizzas on the couch with a cold drink.


Adam Sandler is a good actor and he is the only actor who would have made Happy Gilmore an unfailed character. I don't really like him very much but he can make me laugh at times. His portrayal of Happy Gilmore is very funny and is very witty, clumsy and quite dumb on occasions. Happy Gilmore is a young man who has no family other than his widow grandmother. His father died when he was a young child and his mum left the family. When Happy discovers that his grandmother owes money to the IRS, he must try and earn money to get her house back. He then goes onto a golf open and wins it. When he becomes a professional golfer, he plays for the money but little does he realise as he is playing more golf the more he wants to play golf because he enjoys it and he is happy. Christopher McDonald is an idiot in this film as Shooter McGavin. Shooter is a middle aged man who is a professional golfer who has won it all in golf except the Tour Championship and the gold jacket. When Happy Gilmore comes into the Tour Championship, there becomes a rivalry between the two that have consequences. Julie Bowen as Tour public director Virginia Vennet is a good character but has lack of believability when it comes to what her job is. She is a very hot actress indeed. Ben Stiller makes a very mild uncredited appearance as Hal who is the manager of the old people's home where Grandma Gilmore is staying. He treats the people in the home like workers for his own business.


Happy Gilmore is a really entertaining fun sports film that I have watched timeless times when I have been in the mood for a laugh. Happy Gilmore is my favourite Adam Sandler and hopefully always will be. Happy Gilmore is a fantastic piece of entertainment that is perfect for a chill-out night.

Holy shit! What an absolutely amazing suspensful, non-stop, scary thrill ride this was! At first I didn't really want to watch Halloween because I am not a big horror fan but after hearing that Jamie Lee Curtis was in it and also a few people have recommended it to me, I decided to see what it was like. I wasn't surprised that it was good because I think that's what most horror films are like. This film really scared me but that is what I loved about this one! Also, what I love the most about horror films is that they never stop. Halloween is one of the early horror films that received a lot of glory and credit. This is no The Exorcist or The Shining but it is still a classic horror film nevertheless. Halloween is the first of a series of horror films that go worst and worst as they go on. I haven't seen all of them but after seeing what most horror franchises are like; for example, the Saw franchise. For these reasons, I am NOT going to watch anymore of the Halloween films (same with the Saw films.


Jamie Lee Curtis made a very famous debut in almost her very first feature film. This is probably the one film that she is most remembered for but I do still love her performances in True Lies and especially the comedy of all time A Fish Called Wanda. Her performance as Laurie Strode was really awesome! She gets herself into a really awkward and very hard situation on Halloween night because she has to babysit Tommy Doyle. The problem that they have is there is serial killer Michael Myers on the loose who is going around killing people. At the beginning of the film we witness Myers as a 6-year-old murder his 15-year-old sister with a kitchen knife. After seeing this moment, it is so gripping you feels like you're in the situation with Laurie especially when Myers starts to stalk her. When you see Michael Myers in a mask, I sort of recall him as an original villain compared to Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films.


The directing was absolutely awesome! This wouldn't have been good for a director like Stanley Kubrick to direct but it would have been good for someone like M. Night Shyamalan. However, if he directed it I don't think it would have been half as good as it really was. John Carpenter is a genius at directing this masterpiece! This film was perfectly written because I think it wanted the audience to feel chills down their back or for them to keep their eyes open through the film without falling asleep which both things did happen to me when I was watching this film.


Halloween is one of my favourite horror films of all time! It doesn't quite beat The Shining, Saw or 28 Days Later. This is probably the classic horror franchise alongside Nightmare On Elm Street but there is absolutely no chance that I'm going to be watching that! Halloween is a horrific, terrifying, tense, scary, non-stop thrill ride that thrilled me from start to finish as it should thrill everybody who watches this film!

Goya's ghosts is a film that i found really bizarre because we see lots of medieval-like sceneries that is set in the 15th or 16th century. It is a film with a lot of bizarre yet dramatic consequences. I don't know how to fully explain what this film was like to watch. All I can say is that it was a very emotional and depressing story, a story with a little taste of Amadeus to it and it has very good characters. The best keyword I could describe Goya's Ghosts is weird. It is a very indescribable film to me. Javier Bardem was good as Lorenzo because he showed that lovable and weirdness to the character but I somehow feel he was quite villainous because I have a sneaky feeling that he raped Inés while she was in prison. He had that slightly scary look like he was in No Country For Old Men.


Natalie Portman was good as Inés but was like a real prisoner and was a very powerful character with a hard life. I was blown away by how nude Natalie went in one of the scenes in this film. She went rather nude in Closer when she had the stripper clothes on.


Milos Forman's directing was very different compared to his best film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest but on the other hand it was similar to Amadeus because of the costume drama storyline. The script was rather lame on occasions but there were some scenes that were quite entertaining. I couldn't fully understand the story for some reason. The art direction was absolutely awesome with a Sweeney Todd/Gangs Of New York type of design. The costumes were fantastic as well with a very similar sort of design as those two films. The make-up was really good on Natalie Portman because she really did look old when Inés is released from prison. She portrays her own daughter aswell and yet she looked really young. That is where Goya's Ghosts was really weird to watch.


This is not my favourite Natalie Portman film at all but it is her weirdest performance yet. Goya's Ghosts certainly isn't Javier Bardem's best film either. A good film with a very bizarre dialogue.