Reviews by SJMJ91

Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming To Dinner's groundbreaking story deals with interracial marriage. Interracial marriage has been illegal in most of the USA, and was still illegal in seventeen southern American states up until June 12 of the year of the film's release. Because of this, I have been intrigued to see the message the film was going to send. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner is a beautiful, inspiring yet thought-provoking story about two races joining together. It felt like a peace-making kind of situation between the two families by two races trying to get along for their children. This film reminded me a lot of both Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers apart from Guess Who's Coming To Dinner isn't a comedy.


The cast are another thing in this film that I was deeply interested in. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made their 9th and final on-screen partnership. Spencer Tracy died 17 days after the filming ended. Spencer Tracy's final performance as Matt Drayton was absolutely AMAZING!! This is the first film that I have seen from Tracy but his other films seem hard to overtake Guess Who's Coming To Dinner as his best film. Tracy's performance as Matt Drayton was a lot like Robert De Niro's performance in Meet The Parents. Katharine Hepburn delivers another legendary performance as Christina Drayton. I could see the real emotion in Katharine Hepburn's eyes during this film. In the last scene of the film, she was crying in real life, apparently, because it was going to be her last on-screen partnership with Tracy anyway even though he died. Sidney Poitier's performance was absolutely brilliant! I found it to be a very brave choice to play a character like Dr. John Prentice because Dr. Prentice is a man who has met a young white girl, they're engaged, he has met her parents and they are uneasy of them to marry because of his skin colour. There are families who would feel awkward with this but at the end of the day, they're still a human being. Katharine Houghton delivers a good performance too as Joanna "Joey" Drayton. Houghton is Hepburn's on-screen daughter but is her real-life niece.


Stanley Kramer creates a beautiful, heart-warming and thought-provoking masterpiece that has touched a lot of hearts within everyone who has seen this film. It became a huge effect in USA when the film when it was released back in 1967. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner is one of those rare films where the whole film is set in one day. I absolutely love films like that. They obviously didn't film it all in one day.


Overall, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner is a beautiful, inspiring and thought-provoking film that will touch your heart whatever race you are. Definitely one of my new favourite films!! Recommend it to EVERYONE!

Three reasons why I gave this film a chance: stars 2nd favourite actor Tom Hanks and another favourite actor of mine: Ewan McGregor and it is a Ron Howard film and he is a good director. I really didn't like The Da Vinci Code so my expectations weren't very high at all. I thought of this pretty much the same as The Da Vinci Code apart from that the story in Angels And Demons wasn’t as complex as The Da Vinci Code.


Tom Hanks delivers another unsatisfactory performance as Professor Robert Langdon. Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actors if not my favourite but once again the Robert Langdon character didn't suit Tom at all. There are some characters that Tom has played in the past where you think to yourself "OMG! This is like real!'' but in Angels And Demons, this felt like a film that Tom was forced to be in even though the character doesn't suit him at all. Tom was the right age for the character, just not the right person. Ewan McGregor as a vicar?!?! Are you kidding?! He is Mark Renton (Trainspotting), Obi-Wan (Star Wars prequels), Edward Bloom (Big Fish) and Christian (Moulin Rouge!)!! Playing a vicar is the last thing that I was expecting Ewan to play. I didn't even find the character very interesting. I think the keyword to describe the character is "wooden" because it is dull and stupid!! Despite the fact she is quite attractive, Ayalet Zurer annoyed me in this film for the same reason as Ewan McGregor in this film: dull and stupid.


I have always been a fan of Ron Howard but I think that Angels And Demons as well as The Da Vinci Code are just big mistakes. However, there were some moments of good directing in Angels And Demons. Most of the script was stupid but some but very few ways it was quite good.


Overall, Angels And Demons is a disappointment like The Da Vinci Code but a tiny bit better, though. Hope Ron Howard or Tom Hanks don't star in anymore Dan Brown books. To be honest, I think you'll only really understand both films if you have at least read the books.

The Holiday did look like from the DVD cover and trailer like a typical romantic comedy with obviously romance and comedy but with a predictable story. This one was special because it is a story about differences between men and women. It sends an important message that men have problems with women and women have problems with men. What I love about romantic comedies is that the story/stories within the film are very gripping and you want to know what happens in the end. It was a very emotional film where you can cry of heartbreak for all four characters or can cry with joy. I was touched by this film almost as much as Love Actually. That is my favourite romantic comedy and The Holiday is definitely one of the best.


This film had a great cast!! As predicted, Kate Winslet delivers the best performance out of all four actors within the film. I admit that they all deliver great performances, even Jack Black. Amanda (Cameron Diaz) is a young woman who has just split from her boyfriend after he cheated on her with another woman, Iris (Winslet) is a young woman who is in love with her ex and work colleague. When she finds out that he is engaged to another woman, she decides to go to America to exchange homes with Amanda for a fortnight. Jude Law's performance as Graham was really good. I really like him now! Closer, Cold Mountain, Sherlock Holmes and now The Holiday are all films that make me appreciate him a lot more. Graham is a widower who is Iris's brother and he has two daughters called Sophie and Olivia. He goes to visit Iris in her London cottage but ends up meeting Amanda but one problem at the time in the situation: he was quite drunk. Despite, he was drunk, it was like love at first sight between Graham and Amanda. Jack Black's performance was surprisingly good as Miles. Miles is a man who is a friend of Amanda's who meets Iris accidentally like Graham did with Amanda. He has problems of his own regarding the opposite sex. There are two Americans (Diaz and Black) and two British (Winslet and Law) and one man and one woman from each country fall in love. Despite separate storylines, Iris and Graham know each other because they are siblings and Amanda and Miles know each other because they are friends.


Overall, The Holiday is one of the most delightful films of the noughties. You should definitely see it for its great cast (even for Jack Black). Definitely one of the best romantic comedies I've seen.

When it was released in early 2009 it became one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2009 so my expectations were rather high. When I saw it, I thought it was brilliant! This film reminded me a lot of The Kingdom and Black Hawk Down because it is set in a poor environment. Also the plots are quite similar especially between The Kingdom and The Hurt Locker because they are both set in Iraq. There have been a lot of action-war films in the noughties where they have sucked or just been decent either because of weak plot or bad directing. The Hurt Locker became in my opinion the best action-war film of the decade. The plot was very clever and it was quite simple as well. The visual effects, make-up and production design were all absolutely terrific! No doubt it'll be nominated Best Picture so it should but I don't think it totally deserves the Best Picture award.


Jeremy Renner's performance was really good as Sergeant First Class William James. He becomes the team leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit replacing Staff Sergeant Thompson, who was killed by a remote-detonated improvised explosive device (IED) in Baghdad. He joins Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge, whose jobs are to communicate with their team leader via radio inside his bombsuit, and provide him with rifle cover while he examines IEDs. He is a contender to be nominated Best Leading Actor this year but I don't think he should be nominated for it because he just doesn't seem as good as Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Morgan Freeman and Viggo Mortensen look in their films. Anthony Mackie's performance was great as well. Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and David Morse give good performances in supporting roles too.


Kathryn Bigelow directed this film brilliantly! Was directed a lot like how Ridley Scott directed Black Hawk Down but better. She has always been an underrated director and The Hurt Locker is her breakthrough film where she could earn Oscar glory. She deserves the Oscar for me if Tarantino doesn't win. Personally, I don't think there could have been a better director for this film. Bigelow really shows the horror of war and what British and American soldiers are going through in Iraq right now. For this reason, The Hurt Locker is a soul catching film that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. The script was absolutely fantastic too.


Overall, The Hurt Locker is a fantastic war film that is definitely one of the best war films of all time. It is a favourite for Best Picture but I think that some other films deserve it more. Highly recommended!!

I wasn't sure what to make of this film when I first saw the trailer. I was thinking that it was just going to be a film for entertainment. That is exactly what it was but I found the acting from Downey Jr. and Law absolutely brilliant!! This film reminded me a lot of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow because it is set in the 1700-1800s; it is set in a dark background, it is a mystery film and Sherlock is a slightly similar kind of character as Ichabod Crane.


Robert Downey Jr. delivers another absolutely awesome performance! His career really is getting back on track again. Sherlock is a typical Robert Downey Jr. character to be honest because he is a rather witty character and is an absolute genius in other ways too. His performance is a lot like Johnny Depp's performance in Sleepy Hollow because as I've said, Ichabod and Holmes are quite similar. I think most people saw it for Robert Downey Jr. more than for its entertainment which is really good! His on-screen partnership with Jude Law was awesome! Law's performance as Dr. Watson was awesome as well. I never really liked Jude Law very much before but after seeing Sherlock Holmes, Cold Mountain and especially Closer, I am starting to really like his films now. This is a new kind of film for him and he did a fine job like Downey Jr. did. Rachel McAdam's performance wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. I was quite disappointed with her involvement within the film because I felt like she wasn't involved as much as she should've been. Also, I didn't really like her character very much. Mark Strong was a villain who I had mixed feelings for. I mean, he was quite a scary, threatening character but I just don't think they should've "killed him" at the start of the film because Watson not realising that he had no pulse but was still alive was quite silly. It was irrelevant; to be honest, but as the film went on it worked which did please me.


Guy Ritchie tries something new. He usually does modern crime films but this time he did a mystery film set in the 1700s. Sherlock Holmes is still a crime film, though. I mean, if I hadn't read the film details before I watched it, I wouldn't have recognized this as a Guy Ritchie film at all. It was more Holmes than Ritchie which was mostly good because if Ritchie made it like he has done in the past with modern crime films, it would've really failed. I think this would have been a good Tim Burton film if not Richie. I think this because of the similarity between Sleepy Hollow and Sherlock Holmes.


Overall, Sherlock Holmes is a very entertaining film with intense action scenes and good comedy. I find it almost one of the best of 2009. I like Guy Richie even more as I watch more of his films. As for Robert Downey Jr., keep up these great performances!! If they are planning a Sherlock Holmes sequel, I shall look forward to it.

X-Men III is a good yet disappointing film. Where I think it is flawed is that is a film with a massive ensemble cast with an overloaded mixed set of different stories involved with all of the superheros which is where Spider-Man 3 flawed. Don't get me wrong it's a good film but I personally believe that it is lacking the meaning of the title of the film. The very ending doesn't really make it a "last stand" at all just like I don't think the Alkatraz battle doesn't really either. It was an interesting conclusion but wasn't mixed well with the title of the film. I think the main thing I liked about X-Men: The Last Stand was seeing characters with different kinds of powers.


Hugh Jackman is brilliant as Logan/Wolverine once again. Jackman really does portray Logan/Wolverine on the very deadly, violent and aggressive side but we also see the sensitive and emotional side to him especially when Jean is involved. Halle Berry was good as Storm again but I would like to hear a story about Storm's personal life. We did hear her real name "Ororo" which was stated by Hank McCoy/Beast. I always knew that Ian McKellen was the best actor within the X-Men films. I think this because he provides Magneto's personality with such force that becomes very dominant, quite stubborn who is to never give up and also what he acts like around people within the film. I think Ian McKellen is the only actor who I could have pictured playing Magneto. Patrick Stewart collides with Ian McKellen almost perfectly as Magneto's once friend but now enemy and founder of Mutant School Charles Xavier. Stewart's acting was very powerful with a very dominant personality but it is for the greater good unlike Magneto who only thinks about himself. Famke Janssen's return was really good but I think it wasn't really thought clearly enough because it would have been a major shock if it was a twist that she returned unexpectedly despite the film having being made and the film out in the cinema without her name in the opening credits. Phoenix is a very powerful mutant but like in the previous two films, there was lacking of what Jean's deep inner power really was. There were a few twists and turns that occurred within the film that Jean was involved in but her return was something that everybody knew which is where I was quite disappointed. I liked new characters Beast, Angel, Shadowcat, Juggernaut who were played by Kelsey Grammar, Ben Foster, Ellen Page and Vinnie Jones.


I am actually glad Bryan Singer didn't direct this one because he might have overloaded this one even more than it already was. For example, Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man 3 but that flawed because he tried to hard on it to impress audiences which is something I think Bryan Singer would have ended up doing. Brett Ratner who directed the third film actually did a good job. The script was slightly flat at times where I think that some scenes were a bit too short but it was an enjoyable.


X-Men III: The Last Stand is almost the same thing as Spider-Man 3: an enjoyable mess. I enjoyed Spider-Man 3 more because it was more interesting and was more believable than this one. It is a bit of a disappointment but I was more disappointed with Superman Returns. It is the worst of the trilogy but I really hope that X-Men Origins: Wolverine won't be worse than it despite all the negative reviews and comments I've heard and read about it.

When I first saw this film, I really hated it because it was the single most bizzare and confusing film that I had ever witnessed. I went through the whole film without understanding one bit but after a second viewing I knew more about it because I had seen the film before and I remember the scenes. I understood it more too. Mostly because I could see this time about the intension of each of the characters particularly the three characters Hugh Jackman portrays. I can easily see now how beautiful this film really is. This film teaches us about love, death, spirituality and the fragility of our existence in this world. This film isnt just beautiful because of the characters but because of the beautiful and colourful sceneries particularly involving the Tomas in the book with the beard and long hair and mostly the bald Tomas with the Tree Of Life and the stars. Despite of how beautiful The Fountain is, it is really quite depressing because of Tomas and his wife Izzi. Izzi is dying from cancer and Tomas attempts to find a cure. It makes us think about whether there really is a cure of death somewhere in this world and because death is a so-called disease, life is our destiny and we do the best of what God gave us. This film is such an inspiration to a lot of people and it inspired me a lot. My really good friend Alex encouraged me to watch this again after I didnt like it at first. So thanks alot, Alex. I didnt realise how great this film really is.


Hugh Jackman delivers a really good performance as Tommy, Tom Creo and Tomas. They are all different characters and Jackman portrayed all three really accurately. He obviously looks different and all of the characters are completely different. The only thing they have in common is that they all try and achieve something even if it leads to anything drastic. Rachel Weisz delivers a really emotional and powerful performance mostly as Izzi but also as Queen Isabel. Izzi tries to teach Tom about immortality when he reads her book called The Fountain. Rachel makes Izzi a really loving and caring young woman and an easy person to get along with too.


The direction was simply amazing. The camera angles were awesome particularly on Tom Creo in the ball with the tree floating into the sky. I loved the absolutely awesome script. It is quite clever actually because it is really well written for such a complex and difficult film and hard plot. The script was very touching and was very beautiful too because I felt that all of the quotes that were said makes us think about two people in love forever. It is like Tomas and Izzi are in their own world in their own illusions.


This was my favourite Aronofsky film until I saw The Wrestler. The Fountain showed us how beautiful life can be and also how good death can be to us too. This people can teach people who to get over and move on from things that have involved their loved ones who has died. Also, like I said earlier in my review, it teaches us about what life is really like. The only little flaw in this film was that it only involved two people really where I think it would have been better if it were not just Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. I personally wished that Ellen Burstyn was in this film a bit more. For me, this film achieved a brand new style of science fiction films that we are hoping to see in the future.

My expectations of Crank were neither high nor low. I guess I was just expecting a typical, entertaining, violent and explosive action film. I did get that but I didn't enjoy it as much as I have done with other entertaining action films. Crank was obviously everything that an action film should technically have but I thought that the story was pretty stupid, it wasn't very well written and the acting was pretty lame. It is a very intense thrill ride that I think could have been improved by a lot.


Jason Statham isn't a very good actor at all, really, but he does fit perfectly within the action genre. His performance as Chev Chelios was pretty crap but he was a very powerful character within action scenes. Chev is a professional hitman who has been poisoned which will kill him. He could go into cardiac arrest if he doesn't keep moving and making his heart move faster. Amy Smart is lame as Eve. She is Chelios' girlfriend who unfortunately gets involved with Chelios path of revenge against Verona who was the man who poisoned him.


Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor did a pretty good job as directors of Crank. There were a lot of action scenes where there were a lot of fast and creative movements with the camera which is absolutely typical within an action film. It was obviously a very explosive action film but I thought the script within this film was pretty lame. There were a few good moments and clever lines in some moments of the film but it was mostly very flawed.


Crank is a slightly enjoyable action film that is typical in its own way. Jason Statham is a good actor in his own way like other action actors like Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lungdren and Jet Li (co-stars in The Expendables). Overall, Crank is an entertaining film that does have a lot of flawed things within it.

Letters From Iwo Jima an absolutely fantastic war film that is a fantastic example of epic filmmaking. The cinematography of the film is absolutely incredible! It is mostly green but the costumes and visual moments of the film are really dark all the way through. It was absolutely brilliantly filmed! This film is better than Flags Of Our Fathers in every single way. Flags Of Our Fathers was like a piss-take of Saving Private Ryan whereas Letters From Iwo Jima is a new standard of filmmaking in war films. It also brings back the old war films again and how they were filmed and the characters within them.


Clint Eastwood has for the past four films that he has done have had two films in the same year. In 2006: Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima and in 2008: Changeling and Gran Torino. I could see this was great producing from Spielberg. I would have thought this would have a good Spielberg film but I'm still glad that it was Eastwood though. Letters From Iwo Jima is a fantastic film but I don't think it quite deserved a Best Picture nomination. Should have gone to Notes On A Scandal or Blood Diamond instead.


Letters From Iwo Jima is Clint Eastwood's fourth best film after masterpieces Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and Changeling. Letters From Iwo Jima is definitely the best action war film of the decade thus far.

United 93 is a film that reflects the horror of September 11, 2001. The true events of what happened on United 93 that day showed the brave courage of the passengers to fight back. It showed that 1 out of the 4 hijacked planes that day failed to reach it's destination. I can't believe how well this film directed, written and produced because nobody survived the crash and they couldn't tell the story of what happened. It is a film that is very hard to watch for any American especially ones from Manhattan or ones who have lost friends or relatives due to the attacks. This film became a rival with World Trade Center because they were both released on the same year. Personally, I like World Trade Center more. The thing that I thought was slightly flawed about United 93 was that is was rather slow to begin with of when the moment would come of the hijacking of the plane which I suppose in a way is quite good.


This film doesn't really have any particular actors but it wasn't really about the characters, it was about the horrific feelings the film gave to the events that happened that day. It was the theme of the story that made it a very interesting story to watch. None of the characters really had names but as I said, that wasn't really the point of United 93.


Paul Greengrass has become an absolutely fantastic director after directing United 93 and now Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum. Despite I liked World Trade Center more, Greengrass did a better job on United 93 than Oliver Stone did in World Trade Center. The script was awesome and realistic even though there was no story told by a particular passenger on that plane because everybody on it died. Greengrass is an absolutely fantastic screenwriter as well.


United 93 is a film that shows the public who aren't American or any other American not fron New York how horrifying, scary and yet courageous that day became. Greengrass's best work is still The Bourne Ultimatum definitely but this one almost replaces it from that. After reading that this film was good for the families and friends of those who died on that plane it shows that anybody can watch it. One of the best films of 2006 and one of the Oscar Best Picture snubs.