Wow.
Really.
Sublime, subtle, powerful. A pure joy to watch from start to finish, from the impish yet self possessed and obsessive Mozart portrayed by Tom Hulce to the covetous Salieri played by F Murray Abraham.
This movie beautifully charts the unnatural ability of the cocksure Mozart as he struggles to survive against the intrigues of Salieri, a man driven mad by his lifelong desire to be everything that the vulgar Mozart seems to have swaggered into.
Whilst technically true that this story is not historically accurate (the devout Salieri marrying in 1774 and fathering 8 children in real life) history only ever records fragments of any story, and since to this day no one knows where Mozart is actually buried I think it is safe to allow a bit of artistic interpretation.
The DVD Directors Cut may seem a tad long for some, but believe me it is worth watching.
Rating: S (And I don't do that often)
Friday, 23 October 2009
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Wasted Youth Movies Special Feature
Here at Wasted Youth Movies we always try to do our part to bring the cinema closer to the hearts and souls of moviegoers everywhere, with honest, no holds barred reviews and occassional nonsense.
We are proud to present for you here our first celebrity acting lesson. We're teaming up with the legends of modern cinema in order to bring to you, the fans, an indepth and concise guide to broadening your range and abilities, to learn from the very icons who bring us with them on the cinematic journey.
And I have to tell you now, what a way to start.
We have for our first lesson a true exemplar of cinematic history, a man renowned for his depth and ability, a man not afraid to push the very boundries of modern cinema.
He has played an astronaut lost and alone, he has played a cop on the verge of meltdown, he's been a man coming to terms with the murder of his mother, and a soldier captured in Iraq. He brought intensity to a gunman on the run and gave a powerful performance as a fisherman caught in a storm.
And his brother is in New Kids On The Block.
Ladies and Gentlemen, from Wasted Youth Movies...
THE MARK WAHLBERG EMOTIONAL RANGE
JOY
ECSTASY
RELIEF
SHOCK
AWE
ANGER
RAGE
LUST
AROUSAL
'O' FACE
BOREDOM
SUSPICION
EXCITEMENT
THOUGHTFULNESS
MISCHIEVOUSNESS
BROODING
BROODING INTENSELY
MELANCHOLY
We are proud to present for you here our first celebrity acting lesson. We're teaming up with the legends of modern cinema in order to bring to you, the fans, an indepth and concise guide to broadening your range and abilities, to learn from the very icons who bring us with them on the cinematic journey.
And I have to tell you now, what a way to start.
We have for our first lesson a true exemplar of cinematic history, a man renowned for his depth and ability, a man not afraid to push the very boundries of modern cinema.
He has played an astronaut lost and alone, he has played a cop on the verge of meltdown, he's been a man coming to terms with the murder of his mother, and a soldier captured in Iraq. He brought intensity to a gunman on the run and gave a powerful performance as a fisherman caught in a storm.
And his brother is in New Kids On The Block.
Ladies and Gentlemen, from Wasted Youth Movies...
THE MARK WAHLBERG EMOTIONAL RANGE
JOY
ECSTASY
RELIEF
SHOCK
AWE
ANGER
RAGE
LUST
AROUSAL
'O' FACE
BOREDOM
SUSPICION
EXCITEMENT
THOUGHTFULNESS
MISCHIEVOUSNESS
BROODING
BROODING INTENSELY
MELANCHOLY
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Gone Baby Gone
Whilst I am loathe to admit that anything involving Ben Affleck could possibly be good I have to admit that his directorial debut is actually... good.
Casey Affleck is still a better actor than Ben though.
So the story revolves around child abduction and why it is bad, with an added sprinkling of child abuse just to make sure that we fully understand the whole emotional aspect of the story.
I'm being flippant, the movie actually is really good and almost feels like one of those gorgeous film noirs I hold so close to my heart.
The story is sound, the direction works well, the score is haunting and appropriate, most of all the acting is superb.
Casey Affleck is wonderfully understated, Michelle Monaghan is fairly superfluous but carries her character with a believable intensity, and Morgan Freeman as ever plays the knowledgeable black guy. The real star to shine in this movie is Ed Harris, he is a good actor but by God is he good here.
This is one of those movies that deserve to be seen without the taint of pre-warned plot points, so I'm not going to say anything (yes I do play that card a lot, but if I'm ever wrong then you can feel free to call me on it, or just do us both a favour and get over it).
This is going to be the first movie that I've given an 'A' rating to in a while, largely because most of Hollywood seems to care more about effects or romance driven movies rather than a compelling story, and also because I think that Casey Affleck deserves it.
Maybe Mark Wahlberg should hang out with Casey sometime and pick up a few pointers...
Rating: A
Casey Affleck is still a better actor than Ben though.
So the story revolves around child abduction and why it is bad, with an added sprinkling of child abuse just to make sure that we fully understand the whole emotional aspect of the story.
I'm being flippant, the movie actually is really good and almost feels like one of those gorgeous film noirs I hold so close to my heart.
The story is sound, the direction works well, the score is haunting and appropriate, most of all the acting is superb.
Casey Affleck is wonderfully understated, Michelle Monaghan is fairly superfluous but carries her character with a believable intensity, and Morgan Freeman as ever plays the knowledgeable black guy. The real star to shine in this movie is Ed Harris, he is a good actor but by God is he good here.
This is one of those movies that deserve to be seen without the taint of pre-warned plot points, so I'm not going to say anything (yes I do play that card a lot, but if I'm ever wrong then you can feel free to call me on it, or just do us both a favour and get over it).
This is going to be the first movie that I've given an 'A' rating to in a while, largely because most of Hollywood seems to care more about effects or romance driven movies rather than a compelling story, and also because I think that Casey Affleck deserves it.
Maybe Mark Wahlberg should hang out with Casey sometime and pick up a few pointers...
Rating: A
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Quantum Of Solace
I struggled as to how best review this movie.
On one hand it is a pretty decent action movie that opens with a car chase quite possibly designed to be used as some form of bizarre foreplay.
On the other hand it is now the third in a series of movies starring James Bond but not actually being a Bond movie, kind of like Never Say Never Again.
All my gripes about this latest Bond offering are best summed up in the cartoon below...
You can plainly see where the film makers have taken their inspiration from.
It also feels very much like a middle film, lacking anything remotely like a satisfying ending. The acting is good, the story is largely solid and it is a well put together movie.
Overall I'd say that you will enjoy most of Quantum of Solace, just don't expect to have your world rocked.
Rating: B
On one hand it is a pretty decent action movie that opens with a car chase quite possibly designed to be used as some form of bizarre foreplay.
On the other hand it is now the third in a series of movies starring James Bond but not actually being a Bond movie, kind of like Never Say Never Again.
All my gripes about this latest Bond offering are best summed up in the cartoon below...
You can plainly see where the film makers have taken their inspiration from.
It also feels very much like a middle film, lacking anything remotely like a satisfying ending. The acting is good, the story is largely solid and it is a well put together movie.
Overall I'd say that you will enjoy most of Quantum of Solace, just don't expect to have your world rocked.
Rating: B
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Max Payne
An insipid and poorly written action movie trading on the popularity of a video game franchise.
God I would love to see that quoted on the DVD sleeve.
I'll clear this up right away so everyone knows where we stand. Max Payne 2 is one of my top 5 best games ever. But I'm not here to review the games, I'll leave that to people with better taste in hats than I, I'm here to review the movie.
It opens well, a nice film noir sort of feel, and uses a couple of nice effects that really help to set the tone. Then it quickly abandons these in favour of randomly changing between rain and snow. I'm not kidding, watch for it, on one occasion in particular we swap from a miserable downpour to snow piled high in the space of about 5 minutes movie world time (about 4 seconds real time). The schizophrenic weather conditions are truly laughable, more so when you notice that there's never any slush, just puddles or pristine white snow depending on the producer's mood.
I won't touch on how the movie has butchered the story of the first game because then you could call me on the bias issue, instead I will judge the story on it's own merits. Max Payne suffers from the rare condition known as Mansion Scene Syndrome, whereby a movie tries to cram too much plot into too short a time (named for the Da Vinci Code) except in this case they've tried to fit an entire game into an hour and 40 minutes.
When I say that they tried to fit the game into 100 minutes, I mean a very distilled version of the game that quite frankly left the whole experience confusing and unfulfilling like a sandwich made of ejaculate between two slices of damp bread.
At no point can you understand any of the characters' motivations, Mona Sax seems largely unfazed by the murder of her sister which is probably a good thing as Mona is almost completely superfluous to the plot. Bravura becomes convinced Max is a good guy and not a cop killer because of... well, gut instinct or something. Payne you are told constantly is an emotional wreck with a death wish but determined to first bring his family's killers to justice, and you can't help but feel that this is the movie makers trying to cover for the fact that Mark Wahlberg is a bad actor.
Plus at times you will suspect that Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges was very much aware of the fact that they changed Bravura from a white guy to make sure that they had a black guy in a prominent supporting role. Why does Hollywood still feel the need to throw in a token black guy? There are plenty of good black actors out there making good movies, why change an existing character just so you can parade him around on screen going "Hey, we're ok, we got one, look."?
I'm not quite sure what the point was with Rothaford Gray's scene in the opening, except to say that Max is an emotional wreck with a death wish but determined to first bring his family's killers to justice. The characters are ALL FUCKING TWO DIMENSIONAL and you couldn't care for any of them, not even Max.
The plot stumbles forward drunkenly before tripping over it's own feet and falling flat on it's face just in time for the big gunfight finale. Speaking of which, for the series defined by Bullet Time the movie thankfully keeps it to a scant few (and well executed) scenes, sadly these are also the only real action scenes in the movie.
I should say that the whole scene when Max takes the Valkyr and starts tripping is AWESOME, it is really well done. The effects of the Valkyr are well portrayed but I can't help but wonder why anyone would take a drug that incapacitates you with mortal fear. Though why do all the 'V' slogans sprayed over the walls still show a syringe (other than trying to copy the game) when the movie makers decided that Valkyr should be a tasty beverage so that they could get a lower rating from the MPAA?
My final point, why the fuck would you try to get a low rating on a movie that is based on a gritty and gruesome series? The games aren't meant for children, so why would you try to make the movie so?
And the musical score is crap.
I really, really wanted Max Payne to be good. I wanted a gritty film noir that captured the essence of the game, what I got was watery dross and a desire to seek a refund.
Rating: D
God I would love to see that quoted on the DVD sleeve.
I'll clear this up right away so everyone knows where we stand. Max Payne 2 is one of my top 5 best games ever. But I'm not here to review the games, I'll leave that to people with better taste in hats than I, I'm here to review the movie.
It opens well, a nice film noir sort of feel, and uses a couple of nice effects that really help to set the tone. Then it quickly abandons these in favour of randomly changing between rain and snow. I'm not kidding, watch for it, on one occasion in particular we swap from a miserable downpour to snow piled high in the space of about 5 minutes movie world time (about 4 seconds real time). The schizophrenic weather conditions are truly laughable, more so when you notice that there's never any slush, just puddles or pristine white snow depending on the producer's mood.
I won't touch on how the movie has butchered the story of the first game because then you could call me on the bias issue, instead I will judge the story on it's own merits. Max Payne suffers from the rare condition known as Mansion Scene Syndrome, whereby a movie tries to cram too much plot into too short a time (named for the Da Vinci Code) except in this case they've tried to fit an entire game into an hour and 40 minutes.
When I say that they tried to fit the game into 100 minutes, I mean a very distilled version of the game that quite frankly left the whole experience confusing and unfulfilling like a sandwich made of ejaculate between two slices of damp bread.
At no point can you understand any of the characters' motivations, Mona Sax seems largely unfazed by the murder of her sister which is probably a good thing as Mona is almost completely superfluous to the plot. Bravura becomes convinced Max is a good guy and not a cop killer because of... well, gut instinct or something. Payne you are told constantly is an emotional wreck with a death wish but determined to first bring his family's killers to justice, and you can't help but feel that this is the movie makers trying to cover for the fact that Mark Wahlberg is a bad actor.
Plus at times you will suspect that Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges was very much aware of the fact that they changed Bravura from a white guy to make sure that they had a black guy in a prominent supporting role. Why does Hollywood still feel the need to throw in a token black guy? There are plenty of good black actors out there making good movies, why change an existing character just so you can parade him around on screen going "Hey, we're ok, we got one, look."?
I'm not quite sure what the point was with Rothaford Gray's scene in the opening, except to say that Max is an emotional wreck with a death wish but determined to first bring his family's killers to justice. The characters are ALL FUCKING TWO DIMENSIONAL and you couldn't care for any of them, not even Max.
The plot stumbles forward drunkenly before tripping over it's own feet and falling flat on it's face just in time for the big gunfight finale. Speaking of which, for the series defined by Bullet Time the movie thankfully keeps it to a scant few (and well executed) scenes, sadly these are also the only real action scenes in the movie.
I should say that the whole scene when Max takes the Valkyr and starts tripping is AWESOME, it is really well done. The effects of the Valkyr are well portrayed but I can't help but wonder why anyone would take a drug that incapacitates you with mortal fear. Though why do all the 'V' slogans sprayed over the walls still show a syringe (other than trying to copy the game) when the movie makers decided that Valkyr should be a tasty beverage so that they could get a lower rating from the MPAA?
My final point, why the fuck would you try to get a low rating on a movie that is based on a gritty and gruesome series? The games aren't meant for children, so why would you try to make the movie so?
And the musical score is crap.
I really, really wanted Max Payne to be good. I wanted a gritty film noir that captured the essence of the game, what I got was watery dross and a desire to seek a refund.
Rating: D
Sunday, 9 November 2008
Postal
An utterly pointless movie punctuated by some genuinely hilarious comedy. Forget the whole "tasteless" nametag that has been applied to this movie (largely by the creators), this has been added by the film makers to increase the movie's hype since it pokes fun at Arabs.
The whole 9/11 scene at the start was supposed to grab everyone's attention and think that this movie pushed the boundaries, it doesn't. The scene is designed solely to outrage an American public who are still reeling from one of their few moments of true homeland terrorism.
Most of the movie is entirely forgettable, even though a midget gets raped by a thousand monkeys and about 30 children get killed in a shoot-out at Germanyland (or whatever it was called).
I did appreciate when Uwe Boll poked fun at himself during the Germanyland scene, that was one of the genuinely hilarious scenes. Anyone remotely familiar with gaming and the internet knows that there are many theories about Uwe Boll, like how he must use Nazi gold to finance his movies because no one in their right mind would pay to make such flops, or how he must hate video games because he butchers the plots. In Postal he admits to using Nazi gold (and even pays a performer with gold teeth) and after getting shot in the balls admits that he hates video games, and for a couple of minutes, God help me, I actually liked Uwe Boll.
But that quickly passed because, as I said earlier, Postal is largely forgettable. I can feel the entire movie draining from my mind as I type this, I'm fairly certain that there was an angry cult as well as Arab terrorists.
You can pass a couple of hours watching Zack Ward try desperately to forward his career or you can go watch something decent.
Ugh, Erick Avari, you should have known better. I actually respected you.
Uwe, content. Content! Content! Content! People recognize that you can be a good writer, hell with a doctorate in literature you could be a great writer, but you keep going for cheap half baked shite and running with it because you want to get the film out. My only other advice is stop butchering video games, it's an experience that can't be recreated on the big screen, and if you alter the story you will only end up pissing off your fans (aka, your audience).
Rating: U (but a step in the right direction, it wasn't all horrible)
The whole 9/11 scene at the start was supposed to grab everyone's attention and think that this movie pushed the boundaries, it doesn't. The scene is designed solely to outrage an American public who are still reeling from one of their few moments of true homeland terrorism.
Most of the movie is entirely forgettable, even though a midget gets raped by a thousand monkeys and about 30 children get killed in a shoot-out at Germanyland (or whatever it was called).
I did appreciate when Uwe Boll poked fun at himself during the Germanyland scene, that was one of the genuinely hilarious scenes. Anyone remotely familiar with gaming and the internet knows that there are many theories about Uwe Boll, like how he must use Nazi gold to finance his movies because no one in their right mind would pay to make such flops, or how he must hate video games because he butchers the plots. In Postal he admits to using Nazi gold (and even pays a performer with gold teeth) and after getting shot in the balls admits that he hates video games, and for a couple of minutes, God help me, I actually liked Uwe Boll.
But that quickly passed because, as I said earlier, Postal is largely forgettable. I can feel the entire movie draining from my mind as I type this, I'm fairly certain that there was an angry cult as well as Arab terrorists.
You can pass a couple of hours watching Zack Ward try desperately to forward his career or you can go watch something decent.
Ugh, Erick Avari, you should have known better. I actually respected you.
Uwe, content. Content! Content! Content! People recognize that you can be a good writer, hell with a doctorate in literature you could be a great writer, but you keep going for cheap half baked shite and running with it because you want to get the film out. My only other advice is stop butchering video games, it's an experience that can't be recreated on the big screen, and if you alter the story you will only end up pissing off your fans (aka, your audience).
Rating: U (but a step in the right direction, it wasn't all horrible)
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Iron Man
Superhero movies and I have something of a gentleman's agreement in place. They don't bother me and in turn I don't point out how they are nothing but a pathetic cash in on the popularity of an established franchise (with the obvious exception of the latest Batman movies).
Whether it be Bryan Singer deciding that Superman should lift islands of kryponite to save the world or Blade suddenly having to face off against Dracula, or the Fantastic Four having to face off against a giant cloud of death in an effort to disguise how shite the movie is. Superhero movies always seem to follow a pattern of "we need something really big to show how great these guys are". A superhero is only as great as his spectacle.
Fuck that shit.
Superheroes should be allowed to face the same problems as the rest of us. For example, Blade struggles to pay for the seemingly infinite amount of silver that he has available because of the credit crunch. Bruce Banner can't become the Incredible Hulk because he is depressed and has had to go on Prozac. Superman can't save the world because he is left looking after Bryan Singer's bastard child whilst Lois goes to knock out a living at the Daily Planet.
Then we come to Iron Man.
How do you rate a superhero when his alter ego, Tony Stark, is the kind of guy who relishes in the hero thing and openly admits to his identity. You can't apply the same laws of normality to such a character as normal for him is attracting the ire of every would-be Dr Doom out there.
I went into Iron Man (seen in the States before all you fuckers back home) with incredibly low expectations (you really have no idea, I watched the trailers for Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk one after the other and said, "Hmm, I see a strikingly unimaginative pattern here".).
I was drawn in as soon as I heard the first riff of "Back In Black" and it all got better from there. The dialogue is sharp, the humour is black as my Doc Martens, and the acting is flawless.
Robert Downey Jr (as I'm sure you've heard by now since I've left it to the DVD release to review this) is superbly suited to the arrogant, self-assured, egotistical Tony Stark. Gwyneth Paltrow is frankly divine as the sagacious Pepper Potts and Jeff Bridges makes an excellent ally turned villain (I hope I didn't spoil that obvious plot point for anyone).
Yeah, it may have been a plot point that you could see coming from roughly the same distance as you can see the sun in the morning but you do appreciate it because the story is fell executed. As I've said before, a well executed tale can even make the most cliched story seem good (watch 3:10 To Yuma if you don't believe me).
The effects are good and the soundtrack is top notch. Frankly if you don't enjoy Iron Man then you are strange and different. All your friends think that Iron Man is great.
Rating: A
Whether it be Bryan Singer deciding that Superman should lift islands of kryponite to save the world or Blade suddenly having to face off against Dracula, or the Fantastic Four having to face off against a giant cloud of death in an effort to disguise how shite the movie is. Superhero movies always seem to follow a pattern of "we need something really big to show how great these guys are". A superhero is only as great as his spectacle.
Fuck that shit.
Superheroes should be allowed to face the same problems as the rest of us. For example, Blade struggles to pay for the seemingly infinite amount of silver that he has available because of the credit crunch. Bruce Banner can't become the Incredible Hulk because he is depressed and has had to go on Prozac. Superman can't save the world because he is left looking after Bryan Singer's bastard child whilst Lois goes to knock out a living at the Daily Planet.
Then we come to Iron Man.
How do you rate a superhero when his alter ego, Tony Stark, is the kind of guy who relishes in the hero thing and openly admits to his identity. You can't apply the same laws of normality to such a character as normal for him is attracting the ire of every would-be Dr Doom out there.
I went into Iron Man (seen in the States before all you fuckers back home) with incredibly low expectations (you really have no idea, I watched the trailers for Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk one after the other and said, "Hmm, I see a strikingly unimaginative pattern here".).
I was drawn in as soon as I heard the first riff of "Back In Black" and it all got better from there. The dialogue is sharp, the humour is black as my Doc Martens, and the acting is flawless.
Robert Downey Jr (as I'm sure you've heard by now since I've left it to the DVD release to review this) is superbly suited to the arrogant, self-assured, egotistical Tony Stark. Gwyneth Paltrow is frankly divine as the sagacious Pepper Potts and Jeff Bridges makes an excellent ally turned villain (I hope I didn't spoil that obvious plot point for anyone).
Yeah, it may have been a plot point that you could see coming from roughly the same distance as you can see the sun in the morning but you do appreciate it because the story is fell executed. As I've said before, a well executed tale can even make the most cliched story seem good (watch 3:10 To Yuma if you don't believe me).
The effects are good and the soundtrack is top notch. Frankly if you don't enjoy Iron Man then you are strange and different. All your friends think that Iron Man is great.
Rating: A
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