Review for 8 Mile

8 Mile Movie Review

SPOILER ALERT

Click here to go to my previous review of Fanboys

So again I’m reviewing something a little different here.  8 Mule certainly isn’t a classic or cinematic masterpiece, but rather a hip hop bopic focusing on Eminem.  Whilst I’m not a massive fan of Eminem’s music, I do like a few of his songs, so I thought I would give 8 Mile a go.

What’s it about? 8 Mile focuses on Eminem’s life before he became famous.  Eminem plays the lead role of Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith Jr, a young blue-collar worker trying to become a famous rapper.  Mekhi Phifer is David “Future” Porter, Jimmy’s closest friend and a rap battle host.  Kim Basinger is Jimmy’s deadbeat mum and Brittany Murphy is his love interest.  Throughout the film, Jimmy faces off against rival rapping crews and his mum’s abusive live-in boyfriend, all this whilst trying to break into an industry dominated by black people, as a white rapper. 

The Good: The rapping.  Now I’m not an expert in rapping, but I really liked Eminem’s rapping and I think he deserved to win all of his rap battles.  I feel that because there is such an over-saturation of gangster rap in the charts that everyone thinks that all rap is about is showing off how much money you have and how many girls you’ve slept with.  Rappers like Eminem prove that rap is so much more than this.  As I’ve said before, I don’t have a vested interest in rap or the West/East Coast Hip Hop rivalry or the white/black divide in rap, but 8 mile kept me interested throughout the film.  It was entertaining and intriguing, as a dramatization of Eminem’s life.  I also really liked Jimmy’s relationship with his little sister, which I felt was a nice symbol of hope in the film.

The Bad: As this film is predominantly about rapping, I do feel it’s unfair to criticise it for its acting which was questionable and over the top at times, or its narrative.  One thing that did annoy me was the inclusion of Brittany Murphy’s character who other than being Jimmy’s unfaithful groupie does very little in the film and doesn’t serve much purpose.  As an extension of this, the film did little to expand on the characters of Jimmy’s friends, but I guess they weren’t the focus of the film.

The Ugly: Brittany Murphy really needs to learn how to take off her eye makeup at the end of the day, then maybe she could avoid having such horrific panda eyes.

Rating: Good

As this film is rapping, I do feel it is unfair to give it a lower rating than ‘good.” If you do go to watch this film, watch it for the rapping and don’t expect award-winning performances.  Although that notwithstanding, 8 Mile did win an Academy Award for best original song and grossed over 242 million dollars worldwide, but maybe that was just the result of some secretaries doing some seriously good marketing.

Click here to go to my next review of Secretary

Fanboys Review

SPOILER ALERT

Click here to go to my previous review of V for Vendetta

As a remedy for the dark and horrific films of It and Misery, I thought it would be a good idea to watch a comedy.  This is where I found Fanboys, which I thought would be some hilarious comic relief.  I have never been more wrong.

What’s it about: Fanboys is set in 1998 and to celebrate the premiere of Star Wars ‘the Phantom Menace,’ four Star Wars fanboys and one fangirl travel from their homes in Ohio to San Francisco  to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal and watch ‘the Phantom Menace’ before it’s released to the public.

The Good: The film was funny in a very few places and did produce one or two genuine laughs.  I liked how the film’s beginning parodied the opening crawl of the Star Wars films.  I also liked how at the film’s conclusion, where the protagonists are sitting down to watch the film and one of them asks “what if it sucks?” Nice bit of dramatic irony there.

The Bad: I really hated the characters.  Granted they were all nerds, but they were all immature, annoying and irresponsible.  However, what annoyed me the most was how elitist they all were. The protagonists are all avid Star Wars fans, but they absolutely despise Star Trek.  This evolves into a subplot that involve the Star Wars fanboys feuding with Star Trel fanboys.  This subplot did nothing at all for the film, except showcase how obnoxious and arrogant some nerds can be.  

The character of “Hutch” epitomised this arrogance and obnoxiousness, as he generally starts most of the film’s confrontations.  The film also fails massively as a comedy.  Much of the humour is overly-reliant on references to Star Wars/Trek and science-fiction in general, as well as countless cameos by famous Star Wars/Trek actors.  If you aren’t a science-fiction aficionado, then the majority of this humour would go right over your head.  The humour also felt very forced too.  The opening crawl was funny at first, but soon got boring.  There is another scene where the fanboys mooney their rivals, as they drive away from them, which I found a very juvenile and immature attempt at humour that wouldn’t appeal to people over a certain maturity age.

The Ugly: The mooneying wasn’t too pleasant to see.

Rating: Alright

Originally, I was going to rate this film as ‘shit,’ but I felt that that was being overly harsh, so I settled on alright instead.  The film is funny at times, but I would recommend only watching it, if you’re a Star Wars Fanboy.  If you’re hoping to lose yourself in a hilarious comedy, then pick another film.

Click here to go to my next review of 8 Mile

V For Vendetta review

SPOILER ALERT

Click here to go to my previous review of It

"People should not be afraid of their governments.  Governments should be afraid of their people."

V for Vendetta is the second film that I have re-watched and reviewed.  It is one of my favourite films, so I knew I had to go back and review it.

What’s it about: V for Vendetta follows the story of V (Hugo Weaving), a charming, suave, sophisticated and enigmatic vigilante who wants to overthrow the tyrannical, totalitarian and fascist government headed by Adam Sutler (John Hurt) that is ruling over England.  V is a revolutionary who wants the British public see through the propaganda that is spoon fed to them by the British government.

The Good:  The concept.  I am a massive George Orwell and 1984 fan and V for Vendetta is very much a modern retelling of it.  A number of comparisons can be drawn between the two films.  V is obviously supposed to be Winston Smith, if a more violent and unforgiving version, Evey (V’s love interest played by Natalie Portman) is a meeker and less, initially at least, willing to believe version of Julia and Adam Sutler is a tangible, physical version of Big Brother.  As an interesting bit of trivia, in the 1984 version of 1984, John Hurt plays Winston Smith, yet in V for Vendetta he is the Big Brother character.  Another reason why he film is so good is how it applies to modern society and people’s distrust of governments.  The NSA Spying Scandal and the passing of the NDAA, a horrific act that allows the government to arrest and imprison you without charge or trial, has done little to help the public image of the American government.  

Meanwhile, people are beginning to criticise the English government for their proposals to scrap the Human Rights Act and their introduction of their new internet snooping bill.  Hugo Weaving and John Hurt gave great performances.  John Hurt was terrifying as the intimidating Adam Suttler and Weaving, despite how his face is always obscured behind his mark, uses his voice and body language to great effect.  Natlie Portman was also good in her role as Evey, even if her English accent was less than convincing.  The supporting cast including Tim Piggot-Smith, Stephen Rea and Stephen Fry, amongst others were also great.  Another plus of the film is the mask that V wears throughout the film.  Its intricate design of a mocking smile has become a symbol of many political activist groups around the world.

The Bad: I really didn’t like the ending.  I thought it was too happy and corny to fit well in a film, as dark and brutal as V for Vendetta.  In 1984, Big Brother tortures Winston Smith and makes him betray Julia and himself by turning him into a supporter of Big Brother before eventually killing him.  I think something similar to this would have been a more fitting conclusion to V for Vendetta.  Granted, V does die at the end, but the fireworks and the happy music really jarred with me.

The Ugly: Keep working on the English accent, Natalie Portman.  Not all of us speak in the Queen’s English.

Rating: Awesome

A great film with a great concept, symbolism and performances, but an ending that was too happy to fit a dark film like this.  That notwithstanding I am still a massive Orwell fanboy and I’m still a fanboy of this awesome film.  

Click here to go to my next review of Fanboys

It review (1990 mini-series)

Review for It

SPOILER ALERT

We’ve come to another adaptation of Stephen King’s work.  As I’ve read ‘It’ and I've heard that the adaptation is supposed to be great, I thought I would it a go.

‘It’ is set in mostly Derry, Maine and in two different timelines, one in 1957 and the other in 1984.  The 1957 timeline follows the protagonists’ narrative as children.  There are seven protagonists: Bill Denborough (Richard Thomas,) the stuttering leader of the group, the fat but good-hearted Ben Hanscom (John Ritter,) the asthmatic Eddie Kasbarak (Dennis Christopher), the wisecracking smartarse Richie Tozier (Harry Anderson,) the sceptical and rational Stan Uris (Richard Masur), the only girl in the group Beverly Marsh (Annette O'Toole) and the only black member of the group Mike Hanlon (Tim Reid).  

These seven children do battle with the child-eating, inter-dimensional monster known as Pennywise the Clown or It (Tim Curry).  When they fail to kill Pennywise in 1957, they return in 1984 to do battle once again.  One prominent subplot also sees them facing off any times with the neighbourhood bully Henry Bowers.  Henry serves as a human and therefore more relatable, but no less psychotic antagonist.

‘It’ was released as a two-part TV movie, each part being 90 mins long.  Seeing as the book is over 1000 pages long, I would argue that this is a reasonable length for a film, which they achieved by cutting out some unnecessary secondary characters and some lengthy character development.  I’m glad they did this, as I thought the book had far too much backstory for its characters and I got very bored reading through parts of it.  The film also worked well as a horror.  It did well in, rather than showing the murders themselves, it showed the effects on those left behind.  Pennywise has the powers to shapeshift into a character’s biggest fear or make them see what they fear most.     The film depicted these different images very well, which all added to the scariness of it.  I also quite liked the child cast, although it was weird seeing Seth Green, who played the young Richie Tozier, as a sixteen year old.

However, the film missed out a couple of important scenes that featured in the book.  The first focuses on Beverly in the 1984 timeline.  In this timeline, she is married to the abusive and possessive Tom Hagen.  When she tells Tom, she wants to return to Maine, they get into a bloody and physical fight with Beverly being the victor.  In the film, this is mostly omitted, which I didn’t like, as in the book we see Beverly’s inner strength and power as a character, which isn’t conveyed in the same way within the film.  

The second scene focuses on Mike Hanlon’s past in 1957.  Within this scene, Mike’s father tells him how he and some of his friends created a club that was originally just for black people, but soon expanded to encompass all races, but the club was burnt down by white supremacists.  I felt that this really highlighted the racial prejudice that black people experienced at the time and by omitting this scene, I felt that the film glossed over this issue.  

Tim Curry was also good as Pennywise the Clown. Sure, you could argue he was a little over-the-top, but it worked. There's a reason why Pennywise is considered one of the scariest film villains ever.

And the less said about Bill Denborough's ponytail, the better. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable film.  It was certainly very creepy and horrific and for the most part, it was a faithful adaption of the book it was based on.  However, I felt that the filmmakers could have been a little wiser in the scenes that they omitted. That notwithstanding this film brought us one of the scariest villains of the 1990's.