Battle Los Angeles- Film Review

Yesterday I watched Battle Los Angeles. The Film follows follows a platoon of U.S. Marines during a global alien invasion, who are joined by an Airman and some Army infantry. The events of the film are inspired by the Battle of Los Angeles, a supposed World War II air raid of the city which turned out to be a false alarm caused by several unidentified objects. The film itself didn't receive the best reviews in the world as its said that the action in the film is relentless. Personally I enjoy a good bit of action, and saying this film doesn't lack any is an understatement so this could already be a problem for some people. From about 20 minutes in the action started and didn't stop until the credits started. I blabbered about being in the mood for films in my last review and I was right as I was totally in the zone and loved all this action.

Its important for anybody considering watching this that it isn't purely a Sci Fi film. Its a War Film that just so happens to have aliens. The aliens don't play a vital role in the story as in my opinion the film could be easily modified so Humans were the enemies. The aliens had spaceships- use Jets. The aliens had big rocket launchers- rockets can be fired by humans. The aliens could only die shot in a certain part of the body- The heart or Head? Keeping this in mind I'm not a big fan of war films and probably wouldn't have gone to see it and as alien based films come. I defiantly preferred it to Paul.

The film took time to introduce all of the marine characters and introduced all of them so they were all likeable characters that could be empathized with. I also liked this because there are alot of Action or War films in which the audience can pretty much tell who and in what order the characters will die in, but I had no idea, so this was a plus for me.

The pacing was a bit irritating to say the least. At times everything was going quite slowly with the platoon being stuck in a confined space for ages but at other times the action was quickly sprung onto the audience like a fly swat on a bluebottle. Take for example just before the finale the surviving soldiers jump out the chopper in the space of 60 secs and kept the action going for another 20 minutes. It seemed like the director said "oh crap, we've got a bout 2 days of shooting time to finish this finale, Just cut it down completely."

The ultimate conclusion annoyed me on 2 levels (which i don't really want to spoil) It just so happens that while L.A is saved that means that any of the 50 odd other cities stand a chance while the final thing the platoon do before the credits is very unrealistic. Watch it to find out what I mean.

I did enjoy this film, the content was good but the way it was put together was a bit naff.

7/10
Tip- Remember its a War film with Aliens not the other way round.

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams- Film Review

On Friday night i went to (in my opinion) The Best Cinema in the world, The Duke of York's Cinema in Brighton and watched German director Werner Herzog's latest documentary 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams'. Which shows his venture into Chauvet Cave in Southern France which in 1994 was discovered to have the oldest art ever discovered in the world. The film is shot in 3D as Herzog wanted to prove that 3D films don't need to be a monotonous chain of drivel from Dreamwork or Disney. Alot of cinemas have been said to be screening the film in 2D because they felt it didn't make a difference to the film. This (in my opinion again) is a bad choice. I believe that this completely enhanced the film.

Personally I found this film fascinating. It started with Herzog entering the cave with a team of scientists. Although this sequence was very jittery and this could be very disconcerting It was a very simple and well made intro. The film is set out by starting to look at the cave and introduce the paintings. They showed the techniques used to discover more such as Carbon Dating and how they examined the red dots that one of the ancient artists made with his hand on the rocks and how they were examined to show that this person was a 6 foot tall man (or woman) with a bent pinky finger.


Herzog's narration of the film is very relaxing. Relaxing to the point in which I was the only person in our party of 5 who watched the film from start to finish without my eyes shutting for an extended period of time. As I learnt by the fascinated reactions of my family and friends. To start off I was a bit annoyed at them for not connecting with this film with the same level that I did, but I came o understand that  it wasn't at all to do with how much they appreciated the film but the mood they were in. I can understand that people can be in the mood for anything. I was in a particularly intellectual mood and happy to listen intently to the narration and facts and found it extremely interesting but looking back I can really appreciate how good a snooze in a dark room with calming music playing and a quiet German accent inform the audience.


I enjoyed the film, the cinematography was stunning at times, and the topics were incredibly interesting but the film isn't for everyone and even for those who's cup of tea it is sometimes there's something that you would much rather be doing than sitting in a dark room listening to interesting facts about geology and ancient art. 

8/10
Tip- Watch the film when you feel like watching it. If you don't then it won't be the nicest experience.

Burn After Reading- Film Review

"The Best Comedy of 2008," is how The Coen Brother's film 'Burn After Reading' has been described as. It follows the antics of incompetent gym workers  Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) who find some government documents and try to blackmail higher government workers without realizing they are way over their heads. With help from the story and directing by Joel & Ethan Coen the film triumphs in being a very smart, quirky comedy.

The Story is of Osbourne Cox (who is portrayed brilliantly by John Malkovich) who after quitting his job in the CIA decides to start write a memoir. When his wife begins to seek a divorce as she is having an affair with Treasury agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and copies his personal files on a CD and giving it to her lawyer who ends up giving it to his assistant. Chad & Linda end up finding the CD and attempt to blackmail Osbourne. At the meeting Osbourne realizes its just his memoirs and punches Chad in the nose (See above). Their antics after this continue including attempting to sell the memoirs to the Russian embassy. Linda starts to date Harry which completes the circle and connects almost all the characters leading to a hilarious conclusion in the film.

Every character is perfectly formed to each be hilarious in their own way. Brad Pitt plays the most obviously funny and comical character always dancing with his headphones in and arriving to a potentially fatal meeting in a suit on his bicycle. It comes across very well that whil Pitt filmed this he didn't take himself seriously. Some people may think that Frances McDormand as one of the stars of the film may be unfair as she's married to half of the directing team. But she does incredibly well at playing a very a self obsessed  Linda. Her character dreams of a perfect life with a perfect man and totally believes that the way to get this is to have multiple plastic surgeries. This becomes an ongoing theme throughout the film and ends up being the motive for her attempted blackmail. Malkovich plays his perfect part as well as he usually does as the shouty angry powerful man who looks down on others. He has some great bits of dialogue including a very funny talk on the phone with Chad & Linda acting as the moment when they realise they are in over their head.


The story and charcters work in tandem very well to make this a very clever film full of laughs. I suggest this to anyone who loves a laugh but not something to obvious. 


8/10

Tips- If you want something fun for a party or gathering etc. get something else.