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Reviews
Avatar (2009)
If only the script could have been better?
The "King of the World" James Cameron is back with his most ambitious project yet, a project that took over ten years to make and cost $300 million. This time he has set about creating the most realistic environment generated on computer that has ever been seen on film and has done a fine job of it as well.
The movie begins with paralysed marine Jake Sully replacing his dead brother in a project to win the trust of the Na'vi, the native inhabitants of the moon Pandora who are at war with the human colony searching for "unobtainium" the mineral to bring life to a dying Earth. To do this they set about creating vessels called Avatars for the minds of the scientists and marines to inhabit allowing them to communicate with the Na'vi more easily.
The characters are perfectly acted with Stephen Lang as the war mongering Colonel Quaritch and Sigourney Weaver as chief scientist Grace Augustine the stars in Pandora's sky but leads Sam Worthington (Sully) and Zoe Saldana as the princess of the Na'vi, Neytiri give good performances as well.
With the team that brought Lord of the Rings to life behind him, Cameron has blown all other special effects out of orbit with this stunning masterpiece of visual stimulation. Through the beautiful scenery, the native creatures and the Na'vi themselves, you are encased in a world where every bit of detail has been accounted for and the results are stunning as a result.
Yet for all the imagery and detail the effects team has come up with, it can't hind the problems with the script which is as cliché ridden as a Leona Lewis ballad – which is presumably why she's on the soundtrack.
The stone cold marine falling in love with nature, the budding romance that forms between Jake and Neytiri, the sneaky corporate executive and nature vs mankind plot lines all could have been lifted from a Hollywood handbook called "basic plots" and this results in the inevitable glances at the watch as the legs and behinds begin to beg for the slightly long winded film to finish.
Avatar has raised the bar for all other action films in terms of imagery and special effects but it has not mastered the ability to tug at the heartstrings of the audience which other epics have done better in the past.
The Damned United (2009)
Who do you think you are? Brain Clough. Brian Howard Cough
Many people have tried and many people have failed when they try and tap in to the most popular sport in the world and make a film out of it. Where this film differs from the mediocre is that it shows very little football at all. Instead it is a triumph of character development of men who just want one thing in life, to win.
The main plot of the film deals with Brian Clough's doomed managerial spell at Leeds Utd where he tries and fails to win the respect and admiration of the Leeds players after their "father of football" Don Revie left the club to take over the England national side. However, the actions of Clough could not be explained properly if it wasn't for the flashbacks that show Clough in charge of Derby County and his encounters with Don Revie's Leeds. Here lie the seeds sown that ultimately drove Clough out of a job. The arrogance and stubbornness that causes the Leeds players to lose all faith him are as a direct result to his uncompromising belief that the Leeds players in the past were cheaters that robbed him and the football league in the past.
All of these complex emotions are expertly conveyed through Sheen's performance with each game being played bringing out a different side of Clough, all being woven together by Sheen to create a cinematic and thoroughly believable real life character at the same time.
This character's creation is what sets the Dammed United from most other football films. Instead of focusing on the game, Hooper's choice of adapting Peace's novel is inspired as it focuses on the characters off field instead of putting the focus on the football itself, because as every fan knows, the dramas off the field, in the dressing rooms and in the minds of the people involved are usually just as exciting as the action on the field. Of course for this to work the acting in the film needs to be top quality, and it is. Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney perform excellent roles as Peter Taylor and Revie but like art imitating life, Sheen like Clough is the star of the show.
Although some fans have cited and criticised the factual inaccuracies of the book and consequently the film, they have only been made in order to make a very classy and compelling story of Brian Howard Clough.
The Invention of Lying (2009)
Great idea but bad execution
Almost everything Ricky Gervais has touched over the years has turned to gold. The Office, Extras, Ghost Town, everything that Gervais has had a direct hand in has been successful and carries a great deal of intelligent humour. Until now.
This is made even more surprising given that the concept of the film is original and has the potential to ensue laughter around a cinema throughout the film. In a world where people can only tell the truth Mark Bellison (Gervais) suddenly discovers that he can lie and uses this now found gift to turn his loser life around to become rich, famous and try to receive the love of his childhood sweetheart Anna (Garner). Because of the nature of the plot there are some parts of the film that are inevitably funny for example the pathetic coca cola advert and through the first half an hour, this carries the comedy throughout the film.
However, it's when the script tries to get move on from the main concept that it starts to fall down. After "lying" to his dying mother about life after death, Bellison discovers that he has inadvertently created religion causing all the world to hang on his every world as he is the only one who can say what the "man in the sky" is saying. Yet this doesn't really develop and should be the main focus of the film but instead it deals with Bellison trying to capture the heart of his beloved Anna (made all the more difficult because he can't bring himself to lie to her.) Because of the undeveloped aspect of the religious side of the story, one wonders what it's actually doing there as it doesn't seem to have changed the world as much as it should have done.
Even though Gervais has potentially missed the main plot of the movie it still could have been salvaged. However due to the final parts of the film being repetitive and more predictable then Gordon Ramsey swearing in a restaurant the originality that brought the laughs earlier in the film dry up and the whole film remains undeveloped and empty. On the plus side the acting in the film is good with Gervais and Garner performing their lead roles well and there is also good back up from Louis C.K and Rob Lowe but they are doing the best they can with a poor script and ultimately this costs the film deer.
This had massive potential to be the best comedy of 2009 but missed opportunities and bad execution coupled with clichéd conclusions and dilemmas about romance means that Gervais' film falls way below expectations.