Manchester Evening Gazette

I'm not exactly sure why but when I was younger I saw X-men 2 before X-men. And that creates a bit of a problem for me because X-men 2 is better than the first. Thats not to say the first is a bad movie, in fact it's a solid start to the franchise. The two strong points to this superhero feature is the acting and the characterisation. Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are brilliant as Malcom X and Martin Luther Ki - I'm sorry as Magneto and Professor X, their voices are just magnificent; you could just listen to their verbal exchanges all day. Hugh Jackman and Anna Paquin are also good as fan favourite X-men Wolverine and Rogue, Wolverine gets a bit too much screen time for my liking - as X-men is supposed to be about the team and not just Wolverine. Surprisingly since it's a superhero film the action is one of the weaker facets of the film, its climax isn't climatic at all and the fight scenes between Wolverine and Sabretooth are just rubbish as is the CG...

I hadn't heard a lot about Green Zone, I knew that it was packaged as the war version of Bourne due to star Damon and director Greengrass teaming up again and that nobody saw it, it didn't make a lot of money and it's reviews wern't great either. So it kind of vanished without a trace really, which is a good thing really. First lets comment on Damon in the film. If I'm honest there isn't an awful lot to say about his performance as there isn't really one, it is pretty much just Damon shouting about WMD's for a couple of hours. So second, lets move onto Greengrass' direction, there is an intense enjoyable opening scene but after that the camera is too frantic and shakey you cant even tell what the events on screen are and when it's just dialogue between two characters the wobbliness of the camera is just off putting. Green Zone also marks the re-team-up of Damon and "Stuck on you" co-star Greg Kinnear. So this is where I'll tak...

Where to begin with the latest Bond outing; Skyfall? Theres quite a lot if were going to be honest and not be lazy like I was with my review of "The Avengers". So first off, lets start with the man himself. Because of MGM's financial state it was 4 years in between Craig's previous and recent adventures as 007. Do you remember in 2006 when the pitch for Casino Royale was to show a "young Bond": no Q, Moneypenny, just been given the license to kill. It's been that long that now members of MI6 such as Ralph Fiennes' Mallory are questioning whether Bond is up to the challenge anymore - "its a young mans game." Craig is impressive in this entry: frustrated by younger colleagues (Q, Eve), how his method of espionage is becoming outdated and by his own body - he's older, slower, weaker; Bond's out to prove himself . Fortunately Craig delivers, he more than proves himself (however I do hope that Craig's contracted 2 more Bond's ...

Sam Mendes must be a bit of an odd guy. Don't get me wrong American Beauty is brilliant, Jarhead is great and I'm unbelievably excited for Skyfall but the guy must be a little strange. I say this because he directed "Revolutionary Road" which his (then) wife Kate Winslet is (again) in love with Leo DiCaprio. Can't help but think the sex scene in the kitchen might of been tense. Then again were all professionals here. Kate and Leo's chemistry hasn't diminished since Titanic, even when arguing they are enjoyable, they light up the screen; even with the dark handling of the subject matter. They are also framed impeccably well by Mendes, however it doesn't feel like his direction entriely contributes to the film - the camera never feels like it's in a wrong position but Revolutionary Road is definitely going to be receiving awards for its cast, sadly Mendes' direction plays second fiddle. The rest of the cast are also on form, Kathy Bates and M...

For some reason, Persepolis is a film I've always wanted to see. When I first began to learn about films (thank you Empire magazine) when I was younger - so about late 2006 Persepolis was advertised in one of my (Empire) magazines and I've always been curious about it. Now here we are several years later and I watched it last night. And I was impressed. Very impressed. First I am a big fan of the animation used in this film. It's style is simultaneously eye-catching, bold, subtle and detailed. It is just beautiful to look at.  Second before watching I knew this film was about the pressure and struggles of growing up as an Iranian woman but possess limited knowledge of the Iranian revolution however I found that this film informs the audience instead of leaving them out in the cold because they don't know everything about the conflict which is obviously great. The film also doesn't get bogged down in the facts the statement "Amercia sold to both sides...

Before I watched "Tiny Furniture" I had very little idea what it was about besides the brief synopsis that you get given on the TV. Taking the plunge like this and just watching a film can be very rewarding - like when I watched "The Untouchables" or it might be a bit of a mixed bag which is what "Tiny Furniture" is. (For the first time I feel the need to explain who made the film and what it's about; I mean I didn't really have to with "The Avengers" and "The King's Speech" now did I?) Written by, starring and directed by Lena Dunham "Tiny Furniture" sees Aura return home from college with no direction and a failed relationship. After seeing old friends and getting a job she shares relationships with two men while trying to find her direction. Now I'm going to rush my review of "Tiny Furniture" a little bit because I'm keen to move onto my next review - that I'm looking forward to - while...

So I realised it's been far too long since my last post for my blog to have any kind of momemtum so here we are again. In trying to decide what to review next I thought why not the biggest film of the year: The Avengers. Or Avenger's Assemble as they horribly chose to call it here in the UK. Or Marvel's Avenger's Assemble or whatever . That's actually one of my problems with the Avengers, nobody tells them to assemble. In the comics Thor was the first to do so, Cap has been the one to call it since and in the film Nick Fury is the one who leads them technically since he brings them together so (personally) he should have called it. But that is me just nit-picking. Which there will be more of later so for now I'll focus on what I liked - which there is a lot of. In fact there's so much to talk about that having trying to put this into paragraph's I realised that I'd end up with about a four page essay and right now that isn't something i fancy...

Figured no time like the present so I may as well get on with my first review. First though I must introduce how the rating system I've devised works - it's straight forward. The highest a mark a film can recieve is a 5 and from there we break down to 0 with a .25 system so in order from lowest to highest this is the rating system: 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3 3.25 3.5 3.75 4 4.25 4.5 4.75 5 I know it wasn't necessary to put the whole rating system up but decided I may as well be thorough. Now on to business. The King's Speech Initially I was unsure as to which of the thousands of films out there I would review first but I watched The King's Speech the other week and it still had a lasting impression on my mind so here we are. That is in fact one of the many praises I have to offer The King's Speech - over a week later it still had such an impression on me that I felt comfortable to review it. It's thats good it...

Hello and welcome to the first post of Lights, Camera, Review! As this is my first post and I'm quite new to this I'll keep this as short as possible. I've created this blog because I love film. I love everything about it. Despite being 18 I feel devoted to it. I love Clint Eastwood, I love (500) Days of Summer, I love how painful and obvious the plotholes in the Transformers franchise are, I love Jules Winnfield and I love how the Green Lantern movie loses all momentum and originality from its first half in its second. And if you love this to, welcome aboard.