Th?nk Media Music Film reviews
Welcome to our film review database.
TMM embraces all kinds of media, and has a passion for good films, whether low-budget, hollywood blockbuster, or just classic, if it's been on a screen we want to celebrate it.
If you have recently seen a film and are itching to give it an editorial, please do submit us a piece, if it's good we would love to post it here.
Into the wild November 2007
Based on a true story about a young man disillusioned with his parents constant fighting and a narrow minded society of highflying status achieving, Alexander Johnson Mcandless decides to give his life savings of $24,000 to charity and go in search of adventure and human meaning.
After going south for a couple of years he eventually heads north to the yukon territory of Alaska fully intent on living life to the edge of survival.
This is a beautifully shot film, directed by none other than Sean Penn who handles the subject matter with sensitivity and attention to detail in a series of flashbacks that take you back and forth through Alex's life and leading up to the final trek into Alaska, narrated by the actress who plays his sister, she explains alot about who Alex is and the reasons that led him to make such a drastic life change.
Renaming himself 'Alexander Supertramp' he meets several interesting characters along the way, in what is a genuninely heartwarming and wholesome film, and yet never gets too sugary, there are some incredibly poinent moments that really tug on the heartstrings, a well scripted and edited mini masterpiece that never loses pace right up to the end.
A well told story that is full of meaning, and yet avoids easy catogorisation a thinking persons road movie that truely delights.
Andrew Bates
Black sheep October 2007
Following in the unique and charming feel of films made by those guys down under (in this case another one from New Zealand), right from the first scene you can tell it's New Zealand, the rolling lush greenery so very similar to countryside you might find in the yorkshire dales on a sunny autumn day in England, and yet ever so slightly different and exotic with a sub-tropical atmosphere, New Zealands global location and alienated take on life always makes for an interesting backdrop (any Lord of the rings fan knows this is where Peter Jackson filmed some of the most amazing scenes from Tolkiens famous epic)
Now the scene is set for a rather bizarre and yet in this modern climate of fear about tampering with God's DNA surprsingly believable plot, a young farmers son returns to the farm he grew up on to settle some business with his unscrupulous elder brother, it turns out however said older sibling has been tampering with good ol' mother nature and the result is a genetic virus which has the nasty habit of turning common and garden sheep into bloodthirsty carnivores! (stop that laughing at the back)
Ok you can laugh, thats the whole point, this is a very silly film, and it's intelligent enough to know it is, never taking it self too seriously, it has just the right mix of gore and goofs to be truely called a 'comedy horror'
There are some scenes which are not for the faint-hearted, but it's always done with a wry smile, and so ultimately is very enjoyable, the acting is a little wooden but holds water, and there are some great lines, the ideas are imaginative and refreshing and time just flew by as the body count increases leading to the quite frankly hilarious finale involving that great main stay of toliet humour, the lighting of flammable gas from... well from the place where flammable comes from a sheep...
A cross between Peter Jacksons infamous 'Bad taste' and 'American werewolf in London', except with sheep..
'Just when you thought it was to safe to go back into the pasture...'
Andrew Bates
Babel Febuary 2007
SPOILER!! - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT HOW THE FILM ENDS! (if you don't want to know don't read!)
The new film from director Alejandro González Iñárritu starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, revolves around 3 stories all related to each other in some way but that span the globe taking in different cultures and languages.
We begin with a story of a poor hard working family from Morocco whose patriarch buys a high powered rifle and bestows it upon his inexperienced sons to protect their livestock, in a fluke accident the boys test the rifle on a passing tourist bus high up in the desolate mountains, one of the boys is a gifted shot, and not only does he hit the coach but manages to seriously wound travelling american tourist Cate Blanchett.
Suddenly we are whisked off back to the states where Brad and Cate's children are taken along to a mexican wedding by their nanny who can't leave the children alone while their parents are in Morocco, (its her relations wedding that she has promised to go to), so she takes the unanimous decision to take the children across the border, intending to have them safely back in time without telling the parents.
The third story begins, it starts in Japan where we follow the day to day life of a deaf-mute girl living in hi tech Tokyo, her father is rich and loves her but doesn't really have enough time for her, we later find out that her mother at some point took her own life, so the girl gradually begins to fall into bad situations, we quickly realise along with the girl that because of her disability she is shunned by boys as some kind of freak, until in desperation she tries to seduce a young policeman who is pursuing a case involving her father.
As it turns out he was the original owner of the rifle that shoots Blanchett, and after a hunting trip he gave the rifle to a Moroccan who in turn sold it to the boys father.
At the wedding we meet Gael García Bernal who tends to be uncontrollable in certain situations, which is what happens when after the wedding the nanny and the children are making their way back into america when are scrutinised by the border police, Gael García Bernal starts to panic and in a moment of angry frustration drives off at high speed with the police in tow, they escape in to the dark of night, he turns the car off the road, and tells the nanny and the children to get out, then drives off leaving them alone in the desert.
Brad frantically battles to save his wifes life against escalating odds, the coach party they are travelling with become increasingly fearful for their lives, and in an almost shockingly selfish act they decide to drive off in the bus leaving Brad and his wife behind in a poor village, the local doctor inspects the gunshot wound, and in a dtistressing scene resolves to stop the bleeding by sewing up the hole without any anesthetic.
A very powerful film told in a snapshot style, like a slice of human life from very different perspectives, Babel is very moving and attempts to tell us alot about ourselves and the way we treat each other, in the end the Japanese girl finds that her father still loves her, the children are rescued but the nanny is no longer allowed to work in the USA, the Moroccan father and his boys go on the run being pursued by the police thinking they are terrorists, and in a tragic gun battle the older boy is shot and killed, the younger son (who shot Blanchett) gives up, breaks the rifle and in floods of tears admits that he was the culprit.
Finally Brad and Cate are rescued by the USA embassy, and in a touching scene Brad finally manages to call home and find that his children are safe and sound, in this moment he realises the fragility and the importance of what he has and is grateful.
Andrew Bates
Casino Royale December 2006
This winter sees the release of the latest Bond film, Bond number 6 is Daniel Craig, blonde haired and laser blue eyed with muscles that would make Arnie double take!
Ok lets get stuck in, the title sequence is typically stylish and I enjoyed it immensely, but the theme song was decidely lacking, the plot revolves around the famous title, in essence Bond must enter and win a high profile poker match, for queen country and freedom from terrorism, for me only slightly more feasible than the plot to tomorrow never dies, but it works and Daniel Craig really makes it work, he has the right mix of boyish cheekiness, and steel hearted grit, for me he is the film.
Being a bond fan myself who believes Roger was the best (sorry Sean fans), I was very much looking forward to seeing what made 007, unfortunately this was reduced to a few minutes of film-noiresque flashbacking at the very start, we see Bond make his first two kills (requirement for double 'o' status) and thats it..
Obviously then the rest of the film is set years later with bond on his latest assignment ripping it up in a DB6, and armed to the teeth with spy gadgetry except for the other glaring omission, the almost criminal lack of the by now mandatory Q intermission, one can only surmise that the film makers wanted this bond to be alot more serious and it is, there are still plenty of one-liners though.
This is a great action yarn, lots of new ideas, but not what I would call classic Bond, for me the last classic was Goldeneye, but nevermind Daniel steals the show and holds it up under the might of his well toned frame, forget his nemesis a scarred KD Lang lookalike who merely provides the vehicle for the story and nothing more, shame..
If you want a good 'fire and forget' christmas movie, go see.
Andrew Bates
The Da Vinci code June 2006
What hasn't been said about this very controversial book and film over the last few months?, at it's very core the Author Dan Brown followed on from the findings from a professor who wrote a book a while ago called 'Holy blood holy grail' a man who suggested he had discovered a code hidden in a french book, and went on to research proceedings in the south west of france resulting in a number of local churchs and buildings all forming a 'pentangle' shape next to a 'star of david' shape.
He suggested that the pentangle represents a symbol of divine femininity, and we are told in the film that the star of david represents the symbol of masculinity bi-secting the symbol of femininity.
What does all this mean I hear you ask, well we are taken on a fictional journey which attempts to suggest that Jesus Christ was only a man (who may have performed miracles), and he had carnal relations with a female, namely Mary Magdelene resulting in the birth of a girl called Sarah, the concept attempts to suggest that the famous 'holy grail' of legend (a cup that was supposed to have caught the blood of Jesus at his crucifixtion), was not in fact a cup, but actually his bloodline.
The implications of this idea are nothing less than staggering, that today there are people who walk the earth who are directly related by blood to the person whom many believe is the son of god.
The film itself has notched up a degree of controversy itself in that it is being touted that dispite all the hype, it's not actually very good, I was myself interested to discover this is largely true.
It has all the hallmarks of a great hollywood film, a great director in Ron Howard, and two sure bets Tom Hanks (saving private ryan, forrest gump), and Jean Reno (ronin, leon), the film is well directed, with regular cutscenes that blend into the main story in an almost dreamlike way to help the viewer undertsand what is going on.
Dan Brown's story does hold water, and is just about compelling for the films entireity, although I found it starting to slow up half way through, things did pick up again towards the end, and there was a predictable 'twist in the tail', although I was dubious as to its ability to convince.
The two things that really let the film down for me was the script, which can for the most part be described as subtle as a bull in a china shop, and even more patronising, and the editing which tended to make the film feel loose and amateurish.
If you cannot get through the rest of your life without knowing what this is all about, go and see, but personally I don't think you are missing much, the story remains fiction, and the film does nothing to convince otherwise.
On another note some thoughts came to me about the idea of Jesus only being a man, I seem to recall in the bible that when a person is born again he becomes a 'joint-heir' in christ, which suggests to me anyone can enter into his bloodline, and dispite even this I cannot get over the notion that if God only came to earth in the form of Christ to procreate with one of HIS created beings, why bother?, why leave heaven to do that? and risk suffering a terrible death?, indeed we are told elsewhere in the bible that God is quite capable of impregnating a willing female supernaturally whose name is also 'Mary'
Andrew Bates.
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