Easter Reviews Part 1

So over the Easter holidays so far, I have watched a lot of films and I am most likely to watch a lot more! So for this post I am going to write short reviews for all of the films I have seen so far. Then next week I will review the rest of the films I am most likely to watch in the coming days. So please enjoy!

Paranormal Activity 3
I was a big fan of the documentary Catfish which the directors of this film previously worked on. So I was hoping that they would do this franchise some good. I liked the first film, due to its originality in the horror genre, but I wasn't a big fan of the second as its seems they just copied what had happened in the previous instalment. The third, although having the same sort of rhythm to it, was actually my personal favourite of the series! I thought that it pushed the boundaries of the previous film and delivered some pretty creative scares. If you were put off by the second film then don't turn this one down as it might regain your faith. But I must ask how much life the series has left in it?

Martha Marcy May Marlene
I reviewed this in previous post but I thought I would still give a short verdict; If you are a fan of films which have interesting plots but don't actually go anywhere with it, then this is the film for you. Unfortunately this is not the film for me.

Sunshine
Danny Boyle has no boundaries! He can take any genre and make his own brilliant film within it. Sunshine is a great film and stars some great actors including the new Captain America. A great film that felt almost like a new take on the Alien films. Some great story telling done here and it was actually quite scary in places. My only criticism is that the ending was a little bit crazy and a points I was unsure as to what was actually happening.

Reservoir Dogs
This is the first time I have seen this Tarantino masterpiece. It was a great film which had me glued to my seat throughout. A proper classic and if you haven't seen it, you need too! This really is Tarantino at his best and I don't think I have seen a bad film from the director yet. I cannot wait for Django Unchained!

We Need To Talk About Kevin
I really enjoyed this film and thought that the subject area of which it is based on was handled well. My only problem with this film is that they try to hard. They try to establish this bad relationship between a mother and her soon to be mass killer son. The director obviously wanted the audience to question whether his actions could have been prevented by better parenting. The director also wanted us to think whether the mother is just as bad as her son. The only problem is, is that they focus to hard on making the character of Kevin come across as an evil delusional child. He needed therapy and he needed to be told off by his mum every once and a while for his terrible behaviour! A good film but it could be better.

Red State
This film has been heavily slated by audiences and critics. So I didn't watch this film expecting anything special. But actually it was a good fun watch and I enjoyed it very much. It is sold as a horror but actually isn't that scary. It's more of a fun thriller that makes fun of 'America's Most Hated Family' the Phelps family. The OTT Christians that goes to soldiers funerals with banners saying 'God Hates Fags'. Great way of spreading Gods love?? The family in the film now actually catch these sinners and kill them. The whole film turns into a massive shoot up between them and the police. John Goodman steals the show as usual but Michael Parks was not far behind. Some great acting and a good film which unlike many, i recommend.

Thanks for reading!

Martha Marcy May Marlene

A massive hit at Sundance, among the critics and audiences alike. This set the torch alight for Elizabeth Olsen's career. She certainly did give an incredible performance! But unfortunately for me the film fell short of all the hype and was somewhat disappointing. But the idea for this film was so good! So what went wrong?

The whole premise of a girl escaping a cult and adjusting to life outside of it, sounds very cool and has the makings to be a n excellent film. Which this was not. Don't get me wrong, the story was interesting and some bits of it were really interesting but it just wasn't enough!

The only bit that had me going 'this is a good film!' was the bit when John Hawkes's character Patrick played the song he had written for the main character. The song was suprisingly good and had a chill about it that had be glued to the screen and mesmerised by the lyrics. That unfortunately was about it.

The acting from John Hawkes is just as good as Olsen's but unlike her, he has little screen time for the audience to understand his character and motivations for leading the cult. The whole film is like this, very little back story, which can be a good thing, but in this case it left the audience in too much mystery.
If you are a fan of unresolved plots and endings then this is the film for you. But for me it was too unresolved and left me needing more in order to say that this film was as good as the critics say it is. It is different and quite creepy, which is good but it just needed more! Even the dialogue needed more, it wasn't like Drive in which the dialogue style was used to make it unique, it just needed more and to be faster. Some more speeches from John Hawkes would be nice, then even the audience might be able to see why the cult is so appealing to these people. Because at the moment I feel as if the cult was one where you go to if you hate the rich and want to become a sex slave. Not so appealing if you ask me!

Overall it was an ok film that could have done with more to become the amazing film I was wishing for!

If you haven't watched my short film you can here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55YBAO0-sg&list=UUesEnIRGd70hqWRPjf4Vyug&feature=plcp

Over the Easter holiday I will most likely see lots of films so I will review the all at once in a post at the end of the month!

Thanks for reading!!