Movie Review: Ferris Buellers Day Off

A well rounded, formulaic classic. It has a simple plot, which has a good premise – take the day off and have a blast. A likeable lead in Ferris, supported ably by his sidekick Cameron, their antics and what they actually pack into the day is a mix of culture, aspiration and plain silliness. The soundtrack is fantastic and the script is peppered with absolute diamonds which permeate our day to day. My favourite is probably “you killed the car” and “Life moves pretty quick. If you don’t get out and look around once in a while you might miss it.”
A well rounded, formulaic classic. It has a simple plot, which has a good premise – take the day off and have a blast. A likeable lead in Ferris, supported ably by his sidekick Cameron, their antics and what they actually pack into the day is a mix of culture, aspiration and plain silliness. The soundtrack is fantastic and the script is peppered with absolute diamonds which permeate our day to day. My favourite is probably “you killed the car” and “Life moves pretty quick. If you don’t get out and look around once in a while you might miss it.”

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

A fantastic cinematic achievement. There is no way you can avoid the hype this movie is bringing to cinema – biggest opening weekend in AU & US, Christian Bales masterful reprise of a role which bought credibility back to the franchise and the spellbinding performance of Heath Ledger, in his role as the mad as a hatter Joker.

The opening sequence is simplistic in its brutality and insight into the criminal mind who is on the outer edge of society – raw, violent, take no prisoners attitude and outcomes. The social experiment the Joker conducts is one you truly hope never eventuates. And that’s the heart of this movie – in the space of 2.5 hours, it covers social aspects and circumstance that you just honestly wish don’t EVER happen, all from the jaded eyes of a madman and the haunted vision of a hero who is battling his own demons.

In saying this, the movie isn’t perfect. The plot bogs down in the middle with an incidental visit to Hong Kong to tie together the underlying story, however it feels like the visit was more to show off some neat gadget trickery and an additional stunt sequence. Additionally, some of the character development, dialogue and banter which hallmarked Batman Begins is left behind to be replaced by a string of action scenes.

Dark Knight redeems itself in the basic principles of good cinema – interesting, well scripted plot backed by a strong supporting cast, cinematography and musical score. I’m adding it to my DVD collection.

Movie Review: Serenity

Joss Whedon passes an exemplary adaption from the undeservadly early demise of the TV Series “Firefly” to the big screen. From the Buffy & Angel legacy, he carry’s on the theme of the Zombies and Vampires in the deseased “Riva” ideal in that they are the walking dead, however set in a science based context as opposed to a paranormal one. Character development as such mirrors his TV contributions, and is treated differently in comparison with other films of this genre, relying on a high level of dialogue and interaction rather than stylised action driven signature moves.

It’s a shame in a sense the movie was made, as what drove it in the first place was the appeasement of the hoards of fans of the Firefly TV series. I think given the choice, everyone would like to have 5 seasons worth of Firefly, rather than the paltry one and a movie. In saying that having a movie budget, at around 2 hours long, all concerned give it 110% as it’s like watching a double whammy season finale on steroids. Special effects, character diversity and set locales are all amped up. Great fun.

Hopefully the success of this at the box office (it grossed $40 million world wide) is enough reasons for another to be made. And another. And another.