Yes, I am breaking out of my monthly reviews for this movie, but for good reasons, it is a classic and also our good friends @ the Astor Theatre are showing it, as of the 1st of July, limited screening. I was lucky enough to get a little sneak peak, thanks to knowing the right people of course, and was I excited about seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark on the BIG screen again.
Raiders of the Lost Ark: I still remember the first time I saw this movie at the cinema. I was just a little boy, around 6 years old at the time. I can remember being in the back seat of the car with my dad and older brother, it's just one of those child hood memories which will be with me forever. This movie is one of my all time classic, I just love it, and seeing it again at the Astor Theatre was fantastic. It has been re-mastered in new 4K Digital, which to me means bringing it up to todays technology, and we were told that some parts were still in original format. The quality of the picture and sound was excellent, there was only a few spots which the video wasn't good (being in original format of course). But, all in all, it was an unbelievable re-master. I'm giving this a 4.5 out of 5.
This is a must see at the Astor Theatre for 2 reasons. The first is seeing a classic movie re-mastered on the big screen and the second is supporting a great Melbourne cinema, the Astor Theatre. They always bring back the classic as well as the recent movies. If you have not been to the Astor at all, and you live in Melbourne, then what a better why of going to the Astor for the first time and seeing a great classic, at the same time. So, pencil this one in your diary for next month at the Astor, and don't forget to buy a chic top, they have some yummy flavours to choose from.
Monday, 11 June 2012
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Star Wars Episode VII - The Review. By Ash.
I was going to start this blog with some sort of reference to star wars, like "A short time ago, in the galaxy which we live in, Ashley watched the Star Wars episodes I, II and III again", but then it just didn't sound right. I was also going to try and write something different to my basic monthly review, and try and do a real review, and breakdown of the movies, and how I used to watched the originals over and over again when I was a kid. But, I have decided that I am a movie fan, and just blog about movies, and I'll leave the real reviews to Lee and Paul at Hell Is For Hyphenates and Luke Buckmaster at Cinetology. Which if you haven't checked their reviews out, I would highly recommend in doing so, if like me, you love movies. So, I',m just going to stick to my normal style.
Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace: I think, at the time, I was pretty excited when this first come out, and then when I saw it I was full of mixed emotions, and wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Well, after all these years, I am still undecided if I do like it of not. I think that it started of with potential, with what is to come with Episode II and III. Some new characters we could have done without, also, I also think that he added too many of the original characters, which we could have also done without in the new episodes. He just seem to want to keep the new episodes as close to the original as he possible could. And then George Lucas released the:
Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clone Wars: This was the worst out of the new three episode. It is funny watching Yoda jump around. But, that is what it is, just funny, like YouTube funny, not for a Star Wars movie. Yoda looks just as old as he did in the original series, where he is so old he has to walk around with a walking stick, he just doesn't sync with me. I think we could have done without this one. I think that's enough said.
Star Wars Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith: This is like the Episode I, I am just undecided if I like it or not, all for the same reasons as Episode I.
If I treat Episode I, II and III as just movies on their own, and not related to the original trilogy, then, I don't mind them, and can accept them. But, for what they are meant to be, they just don't gel with the originals, there is too many things which don't sync with the original trilogy and characters. I can't see my views changing, but it probably want stop me than watching them again.
Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace: I think, at the time, I was pretty excited when this first come out, and then when I saw it I was full of mixed emotions, and wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Well, after all these years, I am still undecided if I do like it of not. I think that it started of with potential, with what is to come with Episode II and III. Some new characters we could have done without, also, I also think that he added too many of the original characters, which we could have also done without in the new episodes. He just seem to want to keep the new episodes as close to the original as he possible could. And then George Lucas released the:
Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clone Wars: This was the worst out of the new three episode. It is funny watching Yoda jump around. But, that is what it is, just funny, like YouTube funny, not for a Star Wars movie. Yoda looks just as old as he did in the original series, where he is so old he has to walk around with a walking stick, he just doesn't sync with me. I think we could have done without this one. I think that's enough said.
Star Wars Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith: This is like the Episode I, I am just undecided if I like it or not, all for the same reasons as Episode I.
If I treat Episode I, II and III as just movies on their own, and not related to the original trilogy, then, I don't mind them, and can accept them. But, for what they are meant to be, they just don't gel with the originals, there is too many things which don't sync with the original trilogy and characters. I can't see my views changing, but it probably want stop me than watching them again.
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Monthly movies for May
Once again I only got to see one movie for this month, of course it was The Avengers. If only I didn't have to work, and I could just watch movies and get paid for it, but this is not the case, and I had a very busy workload in the last month, so without getting into my boring work, lets move onto my monthly movie review for May.
The Avengers: This was a big movie in the waiting for many people including myself. Out of the comic book characters in The Avengers, that have done movies so far, I have only seen the first Iron Man and just recently Captain America: The First Avenger. Of course Joss Whedon is one of my favourite Director/writers, creating one of my all time favourite TV shows Firefly, plus Buffy, Dollhouse, the list goes on and on. Just knowing that he was the director/writer, was enough for me to want to see this movie. Seeing that most of the main super hero's have had their own blockbuster movies shown in the last fews years, meant that they did not have to use the first movie in building up the characters too much, but I felt like they did enough in this movie for that, without messing with the main plot too much. I feel that Joss had some good humour in the movie, and massive action scenes. With total mass destruction from the evil bad guys, which only the Super Hero's of course could stop, it was, to me, a true Marvel style movie. Of course the last thing which I loved about the movie, is of course it had Samuel L Jackson, and I think that is enough said. Of course my views might be biased due to it having Joss Whedon and Samuel L Jackson involved in the movie. If you love comic book movies, then I would say this one is a must, 4/5.
Well, as they say that is a wrap for this month, and I hope you enjoyed this movie like I did.
Ciao for now.
The Avengers: This was a big movie in the waiting for many people including myself. Out of the comic book characters in The Avengers, that have done movies so far, I have only seen the first Iron Man and just recently Captain America: The First Avenger. Of course Joss Whedon is one of my favourite Director/writers, creating one of my all time favourite TV shows Firefly, plus Buffy, Dollhouse, the list goes on and on. Just knowing that he was the director/writer, was enough for me to want to see this movie. Seeing that most of the main super hero's have had their own blockbuster movies shown in the last fews years, meant that they did not have to use the first movie in building up the characters too much, but I felt like they did enough in this movie for that, without messing with the main plot too much. I feel that Joss had some good humour in the movie, and massive action scenes. With total mass destruction from the evil bad guys, which only the Super Hero's of course could stop, it was, to me, a true Marvel style movie. Of course the last thing which I loved about the movie, is of course it had Samuel L Jackson, and I think that is enough said. Of course my views might be biased due to it having Joss Whedon and Samuel L Jackson involved in the movie. If you love comic book movies, then I would say this one is a must, 4/5.
Well, as they say that is a wrap for this month, and I hope you enjoyed this movie like I did.
Ciao for now.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Monthly movies for April.
This monthly review will be quick, seeing that I only saw two movies this month, The Hunger Gamers and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They do say it is quality and not quantity, and I think this phrase fits well for my month of movies, I enjoyed both movies for different reasons.
The Hunger Games: Seeing that I am not a big or fast book reader, I have of course not read the hunger games, yet. I said yet, which most likely means probably not at all, I can't write these blogs and watch movies and read books, that's too much for this brain, I also have to fit my day job in there too. So, my perspective of this movie is from someone seeing the story unfold for the first time, and I will have to say I enjoyed it. Talking about this movie to friends and family, it sounds like if you have read the book you might be slightly disappointed with the movie. They say "it misses this point" or "they needed to delve into this character more", etc, etc. I think for what it is worth, the story line, for the type of movie it is, was good, you can work out things for yourself and assume certain things well happen, knowing of course they will most likely be bringing out the sequels in the coming years, seeing this looks like it is the next big franchise to come along since Twilight. The main disappointment for me in the movie was the handy cam work. It was too rough, I understand they wanted to make you feel part of the action, but I think they over did it, and it was for me to blurry, to much movement. They should have taken note on the Chronicle style of handy cam work, which they seem to do well in that movie. Overall, I am looking forward to seeing the sequel to the hunger games, giving this a 3.5/5.
Best Exotic Marigold hotel: Before I start going into this movie, I would just like to say I think the British have the best form of comedy. Growing up I enjoyed the Goodies, Monty Python, then in the later years Black book, IT Crowd, etc. So, seeing the actors and the previews to this movie, I was thinking, it will have that nice comedic edge to it, which only the Brits know how to do, and I do love Bill Nighy, he just seems very natural and funny. I come out of this movie, knowing that I got a good little hit of comedy, with a slight touch of sadness to it. It was a very well rounded movie. The cinematography with the scene changers and just the beautiful Indian scenery really showed in this movie, along with an interesting story line, made this a nice well rounded movie, with my rating of 3.5/5.
Well, that was an easy month of movies blended in with seeing family and friends for April. I am in the process of writing my review on the star wars episodes, so the first episode of that will be posted in this galaxy and in the near future. Also, don't forget to download and listen to Hell is for Hyphenates podcast for april.
The Hunger Games: Seeing that I am not a big or fast book reader, I have of course not read the hunger games, yet. I said yet, which most likely means probably not at all, I can't write these blogs and watch movies and read books, that's too much for this brain, I also have to fit my day job in there too. So, my perspective of this movie is from someone seeing the story unfold for the first time, and I will have to say I enjoyed it. Talking about this movie to friends and family, it sounds like if you have read the book you might be slightly disappointed with the movie. They say "it misses this point" or "they needed to delve into this character more", etc, etc. I think for what it is worth, the story line, for the type of movie it is, was good, you can work out things for yourself and assume certain things well happen, knowing of course they will most likely be bringing out the sequels in the coming years, seeing this looks like it is the next big franchise to come along since Twilight. The main disappointment for me in the movie was the handy cam work. It was too rough, I understand they wanted to make you feel part of the action, but I think they over did it, and it was for me to blurry, to much movement. They should have taken note on the Chronicle style of handy cam work, which they seem to do well in that movie. Overall, I am looking forward to seeing the sequel to the hunger games, giving this a 3.5/5.
Best Exotic Marigold hotel: Before I start going into this movie, I would just like to say I think the British have the best form of comedy. Growing up I enjoyed the Goodies, Monty Python, then in the later years Black book, IT Crowd, etc. So, seeing the actors and the previews to this movie, I was thinking, it will have that nice comedic edge to it, which only the Brits know how to do, and I do love Bill Nighy, he just seems very natural and funny. I come out of this movie, knowing that I got a good little hit of comedy, with a slight touch of sadness to it. It was a very well rounded movie. The cinematography with the scene changers and just the beautiful Indian scenery really showed in this movie, along with an interesting story line, made this a nice well rounded movie, with my rating of 3.5/5.
Well, that was an easy month of movies blended in with seeing family and friends for April. I am in the process of writing my review on the star wars episodes, so the first episode of that will be posted in this galaxy and in the near future. Also, don't forget to download and listen to Hell is for Hyphenates podcast for april.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Monthly Movies for March, by ash
Still blogging, and we are up to March. I am doing these blogs more for myself to just shout out to the world, in written form, but I hope for the few readers which do read the blogs, that they have gotten something out of them. This month I watched a fantastic European movie 'Headhunters' (for me the best movie so far in 2012), another National Theatre Live production 'The Comedy of Errors', the Oscar nominated 'The Descendants' and the last movie 'A Dangerous Method' (which is the worst movie for me in 2012).
The Comedy of Errors: The second National Theatre Live production that I have seen for 2012. This is of course a classic Shakespeare play, set in modern day times. I will have to admit that when Lauren mentioned these live theatre productions to me, about a year ago, the first thing which come to my mind was 'the theatre' BORING. But, now after seeing this and One man, Two Guvnors I am into these live play performances. I think the next one I am looking forward to seeing is the return of the successful play, Frankenstein, in April. I'm not going to lie to you, William Shakespeare's language is something that sometimes I am lost in the translation. However, the cast was fantastic, and I found it was very funny, for the 2 hours that it went for, it only felt like an hour. The way that the set was designed with the great little four piece band, meant that it had an excellent and smooth changes in-between the scenes. I think with the National Theatre Live productions you go and see, you do have to pick the one which would suit your style, but I cannot highly recommend going to one at Cinema Nova. I give this a 4/5.
The Descendants: What can I say about this movie, Oscar worthy? I didn't think so, but then I got the wooden spoon for picking the least amount of Oscar winners this year at the Oscar Party I attended, so I don't think I am the best judge on what is or is not Oscar worthy, just the best judge on Ashley Worthiness. We did see Headhunters on the same day, so for me there was a clear winner on that day. The pros, well it is in Hawaii and I love Hawaii, the guy from the funny TV show, Community, was a co writer, and I love Community. We also saw this at the moonlight cinema, which was an experience, where I did find myself staring at the sky and watching the bats fly from tree to tree, and just praying that I didn't get bat poo on me or my food, so had some distractions. I enjoyed the movie, but probably want be in my top ratings for 2012. I give it a 3/5.
A Dangerous Method: Unlike Edgar, which was too long, at least they kept this one to a reasonable time frame. I found the main actress to have over acted big time, which put me off the film right from the start. This movie just wasn't ticking the boxes for me, and I am just glad being a MIFF member that I saw it for free, because I don't think it is worth the movie ticket, for me anyway. From the audience mood on the day I went, it did get some good responses, so maybe don't get put off by my experience of it. But, I am only giving it a 2.5/5.
Also, don't forget to listen to the latest of Hell is for Hyphenates, where you will hear expert movie critics/writers/directors/radio commentators/all round good guys, Lee Zachariah and Paul Anthony Nelson, with special guest host Marc Fennell, you know 'that movie guy'. These guys actually know what they are talking about with everything to do with movies, and very entertaining and interesting to listen too. Maybe I should put this at the top of the blog, because it is far more entertaining and informative about movies than my blog. But,I am just assuming you might read all of it.
That's all the movies I have seen for March. Thanks for reading.
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