THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

"Sick, dark, twisted, violent, forbidden, brilliant!"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo turns out to be something quite unique. For all the thrills, shills, and disgust that tends to evoke itself through this story, the film shines through as one of the best films for the year.

The film tends to deals with a lot of issues, which happen in our everyday lives, yet we chose to ignore them or just sink ourselves in whatever we doing that we could care less. Rooney Mara, is truly the star of the film, with her performance as Lisbeth Salander,  she is odd, weird, quiet, yet as this element of danger emit off her with a ghostly aura.  Rarely have we seen a performance as powerful as this, standing toe-to-toe with Heath Ledger's Joker.

Lisbeth represents the true meaning of a feminist. As she is a women that, gets things done, no matter what's the cost. She is as strong as any male character in literature. In an age where, females have been represented as either, business woman with a whole lot insecurities, or women that all they good for is shopping, or girls that relies on vampire and her wolf to save her, while not being able to chose which one she likes best...

Lisbeth comes through as a highly driven, motivated; women that yearns for justice, and won't stop at anything to see it carried it. However in all her hardness and strength, you still see the fragility in her, as is in all of us.

Director David Fincher, managed to make a wonderful film, that keeps you intrigued from beginning to end, and the film will play on your mind long after you left the cinema.

You realize that there is a lot of pain and anguish in Lisbeths past for making her the way she is, but she uses this pain to drive her forward in what ever she does.

Rarely has there been such a wonderfully character driven story, in an age where we want to see farcical love stories and over the top action films. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes through as a film about heinous crimes, that's seen through the eyes of a realist.

Just by the way, Daniel Craig has a wonderful performance in this film, and he carries this film just as much as Rooney, but Rooney Mara really does just overshadow everyone in this film. But, everybody is wonderful in this film.

P.S do not take kids or people that are sensitive to violence... The rape scene in this film really is quite graphic and very disturbing.

Even though that scene is hard to watch, the entire movie is quite brilliant, and we love it.

Our rating

10/10

THE DARKEST HOUR

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

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The concept for the film was totally unique, looking at the trailers and all the hype surrounding it. The Darkest Hour promised us to be on of the best films of the year. It totally failed to deliver.

The film was not a total train smash, it's just not as satisfying as you would hope it to be.

The film suffers from having a really awesome concept, just like Cowboys & Aliens, but there wasn't a good enough story to make this film really great.

The first act of the story embodied everything that made this concept work. The film has a fresh take in this horror/thriller world, as these aliens have a full plan. They have a reason for what they doing, they come to earth with a full on attack plan, and our heroes of the story are just normal people who survive the first wave of the attacks.

The aliens are probably the coolest things ever, as they toy with the idea that you have to fear the light, darkness becomes a safe haven. But, then they decide close to the end to show us these aliens that you can't see. That was a major flop!!!

Having them hidden from us, was the best why do u have to see there face?? And the CG on them is incredibly bad, all of a sudden you lose that interest you had of the mystery of these things.

It would of been great, if they didn't maybe the stereotypical route with teenagers surviving the alien attack and figuring out how to stop it.

But, there a lot of positives from the film as well, one of them being Emile Hirsch.

He is the true star of the show, apart of the glow star aliens. He anchors the story extremely well, keeping the audience highly entertained, while letting you forget about how quick the film turns from this strong fast paced beginning that entices your imagination that this will be a hit film, to a stereotypical, unimaginative ending.

The Darkest Hour does bring a fresh take, to this genre but at times it gets tied down with too many of the same facets that we have seen over and over again in this type of film.

The film does however, have some good character development and plays with some interesting themes. Such as redemption, courage, bravery and asks the question that if you were faced with a life and death situation how would you react? Everybody would want to say they would be brave and try and be a hero but you will never know until you truly face that situation.

That is especially true, when you look at Joel Kinnaman's character, Skylar. His character probably had the most fulfilling story of all the characters in the film, as we see him go from the being this coward, and being redeemed as a hero. We loved the way his character developed through out the story.

But aside, from Emile Hirsch and Joel Kinnaman's characters, everybody else in the film were really flat as characters.

The Darkest Hour is not all out, a horrible movie, it is Movie with a brilliant concept, with a mediocre story, with interesting Characters but not as memorable as we would of hoped.

It is easily a like able film, but not a love able film....

And for that our Rating

5.5/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on The Darkest Hour check out Movie Hype.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

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"A sentimental, charming, love letter to Paris from Woody Allen that takes you on a sweet, memorable, adventurous roller coaster ride"

Woody Allen, wrote and directed this film, and it's quite evident when you watching this film. It contains all the quirkiness, comedy, romantic gestures and absurdity that has always come with a Woody Allen film.

Owen Wilson is mostly responsible for this, as he is the true star of the film, with giving possibly his best performance of his career.

Wilson captures the spirit of someone that Is inlove with Paris, he yearns to see all of its beauty, to embrace the sweet aroma of the romance of the city, while his wife, played by the beautiful Rachel McAdams, would rather get toured around the city by the pompous and quite obnoxious Michael Sheen, who plays his role to perfection.

The film takes us through the renaissance period in Paris, where art, literature and music icons all rubbed shoulders with each other, submerging us in film, that dives into rich history and culture in thee most fun way.

This film, deals with the different types of loves people experience and what we assume will make us happen, but really doesn't. It asks the question about modern relationships, are people together because they really love each other or because the person fits a certain criteria? Sometimes the relationship is failing yet in our minds we can make it work, while its clear to everyone that you two don't belong together.

It poses the question that if you meet a girl that would be your ideal girlfriend, or more appropriately, your fantasy. Will that really be what you want?

It shows us, that sometimes the right person for you could easily be the person that you least took notice of.

It asks all this, while thrusting you into the world of the 1920's, as we experience this unexplainable, unbelievable adventure. The best part of this is that as we falling in love with this story, just as Owen Wilson’s character is falling I love with managing to walk his way into the 1920's, we don't know how this is possible, but we could care less as its just an amazing ride.

The cast of this film is phenomenal with the likes of Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston and of course Owen Wilson, it makes up for a brilliant ensemble cast.

We can go on and on about this film, but we not. In short, this film is charming, sweet, lovable, and memorable. It is the best Romantic Comedy of the year, and, one of the best romantic comedies ever made.

It's quirky, it's fun; it's a film about love and happiness and at the end of this film, you will be happy and loving it.

Our rating

9/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on Midnight in Paris check out Movie Hype.

THE ADVENTURES OF TIN TIN

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

"TinTin finally finds his way to the big screen, just as he finds his way into our hearts."

TinTin really brings back that spirit of old adventure films, which seem to have almost vanished. It mixes mystery, action, and adventure in such a way that would get you leaving the cinema searching for a taste for your own adventure.

The film really proves itself to be the next step, in animation, as the motion capture gave the film a real synthetic to it, merging it with realistic CGI. it brought TinTin alive, as if he was revived straight out the comic strips themselves, while still keeping a very humane feel to it.

TinTin is an adventure that could easily rival the likes of any other adventure film, with characters that quite intriguing and amusing at best.

Jamie Bell stars as TinTin, and does a wonderful job of providing the right tone and feel for the character, while Andy Serkis steps in as Captain Haddock and proves once again why he is the best person to work with, when it comes to MoCap. Even though you can't see the person face, or their bodies you can certainly feel their performance and Bell and Serkis both done marvelously.

Snowy, however is completely computer generated, and quite a scene-stealer by all means. Not only does this dog understands humans, but Snowy is quite an intelligent animal... Wish we had a dog like that.

This film is quite a Thrill ride, which will take you through a number of locations, and action scenes. For Spielberg, it's a return to form, for Peter Jackson; he would think it’s a warm up for his sequel TinTin film. But, for the whole family, it's film that you wouldn't want to miss...

Our Rating

8/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on The Adventures of Tin Tin check out Movie Hype.

DRIVE

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

An exhilarating thrill ride- Drive is completely patient in its story delivery as it offers a perfect balance of high octane action, drama and an enthralling story that will definitely be putting director Nicolas Winding Refn on the map.

Drive is a film unlike any other. The film is a throwback, to true classic car-chase films like Bullet and Point Blank, and it’s quickly garnering cult status as one of the best car-chase films ever made.

Refn, has managed to provide a wonderful blend of his story telling ability, with a sheer artistry in his camera work.

The opening sequence in Drive is testament of this. We are introduced to Driver (Ryan Gosling), as he gets ready to be a getaway driver for some thugs, this first scene will immediately suck you into the film as we get to see the entire get away through the perspective of Driver, an ingenious move by Refn and makes for one hell of a sequence.

The film has an unassuming mixture of noir, grotesque violence and an intertwining storyline that at first isn’t as clear as you would think, and as the film catches momentum the story just unveils itself.

Ryan Gosling is the true star player in this film, and has to be one of his best performances to date. He plays this unknown Driver with an incredible aura, which so few in Hollywood could manage. The character has a lot of mystery to him, and speaks only when he needs to, with audience listening intensively as to just hear the next line that Gosling will deliver.

However the entire cast of this film, is incredibly as every person that has a role in this film approaches it with just the right amount of feeling for their respective characters. Carey Mulligan is a true star on the rising, and Drive pays testament to this with a quite subtle yet completely accurate performance by the beautiful star.

Albert Brooks, who is known as a comedic actor, has probably the best performance of his life playing Bernie Rose, the primary Antagonist of this film. The beauty of his performance is that he is subtle in it, so much so, that you not even sure if he really is the antagonist until the 3^rd act.

The film is also has the look and the feel of heist film in the 80’s with a soundtrack that pushes it into that era, keeping gritty pulpy feeling to the film with that dash of noir that makes it an artistic marvel.

General movie audiences might miss this film, but what we can guarantee you is that this is one of the best films of the year, and we can assure you when we make our top 10 films of 2011 list Drive will definitely be Number 1! Its truly fantastic, memorable, CLASSIC!!!

Our Rating 9/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on Drive check out Movie Hype.

THE THREE MUSKEETEERS

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

The Three Musketeers is a very entertaining high-octane action flick but it’s really no more than a completely unnecessary reboot of a quite classical tale retold in a very exaggerated yet unsatisfying way.

The film is really set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Just a joke), they just never tell you this!! The reality that the Musketeers find themselves in will be a world that seems familiar but it’s ruled with high tech gadgets and inventions that can rival some of our tech.

Now this interesting reality isn’t a problem, it does bring certain freshness and uniqueness to the story and you can easily find yourself riveted with these fascinating gadgets. However, as cool as these new technologies are, we can’t help but feel robbed of the true swash Buckling, Sword Fighting/Brawling that is essentially the Three Musketeers. So much emphasis was placed on these wonderful gadgetry world, that they substituted Musketeers wonderful sword fights to nothing more than a tease in the beginning of the film.

Another major problem for the film comes in the title, when we went to the film we thought we watching the Three Musketeers, instead we were watching “Milady and the Three Musketeers”.

Milla Jovovich plays Milady in the film and yes, they have really turned the character into quite a cool character that many people would take a liking to, but the problem is that, Milady gets almost the same, if not more, screen time than the Three Musketeers. It’s for this reason that we really see this film suffer.

The Three Musketeers were wonderfully cast, with Matthew Macfadyen as Athos, Ray Stevenson as Porthos & Luke Evans as Aramis, but the only problem is the bad story they find themselves in. These guys do the best they can but when so little is placed on their character development and lack of fighting scenes and overall lack of story development for the Musketeers, it’s like trying to save the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.

Logan Lerman on the other Hand plays D’Artganan and just like all the other characters in this film it’s hard for the audience to make a connection with him. D’Artagnan always came across as an ambitious, confident, warm hearted, robust character. He was once the most loveable Musketeer, now he is just comes across as arrogant and naïve.

On a lighter note the costume design in this film is definitely worthy of getting an Academy Award nomination at least. And Orlando Blooms is a scene-stealer in his role as the Duke of Buckingham. He really turned the Buckingham into a Rock star; as he seemed to borrow a lot from his Pirates of the Caribbean co-star, Johnny Depp in his portrayal of Jack Sparrow. Every time the duke is on Screen you can’t help but think that Sparrow and the Buckingham could be related.

But at the end of it all, you would have been taken on quite an extraordinary ride through this extravagant world with plenty of action and amazing costumes but you would still come out feeling robbed of the full Musketeer experience.

Our Rating 5/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on The Three Musketeers in 3D check out Movie Hype.

CRAZY STUPID LOVE

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

CRAZY STUPID LOVE is a crazily good romantic comedy, which actually is a ROMANTIC COMEDY! It isn’t just another romcom that plays with an idea of ‘perfect love’ and over the top comedy, but actually sets you up on a ride that can only be described as an emotional roller coaster and a good one at that.

The film is incredibly good at mixing these two genres perfectly, where as we have seen for the past few years romcoms coming out and being really lackluster.

What Crazy Stupid Love has done, is stepped out of these conventions of what a romantic comedy should be and managed to make a film that has a lot of heart in it.

When the film gets romantic, it really has a lot of loving elements without overplaying the idea we have of seeing these grand gestures of romance.

When the film brings in the comedic element, it does perfectly! Better than most purely comedic films you have watched. This film brings this element into the film so seamlessly; you will be rolling on the floor in laughter. This also showed that comedy doesn’t have to be pointless antidotes to get the audience laughing, you just need very good writers and a better cast that can deliver these incredibly funny lines without breaking the flow of the scene.

However, the film is also raveled with a lot of drama, and yet again even this is done perfectly in a film that is about ‘lost loves’, ‘first loves’, ‘rekindling love’ and all the other type of ‘loves’ in-between.

The cast in this film is simply fantastic! This exceptionally well casted group of people steer this emotional mammoth of a film and each and everyone one of them embodies these characters with tremendous ease.

Steve Carell really embodies everything this film is about in his role. This is definitely a stand out performance for the comedic star as he his able to bring in just the right amount emotion, whether it being despair, sadness, or just throw in a touch of comedy; Carell manages to pull this off with the right amount of sincerity in every scene.

Ryan Gosling brings an entirely different element to this film, as he his incredibly suave, charismatic with so much charm you cant help but not like him. He is the totally opposite to Carell and yet there friendship is one that makes sense as it unravels with the film.

Juliann Moore brings a lot of the heart to the film as well as despair.

Emma Stone on the other hand is sort of like the thread that just weaves all these different personalities together, and she does this by just being her charmful self.

Either way, this is a really good film that is the perfect balance of Romance, Comedy, and something that you would not want to miss!!!

Our Rating 8.5/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

FINAL DESTINATION 5

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

The 5^th instalment in the franchise that can’t escape death, brings us a story that is much of the same yet it restored a bit of pride to the franchise that should have been dead by the 4^th film. Even though the 4^th film claimed to be the last, and it was the worst, this film proves to be a step up and yes it seems to be the last film.

The overall plot if the franchise remains the same, some young people that suppose to die in some major tragedy, but survive by one one person for seeing it, then get killed by death. So it’s very easy to see that this film doesn’t offer anything new for the audience. The storyline of the characters are better than some of the previous instalments, the deaths in this film is interesting, keeps you in suspense, shocking and quite strange, you will not see it coming!!

The film also offers movie goers a movie that uses its 3D capabilities quite well and probably the best 3D film of this year behind Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

However the film isn’t all good, it tends to be very tedious and even though the storyline and shocking deaths are much better than the previous films, it can’t save this film from being monotonous and unimaginative when it comes to trying to offer the audience something new and different. Instead they stuck with the strengths of the franchise but after 4 films, you would think that they would try and make it a little more interesting.

The characters do have a better story this time around but for the most of the film many of the characters that survive the accident, seem to be unaffected by the accident and the fact that there lives were spared and that all the colleagues are dead. Instead they prance around full of life, and for the most part almost quite obnoxiously.

But then when you just about to lose all hope, and you so annoyed from having to sit and waste your life away for that hour and a half watching this film, then all of a sudden the end of the films starts to unravel and it brings one of thee biggest major twist in the entire franchise and for fan boys, they will certainly love it!!

It’s a refreshing twist that ends up linking the entire franchise, and they do this in a way that makes the film feel fresh in franchise that hasn’t managed to revitalise itself. The end of the film almost justifies this played out franchise and for you that watched the first film 11 years ago when it first released, this film ended the franchise perfectly.

Our Rating 5.5/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

RISE OF THE PLANET OF APES

M1 & M2 of Movie Hype with the Review

The original (1968), Planet of the Apes defined an era and launched one of thee most successful franchises. Unfortunately some of the sequels were just plain horrible, and the reboot in 2001, which featured Mark Wahlberg was by nowhere near the original masterpiece either.

But then comes Rise of the Planet of the Apes, when all hope was lost for this films’ franchise, this new film re-defines it and it does this brilliantly!!!

In a time where Hollywood seems to want to make an origin story for any successful franchise, this normally ends up to be an epic fail. There are a few exceptions that normally revitalize the franchise, in cases such as X-Men: First Class and Batman Begins, ‘Rise of the Apes’ would also be one of those exceptions!!

The film is wonderfully crafted, well thought-out and a quite an emotionally involved film.

‘Rise of the Apes’ really got the story right for this film. Director Rupert Wyatt developed Cesar (The Protagonist - Ape) story so well throughout the film. So much time was taken for the pure purpose of developing Cesar’s character and to get the audience understand why he does what he does, because of all the ups and downs he goes through in his life.

Cesar was portrayed to perfection by Andy Serkis, who we think should definitely be in the running for an Academy Award for his portrayal of the revolutionary ape!

One thing we liked about this film is that instead of going for a whole lot of pointless action, and hundreds of hints for possible sequels, to extend the film, the majority of the film is simply used to get into the apes mind and get totally submerged into the character of this ape. Wyatt did something brilliant by just focusing on the film in hand and developing Cesar as a character in this film, from the amazingly intelligent “pet”, to a strong powerful revolutionist leader. This is what makes the film so great.

Another aspect of the film that we loved was seeing how the apes communicate with each other. This was an ingenious move by Wyatt as it pulls you entirely into the film. You have to watch closely and look at there facial expressions, movement, and body language to understand fully what’s going on.

On performances, James Franco does a decent job of keeping the audience drawn in the film. However, in a film that is filled with the most mesmerizing CG apes, it would be hard for any actor to try and out shine them. The apes in the film is truly amazing and if you didn’t know any better you would of thought that they actually used real apes for some scenes. They really steel every scene that they are in.

All the stars in the film are easily over-shadowed by there CG co-stars.This story was also quite heart felt that was something that was quite unexpected. There are some scenes that really do tug on the emotions. In the end, it is a real fun action film, that will get you get you cheering the apes on even though you supposed to be supporting your own kind… the unworthy Humans!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a fantastic film and probably on of thee best films of the year. The film is definitely something that is truly great, and earned its place right next to the original Planet of the Apes. But the greatest feat of the this film would have to be its ability to tell a human story of an ape, that not only will launch a whole new franchise but re-defined the franchise as well.

Our Rating 9/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on Rise of the Planet of the Apes check out Movie Hype.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

By M-1 and M-2 of Movie Hype

Captain America is definitely the must watch comic book film of the year. Not only does it deliver a wonderful story, but also it’s well entwined with the 1942 (Future) time period. It really is a larger then life World War II film but is so well infused with the Marvel Universe, setting up the Avengers in a perfect style.

The First Avenger, for one thing, really played on its one strength that differentiates it from any other comic book film made, and that is the time period it is set in. This has to be one of the first comic book films that really transports' you back in time in to the 40’s. But then what director Joe Johnson does marvelously is to adopt the reality of the 1940’s, to more of a Marvel-type of reality of the 40’s. So in essence its makes the feel of this period and Cap’s story something quite unique to anything you have seen before.

But Captain America’s main strength of the film has to be the way that Marvel Universe is always eluded too. The film really made it feel that all these superheroes could actually be in the same room.

One way they done this was by the introduction of Howard Stark played to perfection by Dominic Cooper. We really got to see why Tony is actually the way he is. We also got to see the Howards’ Stark Expo, which Tony re-opens in Iron Man 2. (They even had a little play on a scene in Iron Man 2)

There was also some mythical elements added to the film with the use of the cosmic cube, and this obviously has close links to Thor.

So by playing on these elements in the entire film, not only does it make the film better for it, but it also makes it the best prequel film to the Avengers.

Our Rating 8/10

Be sure to catch the Reel Magic Roundup featuring Movie Hype’s M-2 every Thursday at 07h00 only on UJFM 95.4

For more on Captain America: The First Avenger check out Movie Hype.