Valkyrie

The last 4 months have flown by since I signed up to Lovefilm.com (read my original Lovefilm post here).

Lovefilm Update

I still Love Lovefilm! They have made a few changes to their website which has made it a little more user-friendly such as a useful “My Lovefilm” on the homepage, which shows what I’m renting now, my ratings and reviews etc.

Also it was a lovely surprise to receive an email from them giving me a free rental a “Film Extra”. This has been really well thought out, I have up to a month to redeem this rental and all I need do is click the Film Extra button and the free rental will be sent! I think I will wait to November when many of the DVD’s I have queued will be released.

Also with Sony announcing the new Playstation 3 Slimline console I think now is the right time to buy. So of course I may have to buy a new TV too! But looking forward to renting Blu-Ray discs at Lovefilm for No extra cost!

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Film Reviews

It’s been a while since my last post so I have 6 films to review. So in chronological order of my rentals…

Body of Lies

I’ll be honest, Body of Lies is quite a forgettable film. I rented this nearly three months ago and was watching the trailer just now and can hardly remember the film. At Lovefilm I only rated the film as two stars which compares with a community rating of 3 1/2 out of five.

“Body of Lies” is based on “Washington Post” columnist David Ignatius’ 2007 novel about a CIA operative, Roger Ferris, who uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan. When Ferris devises a plan to infiltrate his network, he must first win the backing of cunning CIA veteran Ed Hoffman and the collegial, but perhaps suspect, head of Jordanian intelligence. Although ostensibly his allies, Ferris questions how far he can really trust these men without putting his entire operation–and his life–on the line.

The Bank Job

I rented The Bank Job as the story is based around Baker Street near where I work. The Bank Job is based on a true story and I found it interesting to watch from this respect and to see places I walk past every day. But as a “action” film it lacked. There was no exciting car chase or really ingenious method of robbery, they just dug a tunnel and the rest was easy! A sub plot of two parties fighting for the contents of one of the safety deposit boxes kept the film interesting and lead to several twists.

The Bank Job is a highly-charged heist thriller based upon the infamous 1971 robbery that took place at the Lloyds Bank in Marylebone London. Starring Jason Statham as Terry, a car dealer with a dodgy past and Saffron Burrows as Martine, the woman with the plan, The Bank Job interweaves corruption, murder and scandal with 1970′s England!

When Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London’s Baker Street, he recognises the opportunity of a lifetime! The plan: to target a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. However Terry and his crew don’t realise the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets – secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal that spans London’s criminal underworld, the highest echelons of the British government, and the Royal Family itself.

Frost Nixon

When I watched Frost Nixon I didn’t really know much about the Watergate scandal. The film was a interesting documentary which taught me a lot about this historical event. It was also interesting seeing how the interview was put together, Frost’s struggles to get funding, and how his success came at the 11th hour in the last of the interview sessions. I only rated this as a 3 star as while it is a great documentary, it’s just that a documentary, not a film that I would want to watch again and again. But then thats the great reason for renting movies rather than buying!

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard (Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind) brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan’s (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: Frost/Nixon. Reprising their roles from Morgan’s stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who fully inhabited the part of Frost onstage in London and New York.

Australia

Australia is one of those films everyone says you should see (perhaps other than some Australians I know). It has a good plot and despite having a long run time of 2hrs and 45 mins keeps your attention throughout. Ultimately though its not my kind of film, so while it was good to watch and I enjoyed it, it isn’t one I’d see again or buy.

Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrman and Nicole Kidman reteam for this epic that pays homage to their homeland. In Australia, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) is a prim and proper Englishwoman who journeys to Australia in the years before World War II reached the country’s shores. She is determined to have her estranged husband sell his cattle ranch to a monopoly-craving businessman named King Carney (Bryan Brown), but when she arrives, Lord Ashley is dead, and her plan to sell the ranch changes when she sees an employee named Fletcher (David Wenham) cheating her husband’s business and mistreating a young boy named Nullah (Brandon Walters) because he is of mixed race. Urged on by both pride and a sense of justice, Lady Ashley wants to drive her herd of cattle to Darwin so she can sell them to the troops, but she’ll require the help of an independent cowboy (fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman) to get them there.

Australia changes genres almost as much as Kidman’s character changes from fantastic costume to fantastic costume (courtesy of Luhrman’s wife and collaborator, Catherine Martin). The film begins as a fish-out-of-water comedy, then changes into a Western, then morphs into a romance, and it finishes as a World War II drama. But in this genre-bending epic, there’s something for everyone, especially for fans of Jackman. The actor has rarely looked better, and there’s plenty of opportunity for him to show that he can be an action star as well as a romantic lead in the mould of the Golden Age stars. The film itself harks back to classic Hollywood, at times resembling essentials such as Gone With The Wind and The African Queen. And fans of The Wizard of Oz will enjoy seeing how the beloved film works its way into Australia’s plot and score.

Finally Valkyrie. This film is based on the true events surrounding a plot to assassinate Hitler. The plot of the film is always moving forward’s with Tom Cruise’s character taking the lead in the plot. This was a great film to watch and one I would consider buying on DVD.

Based on a the true story of a cadre of Nazi officers who grew to oppose Hitler’s murderous pursuits and made several attempts to kill him in the late stages of WWII, VALKYRIE features a top-flight cast, with drama and suspense in equal measure. The film is a stylistic departure for director Bryan Singer (X-MEN, X2) and star Tom Cruise, with a screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie (THE USUAL SUSPECTS) and Nathan Alexander that is constructed like a heist film, with a team of like-minded men coming together for a common purpose and facing incredible odds. It is 1943, and though he has come to be disgusted by Hitler’s campaign of evil, Count Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) has risen to the level of lieutenant colonel in the German army. Convinced that Hitler must die, Von Stauffenberg requests a transfer to Tunisia, where he loses his left eye and right hand during an Allied air raid. Falling in with a group of similarly disillusioned officers including Major General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh), General Friedrich Olbricht (Bill Nighy), General Friedrich Fromm (Tom Wilkinson), and Colonel General Ludwig Beck (Terence Stamp), Stauffenberg is at the centre of several attempts on Der Fuhrer’s life, culminating in a bombing that kills a handful of his officers and leaves Hitler only slightly injured.

Though advance photos of Cruise in Nazi uniform brought VALKYRIE negative publicity, his restrained performance is at the heart of this well-crafted, thinking person’s action movie. He is bolstered by an incredible British cast including Branagh, Stamp, and Wilkinson, and by the film’s dazzling art direction. Though it’s a story to which viewers should already know the ending, Singer still creates ample suspense. The result is a taut and effective historical thriller.