Pinocchio - Walt Disney

Of all the Disney films, I always felt that Pinocchio was the darkest and more adult of them all, and upon watching it again, I can see exactly how dark it is. It explores the problem with vices such as violence, alcohol and smoking. It also deals with child abduction and child slavery, as well as a creepy old single guy playing with dolls. This film would have Freud's mind working overtime!

The film is lovely though, it really takes me back to my childhood, but I do not think it should be a child's film. Children turning into donkeys and old Gypsy men locking children in cages is not something a 5 year old should be watching. One thing I forgot was the abundance of songs in the film, which was a welcome reminder of the greatness of the film.

Another thing which stands out is the lack of women in the story, the only female characters are the Blue Fairy (who is shown as perfect and beautiful) and the little girls running to school (who are insignificant to the story) This lack of women shows that this film is meant to be a morality for men and little boys, that little boys should not partake in vice otherwise they will end up as donkeys.

For all the twistedness this film shows, it is a classic and I really enjoyed watching it again. 8 out of 10 is a fair score for a dark kids film.

Hobgoblins - Rick Sloane

This film is the epitome of bad! This is part of my worst list and this is just awful, the story is flimsy, the acting is at best wooden and the monsters are just shit. An obvious rip-off and cash in of the Gremlins films, Hobgoblin includes little "monsters" which tap into your deepest desires and uses those desires to kill you.

The first point I would like to make is that the film does not make any sense, the first person who dies at the hand of these things is a security guard, who dies from falling off of a stage (in his fantasy) to end up dead on the floor of the Hobgoblin's vault. There is no stage in there, but subsequent fantasies include the real setting. Its just utterly confusing.

Secondly, the monsters are shit. When the characters fight with them, they are fighting with teddies of the Hobgoblins and when they are running around they are obviously just hand puppets.

Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad film. Awful. 1 out of 10 because I laughed once. Bad!

BAD!

Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood

It turns out I made a mistake during my last blog. I said the next film was Pinocchio but infact it was Gran Torino starring, directed by and produced by Clint Eastwood. Having not much experience with the Eastwood brand, only having seen Dirty Harry before, it was nice to see what an Eastwood modern film is like. It was dark, it was gritty, it was racist and it also was satisfying.

Firstly I felt the acting was not brilliant, Eastwood was dodery and the supporting characters were just a little wooden for me. But it is the story which is the saving grace of this film. The old man hates his surroundings but then once he starts to embrace them then they learns to like them. The difference in this story is Eastwood plays an aging Vietnam vet who is very racist and the neighbours are all Hmong residents from China.

Also the twist at the end was pretty amazing, it got you guessing but you could never see it coming. It was very good! Mainly though, I felt the film was a little too slow and that bugged me in the end. I wanted it to end.

This film exceeded my expectations and for that gets a 8 out of 10!

Rambo: First Blood - Ted Kotcheff

Firstly an apology for not posting more recently, I have had exams and today I finished them. Hazaar! I plan on watching a lot more movies and doing this blog!
Anyway, Rambo. Well it is an alright action movie, but it all seemed a little bit needless. Rambo may not of killed anyone, but the running and the punching and the maiming all seemed a little too much. OK they were trying to kill him but at least actually kill them.

I did enjoy the idea that this repressed anger came from being tortured and captured in Vietnam, but that was a very brief glance at his past, the rest was Sly Stallone running and using his knife for random purposes.

Brian Dennehy as Will, the Sheriff was a good antagonist, but for me the film brought about the question: Who is the villain? John Rambo who is hunting all of these innocent people, or the civilians who are just trying to restore law and order to their little town?

Overall this film got a 5 out of 10 from me, I enjoyed it but there was no real substance to make it a perfectly enjoyable movie.

Seconds - John Frankenheimer

This was a difficult film to get hold of but after watching it I am glad I did try so hard. It is a science fiction film based upon the idea that people can get another chance at life by having intense plastic surgery. Starring Rock Hudson, the film gets off on a pretty boring note, but once he enters the Comapany it starts to pick up.

Now the twist at the end is not particularly surprising as I guessed it, but it was still a twist and worked very well. Parts of the film (the grape stomping scene) was so surreal it reminded me of Juliet and the Spirits which I have viewed before.

Overall this film gets a 6 out of 10, because it was good and interesting but did not give the punch which I would of liked.

Hold Me While I'm Naked - George Kuchar

The reason this is so quick to come after the previous blog is because George Kuchar's film is only 15 minutes long. This makes it easy to view and I need to say that I did not enjoy it. It was an obvious look at sexual frustration and loneliness, but I did not really think it was anything great.

One scene which really got me hooked was the shower scene in which a choir based song was sung over scenes of people in the shower. It just felt right, and it felt like a triumphant scene which showed the characters getting on with their lives.

Rating wise, this gets a 3 out of 10, the reason it has 3 is because I mainly did not get the film but the one scene pushed this above the 1 it was going to get.

If you are interested in seeing this film then it is available online at: http://www.ubu.com/film/kuchar_holdme.html

Doctor Zhivago - David Lean

Sorry I have not written for a long time, I am currently going through some exams at University so have not had a lot of time to watch films but after today's film I decided to watch the next one! Dr Zhivago, always seen as a classic, has now been viewed. It pleasantly surprised me. It was a very lovely film, it was not funny, it was not scary, it was not thrilling; it just felt like a nice movie.

The bit which interested me the most was the part in the train where Zhivago and his wife and her father are riding to somewhere better. Another scene was the marching through the snow and the rebellion on the street, otherwise it was a lovely film.

I really cannot describe how on the fence I am with this film, on one hand it actually held my attention for 3 hours plus, but on the other hand it didn't capture my imagination. I do not think I can explain anymore. Just one more note, Alec Guinness rocks my world, and Julie Christie was very beautiful in her hay-day.

It gets a 5 out of 10 from me, due to all the reasons stated above. Sorry I did not say more but it is hard to say something about a film that I do not know what I think about it.