Navigation
[Home] Film 2010 101 War 101 Sci-Fi 101 Horror 101 Gangster Films on TV Film Charts IMDb Top 250 EIFF Film 2009 Flickr 89 Years 1001 Upcoming 1001 Movies Film 2008 Trip Advisor 80 Countries Google Photo Map Microsoft Map Film 2007 Film 2006 100 Andys Last.fm World Wide Wilkie Blog Reviews
200 Films My DVDs My Games
Find a Review
Reviews::Main
Showing all reviews beginning with Be
Being John Malkovich
Written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich tells the story of striggling puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack). When he gets a new job at a strange company run by an eccentric old man, he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener, a co-worker in the same building. One night while working late, he discovers a hidden door behind some filing cabinets which allows you to enter John Malkovich's mind and see the world through his eyes. Together, Maxine and Craig start selling the experience to other people, things get complicated when Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets involved.
The entire premise of the film is wonderfully bizarre, and the comedy throughout the movie is similarly surreal. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is excellent, and all the actors involved give great performances.
Being John Malkovich has to be one of the most original films made recently and is well worth watching.
Bewitched
Will Ferrel stars as Jack Wyatt, a washed up actor who in an attempt to boost his career takes the role of Darrin in a remake of the 60's TV series Bewitched. Things begin to get weird when he unwittingly casts a real witch (Nicole Kidman) as Samantha.
Plotwise Bewitched isn't anything special, a typical romantic comedy with the Bewitched backdrop; the writing is reasonably good though and both Ferrel and Kidman are good in their roles providing a good few laughs throughout the film.
Best In Show
Best In Show is a "mocumentary", following several different dog breeders as they put their dogs in for the annual Mayflower Kennel Club dog show. Each of the characters has their own unique eccentricities and the jokes are delivered in a completely dead pan manner, never breaking from the stride of the Documentary style the film uses throughout.
With a number of strange and humourous characters and comedy throughout which is at times both obvious and more subtle, Best in Show takes a rather strange subject matter and produces a good comedy from it.
Be Cool
Picking up a number of years after Get Shorty, Be Cool sees the return of Chili Palmer (John Travolta). A record producer friend, meets Chili to ask him about making a film of his life; but is murdered soon afterwards. Chili decides to move from Movies into Music and teams up with his friend's ex-wife (Uma Thurman) to find the next big star. This leads him into trouble with the Russian Mafia and a rival record company.
Be Cool feels more like a remake than a sequel; although the plot has been changed, simply substitute music for film in the script and things are pretty similar. The majority of the jokes are identical to the first which makes the film so self-referential that it becomes tiresome.
Perhaps if you saw the sequel 10 years after the original it would be good in a reminiscent sort of way, but having seen neither film I watched them back to back which exaggerates the extent to which the second film contains so much old material.
Overall, a reasonable film in it's own right, but when watched as a sequel to Get Shorty becomes tiresome and offers little new.
Beowulf (3D)
The epic English poem dating from between the 8th and 11th centuries gets the big screen treatment and as one of the largest movies of recent times to be presented in 3D, it's a sight to behold.
The story tells of a warrior named Beowulf who comes to Denmark to help a king rid a monster in his kingdom. We follow Beowulf as he confronts the monster and throughout the adventures he has in later life.
The film is computer generated but heavily based on actual camera footage to provide the basis for such, but it still retains a cheap computer game cut scene style to it. The 3D aspect is ok and as good as, if not better than most 3D films I've seen, but it still suffers from the odd ghosting and too much bluriness if the action gets too fast.
The acting is for the most part terrible, especially the accents of almost the entire cast who seem to sound Welsh rather than Danish except for Ray Winstone who voices Beowulf in a mostly indeterminate accent which slips into his London accent whenever anything too exciting happens ("I have come to slay your Monstaaa").
The story is probably the only outstanding part of the movie, but the effects, acting and voices detract from this quite a bit. Despite being so negative, I have to say that the film is entertaining, once you get past the terrible sexual innuendo gags that is.
Overall, a pretty badly done 3D epic action film which is bearable to watch but suffers from many a flaw.
Bender's Big Score
2 years after Fox canned the Futurama TV series, it's back with the first of a few feature length episodes. Bender's Big Score sees all the characters from the TV show return on top form. The show follows the Planet Express delivery crew as the Earth is threatened to be over-run by a dastardly group of extra terrestrial scammers.
Animation and voice acting are the same high quality as the original TV shows, the plot is well written and involves time travel, so gets a little confusing although everything is neatly wrapped up by the end. Overall, the film hasn't lost any of the charm or wit of the TV series and if anything being able to watch Futurama uninterrupted for 90 minutes adds to the experience.
Overall, a great new addition to the Futurama series and one which should please Futurama fans everywhere.
Be Kind Rewind
Mike (Mos Def) works in a small Video store, his best friend is the eccentric Jerry (Jack Black). When Mike's boss leaves him in charge of the store to go out of town disaster strikes after Jerry becomes magnetised during a sabotage attempt on the electricity sub station he lives next to and erases all the tapes in the store.
In order to save the business and their own asses, Jerry and Mike set about refilming films as customers demand them in a zero budget style. The ridiculous plot outline works ok due to the comic nature of the film, the remakes that Jerry and Mike make are themselves pretty funny, but that in its self leads to the main downside of the film in that there is a higher level story wrapped around this which isn't as interesting as the quirky remakes.
Jack Black is slightly toned down in comparison to other performances, but it's still essentially the same character you would come to expect.
Overall, while the film is funny and pretty good in places with an interesting plot idea, the overarching story line overshadows the real comedy genius of the remakes at the heart of the film.
The Beast with a Billion Backs
The second of four feature length Futurama episodes, The Beast with a Billion Backs picks up where Bender's Big Score left off, with an rip in the universe created, the Planet Express crew go on a mission to discover what is on the other side, but what they find is a shocking creature that might love their universe a little too much.
The Beast with a Billion Backs is classic Futurama and although maybe not quite as good as Bender's Big Score, it's still something which fans of the series should love. All the regular characters are there, the same science based jokes and the wacky plots.
All in all, another great addition to the Futurama legacy.
Bender's Game
The third of 4 feature length Futurama episodes ([1][2]), Bender's Game sees the Planet Express Delivery crew fight to try and break Mom's monopoly on dark matter as prices skyrocket and it costs more and more to run their ship. Meanwhile Bender becomes obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons to a point where he cannot distinguish between his own imagination and real life.
Bender's Game is a strong addition to the new episodes, it still has the same kind of humour fans of the series expect and is laugh out loud in places. The fantasy elements of the plot get a little tiresome in the third act, but there is still a lot of good material in there, including a hilarious seen in a robot loony bin.
All in all, another great feature length Futurama.
A Better Tomorrow
John Woo's 1986 "Heroic Bloodshed" drama A Better Tomorrow was set to create a partnership between the Director-Auteur and actor Chow Yun Fat which was to leave it's mark on Hong-Kong cinema forever.
Ho and Mark (Chow) are a pair of gangsters, making a living by selling counterfeit money to American gangs in Taiwan. Ho's younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) is a cop in the Hong-Kong police who is unaware of his brother's criminal involvement.
When Ho is set up in Taiwan, he ends up doing time, in the 3 years that he is away, Mark falls from grace and a new gang boss takes over their business. Kit finds himself restricted in his police work due to being the brother of a criminal and begins to resent Ho. When Ho is released from prison, he looks to go straight, but things come to a head. To be resolved, the situation demands help from Mark and Kit as the film winds its way to the finale.
There's no denying, A Better Tomorrow looks like an 80's Hong Kong film, but behind that slightly dated exterior is an amazing plot, with a number of twists and a feel which echoes more modern Cop vs Triad films like Infernal Affairs. The strong themes of brotherhood and family are present throughout and there is a lot of great action in there too. Stand out moments include Chow Yun Fat's shoot out in a corridor and the huge finale which is just non-stop action until the end.
All in all, A Better Tomorrow is a classic which has surely shaped Hong Kong cinema in the years since its release.
Being John Malkovich
Director:
Spike Jonze
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
Written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich tells the story of striggling puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack). When he gets a new job at a strange company run by an eccentric old man, he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener, a co-worker in the same building. One night while working late, he discovers a hidden door behind some filing cabinets which allows you to enter John Malkovich's mind and see the world through his eyes. Together, Maxine and Craig start selling the experience to other people, things get complicated when Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets involved.
The entire premise of the film is wonderfully bizarre, and the comedy throughout the movie is similarly surreal. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is excellent, and all the actors involved give great performances.
Being John Malkovich has to be one of the most original films made recently and is well worth watching.
Dave W - 28th November, 2004 - 12:38
Director:
Nora Ephron
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Will Ferrel stars as Jack Wyatt, a washed up actor who in an attempt to boost his career takes the role of Darrin in a remake of the 60's TV series Bewitched. Things begin to get weird when he unwittingly casts a real witch (Nicole Kidman) as Samantha.
Plotwise Bewitched isn't anything special, a typical romantic comedy with the Bewitched backdrop; the writing is reasonably good though and both Ferrel and Kidman are good in their roles providing a good few laughs throughout the film.
Dave W - 22nd August, 2005 - 14:35
Director:
Christopher Guest
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
Best In Show is a "mocumentary", following several different dog breeders as they put their dogs in for the annual Mayflower Kennel Club dog show. Each of the characters has their own unique eccentricities and the jokes are delivered in a completely dead pan manner, never breaking from the stride of the Documentary style the film uses throughout.
With a number of strange and humourous characters and comedy throughout which is at times both obvious and more subtle, Best in Show takes a rather strange subject matter and produces a good comedy from it.
Dave W - 8th April, 2006 - 19:13
Director:
F. Gary Gray
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Picking up a number of years after Get Shorty, Be Cool sees the return of Chili Palmer (John Travolta). A record producer friend, meets Chili to ask him about making a film of his life; but is murdered soon afterwards. Chili decides to move from Movies into Music and teams up with his friend's ex-wife (Uma Thurman) to find the next big star. This leads him into trouble with the Russian Mafia and a rival record company.
Be Cool feels more like a remake than a sequel; although the plot has been changed, simply substitute music for film in the script and things are pretty similar. The majority of the jokes are identical to the first which makes the film so self-referential that it becomes tiresome.
Perhaps if you saw the sequel 10 years after the original it would be good in a reminiscent sort of way, but having seen neither film I watched them back to back which exaggerates the extent to which the second film contains so much old material.
Overall, a reasonable film in it's own right, but when watched as a sequel to Get Shorty becomes tiresome and offers little new.
Dave W - 25th June, 2007 - 13:11
Director:
Robert Zemeckis
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
The epic English poem dating from between the 8th and 11th centuries gets the big screen treatment and as one of the largest movies of recent times to be presented in 3D, it's a sight to behold.
The story tells of a warrior named Beowulf who comes to Denmark to help a king rid a monster in his kingdom. We follow Beowulf as he confronts the monster and throughout the adventures he has in later life.
The film is computer generated but heavily based on actual camera footage to provide the basis for such, but it still retains a cheap computer game cut scene style to it. The 3D aspect is ok and as good as, if not better than most 3D films I've seen, but it still suffers from the odd ghosting and too much bluriness if the action gets too fast.
The acting is for the most part terrible, especially the accents of almost the entire cast who seem to sound Welsh rather than Danish except for Ray Winstone who voices Beowulf in a mostly indeterminate accent which slips into his London accent whenever anything too exciting happens ("I have come to slay your Monstaaa").
The story is probably the only outstanding part of the movie, but the effects, acting and voices detract from this quite a bit. Despite being so negative, I have to say that the film is entertaining, once you get past the terrible sexual innuendo gags that is.
Overall, a pretty badly done 3D epic action film which is bearable to watch but suffers from many a flaw.
Dave W - 20th November, 2007 - 21:02
Director:
Dwayne Carey-Hill
Year: 2007
Language: English
Country: America
2 years after Fox canned the Futurama TV series, it's back with the first of a few feature length episodes. Bender's Big Score sees all the characters from the TV show return on top form. The show follows the Planet Express delivery crew as the Earth is threatened to be over-run by a dastardly group of extra terrestrial scammers.
Animation and voice acting are the same high quality as the original TV shows, the plot is well written and involves time travel, so gets a little confusing although everything is neatly wrapped up by the end. Overall, the film hasn't lost any of the charm or wit of the TV series and if anything being able to watch Futurama uninterrupted for 90 minutes adds to the experience.
Overall, a great new addition to the Futurama series and one which should please Futurama fans everywhere.
Dave W - 6th January, 2008 - 12:23
Director:
Michel Gondry
Year: 2008
Language: English
Country: America
Mike (Mos Def) works in a small Video store, his best friend is the eccentric Jerry (Jack Black). When Mike's boss leaves him in charge of the store to go out of town disaster strikes after Jerry becomes magnetised during a sabotage attempt on the electricity sub station he lives next to and erases all the tapes in the store.
In order to save the business and their own asses, Jerry and Mike set about refilming films as customers demand them in a zero budget style. The ridiculous plot outline works ok due to the comic nature of the film, the remakes that Jerry and Mike make are themselves pretty funny, but that in its self leads to the main downside of the film in that there is a higher level story wrapped around this which isn't as interesting as the quirky remakes.
Jack Black is slightly toned down in comparison to other performances, but it's still essentially the same character you would come to expect.
Overall, while the film is funny and pretty good in places with an interesting plot idea, the overarching story line overshadows the real comedy genius of the remakes at the heart of the film.
Dave W - 3rd March, 2008 - 19:16
Director:
Peter Avanzino
Year: 2008
Language: English
Country: America
The second of four feature length Futurama episodes, The Beast with a Billion Backs picks up where Bender's Big Score left off, with an rip in the universe created, the Planet Express crew go on a mission to discover what is on the other side, but what they find is a shocking creature that might love their universe a little too much.
The Beast with a Billion Backs is classic Futurama and although maybe not quite as good as Bender's Big Score, it's still something which fans of the series should love. All the regular characters are there, the same science based jokes and the wacky plots.
All in all, another great addition to the Futurama legacy.
Dave W - 6th July, 2008 - 11:12
Director:
Dwayne Carey-Hill
Year: 2008
Language: English
Country: America
The third of 4 feature length Futurama episodes ([1][2]), Bender's Game sees the Planet Express Delivery crew fight to try and break Mom's monopoly on dark matter as prices skyrocket and it costs more and more to run their ship. Meanwhile Bender becomes obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons to a point where he cannot distinguish between his own imagination and real life.
Bender's Game is a strong addition to the new episodes, it still has the same kind of humour fans of the series expect and is laugh out loud in places. The fantasy elements of the plot get a little tiresome in the third act, but there is still a lot of good material in there, including a hilarious seen in a robot loony bin.
All in all, another great feature length Futurama.
Dave W - 8th November, 2008 - 16:32
John Woo's 1986 "Heroic Bloodshed" drama A Better Tomorrow was set to create a partnership between the Director-Auteur and actor Chow Yun Fat which was to leave it's mark on Hong-Kong cinema forever.
Ho and Mark (Chow) are a pair of gangsters, making a living by selling counterfeit money to American gangs in Taiwan. Ho's younger brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) is a cop in the Hong-Kong police who is unaware of his brother's criminal involvement.
When Ho is set up in Taiwan, he ends up doing time, in the 3 years that he is away, Mark falls from grace and a new gang boss takes over their business. Kit finds himself restricted in his police work due to being the brother of a criminal and begins to resent Ho. When Ho is released from prison, he looks to go straight, but things come to a head. To be resolved, the situation demands help from Mark and Kit as the film winds its way to the finale.
There's no denying, A Better Tomorrow looks like an 80's Hong Kong film, but behind that slightly dated exterior is an amazing plot, with a number of twists and a feel which echoes more modern Cop vs Triad films like Infernal Affairs. The strong themes of brotherhood and family are present throughout and there is a lot of great action in there too. Stand out moments include Chow Yun Fat's shoot out in a corridor and the huge finale which is just non-stop action until the end.
All in all, A Better Tomorrow is a classic which has surely shaped Hong Kong cinema in the years since its release.
Dave W - 7th February, 2010 - 10:22
Latest Reviews
|
Director: David R. Ellis Country: America Rating: 2.5 |
|
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman Country: America Rating: 3 |
|
Headline: Bad Religion Venue: ABC Rating: 3.5 |
|
Director: Phillip Noyce Country: America Rating: 4 |
|
Author: Stieg Larsson Rating: 4 |