itchywow Reviews

Friends with Benefits (2011)

Good chemistry for sure

[8/10 · 26 July 2011]

I was expecting to have to compare this movie with No Strings Attached (or whatever that movie with Ashton Kutcher was) all the way through however I was pleasantly surprised that the story was a bit more complex despite the obvious parallels.

Yes it's the typical "boy and girl decide to be friends only but end up loving each other" movie .... but I must admit that it was a lot smarter in the delivery. Timberlake and Kunis have a lot of chemistry on camera ... It's shot primarily in new york so expect the clichéd new york locations ...

The complexity of Timberlake's character is slowly revealed through the show as opposed to being revealed in the first 3 minutes like most other movies.

A good watch ... not slap your knee funny but certainly entertaining to the end ... clichés and all

Super 8 (2011)

Great Movie!!!!!

[8/10 · 8 July 2011]

Having just come from watching Transformers which was supposed to be the summer blockbuster I appreciate super 8 even more now.

There was great acting by very young actors, a great story within the story and a real connection to the creature in this film. At the end you were rooting for the alien which means that through the film the audience was able to attach emotionally.

I found the main characters to be funny but perhaps too brave for their age since, given the somewhat introverted personality of the lead he continued to show a lot more resolve and grit that would be expected from a 10/11 year old boy who makes model trains and does make up ...

Very little to criticise on this film ... Go see it

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

For such a big budget they could have hired some better writers

[3/10 · 8 July 2011]

Continuity errors between each of the three transformer films (and within this film), bad acting and a weak plot made this movie unbearable. Too late because now my money adds to the $190m this film has already made so the joke is on me.

There is insufficient chemistry between Sam and the very attractive damsel in distress to warrant an entire theatre sitting through his attempts to get to her to save her. Watching them run to each other at the end made little sense since he was with her through the end of the movie ... not sure what was the need for a dramatic reunion. This coupled with the fact that through the film Sam had no real connection to any of the autobots (especially Bumblebee) to make you feel anything made the film hollow.

The plot was particularly weak (or perhaps poorly executed) so by the time the twist in the plot came around, it made for awful cinema. The writers for this movie need to look for another profession.

There were some unreal moments in the movie that should have been on the cutting floor of the editing, particularly when Carly stands up in the heat of an intense battle scene as she gets an idea, and somehow her hair blows in the wind as she pouts ... can't believe a director yelled "And action!!!!!" at the start of that action sequence!

I am not sure how many times I counted Carley's shoes changing from heels to flat shoes .... and I'm not sure how she got jeans on when she was abducted in white pants .... She runs for hours and maintains the best hair ... realism and continuity wasn't too big on the agenda

Great CG of course so they should give the graphics team a big fat bonus ... Great explosion, lots of fake glass everywhere, Tomohawk missiles save the day ....

overall I would give it 3 out of 10 ....

Casino Royale (2006)

best of the bad bonds

[3/10 · 8 January 2007]

Casino Royale was the best of the string of bad Bond films created in the last decade and has to be the last nail in the 007 coffin.

The story was a hodgepodge of plots from different secret agent movies strung together by a single thread of Bond ego. All the cliché elements you would expect were included: Prague, agents, double agents, high adrenalin chase, a beautiful girl, a fast car, the crash, the turn in the plot, the betrayal, the one eyed dude, hacking into databases, the chair of torture in the middle of a desolate, wet, rusted warehouse etc. However it was so clumsily done in this movie that it's hard to tell if the writing was at fault or the director.

There were at least two "aha" moments for Bond (where he puts some clues together) in the movie that made little sense to the audience. The love story was weak and can be described as trying too hard to make the "opposite attracts" element fit into the movie.

The $150m game at the centre of the movie was drawn out and immensely loose in its parallel stories which involved Bond, the girl and his nemesis.

Bond's "hard as nails yet smooth as silk" character was well preserved by actor Daniel Craig whose athleticism set him apart from Pierce Brosnan. Not having a proper Bond girl was a disappointment but the two "almost bond girls" had enough eye candy to make up for that.

No academy award winning performances and I can't see this as being very much talked about for anything else but the fact that an Aston Martin DB9 does not make it to the end of the movie in one piece but of course a car with such a low centre of gravity could not realistically crash the way it did.

I gave it 3 out of 10

Blood Diamond (2006)

One of the best films of the year

[10/10 · 29 December 2006]

I'm not a huge fan of Hollywood films but the quality of this film was enough to make me reconsider.

Great Story, great dialogue, amazing cinematography, complicated love story, graphic realism all wrapped up to make you want the bad guy to make it.

While the movie is admittedly very graphic, it captures the reality of the struggles in Africa and the frailties of a society fighting against itself.

Best Actor nominations for Leonardo at least.

I'm going to look at it again tomorrow. Eat that will smith