Review: Megamind

I was very reluctant to see Megamind as my brother claimed that it was crapper than Monsters vs Aliens. And as a friend once said 'You wouldn't go to a restaurant KNOWING that the food will be shit.'
Alas that was not the case with Megamind. I could see how it could be shit but I think it comes off as one of Dreamworks little gems.
I could go on about the plot but its been done before and fairly unexciting.
Hero. Villian. Villian kills Hero. Villian bored because he killed Hero. Villian makes new Hero. Hero becomes Villian. Villian becomes Hero.
Thats it.
But I distinctly remember laughing out loud in this film which means I enjoyed it. I think that Will Ferrell and whoever else had to bring Megamind to life did a great job. He wasn't a pansy villian with the capacity for good. He was a villian but shit at it in comparison to the heroics of MetroMan.
Enjoyable but nothing awesomely new.

5 out of 10

Review: Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone is the directorial debut by Ben Affleck oh and what a debut.
The film is this new version of film noir set in contemporary Boston where a little girl has gone missing.
It is based on the fourth novel by Dennis Lehane writer of Mystic River.
The girl's Aunt and Uncle come to PI Casey Affleck, who by the way does such a fantastic job of a man having both legs in two different worlds, and his partner/lady friend played by Michelle Monaghan (who is currently in Source Code) to find their niece.
The aforementioned two worlds are the normal, upright people of the world and the scum who deal in drugs and death for a living and make their community a shit hole. Affleck's character Patrick Kenzie seems to have belonged to the latter and only recently tried to make himself a better man. Which might explain his choice in the end of the film.
Kenzie and Gennaro partner up with two cops played by Ed Harris and John Ashton. I wont ruin any plot details here but things aren't all what that appear they be. They're better or worse. Depends on your point of view and moral code.
Amy Ryan plays the little girl's mother. You might recognise her as Holly Flax from The Office. I didn't.
She plays a pus of a person more interested in getting high, laid and drunk than the well being of her daughter. If anyone is a down right villain in this film I would call her it, you might say different and you could be right.
What you want from a good film is to have feelings and emotions about it and weeks later I am still thinking about the decisions of the characters and the outcome of the plot.

9 out of 10

IMDB No. Seven

So this is my first piece of IMDB's top 250 film list. At this time of posting the film is in 7th place.

(flash)

I decided to try out a different style following in Dave Perillo's footsteps. The greatest thing looking over his images is the colour palette where he uses only 6 differing colours! It's always a red, black, white, yellow, blue and another colour.
I feel it did work here but I may need to keep trying out the style. Only if it suits the idea.

Now 12 Angry Men is a great film. It is so compelling and dramatic given that the film is pretty much real time and set in one place for its 96 minute duration. What you have is a murder case, where an 'ethnic' youth is being accused of murdering his father.
All the jurors except one find the boy guilty and that starts the charge to change eleven mens minds. Why does this one juror (played by Henry Fonda) call it 'Not Guilty'? He feels as though the evidence is not strong enough to sentence the boy to death. Others are more callous as to how they decide.
Juror No. 7 just wants to get out early because he's got tickets to a game, Juror No. 4 plays it by the book dissecting all the facts while the case hits a little too close to home for Juror No. 2.
The outcome is never the point of the film but about the journey of changing 11 stubborn men's ideals on justice and persecution.
The stand-out scene is where Ed Begley goes off on a racist rant and one by one each of the jurors removes themselves from the table and from his prejudices. Which most notably piss off Juror No. 5 (who grew up in the Ghetto) and immigrant Juror No. 11.
But the way the evidence is given and then contradicted, then processed and contradicted again is thrilling. It doesn't treat you like a retarded child especially where Juror No. 9 tries to explain why one of the witnesses (an old man) would lie.

8/10

BY Pete

Here is my new ByPete for the updated website.
Sorta Norse themed with Thor's Conundrum being released and all.
Except I'm wearing one of those crowns found in a Christmas party cracker... thing.
Plus a wooden sword.