DJANGO UNCHAINED - film

Not a big Tarantino fan but saw Django Unchained and the critics are bang on the money, this is a great film that I really enjoyed. It helps when you have virtually no expectations and I also had no idea what the film was about but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an old school western with a big theme of slavery and whilst some scenes around that slavery were pretty disturbing it’s done well and all in a palatable context. There was one scene that I really hated, interestingly the one which Tarantino cast himself! He attempts an Australian accent but it just comes out as a weird mix of Australian, New Zealand, British and American. And when you combine that with John Jarratt playing a cringeful redneck Aussie, it really was pretty awful. But that was the only lowlight. The highlight for me was Leonardo DiCaprio as a plantation owner (& ‘owner’ of many slaves including the excellent Samuel L Jackson) who the main characters Django (Jamie Fox) and Dr King Schultz (Christoph Walz) find themselves negotiating with. It’s a spectacular delivery of a hideously slimey character & one that’s made me a much bigger fan of DiCaprio’s work. Also loved the performance of Christoph Walz who you might recognise from Water for Elephants – he won the best supporting actor at the Golden Globes for this performance when many expected it to go to DiCaprio).
 
 Warning for the sensitive… as is Tarantino’s custom, this is full of graphic violence. In a couple of places it’s so bad that you just have to laugh but it’s peppered throughout the movie and gets very gruesome though strangely it didn’t bother me as much as violence normally does and certainly didn’t bother me as much as Tarantino’s onscreen performance did.

A surprise winner for me and I add ‘me’ deliberately as this film has scored a couple of Golden Globes already & is likely to feature at the Oscars also so hardly a ‘surprise’ hit! A nice reminder that you can be well rewarded if you try a film that’s not what you’d usually go for.

Enjoyed the soundtrack too for what it’s worth.
Trailer here if you want some more detail on the storyline.

THE IMPOSSIBLE - film

This film is really well done. It's based on a true story about a family holidaying in Thailand in 2004 when the now infamous tsunami struck. Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor play parents of three sons and all the performances are great but Naomi's is a standout as the central character. The five of them, along with so many others, are literally swept away when the front of water storms toward their resort with no warning whatsoever. I won't spoil it by telling you who ends up where and in what state but it gives an amazing insight into what people really experienced in that natural disaster that seems like it happened only yesterday. I'm sure some creative licence has been taken but nonetheless, it's an incredible story.

The film was so compelling that I was totally engrossed and were I not fairly lazy, I'm sure I would have been on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed this film and think it's very good, but to be frank, not off-the-dial, 5 stars kind of good.

Trailer here

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK - film

All I knew about this film when I saw it in London back in November 2012 was that Jacki Weaver was in it. Enough to get me over the line since I was feeling patriotic seeing it with another Aussie on the other side of the world! Jacki was great but not the highlight I thought she'd be to be honest; I'd be surprised if she picks up an Oscar for it. Not because of her performance but just because of the size of the role. She plays the mother of the main character Pat, who is played by Bradley Cooper. (Hubba hubba! And as an aside, he speaks French... *swoon*)

Pat's trying to recover from an episode of mental illness and win back his wife Nikki, whom we discover has had an affair. I reckon it's probably a fairly realistic portrayal of a bloke in that situation (but hey, what would I know) but then Hollywood fantasy takes over and enter mysterious troubled woman, Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer's great and there's a good chemistry between she and Bradley, which helped make this film really enjoyable. The story is generally good fun with some poignant moments too. 

Part comedy, part drama, this film delivers. Go see!

Official trailer here