You know those films
where it's really well done, it make you think and the performances are
excellent and yet watching it made you feel all blergh? This is one of
those.
Now,
that can be a good thing. If your taste skews towards arthouse films
and you don't mind watching something pretty challenging, I think you'll
like this. However if you're someone who goes to the movies once or
twice a year for a bit of light escapism, this is definitely not for
you.
This is an
Australian-made film with a Melburnian directing (Ariel Kleiman) but I
doubt you'd guess that if you saw it not knowing.
Set somewhere in
war-ravaged Eastern Europe, it's the story of Gregori (Vincent Cassel),
who is basically a creepy cult leader, and his mission to recruits kids
and train them to become assassins. It's the kind of plot which, in the
wrong hands, could go very wrong but it's handled delicately by Kleiman.
I wonder if Kleiman
wrote it off as part of the mystery as to where this film is set but I
did find it a bit jolting when the accents didn't seem to add up. For
example, at least one of the kids had a pretty clear Australian accent
and hearing it really distracted me and jolted me out of the story.
Australian critics are divided. Two stars here from Fairfax and four stars here from News Ltd.
Trailer here.
A fictional-but-apparently-based-on-a-handful-of-actual-facts account of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret hitting the town in London incognito during the Victory in Europe celebrations in 1945, this film is charming.
It's not going to win any awards for being groundbreaking but it's fun and lovely to watch.
There's not a lot of reviews around to direct you to as it's only just released overseas. Coincidence that it coincides with the birth of Princess Charlotte? I think not! But ok, ok, it's actually more about the timing of the anniversary of VE day - 8 May.
Regular readers of this blog will know I'm not a fan of long films. 90-100 minutes is optimum, I say! This one comes in at 98 minutes, the perfect length for an inoffensive and fun flick like this.
Here is one review though from 'Screen Daily' if you want to read more about the story etc.
Trailer here.
This film is damn good fun. If you liked the original Pitch Perfect, definitely get along to this one for more laughs.
The makers of this film know their audience and give them what they want. It helps to have seen the first film but this does stand alone just fine.
I laughed a lot, with Rebel Wilson's character 'Fat Amy' getting the lion's share of the gags. She delivers time and time again in this.
Trailer here.
And if you're not familiar with the Pitch Perfect phenomenon & want to know more, read up on it here.
