Luica’s Blog

I am admittedly a huge Spaced fan and have watched both series many times. Although I felt a little let down by Shaun of the Dead, I still have faith in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg.

Hot Fuzz turned out to be a fantastic comedy with lots of interesting (and sometimes subtle) film references. The most obvious ones include The Wicker Man, Bad Boys II and El Mariachi.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are as funny as always. There are also plenty of familiar faces among the supporting characters, including Edward Woodward (the original Wicker man), Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent, and not to mention Steve Coogan, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Adam Buxton (the Adam & Joe Show). I couldn’t help but expectt Jessica Steveson (Daisy in Spaced) and Mark Heap (Brain in Spaced) to have cameos in Hot Fuzz.

It’s great to see Hot Fuzz doing well at the box office. Hopefully, it is helping to promote British comedies, which are very often much funnier than their US counterparts. Most people in the US and Hong Kong should have now heard of The Office, but there are so much more to be discovered by the international audience, such as Spaced, Green Wings, Peep Show and Black Books, only to name a few.

I was quite looking forward to seeing a film at the Curzon Soho again and Pan’s Labyrinth (El Labirinto del Fauno) made a fantastic debut to the UK cinemas this week, with a few magical write-ups under its belt. Saddly, I can’t say I agree with these reviewers.

In general, I found the story (or should I say two storylines) a little disjoined - whilst a cruel reality gave the heroine the perfect reason to indulge herself in a fantasy world, there weren’t enough linkages between the two. The post-civil war storyline was predictable but I cared for some of the characters, such as the caring female spy Mercedes and the stammering hostage. I was fascinated by the dark and mysterious fairy world but wasn’t particularly bothered about the little girl or whether she could finish the three tasks to re-claim her crown in the fairy kingdom.

The main problem with the movie was that without an obvious link between the two stories, I found it hard to feel warm about either of them. Perhaps it would be less distracting if the background story (the cruel reality) was less prominent. The interruptions of switching from one plot to another eventually broke my concentration and I ended feeling the movie was far too long.

An animated adaptation of Philip K Dick’s sci-fi novel that is set in the near future in California. It reminded me of the darkness and conspiracy in Blade Runner; only this time the credit does not only go to the writer but also the director, Richard Linklater, for this brilliant presentation.

If you like the animation in Waking Life, you would be amazed by the improvement in A Scanner Darkly, which was shot like a normal movie before the 30-strong production team spent up to 500 hours to make one minute of the final animation.

It was good to see Winona Ryder in a quality movie again; Keanu Reeves played the same old character like he did in any other movies; Robert Downey Jr.’s neurotic character was by far the most interesting, and one that I would like to know more about.

A ‘girlie’ film but I loved it! I smiled at the sharp and familiar dialogue and liked it even more when it didn’t end with a cliché Hollywood ending.

Jennifer Aniston was on top form, althought her character Brooke was basically the likeable Richael from Friends. Unfortunately, Brooke’s boyfriend (played by Vince Vaughn) was even more clueless than Ross. The arguement of the lemons and dirty dishes really made me laugh as the description of the fundamental difference between men and women couldn’t have been more accurate.

It was weird to see the transformation of the cool ‘Mac’ from the Apple ads into a long-haired, over-the-top homosexual gallery receptionist - Justin Long’s performance is worth mentioning.

The Break Up is definitely my favourite Peyton Reed (director) film so far as I am not a fan of Down With Love and Bring It On.

It is the last X-Men movie I see unless Bryan Singer comes back to direct and write - it is likely to take him a while to clear up the mess and disappointment that the third movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, has created.

Just because it’s stupidly* called ‘The Last Stand’, it doesn’t mean that it is accpetable (especially to fans of the comics) to kill off most of the key characters: Cyclops, Professor X and Jean-Grey. Then again, I am not sure if there is much point for the others to stay alive when Rogue was ‘cured’ and Storm’s only role was to deliver over-sentimental cheesy lines. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter when the almighty Magneto was shocked by Phoenix’s power and exclaimed, What have I done?. This is not something you’d expect from one of the greatest villains. The entire film is just a joke to original X-Men fans.

If you are not an X-Men fan, you would still be disappointed by the lack of entertaining elements. It was just a blockbuster with lots of second-class explosions and special effects. The plot was so weak that you wouldn’t care about any of the characters. That’s probably why most people would have missed the ‘hint’ about Professor X’s coming back after the credits. In fact, some of them might have left before the end of the movie.

*How on earth could it be called ‘The Last Stand’ when they are going to make the fourth film?