Spartacus

12.15am – I’ll type up the review in the morning, bit tired at the moment. However, I can say that it is a very good film and I advise you all to watch it.

5.44pm – Sorry if none of this makes sense or means nothing to you but I’m pretty down at the moment, sorry.

Epic music.

I love the love story.

Funny gladiator school owner, glad he won an Oscar. “What? Wait a minute. Crassus here? Varinia, my red toga with the acorns. And some chairs in the atrium. Second-best wine. No, the best, but small goblets.”

Love the gorgeous female costumes.

Laughed that the women chose the cutest gladiators to fight.

The accents are weird, some are American, others are English, its just confusing.

Very tanned men. VERY tanned.

Tony Curtis is looooovely in this movie.

This movie has the original upside-down kiss.

If you want a movie that has very little costumes and a whole lot of man-thigh/legs… this is your movie.

The crowd/battle scenes are amazing because you know its not CGI and that there are actually that many extras on the field.

The dead baby totally broke me but then my spirits lifted when I saw one of the surviving babies and how adorable he was when he mum was cheeky and squirted goat milk in his face.

The dead bodies are horrible, it really puts the whole battle into perspective.

I’M SPARTACUS!

The ending is heartbreaking, hopeful, joyful and annoying. Made me cry like a baby, it was beautiful and so sad.

Sorry, crap review but it is a very good film and I think you should all rent it.

145/212

Kate
xoxo

The Big Country

7.51pm – I know I shouldn’t judge a film by its synopsis but this films sounds really boring. Lets hope I’m proven wrong as its 2hr 47min long. Pleeease let me be wrong!!!

11.23pm – Oh God. Another movie that didn’t click with me. Shame.

The beginning was horses and trumpets which equals western so we know straight away what genre it is. I have nothing against Westerns but its not a genre that usually grabs my attention so it has to be a REALLY good western for me to actually stay focused to it.

I felt a little confused by the characters but I think its intentional. We have two families who are super pissed off with each other; the Hannaseys and the Terrils. The town has kind of split into two, you have to pick a side. Now, at first, you think the Hannaseys are the bad family as we see them mucking about and being incredibly annoying thinking that they’re being cool [and I know people like that *cough* my brother *cough*]. I hated them there and then. Then we’re introduced to the Terrils who seem polite and civilized until the daughter complains that the Hannaseys were harassing her and her man [which is true but she made it seem a thousand times worse] and then they go out hunting for ‘some Hannaseys’. Once they find them, they tie them up, drag them into a barn and beat them up. The Hannaseys are piss people off thinking its fun whereas the Terrils do it for serious harm. I found myself switching sides and thinking that the Hannaseys were the good guys, even though the main son was one of the biggest assholes I’ve seen in movies.

The daughter wears a beautiful black dress that you wouldn’t expect to see in a western, more like in a Marilyn Monroe movie. But I did laugh when she made her ‘grand entrance’ at the top of the stairs by shouting ‘HEY Y’ALL!’

The lighting is very beautiful in this movie, the natural lighting in particular. The director took good advantage of the sunsets and rises.

There is a fight in a field that is just pathetic. It would have been so much more intresting if there was some quicker music and some close-ups or some quicker editing. It just made me yawn.

I learnt something from this movie; don’t get trigger happy when you’re in a one bullet fight.

Towards the end, there is a sad scene where the dad Hannasey shoots his son because he shot his gun before his dad said fire even though his dad said “I’ll shot the dog who fires before I say”. Its sad because he’s holding his dead son going “you didn’t believe I’d do it!”

Suppose the basic idea with the families was a good idea but the rest… ergh, just didn’t work for me.

42/212

Kate
xoxo

Howl’s Moving Castle

Quick note: If there are words that are missing ‘e’ or has too many its because the ‘e’ on my keyboard is stiff and keeps sticking and its just plain annoying! It’s a new keyboard and all!

I grew up with the likes of Pokemon, Digimon and Cardcaptors so watching this made me feel young again. However, I had to keep reminding myself not to look for Pokemon and to stop stereotyping. After while, though, you start to forget about the fact its like many TV shows and start to see it as a totally independent film.

Howl’s Moving Castle is the perfect example of how Japanese animation can borderline being art. The scenery is breathtaking and looks like if you screencapped it, you could sell it for a few hundred! The people/machines/blob-men and some of the sets look very cartoony but the rest is so beautiful. I believe that its beauty you can’t really get in real life…if that makes sense! Anyway, the Japanese film makers sure like to make the sounds sound as real as possible. You can really tell the difference between the Japanese animation’s take on sound and how normally Hollywood [a la Pixar and Dreamworks] go about it. Every sound that could possibly be made in that scene is heard and it doesn’t sound like some people in a room banging things together; it sounds like they actually followed someone around and recorded all the sounds from their natural environment. I may be wrong but that’s what I get from watching/hearing this film. I don’t know, I guess them taking so much time and effort in the sound makes me really appreciate the filmmakers and what they went through.

This movie is quite weird but in a way that works. Witches, wizards and normal people [Muggles to us Harry Potter fans!] live in total harmony, there are these weird, freaky oil people and very detailed wrinkles and rolls of fat. Oh, and a really cool talking fire. I loved that there were no characters in this movie that annoyed me! I adored each of them, especially the boy, Markl who reminds me so much of the boy a baby-sit next door who is just adorable but in a funny way. Markl is so smart and independent, much like the boy next door. I enjoy comparing characters to people I know, makes me enjoy the movie that little bit more. I’d recommend that you try to relate some of the characters to the people in your life. Actually, do this for any film you watch. I find it makes the film a little more personal too.

One thing that made me laugh… well, maybe not laugh but made me go “oh my God of course it’s him!!!” was the fact that Christian Bale is the voice of the leading man, Howl! You can see where he got his Batman voice from too. I thought I wouldn’t know any of the voices [one of them did sound like Helen Mirren but after some research, it wasn’t her] but hearing Bale… I don’t know, it just lifted me up slightly and I’m not even that big a fan of Bale’s. If anything, he kind of pisses me off!

I didn’t actually write any more notes. Maybe I was just so engrossed in the film or that I have nothing left to say. Or maybe there is nothing more I can say. It’s a truly beautiful film and you should watch it. There’s romance for the girls and a war with bombing for the boys! Hurrah!

6/212

Kate
xoxo