Burying the Ex

Posted on June 23, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.

Max (Yelchin) is not happy with his life. He works a demeaning job, his half-brother Travis (Cooper) uses Max’s apartment as a bachelor pad, and Max’s girlfriend Evelyn (Greene) is an eco-obsessed control freak, keen to dominate every aspect of Max’s life. He’d have broken up with her by now if they weren’t constantly having sex. One day, however, Max finally works up the courage to dump Evelyn, only for her to die just before he is able to. Problem solved, right? Nope, because Evelyn comes back from the dead, with plans on turning Max into a zombie too, so they can live together, forever. Max is, understandably, less than keen on the idea, especially seeing as he’s just met the perfect girl for him, hipster ice cream parlour owner Olivia (Daddario).
Burying2 Continue reading →

My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 25

Posted on June 22, 2015 by jaycluitt

Lego Jurassic World update! Still haven’t opened the cellophane! Adulthood sucks. On the plus side, in this past week I have gotten into a kayak and didn’t fall out, unlike last time when I discovered the Cambridge Canal should not be swum in (if anybody finds a pair of sunglasses in the Cambridge area that look like they’ve been in some questionably non-toxic water for a few years, y’all can go right ahead and keep them). Film-wise this week I’ve found myself focussing on new movies (and a movie that was less new than I’d initially realised) so at present I don’t think I’m quite going to hit my mid-year goals, seeing as I’d need to watch four movies and review 6 in the next 7 days, and I’ve got a fair amount of non-blogging stuff to do in that time as well. I’m not giving up, but I’m bracing myself for disappointment, which is basically how I go through life anyway. Here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →

In the Mood for Love

Posted on June 20, 2015 by jaycluitt

Two couples move into the same small tenement building in 1960s Hong Kong on the same day. Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) is a secretary and personal assistant at a travel company, working under her adulterous boss and literally keeping his affairs in order, whilst her husband is often away on business for longs periods of time. Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) is a writer whose dreams of writing martial arts serials have floundered due to lack of inspiration. His wife often works late too. When Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow begin to suspect that their respective partners are having an affair with one another, the two become close, and the chance to follow in their partner’s footsteps becomes a tentative possibility.

Continue reading →

The Tree of Life

Posted on June 17, 2015 by jaycluitt

This film was nominated for me to watch by Mette Kowalski of French Toast Sunday and the Across the Universe podcast. Some day I may forgive here for this.

When I put the call out for people to recommend films for me to review this year, I did so expecting to have differing opinions with some of the people who suggested the films. I know there’s a lot of people out there who don’t necessarily think the same way I do, which is what makes the world an endlessly wonderful/frustrating place to live in. Mette suggested two films for me, and they both came with warnings. The other suggestion (2000’s In the Mood For Love) arrived in disc form today, so I’ll be covering that soon, and apparently I’ll suffer through it, whereas The Tree of Life came with the claim that I’d either love it or hate it, but that I shouldn’t dare hate it. Sorry Mette, I’m feeling rather daring today.
Tree-of-Life-021 Continue reading →

My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 24

Posted on June 15, 2015 by jaycluitt

Don’t you just absolutely hate when you look forward to something since the very first moment you hear about it, then when the opportunity rolls around to experience it other elements of your life crop up and get in the way? Me too. As soon as I saw a trailer for the Lego Jurassic World video game I knew what my future would entail. I got a bonus last month, so treated myself to a pre-order. The game arrived on Saturday (Amazon put it in a giant box so it couldn’t be delivered on Friday and I ad to go collect it), and it’s still entombed within it’s cellophane wrapper. What has become of the world? Why must I be cursed with house guests and walks in the countryside?!? For what purpose to I burden myself with these time-consuming blogging goals, and why do I adhere to them instead of playing as a tiny plastic Muldoon!?! Why!?!?!?!?!? Anyway, here’s what I did do this week, most of which was tainted by the knowledge that there’s a game based on two of my favourite things, I own a copy, yet doing the stuff on this post got in the way of me even OPENING THE DAMN THING. Continue reading →

Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Posted on June 15, 2015 by jaycluitt

It’s never a good sign when I begin my notes to a film with an exclamation of my distaste at what I’m seeing on screen, so the fact that the first scrawling for Tetsuo is “Gah!” should be viewed as a sign for bad things to come. This expression of shock and mild gagging was to a man, who apparently is named the Metal Fetishist (Shin’ya Tsukamoto, who also wrote and directed this), cutting a gouge down his leg and inserting a metal rod into it, parallel to the bone. Bear in mind last week I suffered a mild leg injury via bicycle accident (slamming on my brakes when a car turned without indicating led me to rake my leg down the metal grip-studs on my pedal, leaving me looking like I’ve survived a mild velociraptor attack), this visual did not go down well with me. Nor did the wound being filled with maggots. Delightful. The man who inserted the bar into his leg – which by no means impedes his ability to walk or run on it – seems to be turning into a man made entirely of scrap metal. Whether he is intending to or it is happening beyond his control is just one of the many questions Tetsuo throws up that I’m more than OK not receiving an answer to.
Continue reading →

The Sixth Sense

Posted on June 13, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.

Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is a troubled child. His inability to get along with others, multitude of secrets and general oddness cause his single mother (Toni Collette) to despair. Things start to look up however when Cole starts seeing noted child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) who, after being shot recently by a former patient Crowe evidently failed to help, is now wary of the similar symptoms Cole is showing. Eventually, Cole and Malcolm grow close enough for the youngster to reveal his big secret, which might just help Malcolm overcome some problems of his own.

Continue reading →

The Wolf of Wall Street

Posted on June 10, 2015 by jaycluitt

Back in 1987, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) was an ambitious up-and-coming stock broker on Wall Street but, on the day he received his broker’s license, h also lost his job to the infamous Black Monday. Starting from the bottom, he discovered the wonder of penny stocks, which were much cheaper but garnered the broker a far larger share of the profits, allowing Jordan to quickly create his own company – later named Stratton Oakmont – and rise up the ranks to becoming a ludicrously wealthy hedonist with a penchant for every kind of narcotic available, and many that aren’t. However, Jordan’s wealth and the corrupt manners in which it has been accrued soon come to the attention of the FBI.
midget Continue reading →

My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 23

Posted on June 8, 2015 by jaycluitt

I spent a grand total of three hours this past weekend looking at a computer screen (two of which were whilst podcasting) so please forgive the lack of content lately. I had what I call a gown-up day yesterday, in that it was mostly spent gardening. It would seem that despite my best efforts an ever-growing Lego collection, I am on an unstoppable route to become an adult, hence why the lawn-mowing mission somehow evolved into a 7-hour weeding session, resulting in sore bones, aching joints, calloused fingers, numerous bug bites and an unintentional sunburn. Yes, adulthood has it all.

Seeing as we’ve now entered June and 2015’s halfway point is only three weekly posts away, I’m going to make it a mission to be caught up on not just most, but ALL of my goals by the time My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 26 rolls around. The second half of the year will be harder anyway, due to how I weighted the scheduling of the 2015 New Releases, so if I’ve got any hope of completing it all I need to have a line of six green marks by mid-year. So what does that entail? Well, I’m already more than caught up on the TiVo movies, so none of those need to be seen, but I need to watch five 2015 Movies (which will include: Burying the Ex [screener for Blueprint: Review], The Voices [screener for my own site], Coherence [dispatched from LoveFilm today] and Jurassic World [DINOSAURS!], and watch-and-review one Kate Winslet movie (I’ll be submitting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for July’s Lambcast Movie of the Month, and even if it doesn’t win I’ll be making a bee-line for it anyway, with Little Children as part of my French Toast Sunday Road Trip later in the year), one “Bad” movie (haven’t decided yet, maybe Tetsuo), seven Nominated Movies (Including the already-seen-but-not-yet reviewed La Grande Illusion, The Tree of Life and Picnic at Hanging Rock, as well as the to-see-because-it’s-Terry-Gilliam-month-over-at-FTS Brazil) and four 1001 Movies, which will be easy if I do all the other missions because that’ll be more than covered then. Maybe I should stop writing this post and go review some more movies! Here’s what I watched this week:

Continue reading →

The Phenix City Story

Posted on June 8, 2015 by jaycluitt

This post was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series over at French Toast Sunday.

Phenix City, Alabama, 1954. The city, just across the bridge from Georgia’s Fort Benning, has been at the mercy of mob rule for a hundred years. The town officials all turn a blind eye due to either being on the pay roll or fearing the consequences of standing up for themselves, with town attorney Albert Patterson (John McIntire) only getting involved for which ever side hires him in various disputes. A small band of townsfolk regularly picket and protest the syndicate, but have always proved ineffective. That is until Albert’s son and war hero John Patterson (Richard Kiley) returns home with his wife and children. Upon seeing the state of his home town, and witnessing the brutality of the mob’s men against those that dare oppose them, John sets about trying to clean the place up, but he can’t do anything without his father’s help.
Continue reading →