The World According to Who?

I’m not a huge fan of disaster films, but since this wasn’t an American one, I thought it may be less “over the top”. I remember the tsunami of 2004 vividly – I have a brother over there and when I woke up to the news on boxing day, I spent the next 2 hours trying to contact him. When I finally did reach him, he didn’t even know about it and thought I must have gotten mixed up about where it had taken place. I also wanted to see the film to get some idea of the scale of destruction caused by the tsunami.

The film tells the story of a Spanish family who were there at the time, though in the film they are portrayed as British. Maria [Naomi Watts] & Henry [Ewan McGregor] have taken their three young boys to Thailand for a Christmas break, arriving on Christmas eve. All goes well, the staff at the hotel are very welcoming and they settle in well, with the boys enjoying the beach and pools.

However it all goes wrong on boxing day. They are playing in the pool and Maria is just about to settle down with her book, when there is a roar in the distance, getting closer, then trees start to fall over. Before anyone has a chance to try and move to safety the wave overwhelms the hotel, and smashes through everything, taking people, trees, furniture and cars with it.

This part of the film is very well done. I found myself holding my breath as Maria and her eldest son, Lucas, were swept underwater and injured by the many bits of debris in the water. Then when they finally reach dry land and assess their injuries, they climb a tree just in case another wave comes along. Eventually, some local people come along and take them to hospital. Maria has lost a lot of blood and has a couple of serious injuries. Lucas got off relatively lightly with a number of cuts and scratches.

Once at the hospital, the scale of the disaster can be seen by the many people suffering similar injuries to Maria. Many people are their not knowing where the other members of their families are or whether they have survived.

This film shows the generosity and selflessness of the Thai people, who despite their own terrific losses went out to help the tourists and take them to safety. It also demonstrates the the result of the disaster, how difficult it was to deal with and how horrific it must have been for those involved, not knowing where their loved ones were.

I had hoped to see more of the geography to get more idea of the scale of the disaster and was a wee bit disappointed that it didn’t. However the film is about one family, so that is to be expected.

As I say, not a huge fan of disaster films, and there were times when I felt the overplayed the emotional bit, thought I daresay the reality was a lot more emotional. But this was quite well done.

I read Life of Pi some time ago, and really enjoyed the book. When I saw the trailers for the film, I couldn’t wait to see it.

This is a tale about a young boy, Pi, growing up in India. His father owns the zoo. His family decide to move to Canada, selling the zoo animals to pay their way and set them up for their new life.

During a terrible storm the ship sustains damage and sinks. But Pi manages to escape – he’s thrown on to a liferaft, and somehow ends up sharing the boat with an orang-utan, a zebra, a hyena and a tiger! Unfortunately his mother, father and brother are lost with the ship.

It’s a great story – unbelievable, but somehow told so well that you can believe it.

The film wasn’t disappointing in the least. The graphics were amazing – colourful, and being in 3D, almost in your face.

Thoroughly enjoyed this.

I went to see The Hobbit last week, anticipating great things after “The Lord of the Rings”. I wasn’t disappointed.

A friend questioned why The Hobbit was made in to three films, citing that The Hobbit book was smaller than just one of the Rings trilogy books. He reckoned it was so they could make more money out of it.

Well, I reckon he’s wrong. I’ve always been disappointed by films adapted by books that I’ve read. I find that so much has been missed out, and that a lot of the detail which made it such a good book is lost.

The Hobbit takes us on the journey straight from the book. It’s been a while since I read the book, but I don’t think they’ve missed much. I thoroughly enjoyed it – the graphics are breathtaking. I look forward to the next two films.

Marty [Colin Farrell] is a writer who is struggling to write his screenplay “Seven Psychopaths“. Billy [Sam Rockwell] is his best friend who’d like to help him write his screenplay. Billy is also a dog thief with partner Hans [Christopher Walken], who has a violent past.

Billy steals a dog belonging to a gangster, Charlie [Woody Harrelson]. Charlie wants his dog back, no matter who gets in the way. It turns out that not only has Billy stolen Charlie’s dog, but he is also seeing Charlie’s girlfriend.

The film jumps between storylines that Marty is working on, with the help of Billy. You just never know where this film is going next, and the plot is completely bonkers! But I found it hilarious. Colin Farrell’s eyebrows have a life of their own and are entertaining in their own right.

Someone I know went to see this film the same week and thought it was complete rubbish, so obviously it’s not going to be to everyone’s taste. But I really enjoyed it. Thumbs up from me.

I saw the trailers for Silver Linings Playbook and thought it was worth a look.

It starts with Pat Solitano [Bradley Cooper] being released from an institution in to the care of his mother and father [Robert de Niro]. He is bi-polar and has been undergoing treatment following an incident where he found out his wife had been cheating on him. However, he wants to win her back, and agrees to help the recently widowed Tiffany [Jennifer Lawrence] in return for her help in getting his wife back. Her sister is a friend of his wife and agrees to pass letters to her as he can’t go near her, due to a restraining order on him.

Tiffany has quite a few issues of her own, and is quite an entertaining character.

This film was pretty good, but didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Worth a watch though.

I’d seen the first Nativity film and found it very funny, so thought I’d give the sequel a go, Nativity 2.

Mr Poppy [Marc Wootton] is the classroom assistant and nephew of the headteacher [Pam Ferris] (which explains why he hasn’t been fired). Meantime, they’re not having much luck recruiting new teachers thanks to Mr Poppy’s antics.

Mr Poppy wants to enter the school in a choir competition, but the headteacher won’t allow it. So he sneaks off with the kids, dragging along new teacher Mr Peterson [David Tennant]. Of course, things don’t go smoothly, and they end up having quite a journey to get to Wales, where the competition is being held.

There are some very funny moments in the film, but I felt it was very long, and there were lots of bits that were quite unnecessary and other bits that were just silly. Not a bad film, but not as good as the first. Wouldn’t really want to see it again.

I saw Gambit last week, starring Colin Firth, Alan Rickman and Cameron Diaz.

Harry Deane (Firth) works for Lord Shabandar (Rickman), who is a less than likeable chap. Harry decides to get revenge for years of abuse by tricking his boss in to believing his long desired work of art by Monet is owned by a cowgirl (Diaz). He arranges to fly her to the UK with the painting so negotiations can take place.

A series of minor catastrophes ensures that things don’t go smoothly.

I did think this one looked amusing when I saw the trailers. I do like Colin Firth and Alan Rickman. And it was enjoyable for the most part. But some of it was just silly slapstick really.

Not bad, but could have been better.

I’m falling behind with my reviews here! I saw Argo a couple of weeks ago. I remember the US Embassy hostage situation in Iran, particularly because I was living beside Washington DC at the time of their release. I remember the yellow ribbons everywhere.

However, I don’t remember anything about the ones who managed to escape to the Canadian ambassador’s house. Six of them managed to get out of the US embassy before it was completely taken over. They were the only ones with direct access to the street, and managed to walk to the nearby Canadian ambassador’s house without being spotted. They managed to stay there for some time before suspicion arose of their having escaped.

Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a CIA specialist, was brought in as a consultant when discussions were underway to try and bring them out of the country. He can see that the plans suggested so far are doomed to fail. He comes up with the idea of posing as a film crew, who wish to use the landscape in Tehran to film a sci fi film, Argo being the name of this fictional film. He meets with John Chambers (John Goodman), to sound him out and get things moving.

The film is set in 1979 – 1980 and you definitely get a feel for the time, with the hair styles, glasses and clothing. As I didn’t remember this aspect of the situation, I didn’t know the outcome, so it was quite tense in the lead up to it. (I won’t give it away).

This film was well done, however, I do suspect that the Canadians deserve more of the credit than they appear to have been given. They were given the credit for getting the six hostages out at the time, even though it was a CIA operation, so as to protect the remaining hostages. They literally put their own country in the line of fire to protect 50 American hostages.

All the same, good film, well done.