Monday's At The Movies

This week we saw a cheapie movie at the cinemas and lots of DVDs. We also started watching Paul Blart Mall Cop and it was so bad we gave up after 15 minutes.

Fast and Furious (4)
It is what you would expect it to be. An action packed, testosterone filled ,car chasy movie. There are no Oscar award winning performances here and thats fine it doesn't pretend to be anything else. I actually enjoyed this film probably because I was expecting it to be pretty awful (it is the 4th movie in the franchise). Not a lot more to say about the movie really other then Paul Walker and Vin Diesel do not get their tops off at all and lets face it they are the only reason girls go to see this film.

Valkeyrie

In short boring. Which disappointed me because this is such an interesting story about the only really major coordinated attempt to assassinate Hitler during his reign. There are also some really good actors in the film like Terrance Stamp and Kenneth Brennagh (some might argue Tom Cruise but I wont put him in that category).

So I am not really sure why I didn't engage in this film, we watched most of it but then got bored and went and saw Fast and Furious 4. I suppose one thing was the other actors I felt did not get enough screen time, it was hard to work up any real empathy when they only got 5 minutes screen time (not quite that bad but near enough) and the actors I dont think were really utilized fully. As for the plot I never got the sense how precarious the situation was for the conspirators.

In the end I didnt really care what happened to them which is probably what killed it for me as I do know what a fascinating story the actual event was.

Bedtime Stories
I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I thought this was just going to be another Adam Sandler movie being well Adam Sandler. But I think combining with Disney and making more of a family film (plus not having Sandler direct or write the screenplay) actually made this a pretty decent film.

The story is about a man who babysits his niece and nephew and to entertain them he tells them stories. However he soon relaises that the fun friendly stories told at bedtime are coming true.

There are no suprises here its Disney, enough said really. There are all the cliches and the compulsory happy ending but it was the humour that sold it. Actually to be honest Bugsy the Guinea Pig was the favorite. For an animated rodent that couldn't speak it stole the show.

Defiance
Set in the eastern regions of German Nazi-occupied Poland (now western Belarus) during World War II, it is the tale of four brothers from Poland who escaped Nazi persecution by living in a nearby large forrest. Eventually they fought back and rescued fellow Jews.

This film is based on the adaptation of Nechama Tec's Defiance: The Bielski Partisans which is the brothers story.

What a fantasic film. This was evertyhing Valkeryie should have been. It had action, heart ache, happiness, humour, and sorrow. Great script writing and directing and extremely well cast actors. We were cheering for the brothers right up to the end. I was rivited by the story and would now like to get my hands on the book.

What I think this movie did best was show just what human nature is like in trying conditions. Even the good guys have bad moments. I could not even begin to comprehend what they had to go through and the decisions the brothers had to make as leaders of the forrest village.

I would really recomened this film to anyone.

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