Graham King's reviews for Movies X

 (31)
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Graham King rated Bandidas
(1 year, 2 months ago)
Bandidas photo
Graham King: Only in American movies is it the BAD guys attempting to setup a mass transit system.

It's the usual Western tale - railroad is coming to town, buys farmers land, farmers upset, attractive farmers daughters start robbing banks. Why do they rob banks? Why do they hate the railroad? Who knows? Who cares - the only thing you really need to know about this movie is that it stars Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz.

Family friendly, uncomplicated and illogical, this is the movie equivalent of easy listening music. Except that it stars Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz. Did I already say that?
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Synedoche, New York
(1 year, 2 months ago)
Synedoche, New York photo
Graham King: Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation). It's about life, it's hard to be any more precise than that. Oh, OK, I'll try. It's about the life of a theater director who puts on a play about his life, hence about the movie you're watching. Surprisingly, it never gets confusing. It's funny, sad, surreal, unpredictable, and inspiring. Like life, really.

Best film I've seen all year.
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Cypher
(1 year, 4 months ago)
Cypher photo
Graham King: Sloppy corporate espionage drama. There's a lot not to like here: Glamorization of cigarettes, Lucy Liu acting with all the warmth of Rambo, a Hollywood version of computers (flashing lights and lots of beeps), and much nonsense in the script (an 'isolated data-banks' under a field in Kansas, really?).

The esthetic is slightly Germanic film-noir, but if that's what you're looking for, Dark City does it better.

There's a decent plot twist at the end, but Wild Things did that a lot better.

The only real interest is Cypher's exploration of identity. There's a powerful moment when the protagonist wobbles ("I'm not supposed to live in the suburbs!"). More of that would of been good.
Malcolm Lewis:
Get a sitter and go watch: 1) True Grit; 2) The King's Speech ;)
1 year, 4 months ago
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Inception
(1 year, 4 months ago)
Inception photo
Graham King: Good, but not great. And I expected great.

The graphics are good. The acting is decent. The action is very good. The story however, I had expected to be great, to be left reeling, confused, wanting to watch the movie again. I expected a movie of the calibre of Primer, The Machinist or Moon. In the end the story is too dumbed down, had too much 'test audience' feedback, and we get a linear plot.

The one part of this movie I did admire is how deeply into trouble they get the protagonists. A movie script will usually attempt to involve the protagonist into more and more trouble as the story develops. Here they do it wonderfully, by having them on the verge of death in several stories (dreams) at the same time. Wonderfully tense.
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time
(1 year, 6 months ago)
Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time photo
Graham King: Entertaining. Won't change the word, but a pleasant evening.

I remember reading an interview of Jordan Mechner, the creator of the original Prince of Persia game, way back. He said he wanted to get into the movies, but it was too expensive and took too long, so he made a game instead. And now he's credited on a movie as script writer and executive producer. Good for him.
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Slumdog Millionaire
(1 year, 6 months ago)
Slumdog Millionaire photo
Graham King: Excellent. Bollywood-worthy entertainment with a Western-structured plot. They even dance at the end. Well worth your evening.
Malcolm Lewis:
It was a great movie for me. Loved the song over the closing credits. Jai Ho!
1 year, 6 months ago
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated 8 Mile
(1 year, 6 months ago)
8 Mile photo
Graham King: Eminem is very good. The outtakes from the filming of the rap battles are excellent.
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated The Machinist
(1 year, 7 months ago)
The Machinist photo
Graham King: Modern-day Hitchcock-ian murder mystery, led by a superbly intense Christian Bale.

A gripping, occasionally frightening film, where viewer and protagonist are never quite sure where reality lies. The screenwriting is rich with clues, but I was too transfixed by Christian Bale's intensity (and how thin he is), to notice most of them.

By the end of the movie you realize that not a scene, not even a prop, were wasted, everything is there for a reason, everything means something.

The photography is over-exposed, almost sepia, with some beautiful wide shots, and many foreboding angles.

One to watch with friends, and to discuss afterwards. Highly recommended.
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Oldboy
(1 year, 7 months ago)
Oldboy photo
Graham King: Imprisonment, torture, and incest; this movie has most of the things you don't want in your living room.

To justify doing that to you, this movie would require an exceptional plot, a story that could not be told without recourse to such unpleasantness. It doesn't.

Instead, you get a shallow coat of hypnotism (screenwriters: Hypnotism _really_ doesn't work like that), and very little else. It's as if they started with a scene involving teeth and a claw hammer, and worked backwards and forwards to create a movie out of it.

It won something at Cannes, but presumably that was the year they let Quentin Tarantino run the jury.
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Conan the Barbarian
(1 year, 7 months ago)
Conan the Barbarian photo
Graham King: Schwarzenegger at his best, in a swords and sorcerers epic. Worth it just for the scene where little-boy-Arnie is pushing the water wheel around, and grows into bodybuilding-champion-Arnie.
Malcolm Lewis:
And just how good is Schwarzenegger's best I wonder? He's set the bar pretty low for himself ;)
1 year, 7 months ago
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Doberman
(1 year, 8 months ago)
Doberman photo
Graham King: French action/crime movie. Reminds me of John Woo movies, or something Quentin Tarantino would of loved to make.
All glamorous guns, violence, and artistic photography. As an IMDB commenter wrote "an action-trip to hell - and never back".
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Downfall
(1 year, 10 months ago)
Downfall photo
Graham King: Fascinating account of the last few days of the Reich in WWII, told in a very human manner. Whilst watching it, I looked up some of the lead characters on Wikipedia - the actors are perfect matches for the real individuals.
If you've seen a YouTube video where Hitler rails about something, that's from this film.
The psychological tricks the heads of the Reich play on themselves, to convince themselves the war (and their lives) are not lost are really interesting.
Malcolm Lewis:
Have you seen Tin Drum? Great war movie. German with subtitles. http://www.fablistic.com/i/...
1 year, 10 months ago
Graham King:
Added Tin Drum to my ToDo list, thanks for the tip.
1 year, 10 months ago
Graham King's Tags: movies
Graham King rated Get Smart
(1 year, 10 months ago)
Get Smart photo
Graham King: Predictable, but still very funny. Laughed out loud a few times. If you like Steve Carell's other work (The Office, 40 Year Old Virgin), you'll like this.
Graham King's Tags: movies
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