movie reviews by Lexi

''That's his favourite painting, his...his lucky painting...''

In London, a real-estate scam puts millions of pounds up for grabs, naturally attraction the attention of some of the city's scrappiest tough guys (Butler, Elba) its more established underworld players (Wilkinson), and others -- all of whom are looking to get rich quick.

Gerard Butler: One Two

RocknRolla is pretty much Guy Ritchie showing us all that he hasn't lost it. Let's face it, with Revolver he was trying to be clever but it went abit wrong. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels & Snatch are at the level of top form, what we, the audiences want from Director Guy Ritchie.
At the start of his career Guy Ritchie was compared to legend Tarantino. This isn't necessarily a good person for him to be compared to.



Whereas Tarantino can write great plots and fantastic arrays and splashings of dialogue. Ritchie is usually quite poor at plots, but good at putting witty gritty words into people's speech. Here there are too many double crosses and back handed deals, the plot sometimes lingers. When Ritchie learns that this doesn't always work and simplifies the equation, he really will be a great writer & director. At least though it isn't as bad as Revolver was when it came out.
Thankfully RocknRolla is him back in control and back into the swing of what Guy does best.

One thing that's instantly improved to his Revolver piece is the fact that he's got a flawless casting this time, a plot that is untouchable as is the script and a killer Soundtrack that had me bobbing my head in rhythm to it, yes it was that bloody amazing!

May I say Mark Strong as Archie, had to be one of my favourite characters besides Gerard Butler in RocknRolla. I mean this Actor seems to have something cheeky about him that always produces a wry smile with me. Whether it be Stardust or even him in Revolver, he was the best thing in that film, Mark Strong makes Archie a hard guy yet one with a certain dark humour.
Gerard Butler as One Two is such a fun character who has his fair share of experiences in the movie.
Thandie Newton is sexy as hell, never stops smoking and never stops looking beautiful, seductive and icily intelligent.
There's a dance scene between Thandie & Gerard that's one of the coolest segments within the film, using Graphic Novel-esque subtitles as they talk and dance, pure genius.

Tom Wilkinson plays Lenny Cole, the bad ass boss, who really can play a Mob Boss well, whereas Batman Begins he's an American one, RocknRolla shows a pure grime London man who's a bad man.

If your sense of humour is warped and dark like mine, you will love what's on offer in RocknRolla. Homosexuality, the Rock industry, Russian dealings, and crafty back stabbing between deals gone sour are all explored. A certain scene in which Archie finds two Russians, doing some very strange things to Gerard is so funny as are a number of other surprisingly effective scenes.

Look out for Sweeney Todd's Jamie Campbell Bower popping up in the middle as a Rocker. As well as Ludacris, Jeremy Piven and Idris Elba.

Overall RocknRolla has rekindled my faith in Guy Ritchie and even Madonna must be breathing a sigh of relief. It's class, it's violent, it's funny and more importantly it's dark, rich and satisfying.
Roll on The Real RocknRolla!

[he examines the joint]

''It's almost a shame to smoke it. It's like killing a unicorn...with, like, a bomb.''

A stoner and his dealer are forced to go on the run from the police after the pothead witnesses a cop commit a murder.

Seth Rogen: Dale Denton

James Franco: Saul Silver

Pineapple Express is one of the best Comedies I've seen in ages. I don't usually like American humour, due to it's nonsensical crass fashion but this surprised me in lots of ways.



Happily Director David Gordon Green's Pineapple Express starts with an old fashioned flashback that sets the ball rolling. Pot being made illegal by the military. Then we see present day, Seth Rogen's Dale in his car smoking Weed savouring it's mindful influence, while doing a US job that everyone ends up hating you. Yes you have guessed it, ''You've been served'', THAT job.

We also discover Dales High-School Girlfriend which adds another mark against Dale, in the sense of being in-politically correct. It gets better still, in the charismatic charged James Franco playing Saul, Dale's weed Dealer and seemingly a friendship is there although Dale likes to just think of him as merely a dealer.
What Pineapple Express gives us throughout are non stop laughs, action and gore befitting of more black comedic belly roars. The plot is so daft it defies belief, as does the fight scenes that are so unrealistic you sometimes fail to notice due to the momentum of the film.

What begins as a drug related film progresses into an action, chase laden, non-serious thriller infused with slapstick comedy. Pineapple Express blasts joke after joke on screen, a funny run about in a dark forest between the pair, a Police Car chase where Franco kicks his foot out a slush puppy drenched windscreen, and the young Girlfriends parents giving Dale a hard time.
What's interesting about Pineapple Express is that it's story is predictable. You see scripts like this all the time but you get to a point where if you are having so much fun in the process you fail to care. Pineapple Express like it's weed inspired title is like a roller-coaster of unfortunate accidents in a drug induced state of madness.

I mean characters can fight and fight, get shot repeatedly,then miraculously begin running about frantically like nothing is wrong. The third character Danny R. McBride as Red shows the nature of the film. That character's can sustain superhuman damage and not die yet the film is adult and action packed. Is it serious? Is it comedy? Or is it sometimes switching backwards and forwards between the two perhaps.

The villains who commit the murder of an Asian Drug Rival, a certain Gary Cole as Ted Jones, the gangster boss guy and
Rosie Perez as Carol, the crooked Cop. They to me were 2 dimensional characters who weren't really fleshed out due to the involvement round the main two, Franco & Rogen. Things do kick off in the final segment and we get some cracking unbelievable fight scenes.

Pineapple Express is another film with Seth Rogen, whom I usually despise, but in this comical piece, I can say it's his best film I've seen yet, where he actually is funny with his hoarsely stupid voice and his mumbling accent.
James Franco remains a talent that keeps getting better and better every role I see him do, Pineapple Express allows him to do some different material and show versatile he can be, in this case a funny, drugged up dealer, with a bit of a vacant dreamy disposition.
So Pineapple Express to conclude has renewed my faith in the American comedy genre.
A very good effort, now I've just got to catch Tropic Thunder which looks fairly certain to be having more desirable effects on the genre for me.

''Does it hurt to be dead?''

After being hypnotized by his sister in law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.

Kevin Bacon: Tom Witzky

Stir of Echoes unfairly is compared with one of a similar natured theme, The Sixth Sense. But no one can say this is a basic copy, just because Echoes was released only one month prior to Sixth Sense. Maybe for that reason, the latter superbly achieved success. Who knows what might have happened had Stir Of Echoes been released first.

Stir Of Echoes really begins to gain momentum when Jake, who's having conversations with a dead girl spirit, suggests a female babysitter to look after him while his parents are attending a football game.
Through a uncanny turn of events, it becomes obvious to Tom that the dead girl in the house is the sister of the babysitter. Of course raising lots of unanswered questions and a frightening secret involving the neighbourhood and it's inhabitants.

Tom interestingly enough, begins to lose focus with reality, by getting bizarre instructions, for example at one point, to dig. So he obviously, makes a massive mess of his yard, then his house, then his basement in that order.

Tom will get the answers he wants to gain, and he'll learn the truth about a terrifying secret.
Stir Of Echoes is not perfect but it doesn't have to be. There's an fascinating sub-plot about a police officer with the vision that could of been elaborated on. The Lisa character also shows little remorse for the post-hypnotic suggestion she left upon poor Tom, she's more interested in getting high with friends or ridiculing him.

But that's no where negative enough to ruin anything about Stir Of Echoes.
The movie is highly enjoyable, especially for those of you who enjoy a good, tense supernatural thriller. Kevin Bacon does a commendable job of portraying a man driven by forces he cannot at first fathom.
I love the part where Tom is floating on a chair in a cinema, in a dream. Or even when he has a dream which is so real that he is unable to tell it is. Very clever indeed.

So in conclusion Stir Of Echoes results in a stylish psychological, supernatural thriller with awesome performances and a surreal plot.

''You can't ask me to battle nature in my own heart.''

A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.

Keira Knightley: Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire

Ralph Fiennes: Duke of Devonshire

The Duchess(2008) is based on Amanda Foreman's biographic book and is brought to life on screen by Director Saul Dibb.
The story revolves around Georgina, who becomes the Duchess of Devonshire, married into a marriage of convenience and stature, laboured with the task of giving her husband the Duke a male heir.



Keira Knightley is in her element as Georgiana and you can see she revels in it. Keira is at home in her depiction of the intelligent, beautiful Georgiana. Every scene she is in has life, depth and prosperity. Emotion and struggle effortlessly conveyed in her eyes alone at times.
What struck me were her loveless marriage to Ralph Fiennes Duke and the many problems she faces.
Ralph Fiennes plays a villain character very well in films in the past but in The Duchess I wouldn't class him as good or bad in conclusion. His Duke character in here simply has problem expressing his emotions and at times he beautifully acts out how insensitive he can be to Georgiana. His many faults and later affair with Bess, a friend of Georgiana, causes problems and even shows us of the mistreatment of women in this period. To me it's a fascination in a few hundred years; females have been given the freedom and right to do the same as men, and rightly so.

Georgiana is a woman ahead of her time, comparable to great ladies like Elizabeth or Catherine The great in the form and way of strength, resolve and striking intelligence; showing she's not just a beautiful lady of Aristocracy but one who is mentally and physically perfect.
I must admit her romance and deep love for Dominic Cooper's Charles Grey struck me to how tragic and moving the whole story is. The boundaries of protocol and what society expects of you is amazingly captured, showing real life to be a hugely fascinating and inspiration, as well as rival to anything fictional or fantasy based can offer us.

Charles Grey and Georgiana by the River sharing a moment of intimacy struck volumes with me. A long lost feeling of a love not yet felt with her emotionless seeming husband. as Charles and Georgiana look into each others eyes you can see the love there.
As they kiss and give into loves embrace, it's mind-blowing and even my eyes were unable to control the prospect of crying slightly.
The love scenes were surprisingly really well executed in amazing subtle yet effective ways. Some scenes with Keira and Ralph were obviously awkward but they were intended to be. Keira's love scenes with Cooper are an effective contrast to the ones with Ralph, which are void of love, this importantly helps us to notice the huge difference there.

The Duchess is simply a period masterpiece that may be predicted as being sad but it's not. It's positively radiant in all aspects. Costumes, locations, acting and the music and Score is in a class of its own. The Duchess is beautiful storytelling and a period film dream to put it effectively, a vision of a woman's life miraculously portrayed on the dazzling big screen.

Ralph Fiennes provides a character who you love to hate, but redeems himself somewhat, Keira Knightley is the shining Goddess we all thought she would be.
Dominic Cooper gets another amazing film besides History Boys and Mamma Mia under his belt and has convinced me he's a rising star.
Ralph Fiennes making everyone laugh on various parts from the way he says things so unemotionally is perfect. I've never seen a Lady with her head on fire before in a Period film, but what made it even more memorable was the fact Ralph has to say ''Put out The Duchess's hair please!'', or something to that effect.
My favourite part near the end; where we actually see a glimpse of Ralph's Duke's emotion was so moving for me. Where he looks out the window and says something like, ''How wonderful to be that free.'' For the first time he actually connects to Keira, and we see he is as mush a prisoner as she is in this world of Aristocracy.

In conclusion The Duchess has humour, struggle, a moving score, beautiful cinematography, and an ending that concludes things in such a way; you will be moved, you will be happy and most importantly you will be satisfied and be left glowing from the experience.

''The equation. Sometimes it's... just chaos. That's all there is.''

Nick Hume is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.

Kevin Bacon: Nick Hume

SAW Director James Wan has yet again made another successful film, only this time he focus's on an action perspective rather than a horror selection.
The story revolves around the life of Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon), a respectable father and husband whose life gets turned around when a vicious gang brutally murders his son at a gas station. Now Nick decides to take justice into his own hands, no matter what the consequences.

I really enjoyed the first SAW very much so, and thought it was incredibly well-made with it's complex twist and build up. However I thought the idea of James Wan making an action thriller was bizarre. I was proved wrong after I saw Death Sentence.
Kevin Bacon gives another gritty performance with this raw material under his hat. The action in this film was very laugh out loud crazy and extremely entertaining to watch, reminded me of the Max Payne game series.

Subsequently Death Sentence is a horrific cat-and-mouse battle between him and the gang, which only result in spawning more acts of retaliation, bloodshed and death. The subject matter obviously isn't too mentally challenging, but who cares? It's a hugely disturbing and devastating movie man. Kevin Bacon's transformation from family guy into sardonic vigilante skinhead is awesome, showing he's becoming more like the people he's taking revenge upon, and the actual acts of retribution are evil, twisted and relentless.
Bacon receives excellent support from the almost naturally menacing looking gang members, including Garrett Hedlund, Edi Gathegi and Hector Ruiz. There's also a delicious supportive role for John Goodman as a filthy and despicable weapon dealer. James Wan's direction is practically executed well, proving all the more his talents aren't restricted to horror and twists exclusively.

The grisly soundtrack, bleak and monotonous photography and abrupt ending also all contribute in making Death Sentence one of the most confronting, daring, underrated sleeper hits of 2007-08.

''It would have been different if she had been white though...''

Stewart Kane, an Irishman living in the Australian town of Jindabyne, is on a fishing trip in isolated hill country with three other men when they discover the body of a murdered girl in the river. Rather than return to the town immediately, they continue fishing and report their gruesome find days later.

Gabriel Byrne: Stewart Kane

Jindabyne revolves around four men who embark on a weekend fishing-trip, more of an annual ritual where they separate themselves from their wives and lives, hiking deep into the mountains. Shortly after arriving Stewart (Byrne) finds the body of an Aboriginal girl, stripped naked and floating in the river. The four make a telling decision: rather than hike back to report their find they keep fishing; the girl's body is left in the river where the cold water will slow decomposition; they tether it to a tree to prevent it floating downstream and into rapids. That the four think little about the moral implications of their conscious choice is reflected in subsequent scenes where they fish happily, not discussing their find or speculating about what happened to the girl. On returning, the callousness of their delay in reporting their find divides their families and their communities. Most of the focus is on Stewart's relationship with his wife Claire as the incident opens up existing fractures in their relationship. In fact the whole affair makes you wonder if any of the characters involved was ever truly happy; they certainly wonder it themselves.

The nature of the story is intensely psychological, which necessitates both good writing and acting to carry off the whole affair. Pleasingly, Jindabyne has plenty of both.

Beatrix Christian had Carver's story to draw upon but it would have been incredibly difficult to give this an Australian context, with all its understatement and scorn for overt displays of emotion (perhaps why they imported Linney in to the mix). The addition of her and Byrne, two skilled international character actors, certainly added quality and a depth of sorts, they were supported by an ensemble cast that mixed Australian veterans (John Howard, 'Bud' Tingwell, Chris Haywood) with lesser-known yet talented actors with an appreciation of the material they had been gifted.

Ray Lawrence, the director, clearly did not set out to create a crime story but he certainly shows that crime can have some unexpected collateral damage. He also has contributed to the "Cinema of Unease", a phrase Sam Neill once used to describe New Zealand cinema, by setting a story or tale about personal and public guilt in such a glorious visual setting or breath taking landscape.

''One day, not today, not tomorrow, not this season, probably not next season either but one day, you and I are gonna wake up and suddenly we're gonna be like every other team in every other sport where winning is everything and nothing else matters. And when that day comes, well thats, thats when we'll honor them.''

When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach (McConaughey) and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.

Matthew McConaughey: Jack Lengyel

We Are Marshall is about inspiration. It starts with a tragedy, in a true story the plane crash which killed nearly the entire Marshall University football team. Then, it deals with the reactions of everybody the tragedy touched.

Director McG amusingly enough, made Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 which,without being very good at all, resulted in a fun comedy satire and good parodies of action.
I appreciate that McG made something different though with We Are Marshall, proving that he can do something else besides frantic action laced with comedy.
But overall, honestly,We Are Marshall did not convince me of much in the way of change or improvement.
The development is very predictable and the story is told by the most obvious ways.The ending pretends to be emotive but it really does not surprise.

It's obviously a very captivating story. So why does the movie not quite hit the heights you sense it should? The biggest problem is the movie's pace. Fifteen to twenty minutes easily could have been cut here to help the movie move along. As it is the movie struggles to build the momentum so important in leading to that big payoff at the end. Some characters seem superfluous, most notably that of the girlfriend of one of the dead players, as portrayed by Kate Mara. There's nothing wrong with Mara's performance, it's just that her character seems totally unnecessary and really adds nothing to the film. Any time spent with her character is time which could have been better spent elsewhere or better yet cut out of the film altogether. In the central role of the new coach Matthew McConaughey gives what is at times a frustrating performance. All the offbeat quirks and mannerisms wear thin after a while. Perhaps he was trying too hard to imitate the real Coach Lengyel, but whatever McConaughey was trying to do he never quite manages to convince. And since his character is at the very heart of the story that is a rather glaring problem with the movie. But despite the problems the movie may have it's still well worth seeing. You'll be both inspired and entertained. You just may get the sense you should have been a little bit more inspired and entertained than you actually were.

If you stick around through the closing moments, though, you will be treated to a truly inspiring epilogue. By keeping the football team going, Lengyel paved the way for a program that would have great success in the future. Kate Mara, recounts this success in a voice over and it's the most inspiring moment of the film. You want to admire Marshall because it's ultimately about the importance of perseverance, but the film is too bathetic to win the hearts of us, hard to please, viewers.

''Knowledge is pain.''

An attorney intent on climbing the career ladder toward success, finds an unlikely opponent in a manipulative criminal he's trying to prosecute.

Anthony Hopkins: Ted Crawford

Ryan Gosling: Willy Beachum

Given the talented cast, Fracture should have been more than a paint-by-numbers thriller but that's exactly what it results in. It features a few solid performances although they are working with some unremarkable material and can't quite lift the film above mediocrity. The uninspired direction was a bit surprising given the track record of director Gregory Hoblit. He managed to keep things safe and predictable without really adding anything special to the film. I guess he was relying on the strength of his cast which only worked to an extent. The scenes with Gosling and Hopkins were interesting to watch but whenever Hopkins was absent, the film seriously dragged and sleepy eyed Gosling, whos character was really unlikable or relatively weak in some scenes, which made it hard to cheer for him at points.

The screenplay was only average with some decent dialogue being the highlight. The way the screenwriter played out the crime was very formulaic and pretty damn predictable. The ending was fairly obvious from the beginning and it wasn't a big twist ending that makes the viewer feel smart for figuring it out but rather it was an ending that makes the viewer wonder how these supposedly smart characters weren't able to figure it out. So save for some scenes with Gosling and Hopkins, the audience gets to watch a bland story unfold without any real sense of interest.

The film's colours and cinematography is to a degree quite good, and includes some unusual angles. Also was impressed by the use of a wide-angle lens use in the courtroom parts. Sound effects, so often ignored, further add to the realism of the proceedings.

Dialogue is generally effective, and includes some witty lines. When Willy's boss talks with him about being taken off the case, Willy responds: "Even if I find new evidence?" To which his boss retorts: "From where, the evidence store?". So yes Fracture has humour as well as tension here and there.

Despite a seriously flawed script, Fracture is highly absorbing in places, thanks largely to a strong cast and sense of professionalism in the way it's styled. Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling obviously are the bait for any fans of either.
Gosling has gotten to do something a bit different (for his usual weird roles) and Hopkins has managed to do something similar (he does anything and everything nowadays) without ever boring us, one negative was his accent which sounded Irish or something, felt abit odd.

Final word is that Fracture is exciting enough while it's speeding along, though as soon as it slows down it loses it's power. Fracture achieves some positives by giving us a few surprises and making it a game of cat and mouse that ultimately becomes twisted round.
The bravura performances are fun as is the chemistry overall. But Fracture feels like its been done before and more importantly it's been achieved and executed alot better in previous films of the same nature.

''Nice shooting, son. What's your name?''

''Murphy.''

In a dystopic & crime ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg with submerged memories haunting him.

Peter Weller: Officer Alex J. Murphy / RoboCop

''Come quietly or there will be... trouble.''

Director Paul Verhoven, the director of Total Recall and Black Book unleashes a truly original concept in the form of a normal Policeman cruelly butchered by criminals only to be revived as a super-cop cyborg. Initially his memory is lost but as the film goes on he gradually gets it back, and begins to remember the people who hurt him and memories of his lost family resurface.

Next time when you watch Robocop, try to shift your focus from the cyborg, loud explosions and over the top gore towards the actual writing. From the main theme of criticizing the modern money driven societies of Western Cultures, (a topic still relevant, and will be in the future as well) all the way to the smallest segments of dialogue, the writing is nothing short of perfection. RoboCop is simply the most intelligent "action" film to come out of Hollywood in the 80s. Unfortunately, the cleverness is hidden between the lines of comic book action. No wonder so many people fail to see this film for what it really is.

Amazing cinematography, solid performances (especially from Kurtwood Smith and Miguel Ferrer), memorable musical score, etc...
The list is limitless. Granted, the stop motion effects of ED-209 look quite old today but the concept and visuals of this metallic beast is astounding for the late 80s. RoboCop has its faults, like the rather extreme toxic waste drenching scene or unrealistic nature cue OTT violence there, but who cares when it's so much fun in a gory graphic way. All I know is I never tire of watching Robocop.

For me, one of the best scenes of RoboCop comes at the very end. An old man asks the robot, "What's your name, son?" The robot cop turns his head, sports a wan smile, and says, ''Murphy." Then as he turns to start to walk away the camera cuts to black and the theme song roars in as we read the bold print on-screen that says, ROBOCOP.

The final word being RoboCop is the ultimate in cyborg films.
It's an extraordinary journey of a man trying to find himself when all is taken from him unfairly, also an action film that starts and never loses momentum.
In a time when every single action film out there presents us with overblown budgets, mediocre acting, sloppy writing, amateurish directing, horrible sub characters, and nothing but special effects. RoboCop is a solid undying reminder that at one time, big comic book flicks were not always just of the Action genre but also ones of depth and hidden meanings rolled into the mix, Robocop is one of the finest examples out there.

''I am the Dragon. And you call me insane. You are privy to a great becoming, but you recognize nothing. To me, you are a slug in the sun. You are an ant in the afterbirth. It is your nature to do one thing correctly. Before me, you rightly tremble. But, fear is not what you owe me. You owe me awe.''

A retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer; aiding him is imprisoned criminal genius Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.

Anthony Hopkins: Dr. Hannibal Lecter

Edward Norton: Will Graham

Ralph Fiennes: Francis Dolarhyde

Excellent installment to the Hannibal series. Red Dragon A very clever prequel.

Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins and some of the best and loved Actors of mine in this to make this Masterful Prequel. Beautiful performances especially from Ralph & Anthony. Two players who know how to dance with villainy.

The start of the movie had me glued to the start and I watched this after a very difficult time in my life, the day my heart got broken. Thankfully Red Dragon succeeded in taking my mind of things, and I find that it deserves a decent Review and to go in my Favourites considering my fondness for the film.

The only thing that annoyed me about Red Dragon is that Anthony Hopkins looks alot Older and Lambs, it was hard not to compare and think of how young he looked in that. Considering Dragon is a prequel to make Hopkins look younger somehow is now possible even the mediocre X-men 3 has made use of CG smoothing for actors faces/facials.

It's got some nice twists, music, pace and alot of charm. Darkly immersed and satisfying Brett Ratner shows he can do the Dark Side, not just comedy or Action Set Piece movies.