(film review) - Ninja Assassin

After watching this film, you'd wish you was a ninja, no lie! You will think that they are the coolest type of people ever. If you think of a ninja, you usually come up with, a guy in pyjama's running around in flip-flops with his face covered up and nothing but his eyes showing with a long sword in his hands and occasionally doing the odd run up the wall and disappearing acts with a puff of smoke. Well, Ninja Assassin is like, all of that on steroids. I'll explain.

Raizo (Rain) is a child being raised by the Ozunu Clan who are to the world, nothing but a myth. Growing up in the temple where they train young children to be deadly ninjas, rain was subjected to a lot of discipline and training which left him with scars all over his body and nurtured him into being one of the worlds deadliest Special Forces Ninja Assassins.
When Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris), a Europol Agent starts to investigate political murders that are linked to the Ozunu Clan, not only does she steal files to find out more about this mysterious clan, the clan find out and come out of the shadows, literally and make an attempt to assassinate her before the truth comes to light.

So the story sounds a little far fetched, I mean who believes in Ninja's that come out the shadows and use death-stars, booo. Yeah, well, after this film you might want to keep away from shadows as these guys do not hang about and they do not play.
The fight scenes are enough to keep you on the edge of your seat and watching hoping to see more ninja activity. There were times when I was watching thinking to myself, these are NINJAS your shooting at, are you dumb? But I guess ninjas are trained to be a certain way, but doesn't make them not human. In addition to the fight scenes, most were in a dark surrounding/environment which made it slightly hard to follow and special effects used to a degree that the fight scenes may not have looked as real if done in a lighter setting. I'm not saying they were hiding the strings, but the dark settings added to the atmospheric feel and well, a ninja wouldn't attack you in broad daylight as it would defeat their purpose, I guess.
There is a lot of blood too, a lot of it. So much deep red blood spilling, pouring and spitting out of joints, limbs and flesh, I thought I was watching a Vimto add for a moment.

The film is a decent film to watch and there are funny bits and I guess you kind of know how the story will go and how it will end, but who has seen people come out of the shadows and keep people then disappear back into the shadows like they were never there before on film? Or Bullets VS Death-stars?
If you like martial arts movies, a cheesy storyline and a lot of action, then this is your movie. And remember what I said at the beginning, you'd want to be a ninja after viewing this.

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(film review) - Precious

This film is based on a novel written by Sapphire, a American author and performance poet. It was originally called "Push" until Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey gave it some promotional assistance and released it through Lions Gate Entertainment and named it Precious.

Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is an 16 year old, born and raised in Harlem who not only is obese and illiterate, she also suffers from long term mental and physical abuse as well as sexual abuse from both her parents. She has already had a daughter named "Mongo" for short and on news of her second child on the way, her school suspend her to attend an alternative school in hopes to help change her life's direction. From this point, Precious tries to seek assistance and do better for herself with the help of her teacher (Paula Patton) until more family domestics lead to precious leaving home and being stuck in a halfway house until she gets back on her feet. The film shows us of Precious' daily struggles of being who she is and the traumatic experiences she has undergone through her life.

Without spoiling the film as it is a very good watch and maybe a little much for a Sunday morning (the day I saw it), the film didn't grab me as much as I thought it would. The trailer for the film was upsetting enough to watch and the film is equally the same, however, I did honestly think I'd leave the cinema with tears streaming down my face. I put that down to the fantasy land and narration precious gives throughout the entire film. As Precious is always in another world to help escape from a possible traumatic experience in the real world, it does make up and water down some of the scenes/film making them easier to view. I haven't read the novel myself but I have heard that the novel is very graphic and maybe this is the reason why some scenes were watered down to make for easy viewing. Hence the reason I didn't cry.

I can't say much about this film as I have already said enough and it is definitely a film to watch or read. It is sad, funny and I guess at the end, you may even smile, but the film on a whole is a film in which you may need to prepare yourself for before viewing. Some of the scenes that they do show are pretty graphic, but I do believe it could have been worse and more touching, like pulling on the heart strings and play on the audiences emotion levels.

If you can find this film out now anywhere....make sure you go and see it.
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(film review) - 44 Inch Chest

To me, this wasn't a gangster film. I guess it had most of the elements of one, but fell short on, well, some real gangster stuff.
I'll explain, this film is like Reservoir Dogs. It is all based in one room like it however, this has more to do with the trials, tribulations and torment of a broken man.

Colin Diamond (Ray Winstone) is a gangster, but becomes jealous of the fact that his wife, Liz, has left him for a younger, leaner, more handsome, French guy. Struck in a fit of Rage, Colin is found distraught on the floor of his home where he is found laying there by pal, Archie (Tom Wilkinson), who then tells other pals, Old Man Peanut (John Hurt), Mal (Stephen Dillane) and Meredith (Ian McShane) to help put the puzzle together of their mate, Colin and help him get himself together and take revenge on Liz's Loverboy (Melvin Poupaud).

The film for me was different and excellent. There isn't one film I can think of that touches on the love a man has for his misses and what is going through his head at the time he finds out she's cheated on him, his initial reaction, after his reaction and the cause and affect of his reactions in so much detail. He goes barmy. Drinks alcohol as it is water and then starts hallucinating crazy things and starts to get paranoid and thinks that everyone (all his mates) have been sleeping with his wife too.

This film questions Love. What it is. What people would do for love. What people can do to destroy love. How people treat love and how love can destroy someone's very being. I felt that the film was too 'on point'. Sometimes you fall out of love, find someone new, but if someone is still in love with you, the affects it has is madness and even literally.

The film was very well written and acted out. Every character was wicked. My favourite was Old Man Peanut as I found him hilarious and as for Meredith, the dark and sinister poof, he was really good.
I don't want to spoil this film for anyone as I do feel you do have to watch it for yourself before you give judgement. I'd just like to say, it's an English film and a gangster film, but just without the gangster ish! It's different to Lock, Stock, Snatch and This Is England as this is in a different league. However, I do think it's a film more for the men.

If you want something English, something real in which you can possibly relate to and something that is well written and acted out, then this will definately be your film!
Go out and see it when it comes out!
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