What I did in February: Pondered the nature of the hype machine and watched the death of my social life as I watched so many films…..

This month as possible vengeance for last months drought I have watched an obscene amount. I haven't really been out except to go to the shops and work of course. Something has struck me about everything I watched though. All the titles below have in some way been overhyped or underhyped. This month we have had a few films released which have had solid Oscar buzz for a while and some of them did go on to win and some didn't win as many as first thought.

This got me thinking. Critics have been falling over themselves to praise There will be Blood, proclaiming it as the best American movie of the last ten years. Everyone else who has seen it has seemingly followed suit and put it on their best films ever list. Now what have I missed here? Is everyone just being sheep and saying they love it to not look weird? They shouldn't be and what a critic thinks should not dictate personal opinion. I am not alone here though, a work colleague also saw it and said they felt disappointed by it.

Sometimes critical opinion is on the money. Juno has been widely praised and I was all set to be let down by it only to walk out being in love with the film. No Country for Old Men and Sweeney Todd were also well reviewed and actually very good movies.

In the last few years some films have been spoiled for me by Internet critics and their overhype machines. V for Vendetta and 300 although both enjoyable were far from the world changing masterpieces that some sites claimed prior to release. Rambo has also been hyped to death over the last month or so when in reality its an entertaining action film, no more no less.

I hope I am not part of this machine. I try and be honest and form my own opinion on things. If you think I am not being honest and becoming a part of the machine then please feel free to let me know. Help me keep myself honest....

***** WARNING: SPOILERS*******

Cloverfield: These days when I browse the usual film geek websites and read a review that contains a line like 'Gave me the same feeling I had when I saw the first Star Wars' I skip the rest of the review. I can't stop myself reading a few lines here and there but I find that its ruining my experience when I see a movie for the first time. So I have avoided reviews for Cloverfield almost completely and I am glad otherwise I would have been excited to the point where I made myself sick. Cloverfield is a good monster movie, it may be a great one, but is it a five star masterpiece? I think not. The film is very tense and well staged and considering the budget they had to work with its quite remarkable that it looks five times more expensive than it was. When the first attack occurs the video camera view evokes memories of the footage we saw coming through the news on that afternoon back in September 2001 and its here that the movie is its most effective. The sheer panic in the streets as confused people pour out of their homes to see what's going on is the movies best moment, and then they see something large in the distance. People run everywhere trying desperately to get away and some of the characters we are introduced to in the first twenty minutes become casualties. We then follow four remaining party goers into the subways as the main character searches for the girl he should be with. Its this aspect of the film that doesn't really work for me. We are supposed to care about Rob and Beth and feel something as we see in camera, flash backs to the perfect day they had together. Problem is the actors they cast are not strong enough to sell this, they are unknown's who just come across as catalogue models in their first big acting break. Just imagine how much better the film would have been had actors like James McAvoy or Ellen Page been cast in the main roles,you would have been able to relate to it better. Anyway that's my quibble about the film and why it wasn't a five star smash for me. Now what works in this film is the handling of the monster. You see only bits and pieces here and there for much of the first half and you get the idea that its big, mean and pissed off. In the last twenty minutes you see it from an elevated position (top of a building, a helicopter) and its coming towards you. These scenes are genuinely thrilling cinematic moments and again considering the budget the effects work is phenomenal. Cloverfield has been a hit and an inevitably dire sequel is on the way. I will get the DVD as its a solid well made film that I enjoyed. Still for recent monster mayhem I think The Host is better. ****

Mr Woodcock:Comedy is a very strange thing to review, what is hilarious to some is almost offensive to others and what seems like genius to some critics seems like nonsense to the movie going public. It seems that unless you produce something that is well written and funny like the output of Judd Apatow and co then your comedic movie is going to be a one star flop with the critics. Its a strange situation as for a long time comedy films were reliant on gross out humor or slapstick spoofery like Hot Shots! A lot of these films were well reviewed when they came out but now these same movies (Epic Movie,Date Movie etc) are getting so much critical bile thrown at them its a wonder they make the money they do. Mr Woodcock has had a lot of negative things said about it but its really quite amusing, its no classic but worth a watch for sure. If it had come out ten years ago then we would probably be talking HUGE hit. Sadly time has moved on.**1/2

Atonement: I wasn't really interested in seeing this. Its only through the dogged persistence of my work colleagues telling me how good it was that I stuck it on my rental list. I like this film, its well acted and well shot especially in the early scenes where its like those hazy memories of summer during childhood. Then we get to World War 2 and the color seems to drain out of the film and there is an awesome tracking shot on the beach at Dunkirk. I'll probably never watch this film again as its possibly the saddest film ever made. Lives are ruined by one moment of childish jealousy and there is no happy ending or redemption. Funnily enough despite early hype this did not win as many awards as thought. ****

Juno: When was the last time that you walked out of a film with a big grin and choking back tears of happiness? Stardust maybe? Groundhog Day? Jerry Maguire? It seems like a long time. Now I am sorry to keep on about overhype but this has been hyped as an indie breakout gem like Little Miss Sunshine and Garden State so I went in thinking I was likely to be disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised and Juno is one of my favorite films for a long long time. The script is awesome and deserves all the praise that has been heaped upon it as it has some classic one liners. The performances are all top notch and bring the characters to life, it doesn't feel forced at all it seems like the most natural thing in the world. These are characters that you will fall in love with, from Juno herself played by Ellen Page to Jennifer Garner's yuppie who is desperate to be a mother and the object of Juno's affection and father of her child Bleaker played by Michael Cera. The soundtrack is rightly selling by the bucket load and the final scene is the one that gets me all choked up, its one the most perfect endings in a film ever. Now the thing for me that made this film really work is how recognizable it is. Its not set in some California suburb with good looking sun kissed teens hanging round a pool, its not clear where its set but its cold and drab just like England. The characters homes apart from the prospective surrogate parents home all seem stuck in the 1980's and are nicely cluttered and seem real. Back in 1995 I was hanging round with a group of girls who all had homes like this with random bric a brac strewn around and we would talk about music by REM, Nirvana, Courtney Love and the Chili Peppers. It just seemed a familiar world to me which is maybe what gave me the warm fuzzy feeling I had when I walked out. This won the Oscar for best screenplay and is a very deserving winner. I cant wait to see what writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman do next.*****

Cocaine Cowboys: Its not clear to me if the decision to soundtrack this documentary about the cocaine trade in early 80s Miami with music by Jan Hammer was meant to be ironic or cool. Unfortunately it adds a whiff of cheese to what is otherwise a well made and terrifying documentary about stuff that actually happened. Let me put it this way, when I was growing up I lived on a diet of Van Damme, Lundgren, Seagal, Norris, Stallone and Schwarzenegger action flicks. In these films the villains were always foreign and always killed many many people. There was always something over the top about this I thought as the credits rolled. Turns out all this was probably based on the Cuban gangsters in Miami as what they did was exactly like what they did to Steven Seagal's family in Hard to Kill etc. In fact the reality was even worse.***

Control:The thing that I took from this biopic of Ian Curtis is that I really like Joy Division's music. You can hear a lot of their influence in some of my favorite bands of the moment like Interpol and Arcade Fire. Anton Corbijn has made a very good film here which is shot in black and white and looks very distinct from other music biopic's. This isn't really as bleak as you would think it would be as it has moments of humor and some very funny characters. The central performance of Sam Riley as Curtis is mesmerizing. Its a sensitive and subtle portrayal of a man whose love for two women as well as his rise to fame was too much too soon.****

Hatchet: I am going to start this review by reminding everyone of a little film released in 2003 called Cabin Fever. The film played film festivals around the world with its motormouth director Eli Roth talking up his influences and he was proclaimed as the 'Savior of Horror' and Cabin Fever as an awesome bloody debut. When people finally saw it they were understandingly disappointed. Whilst fun in a caught-it-on-Bravo-late-at-night-during-the-90's-whilst-drunk sort of way, it hardly reinvented the wheel and ended up making a little money and Roth went on to (arguably) bigger and better things. Hatchet has been receiving the same sort of hype at film festivals the world over for a year or so now and I'm always skeptical when I hear these sorts of things about hot new horror director's. Now don't get me wrong sometimes the hyperbole is justified. The Blair Witch Project I still think is a chilling classic and The Signal which will be released later this year is a genuine low budget gem. Hatchet is a fun slasher movie with some inventive gore, no more no less and probably worth your time. Be warned though some episodes of Masters of Horror are still better than this film. Take from that what you will. ***

Hot Rod: In an interesting case of underhype I was not expecting much from this as it stars someone from current day Saturday Night Live which always disappoints when its on at 3am on ITV4. Plus it didn't exactly set the box office alight when it came out last summer. Hot Rod though, genuinely surprised me. Not just because its good but because it has this surreal silly sense of humor that not many people seem to get but makes me cry with laughter. I find that the people I know who are not film geek's love Wedding Crashers but then hate Anchorman.There again comedy is strange as its a very subjective thing and one mans Annie Hall is another mans Freddy Got Fingered and vice versa. Imagine Napoleon Dynamite crossed with Jackass with a guy who hates his step dad as the main character, that's Hot Rod. Ever wanted to see a musical scene with actors mouthing along to 80's power ballad Your The Voice by John Farnham? I have and I got it here and it concludes with a riot. I will watch this film a lot I think and will encourage others too as well. I hope this becomes a cult smash on DVD.****

Mr Brooks:The idea behind this movie really intrigued me and I am not a Kevin Costner hater. I even like Waterworld and The Postman! The problem with this movie is it has far too many plot threads when the focus should really have been on the chilling performance by Costner as Mr Brooks, kind of like Bruce Wayne if he hadn't gone to China and just started to kill innocent people. Demi Moore is in this film as a detective and has a really uninteresting story arc, the relevance of this doesn't become apparent until the last twenty minutes or so. By then its too late as you will have lost interest. This could have been good had it had a last minute re-think as the main plot is solid with Mr Brooks being blackmailed by a young wannabe killer played by Dane Cook. For a similar thing done much better check out Dexter which has just started on ITV1 British readers! **

Disturbia: This is the one from last year that was a surprise hit and made a huge wad of cash, my question is why?? Its Boring! Admittedly I was semi-drunk when I watched this one but it takes an absolute age to get going, its about 45 minutes before we get anyone killed. Before all that its just about a teenager hanging round the house during the summer doing anything to keep himself amused. Hello?? I've lived that life I don't want to see it on film. Maybe I am just getting old.......sigh. This was quite the disappointment from DJ Caruso who made the enjoyable Taking Lives as well as underrated gem The Salton Sea.**

There Will Be Blood:Now a lot of people are proclaiming this film to be the best of the decade so far. I didn't find it to be that exactly. For me its more of a film to be admired rather than loved. Out of all of his films I still prefer Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk Love to There Will be blood. The film pretty much is all about Daniel Day-Lewis's performance which is thoroughly deserving of the awards he has won. Strong support also comes from Paul Dano and Kevin J O'Connor as well as the lad who played Daniel Plainview's adopted son. The film is really well scored and shot but I just found the story a bit one note, there seems to be stuff going on with the issues of Religion vs Commerce. Perhaps the film was too hyped for me after being on everyone's best of 2007 list, usually at number one. A lot of people love this film but no-one seems to be able to tell me what I am missing. ****

Across the Universe:Taking the Southland Tales award for most frustrating film of the month is Across the Universe. its far from the turd some have proclaimed as there are some scenes where the movie really comes alive, visually and emotionally.But for every arresting number like 'Happiness is a warm gun' or 'I am the walrus' there is another that falls flat like I wanna hold your hand. The worst thing about the film is the fact that the story is so slight but dragged out to fit in as many Beatles songs as they could. A lot of the songs featured here don't really fit in with the story either and the whole point of a musical is to tell a story through music. Here they have really let the songs dictate the story and sadly it doesn't really work as a moving romance or as a snapshot of a turbulent time in history. On paper a musical featuring Beatles songs seems like a sure thing. If they had paid more attention to the story and structure then we may well have had one for the ages ***1/2

Ratatouille: Pixar score another hit with Ratatouille. Its not my favorite of their output but its certainly up there with Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles.The thing I like about this film is it didn't go the cheesy route and make it so the Remy the rat can talk and the humans can hear him. Instead he can communicate with other rats but the humans hear it as a squeak rather than speech. The animation here is also beautiful. The rats move like real rats when we see them from afar and then close up they walk like rats but then stand up on their back legs and talk to each other. Its little details like this that make Pixar the best animation studio in the business. The ending of this one will also make you stand up and cheer. Roll on Wall-E! ****

Rambo: Where to start with Rambo? Rambo has been a presence in my life since I can remember. My Dad taped First Blood off the TV for us when my Mum was in hospital delivering my youngest brother. Then he rented First Blood part two for us two years later, then Rambo 3 was officially the first 18 certificate film my Mum and Dad let us watch on VHS in 1988. I was quite apprehensive about this movie as when you see part two and three now they really do not hold up well. First Blood however is still a cracking film. Similar to the first movie, the fourth movie is all about the build up to Rambo giving the enemy 'A War they wont believe'. At the start we see the atrocity experienced in Burma by the people in graphic detail and our hatred of these child-molesting,raping,evil shitheads builds. It gets to the point where you want Rambo to rip out their throats single handedly and overthrow the government and put Colonel Trautman in charge. But Richard Crenna is dead unfortunately so Rambo instead gets on the back of a jeep with a high powered machine gun and turns about 300 people into tomato puree. Its at this point that you feel sorry for the Burmese soldiers and guilty about your blood lust. Its an entertaining movie, I am just wondering what the intention was here. Combating violence with more violence doesn't really resolve anything and at the end nothing is really resolved, Trautman is not the president of Burma. A few years back there was a rumor that the plot was going to be Rambo falling foul of inner city gangsters in Chicago. I think that ultimately would have been a more interesting choice.***

Rocket Science:This was a film that was hyped up after it played at the Sundance film festival a while back. On release it wasn't really given much of a push. Its probably a hard film to market but I like it because like Thumbsucker and Superbad its another accurate portrayal of what its like to be a teenager. The plot concerns a little guy with a stutter Hal Hefner who gets involved in the High school debate team due to a girl who thinks he has promise. Trouble is Hal can't really get his words out and the girl is in fact using him. Hal decides he isn't going to take this and after a miniature breakdown where he throws a cello through a window he decides he is going to be the best debater he can be and show the bitch what he is made of. Its at this point in the film that you get really invested and you would be forgiven for thinking that he was going to triumph and we would get a feel good ending for the ages. Sadly this doesn't really happen. Kudos to the makers for not going down the predictable route, I just felt a little deflated by the end. The characters in the film are great and well written, from the gay Korean step brother to Hal's older brother and his voyeur friend. Worth a watch if you get the chance just don't expect it to end how you want. ***

Wrong Turn 2 - Dead End: This straight to DVD sequel has had a lot of buzz around it from the Fangoria crowd and is actually better than a lot of the horror that gets released in cinemas. The original Wrong Turn was a pretty good little horror film that made the most of its low budget and was a fun 80 minutes. This one is arguably better, it has better deaths, more violence and better characters. The best of which is played by one of my personal heroes from my youth, Henry Rollins. Hank plays former US Marine Dale Murphy who is now the host of a reality show about survival in the wilderness. When the shit hits the fan and people start getting eaten by mutant cannibal scum, Murphy starts to bring the pain back to them. Its a telling sign that this is above your average straight to DVD horror, for about two months every time I went to rent it, all four copies were out at Blockbuster. If the film had ended with The Rollins Band song 'Disconnect' then it would have gotten half a star extra. ***1/2

Bug: This is the latest film from William Friedkin who made The Exorcist officially the best horror movie ever made. This isn't really a return to form as such but it is pretty darn good. You can tell its based on a stage play as it all takes place in one room but really makes the most of this limitation with two startling performances by Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. Shannon is really an underrated actor and was in 8 Mile and Grand Theft Parsons, hopefully his performance here as an unhinged drifter will lead to him getting more work. What I really liked about this film is the way it portrayed madness and paranoia as almost an infectious disease. One charismatic person comes along and convinces a troubled lonely person of something and before you know it they are believing every word as they are so desperate to have something to hold on to. This is how cults begin children, before you know it every one is drinking poison to get on board a starship. ****