Hamlet (4.5)

A BBC film of The Royal Shakespeare Company's 2009 adaptation of the classic play starring David Tennant, Patrick Stewart and Penny Downie.

I am a pretty big David Tennant fan at the moment. I have been watching the new Doctor Who series almost religiously and I love, love, love watching him play the doctor. I also remember him as Barty Crouch Jr. from the fourth Harry Potter film. There is something about how David acts what as soon as he enters the shot you cannot take your eyes off of him. It's almost like he is electric. I thought that was caused only by my love of Doctor Who so I was rather looking forward to watching him in another role. Not just any role, but in my favourite play and my favourite theatrical character of all time: Hamlet.

He did no disappoint. He did the complete opposite of that and completely blew me away. I have seen numerous live productions of this play and have watched almost every film version I could find and he might just be my favourite. That's right, he is right next to if not surpassing Lawrence Olivier's portrayal of Hamlet. That is huge. That is hard for me to say. Yet, it's true.

It's something about his little facial reactions. His tiny snaps in dialect and use of words that had me grinning like an idiot or stunned into silence. It was amazing to see. His physicality was astounding. I have never seen a more physical portrayal of Hamlet in my entire life. It almost shocked me really because it was so new. Every other Hamlet is still unless he is 'acting' crazy...but no. David was in this character body and mind. Fantastic to see.

If you can't tell already I am going to go out and buy this movie on Boxing Day. That's right, it is so good I will face the crowds to get my hands on my own copy.

Even if David Tennant isn't enough then, oh, who's this? Patrick Stewart! I mean, come on! How amazing is that?! He did an amazing job as Claudius. Fantastic.

Okay. So. Even if you think you hate Shakespeare I say give this version a chance. It is never dull. You would never know it was a 3 hour long film. The set is stunning, I really loved the use of reflective surfaces and playing with the "play within a play" scenario with the cameras. David does one of the best if not the best portrayals of Hamlet I have ever seen. The everything is amazing...

Ya. Okay. I'll stop now.

4.5/5

ADSENSE HERE

The Ghost Writer (2)

A ghostwriter is hired to complete the memoirs of the former British prime minister after the previous writer's body washes up on shore. With no experience in politics, the new writer begins the work on this long awaited book but the deeper his research goes the more his life is in danger.

I'm generally a sucker for the corrupt political films. I am slowly getting tired of them as the most recent ones tend to be pretty dry and, in my opinion, exaggerate a little too much. I was hoping this movie would be different but alas it was worse than I could've guessed.

Boring.

So boring. I started fast forwarding during the last 30 minutes of the movie. It was that bad. And even after all that I didn't miss anything. Some of the 'ground breaking' events in this movie were less than a surprise. In fact, the whole movie moves at a slow pace so you think it's because something big is building but when that 'big' thing comes it's almost as exciting as a firework that never goes off.

I was pretty disappointed. The beginning of this movie takes far too long to start up. It starts up and every character is dull and adds almost nothing to the story. Then some other events take place that don't seem to matter all that much. Suddenly the writer is running away on less than exciting get away attempts then...what you thought was true is true.

End.

Lame. I really didn't like it. The only reason why I am giving it a 2 is because I'm a huge Ewan McGregor fan and he can never do wrong (this movie was not his fault). Also, you get to see his bum. That was exciting.

The very, very ending was cool. I love that shot. That was the only time in that 2 hour chunk of my life that I was remotely interested and then 5 seconds later the credits rolled.

*sigh*

2/5 ADSENSE HERE

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2)

A life time bachelor and sleaze finds himself haunted by the 'ghosts' of his ex girlfriends during the weekend of his brothers wedding.

Oh boy. How to start this review...

I sort of wish I hadn't wasted my time on this movie. To be honest, I was playing games on my phone and nothing else was on that I hadn't seen before so I just started to watch this and suddenly I had watched the whole thing and I had no idea why.

I don't find Matthew McConaughey extremely sexy but there is something there so maybe that was the reason. His role wasn't anything wondrous, you are meant to dislike him anyways, but the writing was not so great. Well, by that I mean that it is the most basic and classic case of romcom I have ever viewed. Almost as amazing (sarcasm) as The Back-up Plan. *shiver*

I also could care less about Jennifer Garner and haven't really enjoyed her in any of her films I have seen yet (there is still hope). I can never seem to care anything about her characters. She is just...dry, to me. I guess that's an appropriate word, there is no juice to her characters. What you see is what you get. I guess that works for this simple romcom.

Story is nothing amazing. It's an eye rolling spin off of one of the best stories ever created: A Christmas Carol.

If you want a brainless, not so funny or even so sexy, semi-entertaining and simple movie you should watch this. You don't even really have to pay attention in order to watch it. It sucks because I've liked Matthew in romcoms before this movie and now I'm back to thinking I don't like him...

It's a romcom. It's corny. It's not humourous. It's meh.

2/5 ADSENSE HERE