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Magic Marmalade

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3735 Points / Moderator / Joined 30 Jun 2014 /

England / Kent

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Half record collector... half druid... complete unit.

More human than human.

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Magic Marmalade 17th Dec 2024		Cinema Garden State (2004)	Rated 9/10 The man who almost wasn't there. This is what I am looking to find when I buy a stack of DVDs... a little lost gem, a real treasure of a movie, which this absolutely is! This is one of those from the noughties which has that quirky, slightly off kilter humour redolent of an indie flick. It is in tone, and feel, a lot like Lost In Translation: total understatement, and under-playing, for maximum effect, which, though the name of this movie has come in and out of my consciousness on and off throughout the years, it was the involvement of Zach Braff that always put me off, due to his character in (of course) Scrubs... I didn't think he was capable of such a brilliantly subdued, even supressed performance as he gives here, let alone, that he could both write and direct such a minor masterpiece as this, which he has. He takes the lead as a minor struggling actor returning home for the funeral of his mother, amidst unresolved issues between them as well as his father, which is what set him to going away in the first place, and he has, over the intervening years, become so overly medicated in order to deal with the presumed psychological impact them, that he is numb to the point of blankness. While at his Mother's funeral, for which he can feel little, to no emotion, much less express any, he meets up with some old school friends who now have jobs digging the graves, they invite him out to a party, and being barely a participant in his own life, just goes along with it. He also comes across the rather oddball, delightfully naïve, yet open and friendly Natalie Portman, and so his journey back to the land of the living, and to being a fully functioning human begins. While the relationship with Portman's character does for the main part, class this as a rom-com, it's actually more of a tragi-comedy focused more on Braff's character, and his route back to being someone. The comedy is light, witty and perfectly judged, the tragic elements equally light and well judged, and this is overall a wonderfully warm film, that gets warmer as it goes, and even becomes, at times sublime, and even beautiful. So if you like the "vibe" of Lost In Translation, and wished there was at least another movie, near identical in tone and humour, that make you feel that same way, then here it is. On the strength of this, give Zach Braff all the money he can carry, and let him go make more of the same! Brilliant. (I'm keeping this DVD!) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 15th Dec 2024		Cinema While You Were Sleeping (1995)	Rated 9/10 The first of my Christmas movies. ...For I have now promoted this to it's proper place as a Christmas movie, not just a rom-com, and in fact, it foes that same thing that Moonstruck does for the summer: It's not just a two person rom-com, it's as much, if not more a family rom-com, in the sense that it is a family romance, about a lonely train ticket booth worker who falls in love with the man she saves from the tracks one day, but, being in a coma, he is unable to clarify things for his family, who visit him in hospital, about the fact that she is a total stranger to him, and so they mistake her for his fiancé, and the rest of the movie is about her being welcomed into their family, and she falling in love with the family vibes. Very warm, cosy Christmas themed farcical gem that gets better every year, and so it is the first one I watch in the season. (And it has Sandra Bullock.... :) ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 15th Dec 2024		Cinema Ford v Ferrari (Le Mans '66 ) (2019)	Note: In the UK (And elsewhere) this is just called: "Le Mans 66", and if you go looking for "Ford Vs Ferrari" on a shelf of DVDs, you will easily overlook it, as I did the first couple of visits to my local charity shop, where it had been sitting for I don't know how long, perhaps for this very reason.
Magic Marmalade 15th Dec 2024		Cinema The Meg (2018)	Rated 7/10 Big stupid fun! I really enjoyed this piece of polished, B-movie, creature feature nonsense... I think, because, as with the likes of Sharknado etc. I couldn't be disappointed, as I knew what I was going to get going in: It ain't Shakespeare, and it is not trying to be so, and you feel everyone involved is entirely aware if just what it is they are making... very self aware, and unapologetically so. To sum up: It's Jurassic Park, grafted onto The Abyss, doing a "mega" riff on the obvious inspiration of Jaws. (Jurassic Shark?:) Billionarie bonehead funds deep see exploration into an Abyssal trench, beyond the apparent sea floor, discovers massive shark-a-lodon thing, that then follows them to the surface, and commences eating everyone and everything in sight. Only uber-gruff stereotypically chiselled and troubled hard-man Jason Statham can save the day! (The movie itself is his saving grace here, as for once, he's not taking himself too seriously) There are pretty much all of the key scenes / beats from Jaws played out here, but overtly so, and not pretending it's thought of these ideas itself, and oddly, given the carnage going on, there's actually not much gore in this, thanks to the judicious use of the timely spray of water, or a plume of bubbles at the most timely of moments, that obscures the majority of the blood and horror, and so like any good horror movie, allows the audience to imagine what would otherwise have been seen. It took care of my Saturday night's entertainment, with a light piece of hokum fluff, that I didn't have to think too much about, but could just sit back, relax, and be very amused with a nice ale and some dry roasted peanuts. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 15th Dec 2024		Cinema The Nice Guys (2016)	Rated 7/10 I concur with Dr D. on this one. ...It's fun, but if played straight, and all the zany, wackiness and random - out-of nowhere-for no-reason-plot-elements etc. were ditched , this could have been an all time great, set alongside the likes of L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, and the like. (Having seen Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang a while back, it's seems this confirms what I wrote in my review of that movie, about Shane Black: He seems obsessed with those two movies, but doesn't have the courage to play it straight up, and feels compelled to drench it in wry humour, and make jokes all the time because he feels he needs to apologise for himself... You feel like these two movies, more earnestly treated, could have been dripping with Oscars!) The obsession of his with L.A Confidential is more all but confirmed here, due to the presence of both Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger. This is, however, more even, and coherent than Kiss Kiss, and does have a couple of genuine laugh out loud moments, but is mostly, at best, mildly amusing, and only light fun... and altogether a wasted opportunity to do a brilliant, retelling of a seventies set L.A. Confidential. ✔︎ Helpful Review?