Susan Hated Literature

Dir: Robert de Niro
Writ: Eric Roth

• Matt Damon - Edward Bell Wilson
• Angelina Jolie - Clover/Margaret Ann Russell
• Alec Baldwin - Sam Murach
• Tammy Blanchard - Laura

This is the story of Edward Wilson, a man who has believed in the United States of America all his life, who has always done what he thinks is right, a spy, a husband, a father. The story of the emergence of the CIA, of the Cold War, of Castro and Cuba, of relationships and love and loyalty and family. Of secrets and lies, or truth and betrayal.

Surely with all that going on it should have been a good, film?
Not so much. My god! was I ever bored sitting through this. The character of Edward Wilson was not a verbose one, which is fine, if you get across that there is something going on underneath the quiet. Not here. Damon came across as merely dumbstruck. There was never any real indication of his abilities as a spy, just a lot of him standing there, silent.

And at 167 minutes long, you really should have someone that the audience can engage with. Whether to root for, or despise, or just be interested in. I didn’t care about any of what was going on. The only thing that maybe worked, was the sense that in the end it was all worthless. The Cold War, the espionage, which side you were on — it all meant nothing. But that wasn’t pushed enough either. Instead it came across as a boring, boring film. Occasionally while watching I did think to myself, oh that’s a nice shot, but nice shots don’t make a film. And neither do attempts to mean something. Your film has to either entertain, or have meaning. This had neither.

IMDb | Film School Rejects | Blogalism | Mellow-Drama

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For those of you who don’t know, Neil Gaiman is involved in bringing the story of Beowulf to the big screen. And the cast, imo, sounds great so far; Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and others. Of course they won’t be seen on the screen as performance capture technology is being used to create the film. Not motion capture. That is something entirely different.

But it seems as though there is more than a little discontent in the Beowulf-loving community, with phrases like “spitting on your grandmother” and insults such as “overly literal twit” being bandied around. Has madness really taken over the Anglo-Saxon community?

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Dir: Doug Liman
Writ: Simon Kinberg

• Brad Pitt - John Smith
• Angelina Jolie …. Jane Smith
• Vince Vaughn … Eddie
• Adam Brody …. Benjamin Diaz

I really didn’t think that this film would be all that great. The trailers made it look silly, stupid, and highly annoying. But then I saw a couple of positive seeming reviews, and there was nothing else on so decided to head along. Turns out that, yes, it is a silly, stupid film, but an entertaining one. Very far from annoying.

You probably know the basic plot? Husband and wife, both spy-killer types, but neither know the other’s secret identity until they go up against one another. Violence then ensues.

This could very easily have been rubbish, the trailers show that. But the comedy is very well done. Full of one-liners and great comic moments, the film makes good use of the actors, Pitt is surprisingly funny. After this and Snatch maybe he should stick to comedy roles?

Fast-moving and action packed, it isn’t one to think about. Just enjoy the mindless, almost comic violence, the verbal attacks and the pretty people.

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Alexander has received a bit of a panning in the US of A, its been out here for around a week now, and so far a lot of critics seem to agree with the reception it got across the Atlantic. I don’t.

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