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Sunday 28 March 2010

Micmacs (Soundtrack)

This has to be what I think is one of the most original sounding soundtracks there is. I don't think I've ever heard Traditional French / Trip-Hop / typewriter, straw sucking, swords, bullet, horns and ruler bending sounds blended together before, and it is done amazingly.

If you've seen the film then I don't really need to sell you on the soundtrack because you'll have heard it in the film and from that you will know if you want to buy it.

If you liked Yann Tiersen's music from the Amelie Soundtrack then you'll most likely love this too. It's even quirkier then Amelie and just sounds like pure fun.

The music I'm talking about is by composer Raphael Beau, someone I'd not heard of before, but am very interested in hearing more from. But the soundtrack also contains archived score composed by Max Steiner, but there are about twice as many original cues to archived cues. There are also a couple of French songs on the soundtrack, but I didn't find these anything special.

Unfortunately the soundtrack is only 36 minutes long. However, they are still worth the money to hear something so original and amazingly clever and fun.

Monday 22 March 2010

Green Zone

I feel compelled to compare this film to The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum simply because they have the same director and actor in the main role. Whilst I didn't feel this film was as good as the Bourne films it was only because of the story.

Technically this film is flawless and the acting is amazing. If you like war films then this is a must because it is amazing. But if you're not too keen on them, then give it a miss, because it is war, war, war. Think Black Hawk Down, Paul Greengrass style.

Saturday 13 March 2010

Alice In Wonderland

Until I saw this film, Alice In Wonderland used to scare me. The original Disney cartoon scared the hell out of me and until I saw Tim Burton's version, it still did. Now I'm no longer afraid of Alice In Wonderland, which I guess is a good thing since it's not a horror film. But to me it always was.

Since it's been many years since I've watched the cartoon, I'd lost my familiarity with the story and so felt I came into this film quite unknowing when it came to the story. A story which takes a while to get going, too long in my opinion. I was expecting from the word go to be sucked into the world of Tim Buton. But the beginning was very ordinary and could have been made by anyone. It wasn't until Alice ran away and then followed the rabbit down the rabbit whole that I thought, now we're getting started.

But I think it was Danny Elfman's music that did this for me, more than the film. His music is amazing. However, one thing that slightly pulled me out of the film was when I heard Elfman's 7 note main theme and then realised seconds later that if you add one more note on the end then you get a theme from Avatar. It's the beginning of the track "Becoming One Of "The People" / Becoming One With Neytiri" from the Avatar Soundtrack. But once I'd worked out where I'd heard the theme before, I quickly got over it.

I watched it in 3D. Now after seeing Avatar in 3D I was expecting it to have raised the bar on 3D films, which it most definitely did. However, Alice In Wonderland drops it back down to it's original place. I'd have preferred to have watched it without the 3D as I didn't feel it added anything at all to the film. And in fact sometimes I had to take my glasses off to make sure it was in 3D and it wasn't blurry enough without them.

Alice In Wonderland is simply average. Not up to Tim Burton's usual standards I don't think. But if you're looking for something to do then it will definitely kill a few hours.

Saturday 6 March 2010

Micmacs

Micmacs A Tire-Larigot, as the films full french title is, is quite hard to translate into english, which I guess would be why it has simply been shortened to Micmacs. However, it seems to mean something along the lines of "carry on as much as you like". Although I got this off a forum, since the actual phrase is in french slang, so google translator can't handle it. That said, the what seem like posters for the film that appear throughout the film, make more sense now.

If you've seen any other film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who is my favourite director), and loved it, then you are going to love this too. There has only been one film that has exceeded my expectations and that was Avatar. Now Micmacs can be added to that list. I think I cried about four times throughout the film, not because it was sad, as it is actually very funny, but because the film was everything that I wanted, and more. They were tears of pure happiness.

I went in knowing nothing about the storyline of the film, and this is what I would recommend to you. Simply go and see it. An absolute must.