An incredibly poorly marketed endeavor - in the UK at least, where all the TV ads were brief and portrayed the film to be little more than your typical boy meets girl rom-com that would do its business by having women who find Bradley Cooper oh-so-dreamy drag their boyfriends to see it, where they would at least be appeased by the sight of the world’s most charming human, Jennifer Lawrence. Oh boy, is Silver Linings Playbook, NOT a romcom.
On paper, This Means Waris just another run of the mill romantic comedy, and there’s certainly a lot of the usual trappings that come with the genre, but there’s also a surprising amount to like.
To my knowledge, they’re the two highest grossing movies of 2012 so far. Both are comic book movies. Both were among the most anticipated movies ever released. For months after the release of the Avengers I read comments on articles about both films stating things along the lines of “just you wait until Dark Knight Rises comes out and mops the floor with Avengers.”
After TDKR came out it seemed people weren’t concerned with how good it was as a film, but rather whether or not it was better than the Avengers. Before I get started I want to state that I don’t think it really matters given they’re going for completely different tones, but it seems everybody has to weigh in on this debate, and running a review blog and all, I figured I’d give my two cents/pence.
MMA has been all the rage for a few years now and naturally many directors have tried to capitalise on that popularity, but they’ve predominantly been straight-to-DVD or limited release projects that were panned or ignored altogether. That was until Warrior came along, a mainstream mixed martial arts movie with a big-time ad campaign. Would it fare any better than its predecessors?
The third and final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s take on the Batman franchise has finally arrived and despite a horrific tragedy overshadowing the premiere, the film is still being met with rave reviews and huge box office takings. But what does lowly old me think about TDKR? Find out!
Before you watch even a second of Contagion, you can’t help but be impressed. Look at that front cover. Look at the accolades of the cast. 4 Academy Award winners, and another two nominees. And just for good measure, let’s have it directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s 11) and have Clint Martinez (Drive) do the music. Also, Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant) may not yet be a big name in the world of screenwriting, but he’s definitely one of the names to watch.
Gosh, I got so caught up in all of that back-of-the-box style information that I almost forgot there was a film to review. So what’s the actual film like?
Yes, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy is less than a decade old, with the third installment coming as recently as 2007. Yes this is ‘yet another reboot’ of a popular franchise. But most importantly, yes this was worth rebooting, and yes this is a great film.
Being sandwiched between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises is going to hurt the film in terms of history, but if nothing else it’s vastly superior to the Maguire trilogy, and that begins and ends with the acting. Sorry, Toby, but Andrew Garfield acted circles around you here, going for a more human, emotional take on the character, with plenty of teary eyed moments and big mood swings. Martin Sheen and Sally Field as Uncle Ben and Aunt May provide a great bouncing-off point for Garfield, and his performances alongside Rhys Ifans (Curt Connors/The Lizard) and Dennis Leary (George Stacy) are mature and engaging as well.
