vanessa's Talk

Stranger Than Fiction

If i were to sum this movie up in one word it would have to be "Different". Will Ferrell before this movie was only known for his laugh out loud humour but when you see him in this film he will suprise you as much as he suprised me...

For twelve years, the methodic IRF agent Harold Crick (Will Ferrel) has had a routine lonely life guided by his wristwatch. However, one day he hears the narration of his life in off, telling that he is going to die pretty soon. Harold is advised by Professor Jules Hilbert (Hoffman) to change his monotonous lifestyle while he tries to find Karen Eiffel (Thompson), the author of the story of his life, who is researching means of killing the character, and convince her to change the ending of the story.

Back to Will Ferrell, this movie did for him, what "The Truman Show" did for Jim Carrey and that was show a genious comedy actor how to put in an alternative aspect to ones career. Nowadays you can see Jim Carrey in such movies as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (One of the best films of the 21st Century) and The Number 23 (One of the worst films of the 21st Century). Lets just hope Will Farrell goes from strength to strength and makes some top of the line films in the future.

Although Will Farrell steals the show other actors and actresses in the film pull out great performances like Emma Thompson as the Author suffering from writers block. The way she interacts with Queen Latifah's character is hillarious and the line used in the hospital is by far the funniest thing in the whole film.

Dissapointing, hmmm, dissapointing well for once i can't even think about anything majorly wrong with a film? The film could of used a bit of tuning up on the overall front and to have a bit of an improvement for the ending to make me push my rating up to 5 star but the film is just fine the way it is.

So in conclusion i believe this film is very entertaining and is one that should be watched on a saturday night next to the one you love. A light hearted story to make anyone feel good about themselves.

El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)

After watching both Hellboy and Blade II, i had decided in my mind that del Toro was nothing less than an average director maybe even worse. Though when this years Oscars came around and i saw that a del Toro film under the name of "Pan's Labyrinth" had picked up a number of awards, i was strangly suprised and had the emence erge to watch it.

In 1944 fascist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

THe film follows a similar like path to that of Princess Mononoke, in that the story line is that of a fairy tale or fantasy yet set out in a way that should not be watched be children. Del Toro has a gift of making any scene as scary and as tence as possible which is shown at its best in the "Second Task" scene which features an eye less demon. Both the eye less demon and the Faun's costumes where made so well that throughout the film i thought they were done using special effects.

The main problem i saw with the film (though small) is the development of main characters. Ofelia is the main character of the film yet she was the most undeveloped character i saw she needed more events building her character and more one on one time with Mercedes to show their character's relationship. Also there was good half an hour of the film where i believed Ofelia didn't even make an appearance which shouldn't have happened. Despite this Ivana Baquero still pulled off a marvalous performance for her young age and should be proud of what she managed to acheive with the character she was given. On the other hand, i was thrilled at how well Capitan Vidal was portrayed in the film. In my opinion he could make it to the top twenty-five most evilest villans with what the script let the character shown. The character was shown excellently but the effort put in by Sergi Lopez playing Vidal was Oscar worthy, bringing the character to life.

Another slight dissapointment was the lack of screen time the no eyed demon got. If he his scenes in the movie were played out longer though story would be far more intence though as del Toro didn't the "Second Task" felt too rushed yet was still good for the short time it ran.

Overall this film changed my outlook on del Toro as a director and showed me that he has potential to be one of the best in the business. The film also deserevered every award it won and should be watched by anyone who has a love for fantasy movies

4 STARS

Fred Claus

Well it's Christmas time again and what happens every year at Christmas time! Well fuck me it is another crappy Christmas movie! yes that is right Fred Claus delivers exactly what we get year after year an hour and a half of un-entertaining holiday cheer.

The film tells a story about Santa Claus' older brother Fred (Vince Vaughn) and the poor relationship he shares with his family. One Christmas when Fred is all out of money and sitting in jail Santa asks him to come up to the north pole to help him prepare for Christmas. Though evil is lurking around the corner as board member Clyde Northcut atempts to shut down Santa's business.

Well the plot sounds reasonable bad to start off with and guess what the film reflects that. The acting is poor and main characters are very poorly developed. Comedy in the film is also of the lowest standard which is mainly slapstick and idiotic humour.

Though a film can't go with out having its good points and this film does have a few. The brother council meeting is very entertaining as you get to see such stars as Frank Stallone (Sylvester Stallone's brother), Roger Clinton (Bill Clinton's brother) and my favourite Stephen Baldwin (Alec Baldwin's brother). This scene is very enjoyable and watching them give their feels on their more successful brothers is extremely funny. The movie also served as a break through for up and coming actress Elizabeth Banks who looks likely to become a leading lady in the future. She is also set to be starring in the up and coming Kevin Smith movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Overall it is another poor Christmas movie but at least it doesn't sink as low as last years stinker "Christmas with the Kranks" which is far worse. Lets hope that next year we can have a film that replicates the brilliance of "Santa Claus" or the Adult wonder "Bad Santa"