Blunt Reviews Presents: Filth (2013)

James McAvoy stars in this big screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s comedy centred around a corrupt policeman battling his inner demons, whilst using them to his advantage. It’s a weird and outrageous comedy that has literally everything in it to make you laugh and gasp at the same time. It doesn’t carry as much weight as other Welsh adaptations such as Trainspotting but it still worth watching. What really carries this film forward is McAvoy’s leading performance, without which the film would be considerably worse. Some comedy is described as stoner comedy, this is more like acid head comedy.

Blunt Reviews Presents: Prometheus (2012)

I think what was most disappointing about this film was that it tried so hard to do what other Ridley Scott films have done better. The creepy horror was mastered by Alien and then Blade Runner pretty much covered the themes of trying to find your maker and what it means to be human. So all that’s left for this film I suppose is a little bit of backstory to Alien for anyone who was curious. I don’t think it’s as bad as people said it was because there is something there, we just needed more than it gave us.

Blunt Reviews Presents: Watchmen (2009)

I don’t often use the word “hate” when talking about films, because I feel that it is too much. In the case of Watchmen I don’t think it’s a strong enough word. It is quite simply a fucking disaster. The source material is perfect; a graphic novel that is so rich in substance, yet director Zack Snyder decides to focus on the visuals, violence and vigilante costumes that he somehow manages to sexualise. Snyder seems to know very little about the source material, I imagine the pages of his copy are mysteriously stuck together having been fucked too many times.

Blunt Reviews Presents: Shutter Island (2010)

I admire Scorsese as a filmmaker and I think it was bold of him to make a chiller such as this, but it’s all over the place. The plot is too thin and lacks complexity, which results in the plot twists being visible from quite some distance, not to mention the god awful score diffusing the tension as opposed to creating it by just being loud nonsense. There’s nothing notable about the film that stands out. From the leading performances down to the directing and screenplay it’s all a bit mediocre and proves itself to be remarkably unremarkable.

Blunt Reviews Presents: Django Unchained (2013)

I know the film is excessive and self indulgent, but I love it. Tarantino is an interesting yet ill disciplined director, but he makes up for this with his fantastic screenplay writing. It’s not for the faint hearted as we see violence pushed to new extremes in this slavery era spaghetti western, but the visual style that Tarantino adopts is to be expected. The cast is superb, with Christoph Waltz quite rightfully winning an Oscar, but the understated hero of the film is Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s loud, excessive, outrageous comedy and violence from start to finish, but it’s bloody brilliant.

Blunt Reviews Presents: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The third installment to director and writer Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, which is a strong addition to the already near perfect film series. Nolan is a genius of cinema and so it’s still admirable to see someone making intelligent and artistic blockbusters for mass audiences. The scale is larger than before, with a more brutal villain than we have previously seen, but the cast still performs excellently under Nolan’s ever impressive directing. What I love about this film is there is a lot of focus on character and screenplay, with technical mastery thrown in for good measure. Pure genius.