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Easy A (2010)
Not ground-breaking cinema, but a fun and lighthearted watch
A teen comedy in an American high school - how many times have we seen that? This film may not have a ground breaking premise but it delivers something fresh for an otherwise tired genre. Emma Stone does a terrific job as lead, the story is fun, Olive's (Stone) parents are great and there is a lot to the comedy. There is also some quite interesting dialogue. I was in need of light entertainment with an upbeat ending and this delivered.
Side note: the film was shot entirely on location in Ojai, CA. It looks like a beautiful town. Also, it is filmed on Panavision Genesis. I am not the biggest fan of Genesis but for this type of film it works fine and the results they achieved were great.
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner - Just as excellent on Blu-Ray
First let's talk about the Blu-Ray release. The video quality is superb here, I didn't think it would make the difference that it has. Unlike a lot of films from the 90's this isn't spoilt by the higher resolution, CGI effects really ruin many older films released on Blu-Ray as the new higher resolution uncovers their flaws. Blade Runner is an old film (1982) as such relied heavily on models and matte paintings - consequently its age actually helps as it now looks better than ever in 1080p (video bit-rate varies from 16-24Mbps VC-1, typically around 18Mbps).
I have to watch Blade Runner at least once every 3-4 months. Ridley Scott made a very dark film, and though some aspects feel dated now (CRT monitors, printed photographs etc) the film feels as genuine as ever with an ability to pull one into the Blade Runner future. The story is fantastic and the themes are as relevant as ever.
Blade Runner is rightly classed as one of the best sci-fi films of all time.
Skyline (2010)
Truly awful - Worst film of 2010?
The faces of humans burned as they stared upon the alien space craft, veins drew to the surface of their skin as if their blood was boiling. This is how I felt watching this film, I'm amazed I made it to the end.
The acting is atrocious, the story is laughable and the scenes are ridiculously baron for a metropolis (LA) despite the story line trying to address this. The lack of a good score or soundtrack really doesn't help this film - perhaps they felt keeping it subtle would raise the viewers tension, making the film feel more eerie? The result however is that there is little to distract from the poor acting, story and tired cinematography.
One aspect this film deserves credit if for the CGI. Clearly they spent a reasonable amount of time getting the CGI to look right, perhaps they blew all the budget here hence the rest of the film is so dire.
The Art of Flight (2011)
The best snowboarding film so far?
Video & Audio Quality
A bit geeky but here goes. Blu-Ray video was averaging around 20 Mbps (peaking 35 Mbps) and audio was averaging around 5.5 Mbps (peaking 7.5 Mbps). To give some comparison a typical Hollywood DVD has video and audio totalling around 4.5 Mbps – yes you read that right, just the audio alone on this Blu-Ray has a higher bit rate than the video and audio of a DVD combined. I invested pretty heavily in good home setup and this Blu-Ray took advantage, the 1080p AVC video and Dolby TrueHD audio are stunning. The iTunes version is 2.7 GB (highly compressed) the Blu-Ray works out at 16 GB approx. As a result you are getting 6X more detail here. 10/10
Film Content
With the money pumped into this production it was clear it wouldn't be an amateur hour affair. Things kick off in Alaska for some pretty mental runs before moving south to the Andes in Chile with some pretty intimidating rocky terrain, moving further south to Patagonia before moving up north again for a second winter in BC.
There is a lot of filler between the action videos. This filler is typically narration mixed with some arty, almost pretentious, video work. Those that don't appreciate this might want less narrative and more action, I found the balance good. On the subject of video, if there are two signature video shots from this film it would be wide-angle slow-motion pointing into the sun – great action, and time lapse of the moving night sky – great filler. 8/10
Music
The main trailer has an amazing tune which is collaboration between M83 and Brain Farm Cinema, sadly it's not used in the film! There is some other electronic, including some tracks off M83's forthcoming album. Some post-rock from Sigur Ros and even a little light rock. Perhaps my expectations were too high after the trailer but it didn't fit as well as I'd hoped. Certainly not bad though. 7/10
Rating
I am clearly no film critic, but in terms of production values this is the best snowboarding film I have seen. The action is great too, it's 1hr 20 of great snowboarding and impressive cinematography. It's not everything I had hoped for, but so close. My favourite snowboarding film to date. 8/10.