Trainspotting (1996)

2007 #29
Danny Boyle | 90 mins | DVD | 18 / R

Trainspotting

Choose great direction.
Choose iconic images.
Choose a great soundtrack.
Choose a brilliant cast.
Choose a career-making performance from Ewan McGregor.
Choose a witty script.
Choose realism.
Choose drugs.
Choose sex.
Choose a condom, for the first time on screen.
Choose swearing.
Choose violence.
Choose drink.
Choose Scotland.
Choose Trainspotting.

5 out of 5

Choose Film4 tonight, Thursday 2nd April 2015, at 10:55pm.

United 93 (2006)

2007 #22
Paul Greengrass | 107 mins | DVD | 15 / R

United 93It’s very hard to find what to say about this film. It’s a shame the Oscars were too cowardly to nominate it for much; Greengrass probably deserved Best Director for this more than Scorsese did for The Departed (he is, all round, a talented and excellent director). At least the BAFTAs were brave enough to give it to him (cos British is best ‘n’ all).

But the film itself: it is above all affecting; it feels real and true; it is hard to imagine a more competent and respectful film being made about 9/11; it is impossible to imagine one being made about flight 93. This is filmmaking of the highest order. Perhaps most importantly of all, the families want you to see it.

Absolutely essential.

5 out of 5

United 93 placed 1st on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.

Johnny English (2003)

2007 #21
Peter Howitt | 84 mins | DVD | PG / PG

Johnny EnglishAlmost the flip-side of Hot Fuzz’s coin. Johnny English doesn’t quite manage the action sequence thing (though the car chase is quite good), and the humour is a lot gentler. Every joke is sign-posted at least a good few seconds in advance, sometimes several minutes, yet that’s half the fun — you know what’s about to go wrong and that nothing can stop English doing it anyway.

Not brilliant, then, but an entertaining enough bit of nothing.

3 out of 5

Hot Fuzz (2007)

2007 #20
Edgar Wright | 121 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Hot FuzzHere come the fuzz!

I wasn’t hyped enough about this film to pay £10 to see it a week before release, and instead paid just £3.75 to see it in a big screen with just myself and a friend. Now that’s entertainment.

The brilliance of the situation aside, this is a damn good film. Most of its running time is devoted to high-quality comedy, and then it kicks into a full-blown action movie! Fantastic! I unreservedly recommend this to everyone, and especially to fans of action films and British comedies — do not miss this.

5 out of 5

Hot Fuzz placed 2nd on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.


UPDATE (16/9/2012)

Having had a rant about current cinema prices on twitter the other day, the fact this review mentions how much I paid back in 2007 led me to look up the current cost of tickets at the same cinema (a branch of a well-known chain).

It’s five-and-a-half years on, so of course prices will have gone up, but nonetheless I have two observations:

1) The cost of a regular (peak time) adult ticket is now £9.
2) The cost of the equivalent ticket to the one I bought is £5.40. That’s a 44% increase. An inflation calculator tells me that my 2007 ticket would today be exactly 20% more expensive.

Make of that what you will.

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

2007 #17
Richard Eyre | 92 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Notes on a ScandalI hear that this is displeasing as an adaptation. But I haven’t read the novel, so that doesn’t cloud my judgement.

Judi Dench is brilliant as ever in a rare villainous role (the Oscar would’ve been hers were it not for Helen Mirren’s equally brilliant but more obvious turn in The Queen), Cate Blanchett gets to spar with her as the flawed ‘hero’, and the rest of the principal cast are very good also.

It lacks something towards the end, perhaps because it functions better as a character piece than as a thriller, but is still worth a watch.

4 out of 5

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

For Your Eyes Only2007 #7
John Glen | 122 mins | DVD | PG / PG

As you may have gathered from #6, I think that both of these films are fine examples of Bond filmmaking. FYEO is probably the better of the two, but not without its faults — no Moore film would be complete without some moments that threaten to utterly balls it up, and this one has a painful, outdated comedic ending, as well as an unnecessary pre-titles.

4 out of 5

Octopussy (1983)

2007 #6
John Glen | 126 mins | DVD | PG / PG

OctopussyI dislike Roger Moore as Bond, mostly based on the number of piss-poor films he starred in. It seems I may just have been watching the wrong ones.

Whereas FYEO (see #7) is relatively widely praised, Octopussy is relatively widely panned. I’m not sure why. Yes, there’s a crap bit for about 10 minutes in the middle; yes, the clown outfit is a little silly; but, for the most part, it’s pretty darn entertaining.

Not the franchise’s all time high, but far from the worst entry.

4 out of 5

A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

aka Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story

2007 #5
Michael Winterbottom | 90 mins | DVD | 15 / R

A Cock and Bull Story
I forget which British paper described this as “the best film ever, ever, ever”. It may’ve been The Guardian.* They’re not right, of course, but it has its moments — most of them courtesy of the excellent Rob Brydon, who far outshines Steve Coogan. It’s worth watching for the former alone.

3 out of 5

* It was.