Past Reviews

8 Mile

Directed by: Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential, The River Wild)

Starring:  Eminem

Kim Basinger (Wayne's World 2, Batman)

It was a cool summers night and Amy, Emma and myself were on a quest, a quest for ice-cream and then to catch a late movie.  But was it a doomed quest from the beginning?  Amy drives down the street with our target (ice-cream) nearing.  But alas, there is a line coming out the door and down the street and it is 9 o'clock at night mind you (looks like it is a popular night for ice-cream).  We then proceed a little further and our hopes rise, there is a another shop.  But no, it was false hope, the line is just protruding out the door.  Never mind perhaps we will try the cinema.  No such luck, the candy bar is packed.  We then go into the cinema (after lining up for years) and find some seats, narrowly missing the piss seat which someone else later sits on with the help of a plastic bag.  After the movie we finally have some luck, trusty McDonalds is open and we all enjoy a thick shake (after waiting about ten years for the girl to process the order).      

But now onto the movie.  This film revolves around Eminem's character who has just broken up with his girlfriend, has to move back into his mum's place in a "trailer park" and has to overcome his fears of rap battling (well at least I think that's what the movie was about).  I will begin by saying that I am not a fan of Eminem but he was actually pretty good in this movie.  You would not, or at least I would not expect him to be particularly good at acting but surprisingly he is really quite good.  It wasn't exactly my cup of hot chocolate (I say hot chocolate as I don't like tea) but it wasn't too bad.  The storyline was kind of interesting but I could not understand half the stuff that was being said.  Oh and how much of a slut did Brittany Murphy's character want to be? and ewww, Eminem in a sex scene.  

My Rating

Chicago

Directed by: Rob Marshall (-)

Starring:  Renee Zellweger (Me, Myself & Irene, Empire Records)

Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Phantom, "The Darling buds of May)

On the simplest level this film is about Roxie Hart (Zellweger) and her journey to become a star.  The whole film cuts between reality and Roxie's fantasy world which involves herself and everyone around her being in some sort of elaborate stage show.  Now I don't have an interesting story about my journey to see this movie but despite this, it was a really good movie.  What, with all the singing and the dancing, how could it go wrong?  It was thoroughly enjoying.  Richard Gere was really good which is surprising because you would not expect him to be the singing and dancing kinda fella.  Renee Zellweger was scarily skinny though and in one part of the movie she was completely freaking me out.  Her bones were sticking out and her body made her look like a boy because she was so thin and flat chested.  Beside the walking skeleton with skin, everything else was good.  The songs were pretty catchy and I had All that Jazz stuck in my head for the rest of the day. 

My Rating