Friday 1 January 2010

Quarterly film roundup - October to December 2009

Up! 3D *** - Its haphazard story arc and awkward juxtaposition of reality and fantasy make this a lesser film than the Pixar average, but it is still sumptuous to watch. The opening five minutes or so have more emotional bite than any film I've seen in the last year but sets the expectation of quality for the remainder of the film too high.

The Hangover *** - Hilarious, what-will-they-think-of-next slapstick that doesn't overstay its welcome (but is forgotten quickly after watching).

The Ugly Truth ** - Unsubtle, unoriginal and unfunny "romantic comedy" that manages to incorporate every worthless cliché of that genre.

Metropolis **** - A complex and stylish work whose sheer scale of ambition is staggering. Made by Fritz Lang in the 1920s, in some respects it hasn't aged a jot. A superb DVD release including re-recorded original score and sympathetic, detailed intertitle explanations where parts of the original film have been lost is let down in only one respect - running at 24fps (where the original was almost certainly at 18fps) means that everybody seems to be in a hurry all the time; using a DVD software player to slow the film down by around a quarter makes the action seem much more fluid and natural.