misskirsty Reviews

Skyline (2010)

Sooooo bad!

[3/10 · 13 November 2010]

The only thing OK with this movie is the special effects. The rest is horrible. All the actors are secondary characters in their respective TV shows, and in this movie, play people you don't particularly like. Even David Zayas, whose character is the only one with a tiny bit of depth, annoyed me towards the end.

There is no back story. You don't find out why the aliens came or why they're attacking (I guess in real life you wouldn't know either but it makes for a pretty poor movie) and you never find out much about the individual characters lives, other than some abstract group that a few of the guys once belonged to.

There is no plot. It's just the one group of people trying to escape a seemingly impossible situation, and lots of aliens trashing the city. Again, I guess if it was real life, you don't automatically have one person in the group who comes up with an amazing plan to defeat the bad guys or help everyone escape unharmed, but if you're going to make a movie about it, you really should think of something to help the watcher stay emotionally invested.

The ending is weird and stupid. I almost walked out halfway through because it seemed like there was no way they could turn it all around. I was right.

The only thing that kept me moderately intrigued was trying to figure out where I had seen the actors before (Eric Balfour was Gabe in Six Feet Under, and Scottie Thompson was Jeanne in NCIS).

Probably the worst sci-fi I have ever seen.

Dear John (I) (2010)

A lovely story with great characters

[8/10 · 5 March 2010]

Not having read anything about the film (or book) beforehand, I went into the cinema with no expectations, (though I was worried it might be a soppy, pull-at-the-heartstrings epic like The Notebook).

This wasn't the case. There were so many times when I thought 'Oh, I hope this doesn't happen', or 'I hope they don't do what I think they're going to do', and they didn't. There are moments of sadness, but some of them could have been made a lot worse.

The story isn't unique, (neither is The Notebook) but it is executed in a way that makes you feel as though you're watching something new. Channing Tatum is the lovable beefcake reminiscent of Marky Mark, and Amanda Seyfried is cute, delivering well executed dialogue. And I did actually think they had good chemistry, despite what other reviewers have said. Channing's John is an army boy who had a lot of issues growing up, so you can't expect him to be overly forthcoming with his emotions.

Richard Jenkins gives a great performance as the father, and even Henry Thomas is likable as the neighbour (I must be the only person in the world who hasn't seen E.T. so I didn't recognize the name at first).

To me, this was acted out a lot better (and even structured better) than Twilight: New Moon, which I assume is meant to appeal to the same audience. I know to some that isn't saying much, but perhaps our expectations are a bit high these days. If you want to see a sweet love story with likable characters, then you might just enjoy this film.