A Great Screening Day!

Yesterday, Monday 9/2/9, was a great day for me. I watched three films: "London", "Punisher: War Zone" and "The Visitor". Read on...

As I've noticed so far, every good day, usually has a bad beginning. Enter "London". Oh my God, how rubbish was that! I don't know what everyone seems to find in these city-porn bullshit acclaimed-my-ass films, but I've never seen anything more boring, more pretentious, more pointless piece of film making in my entire life. While watching the film, I was wondering how good would it be if there was some kind of martial law in film making, preventing films like this being released.

If you're reading this blog, and you haven't seen the film, do yourself a favour, DON'T! What's it about? Pointless static pictures of London and a boring voice-over for 84 minutes. See, I know all about the subjectivity of film making and how "to each his own" kind of things, but I believe that this film is just a big joke. I'm sure the film maker (if you can call him that) is laughing his ass off on all of us who watch this piece of shit for 84 minutes, especially to those who say it's actually good. Anyway, I'll move on to the point where my day got better.

I'm a fan of The Punisher as a character. I think along with Rorschach, they're my favourite comic book heroes. To be honest, I haven't seen the 1989 film with Dolph Lundgren, but I'm not too eager to see it. Even the skull is missing from the film.

I also liked the 2004 incarnation. It wasn't a great film, but a really good one (apart from John Travolta!). Thomas Jane really made something out of the character and it was brought close to reality. It was good as a film and made a lot of changes from the comics to make it more cinematic. When I heard that Thomas Jane and director Jonathan Hensleigh were out of the sequel, and after that it became another re-boot, I was worried.

Let me be honest. I enjoyed the film as fuck! It is a cheesy-comic-book film, VERY OTT, but it's fucking entertaining! I really can't compare it to the 2004 film, they have completely different approaches. While the 2004 Punisher was a serious-action film, this is a translation of the MAX series of the Punisher on screen.

What I loved? The violence! So neatly directed, so violent but not disgusting (like Hostel), it was raw and I was enjoying it. The cinematography is great, cause it really keeps all the colour pallets of the MAX comics, a lot of the shots are panels taken straight from the pages, just great.

What I didn't like? Well, the acting is not the strong point in this movie, especially on the dramatic moments, but there aren't many of them so it's bearable. Also the plot is rather shallow, but I wouldn't expect anything more. Is it a quality film? No fucking way. Is it entertaining? Hell yeah!

Although, in the end, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. This film is made for two specific audiences: Fans of the MAX series of The Punisher and fans of cheesy-action flicks. If you want a film like London, don't bother (I just can't stop, can I?).

When I came back home, my girlfriend suggested to see "The Visitor", I had downloaded it a couple of weeks ago but never got the chance to watch it. It came out in 2008 and it's a dramedy about a middle-aged university teacher who realises that he hasn't been doing anything for all his life, and gets in this friendly relationship with two immigrants.

I don't want to give two much away, but it is a truly brilliant film, the lead actor is just perfect (he is also nominated for an Oscar) and it's so easy to watch. It deals with a lot of different matters, but again I wouldn't want to give too much away. I would recommend it to everyone, it is a human story that I believe anyone can relate to. Too bad it didn't get any attention.

So, how the fuck was your day?