Monty Python & the Holy Grail

This is an odd film to say the least, funny from start to finish and what plot there is makes no sense. King Arthur has a group of comedically crap knights who get into impossible situations when wooden rabbits are launched at them, on their quest for the holy grail they overcome many challenges from mentally defective enemies and it all ends up with them being arrested for no reason.

That's the synopsis over I can talk about how I cherish this film with its hilarious characters, disparaged plotline and acting to boot from the greatest comedy team of all time. Personally, my favourite scene is either the fight with the Black Knight who continues fighting despite the distinct lack of limbs or the question scene at the bridge of death. The random animated cutscenes are great as well, one of the is cut short by the animator suffering a fatal heart attack. You may get a good idea of what this film is but I doubt it highly. John Cleese plays most of the enemies (French man, Black Knight) and Sir Lancelot  with Terry Jones playing Sir Bedivere and the leader of the Knights who say Ni (Don't ask) these are the 2 stand-out roles; this film may not be as good as 'Life of Brian' but it's a whole lot funnier than a lot of comedy films so I rate it 8.5/10

Shaun of the Dead

Time to review a film that started off the greatest British comedy trio of modern time: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright. The story begins in The Winchester; the local pub with Shaun (Pegg) with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield)and her friends David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis) while Shaun's mate Ed (Frost) works at the slot machine. Liz tries to get Shaun to put his back into the relationship, Shaun seems anxious. The next morning when Shaun leaves for work, he asks Ed to take down any messages and just as Shaun leaves, Liz rings to say to book their dinner date 1 hour earlier, at work Shaun is reminded that he has to visit his mum soon so he buys flowers for her. After Liz leaves him, Shaun goes out with Ed and gets hammered, he returns home and listen to electro, much to the annoyance of their house mate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) who tells them tthat he got bitten. The next morning there is complete carnage which Shaun is oblivious to, they see a zombie in the garden that after throwing many vinyl disks at, she dies they get their own rudimentary weapons (a cricket bat and a shovel) they head off to Shaun's mum's house when they hear that his step dad's (Bill Nighy) been bitten. They load them all into the car and head to Liz' house but on the way, the step dad turns to a zombie and Shaun kills him, Shaun scales the wall at Liz' house to get her and friends. They cross gardens and practice their zombie imitation techniques and they get to the Winchester, to stop the zombies following them in through the window that David smashed; Shaun distracts the zombies and hours pass and he still hasn't returned. Shaun returns and in the best scene of the entire movie, they beat a zombie to the tune of 'Dont stop me now' and everyone gets turned to a zombie or dies apart from Liz & Shaun but at the end when they're living together, Shaun goes to the shed to play Ps2 with zomnie Ed.

This is a hilarious film with (slightly odd) humour from start to finish, another thing that makes it funny are the cameos by Jessica Stevenson & Matt Lucas, if you've ever seen 'Space'; the comedy is similar. This is proof that British films can make money and can be a lot funnier than their big budget counterparts overseas. The acting is wonderfully bewildering and drunken and a surprising amount of character development for the genre goes into it.

Verdict: 8/10

Fistful of Dollars'

Gunfighter

Coffin maker

Now I'm reviewing Fistful of Dollars; a film that started off not only Clint Eastwood's career but also the spaghetti western genre. It's about a lone gunfighter with no name (Clint Eastwood) who walks into a trade town where there are a set of feuding families: the bandito like Rojo Brothers led by Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte) and the family of the town sheriff: the Baxters. TThe gunfighter spys a way to make money and decides to turn the families against one another whilst he's making a fistful of dollars in the process. He does this when a group of Mexican soldiers are delivering a vast quantity of gold to the river where it's being delivered to American soldiers in exchange for weaponry but the Rojo brothers have disguised themselves as the Americans and shoot the cavalry to take the gold. The gunfighter takes 2 bodies to the graveyard and sells info to both families that 2 soldiers survived the attack, both families rush to the cemeteries for different reasons: the Baxters to get them to testify and the Rojos to shoot them. A gunfight ensues and Ramon captures the Baxter's son Antonio, meanwhile, the gunfighter searches the Rojo's hacienda to search for the gold but he knocks out Ramon's unwilling mistress Marisol (Marianne Koch) when she surprises him, he hands her over to the Baxters and a swap is arranged. That night, the gunfighter frees Marisol from Ramon's house and gets her to run away with her son and real husband. The Rojos capture and beat him up but he escapes with help from the coffin maker (Joseph Egger), he witnesses the Rojo's burning down the Baxter's home so the Rojos now rule the town. The gunfighter goes to duel the Rojo's, he rescues the barkeeper (Jose Calvo), and no matter how many times he's shot he won't die; this is because he has a steel plate hidden under his shirt, he challenges Ramon to reload his rifle faster than he can reload his pistol, he shoots Ramon and the remaining Rojo's and leaves town.

Ramon

This is an iconic film that made a genre, it's quite dated and sometimes there's obvious dubbing but it's exhilarating, fast paced and the characters are brilliant. There's some odd slapstick comedy in there as well (the gunfighter shoots the ropes off the hacienda door and it knocks out a guard) all round a good film

Verdict: 7.5/10

Dodgeball

Now I'm going to review Dodgeball, a comedy that takes a light view of the cliché underdog story. It's about Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) who runs a failing gym that all the stereotypical freaks and weirdos go to. A lawyer comes in to tell them that they need to pay up $50,000 by the end of the month or they're outta there. After many failed ideas and discovering that White Goodman (Ben Stiller) owner of Globo Gym has bought them out they decide to try out for the Las Vegas Dodgeball tournament with a $50,000 cash prize. They enter the regional heat against girl scouts and win by default, afterwards someone who was watching them offers to coach them; it turns out to be world dodgeball champion Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn). He coaches them by throwing wrenches at them and making them run across the road, they also get the lawyer from earlier Kate Veach (Christine Taylor) on their team. They get there and manage to make it to the final but Patches dies and Peter leaves, Steve (Alan Tudyk) contemplates whether or not he is a pirate and Justin (Justin Long) competes in the cheer leading championship. They forfeit and just before the title is handed to Globo Gym, everyone returns. The judges decide the tournament can still go on and after a hard fought battle the match goes to sudden death where Peter blindfolds himself, dodges White's throw and wins. It is revealed that Peter sold his gym, betted it on them to win won $5 million and spent it on stock for Globo Gym so technically he owns it.

Peter

This is the classic underdog story, it's funny and shallow so it's very easy to understand and you can watch it many times over and still find it funny, I wouldn't call the acting wonderful but the stand-out is Rip Torn as the insane, wheelchair-bound dodgeball coach. It's not mandatory to watch but is funny and has a certain bizarre charm.

Patches

White

Verdict: 7/10

Bladerunner

For my first film I'm reviewing Bladerunner. It's a spectacular film with some of the best acting I've ever seen.
It's about a world where there are genetically modified humans called Replicants who need to be killed before the end of their 4 year lifespan should they gain sentience and start a rebellion. Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a Bladerunner; someone who is sent out to destroy the Replicants. You know there are at least 4 Replicants but there may be more. Deckard kills 2 of them whilst befriending Rachel (SeanYoung) with a secret she doesn't know. The 2 remaining Replicants Pris (Daryl Hannah) and Roy (Rutger Hauer) befriend a mechanic called Sebastian and take refuge in his warehouse. Deckard enters and Pris reaches the end of her lifespan trying to take out Deckard with her, she fails and Deckard moves on. Roy is reaching the end of his lifespan so starts to go slightly mad, they chase each other over rooftops until Roy dies in what I believe to be the best death ever. Deckard's chief (Edward James Olmos) says to him 'You've done a man's job sir'. An extremely clever implication that you can work out for yourself.

I love this film because of the subtleties and there's some great acting in there, Ford is great as Deckard but Rutger Hauer is the standout ans a mental robot who means business, the sounscape in this film is also marvellous and provides a vision of the future that is bleak and dank and it was the first film to do so. This film is not for those who only understand a shallow story; the layers are incredibly deep and I thoroughly reccomend watching it.

Deckard

Roy

Verdict: 9/10

First post

Hello, this is Reviewlations. I will be at the very least trying to review a film a day. I will summarise the film, describe my feelings and give it a mark out of ten. If you like my blog, please follow and encourage friends to