Contagion Pre-Screening

My husband and I went to the pre-screening of Contagion and I have to say , it is not at all what I expected.

I thought it would be a thriller about a dangerous disease that spreads and kills many people. It was.

But it was also unintentionally funny, slow paced, yet chilling.

This could happen. This does happen.

Of course the film is a "worst case scenario", but it is easily relatable as references to SARS and H1N1 are used to compare the reality of this potential, which makes viewers nervous.

It has the feel of an indie film but with all-star cast.

Camera angles on things as simple as grabbing a glass of water, holding a bus pole, pushing a s stray hair off your face, imply the ease in which diseases can spread.

I applaud the writers for explaining some background on how and what determines different types of diseases danger, as well as comparing past epidemic's to this fictional one.

What lacked for me was the seemingly scattered sub-plots that never fully developed, nor connected.

Matt Damon's family suffers from the disease, Lawrence Fishburne supports Kate Winslet's character at the CDC and makes difficult and morally questionable decisions. Jude Law is a freelance writer who is on top of the story from day one while Marion Cotillard finds herself in a precarious position admist the quickly spreading disease and Gwenyth Paltrow's character seems to hold the key to where it all started.

The stories of these characters are cleverly told from Day 2 onward showing how the disease affects their lives. It also explores how the world reacts to the news, how governments try to deal with the disease and how the vaccinations are developed and distributed.

Overall, I do not reccommend this movie to anyone with even a touch of germ-a-phobia. But, if you are interested in science or an interesting film that is chilling in a most unusual way - check it out! The acting is great, it has an indie-movie feel and some suprises as well as some unexpected (and perhaps unintentional) humour.

Have you seen it? What did you think?

Iron Man 2 - My Review

I saw this Friday (opening night) with a group of friends in IMAX. It was a great night, Eclipse posters up, Eclipse IMAX Trailer on the big screen, then Iron Man 2 - which I did a review for here.

I Loved Robert Downey Jr !! He reprised his role as Tony Stark and had the perfect charisma, attitude, sexiness. Something about his as Tony Stark is friggin' hot!

I am not a huge fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, though she used to be awesome in recent years she hasn't impressed me much. In the first Iron Man I really enjoyed the banter between her character, Pepper Potts and RDJ's Tony Stark and this movie it was even better. She had more of a role in this movie and I didn't hate her.

Scarlett Johansson was looking hot. She was a bit random and I was confused on if she was really an important role or not but she was pretty to look at. She had a few great lines but mostly just filled the "hot girl" quota for the flick (Because let's face it, that will never be Gwenyth Paltrow's job)

Mickey Rourke was absolutely AMAZING as Ivan Vanko in this movie. I was thoroughly impressed, he exuded the perfect amount of evil, malice and confidence to completely creep me out in a good way. He was haunting and it was fantastic!

Sam Rockwell as Mr. Justin Hammer was an annoying, but entertaining character. I think he is supposed to be annoying, so mission accomplished. The same goes for Garry Shandling as Senator Stern - though there is a great court scene thwt I enjoyed and laughed fairly hard at, that was entirely Robret Downey Jr.

Samuel L Jackson is always kick-ass and I enjoyed him as Nick Fury, though the story didn't feel developed enough and since I don't follow comic books I was wanting a bit more explanation on him and Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff.

Seeing Don Cheadle instead of Terrence Howard was an adjustment, I tend to get attached to actors as characters in series and HATE casting changes, but I adapted quickly. Loved seeing "War Machine" especially when Iron Man & him have a lover's spat.

Even as a non-comic book geek/follower I could see the potential of upcoming movies (Avengers - 2012) it was exciting. I advise those who haven't seen it to wait until after the credits, like with the first movie, for a brief but telling clip.

So to summarize:

Good - RDJ, overall Casting, chemistry of characters, action sequences, dialouge

Bad - too many subplots that non-comic book fans may not fully appreciate, random time wasters that could be better used, flow (middle was a bit slow at times)

Overall - GO SEE IT IN IMAX