Eat Pray Love (2010)

Director: Ryan Murphy
Starring: Julia Roberts
Genre: Drama
Rating: ****

Drama in which a newly divorced woman embarks on a journey around the world, on a quest of self-discovery and inner balance.

A radiant Julia Roberts stands out from this film, delivering a beautiful, moving performance. Eat Pray Love is a charming, sweet drama which should appeal to most - let's face it, the majority of us all wanted to find ourselves and change our lives before. And now, we can watch as someone else starts out on their journey and completes it.

It is the part of the film set in Italy which is the best part - learning how to enjoy life, change yourself, and learn new things. It is such a relatable, beautifully filmed adaptation of a book which I do confess to never have read before, so unfortunately no comparisons can be made between them. The film really does deliver interesting sentiments and opinions on life. And, the 'prophecy' at the beginning fortunately prevents us wondering about the ending - we know what happens, without actually seeing it.

A truly engrossing, inspirational film, and something definitely worth watching.

If you have any film requests, please comment on this post, or e-mail elliemayblogs@live.co.uk

Please remember to vote for me in the Little Blog Awards and Blogger's Choice Awards - links are on the right of the page

Salt (2010)

Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Genre: Thriller
Rating: ***

Thriller in which a CIA agent is accused of being a Russian spy.

Unfortunately, even Angelina Jolie cannot fully make this film anything more than mediocre. She is a fantastic actress, even in this film - but the film does absolutely nothing for her.

There is very little emotion throughout the entire film, even with the death of Evelyn Salt's husband. The plot and characters leave no room for any emotional bonding of the audience, so we do in fact not really care at all whether Salt survives. The script is, again, simply average, and does not suit Jolie's character - notice various moments of speech which are almost wince-worthy. And notice that about 99% of the film is made up of action sequences, with the final 1% flashbacks. It is a little 'bambambam' - no rest between the action (most of which, like other thrillers/action films, is ridiculously unrealistic) at all.

The only thing that does make up a little bit for the film's averageness is the nice, interesting twists which come through the film - is, or is she not, a Russian spy? And, regardless of the silly action parts, you can't really help enjoying this film a little bit in places.

The Crazies (2010)

Director: Breck Eisner
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker
Genre: Horror
Rating: ****

Horror in which a small, insignificant town is affected by a virus which turns people into bloodthirsty 'crazies'.

A lot of horror films are made simply to show the maximum amount of gore, and to terrify people, with little thought to the cinematography, soundtrack etc. The thing which stands out the most about this film is that the camera shots are quite breathtaking, and the whole thing has been put together as not just a horror film, but also a work of (scary) art. With a menacing soundtrack and a fantastic performance from Joe Anderson, in which we see him gradually transform into a crazy, The Crazies is honestly haunting and terrifying. It is not without its jump moments, but does not go overboard with them, and instead makes them extremely clever rather than just there for scares.

With some black humour and clever twists, this film has it all. And, I must say, it is a nice, original variant from the generic zombie film.

If you have any requests, e-mail me at elliemayblogs@live.co.uk, or post a comment.

Please vote for me at the Little Blog Awards and the Blogger's Choice Awards!