'Now You See Me' Review

Ok, so Now You See Me is about four illusionists with different skills being brought together to unite as a magical force to be reckoned with(well kind of). They create illusions that are not only mesmerising but criminal. Therefore they are being chased by an angry cop who is determined to catch them.

I have noticed that Now You See Me has been slightly battered by the critics, with Empire's Olly Richards claiming 'The flowers up its sleeve have wilted and the rabbit in its hat is dead'. However I must disagree with this. I found Now You See Me to be way better than I had first expected; the film takes you on a journey of trickery and just when you think you've grasped what the hell is going on another trick is put in place to throw you right out of balance.

I thought that all the trickery/magic would become almost silly and although being the theme of the film, it would ruin it but I couldn't have been more wrong. We all know that there is a reasonable explanation for all 'magic' tricks but the best part of a trick is that we don't know how it is done. This film focuses on that fact and makes you feel stupid for repeatedly not getting the trick . Jesse Eisenberg's character even says 'the more you look, the less you see', making you in the audience think ok I can get it the next time but you never do. I don't say this in a negative light, it may sound weird but the more stupid you feel the more excited you become watching the film(in this case anyway).

All of the actors in the film are brilliant. Morgan Freeman, Mark Rufflo, Dave Franco,Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg and the beautiful French one from Inglorious Bastards. I think that without them the film may have fallen a bit flat. But then of course, that is how it almost always is with films; a good looking or powerful actor always adds to the excitement on screen.

The film ends, as it must, with a show stopping, elaborate illusion that goes beyond everyone's imagination. Of course the film succeeds in expectations with this and everyone is left in utter shock. As for the 'wilted' flowers and 'dead' rabbit, in my eyes the film produces a whole field of lush flowers and bounding rabbits that were completely unexpected. Rosie Bowen

If you haven't already you must go and see Now You See Me in cinemas or buy it when it comes out on DVD. If you have seen the film please leave a comment below, I would love to know what you thought about the film.

Oz:How could you?

So without a doubt we all love The Wizard of Oz. When there were rumours an Oz The Great And Powerful would be released most of us were devastated. People wanted to stick with the traditional Oz and felt there was no room for a new remake that was predicted to fail. I disagreed and thought no, this film will be separated from the last and instead of a remake it could be seen as a film standing alone. I also thought that people who opposed the film were probably just scared that the film would be so good that it would be compared and even be better that the wonderful Wizard of Oz.

At first the idea of James Franco as Oz seemed a great choice but then I thought, his previous films such as Lovelace(the story of a woman abused by the porn industry), Spring Breakers(where he plays a drug dealer) and About Cherry(another film about porn) do not all cry out 'I'm the best man to play Oz the Wizard who families will love'. Also Empire's Ian Nathan points out that Franco 'has the hesitant smile of a conman needled by his conscience' and as much as I love James Franco, I can see his point. Although having said that, Franco was a good Oz and his smile can make a mysterious wizard become an endearing ordinary man of Oz any day.

Also another interesting cast member was Mila Kunis as The Good Witch; her past experience acting in Black Swan and Friends With Benefits was good  but again not the kind of actor I would expect appearing in a family film but to my surprise this film actually made me like and appreciate her a bit more as an actress. I guess if anything this film taught us not to judge the excellence of an actor on their past films. The other two witches in the film played by Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz were also very well performed.

Furthermore I appreciated the film in the sense that it was set to be different from the Wizard of Oz and the storyline allowed you to get lost in a film that couldn't be compared to the traditional Oz because it was almost completely different. Of course how could we not all love Sam Raimi, the director, who done an amazing job on the film.

Overall I found the film to be thoroughly enjoyable to watch, what more could we want? However with Oz I found the case to be more what less could we want? The beginning of the film, set out similar to the Wizard of Oz in black and white. It was nice to see that the older film, although different was enabled to be appreciated through this film. The authentic style and the old-fashioned carnival was marvellous. My only issue being that once in Oz things did not only turn to colour but became so bright that it was a little too much. The animations were ok, I wasn't too keen on the animated horses that looked like they had been snatched from an old Barbie film. I would have preferred things to be a little more dark; maybe a twist on the tale similar to Tim Burton's work on Alice in Wonderland. At times the film tumbled into a silly dance at a children's party in the sense that everyone seemed to be to much in costume and the set seemed to be so bright, colourful and child friendly that it felt extremely unrealistic and silly. Even the Wizard of Oz managed to make the munchkins fun and friendly without being blindingly bright and in-your-face. I may be using the wrong words but I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe it is the advances in cinema that make things appear differently but I found Oz to be too silly at times and even slightly patronizing. Rosie Bowen

Review of 'Perfume:The Story of a Murderer'

SPOILER ALERT

I recently watched Perfume:The Story of a Murderer. I had heard that it was worth watching and thought I would give it a go. Just in case you don't already know, the film is about a man who was born with an incredible sense of smell(trust me it is freakishly good!). As he gets older he discovers a perfume shop and wants the perfumer to teach him how to preserve smell. Although kind of weird at first, the film at this point seems ok. He learns that to fully understand how to capture and preserve smell he must travel to a place named Grass(hope that's how you spell it). Whilst there he starts to murder women to collect their scent as he finds the odor of a woman to be somewhat beautiful. The more he murders the more people catch on that there is a killer that needs to be hunted down and prosecuted. He finally gets caught but not until his very special perfume has been fully constructed. He is ordered to death by cross and an iron bar but as he approaches the podium where his death awaits he applies his perfume onto himself. Suddenly the whole crowd cries that he is innocent and an angel. It is as if the perfume has put everyone into a trance. People start taking their clothes off and all of a sudden there is a gigantic orgy(with the Pope involved!). As all of this goes on Ben Whishaw looks down on the crowd in realising the power of his dead women scent. When all is over Jean-Baptiste(the murderer played by Ben Whishaw) is announced innocent and everyone in the audience awakes in horror and embarrassment of what they did. He returns to Paris, the place of his birth and childhood where he once again applies the perfume and is(what seems to be)eaten alive by some common-folk.

The film is interesting to say the least. Of course, as always Whishaw is elegantly brilliant and makes acting look as easy as drinking water. However for the concept of the film, well there are no words. At times the film is great but I pin that solely on the acting performances. I found the film, in parts, to be ridiculous; Jean-Baptiste's sense of smell isn't just out of the ordinary, it becomes silly and almost comical. Also the orgy scene ant the end completely erases any sense of the film being good. An audience being transfixed and controlled by a perfume sounds reasonable to find in a fantasy film, but when you are discussing murders, an orgy over a smell(and a smell that has been created from only a drip of perfume on a cloth) is more than ridiculous. Rosie Bowen

If you have seen the film, please let me know what you thought by leaving a comment below.