Week #9 in summary...! Killing carrots, killing Bill, killing boxes and killing romantic comedies...

This week is all about killing? You better believe it. Just a shame I didn't happen to watch Killers this week. By the looks of the trailer, it looks like the movie lives up to it's name. This week has changed things for the blog, and I hope you are liking it. Because I am. No need to leave any comments though. Coz chances are you ain't wasting your time reading this.

• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) I'd just about forgotten how much I love Quentin Tarantino, but this film just dragged me back on to the band wagon. I still love you, QT. 8/10


• The Box (2009) Boxes will kill. Come to think of it, it's like some sort of game show...'the money or the box'? Honestly, they shouldn't do that. Bad taste, I'm sorry. 6/10


• Brothers (2009) It has good actors...just a shame it was a tad boring though. 4/10


• A Single Man (2009) Thanks Tom Ford and Colin Firth. My heart is still broken. But you still made one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. 10/10


• The Rebound (2009) I don't like romantic comedies. But somehow I liked this one. I think that may have been coz Justin Bartha is so cute in this. 6/10


• When in Rome (2010) I don't like romantic comedies. And I hated this one. Mainly coz it was particularly unfunny even though it had funny people in it. 4/10


• Whip It (2009) I want to try roller derby. But I'm way too un-coed to do that. Ellen Page would so whip me. 8/10


• Shoot 'Em Up (2007) I have a newfound respect for carrots now. They are lethal weapons. And maybe I like Clive Owen a little more now?? 6/10

Best movie: A Single Man. Even though I dislike how sad it made me.

Worst movie: When in Rome. Romantic comedies have never looked so bad.

Highlight of the week: Passing a maths test I never thought I would pass because I didn't get it.

Lowlight of the week: Having to stay home from school because of some major headache...which I have had for four days and still counting...

DVD--Brothers

or: Dear John with some better actors.

One word to some it up: Boring.

Brothers should have boasted about it's cast a bit more. Tobey Macguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman, who in real life are very close friends, turned out in full force with this movie. Shame is, they were barely in the movie enough to even get top billing. I think I was more interested in the kids. What I expected was a steamy romantic drama. What I got was something I could have seen in an episode of Coronation Street.

Sam Cahill (Tobey Macguire) leaves his family once again to go and fight in Afghanistan, and while he is gone he lets his brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) stay at his house after he is released from prison for robbing a bank. Sam's helicopter is shot down and he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and two children alone. Tommy steps in to help with the family, but in amazing circumstances Sam is found alive and returns home to find that his family have changed in his absence.

I haven't seen the Danish original, but I could probably guarantee that it's a lot better than this one. There were a few things I was expecting from this film that just never happened. Like I expected the relationship between Tommy and Grace to be a bit more intense. I wanted it to be a fractured portrait of a family, but it just felt pretty much the same as most movie families. And for one thing, I really admired Tobey Macguire's work at the end of the film, as he managed to pull off that giant hissy fit and still be respectable. If only the rest of the film could have been like that.

Macguire, Gyllenhaal and Portman all pull off marvellous performances and carry the movie with their professionalism and ability. However, nothing really happens in Brothers, and it fails to make use of the good story it has. It just feels to melodramatic and lacks the magic to pack a real punch. The acting is probably the only redeeming feature this movie has, even including the short appearance from Carey Mulligan, who I barely recognized with beautiful long blonde locks.

THE VERDICT: Brothers plays out more like an episode of a soap drama than a true drama, and suffers from a high dosage of Hollywood gloss. Macguire, Gyllenhaal and Portman do make this worth the watch, though.

4/10