Winter 2010 Film Reviews II

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010): A-

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 was in my opinion up there in terms of being the best film of the franchise.  As a fan of the books I couldn't really imagine the film being better - it was exciting and faithful to the novels. 

The Half Blood Prince was just terrible in my opinion; that film cut out most of the storylines with young Tom Riddle and glossed over so many of the things that went down in the book. It was a shame too because The Half Blood Prince was the best book in the series.  Unlike The Half Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows seemed to follow the book closely (or as close as one could expect).  

The only things I didn't enjoy with the film was the abbreviated first fight scene when the Death Eaters chase Harry out of his house.  They only showed what happened with Harry and in the book that scene is so much longer and more exciting. They also didn't really provide the closure for the Dudley's that the book provided.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1 on the whole maintained a level of excitement through the entire film (which is not that easy considering that the first half of the Deathly Hallows is mostly just Harry and company roaming around the forest). The movie was also surprisingly funny and even a little moving with the parts with long time characters getting hurt.  I am really looking forward to the final chapter and if its anything like Part 1 I think I'm going to enjoy it. The second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is so much better than the first half in terms of action and excitement so if this movie was this good without anything big going on, how great is the final one going to be? 

Cyrus (2010): B

Cyrus is just one weird movie. Its so unbelievably awkward to watch and is as painful to watch as parts of Borat/Bruno and the worst moments of The Office (like Scott's Tots).  The movie is about a miserable divorced middle aged man (John C. Reilly) who meets a woman at a party and starts a relationship.

The relationship is fraught with problems because of the woman's grown (like 22 year old) son who is manipulative and dependent on his mother. The son, played by Jonah Hill, is just an evil character who really is completely unlikable. Cyrus (the son) just wreaks havoc on the relationship and screws with the character John C. Reilly plays. The movie is kind of funny because of the reactions of Reilly to the crazy shit that Cyrus pulls.

This wasn't a huge issue for me but the movie is somewhat unrealistic in terms of how they present the relationship between the man and Cyrus's mother. How that relationship is set up would never happen and never work but it’s a movie and I get that they have to come up with some device for them to meet and date.  The acting is solid throughout and I thought Jonah Hill (from all of Judd Apatow's movies) was really impressive - he killed as this weird, messed up man/child.