The Blind Side

[Beate]

Okay, so now we have (had) screenings on 23 Feb, 1 March, 2 March, 7 March, 8 March, 9 March, 14 March, 22 March, an alert for 15 March and comps for 15 and 17 March. Is anyone, I mean ANYONE, still without tickets??

[hdaniel82]

Okay, so now we have (had) screenings on 23 Feb, 1 March, 2 March, 7 March, 8 March, 9 March, 14 March, 22 March, an alert for 15 March and comps for 15 and 17 March. Is anyone, I mean ANYONE, still without tickets??

*snigger*

Seriously is the studio going to make ANY money on this one?!!!

[sarahly92]

Okay, so now we have (had) screenings on 23 Feb, 1 March, 2 March, 7 March, 8 March, 9 March, 14 March, 22 March, an alert for 15 March and comps for 15 and 17 March. Is anyone, I mean ANYONE, still without tickets??

I haven't so long as SFF hasn't been opening.
Firefox goes straight to 'Problem Loading' everytime. Arghhh.

Though, they'll probably depend on word of mouth of everyone who've seen it for free. Gives them some damn good PR.

[EthanRunt]

Hold up, THIS is the Best Picture nominee, near guaranteed Best Actress Oscar winner?

Now, I'm not a Bullock fan, but she was watchable in The Proposal. The first time for years I didn't want to punch her too much.
Here she just tried, and failed, an accent and read some of the most painfully copy and pasted from spoof movie trailer lines I've ever heard.
"You know you're changing that boy's life"
"Actually, he's changing mine"
I actually yelped in the cinema and sunk in my seat in pain, people around me chuckled a tad.

At no point was this attempt at some sort of sob story turned uplifting melodrama meets hysterical American football comedy (Complete with 'comedy' kid who needed to die in an early car crash scene, I had my fingers firmly crossed, but alas) a good excuse for a film. It is a painful, cliched, appalling waste of 2 hours, reels of film, or HDD space, money from Warner Brothers, and use of equipment. It's not original, uplifting, interesting, it rambles from a Wire style attempt at social realism to comic Kathy Bates and family make Michael choose Mississippi hijinks that'd look out of place in a Teen Wolf style 80's sports comedy.

I thought It's Complicated was bad, at least that had respectable actors who you can imagine doing their amazing performances in other films, what do we have here? Annoying child actor, Bullock *spits* Kathy Bates, who comes out of her hubby hole every 5 years, does 7 film and TV roles and hides away again until another POS project comes along, and a desperate idea to beat Precious at being uplifting, depressing, funny, inventive and giving audiences a shocking backstory (Ooh, crack addicted mother, well done you, did you b*y that from stereotypes'r'us Mr. John Lee Hancock?)

An abhorrent film in every respect, and taking spaces up in the Oscars from such great titles as Moon, Watchmen, (500) Days Of Summer and The Road.
1/10

[Celini]

just back from the screening at Odeon Camden. Absolutely loved the movie and couldn't stopped crying at the begining (dont know what is wrong with me!).

I think they had technical issues on screen 5, so they transfered us to screen 1... big screen but then the room was only 10-15% full.

[filmfeb]

THE BLIND SIDE--saw this today-too sweet for my tastes-the attempt at grittiness
fell far short of what was achieved in Precious-Sandra Bullock gave a good performance but not,in my opinion an oscar winning one.
filmfeb

[blip]

Ooh, crack addicted mother, well done you, did you b*y that from stereotypes'r'us Mr. John Lee Hancock?

.....did you realise this is actually a true story, she was a crack addict.....

as for your other comments......jebus......having a bad day??! I don't think it was in any way shape or form an attempt to rival precious (which was NOT a true story!) they were very different stories filmed in very different ways. It's not supposed to be gritty, or a sob story, or a comedy just telling a story like it is (with, I'm sure, a tad of poetic license)

Personally I found it very refreshing to see a film where people aren't killing/ torturing/ shooting/ blowing things up, a film where I left the cinema feeling uplifted and happy to be reminded there are good people out there.

I guess everyone will have their own opinion, mine is that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, as did my husband (who usually likes the above mentioned ripping each other apart films), and so did my daughter and her boyfriend, who both share husbands love of same films.

And I loved the 'real' people pics at the end too, a really nice touch.

8.5/10

[miss_indigo]

Saw this at Wimbledon today and I loved it!
A charming yet simple story which was thoroughly enjoyable and injected with lots of humour. It made me laugh out loud several times!

A solid 9/10 from me!

[EthanRunt]

I apologise, I thought the elements were heightened/changed for dramatic purposes, seemed a little OTT to me, I was just wrong.

[opas]

Vue West End was absolutely packed - and they were asking for ID! They put us in screen 1 which doesn't have a great incline but luckily we didn't have any major obstructions to our view.

I thought the film was great. I laughed, felt sad, had tears in my eyes and then felt happy again. I think it is quite a feel good film which was made better by knowing it is based on a true life story. Maybe if it was all Hollywood fiction then I could imagine that that some parts would have been really OTT with the usual tragic outcomes for dramatic effect.

They included the controversy around his Uni choice (to tell you the truth, I understand why the NCAA investigated it) but I kept on feeling that something more sinister was going to happen and I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe there is something in it, but from my perspective, I'm not sure I completely agree with that Times article Beate posted. In some ways I thought the film was quite anti-Republican (I thought there were a few sly digs at the Bush administration and the academic 'saviour' who helped Michael's 'American Dream' come true was an out and proud Democrat!).

I think American audiences will appreciate the cultural references more, i.e. understanding the importance they place on sport as a way to access higher education, their whole college system etc. I didn't get why Leigh Anne disliked the Tennessee team when they lived in Memphis but it became clear by the end. I didn't understand anything about American football (am still clueless) and I don't think they made it easy for people who are unfamiliar with the sport to get it (unlike the rugby in Invictus). I came away from the film glad that I had the opportunity to see it, so 8.5/10 for me.