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MY WEEK WITH MARILYN - REVIEW

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What makes a good biopic? An accurate cast? An involving story? Strong emotional conflicts? Yes, all of those, of course. But also a good biopic needs to tell us something new about the person being looked at. Otherwise, what are you left with besides people in funny disguises? Not much it seems, as My Week With Marilyn clearly demonstrates. From the offset it's clear that although there is a lot there story-wise to work with, the film will never even begin to scratch the surface of what's essentially the meat of the whole thing. Instead of focusing on Monroe's struggle to work in a film with Laurence Olivier, which could have had some dramatic potential, we instead follow the whole thing through the eyes of young Colin, some lucky-ass kid with no apparent personality, whose kinda-affair with the star is told through pretentious voice-overs, unlikely reconstructions and dialogs. All in all, we learn that Marilyn Monroe had trouble being recognized as a "rea

THOR - REVIEW

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The trailer for Thor promised epic camp the likes of which hasn't been seen since Flash Gordon  and a lot of it looked like they probably would not work for a second. Frost giants? Yeah that won't be silly at all... And yet there I was, witnessing Norse Gods in shiny gold armour riding horses along a glass rainbow bridge, taking it all in and not even batting an eye. The entertainment value of the whole thing was such that I could easily go "nothing wrong here" and suspend my disbelief like I've never done before to accommodate this ridiculous, yet somewhat irresistible mythological superhero epic. For one thing, Asgard looks amazing: this is Marvel on a grand scale and, upon its release, it was probably the most ambitious superhero film ever made. Yes, when you take a step back it's like: "what is all this?" but if you allow yourself to go with it, you'll just love this visual feast. It's almost a shame Thor has to go to Earth, esp