Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Andres Danielsen Lie, Ty Olwin, Benjamin Biolay
Plot: A personal shopper in Paris refuses to leave the city until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Overly Almost Pointless Story
Story: Personal Shopper starts as Maureen Cartwright (Stewart) is bought into a home to communicate with the dead in France for Lara (Bouaziz) on her first night in the house she does feel the presence. Maureen also works for a high society personal shopper in Paris where she gets to handle the clothing people could only imagine affording.
We see how Maureen is tired with her role in Paris is staying solely to communicate with her dead twin brother because the two made a pledge to communicate if one died the other would communicate to prove he was a medium to the dead. Maureen finds her life turned upside when she witnesses a ghostly image within the house but it is when she receives random text messages from an unknown caller.
Thoughts on Personal Shopper
Characters/Performance – Maureen is a personal shopper who is desperate to learn if she can still communicate with her dead twin brother. She finds herself not enjoying her career choice and being pushed around by an anonymous texter. The rest of the characters are only in a few scenes which show the life that Maureen is going through.
Performance wise, Stewart is great in the leading role needing to carry the film being in every single scene. The rest of the cast do well but are not involved too much with each scene.
Story – My personal overall feelings for this film are pretty clear, I found most of the film almost pointless, now I say these words because we do have three odd stories going on. First we have the search for the dead brother’s spirit, this is fine, then we have the whole game about trying on the cloths, again fine, and thirdly we have the idea the Maureen is searching for her own identity, again fine but mixing them all together we never get enough focus on what was going on between each part of the story and left wondering just which part of the story we are going to be picking up next.
Mystery/Thriller – There is a mystery and when it comes forward we are interested but it does get forgotten in places. We are not going to be kept on the edge of our sea through our experience of this film.
Settings – We are in Paris for most of the film which should make for a great backdrop but the truth is we could have been anywhere for this film.
Final Thoughts – There is so much potential in this film but the truth is that it doesn’t hit the marks it needs to.
Each year we seem to see an action film go out of its way to make sure we get a more jaw-dropping car chase scene. These will often become the most iconic scenes in what can be average action films but every time we sit at the edge of our seat filled with tension to what will be happening next. Today we will pick our favourite car chase scenes.
If you want to join in the next round of Opinion Battles we will be looking at our Favourite Talking Animals. If you want to take part email your choices to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.ukby 30th April 2017
Darren – Movie Reviews 101
Car Chase Including Fight – The Raid 2
The Raid 2 is easily one of the best action movies ever put to film and where the film built on the first was taking it all outside the solo location which does involved our hero Rama having been captured and on his way to meet his maker when he awakens to take on all of the henchmen in his car while also having another car coming to rescue him having to take on all the henchman and back up cars and bikes in a high speed car chase which includes plenty of gun fire. The whole film does take your breath away and this just stands up as one of the many highlights without a single line of dialogue spoken through it either.
The Fast and Furious series has brought so much over the top car chase scenes ever made. They are incredibly out of this world but yet so amazing to watch. Nothing quite beats Fast Five and the exhilaratingly fun car chase down the streets of Rio de Janeiro with the vault trailing behind the car and how it angles the shot to see everything and still guess what they’ll do next. The awesome cars, the excitement and the thrill this car chase has is just amazing.
My favorite car chase scene would be the one in Mad Max: Fury Road. You know – the one that lasts for 90% of the movie? Surely you can’t top that! It’s completely & utterly bonkers. It’s over the top. It’s insane. It’s awesome. Hopefully this answer counts… Is it a scene when it’s pretty much the entire movie? 😉
Loads of wild, crazy car chases to be found in “The Blues Brothers” – who could forget the showstopper at the finale with the huge police car pile up?
But then there’s that really entertaining one earlier on in the film where the police chase Jake and Elwood through the mall, set to the fun tune of “Can’t Turn You Loose” and with the brothers pointing out all the shops (and the amount of space) as they go.
This is another easy one. Despite being filmed almost 50 years ago, the car chase scenes with Steve McQueen at the wheel in Bullitt (1968) are some of the most exciting and tense scenes ever filmed.
My favorite car chase in a movie is from Blues Brothers. They use a lot of different camera techniques during the chase. One minute you are top of the car. One minute on the side. One minute looking down on the brothers. Then we see different angles and finally it culminates in the massive pile up. It feels fast, exciting and unexpected for a comedy.
No traditional, ‘James Bond’ style car chases really came to mind (and I don’t like the Fast & the Furious movies that much to choose one of those) so I went with a car chase I genuinely love, in a film I really like, that is generally about…..car chases.
The last car chase in Death Proof is really cool. Finally Stuntman Mike is revealed as the huge coward he actually is, while a group of crazy chicks get their revenge on him. Both of the cars used in the chase are cool too. Stuntman Mike drives his ‘death proof’ vehicle and the girls drive a 1970s Dodge Challenger (used in the car movie Vanishing Point). For extra kudos, actress Zoe Bell (who plays Zoe) is a stunt woman in real life and everything you see her do on camera (riding on the bonnet of a car and hanging out the window with a makeshift spear – for example) she really does do.
As expected the music is great too. All round, fantastic scene.
There have been many car chases in movie history that are exciting to watch. The Bourne Supremacy was the first time I felt like I was IN a car chase. Add in some kinetic editing and a fantastic music cue from John Powell, and you have a recipe for excitement.The filmmakers created a new vehicle system for filming the chase, and the results are spectacular, especially when you consider that there are no CGI vehicles at all. There are many shots in this chase sequence, in which Bourne evades the police and an assassin through the streets of Moscow, that I had simply never seen before, nor was I able to figure out how they managed to put a major star like Matt Damon in such a precarious position. In fact, the stunt coordinator has said that he received flack from others in the industry for putting Damon in danger…which of course, he never was. High praise indeed for possibly the most white-knuckle chase ever filmed.
I went back and forth between the climax of The Blues Brothers and the final chase of Mad Max: Fury Road, but I decided to go with classic comedy over explosive action. Jake and Elwood Blues on their mission from God attract all manner of enemies, from the police to Nazis to a country/western band, and it’s a rush and a pleasure watching them chase the Bluesmobile as chaos ensues. The streets of Chicago become an all-out demolition derby at the end, and who can forget the earlier chase through the mall too? At the time, The Blues Brothers held the record for most cars destroyed in a film; even the Bluesmobile itself actually falls apart at the end!
I think it is a surprise to everyone that The Fast and the Furious franchise has lasted as long as it has. With 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift nearly destroying the franchise, it needed a miracle to bounce back. That miracle was Fast Five. One of my favorite movie genres is heist films, so to see a franchise combine what made the original The Fast and the Furious enjoyable with a genre I love so much was a real treat. That’s why my favorite car chase is the heist scene when the crew / family steal an entire bank vault and drive down the streets of Rio with the vault in tow, all the while being chased by the police. It is crazy. It is over the top. And it is one of the most entertaining car chase scenes I have ever seen.
The opening scene in my favourite film (Drive) is a very easy entry for this round of Favourite Car Chase. It’s not the flashiest, craziest, maddest or baddest car chase scene. For those, you have the bonds, and the fast and furious chases etc etc. But Drive’s opening scene is the coolest. Amped with a catchy monotone beat soundtrack, it sets the neo-noir tone of the film as we get a glimpse into the shady, silent and fast-paced world of the anti-hero. The whole scene is exhilirating in itself, and once it ends, Drive’s opening credits begin with the neon-filled skylines of L.A, the synthwave tunes accompanying the Driver…driving endlessly into the endless city. It’s just beautiful.
Director: Olivier Assayas
