Drinking Buddies (2013)

 As I've said before, I quite like it when a small indie movie pops up and I decide to watch it even though no one else I know has ever heard of or seen it before. This is one of those examples where, after hearing about it from a couple of movie festivals (and most recently the British Film Festival) I decided to give it a go. It seemed to have a good cast and a good storyline so why not?

 The film centres on Kate (Olivia Wilde) who works at a brewery with her best friend Luke (Jake Johnson) and follows their relationship and feelings for each. While it is obvious to all who witness them together that they like each other, the problem comes from the fact that they are both in relationships. Kate's boyfriend Chris (Ron Livingston) and Luke's girlfriend Jill (Anna Kendrick) cause problems for the two friends who must also deal with the complex feelings they have for each other and how this will affect their friendship and those around them.

 I genuinely went into this film with pretty high expectations. It has a great cast full of talented people that I have liked in their other projects and, in my opinion, I thought that this story could be a good basis for a nice little movie with a sweet story and message.

 Boy was I wrong.

 I found this film incredibly boring and lacking in any real drive or focus. This a problem that I imagine probably derives from the lack of script. Apparently this film is almost completely improvised during the filming process and this was pretty obvious throughout. I'm not saying that the dialogue is stinted or unnatural, more that its natural to the point of actually demonstrating how horrifically plain most normal conversations are.

 I was also expecting more drama and events taking place. However the majority of the film is people getting drunk and not really doing anything, or contains scenes that are full of the classic awkward 'I kind of like you but I can't do anything about it' scenes that you get in the majority of romantic story lines. The whole thing is just slow and uneventful.

The only redeeming factor is that the actors are actually pretty good. They all give good performances, it's just a shame that they can't use any of their talents towards a decent focus and just perform each scene as it is, without being able to properly link the story or have a good conclusion to aim for.

Overall, there may well be a reason why this movie hasn't really made any impact and I wouldn't make any special attempt to go and see it.

Cloud Atlas (2013)

After reading the book it seemed to me like it would make a really great movie, but only an absolute idiot would take on the  mammoth task of transforming these six completely different stories into a single movie. Well with three directors and an insanely long list of acting stars, this is the finished product.

 To describe this movie in a short paragraph seems like an impossible task, but I will give it a go. Essentially the film contains six different and apparently unconnected stories spread across time and space. These include a ship sailing across the South Pacific in the 1800's, an early 20th century composer in Scotland, a reporter in San Francisco in the 70's, modern day England as told by a book editor, Korea in 2144 and 'The Big Island' somewhere far in the future after the Earth has undergone a drastic change. That's about as much detail as you are going to get out of me but each story has its own intricate plot-line and its own special link to each of the others. The official description provided by the film makers (and Wikipedia) is 'An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer to a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution' so make of that what you will.

When I read the book I have to admit that whilst some of the stories were interesting, creative and engaging, some were just horrific. Some started well but went downhill, and some really didn't catch on until the final few pages, and this pacing problem was captured perfectly by the directors (all three of them). Thankfully, the film didn't take the route of the book where half the story is told and then you have to read through all of the others ones to get to the second half. No. This one decided to chop and change between stories so much that it was pretty difficult to keep up and follow what was happening in each element individually let alone how they were all connected. This was only added to by another aspect of the film which I personally think was overall a good choice, but was poorly executed, and that is the decision to give actors multiple parts across each of the stories. This just added to the confusion and detracted from not only the characters, but the story as a whole (if there was one).

 To continue talking about the actors, with a cast list like this you expect the best you can possibly get, and I don't think they disappointed. The element that I have an issue with involves the role the actors were given. Some of them were incredible. Ben Whishaw as the composer, Halle Berry as the journalist, Jim Broadbent as the editor and Hugo Weaving as basically all of the bad guys were great. Tom Hanks also gave great performances in all roles, but you would expect that from one of the greatest actors ever. The issue begins with the make-up. I can understanding casting a man as a woman when the make-up is effective, but something about the prosthetics and make-up in this movie was just a bit off. From every fake nose to strange wig to turning a white guy into an Asian (I will let you imagine what that looks like) it just all didn't quite work. This therefore completely ruined any performance given as all I could think was 'that look slightly racist'. As well as this, I feel that the performances were rushed which is in no way that fault of the actors; it just restricts what they are able to do. Overall, I felt that great performances were overshadowed by production choices and poor execution.

 To wrap this thing up, I believe that some of these stories could've been made into full length movies just on their own, and some don't deserve to see the light of day. This mixture of the good with the bad throws the whole movie off and makes what is already a long and complicated film even more so. It's a shame because some of the film is genuinely enjoyable; it's just surrounded by crap on either side.

ONE YEAR!!!!!!!

So after a year of seeing movies and writing reviews, I just thought I would take this opportunity to say

THANK YOU!!!!!!

for reading my opinions, excusing my spelling mistakes and having a look for the last year. Here's to many more!

5 Films To Look Forward To In December 2013

Also known as: Movies to watch instead of 'It's A Wonderful Life' and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'

1)  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

 Part two of the Hobbit series, and it's going to be just as good as the last one.

2) Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

The game changing movie for Will Ferrell returns for another round this Christmas.

3) Frozen

Something to keeps the kids entertained, the new Disney animation about a kingdom trapped in eternal winter.

4) American Hustle

The new film from the director of 'Silver Linings Playbook' and 'The Fighter' tells the story of a con man forced to work for the FBI

5) The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller directs and stars in this film about Walter Mitty, a man who lives in daydreams and imagination.

5 Films (Plus A Few Extra) To Look Forward To In November 2013

So it seems that the potential Oscar films are starting to emerge from the pack, and some of them are out this month so why restrict it to 5...

1) Gravity

 What happens when you're just left floating in space with no real hope of ever getting back home? Well find out in this film that is already making waves across the world.

2) Hunger Games: Catching Fire

 Part two of the series is released this month and shows how Catniss and Peter cope with life after their Hunger Games victory.

3) Saving Mr Banks

 This biopic tells of the relationship between Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) and author of Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers (Emma Watson) during the production of the famous Disney movie.

4) Kill Your Darlings

 In his next attempt to remove himself from the HP franchise, Daniel Radcliffe stars in this movie about the beat generation poets and how a murder brought them all together.

5) Carrie

 The remake of the classic horror movie is due for release this month and based on their promotional tactics (if you haven't seen the video, go to YouTube and search 'Carrie prank') it's due to be pretty scary.

6) Don Jon 

 In his first venture as writer and director, Joseph Gordon-Levitt leads this movie about a porn addict and his skewed views of love and sex.

7) Philomena

Just because it's got Judi Dench in it.

Now You See Me (2013)

 'Now You See Me' is advertised as a movie about magic and I guess in a way it is (which is kind of why I watched the film. Please don't judge me). However, it also has a really good twist at the end (that I didn't see coming at all) with elements of drama, cop film, comedy and mystery. Therefore, I will try and review this movie without giving anything away so you can enjoy the movie just as much as I did.

Four magicians with differing specialities are brought together by a mystery magic expert and given a secret assignment involving using ever so slightly illegal methods to bring down various corporate people and fight against the FBI. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco play the four magicians managed by Michael Caine. However, they must compete with a famous critic renowned for revealing magicians secrets (Morgan Freeman) as well as being constantly chased by an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) and an Interpol detective (Melanie Laurent). That's probably about all I can tell you without ruining tricks or giving away the twist at the end of the story, so sorry but that will have to do.

Considering that this film turned out completely not how I was expecting, I really, really enjoyed it! There are twists and turns all the way through with a pretty huge reveal right at the end which really changes how you view the entire movie. Being the epic nerd I am, I also really liked the magic element. I love films like this and 'The Prestige' (if you haven't seen it then what are you doing? Go watch! Now!) and this movie definitely managed to keep up the standard of good magic movies (and before you say anything, I know there are some pretty horrific magic movies out there, but I am going to pretend they don't exist for the purpose of this review). The magic seems almost possible, even though it probably isn't, and ranges from close up, sleight of hand magic tricks to big theatrical events.

 The acting is also great and it's good to see great legendary actors alongside some of the current crops greatest talents. The only thing I will say about this movie is that looking back on it; I don't really see the purpose of Melanie Laurent's character in the movie. Maybe it is just my memory playing up, but everything that happens in the film would've happened whether she was there or not and, overall, she doesn't seem to really add anything to the movie.

 Other than that this film is genuinely a great movie. It keeps you guessing, is fun to watch and is very entertaining from start to finish.  

The Wolverine (2013)

 Why is it that at some point in a hell of a lot of movie franchises, the story and the characters end up going to Asia? Particularly in action movies. It seems to be that option that once you've run out of story lines that could occur in the place where the movie has been set previously, you have to throw in a few ninjas and samurai swords to make a new sequel worthwhile.

 This is exactly what has happened with the X-Men spin off franchise following Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the movie following the character after the final movie in the original X-Men trilogy. After saving a soldier from the nuclear bomb that tore through Nagasaki, many years later this soldier turned multi-billionaire offers Wolverine the opportunity to get rid of his mutation and become normal so he can die and no longer have the curse of eternal life. However, as you would expect, not all is as it seems with Japanese gangs fighting for the science developed by this billionaires company, family members vying for inheritance and other mutants being a pain in the arse (rather like all of the other X-Men/Wolverine/other spin offs then).

 I personally don't see the point in this movie and here is why. The story doesn't need to be told. I understand why they made the first of the Wolverine movies. It told the story of how he became the mutant we all know and love (or don't) and it helped to explain a lot of the issues that came up with the character in the X-Men trilogy. However, that movie wasn't overly great to begin with (I'm not saying it was horrifically bad, I'm just saying it wasn't great) so why the producers thought another film was necessary with an even more unconvincing story and even weaker character arcs I really don't know.

 This film just helps to highlight that fact that the character is getting old for audiences and isn't really strong enough to merit a film of its own, let alone two. There's no denying Hugh Jackman is great as Wolverine but he needs to let it go, or at the very least just appear in the ensemble movies like everyone else. The story is weak, the characters are boring and the Japanese element just makes the whole film all the more frustrating.

 As an action movie it is not horrific. The sequences are decent with some being almost impressive. As well as this, the special effects are often very good with one particular scene standing out (it involves Wolverine reaching into his own chest and removing a bug that has been placed there by the bad guys). Having said that, none of this makes up for the complete lack of intelligence when it comes to the story. Parts are boring and pointless, others are nonsensical and idiotic (again, I understand that it is a movie with an based on fantasy but I still believe there needs to be some element of realism in there).

 Overall, this is probably the weakest film to have risen from the X-Men series. It's slow, weak and pointless and not worth seeing especially if you are a fan of the original films.