5 Films To Look Forward To In February 2014

1) Dallas Buyers Club

Starring Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto this film tells the story of Ron Woodruff, a man forced to face the realities of AID's and the FDA in the 90's.

2) Robocop

It might be crap, but you never know.

3) Cuban Fury

A comedy about a man who gave up Salsa dancing after being a junior champion.

4) The Monuments Men

Tells the story of a special platoon in WWII charged with rescuing artistic masterpieces from the Nazis.

5) The Invisible Woman

A woman reminisces and recalls her relationship with Charles Dickens.

12 Years A Slave (2014)

The award season has arrived so I have decided to start this New Year with one of the hot contenders. Directed by Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave has already won Best Motion Picture - Drama at this year's Golden Globes as well as having the most nominations for any film at this ceremony and many more across the award season so far. It tells the true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man in 19th Century New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, forced to work on the cotton plantations of Louisiana. During his slavery he is confronted with both benevolent and brutal masters, loss of hope and acts of kindness that lead to is eventual return to his family and to his freedom.

To say that this film is deserving of its accolades and nominations seems to me to be a gross understatement. Often in the collection of films that are chosen to be nominated for the awards season, the majority are slow, overly arty and lacking in any real story or depth (please don't make me start talking about 'The Tree of Life'). This film however is a masterpiece. Each of the elements of this movie are combined together perfectly to create a truly stunning motion picture.

To start with, let's discuss the acting. Every single actor in this movie gives the performance of a lifetime, and with a cast like this, it is hardly surprising. To name but a few, Michael Fassbender (Edwin Epps), Lupita Nyong'o (Patsey), Sarah Paulson (Mary Epps), Benedict Cumberbatch (William Ford), Brad Pitt (Samuel Bass), Paul Giamatti (Theophilus Freeman) and Paul Dano (John Tibeats) are all stunning and make for a truly outstanding collection of supporting performances. However, none of these can even come close to the once-in-a-lifetime performance given by Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup. I have been a huge fan of his since I saw 'Kinky Boots' for the first time all those years ago, but his performance in this film is genuinely something else. Ejiofor brings a unique quality to this kidnapped and worn down man, expertly portraying the desperation of the situation whilst demonstrating the strength, kindness and pride of the character in question.

Moving on to the film in general, it is visually stunning and often quite uncomfortable to watch. The hardship and reality of slavery is in no way shied away from, portraying the true nature of the story and this man's struggle through his loss of freedom. Steve McQueen has beautifully directed this film ensuring that this story is told as truthfully and as realistically as possible. It is a stunning film to watch and deserves to win many more awards.

If I were forced to pick out a negative aspect of the film, I would say that on very rare occasions the music and the editing do not help the story along and can occasionally be distracting and take the focus away from what is being seen. However, these moments are fleeting at most and bare no influence on the overall portrayal of the story and the movie itself.

Overall, this is a great movie and one that is a must see from this years nominated crop, and I can safely say that I have no doubt many more awards are in its future.

5+ Films To Look Forward To In January 2014

This one will include slightly more than 5 films what with it being award season and all...

1) Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

The story of the great Nelson Mandela with incredible performances from all involved.

2) Her

A comedy about a man who falls in love with an operating system. It sounds strange but the story is oddly moving and relevant.

3) The Wolf Of Wall Street

This new Scorsese and DiCaprio film examines greed and corruption within the New York Stock Exchange.

4) August: Osage County

Based on a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tracy Letts, this star studded cast brilliantly portrays this incredibly dysfunctional family.

5) 12 Years A Slave

This film seems to be a sure bet for the awards this season, with Chiwotel Ejiofor giving the performance of a lifetime.

6) Inside Llewyn Davis

It's a Coen brothers film so it's going to be good.

7) Out Of The Furnace

Christian Bale plays a soldier who has returned from Iraq only to become part of the criminal underworld.

8) The Book Thief 

Based on the critically acclaimed book, this follows a little girl in Nazi Germany and the courage shown by her and her family.

So a few more films than usual but they all look pretty good. Anyway, have a happy and safe new year, and see you in 2014!!

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.