The Theory of Everything.

'A Physicist can't allow his calculations to be muddled by a supernatural creation'. Probably one of the best quotes in the entire film and very accurate for most top class physicists out there.

When I saw Les Miserables (the film with Hugh Jackman), I wasn't sure about Eddie Redmayne. I liked his voice but i wasn't convinced by his acting as Marius, now I am thoroughly convinced by him as an actor and I am slightly happy that he won the award for best actor. There will always be a debate about whether he deserved it more than Benedict Cumberbatch for his role as Alan Turing in 'The Imitation Game'. I loved Benedict Cumberbatch in that role and just because this film took home all the awards that the Imitation game would have otherwise won, I had to determine for myself whether it was justly done. I think that in the end, overall, it was a fair result. Redmayne really showcased his talent in this film, he produced something of a ridiculously high standard for upcoming actors to reach. It was like he took the high jump world record and moved it two meters higher, the Imitation game was close but not close enough.
This was a really moving performance from Redmayne that really cut into you and made me have to fight to hold back a tear at times. It was almost perfect on every level.

Felicity Jones was sensational! Previously I had only seen her in Chalet Girl and although I loved that film, her role in this film was utterly different to the one in Chalet Girl, more elegant and in a way a stronger character. I think that what I liked the most was that she got a chance to become emotional and show some characteristics of her side of the story. I am not a expert on the Hawking's family life but I know that they divorced each other and that in the end it was too much for her and they had to separate. I really don't understand why she didn't win the award for this film, she was strong, moving, captivating, she was everything that you wanted to see and I feel for her because really, in all the hype and build up to this film and awards, she was hardly mentioned. Stephen Hawking would not have lived this long without her and her determination.

I know that there are people that I haven't mentioned and I am sorry for that. I have said that the film was almost perfect on ever level and I don't believe that anything can be perfect so this is the highest praise that any film will ever get from me. Everyone was fantastic and really helped to make this film worthy of every award that it received. There is no film without the help and foundations from the supporting actors and cast.

Lone Star

Wasn't sure what to make of this one. When it started off I was worried that it was going to become one of those typically american sheriff gang films but it turned out not to be.

I like the idea that the sheriff didn't like his father and was trying to discover the truth about his father who had previously been the sheriff but apart from that i found it very boring. There was nothing in it to really keep me interested. I think that this film must have been on empires top 500 films because i can't think why i would have put it on the list otherwise.

The plot itself has potential, it was just driven in a way that made it boring and kinda the same thing that you've seen at least ten times before. There was nothing in this film that made it stand out and feel different or special, the acting was mind blowing and the music wasn't great. This was another mediocre film, good enough and probably at the time considered to be very good and make a lot of money but now it can be considered as nothing more than ok.

Vicious

Yes- this is a TV show but i've just discovered it and have become obsessed with it so I thought that i would post about it. 

This kind of humour is not for everyone. I know that there were a fair amount of critics out there that didn't like the show and didn't find it funny but i found it absolutely hilarious. I am watching because I love to watch Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. The insults are exactly the kind of insults that take place in my family and it's so easy to watch. A similar humour to Yes Minister or Rumpole of the Bailey, an educated sense of humour that is hard to pick up on a lot of the time.

I have not laughed so much at something since watching all of Yes Minister and Yes Prime minister and I love that i found something as good that was made slightly more modernly than the series that was made in the eighties, if not before. This TV Series was purely made for sunday evening entertainment when we just want to sit their with our toast and hot chocolate and laugh a lot. It's not hard to follow and for a lot of people it isn't funny but in my opinion it is one of the best things that british tv has made in a long time!

Body of Lies

As I said, a bit of Russel Crowe thing so if you're not a fan of his then just grin and bear it for the next post and after that it should all be okay.

I am not a fan of the topic but i was blown away by Mark Strong. I spent a lot of time staring at his character and thinking that he looked kinda vaguely familiar and only after a while did I realise that it was Mark Strong. His performance stole the movie, it was a stunning performance from him and something that should never be taken away from him. I don't know if he was good or bad, maybe a little bit of both but nonetheless he was fantastic to watch.

Russel Crowe took me a while to figure out as well. I was sitting there running through the list of actors that it could be and wondering when I was going to see Russel Crowe make a appearance in this film and all that time he was on the screen in front of me. I guess I had expected him to look younger. I love it when i have to spend time thinking about the actor because it means that they aren't being obvious about who they are. Russel wasn't the star of the show but he was fabulous alongside Leonardo Di Caprio anyway.

Di Caprio played a similar role to the one that he played in Blood Diamond, alongside Jennifer Connelly. He wasn't outstanding. The best performance that I have ever seen from him came in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape and probably his best performance recently has been in The Great Gatsby. I'm not particularly convinced by him as a CIA operative and leader. He can kill people convincingly but he doesn't have that rallying leadership quality that you would look for in some of the characters that he has played. Not exceptional, but good enough from him.

The film itself was good enough overall. Films of that topic, unless they are very moving or very real (like Munich) tend to just fit along the same kinda 'it was quite good' feel and never really achieve that outstanding role that most of us want them to achieve and this was no exception.

No Way Back

So this is the Russel Crowe movies part of the list. When i compile these lists I often find it very difficult to find films that attract me and to get the balance right. I try to go through lists of best ever films but obviously i don't just want to take the top 100 off of them so i compile lists and then go through new releases or films that i may have missed. I always find that after all that I am about twenty films short so then i pick an actor and IMDB them and randomly pick some of the films that come up. This is why there have been several Liam Neeson films in quick succession and several Morgan Freeman films as well.

This is another typical kinda Federal action based films. I felt that the plot was predictable and as Russel Crowe says in that film, the female character is really annoying.
Russel Crowe was quite good in this film. He was convincing as a farther and even mostly convincing as a FBI officer but i didn't get that cutting edge from him. There are very few actors that give that cutting edge and the best example that i can think of is Mark Harmon who, of course, stars in NCIS. Anyone wanting to undertake a role of a federal officer should watch a couple of series of NCIS and learn from Mark Harmon because as shown by him, the Liam Neeson approach of pointing a gun and being aggressive doesn't always work. I guess I just don't see Russel Crowe as intimidating, he isn't obviously muscular, he has a very soft and melodic voice which in this type of film doesn't help him out and I wasn't convinced when he was doing some of those scenes that he was the right man for the job, but, this film was made in 1995 so there have been massive changes and a lot of new actors have emerged since then and made those kind of roles their own.

The film was good but very predictable and the star of the film was probably the kid.

M

Fritz Lang makes his first appearance on this years blog with the film M.
Metropolis was on the blog last year and it was a silent movie so it was easy enough to follow and there was a lot to say about it. On the other hand, M is in German and subbed by Australians into English. Because of the language, if you miss any part of the film then you are struggling to keep up until the end of the film.

The performance of the film goes to Peter Lorre who's performance as M really came to life in the last few scenes of the film. I love watching someone give off such a convincing performance as a criminally insane person as that. Those last few scenes are the scenes that really stick in my head and stay with me because it showed off the class of acting in that era, more than that, it showed off what true ability to act really is and it is a quality that is rare to find from upcoming actors.

At times hard to follow but then again, it is Fritz Lang and it is a great film!

Taken 3

So now i have completed the trilogy, i feel that i can properly rate them and compare them all.

I am tempted to say that Taken 1 is the best, just because it set the stage. Some of Liam Neeson's other films had been building up to this film but Taken finally showcased what would happen if you let Liam Neeson have a gun and go nuts. There was a plot to Taken and some great acting as well. I have to say that after I watched this film I feared for any young woman that decided to travel to Europe alone or without an adult present.

Taken 2 was the follow on that had to happen. It was only slightly worse than the first film. As a sequel it was not on a par with Avengers: Age of Ultron; which has to be the best number two film in a trilogy made to date but even so, it was a pretty solid case for the argument that not all sequels are rubbish. Certainly when watching it you felt like they really couldn't keep on with these films being the way that they were because there would be no one left to take and no one left to kill. You got a feel of 'same old' but they tried there best to make something exciting out of essentially something that was destined to be very predictable.

Taken 3 was different because no one got taken. I got the feeling that they were trying to bring the story to a nice conclusion but then at the end they finished with his catch line 'I will find you and kill you' and that just left it open for a fourth film but i really hope that they don't make a fourth film. I liked this film a lot because of the twist in the plot. There was less action than the first film but more of plot development than in the second one and overall i think it was a very strong finish to the trilogy. I for one would now be terrified of taking anything from Liam Neeson or even ending up anywhere near the wrong side of him.

What i liked most about this film was the acting from his daughter and the police inspector. There was more character development, a strong sense of a female role and a claim that not all police inspectors are stupid (which generally is the feel that you get from most films). Neeson was compassionate in his role but then we had known that he could be, afteral, he only killed hundreds of people in Istanbul and Paris to keep his family safe. With this film, because of the reduced action, you got a feel that the actors were allowed to open up their characters a little and I really liked that feel to it.

I really liked this as an end to the trilogy and off the top of my head it is probably the best third film in a series that i have seen.

Dr. Strangelove

Part of British culture and film is to watch Peter Sellers. Sellers is up there on the list of the greats alongside Lawrence Olivier and Alec Guinness.

Dr. Strangelove is a film about war and how one general goes a little crazy and orders a war hit on Russia. This wasn't a film like All's quiet on the western front, there was action going on in every scene.

Peter Sellers was very convincing as German Dr. Strangelove, who advises the American president in the meetings that they have in the war room. At first I thought that Sellers must be playing the British RAF officer that is working for the crazy general but the more i watched it, the more i discovered that he was not at all and I became more impressed with him. Accents are things that many actors find difficult to hold down and a German accent is actually very difficult to keep hold of for an hour and a half but he didn't loose his accent at all.

I wouldn't put this film on the list of greats but for his versatility, Sellers is one of the greats and this film really was all about him.

Noah

Everyone's favourite bible story...

Having been raised a catholic I was a little dubious about this film. I can remember a few films that have been made recently from bible stories and none of them were very good.

The line up was stunning- Mr. Crowe, Mr. Lerman, Ms. Connelly, Miss Watson and Mr. Hopkins were the real starting names in this film and yes- Ray Winstone would get upset that i didn't mention him as well so I just did. When you look at a cast like this you either think that it is going to be spectacular or that it is going to be really rubbish and it was the later, but disguised by the big names it probably sold quite a few cinema tickets.

There was nothing wrong from the acting point of view. If I am being critical then I think that the role that Emma Watson took on she was a few years early for but that is just because I loved her in 'The Perks of being a Wallflower' and loved the character that she played. I haven't made up my mind about Logan Lerman, certainly he didn't out do his performance from 'The Perks of being a Wallflower' but I don't think that his performance was worse than Percy Jackson 2.

The take on the story was an interesting one. Little themes towards the end of this film are carefully omitted from the 'child friendly' story that most children grow up with. I even felt like those parts that are normally omitted could have been cut and it wouldn't have made much difference to the film overall. I know that they were trying to draw out everything in Noah's character but it would have made the film shorter and therefore better.
I agree with the people that feel that they could have cut at least fifteen minutes of this over two hour long film, in fact; they probably could have cut something closer to thirty mins all told and created a normal length film for people of all ages to enjoy that had a great plot and some great acting to go with it instead of at least fifteen minutes of boredom.

Am I being overly critical of this film?
Maybe it is just because it is a bible story that I am being so harsh, I am not sure if truth be told why I didn't get the same vibe as i would have done from any other Russel Crowe film but I didn't and that is a problem for me.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The sequel to this was hilarious and also amazing. The stage was set and expectations were high for this film, could it repeat the quality and comedy that was produced in the first film?
Yes.
This film was just as great in every way. I love the collection of well known actors that starred in this film and really made it special. This film has a sense of community, it is in every way on a par with the Quartet which is one of my favourite films to watch as there is never a wrong time to watch it. It doesn't try to be funny or over work things, it just allows everything to flow smoothly and allows the actors to play off of each other. Character development in this film is more so than in the other film but needed. They left this film really down to character development and they didn't shy away from it.

Maggie Smith deserves a special mention for her character, she has almost all of the best lines and is once again playing a completely different yet wonderful character. The ease in which she manages to pull of this difficult character is spell bounding. I was absorbed by her performance just ever so slightly more than i was by anyone else's.
Judi Dench was probably the second best character in the film as she was both stylish and yet what i would consider to be the perfect portrayal of an older woman that is no longer quite sure of herself and what to do. To me, she just summed up old age beautifully alongside Bill Nighy.

If you haven't seen these films then i would strongly recommend that you make a special effort to watch the and enjoy them.

Prisoners of the sun

Not quite as exciting as Indiana Jones and certainly no where near on the music front, Prisoners of the sun gave off a story line that was screaming for Harrison Ford but couldn't materialise Harrison Ford. One gets the feeling that the plot may have had the amount of action in it reduced to attempt to differentiate between Indiana Jones and this film.

John Rhys- Davies stars as the lead archaeologist in a attempt to enter a pyramid and search for something with historic meaning (you can tell that I was paying attention to the talking and prologue at the beginning). John Rhys- Davies is no Sean Connery and instantly that is who i wanted to compare him to but I will try hard not to do so anymore. There is a clever twist to his character and the way that it was written in and ultimately, portrayed by John Rhys- Davies was very clever and well done. In a film that is almost gripping at nothing, what saves it is the character development of each character. A lack of action makes it hard to continue to motivate yourself to watch the film except that you are never quite sure or convinced by the character of Rhys- Davies and so you keep forcing yourself to watch more just to discover if you were correct or not.

I wouldn't rate this film as one of the greats, the plot is easy enough to remember (all be it not accurately and descriptively) and the acting for most of the film was just about average. This film could be played as a silent movie until the last third and you would probably still be able to work out what had gone on up to that point and in my opinion that isn't always a bad thing. Often we remember films for what we see rather than what we hear (unless it is a comedy).

   

Kick-Ass 2

I know that this wasn't on the list but it is now and as i have said, the list feels shorter this year and so I am posting about new films that I watch as I go along as well.

I could never make up my mind about Kick- Ass. I haven't read the graphic novel but in a way it seemed like it was trying too hard. Let's take a look at Captain America; he is a guy that had injections to make him super strong and be able to vault gates but even so, he doesn't have super powers in the same way that Thor or Superman does, he was just a lucky guy that had a bit of help from science.
Kick- Ass is trying to hard. The films were violent, too violent. I can't actually put my finger on what it is that almost puts me off watching them but there is something. I guess that in a way, when we are dealing with super heroes, we expect a certain level of violence but normally the violence doesn't look as 'gory' as it does in the Kick-Ass films. Personally, I got the feel that there was too much violence, I actually felt like the whole plot of Kick-Ass as a entity was just to beat up people and kill people.
I like what they are going for in this idea that sometimes you actually have to kill people instead of this idea that we can get from super heroes like Batman that traditionally never use guns of even kill people.

Kick-Ass was probably one of my least favourite films in my collection of comic books and graphic novel films and Kick-Ass 2 has probably taken over that spot. It wasn't a bad film but it just didn't work for me, it seemed like there wasn't very much to work with and even less to produce.

If they make a Kick-Ass 3 then I will not be rushing to watch it in the cinema.

Driving Miss Daisy

Another Morgan Freeman film. I think that this is the last one with him in for a while but i wouldn't swear to that.

This is another film that I think really got put on the list because of the soundtrack more than the casting but i wouldn't put it past myself to have included it just because it had Morgan Freeman in it.

Of course, he was wonderful, the true gentlemen and a lovely character to have in your film. This is a film that i will remember for a long time just because of what it achieves. Stereotypes can be overcast and friendships can be found in the most unlikeliest of places with the most unlikeliest people and that is exactly what this film is about. Loyalty is a hard thing to find and is something that should be kept when formed, no matter the temptations.

I loved this film. It wasn't comical, it was just in its own way- moving. I didn't cry, in fact, i didn't realise that it had made me feel, well anything until the end and i thought about it and maybe that is why i like it so much because it subtly makes you feel things without even really realising it. 

Million Dollar Baby

Hey Hillary Swank from Million Dollar Baby.

I looked her up on IMDB because I wanted to see where she had made her name and I only knew one other film that she had been in which was 'Freedom Writers' and that was an inspiring and truly fantastic film. I had high hopes before watching this film.

I wasn't disappointed by her- not by a long way. Hilary Swank's ability to radically transform herself from the beautiful woman that seemed almost like a delicate flower in 'Freedom Writers' to a no- nonsense, ass-kicking boxer in a time when female boxers were hard to find and no one really considered them to be worth anything was a huge sign of encouragement for the industry.

I have really had to eat my words with the blog this year. Last year I watched 'Dirty Harry' and I said that if you had seen one Clint Eastwood film then you had seen them all and so far this year, I have watched three Clint Eastwood films and been proved wrong on three occasions.
If i saw more than one western film with him staring in then i probably wouldn't want to eat my words because most westerns are the same, the same plot, the same actors and once you've seen one, you've really seen them all. Gran Torino was different, it was an older Clint Eastwood and exploited the more almost 'Dirty Harry' character that we had seen before but it didn't quite capture it all. I remember Clint Eastwood in that film very well and I was impressed with how different he was.
This portrayal was similar to Gran Torino. The character had so many similar traits but because the story was different, the character was different. There was more to Eastwood in this role than there had been in Gran Torino, this time he coaches a woman to at least moderate success.

I feel like I should mention that this film made it on the list because it had Morgan Freeman in it. I love Morgan Freeman and have yet to find a film in which i don't like his performance. It doesn't matter if I am supposed to like the character or not, I have never been able to criticise his performance and I can't with this film either. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't breath-taking like Meryl Streep in 'The Iron Lady' but it was perfect for the character and did the job that it needed to do. I don't want to waste time typing about him because I have already done that in all my other posts about his films.

This isn't one of those classically great films but it is a film with a vision and a mission and a cast that are more than capable of delivering it superbly and I applaud them all for that.

Teachers

No, not the TV series, the film with the kid from the Karate Kid.

This film was made in the 80's and has some great scenes. This film really does show how schools used to be run and the attitude that surrounded them because this film is all about a school that is being sued for graduating and illiterate child. In this film a teacher manages to die and the classes don't realise because he apparently spends his lessons sleeping behind them and the kids have a routine that they go through to make sure that they do work and the teacher looks like he is teaching.

The only decent teacher in the end decides to sue the school because they tried to make him quit his job when he raised concerns that a child in his class couldn't read and the school wasn't doing anything about it.

The soundtrack to this film is pretty good, somewhat similar to a John Hughes style film in the kind of classic rock that kicks off the film. The film itself is a film that i considered to be neither good nor bad. A film that i will remember because of the subject rather than the acting or the script. As a teacher, this film and the character Mr. Durell is the reminder of why we work so hard and put in so much effort to educate every child, regardless of the attitude from parents or from the people above us that don't see things from our point of view.

If you work in the education sector, maybe you should give up an hour and three quarters to watch this film and see if you agree with the message at the end.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

I know that there have been opportunities to post this since its release in cinemas several months ago, so sorry that it has taken me until now to write this post on it.

Avengers has got to be the biggest marvel enterprise probably of all time and is one of the highest grossing series of films currently. We all watched Captain America and Iron Man and Thor, maybe some of us even watched the remakes of Hulk. Avengers put the best together and it was a massive hit. I wondered about this film, if they were ever going to be able to better the first film.
I think that they did. I admit that i missed Tom Hiddleston in this film but I still loved it all the same. I've been reading the graphic novel X-men Vs Avengers and the idea of the avengers working as a team is something that is a key theme throughout the graphic novel but something that only really started to come together in the end of the first film. I wanted to see if they could make this team work- thing work because i think that we all had our doubts over Tony Stark.

There were so many brilliant lines in this film that made me laugh that i think that it outdid the previous film in that department. In this film we weren't looking for Loki to make the one-liners or for Hulk and Thor to have a battle of the arms, we were just looking for some great script writing and some good old fashioned and classic action.

I am one of those fans that is now reading the comics or the graphic novels after watching the films and understanding and enjoying the films a lot more now that i have read some of the comics. There is so much that they can do with these films is they are following the same ideas that feature in the graphic novels. This is one of the most solid seconds films to a trilogy that has even been made, it is on a par with the empire strikes back.
Normally with the second film we get this almost- nothing- like feel to it, it's just a filler to join the first film that arrived with a bang and the third and final film together but this isn't it. The first film was the platform for this film and this film is the platform for the next film which is taking a slightly different angle to it.

Everything was perfect in this film. There are so many comics that if they were to strictly follow them then they could be making films for another century but they are picking and choosing and ultimately leading up to something big and I can wait for it or for the next film!

Walking on Sunshine

No, this is not about the hit song by Katrina and the Waves released in the eighties, this is a rubbish version of the film of Mamma Mia.

I only wanted to see this film because I wanted to hear their version of  Walking on Sunshine and it was acceptable but nothing else about this film was. I really don't know why they bothered to release this film, they should have just cut it because it was never going to be a hit, it wasn't even going to be like Mamma Mia and draw the audience in because it was ridiculous and ABBA!

The plot was predictable, the songs were all destroyed and I wasn't convinced by most of the acting. It gave the impression of being a low budget film trying to do the same thing that Mamma Mia did. I hate comparing musicals but there was so much to compare about this film and it's a shame because if it hadn't have been so similar we probably all wouldn't think that it was worse than high school musical two!

There were some funny moments and one good character but overall, there just wasn't enough in it to drag it along.

9 to 5

Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen...

A double spread of musicals is heading your way... if you don't like musicals then i apologise sincerely.

I had the great privilege of watching this show on stage in Canterbury and I loved it! The songs were brilliant and the acting was superb! I got the film shortly afterwards and two years later I actually got round to watching it.
Dolly Parton is obviously the star of the show but she is backed up superbly by the other leading women. The film is missing the solo songs that helped make the stage show so great but even so, the film is funny and actually really well done.

I would recommend that people see both the film and the stage version as both are great and different in their own way. I watched it with some other people and we all loved it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

So today I decided to try and go from something a little more modern and I went back to a film that won many awards and most importantly, a film that i managed to completely miss in the cinema.

I know that Ralph Fiennes also featured in Red Dragon and I do try and avoid watching films with the same actors in (i know that readers can laugh at that statement because of Liam Neeson but I do try).

This is a film about a guy that is framed for murder and tries to clear his name. The way that this film is narrated is almost as good as into the woods. The use of several voices as the narrator is clever and links everything together and personally, I am a huge fan of it.
Ralph Fiennes leads the line in this film and does it perfectly. I think that Skyfall is the only film that I have seen in which Ralph Fiennes isn't evil... until now. In this film he was not evil, he got to show his class and abilities. The stereotype was thrown off in this film and he was revealed in all his glory. With this film i felt like he had been hiding another personality and he had finally unchained it and allowed the world to see what he is truly capable of!

The support from Jude Law was lovely. Almost a background feature but without him there would have been  a struggle to make the film flow.

I know that there are so many other people that should be mentioned in this film but i am far too tired to go and look up their names and then spell them accurately and for that I apologise. Fiennes assistant (lobby boy) in the film was sublime.

Location was perfect, filming was perfect and there was not a single moment that i wanted to cry over or sit there and role my eyes at. Everything was perfect in this film. This film is quality at its best!

Red Dragon

I had no idea that this was the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, if i had then i wouldn't not have scheduled these two after each other.

As a prequel to the film that I really enjoyed, I found this film in it's own way just as good. Obviously there is less for Hannibal to do because he is in prison but he still manages to really steal the film from Ralph Fiennes. This guy definitely would've stolen the film if it hadn't been for the presence of Anthony Hopkins because as the crazy guy he was fantastic. What I liked most about it was that his history had been explained in the film and not explained by Hannibal and what made him crazy was in a way so simple, it was really cleverly done.

There was more creativity and psychology with the script this time around. Ed Norton's character had clearly spent a lot of time being developed for this film because the character himself did a lot of thinking and used every thought in one way or another- nothing was superfluous. This is probably one of the best prequels that was created after the sequel that has been made in history!

This was a cast full of stars but a cast full of good stars that made the movie better instead of one of those classic films that has no story but a lot of famous people in it.

Hannibal

This is the sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs and not the TV series.
I really loved the silence of the lambs and I am excited to announce the return of Doctor Hannibal Lecter. I was slightly disappointed when i saw that it didn't have Jodie Foster in it but i think that Julianne Moore was an excellent alternative to Jodie Foster, if not better than Jodie Foster.
I know a lot of people that think that Anthony Hopkins ruined his career by playing this role but i disagree, i think that he really propelled his career by playing this role. I love actors that are versatile. I really can't stand the guys that only make romcoms or that only make action films. I know that not everyone is able to be a convincing bad guy or even a convincing romantic guy but I like to see actors challenging themselves and I have loved every minute of his performance as Hannibal Lecter so far. I know that Hannibal Rises will be on my list for next year and I can't wait to watch it!

Ridley Scott directed this film. Gladiator was amazing and Robin Hood was very very good so I have very little doubt when i see this name on a film. I have read reviews about the director that have given a different impression but i am more than satisfied with everything that i have seen by him so far.

Sunshine on Leith

I was given this for my last birthday and was kinda scepticle of it and until my sister came back here for a holiday I had managed to avoid watching it at all costs. The last two musicals that they said were really good were in fact the Madness musical and Rock of Ages and both of them were terrible.

Sunshine on Leith is different though. This musical has a story and some great songs. It is a step above Mama Mia just because it has more of a slightly serious plot and isn't entirely featuring only the songs of Abba.  I love ABBA but even so- it's a great happy film but nothing more whereas this film isn't so much of a happy film, just more of a musical with a good selection of songs in it.

I don't know any of the actors in this film but it is good to learn new faces i guess.

Because this film is set in Edinburgh it is featuring the musical of the only band that we would associate with Scotland- The Proclaimers!