Mortdecai

Weirdly enough, when the adverts first starting popping up in London for this film I had just finished writing a musical based on a story from the bible and my lead male protagonist was called Mordecai. The similarity between these two names caught my attention and this film made its way on to the list for this year.

I feel like it would be a waste of time to talk about Johnny Depp because I have already spent so much time on the blog talking about him in other films and what a fantastic actor he is, how he manages to change roles convincingly in everything that he does etc.
There are a few names that I feel I should spend my time talking about. Paul Bettany, his performance is superb. Two thumbs way up for that man because this role is not one that i have seen from him before. I wont pretend to be a expert on him and I certainly haven't seen tons of his films but from the characters that spring to mind, this is just something completely different. I was really encouraged by his performance, the voice changed and everything about him changed, if it didn't look like Betany then I probably would have struggled to pin it down to him.
Gwyneth Paltrow was another that i was impressed with. I had kinda become accustomed to seeing her in Glee and lets be honest, that is not an accurate representation of her abilities. In this film she got to show what she was made of. Strong and willing, showing who was really running things and I loved her from start to finish.

The film itself wasn't actually funny as such but it had a very pleasant feel to it that just made it really easy to watch and enjoy. It wasn't trying to be too clever with the plot, it had almost stripped everything back to the core and just embraced the idea and the vision that went with the script writing. The settings were fabulous and I particularly loved the feature of the Rolls Royce in the film. Every English Gentlemen should own and drive a Rolls Royce. 

La Dolce Vita

How good is your Italian? Mine isn't good enough to fluently understand this film but I understood enough. I will copy the description from IMDB to help you guys out just in case your Italian is not particularly great.
In Federico Fellini's lauded Italian film, restless reporter Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) drifts through life in Rome. While Marcello contends with the overdose taken by his girlfriend, Emma (Yvonne Furneaux), he also pursues heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimée) and movie star Sylvia (Anita Ekberg), embracing a carefree approach to living. Despite his hedonistic attitude, Marcello does have moments of quiet reflection, resulting in an intriguing cinematic character study.

This is a typical 1960's film. I am getting a breakfast at Tiffany's feel from it. I wasn't particularly inspired by the acting from anyone in the film and I know that it is a black and white so less acting is required but even so, there have been better films. Those that have seen Breakfast at Tiffany's and like it will probably like this film. The music gives a sorta, nothing to it feel, very similar to Tiffany's. 
Some of the scenery was quite dazzling though and I was impressed by the lead woman. Filmed Simply with fades out to end scenes, this film is a classic icon of a lack of money or technology and even at parts a lack of imagination. What it does have is simplicity that makes it easy to watch (even if it is in Italian). All I will say against it is that it is too long. Adopting the carefree approach is fine but not for three hours, half it and it would be totally acceptable.

Magnum Force

In the sequel to Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood returns to carry on in the same fashion.
There is more to this film than the one line that returned throughout Dirty Harry so that is a positive and as we all know, it is good to start with the positives. I thought that there was more plot to this film and that actually the entire film was better than the first one. Clint Eastwood convinced me more in this film than he did in the previous film and that made me happy because he can act, as shown in Gran Torino.
At times i felt that the plot was predictable, especially towards the end when you just felt like it had to be a certain character and that you knew what was going to happen.
I liked the way that this one was filmed, instead of a lot of panoramic shots like they used in Dirty Harry, they filmed it more as if the camera was only a few feet away from the action, the camera followed the character and the characters were always near each other so there were a lot less of the distance shots that we became accustomed to seeing during Dirty Harry.
I am happy that there was more development and that clearly a lot more thought went into this film because i actually quite enjoyed it and don't regret watching it on my afternoon off. It wasn't funny but it wasn't too serious either so in a way it was close to being perfect. The acting wasn't the best thing on the planet but I have seen a lot worse, it was pleasant in every way.

Runaway Train

Most of this film is set on a train that is out of control... and that ladies and gentlemen is almost the entire film summed up in one sentence. There's a little bit more to the plot- two guys escape from prison and sneak on to a train that is out of control.

This film manages to succeed quite well for not having very little to work with. It wasn't a master class in anything with this film but it was how a lesson in how to succeed without really having anything to work with. Everything about it was ok and nothing more and nothing less than that. There was a moment towards the end when there is a shot of this woman attempting to be really stunned and it's hilarious because she is really awful at looking surprised and I mean, really dreadful at it.
I'll admit that it had a cool sounding soundtrack and that the scripting was good but the best film of that kinda theme and genre is The Shawshank Redemption and that is what everyone should be watching if they want a fantastic prison break style film!

Dredd

Sylvester Stallone set the standards and most people felt that he didn't do it very well. I haven't read the comics so I have nothing to compare it to. I liked the original movie with Sylvester Stallone but then I acquired the Karl Urban film Dredd and realised that Stallone made a lot of mistakes.

Karl Urban is the master class on 'don't mess with me'. Only Liam Neeson poses more of a threat than Karl Urban on the streets and it would be very interesting to see them both in a battle, I wouldn't want to call the shots on that one!

I loved that he didn't take off his mask, ever, it made the character more threatening and the voice of Karl Urban really worked wonders.
The film had a very similar feel to that of 'The Raid', although I think that this was made first so I guess that we could say that this set the standard for other films of this genre.

Lena Headey (300, St Trinians) was solid, unquestionably fluent in her character as Ma-ma and there was even a brief moment where you thought that she might even hold her own against Karl Urban. I was actually overwhelmed by her performance, a complete transformation from her character in St. Trinians and the character really showed her versatility.

Olivia Thirlby was superly awesome as Anderson. Often when a Psychic is in a film they are portrayed really badly but this was not the case, she was perfect and her character was perfect. I was really convinced by her, more convinced that i was by the woman in the original Judge Dredd film and I can't tell you how happy I am that there was a strong female character that wasn't the evil character.

A Passage to India

This ended up on my list because it starred Alec Guinness and he is totally awesome in everything but even so, my heart did sink slightly when I read the synopsis and discovered what it was about. This film was very surprisingly good. The synopsis gives off the impression that it is something else completely, another boring war film kinda like kingdom of heaven or all's quiet on the western front but it wasn't.
I see this film as the foundations for the making of the best exotic marigold hotel. The locations are lovely and the plot is actually a work of art instead of something that was stolen from another film and adapted ever so slightly. The other thing that I liked about this film was that it wasn't out-dated. I don't feel that this film is particular to the period, even though it is set when England occupied India. This film is something that could quite easily be remade and not have anything in the script altered. The language isn't dated, it's just old because of the equipment and the actors, if you stuck a couple of new faces in it and took new equipment to the place it would look as if it wasn't written twenty years later and would still be a very good film.

I think that what I liked best was that it had a happy ending but that there were several twists and turns in the plot to get there. Nothing started off negative and nothing was ridiculous, it was all real and very accurate.

I spent the entire film trying to work out which character was being played by Alec Guinness so I am happy that he wasn't obvious, very happy that i still don't know which character he was playing!