Mary and Max

After watching 'Oldboy' and not really liking it I was told that this film would be more to my liking and it is with great excitement that I announce the very first Stop Motion film on my blog to be 'Mary and Max'! There are so many different types of film that should be making it on to this blog and aren't because I am unfamiliar with the genre. Think of Stop Motion and what do you come up with? For me it is 'Wallace and Grommet' and 'Chicken Run' (which I really didn't like). After that some Tim Burton films may pop up like 'The Corpse Bride' but hardly any compared to the five hundred off films I could think of if you said 'action' to me.

The small country (probably bigger than the UK but I failed Geography so I am just guessing) of Australia produced this film and it is about the correspondence between an obese man (Max) in Australia and a very young girl in America (Mary). They have never met and Mary's mother is not fond of her daughter talking to an obese man whom she considers to be ugly but Mary and Max keep up this correspondence throughout Mary's life until she is an adult, has graduated from college and has done well until she writes a book about Max's autism, which he doesn't like and he stops talking to her. She sinks into depression and her lover leaves her. She sends Max a cup which says 'I'm sorry' and after a long time Max sends her something back. It has been a long time since she heard from Max and Mary has become suicidal, taking some Valium and attempting to hang herself before she is interrupted by the neighbour across the road drawing her attention to the package that has been on her doorstep for a while and he saves her life. Mary goes to see Max but by the time that she gets there he has died.

I enjoyed this film until Mary attempted to kill herself and then I started to question it a little but as Francis rightly pointed out this film shows the circle of life, the good, the bad and everything else that comes with it. No matter how good your life is there will always be a bad to it and the better your life is the worse that bad is. Mary experienced the bad when everything fell apart but everything fell apart because of her mistake with Max. Max had a difficult life and he needed to let go but you can't judge how someone is going to react and if we were being critical then we would say that she should have asked Max before writing the book but she didn't so instead of going on to be a bestseller she destroys all the books and is left with nothing,
This is another reminder that life can be truly awful without friends or anyone to love you.

This film is also in black and white which can, at times, make it a little harder to appreciate or understand because there is a limited amount that you can do with the film and lot of it is totally dependent on your imagination and mine isn't that good. Stop Motion is a skill. To make a 90 min film out something in black and white which doesn't actually involve any humans being shown on screen is a difficult task. This film would have slipped past me for that reason. Wallace and Grommet only has the audience that it did because of it being a TV series. People got used to the idea of Wallace and Grommet and then they took to the film. Even though it had the names of Barry Humphreys and Phillip Seymour Hoffman on it this film still struggled. It was around the same time as Tim Burton was producing some of his films and I can't think of why this film has been so overlooked but it has and Francis is right, it is an underrated movie. I hadn't heard of this film before Francis recommended it to me and I think that a lot of  people haven't heard of this film. So if you haven't heard of this film and want to appreciate all types of film then go and watch this film and experience the circle of life.

Oldboy (2003)

This film was recommended to me by a friend and is part of the vengeance trilogy however, the rest of the trilogy will not feature on the blog this year as this film was the second in the trilogy and was very weird.

The first South Korean film to feature on the blog in its short history and I am always saying that I want to watch films from different cultures and that are in a different language. I am also encouraging people to comment either on here, twitter or on the facebook page telling me their favourite films and if I haven't already seen them then I will watch them and review them here so feel free to leave a comment and I will watch it within a week and post the review here.

I found this film disturbing. It is a thriller and I will assume that most people aren't familiar with the plot so briefly I will explain. Oh Dae-Su is a business man and is arrested for being drunk and disorderly. On his way home he is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years without knowing why. He spends the years in prison practising shadow boxing and trying to dig his way out (similar to The Count of Monte Cresto) but before he can finally escape he is hypnotised and wakes up in a suit on a roof. He spends most of the film trying to find out who imprisoned him and why and ends up playing a game with his captor. His captor eventually kills himself and the film is left on a slight cliffhanger.

This film contains unnecessary violence, incest and way too long sex scenes and it is entirely motivated around revenge. Watching the fight scenes was no way near as impressive as some other martial arts films that are out there and were out there before this film was released. It won awards but I am struggling to understand why. No one in it was particularly outstanding.  I didn't enjoy the plot or anything particularly about this film but I didn't hate it. It is a thriller and it works well as a thriller with you spending a lot of your time trying to work out why these things are happening to him but with him breaking out of prison so early it made the film feel longer than it actually was. Coming in at under 2 hours is short in the world of film now but within about thirty mins of the film he was out of prison and trying to track down the prison that he was in. Once he does that he has to fight everyone in the prison to get out again and at a time like that you would expect the music to change but there was nothing to really suggest that action was taking place and that he was going to leave the building with something sticking out of his back.

Only when they were screaming did they show a change in emotion. In the remake they show a lot more emotion and really play on the general confusion of the main character which made the film a lot more interesting. Maybe just because this film is so weird I didn't find it interesting and I struggled to keep myself watching it. Nothing about this film really screamed thriller at me, not the music, not the way in which it was filmed. It settled for something in between Memento and a Hitchcock movie. Hitchcock is dependent on the music and Memento has the confusion shown in the sometimes disjointed and blury filming and this film had neither but appeared to be trying to have both. Yes, there is a different style of filming in different cultures but this film seemed to be a little lost as to what style it was going for.

If anyone wants to comment on this and help me out with it then please feel free to do so but for now it gets a solid 5 out of 10 from me.

Revenge of the Pink Panther

The fourth one and the last one that actually stars Peter Sellers as Clouseau because the final instalment of this series was made after he had died. Revamped music and the traditional style opening being forced to wait a while before coming on and letting you know that you are watching a Pink Panther film didn't go down too well but showed the direction that this film was going to go in.

For the first time I am going to be critical of a Pink Panther film. There are several films of the franchise that were made in between the Peter Sellers films which didn't have any of the original cast in them and aren't particularly well known. Some of the plot goes missing between this film and the last one reviewed on the blog, however, the continuity issues are the same as Dreyfus managed to completely obliterate himself using a vanishing machine so his constant presence in this film is a little confusing. At most this guy would be invisible and there is no explanation as to how he managed to gain his body back. I love the character of Dreyfus and I feel that he adds a lot as a regular enemy but this time they have brought back someone who was long gone.

My other criticism of this film is that it is not as funny as the others have been. Every other film has made me laugh a lot but this one didn't. There were moments when they could have and moments where you could see it coming before it happened but there wasn't anything that actually made me really laugh in the same way that some of the Cato moments did in the previous film. I also marvel at how he manages to continually buy a bed that seems to be made out of paper and breaks every time that he has a fight with someone. That takes some serious skill and stupidity. I am amazed that Peter Sellers continued with this franchise for that long and managed to keep finding stupid things to do that weren't obviously stupid or out of character. Overall it is a good enough film but the other ones were better and it doesn't make you particularly excited to watch the last film in the box set.

The adjustment bureau

Friday night is the cinema night but in this house we all sit down, watch a film that none of us have seen and have a good time without spending the ridiculous money on the cinema. After scrolling through every film on Sky Cinema we ended up choosing a Matt Damon film in the form of  'The adjustment bureau'. A weird squad who wear trilbies and a book written by a guy with an unfortunate surname. This is kind of like 'The Matrix' in that weird things happen to make you not trust the internet stopping for a moment of you spilling your coffee. Don't trust anything- just like you can change the matrix you can make an adjustment.

This is another totally different role for Matt Damon and as someone who was at first very sceptical over Damon, believing that he could only play action film characters but now, having seen more of his films and seen him take on different roles, attempt to push through being young and sort of attractive into being older and more established I am becoming a huge fan of him. For fans of Captain America 'Falcon' is in this film and he is worth watching. Anthony Mackie (Million Dollar baby, The Hurt Locker) playing Harry Mitchell who is not an angel but lives longer than a normal man is completely different from any role I have ever seen him in before. Passive and at times faltering a little but always calm. The character manages to end the film a lot better than the way that he started it.

Emily Blunt has chosen her parts carefully and not just accepted anything thrown her way. This time taking on the character or Elise, a dancer who David Norris (Damon) meets in the men's bathroom and then again on a bus before being told by the adjustment bureau that he can never see her again only to constantly defy them and run from them to be with her. She suffers more emotional hurt from him at the hands of the bureau than ever before but makes the right decision in the end. The balance of emotion and control is perfect and we all want to slap Norris for leaving her in a hospital. I won't say that she carries the film but she carries half the film and Matt Damon carries the other half of the film. Together they make the film a very successful film.

One final shout out to Terrence Howard. Wearing that hat makes him threatening and his looks and voice make him perfect for the role. This is a man who is mostly always in control of himself no matter what part he plays. This film is a calm one in the sense of Damon not doing a 'Jason Bourne' on it. More like 'Now you see me' in terms of the feel of it which was exactly what we were after.

Carrie

Stephen King is normally associated with Horror and if we are making a confession then now is the time for me to say that I categorised this film as horror until I actually watched it and apart from the death at the end I don't really see how it could be categorised as that.

From this film Carrie seems to be a film about a child who is victimised by her peers and has a slightly religiously challenged mother who abuses her. I use that term because she punishes Carrie for everything, quoting random bits of the bible to justify her actions but most Catholics now would get angry if they saw that taking place. I like to keep religion and politics to myself and not get into any sort of rant about them on this blog so as to not offend anyone who stumbles across this blog so all I will say is that the mother is not entirely right in the head and that appears to be why Carrie is picked on so badly. A lot of children experience bullying or feel like they don't fit in with the rest of the class but this is the first film in which I have seen a teacher stand up for a student in the way that the Gym teacher does for Carrie in this film and I salute it for that reason and that reason alone.

This film was made in 1976 and the only name that I recognise from this film was John Travolta even though many names such as Nancy Allen, William Katt and Amy Irving featured in this film and their careers were launched or greatly helped by this film. It looks like it was made in the 70's because now, 40 years on (41 to be precised) it looks dated and John Travolta wasn't fat in this movie which is how he has looked for the last two decades worth of movies that he has made. In the 70's it was slightly less scandalous to beat your child, although it was frowned upon by some people whereas now if anyone even suspected that a child was being abused schools, social services and safeguarding agencies would get involved. Carrie gets the better of everyone when her mother dies at the end of the film and she is elected prom queen (albeit so that they can empty a bowl of disgusting pigs blood all over her).

This film was the first adaptation of a Stephen King novel.

Carrie has some interesting skills and makes things happen when she is stressed or panicked without being able to explain them. No one else realises that it is her because no one else can explain why the light bulb smashed either. No one dies until the end and even then the mother probably deserved being hurt for not preparing her daughter for anything in life and for abusing her. Everyone dies in this film at the end because Carrie imagines that everyone is laughing at her at prom and she electrocutes the principal, crushes the gym teacher, sets the building on fire and locks everyone in it before flipping over the car of Chris and Billy (the two that victimised her at prom) and killing them as well. Kind of gruesome and I feel sorry for the Gym teacher who only tried to help Carrie but when you are telekinetic and you think that people are laughing at you, especially the people who bullied you then you probably do want them dead.

Carrie is for any child that has ever been abused or bullied.

Jason Bourne

This was on the blog for last year but I missed it in the cinema and didn't want to try and stream it illegally so it had to wait until this year.

In total there are five 'Bourne' films but only four actually feature Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). The 'Bourne Identity' is where it all starts and is only half of the first book in the series (of the same name) and is where Jason starts his take down on Treadstone and also the start up of the blackbriar project. That is followed by 'The Bourne Supremacy' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum', which is where the Blackbriar project is destroyed and Jason learns his real name. So that makes three films. I can count and yes, there are five films in this series. The fourth and somewhat unrelated is 'The Bourne Legacy' which features Jeremy Renner instead of Matt Damon as focuses on the blackbriar project and the destruction of this project. Renner is no Damon and his character is not Jason Bourne but he does also manage to take down the project and the people from the CIA involved in it with the help of a woman so at least they continue that running theme. Now we go back to Jason Bourne and him finishing all the work that he started three films ago.

Matt Damon is continuing his role and carrying on from where he left off even though he looks about ten years older than he did in the previous film which is the only disappointment in the film that is claiming to follow on directly from the 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. The physicality and action of the previous films is still there and they have edited in some shots from when he was younger for the flashbacks and you just can't help but feel that he is going to end everything in this film; the problem is that it didn't end like that, there is a possibility of another film but they are running the risk of just repeating the plot of the second and third films again if they do so.

Julia Stiles is back alongside Damon as Bourne's associate and helper. She and him always did have a bit of a romantic 'thing' going on throughout the films and it continues in this film until ***SPOILER ALERT*** she dies heroically in a motorbike escape from a sniper but not before she has hacked the CIA to help Jason understand why his father was killed. This film isn't about him taking down the CIA it is about him understanding his past, why his father was killed and why the CIA are continually after him. Tommy Lee Jones takes the reigns as chief of the operation against Bourne but even he is no match for the character and the upcoming to-be-chief-operator is not stupid, she suspects that Jones is secretly interfering with her operations and she tips off Bourne multiple times in an attempt to use him and draw him back to the programme but in the end she develops the same opinion as every other chief operator and attempts to play him but we all know that you can't play Bourne. Hence the possibility of another film.

Matt Damon is as rutheless as ever and 'Jason Bourne' is a typical 'Bourne' film. As far as plot and action goes it is on a par with the first film but of course, instead of watching it with interest to find out who he is and why he can do what he can do we are now watching it to see how it will end, what he will do and who he would settle down with. Jason Bourne is getting old; the character is reaching the point on screen where whilst he will still be physically fit he will start to be overrun and overpowered by younger opponents. His knowledge of how to operate and how the CIA operate will always keep him alive but Bourne is starting to tire. Take nothing away from Damon because his performance is consistent but it is the age factor, it is the grey hair that makes most people think that he is getting past it.

This film would be a great way to end the series. *cough cough, take the hint directors, cough cough**

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

I am Groot. The cast and crew that made such a phenomenal hit two years ago with the first film have returned to bring the eighties music back to the world with a new set list and a baby Groot to set things off in style.

The first five minutes of this film are just hilarious. Watching baby Groot dance to the eighties music whilst every other member of his team is busy shooting at some thick skinned monster just had the entire cinema laughing. He is totally oblivious to everything else going on around him at that point and has become a firm lover of the somewhat less fashionable music that rocked the seventies and eighties. This is without a doubt Vin Diesel's best role...ever.

Stallone comes into the squad for this movie (to reunite with his buddy Michael Rooker from Cliffhanger) as a character that will become bigger in the next film. When his name came up at the start I did frown a little because I am not the biggest fan of him but with him only having two scenes worth of screen time it actually panned out very well for him. Yondu (Michael Rooker) has more screen time, is a much bigger character and is the real hero of this film. With his character only playing a supporting role he manages to steal all the emotion and screen time in the last few scenes and well played to him because the character opens up a little but never comes out of character, never stops being that difficult guy with the whistle arrow.

With the focus not so much on Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her father this film turns it focus onto Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his parents, ultimately his father and discovering why he is only half human and just how cool things can be when he knows the truth but there is always a hitch. The planet Ego has a very Rivendel feel to it, it is beautiful but lonely and you could start to read the script about five minutes before it came, which was something of a disappointment. However, that being said, it was possibly the only disappointment as there is character development for every character in this film excluding baby Groot who is just adorable and has all the best scenes.

For the music, for the action, for acknowledging that this is Bradley Cooper's best role (Rocket) and for the laughter that it produced (mostly from Drax) you need to watch this film. Drax makes everyone laugh with how insensitive he is. I thought that I was blunt but he is far blunter than I ever am because I don't openly tell people that they are hideous. Got to love every character in this film and the comics that they were based on. Also be sure to watch out for the Marvel typical Stan Lee cameo.

42nd street

There is a serious lack of musical presence on the blog this year and I think that this may be one of two that are actually on the blog! With all the action films flowing around the blog there really is a need for a total change of pace and with the film being a Broadway hit and having made it's way to London for a stunning production on the west end's biggest stage it has earned its place on the blog this year.

The film is black and white but not like the Fred Astaire feel that I was lead to believe. There is a plot to this film which doesn't focus around singing and it goes like this:

A show is being put on called 'Pretty Lady' and it needs 40 dancers so a lot of the usual's turn up to audition and then Peggy Sawyers turns up but she is too late until they realise that they only have 39 girls instead of 40. For financial reasons the lead woman is someone who cannot dance but her name is worth something so seats will sell on her name but it does mean that they have to cut a lot of the dancing out of the show because she can't dance. Unfortunately she is controlled by an older, wealthy man but she is seeing a younger man and once they get to Philadelphia for opening night things become too much, she upsets the older gentlemen and after the opening night she has an accident and her ankle is broken so Peggy ends up taking on the lead role and saving the day.

Having seen this on stage first the film was a little disappointing but only because the stage work is so fantastic and the lack of colours makes it so much harder to appreciate the set design and the amount of work that would have gone into this show. There were also less songs and one of the main lead women in the stage production did not feature in this film but the plot is the same and the main hits are the same with similar choreography. Ruby Keeler had a good voice and was a good dancer. She's no Audrey Hepburn but she is lovely to watch and as previously stated years ago on this blog you just have to sit back and imagine yourself in the period watching this for the first time. It would have been spectacular. Watching this film helps you to appreciate what they had to work with and just how well they managed to cope with a lack of just about anything that we have now.

Watch this film and then go and see it in the west end because both are fantastic but the west end show has more music and brings the magic into colour and then to life with more music.

Fast and Furious

These films seem to go round in a circle. With Bryan O'Conner (Paul Walker) claiming back his status as 'cop' and going undercover to bring down a drug dealer it seems like they have mashed up the plot of the first two films together and brought back Vin Diesel.

No more Lucas Black, he did one film and that was enough for anyone. Now we are back to the real fast and furious movies, like the first one (which out of the four so far watched is still the best). Undercover, road racing, fast driving, guns and Vin Diesel beating up Paul Walker; everything that you expect and hope for from these movies.

Dom has been away and is back. The opening of the film starts with him and his crew trying to rob a truck (where have we seen that one before?) but it goes wrong . The end of the film finishes with Dom giving himself up, being sentenced to prison and then being busted out of the van transporting him by Bryan and the team. So now we know what to expect from the next film because Bryan will be a wanted man and so will Dom (again) but with them having already taken over Mexico and Tokyo they have to head off to other countries and places, which means Rio in Brazil for the next film. In this film they were trying to clear Dom's name or at least, Bryan was on behalf of Dom's sister but that didn't really work out so in the next film they will all have to try and clear there names. The good news is that there are another four films in which to do so and The Rock starts to appear in the next film so better characters is likely to mean a better script and a more enjoyable film. Even though this film is trying to keep going with the idea that it is the fourth in the series it would be better if we just forgot about the third one and considered it to be the third in the series.

This is a classic action film. Fast cars, some decent driving and a lot of guns and shooting. When you are in an action mood this is definitely one to pick out and watch. It is not as good as the first film but it is better than both the second and third films. Vin Diesel is always Vin Diesel and Paul Walker is always Paul Walker so there really is no point in reviewing their acting performances. Just enjoy it for what it is.

Sleepless in Seattle

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, where have we seen this combination before? The answer, for those of you that could not answer this question is 'You've Got Mail' (although this film came first).

Young Tom Hanks is fathering a son, a young boy who has lost his mother and is suffering. Often when these types of bereavement happen the relationship between the child and the parent is almost severed, it is injured and becomes almost non-existent. Jonah doesn't want a new person in his life, he doesn't like the idea of his mother being replaced (which is understandable) and only takes to one person that they haven't met. With constant references to a Carry Grant movie it is a little hard to take this movie as an original but back in the 90's it was popular to create characters that loved films and made constant references to other famous actors. Arguments take place between Jonah and his father as Jonah wants to go to New York, to stand on the top of the Empire State building  and meet his new mother but his father doesn't want to, he wants to go on a weekend away with Victoria (a woman that he is serious about but Jonah doesn't like). Jonah runs off to New York and his father has to follow him. They end up meeting the new woman at the top of the empire state building after another Carry Grant reference.

I was expecting a lot worse. I don't have the best opinion of Tom Hanks in films having felt that he is often the same person or just very irritating but he was different in this film. He wasn't trying to play the hero or romantic, lovable character, he was trying to play a father who is trying to piece his life back together. A man who has responsibilities and doesn't just drink himself into oblivion. The character was strong but not perfect. The portrayal was good and one of the best from Tom Hanks. The Star award probably goes to Jonah (Ross Malinger) as the driving force in the entire film. His character was similar to the one in 'Love Actually' except that he doesn't play the drums and have Liam Neeson for a dad. He was cool, determined and trying to find his own path in life, to make his life complete again. He was prepared to let the right person into his life but he was very clear that the current woman that Sam (Hanks) was interested in wasn't the right person for him.

Meg Ryan was more of a cameo. The plot was almost split between Seattle and New York, between Alice (Ryan) and Sam (Hanks) but even though she had a lot of screen time she wasn't the main focus of the film and that made it a lot easier. Sleepless in Seattle is a moving film, a short enough film to make it enjoyable and not vomitable in any way.

The Captains Paradise

Alec Guinness in an Ealing studios comedy. Appreciating film through the ages is one of the goals of this blog and becoming more familiar with the work of the greats (and Guinness is undeniably one of the greats) is the real reason behind this blog. Lots of films come out each year that are exciting and I want to watch but having the older films, the silent movies and the films in different languages helps to further my film education and give a purpose to this blog.

I hope that your linguistic skills are up to scratch because when Captain St.James (Guinness) is in Morocco he is speaking a different language (not french but I think Spanish) to his wife and then translating some things into English. This is a story about a man who manages to have two wives and captain a boat (The Golden Fleece) that travels between Gibraltar (wife one) and Morocco (wife two). Claiming that he has found the paradise of life living like this he works exceptionally hard to maintain his cover and make sure that neither wife discovers of the others existence but like with all affairs and movies, in the end something will go wrong and both of his wives become discontent with the life that he wants them to have and Nita (wife in Morocco) takes on a lover and then shoots the lover.

This film is the way in which to not treat women. Living two completely different lives works well for the Captain and he enjoys it but it doesn't work particularly well for the women. One woman never gets to go out and enjoy life properly and the other woman doesn't get to cook or do any of the quite things. Both end up leaving him and he is left with nothing because trying to restrict people into a box doesn't ever work out in the end but you have got to applaud his efforts, the way that he convinces one woman to not cook because it will ruin her nails, her face, her hair and just about everything else of any concern to her. I am slightly amazed at how gullible she is but it was funny to watch and to think that somewhere out there in the world there is a woman who refuses to cook on the principle of it ruining her looks.

The ending is superb and a twist. This film sums up the way that some people think and treat others. Slightly comical but very enjoyable. Alec Guinness is always a pleasure to watch!

Ender's Game

A second appearance within a year for Asa Butterfield on this blog. A name that wasn't known to me until I watched Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children in September/October is now becoming one that I need to look out for. Scrolling through IMDB I have actually seen several movies that he has been but just never realised that he was in Hugo, Nanny McPhee 2, The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas and Ashes to Ashes (TV series).

This cast is crazily famous. Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin are the names that instantly scream out. This is also a second appearance in a much shorter period of time for Harrison Ford and Viola Davis on this blog.  This is another film about training children to become soldiers. We know that Viola Davis will be fantastic because she always is and the same can be said for Ben Kingsley and Abigail Breslin so all eyes are really on Harrison Ford. In Cowboys and Aliens he was poor but he was so much better in this film. It's sad to say but it seems like Harrison Ford is loosing his ability to act. The older he gets, the worse he is in movies. With Asa Butterfield always looking more like a kid who is likely to be bullied than a child who is going to stand up to anyone watching the character development in this film makes for a very interesting watch. Admittedly, Harrison Ford isn't a particularly threatening man so it doesn't look like Ender has to be a particularly strong character but only at the end do you realise just how strong he is. This isn't a kid who was pathetic, this is a kid who out thought everyone else, was more intelligent than the others, knew how to work as a team and achieved his potential without regularly being beaten up.
Ben Kingsley isn't evil in this film. There is no designated 'bad guy' in this film so it's not the same plot that features in most movies with the good guy beating up the bad guy.

The biggest question in this film is how far are you willing to go in order to protect yourself? Are you prepared to open fire on a planet that may be a threat but isn't currently possessing any threat to you? When you tell someone that it is a game then it all seems fine and isn't morally questionable but once you realise that it wasn't a game then the ethics and morals are called into question of every leading officer on that ship. Thousands of soldiers died under Ender's command and an entire planet was attacked for no real reason other than they could be a threat. When it was a game Ender was prepared to go as far as the others to win the game but once it became real he wasn't because as he states in the film 'it's about how you win' and not just about winning whatever the cost. With every battles there are casualties but this battle wasn't a necessary one and there were questions over his psychological state. A tactical genius and a fair leader but his nightmares had other things in them, things that led him to possess a different set of morals to some of the others on the ship. He was the best but like so many others in different films, also the worst because he didn't see things and think in the same way that the leaders did.

I liked Ender's Game a lot and cannot fault any of the cast for their performance. Harrison Ford was one hundred times better in this film than he was in Cowboys and Aliens or Star Wars seven. Ender, unlike Tris (Divergent) was not totally dependent on Petra (in the same way that Tris is dependent on Four) and not everything was about him. He was dominant but fair. He was in command but he allowed Petra (Hailee Steinfeld) to train him and he worked with her and his unit to come up with the best solution for everyone. Overall, a very good film.

The Conjuring 2

Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are back to exorcise demons in Enfield. I praised Vera Farmiga last year when I watched the first film and I will praise them both again for this film. Directed by the man who directed Saw, there was uncertainty surrounding this film because Saw was found to be not as good as all the hype and certainly not in need of multiple sequels being made. The Conjuring was a very good film but there was a concern that the director was going to drag this film downhill and make it the typical sequel which is rubbish.

This film tests them more as characters and a couple than the previous film. The last fifteen minutes of this film is where all the emotion comes in. It's tense and moving and something different to what we witnessed in the first film. Their acting was magnificent in the first film but in this film they have taken them to another level. Watching this film is like watching 'The Woman in Black' live. This is what a horror film should be, not laughable, not one that I can watch whilst enjoying a sandwich, one which has me watching it through my hands, coat, knees, gloves and hat but still can't bring myself to tear my eyes away from the screen.

Using her visions in a slightly different way, Lorraine faces a demon far stronger than she has ever faced before and even suffers some personal damage in those visions. She is connected to this case in a far stronger and more brutal way than before but she needs to continually access them to help to solve this case and save Ed. Seeing the Demon face to face instead of through a character or a mirror was a nice touch but nothing will beat the determination to continue fighting this demon. At first it wasn't obvious but they came back, they did work it out and they did have to battle with something far stronger than anything that they had faced in the first movie. People do believe in exorcisms and there are people in the church who are trained to do those kind of things so this horror movie isn't that far off the mark. Unfortunately if you are at some point possessed in your life Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson will not be the ones knocking on your door and exorcising you.

The constant playing of 'Hark The Herald' suggests that this film should be watched at Christmas time as a nice contradiction to the happy films of sharing and caring at Christmas.

Lethal Weapon

Not the TV series, the Danny Glover and Mel Gibson film released in 1987.

Mel Gibson is known for being William Wallace in Braveheart and also for being in many other films. Danny Glover is known for Saw and The colour purple. Lethal Weapon is about two cops who are paired with each other, have their differences and then end up fighting the same guy over a kidnapping. With the character portrayed by Mel Gibson being a slightly suicidal officer who jumps a suicidal man preparing to end his life by jumping on to an inflatable mat underneath the building without the consent of the jumper, with a crowd watching. Most people he meets he kills and yet he manages to save lives and close cases. He is better than Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry.

Glover is the poor guy that gets stuck with him, gives him his gun and tells him to kill himself and then watches as he so nearly almost does and then to top it all off, Gibson's character saves his life. The only real action comes after the kidnapping when there is a small amount of torture (but it really is minimal) and when the chase of good after bad starts to take off. The ending is a not the best and it seemed a little unrealistic that a man who has been tortured via some form of electrocution could beat a very physically fit man who has not had such things recently inflicted upon them but that wouldn't make a good ending so they went for the unrealistic ending.

There are four Lethal Weapon films so it was obviously a huge success and the ending didn't put anyone off. In no ways whatsoever is this film a bad film I just consider it to be a little overrated. It flowed, it didn't drag and there was action but there should have been more action in it. Nothing really stood out as the highlight of the film and nothing wanted to grab hold of my tiring eyes and make them stay awake for this film which says something about the movie. I get the feel that the Lethal Weapon trilogy is going to be like the Die Hard or Mission Impossible trilogies and having had both of them on the blog last year, how repetitive and boring they became stick firmly in my mind and I will have to wait for another year before watching another Lethal Weapon movie. I have no idea what the TV series is like or if it is even anything to do with these films but if it is then I am really missing something about this film.

Jumanji

We love Robin Williams and we found this film scary as children and couldn't watch it so now more than one decade on it features.

When you are older the animation in this film doesn't scare you. They did the best that they could do and at the age that we were, living in the time that we were living, the animation was terrifying, the Lion was realistic, the spiders were still a little scary and the elephants were as good as they were in the Lion King.

The children are genius'. With so much focus on Robin Williams the children passed by unnoticed but Peter and Judy (Kirsten Dunst) are the key to everything. Reverse psychology and emotions being used in a very clever way, they keep Alan (Robin Williams) going when he is determined to no longer continue playing the game. Twenty six years on and he doesn't realise that he has to finish the game until the children convince him to continue playing. The world moved on without him and he needs to go back twenty six years by completing the game so that he can live in his intended life time and not lose twenty six years.

Jumanji is a film in which you admire Robin Williams for being serious in this film. He is known for being funny but this role wasn't a comical one. He never changes much about his physical appearance, he often looks like Robin Williams and sounds like Robin Williams but becomes a different character through his emotion and determination. He can pull off anything. Run around dressed like Tarzan- yeah, why not? He can do that as well. Fight a lion and shut it in the bedroom? No problem. The game calls to children but you should never try to cheat it because you end up being rather seriously punished by the game. If you were to watch this film as a child you would probably be afraid of ever playing a board game again and might even convince yourself that you were hearing noises. As a child this film is scary. Kind of like 'Gremlins' it does need to be a film watched by adults and not children.

I wont love this film but all Robin Williams films are good and worth watching.

Florence Foster Jenkins

You may remember the name of this film as the film that won Meryl Streep an award, causing her to and Donald Trump to have a bit of a verbal battle, which was won more elegantly by Streep.

Since making 'Mama Mia' years ago (almost ten years ago) Meryl Streep has done more with her voice, including have vocal lessons to strengthen and preserve the voice and take on more singing roles. Florence Foster Jenkins is another singing role. In real life Foster Jenkins was acclaimed to be the worst singer (amateur soprano) ever as she often would go flat without realising, completely miss the note she was aiming for and change key and was fairly extravagant in her performances. It is hard not to life when watching this film because the character is so egotistical and the character of St.Claire (Hugh Grant) refuses to let her know that she can't really sing and that people laugh at her. He pays off reporters so that they will write a good report for her to read in the papers.

The talent is not in Hugh Grant (we all knew that) but in Meryl Streeps ability to sound like she can't sing. Underneath we can hear her voice, we can hear that there is quality of a specific nature but she actually can miss the note so badly, can make herself sound so bad that if we didn't know better we would say that she didn't know how to sing. It's the look on her face and the belief that we see in the character that tells us that she isn't trying to be bad, the character genuinely believes that she can sing. As a singer, trying to sound bad is much harder than trying to get better. There is nothing more uncomfortable than trying to hit all the wrong notes and not instantly correct yourself. This character must have been one of the hardest that she has ever had to play.

With the costume and time period adding much to the film, giving it elegance and flair that gives a 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a day' feel this film is very enjoyable. For fans of 'The Big Bang Theory' Howard is the pianist who has to regularly make adjustments to his playing to accommodate her change of key and other such things. Most of the applause is given for him rather than her singing but she continues to perform, to pay her pianist and keep her name going by having a lot of money and connections. Friends of hers actually liked to listen to her and supported her whilst others bought her record to laugh at it. Have a cocktail and enjoy this film one evening or on a sunny afternoon. With no specific audience in mind you can watch it with anyone.

The BFG (Mark Rylance)

Live action remake of this film because live action is becoming the thing to do. Roald Dahl's classic 'children's' book that can easily scare any child younger than nine or ten years old (including yours truly when she was a child). Like all Disney films, even though there is a part of the film that is a little dark and threatening as a child the songs and fantasy moments help to get you through it. Seeing as this is Spielberg and not Disney it is safe to assume that there will be no fizz pop and wizz banging in this movie!

Mark Rylance claimed the Oscar two years ago for 'Bridge of Spies'- another Spielberg film and then made this film. Being what it was and also being that he had just won critical acclaim there was a lot of build up to this film but when Spielberg is directing something then you can expect the best from his chosen cast and his production team. As much as possible he looks like the original BFG (David Jason) but with some of his own features which helps to make it that little bit more real. In 'Bridge of Spies' Rylance was quite a silent and controlled character but this character is equally as dependent on Sophie as she is on him and he gets to show all the emotions, to do more with his face in one scene than he did in the entire of 'Bridge of Spies'. Every child wants to relate to the BFG because he is a friendly, almost father like figure and when we watch this film we think of our own father or someone who takes on that type of role. He is brilliant. I think that the best fantasy character for children will forever be Robin Williams as 'The Genie' in 'Aladdin' but Mark Rylance as 'The BFG' is close and will probably be the best BFG for the next twenty or thirty years.

This film allowed my mind to travel to another world in a way that I longed for it to do so years ago. I think that this version is actually better suited for adults. Let the original version take your child's mind to as far as it can go when you are that age and let this version take your adult mind to a completely different place, to a place that you are more suited to travel to and understand as an adult and only as an adult. The detail of the giant world makes it a little more real than the other version was and so you lose a little of that fantasy which you need when you are younger. Spielberg has not added anything to make the film any longer than the original, he has just used the extra minutes from the sons wisely.

I loved this film a little more than the original and I didn't feel that the live action took anything away from the film. Ruby Barnhill as Sophie was almost exactly as I remember the animated character and I can't give any higher praise than that to a girl who took a character so close to so many children's hearts and didn't try to change the character, she just became 'Sophie'.

Lassie Come Home

Time to take a break from the recent overload of action based films. Lassie Come Home is one of the first Elizabeth Taylor films ever made, if not the first. At only eleven years old she stars in this film about the dog 'Lassie' and how important the dog is to the family. They made another six films featuring the character Lassie after we witness the remarkable struggles that the dog goes through to return home in Yorkshire after its family were forced to sell Lassie during tough times.
At 1hr 29 mins it flows nicely and is easy to schedule in to your day. The reason for making sure that older films are on the list is because they are all the typical length of one and a half hours, which is the proper length for a film. Two hours is acceptable but anything longer really is pushing it and even though the film industry seem to think that the appropriate length for a movie is at least two hours, they are wrong, we all want to do other things with our day and put off watching films that are too long.

if you consider yourself to be a film nerd (and there is nothing wrong with that) then you need to watch this film. This is when Elizabeth Taylor became earmarked for game and greatness and she was such a successful contributor to the industry. Like. Grace Kelly, a woman to be admired and an important figure in the world of film. If you haven't seen a film with her in then you should watch her first film. (this one) and then pock a familiar title. They are good films, they show the quality that was available and that no amount of technology and effects can makeup for proper acting quality.

As a film for dog lovers or people attempting to understand why dogs are so important, the bond between the boy and the dog is something that many companions of dogs will have and be able to relate to. A film like this is special for the sentimental value and not because the actors were fantastic. I want to rave about Elizabeth Taylor but it wouldn't be fair. In a supporting role she made a name for herself with a decent performance but she wasn't the star of the show and she didn't need to be.

important for film history, pleasantly enjoyable.

Insurgent

Part two of three in the Divergent series. The review for the first film 'Divergent' was less than a month ago so it should be fresh in our memories but in case it isn't I'll just bring you up to speed. Tris (Jailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) attacked Jeanine (Kate Winslet) to prevent her from making all the Dauntless soldiers attack the Abnegation faction. Now they are factionless and wanted for attacking Jeanine. Taking shelter in a few other factions, when they are chased out of Amity by Eric (Jai Courtney) and a lot of other top Dauntless soldiers, they end up in Candice and face a Candice trial. Four is cleared from any guilt but Tris cannot be cleared for her part in the event as she was never under the same implant that Four was.

Caleb, who has no staminer, no spine, no courage or no real use in this film decides that he can't keep up with Tris and Four so he goes back to Eredite and works with Jeanine. His betrayal is just stupid and irritating. Even Peter (Miles Teller) has more of a role to play in this film and is more likeable than Caleb and considering that Miles Teller only ever plays the slightly arrogant character that is saying a lot. Tris eventually hands herself in when it becomes clear that Jeanine has implanted lots of people and is making them kill themselves every day until Tris comes forward. The focus of this film is on a box that Tris' mother was keeping from Jeanine. This box is never mentioned in the first film so it must be something that features in the book. Only a divergent can complete all the levels in the simulation and open the message of the box. Typically, Tris is the only one who can open the box. When she does, the message isn't what Jeanine was after and she intends to kill Tris and Four, bury the bodies and hide the message but she is overthrown by the Factionless, led by Four's mother and the remaining Dauntless. Evelyn (Four's mother) shoots Jeanine and the message is broadcasted. This would have been the ideal place to stop making films.

The star award still goes to Winslet because her character gets a lot more development and she gets to show stronger distress in this film and also a much more cruel-hearted nature that was slightly lacking in the first film. Peter redeems himself a little by making Tris look dead so that she wouldn't unlock the message in the box but Tris insists upon completing the box tasks before escaping with Four and so Peter's effort was wasted. Caleb does nothing to redeem himself and is just an accessory to murder. Chicago should get better after this revolution but they made a third film so it is safe to assume that it doesn't. Eric dies and Jai Courtney continues his stunning role as one of the most hated characters in this series but spares us from having to suffer him and Peter in the final film (probably so that he could focus on Terminator Genisys).

Shailene Woodley is not convincing as Tris at all. Not enough emotion or determination. If the character in the book is pathetic and totally dependent on Four then fine, she is doing a good job but then the character is rubbish and if she isn't then Woodley is just doing a bad job at playing the part. Four does all the work and she just stands there and attempts to look pretty. Having changed so much from the books to ensure that the movie would stand alone they had the license to develop the character of Tris and I can't believe that she is so emotionless and rubbish because of the changes. It is okay to have a woman who can think for themselves, fight and show emotion but she doesn't really show any of those qualities. Whatever she had in the first film she lost. The first film was the best and this was still good but they didn't need to make it, they could have stopped at the end of the first film and they certainly should have stopped after this film. It had a nice ending to it and didn't need to be continued.

Beauty and the Beast

The Disney film was done so well. The reviews were negative and made this film out to be something that it wasn't. This film is better than any review has ever made it out to be. A few extra songs and some more back story is all that has been added so where the rants and reviews came from I have no idea unless they were watching a totally different version of the film that I didn't get to see.

With all the reviews focusing on Emma Watson I want to start off talking about the other Emma. I will review Watson's performance but first I want to talk about Emma Thompson as Mrs. Pot. It was always going to be hard replacing Angela Lansbury because even though the voice of Mrs. Pot was in many ways her voice it still takes a lot to pull it off convincingly and sing with that accent. We knew that Thompson could sing because she sings a little in 'Saving Mr. Banks' but I didn't know that she could sing like that. Underneath the accent was a very good voice that she was trying to conceal a little. With three different versions of Tale as old as time being played in the film I don't really understand why she was trying to conceal how good her voice was but it is the mark of a true singer when they can still sound really good underneath an accent like that. Only when she turned back into a person did I realise who it was, I was clueless until that point and normally I don't have a problem with recognising her in any film.

Ewan McGregor was another one that I didn't recognise. Singing in a French accent was even more impressive than singing in a lower class English accent. I know that he can sing, i've seen Moulin Rouge but I didn't know he could hold that accent whilst singing and furthermore, I had no idea who it was until the credits came up. Alongside Ian McKellen, as the candlestick he was superb. Everything that made the Disney film magical was still there but with better technology and skills and the addition of McKellen, who is superb in everything that he does, the film that so many people fell in love with as a child just became a film that adults can fall in love with as adults. This film is one step more than the Disney.

Emma Watson was obviously Emma Watson but she played the part well and it suited her. Her voice was so surprisingly good that I actually believed that she was lip singing for a while until she sang something that just sounded like her speaking voice. People that felt like there was a feministic twist on this character are mostly wrong. She is learning from her father and she is slightly stronger than the original character but she isn't any stronger than the original character could have been. Her Belle is perfect. The emotion is so much stronger in this film than before and instead of looking pretty and not doing much else she is the complete package. I wouldn't give her an Oscar for it but I will give her the praise that she deserves because she deserves to be making a lot more films and she needs to make good decisions over films and roles because she can act and sing- it's all there for her if she wants it.

Luke Evans... he is starting to make a name for himself and his voice was equally surprising. I would be amazed if he hadn't had some form of vocal training in his past because there was vibrato in his voice but not enough to sound totally operatic. The Girl on the train was released in November and his character had a darker side than the character of 'Bard' but we can't say that we didn't see him taking on an evil role at some point and he was superb. Again, I don't think that he would win an award for his performance but I don't think that it is the right character to earn an award. He is another one who should only go up and make a huge name for himself.

The rants about Lefou being gay- we disagree and as we review gay films on this blog it's not a homophobic disagreement. The character doesn't know who he is, he is in awe of Gaston and doesn't truly believe in himself. He wants to be as good as Gaston but doesn't feel like he ever will be and he is loyal to Gaston. It isn't until the end that he realises who he is and what he wants. If you want to see his character as gay then feel free but I think that it was fairly clear which two men were the gay couple at the end. If the film is trying to embrace equality then they did it and they did it in the best way and that is by not making a huge controversial statement. Yes, they could have had a different ethnicity for any of the main characters but it wasn't like there were only 'white' actors in the cast. Whatever reason you think that you have to not go and see this film you're probably mistaken and will only understand that or receive clarity when you see it for yourself.

Beauty and the Beast is magical. I think that some people were put off by 'The Jungle Book' because this film was labelled as 'live action' but that was only true for the beast and it made it more real and more magical. Seeing the hall come to life, the dresses, hearing the music, it took you to a different place that many films fail to do. For a while you could forget that you were in the cinema and you could actually believe that you were a spectator. For the people with childish imaginations that always wanted to be Belle you could actually see yourself in that golden dress with Emma Thompson singing and you dancing. More than two thumbs way up for this film. I've learn a lot abut the characters and appreciated the magic that was always there.
Watch out for Dan Stevens (the beast) (A walk among the tombstones, the fifth estate) it was hard to judge his performance because of him being a beast but he was still as good as the original beast.