Allegiant

The final instalment in this series and probably the worst one of the entire series (in my opinion).

Tris, Four and the others who escaped in the previous film finally make it out of the new revolution and over the fence, in to a new world. Tris is 'the chosen one' ( que star wars moment) and everyone else suffers from not being as wanted as she is. Jacob doesn't feature at all in the book but he features a lot in the film by being able to see what is going on inside the fence.

As always the main good guy- David is actually the bad guy and the entire story that they feed Tris about going and making things better is just a complete lie. You can't save everyone and you can't destroy an entire race just because some people are stronger than others. You shouldn't get to chose who lives and who dies and that is what this film is about. In a way it is a nice ending to the trilogy because Tris once again shows how useless and pathetic she is without Four there to make her better. Considering that they already changed so much of the story to accommodate Jacob, they could have just changed her character a little to make her less pathetic and someone actually worth watching but then again they were competing with 'The Hunger Games' which makes everything a lot harder.

Having watched the second and third film together I can say that I actually felt that this was the worst film and a bit of a let down. When the plot for two films is to get outside the fence, to overthrow the woman in charge completely and having done that it would have been better to leave it like that and let everyone read the book of Allegiance instead of making a film. It's a little anti-climatic in this film. So much build up towards the end of the second film for nothing to have been achieved and them to have to start almost everything again with a different enemy.

Four's mother is probably one of the worst characters in this film but I can see why they spent so much time making Jacobs role a lot bigger. Tris saves Jacob and takes him with her (even though he is a total idiot and should have died in the first or second book), even when he can't run or fight and generally is fairly useless. That sort of family relationship is what most siblings or families have but not Four and his mother. Four fights against his mother who is being a complete idiot and I really feel for this guy because his father beat him and his mother is attempting to execute people- what a family to have.

Probably one of the worst endings to a trilogy I have experienced and I definitely preferred the second film to this. The first one- Divergent, was the best and it went in order after that.

Back to the future 3

Don't take money, don't take fame. The song is back but you have to get through the entire film to hear it again!

According to popular vote this is the favourite of the Back To The Future series and it is a huge step up from the previous film. The name of this film is probably a little inaccurate as 'Back to the past' probably would have been better suited with a trip of something like 100 years in the past for Marty to find his ancestor, who is of course Michael J Fox with a ginger wig and an acceptable Irish accent.

Cowboys, horses, fights, bars and a new time machine in the form of a train- this film has everything worthy of an action film and Marty finally gets over his insane desire to fight people when they call him a coward. Every time he fights he looks at this picture of a tombstone which says 'Clint Eastwood' (being from the future he takes on the name of Clint Eastwood) and realises that he has to change something so that he doesn't die and therefore have never lived.

There are many memorable scenes- Doc dancing with his woman, Doc saving the woman from the bridge (which is altering the past) and Marty fighting the ancestor of Biff. The villain always stays the same in the same way that the plot always stays the same. Marty's family is threatened by the family of Biff and Marty has to save his family, be that his father, son or ancestors. The failure from the second film of stopping Biff meant that they had to go back in time a lot more to prevent things from happening. Once you get used to the cowboys and the music returning to 'the future' seems really weird.

So much more enjoyable than the previous film and more memorable. I can understand why this is most people's favourite film out of the three. The scenery was lovely and there is absolutely no possibility of another film. The series has ended. Michael J Fox didn't need to go on and make another hit film because he will always be known as Marty McFly.

Knight and Day

Tom Cruise is featuring a lot recently but I promise that he will not be featuring again for a while. Cameron Diaz also makes a rare appearance on this blog and I can honestly say that this film was never intended to feature on this blog because I dislike both Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz as actors.

Knight and Day plays on Cameron Diaz being a 'dumb blonde' and Tom Cruise playing himself. It is funny but sometimes her character is so stupid that it is slightly unrealistic. Tom Cruise takes the guns and the enemies and actually manages to produce some clever stunts with a relatively decent plot line but he is still just being the same guy that we have become accustomed to seeing. So why should you watch this film? It's funny, at times. The driving is ridiculous and very unrealistic but apart from that it could become a possible situation except that they would be a lot more subtle about it and if she had really panicked that much then he would have smashed her phone and left her in a different country after drugging her instead of returning her to her house.

The plot isn't entirely predictable and she does turn in to something of a cool and strong character at the end but it takes her the entire film to stop being useless and pathetic which is a lot of a let down considering the time in which this film was released. All that I can say about this film is that I did actually enjoy it and I liked the scenery, which is more than I had intended to do. I want for Tom Cruise to stop playing action characters or himself and do something a lot better and stronger with his career but that seems a little unlikely. I also wish for Cameron Diaz to go out there and do a film which is surprising and is totally different to anything that we have seen from her because she is another who plays on her looks and generally is herself from start to finish.

All that I have learnt from this film is that when federal agents come to the door and use words such as 'safe' and 'secure' it means that they are going to kill me. However, having seen so many of these films I either must have a good understanding of how secret services operate (which is highly unlikely) or I have no idea at all and just assume them to be like how they are portrayed in films which would make these key words complete and utter nonsense.

Next up is Back to the Future 3, followed by Allegiant.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge.

The team are back but without director Jerry Bruckheimer. Instead they took a very Spanish approach to it, focusing on a Spanish Captain effectively being the equivalent of Davy Jones, with a ship that has a similar feel to it as The Flying Dutchman.

This film should have been called 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' and that probably would have been a better option than calling it 'Salazars Revenge' and that says a lot about the film. They went with the wrong name and the wrong idea for the plot. This is sort of a back story in to the character development of Jack Sparrow but it also includes the son of Will and Elizabeth and another woman. This film feels like a remake of the second film with a less terrifying and thought out enemy.

Less action and a lot less comedy. Not a bad way to end the series but they really do have to end the series because another film will kill it. They tried to make it funny but without the classic action and the classic almost 'we just let the make it up' feel that goes with the original three films there is nothing that really makes you want to watch this film.

Javier Bardem keeps up his record of playing really weird characters but he was not as good as Ian McShane in the last film. They haven't had a real enemy since Davy Jones and no one has been as good as Bill Nighy. David Whenam takes over from Jack Davenport and the character is not quite as good but he still gives it his all and can pass for a naval officer. A different part of the Caribbean, which is always nice but apart from that there is nothing to really make you want to watch this film again. If you are doing a Pirates marathon I would still be inclined to tell you to scrap the last two films and just stick to the three.

The Mummy

This is the latest release of this film and the first in part of a universe that seems to be building up to a remake of 'Van Helsing'.

The reviews of this film are not good and that generally sums up what this film is. It was boring, not as scary as it should be and the Mummy wasn't actually that bad or evil as a character. You could see the writing on the wall from the start of the film and this film just started off badly and didn't get any better.

The light in all this darkness is Russel Crowe and Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde. He is probably the best Jekyll/ Hyde ever seen in film and if 'Van Helsing' is just a remake of the film then Jekyll's inclusion in this film is probably to try and help explain the start of Van Helsing. With the next film in the universe scheduled to be one about Frankenstein it all makes sense that they are building up to Van Helsing as the inclusion of the monster is also in that film but needs to be introduced before the film so that you can truly understand how Frankenstein ended up with Dracula to start with.

There is no real plot to this film. They dragged out the end because they ran out of any plot that would make the ending work and most of us almost fell asleep and ate a lot of popcorn out of boredom. Tom Cruise is just himself again. Not really threatening and there was no real explanation to the ending of the film and why he leaves in the way that he does or even what the hell actually happens at the end. If you are familiar with Egyptian Gods then you will be able to piece the pieces together and form a possible conclusion but if you are not then you are clueless at the end.

It's expensive to see this film and not worth the money. Give it a miss.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)

Was this ever planned to be reviewed? No. In the evenings we have movie time where we just pick a random film available to us in the action category and we watch it. I wasn't in charge of the choosing this time so we ended up watching this film but it was a lot better than I had been led to believe that it would be.

Henry Cavil (Superman: Man of Steel) and Armie Hammer (The Social Network) team up as a very American CIA agent and a KGB operative. They hate each other and have contradicting styles of, well, everything which makes partnerships very difficult. This is more a comedy rather than a serious film and if I were to place it somewhere it would go in between a Roger Moore James Bond film and Spy. Not as funny as Spy but not even as serious as a Roger Moore Bond film, which unfortunately, was probably the least serious set of Bond films.

It's a lot of fun and generally entertaining but it is not a serious film and should not be taken as such. I don't want to go in to the bad bits because this film was clearly made with a sense of humour and a directing and writing team who were trying to have a laugh and make something enjoyable instead of making something serious. If anyone is familiar with 'The Saint' then this gives off a similar feel to that. Lovely scenery and even some historically somewhat relevant characters and moments. It's not rubbish, it's exactly what it is trying to be which is some entertainment for most people and good fun to make.

My only real criticism with this film is the casting of Hugh Grant. This man only ever plays himself and I am fed up with seeing him in films as I personally feel that he actually ruins films by being in them. If there is quality in acting then it all vanishes when he walks on screen. I would like to see this guy play a totally different character to himself all the time but that isn't going to happen.

The film ends with a suggestion of there being another film but I doubt somewhat that there will be many more because I don't remember it doing that well in the cinemas. Next up is 'The Mummy' and then 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge'.

Wonder Woman

Tagged as the best superhero film of the year and so far they are not wrong- it is.
Try not to follow the comics or, if you are like me and you follow the comics then distance yourself from the comics when you are watching the film so that you can enjoy this film. There is only one problem with it and that is that it seems like a difficult task to make a sequel but I am sure that that wont stop them from trying and succeeding!

This film just takes you quickly through the development of Wonder Woman (Diana) from a small child on the amazon island to her introduction in to the human world during world war 2. She possesses great strength, agility, fighting abilities and the ability to stop bullets using her wrist guards but the amazons with their bows an shields are a little outnumbered and outmatched in terms of technology. Wonder Woman made her film debut in that really terrible Batman Vs Superman film which seemed to destroy Superman as Henry Cavil and was seriously rubbish. The start and end of the film link her cameo in Batman Vs Superman to this film and also continue to link her to 'Justice League' which will be one of the next DC films released. As far as DC go, this is probably one of the best that they have ever made and the best since Superman: Man of Steel.

David Thewlis reverts back to a similar type of role that I saw from him in the first film that I ever saw with him in which was called 'Dragon heart'. This time his character has more of a 'Gustav Graves' feel from 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' which is probably the biggest spoiler I could give at the this time to ruin the entire film for you. I was very impressed with him and genuinely believed that he couldn't give a performance like he did anymore.

Chris Pine did more than rely on his eyebrows, although, someone needs to point out to him that he is American, sounded American throughout the entire film and therefore should stop trying to claim to be a British spy. His character had it's strengths and its weaknesses but was a very different character to the ones normally associated with him and showed a completely different side to him. Knowing that he wont be back for another film makes it a little better as the more of a presence that he has in a franchise the more you realise how bad his acting is. In this film he was very good and I was told that he was good before I went to see it, didn't believe them and now I know that they were right. This has been the performance of his career.

Gal Gadot. If you are like me and haven't seen 'Fast Five' or any of the ones that follow then you probably wont recognise her and I certainly didn't so I treated this as her screen debut and was very impressed with it. Probably one of the best debuts seen and by far the best superhero woman ever to have been on screen. Some things looked unreal but she looked really good and as a martial artist these stunts would have been easy for her. She has made Wonder Woman her own and is the equivalent of Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat Woman. Wonder Woman is probably my favourite superhero film ever made and she is Wonder Woman.

Hitman

Jason Bourne except that he has no issues with killing anyone. All assassins are trained to kill from birth and have to wear black suits. There are currently two 'Hitman' films and they make the Jason Bourne trilogy look pathetic. 'Hitman' is a huge franchise with games and various other things coming up when you type it in to google so now I will have to play the games to compare them with the film.

Dougray Scott (Ever After, Mission Impossible 2) was the only name that I knew before watching this film and watching him play another totally different character was impressive. 'Hitman' has all the action that any action film could desire and the attention to detail. Think back to what makes you enjoy the 'James Bond' movies, for me it is the action, the somewhat stupid stunts that aren't realistic and as we move more in to the Daniel Craig era the serious stunts and car chases with the attention to detail. What 'Hitman' doesn't have is the misogynistic attitude that has become a problem for 'James Bond' moving forward.

Timothy Olyphant is one of the most convincing assassins I have seen on screen. Better than Michael Fassbender, Matt Damon, Antonio Banderas or Tom Cruise and those are all films that I have watched within the last year. The escape routes are planned, everything is planned in this film and is realistic. When he jumps out of a window in to the river we know that someone could actually do that. When he kills the other assassins using two blades we know that he could do that. The choreography is realistic and unlike that scene in Equilibrium we don't have shots randomly being fired or not reaching the target when they clearly would have. It's not the lack of hair or the bar code on the back of his head (which makes you think of the TV series Dark Angel from years ago) which makes it fantastic, it's the clarity and the logic. This is someone who knows what they are doing. Every character has a back story and that is slowly explored. The girl (Olga Kurylenko) is more than just a girl and she isn't a weakness to him but we do get to understand why she makes the decisions that she makes.

Everyone in this film was fantastic and this is probably the best action film I have watched on this years blog.

Jerry Maguire

Probably known for some of the worst on-screen romantic lines to have ever been written such as: 'you had me at hello' and 'you complete me'. Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger team up as a sports agent and an accountant.

There have been many films on sport, how to buy in sports (Moneyball), playing for pride (Invictus) or what happens when the door seems closed to you (The cutting edge) but this is probably the best one about sports agents. In today's world agents seldom work for a company, preferring to work from home and earn more money without a company taking a percentage off the top. This is the (possibly made up) story of an agent who is works specifically for a company, is very successful, makes a lot of money and then has a breakdown, writes down what everyone is thinking but no one in the business is allowed to say and a week later gets fired. Upon being fired and loosing most of his clients he takes an accountant with him and also looses his intimate partner but he ends up married to the accountant and becoming a super agent but only after almost losing everything.

I think what this film has that makes it so good is Jerry Maguire finally understanding that he needs to get more from his client and that he needs to have those open discussions with his clients about their marriages and their lives as well. They get the best out of each and make things work. He was broke and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr) wasn't as big as he wanted to be and wasn't happy and neither was his wife. Often we read about agents making a ridiculous amount of millions for being the agent of a footballer but this film shows how much they depend on their clients to earn them that money. If your client isn't attracting customers then you aren't going to make any money off of them so you need them just as much as they need you and no matter how good you are your career is dependent on other people entirely.

Yes, it has a happy ending and that is often what people look for in these films and yes, both are relatively attractively so it is ticking all the boxes.

Often films (**cough lego batman**) rip off this film but I personally felt like those criticisms are unfair.

Ocean's Thirteen

Loved Ocean's Eleven, used to sit there eating cake and watching it on a Friday evening regularly because of the genius of eleven men robbing a casino and actually pulling it off. Then Ocean's Twelve was released and it was fairly pathetic as far as films went and there was a lot less action and someone playing on the idea that Julia Roberts looked like Julia Roberts which was just very stupid and hardly worth the effort. In that film we met Linus' (Matt Damon) mother so what better than to meet his father in this film?

This time it isn't about revenge as such, it is because Reuben is sick. He is sick because he partners with a guy known in the casino business for being a double crosser and then he gets double crossed and loses all his money so the team come together to rob this new casino before it has even actually opened, to get it bad reviews by buying a few of the staff and treating the real inspectors like rubbish while Sol posses as an inspector. As always, the team is still the team with the same kind of skills and this seems like an impossible job but Danny has a plan. The two brothers are actually the worst type of siblings I have ever seen where almost all that they do is argue with each other, to the point of barely completing their jobs because they are arguing and don't have their heads in the right place.

If you are after the action and then typical ending sequence then you've got it. Thirteen hasn't quite captured the feeling of Eleven but it is a lot better than Twelve was. Everyone has a part to play as a con man in this film and the introduction of Eddie Izzard and Al Pacino help to keep the film rolling. Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) is not the enemy but does try to double cross them when they run away with the diamonds, only to discover that they were expecting him to double cross them and so they made the switch before his man could rob them of the diamonds.  No one can rob a casino like these guys and it isn't even about the women this time. Making a natural disaster happen like a mini earth quake? Maybe a little unrealistic but I applaud the effort. I enjoyed this film and didn't sit there rolling my eyes or complaining about things that wouldn't happen in real life.

Forget all about the second film and just go straight to the third film.

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.