Venom

Generally received a mixed response from people when enquiring about this movie. Tom Hardy is liked as an actor and often takes on slightly different roles so it is always nice to see him being a normal, slightly attractive guy, with no insane muscles or masks. The general feeling was that the film was good but the special effects weren't great and I can see where people are coming from.

The thing about special effects is that in a world full of technology, directors and producers often forget about the plot and the development and spend too much time focusing on the special effects. A lot of movies recently have overdone it on the effects and the film has suffered for it. I personally didn't feel that Venom overdid it at all. There was nothing special about the effects but that was good because it meant that we as the viewer could focus more on the plot and the talent on display in front of us.

I've never really understood much about Venom. I didn't watch the third Spider-Man movie and I haven't read the comics so let's say that I am a complete novice. I enjoyed the movie. Venom is neither a good guy nor a bad guy. Venom is sort of a conflicted character who turns from good to bad but has no loyalty to the earth and actually has no loyalty to Eddie. They work well together and something about Eddie seems to work for Venom, hence why he stays but nothing is owed to Eddie and that means that Venom is free to behave as Venom sees fit which makes him neither good nor bad- a bit like Deadpool.

Tom Hardy was brilliant. I found him to be the perfect character; sticks up for what he believes in, doesn't realise what it will cost him until he loses it and then has to correct his mistakes by remembering what he believed in. There was no standout star in this movie. Michelle Williams was strong as Anne. She tried to fight, she even had Venom inside of her, albeit very briefly, and she wasn't the pathetic love interest who cannot do anything for herself. There is room for her to be developed in future movies. Riz Ahmed was a strong villain but he wasn't an obvious villain. The character of Drake was obviously going to be the bad guy. He was obviously doing something suspect with his science labs but then most top scientists are. There was always a sign of control and the calmness within him that enabled him to evoke fear within people without getting angry or saying anything more than asking how your family was. People like that are people that you should be afraid of as they are often more capable of unimaginable things than the overly aggressive, power crazy people.

Venom is a solid movie and they will probably make another one to help continue with the Spider-verse and the MCU. Venom can also be a stand alone set of movies and even though there were a few cut scenes linking to Spider-Man, like the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movies, it can be done as a stand alone and then brought together as part of something bigger when it needs to.

I hope that there will be another movie.

A Star Is Born

This movie is a remake and I haven't watched the original. The other thing to say is that Lady Gaga is phenomenal in this movie. What a way to kick start an acting career.

What I will say about this movie (and yes, I watched it at the premier so I have been holding this post until now to publish in order to give you all a chance to see it without spoiling it) is that if you are suffering from musical block or a lack of song writing ideas this then film will help to open your mind a little. I found that it reminded of a different type of rock music and a different way to play the guitar which had been forgotten due to the influences of heavier rock music or heavy metal, which treat the guitar in a completely different way. There is more to writing a song than four chords and this movie actually emphasises the need to have something to say and the talent to pull it off and make people want to listen.

For me, Bradley Cooper was at his best in this movie. He spent time working on his voice, not just on singing but on lowering his voice so as to develop the character better and it really paid off. It clearly showed the life that we all know to be true of rock stars but it also showed the push from record labels when they take someone with talent and turn them in to something that aren't. They often overlook the needs for happiness on an emotional level and really play a massive part in the destruction of lives. This is just common knowledge now.
In this movie she had a great voice as a country singer, she could have toured with Jackson Maine and still been a star. She was a star before she was signed to a record label and even though he didn't help her much with the drugs and alcohol in his life, Jackson Maine found her, encouraged her and supported her. For him it was difficult when her life and her name became bigger than his and he didn't really like her style of music because he saw what we could all see, which was that she wasn't using her voice to her full potential, she wasn't writing songs that really made people listen, she had just become a singing and dancing act with a catchy beat and some good moves. His alcohol and drug addictions in the end ruined him but they may not have ruined her. When there is talent the world remembers and waits for it.

Music lovers or just fans of a good movie with a clear message, everyone should enjoy this movie and appreciate the work that went in to it. It is worth paying to watch over and over again. Go and watch it with a clear mind and let it speak to you. Music is everywhere and without you knowing, forms a huge part of your daily life and routine.

King of Thieves

I know that this movie hasn't been released for general viewing in the cinema but my membership scheme permitted me to watch it early so if you don't want any spoilers then stop reading.

This movie is about the Hatton Garden Jewel heist. It is a true story and boasts a star studded cast including Michael Caine, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay, Charlie Cox, Jim Broadbent and Ray Winstone. When we left the cinema we had a long debate as to who we think really orchestrated this heist but we are still undecided and that is why we would happily go and see this movie again.

A crew of old guys attempt to rob a jewellery safe over the Easter bank holiday weekend. They forget to do things such as cover their faces from cameras, stay awake whilst keeping watch, disable all the alarms or even just get the basics correct but somehow they manage to come out of it with more or less everything that they were after. All but the young guy Basil (Charlie Cox) were caught on camera and identified and all who were caught were also ordered to pay back more money than they actually managed to get away with. Some of the money was never recovered and that is a little scary as it means that something like £2 million is still hidden in the world.

This movie is like 'The Italian Job'. It's as funny and along the same lines but with a few more moments where you sit there wondering how the hell they actually managed to pull it off.

King of Thieves, is a very enjoyable movie. Jim Broadbent was the standout performer but they were all good. Broadbent is an underrated actor, as proven by his performance in this. At times he scared me a little and at other times I just wondered where this performance even came from. The moral of the story is, do your homework, avoid cameras, go in disguise, ditch your cars and don't use your bus pass. There were other reasons as to why so many of them got caught but these are the main ones and ones that I like to think that anyone out there in the business now would  consider to be common sense.

This is probably the best film to be released in the UK this September.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

There have been a lot of movies in between this review and the last review. It has been almost impossible to find the time or energy to sit down and write a review but I will try and write a review for movies such as: Ocean's 8, Mama Mia: Here We Go Again, The Incredibles 2, Dead Pool 2.

It has been a few years since Ant Man was released and it kinda of passed by a little unnoticed. Ant- Man was a great movie which briefly showed parts of the Shield base and led the way for a smaller super hero who may or may not team up with the Avengers in some way. When you watched it, it was easy to watch it as it's own movie and not think about it at all in relation to the Avengers movies. Then Ant-Man featured in 'Civil War' and that led the way for a sequel.

Scott is back from the quantum realm and also from Germany and is under house arrest, which would make you wonder how on earth they could create an entire movie when the protagonist is stuck in his house. Scott's visit to the quantum realm seemed to pair him up with Hope's mother and so Hope and her father kidnap Scott and use him to help them locate the mother/wife.

Of course there has to be a villain, so in comes Eva, a girl who has been exposed to quantum energy when her father's lab exploded and is in incredible pain. This movie is really the back story in to Hope's life and everyone seems to be after quantum energy and her mother. There are many fights and many sequences of becoming big and small which is very entertaining and what I liked about this movie is that it is light-hearted but it sticks to it's plot and doesn't try to make anything to complicated or fancy. Ant-Man teaming up with 'The Wasp (Hope)' enables them to have two battles going on and re-emphasises all the hard work done in the first movie to obtain the Wasp suit.

There's a happy ending and there will be a third movie.

Ant-Man is one of the best Marvel franchises still out there. Two solid, better than good movies without overdoing anything. Ant-Man can slip in to other movies but doesn't need to cross over in the same way that many of the other characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe do. Ant-Man doesn't need The Avengers to come and help him out in any of his movies because there is no need.

We enjoyed this movie and we enjoyed the previous movie as well. Ant- Man is the next big thing.

Tomb Raider

Lara Croft is back in the form of Alicia Vikander. I am and have always been a huge fan of hers and I was really excited for this movie. Tomb Raider needs a reboot and this movie has done it so well.

When Angelina Jolie made these movies I loved them and I think that most people did but we were always a little curious as to why, in the first movie, an American was playing a Brit while a Brit was playing and American. Maybe they haven't quite got round to casting a Brit in this role but at least we didn't have the same problem this time around.

There have been many questions going through my head since those movies were made. How did she maintain her money when she seemed to not really do any work? Why are the games SO different from the two movies that were made? I guess the idea is that they took a concept and made it work but as the games got more popular and started to develop back stories and more of a plot we as an audience started demanding more from our movies and so they decided to reboot the movies and draw on the games a little more.

This movie is like a prequel to the Jolie movies. This film explains what happens when her father goes missing and how she continues to live. Then she finds her father and has a bit of an adventure with him and manages to be like a female 'Indiana Jones' as well which means that we got a feeling of watching two movies at the same time! When this movie ends we know what she is going to do with her time, what happened to her father and what to expect from the next movie. The use of a bow and arrow reflects on the game character and also explains to us that being rich didn't mean that she grew up running around with guns. She only transfers to guns at the end and always prefers the bow and arrow. Everything about this setting has more reflection on some of the games and whatever people thought of the film wont seriously hinder the development of these movies because the games are so successful.

I really enjoyed this movie. I enjoyed the £2.50 I spent on it, the company of Bekah and the overall feel of the movie. I enjoyed Dominic West as her father and spent most of the movie staring at him asking myself where I knew him from (The Affair). Kristen Scott-Thomas was superb and her character is going to be one to watch with slight enjoyment. The same can be said for Derek Jacobi because I have many suspicions about his character role and I am waiting for the next movie to confirm or deny my suspicions.

Next up is Close Encounters of the Third Kind and then Ready Player One.

I, Tonya

This movie is half a documentary and half a movie. This makes it a good thing because if it were entirely a documentary I would not have watched it.

Margot Robbie stars as Tonya Harding who, if any of you remember was a figure skater, a very good one but one who never got the scores that she deserved. Tonya Harding was the first woman to land a triple in a competition and that should have earned her great fame but it didn't because she was disliked by the American judges and there was a lot of controversy over her landing a place at the Olympics.

I didn't know the story because I don't even remember Torvile and Dean winning their gold medals at that Olympics so I have no chance of knowing anything about this woman. She was correct, she didn't get the scores that she deserved because her skating was fantastic and her presentation was also exceptionally good. She just came from a family where her mother was crazy and just insulted her, told her that she was no good and threw knives at her. Her father left when she was a child and her mother had to raise her whilst working, which is always difficult.

To work out the actual events of this story is fairly hard because what they say in the documentary and what they say in the acted parts of the movie are totally different and contradict each other; meaning that you came out of the movie still a little confused as to what was the actual truth and what was made up. In the end, her husband was an idiot who tried to scare off other competitors with a well thought out plan and let it be executed by a total idiot. Tonya knew about it, didn't stop the plot to send death threats but didn't actually get involved in any of it and she was given a lifetime ban from skating which was stupid and unfair because the others received minor prison sentences for their part in the attack on another world class skater and yet she had her life ruined for not actually being involved in anything.


For me that was the worst part, the unfair system and a life that was ruined by an idiot. In the movie he is made out to abuse her and his friend was a total idiot. She was a victim her entire life and got treated like rubbish for it.

The soundtrack was fantastic. Fleetwood Mac and some other old school rock songs just summed up why she wasn't liked. It should have been okay to be different and the country should have been embracing it but they weren't and they didn't. She worked hard to get to her level and she deserved more than what she got. I learnt from this movie but I can fully see why it wasn't really pushing for any awards. I felt like Alison Janey was playing a similar character to one that I have become accustomed to seeing her take on and for me that was why I wasn't convinced that she was the outright winner of the award for best female actor in a supporting role. The movie is good enough but not a movie that I will add to my collection.

Black Panther

The most hyped marvel movie for a long time. I heard both positive and negative opinions about this movie.
The introduction of Black Panther in Avengers was much better than the introduction of Wonder woman in Batman vs Superman or Spiderman in Avengers. This is a superhero who only cares to protect his people. He doesn't use his powers to fight every evil that comes his way but only the ones that threaten his life and his world which in some ways could make him a little self centred but most superheroes are underneath it all.

Black Panther is a family affair. It takes you through a brief history and then moves to the current affairs of Wakanda. It is full of action, conflict, technology, compassion and morals. None of the stunts looked unreal and they resisted the temptation to go overboard with the technology or the sequencing which made it feel more real.


In this movie there is an obvious villain who at times is a little unnecessary but is probably one of the most controlled villains portrayed in a movie for a long time. What I liked the  most about him was that you could understand why he was doing what he was doing but you could also see that it was wrong and was not going to do any good. This is more than a battle of good and evil and that makes it a lot easier to watch.

This was better than Spiderman and Wonder woman. This is better than any superhero movie that has ever been  made. Black Panther is incredible and if they can continue to make exceptional stand alone movies then Black Panther will have the longest screen time of any hero in the cinematic universe. There is so much potential for crossovers within the cinematic universe as long as they do them properly. So many people got a chance to shine in this movie with stars like Forest Whitaker and Martin Freeman leading the line there was space for new stars and for old names like Andy Serkis to take on a different role.

I saw this movie with my brother and he was happy with the movie. He said that it followed the story of the comics and that it was true to itself. This movie was about putting Wakanda on the map and giving us a taste of what could be done and now it is time for the creators and cast to rise up, make more of these movies to this high standard and go also take the time to make a few different movies and show us what they can really do. Daniel Kuwayla has already done a few things such as 'Black Mirror' and 'Get Out'. This movie will help further his career but he needs to build on it and expand the platform that he has created for himself.

Everyone involved in this movie should be proud of themselves.

Finding your feet.

Finding your feet is a movie that you probably watch with your parents. I certainly did. On a freezing, icy cold day I took my mother to see it and we both really enjoyed it. When it comes to movies you shouldn't disregard any because of the target audience. This movie had a fantastic cast. If you liked 'Bridget Jones's Diary' then you like Celia Imrie and if you liked Harry Potter 5 then you know who Imelda Staunton is. I loved her so much in the West end production of 'Gypsy' that I now just watch any movie that she is in.

Finding your feet is about dealing with divorce. It's about learning how to live again  after your life has fallen apart. You don't need money or a title to have a good time and see the world, or even to do things that you enjoy and this film shows it in so many different ways.

There were a lot of laughs in this movie and a lot of fantastic and hilarious moments but there was also a plot, a story that was told and it done in the right amount of time as well. Finding your feet has taken the problems that we are more likely to face as we get older and shown us to go back to our roots and what we are good at. To not be afraid of what others might think and to live our life because we only have one and the do need to make sure that we use the time that is given to us.

In this movie I witnessed a different Imelda Staunton to the one that I most recently saw. I even enjoyed Timothy Spall,whom cannot change the way that he looks so often finds it hard to blend in. Even though it will not be taking home any awards, it was probably as much fun to make as it was to watch and it is certainly a movie to watch when things aren't going your way.

The Post

This seems to be something of a remake of the movie 'All The President's Men' but I haven't seen it so I will take the word of others.

Meryl Streep stared in this movie alongside Tom Hanks. I honestly am starting to grow a little bit of admiration for Tom Hanks but I still wont list him as a great actor because it is only his more recent movies that I have actually enjoyed. I struggle now to know when he is acting and when he isn't but that doesn't bother me so much anymore. There comes a time in your career when you been in so many movies that you cannot take on another role properly anymore. It happened with Johnny Depp; the last role that he successfully created was John Dillinger in the movie 'Public Enemies'. No disrespect to Depp but now almost every role that he plays turns in to Jack Sparrow. Before Jack Sparrow and whilst those movies were picking up he could make other movies and change characters successfully but now he can't and he has to start to accept that he can't because his movies are proving that and this is the same for Tom Hanks. I liked his role in this movie and I liked him a lot in it but I do see Tom Hanks, rather than a character in these movies.

Rant aside, this movie is about the newspaper leaks concerning the information on the Vietnam War. It was scandalous and the newspaper in question actually leaked more than other newspapers and like the other newspapers, they went to court and eventually won. The point of this movie is to focus on the character of Streep. She owns the newspaper and she inherited it from her father. Throughout the movie she is portrayed as a weak and indecisive character who is selling the company and not sure what she should do. Should she publish these reports and risk being taken to court, which will in turn greatly impact the value of her company in the stock market? Should she sell the company at all? Should she fight with Bob over this? She never seems to make a decision, always sticking to what the lawyer advises until at the last moment she has the courage to ignore everyone else and make her own decision which leads to all the other papers publishing some of the leaks and a revolution for the freedom of the press.

Again, this is another slice of history that I was never really taught about so it was another educational visit to the cinema for me and one that I enjoyed. There was no real drama so it didn't make me emotional which in turn then didn't impact my decisions emotionally. I liked everyone in this movie, I enjoyed this movie and I learned a lot from it. I would like to encourage anyone who like me, was never taught anything about the Vietnam War to watch this movie.

Darkest Hour

This has become more of a hobby and less of a weekly/daily activity that drives my life. I still spend time in the cinema but I am no longer actively watching older movies that I may have missed along the way.

Darkest Hour is a film about Churchill and as I know nothing about Churchill because I studied WW2 I knew that I had to watch this film. Gary Oldman won the BAFTA and OSCAR for this movie and he thoroughly deserved it. The makeup department won a BAFTA and their work was so incredible that when you were watching the movie you couldn't tell from the face or voice who it was which made it so easy to just sit back and enjoy the movie. I didn't have to try and assess an actors performance because I knew in the back of my head who it was but it wasn't glaring at me.

The contents of this film picks on Churchill taking over, the evacuation of Dunkirk and eventually winning over the people with one of the greatest speeches in time. He was phenomenal and I learned so much from this movie. These types of movies are some of the best types of movies because I can get emotional and know that it actually happened. For some people watching this movie it's like they were reliving history. What they were watching on screen actually happened in their life time and it wasn't just a movie to them but they came out of the cinema screen talking about what a fantastic film it was, how accurate it was and how similar to Churchill Oldman's portrayal was.

Another massive shout out to Kristen Scott- Thomas as Mrs. Churchill. He was a difficult character and that made her life difficult as well but she knew that and she married him anyway. She struggled to live with the pressure that was on his shoulders and equally on hers but in this movie she was so strong and determined. Having seen I, Tonya I still feel that Scott- Thomas was better than Alison Janney. My disappointment is that she didn't win any awards for her performance in this movie because she truly did deserve them and even though there were a lot of good movies last year and there have already been a lot of good movies this year she has been the strongest supporting lady in a movie that I have seen (I haven't seen 'The Shape of Water').

Churchill is a phenomenal movie and if you haven't seen it then you should make sure that you do.

Pitch Perfect 3

The final instalment in this series and after the second movie we were all thankful that they were going to end it. The first movie was so good and it ended in a way that almost left it perfectly for another movie to guide them through the next year but when the second movie didn't pick up from the end of the first movie we all knew that there were going to be problems. There were huge problems so it pleases me to say that this movie is ten times better than the second one!

The song choice is better, the plot is better, everything is better. There is still the comedy but they go back to where they are and this movie is just about each of them working out who they want to be and where they want to go. There is a lot more focus on 'Fat Amy' (Rebel Wilson) which is nice because she really was fighting with 'Becca' (Anna Kendrick) for the spotlight. They worked hard on this movie and the compilation of songs is brilliant. It kinda went a way that I wasn't expecting but the film felt finished and we enjoyed it a lot more than the previous movie.

It is fitting that they managed to get in 'Zombie' by 'The Cranberries' because for those of you who aren't rock fans, you probably wont know that the singer died a few weeks ago. I enjoyed their version of it and I was very impressed and excited by it. DJ Khaled was himself because he was supposed to be himself. I didn't really know who he was until watching this movie and even though I hate that he ripped off 'Maria Maria' which features Carlos Santana on the guitar I can learn his other music and I quite like that he is a DJ and a producer rather than attempting to sing or rap. Anyone that can make Justin Bieber sound slightly bearable deserves a lot of credit. It's all about your taste in music but he was solid in this movie and that can only help to promote his music.

The one thing that I did like a lot was the British love interest for Becca. The character of 'Theo' was actually very good and he did everything that he needed to do in order to bring Becca to a new level. The Jesse love interest is over and done with and there wasn't anywhere else they could go with it so giving her a new life and a new interest has actually worked out very well for this movie.

There is class to this movie. If you enjoyed the first movie then you should enjoy this movie.

The Greatest Showman

So much better than La La Land. Probably the best musical that has been released in the last five years. Every single song in this movie is really good.

The Greatest Showman is about the Barnem circus. Some characters are fictional, such as the character of Zac Effron but others, such as the Character of P.T Barnem are actually real and based on the man who ran the circus. This film is about the appreciation of everyone. Everyone is equal and should be appreciated for who they are. I don't like circus' and I wouldn't say that putting someone who is different in a circus is really appreciating them in todays world but at that time it was the only way to give them a career and I have no problem with that at all.

We all know that Hugh Jackman can sing because if we didn't already know it before Les Miserables then we discovered it from that movie. The good news is that this part was better for him and his solos didn't just focus on his face. We all kind of new that Zac Effron could sing but it has been a long time since his terrible 'High School Musical' days where he didn't even necessarily sing and played on his looks. He was surprisingly good in this movie and the character that he played still had the same feel of 'popular' that he normally takes on and 'dating below class' which is also another characteristic of his characters but this character was different because he did end up taking on the circus and funding it and ditching his money and status to do something good with his life. The love interest was fictional but that was okay.

All the voices were great, except for Michelle Williams because she didn't actually sing which is a HUGE letdown. If you can't sing then don't take on a role in a musical that has to sing! I hate someone else taking the credit for another persons' work and this irritates me especially because I do not know who sang her part. While I am busy complaining about it I might as well mention that her opera singer character does not actually sing any opera in this movie. The song that she sings is good and she acts it like it is opera but it isn't and that is a huge let down. Loads or rich people dressed in evening where going to see Adele? I doubt it. What the character of Jenny Lind actually sung was a pop style song, hence my reference to Adele.

The music is fantastic. The choreography is fantastic and the design of the film has that 'wow' feel to it which is why the movie should win more awards than La La Land but there is still room for improvement in the musical front. The music is going in the write direction and having decent stability to every song is a huge improvement from that dreadful musical released last year but there is still work to be done on the plot and the way in which they film the songs.

I was very happy with this movie. We enjoyed it a lot. Much better than Star Wars.

Star Wars: The last Jedi

This is much better than ' The force awakens. Miriam and I could not have made a better version of this movie in our non existent garden. I have to get the disappointments out of the way first so that I can focus on the good bits.

Mark Hamil was disappointing. Luke was rubbish in this film but then again so is Kylo-ren so there is nothing to live up to. Luke does very little and Ray is pathetic  which means that half of the film was a waste of time.

Next criticism is that there was not enough action in this movie and too much complexity. Too much of this movie was split across worlds and it just didn't help me to enjoy the movie at all. I will say it now, it wasn't a bad movie but it wasn't a good one either.

Snoke I just don't understand at all. I don't understand where he came from, why be can use the force or who he is and most of all his death was a huge disappointment and very pathetic. He is no emperor and Ren is no Vader so there was no way that this movie could live up to any of the original trilogy.

Carrie Fischer was actually good. Her character had more to it than the normal  arrogant and stuck up Princess Lea that we have come to know. She should compassion and understood a lot more about herself and was not totally reliant upon the Jedi. She was probably the pick of them in second place and there wasn't much competition for it. Po is probably the only competitor for second place and first place was obviously taken by BB8. Finn didn't have enough involvement in this movie to be competing and everyone else was rubbish.

Domhall Gleeson was strong in his role but he isn't general Tarkoon and as impressive as he is, he won't quite get there but he was the best evil character that there was. The only issue I have is this entire 'Tracking thorough light speed thing. If you can do that then light speed is worthless and does not need to feature in any more movies and it just seemed like a pathetic excuse to have another attempt to go to the enemy and take down the death star or whatever the evil thing is this time. For me it just didn't really fit with Star Wars and seemed to be a filler for a serious lack of ideas.

Of all the bad and rubbish that has come out of this reboot, BB8 is fantastic and should take his place in history next to R2D2. I will remember this character as the best thing about the reboot and only hope that this was the end because Ray is rubbish and hasn't learned to be a Jedi at all.

Happy New Year everyone.

High Rise

This is a British film about a man who has worked his way to the top of his life and wants to be left alone but isn't. This British young man is played by Tom Hiddlestone and this movie was made before he made his name playing the character 'Loki' but it was always going to be difficult to watch this film after seeing him as 'Loki'.

Hiddlestone is Hiddlestone in this film. He is remotely attractive, physically fit, young and he just plays off of it. He was this character before he was 'Loki' but there is very little difference between his performance in this movie and his performance as 'Loki'. This movie is like Wolf of Wall Street meets American Hustle. I found it really boring and completely uninspiring. I found myself longing for a star performance and there wasn't one. There was nothing special about this movie. I spent 50p on it and now it is going back to a charity shop because I will never watch it again and it isn't worth a place in my movie collection.

Even Luke Evans is starting to take on characters that all have a similar personality. He needs to think about what they all have in common and then take on a role that is totally different because otherwise he is going to be like Tom Felton and become not only stereotyped but totally unable to be anything else than his typical character and therefore ruin his career before it has really started.

Murder on the Orient Express

I am a huge lover of Poirot, not just the books but also of David Suchet which made it an agonising choice for me to go and see this film. Kenneth Brannagh is not and will never be as good as David Suchet but he tried to play the character differently, his French accent was acceptable but needs work and his moustache is disgraceful but all in all, once you accept that any new Poirot is unlikely to be better than Suchet then you can move on to attempt to enjoy the film.

I did enjoy it. My one criticism is that Poirot is not as athletic as he was made out to be in this film. The overall portrayal of Poirot was good and fairly accurate but the script writing wasn't anywhere near as good as the scripts written for television. Murder on the Orient Express is the one that David Suchet left to last because it was going to be the strongest test of his role as 'Poirot'. This book in itself is the strongest test of Poirot's character. Nothing about it is easy and nothing becomes clear until Poirot explains it all to you. When reading the book I felt like maybe Poirot had met his match, maybe he didn't solve this one or maybe he caught the wrong person but then once he figured it out (and that took most of the book to do) it made sense and it was an extremely complicated murder. When I watched this film, my companions and I felt that they had explained everything to early. This murder stopped being complicated the moment that he revealed the true name and started asking questions and making obvious assumptions. Branagah's Poirot gave away the missing piece of the puzzle that made it easy for everyone to solve the case. Halfway through the film we all knew and it shouldn't be like that. The book is more complicated, the characters are more complicated and this film didn't really do it justice.

Johnny Depp as Mr. Ratchet was fantastic and the most unlike Johnny Depp I have seen for a while. He wasn't as horrible and disgusting as the previous portrayals of this character have been but he still managed to make it clear that he was going to be murdered without really having to try which made his portrayal almost perfect. Michelle Pfeiffer was also fantastic and I spent most of the film thinking long and hard about who she was. Derek Jacobi cannot change his face so he changed his manner and became a totally different character. Even Daisy Riddley was strong in this movie. Everyone was strong in this movie and if Brannagh had a different moustache and they created a better script than this film would be almost fantastic.

They have set it up to make another film and make some of the books in to movies and that is okay but there are things that they need to work on. The script writer needs to improve and the accent needs a bit of work. The study of the character of Poirot requires further improvement and you can't make the argument of wanting to play the character differently because you have to be true to the character otherwise you end up like Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore- destroying the character entirely. Change other things about the movie, focus on other things that are in the books but don't make the character do a lot of running and hitting people because that's not who the character ever was, you need to be cleverer. Not a bad movie, I expected a lot worse but work to be done.

My Blueberry Nights.

Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman and Norah Jones all star in one of the weirdest and yet most fantastic movies I have ever watched.

This movie was made in 2007 and is filmed in a weird colour filter. It gives the impression of being entirely a memory but then within that, each character also has memories that speed up and slow down. This movie is like 'Begin Again' but before that movie was ever made. Director Kar-Wai Wong made the jump to making a film entirely in English and it really paid off. I don't think that I have ever seen a film of his before but this is a fantastic movie and one of the most 'different' movies that I have ever seen and it wasn't originally on the list because I had never heard of it but it came in to the shop in which I work and I took a chance on it because it was something entirely different.

The reviews stated that this film had 'thin material' but I don't see how that matters at all. The cinematography for this film is fantastic, Jude Law is fantastic and Norah Jones is stunning. The soundtrack is incredible and this film is just amazing. I had to watch the entire movie, I couldn't miss a second of it and it made me feel good. It wasn't intended to make me feel good and it mostly just shows how life goes round in circles, you meet people, you try to make different decisions and you run away from things but in the end, life either gets better or it gets worse. Some of the people you meet leave your life, some stay and some wait for you but that is how life is. You have to look past the material and see it as a film that wasn't trying to be too complicated or too long. It focused on executing the plot that they had to the best of their abilities.

I've asked for a second opinion on this movie because I want to review it better. It has a certain quality to it that I haven't managed to find in any other movie and I would love it if someone else could suggest a film to compare it to.

An no, I haven't forgotten, a huge cry out to Natalie Portman who is always incredible in every movie that she makes. As a gambler who never trusts anyone she is fantastic and she learns something from 'Beth' and 'Beth' learns something from her as well. Even though she wasn't the main star in this movie she did her job really well and played her part almost to perfection. She is one of the best actresses out there who is not aged 70-90.

Dick Tracy

Warren Beatty. Maybe the first time ever on this blog but a pleasure to be experiencing new things and reviewing some of the great movies from every generation. I do have to take this time to announce that sadly I will not be continuing the blog next year as I have a full time job and am studying part time and have found it too difficult to keep watching movies or really do anything with my not so frequent days off. Many things have to give and this is one of then. Any movies that I did not manage to watch this year will be watched and reviewed next year and any films that I see in the cinema or watch randomly will be but there will be nothing frequent.

Dick Tracy is the ultimate cop movie made before the millennium. Even though Clint Eastwood is known for making cop movies such as 'Dirty Harry' he has nothing on this guy. Beatty is faster and doesn't have to pull off the stupid limes that Eastwood uses to try and evoke fear because he is more threatening as a cop through the use of non conventional, or legal methods. What makes a good cop is his ability to use his team and even though the scrip for this movie is obviously better than the script for 'Dirty Harry', Dick Tracy does something that is never done in the Eastwood film, which is, use a small kid that you have taken from the streets as a part of your team. This kid is fantastic. He has an 'Oliver' feel to him because he steals from someone and is chased by Tracy all the way black to his falling down house and his abusive father, who is then beaten up by Dick Tracy for being abusive and Tracy intends to send the kid to an orphanage but the kid saves his life.

Warren Beatty is fantastic. This movie is fantastic and I liked it a lot. It has all the right ingredients. Hopefully it won't ever die out completely.

Sing

The animated children's movie about a singing competition and not the My Chemical Romance song. I have read a few mixed reviews on this movie and I don't understand why because it is a kids movie which means that it doesn't have to have a complicated plot because Children's films have to be simple enough for children to understand and a feel good movie.

Sing is fantastic. Watching all the characters sing and reveal their singing pasts is fantastic. Singing along to the songs that you know and hearing how they work within the scene and plot is a lot of fun. When you come home from work or school and you want to let go of your stress then you can do that, or certainly, I can do that with this film.

Weirdly, when I don't have to look at Matthew Mcconaughey and only have to listen to his voice as a koala I find him much more enjoyable to watch. There is no shame in being a good actor but a terrible actor non-animated movies. Taron Eggerton as a Gorilla is also fantastic and the fact that he reconciles with his dad, who breaks out of prison to reconcile with him and then there is a happy ending just gives it a double feel food factor at the end which really helps you to reflect positively on the film. I do  think that the people who negatively reviewed this film don't really understand  what a children's movie is about. Yes, 'Trolls' and 'Moana' where better movies than this film but they weren't as feel good as this film was and I can't say that their plots were anymore complicated than this movie.

A pig singing Katy Perry and a Gorilla singing John Legend is entertainment for anyone. Reece Witherspoon can sing and she is fantastic. She alone could be a reason for watching the movie. J just appreciate it for what it is, a feel good, animated, children's movie, with stars such as Reece Witherspoon and Scarlett Johansen, that did very well at the box office. Expecting too much from a film can cause you to suffer severe disappointment and failing to appreciate the intended audience can also do the same thing.

They are making a sequel and even though I can't quite see it doing particularly well, it just might do so.

3:10 to Yuma

Russel Crowe, Alan Tudyk and Christian Bale all in the same film. The quote on the front claims that it is the best Western since 'Unforgiven' and I have to agree with it simply because of the character of Russel Crowe.

When I see the names on paper and then think about Crowe lining up on the opposite side of the field to Bale I will back Bale every time but Crowe was the star for a reason. His character, along with 'The Hand of God' (his pistol) was a strong and yet, at times a compassionate character. He didn't kill if he didn't have to but he also was never held to ransom. He knew how to value life, what was worth fighting for and he tried his hardest not to kill a person with a good heart but at the end of the day, he was a cowboy leader and he had a job and a reputation to uphold.

He is calm and you always feel like he is playing everyone until the end of the film when he turns on his own man, gets revenge for the death of Christian Bale's character and then willingly gets in a cell on the 3:10 to Yuma train. Normally these movies are boring and lacking a real plot but this film wasn't. This film was so planned out that you couldn't predict what was coming and that made it even more enjoyable.

Logan Lerman also manages to hold his own in a film where he could have gone completely unnoticed. He wasn't a standout performer but he was solid and played the part well. Being diverse is something that we need to see more of from Lerman and watching him take on a supporting role is a lot better than seeing him take center stage. Being the focus point and the guy that all the girls love just doesn't work out for him. He was great in 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' but that is because even though he was the lead, he was sharing his screen time with Emma Watson and Ezra Miller, who were both fantastic in that movie.

Ben Foster as Charlie was incredible. I have never seen someone murder in such an emotionless way. This character has no conscience and there was no pain or emotion when he pulled out his pistol and went around killing people. He had brains but it didn't occur to him that his boss had had a change of heart and had partnered up with Christian Bale. He doesn't realise that for killing Bale's character he is going to be killed until he sees the look in Crowe's eyes.

There is something magical about this film. If I ever want to watch a Western this is going to be the top of the list.

Thor: Ragnarock

Thor: The Dark World was terrible. When I heard that they were making another 'Thor' film I responded to it about as well as I responded to the third 'Captain America' film, which was not well at all because I thought that the second 'Captain America' film was dreadful and that the third film was just as bad. Having said that, the second 'Iron Man' film was awful but the third was so much better so I still had hope that this film would follow the 'Iron Man' path rather than the 'Captain America' path and I am glad that I did have this hope because this film was possibly even better than the first film.

This film has a plot, humour and not the same repeated idea of trusting Loki and then being betrayed by him. Following on quite nicely from the end of 'Age of Ultron' and as you have probably seen from the adverts, Thor, in his quest to save his father and protect Azgard, finds himself on a planet, fighting as a gladiator against 'The Hulk'. Typically, he can't spend the entire film just fighting so there is a lot more thought that goes in to how he is going to save Azgard from the sister that he didn't know that he had. It does seem like it is always a family affair in this franchise but I actually liked the way that this film went. They have taken Thor from a different realm and planet and moved him to link up more and more with 'The Avengers' on Earth which makes more sense if he is going to keep featuring in other movies.

Cate Blanchett taking on the role of the goddess of death. When I watched 'Doctor Strange' I thought for a long time that it was Cate Blanchett and not Tilda Swinton and when I realised that it wasn't her I was asking everyone why it wasn't her because it seemed like a role that she would have been ideal for but now it makes a lot more sense. She can't be the villain or slightly questionable woman in every marvel movie because no one would believe her and this was probably a better choice of role for her. She was fantastic and really helped to move the film along because she showed the darker side to Odin, which was true but also why she was doing what she did and it made sense instead of being the rambling of a crazy person.

The cameo of Anthony Hopkins was decent. I am glad that he went in this film because he finally helped Thor to realise his full potential. This is the God of Lightning and yet he seems pathetic without his hammer until he realises that he can control the lighting and is more powerful than his hammer. The time has come for Thor to stop relying on Odin to fix his problems and likewise, the time has come for Loki to realise that he can't do much that he hasn't already done many times.

Both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddlestone were fantastic in this film but you expect them to be because this is their film. Mark Ruffalo almost stole the show as 'Hulk'. His character was entertaining and also very composed throughout the entire movie. There is a worry about 'Banna' constantly changing in to 'The Hulk' and they highlighted it, which mainly suggests that we are going to see more of 'Banna' and less of 'Hulk' in future movies because otherwise he wont be with Nat.

My personal favourite was 'Skurge' played by Karl Urban. He was entertaining and somewhat reminded me of the character of 'Alfred' in 'The Hobbit' series but at the end he gets his dying wish and dies a hero and one that may be remembered. Heimdall (Idris Elba) was much better in this film and teaming up with Thor was a sight to see. Theresa Tompson (Creed, Grey's Anatomy, Veronica Mars) was also fantastic. I hope that she does a lot more with her career than she has already done because her character was as entertaining as it was strong and brave. They are going the right way with women in films now. They can do more than just look pretty. This is an exciting time where men and women can be as entertaining and strong as each other in terms of character and we can start to see a lot more equality in the division of characters. I'm not saying that all historically male characters should become women but when you write in a character, it can be strong and a woman.

This was a really enjoyable film and worth the wait (the soundtrack is also fantastic). It helps to make a bit more excited for 'Black Panther' and 'Infinity War'.