Film Review - War Horse (2011)

War Horse is the 2nd film by Steven Spielberg to be released with his Tintin adaptation, the story here concerns Albert (Jeremy Irvine) who comes across a horse he names Joey, but when war breaks out with Germany the horse is sold to a sergeant (Tom Hiddleston), and from there the Horse goes on an adventure across a war torn battefield.

Okay I went into War Horse with mixed expectations as I had heard both good and bad reviews for the film, so with that how I did I find it?

Well there's good and there's bad, first off I'll start with the good and that is the performance by Tom Hiddelston, he brings a lot of heart to his role and makes up for his role in Thor, where his Loki was the weak link of that film, I also liked John Williams's score in places.

But the score also sums up my middle of the road feelings regarding the movie, for while I thought it was okay, I also thought it was very problematic for two reasons:

1. The Length: The film is way way too long, its 150 minutes and boy do you feel the length at times, especially near the film's ending, there were numerous times during that last section that I checked my watch waiting for it to end.

2. The Script: yes folks, the film's script by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis feels very episodic, part of me felt this story would work better as a mini series in the style of Band of Brothers or the Pacific, as it would've allowed better development of the human characters who play second fiddle to the horse.

So all in all, I didn't hate War Horse but its too flawed for me to recommend, 2 out of 5.

FIlm Review - The Muppets (2012)

This new movie regarding the Muppets is the brain of writer/actor Jason Segel, himself a big Muppets fan and the story in this film regards his character Gary, his Muppet brother Walter and his girlfriend of 10 years Mary (Amy Adams) heading to Los Angeles and while there they learn of a plan to demolish the old Muppets studios to drill for oil and with that its time to play the music and time to light the lights.

Okay, I went into the Muppets not being a fan of them originally, probably a good way to start but I saw it was playing and decided to go, with that how did I find the film?

To my complete delight, the film is simply wonderful, wearing its heart on its sleeve at all times but revelling in it and not bordering on schamltzyness or cheesiness, it feels nicely moderated and I had no idea Segel had such a heartfelt and warm film in him.

But wait there's more, the film also has a smart script that handles its "breaking the 4th wall" aspect very cleverly, Segel and Adams have really nice chemistry and speaking of Adams, she is note perfect in this movie and despite the absence of original Frank Oz, the new voices feel nicely done and you don't miss his contribution at all.

But I have to talk about the songs, namely two "Life's a Happy Song" which opens and closes the film and is very good but my favourite has to be "The Rainbow Connection" from the original Muppet movie, wonderful to hear again and I couldn't help but start to cry a little when I heard it in the cinema.

And lastly, there is a Toy Story cartoon before the film regarding a support group for discarded happy meal toys and a 3 inch Buzz Lightyear who swaps places with him, this like the film itself is very well done and I hope that a DVD of the Toy Story toons will be released soon.

All in all, seek out the Rainbow Connection and take the family to this movie, its a wonderful experience for young and old and smuggle a hanky in your pocket, I can't recommend this movie enough, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - Hugo (2012)

Hugo is the latest film from Martin Scorsese and is based off the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabaret" and concerns Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who lives like a street rat and works the clocks in a Paris train station, one day he comes across a girl named Isabelle (Chole Moretz from Kick Ass) and his whole world changes.

I went into Hugo not really expecting a lot, it looked like a lot of fun from the trailer I saw but I wasn't sure myself whether the film would be any good.

To my surprise and complete delight, it was a wonderful experience, Scorsese seems to be at his most joyous in terms of his direction showing a sense of pace and excitement that we haven't seen from him since Goodfellas in 1990, there is also a wonderful cast including Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, Ray Winstone and more but the two kids Moretz and Butterfield were the highlights, sharing a wonderful chemistry and I couldn't help but fall in love with them.

The film also has a wonderful tribute to the early years of cinema ranging from Meilies, the Lumiere Brothers and even to the icons of the 1920's like Buster Keaton and Fritz Lang, those scenes are nothing short of marvellous to watch in full flight and well, you just have to see them for yourself in order for it to be fully understood.

But lastly, I also have to mention the beautiful cinematography and production design, the colours in the film and bright and clear and the world Hugo inhabits is beautifully detailed down to the smallest cog in the clock tower, oh how I wish it would take home the oscars in those fields as it really did feel like a world you would want to inhabit for yourself.

All in all, I really loved this film and after the sadness of Tintin's disappointment, this kicks off 2012 in grand style, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Super (2011)

Super stars Rainn Wilson as Frank, a middle aged guy who works in a diner and lives with his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) who leaves him for Jacques (Kevin Bacon) a charismatic drug dealer, this sends Frank over the edge and after a dream one night, he decides to become a superhero and everything begins to turn around.

Super is very much wanting to be another Kick Ass type movie in that you have an ordinary bozo who decides to dress up as a superhero and I thought Kick Ass was a lot of fun as well as being violent and making its characters important to the plot and having a sense of weight in terms of their dimensions.

Super in comparison just feels deadly boring and incredibly clunky, I couldn't really care at all whether the good guys got blown to kingdom come or the daylights beaten out of them, this is because the film has such a cavalier attitude to the violence that was for me very off-putting, and I am very tolerant to most levels of screen violence but this felt overdone.

On top of that, the two leads Wilson and Ellen Page came across as lunatics, Wilson's character in particular, I mean he comes across as someone who could go crazy and shoot up a mall over his divorce plus he mumbles most of his smegging lines throughout the film, aye aye aye and Page who is okay became more and more annoying as the film went on which is a shame as Page is a good actress.

But what feels worst is this, the lack of fun to counteract the hyper violence, something I thought Kick Ass did very well, yes it was violent, yes it had a dark streak but the film also had a sense of fun to lighten the proceedings, here everything seems dark for no purpose or reason to justify it being in the film, the last time I remember this happening to me was Robocop 2 from 1990 which had endless bloody violence without any of the heart or humour that made the first Robocop so good.

There was one thing that I did like and that was Kevin Bacon, his performance finds the right note and it's that note the film really needed to find but sadly it doesn't and Bacon feels wasted as a result.

All in all, I can't recommend this movie, it was dull, clunky and far too violent without anything to counteract its impact or justify its existence in the film, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Conan the Barbarian (2011)

Conan the Barbarian is a 2011 remake of the 1982 fantasy classic which introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world but this time it is Jason Momoa from the hit TV series Game of Thrones that takes on the role of Conan, the legendary Barbarian warrior who must journey from his ruined home to seek the answer to the riddle of steel.

Now, I went into this movie not really expecting a lot but I did really enjoy the 82 film directed by John Milius and co-written by Oliver Stone, it was mythic, it had a great cast including Arnold, Mako, James Earl Jones and the late Valerie Quennessen plus having a beautiful, thunderous and sweeping epic of a score by the late Basil Poledouris, with that pedigree how can this new film ever hope to compete?

Well it can't, it has none of the epicness, none of the myth, none of the sense of having to answer the riddle of steel or to seek the days of high adventure, instead the whole thing just comes across as a boring fantasy tale that in light of shows like the recent Spartacus or Game of Thrones which I mentioned earlier, this just doesn't make the grade.

But wait there's more, Momoa just doesn't have the pure brooding presence that Arnold had and Ron Perlman and Stephen Lang just feel wasted in their roles but what feels worse is the score by Tyler Bates, it feels very generic compared to Poledouris's sweeping score that is just magnificent.

Sadly, I just cannot recommend this movie, it is not worth your time, rent the 82 version instead, its cheaper and will you give more for your money, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Friends with Benefits (2011)

Friends with Benefits stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis as two young people who meet as Kunis has brought Timberlake to New York as she is a headhunter and he wanted for GQ magazine, the two develop a friendship and decide to do the bit with the thing in bed, but can best friends really do that or do feelings get in the way?

Okay viewers, let me take you back (take you back) to the year 1989 and two people who met during that year, one named Harry the other named Sally and their own meet and greet adventures made for a cracking film, When Harry met Sally...

This film is NOTHING compared to that film, mainly because while it has zing it has no heart, something WHMS had in spades, mainly due to the wonderful performance by Meg Ryan as Sally herself but while Kunis has some good timing, it feels hollow and as a result she's not as good to watch as Ryan was.

What does redeem the film is a solid supporting cast, mainly Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson and Jenna Elfman, all three are very good in the film and manage to do something with the stock standard characters they're given and boy was I thankful for that as it was the only time I really felt like laughing in this entire film.

So yeah, rent When Harry met Sally instead, its cheaper and you'll enjoy yourself a lot more, this just feels flat in comparison but hey one of my favourite films is being recommended to you instead so it ain't a total loss, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - One Day (2011)

One Day is based off the novel by David Nicholls who also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation and it concerns Dexter (Jim Sturgess) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) two UK university students who meet on graduation day and decide to stay in touch over the years on July 15th, with both having their ups and downs along the way.

One Day was a film that I'm sorry to say I didn't like very much at all mainly for two key reasons: first off all Hathaway herself: she just doesn't do anything with the material to make it work at all and her British accent is appalling ranging from "a bit a here and a bit a there" but mostly sounding like an impression of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast you know "Mrs. Potts dear, how would you like a nice pot of tea, it'll warm you up in no time" which got really annoying, why oh why wasn't someone like Carey Mulligan cast in that role, it would've been perfect.

Another is the character of Dexter himself, mainly for his irresponsibility throughout the whole film and his screwing up of everything he touches since leaving Uni, if he and Emma had gotten together in the early 90s when he wasn't a total cock up in life you'd have a much better film and everything would've turned out better for both of them but as it stands they didn't and the film suffers as a result.

You know, I hate to rag on it as I love When Harry met Sally so much and again I have to say, rent that film instead, at least you'll have a good time watching it as all this did was once again make me appreciate just how good that film really was, 1 out of 5.

2011 on Screen - Part 2: The Good, The Bad and the Disappointing

With Part 1 out of the way, in which I talked about my feeling on the year as a whole and the good and bad trends that in my view defined it, the time has come to say fair's fair, to pay my due now and share my view about the best, the worst and the disappointments of 2011.

First off, here are those that I anticipated seeing, looked forward to seeing and then when I saw them was left with disappointment, a bitter after taste for any movie going person, you can't taste but you know it's there and you it know it to be true.

Cars 2: Disappointing suits this movie to a tee, I kind of enjoyed the first Cars film and from the handful of previews Disney released for the film this one looked like a lot of fun, high action and energy done with that certain Pixar spice would have you thinking "Home Run" right?

Wrong, sadly and the reason it feels so disappointing is that it wasn't fun at all and Pixar just didn't really know how to tell their story and make it mesh together into a cohesive and satisfying whole, normally Pixar could pull that off in their sleep but here they just fumbled the ball big time and left a lot of its fans and movie critics as a whole shocked as a result, but as someone once said "Nothing Lasts Forever" and Pixar will have to do a lot with the upcoming Brave to prove they still have the magic formula and that this movie was merely a bump in the road rather than the start of a long term decline.

Green Lantern: Again like Cars 2 this film had disappointment written all over it, I was really looking forward to this one as it looked good from the previews I saw and I like Martin Campbell as an action director, who unlike Michael Bay can actually shoot his action scenes coherently and not move his camera here, there and everywhere in almost EVERY. SINGLE. SHOT.

But what made Campbell's action work stand out was missing from this movie and it has the feel of a film that was ripped out of his hands and taken over by a studio committee going through the check list of what looked like a film that would take a killing in the box office, well the opposite happened and the film died there instead, maybe Warner Brothers and DC might want to heed the lessons of their recent Batman films and actually let their director do the job they bloody well paid him to do and not second guess his every move, hopefully Campbell will bounce back from this disaster sooner rather than later though sadly that will be easier said than done.

The Adventures of Tintin: Easily thundering typhoons above the disappointments of last year was Tintin, the long awaited collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

I was SO excited for this film, probably more than most in a long time having been a big fan of the Tintin books and cartoon series from the 90s so any Tintin film was going to be high on my must watch list but after seeing the film I felt a sense of anticlimax, in that my long wait for it turned out to not mean anything in the end, a sense that the world as I saw it felt that tiny bit different somehow, it's hard to explain but I know it to be there and to be true, I'm just that certain of it but I suppose it just comes with the territory sometimes.

That was the year's most disappointing out of the way, let's get onto the worst of the year, the ones that made even the best of us recoil in anger and kick in the balls simply for taking away precious time and money that we'll not only never get back but give us the feeling that we could have done something special with it.

One Day: Easily one of the worst movies I had the displeasure to sit through all year was the rom com One Day based on the bestselling book.

The reasons this is one of the worst movies all year are threefold first Anne Hathaway's appalling British accent which went here, there and everywhere and ended up more like an impression of Mrs. Potts and THIS is the new Selina Kyle, oh great hopefully she doesn't cock that up too.

The second was the endless misery and drinking throughout the whole film, for fucks sake people I'm really getting annoyed at this I mean Jim Sturgess's character seems to be drinking in almost every scene.

And the third was the whole thing of "If you did that thing in the first place" syndrome, I mean if the whole thing with the two leads had happened earlier everything would've been better, you wouldn't have the "I need a beer, 2 bucks a glass" parts of the film nor would you have the "oh dear, I knew this would happen, it always does" scenes, makes you appreciate just how good When Harry met Sally...

Source Code: A controversial choice to be sure as many others liked it a lot more than me but I did not as it was a film that wanted its audience to play along but had no real confidence in itself to do the same thing.

Apart from that the film's script was also full of plot holes, endless questions regarding the who, what, where and why that just get annoying VERY quickly as well as the film's insulting ending that's put on there purely to try and market the film towards a more mainstream audience that want more of a "love is in the air, every sight and every sound" style of an ending, give me a fucking break, at least Chris Nolan's Inception one of 2010's best movies had a sense of style and confidence about it, this one just feels like the bastard step child of that film.

Transformers - Dark of the Moon: Easily the worst of the worst, the bottom of the pile and the top of the junk pile was this movie.

And the reasons this is the worst film of the year for me are a few, how few are they, let thee count the ways:

The overall awfulness of it: The overriding opinion I had regarding this film was that it was awful, nothing in this movie made any logical sense, there was no real heart to any of it, everything moves so quickly you can't take it in nor can you really sit back and enjoy the scenes on screen, the complete disregard for anything resembling a storyline but worse worse worse of all was the endlessness of the entire film, the whole thing rambles on from one scene to another when some serious editing was needed to get it down to 2 hours or under, there was just no reason at all for a Transformers movie to be 2 hours and 40 minutes long but then that's what happened when you keep saying "yes" to this bozo rather than actually growing some balls and saying "No, this is too long, cut it down" or "No, this isn't funny, try something else."

And speaking of Mr. Bay, this leads me to my next point which is the dishonest spin that was employed in promoting the film, when talking about the release of the last Transformers film Revenge of the Fallen in the DVD Making Of, Bay took pot shots at the films critics, effectively saying they were wrong.

Well as it turned out, when that same public heard about this movie being made, they started to groan and both Bay and the series' main actor Shia LaBeouf were going on the record saying lines like these.

"We missed the mark"

"It was crap"

"You couldn't tell what was going on"

"There was a writers strike and we had to get a story together in 3 weeks"

"We let everyone down"

"This time however, we got it right"

Wrong wrong wrong, both Bay and LaBeouf lied to their audience, pure and simple and yet we all fell for it by going to see the film based on the lies you've read above, this really makes me mad, luckily most saw right through the lies and said the film was crap and for the record, I will be forever grateful I didn't see it in 3D as if I did I would've been A LOT harsher on the film.

But wait folks, I ain't done yet as to make matters worse, the first trailer for the new Transformers game Fall of Cybertron debuted last month and it looked fantastic, it was dark, exciting and heartfelt, none of which were in any of Bay's movies at all.

And best of all, it has a game director (Matt Tieger) who is actually sincere about atoning for the mistakes of his previous Transformers game, War for Cybertron and is finding various ways to correct for it in terms of creating new enemies, weapons and more, but then High Moon Studios know what they are doing, Bay and Co do not.

But enough rambling about the worst, lets turn the dial towards sunny days, clear blue skies, light winds, rainbows and lollipops by which I mean the best of the year.

3. Captain America: Coming in 3rd place is that Star Spangled Man with a Plan, Captain America.

The reason this is 3rd on my list is that I had so much fun watching this movie and was reminded very much of a modern day Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is no surprise given that Joe Johnston who directed the film worked on Raiders also as well as directing 1991's The Rocketeer which could easily go on a double bill with this movie, the highlight of the film without a doubt was the "Star Spangled Man" song composed by Alan Menken, hearing that reminded me very much of "Prince Ali" from Aladdin in terms of its lyrics and overall style.

2. Senna: Racing into 2nd place is the Formula 1 documentary Senna, based on the life and times of F1 driver Ayrton Senna from Brazil.

What makes this doco so good and transcend its genre is Senna himself, his life and times are perfect big screen material, his strong belief in the love of God, his ruthlessness and determination on the track and the rivalry he had with French driver Alain Prost, which makes for a damn good hero/villain dynamic if there ever was one, not to mention that extraordinary F1 footage of high speed excitement, exhilarating turns and gasp inducing crashes which remind you that this is the real deal, not some fancy computer graphic.

1. Super 8: Yes folks, coming in pole position for 2011 was JJ Abrams's collaboration with Spielberg, Super 8

Simply put, this was a wonderful film, full of danger, excitement, emotion and wonder, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning and the group of young boys were fantastic as was the score by Michael Giacchino possibly the first composer since John Williams to truly understand his style and bring it to a new generation to cinemagoers, though I must also mention the huge improvement in Abrams's direction, a far cry from his wobble cam mess of Star Trek, his action staging and editing seems much improved and I hope it continues long into the future.

So there you have it folks, my look back at 2011 in a cinema near you and me, hopefully 2012 is a good year also though with Ridley Scott's Prometheus, his first sci-fi film since Blade Runner, the Fire I mean the Dark Knight Rises, Marvel's the Avengers, Skyfall the new 007 film and Part 1 of the Hobbit, expectations will be high for each but will they reach them or fall doing so.

As someone once said, Only Time will Tell and I'll see you at the movies.

Film Review - The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

The Adventures of Tintin is based off the books by Herge and this new film from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson takes its inspiration from three sources: Secret of the Unicorn, The Castafiore Emerald and Crab with the Golden Claws, the film tells of Tintin buying an old ship the Unicorn at a market and others wanting to buy if off him, those of a more nefarious cloth as its said to reveal an old mystery.

I've been greatly looking forward to this movie due to the fact that I'm a huge Tintin fan since childhood, the animated series was a defining one for me growing up and I even read some of the books as a result, the moment I heard about a film based off that I knew I had to see it post haste.

And long did I wait for the day where I had my ticket and I got to see the film for myself, now having done so, how did I find it?

Well it saddens me to say this but the film is a disappointment for me, probably the biggest I've had in a long long time, mainly due to the baggy and overcomplicated storyline which tries to combine the sources mentioned above into a singular narrative and it just doesn't quite come together plus Serkis's Haddock REALLY got on my nerves, mainly due to playing up the alcoholism of his character which after a while really got on my nerves and plus I felt that he was all wrong for the part to begin with, same with Jamie Bell as Tintin who really didn't do that much I felt instead spell out the plot.

Moving on, I want to talk about the positives first being the sequence involving Sir Francis Haddock which is an outstanding sequence and the best Spielberg has been since Raiders of the Lost Ark, in fact that scene had more energy in it than any of the Indiana Jones sequels put together, the other was the capture work done on Snowy the white dog, a nice template to use for Brain from Inspector Gadget if that is rebooted, I also liked Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thompson and Daniel Craig made for a pretty good villain.

But what's probably worst is this, the fact that only part 1 of the Red Rackham story was told in this movie, which spilled over into a 2nd book Red Rackham's Treasure which is hinted at but foolishly not old in this film, no doubt saved for a hopeful sequel which given its performance in the US, may never get made.

As for the 3D well it was 3D, dark, dim and blurry, so very blurry, see this in 2D as it will make you appreciate the look of the film and the performance capture a lot more as it will look brighter, clearer and not blurry but then again I've said that before haven't I.

All in all, nothing makes me sadder than to say this disappointed me as I had waited long to see it and really really looked forward to it but alas it is what it is, 2 out of 5.