There and Back Again: 2013 in Film Part 3

And now, we come to the big final list with a key title out of the way and seen, I can now finally write up my favorites list of 2013.

No further ado, let's get started:

5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Coming in at number 5 was the last major film I saw in 2013 and that is Ben Stiller's adaptation of the Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

It was very easy to dismiss this film from the advertising presented for it as being sentimental hash and even I've done it a little bit but when I've thought about the film I've thought about its sincerity, its old fashioned feel and its sense of imagination and adventure and living deep and sucking all the marrow out of life.

And boy was it refreshing to see after so many films that are cynical, heartless and at times nasty in terms of their characters and subject matter.

4. Rush: Coming in at 4th place is Ron Howard's F1 rivalry Drama Rush which was about the rivalry between F1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 1970's.

I really enjoyed this film when I first saw it, I loved the two performances by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl, I loved Howard's direction, I loved the look of the film and I loved the script by Peter Morgan and the night I saw the film it really grew in my mind and I wanted to go back and see it again and I duely did so and enjoyed it as much the 2nd time around.

3. Pacific Rim: At number 3 a film which was number 1 for a while and that is Guillermo Del Toro's sci-fi action film Pacific Rim.

This movie came along at the right time for me as before I saw it I was not enjoying going to the movies very much as it had become a real chore in terms of the travel requirements and also in terms of the films themselves just being empty and heartless for the most part and I had started to think "I don't know if I want to do this anymore."

This film single handedly turned all of those feeling around, I came out of the film with a huge smile on my face from enjoying the great action and story and characters but more importantly I came out of that film with my love of film in general being given a huge shot in the arm, the last film to do this for me was Hot Fuzz in 2007 and like that film, there is a part of me that will hold it as being important for that key reason.


2. Rewind This: Coming in at 2nd place is the VHS documentary Rewind This.

Rewind This on the other hand touched me very deeply primarily due to its subject matter about VHS tapes which is something I have collected passionately over the last 6-7 years and how the rise and fall of that format has led to the media environment we see before us today.

1. The World's End: Yes folks, my favorite film of 2013 is Edgar Wright's Sci-Fi Drama Comedy the World's End.

Watching the World's End in the cinema I had an absolute blast and when I came out of it I thought to myself "I feel like I've been manipulated" but it was in the nicest possible way, I loved the ensemble between the 5 men, I loved Edgar Wright's direction and I also loved the fact that Simon Pegg was willing to play a very unlikeable character and he nailed it in a big way, it's a big shame it didn't win the Best Ensemble awards.

Plus the film packs all of its ideas and themes into a 90 minute to 2 hour running time and thank fucking god for that as I am really getting fed up with movies going 2 hours and 45 minutes for no good reason other than to be artistic or meaningful but then again most editors these days seem either too chicken or are simply too gutless to stand up to their directors and say "No" but what editor these days has the balls to stand up to some of these directors especially given the worship thrown their way even if they directed commercials about floor tiles and lingerie.

And so that is my favorites list of 2013, let's look forward to 2014 and all of the cinematic wonders and blunders and bitter disappointments that they hold.

Film Review - Free Birds (2014)

Free Birds is an animated feature with the voice of Owen Wilson as Reggie, a Turkey who lives on a free range farm and is pardoned by the President but one night he is abducted by Jake (Woody Harrelson) for a secret mission: To travel back in time to the first thanksgiving and change the menu.

I was fairly optimistic going into this film as I had enjoyed seeing the preview for it and always laughing at Harrelson's moments in it, did the film deliver the goods or end up deserving of being roasted?

Well I have to say it's much more the latter as this was just way too silly for my liking and even for a children's film I just thought to myself "WTF" at times, don't get me wrong there are things I do like about mainly some of the performances and primarily those by Harrelson, George Takei and Colm Meaney as a mad General.

But as I said this story is ridiculous and during some of the big twist moments I just cringed and thought "Really, your gonna go there, WTF" and even a couple of famous references which I won't reveal here but some of you are probably going to guess again just made me cringe when they came on, honestly children deserve better than this when it comes to their film going choices as this is just weak.

And so, I cannot recommend this film one bit and it is hard to argue that this has to be the weakest animated film I have seen probably since Epic last year, avoid this one as it is a real turkey, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - The Book Thief (2014)

The Book Thief stars Sophie Nelisse as Liesel, a young girl sent to live with a foster family in Germany during the time of Hitler and the Nazi rule which Liesel sees for herself as the years go on from book burning to rallies to people being beaten in the streets but the greatest threat is that of Jewish people, one of whom is being hidden from them and his name is Max.

I was really nicely surprised by this film, it had a nice emotional core to it primarily thanks to the performances by Nelisse and Geoffrey Rush as her foster father and who becomes a character you really come to care for as the film goes on and I was also very taken by the overall look and story of the film having studied this period of history myself and having an interest in reading books so the film had a lot more appeal to me that I thought it would.

And so a brief review to be sure but this is a film worth seeing if you get a chance to do so, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Wolf of Wall Street (2014)

The Wolf of Wall Street is directed by Martin Scorsese and is based off the book by Jordan Belfort who is also this film's main character and played by Leonardo DiCaprio as he rises to the top of Wall Street making millions in the process and attracting unwanted attention by the FBI in the process.

Going into this film I was optimistic but also nervous, optimistic in the sense that I was looking forward to it but nervous due to the bitter disappointment the new Jack Ryan film was for me, that said I kept thinking positive about it in the hope it might deliver the goods, did it do so?

Well yes and no I'm afraid to say, the more I've thought about this film since I saw it the more mixed I feel about it as a whole, before I go into that let me go into what I did like:

- The first of these is the humour, most of the film is very very funny and I sat there with a big smile on my face during those moments and in some cases laughing my head off.

- The second is the performances which this film is littered with, DiCaprio throws 110% into this role and he is just mesmerising everytime he's on screen, Margot Robbie will be on a lot of filmgoers watch list after this film as she is very good as well and nailing the US accent to a tee, Matthew McConaughey has a fun cameo though part of me wishes it were Robert De Niro in that role and I fucking loved Rob Reiner as Pops as well as seeing Joanna Lumley, Kyle Chandler and Jon Favreau in small roles.

- And lastly the film has great moments in it from the famous chest beating scene from the previews to the office scenes and the beautiful speeches DiCaprio gives which not so much channel Michael Douglas from Wall Street but reminded me more of Jack Nicholson when he played Jimmy Hoffa in Danny Devito's film from 1992.

However as amazing as this film's first two thirds are, the film starts to wobble big time in the 3rd act and it was here where I really began to feel the film's 3 hour length and that above all else is my principal problem with the film; It's just way too long and the film does not sustain or justify the length, if 15-20 minutes had been cut from this film it would've been a cracker and for my money, very hard for the rest of the year's films to top but alas I don't think that and the length sullies what is a very well made film.

And yet I don't think of it being in a negative way as it is the reason I feel so mixed about this film as the first two thirds are that good and I had such fun (R rated fun mind you) watching it that it feels like such a shame the third act nearly derails all of that good work but it doesn't enough for me to have that mixed reaction, maybe a 2nd showing of the film in the near future will be in order so I can gauge properly just how exactly I feel about this film.

As to wrap this up, I feel genuinely torn and split down the middle about the Wolf of Wall Street as the first two thirds of this film are amazing but the 3rd act makes you feel the 3 hour length and I wasn't as engaged during that part of the film but perhaps a 2nd showing might just might change that feeling but as for this first viewing I have to give this a 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Rewind This (2013)

Rewind this is a documentary feature that chronicles the rise and fall of the VHS format in terms of its birth in the early 1980's and its fall in the late 1990's and how both of those events led to the revival of collections of the format and the digital media landscape we see today.

I was very keen for this doco as I am a big VHS collector in my own right and now the chance had come for me to finally be able to see it as its release in Australia was very very limited, with that how was the doco now that I have seen it?

To be blunt I loved it, I really got into it, I loved seeing all of the various collections that were shown in the doco that had my mouth dropping, I also loved seeing the various titles promoted that made me think "That was a Roadshow release" or "That was a Premiere release" and there were some elements that just made me go "WTF is that."

But what I also loved was its 3rd act poignancy and how the rise of digital media came about from this time and how that may undo all of the work the rise of VHS did to give viewers a sense of ownership of their favourite titles not to mention the rise in VHS collectors and how it is as much about memories as about their favourite titles, it made me not only smile but it also warmed my heart little especially one section that made me think "That is awesome."

And so, I just cannot recommend this documentary enough, it was all things weird and wonderful and it left me smiling from ear to ear and thinking about my own tape collection, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

A reboot of the film series with the character of the same name, Shadow Recruit is a new story to feature Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) as it details his origins and a dastardly plot by the Russians to crash the US Economy.

To say I have been excited for this film is a serious understatement, ever since 2008 when it was announced that this reboot was going ahead and that in 2009 it was announced that Chris Pine was going to take the role my anticipation immediately was set in motion and this went into hyperdrive when Kenneth Branagh was going to direct as it was finally going to happen.

And now the time had come when I held my ticket and could go in and take my seat to watch it, I had waited a long time for this and now it had finally come but could the film itself deliver the goods despite this enormous anticipation.

Sadly not as this was a very sad disappointment and I take no pleasure in saying that at all as I wanted to love it but alas I cannot, before I go into those reasons I will talk about the one thing I did like about the film and that is Pine himself, watching him I thought of Alec Baldwin in the Hunt for Red October which is when he played the part and as the film went on he did start to grow on me and I hope he gets a Red October esque script to work with in the future.

But the real sin here is the script written primarily by David Koepp who also gave the Indiana Jones sequel the Kingdom of the Plastic Prop sorry Crystal Skull and his script here is simply pathetic, how so let me count the ways:

- The first of these is the story holds no real stakes to it, in Red October there was a real sense of danger and tension throughout that story as the Russians had developed a prototype silent drive system which in the wrong hands could spell disaster as well as rain destruction on the US with very little warning beforehand, here it's just another "Crash the American Dollar" plot that just sounds so so typical of a lot of recent spy pictures and as a result, there is no sense of jeopardy.

- The second is the misguided plotline itself with it wanting to tick every box at once for not only do you have the economy storyline there's also what I think to be a near pointless storyline with Jack and his fiancee Cathy played here by Keira Knightley who is okay despite her sometimes wobbly American accent but why on Earth is she even in this film, Jack survived just fine on his own in the Hunt for Red October whereas here they put here as A) this is a reboot and B) they want the female audience to come and frankly it feels pointless to go in this direction and the 3rd act just comes across as a bad outtake from Liam Neeson's Taken.

- And lastly the villains here are terrible, Branagh himself plays the chief Russian villain and every single time he was on screen I kept thinking of the towering presence of Sean Connery as Captain Marko Ramius in Red October and Branagh who is a perfectly fine actor even if he's a terrible action director just doesn't measure up and Kevin Costner is a poor substitute for James Earl Jones.

And so to wrap this up, I cannot in any good conscience recommend this new reboot as much I would love to do so in my heart of hearts given how much I had been looking forward to this film, rent the Hunt for Red October instead as that film has great performances, a tense storyline and top notch action whereas this one just feels very run of the mill, it's not terrible but it's just that kind of disappointment that makes you feel very sad afterwards, 1.5 out of 5.

Column - A Decade of Mirrors

With 2013 now over with, it also sounded what in Australian Football terms would be called the quarter time siren and 2014 now marks the start of the 2nd quarter of the teens.

And with that part of me began to think "how has the decade in movies gone so far" and for me it has begun to mirror the decade of film in the 1990s, how so you might ask well let me now expand on that for you in 3 key reasons:

The first of those is that like in the 1990s you have a golden age of television shows swamping the networks, in the 90s you had shows like the Simpsons, Star Trek, Friends, Seinfeld, the X Files and Twin Peaks to use as examples as shows that you sat down and made time for to watch.

The equivalent of those shows now would be shows like Sherlock, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, The Blacklist, Community and Doctor Who, shows that like those ones mentioned above from the 90s were must watch shows, you waited through your day until that time came and you could watch the new episode or waited for loved ones to watch it with in some cases.

The second reason is that like the 1990s you have the rise of Video Games as an entertainment medium, no longer would they be confined to arcades or video stores in some cases but now console machines would allow them to be played in the privacy in your own home.

And in the 90s you had consoles like the Super Nintendo, the Sega Mega Drive/Master System, the Game Boy which you could take with you wherever you went and you also had the PC system as well, all of these delivered great games like Donkey Kong Country, the Mortal Kombat trilogy, Mega Race, Warcraft (before it became an MMO), Command and Conquer and later on with the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation you got Mario 64, Goldeneye, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire, Crash Bandicoot and Gran Turismo to name as examples.

But now as was the case then you have the Playstation and Xbox with titles like the Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto 5, Tomb Raider, Battlefield and Call of Duty to name as examples as well as a small resurgence in PC gaming.

And the last reason comes back to the films themselves and for me a lot of the big ones after 1993 come across as fine but forgettable, films like Independence Day, The Mask, Batman Forever, Jumanji and many others while smaller films like Pulp Fiction and the Shawshank Redemption capture the audiences imagination.

And like then, we see that scenario playing out very much now with so many of the big films out there at the moment having budgets in excess of a quarter of a trillion dollars thrown at them as well as state of the art special effects and big time stars but having almost no resonance with audiences who for the most part see them, enjoy them but probably wouldn't go back to them any time soon.

And again like in the 90s it's the smaller less seen films that are drawing people to them and leaving a resonance, films like Drive, Tree of Life, Blue Jasmine, the Act of Killing and 12 Years a Slave, films that not necessarily got a large run in cinemas but have found a home with audiences.

And so that ends this column, I hope you found it an interesting read.

Film Review - Romancing the Stone (1984)

Romancing the Stone stars Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder, a New York romance novelist whose sister Elaine has been kidnapped in Colombia and Elaine's husband murdered but before he is murdered he posts a map to Joan's apartment, a map that is said to lead to a great treasure in Colombia but Joan will need some help (Michael Douglas) along the way in order to find it.

Despite being a clone of Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone is actually entertaining fun primarily due to it's script balancing the romance with the adventure, Turner is appealing here as is Danny Devito in a small supporting role but the show stealer here is Douglas who is simply great here as the Harrison Ford esque thrill seeker who tends to shoot first and ask questions later.

The film also has a fair few laughs in it as well and the overall spirit of the film had me smiling as well.

So all in all, Romancing the Stone is nicely made fun with a great performance by Douglas, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Tuff Turf (1985)

Tuff Turf stars James Spader as Morgan, a young man who moves to Los Angeles with his family and starts at a new school, there he makes friends with another young man named Jimmy (Robert Downey Jr) and is attracted to a young girl named Frankie (Kim Richards) but Frankie is promised to another young man named Nick (Paul Mones), head of a gang called the Tuffs and they don't like people messing with their Turf.

Tuff Turf was a film that I really enjoyed, primarily for three reasons:

- The first is the performances, it was an utter joy to see Downey and Spader in early roles and watching them here it's easy to see why they've had long careers over the years, the two play off each other very well in the small number of scenes they share together and Spader himself is just great.

- This leads me to my second point, watching him in this role I was reminded of the classic James Dean archetype of the Rebel without a Cause and the film as a whole felt a lot like a modern day Dean type character arc combined with that punk rock style of the 80's and the two styles blended together very well though it does get very violent in the final climax.

- And the third and last reason is the killer soundtrack with some great 80's pop music that nicely fit the style of the overall film, I particularly liked the title song performed by Southside Johnny and I was grooving along when it came on in the film.

So all in all, I had a great time watching Tuff Turf and there's a nice easter egg for you Avengers fans in there which I won't dare spoil but will have you smiling but the rest of the film is great as well and it comes highly recommended, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - August: Osage County (2014)

Based off of the stage play of the same name, August: Osage County stars Meryl Streep as the matriarch of a family of daughters whose husband commits suicide and whose daughters have moved away as well as she herself suffering mouth cancer, Julia Roberts plays one of her daughters who has family problems.

I was very mixed going into this film, on the one hand the preview for it was okay but didn't do a great deal for me but it had a good cast in Streep, Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch and Chris Cooper among others, did the film deliver or simply confirm my mixed feelings.

Well, it actually gave me pretty much what I expected of it which was that the film was okay but nothing special, the cast members mentioned above are committed to their roles and in the case of Roberts, Cumberbatch and Cooper stand out a little bit and try to do something with the familiar roles they have on the page though I wish Cumberbatch had a bit more to do in the film as I found myself identifying more with his character than the others.

As for Streep well she does well but at times goes a little too OTT in terms of her performance, there was a time when she was hailed as the greatest actress of her generation but now she seems to border on being cartoonish in some of her roles, The Devil Wears Prada being one example of that, I also found myself squirming a little bit during some of the family argument scenes and those that have been to awkward family gatherings will understand why when they see it in this movie.

And so to wrap it all up, August: Osage County is a fine if forgettable way to kick off 2014 at the movies for me but all it's done is make me more excited for the upcoming "Jack Ryan" movie, I would've waited an eternity for that and now that time is inching oh so close, 2 out of 5.