For some reason I have The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on my DVR.. but can never sit down and watch it. I don't know why. I loved Lord of the Rings, except for Return of the King which had like 90 endings. I just can't get myself to sit down and watch it.
Or the other movies on there either.

Just watched Disconnect, an ensemble drama about our social media centred lives and about how we become further and further disconnected from one another, as we escape into our internet lives.

I think the internet is a beautiful thing. Disconnect doesn't. Our friendship pretty much ended there. I won't claim there aren't paedophiles, thieves, bullies and all the rest on the internet, of course there are. The rule of the universe is that for every positive charge, there has to be a negative one. So for all the great things we've done through the internet, like making the world smaller, sharing content, helping people find their place and all the rest, bad people have found ways to do their bad stuff easier. Disconnect isn't that grown up about it though, painting the internet as utterly rotten and only populated with bad people, doing bad stuff, for the sake of being evil. And whenever it feels like the film may grow up, and be less ranty and more mature about the internet, it takes something nice about the internet and deconstructs it until all is left is rotten. It's a constant downer, a constant pessimist, like those old farts who complain about kids and their smartphones, simply because they couldn't keep up with the world. It's hard to appreciate a movie where the writer puts himself on a soapbox and rants for two hours about something you don't agree with in the slightest. Oh yeah, and it all leads to this slow motion scene that is ridiculous and utterly stupid. So much so it's almost profound.

The weird thing as well, is the film paints these things are utterly necessary. Apparently cyber bullying, leading to a suicide attempt, is the way to bring a family closer together. Apparently having all your money stolen, is a way to bring a couple together. Apparently being exploited for child pornography is okay as long as you get free shoes. Fuck this movie.

The movie isn't all bad though, the actual performances from the cast are solid, and they do all they can with the bad material they are given. Easily the highlight of the film is Jason Bateman, a man I know for two things 1) being boring and 2) being in shit films, here puts in a stellar performance as a lawyer disconnected from his son, who is sent on a quest to find out why his son hurt himself while realising how disconnected he is along the way. He is utterly charming, utterly lovable and it's just an utterly enjoyable watch. Colin Ford, "The Supernatural Kid." is pretty fun in this narrative as well.

Equal to Bateman is Alexander Skarsgård, a former marine with an identity crisis as he finds himself now pushing papers. He used to be someone who mattered, now he is no one. To make matters worse, his son died, and he forced himself into emotional isolation which caused a disconnect with his wife. A wife who escapes online just for people to talk to.

Andrea Riseborough meanwhile is looking her absolutely sexiest as a reporter who finds herself diving deep into a child porn ring, unable to keep her emotions in check and getting utterly lost because of them along the way. I didn't found her narrative particularly interesting, mainly because she had to act alongside Max Thieriot, who is astoundingly bland in an otherwise very talented cast. Still though, Riseborough is looking her finest which still makes her scenes worth sitting through.

And Frank Grillo? He may as well be the closest thing the movie has to a villain, who is disliked to downright hated by characters in every single story. He is always trying to do the right thing, but he isn't sympathetic in the slightest and it's a shame because I really liked the actor.

Wouldn't you rather have a movie that goes through sending off every character after spending 3 years with them as opposed to spending 6 years with characters that have nothing more than like a 3 minute celebration scene with little to no dialog to send them off?

I'm rather the trilogy had one single ending and been done with it instead of twelve little miniones.

Okay, but there was only one ending to the movie, it was when Sam returns home after saying good bye to Frodo and Gandalf. That was the ending, clear and simple.

And that is how the ending is in the book, only with more going on during it.

So I just watched this incredible movie called The Dirties. It presents itself as a found footage movie, only to then not reference the camera operators as people at all. And some scenes, despite being filmed in the same found footage way as the others, aren't apparently supposed to be part of the film any more, they are "real" life. The camera operators non existence is especially weird in some of the more brutal scenes where you're left questioning why someone would just stand there and film, and not help. It's equally weird of the bullies themselves, who seem quite happy to do their whole bully routine, on camera.

The main theme of the film is the concept of reality, and when reality stops being well...reality. Matt spends so much time filming the world or watching the filmed world that he is ultimately disconnected from reality. A form of chosen disconnection I assume, as I did similar things to escape, but it's more terrifying because he doesn't even seem aware of it himself. Then maybe the whole thing is meant to be just a film, we're supposed to accept that it really is all staged. We aren't supposed to believe Matt is a real person, who is doing real things, like in a narrative film, we're supposed to be aware of the artificial nature of it all and keep that constantly in mind. That is why breaking the fourth wall is rare and never by the people who should do it the most. But it's pretty mind blowing, and very frustrating, to try and pick where the lines of reality are and aren't drawn, and what devices are of deliberate intention and what aren't. But then maybe that is the point.

There are other themes as well, like that of friendship. Matt only ever dreams up the idea of a school shooting narrative to help his one and only friend, but Matt becomes so obsessed with the idea he pushes that friend away. The world of film is like a prison to Matt, keeping him constantly isolated.

This all leads to the most intense final ten or so minutes of a film I've ever seen, I was so tense and nervous that I actually felt physically sick. I don't think a movie has ever done that to me before.

It's all amateur actors to carry the film, but they put in great performances hitting the right drama and comedy notes. It probably helps that just all round it's a great script, it's well paced, the genres and tones balance well and hits a personal and emotional resonance. For an amateur effort especially, the quality of this film is just astounding.

If the movies intentions weren't so muddled (intentional or not) this'd easily be the best film of the year for me. As it stands, the film is fantastic on its own, astounding as an amateur effort and it's amazing that a couple of Canadian kids and a camera can make something deeper and more profound, than something Sundance have been jacking off over.

I just watched Thor: The Dark World. It took everything I liked about Thor and focused the story around that. Basically, I loved it. :D

Finally watched The Wolverine....it was freakin awesome!!

I am so glad that there is finally a really good Wolverine flick.

well, yeah. Maybe I’m reading your review wrong, but it comes across that you simply write it off as ‘I paid to see an Iron man film and all I got was Tony Stark.’ You also write off the ‘character study’ as just giving him PTSD, when there's much more to it than that (so the ‘point’).
See Tony is a cocky bastard and he suddenly feels massively inadequate next to aliens and ‘gods’. He’s a man that makes metal suits, and he almost failed to protect the one thing that matters to him. Feeling this, he builds crap loads of suits, trying to make each better and better, to cover any weakness or situation, and yet still feels like he isn’t doing enough. When Happy gets accidentally drawn into the fray Tony makes it personal by inviting them to his house (sure it was always going to get personal but until then nothing had been aimed at Tony). You call out a nutter, they’ll come for you. So his cockiness here sets him up for an even bigger fall. He mopes for a bit (he can’t hit the bottle as they did that in the last film…) has a bit of banter with a kid, who helps him realise that his suits are only as good as he is. He’s been relying on them, with all their strengths and weaknesses, instead of just using his head an being the best version of himself.
Hence the ending when he blows up all of his suits and removes his reactor/shrapnel.

If you found all of that boring then that’s fair enough, but to make out that the film does nothing is both wrong, and (from a review angle) misleading. It's certainly not perfect, I have my own personal problems with it, but not seeing enough Iron Man isn't one.


Yeah pepper actually does something more than be Tony's secretary. She shows that she can run a company without Tony's help,and just how strong she is. Plus she's just all kinds of badass hotness at the end (Both literally and figuratively =p)

And there's really no need to feel bad for liking the film. I will proudly say it is my favourite Iron Man film and also my favourite out of the MCU.

Or, you can accept I'm allowed to not like something :lol

Innit.

I understand Iron Man and Tony Stark are one in the same, but there are fantastic independent directors out there creating rich characters for their dramas, because their budget can't afford anything more. Now I'm not saying superhero films can't be profound or whatever else, but I come first and foremost for action I just can't get in any other cinema.

Plus, everything you said there is your reading very few aspects of what you stated there, is ever plainly stated in the film itself. And I didn't think the writing was good enough to read deeper into it, I didn't care.

To kick off my Godzilla-thon (even though I won’t be watching all of the movies in a small time span) I decided to change up my order and start with Final Wars. Why? Well because next year will be its 10th anniversary. Plus, I wanted to relook at the final, and most controversial movie, first.

So with that said:

Godzilla Final Wars: First I’m just going to straight off say that this movie is bad, very bad. As a Godzilla movie, it is downright terrible. Godzilla does not even show up until an hour into the movie, and by then, we have been given so much exposition, so much filler, too many characters and monsters without any rhyme or reason for it, that you are ready for the movie to be over when the big G finally shows up. This movie feels more like Kitamura was planning to make a Matrix type super hero movie when he was asked to do Godzilla, so he just adapted his script to include as many beloved Toho kaiju as possible into the movie regardless of whether or not we see them on screen for more than 10 seconds. Honestly, there was no need to even bother with “Zilla” or Hedorah, as their scenes are just pointless and add nothing to the so called plot (other than showing how much they hate the US version).

The human characters feel like they are just going through the motions of the movie to the point that you cannot even take them seriously. Don Fry seems to have these reactions as if he has no idea what is going on outside of his own lines, so they feel forced and very much scripted. The rest of the cast is pretty forgettable, which is a shame since they even have Kane Kosugi in this movie. His talents are definitely wasted as instead of utilizing him, he is there to give one bad line in English and become nothing more than background for the remainder of the movie until he ID4’s himself. Ozaki has more personality in his hair than his entire performance, while both Anna and Miyuki are there just to have some fan service added to the mix. I’m not sure if Miyuki figured she was going to die and wanted to look pretty when she kicked the bucket on this mission or what, but who the hell is going to wear high heels to a big battle like this? Even the X Alien villain of the movie seems to not even be taking this thing seriously, but at least he appears to be having fun with his role.

As for the monsters, they are a mixed bag. Some of them, such as Gigan and Hedorah, look great, while others, like King Ceasar and Anguirus just look goofy. I don’t hate their new designs, it is just that their heads really look like the rubber they are made out of instead of monster heads. If there is one thing they did not look like in the originals, it was rubber monsters. Speaking of modern inferiority, what is up with Kumonga’s spider web? It is clearly just rope tied together. Did they run out of a budget before they filmed his battle with Godzilla and just used the first thing they could find at a dollar store? I do like Kaiser Ghidorah’s design even if it does stray from the King Ghidorah we all know and love. He feels like that final boss he is supposed to be, so it works despite how ridiculous it is to see Godzilla just tossing him over his back as if it he was hollow on the inside. Speaking of Godzilla, that brings me to my final piece when it comes to the monsters, I do not like his design at all. I get what they were going for by making him thinner, but it makes him look more like Godzilla Jr than Godzilla. Most of all, his back looks lazily put together. The spines just look so far apart from each other and too small. One of the best things about the Godzilla designs from the Heisei era was his back, and here there is nothing to praise outside of giving the designs an E for Epic Failure.

The movie itself is quite subpar. It definitely feels like a Kitamura movie, which is great if that is your thing. I definitely enjoy a bunch of the man’s movies, which is why I do not outright hate this movie. On the other hand, if you do not like Kitamura’s movies, or was just looking for an updated version of Destroy All Monsters, you will be disappointed. Aside from being an action movie first and a Godzilla movie second, the movie suffers from pointless characters, subplots that did not need to be there (seriously, there is no reason for Minilla to be in this movie at all), monsters that were there just for the sake of being there, and a score that is a mixed bag. There are some great pieces to be found, with some homages to the music of old, but then there is a lot of crap that sounds like it was ripped out of a Nintendo game from the 80s. Overall, I’m giving Godzilla Final Wars a 4/10. Sadly, it isn’t the worst Godzilla movie ever, and it does have action to make up for everything else, but it is not even that good of a movie in the long run.

Lone Ranger: Way too long for it's own sake, and loaded with tons of pointless scenes that make it drag even more, the leads do a good job, but it doesn't save the movie.
That said the last 20 or so minutes were incredibly fun.

The Wolverine: Great movie! Simply an awesome flick.
I'll miss the claws. T_T

I would have seen Oldboy by now, but no monies. Guess it'll have to wait till after the new year.

So I went ahead and watched Mortal Instruments. I know it got negativity across the board, but so did the Twilight franchise and although I don't love Twilight, I appreciated it more often than I didn't.

I find films like The Mortal Instruments hard to hate, hard to love as well, but being hard to hate is honestly more important. To get it out of the way, yes, Mortal Instruments is as generic and bland as they come, as it tells the story of yet another eternal war between angels and demons, as punctuated by pretty young people in abandoned buildings.

And yes, the central romance which is the shoulders of the narrative carrying the brunt of the emotional weight, is completely without substance or chemistry and is instead utterly corny and clearly an excuse to have two pretty young people grind on one another as much as 12a censorship allows.

And yes, the acting/dialogue is astoundingly bad. Wooden, amateurish actors who seem utterly without help from their director speak entirely in exposition they themselves seem unconvinced by. At some points I felt like I was watching a parody of young adult urban fantasy genre, only to realise that they are intending to play it straight.

But the thing is, Mortal Instruments is also really fun and uses its visual medium well. Whether it's vampires scuttling across the ceiling, loads of fancy sword fighting, an onslaught of demons frozen mid attack, werewolves tearing apart possessed children, boils bursting into tentacles or demon hunters being hit in the face with frying pans, Mortal Instruments has greater focus in its action than any of the other Young Adult franchises out right now on our screens or in our players. No cockteasing and no shaky cam to hide all the violence, just big crazy urban fantasy brawls, full of crazy powers and even crazier gadgets and weapons, as people are volleyed through the air and no room remains untrashed, all wrapped up in some absolutely hilarious humour.

I'm hopeful they'll be back for DoFP, I'm just curious how they'll write around it.

Probably something related to Yashida's adamantium stash, with a side touch of Magneto maybe.

I thought they returned his claws at the end? He would just have to file them to be smooth again.

His bone claws regenerated not the adamantium.

Um... his bones are adamantium...

No they are not. His bones are bones they are just covered in adamantium. The adamantium is not part of his body and is not affected by his healing factor.

Not normally a big movie watcher. But I saw Flight , the kings of summer , the to do list and catching fire, over the holiday weekend.

Nothing was terrible. But nothing became a favorite either. I was mostly impressed with how much I truly enjoy the hunger games series. I was dragged to all the twilight movies by my wife. So I was reluctant to watch the first Hunger Games. But now I find myself actually invested in the series. It doesn't hurt that Jennifer Lawrence is America's sweetheart.

King Kong vs Godzilla: What is there to say about the idea behind this movie that isn’t brilliant? Back in 1933, the world was amazed with the monstrous gigantic ape known as King Kong with ground breaking effects at that time due to stop motion. It was amazing. Toho repeated a similar situation when they first created Godzilla. As such, what better way to show off these two colossal titans than to have them battle each other? It sounds great in theory, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

That is not to say this movie is bad by any means, as it is pretty good. Unfortunately, the plot behind it is weird to say the least, some of the characters are useless, and the monster designs themselves are less than stellar. First, the plot. Two Japanese men are sent to an island to collect berries when they come across islanders who worship a god named Kong. There, they find a way to knock him out and take him back to Japan to have him fight Godzilla, who has been freed from the ice he buried in in the previous movie. This plot idea just sounds better on paper than it does in action because using the berry juice to knock Kong out and then drag him across the ocean on a giant raft is just so goofy. And then to have Kong powered up by electricity while Godzilla is now weak against is also weird. To be fair, from what I have gathered, this movie was originally supposed to be Frankenstein vs. Godzilla, so the electricity powering Kong makes sense from that perspective, but having a giant gorilla randomly be powered by electricity out of the blue without any previous knowledge of it just comes off as random and be a sudden way to extend the fight beyond just Kong getting his butt whooped. For what it is worth, it does make the battle interesting and adds another layer, so I’ll stop nit picking against it.

My second gripe comes from the monster suits as I just do not care for their designs. Kong’s body looks fine but his face looks like it was beaten with a shovel as he eyes always look messed up and sleepy at every camera angle. As for Godzilla, I really do not care for this look. Yes, his head does look more reptilian than it did in the movie before it, but the costume looks more like a blow up doll than an actual monster. There does not seem to be any lining between the arms and shoulders, so it just appears as if the arms are just sticking out of the sides of the body rather than being actual arms. It also does not help when the costume seems to fold and crease when Godzilla is movie his arms about. Lastly, gone is his fourth toe and ears, which became an unfortunate trend throughout the remainder of the Showa saga. Nevertheless, as I said, these costumes just do not work for me all that well.

Moving on to the characters, some of them are good, some are fun, but some are absolutely useless. Osamu is fine as the main character, but it is like everyone else around him is a moron, especially his sister Fumiko. She is completely helpless. She has to be rescued from Godzilla’s attack only to then have to be rescued from Kong’s clutches fifteen minutes later. On the other hand, Osamu’s boss is a very fun character (see below).

Despite my issues with the costumes and plot, the effects are quite good in the movie. Kong’s face turning blue is really well done when he is struck by lightning, as are the crumbling buildings when he and Godzilla face off. The one that shines for me the most is the way they do the giant octopus monster. It is obvious they super imposed an octopus on a screen to make him look huge (which does take away from the scene, as you can see the shadows of the spears and stuff being thrown at the screen), but the execution of this scene is extremely well done. Lastly, the paint job they did on the islanders is actually pretty well done despite it being obvious that they are Japanese. It does what it is supposed to well enough, so there is no reason to nitpick it.

Overall, King Kong vs Godzilla is a missed bag of a movie in terms of execution, but for what it is, it is highly enjoyable and fun. I wouldn’t say it is anywhere near the best of Godzilla’s movies, but if you want a nice simple movie where you just see two popular behemoths go eat each other’s throats, you can do a lot worse. I give this movie a 6/10.

And here is not only what makes the boss man fun, but I can also see die hard fans making this reaction after they saw my score:

http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/u...-Flips-Out.gif

That gif is way to large, it slows me down incredibly.

I know Mumblecore has become like a dirty word - this isn't helped by wannabe critics slipping the title on any piece of shit with a small budget - but it's actually one of my favourite genres of cinema.

On that train of thought, I just watched Supporting Characters, a fun film about two best friends who edit movies together for a living. It's "just another film about life" but when they're done well, they are enjoyable even if they tread similar ground.

The movie has a great sense of humour, Nick and Darryl's dynamic is fun and their friendship utterly believable. It manages to take quite a deep look at life and love, but deliver it in a casual, natural kind of way to avoid the movie seeming too pretentious or too preachy. And one of the best things of all, the movie is hilarious without need to contrast that with misery. I mean sure, stuff goes wrong, but that is life. It sucks, but it's true.

Jug Face is a film that scares more in the ideas, than of gory shocks and there isn't a single cheap jump scare to be found. There is gore, gore that is well done enough to curl the toes, but gore is also self contained and only ever used for crucial moments to the plot. That is damn refreshing after the steady churning garbage of the torture porn genre. And guess what? There isn't a jump scare in sight!

Perhaps most terrifying, for a mass audience though, is Jug Face's morals. The pocket of the deep south the film is set in, is completely detached from the real world. It doesn't quite seem to exist in a single time or place, everything from the aesthetic of their village to their opinions is a mesh of insane and outdated ideas and concepts. And at one point, when two characters flee for their lives into the "real world" the real world is so terrified of this little backwoods community, that they are happy to simply turn a blind eye. And when you think that is as low as the movie can go, equilibrium is restored in the movie, only when evil is finally allowed to win.

Place Beyond the Pines doesn't work. It opens with just short of an hour of rich characterisation, and a crazy genre mashup that shouldn't work but does. It's great, and I would have been happy if that was the whole movie, but then the protagonist of that story, Luke, dies and the movie just keeps on going...

You would assume that as the movie chose to keep going, it would have a sense of purpose and direction but in reality what you get right smack in the middle of this bloated near two and a half hour movie, is forty minutes of pure filler. The man who killed Luke, Avery, is a cop and although it initially deals with the aftermath of what he did, it soon spirals into a giant tangent, until by the end when his story starts wrapping up we're basically in a completely different, and incredibly less interesting, movie. Cooper is a good actor but his character Avery, lacks pretty much all of the rich complexity of Luke. And still it keeps going...

Once the filler is done, how do we wrap up this bloated mess? Well we basically make the final third Place Beyond the Pines 2 dragging the whole thing out until the only thing you're excited for is finally seeing those damn credits roll. Dreadful.

Been a while since I watched any world cinema, so I decided to check out 'New World', because who does Crime Operas better than Asian Cinema?

New World is one of those movies that, sadly, gets worse the longer the film runs for. For the first hour so the movie is perfectly solid, completely unoriginal granted, but well made enough to more than alleviate the abysmally generic story. Then, then the film actually has to progress the plot, raise some questions and then answer them. New World isn't a complex film, but it goes about things in such a roundabout way, and is so needless complex for something so simple the movie can easily leave you lost. Twists, upon twists scramble on top of each other, many fly completely out of left field. In the end, it all somehow makes sense (mostly), and (mostly) satisfies but baffles all logic to get there.

What will probably be harder to swallow for most, isn't the films lack of originality or the films unnecessary complexity, it's the lack of action. I'm not saying it's wrong, or even bad, that this is a more cerebral affair where the war is battled mainly through words, scheming and big personalities but those used to the more action packed crime dramas, will probably be disappointed by how rare the action is.

And it isn't until the movie explodes into its first action scene, almost half way through the movie, only to end almost as quickly as it begins that you realise just how slow this movie has felt up until this point. A movie shouldn't kick into gear half way through, that is just wrong.

Luckily, when we do rarely move into an action scene, they are usually extremely well done, with each one being extremely memorable and worthwhile. One major villain is taken down through words - then murdered, while the other is caught in a huge and explosive fight sequence - but dies peacefully in a hospital bed. Creating fun contrasts between the two characterisations of the gangsters.

Plus, although this is a world where guns exist, the main weapons of choice are melee, like knives or golf clubs, because we all know an intense close quarters knife fight in an elevator, resulting in gratuitous (the good kind) bloodsprays up the walls is way cooler than any shoot out.

That is the thing about New World, it excels in the technical execution. You could argue that New World's look is as clichéd as its plot, and I would agree with you. But I actually don't mind movies using clichés for the sake of groundwork, so they can concentrate on fine tuning their movie to perfection. Many movies have wasted lots of potential focusing more on originality than making what they do have work.

New World is an insanely cool movie, with a beautiful neo noirish mise-en-scene, a cast of the kind of Korean faces which would look right in place in the middle of a Twilight movie all wrapped in a series of gorgeous suits and stylish haircuts, framed with cinematography which is so exquisite you could put any screen cap above your mantelpiece.

Then there is the acting, and the dialogue. The acting, and the writing, truly hits its best moments in the confrontation. There is that unique way gangster movies form conversations between enemies, masquerading their hatred behind false smiles, and idle chit chat, while somehow keeping the tension racked up to eleven while talking about the most inane things. So even a chat about the weather has your knuckles white. It's an art, and a brilliantly thrilling one. Where hierarchy can be defined simply in how people are placed in a space, or the way one character looks at another. It's just brilliant when they get it right and man do they get it right.

Another great aspect of the writing is the characterisation. Many characters initially seem like prisoners to their archetypal roles in these stories, but as the film progresses everyone grows to be so much more than they originally seem. Stand outs are definitely Oldboy's Choi Min-sik, playing a balls of steel cop with a skill for manipulation and scheming. Jeong-min Hwang's utter oddball come nutter of a gangster that he gets to chew on, who also turns out to be a total and utter badass when the time calls. And a bunch of red neck assassins. The acting is just stunning across the board.

Lacking a Wikipedia page, and opening with the words 'Inspired By True Events' a Haunting at Silver Falls fills you with dread from the beginning. It's just a shame it's for all the wrong reasons.

Although it takes a while to get there, when the movie hits a late second act twist, the movie really comes into its own. Everyone seems to be having the time of their life, as everything explodes into pure insanity, and everyone is allowed to indulge in some glorious scenery chewing. Although the rest of the film is way too amateurish to really be called 'good', it was worth sitting through for how entertaining the last act was.

This was a direct to disc flick, and it shows. The amateurish production, look and feel of the film undermines many possibilities for scares. And makes some sequences, which have been terrifying in other films, look downright laughable. That isn't to say there aren't some genuine scares, when the movie starts to push a whole 'is she mental' angle it actually creates some genuinely creepy scenes. And the fact that the film rarely uses jump scares, and never uses the headache inducing bass thumps to punctuate them, means many scares seem to come seemingly from nowhere and can really take you off guard. And when the real horror of the movie is revealed, you wont see it coming...

Our protagonist, Jordan is the worst person to follow around in a movie. She is completely selfish, ridiculously smug and disgustingly ungrateful. I just waited for her to get offed so we could move onto a better protagonist. Oddly enough though outside of Jordan, in the character moments, the almost porno level quality of acting actually makes some twists around certain characters feel like an actual twist, because you just wont see it coming. Although why the fuck is Erick Avari in this?

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire... I need to read these books, don't I?

The movie was remarkably accurate to the book. Of course given the nature of film, it was impossible to capture every moment of the book, but what it did adapt, it adapted with great faithfulness. Few scenes were changed and those that were were not that significant.

It even used the third-person view of the movie to its great benefit, by creating new scenes featuring President Snow and Plutarch Heavensbee. It's similar to how the first movie greatly expanded on Seneca Crane's character.

Because of these, I must say that it's a very smart adaptation, possibly the smartest I've ever seen. The Potter movies were very good, but they were tonally different from the books, which you may or may not like (I liked them). On the other hand, The Hunger Games movies were almost exactly like how I pictured them in my head reading the books, and that is really remarkable in my opinion.

Alright, I've got my bud at the ready, time for a Stone Cold Steve Austin MAN MOVIE. All jokes aside, if this wasn't the year Pacific Rim happened, I'd tell you you've got the best piece of entertainment this year has produced.

The throwback feel to The Package is wonderful, the 80s was pretty much the best decade for cinema, and that is no different for action. The action may feel sluggish when you compare it to the more martial arts focused action of modern action cinema, but seeing Steve Austin smash people through tables and glass never gets old. Especially later in the film where he gets to punctuate all his badassery with sassy one liners.

Starring alongside him is Dolph Lundgren as 'The German' who steals the show, and really this should have been his movie, in many ways it kinda is. He may be showing his age a bit, but somehow the lines of age seem to only add to his presence. He's never been a good actor, but he is clearly enjoying the role he plays here. The German mixes up his usual on screen characterisation just enough to be as refreshing as it is familiar, while still being all awesome. Seeing him nonchalantly take down entire rooms of guys with a kitchen knife and THEIR guns, without taking a single scratch is AWESOME but it's equally awesome that later he prepares a smoothie, while listing off the benefits of each fruit while a man bleeds to death in a chair.

Impressively though, there aren't any weak characters in this, not really. Films like this usually seem to try and ride the wheel of their biggest stars (well I dunno whether you'd call them that...) but for once it isn't like every side character is just a thug for Austin to knock over. Everyone gets to have a character, and a personality and gets to have a lot of fun wearing those shoes, even if it's only for a single scene. And for once scenery chewing actually kinda works in context. All the big personalities, and skills for violence, sometimes make this feel more like some kind of comic book film than your straight actioner. And I love that.

The film makes lots of fun uses of its characters as well, constantly tipping the balance of power as characters weave in and out of the frame as threats or non threats which creates for a surprisingly twisty ride, if not a particularly cerebral one.

Most importantly though, it doesn't detract from what we came here to see, Lundgren VS Austin! And MAN is it worth the wait, if you aren't a classic action fan you might be disappointed (but then why'd you care about this movie?) but just seeing these two pure powerhouses pummel the living shit out of one another until one goes down, just YES. There are no rules!

As you can gather, on terms of pure entertainment, The Package is pretty much perfect. Every set piece is stunning, thrilling and just downright awesome. Bloody, visceral fist fights, explosive gun fights, intense claustrophobic brawls, cars flipping, sets levelled. So much win.

What is most surprising though is The Package is actually really well made. It isn't exactly a stylish movie, but the cinematography and editing at least tries to give the film some kind of visual identity and doesn't trying to do it all by the numbers.

Space jam

The greatest movie about basketball playing aliens ever made.

Watched Frozen today.

The biggest question with Frozen is whether the end justifies the means. And at no point am I saying it necessarily doesn't. Frozen has a third act which leaves you feeling ecstatic as you walk out of the theatre, both in its huge feel good appeal but also in the amount of depth and thoughtfulness Frozen ultimately proves it has.

Sadly the problem though is despite Frozen not being a long film, so much of the film ultimately exists for the ending, and flutters around almost purposelessly until then, biding its time until its time to put its foot down. With whole plot arcs feeling or turning out to be half baked to downright pointless, it makes you feel like you've had your time wasted for novelties, which isn't a great feeling, even if the novelties are pretty great.

But, it's important to note, that the movie isn't bad, far far from it, just problematic. Olaf and Sven are comic relief characters that are actually genuinely funny and don't feel like they're tacked on solely for the sake of making the darker moments of the movie more kid friendly. It's rare for a movie to make me laugh out loud beyond a few snorts and giggles, but it's even rarer for a film to have me roaring with laughter along with everyone else in the screen.

But perhaps the strongest character of the whole bunch is Hans. You know he's going to be evil as soon as he turns up, but with the films tendency to defy conventions and the way Hans doesn't seem to have a hint of slime or menace about him, and genuinely seems to be the Prince Charming he claims to be, it almost makes the 'I'm actually evil' twist almost work because for the longest amount of time you aren't quite expecting it to really happen.

Also, whether the narrative ultimately works for you or not, I'm pretty sure no one will complain about the visuals. From the gorgeous core sisters, who are beautiful to the point of uncomfortableness, to the stunning art aesthetic and beautiful ice creations this is just an utterly gorgeous movie. And a pretty damn great one, overall.

I wish I hadn't read this. I haven't been able to see the flick yet and was not aware of the twist. Darn.

My bad! It's been out for almost a week in the UK already so I assumed everyone who wanted to see this, has, especially as it was released just before the weekend and that weekend is now behind us.

No, really. It's totally my fault. It has been out for a while. I've just been working a lot of weekends and haven't had the chance. I've avoided every review online and, for some silly reason, didn't stop myself before reading yours. There's no one to blame but me, because I am stupid. :lol

My writing is just that good.

Since I gave Mortal Instruments a chance, and found myself with a fun if not particularly good movie, I thought I'd have to give Beautiful Creatures a chance. This film even has some positivity circling it, with people claiming that although the film isn't particularly great, for once the central romance is actually good. That'd make a change, wouldn't it?

The strength of Beautiful Creatures is it introduces one film, then when it sits you down, introduces you to a whole other one, without ever losing sight of what got you in the seat in the first place. Beautiful Creatures is a campy, tongue in cheek critique of the Young Adult Supernatural Romance Genre or (YASRG). But just when you think it's gonna be another 'if you can't beat them, insult them' stains that are called films, Beautiful Creatures reveals itself to be about so much more.

It also helps that Beautiful Creatures is actually a solid movie. Like Twilight, Beautiful Creatures has a unique and easily identifiable style but unlike Twilight there appears to be actual money behind this, so we get great locations captured by even better cinematography. I never thought one of these sorts of movies would feel well made or could be beautiful.

Beautiful Creatures mixes up other aspects as well, like setting it in a deadbeat middle of nowhere deep south bible bashing town. Hardly the dramatic stage for a supernatural, young adult romance, is it? Nothing says sexy like a hick! And how could you hate a movie that hates Christianity as much as this movie?

But yeah, that hidden depth, that hidden maturity, it's glorious. Perhaps the most fascinating character in the entire film is Emmy Rossum's Ridley who turns up as a not quite as sexy as Alice Cullen knock off, and you roll your eyes, then you see her flashback and your jaw drops. She is incredibly complex, and it's a crying shame she isn't in the movie more.

There is also this whole plot about how when a girl becomes sixteen, her true nature comes out and she has no choice in the matter, she becomes evil or she becomes good, no in between. The subtext and what this really is all about is obvious, and the movie makes no attempt to share this message in any way less than purely hamfisted. But what I will say is they make the message work very well in its supernatural setting, just by adding a different paint job. It's a very real threat in real life, a very supernatural one here.

Hell, even the backstory of the whole thing seems to have actual stakes in play, as our modern day lovers are walking down the path of histories doomed lovers. A woman uses her powers to bring her lover back from the dead, only to be consumed by darkness and immediately kill him again. This curses her bloodline, and the only freedom from the curse is to take the life of your love to restore the balance. Grizzly stuff, for this kinda flick.

And when it comes to Sarafine revealing her feelings and belief around love? Well that is certainly going to turn a few heads. And make quite a few parents in the audience uncomfortable. Glorious.

It also has a lot of fun with gender roles, this time around our human is a boy and our supernatural mysterious person is a woman. And although Lena is basically Edward Cullen or Jace in a dress, they thankfully haven't tried to make Ethan a Kristen Stewart knock off with muscles. However I still think I liked The Mortal Instruments dynamic better, as there there really wasn't a damsel in distress in that one, thankfully. Unless you count the obligatory human extra so they could have a love triangle.

Sadly though, although the critics claimed the romance was well done here, I'm not entirely convinced. Bumpkin protagonist Ethan seems to only fall for Lena because she is different, and although it's fun to see these roles swapped, the romance isn't any more convincing for it. And the whole 'look how witty we are scenes', they are just cringe inducing. I guess at least they have some semblance of chemistry, unlike any of the central couples of any of these other franchises.

Plus, less so a direct criticism, and more a disappointment is the exploration of the world's mythology is largely given a back seat. There is so much of importance going on in the forefront, that it's almost three quarters through the whole movie before we are giving the inevitable small town greater purpose "twist". But when we do finally get there, the mythology's fun if not particularly original.

Lemme guess, this one ain't getting a sequel?

Re-watching : http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...eHobbitAUJ.jpg

In preparation for seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with a friend tomorrow.