12 Years A Slave

     The good films of 2014 keep on coming! After the end credits began to roll in 12 Years A Slave I began the thought process on what score to give it. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find fault with this flawless film by Steve McQueen.
     The story and writing were excellent and the film was crammed with countless talented actors performing at the top of their game. Chiwetel Ejiofor played the role of Solomon Northup and it was his best ever performance to date. Michael Fassbender was a brilliant baddie and was also one of the main sources of humour. Also, Lupita Nyong'o as Patsey puts herself on the map as a talented actress. Smaller supporting roles from Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti and Paul Dano added to the gravitas of this film.
      The violence was very real and harsh, which depicted a stronger realism to the story. The 12 years of Solomon's slavery were not stated. This was a thumbs up idea, as it meant you weren't sure when Northup was going to escape slavery or how.
     I have not watched a faultless film in a few years and may not again for sometime. So there is a good chance that 12 Years A Slave will be my best film of 2014. But of course, there is plenty of time to go yet.


Stars *****

An Exciting Start!

     After 2013 being a hit and miss year for films I was hoping for a good start to 2014. I have not been disappointed with the first three films I have seen this year:


American Hustle

I am not surprised this is being nominated for awards. American Hustle is a great film by David O. Russell about a con man (Christian Bale) and his partner (Amy Adams) who are forced to work with the FBI. Christian Bale once again shines bright. He also goes all out for his performance physically, sporting a weighty stomach. He has morphed his body before in The Machinist, losing an incredible amount of weight and in Batman he pumped up to become very muscular. So he deserves credit in what he does, but I don't know if this will mean an Oscar.
Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence also deserved to be mentioned for their strong performances. American Hustle is a exciting, funny and well written film and will do well throughout the Award season.

Stars ****


 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller is main star and Director in one of his best films to date. Stiller plays the part of the day dreaming Walter Mitty wonderfully. Being a day dreamer myself I connected well with the character. I loved the score and this is a lovely film to go and see.

The only criticism I have is maybe it all happened a bit too easily or quickly from Walter Mitty being the under achieving lonely day dreamer to breaking that mould and going on an adventure. Apart from that there's very little to knock about this movie and Stiller has done a rare act and that is make a film that is not based on a true story...albeit a remake...

Stars ****


Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

A biopic is always difficult, for the simple reason that there's too much to say in such a short time. Therefore a film about the life of Nelson Mandela was always going to be a tricky one. However, I believe that they did a good job. The film was always going to be long, weighing in at 2 and a half hours. But I didn't feel like it went on for too long, nor was it especially rushed. Saying that, I do believe the story could have been better told in some sort of a 10 part TV series.
When I heard the brilliant Idris Elba was going to be portraying Nelson Mandela I was slightly sceptical because I didn't see a resemblance. However, Elba was brilliant. He went out of his comfort zone in many aspects in my opinion., but sometimes (especially when he played the young Mandela) all I could see was Idris Elba rather than Mandela. This distracted me from the story at times. Long Walk To Freedom is still a remarkable film and I'm surprised at how Elba and Naomie Harris were both shunned from the Baftas and the Oscars.

Stars ****

Films 2013

         There were a lot of great films in 2013, but there were also a lot of poor ones. If you missed any then I would suggest keeping clear from The Internship - where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson rattle off their usual characters in a very average comedy. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunter - a very poor spin on the fairytale, which has Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton performing well below par.and Hangover: Part III - the worst of an average trilogy. They should have kept it at one film, but they got all excited with how well it did and had to kill it. The awful Fast and Furious 6 - There's been about 6 films too many in this series. Last of all, Pacific Rim - this is probably my worst film of 2013. Yes it was quite exciting watching Godzilla fight the Transformers, but the acting was atrocious and even the awesome Idris Elba couldn't save this abomination.

          There were also quite a few disappointments...A Good Day To Die Hard - I was so looking forward to the next instalment, especially after how great Die Hard 4 was. I loved the trailer and that got me really excited, but the film was painfully average. Anchorman 2 - suffered from similar problems. The trailer was very funny, but it was a timid shadow in comparison to the original. Many of the jokes fell flat and some scenes were just too silly. The Wolverine was another failure, but then again the first Wolverine wasn't that great either. I was also not that impressed with The Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug - I accept that there will be a lot of softness, as Percy Jackson loves a bit of corniness and wetness, but I actually thought in this 2nd Hobbit instalment that some of the characters were going to break out into song. Hopefully the final film will restore my faith in this rather unnecessary trilogy.

         Anyway, enough of the crap from last year and now to the good shit...Some of the enjoyable films of 2013 were World War Z - Brad Pitt does his usual top notch job in a very exciting and action packed spin on a "zombie flick". Special mention has to go to Chris Hemsworth for his two brilliant performances in two of the top films of last year, in Rush and Thor: The Dark World. I didn't think that Thor was going to be any good, but it was one of the happy surprises of 2013. Hemsworth was awesome, as was the very talented Idris Elba as Heimdall and Tom Hiddleston as Loki. What really made this a good film was the amount of humour that actually worked! Hemsworth also did a very good job in Rush, as the legendary Formula 1 driver, James Hunt.
I enjoyed Ironman 3, even though not many other people seemed to. It was the least best out of the 3 but it still had all the characteristics to be a very good blockbuster. The lovely Robot & Frank should also get a mention. This is a great film to watch if you want to see a strong performance from Frank Langella who plays an ageing man in the near future and becomes friends with a robot who you cannot help but like. Alan Partridge 'Alpha Papa' is funny and adapts well to the big screen, as Steve Coogan reprises the role of the hilarious Alan Partridge who gets caught up in a siege in his own radio station.

         Now for my top 5 films of 2013


5. Mud
Matthew McConaughey proves once again how good an actor he can be in a very tense and well made thriller. Good acting by the children also has to be mentioned, as so many films can fall short when it comes to the kids needing to act.

4. Lincoln
This epic feature by Steven Spielberg had to be up there. Daniel Day Lewis deserved his awards for portraying Abraham Lincoln so well. Even though the film was almost flawless it doesn't make my top 3 because it just needed that extra 'something' which the top 3 films in my opinion had.

3. Star Trek: Into Darkness
I loved the first Star Trek back in 2009 and as ever I am always wary of sequels to great films. Because as shown with Anchorman it's not that easy to recreate a good thing. However, Star Trek: Into Darkness managed it. Chris Pine as Captain Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock made a fine pairing once again. Also Benedict Cumberbatch was superb as ever, as the villain Khan.

2. Captain Philips
I always look forward to any film that has Tom Hanks in and I certainly wasn't disappointed with another master class performance. This was a very well written and edge of the seat thriller, based on the true story of a Captain Philips who had his ship taken over by Somali pirates.

1. Django Unchained
My best film of 2013 has to go to one of the first films I saw in 2013 and that is Quentin Tarantino's awesome Django Unchained. Jamie Foxx put in his best ever performance by far and the wonderful Christopher Waltz was at the top of his game. Leonardo Dicaprio and Samuel L. Jackson are brilliant and very likeable bad guys in this wild west epic with a classic Tarantino spin. I would also have to say that Django has to be one of Tarantino's best films, maybe just behind Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.