I watched this in * 2014 *
Or, to be more accurate, here's a few films which I got around to reviewing, amongst the far greater number I failed to make note of. From a computer crash in mid-January until the end of the year, 2014 was one of the most haphazard, unpredictable years of my life, and makings lists of films (let alone actually watching them) took a back seat, to say the least. So, here's some films I saw, what I thought of them, and let's hope that 2015 affords a bit more creative headspace to do my movie habit justice.
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- DirectorJames WanStarsPatrick WilsonVera FarmigaRon LivingstonParanormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.DVD AT HOME. Effective, well-made and probably a masterpiece of its kind. The problem is, I'm not a fan of its kind. Old-school look-behind-you jump scares and demonic possession leave me a little distanced, but I can see why this freaks out the believers.
- DirectorAndré ØvredalStarsOtto JespersenRobert StoltenbergKnut NærumA group of students investigates a series of mysterious bear killings, but learns that there are much more dangerous things going on. They start to follow a mysterious hunter, learning that he is actually a troll hunter.BLU RAY AT HOME. I think this might become an annual thing, me and TROLL HUNTER. Third watch, gets better each time. Creepy and atmospheric, I still can't say I truly love the Sesame Street look of the trolls themselves, but the audio more than makes up for the look of them. Stick some headphones on, darken the lights, and feel that giant Jotnar rumble across the plateau. "We can't have Jotnars running about". Watch TH and you'll understand why. Brilliant.
- DirectorEvan GoldbergSeth RogenStarsJames FrancoJonah HillSeth RogenSix Los Angeles celebrities are stuck in James Franco's house after a series of devastating events just destroyed the city. Inside, the group not only have to face the apocalypse, but themselves.BLU RAY AT HOME. Keeps going further and further, throws caution to the wind, does things you don't expect, and once or twice you will truly piss yourself laughing. I kind of expected the very, very end - how else can a film like this finish? But that was about the only hackneyed part of it. Michael Cera's magnificent * SPOILER * death scene is worthy of applause and a big old guffaw. Emma Watson: still stiff as a board, but Channing Tatum's modest little cameo cancels her out. As for the main cast, even James Franco - who I think usually suffers from Brad Pitt Disease (glassy, distanced eyes, never really in the moment) - turns in a wide-awake, I'm really here performance. Rogen, Baruchel, Hill and Danny McBride (verbals with Franco over wanking being a particular highlight, and the chief reason why TITE is definitely NOT for kids) commands the screen like a true villain should. It's definitely weird and fantastically non-PC (hooray), but very funny too.
- DirectorChuck RussellStarsShawnee SmithKevin DillonDonovan Leitch Jr.A deadly entity from space crash-lands near a small town and begins consuming everyone in its path. Panic ensues as shady government scientists try to contain the horrific creature.DVD AT HOME. Search for The Blob, and 9 times out of 10 you'll be directed to the 50s version with a young Steve McQueen. Some sort of ancient classic. I tracked down the other one, which I remembered from my own 20s - the one where the chef gets pulled down a plughole. And here it is: six years after THE THING grossed out the world with still (to this day) the zenith of practical effects, THE BLOB came along. But here's the bad news - Hollywood had regressed. Over the six years, people had forgotten how to act (Joe Seneca RIP, but good grief man...), forgotten how to write a script, and most of all forgotten how to produce special effects. No CGI, which is good, but you have to check all sorts of cynicism in at the door when you start watching this. Laughable, at times (although the face-sucking, face-melting, generally face-violating Blob is superbly yucky at times). BLOB falls into 'so bad it's good' territory. That's a big fat old cliche, as a tribute to the movie which is full of them. By the way, Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith was WAY out of your league.
- DirectorSteven KnightStarsTom HardyOlivia ColmanRuth WilsonIvan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.DVD AT HOME. An oddly atmospheric, dream like, and very short little movie, which as well as making me nostalgic for the luxury, just-so interior of my old BMW 5 Series also becomes increasingly uncomfortable as Ivan Locke's nighttime drive (which is all his own fault) gets harder and harder to bear. Tom Hardy is magnificent - one of my favourite actors - playing a man whose life runs at as close to millimetric precision as he can get it. Unfortunately, choices he's made previously combine to make his late night motorway trip a real test of his ability to control his life. Sounds dull, isn't. An emotional horror show. Only some weak voice acting on the car speaker phone, and an awkward script lets it down. When Hardy is talking, it is poetry. When he's listening, the hackneyed script jars a little more. The ending is a chin-stroker. A film to discuss with your partner, all the way home - although I can see this movie starting a fair few domestics on the drive home afterwards (appropriately enough).
- DirectorJonathan GlazerStarsScarlett JohanssonJeremy McWilliamsLynsey Taylor MackayA mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.BLU RAY AT HOME. If I was making a Films Of The Year list this year, it's hard to imagine UNDER THE SKIN not being on it. I'd read the book, and knew that the movie version was different. But although the Director has changed some of the details, the movie and book are equally creative, intelligent, and in their own different ways almost equally enjoyable too. I'd give the nod to the book, just, which I'd say was the greater of the two as regards a creative success, and it's not surprising that most people who have watched and reviewed UNDER THE SKIN the movie without first reading the nook have piled criticism upon it. The book gave me context which the film doesn't - you're out there on your own a lot of the time. But being prepared for the background scenario as I was, I was totally absorbed. Johannson is magnetic. Yes it is strange, and yes I kind of wanted to see more of the 'vodsel' scenario fleshed out (pun grotesquely intended) so well in the book. Writing this, I realise that the book is significantly more horrifying, although the movie has its moments. One character who appears lends a real-life dose of the macabre, which will shock you to the core if you're not prepared for it ( I was). UNDER THE SKIN is beautiful, sedately paced, artistic and probably confusing as hell if you didn't read the novel. So pleased I did.
- DirectorDan GilroyStarsJake GyllenhaalRene RussoBill PaxtonWhen Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.CINEMA. Marie and I saw this on a Sunday evening, both tired out, typical exhausted parents trying to have a life ... Fair to say we both expected to snooze, even though we both really wanted to see this. However ... NIGHTCRAWLER kept us wide awake, gripped, involved and increasingly horrified from start to end. This is a little masterpiece. Gyllenhaal is electric. The diner scene, towards the end, is astonishingly tense - the slowly-built setup, and oh that payoff. It'll be on all the end-of-year Top Ten lists, including mine. An almost perfect night out at the movies. I'll let the proper critics discuss the social commentary side of things - about which there is plenty to say. it's a sick world, and doesn't the media love it. Jake's unforgettable nightcrawler certainly does. What atmosphere. Squalid, nerve-shredding, and outrageous.
- DirectorWes BallStarsDylan O'BrienKaya ScodelarioWill PoulterThomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escape.CINEMA. Watched this with the target audience - my 14 yr old stepson. He gave it two thumbs up. To me, MAZE RUNNER is a bit by-the-numbers. Call it The Slightly Peckish Games. However a closer comparison is the low-budget CUBE, which I love enough to put in my Top 100. Same setup: characters awake, memories wiped, inside a puzzle. Add danger, sit back, and watch them freak out / work it out / struggle to survive. We've had torture porn for years, and this is puzzle porn. In MAZE RUNNER we've come far enough in CGI for the surroundings to look real - the maze looks great. Impossible last-second escapes from crushing rock? Check. Gravity-defying leaps? Check, of course, film stars can fly. Heroic self-sacrifice? Check. Quirky short fat kid you're meant to love? Check. The handsome hero can actually act, which is a bonus, but as with most screen monsters these days, the CGI Greavers are unneccessarily complicated. Too many moving parts. Just because you can *design* a monster with 455 moving parts, doesn't mean you should do. Anyway, don't bother trying to pick out the plot holes - that would be, just like the maze itself, a colossal waste of time. I only dozed off once, in the middle, when the internal politics among the boys were getting sorted out. For the rest of it I was engaged, and - okay - only mildly interested as to what would happen next. Naturally there's a big reveal at the end, and naturally it's sequel-friendly. Beside me, 14 yr old was engrossed. Inside me, I was counting the days until INTERSTELLAR, which promises something much more cerebral and spectacular. I hope.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsMatthew McConaugheyAnne HathawayJessica ChastainWhen Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.And so INTERSTELLAR arrived, after spending six years on my IMDb Watchlist, back since it was a Spielberg project. I'd managed to avoid the spoilers. My sci-fi-immune wife Marie and I went in cold, just like we'd done back when INCEPTION came out. We left that one on a high, practically high-fiving, and wouldn't you know it, the same thing happened again. Marie was silent beside me for most of the film, until ** SPOILER ALERT ** the mind-bending scene with the time-distorted, infinite bookshelves ** END SPOILER **. Then she burst out "That's SO clever!!" and I knew she was along for the whole ride. Emotionally, it got to me, as I have a young daughter. My man-stare cracked a little at the end, I'll admit. Several times during the film, I thought to myself, hang on, this is actually horrific. Given how I feel about my own daughter, would I do the same? And having done it, how strongly would I want to retrace my steps and scream out no, no, no, no, I didn't mean it??? I felt Cooper's gigantic emotions, and importantly I understood WHY. INTERSTELLAR, like INCEPTION, is an engage-brain movie. If you've avoided the spoilers you will NOT know where it is going, or how - if at all - it is ever going to bring you back. Yes it is spectacular, yes it is a proper science-fiction film which attempts to put hard sci-fi on screen in a way that has almost never been attempted before. Many draw parallels with 2001 of course, but don't forget CONTACT, which also took you through the wormhole to.... somewhere I found entirely magical. INTERSTELLAR doesn't top CONTACT, for me, at least not on first watch. I still think Zemeckis nailed absolutely every heartbeat of CONTACT, and Jodie Foster's impeccable performance in that film aces McConaughey's nevertheless excellent performance in this (and certainly Hathaway's, who I always find a little lightweight and actorly). Ironically, McConaughey's in CONTACT too... I ramble. So does INTERSTELLAR. Its pacing is weird, staccato, jumpy. Don't look for plot holes - there are plenty there, but like with all great movies, I rode over the bumps in Nolan's slipstream, happy to allow more or less anything while I hung on for the hoped-for ending. Did I get it? You'll have to decide for yourself, but it has an ending which I liked. Will it penetrate my top 100? Certainly. It doesn't top Nolan's own THE PRESTIGE, or CONTACT, or SILENT RUNNING, ALIEN, THE ABYSS or CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, among my favourite sci fi movies. but I'm expecting this to settle well inside my Top 100 once I've had time to process it all. It's up there with INCEPTION - it's cerebral, demanding and thoughtful yet not impenetrable. We both followed it, literally, to another place in the universe. Wonderful ambition, wonderful execution, and staggering to imagine how one might conceive of, and - harder still - execute a movie of this colossal scale. Proof that intelligent life does exist in Hollywood. In around six years, I hope that we get another imaginative, original, stellar Christopher Nolan blockbuster, just like this one. He's still young, and he's my new Spielberg.
- DirectorPaul CrowderStarsMichael FassbenderLewis HamiltonNiki LaudaSet in the golden era of Grand Prix Racing '1' tells the story of a generation of charismatic drivers who raced on the edge, risking their lives during Formula 1's deadliest period, and the men who stood up and changed the sport forever.After cramming a dozen of the most hoary, hackneyed cliches into its first sixty seconds, I thought uh-oh, here we go. After F1 received the Fisher Price treatment in last year's RUSH, a film which did the sport no real justice at all (and I know that's not a common view, but it's where I stand), here we go with amateur hour again. Stand by for a 90-minute Sky Sports style flag-waving montage of fast cars, pretty girls, loud noises and blah blah blah .. All fast edits, flash camerawork, no authenticity, no substance.
But, I was wrong. After the pomp and circumstance of the first minute, '1' slams to a halt, literally, as Martin Brundle's car rises and violently jackknifes through the air and into the Armco at Adelaide '96. Silence .. Surely he's got to be dead. But F1 fans know he's not. In a perfect scene-setting moment, Brundle's familiar voice cuts through the air, tells us he shouldn't be alive today, and we have our context.
And then we're launched back in time, into what turns out to be a journey through the horrific, shocking early years of F1, and the struggles of a passionate group of drivers and team owners to reduce the death count in a sport which had all-too-often become - at its grisly height in the Seventies - the sporting equivalent of a snuff movie.
Motorsport fans love a good crash, but when a driver is burnt to death, or virtually sliced in half, or decapitated - all of which happen in '1'- it ceases to be entertaining. The film teaches you how Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Nikki Lauda played their roles in making the sport safer, and how Bernie Ecclestone of all people perhaps made, with his insistence that Prof Sid Watkins (may he rest in peace) rule every race from a medical standpoint, the biggest contribution. Max Moseley, too. I hadn't appreciated all of this.
Nor did I know that Jochen Rindt died when he insisted on removing his own rear wing to make the car go faster. Or how much of a superstar Francois Cevert had become before that stomach-churning crash at Watkins Glen which made his fellow drivers cry with the horror. Or indeed many other things, and I am a life-long fan of F1 since 1977, the year of Tom Pryce and Kyalami, which nobody can ever forget (although that insane and terrible moment isn't featured in the film).
'1' is wonderful, and at times if you're a hardcore, long-time fan, especially if you experienced the sport through the driver-killing Seventies like my brother Mark and I did, it might put a few tears in your eyes.
Oh it'll get compared in every single review to SENNA, which is a seminal documentary in any genre, never mind sports documentaries. But I'm not comparing the two. '1' has it's place, and in my view it joins SENNA as the second great F1 film in recent years.
It doesn't go for controversy, although there is naturally some finger-pointing. If you're a circuit-owner from the 1970s, or a relative of Colin Chapman, you might not like what you see here. Jacky Ickx, too, is singled out as a reckless Neanderthal who ignored safety and went against the rest - although Ickx magnificently defends his case in a relaxed, rather charming interview, without appearing too self-satisfied.
In fact, Ickx's charismatic and likeable turn is suffused with the glow of a man who walked the tightrope blindfold, and didn't fall. The predominant vibe from the interviewees who were around when the others were dying so often ... Fittipaldi, Andretti, Ickx, Stewart, Surtees, and of course Lauda ... is that they are The Survivors. As Andretti says, he dodged the bullet.
That the the bullets found so many of the greatest drivers who ever lived, is what gives '1' it's constant air of tragedy.
There is dread when a driver, such as Jim Clark, or Francois Cevert, or Jochen Rindt, is given the in-depth treatment, in the knowledge that the film makers are simply giving us the measure of men who, ultimately, would die horribly at the wheel of their car.
Some may find '1' ghoulish. I found it a fitting memorial to men both living and dead who are among my sporting heroes of all time.
A world-class line-up of interviewees, more or less everybody you'd want to hear from (except, perhaps, Prost), filmed and edited tastefully. Nobody outstays their welcome, it's a brisk film punctuated by tremendous, invigorating music and the ear-shattering, primal noises of an F1 circuit. It's the new ultimate TOP GEAR movie, and it'll sound amazing on your home cinema.
The men who play their parts in the relative sanitisation of the modern-day sport are reduced to a few interviews early and late in the movie, but although that very sanitisation is clearly where '1' is headed, it also knows that that's not where the story or the entertainment truly lie. Kudos to the film makers for not producing an F1 retrospective for the YouTube generation.
But, briefly, you're brought to the near-present day by a moment of genius from the quick-witted Robert Kubica, near the end. Cue much laughter.
So really, if all you know is Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher and Button, your moment comes in the final few minutes, but it's a triumphant moment, brilliantly edited into a montage with all the noise, fury and excitement you'd want for the film's climax.
It's a film for me and my big brother, as we were there back in the day. Monza 1977, the year before Sid Watkins arrived, and Petersen died, we sat in that big long old stand among the Tifosi, and watched Andretti beat the six-wheel Tyrrells. We - like a million other men of a certain age - remember those days, and the unique taste of which, back then, had a seat-of-the-pants and unrestricted air of a dangerous sport in which anything can happen, and which has now become relatively predictable, sanitised and desperately, almost calamitously, commercial.
Maybe death is entertainment, after all. Perhaps that's what we all have to recognise. The Romans had their gladiators, and we had ours. But the Formula One gladiators who died, all died doing something they loved - right up to the moment of impact, the sport to which they had devoted their lives quickly and brutally sending them on their journey into the next one.