I watched this in 2015
Or my 'good intentions' list. Watch more and better movies in 2015, get out to the cinema more, engage brain more frequently, and even 'stay awake in films' rather than snooze in Cineworld. With all that to achieve, what hope that I will be able to list what I've seen and heaven forbid actually write a few words about it too? But here goes...
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- DirectorDoug LimanStarsTom CruiseEmily BluntBill PaxtonA soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.BLU-RAY... Cosy New Year's Day evening, 5 yr old at grandma's, DTS sound system turned right up ... even if 2015 subsequently lets me down, at least one movie night went like clockwork. On second watch EDGE OF TOMORROW is the complete action film, with only a single element - the over-fiddly CGI creature design - knocking a point off the score. I like Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt is not blandly gorgeous (she's interestingly gorgeous), and there's even Bill Paxton although he's not exactly stretched. So much to enjoy: the pace at which it moves .. the precision .. the humour .. the cast .. the neat logic (within the ridiculously out-there rules of the plot, which I can forgive, given the superlative execution) ... just the thrill factor which is way up there. To British eyes, maybe it looks a little homespun in places - red London buses might look cool to Yanks, but to me they look 'hey we're in London' tokenistic), and a British trailer park looks nowhere near as movie-cool as an American one - but look, the aliens have reached the coast of France, what are you going to do? EDGE OF TOMORROW is basically a sci-fi Dad's Army. Brilliant. Oh, and through a good set of home speakers in DTS (we have a good home cinema here...), it sounds absolutely knockout. Piledriver sound design, especially from the rear speakers and the sub - you'll find that out in the first ten seconds. Great start to the film year 2015.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsMartin FreemanIan McKellenRichard ArmitageA reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home and the gold within it from the dragon Smaug.BLU-RAY ... I fell asleep when I watched this at the cinema. Got bored with all the running about. Yet, at home, in the perfect environment (the Lumet Cinema chez Hiseman, undisturbed, Blu-ray, DTS sound, limitless tea and Maltesers), this became what I want cinema to be. Immersive, transporting, other-worldly. I dug into and invested in the plot, the characters, the settings, the stakes. I relaxed into what I knew would be a lengthy three-film journey, totally comfortable in Jackson's world from the three LOTR films. In safe hands, and wonderful entertainment.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsIan McKellenMartin FreemanRichard ArmitageThe dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, their homeland, from the dragon Smaug.BLU-RAY ... I watched the first sequel in the same conditions as I watched AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY - perfect, undisturbed, in the moment throughout. More spectacular than the first, Smaug is magnificent, the gathering of all the plot threads exciting, and the stage set beautifully for the final act - the big battle, which I'll watch at the cinema. Loving my Hobbit films now, much more than I thought I would. I feel part of it, and have no time for those who throw withering comments this way. Martin Freeman doesn't get enough time to show us what he can really do, but you know I'll have him as my star over Elijah Wood any day of the week. And Gandalf, please never leave us.
- DirectorChris BuckJennifer LeeStarsKristen BellIdina MenzelJonathan GroffFearless optimist Anna teams up with rugged mountain man Kristoff and his loyal reindeer Sven in an epic journey to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter.SING-A-LONG AT CINEMA ... Saw this on a sing-a-long Saturday morning showing with Marie and our five year old daughter, Holly. It was a near perfect moviegoing experience .. sometimes cuddling my little girl, sometimes listening to beautifully out of tune singing, sometimes just sitting quietly enjoying the moment. It's a terrific film, too - I'd never got past the halfway mark at home, for whatever reason. As far as trips to the cinema go, it had to be one of the happiest ever. Huge credit to everyone involved in making this lovely piece of entertainment, and I'm a big fan of the Frozen sing-a-long phenomenon. I'm on board for F2.
- DirectorPeter JacksonStarsIan McKellenMartin FreemanRichard ArmitageBilbo Baggins and company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness.CINEMA ... Magnificent. I came to this fully-prepared, fresh from Hobbits #1 and #2, and I devoured every second. Far too much going on to mention specifics here. I don't care what the rest say: I ultimately enjoyed THE HOBBIT trilogy just as much as the LORD OF THE RINGS movies. They aren't as instantly-watchable or iconic as LOTR, of course, and you need to prep yourself much more to understand what's happening, to whom, and why - but I happened to have done my homework. Peter Jackson, a big, big thank you for producing six masterpieces. So good.
- DirectorMorten TyldumStarsBenedict CumberbatchKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeDuring World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.CINEMA ... An old-fashioned classic. Not just an important and gripping story, but beautifully and movingly told. The Enigma breakthrough scene ... it's everything you wanted it to be. And once you've watched it, the disbelief and the outrage - that this man was publicly shamed for his sexuality, rather than carried to immortality on our shoulders - is almost too much to bear. Turing saved 14 million lives, and committed suicide alone and lonely, at just 41. How's that for injustice. It was an achievement almost too great to comprehend. The film, in comparison, is a speck in the cosmos in comparison, but I give it ten out of ten. Superlative all round, including the cast - I could even abide Keira Knightley, which I normally can't. Matthew Goode is a James Bond in waiting, hypnotic to watch, Mark Strong and Charles Dance are enjoyably sinister and commanding respectively, and there's a surprising strain of humour running through it, especially at the start. A rattling pace and a terrific script - oh, and I see what all the fuss is about, regarding Benedict Cumberpatch. He becomes Alan Turing, it is a believable and truly heartbreaking performance - like the movie, one for the ages.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEllar ColtranePatricia ArquetteEthan HawkeThe life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.DVD... It's comical how, on IMDb, BOYHOOD divides opinions so neatly between the 10/10 ravers, and the 1/10 angries. I side with the latter (although I gave it a token 3). Twelve years in the making, and they forgot to come up with a story. The odd vaguely interesting character - and that doesn't include the semi-comatose young lead actor, who plays the boy-growing-up. Just like THE ARTIST a few years ago, BOYHOOD has a lot of the cognoscenti fooled with its difference. One was a black & white silent film, one was filmed over twelve years. THE ARTIST won Best Picture, and BOYHOOD will almost certainly do the same (writing this five weeks before The Oscars 2015). But BOYHOOD left me bored. "Don't expect an alien spaceship to land" I said to Marie, when it started, as I'd heard it was a family drama without much incident. But boy, did I want that big old alien spaceship to land by the end. * SPOILER * There's no alien spaceship. It just ends, with possibly the film's most vacant exchange between two teens passing off as 'cool', but actually just slackers who have no clue about themselves, or the world around them. There's no charm in that, only ennui. File under 'Academy gets fooled again' and go and watch a movie which tells a story and generates lasting emotions - like THE IMITATION GAME, which should win The Oscar but clearly will not.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJesse EisenbergAndrew GarfieldJustin TimberlakeAs Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.BLU RAY ... Given what I am currently up to, this was an appropriate watch, although it was actually Marie who suggested it. THE SOCIAL NETWORK is fascinating for those of us connected with 'the industry', and although no film can tell more than .023% of the full story, it's gripping from beginning to end. Listen hard, because Jesse Eisenberg's delivery is machine-gun fast, like his fingers on the keyboard. Still as good now as the first time, and hey, everybody got rich in the end.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsSam NeillLaura DernJeff GoldblumA pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.BLU-RAY ... Watched this cuddled under a blanket with Holly, 5, who screamed at the appropriate bits (but she was playing a part). JP is as familiar as a slice of hot buttered toast. The film's great: I could do without the kids, but I appreciate why they are there. Such a shame Bob Peck isn't around any more, he'd be landing the roles which always go to the ubiquitous Tom Wilkinson these days. Jeff Goldblum was at his peak, but showed in the sequel that he can't quite carry a blockbuster as the leading man. Laura Dern has, I'm sorry, the ugliest cry-face in the history of film.
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsSteve CarellChanning TatumMark RuffaloU.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.CINEMA ... Such a disappointment. As Marie said, "they put all the good bits in the trailer". Like THE ROVER last year, and many before it, FOXCATCHER subscribes to the view that a conversation which would be perfectly fine if it lasted 30 seconds, is elevated to Art and Significance (and perhaps even Oscar-Worthiness) if it is stretched out to three minutes. In other words, this film D - R - A - G - S. Honestly, there's a great story there, but what they chose to show of it, in FOXCATCHER, would have made a decent forty minutes. The other hour and twenty minutes are just boring. I have watched a LOT of slow films, and loved them (one random example - THE AMERICAN, which is on the fringe of my Top 100 all-time). To pull it off you need actors with great charisma (here, Steve Carell gets an Oscar Nom by basically shuffling around like a zombie the whole film, and his face is so heavily caked in make-up he can barely move it), you need to at least show something happening during the prolonged silences (although when .. ALL .. of .. the .. conversations .. take .. as .. long .. as .. they .. do .. in .. FOXCATCHER .. .. .. you're already past the point of no return), and you need to get your audience to buy into it, early on. Instead, FOXCATCHER lost me quite early on, and towards the end I was saying *** SPOILER *** "I wish he'd just hurry up and get his tank and machine gun out, go mental and be done with it *** END SPOILER ***. But the tank stayed in the garage (or wherever). I've bought the book, as I've heard that it's much better. The story sounds fascinating: the film is a giant wasted opportunity.
- DirectorColin TrevorrowStarsAubrey PlazaMark DuplassJake JohnsonThree magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified advertisement seeking a companion for time travel.TV ... Mild, goofy in places, corny in places, with not much emotional pull, it's hard to see anything in SNG which would persuade Universal to give Colin Trevorrow the car keys to the vital JURASSIC WORLD franchise. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is pleasant enough, but a couple of unlikeable characters - chiefly Jake Johnson's absolute arrogant git - make it a pretty unloveable and frankly quite amateurish attempt at mild comedy / drama. There's that word again - mild.....
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsBradley CooperSienna MillerKyle GallnerNavy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.CINEMA ... You know, pretty good, but only Stars and Stripes hoo-hah has elevated this to Oscar Contender status. It's not that good, although it's gripping enough, and the Iraq war scenes (which take the majority of the movie) are solidly fascinating. Bradley Cooper's all bulked up and grizzled, a big beast of a bloke with not much personality. A killin' machine. He rides rodeo horses, looks steely-eyed and determined during training montages, intimidates his fellow soldiers with his magnificence, but when you put a fake plastic baby in his arms, he crumbles. Not even Olivier could have acted his way out of that. The true story, if you dig into it, suggests that this man was less of a hero, and more of a moral hooligan who happened to be a very good shot. That he was himself cut down, ultimately, in an act of violence, is maybe fitting, if tragic for the family. As for the movie, we'll watch it again on Blu-ray. A good night at the cinema.
- DirectorTom GreenStarsJohnny HarrisSam KeeleyJoe DempsieMonsters' reign continues to spread throughout the Earth.ON A PLANE ... This wasn't the film I wanted it to be. The original MONSTERS has quietly grown to become one of my favourite genre movies: tasteful, atmospheric, and gently building to an unconventional, thoughtful and rather beautiful climax. I wanted the sequel to teach me more about the world of the colossal monsters themselves, but not only did It not do this, frustratingly it renders the monsters almost completely irrelevant. They might as well have been giraffes in the desert - equally out of place, and entirely incidental to the story. I believe that M:DC was trying to say something about invasion, the other-ness of different cultures which maybe we should just accept, rather than attempt to fight. Other than some brief establishing moments early on, we really have no idea why the humans and the monsters can't just live side by side. They seem to trample on towns occasionally, leading to US Army air strikes which cause human collateral damage which, given that we appear to be in Iraq, causes the insurgents to redouble their efforts to cause mayhem for the soldiers. Or something like that. Sorry, because this is even less of a monster movie than the first one. *** SPOILERS *** It becomes a descent-into-madness tale, as a pair of soldiers survive a series of attacks (by humans) on their squad, and stumble across the desert in search of rescue, or at least some sort of meaningful conclusion. The one that it reaches concludes that, surprise surprise, war messes with your head. And that's it. We do get thrown a few meagre bones - a particularly grand sequence right at the end, showing the subterranean birth of a new tribe of interstellar goliaths, rising magisterially from the sand in slow motion like the giant worms of Dune, goes a way towards justifying the quasi-artistic, slow-burn, close-up cinematography of the previous couple of hours - but they're not enough to save MONSTERS:DARK CONTINENT from the bargain bin. What a shame. There is such potential to be mined from the story which Gareth Edwards originally created, and in the glimpses we get of them, the monsters are imaginative, fascinating, original and extremely well-rendered creations. I wonder what they are like, how they tick, what their motives are. I don't believe we will ever find out. M:DC certainly isn't bothered about telling us. It is too busy giving us its grisly, ponderous war survival story while the real attractions thump along in the background, largely invisible, their story tantalisingly unexplored.
- DirectorNicholas StollerStarsSeth RogenRose ByrneZac EfronAfter they are forced to live next to a fraternity house, a couple with a newborn baby do whatever they can to take them down.ON A PLANE ... Another rollicking, brakes-off Seth Rogen comedy, only unlike the stellar THIS IS THE END, BAD NEIGHBOURS falls victim to its own self-conscious recipe of improv-driven humour. The mistake is in drafting actress Rose Byrne in to act as Rogen's partner in crime. In THIS IS THE END, Rogen had talented and funny actors like James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill and Danny McBride to bounce off. Here, Byrne gives the improv a game try, but merely comes off as a Rogen impersonator. Several scenes in BAD NEIGHBOURS are frankly embarrassingly bad, with Rogen and Byrne failing disastrously as they try to riff off each other .. It's just too obviously two actors chucking everything they've got out there in the hope that something will stick. A better-edited film would have left at least fifteen minutes of this on the cutting room floor. Byrne is a good if somewhat lightweight actress, but improv humour isn't her forte. The film's best performance comes from a surprising direction: Zac Efron is charismatic and lights up the screen in a performance which shows how this young actor has the potential to go in any one of several directions. He has the looks and the body to be a Brad Pitt, but is already a better actor than him. He might turn out to be a Ray Liotta, or a Leo DiCaprio yet. Oh to be in his shoes. There's some funny moments, and although it doesn't pass the six-laugh test (not for me anyway), it gave me a few chuckles. No doubt a different demographic would have had a total party with BAD NEIGHBOURS, and maybe I'm just the 'old person' who the frat boys dread becoming. I still think me and Marie have a few raves left in us, but I definitely agree with the movie's final sentiment - the best party is the one you got right at home, especially if you have a wife and kids that you love. So, decent try, but BAD NEIGHBOURS isn't the wild party it wanted to be. Funniest film of the year, some called it. Hooty-hoooooooooo, look out everybody, I call bulls**t on that. Funny in parts, cringeworthy in too many others, especially when Rose Byrne tries to be funny. With Kristen Wiig, maybe we'd have had a different result.
- DirectorJames MarshStarsEddie RedmayneFelicity JonesTom PriorStephen Hawking gets unprecedented success in the field of physics despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21. He defeats awful odds as his first wife Jane aids him loyally.CINEMA ... There's a moment towards the end of TTOE when Eddie Redmayne, by now going Full Hawking, is sitting in his electric wheelchair towards the left of the screen. His wife, played by Felicity Jones, sits to the right. It is quiet. It is a sad moment. Gradually, Eddie inches his wheelchair forward, towards Felicity. It's slow. Eventually, after moving about three feet, he stops. Silence again. Pause for effect. At this exact moment, a word popped in my head. 'TRANSFORMERS' it said. Why? Maybe if was the robotic voice, or the archaic electric wheelchair. I guess I was witnessing the exact polar opposite of a Transformers movie, right there and then, and I was interested to find that at that moment, I could have done with some Optimus Prime. For THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING is worthy, even funny in places, but it gave me *exactly* what I expected. It was a difficult marriage, yes they did splendidly, yes he's a genius and yes Eddie's acting his butt off (Oscar worthy of course), but to be frank I was bored. Unlike THE IMITATION GAME, which is this year's other Oscar-baiting public-schoolboys-face-a-challenge movie, TTOE didn't capture me I'm afraid. There's no mystery to it. T.I.G is equally an equally conventional bio pic, but way more thrilling, I found it to be more moving too. Don't get me wrong, I hate TRANSFORMERS, and TTOE gets a respectable six out of ten, but Man I wanted to be more intrigued at least, if not excited. When your favourite part of a film comes when you recognise an ex-footballer trying his hand at a bit of acting (Frank Le Boeuf plays a surgeon in this film, which is good trivia), something's wrong. Just not for me, but I do hope Eddie wins this Oscar. Given that they forgot to nominate Gyllenhaal for NIGHTCRAWLER, and that I probably am not going to see the apparently-pretentious BIRDMAN to suss out Michael Keaton, then I hope the Brit wins it for his Daniel Day Lewis moment. Bah humbug otherwise.
- DirectorDon HallChris WilliamsStarsRyan PotterScott AdsitJamie ChungA special bond develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who together team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.CINEMA ... Took 5yr old daughter, neither of us dragging the other but we had an afternoon to kill. 10 years ago this would have looked remarkable, and don't get me wrong, it does look beautiful - but maybe some days you just have to be in the mood for this sort of thing. As you can tell, I wasn't. Holly was so-so about it, not enough scary monsters really. Oh, and BIG HERO 6 is the 1001st special effects movie recently to feature a baddie which is basically a big, dark, flowing black goo of a monster ... even the HOBBIT films fell victim to that. Lost count now of how many modern films resort to the ever-changing, shape-shifting CGI mass as their main threat. I didn't warm to Baymax, he's a bit bland to be honest. But hey, it looks superb.
- DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsMiles TellerJ.K. SimmonsMelissa BenoistA promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.CINEMA ... I'm going to be brief, because I only need to say one thing. If you're reading this, and you haven't seen WHIPLASH, then why? I don't care if you normally watch chick flicks, superhero films or obscure Danish films about Medieval religion. It WHIPLASH doesn't transfix you, I simply don't understand you. Brilliant opening, brilliant ending, brilliant everything in between. Miles Teller and J K Simmons are magnificent protagonists, and deserve all the praise they are getting. Breathtaking film-making.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsMichael KeatonZach GalifianakisEdward NortonA washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.CINEMA ... Michael Keaton should win the Oscar. I don't keep lists of favourite performances, in the way I keep lists of movies, but if I didn't ... I think Keaton in BIRDMAN would be up in my top five. He is staggering in this film. Fearless. The very definition of un-self-consciousness. Acting his very pants off. Alongside him, Ed Norton, superbly entertaining. Zach Galifinakis, ditto. Naomi Watts, profane, aggressive, vulnerable. Andrea Riseborough, weirdly hot as always. But back to the film .. I didn't love BIRDMAN as much as I loved Keaton's performance. It is a Showcase - of Cinematography, of Directing, of Acting. It is breathless, perpetually moving, whirling in and around a single Broadway theatre as a significant production moves towards opening night. The stakes are high, everybody is highly strung, Keaton is imagining that he has superpowers, and throughout it all BIRDMAN, like Val Kilmer's Elvis in TRUE ROMANCE, keeps Keaton on edge, the voice in his head ultimately leading him to a double-whammy of a finale which I won't spoil here. One is a shock, one isn't ... See IDA for a clue. But overall? I honestly don't know. I think..... I think it will grow in my mind over time. I will buy the Blu-Ray and on second watch I think it will creep towards my Top 100. I was completely predisposed to hate BIRDMAN, I was ready to sit there, arms folded in cynicism, nonplussed by its Art, it's pretentiousness, its critical-darling status, its weird drumming soundtrack (to be honest, the drumming did pee me off a bit). To a strange degree, I did exactly that during the screening, but over the 48 hours since I saw it, it has mushroomed in an unexpected way. If either BIRDMAN or BOYHOOD is to win Best Picture at this year's Oscars, I'm rooting for the former, and for Keaton too. If Gyllenhaal (NIGHTCRAWLER) or Oyelowo (SELMA) were nominated as Best Actor, then it would be close, but I think I'd still probably give it to Beetlejuice. Looking forward to feeling MH love for BIRDMAN grow over the next few years. As I walked out, I would have given it a six. Two days on, it's knocking on a nine.
- DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsAgata KuleszaAgata TrzebuchowskaDawid OgrodnikA novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.BLU-RAY ... It's Oscars time (2 days away) and this is the one getting all the Best Foreign Language Film buzz. Generally they're worth seeing, the nominated films, and the bookies' favourite to win must be a good love, right? Think of THE LIVES OF OTHERS and THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES .. Both magnificent, both winners. I'd heard good things about IDA .. The gorgeous black and white cinematography in particular. Yes, this film looks wonderful, or as wonderful as a dour film about a nun's journey of self-discovery in downtrodden Sixties Poland can look. I saw it on BluRay, and it is startlingly crisp, beautifully framed, and the director lingers on the compositions long enough for you to drink in every scene. However, I have nothing as positive to report on the story. * SPOILERS FROM HERE * yet another Arthouse film in which the lingering on the shot becomes a trial to sit through. Sometimes it works for me, usually it doesn't. IDA frankly bored me. Minimal plot, no big revelation, and only a couple of surprises at the end. I sound like a right Neanderthal I realise, here, but it's how it grabbed me (or didn't). And what is it with 2015 Oscar contenders and jumping out of windows? That's two successive films in which a major protagonist has gone flying out into the fresh air. I get the ending .. She can only commit to being a nun, if she has something to sacrifice. But I didn't feel for her, or her boyfriend, when she walked out of the door. IDA had lost my interest. Some intrigue to be found in the self-destructive aunt, but really I was clutching at straws.
- DirectorAva DuVernayStarsDavid OyelowoCarmen EjogoOprah WinfreyA chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.CINEMA ... SELMA's lead actor David Oyelowo won't win an Oscar this year. Nor for that matter will NIGHTCRAWLER's Jake Gyllenhaal. But Steve Carell and Bradley Cooper might, and that makes no sense at all. Oyelowo is from Oxford, only he isn't, because in SELMA he simply is Martin Luther King, from Atlanta, Georgia, from the very opening second of the film. His diction, his cadence, his every word .. Riveting. Unbelievable. To say nothing of how he holds the screen, one black actor in the middle of a thousand, by no means the tallest or the most film star-looking, but undeniably the main attraction whenever he is on screen. Like Michael Keaton in BIRDMAN, Oyelowo dominates his film, and how the Academy chose to ignore his performance is one of the great Oscar injustices. The film, which covers a key period in the Civil Rights movement, gripped me when I absolutely expected it to bore me. It's not a part of history in which I have much interest - and I know very little about it. I felt sure I would be preached to, in some way being made to feel ashamed for being a white man watching a film about the oppression of the black man. Hey I'm just speaking my mind. It was a terrible part of history. But I'm living through my own part of history, and I go to the movies to get away from my reality, and visit a different one fro a while. SELMA, far from boring me, educated, entertained, thrilled and shocked me awake to the subject. It's got my interest, and I now want to know more about Dr King, and what happened. Three years after the events depicted in SELMA, King was assassinated ... The movie doesn't cover that, but it's shadow looms over the film. When he was warned that he might be shot as he led the match into Montgomery, King went ahead anyway. He knew the path he'd chosen would probably end with a bullet, but he pressed ahead, and the magnificent Oyelowo sells the decision in one of SELMA's most riveting scenes. I loved the film.mi watched it because I always try to watch the main Oscar-nominated movies, and frankly I'd left it towards the end, being relatively so-so about it. Now, I'm an evangelist for it, and for the brilliant acting by Oyelowo and the rest of the cast. When I love a movie, I tend to be uncritical of its minor flaws. That's how it is with SELMA.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.BLU-RAY ... An indulgent chocolate-box confection of a movie, every frame intricately constructed and pause-able if you watch it at home. I loved this, possibly more than any other Wes Anderson with the possible exception of THE LIFE AQUATIC (although I haven't yet seen FANTASTIC MR FOX, which I suspect might become my #1 W.A film from what I've seen of it). I'd been a little nervous about seeing THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, such was its potential quirkiness. It's not something I could have watched with Marie - its whimsy not being to her taste. But once I'd found the right conditions - a few hours free, family out and happy, home cinema cranked up - I settled into something almost completely delightful. Acting, set design, script, story... all first class, and well-deserving of all the Oscars. Just a treat.
- DirectorSam Taylor-JohnsonStarsDakota JohnsonJamie DornanJennifer EhleLiterature student Anastasia Steele's life changes forever when she meets handsome, yet tormented, billionaire Christian Grey.CINEMA ... Dakota Johnson, astonishingly, almost saves this mess. She's funny, almost believable, and attractive. Too much lip-biting, perhaps, and she's clearly better than this rubbish. Jamie Dornan shows all the personality of a packet of matches. There's more sexual tension in the average episiode of Downton Abbey. Decent first half .. .laughable second half ... sheepish sex scenes ... and then an abrupt, unsatisfying ending. I'd call it a damp squib, but even damb squibs have the redeeming feature of being damp. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY couldn't even muster any moisture.
- DirectorMatthew VaughnStarsColin FirthTaron EgertonSamuel L. JacksonA spy organisation recruits a promising street kid into the agency's training program, while a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.CINEMA ... Oh how clever, yes all so very whip-smart, but one for the fanboys. Bloodless, self-aware, witty but unloveable.
- DirectorJoss WhedonStarsRobert Downey Jr.Chris EvansScarlett JohanssonEarth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity.BLU-RAY ... Intelligent, massively spectacular, with great wit in the screenplay and a bunch of A-listers knocking it out of the park. How it should be done.
- DirectorAdam WingardStarsDan StevensSheila KelleyMaika MonroeA soldier introduces himself to the Peterson family, claiming to be a friend of their son who died in action. After the young man is welcomed into their home, a series of accidental deaths seem to be connected to his presence.DVD ... Heard a lot of good things about THE GUEST, and we do miss Matthew from Downton Abbey (RIP, should have worn a seatbelt). And Lo, "Downton's Dan Stevens" emerged as a Film Star, looking ripped, square-jawed and bestubbled, and generally a Hunk of the first order. I was looking forward to THE GUEST, but it turned out to be some way short of slick, or even professionally grungy. It's a bit of a mess, the pacing and tone are all over the place like a hurriedly-filmed Movie Of The Week on Hallmark but with graphic violence, CGI blood, squelchy sound effects. Dan can certainly throw a punch and he breaks bodies as well as Liam 'certain set of skills' Neeson ever could. However, with the plot holes coming in thick and fast, and the cliches almost as quickly, I ended up hanging on for some great revelation in the end (which I didn't get). At one point it all looks like it's going a bit CABIN IN THE WOODS, before sadly it retreats into a more standard hunt-and-shoot chase. It even has the cheek to throw in a hoary old horror movie twist right at the end, but my God it has some whiskers on it. He's not The Terminator, he's just a very naughty boy. Dan Stevens is destined for better things, but God save us from THE GUEST 2.