Films of 2013 Dec31

Films of 2013

This year I decided to record every film I watched, whether it was at the cinema or at home. 1.   Jan-01 – Alien 2.  Jan-02 – Godzilla 3. Jan-03 – Avatar 4. Jan-04 – Ghost in the Shell 5. Jan-05 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine 6. Jan-05 – Sucker Punch 7. Jan-06...

Gravity movie review Nov25

Gravity movie review

The suspense film genre recently has been fairly unimpressive, at least I can’t think of anything since Phonebooth that I really enjoyed because of its storyline and simple premise. When I heard that Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were going to be in a film based entirely in space I wondered if it would be good, and the trailer looked pretty solid. So a couple of weeks ago I went with my friend to see how Sandra and George work together and now here is my Gravity movie review.

Man of Steel Jun30

Man of Steel

When I was very young my parents took me to see the first Superman and apparently when I saw him on screen I exclaimed “Look at the big man!”, so following from that early event in my life and the intriguing trailers I decided to give this latest remake, Man of Steel, a shot.

Star Trek Into Darkness May24

Star Trek Into Darkn...

Having quite enjoyed his first film in this reboot series I decided for my birthday I’d see where Abrams went with the story in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Django Unchained Feb20

Django Unchained

  Having left his mark on big screen history with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction in the early nineties Quentin Tarantino kept on going with the Kill Bill films (did you know a third part has been announced?) and Sin City as well as several others. His style of production and direction is quite distinctive when you compare with his peers of this era and so I couldn’t miss his latest offering. Plot Several of the films I have seen lately have had plots which have particularly large leaps of faith, or were quite simply poor, but Quentin kept it simple and just used some nice twists and turns to keep the viewer interested. In fact I...

A Good Day To Die Hard Feb17

A Good Day To Die Ha...

The infamous John McClane (Bruce Willis) returns for his fifth time on the silver screen some six years after his last outing. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.

Films for 2013 Feb03

Films for 2013

Whilst it isn’t an absolutely definitive list these are some of the films I am looking forward to, or plan to see, in 2013: Django Unchained Zero Dark Thirty A Good Day To Die Hard The Evil Dead Oblivion Iron Man 3 The Iceman Star Trek into darkness Man of Steel World War Z Kick-Ass 2...

An Unexpected Journey Dec28

An Unexpected Journe...

  After the success of the Lord of the Rings films Peter Jackson returns to produce The Hobbit in full ‘technicolor’, this time complete with 48 frames per second versions of the movie (something which I’m not particularly convinced by). Plot Whilst I realise that Peter...

Skyfall Nov21

Skyfall

  There have been many faces of James Bond over the years and Daniel Craig is the latest one, having starred as 007 in Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale before that. I think of the prior actors Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore and Sean Connery are the ones which stick in my mind as they were in films I watched during my early teens. Though of course Pierce Brosnan was in several movies but that was when I was finishing school or at university so inevitably my memory of those years is dominated more by other things. Now the new face has his third movie (with several more slated apparently) in Skyfall. Plot As the quintessential action hero...

Total Recall Oct01

Total Recall

Following on from seeing Dredd and several other remake / reboot movies over the last few months I decided I had to go and see the 2012 version of Total Recall. The Arnie version is practically comical now if you watch it back with one liners littered throughout the script, so when I saw this trailer and got the impression it was trying to take the concept a little more seriously it had me intrigued.

Dredd 3D Sep25

Dredd 3D

There have been so many “reboot” films lately that when I originally heard there would be a new Dredd film I groaned a little, then thought that actually perhaps the Stallone one could do with being knocked off that spot. If I’m honest the fact that you saw his face in the 1995 film (yes, it was almost 20 years ago) meant that the film was more a riding on the name of the lead actor and other stars than the character. So my friend Pete and I decided we wanted to give it a shot, so off to the Savoy we toddled.

Lawless Sep21

Lawless

Every once in a while my friend Sian and I will head off to the cinema to catch a movie, this time around she suggested we go to the Broadway cinema in town to see Lawless. Having not really heard anything about it the trailer intrigued me, but didn’t prepare me for what I saw. This was, in my opinion, an absolutely brutal and visceral film with some of the best acting I have seen in quite some time. Shia LeBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain and Guy Pearce lead a brilliant cast with wonderful direction by John Hillcoat.

The Dark Knight Rises Sep05

The Dark Knight Rise...

The third, and final, part of Christopher Nolan’s rebooted Batman films had to contend with Avengers Assemble in the media but as I had enjoyed the previous two films I looked forward to seeing it at my local Savoy cinema here in Nottingham.

Read on for my commentary on the plot, Bale’s return to a strong performance and my reservations about the ending.

Brave Aug30

Brave

As part of our annual trip to Scotland to see my parents it seemed only fitting that we take mini-me to see Brave, so armed with two Orange phones we headed over to the Cineworld in Dundee for some entertainment.

The Lorax Aug16

The Lorax

Since it was mini-me’s birthday I gave him the treat of going to the cinema. A proper, popcorn in hand, father and son visit to enjoy a film of his choosing. On this occasion it was The Lorax, apparently he was really looking forward to seeing it so off we went!

Prometheus Jul05

Prometheus

Since the release of this film there has been a lot of debate online, some say the script was poor, others that people were expecting something Ridley Scott had never intended and yet others are hailing it as an outright masterpiece. As a result of coming late to the party I didn’t think I would be watching something amazing, but as it is set in the same universe as the Alien films I was hoping for something with good suspense and a bit of intrigue.

Ice Age 4 Jul01

Ice Age 4

Having not been to the cinema with minime for quite some time when I noticed the latest Ice Age film was out I thought it would be good fun and a nice treat for the weekend. Plot As you might expect from the latest in a now long line of animated films about a prehistoric group of animals the...

Iron Sky May24

Iron Sky

It was my birthday yesterday, and what greater treat could there be than going for a steak with friends followed by a crazy movie … and this was certainly out there. Literally. Nazi’s on the moon out there. More of a film for those who are movie buffs, the scene paying homage to Downfall was particularly amusing but blatant however there were a lot more to pick up on.

Read on for a more detailed review.

The Raid: Redemption May20

The Raid: Redemption

Having absolutely no idea what this film was about before going to the cinema I turned up with friends expecting an action movie which would be fun, but no high expectations. What I came out with was an absolute adrenalin rush that lasted probably just as long as the film! Overall I really enjoyed this film, it is going directly onto my Blu Ray purchase list for the future.

Read on for a more detailed review.