Free Birds

It's been a mixed year of Animation, The Biggest grossing film of 2013 is Despicable Me 2, and other superb features such as Wreck It Ralph and The Croods. There have also been some Turkeys including Epic and Planes. Free Birds, despite its subject matter avoids the latter and falls somewhere in between, into the average category.

The first problem with this movie is that it doesn't really work outside of America, as we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Secondly is the very obvious time paradox, if they succeed in getting Turkey taken off the menu, then we wouldn't bother farming Turkeys and they wouldn't exist.

The Animation itself is decent, I saw the 2D version, so can't comment on the 3D, but it didn't feel like I missed out on much.

The real issue here is the storyline, I saw the end coming very early on, they slapped me around the face with it enough times that it was no great surprise. Also the fact that the film makers saw a need to introduce the film with a joke based on the fact that the historical elements are not real kind of sums up a lot of what is wrong with this film. A lot of the jokes fall fairly flat although there are a few laughs along the way.

Obviously I am not the target audience, but if you want to entertain your Kids with a cinema trip before Christmas, wait a week and take them to see Frozen 5/10

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Out after Christmas The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller as Walter follows a man who is faced with redundancy, when the magazine he works for goes online only. His life to date has been very uneventful, but as he has to go in search of a missing photograph for the final edition of the magazine.

This is a very fun film, maybe not quite funny enough to have the audience in stiches, but plenty of laughs along the way, particularly with regard to his relationship with the guy from the online dating website *massive product placement alert*

It speeds along at a good pace, with plenty going on to keep the interest levels high, so I never became bored with it, and the central performance by Ben Stiller is really good.

The one thing definitely in this film's favor is the soundtrack, which is quite simply brilliant, I'm not normally good at noticing music in film, but the song choices along the way are great.

This is definitely a fun film, although reading some comments from people it's not going to get the audience it deserves, I think perhaps the trailer is putting a few people off, which is a shame. When you see as many film's as I do, you learn not to judge a movie by its trailer. Is this the best film of the year? No. Will it trouble the awards ceremonies? Unlikely. But this is much better than you think it's going to be 8/10

Parkland

Parkland is a drama based around the assassination of John F Kennedy, but focuses on the people around the edges, The Doctors and Parkland Hospital (hence the title) The Secret Service agents, The FBI, Abraham Zapruder who filmed the events on his video camera, and the family of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Perhaps the sheer number of different stories this attempts to follow is ultimately its downfall, it feels very bitty as it jumps from person to person, in what is only a 90 minute movie it tries to do too much in to short a time. Perhaps if it had just focused on one or two stories rather than trying to do 5, then it may have made for a better film by allowing for a slightly more joined up narrative and  allowing time to understand the characters personalities.

That said, the acting performances are great, particularly from Zac Efron as Dr Carrico and Jacki Weaver as Mrs Oswald.

This is an interesting film, with plenty to keep the attention, and it was good to get a slightly different perspective on the events of November 1963, but it just tries to do to much in to short a time 6/10

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Catching Fire sees Jennifer Laurence reprising her role as Katniss Everdeen in the second of 3 books/4 films in the Hunger Games series. At the end of the first movie Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) had won the Hunger games for district 12. This movie opens with the districts starting to revolt against the capital and President Snow's government. In an effort to quell the rebellion Katniss must once again face being reaped into the Hunger Games.

This film is largely in 2 parts, the first half deals with the growing rebellion in the districts and the reaction of those in authority. The second half is the games themselves, and much like the first movie it becomes a fairly straightforward survival against the odds story.

I think this is slightly better than the first movie, it is a bit more gritty, and by dealing with the wider issues of the uprising it adds an extra dimension that is not there in the first book. My only gripe is the fact that every teenage fantasy series has to have a Cliché love triangle.

With an interesting twist on the end that sets up the next film nicely, I am hoping for good things to come. however those that have read the books tell me the third book is not as good as the first two, so we will have to wait and see.

Lawrence for her part puts in another great performance proving she is very much at the top of her game at the moment.

I would recommend you see the first movie before this, as it covers a lot of the character introduction and exposition required to make the most of this one, fans of the series will definitely love this. Despite not being the target audience I really enjoyed this 9/10

The Counsellor

The Counsellor directed by Ridley Scott stars Michael Fassbender as a counsellor who gets involved with a drug deal that goes wrong.

This is perhaps the most disappointing film if the year. When I first saw at the cast list of Michael Fassbender, Havier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Penolope Cruz & Brad Pitt all directed by Ridley Scott, I anticipated this would be a very good movie. I was wrong.

From the opening, completely unneeded, sex sequence in the title credits I was immediately picking holes, Diaz then appears wearing far to much make up that makes her look totally ridiculous.

The narrative storyline is incredibly confusing, it initially jumps from scene to scene with no sense that each relates to the previous one. At various points I was lost, which means I switched off due to not understanding, until later when some little aside suddenly explains what's happening, at points my brain just decided it had had enough.  Characters (there are a lot of them) come and go extremely quickly with no names and introduction, or any sense of who they are and who they work for. There are also several scenes that are completely meaningless and add nothing to the story. A lot of the story is telegraphed very early, the description, about 5 minutes in, of a method of killing someone is so obviously setting you up for seeing it in action later on.

Don't get me started on the Cameron Diaz car scene, which is totally vacuous, ridiculous, completely unnecessary and sums up what is wrong with this film.

There is a lot of explanation of motives and characterisation in some very long conversations that just bored me to tears, then all of a sudden right at the end of one such conversation (involving another new character) the film ends.

For a piece of film making I would give this 4/10 but I am going to take marks off because With this Director and this cast list I expected so much more. 2/10

Saving Mr Banks

Saving Mr Banks stars Emma Thompson as Mrs P L Travers the writer of Mary Poppins, and tells the story of her reluctance to sell the film rights to Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks.

I really enjoyed this film, and particularly the performance of Emma Thompson, although this is not ostensibly a comedy Her comedic timing throughout is brilliant and had the cinema laughing out loud on several occasions.

Mrs Travers reluctance to let go of Mary Poppins and to put as many obstacles in the way is playing excellently, so much so, that I believe Emma Thompson should get an Oscar nomination, although perhaps she won't won it because Cate Blanchett has that already in the bag.

Hanks for his part is a very understated performance as Walt Disney, and seems happy to play second fiddle to Thompson, but his performance shows once more what a fine and versatile actor he is.

The story is well told, I particularly enjoyed the flashback style, telling her childhood story and a lot of the motivation behind Mary Poppins, I'm not sure if this is based on the real story of Pamela Travers or how much of it is fiction/dramatic licence, but either way ir is a very compelling watch.

I went into this film not really knowing what to expect from it, I didn't expect much if I'm honest, but it surprised me, in terms of story telling it is possibly one of the best films of the year 10/10

Gravity

Gravity stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts stranded in space following an accident during a spacewalk.

Utilising a lot of new technology it is a beautifully stunning piece of cinematography, I would recommend you see this in the cinema in 3D on the biggest screen you can find.

Not only is it beautiful to watch, the storyline isn't bad either, As much as it is about the survival at that moment, it also has a lot to say about loneliness and escapism in a much wider context. I do however have one small gripe, one of the major plot points of the film totally defies the laws of physics in zero gravity.

Bullock is superb, she carries the entire film almost single handedly, and proves once more that she can turn her hand to many different roles.

Visually this is by far and away the best film of the year so far, and if it does not win several awards for cinematography I will be amazed. I would give it the full 10/10 if it were not for the failure to obey the laws of physics 9.5/10

Philomena

Philomena tells the story of Philomena Lee, an Irish women who had a child out of wedlock in the 1950's. She was sent to a convent by her family and The child was taken away from her by the Nuns.

The films follows Philomena (Judi Dench) and former BBC Journalist Martin Sixsmith  (Steve Coogan) 50 years later, as they go in search of whatever happened to Anthony.

Although this is "based on a true story" there is clearly a lot of dramatic licence used here to tell the story, the Martin Sixsmith character is portrayed as quite a hardnosed unlikable journalist, obviously I have not met the real Martin Sixsmith but I somehow doubt the real man is anything like the Coogan character.

The performance by Judi Dench as Philomena is great, although her Irish accent does come and go a bit, but this is a very different role for her and she plays it brilliantly.

The film is careful in it's discussion of religion and Catholics particularly when it comes to the Nuns, clearly this could be used as a tool to bash Christianity and this is avoided by ensuring that it is individual christians and not Christianity as a whole that are in the firing line.

This is clearly a story that needs to be told, if only to highlight the plight of those still searching for their Parents & Children.

A human interest story, though clearly adapted to make the film more interesting, a story that needs telling. Although with modern values regarding sex and Children outside of marriage this is unlikely to happen again, this is something everyone should see to ensure we never go back to the past 8/10