Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters

There seems to be a proliferation of Fairy Tales with a new wist, following Snow White and the Huntsman last year, we now have Hansel & Gretel and Oz The Great and Powerful is out tomorrow.

This is a very strange film, the premise is that Hazel and Gretel have escaped from the witch as children, and now spend their lives hunting witches for a living.

I'm not sure that Renner and Artherton will look back on this as one of their best movies, I really didn't enjoy this movie. I wouldn't say its a bad film, but its not that good either, its just mediocre which in many ways is worse. at least I can get worked up over a bad movie, this just left me with nothing, and it's instantly forgettable, so much so that I am really struggling to find something to say here. 4/10

Safe Haven

From the first time I saw the trailer for this film, I thought it might be a film I would enjoy, I did enjoy it, but perhaps I had slightly higher expectations than the reality.

Other than the Major plot twist half way through, which I didn't see coming, this film is relatively predictable and you always have a sense of where the film is going, There is one major plot fail, involving them travelling somewhere in a car, then having to arrange a lift home (what happened to the car?) but aside from that this is an enjoyable movie.

I was perhaps expecting a twee happily ever after ending, and in some ways it is, but the epilogue scene to close the movie is very clever, and very emotional, if you are prone to being weepy in the cinema take a tissue for the end.

I guess the best word to summarise this film is pleasant. its worth a couple of hours of you time, but definitely won't be high on the list of really memorable films this year. 7/10

End of February Review

February has been an up and down month, from really good films like Hitchcock, to the downright awful I give it a year.

For me the best film this Month is a tough decision betwen Hitchcock, which I loved mainly for Helen Mirren's performance, and the wpnderful Wreck-It Ralph which is a fanastic annimation, but I think Hitchcock probably just takes it.

Also worthy of a mention is Flight, which is a superb film looking at issues of alcohol & drug addiction, but it does so very cleverly.

Arbitrage

Cineworld put on a preview screening of Arbitrage, which is out this Friday, I must admit I had seen ver little about this film, and reall did not know what to expect.

Richard Gere plays a businessman who is trying to sell his company in order to survive finacially, he has committed fraud in order to keep the company afloat, and make his books look better for his potential buyer.

It is a little slow to get going, but once into the flow of the story line, this film is extremely enjoyable, i touches on a lot of issues around money and wealth in a similar way to Wall Street, the "Greed is good" Mantra from Gordon Gekho could be heard loud and clear in this movie.

The end of the film is a bit sudden, just when ou think there is going to be a scene to round off the movie and answer some of the remaining questions the credits roll, leaving you to decide for yourself what happens.

If you enjoyed Wall Street, you will enjoy this 8/10

1000 Pageviews

I have now had over 1000 pageviews of this blog,  thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my reviews.

Cinema Schedulers Decision Making

I understand that my local Cineworld only has 5 screens and therefore cannot possibly show every film that is released, however the decisions made recently by Cineworld over what to show have left me slightly baffled.

I am not an expert on audience demand, so maybe I don't know what I am talking about, but with the amount of media coverage that Song for Marion has got recently, I would have thought there would be a bigger demand to see that, than a horror movie (Mama)

Also decisions not to show new movies, and leave older movies playing instead, I appreciate that not everyone is like me and goes to see a film on its first week of release, and that there will still be a demand for blockbusters like Skyfall or Les Miserable several weeks after release, but surely you would sell more tickets for a film like the Impossible on its release week, than you would for Skyfall when it has already been in the cinema for over 2 months.

I am not an expert, so maybe I don't know what I am talking about, maybe I'm just having this rant because there there have been several movies that I have missed lately due to them not being available on my Unlimited card in my Local Cineworld.

I am assuming that on Friday with both Save haven and Broken City coming out, that one of them will lose out, so I am hoping to plan a trip to the bigger cinema in Chichester next week, to catch up with Song for Marion, Cloud Atlas and whichever of the afforementioned is not shown in Southampton. I will, as ever, keep you posted.


Edit: It seems I was wrong, Mama took more in the weekend box office than Song for Marion, so maybe Cineworld do know their job better than I do. it also seems that Cineworld Southampton have managed to find space for all 3 of Safe Haven, Broken City and Hansel & Gretel for next week, so looks like a bumper weekend of movie viewing.

The Oscars

Congratulations to everyone who won an oscar, on the whole I think the right decisions have been made, Very pleased that Argo won best film, and Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings playbook would have been my choice for best actress.

I am a litle disappointed that ParaNorman didn't win best Annimated film, in my opinion it is better than Brave, but on the whole I think they got it about right. Congratulations once again to everyone.