Under The Skin

I had not seen any trailers or read any reviews of Under The Skin, so I didn't really know what to expect from it, but it will live long in the memory as one of the most bizarre films of 2014.

It is difficult to sum up the plot, as the film lacks any sense of a narrative arc, particularly in the first half of the film, many of the scenes could almost be put in any order, and it would not alter the dynamic of the film. Based in Glasgow, and later in the Scottish Countryside It Stars Scarlet Johansson as a woman who seems to be going round picking up men to kill them. (I didn't pick up on the Character having a name, but IMDB tells me she is called Laura)

This is a deeply unsettling film, the opening pre-title sequence is designed to be extremely unnerving, and does its job very effectively, by the time the live action started I was already wondering exactly what I had got myself into, in fact quite early on in my screening at least 2 people walked out. The use of plain backgrounds is also very interesting, just one or two characters (Usually Naked) on a completely white or completely black screen adds to the sense of this being very unusual.

I can' say that I enjoyed watching it, but then I get the sense that it is not a film to be "enjoyed" in that sense, it does what it sets out to do, leave you feeling extremely uneasy, and does it very effectively. However for me it lacks an awful lot of sense. There is little in the way of narrative storyline or plot development, Although the twist on the end explains some of the elements (Although I had seen it coming, if you think carefully about the opening scene it was quite obvious) the film left me with a whole load of questions that went unanswered, such as "Who is the man on the Motorbike?"

This is a very difficult film to rate, on the one hand the lack of a story that makes sense really put me off, but on the other hand the film achieves exactly I believe the film maker set out to do. this is not one for the feint hearted, it is deeply unsettling and contains lots of nudity 7/10

Need For Speed

Computer Games do not make good movies, they are very different genres, and there have been many an awful film made that started life on a Playstation, Xbox or PC. Couple that with the fact that Need for Speed is a film about illegal road racing, something that has been done 7 times before by the Fast & Furious franchise, and this has all the ingredients to be a bit of a stinker. However I was pleasently surprised. It had a reasonably decent storyline and at times was incredibly fun.

This is not a film without problems however, At over two hours the film is far to long, especially the initial set-up and back story, the "two years later" is, I would estimate, a quarter of the way through the movie. Last week I criticised 300 Rise of an Empire for the amount of narrated back story, this goes totaly the other way, spending half an hour scene setting and introducing characters to show you the motivations of the character later in the movie, this could have been done in half the time.

On the plus side, Aaron Paul & Imogen Poots put in decent performances, and the scene with Finn (Rami Malek) quitting his job is hilarious.

There is little that hasn't been done before, and it could do with 30 minutes being taken off it's run time, particuarly early on, but I was suprised by how much I enjoyed this 7/10

Escape from Planet Earth

Escape from Planet Earth is an annimated feature, Starring Brendan Fraser as Scorch Supernova an alien from the planet Baab, when a distress call is received from Planet Earth he embarks on a rescue mission, but gets captured by the US army, His Brother Gary (Rob Corddry) Then sets out to rescue him.

As annimations go, this is not bad, but it is instantly forgettable, there is little here that holds the audience beyond when they walk out of the cinema. It as a few decent jokes, but if you want to entertain your kids, there ae better annimated features out there than this 5/10

300: Rise of an Empire

The Sequel to 300, this follows Themistokles an Athenian warrior as he defends Greece against Persian agression from King Xerxes and his Mistress Artemisia.

This is a film with a number of issues, firstly the huge amount of storytelling narration, particularly early on I was beginning to wonder if I was watching a film, or listening to an audio book, for me the art of a good film is that the camera and the screenplay does a lot of the work and although I don't mind a litle bit of scene setting through exposition and narration, this film has far to much of it.

My Other main concern with this film is how bloodthirsty it is. Given the previous film, I understood it would be quite bloody going in, but for me it is far to bloodthirsty to the point of being gratuitous.

That said, the performances are good, especially from Eva Green as Artemisia, who really steals the show from under Sullivan Stapleton's Themistokles, and the storyline is good, it keeps the interest well and moves along at quite a pace, so never giving you a moment to become bored by it.

Once ou get past the narration and into the movie itself, this is a half decent film, just a little to much blood for my liking 6/10

The Grand Budapest Hotel

You know what to expect from a Wes Anderson Film, and this is one of his best. The Grand Budapest hotel tells the story of concierge Gustave H played by Ralph Fiennes, and his lobby boy Zero. It is a wonderful performance from Fienne, M. Gustave does everything at 100mph and his body language and tone are superb. The story is very funny in places, especially the jailbreak sequence is hilarious, with some great one liners from Fiennes. The film is set in 3 different time periods, with the author of a book, telling the story of how he met the owner of the Grand Budpapest Hotel, who in turn tells the story of how he came to aquire it. The problem is that with each change of time period Anderson decided to change the screen ratio to that used in the period concerned. The 1930's story is told in a narrow square screen, whereas the narration from the 1980's is shown in widescreen, this means that the film never fully fills the cinema screen, and the constant change of ratio gets extremely annoying after a while. This is perhaps Anderson at his best, very funny and sharp, well directed, thou i'm not sure how it will play on tv given the constant change of ratio 7/10

Ride Along

Ride Along stars Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in an unlikely cop buddy movie, When James (Ice Cube) takes Ben on a "Ride Along" in order for him to prove he is worthy to marry his sister.

There are many problems with this film, the biggest of all is that it's just not funny, the best jokes are all in the trailer, and when you have seen the trailer 10 or more times as I have, you know the lines that are coming, and it lessens their impact.

The storyline/screenplay kind of works, it keeps the story moving along, although one of the major plot points is telegraphed fairly early on, I like twists to be a surprise, rather than being hinted at all the way through. Ice Cube does a fairly good job, unfortuneately the same can't be said for Kevin Hart, who overacts it imo.

I think it falls into the bad rather than awful category, but not one that will live long in the memory. 4/10

Non Stop

Non Stop is set almost exclusively on a plane, it stars Liam Neeson as US Air Marshall Bill Marks, midway accross the Atlantic he receives a message saying that a passenger will die every 20 Minutes unless $150 Million is transferred to a bank account.

This is one of those action movies that requires leaving your brain at the door and just enjoying it for what it is, if you think to hard and ask to many questions the flimsey and very contrived plot quickly falls apart. The films sets itself up as a bit of a whodunnit but I had guessed very early on.

That said, the pace of the film, and the action keep the attention well, Neeson puts in a decent performance as he tries to work out who he can trust.

Check your brain at the door, and just enjoy the ride, just don't ask too many questions 6/10