The Hunger Game: Mockingjay part 1 2014

Hello!!

Apologises for been away so long but I am back and raring to go. So without further ado lets get on with it shall we.

So just after Christmas I went to see the long awaited Mockingjay Part 1. I was uncertain as to how it was going to be. After reading the books the 3rd was by far the hardest to get into as it went from people been in the hunger games to be a lot more politically orientated. But the film did not disappoint. It kept you entertained and it didn't feel drawn out.

Although Jennifer Lawrence ( Katniss) sometimes comes across as a bit of a wooden actress, it didn't make her performance any less as enjoying to watch as she goes through many emotions throughout the film. There are some brilliant performances from on going people such as, Josh Hutcherson ( Peeta), Woody Harrelson ( Haymitch), Donald Sutherland ( President Snow), Elizabeth Banks ( Effie) and of course the late Philip Seymour Hoffman ( Pultarch). There has also been some very good performances from new comers to the franchise such as Julianne Moore ( President Alma Coin) and Natalie Dormer ( Cressida) whom you may know from the big hit Game of Thrones, in which she plays Margaery Tyrell.

There is one very small thing that annoy me with in the film. That I'm sure most of you will think is so minor that it isn't worth mentioning, but never the less I will anyway. That thing is Prim's cat changes colour. I know it is silly for me to even let such a thing get to me but it really does. I am sorry Francis Lawrence ( Director) but if you are going to use a different cat at least keep it the same colour and breed as the previous one. Just because there is a big gap between when the films come out does not mean you should loose attention to detail. Even though it is set in a time when they have very advanced technology, I'm sure they would not change a cat from black and white to ginger and change the breed at the same time!

Anyway now I have had my little rant about the cat I will wrap this up. If you liked the previous films you won't be disappointed with this addition. It is well written, well preformed and packed with action.

I give this film 4/5    

A long way down 2014

So I have been wanting to write about this film for a while. It isn't very often anymore that I get to revel in British cinema. So when I find a British film that I really enjoy it is hard for me to keep my mouth shut. So here I am letting all you people know about it!

So as you may have guessed already it is a British film, based on the novel written by Nick Hornby. It is a Dark Comedy about four people that meet on New Years Eve, all wanting to commit suicide off the top of the same building. Instead they make a pact that they won't do it until valentines day and so the story goes on.

I'm not going to lie when I first started watching it I was a bit like WTF, but soon got really into it and really enjoyed the premise and the characters. It kept you interested by going through each characters story separately while at the same time keeping the main story moving forward at a reasonable pace.

 As far as comedy is concerned it wasn't the funniest film I have ever seen but it had its moments, mainly coming from the one character Jess played by Imogen Poots. A crazy, roughly 18 year old girl that doesn't think before she speaks and so ends up saying some rather outrageous things. The other characters Martin ( Pierce Brosnan) , Maureen ( Toni Collette) and JJ ( Aaron Paul) all have some great one-liners as well. The acting in general is very good and very well written. Especially Pierce Brosnan's character that keeps you on your toes as to whether you should hate him or sympathise with him. The only writing downfall that I could see was a few plot twists that ended up being very obvious, to me at least but apart from that I couldn't fault it.

With strong acting and strong emotions running throughout, I would definitely recommend this film. Plus it is nice to see Aaron Paul doing a very different character to Jessie from Breaking Bad.        

Last Vegas 2013

So with Last Vegas coming up to dvd release I thought I would do a quick blog just in case you haven't had the chance to see it yet and have been wondering about it.
So it is Directed by Jon Turteltaub, and stars Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline.
The plot line is to be honest pretty close to The Hangover except they are all in there 60's and above. But one of them is getting married, and so they decide that one last blow out in Las Vegas is what they need. So yeah, they get up to mischief and cause problems and it is funny, some places laugh out loud funny but not as many as I would have liked considering the cast they had.
Not to mention it is a very slow moving film to start with but it does pick up and that was when I began to enjoy the movie a lot more.
Unfortunately though I don't feel the writer Dan Fogelman really used the actors that are involved to his advantage when it came to it. There could have been a lot more to it than there was and some of the characters weren't very well developed compared to others. Which made it out that some of them were there just because of who was playing them. Like it was trying to be The expendables only a comedy not a action movie obviously.
The acting is good, from all of them which of course it to be expected from such high flying actors as these four. It is just a shame that the writing wasn't really up to scratch, otherwise it would have been a lot better movie over all, and it would have been a bigger box office hit.

R.I.P Rik Mayall

As most of you that have social media, TV access and actually have social lives, you must have heard that unfortunately this afternoon, Rik Mayall was announced to have past away.
Although I was not a fan personally of Bottom or The Young Ones, I was very fond of Rik Mayall's acting within Blackadder and Drop Dead Fred.
Having seen the responses to the news on twitter, facebook and all over the media it is safe to say that this man made a lot of people laugh. He did so much throughout his life that there is at least one thing he has done that you will love him for, and for that Rik Mayall you have my utmost respect.

My condolences go out to all his friends and family at this time.

Come on guys lets send out a big "WOOF, WOOF"
R.I.P Flashheart/ Rik Mayall you wll be solely missed by many.   

People in the movie business that have died this year.

It is always sad when someone dies and my blog today is going to be in honor of people that have died this year that have either been in films or directed and produced films. So here is some of them...

Eileen Brennan- Clue

Jim Kelly- Enter the dragon

Esther Williams- Dangerous when Wet

Ray Harryhausen- special effects for films like Valley of the Gwangi

Richard Griffiths- Harry Potter, History Boys

Roger Ebert- film critic

Jane Henson- Jim Henson's wife and in charge of henson films such as Mirrormask

David R. Ellis- director of Final Destination and Final Destination 2

Gail Kobe- Peyton Place

Barbara Trentham- Rollerball and she was John Cleese 2nd wife

Margaret Pellegrini- Wizard of Oz

Hiroshi Ogawa- Japanese animator for films such as Lupin 3

Karen Black- Easy Rider, The Great Gatsby

Hagi- Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Jonathan Dawso- Australian film maker and critic

Henry Polic- Batman: The animated series

Every single one of these people brought joy and entertainment to others and there memories will live on with the films and reviews they have written.
I know this was a bit of a depressing and mushy blog but I think we should remember and celebrate their lifes as they brought many of us such joy.
I know I will have failed to mention many other people in this list but unfortunately the list would be to long if I mentioned everyone. But I respect everything they have done as well.

The Worlds End 2013

Hello Everyone,
It has been awhile but I'm back with a review of The Worlds End.
I have always been a big fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. My favourite been there TV series spaced. After seeing Paul I must admit that I thought that they might of lost there way abit. It wasn't as funny as their previous films. So I was abit apprehensive about The Worlds End.
It was however alot better than I expected the characters were well protrayed and jokes were many and funny.
I loved the relationship between Simon's character and Nick's I think everyone has that friends that if something really bad happened you still couldn't not be friends. I love that the movie keeps you guessing about the thought process of Simon's character, you feel sorry for him but at the same time you keeps asking yourself why? Why does he what to finnish the golden mile so much that he puts himself and everyone else in danger. You start to question his motives is he insane or is there something deeper.
There were bits where it was hard to see what was going on in some of the fight senes but there was alot going on it such a small space so I can forgive that.
The one bit that really annoyed me was near the end Simon and Nick have this drunken argument with the reason behind why everything was happening. I loved the argument it was well scripted and acted and everything but when the voice they are arguing with just goes fine everyone in the cinema kind of went what? That was way to easy. Is that really it?
All in all the film was good it was funny action packed and kept you entertained. This film proved that the ain't going out on a flop. They have mentioned that this is that last of these types of films by them. And with that I and sad but they have proved to everyone that they have stopped at the right time.
I would like to think they will change there mind but if they don't then fair enough. I can imagine this isn't the last we are going to see of them though.
So to wrap things up I recommend that if you haven't seen it then you should. It is a laugh and if you like their previous films you are sure to like this one.

Spring Breakers 2013

So I saw this 2 weeks ago. I will admit it wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be. For those of you that don't know this is a film about 4 girls that desperately want to go on spring break and will do anything to get there. After ending up in prison someone bails them out and that is when everything starts getting messed up. The film stars James Franco ( Pineapple Express, Knocked Up)  Vanessa Hudgens (High school musical) Selena Gomez (Hannah Montana, Hotel Transylvania) Ashley Benson ( Pretty little liars ) and  Rachel Korine ( The Fourth Dimension). It is directed and written by Harmony Korine and is a rating 18.

    So I will admit that the first 5 mins of the movie was a bit embarrassing for me I was sat with a male friend and the first 5 mins of the movies just consisted of boobs, I mean they were everywhere. Already the film is turning out to be not what I imagined. In the trailer it makes it out to be a crime, thriller type movie and yes it does fit them genres but it is very arty at the same time. And if you are expecting Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens to be sweet ad innocent like we have seen them before for example they were on the disney channel. You don't what to see this movie they are not sweet and definitely not innocent. Granted Selena's character Faith is more innocent then the others but just to warn you there is drug use and a lot of violence which is to be expected in a 18 rated movie. 

James Franco was the big surprise for me, after seeing him mainly in comedy movies acting like a goof. It was a shock to see him play a serious character. He plays a character named Alien that is a drug dealer and is a little bit crazy. He still managed to make me laugh in places I'm not sure weather it was suppose to be serious or not but listening to him playing piano while singing a Britney Spears song was cringe worthy and funny at the same time but believe me that isn't the weirdest thing he does in the movie.  

All in all I am a fan of artistic films and enjoyed the movie but it isn't for everyone ( actually at least 4 people left during the screening) but if you are a fan of artistic films and don't mind things repeating a lot for example the words Spring Break are repeated an awful lot, then give it a go. It wasn't at all what the trailer makes it out to be so don't judge it by that alone. I enjoyed it and give it a 7 out of 10. 

Thank you for reading :)