The Dark Knight Rises.

Spectacular finale....Tom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman.

Dubbed, 'the most anticipated film of year' means that The Dark Knight Rises has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, it does, and it does it with style. Christian Bale returns to the role except this time as Bruce Wayne more than Batman. In the third of this trilogy he is pitted against British actor, Tom Hardy as Bane, a disfigured warlord forced to wear a respiratory breathing mask. Bane poses a large threat to the Dark Knight but you can obviously see Christopher Nolan had the whole thing lined up for The Joker to be the primary antagonist. Unfortunately due to Heath Ledger's unexpected death in 2008 this idea was binned. Bane was an interesting choice, and rumors emerged that The Riddler might be a good choice with Leonardo DiCaprio as a possible contender for the role. I think The Riddler would have been interesting but Bane is a wise decision. He is a large bulky, muscular man and makes his presence known to everybody in the room. Bane poses a tough enemy for Batman and at several times, Bane defeat Batman but everyone knows Bats will win or will he?
The real scene-stealer for me has to be Anne Hathaway, she has style, charisma and very funny lines. Hathaway plays Selina Kyle, a young cat burglar that proves to be a bit of a antihero assisting Batman/Bruce Wayne and then turning against him. Gary Oldman is superb as usual while Michael Caine as Alfred is a bit irritating. Marion Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate is a bit more interesting than you first think. Morgan Freeman has a more physical role than in The Dark Knight and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Officer John Blake, a strong admirer of the Batman.
The first hour of the film is a bit padded and flabby but the second half is brilliant, you will be blown away by the might of it all and the final five minutes will hit you like Sherlock Holmes' fall from Reichenbach Fall. 






4/5

The Amazing Spider-Man.

Back in its prime...Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man.

There has been several years since the abomination, Spider Man 3. The world has moved on from the Tobey Macguire series, admitting that, that is all they are going to get from the 'Spider Man' comics, in the form of film. Now (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb revisits and takes a re-look at the series. Casting Brit-American Andrew Garfield is a stroke of genius, Garfield has the right shape and look for the character and looks wiry yet strong. He plays Peter Parker, a teenager struggling to find himself and who he is ever since his parents (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz) died in mysterious circumstances. The philosophical question of 'what is our name?' is addressed numerous times throughout the film, relating back to Parker trying to find who he is - the answer is Spider-Man. Donning the trademark blue and red Spandex suit, Peter Parker searches for the killer of his uncle (Martin Sheen). After Uncle Ben's death, he is left in the care of his Aunt May, played by Sally Field. The struggle to find the killer leads from a vendetta to becoming a superhero. Parker's love interest in this film is the original girlfriend of Peter, Gwen Stacy, a smart and pretty classmate of his. Emma Stone brings the character to life, making her the opposite of the irritating and needy Mary Jane Watson from the Sam Raimi films. Now we come to the villain of the movie, The Lizard. The thing I like about The Lizard is he isn't a self-appointed one like the pathetic Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), he's more like Alfred Molina's Dr. Octopus, the offspring of a experiment gone wrong. Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Conners, an intelligent man who worked with Peter's father and together they tried to develop cross-species gene splicing, now after Richard Parker's death, Conners has continued the work. After the experiment goes wrong and Dr. Conners tries to regrow his missing arm by using lizard DNA (lizards have the ability to regenerate limbs at will) he turns into The Lizard - two times taller than an average man and very deadly. The good thing about him is that Dr. Conners is still there except he looks like The Lizard. You'd expect the doctor just to disappear, to be taken over by the lizard genes and forget who he is, then wake up naked in a sewer somewhere feeling very tired. But no, Dr. Curt Conners is very much alive in his grotesque transformation. Pushing aside the jaded Maguire trilogy, Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb bring Spider-Man into a glorious new light. 




5/5

The Five-Year Engagement.

You snooze, you lose...Emily Blunt and Jason Segel..The Five-Year Engagement.

This ridiculously overlong romantic comedy is a massive letdown. "From the producer of Bridesmaids" is plastered across the top of the poster, one of the reasons I saw this film is because I loved Bridesmaids so much, sadly I was sorely misled. The Five-Year Engagement sees what looks like an odd couple, Emily Blunt and Jason Segel put together. Segel is Tom, a sous chef at an up-market restaurant in San Francisco while Blunt is Violet, a PhD graduate in psychology on the verge of getting a post-doctorate. The pair fall deeply in love at a New Years' Eve party where she is Princess Diana and he is 'Super-Bunny.' When Violet gets accepted to do the post-doctorate, things go up for her and things go down for him. The pair postpone the wedding and head for Michigan where Violet is going to be working. The thing this film looks at is that men can also be the ones who have to sit around and do nothing when woman go out and work. The usual stereotype is that woman sit around, as Violet says she doesn't want to sit around and cook and clean and make apple pies and tend to babies. Tom gets depressed and ends up hunting deer and growing side-burns. The pair are visited by Violet's sister, Suzie (Alison Brie) and Suzie's husband, Tom's idiotic friend, Alex (Chris Pratt.) Rhys Ifans has an unsatisfying role as Winton Childs, a professor at the university, Violet works for and who has a soft side for Violet. It drags on far too long and you get rather fidgety. The chemistry between Jason Segel and Emily Blunt works somehow and it's an intelligent romcom, something that only comes around once in a blue moon.


3/5

Jaws.

Shark tale.....Jaws.

The re-release of the 1975 classic, Jaws, shows it is still got the same charm as it did 37 years ago. It revolves around the vicious great white shark targeting the innocent holiday resort island, Amity. To solve the shark problem the corrupt mayor (Murray Hamilton) turns to his part-time police chief, Martin Brody (Roy Sheider). Vowing to kill the shark and save the community from it's psychotic plague, Brody calls in marine biologist, Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss.) The pair get salty sea-dog Quint (Robert Shaw) and they set out to kill the creature, intriguing camera angles and John Williams' magnificent orchestral theme telling us when Jaws is present. Jaws is long and slightly drawn out with only three people dying under Jaws' wrath in the whole film - I like a bit of bloodshed. The scenes set on Quint's boat,   Orca are interesting but the initial chase of the serial killer-esque shark just goes round in circles until a too quick climax. Jaws has charm but it isn't a great movie, although it is a good shark film and puts more recent 'killer shark' films like Shark Night 3D to shame. The series is exhausted producing four movies of the same idea, it's time Jaws was put to bed.


3.5/5

The Angels' Share.

A bit more comic...Jasmin Riggins, Wiliam Ruane, Paul Brannigan and Gary Maitland.

Ken Loach is notable for not having the cheeriest of film topics, The Angels' Share is one of his more lighter offerings than previous films. It received the Cannes Jury Prize, a very prestigious award. Obviously Loach has been inspired by Ealing comedy, Whisky Galore! It's a innocent comedy caper about a young Glaswegian criminal named Robbie, played by newcomer Paul Brannigan. After narrowly avoiding a harsh jail sentence and with the birth of his son, Robbie forces himself to leave his lawbreaking life to focus on his girlfriend, Leonie, the most unconvincing character in the whole film played by Siobhan Reilly. His sentence is community pay-back so he gets to work with a bunch other wrongdoers - Rhino (William Ruane), Albert (Gary Maitland) and Mo (Jasmin Riggins.) Their supervisor is the kind-hearted Harry (John Henshaw) who has a passion for whisky. He takes the four to a distillery where a new life is shown. One of the biggest names in the film is Roger Allam who plays a whisky collector that happens to come across Robbie. Its very light-hearted and the characters are played very well. 




4/5

Snow White and the Huntsman.

Looking evil never looked so good...Charlize Theron..Snow White and the Huntsman.

Its the same question of wither Daniel Radcliffe could step out of the 'Harry Potter' typecast and enter a new form of serious acting, its pretty safe to say The Woman In Black kept him safe. But now it's Kristen Stewart's turn - will she step away from the 'Bella Swan' role. The answer I think is yes. With a faux English accent that you don't really notice, she takes on the fairytale role of Snow White. She isn't quite the Disney pretty princess and she certainly isn't Lily Collins' 'Mirror Mirror' character either. Stewart makes the Brothers Grimm creation her own. She's very good, but still emotionless as usual. This is all quickly upstaged by Charlize Theron's evil queen performance. She's evil, sexy, cunning and magical. Throughout the film, Theron wears a serious of glamorous dresses and  crowns, all symbolizing evil. Her character is Queen Ravenna, a captive of an army that the Snow White's father defeats, after quickly killing a few people and imprisoning Snow White for no apparent reason, she gets herself to be queen and the land and many people die. It's a dark time, and in the light, shines 'Snow White' - the only person that can rid the evil from the land. Just like the fairytale, she escapes to the forest where she is pursued by a huntsman called Eric (though I don't remember him every being called that in the film), he's played by Thor's Chris Hemsworth, who is horribly miscast. Finally after at least half an hour of running around from the queen, we get the 'seven dwarves,'    (Ian McShane, Johnny Harris, Bob Hoskins, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Brian Gleeson, Ray Winstone and Nick Frost), seven very unfunny and often annoying minor (get it!) characters. They fall very thinly into the plot at the end. The effects are good and Charlize Theron's casting is perfect, but its a bit of a mess.


3/5

Men In Black 3.

At long last leave...Tommy Lee Jones..Will Smith..Men In Black 3

There is a very stretched and tired feeling that I get from this film. This third outing into the world of MIB seems forced, as if Barry Sonnenfeld is squeezing the life-juice out of this franchise. The first obvious sign is Tommy Lee Jones. In the fifteen minutes that we see him, he looks worn-out and not looking particularly fit to do stunts. I'm not being ageist it just seems that they could have avoided this film completely avoided, although I change my mind later in this review. The plot is shabby with a lot of time-travel that messes with the audiences' heads. Flight of the Conchords member, Jemaine Clements plays a disgusting looking alien villain named Boris, that is intent on Agent K's (Tommy Lee Jones) demise. Will Smith is back and doing some decent acting as Agent J. But Smith's acting is undermined by the introduction of a younger K, played by Josh Brolin, doing a very good impression of Jones', copying his voice and everything. Agent J has to go back in time to stop Boris from killing a younger K. Emma Thompson plays the very unflattering role as Agent O, Agent Zed's (previously played by Rip Torn who declined to return to the role) successor and Alice Eve gives at least two sentences in the script as a younger O. There are a few little jokes, for instance stating that Andy Warhol was actually an MIB agent undercover and that Lady Gaga is an alien. It keeps the audience entertained for its acceptable running time, which means it's a success, doesn't it?

3.5/5