Anna Karenina - review.

Anna: The Musical... Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Keira Knightley as Count Vronsky and Anna Karenina.

The way, Joe Wright handles his adaption of Tolstoy's famous novel, is certainly unusual. The book, Anna Karenina is over eight hundred pages long with so much crammed in that it would be near impossible to cover everything. Wright uses a strange combination of the theatre and film, the opening ten minutes has theatrical set changes and sets the film up superbly. Keira Knightley is Anna, the wife of brisk government official, Alexei Karenin, played by Jude Law. Law constantly has the air of English vicar but his acting is brilliant. He soon goes onto to become the suffering husband of Karenina when she encounters the young and attractive Count Vronsky, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Anna and the Count become lovers and a difficult love triangle ensues. The background and costumes, almost every scene is gorgeous. Its a feast for your eyes with bright colours and expensive scenery. There is a sub-plot though and it has Domhnall Gleeson as Levin, a good-natured and honest man, who falls badly when knocked back at a marriage proposal to Kitty (Alicia Vikander). He is the parallel to Anna Karenina, a lying and deceitful woman who is unfaithful to her husband. It is confusing but bold, it doesn't quite settle in a filmgoers eyes but manages to keep the audience contained for its length.



3/5

Total Recall - review.

Memory to keep...Colin Farrell in Total Recall.

Despite negative reviews for Total Recall, I found myself pleasantly surprised by this remake. With tickets booked I read reviews last night and felt pretty trapped into going to a bad movie, luckily it was great. Its set in a future Earth where everywhere but Australia and the UK (?) has been nuked, making it uninhabitable. Australia has been renamed The Colony and not ever referred to as Australia whereas the UK is the United Federation of Britain. Being a Brit, a friend and I were cheering at it in the cinema. Irish actor Colin Farrell plays Doug Quaid, a factory worker living in The Colony with his 'English lass' wife, Lori (played by a psychotic, gun-wielding Kate Beckinsale). Thinking his life's going nowhere, he goes to ReKall, a company that literally gives you memories, false ones albeit. Things don't go smoothly and Quaid is on the run, along with Melina (Jessica Biel), a member of the Resistance. The Resistance is an organisation that em... resists the government led by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), a ruthless dictator that hopes to... do evil things that aren't explained properly. The first hour and a half is a runaround chase before they finally get to the final face-off. The films principle 'soldier' role is filmed in by Cohaagen's "synthetic police force", a cross between a Stormtrooper and a dancing iPod robot. 
Its fun stuff and gorgeous to look at, for people who haven't seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger version or read the book they'll enjoy it. From what reviews say it doesn't stick to the plot of the 1990 movie or the Philip K. Dick short story, so fans of either of they won't be fans of this...


3.5/5

Doctor Who - Asylum of the Daleks - review. SPOILERS.

Matt Smith, Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan in Asylum of The Daleks.

After 8 months of anticipation and more of Moffat's teasing, we have finally been given 'Asylum of The Daleks.' Its special-effects mad and features all the Daleks, the main selling point for this episode. As usual all Doctor Who premieres (written by Moffat) have given us a twist, this twist is definitely something that hasn't been pointed out online. In an interview, Steven Moffat said he looks online and silently pokes fun at forums and blogs of people speculating about the episode. Nobody would have guessed the new companion, Jenna-Louise Coleman would be introduced in this episode! 
The episode starts off on war-torn Skaro where the Doctor is invited by the creepy ginge Darla Von Karlsen (Anamaria Marinca) to rescue her daughter. After been zapped along with  a divorced Amy and Rory (Gillan and Darvill) they are asked (yes, asked!) by the Daleks to "save them!" The rest is a runaround on the Dalek "dumping ground" or The Asylum, a planet dedicated to collecting doolally Daleks and keeping them away from civilisation. Smith is brilliant as usual except this time he brings a whole new level of matureness to The Doctor, but still with the funny jokes. Darvill is better in my opinion in this episode than Karen Gillan. Usually he is the klutz and she is the funny, flirty and self-supportive Amy who holds onto the Doctor's arm. In this case, as Rory and Amy have split up he is the independent one who is split from the Doctor and Amy throughout the episode. Karen Gillan is still great as usual but her character of Amy has become slightly more vicious than in previous series. 
The next addition to the cast is Oswin Oswald, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. Coleman has been cast as the new companion. As I am a sucker for spoilers, I have been reading the rumors and her character, rumored name: Clara Oswin is due to appear in the Christmas special. Now she in the opening episode as the new companion maybe or a relative? Her character, anyway, in this episode is hilarious, funny and flirty just like Amy, with hilarious one-liners and a rather sexy way she deals with Matt Smith's chin. 
The Daleks in this episode aren't much of a threat, in fact the main Daleks you see in the episode are out of commission. 
I am very disappointed in fact about the noticeable absence of the Special Weapons Dalek from the 1988 story, Remembrance of The Daleks. 

Still, it was really good!

NEXT TIME:
An Egyptian queen and a game hunter, and Rory's dad and Amy in an awesome blue and white stripy jumper, I can't wait!

The Imposter.

Non-fiction thriller..... Frédéric Bourdin in The Imposter.

In some ways its hard to believe that The Imposter is non-fiction, it did happen, the events told in the movie are real and it is shocking. It was not all in part, filmed as a documentary with some sequences recreated with actors so you are left at the end thinking what bits were real and what was faked. It focuses on the case of Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year-old boy living in San Antonio, Texas who never returned home after playing basketball with friends. He is found over three years later, in Madrid, Spain. The 16 year-old they found was not Nicholas Barclay, and he was not sixteen. He was in fact, Frédéric Bourdin, a 23 year-old French con-man now dubbed "The Chameleon", for he has since 2005, adopted over 500 identities. The documentary goes on, with all interviews with Nicholas Barclay's family and Bourdin himself shown as talking heads. Other sequences are done using actual footage from the event or mocked up with actors. Bourdin returns with Nicholas's sister, Carey Gibson who says he is Nicholas and he meets the family. As to the surprise of the public and press, they accept him although he looks nothing like Nicholas. They have different color of eyes, different skin tone, rough outline of a dark beard and as one interviewee says, if Nicholas Barclay were to have a beard at 16, it wouldn't be black. Not everyone is convinced that this is Nicholas, the two main people unconvinced are Nancy Fisher, an FBI Special Agent and Texas private detective Charlie Parker. It's brilliant, gripping stuff and from the moment it opens you are drawn in. You want answers to so many questions throughout and some are answered. Others are not, as the public and Nicholas Barclay's family don't actually know the answers to them. So completely amazing, it feels like a thriller, not a non-fiction documentary.

5/5

Brave.

Sweet and sour.... Kelly Macdonald as Merida in Brave.

The annual cinematic tradition of the Pixar film is something movie goers look ahead to. I am joined with those people as I already look forward to Pixar's next treats such as Monsters University and am delighted at the possibility of a sequel to Finding Nemo. I won't defend Pixar all the time as they have given us some poor films, WALL-E had charm but wasn't great while I regret the Cars films existence. Brave is like WALL-E, full of charm and decent characters, the main thing letting the film down is the plot. It's that of a Disney movie, bland and predictable. The finale to the whole thing is so simple and reliant on magical mumbo-jumbo, something worthy of a Doctor Who story line. It has its moments and there is a touching montage between mother and daughter, I'll get onto that in a minute. Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald plays feisty princess Merida, a unsettled teenager that is shocked to discover she is to be married. The way of her betrothal is a Highland Games-style competition for the winner to take her hand in marriage. Quite obviously infuriated by this situation she storms off into the local forest to find a funny old witch (voiced by Julie Walters) who is in the wood-carving business. She gives Merida a spell to help change her strict mother, Queen Elinor's (Emma Thompson) mind about the forced marriage but as predicted it doesn't go right. The queen ends up as a charming bear and the princess is forced to hide her mother from the bear hating King Fergus (voiced by true Scots actor Billy Connolly). Things get tricky and Merida is forced to think of a way to help her transformed matriarch before the sun rises again.  The color is stunning and beautiful but the background is stereotypical Scotland, something you'd see in a Chinese advert or even a VisitScotland brochure. It's good fun stuff and obviously not aimed at young kids, like the Cars movies. So now you must be asking, is it aimed at adults. The answer is again, no, Brave isn't directed at lovers of Pixar's kookiness or younger lovers of anything that moves on a screen. I am at the time of writing, still wondering who it is aimed at.

4/5

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