Dallas Buyers Club

Here again we see the benefit of my Cineworld card. There's no way I'd pay to see this sort of film. It's just not my thing. But, again I'm glad I did.

Another based on a true story, this one centres around the life of Rod Woodroof (here played by an excellent Matthew McConaughey) who is basically a repulsive human being.. After an accident at work he's informed by the doctor that he is HIV positive.. The rest of the film we see him as he sets about obtaining drugs to help prolong his life.. 

A lot of talk has centered around Matthew McConaughey's extraordinary weight loss to play this part but really it's his performance that makes it. Throw in a star turn from Jared Letto as a suffering transsexual he befriends and it's a thoroughly absorbing movie.. It reminded me of Erin Brockovitch in a lot of ways.. His struggle against the big corporation..

Overall another oscar worthy **** movie..
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The Lego Movie 2D (2nd viewing)

This film benefits from a similar running time to Gravity, it's short and punchy. Plus I could squeeze in a viewing before 'Dallas Buyers Club'. 

It was excellent (again!). So much so that I'm going to upgrade it to ****

(or though you could argue that's down to the poor showing of everything else..)

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Cuban Fury

Ok, firstly I wasn't going to see this. I just couldn't be arsed to wait till the 5 o'clock 'Dallas Buyers Club'. And as it turned out I quite enjoyed it. Granted it was so riddled with cliques it was like a clique truck had crashed into a bus load of cliques on their way to a tour round the 'Clique Factory' in clique land..(was that too many?!) I don't need to synopsise as the story path is well trodden. But it was still fun.
A solid ***1/2 

On another point, this was the only screening I've been in where some one openly lit up a cigarette! Luckily he was eventually chucked out.. 
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Inside Llewyn Davies.

This was my second attempt at seeing this one and this time I managed to sit through the whole film. Was it worth the wait?

Erm.. It was alright. Basically it charts a week in the life of Llewyn Davies, a struggling folk singer of no fixed abode as he goes from one car crash to the next.. And that's it really. It's got some soothing tunes and top performances but that's all. Don't get me wrong it was enjoyable. No one died and it was funny in parts.. But it was ultimately forgettable.. 
Overall a *** movie.

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The Monuments Men

I went into this one with low expectations.. The general consensus seemed to be 'what type of movie is it?' And I could see where they were coming from.. Is it a comedy or a heist movie, or maybe a thriller? 

It based on the true story of a group of men tasked with retrieving stolen art during the end of the Second World War. The ensemble cast features Matt Damon, George Clooney and Cate Blanchett amongst others and all perform as expected..

It's mildly entertaining. But that's it really, another ultimately forgettable movie.. (Perhaps I'm seeing to many..?)

I think Graham enjoyed it more but it was still and entertaining *** movie.

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Robocop

This one had a tough job appealing to me. Firstly I'd seen the original. Many times over.. And loved it (obviously!). Secondly the trailer was pants (mainly because of point 1). So it was a surprise that I actually enjoyed it. Certainly not 'Gravity' levels of enjoyment but better than the ill fated 'Total Recall' remake that's for sure. For those who don't know the story watch the original..
This film tried to put a new twist on the idea, bringing it up to date with current technology so to speak even though it's set in the future (to a degree). Where this film fails though, is its lack if humour. Granted, there's a few laughs but.. No strike that. I think there are two..

In the films favour the CGI is very good and Gary Oldman does a good 'not so mad' scientist. Overall it was an entertaining *** movie. Probably won't see it again.. In fact I'm tempted to get out the original and watch that..

Looking at it, it would appear Paul Veroheven's movies are just too good to remake.. It'll be interesting to see if they try and 'do' Starship Troopers.

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The Lego Movie

All the signs pointed towards this one being a dud. For starters it was in screen 1 which hasn't got a particularly good track record. That and as I sat down we were informed there was a problem with the projector and there's going to be a slight delay..  

Cut to 13.45 and I've just come out... Yeah, the 10.15 didn't happen and I ended up in the 11.45. And to top it all I enjoyed it.. The plot centres around Emmett (played by Chris Pratt) who is an average construction worker (or builder as we like to call them in these parts) and how his mundane but surprisingly upbeat life is turned on its head.  Will Ferrel voices Lord Business, who it turns out has plans to fire 'Kragle' (the most powerful weapon in the universe) at Lego-land and thus preventing it from changing.. kind of..  It's from the directors of 'Cloudy with a chance of meatballs' so it really it comes as no surprise that the film is littered with jokes both verbal and visual.  So many that I had a job keeping up. Definitely worth a second viewing.. 

Throw in some excellent cameos (including Star Wars which really threw me!) and you have the makings of an excellent, all round classic.

***1/2 (I think it'll be a 4 star movie after a few more viewings..)

Lone Survivor

I almost saw 'Inside Llewelyn Davies' today. Right down to getting the ticket and sitting through the trailers.. But Graham came in to town earlier than I anticipated. So I figured I'd grab a coffee and do the camera shops with my favourite father-in-law.
Which leads me to the feature presentation .
Graham was keen to see this one so naturally I obliged. Mark Walberg headed up an impressive cast list. I'm big a fan of Ben Foster. After his turns as a generally unhinged character in both '30 Days Of Night' and '3:10 To Yuma' I was pleased to see his name crop up. I not too familiar with Emil Hirsch's back catalogue but I wasn't going to hold that against him. After 'Wolverine:X-Men Origins','John Carter' and 'Battleships' Taylor Kitsch was due a brake from crap films. Throw in Eric Bana and what could go wrong? It was a done deal.... Or so I thought...
The story centres around four Navy seals (played by Walberg,Foster, Hirsch and Kitsch) who are dropped into Afghanistan. Their mission is to locate and obtain a Taliban leader who was recently responsible for the death of 20 US service men. Naturally it all goes south. Ok Pros:
When the action (eventually) kicks off its nail bitingly frenetic. It was gritty and well done. I felt quite exhausted after.. Ben Foster once again shines and I felt that he was still an underlying 'crazy man', ready to snap any moment (I do like him, did I mention that?).
Cons: The film starts with genuine footage of Navy Seals during the selection process. There's no doubt the story was all the more harrowing due to the fact it was true. But if it hadn't been it would have been another piece of Americanised, gung-ho, Navy recruitment tosh. Rounded off with an overly sentimental ending that made me feel really uncomfortable..***spoiler**** And the 'assisted knife killing' at the end, what was that all about? I read that that didn't actually happen (no shit Sherlock). It was ridiculous and destroyed what little credibility the film had left..
Perhaps I'm being a bit over critical. The mid section of the movie is very good..
But the ending spoilt it for me..
**1/2

And talk about plot spoiler, you can't get more spoilery than the title!
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I, Frankenstein 3D

Umm... To be honest I wasn't going to see this one. The trailer made the film look like Underworld (yeah, any of them) minus Kate Beckinsale. And as the only good thing about the Underworld series IS Kate Beckinsale I didn't hold it much hope..
And it pretty well lived up to my expectations.. Although to be fair it wasn't THAT bad.. Everyone knows Mary Shelly's Frankenstein story.. But for those who don't it's basically mad scientist makes man out of body parts. Reanimates body. Chaos ensues.. It's a lot deeper than that but if you're reading this I'm assuming you're not interested in 'depth'.. Anyhoo, this film takes that basic premise and throws in a battle between Gargoyles and Demons (that's right, not a Vampire or Werewolf in sight..) and brings it up to modern day.. Ok first the pros..
The CGI was pretty good. In the first half of the film there's one or two nice set pieces.. Aaran Ekhart is on top form.. Bill Nighy is as reliable as ever. Unfortunately I haven't managed to forgive Jai Courtney for the last Die Hard movie (although technically it's not his fault).. This leads me to the cons..
Now, I know it's fantasy but that doesn't forgive some pretty lame dialogue. That and the fact that I've seen it all before.. Replace Demons with Vampires and Gargoyles with Werewolves and it's Underworld.. Plus there seemed to be a bit of confusion. He's Frankenstein's monster not Frankenstein (as he declared at the end). Perhaps I'm being picky but it mattered to me..
Overall, like I said it wasn't THAT bad.
An entertaining way to spend a damp afternoon. **1/2.

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