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Reviews
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
A lot of action but felt incomplete
This action packed finally to the hobbit trilogy felt to me like it was trying to re-imagine the great action packed finally to the lord of the rings trilogy, but it just didn't seem to have the great in- depth story line to back it up. Coming out of the cinema I felt like I had enjoyed the film, but thinking back a lot was left unanswered, like what happened to the lonely mountain? I know all the orcs ran off, I don't know why since they seemed to be doing pretty well and the dwarf king was dead along with his sons. Who would have then stayed there? the 10 remaining dwarfs? and what happened to the arkenstone? Bard seemed to have it the last I remembered but there's no real ending to what happens with it. It was nice to see Bilbo return to the shire but it would have been better to see a bit more of that scene, rather than just literally arriving to all his stuff being sold.
Overall an enjoyable film with a lot of action but could have done with some more complete storytelling in my book.
American Sniper (2014)
Very American and like a skipping stone across Kyle's life
American Sniper follows the life of Chris Kyle, Americas most prolific sniper with 160 confirmed kills of men, woman and children. The film takes us from when he was a boy, learning from his dad, through his enrolment and training and his tours in Iraq up to his death.
It was interesting watching him having to make quick decisions early on in terms of taking the shot or not but it soon became repetitive when he embarked on the second tour, becoming even boring for anyone who knew that he died in a shooting accident back in America. The whole film just felt like it was glorifying American soldiers and like a tribute to Chris Kyle rather than telling a complete story. We never really got to know any of the other soldiers in his team making it hard to be bothered when some of them die. We never really see what happens to his brother, he sees him once and then he's gone. There's a big scene in which we see him learning life lessons from his father as a boy but his dad never comes back into it. Even with his wife it feels like every time he comes home it's just filler waiting for him to go back and there's no clear story or emotional build up there.
Overall I was disappointed with the way the film went. Maybe if it just focused more on one of the tours rather than spreading out and showing little bits of each it would have been more complete. Or if it had gone more into the PTSD aspect, instead it just showed he had a problem but then in the end he seemed to just get over it.
Free the Nipple (2013)
Thought provoking at the least
Having watched this film purely out of curiosity towards the movement it really has swayed me to believe in it. It is not just about giving women the opportunity to walk around the streets topless just as many men do freely in the summer months, in fact it's hardly about that at all. It's about societies approach to female nudity and how we are censored from birth, forced into a mindset that sees nudity as obscene and something that should be avoided at all cost. It is the basis by which women and men are seen as completely different and therefore treated completely different. Woman have nipples, men have nipples, yet just because women have a little more behind theirs they must cover them up? When you really think about it, it's so clearly wrong.
The film was an interesting look at the approach of activists and, although clearly made on a budget, it gives a small insight into the amount that some people sacrifice in order to get a few others to think about something for just a few seconds in the hopes of evolving the way our society works.
All This Mayhem (2014)
Complete mayhem
I decided to go see this film after seeing the craziness of the advert and knowing almost nothing about the Pappas brothers and I was not at all disappointed with what I saw.
From a rather wild childhood and young years skating through crazy pro skating years and many struggles there after, this documentary brilliantly takes you along the journey with both Ben and Tus Pappas as things steadily somehow go more out of the control by the second. With interviews from many at the time and a lot of footage, this documentary gives a very real and honest view of pro skating, drugs, travelling alone to new countries at a young age and all that goes with it.
Definitely worth a watch for anyone whether interested in skateboarding or seeing a truly wild side of life and living.
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Wish I'd seen it sooner
For years this has been the type of film that has sat on my watch list unwatched purely because I never knew much about it and therefore never felt in the 'mood' for it. Now having watched it, I know what I've been missing out on! This is a great film about someone realising that they are a good person who is not doing the best for the people that need him to be. Jerry Maguire strives to do what's right for his clients and through basically the collapse of his life looks back to the life lessons that his original mentor taught him and realises that he has lost his way. This was a brilliant story, lovable, funny, very very cheesy at times but purposefully so. All in all a feel good classic.
Oblivion (2013)
Enjoyable even though predictable
Like many other reviews point out, it is the kind of film that takes a lot of pieces of other films and mixes them together to splurge out a 'hit'. Well I can confirm that is completely the case, throughout the entire film I couldn't help but find myself spotting similarities with Moon, Independence Day, Star Wars and a fair few more.
That all said I still found it enjoyable to watch. It was an interesting approach looking at a human being used to destroy it's own planet. Quite an interesting idea, although it seemed a little unnecessary seeing as surely the robots could look after themselves? and once they had sapped all of the 'energy' out of the sea to power their drones what would they do with the thousands of clones they had on the ship? Ah well, maybe I'm just in a rather relaxed mood.
I went into this film already thinking that it would be predictable and probably not to original and with that approach I enjoyed it.
The Queen of Versailles (2012)
Interesting perspective of a family with sickening amounts of money.
Following the two or three years of the life of David Siegel and his wife and family, we see how there lives go from unnecessarily rich to the point of completely wasting gigantic sums of money to a level that, although still very rich, seems to be one they can't contain.
It was sad to see a family that just didn't seem connected, a lot of the time Jackie almost seemed to be trying to force situations to make it look like she was a loving and caring wife when really it all seemed pretty distant.
Overall a unique look at one families experience of the financial crisis.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
No doubt a great sushi master, but seemed completely one sided
This film showed that with talent and great amounts of hard work, success can be achieved, but more than anything I felt like I was being told that "giro is the greatest and don't bother thinking anything other than that".
I found it rather interesting looking into the art of sushi more than I have ever before but, not being a massive eater of sushi, after a while the interest faded to boredom. Repeatedly seeing different fish cut and served, rolled and served.. it went on for some time. Throughout the film you got the sense that Jiro wasn't the friendliest person in the world, however the film only focused on his success and technique, I think it would have been interesting to see his wife's point of view.
All in all, interesting to see high quality sushi but not enough of a background story for me to love it.
Godzilla (2014)
Brilliant film
I just saw this movie earlier today and thought it was brilliant, a great film to watch and captivating from start to finish. I felt the entire story seemed realistic (if you obviously go into it knowing that there was going to be this giant creature that we don't know currently exists) and the ideas brought up in the film are very interesting in terms of it feeding of radiation. One of the only things that niggled me was near the end when Ford Brody is on the bought with the bomb going out to see, there's 5 minutes left on the bought, just out of San Francisco barely, he passes out, gets picked up by a chopper and out of there, and somehow the boat gets the 20 or so miles away it needs to be for a safe detonation distance? Was just a tad bit of stretch for me at the end of a great film.
That aside I still loved the film and would definitely watch it again!