Everything to do with films!
It’s time to interrupt the endless barrage of Christmas calories
that I seem intent on shoving down my throat as quickly as possible
seriously, it’s like Gluttony Man in Se7en
but I don’t have my body tied down,
my arms are wilfully ladling anything alcoholic or sweet or tasty into my mouth
like it’s going out of fashion
to round up what I think have been my personal favourite games and movies of 2013.
Continue reading “Simon’s Best Games And Movies Of The Year”
_Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy_ was released in 2004 and, very generally, people I know tend to either love it or hate it. I fell pretty squarely in the “_love it_ camp but in reflection I could have easily gone the other way. You see _Anchorman_ was originally going to have a lot more going on. In fact there were so many different takes and removed sub plots that they were eventually assembled into a whole other film titled “_Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie_”.
Most of _Wake Up_ isn’t good and it’s easy to see why none of it was included in _Anchorman_.
I am telling you all of this because I really feel like _Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues_ could really have done with a bunch of stuff cut out.
Continue reading “Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”
Peter Jackson is an interesting film maker. A background in indie films, specifically indie horror films, he was raised to the top of the A-List when he successfully pulled off adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy to the big screen. Those movies are not perfect by any stretch but the books were so rich and full of detail that the theatrical releases actually felt like they were lacking despite being a combined length of over 9 hours.
Now we’re on the second part of his adaptation of _The Hobbit_, the book that preceded the epic trilogy that was _The Lord of the Rings_. That book however is actually pretty short and while it has enough detail to serve the story’s purpose it has nowhere near the depth or scope that the later trilogy does.
Herein lies one of the problems with _The Desolation of Smaug_: You can’t turn a 300 page book into 9 hours of movie without padding the story, and Jackson has padded the story so much, and messed up the pacing so much, that while I don’t think it’s a bad film I also don’t think it’s a great one.
Continue reading “Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”
Out of the Furnace is a movie that, on paper, looks like it should be amazing. Christian Bale, Forest Whitaker, Sam Shepard, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, and Zoe Saldana are all talented actors and Scott Cooper’s previous film, _Crazy Heart_ was a solid effort which earned it’s lead actor an Academy Award.
That’s on paper though. Unfortunately if you’ve seen [a trailer for _Out of the Furnace_](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/10/out-of-the-furnace-second-trailer-poster-its-definitely-awards-season/) then you will not be surprised by anything that happens in the movie. In fact, even if you haven’t seen the trailer you won’t be surprised by anything that happens in the movie.
There’s two things I can tell you right off the bat about Frozen. First, contrary to what the marketing would have you believe, it isn’t a movie about a snowman and a reindeer. Second, it is in facta Disney Princess movie.
What’s interesting about these two facts is that I have no idea _why_ they marketed so heavily on the snowman and the reindeer because it’s actually a _really_ good Disney Princess movie. More than that it’s actually just a really good movie.
It’s hard to believe that it has only been a year and a half since _The Hunger Games_ came out. There has been a string of young adult books adapted into movies following the success of Harry Potter, most of them featuring an up and coming young actor in the lead surrounded by Hollywood veterans, usually fighting against some oppressive regime. The Hunger Games was no different. Jennifer Lawrence was aiming for her big break and Lionsgate was looking for a new cash cow.
The film itself wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really _good_ either. Suffering from a small budget and a weak screenplay it fell comfortably into the “good enough” category and made enough money to warrant adapting the rest of the series into movies.
It’s a good thing too because where _The Hunger Games_ was just good enough, _The Hunger Games: Catching Fire_ is actually really good.
It’s hard to know where to begin with *Europa Report*. Not because it’s bad; it’s really not. More that the measure of what it *might* have been is heavy enough to weigh the final product down. For all the talk of it being a return to real, “hard” science fiction, the film turns out to be just another adequate space thriller.
Solomon Northup was a free born black man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1841. Known as a talented violin player he was approached that year by two men who identified themselves as entertainers with an offer to accompany them for several performances in New York City. He took the job and thinking it would be a short trip didn’t tell his wife. Once there they convinced him to continue with them to Washington, D.C.
Once in Washington Northup was drugged, stripped of his clothing and identification, and sold into slavery. After 12 years he was freed again and later published a memoir of his experiences. Now Steve McQueen has made a movie out of those memoirs.
It’s a movie you need to see.
What do you get when you put four amazing, ageing actors in a movie where they play best friends reuniting for a part in Last Vegas? You get a movie that offer few surprises but more than a few big laughs.
The latest edition of Marvel’s assault on cinemas everywhere is a charming little beast. Thor was always going to be one of the more difficult characters to make the transition from inky page to silver screen, (certainly when compared to his Avengers brethren) but given most of the legwork was done in *Thor* and *The Avengers*, very little time is wasted getting on with the plot, such as it is. Rather than *The Dark World*, they should have called it *The Wibbly Wobbly Time/Space Shifting Shenanigans*. Anthony Hopkins knocks out a bit of exposition (primarily to let you know who to boo – it’s evil elves this time, led by Malekith, played by a virtually indistinguishable Christopher Eccleston) and on with the show we go.
Have you ever seen that one movie? You know the one, it’s based on a young adult novel and it’s starring a hot young actor alongside a few veteran adults? The one where the trailer looked pretty cool but then when you saw it you realized that they had cut _so much_ of the actually important parts of the story that the movie ended up not being very good?
Yeah I saw that movie tonight. It’s called _Ender’s Game_.
Robert Redford is a hell of an actor. His career spans decades and he’s appeared in some of the most memorable film roles in history. If you wanted to make a movie about a man alone at sea in a sinking boat you could certainly do worse than to cast him. So that’s what JC Chandor did in _All Is Lost_. Good thing too because it turns out that _All Is Lost_ is probably going to go down as one of those most memorable roles I mentioned.
When I first heard about _The Counselor_ I was intrigued. Ridley Scott directing and a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy? Sounds good to me! Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz starring? Sounds great!
Then [there was a trailer](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/07/the-counselor-trailer-you-dont-have-any-friends/) and I became ever more excited for what sounded, and now looked, like a great movie.
Turns out I was wrong. _The Counselor_ is a bit of a mess.
You’re probably aware that I really love going to the movies. It seems self evident just based on how much I go to the movies, really. One of the great pleasures of movie going for me is those times when I get to sit down and watch one of the great actors of our time work their magic. This is the experience you will have with Captain Phillips.
Richard Curtis has an interesting filmography. Of the films he’s directed, most of them are fairly lighthearted fluff which is, depending on your disposition, sweet or saccharine. Films like _Bridget Jones Diary_ and _Love Actually_. He’s written far more, including the likes of _War Horse_ for Steven Spielberg, but it’s the sweet stuff he’ll likely be remembered for.
His latest effort, _About Time_ appears to be much of the same but with a dash of time travel thrown in for good measure. Is it good? Well, I dunno about that. Is it bad? Well, I dunno about that either.
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