Dark Shadows

It's a Tim Burton film so you can count on a few things, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and dark and mysterious vibe. Well you won't be disappointed as all of those things are present. You may however be a little disappointed in the story which is a little weak. The acting is all very good, the style is brilliant and the script has some very good moments and Eva Green is pretty hot, especially in the red dress! The story just needed a little more mystery, the whole premise was revealed far too soon.

Source Code

Way back on the 10th December 2010, just before I completed Film Year by watching 365 films in 365 days in 2011, I posted a trailer for a film called Source Code. So some 678 days later I have finally watched it and... I really shouldn't have waited so long. I really enjoyed this film, there are elements of mystery (some you should see coming) and the story is told very well. The acting was all very well done and it's quite a clever concept. A very enjoyable film and probably better than 80% of the crap I watched in 2011.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

This is one hundred and forty eight minutes of rubbish! If it had been played at normal speed it would have been about an hour long. There are so many things wrong with this film, the over use of slow motion action sequences accompanied by the same annoying dramatic music sequence, Shia LaBeouf, the constant crappy monologues from Optimus Prime all the way through the film. At the heart there was a reasonable story that tied in with real world events but even that couldn't come close to saving it. At no point did I feel any connection with any of the characters, ultimately this was yet another painful and boring film from Michael Bay, oh and good news looks like there is another one to come in 2014!!! 

Super 8

What would happen if you mashed together two films, say The Goonies and Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Well you would probably end up with a film that would resemble Super 8.  This is a brilliant film, a real old fashioned feel good adventure.  They really don't make enough films like this anymore.  It has a good story and good mix of characters and plenty of excitement and mystery. 

The story follows a group of school friends who are trying to make a zombie film when they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Excellent film!

Date Night

Awkward and very funny. Steve Carell and Tina Fey are excellent together and more than believable in this romantic night out that goes very very wrong. There are more than enough funny moments to keep you entertained. My favourites have to be the backwards suit and the pole dancing which was completely cringe worthy! This is a film that you could quite easily sit through with the Mrs without trying to kill yourself with the infra-red beam on the remote (unlike some films they'll make you watch)! A good fun story with some excellent comedic actors and a whole host of surprising cameos.

Dredd 3D

I shall start by saying that I am not a fan of 3D, it does nothing to enhance the story and is just a gimmick that the movie industries try to revive every twenty years or so.  In Dredd however the 3D probably does a little something for the story, mostly because there is no story! It's very straight forward Dredd locked in tower block with evil gang with lots of fire-power. This is not the worst movie ever, Stallone pretty much took care of that in his version, but it really could have done with a little more story and less reliance on over the top gore and 3D (which admittedly did look really good in the slow-motion). It reminds me of when Robocop when it first came out with how shocking the violence and gore was, well this is clearly the next step up. Good but should have been better.

Beerfest

First things first, this film is stupid, it is also completely ridiculous and has a story plot that I haven't seen used in a long time... spoiler alert (like you'll care)... a character dies and is replaced by his twin that no one knew about! There is however something vaguely amusing about everything, probably the funniest thing is the crazy (and very stereotypical) accents which are completely over the top and too stupid to be offensive. It's a short and easy film to watch if you've got little else to do.

Cheers!

Feast

A group of strangers are drinking late into the night at a bar in the middle of no where when a man covered in blood holding a strange head bursts in to warn them of the impending doom.

This is bloody good fun... sure it's not the cleverest of films, if anything the concept is simple.  It's good because it constantly surprises you, you never know who is going to survive, where the next attack is coming from and it is crude and ridiculously good fun.  It's not quite as good as From Dusk till Dawn, which it did remind of from time to time, but still well worth watching.

The Artist

Well! Let me first say that I watched this on an aeroplane whilst the guy in front of me was watching District 9, and quite frankly District 9 was more entertaining on a six inch screen at a distance whilst being partially obscured by his shoulders and with no sound than this was, by a long long way. The Artist, more like the piss-artist how this got 5 Oscars I'll never know, is boring, dull, rubbish and did I say boring! Nobody makes silent films any more because they don't have to, and black and white was for a time when colour was not an option. Probably the cleverest part was when the star was having a nightmare with sound, other than those thirty seconds this was a complete waste of my time, and I was trapped on an aeroplane with no where else to go!  Complete and utter Oscar twaddle!

Carriers

Two brothers travel across the country to try and escape a deadly outbreak that has already decimated most of the population.

This is a very dark and gripping story, sure Chris Pine's character is a bit of dick, but then I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for, so I'll let it go.  I'm not sure why, maybe it's seeing how people will react to society crumbling or having to survive against all odds but I do really enjoy a good end of the world / after the apocalypse movie.  Not sure what says about me, but I can't help myself.  There is definitely a stronger emotional sense from these sort of movies especially when they are done well, like this one which was thoroughly enjoyable (in a dark end of the world sort of way).