Skyfall

This latest instalment of the James Bond series starring Daniel Craig as our leading super spy has been eagerly anticipated since its first announcement. The hype for this movie has been immense thanks to the non stop advertising, almost as if they were daring us to not like the movie. Lets just say that I won't be casting that stone.

Skyfall roughly picks up where its predecessor, Quantum Of Solace left off. Our thug like spy is crashing through the streets of Turkey in pursuit of a list that was stolen from the MI6 and will expose all the departments undercover agents. It seems however that 007s number is up as a fatal shot to the chest put him MIA and presumably dead allowing the list to escape.

The MI6 have no time to mourn the death of their leading agent as what is thought to be a cyber terrorist with a personal vendetta against M (Judi Dench) is gunning to takedown everything she has worked to achieve. Luckily resurrection is one of Bonds many skills as he comes back to battle in a fight that will lead him back to we're it all began. Bond needs to capture the terrorist, defend his country, save M and get the girl... or two. Its all in a days work.

This movie had a lot more depth than the previous two films, it took the emotion of Casino Royale and vengeance of Quantum of Solace and combined them both and a little more allowing us to view James Bond in a different light. If there really are talks of two more films starring Daniel Craig in the franchise than they'll have to work ten times as hard to top the phenomenon of Skyfall.
To quote Bond himself, I am just going to go ahead and say this movie was "Perfect"

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

If being on the fringes of High School socialisation means having friends like Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller then sooner or later being a happy outcast will be a whole lot more popular than being, well popular. Based on the book of the same name by Stephen Chobosky, this film adaptation explores the life on the other side of the High School social spectrum.

Dear friend, 

I think we've all had that fear of being the one kid that sits alone at lunch, that no one wants to partner up with and that is for some inane reason the topic of all ridicule. The only way to break the system is to find someone quirky and excepting and just say Hello.

With a deep breath and a leap of faith Charlie (Logan Lerman) strikes up a conversation with senior class joker Patrick (Ezra Miller) and with that opens a world of friendships. He finds himself immediately bewitched by his stepsister Sam (Emma Watson) a seemingly carefree and open girl, and is embraced into their circle of eccentric friends, or better yet the Island Of Misfit Toys. 

Whilst trying to navigate the road of friendship and love Charlie is battling with his own demons which slowly scratch their way to the surface.

The film pushed all the right emotional buttons, as well as having a few bubbling underlying questions that were left to fester at the back of your mind during the movie, only coming to light at the end. It says a lot about an actor when despite them being in other thematically big movies they can come and turn off the typecast as the actors chosen to depict the characters did a brilliant job in terms of likability and believability, and if it was possible for a sequel to occur then I think it would be very well received.

Looper

Joseph Gordon-Levitt had the honour of being facially transformed to look like a young Bruce Willis, and Bruce Willis had the honour of staying exactly the same in this time travelling mind bender.

Set in the year 2044, travelling through time is nothing more than a concept. However roughly thirty years down the line it will be both invented and outlawed, only to be used by criminals as a means of body disposal. Enter Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his band of brother, or to those few in the know; Loopers.

The job is simple: The good unnamed people from the future zap a masked body to you in the past (Present). They appear, you shoot. Strapped to them will be your payment in silver bars, you dispose of the body then get on with your life till the next job. You work for as long as they need you, your Pink slip coming in the form of gold bars.

This is one of those jobs where you don't want to know the man behind the burlap sack, because there might be a case of performance anxiety when you see he has your slight aged eyes and a slightly more crooked version of your nose. He might then escape, putting the both of you in danger from you present employers who are then obligated to close your loop.

We all know ourselves better than anyone else, even if you don't quite understand what your future agenda is in the past (present). Joe isn't concerned with the technicalities, he just knows if he wants his life to go back to normal he need to hand over his own (future) head on a platter... But he's not the only one after himself.

If you try not to think about it too hard then it's a walk in park.

Pierce Gagnon who plays Cid was in fact (next to Bruce Willis) on of my favourite characters to watch on screen, not wanting to dive to far into his role in the movie he definitely delivered a believable performance and should their (God Forbid) be a live action version of Chuckie then we have found a perfect match.

It's a shame that the concept of time-travel wasn't explored a little more, as you start to wonder little things such as; why only the Mob have illegal access to such a worldly desired technology. Not only that but the subsidiary characters seemed slightly "Sim-ish" programmed to be there for the sake of the main character; He needs a boss so he has a boos, he needs an enemy so he has an enemy. Something as small as a one minute backstory themed soliloquy would have been sufficient, but the nit picking aside this movie definitely lived up to its over exposed anticipation.