The Butler

Directed by Lee Daniels, The Butler depicts the life of Cecil Gains (Forest Whitaker) during his 34 year employment in the White House. Set against this white background and the sociological qualms of the time, his tale weaves together the depiction of various presidents, and his own personal ups and downs.

Starting with a backstory to amplify the suffering that Gains went through before he became a learned and poised house servant was a necessary and thankfully short lived heartache to endure. It helped give the film depth and the character a breadth of understanding for his future actions, but would have made the audience deflated, defeated and depressed if that was to be the tone for the rest of the film.

Cecil's family go through their own individual trials from when he announces his new position at The White House to his over the moon wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) and less than content eldest son Louis (David Oyelowo). The happiness is soon short lived as Cecil spends more time at The White House than his own, and fails to see the crumbling within his own walls. But as their world changes around them, in fashion, friends and politicians, Cecil and Gloria watch hope grow and die, pulling each other out of the darkness and into the light, standing the test of time and remaining as strong as their modest three bedroom house who sees it all with them.

David Oyelowo is not who I would have picked to play Louis, Cecil's oldest and seemingly never ageing, misguided son. I cannot however thwart his performance, as I more than once felt like slapping him for his reckless for the sake of recklessness behaviour, as he chased trouble in order to make a stand in the racial class system of 1950's/ 1960's America. He did manage to stem towards believability when Louis grew closer to Oyelowo's actual age of 37.

The film has an array of famous faces which includes Alan Rickman, James Marsden and Robin Williams, depicting the short and influential or long and scandalous terms of seven United State Presidents, but one that requires special mention is Oprah Winfrey in her role of Gloria Gains. In those minutes she embodied the character of Gloria seamlessly, adding her own unique blend of sassiness to the character, that couldn't have been described in a script or motioned by the director.

Although the story of The Butler was more influenced than based on real life, it was extraordinarily told, and allowed the audience to feel as the character felt, rooting for them and suffering with them. Done without violence or brutality, this is a warm and gripping tale for a chance to learn more than the personal traits of various world leaders.

 ,

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Surprise, surprise, another film based on a book series. As it looks like Hollywood have long since run out of original ideas they are left to play puppet-master to whatever latest sensation wonders into their web. The latest victim is the first in Cassandra Clare's The Immortal Instrument series; City Of Bones.

If your humour falls in the realms of sarcastic, dry and borderline worrying then you're in the right place. The film hits the ground running when Clary Fray (Lilly Collins) goes from being a run of the mill teenager, openly defying her mothers over the top protective ways to suddenly drawing odd shapes in her sleep. Clary soon learns the term Mother knows best is more than a guilty saying when her mother (Lena Heady) is kidnapped, leaving nothing but a frantic voicemail and a demon dog in her wake.

Clary isn't left alone to find her mother as her slightly geekish best friend Simon (Robert Sheehan) is close beside her offering witty cynicism at the darkest of moments. The pair don't quite know what they're getting into so it's fortunate that mysterious, aloof and sometimes invisible Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower) shadowhunter extraordinaire sticks around to help Clary on her quest. Jace and his fellow shadowhunters have their own problems to contend with, but when it looks like everyone has a mutual agenda Clary and Simon are submerged into a world of Vampires, Werewolves and Centuries old legends.

Shadowhunter: Part human part angel warrior.

An urban Goth theme seems to be the strict dress code of shadowhunters as our characters were constantly clad in black. Thick platformed boots, tight leather trousers and tops that were clearly too tight to be buttoned up (not that anyone was complaining) for the boys, and thigh high heeled boots, navel brushing tops and short tight dresses for girls (again whose complaining).

Jonathan Rhys Meyers made a surprising and sexy addition to the cast as disturbed and crazed villain with the ironic name of Valentine. Whose twisted ways gave the film more depth just when you thought there could possibly be no more drama.

Although the characters possess some level of magical talents, thankfully it's not all Wingardium Leviosa as these shadowhunters are all too happy to get down and dirty. Glass swords, tiny daggers and vampire guns are mere accessories to the boots to asses, flips and tricks they have up their sleeves. It was refreshing to not just have the one main fight scene at the climax of the film.

It has been a while since I have looked forward to a film sequel, normally rolling my eyes at the last minute Easter Egg scape goat scenes. The Immortal Instruments is a fresh take on what goes bump in the night and the things we think we almost see in the corner of our eye. City Of Bones only just begun to touch on a new world of magic for us as an audience to get lost in and characters for us to get caught up with so let's hope that the puppet masters get to work on the next instalment.

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters

Based on the bestselling novels by Rick Riordan, the sequel to The Lightening Thief resumes (granted it's been a good three years) with our heroes on another quest to save not only themselves and the unsuspecting world, but also their parents.... again. Talk about "No Pressure".

Demi-god Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is enjoying a carefree summer at camp half blood, where the norm involves beating the crap out of other campers with swords, shields, and spontaneous gymnastics. Not to mention chilling with centaurs and satyrs and being chased by deadly metal fire breathing bulls..... You know, regular camp stuff. Little do our happy campers know, that almost being run down and flamed to death is only the tip of the iceberg when they realise they are no longer safe as the tree that forms a protective barrier around the camp has been poisoned. The only chance our heroes have of keeping their safe haven from being overrun by various monsters is going to look for a long deemed lost mythical garment.

Although the quest to hunt down said garment wasn't given to Percy personally, he feels like it's something he's meant to do, and he knows it can't be done without best friends Grover (Brandon T Jackson) and daughter of Athena Annabeth (Alexandria Daddario). Though it is never revealed how when or why, the tree did not mysteriously decide to poison itself, Percy's arch nemesis Luke (Jake Abel) (providing us with that villainous but attractive in that angry tortured soul way) is back with a better action plan to take down the gods on their thrones at mount Olympus. He has regrouped and is bringing out the big guns but in order to put the last piece of the puzzle in place he needs the same thing our heroes do, and thus the race is on.

Everything seems to happen in a very quick succession of events, almost as if they don't want you to realise how empty the film is. Granted our heroes as demigods live slightly different lives than what we would be accustomed to, there is no reason for them not to be acting their age. It's as if the script was written very close to the book in which our heroes are no more than thirteen at this point (that's where the similarity between novel and film starts and stops). There was no passion or enthusiasm in what the characters were doing, almost as if the whole film was a run through, and we were waiting for the director to shout "Now once more with feeling!" just as the end credits thankfully rolled up. The film managed to keep its head slightly above water with a few witty one liners from sassy satyr Grover, the occasional fight sequence and let's face it, Logan Lerman. 

The film ended with an opening for a sequel (naturally), which if it follows the chronological order of the books will be entitled: The Titan's Curse. Let's hope it's third time lucky for the franchise and fingers crossed we won't have such a long wait for its release, and if we do with any luck it looks like they've put that time to good use.

 [And lets face it, that extra half a unicorn is purely based on a person like for Mr Logan Lerman]

Now You See Me

If you are a firm believer as I am, in all things supernatural then you know that it is sometimes hard to keep the faith. A few choice moments that come to mind include that first day of secondary school at aged eleven and I realised my Hogwarts letter wasn't coming, and the following summer when I wasn't invited to Camp Half Blood. *Wipes nostalgic tear from eye* Every once in while though a film like this comes along, that allows you to hold on hope that your letter is still on its way. 

A succession of four seemingly random street magicians, tricksters and illusionist come together to give a whole new meaning to the way we think of Magic. Their task isn't made easy when former magician now turned to the dark side revealing tricks of the trade Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) and on top of that being branded and chased as thieves by FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and suspicious French newbie Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) of Interpol. With all this attention, every good magician needs a stage name, and though I was personally routing for something along the lines of The Musketeers, Ninja Turtles or ABBA, The Four Horsemen was an okay choice. The team consists of front man J. Daniel (Jesse Eisenberg) his former assistant Hanley (Isla Fisher), a mentalist Merrit (Woody Harrelson) and trickster Jack (Dave Franco). All of whom are working for an unseen vengeance seeking mastermind referred to only at "The Fifth Horseman."  

With a well chosen cast, eloquent script and intricate plot line we felt like a member of the audience of one of their shows, which really helped draw us in and probably made it a lot easier for us to be fooled. The only thing that I would note is that it was a shame that our Four Horsemen didn't get to do a lot of actual "Talking." Everyone else had a good chunk of script to allow us to understand them as a character, so we could perhaps guess their motives or rule them out as suspects. Any conversation our main act had, aside from the odd witty banter and friendly insults was on stage and therefore for lack of a better word; staged.

I sat down ready to watch this movie with an unbiased mind and was happy to discover that I was swayed towards nothing but thinking the movie would be nothing short of mind blowing within the first five minutes. When magic is your main source for the basis of a film there are literally no limits to what can be achieved. In fact trying to constrict anything that could happen into anything that can happen within your constraints i.e: Time, setting, believability and most importantly understanding for us as an audience makes it even harder to come out with something so magnificent. It's a good thing that a magicians number one rule is Always be the smartest person in the room. And they struck to that mantra as by the end of the film we were all left looking for the smoke, the strings and the mirrors because even when you think you see it. You don't.

Fast and Furious 6

Lets all face it. We don't watch a movie like this expecting to be ridden with a wave of gooey emotions or left in a contemplative state of unease and possibility. No no none of that. We're in it for the cars, the thrills and the hot guys. 

When we last saw our band of brothers (and sisters) they were running rampage in Rio, pissing off  a drug lord, out running the authorities, stealing a whole bunch of money and generally fudging shit up. Despite swearing to retire; You can never keep a good criminal down... Plus I guess being blackmailed by a man who has the ability to put you in prison for the rest of your life helped a bit in the persuasion process. Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) has a proposition for Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) which requires him to get the gang back together. The stakes are high but they get to drive on the right side of the road as their pursuit for bad guy Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) leads them to London.

We all know of -but only speak about in hushed tones- Fast and Furious: Tokio Drift, which has always been sold to us as a prequel of Fast and Furious, though which one we were never told. Well that long forgotten question has now been answered.... seven years later.

Though filled with many a witty line and many a hot guy, the storyline got a little crazy, there were too many characters and the timing of a certain event stretched the believability of even the most gullible film goer. These are all traits which would be analysed and critiqued in any other sort of film but not the ones that matter in a film like this. There are more important things for them to worry about; the staple necessities: Stunts, CGI and Cars were all top notch, but they went above and beyond when they managed to have two long chase scenes which involved tearing up a free-way with a tank and bringing down a plane. How can we not already be excited to see what  they have in store for the seventh instalment?

The Great Gatsby

Director Bas Luhrman, known for his infamous Red Curtain Trilogy (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!), takes on the responsibility of recreating F.Scott Fitzgerald's beloved masterpiece. If his previous work is anything to go by then a whole lot of style and pizazz is definitely and unavoidably on the table.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is both the narrator and voice over to the tale of a man he calls 'The Great Gatsby'. He looks back retrospectively over the summer he spent in West Egg, where he rented a small house next to the mysterious and illusive millionaire Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). Across the bay lies the equally lavish but more hoity East Egg home to Nicks cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her husband Tom (Joel Edgerton).

The roaring twenties, a time for music, drinking, philandering and more drinking set amongst the seemingly never ending parties of post war celebration. Carraway, a bright eyed and slightly naive Midwestern moves to Long Island to be closer to New York where he has abandoned his plans of being a writer and delves into the world of Bond Salesmanship. His compass of morality lays abandoned as he slowly becomes intertwined in the parties and the carefree attitude of the West Egg and the lies of his acquaintances. Daisy, who lives life on a fence of denial and indecision, Tom a self-righteous man who comes from old money and their friend Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) a gossip and a silent participant to her friends disputes. The only person Nick holds to any sort of high esteem is his hope filled neighbour Gatsby who is known by many and yet known by none.

One thing that played a heavy factor into the unique outlook and atmosphere of the film was the soundtrack. The film is set in the early 1920's and therefore being subjected to watching the high on life party-goers whining and grinding to RnB and Hip Hop from the likes of Jay Z and Will.i.am and hearing the strong words of Florence and the Machines Over The Love to name but a few was both haunting and ethereal. It gave the audience a sense of the present in the past and really added to the theme and beautiful sadness of the film as a whole.

Positioning it somewhere between the theatre and costume like styling of Anna Karenina (2012), and the over the top, almost eyesore brightness of the Disney live action version of Cinderella (1997) starring Brandy Norwood, The Great Gatsby is something of an acquired taste. It's hard to gauge which audience member will enjoy the general feel of excitement and gloom of the whole movie and which will find that all the glitter, smoke and mirrors will be nothing more than an obvious and annoying distraction to the lack of the depth in the story.

Iron Man 3

The picture above shows just how tired not only Tony is, but the suit itself. Robert Downey Jr returns for a third and hopefully final time as the metal devil Iron Man, the plot is sketchy, the effects are phenomenal and the acting is passable.

A flashback to the turn of the new millennium is where our story takes place, where a slightly younger but ever debonair Tony Stark blows off talking to a nerdy -and slightly creepy- scientist (Guy Pearce) on the brink of a new discovery for a one night stand with a hot brunette (Rebecca Hall)..... Who can blame him.

Turn the clocks forward thirteen years and the party days are no more for Tony as he is happily settled with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Sadly she cant ail all his problems as he can't seem to shake the events of New York and his near death experience from his mind.

There's no time to focus on himself as he stupidly and I must say quite unnecessarily starts a feud with a terrorist, and from then all hail breaks loose unleashing death, destruction and abduction as Tonys past come back to bite him in the ass. But you know what they say about the past: When you look to the future you leave it all behind.

One of those films where you expect greatness and are then fooled into thinking you are experiencing it when really it's just the remnants of its predecessors. Stick a fork in it, he's done. It's time for Tony put the suit away, only allowing for the exception of more Avenger movies.

Spring Breakers

Spring Break, if you are an american college student is a must at some stage, for everyone else outside the borders of the East and West coast we are on the outside looking in. The movie Spring Breakers on the other hand I don't think quite counts as an accurate description of what we're missing, if it is then I'll gladly sit on the outside in the safety of the coldness of the UK.

College girls Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) Faith (Selena Gomez) Cotty (Rachel Korine) and Brittany (Ashley Benson) (Although don't feel bad if their names immediately made you think this was going to a female Magic Mike) are left behind in a deserted school as their classmates have already jetted off to enjoy two weeks of spring break. Barely saving enough for a Big Mac meal between the four of them, extreme measures are soon resulted to in the name of Spring Break, and before they know it they are off living the college dream in Florida.
Being drunk, getting high, trashing hotel rooms and whipping off those restricting bikini tops are all the norm, but then so is being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting arrested as everything quickly goes south for our little angels.
Alien (James Franco) is a knight in shining grills for the little princesses as he gets them out of jail for a small price. Although he is both a stranger to these girls and a straight up creepy weirdo, they take him up on his offer to repay their debt and soon the wildness of Spring Break seems tame in comparison to this new jungle of madness they enter.
One by one our little Barbie Dolls try to escape the misadventure of spring break, but not everyone can be persuaded to to leave the grasp and pull of the thrills behind.

 For such a provocative personification of spring break, director Harmony sure picked a very Sugar Spice and Everything Nice cast. This included two ex Disney starlets a doe eyed Pretty Little Liar, and his wife..... No comment on that last note. The character of Gomez' Faith, was majorly flawed, she was a baggy clothed Christian one minute, then a bikini clad weed smoking party whore the next. Her character thus became the most annoying as we the audience couldn't quite work out which one of these people she was, or if she was just bipolar, which lets face it would have probably been the more creative option.
What was one of the most memorable moments was only made so by Britney Spears' Everytime as it's background music, which left the scene both haunting, beautiful and empty.
Overall the film tried to hard without really getting anywhere, it felt a bit like going to the toilet and waiting for something big to happen, but it ending up being a false alarm; A waste of time, annoying, dissatisfying and leaving you with a cold bum.

Jack The Giant Slayer

Based on the well-known tale of a gullible opportunist in Jack and the Beanstalk, our unlikely hero has more to gain than a Golden Goose and her eggs. This film gives Jack a personality that ranges outside of the scope of selfish and stupid allowing us to see him as a young clumsy boy with a dream and a case of bad luck. 

Giants were once forces to be reckoned with, but with all things unimaginable, reality became a story, story a myth and myth a legend and soon the land of Albion where our story takes place, was in a state of blissful unawares to what once was. That is until one day Jack (Nicholas Hoult) in kindness to a monk, trades his horse for a pouch full of magic beans.

Suffice to say Jacks uncle is not happy at being cheated out of money for food for some worthless beans, but their worth however is no longer in question as within minutes, a thick vined snake erupts from beneath the earth encasing the house. It reaches out seemingly endless into the clouds, taking with it the recently escaped Princess of Albion; Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson). Seizing his chance to no longer live an adventurous life vicariously through his books, Jack volunteers himself for the Princess rescue mission, led by the leader of the Kings elite guards; Elmont (Ewan McGregor). Jack isn't the only tag along as Lord Roderick's (Stanley Tucci betrothal to the princess has nothing to do with his urge to quickly find out what lies at the top of the beanstalk.

There were a few really nice touches added to the film which people who are familiar with the tale of a boy and his beans will really appreciate, but don't hold your breath for anything particularly spectacular from this movie. Although it was a good watch it, like it's original story was a simple tale and with that there's only so much you can do. As the credits rolled and you automatically try to recall your favourite scenes you realise that the titular character barely got to speak. Except for the witty one-liners and adorable quirks, at the end of the day it left you wondering; without the beanstalk, who is Jack? 

Trance

This Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind meets British Gangster mash-up was brought to us by British Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony) with this is mind, the film entirely held its own and love it or hate it you can't deny it was captivating to say the least.

The beginning segment is simple enough to follow as we are guided by forth wall narration by protagonist Simon (James McAvoy), a Fine Art Auctioneer with a gambling problem. Suffice to say that one can help solve the other, and to clear his debts he gets involved with local French gangster Franck (Vincent Cassel) to steal the painting Witches in the Air by Francisco Goya. 

Though everything is going to plan and despite his training at work where they're taught "Don't play the hero, no art is worth a human life" Simon can't help himself. 

The second segment shows that Simon has double crossed Franck, but the beating to the head he took leaves him forgetting what he did with the painting. Franck encourages Simon to pick a hypnotherapist to help recover the memory of where he hid the painting. Enter Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) who sensing that Simon is in danger does her best to help him and thwart Franck and is band of merry gangster men.

The final third of the film is where things get really complicated as hypnosis, lust, reality and death all become one and the same with no anchor to stop the roller coaster of events that ensue.

Though the plot was full of twist and turns it was a relief that they kept to only three central characters, and a small detail that I found effective was their accents. McAvoy's Scottish, Cassel's French and Dawson's subtle American back dropped against the harsh London Gangster scene just seemed right.

Though the film started out with a lot of obvious turning points, it more than made up for itself with the subtle hints and intricately woven threads between the real world and the one of hypnosis. Definitely one for the know it alls and the ones who like to have their minds blow, and even if you fall into neither category, it should still be given a trance.

Oz The Great and Powerful

Taking inspiration from the series of books by L. Frank Baum The film was nothing short of visually spectacular as we our guided on a journey of clarification as we discover the tale of the man behind the velvet curtain.

Oscar "Oz" Diggs (James Franco) is nothing short of a trickster when it comes to his smoke and mirror carnival magic, that and the way he leads various naive women on soon lands him in a world of trouble. A terrible storm one day provides an accidental escape route from his life of being a borderline crook, giving him the chance to explore, experience and hopefully change his path.

Side Note: A small but appreciative element of the film was the transformation between a 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio and respectively from Sepia to Technicolor. 

Transported through the eye of a tornado to the world of Oz, Oscar is expected and soon learns that he is the heir to the land.... and it's massive fortune. The tightly attached string comes in the form of defeating the Wicked Witch who is terrorising the land for want of control. Oscar is accompanied on his mission by an indebted flying monkey named Finley (Voiced by Zack Braff) and an Orphaned China Doll (Voiced by Joey King). No mission would be complete without a few twists and turns, half truths and betrayals.

With Vampires Sparkling and Werewolves being nothing more than giant fluffy dogs, then ethereal beauty is only to be expected of the Witches of Oz; Theodora (Mila Kunis) her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Willaims). But an important fact to remember when watching this film is that; Beauty may only be skin deep but evilness runs to the bone.

Overall the film had the right amount of humour that wasn't kept solely for the titular character to dish out, a range of human, animal and CGI characters that just seemed natural and have I already mentioned how ah-mazing the picture quality was in terms of colour crispness?  

It didn't seem as though a lot of thought when into the cause of certain circumstances involving the Witches and respectively, Oz himself making events seem a little melodramatic. I suppose this could be due to the exposure and various conceptions we have to the world and land of Oz through The Wizard Of Oz (1939) and the Broadway musical Wicked (2003). Undoubtedly I wasn't the only confused one when it came to mentally matching up these prequel characters with who they would later become in the stories we all know so well.....Major Headache.

The Silver Linings Playbook

Bradley Cooper plays the role a Bipolar man whose life is suddenly unravels, leaving him no choice but to movie back home with his Betty Crocker mother and Superstitious father. He and Jennifer Lawrence's Tiffany Maxwell, a young woman with problems of her own find solace with one an other through circumstance and mutual benefit.

The Silver Linings Playbook teaches you to hold on to something, anything that keeps you grounded to the real world despite what other people think of your methods. Hopefully sooner rather than later you will find yourself holding on to more than one silver thread that keeps you tethered to the need of your existence. 

This film wont necessarily make you teary eyed but it provides a range of characters that you can't help but to appreciate and admire. Silver Linings and all.