365 Days. 365 Films.

Based on a true story, Moneyball tells Billy Beane's (Pitt) story of putting together the Oakland A's baseball team on a very small budget. Beane is joined in his quest by Peter Brand (Hill), an accounting intern who helps Beane by using computer analysis to compare statistics of the most underrated players in baseball.

The story itself is uplifting and accessible - you don't necessarily have to be a baseball fan to know what's going on or even to enjoy it (but it probably helps). Although it is a little slow throughout, Pitt and Hill make a very entertaining duo and Pitt in particular delivers a sterling performance.

I thought it would be a little long for what it was, but by the end of the film you don't really notice. The direction is consistently brilliant and the cinematography in particular is sleek enough to distract from the long running time (for the story).

To all Evil Dead fans this sounds like the perfect film and I'm not going to be the one who lets you down - it is!

Bruce Campbell directs and stars as himself in this shameless piss-take on his not so successful career and "terrible" movies throughout. The plot revolves around a small town in America where the locals mistake Campbell for Ash, his ass-kicking, monster-killing character in the Evil Dead trilogy. He is then forced to fight some real life monsters, all the while assuming he's in a movie.

This film is hilarious and thoroughly entertaining throughout, but for anyone who's not a fan of the modern day B movies and the brilliant Bruce Campbell, you'll probably be less entertained than I. Nonetheless it's got a great atmosphere, just the right sense of humour and Campbell is a great sport! I loved it!

Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis star in this feisty rom-com about two friends who decide to have no-strings-attached sex. As with all rom-coms the problems start when they begin to have feelings for each other and they must now figure out what to do about their accidental relationship.

I have to say that this is one of the funnier romantic comedies to come out in recent years and the comedy is definitely more prominent than the romance which may be a plus for some viewers. It's not a particularly girly film which makes for a more diverse audience, however the sense of humour may only appeal to some.

In terms of the acting, Timberlake surprises and Kunis' comedy timing is impeccable, but there are a few loose ends in the dialogue. It was never going to be a perfect film and it was never going to win any Oscars, but it is enjoyable and should make you laugh. Overall it's above average and so deserving of a little more than a three star rating.

Contagion follows a number of characters as a deadly disease spreads worldwide in a matter of days. As the CDC attempt to control the outbreak and find a cure, Mitch (Damon) is trying to keep his daughter safe as their world falls apart.

This was publicised as one of the scariest films of 2011 and I believe it was. It’s not a horror film, it isn’t jumpy and you won’t be hiding behind the sofa, but there is some gore and the fear of what could happen in the future. Since Swine Flu and Bird Flu, people have been dramatising a worldwide outbreak a la 28 Days Later, and this film shows exactly how it would pan out. Realism = scary!

Soderbergh’s direction is seamless, taking you right inside the story and, despite characterization being finely spread across a number of roles, you get a close and personal feel for the characters. Overall it is an enjoyable and thought provoking film. It’ll never be a classic but it will always be in the back of my mind.

Sean Penn directs this true story about a young man who, upon graduating, gives all his money and possessions to charity to live in the wild. With him he takes only the essentials for survival including several books on how to survive in the wilderness.

I did enjoy this film for what it was and I thought that the direction was stunning, however I was not in a great state of being when I watched it which made it easier to pick out faults along with my cohorts. After watching this in the state we were in, besides some continuity confusion, Into The Wild got away with minor surface scratches and so deserving of its rating.

I have to set aside a small paragraph for Emile Hirsch – our protagonist, Chris McCandless – whose performance in this was impeccable. For a film with not a great deal going on narratively, he did liven up the atmosphere in most of the ‘quieter’ scenes and so it’s definitely worth watching for his performance. I would say, however, that it is a bit of an effort to watch because of the length of the film and because not a lot happens – it’s easy to get bored if you’re in the wrong mood – but try to give it a chance because if you do, you will love it.

Just don’t watch it while you're hungover…

As some of you might know by now, I don’t always do research on a film before I watch it. Another thing you might have gathered about me is that I am a massive Woody Allen fan. Now, I didn’t know that this was a film at all associated with Woody Allen (I didn’t even know who starred in it) until half way through the opening sequence – shots of paris, day and night, sunny and raining with old music playing in the background. The picture and music fades to black, and there is Allen’s typical white on black opening credits using the same font he has used for decades of wonderful filmmaking. With no prior knowledge of this film, I instantly knew it was the work of Woody Allen.

If you’re an Allen fan too, you ought to love this story of a man who loses touch with his fiancee and so, on a lonely night drinking in Paris he gets lost and decides to rest on some steps. Suddenly an old fashioned car pulls up and some people beckon him inside, taking him back to the era he loves the most – the 1920s. Each and every night from then on he waits in that spot where, when the clock strikes midnight, he gets whisked away meeting his idols such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Pablo Picasso.

You may think that this sounds like a children’s film, or perhaps just a little too unrealistic for you, but if you know Woody Allen you know his sense of humour and, more importantly, his wild imagination. This has Allen written all over it and it’s much closer to his classics than anything else he’s done recently which is brilliant.

One thing I didn’t expect was Owen Wilson giving an amazing performance – not that he is a bad actor, but the kind of films he does never really shows off his talent. I can clearly see why Allen wanted him in this film – his comedy and acting style is very similar to Allen in his day. I never noticed it before but if you watch closely it almost seems like you’re watching Allen acting again.

It is not surprising that this film has been nominated for a million and one awards this award season, it’s directed by Spielberg (arguably the world’s greatest living director), it’s set during WWI (and a lot of Oscar winners/nominees are set during a war of some sort) and it goes one better than a human interest story by having a horse as the main character.

War Horse is like a bigger budget Black Beauty at war – it’s a very inspirational and beautiful story, but it can be a bit too soppy from time to time. There are the occasional moments where you just have to cringe and mostly at the lead’s performance (Jeremy Irvine – not the horse) and the aforementioned sop.

Besides all this it is a fantastically entertaining film with stunning special effects and a wonderfully written narrative – definitely a brilliant family film as Spielberg is prone to make. The cinematography in particular is outstanding and although it has been said that Spielberg is a typical fourth wall director, his genius subtlety definitely drops in this one and I think it makes for stunning viewing that way too.

I think it will win the Best Picture Oscar, but only for the reasons stated in the first paragraph of this review – it has all the usual elements for an Oscar winner, but because of the slightly off-putting soppiness, I don’t think it’s thoroughly deserving considering it’s competition.

As a huge fan of the Mission Impossible films, I was delighted to hear of a fourth film! Not long after hearing about the film’s then current production, I learned that Simon Pegg, a.k.a. the love of my life, would be starring alongside Tom Cruise playing a much bigger role than what he did in the third film, so the film was already in my good books. After going to see it in the cinema, despite my high hopes, I was not disappointed.

The film displays all the action and thrills that you have experienced from the other three movies, and I believe that this has to be the best action film of 2011. The stunts are mind-blowing and mostly (if not all) done by Mr Cruise himself! What really gets me going with these kind of films are the disguises and prosthetics they use to go undercover – I know it’s a small aspect to any spy film but I love it and this film, again, delivered.

The first film was ground-breaking, the second fairly average, the third was great and this is even better – perhaps not as good as the first, but it has everything the other three films have, plus a refreshing bit of comic relief from Pegg.

Susan Sarandon is a nun, Sister Prejean, who is asked to be the spiritual advisor of convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet, played by Sean Penn. Although Matthew claims not to have actually committed murder, he is sentenced to execution and must redeem himself and his faith before his time is up.

I’m not going to lie, it isn’t the easiest film to watch… The performances of both Sarandon and Penn are unbelievable – easily the best performances from each of them, making this a very moving film and a struggle to watch emotionally.

The film is directed by actor Tim Robbins, and I believe that this is the first film I have seen to be directed by him, but he is a brilliant director. He has a rather subtle tone in his direction, utilising his actors to provoke the main thoughts and emotions, but he compliments their performances with his use of camera angles and movements.

This is a film similar to The Green Mile, but perhaps without the slightly supernatural element to it. It is plainly and simply a film about a man’s emotional struggles in his final days before he is executed. Not for the easily shocked or overly emotional, this will not be an easy film to watch, but if you do watch it, you will love it for all the right reasons.

This is a true story about Charlie Wilson’s contribution to one of the largest every CIA operations to supply Afghanistan with military weapons to fight the Soviet Union in their war. Tom Hanks stars as Wilson in this adaptation of his work as a Texas congressman which turns out to be a very funny and enjoyable movie.

This is not, as you expect from the plot, a war film as such, nor is it a particularly serious film about a country’s struggles for freedom, but it is more about Wilson himself; a light-hearted and fun-loving man trying to help a then deprived country. What surprised me about this film is that Julia Roberts was brilliant. This is not to say that she is a bad actress – I don’t believe that at all – but not since Erin Brokovich have I actually thought she was anything more than “pretty good”. She does tend to play the same character and there is rarely anything special about her performance, however I do think that she played her character in this film with a lot of depth; she really brought her to life in this.

Whether you know anything about politics, religion, war or history, this film is well worth a watch – not unmissable, but definitely a great film.

This film is based on a true story about the closure of the Northern English mines which could mean the end of a group of miners’ brass band. This is a rather upsetting film due to the subject matter, but with the film being, primarily, a comedy, it’s much easier to watch than you might think.

It is enjoyable and uplifting in the same way that The Full Monty is, and shares Monty’s spot as one of the greatest British films of recent years. Stars Ewan McGregor, Pete Postlethwaite and Tara Fitzgerald are amazing and they fill the movie with so much emotion that you really would have to be dead inside not to be moved by their spectacular performances or indeed the subject matter itself. It is easily the greatest performance by the late and great Postlethwaite too.

Brassed Off is a classic piece of British cinema and depicts an important part of Britain’s recent history immortalised in great form, but it is perhaps not for those who are easily upset.

300 follows a Spartan king and his battle against the Persians with his army of 300. The film is made to look similar to the graphic novel on which it is based and as far as the style goes it is brilliant.
This was a film that I apparently absolutely had to watch, and when I saw the trailer upon the films release I did think the same. When I watched it, however, I suddenly didn’t understand the hype! I think the best bits are certainly in the trailer, and once you’ve watched that, the rest of the film is just an extension to it. Yes the cinematography and mise-en-scene are amazing and beautiful to watch, but it’s not exactly original and never-been-done-before. It’s a brilliant film, don’t get me wrong, just not as good as a lot of people made it out to be. One flaw I would pick out is that a lot of techniques are overused and disguised as new ones, and with a film like this it’s easy to assume it’s a wonderful piece of artistic cinema, but the technical ability of Snyder is clearly limited upon a second or third viewing, and flaunting certain techniques as he does distracts from the overall storyline which could have easily been more emotive.

This post will probably make a lot of people angry because I know it’s the kind of film that, if you love it, you really do love it. Great film – but not THAT great…

Iris is a biopic about British novelist, Iris Murdoch who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease towards the end of her life. This film very much focuses on the end of her life and her crumbling relationship with her husband in those final few months. Starring Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet as a young Iris, this is a deeply moving film about one of Britain’s greatest minds with tremendous performances from each and every cast member.

This is the film that won Jim Broadbent an Oscar and it is so well deserved, however I have no idea why Judi Dench and Kate Winslet didn’t also win! Judi Dench in particular was brilliant. I don’t know much about Iris Murdoch, but the wonderful thing about this film is that you don’t have to know anything about her to enjoy it. It’s a good and a bad thing that it doesn’t focus on her career much at all. This could easily be a film about just about anyone, so there is no real distinguishing aspect to it for Murdoch fans, but either way it’s an emotional roller coaster for anyone who has ever heard of Alzheimer’s disease – which I’m guessing is everyone…

It’s very easy to watch, which you may not expect for a film with such dramatic and distressing undertones, but it’s a delightful watch for the performances, the script and the overall direction which is spot on!

Another Woody Allen film now with Mighty Aphrodite, a film about Lenny (Allen) and his wife who adopt a son when Lenny realises he wants to find out who the biological mother of his child is, only to find that she is a prostitute. Lenny begins to befriend his son’s biological mother, not knowing whether or not to tell her about him, and eventually falls in love with her.

Again this is the kind of narrative that has Allen written all over it, but yet it’s never quite as you would expect it to be, at least not at the end. Allen’s writing is at the top of his game with this film and it’s a very surreal but very funny take on Greek tragedy with his use of a costumed choir to narrate, alongside the “Gods”.
Allen’s use of cinematography is subtle but brilliant in enhancing the comedy, and it isn’t until you really watch the film that you notice the magnificence of his work. Overall this is a film that is easy to watch yet packed with technical and creative brilliance throughout.

Written and directed by Woody Allen, Match Point is a film about love, lust, cheating and murder. It initially seems very similar to the Allen films you may be used to, but as soon as you start to settle into the traditional romance/drama (not so much comedy as you may expect from Allen) narrative, Allen throws a curveball as he often does – it is this that separates each of his films from one another.

Chris (Meyers) is a rich bachelor and tennis instructor descending from a line of upper-class Englishmen. One day he meets and falls in love with Chloe (Mortimer), but the same happens when he meets Nola (Johansson), an American wannabe actress. Torn between his two loves – the woman of his class and with a powerful father-in-law, and a passionate fantasy romance with Nola, Chris attempts to juggle the two women, but it soon becomes too much for him to handle.

It’s a great film to watch for fans of Woody Allen, although he isn’t actually in it, however, the direction and the script are both superb.

When a group of kids are shooting their movie at a railway station they witness a train crashing spectacularly into a van driven by their biology teacher. It appears that their teacher was attempting to stop the train and, more importantly, the cargo. The train ends up spilling mysterious white cubes everywhere, and one of the children, Joe, takes one home as they flee the scene after being told by their teacher, clinging to life, that if they mentioned anything to anyone, they and their families would all be killed. The morning after the crash, strange things start to happen in their town, Lillian. People and dogs disappear and police and stores have mysteriously been torn apart.

As a sci-fi, alien movie, I don’t think your real perception of a movie is really established before you get a glimpse of the alien or aliens. In general this is a brilliant movie – the direction is spot on and the kids are amazing actors, but after catching that all important glimpse of the alien, I didn’t know what to make of it any more. It wasn’t terrible and, as you can imagine, being produced by Spielberg, the CGI was as good as you could hope for, but in terms of the actual design of the alien, it was a little more like a monster than a traditional alien – which is quite important to me as an avid sci-fi fan and UFO obsessive.

The film started off strong and was perfect up until a certain point that I can’t even pinpoint, but somewhere along the line it just lost it a little. During the film you will love it through and through, but by the end of it, you don’t know why, but it’s just not as good as it started off to be. It might be the ‘more monster than alien’ alien, it might be the sudden ending where they allotted the last ten minutes to resolve a full 100 minutes worth of built up exposition, but somewhere it dropped from a five star film to a four star film – still a great movie, but just missing out on being perfect.

The Lavender Hill Mob is a British crime/comedy starring Alec Guiness, about a bank clerk who joins forces with a neighbour in a plan to steal the gold he oversees and smuggle them out of the UK, reshaped as Eifel Tower paper weights.

This is a classic post-war British comedy from Ealing Studios and a fine example of the cinema of it’s day and it’s probably just as enjoyable now. Alec Guiness is brilliant and hilarious in his role, and the chemistry and comedic timing between him and Stanley Holloway is impeccable. One particular scene to note is the run down the Eifel Tower, which demonstrates their comic ability and their ability to play off one another.

It isn’t something I would have chosen to watch on my own – it was a recommendation – but after seeing it, it does seem to be the kind of film that I would quite happily sit down and watch again and again.

From director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) comes an unexpectedly dark animation about a lizard lost in the desert. After being someone’s pet all his life, Rango is not used to “the wild”, which becomes all too apparent when we stumbles across a town called Dirt and finds that he has to lie about his experiences to get respect and to be liked. Ever the theatrical, Rango suits up to his new role as a hero and sets out the help the town regain the water that has been lost at the hands of Dirt’s evil mayor.

This film may not exactly be what you’re expecting. The comedy is sometimes dark, always witty, and often leaves you wondering if the film is actually for children. It’s not a dirty film and there are no swears, so don’t worry if your children have watched it, but a lot of the jokes (a larger than average proportion of them) are jokes that children may not understand. Remember when you were a kid and your parents were laughing at some parts of films more than you were and you didn’t exactly know why? This is what will probably happen if you sat down with your own children now and watched this film – straight over the kids’ heads.

It’s not perfect and it’s a little disappointing considering the hype it got, but it’s so easy to watch that I can imagine myself watching it again pretty soon. Not a classic, not all too memorable, but fun and relatively simple.

The Limey is your typical revenge narrative about an Englishman who tries to unravel the mystery of his daughter’s murder. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the cinematography and editing is unusual but spectacular. His use of storytelling through technical applications transforms and differentiates the narrative from what you may already know. It’s a visually stunning film with terrific performances and unusual twists – something you’re bound to enjoy, particularly if, like me, you get off on weird and wonderful cinematography.


Terence Stamp is absolutely amazing as ever, playing the father of a murdered woman. His portrayal is perfect showing an equal amount of rage to emotion within an initially seeming icy persona. In terms of the character he was playing, I loved the way that he was crafted in the writing. The dialogue and overall storyline are brilliant, but the characters in particular are well thought out and so realistic.

This film is a more realistic version of Kill Bill with artsy direction – what’s not to like?

The Beaver is a story about a husband, a father and a businessman who begins to lose his mind and, when he is cast aside by his family, it all becomes too much for him. He finds a beaver puppet and begins to talk through it, finding that he can only express himself fully and be the man he used to be through the beaver. As he tries to get his life back on track, he begins to think that the beaver has become a little too much of a comfort to him.

I had been looking forward to seeing this film for a long time, and I was not at all disappointed by the hype. It’s a wonderfully moving story with just the right amount of emotion to make it a great drama story, and just the right amount of comedy to lighten the mood ever so slightly.

Mel Gibson is stunning in this film, and every bit the brilliant actor that you may have known him as before all the tabloid scandals. Jodie Foster’s direction is spot on and never deviates from what you may expect within this genre and it’s also very professionally and delicately handled considering the storyline.
It’s a very enjoyable film to watch that will make you laugh and cry.