Nebraska

Bruce Dern is an old guy who has two sons, Will Forte and Saul from breaking bad. Bruce has lost his marbles a little recently and has recieved a letter in the post saying he has won $1million. Will thinks it's a scam but keeps getting phone calls saying Bruce has been found walking to Lincoln Nebraska in order to collect his winnings. To appease his father he agrees to drive him to Lincoln to help in his quest. The drive is long so they decide to stop off in somewhere to see Bruce's extended family. Saul and the mum join them and we all bond a little over Bruce's apparent mental degradation.

Of all of this years Oscar nominees this is the one I knew least about. I knew it had Bruce Dern in it..........that's it.......oh and it's about Nebraska. In this day and age of technology and social media it is nigh on impossible to go into a film with no background knowledge and I am so glad that I managed it with this. It starts off on a quiet tone with Bruce trundling down the slip road of a highway and getting picked up by the police. The opening shot is devoid of much sound and is shot in stunning black and white. We then get introduced to the very simple premise of the film and meet the rest of the family. The set up is deliberately quick as we can then focus on the familial relationships within the film particularly with Will Forte's character and his alcoholic, emotionally absent father. The acting is spot on from everybody, and I mean literally everybody, even the smallest characters are completely believable as real life human beings. Due to this it feels like you are actually travelling with Will and Bruce on their journey and not just watching and that the world within the film is a completely real one, with real people who are just passing by.

The tone of the film is light but with serious notes and there are some real laugh out loud moments. It is not in anyway a comedy film but the laughter stems from real life situations that we can all relate to and therein lies the beauty of it. By making you relate to the normality of everything it forces you to feel alongside the characters and culminates in one of the greatest father/son moments certainly I have ever seen. I loved this film and it is probably the sweetest, most heartfelt thing I have seen in a long time. Please do not be put off by the pace of it or the black and white colour palette, it is well worth your while.

Verdict: A big fat 5/5

Her

Joaquin Phoenix lives in the future and writes letters to people, from other people for a living. Everybody in his time has a computer who runs their life for them (basically Siri but a bit more advanced). The company that makes Siri decides that it needs a mind of its own so develops an AI version that learns over time. Strangely this AI version sounds a lot like Scarlett Johansson and is witty, sexy and all the things a computer generally isn't........well unless you are looking at jokes or porn. Joaquin is a lonely dude who is in the throws of a divorce and starts to really bond with computer Scarlett. Eventually they start to have feelings for one another in a way that should never occur between a human and a machine. Joaquin tells his friends Chris Pratt and Amy Adams and noone, and I mean not a single freakin' person, even bats an eyelid.

This is probably as quirky a concept as you will see in modern cinema, a love story between a man and his computer. It starts off very understated and we see Joaquin going about his day to day business. He is a deeply lonely man and plays it brilliantly, really making you feel for him. When Scarlett enters the picture Joaquin becomes more and more complex and alive as he finally has someone to converse and share his life with. The concept of the AI system learning and adapting to the individual does raise many interesting questions, focusing mainly on the true feelings, particularly love, that would be expressed by human and AI as a result of the evolution of the software. Are these feelings truly real? or are they inevitable as the AI becomes everything Joaquin needs it to be? Unfortunately this film is in two halves with the first half very interesting indeed and the second......well not so much.

The problem starts when they actually fall in love, which is done in the most pretentious of ways, giggling to classical music on the beach at sunset whilst discussing how perfect the moment is.........seriously bugger off with this shit, it's not necessary. I still had faith with the film however, by the way Sara had already started swearing at this point, that is until he tells his fellow humans of his love. How do they react you ask? Well they react by just accepting it with no question whatsoever. I mean seriously I could understand if the AI system had been around for a long time as yes I could see how emotions could develop, but it's completely new! It would be like me confessing to everyone that Sara is not a human but is in fact a toaster, with whom I am very much in love and we plan to marry and have little toaster babies together. If that were true then everyone would think I was completely mental, they wouldn't say 'OK that's cool, wanna go on a double date picnic?' Its a completely bonkers plot point that annoyed the hell out of me. In my opinion it would have been so much better if they had gone with the forbidden, strange love angle.

Ultimately I ended up disliking this film which is a real shame as I started off enjoying it immensely. They could have done better.

Verdict: 2.5/5 (and you only got that because of the start and the performances)

Dallas Buyers Club

Matthew McConaughey is a rootin' tootin' bull riding cowboy in the 80's (I think) who loves nothing more than whisky and unprotected sex with hookers. He starts to feel a bit peeky one day and ends up in hospital with a diagnosis of AIDS. He does not take this well and starts kicking off about not being gay and all of that 80's I'm a real man nonsense. He is given a somewhat guarded prognosis and as a result chucks as much money as he can at finding treatments. Jennifer Garner is his doctor and gets him on AZT which does not do too much. Matthew decides he would rather listen to a doctor who now practices in Mexico due to being struck off instead of Jennifer and actually strikes a bit of luck. He then sets up a business with a cross dressing Jared Leto selling these new treatments to other similarly affected individuals.

Like most people I had heard a lot of very good things about this film. The McConnaisance is very much still upon us and the story being told is as true as they come. I am more than happy to report then that this film hits every nail squarely on the head. The story is a tragic and almost unbelievable one and is told beautifully. Jared Leto is unrecognisable as the cross dressing Rayon and puts in a flawless performance. Jennifer Garner is also at her best in her role and the rest of the support cast even to the smallest part are spot on. With all of that however this is McConaugheys film. He is an absolute powerhouse in the lead role and continues to bash out performance after performance cementing him as my favourite actor of current times. He looks awful as the disease ravaged Ron Woodroof and is as far from the romcom Matthew of the late 90's early 00's as he could possibly be. There are probably many other actors who could have performed this role well but I strongly believe that nobody could have done it like McConaughey and nobody could have pulled you in and made you feel every moment the way that he did. I was sufficiently blown away and he firmly deserved his best actor Oscar. You have to watch this film for so many reasons. Loved it.

Verdict: A most comfortable 5/5

Rush

Chris Hemsworth likes to drive fast cars and sleep with lots and lots, and I mean LOTS, of women. He is pretty good at all these things until Daniel Bruhl rocks up and starts driving better than him, doesn't do the women thing better though. They then start to compete intensely and both end up in the mighty formula 1. They continue to drive around a bit winning things here and there and getting married, not to each other, and one of them possibly could have some kind of very serious accident. I wont say much more other than it is all completely true.

This is the true story of the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in formula 1 racing. Now I am a formula 1 fan but alas I was not alive when this occured, 1970s, and am far too lazy to read up on it, my mum assures me it was a very exciting time for racing although she was too young herself at the time to be really hooked. Suffice to say then that I started watching this with an immense amount of good will. Chris Hemsworth is fast becoming a good actor and not just a pretty face and Ron Howard is a very good director (forgetting the Dan Brown adaptations). Chris is indeed very good as James Hunt but it is completely the Daniel Bruhl show who is outstanding as Niki Lauda. You forget very quickly that he is an actor and believe that you are actually watching Niki's younger days, to a certain extent Chris does the same for James Hunt but is outshone somewhat. The story itself is very interesting and I did enjoy finding out what happened between the two of them. The action is shot beautifully with the race sequences making you feel every single apex and hairpin turn.
Unfortunately I do have some, well one reservation. The pace of the first half as it rattles through events was a little too fast for my liking, maybe this was because I did not know the history behind the story but I would have liked a little more explanation. I did however enjoy the film but wasn't blown away by it, shame really. Lastly then I am happy to tell you all that Sara did indeed say yes and we are now happily engaged (I left this bit until the end so that you would actually read the review, sneaky right???)

Verdict: 3.5/5

Godzilla

Brian Cranston is a scientist working for some Japanese people in a nuclear something or other. He has a wife who is also a scientist and a son who isn't. He has these readings of some sciencey stuff and runs around warning his colleagues and wife some bad stuff is coming, everyone ignores him and lo and behold he is right and lots of people die. Time moves on a little and his son is now Aaron Taylor Johnson who is a Navy bomb dude. Brian is still harping on about science and gets arrested leading to Aaron flying to Japan to save him. This goes wrong when Brian is once again right and a big flying moth thing starts killing lots and lots of people. For some reason this then prompts our titular giant lizard to turn up and start killing moths and the general public.

Godzilla films have been around for a very long time and are an institution in and of themselves, some of them classics (the old) some of them not so much (brodericks one). Safe to say then this film had a lot to live up to and thankfully it manages the job pretty well. Brian Cranston is very good as the scientist father and his relationship with his son Aaron is very interesting and a nice backbone to the film. It starts very slowly from the perspective of the monsters and chooses to focus on the characters relationships. For me this was the right choice and if anything I would have preferred a little more of the heart rather than the brawn. Thats not to say I didn't like the fighting giants, I did, I just loved the human side of things and didn't want it to end. Because of this the film felt like two halves, not enough to make me dislike it but it could have done with gelling the two a little bit better. Aaron does a good enough job but is teetering precariously on the edge of wooden, good for him the rest of the cast, including Elizabeth Olsen, put in sterling jobs. Overall I really liked this film and spent the following couple of days roaming round the house making Godzilla noises and kicking things over, Sara was not impressed. One last thing to say really, Sara will you marry me? (I'll let you all know what she said in a following review, fingers crossed eh!)

Verdict: 4.5/5

RIPD

Ryan Reynolds is a cop whose partner is Kevin Bacon. They go on a bust or a raid or some policey thing and Ryan bites it with a shotgun to the chest (not a spoiler, happens pretty much right away). Once dead ryan floats up out his body, or climbs out, I can't remember, and meets the lady who I always think is Marissa Tomei but clearly isn't. Fake Marissa then tells Ryan he has been recruited to police dead people who are still hanging around the real world. His partner is a near incomprehensible Jeff Bridges who is a veteran dead cop with an attitude to boot. They then go about trying to solve a very thin plotline which may or may not involve Kevin Bacon and some deado's (yes thats what they call dead people who cause mischief).

The premise of this film is pretty damn good actually; once dead, cops who have led a sketchy lifestyle are recruited by limbo to control the spirits who are making a complete nuisance of themselves, sounds good right? How can we make this film even more appealing then? Casting you say? O.K. I'll give you Ryan Reynolds who when he puts his mind to it can act, Kevin Bacon who is awesome and Jeff Bridges who steals pretty much every film he is in whether he is the lead or not. Now all we need is a coherent plotline to hold all these things together and we are golden, shame this is where they drop the ball then. It's a very thin plot that doesn't really hold together well at all, not only that the Basil Exposition explanation moments don't actually explain things. Ryan is far too accepting of his fate and drags himself through the film with a visible lack of enthusiasm and energy. Why cast him in the lead and then not have him run his mouth, that's what Ryan does for Christ's sake. Jeff is clearly enjoying himself as is Kevin but neither of them are able to convince you to have as much fun as they are. It isn't to say that the film is terrible beyond words it is just really, really boring. The last thing to say is the obvious comparison with Men In Black, which a sensible film maker may try to steer away from but in this they may as well have had Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in the leads and the deado's couldn't look more like some of the aliens Will and Tommy fight. Put some effort in people, films don't make themselves.

Verdict: 2/5 (because that is the most boring of all scores)