A collection of brilliant actors giving stunningly believable performances as characters locked in a confusing web of lies….. and Donna from ‘That 70’s Show’.

Of course, we have to begin with Emily Blunt, as she was just brilliant. I remember I first saw her in the ‘Devil Wears Prada’, I thought she was good but did not expect her to rise to the position that she has. She gave a convincing portrayal as an alcoholic, unstable, and seemingly obsessive ex-wife. She knows that something happened that Friday she blacked out, but what did she see and what did she do?

The male characters all had their own roles to play, Justin Theroux (ex-husband), Luke Evans (missing woman’s husband), and Edgar Ramirez (the shrink). All the actors in the film developed into credible suspects in the disappearance of Megan, played by Haley Bennett.

She gave the character an impressive combination of emotion and apathy, a difficult feat to pull off I imagine. A little bit of research has informed me that I first saw her in ‘Music & Lyrics’ in 2007. Since then she has been blowing up Hollywood and I expect we will see many more great performances from her in the future.

In terms of negative points, although the story kept me thinking and changing who I suspected throughout, by the time you have figured it out it feels as though the end is a little dragged out. It reminded me a little of the 2000 film ‘The Gift’; but rather than visions from clairvoyant Cate Blanchett, we see the visions of an alcoholic Emily Blunt. Finally, there wasn’t much room for character development in this film other than the balancing of Blunt’s mental and emotional state; however, I believe the story-line and the overall portrayal of characters as constants was more important in this kind of film.

Overall, I thought the plot was substantial with well placed flashbacks and restoration of memories. I reiterate the superb performances by all the actors involved, including supporting roles such as “The Man in the Suit”. I was pleasantly surprised when the film didn’t just blackout, but carried on to round off the story and leave any loose ends firmly tied. No cliffhangers begging a sequel in this case!!

Also, Donna from ‘That 70s Show’ made an appearance which made me giggle a little.

With Halloween just around the corner, the local cinema will surely be packed with the usual horror releases. The monster movie genre can go from sublime, to cheesy. When it’s done right thought, you can get an exhilarating film. One such example of this, was a Korean film released way back in 2006, called ‘The Host’. It’s a movie I would most certainly recommend any monster fan to check out!

Korea is well known for its gritty action show-reels, Park Chan-Wook’s ‘Vengeance’ trilogy containing ‘Oldboy’ is one of the most critically acclaimed trilogies around. ‘The Host’ does well to follow those footsteps and created one of my personal favourite monster flicks!

The film follows the journey of a father ,Gang-du, who sets out to rescue his daughter ,Hyun-seo , with the help of his father and siblings, after she managed to survive the initial attack by the monster. The origin of the monster is explained as the result of scientists dumping formaldehyde into the local river, hence you get this amphibious monstrosity! Director Bong Joon-Ho does a fine job in capturing the panic and terror of all those in the film. The opening attack in which Hyun-seo is taken away is the films best scene, and the moment when she is finally taken away, as the helpless father looks on, will effect anyone watching!

I’m not the biggest follower of Korean movies, so I can’t give a judgement on the actors involved in the film, I’ve not exactly followed their careers prior to the film! Song Kang-Ho who plays the  emotional father, determined to find his daughter does an outstanding job. His character isn’t the smartest, but you can tell he is doing the best he can. The reason why he loses his daughter in the first place is due to his clumsiness, but you can’t help but feel sorry for him. The entire family is a bit rag tag, bar the older sister, the rest are not the most reliable of characters! But they band together well, to save their family. If the audience does not connect well with the family, the film would break down, so everyone does a fine job portraying their desperation.

Due to the location of the film, most of the best scenes are shot in the sewers, the monsters lair. This is where the film does its best work, as we follow young Hyun-seo trying to outwit a monster, who unlike many other monster movies, isn’t just a dumb creature. It’s more of a battle of wits! The film also has its share of action, where various people are in direct combat with the fiend. The action is far more intense, as these are not trained soldiers, but everyday civilians doing the attacking.

If you can look beyond the dated 2006 CGI, and the language barrier, you have a wonderfully intense monster flick, which doesn’t really get the credit it deserves in the West. If you’re looking for a film to watch over the Halloween weekend, do try to find this gem!

After watching ‘Deepwater Horizon’, ‘Suffragette’, and ‘A Most Wanted Man’, it got me thinking about what movies most affect us and why.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find myself getting more emotional (whether that emotion be anger, sadness, happiness, etc) when films are either closer to reality or based on an event or historical era. And I only care about characters survival if there is a real chance that they won’t survive.

With ‘Deepwater Horizon’, as I discussed in my review, it was being reminded of the deaths of the men and the environmental catastrophe caused by human arrogance. In ‘Suffragette’ it was the struggle of those women who protested for decades and were either ignored, beaten, force-fed during hunger strikes or incarcerated.

Finally, it took the death of one brave woman to actually instigate any change. At the end of the film the year women were given the vote was displayed by country; it was shocking to see countries that we perceived as progressive had not given the vote until the later 20th century. And still some countries had not given women the right to vote. Of course, being female and an advocate of a more egalitarian society, this film really hit me on an emotional level.

Then this evening I watched ‘A Most Wanted Man’, starring the late and great Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the leader of an anti-terror group operating in Hamburg. Hoffman and his group are tracking terror suspects with the hope of infiltrating a shipping company operating as an Al-Qaeda front. Rather than letting the group do their job and finding the Shark as Hoffman put it, the American and German governments decided that arresting an innocent man and the money man was a better idea. This is something many governments and other institutions do, they look for a quick fix, something to parade in front of the news channels rather than correcting the issue at the source. That’s too much effort. It also displays the automatic prejudice against refugees and Muslims because of the actions of the minority.

And it made me think of other films I’ve seen that have depressing context or unhappy endings; Titanic, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Magdalene Sisters, Remember the Titans, 12 Years a Slave, Marley and Me, United 93, Open Water, Jarhead (yes, based on memoirs), The Pursuit of Happyness (true story), The Help, Everest, and Schindler’s List (so I’m told). All these films are based on true stories and events. For more films based on true events see List of films based on actual events (the horror films on the list will surprise you.

Some people like the escapism in films, many other people complain that there is no suspense in Hollywood anymore; if the ending of a film is sad or not properly concluded then there will likely be a sequel. To those people I say watch some films based on reality; either based on true events like ‘Suffragette’ and ‘Deepwater Horizon’, or those commenting on the worst aspects of our society like ‘A Most Wanted Man’. But a warning, these films are normally very shocking and often leave you feeling hopeless, the horrific events caused by humans and the attitude of people is sometimes difficult to fathom.

In reality is where we find the most horrifying stories, whether true or not, they affect us greater than fiction because it is more real.

Sometimes when watching a “based on true events” film you forget that that’s exactly what it is……true.

I apologise in advance, this is a bit of a long one. I’m really surprised that this movie didn’t get more exposure before its release. Being based on an event that had such a major environmental impact and involving a huge commercial company I would have thought it would get a lot of publicity. I only saw a couple of posters on the Underground and one trailer for it with a friend who also wanted to see it. Many people I suggested it too hadn’t heard of it at all!

The casting of Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg for a role as serious as this was an interesting choice, I normally enjoy him in more comedic roles. However, I think his performance in this picture was fantastic; he gave us that slightly comedic opening to the film which made the end that much more heartbreaking. He’s also smart (except for annoyingly not grabbing a hard hat at any point during the platform explosion) and is desperate to save as many people as he can.

John Malkovich plays a BP “company man” and you HATE him! Again, Malkovich has been slightly clownish in many recent roles, but he also gave a great performance as the greedy business man driven by money, meeting deadlines and of course that black gold. After the explosion, Malkovich’s character changes and we see an internal struggle between human emotion and company loyalty. He must save face and not admit fault, even after watching several men die.

Malkovich and Wahlberg gave stand out performances; however, they were also joined by Kurt Russel, who played the rig supervisor “Mr Jimmy”. A very strong individual who was caught in between maintaining the safety on board the drilling platform, and the demands of the BP representatives. Russel and Wahlberg showed great chemistry together and both had to go head-to-head with Malkovich but in different ways; Russel’s approach was straight to the point and aggressive, whereas Wahlberg was reserved and intelligent.

The supporting roles were played by Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) and Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin, TV). O’Brien’s character seemed a little redundant at first, being a “grunt” type working the drill; but later he reveals secret skills that conveniently come in handy. Rodriguez was the only female on the rig that I noticed and remained on the bridge maintaining the position of the floating platform. Her most interesting scene was not her escape from the burning platform, but the face-off between her and the captain. Another display of company demand versus human instinct.

As I said, the lighthearted opening combined with the banter and rapport of the crew makes the end just horrific to watch. The action is very well shot putting you right in the smoke, oil and flames. And the inclusion of an oil drenched sea-bird unable to fly was just another example of the impact of the event. Then came that dreaded text at the end of the film………

These are the 11 men that actually lost their lives that night and the battle to stop the seemingly infinite fire. Videos of the men with their families were shown, as well as the legal aftermath. US Government figures estimated 4.2m barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf over 87 days in 2010. We are informed that BP was cleared of manslaughter, although the script of the film convinces you otherwise.

My friend and I are found ourselves poking a bit of fun at certain points of the film, the hard hat negligence to name just one, all that was stripped away by the end message and I was most definitely tearing up.

This is one of those films where you know you will leave having lost faith humanity, but you will watch it again because at least someone is speaking up.

You can tell this film is a Tim Burton production before his credit even appears on screen; an eerie score, mixed-period costumes with gothic undertones, and many eccentricities are unmistakably Burton.

We begin by meeting Jake, played by Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game, Hugo) an awkward teen who does not fit in with his peers (we might even describe him as “peculiar”)! We are quickly introduced to his grandfather with whom Jake clearly has a close relationship, or at least, he used to.  Flash backs of Jake and his grandfather throughout the film further explore this relationship, why they drifted apart, and we hear more about Miss Peregrine and her home for Peculiar Children.

The beginning of the story feels a little rushed, like Burton can’t wait for us to meet the children and show-off the beautiful visuals awaiting us. Unfortunately, this feeling does not diminish as the film moves on; a devastating event leads to Jake wanting to find Miss Peregrine’s residence and the peculiar children he has heard so much about. There is barely any time to process what was happened before Jake and his father arrive on an island off the coast of Wales. The children and their “peculiarities” are all introduced rapidly and the story line quickly delves into danger and terror.

Eva Green’s performance as Miss Peregrine is astounding and one of a few saving graces for this picture; she portrays the matriarchal protector of the children. She is what is know as an “Ymbrynes”, a peculiar who protects peculiar children by creating a time loop in a favourable environment. She also turns into a peregrine falcon, which is pretty cool.

The evil in this film is nothing short of nightmarish; giant slenderman-looking monsters who regain human form by eating the childrens’ eyes.

Surprisingly, the monsters have a leader, Mr Barron, played by none other than Samuel L Jackson. He is less terrifying than the monsters, but he brings a creepy and maniacal aspect as the main antagonist; with a little comic relief thrown in for good measure.

The film overall has been receiving mixed reviews, as is often the case with book adaptations. As someone who has not read, or even heard of, the original source material I enjoyed this film.

There is always a lot going on in Burton films which is why I wasn’t surprised or annoyed by the rapidity and business in the flow of the story line; again, trying to get a whole book into one film seems very difficult. Some of the characters seem very rigid and devoid of much emotion, which does damage the love story, I found this issue with Burton’s adaptation of the “Alice in Wonderland”. Thankfully though, the emotional and very grand gesture at the end of the film leaves you uplifted and smiling.

I wish someone would travel through time to find me….