The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

For some untold reason when JRR Tolkien was marking exam papers for the now defunct school certificate, he came across a blank piece of paper...... and he wrote 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' Be thankful he did! 

This first line in the children's book the hobbit has become a literary masterpiece,  leading into a massive industry, giving us a fantastic trilogy of books and films revolving around life in Middle-earth.

Peter Jackson returns to his roots for the hobbit. After the incredible journey of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy he was set, he could have retired and been a hero for life, but luckily for us he carried on. Modernising King Kong and creating the emotional masterpiece of The Lonely Bones. The Hobbit I think is his best all round film, having all the traditional Jackson qualities, a panoramic screen shot, a heroic non main character, but most of all a fantastic journey.

We start off with Bilbo writing his book on the day of his birthday, nicely linking in with the Fellowship Of The Ring. He then tells us the story of Erebor the great dwarf city and how the dwarves themselves were cast out by the dragon Smaug. This gives us the background for the great quest and the reason Bilbo goes on his great adventure. Bilbo is not easily convinced though, like most hobbits he enjoys having a smoke, a pint of ale and eating. It is only due to the wise words of Gandalf he goes on his journey. The dwarves who go on the journey with Bilbo make the film much more light hearted, singing, laughing and having a good time, but altogether they show heart and determination to get their homeland back. It was also good not to hear a twangy American accent, meaning all the dwarves and characters had rustic Celtic and Brittish accents.

The film as a whole is much less sinister than Lord Of The Rings and much more family orientated, however, the book was written for children. Martin Freeman sums this up by performing as Bilbo. When I first heard he was cast I didn't think it would work, but due to the nature of the film he portrays Bilbo magnificently. Ian Mckellen gives his usual brilliance in a much more light hearted Gandalf and Richard Armitage effectively manages to turn Thorin Oakenshield into a dwarvern version of Aragorn. I thought the film was fantastic, having all the characteristics to make a good movie, which the whole family can watch. It got the Wade stamp of approval and I would give it an 8/10!

Directors: Peter Jackson    Cast: Aidan Turner, Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Billy Connolly, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Evangeline Lilly, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Martin Freeman, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage, Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry

American Pie The Reunion

The reunion starts 14 years from high school nicely skipping over the two sequels they made, and as the advertising poster says 'Save The Best Piece For Last.' They certainly did! As all the American Pie's start off, someone is masturbating, classically Jim, managing to get himself into a sticky situation injuring his captain! Despite the fact he has grown up now married to Michelle with a 2 year old toddler.

In 1999 we had pervy teenagers managing to get themselves in situations with beautiful girls now we have pervy adults managing to get themselves in situations with beautiful girls. All the guys have grown up and as Stifler puts it 'Done All the Boring Stuff.' Aka getting jobs and getting married.

But the film is still a classic American Pie with the guys getting themselves into bad situation's but coming out of them better off. Jim's Dad (Eugene Levy) stealing the show as he plays a much bigger part in this one.

For me it has a bit of everything, it holds sentiment, and at the end even Stifler manages to get his revenge, I won't tell you how but I'm sure you can guess! 

This is just an interview I did with someone after watching the film

My Rating: 7/10

Directors: Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz    Cast: Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy, Jason Biggs, Jennifer Coolidge, Mena Suvari, Seann William Scott, Tara Reid, Thomas Ian Nicholas

The Avengers

Hollywood's first major comic book adventure, Avengers Assembled managed to smash its way to history at the time, becoming the biggest box office hit, making $200.3 million in it's opening weekend! I can understand the big hype considering the build up. Little hints have been left at the end of each of the solo movies, but simply, I just thought it was ok!

Undoubtedly Robert Downey Jnr steals the show, he is the only one who manages to have a light hearted approach to the whole situation, even against the stiff's like Captain America and Thor. Thor who I don't even think should be there, at least all the others have plausible explanations for their abilities or suits of armour, where as Thor is a Demi-God what's he doing there, he's meant to be an ancient Norse God!

Although the action scenes are really cool, I watched the whole film thinking it was lacking something, it seemed predictable and stale, Loci is also a terrible bad guy! All the avengers pretty much take him down on their own and he's basically a massive wimp! In one scene the Hulk just picks him up and smashes him around like a rag doll which is funny but just shows that Loci is basically a massive girl.

Despite the lack of enjoyment I had watching The Avengers, it has been one of the biggest films of all time, it beat Harry Potter which got $169.2 in its opening weekend. Avengers is just the beginning in terms of the other Marvel films which are coming out The Amazing Spiderman comes out on the 3rd of July and The Dark Knight Rises on the 20th so were waiting for a superhero summer!

Admission prices have got more expensive in Hollywood so films often find they make more money but end up selling fewer tickets. Avengers has undoubtedly had the greatest debut though!    

My Rating: 6.5/10

Directors: Joss Whedon    Cast: Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Cobie Smulders, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Stellan Skarsgard, Tom Hiddleston

Battleship

I think I fell into the big hype of this film, it looked so promising! The trailer was great the cast looked pretty descent, however, it was pretty much a massive let down, it reminded me so much of Transformers which I suppose was expected considering it was the same producers. The first of the Transformers franchise was brilliant, unfortunately I cannot say the same about Battleship. Like the latter two Transformers Battleship just seemed a bit ridiculous and a bit over the top!

The film is pretty cool and I really like the idea of it, but it was pretty much just a 2 hour battle, with Rihanna trying to look as sexy as possible whilst getting drenched, and every 5-10 seconds something happening in slow mo. If you liked Transformers 2 and 3 then I would say go for it but otherwise, its definitely not a must see!

My Rating: 6/10

Directors: Peter Berg    Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, Griff Furst, Hamish Linklater, Jesse Plemons, Josh Pence, Liam Neeson, Rihanna, Stephen Bishop, Tadanobu Asano, Taylor Kitsch

The Hunger Games

Well I thought this was brilliant, I know it was based on a book but I think the idea is fantastic. In an age when reality TV is a big thing and were falling in love with people's on screen personality's, this battle royale film, where the idea of having to kill the others to survive for sport, is genius!

In North America the entire land is traumatised by lack of food. Once a year they lottery off 24 people to fight in a competition to the death, where there is only one winner! The whole idea of the show has been created in order to stop other people being violent due to food shortages across America

At first the contestants are terrified at the thought of what lies ahead, facing each other in a contained woodland, but they are brought to the futuristic metropolitan area in the pre-contest time where they become stars and are groomed to perfection to gain the good thoughts of the public.

Among the contestants is the tough, level-headed Katniss Everdeen (Jenifer Lawrence) aka the star of the show, who volunteered herself in order for her younger sister to be exempt from the competition. It is with her that the twist in the tale happens, she learns that Peeta Melark (Josh Hutcherson) has feelings for her and ratings go off the roof and there is call for a rule change.

I think the idea of the hunger games is fantastic, it was a brilliant film and I think people will really be able to relate to it.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Directors: Gary Ross    Cast: Alexander Ludwig, Elizabeth Banks, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hucherson, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson, josh hutcherson

Wrath Of The Titans

There are 3 ways you can tell if a film is good before it comes out. Number 1 the company's who back the film. Number 2 the actors who's name you actually remember, not like the guy with the beard from The Hangover. Number 3 when you go to watch a film but your looking forward to one certain trailer. This is how I felt about Wrath Of The Titans, the second following on from Clash Of The Titans.

It was a cool film! Sam Worthington is more bad ass in this one he hasn't got a shaved head which definitely doesn't suit anyone Greek, but he pretty much just seems to go around battering everyone despite the fact he's only half God! The story line, however, is not brilliant Hades (Ralph Fiennes) captures his brother Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Mr Worthington has to rescue him. All in all the film is plain simply cool and the action sequences are fantastic, Certainly worth a watch!

My Rating: 6/10

Directors: Jonathan Liebesman    Cast: Bill Nighy, Danny Huston, Edgar Ramirez, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Rosamund Pike, Sam Worthington, Toby Kebbell 

21 Jump Street

I think the guys who produced this may have been very drunk and started reminiscing about old classics. This one is a feature length version of the cop show in the late-80s which launched Johnny Depp on his road to success, which might explain his late cameo at the end which I wonder how many millions he got paid to do! A very much immature but lovable film starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill not a mix I would have expected. I wasn't expecting much out of Channing Tatum for a role like this seeing as I can only think of him in the uber chic flick Dear John but he proved me wrong!

Mortal enemies in school, as Jump Street mocks several stereotypes Tatum, the obvious fit for a jock and Hill the nerd, but then classically in a police academy kind of fashion they join forces to help each other out, Hill doing the brainy stuff and Tatum helping him to work out.

It is genuinely a really good comedy, some of things just have you laughing till it hurts. The pair start out their career as cops on bicycle's busting kids for feeding the ducks and rescuing Frisbees from the tree's, how ridiculous is that. After being the worst cops imaginable arresting people without knowing the Miranda Rights, they get sent to high school as under cover cops for being young and stupid, where they must infiltrate a drug ring. In high school, however, they learn things aren't quite the way they remember and Hill ends up being the cool kid, in a very environmentally friendly kind of place where Tatum's guns won't help him out!

My Rating: 8/10

Directors: Chris Miller, Phil Lord    Cast: Brie Larson, Channing Tatum, Dave Franco, Ice Cube, Johnny Depp, Jonah Hill, Rob Riggle