The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge: Anarchy

Inevitable sequel. Good idea though. It was interesting to see the poor deal with the night of terror this time. The acting wasn't great nor was it great the first time though. The first film did have a few good actors though. And the jump scares failed most of the time.

The last thirty minutes reminded me of the satirical class dividing futures of 'Black Mirror', ' Hostel' and 'The Hunger Games' but it lacked the interesting writing.

The Secret Life of Pets

The Secret Life of Pets

Meh. Funny. Acting was alright. I liked Kevin Hart as the rabbit. But it is definitely just for kids and the ending was very sudden.

10 Cloverfield Lane

This film started out like Misery and Moon but turned into The Mist. I knew that being a sequel to Cloverfield (which I liked) it might be about aliens but I forgot about this due to how well written it was.

It constantly kept giving you questions and contained a lot of tension filled confrontations with John Goodman (thanks to the great screenplay by Damien Chazelle).

I kind of forgot the direction that the movie would probably go and wasn't too convinced by the ending.

2.5 stars.

Fury

David Ayer (2014)

'Fury' has fantastic set pieces. The special effects are incredible and the sound is brilliant. The film is very gory and there are lots of explosions and body parts flying all over the place.

I could tell that the movie was trying to follow in the footsteps of 'Saving Private Ryan' by stealing a lot of the characters and trying to recreate the depth and heart of that film. However, it didn't realise that 'Saving Private Ryan' took a lot of ideas from old war movies and paid homage to them whilst delivering awe-inspiring and moving scenes of battles.

'Fury' did not have this. A lot of the dialogue and interaction between characters was laughable. The romance that tried to be thrown in at the middle of the film did not work and just seemed bizarre, The characters were one-dimensional and just seemed like walking stereotypes. The film felt more like 'Tropic Thunder' than 'Saving Private Ryan'. 

'Fury''s lack of long shots of the landscapes and battles meant that the film did not seem as vast or beautiful as other films of the genre.

However, the action scenes were very well done and it was exciting and superbly directed.

The Revenant

Alejandro G. Innaritu (2015)

This is the best film I have seen all year (since 'Birdman', in fact, the previous film by Innaritu). It was expertly directed. The use of natural light really adds to the danger of the environment that surrounds Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). Innaritu loves the camera to pan around objects and people to create a sense of awe and spectacle.

Leonardo DiCaprio really did deserve all the awards that he got for this role. I thought it was his best film by far. The realism and intensity of his performance really comes through.

The story was gripping throughout the whole film and I found the twists and turns very interesting.

Spotlight

Tom McCarthy (2015)

This was a very shocking and well made film. It is about the scandal involving a cover-up of Catholic priests molesting children in the Boston area. I was surprised with the delicate nature of the film's script and how well it was handled. It had a very solid ensemble cast which helped make the film moving and horrific in parts.

I am glad that a film like this won Best Picture at the Academy Awards as it had a very important message (even if I was rooting for 'The Revenant').

Carol

Todd Haynes (2015)

'Carol' is beautifully shot and very maturely made. The acting was very class all around the film. The whole thing seemed like it was taken from the 40s. I loved how fine it all looked and felt and it deserved a lot more awards than it got.