A New York Winter's Tale

http://www.winterstalemovie.com/

As a long time fan of Mr Farrell, my immediate reaction to this movie was that I wanted to see it. I still had reservations about it, for one I thought it looked cheesy, for two it had Russell Crowe putting on an Irish accent and for three, Akiva Goldsman. But more of that later.

From the trailer this just looks like a tale of doomed love, and potentially of a man reborn with the hopes of getting a second chance. This is not what the movie is about, at all. I will include the trailer below as I always do, but do not allow this to make your decision about this movie. What the film is actually about is the long standing feud between good and evil. With some doomed love thrown in on the side and a creepy bit involving a little girl that's been tacked on the end for good measure.

*There be spoilers ahead but no more so than in the trailer really*

Colin Farrell plays your average human thief Peter Lake, who meets Beverly (Brown Findlay) by chance whilst he's robbing her father's house. The year is 1916 and they fall in love, somehow with the blessing of her father, but they know that this can never last as she is terminally ill with consumption (what we would now call Tuberculosis). As they search for a way to save Beverly, Peter discovers that all humans have a miracle that they can give to someone, and he decides he will give his to Beverly and save her life. However, whilst there are humans with miracles to give, there are also demons, who's sole purpose is to stop the humans from giving away their miracle. Enter Russell Crowe as one such demon Pearly Soames. He manages to stop Peter from giving his miracle to Beverly, but not before Beverly gives her miracle to Peter, in the form of eternal life. Still following? Good. Soames then tries to dispose of Peter once and for all by throwing him off the Brooklyn Bridge, but all he manages to do is make Peter lose his memory. We then move to the present day where Peter has evaded Pearly and his men, but when he finds who his miracle is meant for, it puts him back in Pearly's sights, and he isn't going to let Peter go for a second time without a fight to the death. *End spoilers*

You may think my synopsis reads like a bit of a car crash. Well let me tell you, that is nothing compared to what a car crash this movie is. Let me preface by saying that I have not read the book on which the film was based. I imagine it reads a lot better than the script for the movie. It seems to me that the filmmakers decided to play down the mystical aspect of the film entirely, by not really showing any of that in the trailer, and instead presenting it as an old fashioned doomed romance. But then when those mystical elements pop up in the film it just seems all the more ludicrous. 

I said at the start that one of the things that put me off was Russell Crowe's accent. It's actually a lot worse in the film than it is in the trailer, and only made more disappointing by the fact that he is acting opposite a genuine Irish man. There is no excuse Russell Crowe. No excuse at all.

The final element that really put me off the film was the fact that it was written and directed by Akiva Goldsman. A fact which I'd actually forgotten until the credits rolled, at which point I said aloud, 'ah, that explains it'. If you are unfamiliar with Mr Goldsman's career (if you can call it that), allow me to elaborate, he wrote Batman Forever, Batman & Robin AND the atrocious Lost In Space. As well as several other below average vehicles starring both Russell Crowe and Will Smith. Which I suppose explains the presence of both actors in this movie.

I don't care how badly Colin and co needed to pay their rent, they should never have made this steaming crap heap of a movie. 3 out of 10. (This would be a 2 but I'm awarding an extra point for Farrell and the New York setting).

Viewing Date - 21st February 2014

UK Release Date - 21st February 2014

Cast Overview:

Peter Lake ~ Colin Farrell

Beverly Penn ~ Jessica Brown Findlay

Virginia Gamely ~ Jennifer Connelly

Pearly Soames ~ Russell Crowe

Young Willa ~ Mckayla Twiggs

Adult Willa ~ Eva Marie Saint

Judge ~ Will Smith

Isaac Penn ~ William Hurt

Abby ~ Ripley Sobo

Peter's Father ~ Matt Bomer

Peter's Mother ~ Lucy Griffiths

Gabriel ~ Finn Wittrock

Horse ~ Listo

Director/Writer ~ Akiva Goldsman

Man Of Steel

http://manofsteel.warnerbros.com/

Many who know me will tell you that I was apprehensive about Man Of Steel for a good long while. I was pleased as punch for Henry Cavill, who I've thought was a bit of a dish since I saw him in The Tudors, but I was nervous about the movie overall. This was not helped when I discovered that the director of the movie was going to be Zack Snyder, who had previously not managed to impress me with 300 or Watchmen. I approached the movie with caution and refused to be excited about it nor anticipating it to be terrible. I was as open minded as I could be going in to see it.

As Man Of Steel is a reboot, the story is somewhat different this time around. As such, I will give you a run down, but I'll try to keep it brief. *Be warned that there are spoilers from here on out* We open on the planet Krypton, and are given insight into the first natural birth the planet has seen in some time; the birth of Kal-El to Jor-El and Lara. The planet is on the verge of collapse, literally, and not wanting all their hard work to go to waste, Jor-El plots to send Kal-El to earth, having embedded a code in his genes that will preserve the Kryptonian race. Meanwhile, power mad General Zod overthrows the council of Krypton, believing he can save the planet. Jor-El manages to complete his mission to send Kal-El to earth, but pays for his disloyalty to Zod with his life. Zod is captured and brought before the remaining council members who imprison him and his team in the Phantom Zone. Back on earth we see a grown Kal-El as he tries to make his way in the world, he flits from place to place under different names, any time he does something heroic and is close to being discovered, he moves on. We also see his life as a boy, being brought up as Clark by Martha and Jonathan Kent in flashbacks. Clark discovers a ship in the ice in the arctic and takes a job with the salvage team so that he can take a closer look, believing it may be from his home planet. Once on board Clark activates a hologram of Jor-El who tells him about his origins. Little does Clark know that when he activates the ships programming, it sends a homing beacon to other Kryptonian vessels and draws them to earth. Meaning that Zod and all those who were imprisoned with him are making their way to earth, with vengeance on their minds.

I will preface what I'm about to say by stating that while I am a fan of Superman: The Movie, I tried really hard not to compare Man Of Steel to that film. Despite the fact that they are both origin stories, they are very different beasts, and tell very different stories of very different men. The only similarities really are the character names.

That being said, I didn't feel like the changes made to the story, or to the characters, were to the benefit of this film, or the Superman franchise overall. When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman they wanted him to be an immigrant, as they were, an outsider. I believe that the reason they gave him human parents was to allow them to instill in him a sense of humanity, of what's right and wrong, good and bad and so on. The audience can't connect to a superhuman alien, but they sure as hell can connect to a boy from Kansas, who's been brought up well and wants to believe in the goodness of people, who grows up to work in the big, bad city and falls in love with a girl who's out of his league. We can connect to that because on some level we've all been Clark, we've all experienced the things he has. The problem here is that we don't ever really meet adult Clark, we see childhood Clark and teenage Clark in flashbacks, but as an adult we meet the drifter with no name who happens to have super strength and can do weird lazer things with his eyes. We don't get to know the human Clark before we get the alter ego, and more importantly neither does Lois. She meets drifter Clark and immediately is presented with his super powers. At no point in this movie does she not know who he really is. And I just couldn't get on board with that.

The other thing I had massive issues with were the fight scenes at the end of the movie. There were way too many of them and they're all really similar, so you just feel like you're watching one gigantic fight, which gets boring and repetitive. Of the majority of reviews I have read, everyone seems to think the fight scenes are good because there was no action in the last film (Superman Returns - a film I happened to think was not all that bad). But what everyone seems to be forgetting is that Clark is supposed to be a peaceful person, he's been brought up to use diplomacy, not his strength. He's not the guy who beats the crap out of everyone with no regard to the fallout. And fallout there is. There is so much destruction caused by the fights, and Clark, Kal-El, whatever you want to call him, doesn't seem to care. So in turn, the audience doesn't really care. 

And what was with all the metallic shape shifting stuff? I felt like I was watching The Matrix, not Superman. Oh and then Morpheus appeared... It was just all wrong.

The one thing I did like were the flashback scenes. I thought Kevin Costner and Diane Lane were well cast as Jonathan and Martha Kent and that those scenes added much needed weight. But those scenes felt so disjointed because we only saw them in flashbacks. I wish it had been better. Cavill, Adams, Crowe, even Michael Shannon, who I didn't know until recently and who I've now seen in three films in as many weeks, were all decent. I just wish it had been a movie more deserving of them.

I think if I'd never seen a Superman movie and knew nothing about the story, I'd have thought it was passable. But I have and I do and as such, it just wasn't for me. 4 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 15th June 2013

UK Release Date - 12th June 2013

Cast Overview:

Henry Cavill ~ Clark Kent/Kal-El

Amy Adams ~ Lois Lane

Diane Lane ~ Martha Kent

Kevin Costner ~ Jonathan Kent

Russell Crowe ~ Jor-El

Ayelet Zurer ~ Lara Lor-Van

Michael Shannon ~ General Zod

Antje Traue ~ Faora-Ul

Harry Lennix ~ General Swanwick

Richard Schiff ~ Dr Emil Hamilton

Christopher Meloni ~ Colonel Nathan Hardy

Laurence Fishburne ~ Perry White

Director ~ Zack Snyder

Writer(s) ~ David S Goyer (Screenplay and Story), Christopher Nolan (Story), Jerry Siegel (Superman Created By) and Joe Shuster (Superman Created By)

Les Misérables

http://www.lesmiserablesfilm.com/splashpage/

Anyone who's familiar with me or my blog knows I am not a lover of musicals. Or Amanda Seyfried. As such, Les Mis was never going to be a barrel of laughs for me. Add into that the storyline of whores and soldiers during the French Revolution and you have a pretty dire prospect on your hands. But factor in a best friend who has loved the stage show since she was 5 years old and now you hopefully understand my motivations for seeing this new adaptation.

The story is relatively simple to follow. Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) was imprisoned 19 years ago for stealing bread to feed his sisters child. We meet him as he is being released from prison by the fierce lawman Javert (Russell Crowe). Shortly after his release and unable to find work Jean soon finds he must steal again, but an act of kindness from the man he wrongs leads him down a path he never thought he'd know. He breaks parole but becomes a better man in the new life he leads. We find him years later running a factory but still dodging re-capture by Javert. A woman working in his factory, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), becomes a whore through no fault of her own and he makes her a promise on her deathbed to take in her child, Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) and care for her as if she was his own. A task he commits to until Javert discovers him and threatens to tear all of their worlds apart. 

Set to the backdrop of the French Revolution, the film features sumptuous costumes, stunning sets and all of the classic songs from the musical which, whether you've seen it or not, you'll find you somehow still know the words to I Dreamed A Dream, Master Of The House, On My Own and Do You Hear the People Sing? The film also features some new songs but these never quite fit with the originals.

The actors put their all into their respective roles but there is still something silly to me when they suddenly burst into song or sing lines that you feel should be spoken. I must admit though that I fell to pieces when Anne Hathaway sang I Dreamed A Dream. I'd heard that the majority of songs had been performed live on set when they were filming, and I must say that this worked perfectly in the case of this song as Hathaway's performance was so raw in this scene that you felt every emotion in the lyrics. I was literally sobbing when that scene came to an end and it took me some time to compose myself. The rousing cast numbers definitely made you want to join in and as such I think a singalong Les Mis would probably be very well received by fans.

Seyfried wasn't so bad and Eddie Redmayne who I'd previously thought of as being slightly creepy was similarly watchable. The most annoying performance for me was that of Russell Crowe. He was just too pompous as Javert and seemed to be shouting his songs. Definitely the least talented singer of the bunch but he tried and I give him snaps for that. 

I think if you're a fan of the musical, slightly curious or a fan of the actors involved then you definitely shouldn't miss seeing Les Mis. If you hate musicals or depressing films then avoid it like the plague! 7 out of 10. 

Viewing Date - 11th January 2013

UK Release Date - 11th January 2013

Cast Overview:

Hugh Jackman ~ Jean Valjean

Russell Crowe ~ Javert

Anne Hathaway ~ Fantine

Amanda Seyfried ~ Cosette

Sacha Baron Cohen ~ Thénardier

Helena Bonham Carter ~ Madame Thénardier

Eddie Redmayne ~ Marius

Aaron Tveit ~ Enjolras

Samantha Banks ~ Éponine

Daniel Huttlestone ~ Gavroche

Director ~ Tom Hooper

Writer(s) ~ Claude-Michel Schönberg (book), Alain Boublil (book and original French text), Victor Hugo (novel), Herbert Kretzmer (lyrics), Jean-Marc Natel (original French text), James Fenton (additional text) and William Nicholson (screenplay)