Nebraska Short Review: Nearly as dull as the small town American life it depicts

Nebraska the movie is as slow-paced as the small town life it depicts, and about as interesting. The film starts with the highly ridiculous premise of an old man who is sent one of those lottery scams in the mail. Convinced he's won a million dollars, he manages to coerce his son to take him from Montana to Nebraska to collect his winnings. Unfortunately, the story meanders and doesn't go anywhere. Recommended only if you want a glimpse of American small town life, or if you are fan of Alexander Payne's recently acclaimed The Descendants starring George Clooney.

August: Osage County Short Review: Awesome Ensemble Cast

The entire cast shines in this film adaptation of the Broadway play August: Osage County. It is a delight to see two acting juggernaut Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts constantly have a go at each other as embattled mother and daughter. Benedict Cumberbatch as unemployed 37-year old Little Charles Aiken and his on-screen father played by Chris Cooper steal the few scenes they are in in this female-dominated family dramedy.

Saving Mr Banks Short Review: Absolutely Delightful Little Movie

Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are absolutely fantastic in their roles as Walt Disney and Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers. Unabashedly sentimental yet not cloyingly so, this is a lovely and delightful little film to catch during the holidays. Four out of five stars for me.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Left Me Feeling Desolated

Let me start by saying how badly I wanted to like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I had been counting down the days for the last few months and it was with bated breath that I went to see it on Saturday, only to be crushingly disappointed by the end results. Warning: minor spoilers ahead as I state the many beefs with the movie I have below.

Like many other reviews have pointed out, this installment of the Hobbit trilogy is vastly superior to the first Hobbit movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. However, sometimes it feels that such an assessment gives the movie more praise than it warrants.

Like the first movie, this movie continues to be bloated, overlong and in this instance, suffers from middle narrative issues as well. Not much progress seems to be made by our band of dwarves and one hobbit, as they get into scrape after scrape as they try to reach the mountain where Smaug now dwells in order to retrieve the Arkenstone, which will give Thorin Oakenshield, the exiled king of the dwarves the right to call on his kinsmen to battle or some such, as explained at the beginning of the movie in a meeting between Gandalf and Thorin 12 months before the events of the second Hobbit movie really begins.

There is a strong sense of unwelcome deja vu as one watches the first Hobbit movie, and the problem persists here as well. As with The Two Towers (the second movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy), where the characters have been separated and have to continue on different quests and journeys, this happens as well in this movie. Unfortunately, unlike in The Two Towers where the disparate journeys have been edited almost seamlessly to weave a tight narrative, here the effort is jarringly jerky, making the movie seem very very disjointed. While I do understand that music plays an integral role in telling us how to feel when watching a movie, as in the first Hobbit movie, I felt endlessly manipulated when themes used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy are reused to try to evoke happy memories and feelings associated with a particular character or object, which instead of successfully evoking whatever emotion I am supposed to feel, just ends up leaving a very sour taste in my mouth.

Along their journey, they are met by faces old and new. Beorn the shapeshifting bear is disappointingly underwhelming in his short interaction with Gandalf and the dwarves, being much more fascinating and charismatic in the book. I am a fan of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit books, but I am by no means a strict purist. I was fine with Arwen turning into a sword-wielding Elf-maiden in The Fellowship of the Ring (first Lord of the Rings movie), and was nonplussed by the angry outrage of many fans. And so, I was fine with Orlando Bloom reprising his role as Legolas even though he never actually appears in the Hobbit book. His father Thranduil is the elvenking in the Hobbit, it does make a certain sort of sense that his son Legolas would be hanging around in Mirkwood when the dwarves are captured by Thranduil's elves. Similarly, I was fine with the complete creation of the elven warrior maiden Tauriel by the movie's scriptwriters to create some sort of female presence in the very very male-dominated Hobbit Middle-earth universe. That being said, weaving an inter-species love triangle amongst Legolas, Tauriel and a dwarf does beggar belief and stretches things too far into the realm of fan fiction. Likewise, the expansion of the characterization of Luke Evans' Bard the Bowman, who in the movie is demoted to being just Bard the Bargeman, while understandable since Bard is pretty much a cipher in the book, takes the expansion too far and cause the movie to unreasonably drag.

With the addition of new characters and the expansion of existing ones, where does that leave the characters in the title, the titular hobbit Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins and his nemesis the dragon Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug? Apart from moments where Bilbo begins to get corrupted by the ring and the many times he has to get the dwarves out of the scrapes that they have gotten themselves into, poor Bilbo seems to have been relegated to the background of the film and it feels like for most of it, he is just standing around not really doing much as the dwarves try to figure out their next move.

The encounter between Bilbo and Smaug, while a delight in the film that almost reaches the giddy heights of Bilbo's encounter with Gollum in the first movie, nevertheless gets ruined when, rather than have this encounter continue to play out between the two of them, brings the dwarves into the equation. The result? Long tedious chase scenes where Smaug (despite his professed ability to smell dwarves) fails to eat or fry any of the dwarves. And then it gets worse; the dwarves then try to pull off a MacGyveresque plot to kill the dragon which laughably and predictably fails. Then, before you know it, the movie abruptly ends, causing the guy sitting in front of me to start shouting at the screen. Usually when a middle movie ends, at least something has been resolved and then we are left with some other danger that looms on the horizon. Not so here. None, and I mean NONE, of the many different story threads get resolved one way or another and the audience as a whole is left hanging over a wide precipice, with no resolution to be had anywhere.

All this being said, would I recommend that people go and see the movie? By all means, they should if they have been waiting all year to see it. The movie, despite its many many flaws, still manages to be mildly entertaining, is good value for your movie money, and is not a bad way to while away nearly three hours of your time. You might however, end up coming out of the cinema more frustrated than satisfied though, like I did.

Two out of five stars for me.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review: This Is As Perfect As A Book-Into-Movie Adaptation As It Can Get

I am a huge huge fan of the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and while I did somewhat enjoyed The Hunger Games (2012) directed by Gary Ross, I didn't agree with his vision of the book; some of the changes made from book to movie seemed to serve no purpose and were at times, just frankly baffling because they didn't add to the story or helped to tighten it in any way.

Cue my relief when it was reported that he would not be returning to direct the sequel, Catching Fire and that Francis Lawrence, the director of the post-apocalyptic movie I am Legend and the romance drama Water for Elephants, would be stepping in instead. While I had not been overly impressed by I am Legend myself, I did enjoy the underrated Water For Elephants, and felt that Lawrence's directing credentials would better equip him to direct a thoughtful action movie rather than Ross, director of such small and intimate movies like Pleasantville and Seabiscuit.

And he is. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is about as perfect as a book-into-movie adaptation can get. It is the best book-into-movie adaptation I have ever watched, and that includes the Harry Potter series and even The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Sorry Legolas!). All the changes made from the book to the movie made sense, either to tighten the story or to create a better narrative flow. Also, gone are the annoying shaky camera techniques so liberally employed by Ross in the previous movie. Under Lawrence's guidance, and with a tight screenplay by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and Michael DeBruyn (pseudonym for Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) the movie excels as both an action blockbuster and emotional drama while still successfully bringing the political and social undertones of the book into the forefront and adding to the movie's depth.

The movie is also helped by a doubling of budget. Whereas in the previous film the special effects were apparently done in-house and at times looked pretty hokey, here the movie employs the excellent digital wizardry of Weta Digital, the company responsible for the special effects on the Lord of The Rings movie trilogy. Plus, whereas, the palette of the clothing worn by the people in the Capitol in The Hunger Games made them all look like they all went and shopped from the same department stores, in Catching Fire, new costumer designer Trish Summerville (The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo) has created a myriad of unique and eye-catching looks worn by the cast and extras alike. All these and more help to ramp up the visuals and make for an seamless viewing experience that is a veritable feast for the eyes.

If there was one thing Ross did right, it was his casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. Here in Catching Fire as in The Hunger Games, She remains the heart and soul of the movie. As her emotions writ large, raw and wrenching across her face, you can't help by feel for her and fear for her as she continues to try to overcome the ever increasing odds that are never in her favor.

Lawrence is supported by an ever growing and immensely talented cast. Elizabeth Bank as Effie Trinket is finally allowed to act as a real, albeit still ditzy person here, as opposed to her one-dimensional caricature in The Hunger Games. The rest of the original cast are all great in their own ways, but it is the new cast who are a revelation. Fans who have been wringing their hands at the casting of Sam Clafin (Snow White and the Huntsman, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) as Finnick Odair can finally relax; Clafin is cheekily charismatic as Finnick, and plays his part of cocky playboy with mighty aplomb. Jena Malone (Pride & Prejudice, Sucker Punch) also does a great job as the loose canon Johanna Mason, while Philip Seymour Hoffman brings a certain gravitas as the new Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee.

A lot of times, what happens with young adult book-to-movie adaptations is that the actors do not seem to really bother to take their roles seriously and are just merely happy to coast through them. Not so in Catching Fire. Everyone brings their A game here, and this is one of the main reasons why the movie truly does shine. Despite having read the books and knowing all the fates of the characters, I got emotionally close to tears at some moving scenes, covered my mouth involuntarily at what some of the horrors our beloved characters had to go through, and at one point, my hands grabbed ineffectually towards the screen of their own accord to try and prevent some of the characters from getting themselves into yet even more danger and heartache. For someone who has read the books and know what the characters are in for, I consider that no mean feat.

A lot of critics have been whingeing at the 146-minute running time as overlong, but trust me, there are no dead spots in the movie and it never drags. As the final scene unfolds and the credits roll out, you would be caught by surprise to find that it has ended much too soon, and will be counting the days till the next installments come out. Following the recent penchant by movie studios today to break the last book into two parts so as to milk the franchise for all it's worth, that'll be Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) and Mockingjay Part 2 (2015) In director Lawrence's very capable hands, and with the superb cast led by the amazingly talented Jennifer Lawrence, I have to say for once I will be happy to let them milk me twice for my movie money.

4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars for me. Everyone who loves movies owes it to themselves to go see it.

Thor: The Dark World Short Review

Thor: The Dark World was good but not great. Although far from the best in the Marvel Universe series. it is entertaining enough. Mostly cured of hubris from the first movie, in this sequel Chris Hemsworth's Thor becomes a somewhat dependable, though ultimately boring superhero, while it is his villain brother Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Stellan Skarsgard's Dr. Selvig who steal all the scenes they are in and the film is all the poorer when they are not on-screen. Three out of five stars for me.

Thoughts on the Fifth Estate

The Fifth Estate was totally disappointing; it seems that Bill Condon has forgotten how to direct a good film after helming the last two Twilight movies.

Last Vegas Short Review

Anyone hoping for a Hangover-ish plot would be disappointed. Nevertheless the plot was shallow and at times the script and direction the movie was going in was terribly predictable and more than a little contrived and forced. Still. the effortless and sometimes cheeky camaraderie amongst movie thespians Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline brings some easy and happy laughs to the audience. Ultimately enjoyable but utterly forgettable as well.

12 Years A Slave Short Review

12 Years A Slave was a great movie, and having read the book did prepare me for some of the horrors depicted in the film. Nevertheless it was still harrowing and depressing to watch. If it was depressing just to be watching it for 2 and a half hours within the comforts of a movie theater, imagine how infinitely worse it was for the million of slaves whose spent their entire lives living in such abject fear and terror at the unspeakably inhuman horror being inflicted on them of every single hour of every single day because the fear never ever goes away, not even for a second. Truly, the institution and system of slavery can poison the entire soul and integrity of a whole nation even if it wasn't practiced by all, because even to condone it is an unspeakable evil in of itself.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters: Episodic and Uncompelling Teen Action-Fantasy Flick

The World's End: Overly Bizarre Instead Of Truly Funny