I used to be quite efficient with reviews of our weekly movie night - but it has come to my attention that I've not posted what we've been watching in the best part of a year! So, as before, films in grey were switched off (or I slept through) so I can't really comment; films in red I can find nothing to recommend and the rest - well it depends what you want from a film!
- The Family - an unlikely mix of cast but it leads to a fun, fast paced movie which is well worth watching.
- Twixt - did not watch this one, Husband only fare.
- Parkland - though it might be an epic piece of history type movie about the assassination of JFK, turned out to be dull as dishwater and was switched off.
- Cloud Atlas - sounded like an interesting plot with a great cast; turned out to be disjointed, hard to follow and really not very interesting.
- RIPD - after a low point in movie rentals this picked things up a bit. A cross between Dead Like Me and Men in Black with a cast who managed to get some moments of humour in just the right places.
- Gravity - an incredibly long wait for this to finally come to rental and it was SO not worth it. Oscars are no guarantee for a good film it goes to show. I'm never one for films that are essentially carried by one actor and to be honest, apart from the special effects there was nothing to recommend this film. Not their best performances from competent actors and very little in terms of story line.
- Home Front - Optimism of a good action movie because Jason Statham was heading up the cast; however so failed to catch the imagination it was switched off after 10 minutes.
- Anchorman 2 - not in the same league as the original (which I don't remember but apparently I liked). Switched off after about 20 minutes.
- American Hustle - if you're hoping for something up with 'The Sting' or 'Hu$tle' then you'll be disappointed. Fun enough but not the best bunch of grifters to grace the screen.
- Saving Mr Banks - better than Husband was expecting, not as good as I was hoping... the fact that we both watched the whole film tells you it can't have been that bad.
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist - a good story, well told; just read the book first because the book is better.
- Nebraska - sent by error by the movie rental people. Never came out of the sleeve.
- The Cat Returns - a delightful animation from Studio Ghibli, always going to be a hit in this house due to the whole 'kingdom of cats' bit.
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - I was in two minds about this film, but it turned out to be a reasonably written and acted spy movie.
- Struck by Lightning - a quirky cast for a quirky film... it felt like Douglas Coupland mixed with a sit-com; a decent enough film.
- Delivery Man - this household as a chequered history with Vince Vaughn films but this was well conceived (pun intentional), well written and well acted. An enjoyable diversion.
- Out of the Furnace - chosen purely because the cast featured the lovely Christian Bale this got switched off after 10 minutes.
- The Machine - I have only vague recollections of this film, I think I fell asleep - no reflection on the film, merely my ability to stay awake!
- Reasonable Doubt - Good cast, disappointing film. Could have been so much more than it was. Having said that we did watch the whole film, so there's been worse - you just expect excellence in a movie starring Samuel L Jackson.
- Non-stop - quite a reasonable action movie... despite the somewhat far-fetched (at times) plot; it is always a good way to contain a movie by setting it in a plane.
- All is Lost - the most remarkable thing about this film was that we watched the entire thing. Robert Redford is the entire cast and nothing really happens whilst he's on his boat in the storm. We were utterly disappointed with the ending too.
- The Fifth Estate - I did not expect to make it to the end of this movie. I think because I hadn't really kept up with the news story the plot was vaguely interesting and Benedict Cumberbatch's acting was without fault. The film did go on a bit though, and was let down by the lack of characters with whom you could empathize.