BEST FILMS OF 2014: #9-7

Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s end-of-the-year ‘Top 12 Favorite Films list’. This is Part 2 of 4 and today I’ll be listing my #9, 8, and 7 picks. So let’s not waste any time and get right back to the list…

Three years ago (or four if you want to be specific), a film came out that no one was really expecting to be any good and to our surprise, it actually was. Then came its sequel, which then proceeded to blow that first film out of the water.

9. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

I have the feeling that not many people were expecting 2011’s ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ to be any good but to our pleasant surprise, it was because while it did feature some excellent action sequences and visuals, it also had a lot of emotional depth as we truly did care about the main characters, specifically the ape Caesar, brilliantly portrayed via motion capture by the king of motion capture, Andy Serkis. Serkis returns as Caesar for the sequel, ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’, now directed by Matt Reeves. This film takes place ten years after the events of the first film, where at the end of it the ALZ-113 virus that was developed by the bio-tech company Gen-Sys was unleashed onto the world, resulting in most of the human race being wiped out. While all of this is going on Caesar leads a group of apes in the Muir Woods, safe from the humans that once tried to harm them. When the ape civilization comes into contact with a group of human survivors that are currently stationed in San Francisco, the two sides try to get along while the humans try and find a new power source; a dam that just so happens to be located right next to the ape community. But soon that brief time of peace comes to an end as both sides’ hostility towards each other soon escalates into all-out war.

The main praises that I gave to ‘Rise’ are once again on display here. The action sequences are superb (including the much talked about scene where the apes attack the humans while on horseback, which includes one of the apes attacking a tank as the camera pans around it… a phenomenal action sequence) as are the visuals but at the same time this is also a summer blockbuster that’s full of emotional depth. We care about the characters… admittedly more for the apes than the humans for the most part but that’s beside the point. And characters that on the surface may seem like your basic character archetypes, like Gary Oldman’s character Dreyfus, have much more depth to them than one might expect. The writing is superb showcasing both sides of this conflict who may try their best to prevent any war but ultimately are just doomed to face it anyway due to fear and prejudice. The direction from Matt Reeves is superb and it’s clear that he is a huge fan of this franchise (he’s very much that clear in interviews). That’s a really great thing that could happen to any film franchise when a director that loves it helms one of its films as it’s clear that that director will do their best to try and do the series justice and that really shows here.

And of course, Andy Serkis is once again phenomenal in the role of Caesar. It’s been said many times before but I’ll say it again… this man deserves a frigging Oscar. While many doubt the authenticity of a motion-capture performance given that it’s a character created by computers, Serkis continues to prove that there’s much more to it than just that. The man consistently gives outstanding performances and has a terrific screen presence and dare I say it, his turn as Caesar is even better than his already fantastic turn as Gollum in ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’. Equally terrific here in terms of motion-capture performances is Toby Kebbell in the role of Koba, Caesar’s second-in-command who later turns against him due to his general distrust of humans for what they did to him when he was a test subject like Caesar, which we also saw in ‘Rise’. Koba is quite a multi-layered villain and Kebbell’s performance shows that Serkis isn’t the only person who can deliver a superb motion-capture performance. And the performances from the human cast is superb as well, including Jason Clarke (one of the most underrated actors working today) in the role of Malcolm, one of the leaders of the human survivors who forms a strong bond with Caesar, Keri Russell as Malcolm’s wife Ellie, and Gary Oldman in the role of Dreyfus who, as I noted earlier, has much more to him than one might expect. In short, ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ is a superior sequel to an already great sci-fi film and I can’t wait to see where this franchise goes next.

Time to get controversial folks. My Number 8 film is without a doubt the black sheep of the four superhero films that came out this year given its middling reaction from both critics and audiences. I may be in the minority on it, the extreme minority even, but I loved…

8. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2

If you ignore ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ for the moment, 2014 quite frankly was the best year yet for superhero films as we had a trio of awesome films that, SPOILERS, will all appear later on this list. And then you have ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, which is the only superhero film of the year to not get stellar reviews from critics and audiences. At first, the reaction was very polarizing from both critics and audiences, pretty much making it the 2014 equivalent of ‘Man of Steel’. But now… that opinion has swayed negative and the film is now collectively regarded amongst the people of the internet as a major disappointment. So I guarantee that I’m probably one of the only people in the entire world who will be putting this film in my Top 10 list because I genuinely loved this film. I’ve noted before that, like many others, I was very hesitant about Sony rebooting the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise just five years after the last Raimi film was released. But, to my pleasant surprise, I really liked 2012’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, so much so that it’s now my personal favorite film in the series. While it will never escape the fact that it’s a fairly rushed reboot that basically just re-did the whole origin story that we saw in the first Raimi ‘Spider-Man’ film, I felt that in some ways the film actually improved on certain elements of the Raimi trilogy, namely that I actually cared more about the characters this time around and that Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were far superior leads.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ was my most anticipated film of this past year and while some may question why it was this over something like ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, the simple reasons were that A.) I was a bigger fan of Spider-Man than X-Men and B.) We hadn’t seen any real footage from ‘Guardians’ at the time that I first posted my Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2014 list back in September 2013. In short, my excitement for the film was primarily based on my love of the previous film. But like I said, this film was immediately met with a polarizing response from most people. The biggest reason for this was because, like with the other polarizing Spider-Man film, ‘Spider-Man 3’, this film also featured three villains in just one film, showing that the filmmakers hadn’t learned from the one major issue with ‘Spider-Man 3’ (and no it wasn’t the Emo Peter thing… thankfully this series hasn’t gone that route yet)… that having three villains in just one film was just way too much. And while it’s true that both films are crowded when it comes to the villains, I actually think that ‘Spider-Man 3’ is still the bigger mess when it comes to its villains and plotlines compared to ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’. Now let me be clear, while I don’t necessarily ‘love it’, I don’t think ‘Spider-Man 3’ is as bad as the internet has put it out to be. Still, it’s not without its flaws, namely in its villains. While one may argue that the villains in ‘Spider-Man 3’ were slightly better written than in ‘ASM2’, I still, to this day, cannot figure out just who the main villain was supposed to be as all of them (Sandman, New Goblin, and Venom) tried to hog the spotlight to the point where none of them really stood out.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, on the other hand, at least makes it clear that while there are three villains in the film, Electro is the main villain; simple as that. Sure, Harry Osborn (AKA Green Goblin) is a major player in the story and in a sense could technically be the main villain of the film but he’s only on-screen as the Goblin for a few minutes so I don’t really consider him to be the main villain. The same goes for Paul Giamatti as Rhino, and while I’ve heard many complain about giving such minimal screen-time to such a great actor like Giamatti, the fact that it seemed like he would be back for future films (more on that ‘future films’ thing later) was ultimately why I wasn’t really bothered by it. Now not only did many feel that the film was overstuffed with characters, but they also felt that it was a crowded narrative with too many plot-points to keep track of in just one film. That’s where I disagree with most people. It may just be me, but I never really felt that this film was as overcrowded as people have said. Sure, some characters barely get any major screen-time (like Felicity Jones’ Felicia (AKA Black Cat from the comics) and B.J. Novak as Alistair Smythe, who in the comics creates a series of robots known as the ‘Spider-Slayers’) but overall, like I said, the film at least managed to keep track of who its main villain was and also maintained proper focus on Peter and Gwen. And I didn’t even feel that there were too many plotlines in the film either; I felt the story was fairly self-contained though the idea of this film serving as a gateway to expand this series’ universe ultimately results in the only major gripe I have about this film (again, more on that later).

I’m not trying to compare these two films or anything, but ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, to me, reminds me of ‘The Dark Knight’ in how director Marc Webb’s direction for this film was much more confident than it was in the first film, similar to how Christopher Nolan improved on the biggest faults of ‘Begins’ in ‘The Dark Knight’, namely the action sequences. The action in ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is far better as is the design of Spider-Man’s suit and the visuals are superb. Say what you will about the narrative but I feel that Webb progressed further as an action director. I’m not saying the action in the first ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ was bad but there was definitely room for improvement and I think that gave Marc Webb some much needed experience that very well paid off with the sequel. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are once again fantastic in the roles of Peter and Gwen, respectively. Garfield once again proves why he’s the best film Peter/Spider-Man showing off the smart-alecky attitude that the character is known for, which is something that Tobey Maguire just never had. At the same time, he also perfectly captures Spider-Man’s devotion to the people of New York with his likable persona, the main reason why Spider-Man has been many people’s, including myself, favorite comic book superhero. Stone is just as radiant and charming as ever as Gwen with the two having phenomenal chemistry that is miles above anything we saw from Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the Raimi trilogy. And they’re backed up by a solid supporting cast that includes the likes of Sally Field, who’s just been fantastic in these movies as Aunt May (the scene where she tells Peter that he’s ‘her boy’ is one of the best damn scenes in the entire movie) and Campbell Scott as Peter’s father Richard.

But now let’s move onto the villains. First up, there’s Electro and I’m really glad that the writers decided to go with a new villain for this film instead of rehashing an old villain (and yes I say that even though Green Goblin’s in this; I was referring to the ‘main villain’). Now in a way Jamie Foxx was arguably a little miscast in the role in regards to the scenes before his character Max Dillon becomes Electro. In this film, Dillon has a lot in common to Jim Carrey’s Edward Nygma (pre-Riddler) from ‘Batman Forever’ (and yes, many have made comparisons to Schumacher’s ‘Batman’ films and let me tell you folks, for as campy as some lines in this movie are, nothing will ever top the campiness of Schumacher’s ‘Batman’) in terms of his awkward persona. Still, I actually think Foxx did a decent job with what he had to work with and up until he truly becomes the villain (admittedly in a rather rushed manner in regards to how he starts to hate Spider-Man after initially being his biggest fan but we’ll forget that for now) he does do a great job at being very sympathetic as a man who only wants the world to notice him as he has spent most of his life invisible to those around him. It isn’t until he truly becomes Electro when he finally starts to get noticed. By the way, the design of the character (which is very much in line with the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ version of the character, which makes sense considering that this film series is heavily inspired by that comic series) was terrific. I know that some people were hoping to see the original design implanted for the character instead but…

Yeah... I don't see this translating to film very well... moving on...

Then we have Harry Osborn and Dane DeHaan does an excellent job here, giving us a much more sinister take on the character than what we ever saw from James Franco in the role. What else can I say? DeHaan just has a knack for playing sinister-looking characters as proven by his excellent turn in 2012’s ‘Chronicle’, and really he does them well. What’s even better is that while his character is clearly being set up as one of the main villains, he also managed to make us sympathize with him at times (again, like he did in ‘Chronicle’), as shown through his desperation in terms of finding a cure for the illness that he inherited from his father Norman (Chris Cooper, in a very brief cameo but from what I hear he may have been brought back in future films given the fact that there was apparently a post-credits scene that got cut where we saw his head cryogenically frozen). Scenes like that did actually make me feel sorry for him at times. True we don’t really see him interacting with Peter that much before he starts being a threat to him but even in that brief span of time I could still sense the friendship between them thanks to the solid camaraderie between Garfield and DeHaan. Finally, with Paul Giamatti, even in his very, very brief appearance in the film, it’s clear that he’s having a lot of fun here as he very much hams it up (in a good way) as Rhino. Sure, he could’ve benefitted from having some damn subtitles for his dialogue as it was pretty hard to understand anything that he was saying but given the fact that he’s only in the film for about a few minutes, again I’m not too bothered by that either.

Now let’s talk about the ending. I’m just going to say it, regardless of your opinion on this film, you cannot deny the fact that the climax scene where Gwen tragically dies despite Peter’s best attempts to save her was not only one of the best scenes in the entire movie but one of the best and most emotionally heartbreaking scenes of any film this year. True, it might not 100% stay true to how the scene played out in the comics, where she fell from a bridge whereas here she falls from the top of a clock tower, but that’s okay because this sequence was technically already done (albeit under different circumstances) in the first Raimi ‘Spider-Man’ film and the emotions conveyed by Garfield in this scene are absolutely superb. Also, I liked the ending too, despite some people feeling that it was a rather awkward and rushed transition coming off of Gwen’s death. I disagree though because if you ask me, the emotional weight of this tragic event are still perfectly conveyed even in a brief period of time. I also don’t mind that it ends on a much happier note as Peter returns to being Spider-Man after giving it up for a few months after Gwen’s death. And sure, it could’ve been rather cool for the filmmakers to take the gutsy approach and not end on a happy note but this is a Spider-Man film for crying out loud, not a Batman film. I’d much rather have a Spider-Man movie end on a positive note than a negative one (I’m looking at you, Spider-Man 3).

But now let’s get back to that one thing that I said was my only major gripe about this film. Like I said, I felt that the story was actually fairly self-contained despite the fact that this film was being pegged as being the film that was to set up the developing cinematic universe a la Marvel. But ultimately, this film doesn’t do much to set all of that up apart from a brief exchange at the end of the film between Harry and the mysterious ‘man in the shadows’ from the first film, revealed to be a man named Gustav Fiers (known as ‘The Gentleman’ in the comics). It’s been clear that Sony is looking to do a Sinister Six movie and quite frankly I really want to see that one get made. I really am intrigued by the idea of a film based around six of Spider-Man’s villains and not primarily centered around Spider-Man but Sony, if you want to set up your own cinematic universe, you have to actually do enough to set it up and you don’t do that here. This also shows that after two films, Sony really needs to get their butts out of the editing room because both ‘Amazing’ films have shown proof that some crucial material in both films clearly ended up on the cutting room floor like the stuff with Peter’s parents in the first film. In the case of this film, there are plenty of scenes that were for some reason cut out of the final product; some, as many have pointed out, were even featured in the trailer which was also criticized for giving away too much, namely Gwen’s death and the final shot of Spidey fighting Rhino. This whole scene between Harry and Fiers feels like it was just added in at the last minute as a result of Sony trying to find a way to tie this film into future films and really this was probably the only place they could add anything in. Even Andrew Garfield has admitted that Sony made a lot of edits to the story and that the original version of the screenplay was much better so there’s no excuse, Sony.

And seeing how this film has been both a commercial and critical disappointment, it’s looking like very soon Spider-Man’s rights will be returning to Marvel Studios and really, I’m now at the point where I’ve accepted this and I also feel that it is a good move. Because it’s much better for Spider-Man to be with a studio that has clearly shown that they know what they’re doing than a studio that at the moment is reeling after the whole ‘hacking/The Interview’ debacle. I’m not one of those people who think that Sony butchered the character with these reboot films. Instead, I think the problem was that because Sony didn’t want to give up the rights to the character, they just decided to throw a whole bunch of things together to see if it would all stick (just like DC… hi-yo!!!!!). But in the end, I will defend both ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ movies as being better than what people are giving them credit for, especially ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ because I’ve heard some even say that this is the worst superhero movie of all time which, I’m sorry, is just a load of BS. I can understand if you didn’t like this film as much as I did but it is FAR from being the worst superhero film of all time when I can name plenty of superhero films that are far worse than this one, like ‘Batman and Robin’, ‘Catwoman’, ‘Superman IV: The Quest for Peace’, and ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ just to name a few. Bottom line, I still love this film. Do I think it’s perfect? No, but quite frankly I’m at the point where I actually prefer these movies to Raimi’s trilogy. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the Raimi trilogy, but it’s very far from being a perfect trilogy whereas I feel that Webb’s films have at least managed to improve on some of the previous trilogy’s biggest flaws even if these new films aren’t that perfect either. 

This year, a three-part journey finally came to an end and while many have been rather mixed about it due to a fateful decision to split it up into three parts, I’m not one of them. Ranking the highest on one of my year-end ‘Best of’ lists out of all three films in the series is…

7. THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

Having now seen all three ‘Hobbit’ films, I can safely say that I am now in full support of the controversial decision to split up the ‘Hobbit’ into three films (the second instance this year where I’m in support of a controversial split, by the way, the other one being ‘Hunger Games’). Most have felt that ‘The Hobbit’ should’ve just been one film and in a sense it probably could be one film… but then we’d all be here complaining about how it rushed through everything. That’s because when you really get down to it, while many claim that ‘The Hobbit’ is just a simple kids book, it’s not really ‘as simple’ as they say it is. A lot of things do happen in ‘The Hobbit’; we’re introduced to the characters, they start off on their quest, Bilbo comes across the One Ring, they come across a whole bunch of obstacles like Goblins, Spiders, Elves, etc., they try to kill Smaug, etc., etc. And after Smaug is finally killed, we still have the whole ‘Battle of the Five Armies’ to get through whereas in another children’s book, the story would have ended after the dragon is defeated. Bottom line, you can’t do ‘The Hobbit’ in one film; otherwise, you’d just rush through everything without giving much time for us to care about any of the characters because we wouldn’t know that much about them. Maybe it could’ve just been done in two movies (that was the original plan, after all) but quite frankly I’d much rather spend more time in Middle-Earth getting to know these characters more rather than just spending about three hours not knowing any of them because the film would be going by at a breakneck speed.

But if it wasn’t the fact that this story was stretched out into three films was the main reason why many have been so mixed about these films, then there’s also the argument about how the films are overloaded with characters, with some, like most of the Company of Dwarves, not getting much to do. And that’s actually true… but from what I can tell, it’s the same in the book as well and in some cases, it’s even worse there. Certain characters like Bard and Thranduil only have brief appearances in the book and it seems like the only role of the Company of Dwarves in the story is to not really do anything and constantly getting captured, resulting in Bilbo always having to save their asses. In other words, I actually applaud Peter Jackson and his crew for fixing these problems by A.) Giving characters like Bard and Thranduil more substantial roles in the story, B.) Adding in a female character, Tauriel, to the ‘dick-fest’ that is Middle-Earth (sorry to be so literal about it, but it’s true… the casts in both Middle-Earth trilogies were predominantly male) and C.) Making it so that the dwarves didn’t seem so incompetent. So in conclusion, I support ‘The Hobbit’ being split into three films because ‘The Hobbit’ is not a perfect story. It has problems and I feel that Jackson and his crew were aware of this so they tried their best to expand the story, which of course was done through three films. Sure, some problems did occur when it was translated to film but that’s what happens when you adapt a story where the main group consists of 13 frigging dwarves despite the fact that only about 4 of them (not counting Thorin because he’s obviously the most important one of the group) get anything major to do.

Okay, rant over, now onto the actual film. ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ is without a doubt the best film in the entire trilogy. Everything’s been building up to this climactic battle and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s the biggest Middle-Earth film to date in terms of its scale and scope. The action sequences are awesome and the visuals are superb, but in between it all, they still give time for calmer character moments, particularly in regards to the relationship between Bilbo and Thorin. Thorin in particular is the true star of this entry in the trilogy (and as such, Richard Armitage is the major standout of this already superb cast in this film) as we see him slowly descend into madness as he desperately searches for his family’s heir-loom, the Arkenstone, which unbeknownst to him has already been found by Bilbo who has been keeping it from him because he recognizes Thorin’s change in attitude. When they’re on the brink of war with Bard and Thranduil’s forces, Bilbo gives them the Arkenstone so that they can use it as a bargaining chip against Thorin. Of course, when Thorin finds out that Bilbo gave it to them, obviously he doesn’t take it very well and banishes him (in fact he even tries to kill him at first before he’s stopped by Gandalf). It isn’t until after the battle when Thorin is on his deathbed that he finally makes peace with Bilbo, which is easily one of the strongest scenes in the entire movie.

This has truly been one hell of a journey that we’ve been on and while we may not have gotten to know all of the dwarves in Thorin’s company, their strong camaraderie really helped make it feel that we too were on the journey with them. So in the middle of this film when Thorin asks them if they will follow him ‘one last time’ and they run out into battle, I’m not going to lie, I got goose-bumps watching that scene. You can’t go wrong with a tagline like ‘one last time’ now, can you? And it all ends with the best end-credits song of the entire franchise, ‘The Last Goodbye’, performed by none other than Peregrin Took himself, Billy Boyd. All I have to say about it is this… it better get a damn Oscar nomination for ‘Best Original Song’ because this is easily one of the best film songs this year, if not the best. I’m not going to lie, I got a little emotional watching this film knowing that it was all coming to an end. And in my honest opinion, the journey was worth it. Yes, there are still those who feel that ‘The Hobbit’ shouldn’t have been a trilogy of films based around such a small book but if you ask me, giving that there’s more to it than people think there is, it was actually a really smart decision as it allowed the filmmakers to expand more upon this story which like it or not isn’t necessarily perfect. In short, ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ is a fitting conclusion to a trilogy of films that are much better than the internet has put them out to be (damn I’m saying that a lot in this list, aren’t I?).

Check back tomorrow for Part 3, where I lists films #6-4…

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) review

This may be a controversial statement in the minds of some people given the general reaction to this series, but I’ve been a fairly big fan of the ‘Hobbit’ movies. Do I think they’re as good as director Peter Jackson’s previous Middle-Earth trilogy, ‘The Lord of the Rings’? No, not really, but I do think that they’re better than what many people have put them out to be. Of course, the controversy surrounding this adaptation of the classic story of the same name from author J.R.R. Tolkien has mostly stemmed from the decision to split the book into three separate films which many felt was very unnecessary given that the book is only about 300 pages long whereas the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy was based on three separate 300 page books. And sure, some of the problems that would’ve clearly emerged from padding the story out to three films have been present in the previous two films, such as a rather slow pace to start out the story in ‘An Unexpected Journey’ and sometimes feeling rather stuffed as far as characters and plotlines are concerned like in ‘The Desolation of Smaug’. Still, I do feel that these films have maintained the same great atmosphere and sense of adventure that ‘Lord of the Rings’ had, so much so that I can generally ignore a lot of the ‘downfalls’ of the previous two films. But now, the story of ‘The Hobbit’ finally comes to a close on film with ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ and after seeing this final film, I can safely say that it is without a doubt the best film in the entire trilogy.

At the end of ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his company of Dwarves, with the help of hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), had finally reached their homeland of Erebor within the Lonely Mountain, which had been stolen from them years earlier by the vicious dragon Smaug (portrayed through motion-capture by Benedict Cumberbatch). The group tries to kill Smaug by burying him alive in molten gold but that plan ends up failing and Smaug escapes from the mountain in order to enact his revenge on the people of the nearby Lake-town for assisting the Dwarves in their quest while Bilbo and the Dwarves can only watch from afar. As ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ begins, Smaug begins his attack on Lake-town and while he is ultimately defeated by bowman Bard (Luke Evans, and for the record don’t worry folks this is not a spoiler as it’s literally the opening sequence of the film), who manages to hit him with a powerful black arrow in the one weak spot in his armor, most of the town is effectively destroyed, leaving the surviving residents of Lake-town homeless.

After the surviving residents of the town elect him as their new leader, Bard travels to the Lonely Mountain to talk with Thorin about him and his company holding up their part of the deal that he had made with the people of Lake-town before they had left for the mountain; that they would give them a part of the Mountain’s vast collection of treasure, which would be really helpful for Bard’s group at the moment given the situation that they’re currently in. But Thorin, who has begun to fall to the same ‘sickness of greed’ that had affected his grandfather in the years before Smaug’s initial attack on the Lonely Mountain as he desperately searches for his family’s heir-loom, the Arkenstone (which unbeknownst to him has already been found by Bilbo, who has been hiding it from him due to his change in attitude), refuses to give up any of the gold. As a result, Bard forges an alliance with the Wood-Elves of Mirkwood, led by their king Thranduil (Lee Pace), who is also looking for a part of the Dwarves’ treasure, as they plan an assault on the Lonely Mountain while Thorin’s group prepares for this impending attack. But little do they all know that some other armies are on their way to the Lonely Mountain to seek control of it for their master, who of course was revealed at the end of ‘Desolation’ to be the Dark Lord himself, Sauron (also portrayed by Cumberbatch through motion-capture).

As many of you may have guessed from the film’s title, this is clearly the entry in the ‘Hobbit’ film series where the most action in the story occurs, which is perfectly summed up by the fact that the titular ‘Battle of the Five Armies’ is a 45-minute long sequence and boy is it quite a sequence (and no, I don’t care if this was just one chapter in the book… I’ll get into the whole ‘three films’ thing later on). As far as scale and scope is concerned this is easily the biggest out of all of Jackson’s Middle-Earth films and it truly delivers on the spectacle with some of the best action sequences of the entire series (even when counting what we saw in ‘Lord of the Rings’). But at the same time, the film still holds your attention from beginning to end thanks to solid pacing, meaning the film never really drags at any point. As the final film in this epic story, you can really see how everything has been building up to what happens in this film and in some cases how this trilogy will ultimately lead into ‘Lord of the Rings’. Having only seen those films once, I can’t really say how effectively ‘Battle of the Five Armies’ leads into the previous trilogy as a whole but from the perspective of a general newcomer to the world of Middle-Earth as it has been portrayed in film, to me it seems that it did do a pretty good job in paving the way to its successor trilogy with key references to ‘Lord of the Rings’ showing how things became the way they were. This is a prequel, after all.

But amidst all of the action, Jackson still manages to find enough time for character development, particularly with Thorin and Bilbo. This film is easily Thorin’s story as we see his descent into madness as he obsesses over finding the Arkenstone, succumbing to the same sickness of the mind that his grandfather was stricken with as we saw from the prologue of ‘An Unexpected Journey’. It’s a fascinating look into the psyche of this character who’ve we been with since the beginning of the trilogy and Richard Armitage is easily the biggest standout of this entry in the trilogy. But of course, as it has always been since the first ‘Lord of the Rings’ film all the way back in 2001, the cast is pitch-perfect from top to bottom. Martin Freeman provides a great amount of wit, charm, and also an everyman-like persona in the role of Bilbo, Ian McKellen is his usual badass self in the role of the equally badass wizard Gandalf the Grey, and while only a few of the members of the company of Dwarves, not counting Thorin (e.g. Fili, Kili, Dwalin, and Balin), get any major material to work with, they have a great sense of camaraderie amongst them. That’s been the case since the first film so in the scene where Thorin asks them if they will follow him ‘one last time’, you too are with them because you really felt that you were along for the ride with them. There may be a few characters from ‘Lord of the Rings’ featured here that may not have been in the original book, like Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom), but they are a welcome addition here, helping these films feel even more like a crucial part of Jackson’s Middle-Earth universe.

In 2001, Peter Jackson, who at that point was mostly known for splatter films and horror comedies, began a journey into the fictional land of Middle-Earth with ‘The Lord of the Rings’, a trilogy of films that became some of the most highly regarded films of the last few years. A decade later, he returned to Middle-Earth for another trilogy, this time based on the prequel to ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Hobbit’. Some may argue that this second trip to Middle-Earth wasn’t as good as the first one due to the fact that they expanded a rather small book into three big films and in some cases that may be true. But thanks to great direction, a great cast, great visuals, and overall a great atmosphere, I do feel that the same magic that ‘Lord of the Rings’ had is once again present in ‘The Hobbit’, once again showing why Jackson was the perfect man to helm all of these Middle-Earth movies. That is again shown in the final ‘Hobbit’ film, ‘The Battle of the Five Armies’, which is easily the best film in the entire trilogy. Everything has been building up to this finale and it truly delivers in terms of the payoff and the overall spectacle as it is arguably the biggest Middle-Earth movie to date. At this point, it seems like this is the last film for Jackson and his crew in the world of Middle-Earth. Some may feel that this is a good thing given the more mixed reactions to ‘The Hobbit’ compared to ‘Lord of the Rings’, but me personally I’d like to say this to Mr. Jackson; thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the work that you’ve put into your six Middle-Earth movies. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic experience that we may never experience again.

Rating: 5/5!

REVIEW EPILOGUE

(Because hey, if Peter Jackson can have multiple endings in ‘Return of the King’, I can have an extra ending to my review of the final ‘Hobbit’ film).

Now before I go, I’m just going to give my final thoughts on the one crucial point of debate in regards to this series ever since the fateful decision to split the story into three films; at the end of the day, was it a good idea? For some people, it wasn’t and I’ll admit that when it was first announced, I too was rather hesitant about it. But now, after seeing all three ‘Hobbit’ movies, I am now actually in full support of this decision, for a few reasons. The big reason why many felt that doing a trilogy of films was a bad idea was that ‘The Hobbit’ is only a 300-page book. However, ‘The Hobbit’ is not as simple a story as some may claim it to be. A lot of things do happen in the story; the characters are introduced, they go off on their journey, they encounter various obstacles along the way, Bilbo acquires ‘the Ring’, they reach Erebor, they face off with Smaug, Smaug escapes, attacks Lake-town, and is killed by Bard, and then multiple armies duke it out over control of the Lonely Mountain before Bilbo finally returns home to the Shire. And that isn’t even all of what happens in this story. Simply put, it can’t really be done in just one film. I know that some people feel that this should’ve been the case with these films but you know what would happen if we just had one ‘Hobbit’ film? Then we’d all be here complaining about how that one film rushed through the entire story. Sure, maybe it could’ve been done in just two movies (that was the original plan, after all) but as for me I’m glad that they didn’t just cram the ‘Battle of Five Armies’ into the second film like I heard some reports claim that it was going to be.

And besides, if anyone was worried about this story being padded out into three three-hour long movies like the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies were, that wasn’t the case at all. Because while the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies got longer with each new film, it was the other way around with ‘The Hobbit’ as the films continued to get shorter and shorter, with ‘Battle of the Five Armies’ being the shortest Middle-Earth movie of them all at only 144 minutes. But if the runtime wasn’t the issue for people, it was probably the fact that these movies were rather overloaded with characters and admittedly that is fairly true. There are a lot of characters in this story and while we are primarily following Bilbo and a company of 13 dwarves, only a few of them (not counting Thorin because he’s clearly the most important out of all of them) get any major bits of character development. But you know something? From what I hear, that was a problem in the book as well. In fact, in some cases the book is even more problematic in how it handles its characters, some of whom are barely in it, like Bard the Bowman. From what I hear, in the book he doesn’t appear until his big moment when he kills Smaug, so kudos to the filmmakers for actually giving him a much more substantial role in the film. And on that note I do like the addition of Tauriel in the movies, even if most of her role in the story revolves around her romance with Kili, mainly because it does add some much needed diversity to a pre-dominantly male cast (something that was the case in both ‘Middle-Earth’ trilogies).

In short, I feel that Peter Jackson and his crew were actually aware of the tricky situation they were in when adapting ‘The Hobbit’ to film. I think they knew that the book had some issues with pacing and character development so, as controversial as it may be for some people, I am in full support of the decision to split it up into three separate films. Because while ‘The Hobbit’ is technically a children’s book, it’s not as simple as people think it is. A lot of things do happen in the story so while many people might complain about these movies being over-long (which isn’t actually that much of a problem because they’ve been getting shorter with every film), I’d much rather spend nine hours in Middle-Earth getting to know these characters than just spending about three hours there not really getting to know them at all because the film would be going at an incredibly fast pace. And sure, not all of the characters get that much to do in these films, like most of the company of Dwarves, but while I haven’t read ‘The Hobbit’, from what I can tell the same problem occurs in the book as well and if anything, I think that Jackson should be applauded for expanding on certain characters’ roles in the story, like Bard the Bowman and Thranduil, and I also don’t mind the additions of Tauriel and other characters from ‘Lord of the Rings’ because in the case of the former, these films gain a solid female character in what is a pre-dominantly male cast and in the case of the latter, the appearances of characters like Legolas, Galadriel, and Saruman help this movie feel even more connected to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films. I feel that Jackson actually did a really solid job at adapting a story that, like it or not, isn’t exactly perfect.

2014 Preview: December

And here we are; we’ve reached the end of 2014 as we now come to the last month of the year, a year full of big hits, big misses, and everything in between. And now it’s time to look at the last batch of new films of 2014 before we officially move on 2015. Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films that are set to come out in 2014. This is the final part in an 11-part preview (previously 12 before I was unable to do the January post due to computer issues) and today we’ll be looking at the films that will be coming out this holiday season in December. So let’s get started…

DECEMBER 5- Okay remember back in September when I said that there wasn’t really anything noteworthy coming out the first week of the month? Well, I kind of lied because there was one wide release that week, ‘The Identical’, but I didn’t know anything about it so I decided not to cover it in that post (that’s usually what I do when it comes to wide releases I don’t know much about… I just don’t include them in these posts). This first week of December, however, there’s literally no new wide releases coming out. There’s only one notable limited release.

*Director Jean-Marc Vallee follows up on last year’s multiple award winning ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ (which of course as we all know earned Matthew McConaughey an Oscar win for Best Actor) with ‘Wild’, which is based off of the memoir ‘Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail’ by Cheryl Strayed. Reese Witherspoon (who also produces the film) stars as Strayed, who goes on a long hike through the Pacific Crest Trail in the Sierra Nevada on her own in order for her to get over the recent stressful moments in her life, including the death of her mother (played by Laura Dern) and her recent divorce.

DECEMBER 12- Things get back on track this week with two new wide releases along with one notable limited release.

*Ridley Scott takes on the Biblical story of the Exodus with ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’, in which Christian Bale stars as Moses, the Hebrew man who became a prince of Egypt and then the leader of his people after learning the truth about who he really is as he leads them to freedom after years of slavery in defiance of his adoptive brother, the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton). The film also stars Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, and Ben Kingsley.

*Chris Rock writes and directs ‘Top Five’, in which he also stars as a comedian turned film star who seeks to become a ‘serious’ actor despite all of the expectations from his fan base. The film also stars Gabrielle Union, Rosario Dawson, and Kevin Hart.

*Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest film, ‘Inherent Vice’, opens in limited release this weekend and is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello, a private investigator who looks into the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend. The large ensemble cast also includes Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, and Martin Short.

DECEMBER 19- The weekend before Christmas sees the release of three movies, one of which opens early on Wednesday December 17^th.

*Peter Jackson’s ‘Hobbit’ trilogy finally comes to a close this month with ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ (previously ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’). In this film, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his Company of Dwarves, with the help of hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), have reclaimed their home of Erebor in the Lonely Mountain but must now face the consequences of unleashing the fearsome dragon Smaug (portrayed through motion capture by Benedict Cumberbatch) upon the world along with the growing threat of the armies of the Dark Lord Sauron.

*Director Will Gluck (‘Easy A’) helms ‘Annie’, the third major film adaptation of the musical of the same name (following the 1982 theatrical version starring Carol Burnett and Tim Curry and the 1999 made-for-TV version with Kathy Bates) which in turn was based off of the comic strip ‘Little Orphan Annie’ by Harold Gray. This new version, produced by Will Smith and Jay-Z, stars Quvenzhane Wallis as Annie, an orphan who ends up getting taken in by tycoon/mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) so that she can boost his chances of becoming mayor. The film also stars Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan, Rose Byrne as Stacks’ personal assistant Grace, and Bobby Cannavale as Stacks’ political adviser Guy.

*The final film in the ‘Night at the Museum’ trilogy, ‘Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb’, hits theaters this week, again directed by Shawn Levy who helmed the first two films along with this year’s ‘This is Where I Leave You’. Ben Stiller reprises his role of Larry Daley, the night guard at the Museum of Natural History in New York where the exhibits there come to life at night through the powers of an ancient Egyptian tablet. In this film, the tablet’s powers start to fade resulting in Larry and the other exhibits traveling the globe in order to keep the magic from dying out. Also reprising their roles are the late Robin Williams, the late Mickey Rooney, Owen Wilson, and Steve Coogan (among others), joined in this one by Ben Kingsley and Rebel Wilson (among others).

DECEMBER 25- I’m finding that Christmas weekend is usually the weekend that sees the biggest number of notable releases and this Christmas is no exception. We got three wide releases and three notable limited releases all of which open in theaters on Christmas Day. Something also noteworthy is that three of them are biopics and one is an historical drama.

*First for the wide releases, we have ‘The Interview’, the new film from directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the directing duo behind last year’s smash hit ‘This is the End’). In this film, Rogen and James Franco star as a pair of celebrity journalists who land an exclusive interview with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un but then find themselves tasked with killing him by the CIA. That whole ‘assassination’ subplot has notably attracted quite a lot of controversy in North Korea, where the film has been condemned.

*Rob Marshall, director of 2002’s Oscar-winning musical ‘Chicago’, returns to the musical genre with ‘Into the Woods’, based on the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim. The story involves numerous characters from Grimm fairy tales, including Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), and Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) and the Beanstalk. It primarily focuses on a Baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) who embark ‘into the woods’ in order to have a curse removed that was set upon them by a witch (Meryl Streep) that has made them unable to have a child. The film also stars, among others, Chris Pine as Cinderella’s Prince Charming and Johnny Depp as the Wolf.

*Angelina Jolie takes on her second directorial effort after 2011’s ‘In the Land of Blood and Honey’ with ‘Unbroken’, based on the biographical book of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand on World War II hero Louis Zamperini. Zamperini (played in the film by Jack O’Connell) was an Olympic track runner who later joined the military and then became a Prisoner of War in Japan under the watch of brutal sergeant Mutshiro ‘The Bird’ Watanabe (played by Japanese pop star Miyavi). The film also stars Garrett Hedlund, Jai Courtney, and Domhnall Gleeson.

*The second major ‘biopic’ of this week, and the first of the noteworthy limited releases, is ‘American Sniper’, the second film of the year from director Clint Eastwood after June’s ‘Jersey Boys’. Based on the book of the same name, Bradley Cooper stars as Chris Kyle, who was known for being the most lethal sniper in U.S. history with over 160 confirmed kills. The film also stars Sienna Miller as Chris’ wife Taya.

*Tim Burton takes on a much smaller project compared to the majority of his work from the past decade with ‘Big Eyes’, centered around Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), the artist behind the famous ‘Big Eye’ paintings. The film also focuses on her relationship with her husband Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz), who claimed that he was the real artist of the paintings when they became popular, and the ensuing legal battle over the rightful ownership of the paintings. The film also stars Krysten Ritter, Danny Huston, Jason Schwartzman, and Terrence Stamp.

*Finally, we have ‘Selma’, directed by Ava DuVernay and produced by Brad Pitt’s production company ‘Plan B’. It centers on the marches made from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. David Oyelowo stars as Martin Luther King Jr. and is also joined by Tom Wilkinson, Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, and Cuba Gooding Jr.

So that’s it… those are the films of 2014. Thanks for following along with me this year as I previewed all of the films that were coming out this year. At the moment I think I am planning on doing these again next year so stay tuned.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) review

In regards to the original ‘Lord of the Rings’ film trilogy, the hardest one to make would have to have been ‘The Two Towers’, basically because it was the ‘middle chapter’ of the story; it didn’t have a proper beginning or end. In fact, when Peter Jackson first pitched his adaptation of the story to Miramax (before the project was picked up by New Line Cinema), it was originally supposed to be two films, which then turned into only one due to budgetary concerns. But overall, ‘The Two Towers’ ended up being my personal favorite of the trilogy. It did manage to work around its ‘middle chapter’ status, it had some incredible action sequences, and it was the film that introduced audiences to Andy Serkis’ incredible interpretation of the creature Gollum (why the Oscars have never recognized Serkis for his work, we’ll never know). But anyway, as Peter Jackson continues the story of ‘The Hobbit’ with the second entry in this trilogy, ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, can Jackson deliver another satisfying ‘middle chapter’ like he did 11 years ago? Or, to be more precise, can this film improve on its predecessor’s major weakness; its pacing?

At the end of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), and the company of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) had escaped from both the Goblin tunnels and the pack of Orcs led by the hunter Azog with the help of the Great Eagles. As this film begins, the group continues their journey towards the Lonely Mountain AKA Erebor, the dwarves’ former homeland, in their quest to take back the mountain from the dragon Smaug (portrayed through motion-capture by Benedict Cumberbatch). While on their quest they come by new allies, including the elf warriors Legolas (Orlando Bloom, reprising his role from the ‘LOTR’ trilogy) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and the archer Bard (Luke Evans), who help them along the way. Meanwhile, Gandalf investigates the hill Dol Guldur, where a mysterious Necromancer (also portrayed by Cumberbatch) could potentially spell doom for Middle-Earth and this string of events ultimately might have something to do with that mysterious ring that Bilbo found back in the Goblin tunnels.

As I’ve said before, the biggest problem of ‘An Unexpected Journey’ was its length and pacing. Yes, it was the film that was supposed to set up the story but as a whole it just felt too long, like we were already watching the Extended Edition of the film when it wasn’t supposed to be (and ironically there is a special Extended Edition now). Then again, this trilogy is based off of a book that is only about 300 pages long compared to ‘The Lord of the Rings’, a trilogy of books that were each at least 400 pages long so they did have to add plenty of stuff in to make it a trilogy (I’ll get into that more in a bit). Thankfully, this film fixes those issues to a certain extent. The film is still very long but the pacing is much faster, allowing us to get more engrossed in the adventure at hand now that the story and its characters been effectively established. Sure, you do still kind of feel the film’s length at times, but not really as much as the previous film. This one is far more exciting with a far greater scale.

However, perhaps the film is… too big. Again, this is going back to the whole idea of making a trilogy out of such little material to work with. So in order to deal with this situation, Jackson and the writers add in plenty of new characters, some of which were not in the book (like Legolas) and one of whom, Tauriel, is a completely original character. It is sort of like the previous trilogy in that there is a whole boatload of characters in this film, so much so that admittedly they start to overtake the movie. In fact, for a movie that is titled ‘The Hobbit’, the actual Hobbit himself, Bilbo, sort of becomes a minor character in fact for most of the movie. Not only are there starting to be far too many characters, there is perhaps too much going on in this film. For the record, I’m not saying that’s entirely a bad thing because it allows the film to have much better pacing than its predecessor, but that also means the film doesn’t really stop that much in the whole span of its 160+ minute runtime… and I must add, this film kind of ends rather abruptly. Still, considering all that goes on in this film, that was probably the best place they could’ve reasonably ended it at.

Like the last film, the acting is very good from all who are involved. The returning cast from the previous film (including Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, and the others who make up the company of dwarves) are excellent once again and the new additions for this film like Evangeline Lilly and Luke Evans are welcome additions as well. While his character may not have been in the book, the return of Legolas to the story is nice and I think Orlando Bloom has gotten a bit of a bad rep as far as these movies are concerned. He was perfectly cast in the role in the original trilogy and while he is sort of overshadowed by his fellow cast members in both trilogies, he still does a very good job in the role. The same can be said for Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, who’s given a pretty good dose of character development, especially when considering that she’s an original character.

But then you have one of the most standout aspects of the entire film; the dragon Smaug. Not only is this dragon incredibly menacing and well-designed, but then you have the character portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is excellent as always. I’m impressed with how they were able to do a motion capture performance for a dragon, which is something that I did not think was even possible considering how most of the characters created through motion-capture are mostly human in form (e.g. pretty much character Middle-Earth alum Andy Serkis plays). There are quite a few times throughout this movie where you can certainly see Cumberbatch’s facial features in Smaug’s design, and you really have to hand it to the effects team for creating one of the best dragons ever to be put on film. Like the ‘Riddles in the Dark’ scene from the last film with Gollum, the scenes involving him are the best scenes in this movie, whether they’re just with Bilbo or with both Bilbo and the dwarves.

‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ is a major improvement over its predecessor; a film which, for the record, I did like save for the fact that it was a bit too long. This film might be as long, but it does fix the pacing problem that plagued ‘An Unexpected Journey’. On the other hand, I’m now kind of worried that this trilogy is going a bit too far in terms of the number of characters/plotlines/action sequences that occur in this film. In fact, I’d argue that there’s enough in this movie that there could have actually been another whole movie considering how much is going on in this film. Still, this is another fine entry in Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth film series as was the last film. Sure, they’re not really as good as the trilogy of films that came before them, but at the very least it’s just nice to be back in Middle-Earth. I eagerly await (though with some caution) to see how this series will come to an end next December with ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’.

Rating: 4.5/5

2013 Preview: December

It’s been quite a year for movies, from the summer blockbusters to the Oscar contenders, and now we have finally reached the last month of 2013. Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s year-long preview of the films set to come out during 2013. This is the final part of this 12-part preview of the year and today we’ll be looking at the films that are set to come out during the month of Christmas, December.

DECEMBER 6- One major release this weekend.

*After debuting in New York and LA markets on December 4^th, the first major release of the month, ‘Out of the Furnace’ will get a nationwide release two days later. Directed by Scott Cooper (2009’s ‘Crazy Heart’), the film stars Christian Bale as a man who suddenly finds himself in prison as his brother (Casey Affleck) gets involved with a dangerous crime ring. The film also stars Zoe Saldana, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, and Willem Dafoe.

DECEMBER 13- It’s a rather interesting competition this weekend at the movies. On one side, we have the next Hobbit film and on the other, a Tyler Perry movie.

*Last December, the first entry in ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy, ‘An Unexpected Journey’, hit theaters, eventually ending up with over $1 Billion at the box office. Its sequel, ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, will continue the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey, and Thorin Oakenshield’s company of dwarves. In this film, the group begins their attempt to take back the dwarves’ homeland of Erebor from the dragon Smaug (portrayed through motion capture by Benedict Cumberbatch). The returning cast from the first film is joined in this one by Orlando Bloom (reprising the role of Legolas from the ‘LOTR’ trilogy), Evangeline Lilly (who’s portraying an original character, Tauriel), and Luke Evans.

*On the other side of the spectrum is the next film in Tyler Perry’s ‘Madea’ franchise, which stars Perry as the titular elderly Madea, ‘A Madea Christmas’. As the title suggests, this one is set during Christmas.

DECEMBER 20- It’s a pretty stacked weekend with five new movies coming out, two of them immediately being released nationwide while the other three expand from earlier releases.

(Note: The following film will hit theaters two days earlier on December 18^th)

*Great Odin’s Raven! 9 years after 2004’s hit comedy ‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ hit theaters, everyone’s favorite news team returns for ‘Anchorman: The Legend Continues’. In this film, confident but egotistical news reporter Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and the Channel 4 News team (Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner) reunite after disbanding after the 70’s when they are recruited to join a 24-hour news channel. Christina Applegate, Fred Willard, and others from the previous film return and are joined in this one by Kristen Wiig, Greg Kinnear, and a whole bunch of cameos (Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Sacha Baron Cohen, the list goes on and on).

*In 1999, BBC aired a six-part series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’, recreating what it was like on Earth during the Mesozoic Era. This month, a film adaptation of the series will be released in 3-D. It will focus on a group of Pachyrhinosauruses as they migrate.

*The first ‘expanding’ release of the week is ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, the latest film from the Coen brothers. Although Joel Coen has stated that the film has ‘no plot’, it will be following the titular Llewyn Davis (Oscar Issac), a singer-songwriter who navigates the folk music scene of New York in the 60’s. The film also stars Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, and Justin Timberlake.

*Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ is the first Disney film to star the company’s creator, Walt Disney. The story, however, is more about the production of Disney’s 1964 classic, ‘Mary Poppins’, and Walt’s (Tom Hanks) efforts to work with the author of the novel, ‘P.L.’ Travers (Emma Thompson). The film also stars Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as the Sherman Brothers along with Paul Giamatti and Colin Farrell.

*A year after ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ was both a critical and commercial success, director David O. Russell’s next film, ‘American Hustle’, will hit theaters after opening in limited release earlier this month. The film is based off of the ABSCAM operation that took place during the 70’s and 80’s. Christian Bale stars as a con man that, along with his partner/mistress (Amy Adams), is recruited by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to work for him. The film also stars Jeremy Renner as the corrupt mayor of New Jersey and Jennifer Lawrence as the unpredictable wife of Bale’s character (will also be opening on Wednesday, December 18^th).

DECEMBER 25- In what is probably the most packed weekend of the year (ironic seeing how it is the last weekend of 2013 for new releases), there are five new releases along with 1 nationwide expansion as the year ends with a total of 6 films coming out nationwide in a single weekend.

*Keanu Reeves headlines ’47 Ronin’, a fantasy samurai movie based on the titular fictional group of the same name. Reeves stars as an outcast who joins a group of ronin who are looking to get their revenge against the evil Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) after he killed their master.

*After his 2011 concert film ‘Never Say Never’, Justin Bieber’s new concert film, ‘Believe’ will hit theaters.

*Sylvester Stallone’s most famous role is that of boxer Rocky Balboa in the franchise of the same name and one of Robert De Niro’s most famous roles is that of boxer Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorcese’s ‘Raging Bull’ . The two headline ‘Grudge Match’, albeit while playing different characters. They star as a pair of retired boxers who decide to step back into the ring in order to settle the score after their title match 30 years ago was canceled when Stallone’s character retired from boxing. The film, directed by Peter Segal (‘50 First Dates’, ‘Get Smart’), also stars Alan Arkin, Kevin Hart, and Kim Basinger.

*‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is a remake of the 1947 film of the same name, which itself was based on the 1939 short story, also of the same name, by James Thurber. Ben Stiller (who also directs the film), stars as the titular Walter Mitty, a worker at Life Magazine who usually retreats into his fantasy worlds but then sets off on a journey to find a picture that is needed for the magazine when his and his co-worker/love interest’s (Kristen Wiig) jobs are on the line.

*Martin Scorcese reunites with Leonardo DiCaprio for their fifth film together since 2002’s ‘Gangs of New York’ with ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, a film that was originally supposed to be released on November 15^th, but was pushed back a month so that Scorcese could finish the movie in time (thankfully the film wasn’t pushed back even further to next year). Based off of the memoir of the same name by former New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort, the film stars DiCaprio as Belfort, who refuses to be involved in a security fraud case revolving around corruption on Wall Street. The film’s large ensemble cast also includes Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, and Kyle Chandler among others.

*Finally, we have ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’, a biographical film about former South Africa President Nelson Mandela (portrayed by Idris Elba), which details the 27 years he spent in prison before he became president of South Africa.

With that, 2013 will officially come to an end. Thanks for reading these posts and I’m expecting to start this up again next year. Stay tuned…

Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2014

As 2013 begins to come to a close, it’s time to look ahead into the future. We’re kind of in an interesting situation right now because instead of focusing on this upcoming year, all eyes are looking ahead to the following year, 2015. There’s a pretty good reason for this, as 2015 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years for the film industry ever; there’s ‘Avengers 2’ AKA ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, a Batman/Superman crossover, the next entries in the James Bond and Jurassic Park franchises, and much, much more. But while I’m certainly looking forward to 2015, that’s two years from now, and there are still a lot of films to look forward to in 2014. So, with that in mind, here are my Top 10 most anticipated films of 2014. Keep in mind that this is mainly based on speculation, as we don’t have much material from any of these movies except for some set photos and leaked footage.

10. Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)

While DC is currently at work on their ‘Batman/Superman’ crossover, Marvel will pretty much have 2014 all to themselves with four films being released over the course of the year (technically through different studios but that’s beside the point). I’m starting my list off with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and it’s at this spot for one main reason. Even though it’s been about a year since this film was announced, I really don’t know much about this franchise. It’s not like ‘Iron Man’, ‘Spider-Man’, or the ‘X-Men’. When this was first announced, my first response was, ‘Who?’ and somehow I find myself still kind of asking that question. From what I’ve read, the main team of heroes that this film is based around had their own series in 2008 but it was cancelled two years later, which can explain why I never heard of them (along with the fact that I’m not a comic book reader). This is a rather obscure franchise so hopefully Marvel knows what they’re doing by giving them a feature length movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But on the other hand, this movie does have an interesting cast; Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, and Benicio Del Toro just to name a few. So while I still don’t know much about these characters, the cast alone intrigues me and this is Marvel and they have been on a really great run lately in regards to their ‘Cinematic Universe’. Still, I’m going in rather hesitant.

9. Transcendence (April 18, 2014)

Christopher Nolan is currently at work on his next film, ‘Interstellar’, but something will be different this time around… his long-time cinematographer, Wally Pfister, will not be involved with that film. Instead, he will be making his directorial debut with ‘Transcendence’. That’s the main reason why I’m interested in this film; to see how Pfister fares as a director. I have a feeling that there will be a bit of Nolan’s influence in the way he directs. Aside from that, the plot is also rather intriguing. A computer scientist (Rebecca Hall) uploads her husband’s (Johnny Depp) brain into a computer after he’s killed by terrorists. Their goal is to achieve technological singularity; a world where the computers are capable of transcending the abilities of the human brain. We haven’t seen any footage from the film yet but this is looking like it’ll be a really entertaining film.

8. Tomorrowland (December 12, 2014)

If I made a list of my top 10 favorite directors, Brad Bird would easily be near the top of the list. He’s the man responsible for two of my top 10 favorite films of all time, ‘The Iron Giant’ and ‘The Incredibles’. Aside from that, he’s also made another great animated film, ‘Ratatouille’, and successfully transitioned from animation to live-action with ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’. I’m always looking forward to whatever project he does next, and this one is no exception. However, we don’t really know that much about this film aside from the fact that it shares the name of one of the themed lands of Disney parks, ‘Tomorrowland’. Will part of the movie take place there? I don’t know but that won’t stop me from seeing the film when it comes out. So why is a film from one of my favorite directors only at number eight on this list? Well, one of the writers on the film is Damon Lindelof AKA the guy behind the rather disappointing ‘Prometheus’ and the one (from what I’ve heard) who was responsible for having Khan put into ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ when Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were against it. Thankfully, Bird has a writing credit as well so fingers crossed here.

7. Hobbit: There and Back Again (December 17, 2014)

(*insert annual Hobbit post here*)

I’m just kidding, but yes, taking the number seven spot on this list is the third and final film in ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy, ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’. Now, at the time I am writing this, ‘Desolation of Smaug’ hasn’t come out so we do not know where this film will take place in the story. It’s safe to assume that ‘Desolation of Smaug’ will revolve around the dwarves’ attempting to reclaim their kingdom from the dragon Smaug. So, I’m thinking that ‘There and Back Again’ will most likely focus on ‘The Battle of Five Armies’, though reportedly it will mainly be based on the appendices that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in order to expand the universe of Middle-Earth. If that’s the case, then I hope that they don’t cram in the ‘Five Armies’ battle into the second film. I haven’t read ‘The Hobbit’, but it sounds like that final battle is more than enough to be the focus of one film. Then again, I’m not really a fan of the decision to go from two movies to three because of how smaller of a story ‘The Hobbit’ is compared to ‘Lord of the Rings’. In the end, I’m mainly hoping that these last two films don’t succumb to the same problem that the first film had; an padded out run-time that makes it feel like we’re already watching the ‘Extended Edition’ of the film.

6. The Lego Movie (February 7, 2014)

The reason why I was highly anticipating 2012’s ‘Wreck it Ralph’ was because its video-game premise instantly connected with me, as I am a huge fan of video games. It’s a similar situation for ‘The Lego Movie’, as I loved playing with LEGO’s when I was a kid so I’m intrigued to see what they do with this movie, which also happens to be an original story. It has a really great crew behind it. The directors for the movie are Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind two of the funniest and most creative films of the last few years, ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ and ’21 Jump Street’. It also has a really impressive cast; Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and much, much more. According to Lord and Miller, the film will combine computer animation with stop-motion animation, and the trailer for the film definitely has a ‘stop-motion’ vibe to it. Suffice it to say, there’s quite a lot of potential with this film.

5. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (November 21, 2014)

Like with ‘The Hobbit’, I am writing this having not yet seen this year’s entry in the Hunger Games series, ‘Catching Fire’, but the main thing to talk about here is that the final story, ‘Mockingjay’, will be split into two films, with Part 2 coming out in 2015. I’m not so sure about this choice; will it work like ‘Harry Potter’ or it will be pointlessly drawn out like ‘Twilight: Breaking Dawn’? Only time will tell. Francis Lawrence, director of ‘Catching Fire’, returns to helm these two films so it seems like the producers were happy with his work on ‘Catching Fire’. Hopefully we’ll see what they saw when ‘Catching Fire’ hits theaters this November.

4. Interstellar (November 7, 2014)

No poster/image yet of the film so here's a pic of Nolan on the set of 'Dark Knight Rises' instead.

 

Christopher Nolan is a director that needs no introduction. His latest film, ‘Interstellar’, will serve as the first film he’s done since the conclusion of ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy. Like with ‘Tomorrowland’, not much is known about the plot, and what we have been given so far is rather vague; it’s apparently involved around wormholes… and corn. But hey, it’s Nolan so there’s no way I’m missing this film, which also has quite a stacked cast; Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine, and Matt Damon… and that’s just to name a few. Nolan has yet to disappoint when it comes to his films, and I’m betting that streak will continue with this one.

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)

Just a quick spoiler; the top 3 films on my list are all superhero films and kicking things off is the sequel to 2011’s ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. ‘The First Avenger’ ended up being one of my personal favorite films of Marvel’s Phase One because of how Marvel managed to make one of their least interesting characters interesting, thanks in part to Chris Evans’ terrific performance in the role. So, with that in mind, I’m eagerly awaiting this film. For one thing, I’m interested in seeing how the directors on this film will handle it. Marvel has always picked some interesting directors for their movies, and the two working on this film are no exception; Anthony and Joe Russo, a duo mainly known for directing episodes on the cult hit NBC show, ‘Community’. How will these guys handle an action movie? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

2. X-Men Days of Future Past (May 23, 2014)

After a disappointing third film and a rather terrible prequel/solo film, the ‘X-Men’ franchise got back on track in 2011 with ‘X-Men: First Class’, an effective reboot featuring a great new cast to take over for the cast of the original X-Men trilogy. But the original X-Men cast isn’t done yet and next year they will return alongside the ‘First Class’ cast with ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, directed by X-Men/X2 director Bryan Singer. With Singer back in charge of the franchise that he helped start back in 2000, I have a feeling that this film will turn out well, and it’s also based on a very famous storyline from the comics. The only thing that might end up hurting this film in the end is the fact that the cast is as big as it is. The same thing can sort of be said for the other 3 superhero films on this list, but this one is running the biggest risk.

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (May 2, 2014)

So why am I anticipating the sequel to ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ more than ‘Days of Future Past’? Aside from the fact that I’m a bigger Spider-Man fan than I am an X-Men fan, there are a few reasons as to why. Like everyone else, I was very cautious about Marvel’s decision to reboot the Spider-Man franchise just five years after director Sam Raimi’s trilogy concluded in 2007. But, to my pleasant surprise, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ ended up being really good; in fact, better than at least two of Raimi’s films and, dare I say, just as good as Raimi’s best, Spider-Man 2. That was mainly because the two leads, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, were much more compelling and the writers did a good job at handling the struggles of Peter Parker, who wanted to know why his parents left him with his aunt and uncle when he was young (though for the record, the whole ‘parents’ storyline did not even go anywhere). Will the ‘parents’ storyline continue to become important as these films go on? At this point, who knows? But even if they don’t go that route again, the movie still looks good based on what I saw from the Comic-Con trailer.

First off, I like the villain they decided to go with, Electro, along with the actor playing him, Jamie Foxx. His character’s design looks pretty good (I mean let’s face it; it’s a better look than Electro’s main design from the comics. Can you imagine if they went with that look?). I also like the new additions to the cast, including Dane Dehaan as Harry Osborn, Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn, and Paul Giamatti as the Rhino. Spider-Man’s suit also looks much better than it did in the last film. I’m not saying that I didn’t like the suit from the last film; it’s just that I was never a fan of how the mask looked. When the first image of Garfield in the suit (without the mask) surfaced, I thought it looked really cool but then when the mask was shown, I was rather mixed on it, namely with how the eyes looked. The new suit looks more in line with Spider-Man’s usual design. I’m interested in seeing how this Spider-Man series will turn out. I don’t want to spoil anything but I’m kind of hoping that they eventually do go through with doing a key death from the comics. Fans of Spider-Man should know what I’m talking about. If not in this movie, maybe in the next one; they do have two more on the way.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Fast and Furious 7- Boy, the Fast and Furious series has been on quite a run recently; its last two films ended up being the best entries in the series and keep in mind, the series currently stands at six films. It was because of ‘Fast Five’ that I was really looking forward to ‘Fast and Furious 6’ and it’s that film that has me excited for the next entry. But why is this film not on my list? Well, series director Justin Lin will not be helming this new film. Instead, horror director James Wan is in charge this time around. I haven’t seen any of his films and as far as I know, he’s never directed an action movie before. Hopefully they picked a good replacement for Lin.

Godzilla- It’s the first major Godzilla movie in a decade (more than a decade for us Americans). The last time they brought Godzilla to the screen here in America… didn’t turn out so well. So, let’s hope this one turns out good.

A Million Ways to die in the West- Seth MacFarlane made an excellent debut as a film director with ‘Ted’, so I’ll be looking forward to his next film, and it’s a western comedy.

Transformers: Age of Extinction- I’ll admit it… I did like the first three Transformers films. I stand by my belief that the first Transformers film was a really good movie. The sequels… yes, they weren’t as good as the first film, but they’re not the worst movies ever (as some people like to refer to them as). Thankfully with this next film, they have a new cast, which includes Mark Wahlberg, Kelsey Grammer, and Stanley Tucci. I’ll see it, but I hope that they do a better job with the script than they did with the last two films.