The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - ★★★★½

Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Stefan Zwig (inspired by the works), Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness (Story)
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton... and many more.

The Grand Budapest Hotel gave me one of the grandest experiences I've ever had at the cinema. It's stunning to look at, pleasing to listen to, and filled with characters that tickled my funny bone from start to finish. It reminded me a lot of Grand Hotel (1932), a classic that starred many of Hollywood's greatest actors of that time. Except it contained Anderson's flare for tongue-in-cheek humour, and over-the-top set production and style. I truly loved this film, and I loved seeing many of my favourite actors take turns in bringing their own personal flare to the screen. It's films like this that ignite my passion for cinema. You can tell that it's a labour of love, and a film that may just stand the test of time.

In Bruges (2008) - ★★★★½

Director: Martin McDonagh
Writer: Martin McDonagh
Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy, Jordan Prentice

*Warning* Inappropriate language used in this review.

In Bruges was such a breath of fresh air! It's one of the funniest, intelligent, well made dark comedies of all time. Every once in a while I stumble upon a movie filled with high points, and that's exactly what happened with In Bruges. The humor and wit reminded me a bit of Father Ted (1995), but instead of priests they were hit-men. It's the classic 'grown-up partnered with man-child' routine, yet McDonagh managed to make it fresh and consistently funny. In Bruges was so darn entertaining that I literally watched it again the very next day.

Skyfall (2012) - ★★★★

Director: Sam Mendes
Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Stars: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw

Skyfall lived up to its hype and ended up being one of the best Bond films of all time. It has a similar storyline, action sequences and characters to most Bond films, but somehow one-ups them by making them even more interesting and thrilling to see. This can be attributed to Javier Bardem's masterful performance as the latest Bond villain and Judi Dench being thrown into the thick of the action. If you are a Bond fan, this film shouldn't disappoint. 

This installment of the franchise sees Bond (Daniel Craig) travel to Bangkok, Macau and The Moors in England. His latest mission is to hunt down a man called Silva (Bardem), a former 'Double-0' and master computer hacker. He seeks revenge on M (Judi Dench) and intends to destroy her and her world for reasons I will not say. Many heartstopping action scenes later, they find themselves in a showdown at The Moors which sees Kincade (Albert Finney), an old friend of Bond, join the fight in saving M and killing Silva.

One of the greatest things about this film is that it brings back the character Q, the inventor from many of the old Bond films. This Q is played by young Ben Whishaw, who I see great potential in. The origin of Miss. Moneypenny (secretary to M) is also given in this film, which I found to be the cherry on the cake.

I will say that this film lacked a little when it came to the Bond girls. The two they had in the film were really good, but none of them had much of a spark or excitement that the previous Bond women had. Another letdown for me was that the excitement was not constant throughout, with some parts being quite tedious and slow.

With that being said, I still found this film highly entertaining. Judi Dench and Javier Bardem were outstanding in this film, and for me were the best part. Daniel Craig maintained his tough guy Bond persona which I liked. The story was interesting, the music was amazing, the cinematography was fantastic and overall this is a great film.

Wrath of the Titans (2012) - ★★

Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Writers: Dan Mazeu, David Johnson
Stars: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Rosamund Pike, Edgar Ramirez, Toby Kebbell, Bill Nighy

I had high hopes for Wrath of the Titans. It promised to be a visually amazing, action-packed superior film to its prequel Clash of the Titans, however it fell flat due to Sam Worthington's laughable performance as Perseus, bastard son of Zeus (Liam Neeson). I had major problems with his acting in the first film, but he was far worse in this installment.

The story was very Hollywood. Ares, God of War and son of Zeus is jealous of Perseus because his father paid more attention to him. He sides with Hades, Ralph Fiennes, in a plot to drain Zeus' powers and awaken the titan Kronos, the father of Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Perseus must save the world once again on his black Pegasus in order to give his son a future and save humanity. He also has a small romance with Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), a character that is supposed to be strong and smart yet is small and feeble. She was insignificant to the whole movie.

It made me sick that Dan Mazeau made the God of War seem so childish, stupid and weak. According to this film, Gods are not beyond being complete idiots. None of the gods showed real power. They are the same size as humans and use peoples prayers as their source of power. There was no background on the story between Zeus and Kronos. In my opinion, they should have scrapped making a sequel to Clash of the Titans, and instead have made a prequel. This would have involved a mighty war between Titans and Gods, where we could have seen some truly stunning scenes and be rid of Sam Worthington's lamentable acting.

The reason I have not rated this movie lower is because the visual effects and fights throughout the movie were actually entertaining. We see brilliant cyclops', two headed monsters, a minotaur, and the greatest part of the movie; Kronos emerging from a volcano. While these were remarkable, I couldn't shake my annoyance at how bad the story and acting was from all accounts. Wrath of the Titans is a movie that had a huge amount of potential, yet will fail to be remembered by anyone.

14th May, 2013: Hi everyone. I completely forgot that I reviewed this movie. Upon revising what I'd written, it just goes to show that I wasn't kidding about how forgettable it was!

Clash of the Titans (2010) - ★★★

Director: Louis Leterrier
Writers: Travis Beacham (screenplay) Phil Hay (screenplay)
Stars: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen

Clash of the Titans is a story about the mortal son of the god Zeus (Liam Neeson), Perseus (Sam Worthington), who embarks on a perilous journey to stop the underworld and its minions from spreading their evil to Earth as well as the heavens. Zeus' brother, Hades (Ralph Fiennes), has hatched a scheme to usurp the throne from Zeus because of a feud they had extremely long ago when he was tricked and then condemned to be the God of the Underworld. Sounds like a pretty interesting storyline right? 


I think the greatest thing about this movie are the monsters that were involved, such as The Kraken, Medusa, Giant Scorpions, Djinn (magic creatures of the desert), and the Sisters of Fate. I thought all of these creatures were created beautifully and really were the highlight of the film. Particularly the CGI on the Kraken, it was just remarkable. 


Sam Worthington is one of those actors that can't carry make me feel any emotion. Even in Avatar, he just seemed to be a blank canvas. As Perseus, his distinct Australian accent and so-so acting were perhaps one of the lowest points of the movie. The thing that held this movie back was the way it was adapted to appeal to the younger audience. I hated how there were silly jokes and a love story I just couldn't connect to, and I'm usually a sucker for a good romance. I also have to mention the fact that it is hardly historically accurate too. Liam Neeson didn't play a very convincing Zeus. He just didn't exude power or wisdome, whereas Ralph Fiennes was flawless once again as Hades. Fiennes is just one of those actors that can make a crappy movie look good. As a whole I found Clash of the Titans entertaining, but also disappointing. It sets you up to think there will be brilliant battles and non-stop action. Unfortunately we got some of that and a lot of love story.