Django Unchained

Tarantino is back on form with his latest offering, Django Unchained; as gory as he can be without being overly gratuitous, this non-western, post-modern western rocks. Violence juxtaposed with laughter always has the audience bordering on feeling bad for laughing; but it just has to be remembered that it’s only a film.  Despite the fact that this movie does emphasise the harshness of the South towards slaves and is quite upsetting in places, the next minute it will have you laughing at the funniest Ku Klux Klan scene ever (yes there is such a thing), which could be seen as reflecting the wider stupidity of the people back then.

Tarantino staple, Samuel L Jackson, gave the performance of his career in my opinion, slipping into the role of “grumpy old man” splendidly.  You have to wait a while for him to pop up but he is definitely worth the wait, in fact this film is quite long, 165mins, but it does not feel it and keeps you engrossed from start to finish.  As per usual with Tarantino, a true auteur, there is ultimate focus on the mise en scene, producing multiple scenes that you would just love to have as a poster, especially the silhouettes of the lead protagonists riding off into the sunset.

There is definitely more than one ‘sink down in your seat and hide your face’ moment, including the most uncomfortable scene involving male genitalia since Daniel Craig’s in Casino Royale, but fortunately it is not too “jumpy” so no worries about your popcorn/sweets flying all over the place.

If you enjoy muttering old men, non “pc” laughs, and good ol’ fashioned shoot outs then this film is for you.  However if you are easily offended by the N word then watch out as by some counts it features 110 times...

Les Mis

If you are not a massive fan of musicals, there may be a little apprehension in going see Les Miserables; though once you get over the fact that Wolverine is singing (had to suppress a lot of giggles in the opening scenes) you hardly notice that the entire dialogue is sung, you become engrossed in another world and the two and a half hours will fly by.

Considering the cast does not entirely consist of professional singers, but of Hollywood actors, they manage to convey such strong emotions throughout the film; so be prepared to well up on a number of occasions and also laugh as this rollercoaster of a story does provide some light comedic relief. The partnership of Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter was a stroke of genius, casting at its best.

If you’ve never seen a stage production of Les Miserables, it might be hard to know just what to expect, but the trepidation disappears after 5 minutes and you’ll be lost in the beauty of this picture and in the beauty of Samantha Barks. 

Jack Reacher

You tend to know what you are getting when a well known book is made into a film; however, I didn’t with this one as I hadn’t read the book.  So whether it is true to it or not, who cares it was amazing.  Forget Skyfall its all about Jack Reacher.

The soundtrack was phenomenal, full orchestral music throughout the entire 130mins (which literally flew by), it even opened for the first 5 or so minutes with no dialogue but combine that with the suspense filled score you are tense from the get go.

Yet this tension is juxtaposed in an almost Hitchcock-esque style with some of the best one liners which could easily be missed, in fact I think me and my mate were the only ones laughing in the cinema, crying with laughter at some points.

The fight scenes were the funniest, yes he is Reacher the almost super human lead protagonist, but they were just the best, think Bridget Jones combined with Taken and you are halfway there to understanding just how awesome they are whilst having high comedic value.

What makes Tom Cruise endearing (yes you read right Tom Cruise being described by the superlative endearing, never thought that would happen…) in this film, is his unpolished edge as a character and for the first time ever it could almost be forgiven to say that he was sexy, (seriously what is going on).  When some heard of his casting for this role they were disappointed, yet there is no one else that could have done it justice.  Hats off to you Mr Cruise.

Forget the slick typical Hollywood action that he dished out in the Mission Impossible’s, and enjoy the almost cheesy underdog aspect to him, where you will find yourself routing for him, despite knowing that of course he is going to pull it off as it is a film.  

Even the car chases were immense but also realistic in the endless, almost slapstick, mistakes.   It is NOT slapstick, it could even almost be described as gritty, but unusually for your typical Hollywood action it does have that something extra to it that makes you immediately want to watch it again; If not for anything other than to see Rosamund Pike’s boobs literally get bigger and bigger and her eyelashes get longer and longer throughout the duration of the film.

So go see this if you like laughing, cars, fights and boobs.