2012 Movie Diary - January

Yes, the first movie I watched in 2012 was this!
I used to have it on VHS, it disappeared somehow... When I found out it was going to be on TV I was thrilled, less thrilled about it's time slot. It was on at 8.15am, so I had to get up at 8, after going to bed at 3.30. Damn. But it was worth it!

I definitely recommend it to every family or Scooby lover out there, it's full of laughs, adventure and maybe even a few frights.

I like James Bond, I'm not his biggest fan by any means but I do like the films. I quite enjoyed this, it was gripping and it had lots of action (as every Bond film does). However there are better films in the franchise and Timothy Dalton isn't the best Bond Actor. Also I feel maybe it's a little forgettable if you're not a hardcore Bond fan.

Well... I didn't like it. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't like it. It didn't trigger any strong opinion with me at all unfortunately.
I feel the material could have worked but it didn't really. It was, inevitably, going to be severely over-shadowed by its predecessor anyway, so although the original definitely deserved a sequel, it was rather pointless.

And why wait 46 years to make one if you must?

It's a tough one. On one hand, Meryl Streep is even more astonishing than usual and I am completely in awe of her performance (which gained her an Oscar and a Golden Globe, and I can certainly see why). On the other hand, it was a little boring until like, the last half hour and with it being so long, this is not a good thing.

However, this last half hour did redeem it and it did live up to the devastating hype and I did cry. Hysterically.

I absolutely loved this! It was visually stunning, had a beautiful story, great script and amazing acting! Kate Winslet even earned a Golden Globe for her phenomenal, heart-wrenching performance as Leonardo DiCaprio's wife. His performance, though not as good, was still very well done. Unfortunately his slipped under the radar, as did the film. It was acclaimed critically, even topping Mick LaSalle's 'Top 10 of 2008' in the San Francisco Chronicle, but Kate's Globe was the only major award that this film was given, which makes me feel very sad. It also didn't do very well at the box office, only just doubling it's $35 million budget and grossing $75,225,074 worldwide. It's not fair!

To sum up: it blew me away. Amazing supporting cast (which included Kathy Bates and Michael Shannon as her son, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role), fantastic direction by Sam Mendes as well as great chemistry between the two leads (Duh, Titanic). Definitely worth at least one watch, I couldn't recommend it strongly enough!

I don't care, I love this film! I love the story, the humour, the acting, the unrealism of it all. I just love it. I couldn't possibly have picked a better Rebecca Bloomwood, Isla Fisher is perfect! I love the costumes, the direction, the madness, the casting (well, most of it) except one little actress. The role of supposedly beautiful Alicia Billington was given to Leslie Bibb, who although acts the part well, just isn't pretty enough for it! No offence to her, I mean, she's not ugly or anything. It's just in some shots she looks kind of old, and in others, like a fish.

I adore this film, even the unnecessarily over-sexual parts. Visually, it's stunning. It has a great story, script, direction from Darren Aronofsky, and acting that knocks my socks off (especially from Natalie Portman, whose role as troubled ballerina Nina won her an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award).

Basically, I absolutely love it!

Like I said, this is my favourite film. Ever. And it's only been out for 6 months. I adore the franchise, especially this epic finale! I always prefer the last in a series and this is why.

Neville, before he chops off the head of Nagini, the final horcrux. Making Voldemort a mere mortal.

Ron and Hermione, being chased by Nagini (the snake).

Molly Weasley, right before she kills Bellatrix Lestrange, which is totally fucking awesome!

Professor McGonagall, an unlikely action hero in this installment. Love her!

I absolutely love everything about it! If you haven't seen it, you're a cunt. Just, pure adoration! Pure adoration.

I love all of this series and this isn't the best but I still really like it! It has all the ingredients for a great movie and it actually makes me cry when Dobby dies, and also when Hedwig dies, it broke my little heart! :'(

It has great visual effects, brilliant set design, fab direction by David Yates (born and bred in St. Helens, like me! Woo, big it up!), and amazing performances, especially from Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange). I love it!

Well, I honestly didn't expect I'd like it as much as I did! The fact that it's based on a true story makes it difficult to watch, because all of this stuff actually happened!
If you think about it though, all this film has is great acting and a great script, which is what film's all about!
Also it has a great make-up team, who transformed the beautiful Charlize Theron brilliantly!

The aforementioned Charlize Theron portrays Aileen Wuornos wonderfully, dramatically and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild award for her performance, which she truly deserved. She was convincing and gave the character qualities which triggered sympathy and truly showed her as a human, which is often forgotten when a person is a freelance prostitute convicted of multiple murders and put on death row. I'll be honest, for what I thought was an unlikely choice of actress, she pulled it out bag, proved me wrong and did an amazing job. Christina Ricci co-starred and also gave a good performance.

Charming.
It's so cute, it's a little bit like 'My Week With Marilyn', in a sense that it's a "cute" film and we know what we want to happen, but it doesn't and the ending is not what we wanted and a bit of a let-down. But still, overall, it's nice.

Now, I have to be honest with myself and admit that for me it was a little underwhelming. All my friends have seen it and most of them really really like it. But, I don't think I like it as much as they do and I definitely thought I would like it more than I did. However, I'm not entirely sure how much more.
Worth a watch though as it had me snorting with laughter in quite a few places. :)
AND, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt give great performances. Plus, he's hot (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I mean).

This is my favourite Disney film! as I have already said... I love everything about it. I love that it's got nothing to do with a princess, I love that the main characters are mice, I love the villain (Madame Medusa voiced by the late Geraldine Page R.I.P)

Two mice from the Rescue Aid Society, Bernard, a humble and triskaiekaphobic janitor, and Bianca, the Society's Hungarian representitive agent.

Also, nothing about it screams Disney, which is a breath of fresh air. The leads don't burst into song, no magic is involved and a little girl is held at gunpoint and almost drowned because she has been forced down a hole to find one of the world's largest diamonds. Horrifically fabulous!

What a film! What a sexy, angry, funny, loud, unique mess of a film! Full of infidelity, unhappiness, sarcasm, boobs and Kevin Spacey when he was hot. I loved it, I really did! I had no idea it would be like that, I liked it a hell of a lot more than I expected to, it truly deserves any awards it ever won!

WHAT AN AMAZING CAST! Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening (I've never seen her in anything before, she's absolutely exquisite!), Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Peter Gallagher, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney and Mena Suvari (Also never seen any of her films and she's good too, definitely not just a pretty face).
Also, the visionary director Sam Mendes (director of another great film I saw for the first time this month, Revolutionary Road) is British! Could've died, so proud!
Definitely worth a watch! :)

It was okay, if given the choice I wouldn't watch it again, I'm not really used to watching horror films, I think I've seen about 4 of them and I don't find them scary, it's just they make me jump...
This was predictable even to me a fan of non-horror films (like rom-coms and Harry Potter.)

However it kept me on the "edge of my seat" and the sex scenes were pretty good. Plus it starred the very sexy Jared Padalecki and Travis Van Winkle also, Willa Holland's character is killed whilst naked. Boobs.

What a fucking beautiful film! It draws you in, sends you up, pulls you down and leaves you emotionally drained but I don't care! It's amazing.
Non-stop tears, that's what I was whilst sat in the cinema.

Amazing cast (including David Thewlis, Emily Watson and the gorgeous Jeremy Irvine in his film debut as Albert), script, story (the original book was written by Michael Morpurgo and I'm usually hating on him, but no more!), legendary director Steven Spielberg and some of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen!
I couldn't recommend it enough!

I really liked this, sure the story wasn't original but it so funny! And it must've been good because I even liked Kristen Stewart in it! :) Other cast members include:
Jesse Eisenberg
(The Sex God) Ryan Reynolds
Martin Starr
Matt Bush
Bill Hader
Kristen Wiig

I loved it! I think it's a brilliant family film that allows not just the kids to enjoy it but also it allows the parents to reminisce on their childhoods, which is a very good thing to most people. It features the voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney as Alvin, Simon and Theodore (in that order). Which is funny because those dudes are sexy mothafuckers, yet they're chipmunks!

The film also featured David Cross as the main antagonist, Ian, and My Name Is Earl star, Jason Lee as Dave Seville.

Another beautiful film. Except maybe the slight connotations of paedophilia.
Kate Winslet is amazing, as usual, and truly deserved that Oscar for her frankly heartbreaking performance as Hanna Schmitz, a former concentration camp guard. It looks like 2008 (with both this and Revolutionary Road) was a pretty good (if not amazing) year for our Kate! Never been prouder to be British!

Ralph Fiennes and David Kross (who also starred in War Horse) also give great performances as the same person, Michael Berg, at diferent points in time. Also, another great supporting role from Lena Olin, who moved me to tears. Brilliant script, story (adapted from a German novel) and direction from Stephen Daldry.
It's fabulous and I definitely recommend it!

I love it, it's so funny! :D The characters are all fantastic and I honestly feel that the script is quite original and bold.
It was directed by Robert Luketic, who also directed Monster-in-Law, another of my favourite films.

Another film with a great cast, led by the brilliant Reese Witherspoon.
Other cast members include:
Jennifer Coolidge
Selma Blair
Luke Wilson
Victor Garber
Matthew Davis
Ali Larter
Raquel Welch also makes a cameo appearance as "Mrs Windham Vandermark".

I liked it, sort of. Not gonna lie, it was underwhelming. Only slightly, just as much as (500) Days of Summer. However, it was gripping enough and I did enjoy it. Plus, it had the absolutely amazing Natalie Portman in it! She was fantastic as usual. Feisty. The (extremely) sexy Aussie heartthrob Chris Hemsworth (older, hotter brother of Liam) starred in the title role as the cape-clad, hammer-weilding Asgardian (SEX) God (who of course, as is now obligatory in this genre, had a topless scene... that body).

His chemistry with Natalie was amazing!
The film was directed British actor Kenneth Branagh, had brilliant visual effects as well as some great cast members, like Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and Jaimie Alexander.

Hhmmm... I loved the beginning, really loved it! But it falls apart a little in the middle for me, in fact I didn't want to carry on with it because it started to bore me. Which is a shame because it could've been a really great film.
The best performance in the film was definitely Frances McDormand's and I also enjoyed Kate Hudson and my favourite actress, Zooey Deschanel.

A young Patrick Fugit provided what I think was some well-needed eye candy (others may say adorable, but I honestly thought he looked quite hot as a sixteen year old) in the lead role.

This is one of my favourite films of all time! I have no idea why but I find it hilarious! It stars Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda as a mother and daughter-in-law who compete for the affection of Michael Vartan's character, Kevin.
The film also stars the fantastically hilarious Wanda Sykes as Ruby, Jane Fonda's character's assisstant, who provides nearly all the laughs. She's hilarious!

The film was directed by Robert Luketic, the same director as Legally Blonde! :)
Watch this film, it's so underrated and Jane Fonda is absolutely golden!

Absolutely fantastic! Meryl Streep stars as a strict Catholic nun who becomes suspicious about a supposed relationship between the priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and one of the altar boys.

Stunning acting from what is quite a small cast, only four predominant actors. Amy Adams is fantastic and deserved much more recognition for this role. Meryl Streep is just gob-smacking as usual (I've seen Kate Winslet in The Reader, who beat Meryl for that year's awards, and I'm not sure whether she deserved to or not). Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific. And Viola Davis is also very very good. Great things come in small packages! Also the director, John Patrick Shanley, did a good job!
Loved it, watch it!

Fantastic. I honestly didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I was like: "A film about a guy who cuts off his own arm. WTF?"
James "sexy" Franco did an amazing job at being the only lead in the film and practically carrying the entire thing fully on his own.

HE WAS ROBBED OF AN OSCAR BY COLIN FIRTH!!!
British director Danny Boyle took a huge risk with this but it payed off :)

I love this film! I went to see it at the cinema when it came out and I was like "I'm not watching that, it looks shit."
But it was fabulous! Julie walters, Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski are absolute GOLD.

Amazing cast, script, and music, of course ABBA's greatest.
Cast:
Amanda Seyfried
Meryl Streep
Julie Walters
Christine Baranski
Dominic Cooper
Pierce Brosnan
Stellan Skarsgard
Colin Firth

I quite liked this, it was good. Original enough, can'y say I've ever heard of an animated western anyway. Great script and story. Loved the characters!

I wasn't expecting Isla Fisher's voice to be as good as it was, she did an amazing job, what with having Scottish parents and growing up in Australia. Abigail Breslin did very well too!

This is the movie adaptation of my favourite book, so naturally I wanted to see it. It let me down. Only a little bit, I can still find it in my heart to love it for what it is. It helps that I adore Anne Hathaway! I think it could be a little confusing, and the novelty of it jumping a year could wear off for people who haven't read the book, but I have! So I understand it! I think maybe it could've gone into a bit more depth on how powerful the relationship between Dexter and Emma actually is, but the screenplay was written by David Nicholls (the author of the book), so at least we can be satisfied with it if he is.

I don't care what anyone says, Anne's Yorkshire accent knocked my socks off! I tip my hat to her!