PHILOMENA

Loved this film. One of my favourites for the year I reckon.

Based on a true story, it follows a woman's (Philmomena, played spectacularly by Judy Dench) quest to find the child that was taken from her when she gave birth out of wedlock in Ireland in the early 1950s.

'Taken' is perhaps not the right word - it's much more complex than that and this film explores it all with the help of a journalist who's been commissioned by a newspaper to publish her story, played by Steve Coogan.

I've never been much of a fan of Coogan but this has changed that. He's brilliant in it.

Some parts are heart-breaking but there's funny and poignant moments too. I, and everyone else in the cinema it seemed, laughed and cried.

Go and see this, it's fabulous!

Here's a four star review from the Sydney Morning Herald with some interesting details about the background to Philomena's story and the film itself. "It's an immensely moving film, because of her capacity for forgiveness" the critic says, of Philomena. And boy, he's right.

Trailer here.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY - film

I'd seen the previews for this film and quite liked the look of it. It's about a guy played by Ben Stiller (more dramatic than comedic) who's a bit of a day dreamer and in his day dreams he's a lot more interesting and heroic than he is in real life. This film follows the adventure he goes on to solve a problem at work (he manages the photographs at the fictional 'Life' magazine) that gets him out of that unadventurous rut. There's also a bit of a love interest story running through it featuring Kristen Wiig, who I love.

I was a bit disappointed. It's not bad, but it's not fantastic. If you're lucky enough to get to the movies often perhaps you'd include it in your wish list but if not, I'd give it a miss.

To provide you with an alternative view, there's this four star review in the UK Mirror. Certainly more glowing than I'd give it.

Get the downlow on the story line in the trailer here.

ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES - film

There's a hell of a lot of hype and expectation weighing on this film. The original Anchorman film is a modern, oft-quoted classic. I mean, you still hear people say "Milk was a bad choice" despite the film coming out almost 10 years ago. And with good reason! It's a hilarious film which I and so many others loved.

So, how does Anchorman 2 weigh up? Well, the news on this is good. But not great.

The film goes for two hours and for about the first half the laughs just come flying at you. Hilarious, fantastic laughs that are just as good as in the first film. I was thinking to myself 'the storyline's a bit lame but it was in the first one too really' so you just roll with it and enjoy the wise cracks. But then the storyline gets, well, just a bit too ridiculous and the laughs dry up a little. Not completely though, don't get me wrong. The poor guy sitting next to me could easily be telling his friends "well the lady sitting next to me with a loud and annoying laugh certainly enjoyed it!" and that would be true. There's some killer, hilarious lines & I think my favourite was when, in celebration of a victory, Ron Burgundy says "perms for everyone!"... That and a shout out to Olivia Newton John which I won't spoil, really made me cack myself!

It's not as good as the first one and the two mates who I saw it with agreed. That said, definitely plenty of laughs and still worth the ticket price to go & see it, particularly if you liked the first Anchorman film. 

I think this three star review in the Fairfax press is about right for me.

Trailer here.

AMERICAN HUSTLE - film

I nodded my head knowingly when reading this review of American Hustle, in particular the line "How to best describe the irrepressibly convoluted plot? That takes some doing (as well). Let's go with Argo meets GoodFellas meets The Sting, with all three getting on like a house on fire." ... True that it's a hard one to explain but there's no need to label it, all you need to know is that it's excellent and you should definitely go and see it!

Fantastic cast and Christian Bale in particular impressed me. He is brilliant in this and has been nominated for a Golden Globe for his trouble. It also stars Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner and Bradley Cooper who are all excellent also. There is one rather alarming scene where Cooper has his hair in teeny tight rollers, briefly making him less worthy of the 'hubba hubba' label I'd usually attach to him but hey, the man takes his craft seriously.

Only downer for me would be the length - at 129 minutes, it's longer than I usually like my flicks.

However, five stars from the New York Times, 4.5 stars from both Margaret and David (I love it when mum & dad see eye to eye!)and 4 stars from The Telegraph UK makes a compelling case. If you need more, it's from the same director behind Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter, two great films. You know what to do, folks.

Trailer here.

ONE CHANCE - film

This one is based on the true story of Britain's Got Talent winner, Paul Potts.

If you haven't heard of him, watch this clip to get a sense of his story but to cut a long story short, we're talking about a really nervous guy with dodgy teeth and one hell of a singing voice. Truly, watch the clip! I remember having it emailed to me back in the day. Remember when we had to email stuff like that around instead of sharing it on Facebook or Twitter? Ah, the good ol' days.

Anyway, according to this article in The Telegraph (UK), they've certainly taken some creative licence with the story, for what it's worth. You know, Hollywood-ed it up a bit.

One of the big draw cards on this one for me was the lead actor - James Corden who plays Smithy in Gavin & Stacey, possibly my favourite comedy TV show ever. He's great in this but not amazing. It's a pretty Smithy-esque performance to be honest.

The film is a nice one, easy to watch. It covers Paul's life leading up to the BGT performance and that's about where it ends, it doesn't give you a sense of what his life became after he won the show. It did drag a bit, felt longer than it actually was. Good but not great. Maybe wait for it on DVD.

Trailer here.

As an aside, I would like to make the following observation about the rather spectacular behaviour of a fellow patron in the cinema. She hobbled in on crutches with her leg in one of those long moon boot kind of things that goes right up your leg. She sat quietly through the trailers and ads and then WHEN THE FILM STARTED, she proceeded to tear apart the 385 pieces of lycra holding the leg brace on. Well it felt like 385, who knows how many there actually was. And you know why it felt like so many more than there was? You know what would be more annoying than someone swiftly undoing lycra all the way down their leg? SOMEONE DOING IT SLOWLY BECAUSE THEY THINK THAT WILL BE QUIETER AND BETTER. LADY, IT WAS NOT QUIETER OR BETTER, IT WAS SPECTACULARLY ANNOYING & YOU SHOULD TAKE A GOOD HARD LOOK AT YOURSELF.