A Kite Dancing in a Hurricane

Spectre (2015)

7.1/10 on IMDb
64% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's thoughts: Low-energy entertainment
Watch this if you: Want to be disappointed in a James Bond film; have nothing better to do; have friends over and aren't sure what is a good film to watch while everyone is talking over it; want to watch beautiful cars but not beautiful chase scenes; want to be let down by a villain who was hyped up quite a lot

Man I was pretty keen on seeing Spectre since I was having exams when it came out, but then I heard all these negative reviews about it! People were comparing it to the god forsaken Quantum of Solace, and I suddenly became terrified. I still had hope for it though, because the trailers looked amazing.

In the end, it was still pretty decent. The main issue was that it was super super long, with a total run time of 2.5 hours.

On top of that, the villain was terrible. Don't get me wrong, Christoph Waltz as per usual was great, but they seriously wasted his talent. His character didn't do ANYTHING and his part of the story was completely unconvincing. We all saw that menacing shot of him in the trailer; they hyped it up heaps for us and all for what? Nothing! His character was pathetic.

Another thing is that they tried to tie in some events of the other three films, but they did this so sloppily; the script was terribly unconvincing, and then on top of that you add the villain's unconvincing backstory and you get a waste of a great talent.

But okay, surely it wasn't as bad as Quantum of Solace, right?!

Well, there were actually some good points about this film.

Firstly, Daniel Craig is sexier than ever here. He's just so suave in this! Yeh, okay, maybe the rough and careless Daniel Craig Bond we all know and love now does care that his martinis should be shaken and not stirred (I'm not kidding, this was actually a point that a movie critic brought up), but you can tell that the whole film is still continuing with his rule-breaking, impulsive and unpredictable legacy.

David Bautista (Drax the Destroyer himself) was great in this, and made any fight scene he was involved in great.

Unfortunately, though, the first car chase scene was really nothing special. But, luckily the cars are beautiful enough for you to be distracted for the overly tame nature of the car chase.

The best thing I loved about this film though...the open sequence. My absolute love for long takes made me fall in love with this film right at the beginning. That single tracking shot in the Day of the Dead parade was so fantastically done, it made me so happy.

Then we get to the title sequence, and it just goes downhill. Like, it wasn't bad but it was just really weird for a bond film. It had a lot more realistic imagery in it, rather than cartoons and graphics overlaid on top of one another. It was also weird because it sort of alluded to things that were going to happen in the film, thus the title sequence even acted as a mild spoiler. It also kind of refreshed your memory of the first three films, which made it more obvious and less fun when you 'discovered' how this movie linked to the first three films.

So overall, I went in to this with a really low expectation, but honestly, it was alright. It's not as great as Casino Royale or Skyfall, but it's definitely better than Quantum of Solace. If anything, just watch it for the opening Day of the Dead sequence; that one long take, as well as all the costumes... simply amazing. The entire cast still does a great job, the cars are beautiful, and some of the action scenes were great. The only issues are that it was (and, more importantly, felt) super long, and the way they wrote the villain was terrible unconvincing. Apart from that, I still think it's worth the watch.

A few side notes:

I can't take any scenes of Moriarty seriously

Q is so sassy and cute

Every time I see someone's thumbs over someone's eyes, I will never not think of The Mountain That Rides

I wasn't not sure why I didn't like any of the scenes that C was involved in (besides the fact that he's just Moriarty), until I saw a movie review saying it was too much like Mission Impossible

Sam Smith you are great

You Love Me. Real or Not Real?

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (2015)

7.3/10 on IMDb
70% on Rotten Tomatoes
After my last exam on Friday in the blistering 40 degree heat, I was sooooo excited to watch this! My love for Jennifer Lawrence and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy is no stranger to anyone, and the film did not disappoint!

The film opens up right where it left us at the end of Part 1, and continues on the war between the Rebels and the Capitol. We see that District 13 is attempting to rally and unify the other districts to gather enough force to take down the Capitol. Without the unification of all districts, theirs is a helpless cause.

There is inherently going to be a problem with splitting up a book into two films. The first film of course had it's slow moments, but I guess I didn't really notice them. Similarly, I saw reviews of this film arguing that the pacing did not really work out well, as there were moments that dragged on for quite a while. To be honest, I didn't notice the pacing issues in this film AT ALL. With the first film I could see where non-book-readers would start to get bored, but I've been trying to think back about the film and see what pacing issues it had. Maybe it's because I'm biased with my love for Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and the trilogy itself, but I think the pacing was fine.

While the ending to this trilogy is not as epic as endings to other franchises (there's no big boss fight or anything), it did a fantastic job at sticking to the storyline, mainly only changing things for the sake of keeping the total run time down to 2 hours and 17 minutes. Another thing I love about the storyline is that it shows you the reality of war. I have a feeling I talked about this in my review on Part 1 and when I reviewed the novel, but the film does a great job at showing you the consequences of war. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is very real, and Katniss suffers from in it Part 1. In this film, there's even more about the effects of being a POW especially with the Capitol's instruments of torture. There's also the idea that war is brutal; not everyone is going to live, and if they do live, do they get to live a good life?

The action in this film is pretty great; they had some really good scenes and it brought you back to the action and arena-styled fighting in the first two movies.

Jennifer Lawrence's acting was also great in this, she kept it real and grounded in the character of Katniss and it was completely believable. Liam Hemsworth's acting was alright too, nothing special, but I think Josh Hutcherson did a pretty great job as the broken Peeta.

A few downsides to this film were that I wasn't too sure if non-book-readers would be able to understand some of the stuff that was happening or being said. I don't think they did a very good job at taking into consideration the non-readers in the audience, and I would have liked for them to explain or go into a bit more detail for certain things. Another thing is that Johanna Mason is my favourite character, and I love Jena Malone's portrayal of her. She has a much bigger role in the novels, but unfortunately I guess for timing purposes they had to cut her section out. Whenever she was on the screen though, Jena Malone stole the show, I just wish we could have seen more from her.

So overall, I think this was a satisfying end to the series. I'm not going to say it was epic, because as I said before, the whole reason for an ending like this is to show you that sometimes when wars end they aren't completely epic; I'm not going to say it was happy, because it does show you the reality of war and it's kind of bittersweet rather than happy; and I'm not going to say it was amazing/great/whatever because I still think Catching Fire was the best film of the series.

A few side notes:

If you kept an eye out on when I began crying, that would have been a huge spoiler alert because I was crying in quite a random scene

I can't be the only one (I wasn't; my brother thought the same) to think that that baby looked Asian?

It was so sad seeing the digitised Philip Seymour Hoffman... it was really obvious those scenes were digitised and it just wasn't the same

Movie Reviews in Five Dotpoints or Less - Part IV

Forrest Gump (1994)

8.8/10 on IMDb
72% on Rotten Tomatoes

Man, I always hated Jenny as a kid... and I still do!

I absolutely love Tom Hanks

Run, Forrest, Run!

An awesomely hilarious, yet touching and depressing story

Definitely a must see (but you probably already knew that)


Saving Private Ryan (1998)

8.6/10 on IMDb
92% on Rotten Tomatoes

That opening sequence is AMAZING

And that ending is AMAZING

And the middle was AMAZING too

And Tom Hanks was AMAZING

And Steven Spielberg, you are AMAZING


Lincoln (2012)

7.4/10 on IMDb
90% on Rotten Tomatoes

I'll be honest with you, I couldn't finish this movie; I got to about 40 minutes in before I had to leave the living room; I was falling asleep and just couldn't take it any more

Don't get me wrong; I see why it was hyped and Daniel Day Lewis does an amazing job as Abraham Lincoln, the legend of a president who abolished slavery

However, the script is so heavy; I had subtitles on and it was still such a struggle, so around the time that I left I had no idea what had just happened and what was happening then; I had no idea who was who and it was just all too confusing

One of the sickest burns in history though: Thaddeus Stevens: "When will Mr. Wood conclude his interminable gabble? Some of us breathe oxygen, and we find the mephitic fumes of his oratory a lethal challenge to our pulmonary capabilities."


The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

7.3/10 on IMDb
80% on Rotten Tomatoes

Great film with lots of intertwining stories

Don't want to ruin it, but Ryan Gosling is a stunt motorcyclist whose life gets shaken up and changed early in the film

Bradley Cooper is also in it, and both he and Ryan Gosling do an amazing job

The beauty of this film is in the story and the underlying message of it - how peoples' decisions in life can lead to certain consequences and can even affect other peoples' lives - but that people still have choices and everything can be either righted, or turned into a huge mess

I definitely recommend it if you're looking for some deep philosophical thinking about the human condition, but be warned it's quite slow and I won't be seeing it again in the near future, but it's still very worthy of a watch

Jokes I gotta add another dotpoint: the storyline is great; if you watch the beginning of this movie, then come back 1 hour later, it's almost like it's a different movie, then you come back after another hour and it again seems like it's a different movie, yet it still flows well and has great continuity


Before I Go to Sleep (2014)

6.3/10 on IMDb
35% on Rotten Tomatoes

Imagine 50 First Dates meets Memento

Not sure why it has received such bad views, but I actually liked it; I thought it was a really interesting story with a good plot twist at the end

I guess I understand the criticisms on this film: that it's slow, that it kind of spoon feeds you the information rather than making you think, and that the writing is bad and unrealistic

I'm not too sure if I agree on their criticisms (except that yes, of course, Memento did it better); yes, the film was a bit slow and repetitive at the beginning, but I think there is still quite a bit to consider and think about as the film progresses, and while you sort of half know the ending, there's still that other half that you need to figure out (which I couldn't). Yes, the writing could be improved, but I never went in thinking it would be a realistic film; it still makes sense to me

So I think it's a bit unfair to rate this movie so badly, and I think it is quite an enjoyable thriller

Two great Toms; Two very different movies

Bridge of Spies (2015)

8.1/10 on IMDb
92% on Rotten Tomatoes
During the Cold War, insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is required to defend and facilitate the exchange of a Russian spy to secure the freedom of a young American spy.

I don't need to tell you that Steven Spielberg is great, but let's face it... it's been some time since he's made a good, watchable film.

Thank the heavens that this film is actually pretty great.

It's INSPIRED by a true story, and since it's dealing with such a heavy and serious real-life event, I was quite surprised at just how funny the film was. I mean, I'm not saying it was a constant stream of side-splitting laughter, but Spielberg managed to slip in some really funny moments.

The intensity of the film was also handled really well. It's not a crazy spy movie like I first thought it would be, as it delves more into the politics and boring negotiations, but the thing is... it's not even boring. Sure, it's a long film and there's quite a bit of talking, but it's easy to follow and the conversations can still be quite interesting.

I loved Tom Hanks in this. Man, he is a legend. He did a great job in this film.

Another stand out was Mark Rylance, who played the Russian spy. I love how cute old people are, and this guy was sooooo adorable. Especially the way he would say, "Would it help?"

Which brings me to another thing that I loved about this film: it really showed how great certain individuals could be.

In the face of almost guaranteed death, Rudolf doesn't look worried. Why? Well, because... would it help?

Thrust in the limelight, Donovan becomes the most hated man in America; more hated than Rudolf! Why? Because he's defending a Russian spy. But his character is so idealistic; he goes by the law, he argues for proper procedures to be taken even though it's pretty much a given that this guy is a spy. Why? Because JUSTICE. I love it when people do things on principle.

So overall, this film is an enjoyable and dramatic biopic which I would recommend seeing at least once. There are some great shots, and the film was quite visually appealing, so while there is not any real necessity to watch it in cinemas, you still won't be disappointed. The themes and nature of this film remind me of Argo, but I do think that Argo is more re-watchable, as Bridge of Spies is a bit too long.


Legend (2015)

7.5/10 on IMDb
62% on Rotten Tomatoes
Speaking of Toms being legends, Legend looks at the Krays, twin gangsters that terrorised London in the '50s.

Tom Hardy plays both Reggie and Ronnie Kray, and yet you tend to forget that it's the same actor. Reggie is not entirely cool, calm and collected, but next to the violently paranoid schizophrenic Ronnie, Reggie appears as cool as a cucumber.

Unfortunately, Tom Hardy is about the only thing that's good in the film. The dialogue is long and very hard to understand with their heavy London accents, and the plot moves at a slow pace, making it hard to get too invested in what's happening.

Luckily enough, any time Tom Hardy is the focus of the scene, his presence and performance are loud enough for you to be distracted from the bad points of the film. Emily Browning's sheer beauty and mesmerising voice were also enough to distract you from what was going on (even though some of the narration got a bit weird... "Cup of tea? I don't think so.").

Seriously, Tom Hardy was amazing, especially with Ronnie. Some people might think he went a bit over the top, but I think it just added to the humour. This film definitely was a much lighter film than I thought it would be, and most of that is due to Tom Hardy's exceptional performance.

But as I said, everything else was just sort of dull, and as great as Tom Hardy was, he couldn't make up for an only alright to sort of bad film. So in the end, Legend is definitely not a legendary film and definitely not worth the watch.