Fish and Cherries Productions

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was a superb sequel to a great movie. What really stands out, apart from the amazing Jennifer Lawrence, is the vastly improved camerawork that has abandoned the obnoxious shaky cam of the previous film. The material carried a lot more weight and I felt a lot more for Peeta’s plight than I did in the first film. Overall, this movie comes highly recommended, even if you haven’t seen the first one.

2 Guns, at the end of the day, is a movie that is just good enough. It does not excel anywhere, but it is not horrible either. The character interactions are the high points of the movie, especially between Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, who give some very funny lines. Wahlberg is growing to be a very accomplished action-comedian, even if he seems to be typecast as cops constantly. However, the film’s downfall is that it takes itself too seriously at times and attempts to juggle the serious and comedic elements quite unevenly. Had it gone for a full action-comedy, it would have been much better for it. But as it stands, 2 Guns is good enough.

Thor: The Dark World is an immensely funny, action-packed, and very strong entry to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The fight scenes were amazing, the dialogue was sharp and punchy, and Loki once again, stole the show right from under Thor’s feet. Admittedly, there are some awkward elements, like the Darcie and Ian scenes which feel like they belong in a different movie altogether and a few of the jokes did leave me less than amused. However, this barely detracts from a very intense story that culminates in an incredibly creative and epic final battle. This is my second favorite Marvel movie, right under The Avengers, possibly under the first Iron Man as well.

EDIT: Admittedly, after a little while has passed, some of the flaws because more apparent, but that still doesn’t make this a bad movie by any means.

The Wind Rises is a beautiful testament to all of Hayao Miyazaki’s finest storytelling devices: slow and steady pacing, beautifully detailed animation, contemplative and soothing atmosphere, and heartwarming moments found in life’s simplicities. Describing the movie is kind of hard because in truth, there’s no real focus. There’s no villain, no problem that needs the entire movie to solve, or really any one genre focus. It just explores ten years in the life of an upcoming aeronautical designer who is trying to make beautiful planes around the time of World War II when the Japanese are demanding fighter planes. The huge selling point really is the atmosphere as the entire film is like a dreamlike nature hike; Jiro, the protagonist, encounters something, dwells on it or solves the problem, and then the movie moves on. It’s not even bound by a strict story structure, like there’s an old German guy that sits by Jiro in a restaurant, says some cryptic stuff, hangs around for a few more scenes, and then just leaves the country, only to be mentioned once afterwards. He’s not even in a third of the movie. Normally, this stuff would drag down other movies, but that doesn’t even matter here because the movie is so beautiful in everything it does. The only downsides are that the pacing can be a bit too slow at times and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sounded really flat as Jiro, like his voice wasn’t expressive enough for voice acting. The entire film leaves the audience with a really heartwarming feeling, even though the ending has a melancholic and tragic undertone (which I don’t think is a spoiler because we should all know by now how the Japanese fared in World War II). If you have to compare it to Miyazaki’s other works, this is more akin to the slice-of-life style of My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service rather than the adventure style of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. As this is the final film of Miyazaki’s career, I can say that the note he ended on was as high as one of Jiro’s planes.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman was a fairly good movie that also left me a little disappointed. One of the movie’s biggest strengths is that it’s very intelligent, both in most of its humor and Peabody being portrayed as a Holmesian genius prodigy, which is a nice touch. However, the film’s greatest strength is also a potential drawback, as some of the humor might be so sophisticated that it might leave some of the younger viewers feeling lost. But the biggest drawback is the character of Ms. Grunion, whose only purpose is to be a one-dimensional antagonist that simply exists to harass Peabody and make him miserable, even getting excited about him getting possibly put down, with no believable motive or reason for doing so apart from “he’s a dog and dogs shouldn’t raise humans.” That does stand aside some other heavy and well thought out conflicts and themes too, like parenting techniques, what family truly is, and other such things that really have a lot of heart and make you feel for these characters. However, this comes at the expense of a rather cliched story and some fairly tired tropes, like the aforementioned bully in Ms. Grunion and also isn’t as strong in the laugh department. So as you can tell, I’m fairly mixed about this movie. It’s much more mature than the advertisements make it out to be and it’s very smart, but the intelligence is held back by a rather formulaic plot. But it is far superior to any of the other adaptation of the segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show that came before it, so take that for what it’s worth.

After watching Cloud Atlas, I have come to two conclusions. The first is that this movie is incredible and the Wachowski’s best film to date. The second is that somehow, someway, this movie has changed me. The movie itself is a beautiful tale about how one drop in the ocean can create waves that can reach places that the drop could never have dreamed of and will probably never see. It may be an old lesson, but it’s one that will always ring true. The way that everything connects is absolutely astounding, which is amplified by the multiple-role casting across six different stories that are kept perfectly balanced. I can say without a doubt that I will be seeing this movie again and that it has earned a place as one of my all-time favorite movies.

The first time I saw The Wolverine, I was so exhausted that I kept dozing off. After seeing it again, I can definitively say that it is a conflicting movie. On the downside, it drags very heavily in the second act and some of the action scenes feel incredibly long. On the upside, the action scene on the bullet train is absolutely amazing and it cleanses the pallet of the previous, rather awful Wolverine movie. It also avoids one of the major problems of the first movie where they made an action movie around an indestructible protagonist and instead made it a drama with action scenes. After all, there are few characters who have as much easily mineable angst as Wolverine. The movie is far from perfect, as there are a few characters that feel underutilized or underdeveloped, but on the whole, it’s worth a watch. There’s also a post-credits scene that will make fans of the franchise wet their pants, so there’s that too.

Insidious: Chapter 2 managed to be scary on many levels as opposed to simply relying on jump scares and gore. I will admit that I haven’t seen the first Insidious, which is probably why I felt the characters felt flat, but I am now curious to see it. The film held up incredibly well under its internal logic and managed to throw a few twists and clever bits of foreshadowing. More importantly, the characters were all incredibly consistent, even the villains/monsters who managed to have clear motivations and characters without being overly sympathetic. That said, it will probably leave you terrified, so if you’re not a fan of being scared, you might want to skip this one. But for me, it was a great way to celebrate Friday the 13th.

The LEGO Movie took me completely by surprise and blew my socks off. By all rights, it had no right to be good, as it seemed like a complete complete cosh cow movie. But somehow, it turned out to be the one of the most imaginative and fun movies for the whole family that takes a twist into straight up meta commentary by the end. The big thing that makes the movie run so well, apart from the really fast comedy coming at you most of the time, comes from the fact that it is, in fact, a LEGO movie, thus everything is based around LEGO physics, motion, and logic. This leads to a lot of jokes and clever use of the set pieces, which I mean quite literally. Honestly, I don’t think the movie would have worked if it took itself completely seriously, but since the plot runs on complete irony, that’s not a problem. Oh, and the acting is superb too, including Charlie Day, who I never would have recognized were it not for the credits. I’m not sure if anyone who hasn’t played with LEGOs or had a kid who did so would enjoy this movie as much apart from the subtle adult jokes that would slip past the kids, but maybe they could. It’s one of the most upbeat, charming, grin-inducing movies that I’ve seen in a while and I think it deserves a watch. Go out and feel like a kid again.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a superb movie with some very serious drawbacks. As I was watching, I realized that the biggest strength of the Middle-Earth movies is the set design, as all of the scenery looks absolutely immaculate. Other great elements are the characters, their interactions, the river scene, and especially Smaug himself, who Benedict Cumberbatch gives a wonderful voice to. The biggest drawback is the ending, or lack thereof. The climax inside the dwarf halls feels like a massive build-up to the conflict at Rivertown that anyone who read the book knows is going to happen, but right as Smaug is flying towards the town, the movie just abruptly ends. Sadly, this makes the second movie in the Hobbit trilogy feel very much like it was just setting up set pieces for the final installment. However, the acting is still great, the casting is wonderful, the excessive build-up is still good build-up, and it is a huge improvement over the previous installment. I would tell you to see it, but let’s face it: it’s a Middle-Earth movie directed by Peter Jackson, so you already have.