Starred Up!!!!

Starred Up.

Violence, corruption, drugs and survival are some aspects to prison life and you certainly do need to survive while in prison. I honesty can't remember the last time I saw a film set in a prison, Bronson I think was the last film that touched upon this subject in a gritty way.

The basic plotline is Eric Love (Jack O'Connell) is a fresh faced young man given an early transfer from the Young Offender Institution to an adult prison. Being the loud mouthed, confrontational and confident person he is he doesn't quite fit in with the inmates. 

Over the course of the film he gets into trouble, fighting prison guards, attacking other inmates and basically fighting for his own survival. One man stands out from the rest Neville (Ben Mendelsohn) who sympathises with the young man and gives him some stark firm but fair advice on surviving. As situations escalate and people end up dead or injured Eric must learn to comply with the system or he will go down fast and end up dead himself.

Going to group therapy sessions he opens up abit more and talks about his father, who turns up and walks into the room. Neville is his father and the group soon learns why Eric has stayed alive for doing so many things wrong so quickly. Finally stepping in as a father both of them need to learn, to either open up and have a father/son relationship or just learn to survive and move on.

As I say this is the first prison film I've seen in a good while and it makes a difference and certainly lets the acting come across really well in confined spaces. The storyline of son meeting father in prison is clever and shows an angle to prisons that you wouldn't ever usually think about could happen. O'Connell plays Eric with such ease and confidence but then his character could be seen as a more grown up Cook from Skins. Mendelsohn portrays the broken father with hope with ease as well, learning to adapt to his surroundings he survives knowing the inner circles of the prison and gets by by any means necessary. 

I have to mention the violence which not only is impressive but in this film is necessary and something that is a need to an end to lengthen Eric's survival. Making make shift shanks out of a melted toothbrush and a razor blade shows he can be creative and still survive. The storyline of father and son is what makes it so interesting, if it was lone man trying to survive it would be too contrived and bland. Throw in a small confined place with father and son who haven't seen each other in years and its a perfect setting. 

For a small budget film set in a prison it is seriously impressive and a film that deserves so much attention. Using actors who can show and bring out that genuine quality to prison life and still make the film exciting and engaging is impressive. For anyone who likes to watch gritty, violent films showing the realistic side to life in prison then seriously watch this film.

10/10.

The LEGO Movie!!!!

The LEGO Movie.

If their is one toy from my childhood I became obsessed over again this year it would be LEGO and this movie is the main reason for that. I grew up on LEGO, many a time when  I was younger me and a friend would build our own creations and make weird spaceships and odd shaped buildings.

When I first heard they were making a LEGO movie I thought to myself "this could not work, this must be a joke and no doubt it'll turn out to be total rubbish". BUT I have to say I was proved completely wrong as I really enjoyed this film and at times transported back to my younger self being a massive LEGO fan. 

The main storyline to the film is of course where a normal builder Emmet (Chris Pratt) falls into a world that he never even knew existed. A world of master builders who are going up against the two faced Lord Business (Will Ferrell), he controls the people and makes the feel safe yet he wants to glue the world together to stop people building weird non-conformist creations.

Emmet is of course hailed as the saviour and must find the Kragle to stop Lord Business from going through with his plan and save the world that they live in. All different situations take place, meeting Wyldstyle a master builder she helps Emmet find that inner master builder inside him and hopes to save the world. Building their way through and out of situations like the wild west and a huge car chase you see what the master builders can do building all different machines. 

The storyline may be basic but it is able to show off all the clever aspects of the film, cameos and voice-overs by some top actors like Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Alison Brie, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and the list goes on really gives it that extra serious push. I loved the way the film worked and the LEGO worked on screen as well it was flawless and definitely kept my attention glued to the screen the whole time. 

Their is only one reason I decided to give the film a 9/10 and not a perfect 10 and that is because for me I wanted SO much more. The LEGO universe has become so huge that hopefully a second film will go into other franchises like Star Wars or Lord Of The Rings or Marvel even which would be awesome to see. I loved the film SO much I becamse addicted to the minifgures and currently have only half (8) proudly on one of my shelves. 

For anyone who made stupid, weird LEGO figures and made up machines and flying spaceships when you were younger then WATCH THIS FILM. You will be transported back to your youth and will no doubt fall in love again with a childhood toy that up until this film was not cool to play with as an adult but now you can be AWESOME again. 

To finish on a pun "everything IS AWESOME" with this film.

9/10.

Robocop!!!!

Robocop.

When a "classic" film is re-hashed and put together and re-booted fans will of course always wade into the argument of what should and shouldn't be covered. For this version of Robocop we see the usual storyline of how Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) a successful police officer suffers a personal tragedy and is blown half to pieces when his car is sabotaged. Fighting for his life and on the verge of death his wife Clare Murphy (Abbie Cornish) makes the decision with the help of Dr Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) the OmniCorp chief scientist to save her husband. With every part of his body destroyed, the only parts his own being one of his hands, his heart, his lungs and his brain he is every bit a walking talking machine. 

Robocop is born and his main purpose is to make OmniCorp look good, with robots serving the US military overseas OmniCorp wants to put the same robots on the streets but because of the Dreyfus Act they can't. To gain the public's trust Robocop is deployed onto the streets, shown to be a robot with human conscientiousness he is there to gain their trust and help OmniCorp to get rid of the Act. 

As Robocop starts to become a success people start to turn on the Dreyfus Act but being stopped of seeing his family his wife soon has to fight to get her husband back. With Alex's head filled with every crime that has taken place in the city he soon starts to reflect on his own crime and start's to feel for his son and his wife. 

With the Dreyfus Act still in place and Alex fighting to control his own emotions soon enough something will happen, will Robocop stay or will he be pulled off of the streets. 

I have to say for a film about a Robocop I felt their was too much backstory and not enough action, seeing Alex's backstory and how he came to be was all well and good but it took up too much time. With a little bit more action and being able to see him in action it would have made a far better and interesting film. Kinnaman as Robocop was at times convincing but then again he just has to act as a robot for most of the time. Gary Oldman for me raises the film and really brings across a scientist who is torn to his allegiances and also what is the best course of action morally and professionally. 

Now that we have dealt with the origins I'd like to see if a second film was to surface and maybe this time around we could see him in some proper action scenes. See what Robocop is LITERALLY made of.

6/10.

Inside Llewyn Davis!!!!

Inside Llewyn Davis.

When it comes to directors who make new films no matter what style, type or genre of film they decide to make it I will always go and see it. Two directors, brothers at that Joel and Ethan Coen have been making films for years and they have covered many different genres, comedy which is their strongest suit definitely comes through in this film for sure.

Set in the early 60's you see a man sat playing an acoustic guitar on a dark small lit stage, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a down and out musician. Having recently lost his music partner who committed suicide he has gone it alone with his own solo record 'Inside Llewyn Davis', couch surfing and playing the local cafe/bar he isn't the most successful of musicians. With the news that his friend Jean (Carey Mulligan) married to Jim (Justin Timberlake) is pregnant and the baby might be his his life isn't going in the right direction. 

With disaster after disaster Llewyn doesn't catch a break, settling for just $200 for a song instead of royalties, losing his seamen's licence, visiting his dying father and being told he's no good as a solo artist everything is not going well. With the addition of a ginger cat he accidentlly has to look after you really do feel for Llewyn but has he just brought it all onto himself?.

During the film you question yourself and work out what he truly is, a creative genious yet to be given his big break or just a down and out musician with no talent and going nowhere. Using his friends when he only really needs them to then pay for Jean's abortion and asking how she is he shows different parts of his personality. 

Inside Llewyn Davis shares many features from the Coen's past films, the musicality from 'O Brother Where Art Thou' and the comedy from 'Burn After Reading' and 'Fargo'. This is a more sombre affair of a film, it doesn't have the violence or crazy off the wall comedy from past films and feels like new territory for the brothers. One aspect in which I really loved in this film is the music used, Oscar Issac has a really impressive voice and most of his own performances are used. Casting Justin Timberlake was an obvious reason as he sings on two stand out songs, the trio song 'Five Hundred Miles' and the tongue in cheek space advert 'Please Mr Kennedy'. 

For a film that has been shunned by the Oscar's and BAFTA's it makes no sense as this a pure Coen brothers film: comedy, sincerity and a story of life with some added great music make it stand out. Also to mention an impressive performance by Oscar Isaac not only from his acting but his on point vocals make this film so great and worth seeing.

9/10.