The Gift

Joel Edgerton (2015)

This film was good. The acting was good. It was well written and had good plot twists. It did get a bit too predictable and over-the-top by the end.

Deadpool

Tim Miller (2016)

This film was very funny. Ryan Reynolds was made for this role. The innuendos did get a bit much though.

It was well written and the direction was very good but it did go into a territory that it was trying to make fun of. I got bored of all the action hero conventions after a while.

Anomalisa

Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman (2015)

Reviewing this film gives me great pleasure as I thought it was very well made. It is a beautiful film about the isolation and the disembodiment of modern society. 'Anomalisa' tells the story of a man called Michael Stone played by David Thewlis on a business trip and we realise how lonely he is.The film is made using start-stop animation puppetry which had been chosen for amazing effect. Each character has the same face (seemingly like masks) and everyone has the same monotonic voice apart from the two main characters. This makes the themes of identity and loneliness so very profound and imaginative.

The repetitiveness of the main character's lifestyle comes to a halt when he overhears a guest in his hotel which is cleverly named The Fregoli which is the name of a mental condition to do with paranoia. This guest turns out to be voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh. She is the only other voice heard and Stone is enchanted by her and instantly asks for her to go back to his room. He makes her sing and listens to her intently. There is a very graphic sex scene which would be humourous in any other circumstance but it is very moving and beautiful.

I won't talk any more about the story as it'll ruin it. 'Anomalisa' is a very clever film from the mind who brought us 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', 'Adaptation.' and 'Being John Malkovich' and it shows. Everything about it is expertly done. It is sad that this was only up for 'Best Animated Feature' alongside two dimensional children's cartoons at the Academy Awards and it wasn't recognised for being the great film that it is.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

Christopher Landon (2015)

I thought this film would be a cross between 'Superbad' and 'Zombieland'. I think I was too accurate. There is nothing original about this film. I suppose originality is not what you are looking for when sitting down to this film which is fair enough but every single character has been ripped from the pages of previous 'teen' movie scripts that have gone before it and the humour doesn't even make it stand out.

The story does move on slightly from the tiresome quest of American teenagers wanting to get laid when the zombies appear (spoiler alert!) which kept my interest slightly. The over-the-top gore was fun but only distracted me slightly from how poor the other aspects of the film were.

Overall, the screenplay and performances are nothing to write home about but it was quite well directed.

The Witch

Robert Eggers (2015)

This was a really good horror film. The direction was very interesting and Robert Egger plays with darkness and shadows in a really horrifying way. The tension is unbearable at times.

The dialogue is a bit hard to follow as it is very "oldé English" to add to the historical accuracy of the piece. The actors are all good at reciting this strange dialect and demonstrating the paranoia spreading through the family thanks to religion and superstition.The film is based on accounts and texts found from the era and so everything seen on screen has been taken from sources and barely been touched. Every part of the film seems authentic.

It is refreshing to see a film that doesn't really on jump-scares and annoying "cattle-prod" techniques to make audiences scared. 'The Witch' is genuinely disturbing without resorting to these techniques. It is very strange and gory when it needs to be. I also found these strange scenes quite fascinating and educational as the film almost seems like a historical document.

Ant-Man

Peyton Reed (2015)

I like Paul Rudd and was hoping this would be as funny as 'The Guardians of the Galaxy' but it wasn't. It looked good and the direction was solid but I think it suffered from the constant screenplay rewrites that the film underwent by changing the screenwriters (Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish).

I also felt it was a bit too long-winded and it was unbalanced. However, the main good feature in this film was the special effects.

Zootropolis

Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush (2016)

This film is named 'Zootopia' in the US but the title was changed when it was shown in the UK. I thought it is a very good children's film. Very well animated. Colourful. Really cute animals.

It is a great parable about tolerance and racism which could be seen as a mirror to the xenophobia in society today. The story is of a rabbit called Judy Hopps who overcomes diversity to become a police officer in the city of Zootropolis (Zootopia). This is a very tough city full of crime and only strong predators take charge. Judy must help to solve the case of predators disappearing around the city but needs to fight her colleagues' prejudices at the same time.

The jokes are funny and the story is intriguing. The film contains lots of references to other films which will keep viewers of all ages happy (including a very funny Breaking Bad spoof).

The voice acting is very good and each actor perfectly adds to their character.