The Imposter

This stunning and, at times, disturbing documentary basis itself on a true story that proves that true stories can be the most peculiar and incredible of them all. In 1994, a thirteen-year-old boy, Nicholas Barclay, went missing in Texas, three years later he is reportedly found in Spain. However, the boy found is not Nicholas Barclay, but Frédéric Bourdin who eventually decides to impersonate the boy. What is perhaps most shocking is that the family of missing child accepted that this was Nicholas. The film documents the events that occurred, hoping to provide some of the answers to how this 23-year-old man (with a French accent) posed as a sixteen old boy (with a Texan accent), managing to convince the missing boy’s own family in the process.

The pointless reboot was Bourne to be bad

As you are more than likely aware the new Bourne movie does not feature Jason Bourne (except for a picture or two), it is like the Halloween franchise not having Michael Myers in a film, I mean imagine how silly that would be! Moving on, The Bourne Legacy is set simultaneously to The Bourne Ultimatum with that Guardian reporter being shot by a Tory Telegraph reader. Meanwhile, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is trekking through Alaska and he happens to bump into Oscar Isaac, but suddenly the pair are attacked by drones.

Shadow Dancer

Tom Bradby used his three-year stay in Ireland as inspiration for the central story of his novel, Shadow Dancer. He covered many important events such as the peace agreement and the IRA ceasefire, and this peace agreement serves as a backdrop for the central story. The Irish problem still burns strong in the hearts of many Catholics and only just recently the Queen of England shook hands with terrorist Martin Mcguinness, who murdered children as well as the Queen’s own cousin, but remember a terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. 

Battleship

Hasbro (the company behind the Transformers franchise) have felt it to be a good idea to base a film on a board game called Battleship. Now, you must be thinking ‘hang on, there were no aliens in the game battleship’ and you will be correct in thinking such a thing, but the link between the film and board game is somewhat tenuous. It is clearly a Hasbro film as Battleship looks exactly like Transformers, but on sea and even worse (though granted I have not tortured myself watching the second and third films of the Transformers franchise).

Nostalgia for the Light

Two years after it premiered at the Cannes film festival, Nostalgia for the Light eventually hit British cinemas. It was released to very favourable reviews from both across the world and in its homeland of Chile, reviews were correct as Nostalgia for the Light certainly makes for compelling viewing. Patricio Guzmán’s startling documentary goes to the Atacama Desert to look at the skies in an attempt discover our origins, meanwhile, also in the Atacama Desert, a group of women search though the vast desert to recover the remains of the loved ones lost during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal regime.  

Gone

Written by Allison Burnett, Gone stars Amanda Seyfried as Jill Conway who a few years previously was kidnapped and abandoned in a hole, which contained human remains, in the forest. Jill escaped from her kidnapper and told the police of her ordeal but they never found the hole containing human remains. In the present day, Jill lives with her sister, Molly (Emily Wickersham), but when Molly is kidnapped the night before a test Jill fears that the kidnapper has returned, however the police believe her crazy story to be balderdash. 

Ted

John Bennett is a lonely eight-year-old boy who is not allowed to play with the other kids whose main source of enjoyment is to regularly beat up the local Jewish boy. However, on Christmas John gets the best Christmas present ever in the shape of a teddy bear. John and his teddy bear become inseparable and soon John makes a wish that Teddy could talk and the next day his wish has come true. Over twenty-five years later the 35 year old John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) are still inseparable, but John’s girlfriend (Mia Kunis) offers John an ultimatum.

The Flowers of War

In recent years there has been an upsurge in films based on the events of the Nanking Massacre (sometimes known as The Rape of Nanking), the most famous, and perhaps greatest of these, was Chaun Lu’s harrowing masterpiece The City of Life and Death, which came out in 2009. The explanation for the rise of such films is to highlight such an event which sadly, because of Pearl Harbour and the Atomic Bombings, is not recognised as much as it should be. 

Liebster award

The Liebster is an award that's passed from blogger to blogger as a recognition of quality work. I received mine from two people, Alex from and so it begins and R. Hamilton. To accept the award there are rules which must be followed however:

'Mirror Mirror is ok' Quoth The Raven

Mirror Mirror is the first of the two mainstream films that are based upon the story of Snow White (the other being Snow White and the Huntsman). The first and equally moderately well received Snow White stars Lily Collins as Snow White who, having lost her mother during childbirth, soon loses her father thus having to be raised by the Queen (Julia Roberts). During a small stroll in the woods, Snow White comes across a prince (Armie Hammer) tied upside down to a tree, Snow White frees him allowing him to travel onwards to White’s kingdom in bid to offer Julia Roberts’ Queen a deal of some sort. The Queen, liking Prince Alcott’s (Hammer) hairy chest (she should see mine *growls sexually*), and the fact that he is stinking rich, decides to marry him. Meanwhile, Snow White discovers that the city is not the vibrant place it was once was, and after her performance at the ball, Snow White is banished from the kingdom. Snow White enlists the help of seven dwarfs to save the kingdom from evil queen.