Poltergeist (2015)

The five members of the Bowen family relocate to a new home, but they are going through a rough patch. Eric (Sam Rockwell) has recently lost his job thus the families' financial position is precarious so the last thing they need is a haunting in their new home. Which is exactly what they get, things start to get super serious when their youngest daughter Madison (Kennedi Clements) is taken by the evil spirits. 

Thursday Movie Picks - Mother-Son relationships

As it was a bank holiday on Monday I completely lost track of time so I write this at 1:30am on the Thursday (even though I have to get up for 7am). I also had to quickly think of five or six choices, I discarded one because it's just too fucked up (in all seriousness, I didn't feel right picking it), discarded another because it's too tenuous as the relationship only goes one way and discarded the other because I was planning to see it this week but never got round to it. You've probably seen two of the films I have chosen, but I hope to raise an aspect of the story in the third choice that doesn't get enough attention. I'm hoping my second choice is a lesser seen film but it probably isn't. Remember to check out Wandering Through the Shelves.

Tommorowland

Casey Newton (my surname is also Newton but there is no relation to either Casey or Isaac) is a science obsessed teenager who is arrested after trespassing in Cape Canaveral (NASA intend to demolish it and Casey, played by Britt Robertson, is trying to sabotage this). When the police return her possessions, Casey finds a badge of some sort that when touched transports her to a futuristic utopia full of technological advancements far beyond her imagination. She teams up with a former boy genius (George Clooney) and tries to uncover the secrets of Tomorrowland. 

A Most Violent Year

1981 was New York's most violent year on record, the city's homicides had sky rocketed, hijackings were pandemic and crack cocaine and heroin had infested the city turning it into something similar to what disgusted taxi driver Travis Bickle so much that he wished for the rain to wash the scum off the streets. J.C Chandor's A Most Violent Year is set during this volatile era and stars Oscar Isaac as Abel Morales, a businessman looking to reach the top in his industry. The industry in question is the home heating oil industry, but his aims to reach the top are scuppered by a worryingly high number of his vans being stolen. Who is stealing his vans? It is a rival? Amongst all of this Abel must raise enough money to buy a vital plot of land with direct access to the river and contend with an investigation from a District Attorney.

Into the Woods

Into the Woods is a screen adaptation of the musical, of the same name, by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine and, like the musical, the film tries to combine many of the characters from the collection of fairy tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Jack (as in Jack the beanstalk). This fantasy, cross over mish mash works reasonably well but the focus on many different characters, and attempts to devote equal screen time to them, damages the film's pacing.

Thursday Movie Picks - Movies based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)

New Thursday, new Thursday Movie Picks. This week it is movies based on graphic novels or comics that are not superhero movies. - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.co.uk/

Mad Max

Set in the distant future, Australia and much of the world is now a desolate wasteland where food and water is scarce and thirst and starvation is rife. An ex cop, Max (Tom Hardy), is captured by The War Boys, led by the warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Meanwhile, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) defies her orders and attempts to use the assignment as an opportunity to rescue Joe's five wives from his tyrannical grasp. The War Boys discover this, send out a task force to intercept her and bring Max along with them.

Thursday Movie Picks - German Movies

For this week I will select a German film from three different eras. The first era will be pre 1933, the second era will from 1933-1945 and the final era will be post 1945. Just thought it would be interesting to mix it up a little.

Having already selected The Lives of Others in a previous Thursday Movie Pick I won't select it for this week but I assure you it would have been in the list if I hadn't already previously selected it.

Thursday Movie Picks is hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves

The Ideological Battle

How did the governments of Britain, America and Nazi Germany use the cinema to boost the morale of the people and persuade them to contribute to the war effort?

This is my history dissertation, sadly this dissertation wasn't exactly the Citizen Kane of History dissertations but apparently it was much better as a film essay rather than a history essay. This inevitably became my downfall, and briefly rereading through my dissertation I completely agree with that assessment (and noticed other flaws). I suppose, however, that fact makes it more appropriate to publish the dissertation here. The dissertation will be released in instalments, this is part 2

Short Review: The Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything is based on the memoir by Jane Hawking (Stephen Hawking's first wife) which chronicles Hawking's life from the early signs and eventual diagnosis of Motor Neuron Disease to his success in the field of modern physics.

How did the governments of Britain, America and Nazi Germany use the cinema to boost the morale of the people and persuade them to contribute to the war effort?

This is my history dissertation, sadly this dissertation wasn't exactly the Citizen Kane of History dissertations but apparently it was much better as a film essay rather than a history essay. This inevitably became my downfall, and briefly rereading through my dissertation I completely agree with that assessment (and noticed other flaws). I suppose, however, that fact makes it more appropriate to publish the dissertation here. The dissertation will be released in instalments, I am going to start with part 1 because I'm not George Lucas.

Unbroken

Angelina Jolie's second directorial effort is based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand which detailed the trials and tribulations of Louis Zamperini, an American soldier who endured detainment in a series of Japanese POW camps after surviving 47 days adrift at sea as a result of a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean.

Thursday Movie Picks - Workplace Movies

It's Thursday so that means it's time for a new Thursday Movie Picks Hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves

The Sleeping Room

The Sleeping Room premièred at the London Frightfest festival back in August 2014 to what was mostly positive reviews. The Sleeping Room stars Leila Mimmack as Blu, an orphaned call girl living in Brighton. Against the rules of her pimp, Blu becomes smitten with a rather nice, young client named Bill (Joseph Beattie) who owns a flat that harbours a terrible secret. Bill and Blu find a mystery room and become determined to find out about the house's dark history.

Unfriended

It is the first anniversary of the suicide of Laura Barnes, a girl relentlessly bullied for a video of her drunk and lying in her own filth. A group of friends start up a Skype conversation, but there is mystery person in the conversation. The gang try to remove this person, but to no avail as all attempts to remove them from the group chat prove futile. It turns out that this person has pretty sinister intentions for the teens.