Get Hard

When multimillionaire James King (Will Ferrell) is convicted for fraudulent payments and embezzlement he is sent to the most dangerous prison in the US, San Quentin. Under the assumption that a third of black people have been to prison, James enlists the help of Darnell (Kevin Hart) to toughen him up before his 10 year prison sentence so he doesn't become somebody's bitch.

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

The Battle of the Five Armies starts off where The Desolation of Smaug ended with Smaug desolating the settlement of Laketown. After the dragon is killed the dwarfs, led by Thorin (Richard Armitage), seek shelter inside the mountain, ready to defend it from any threats that converge on the mountain. Inside the mountain, Thorin is driven mad by the treasures inside, but on the outside five armies are ready to do battle varying to claim to the riches within the mountain. 

The Railway Man

 Based on the bestselling autobiography by Eric Lomax, The Railway Man stars Colin Firth as Erik Lomax, a man blighted by a terrible past. A delayed train to Manchester leads Eric to a chance encounter Patti (Nicole Kidman) aboard another train, realising the instant connection Eric later goes to meet Patti at the station (being a train enthusiast he knows exactly which station to meet her) and the pair are soon married.

Transcendence

Transcendence arrived on British shores with a critical bashing and mediocre box office returns which resulted in Transcendence becoming one of the surprise turkeys of 2014 so far. Therefore, expectations were extraordinary low, but they were exceeded probably because I expected so little of the film. 

Frozen

Frozen has smashed box office records as it went on to gross over $1,000,000,000 at the box office, becoming the most financially successful animated film since the beginning of time itself. However, this statistic should not be taken at face value as factors such as inflation and high-ticket prices influence the box office results highly. If you were to adjust the results for inflation levels and ticket prices Frozen would find itself slightly lower down the rankings.

Captain US of A.

Captain America: Winter Soldier follows on from events in The Avengers where New York was ravaged by invading forces. In Washington, the S.H.I.E.L.D cooperation (with a symbol that looks like the Eagle from Imperial Germany) strikes a rather ominous tone over the Washington DC skyline. Their operations are covert and secretive to those on the outside, and the organization becomes embodied in scandal and conspiracy as Captain American/Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans) becomes the number one enemy.

Carrie on remaking

Hollywood’s business plan seems to be to carrie on producing reboots, remakes and sequels to fund the industry. Stephen King’s Carrie is next in a long line of 70s horror films that have been remade in the 21^st century (the list includes Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween). Carrie (Chloe Moretz) is a shy teenager who has her first period whilst showering. This terrifies Carrie as her fanatical Christian mother (Julianne Moore) has neglected to tell her the stuff that will occur as she grows up. Naturally, Carrie’s terrified reaction to met with ridicule by the peers who eventually accept the punishment handed down on them for humiliating Carrie. The tormentors feel (some at least) guilt for what they did, all apart from Chris (Portia Doubleday) who will be the one to push Carrie over the edge at the school prom.

Hiding In Fear Thor takes refuge at the Grand Budapest Hotel

After saving the world twice (in Thor and The Avengers) Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns once again to rescue the Earth from destruction. Thousands of years ago Bor, Odin’s (Anthony Hopkins) father clashed with the dark elf Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) over the Aether. Thousands of years later, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is infected by this Aether and has to be protected from Malekith. Enlisting the help of Loki (Tom Hiddleston), imprisoned for his crimes against Earth, Thor attempts to protect the entire universe from destruction.

Ender's Game

The adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game possibly meant that a new Science Fiction franchise could once again play a strong factor in the cinema’s near future. However, the film’s meagre box office returns ($110,000,000) resulted in any chances of a sequel being produced as slim. There are a number of reasons why Ender’s Game was a financial failure, the first and main reason was perhaps the competition (Hunger Games and Thor), another reason could be the proposed boycott of the film due to the author’s homophobic viewpoint. After claiming that gay people should not be treated like ordinary citizens it won’t surprise me if Scott thought the ‘gay disease’ was something that could be caught if a gay person happened to sneeze on you or if any gay people engaged in imitate contact with one another whilst sitting in a confined area with a straight person.

Her

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) works at a handwritten, romantic card service for people who can’t express their feelings to a loved one. Having to write heartfelt loving messages is a life needle as Theodore is going through a sticky divorce and is struggling to move on from the loss of the love of his life. Theodore buys a new state of the art operating system and eventually falls in love with the newly bought operating system. Set in the future, Her asks many questions about human relationships with other humans and technology.

Blue Jasmine

Life for Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) is comfortable; she has a rich husband (Alec Baldwin); expensive house and maids to pamper on her every need. Jasmine’s life is simple and relaxing that is until her husband is arrested by the FBI and loses the entire contents of the house. This means that Jasmine has to move down the socioeconomic ladder to live with her sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins), in San Francisco. Struggling to cope without the riches she married into, Jasmine always looks as though she is on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Captain Phillips (correct spelling this time....)

The East coast of Africa is dangerous place for shipping vessels to sail through as the waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans are home to a number of African pirates who hijack ships and demand huge sums of money from the businesses or governments of the respective ships. Hijackings are frequent enough to be a concern and the ship MV Maersk Alabama, captained by Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), is unlucky enough to fall victim to an act of piracy whilst travelling from the Port of Salalah in Oman to Mombassa in Kenya.

The Call

Set in a Los Angeles 911 emergency call centre, The Call stars Halle Berry as a 911 operative who receives a terrified call from a teenage girl about a man braking into her house. The call is cut off and Jordan (Berry) makes the terrible mistake of redialling, alerting the killer of the girl’s location in the process. She quits the desk job, but a call (via an untraceable phone) from another teenage girl in peril places Jordan back into the hot seat.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Having just embarked on a solo career, Llewyn Davis finds his career not going in the direction he had wished. Regularly found performing at small venues in Greenwich Village in 1960s New York, Llewyn Davis’ life takes a turn for the worse when his best friend’s girlfriend announces that she is pregnant and he might be the father. Homeless Llewyn Davis attempts to balance this with his desperate attempts to make himself noticeable within the music industry.

Prisoners

Incendies was one of the best films of 2010, it was hard-hitting, brutally emotional and contained a twist that was like something from – I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you.  Denis Villeneuve’s first English language film is set in a small town in Pennsylvania in which two young girls are kidnapped. The police investigation, led by Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), leads to the arrest of a mentally handicapped Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but when there is not enough evidence to charge him of the crime, he is released. This enrages Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), one of the fathers of the missing girls, who then proceeds to kidnap Alex and torture him in an attempt to extract information about the whereabouts of the two missing girls.

In a World...

In a world where men dominate the positions for voiceover artist in trailers, just like the one we live in now, one woman (Lake Bell) decides to follow her dream and auditions for the role as voiceover artist for a trailer for a romantic comedy, and after a successful audition she gets the gig. Carol Solomon impresses producers so much that she has a chance to provide a voiceover for the upcoming trailers for the Amazon Games, one of the biggest literacy phenomenons in memory. Up against her is the next Don LaFontaine and her own father (Fred Melamed).

12 Years a Slave

Directed by Steve McQueen 12 Years a Slave is based on the memoir by Solomon Northup, of the same name, which tells the story of his twelve years as a slave. Solomon is lured to Washington where he is drugged, kidnapped and eventually sold to William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). After a fight with John Tibeats (Paul Dano), Solomon Northup’s life is no longer safe at Ford’s plantation thus he is sold to the violent plantation owner, Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender).

American Hustle

American Hustle starts off with a message saying “some of this is actually true”, perhaps this is knowing nod to the audience who are aware that many films that state that “the following events are based on a true story” basically mean “we have taken the bare basics of the truth and decided to make up some shit as well”. Anywho, moving on, American Hustle is loosely based on the ABSCAM investigation in which a number of notable politicians are embodied in a corruption scandal.

Insidious Chapter 2

Insidious Chapter 2 starts off where the first film left us sighing exasperatedly at a lame attempt at building a franchise masquerading as cliff-hanger. Anyway, in the first film Dalton (Ty Simpkins) fell into a coma thus allowing an evil spirit into our world (thus replacing Dalton). His Dad, Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson), rescues him from The Further, bringing him back to the world of the living. However, it becomes clear that Josh has brought something back with him as his behaviour is strange to say the least. Furthermore, the hauntings and bad dreams have once again started troubling the Lambert family.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) has done very little with his life and spends the majority of his time dreaming half his life away (RIP Phil Everly) by imagining a series of extravagant stunts and life threatening situations. In some of his dreams he impresses a certain Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wigg) of whom Walter has a crush on (I concede I do this regularly). Walter’s uneventful life is about a change as a missing negative will lead Walter to places like Greenland, Iceland and Afghanistan in which he experiences a number of memorable moments including a volcanic eruption. Whilst this is happening Life magazine is undergoing a transition from print to online media placing a number of jobs at risk.