LOVEFILM: APRIL/MAY '16

RUBY SPARKS ... 

Fun film, shame about the overly soppy, romantic ending. Call me cynical but it almost felt like one of those films in which worried the film might be too long someone took the decision to take the 'easy' option rather than explore other perhaps lengthier endings. TT

Yes, what she said. NJT

STILL ALICE ... 

A film about Early-Onset Familial Dementia.

Incredibly moving in parts (but then it would have had to be seriously poor to be anything but). However it brought nothing new to the multitude of dementia based films out there and was largely marred by unconvincing acting all round but especially that by Julianne Moore as Alice.

Based on a 2007 novel by Lisa Genova. I'm hoping this will have more to offer. TT

Again, what she said. NJT

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY #2 ...

Depending on what you were hoping to get out of this, the last film in the Hunger Games franchise, you are going to be left pleased at the return to adventure OR, like myself, underwhelmed that after Mockingjay #1 (see both Mr T's and my reviews reviews here) which proved potentially interesting here we are back to a film reliant on its action rather than any real sense of plot. 

Yet to read the books (I've always promised myself I would do once the hype had died down but never seem to get around to doing so) I can't say the films have inspired me to do so. TT 

I knew it was rubbish from the beginning... halfway through I was lulled into believing that it might have said something important about the nature of society, but no. Just collapses into formulaic, action oriented pointlessness. NJT

GET ON UP ...

The James Brown story.

With three time shifts (and that was just within the first fifteen minutes) alas I rapidly got lost off by the constant, chaotic (and illogical?) jumping around in time.

And then, ok so it may well have happened, the 'Godfather of Soul' may well have been guilty of spousal abuse, but there's a fine line between depicting events and what here felt almost like glorifying them.

A film I quickly became bored with, the latter part of it spent with only scant attention being paid. TT

Biopic, not a genre I usually enjoy too much, but I did find this an engaging film.  Those who struggle to keep up with the time shifts of which decade the film is in at any given moment may find it a little awkward as the flashbacks are peppered throughout and sometimes a brief as a few seconds and I'm not sure about the dialogue to the audience... but the story is compelling. Not the least aspect of which is the insight to racism in the US through the 40's and 50's as the backdrop for his rise from poverty and abuse to stardom and wealth. NJT


MACBETH ... 

Tis true, I cannot lie, I'm not a big fan of Shakespeare (a legacy of being bored throughout a theatre production of Julius Caesar as a teenager?) and even less so when it comes to his more darker offerings but hey-ho I live in hope that like his A Midsummer Nights Dream, his Merry Wives Of Windsor, I will come across one I enjoy.

Alas not a film I stuck with right the way through. I struggled with the language, of, Macbeth aside, not knowing just exactly who was who. Then there was - aagggghhhh! - the curse of the intrusive incidental music.

Something which, especially when used in conjunction with speech, I have trouble with at the best of times. In my 'old age', I find it increasingly annoying that film makers seem to think we, the viewer, need the use of poignant/dramatic incidental music to indicate a poignant/dramatic moment. Just cut the incidental music and let us get on with actually watching/listening to the film, we do recognise a poignant/dramatic moment when it occurs ... honest. TT

What can I say... Macbeth always cheers me up and this is a particularly fine production - full of scorpions is his mind and stepped so far in blood.  

Shaky Bill, can't beat him. I do think that the soundtrack could be turned down a bit though... NJT