6 Months of Films!

Oh dear, so much for keeping my blog up to date! Nothing since February, I blame twitter, Facebook and now Letterboxd. No it's my fault really - just lazy!

So half way through the year, and so far what a year it has been. My 2nd "Big Movie Year" is going extremely well, 96 films so far at the cinema. No I'm not going to list them all! I'll give you some highlights and low lights though. A friend is also pushing his total through the roof, while my daughter is on a roll, and has nearly seen more films than she did in the whole of last year. Another friend seems to be struggling keeping up!

The highlight of the first half of the year is The Avengers without doubt, Joss Whedon nailed this for me. Everything about it was just great, the cast is a joy to watch, the action superb, the only issue is the main alien army isn't that great. But thats a small niggle in an otherwise stunning film.
Another film I had high expectations for was The Raid, this didn't disappoint either, being an action junkie, and a Eastern film lover as well, this was always going to play well for me. And it did, one niggle a couple of fights seemed overlong, but again something I can live with.
My third film is Cabin in the Woods, another film Whedon is involved in. This is pushing for my favourite horror film ever! The premise of the film didn't actually hit me to a couple of days later and I was thinking about it, and I got it! Once I got it, I had to see it again. It's well written, acted and has loads of gore in it. Great Stuff!

The biggest let down for me has to be Prometheus, it's not a bad film, technically stunning, it's visuals are amazing. Where it goes wrong is the story, the script and the way the cast are used or not used as the case may be. The only standout performance was Fassbender, he was stunning as the android David. Rapace did well and that was about it. But I didn't like the characters, no back story's!
Maybe its a film I need to see again, but for me not one that lived up to the hype.
The only other film I expected to be very good was Haywire. However  Gino Carano just couldn't carry this film, for me her acting just wasn't good enough. The rest of the film was fine, and maybe a better lead would have made the difference.

I'm not saying all the films have been great, the Pact is pretty poor, The Darkest hour bad, but these are films I wasn't expecting that much from.

But one film worthy of a mention, is Jaws, the new transfer is stunning, the new audio track amazing. And a film I had forgotten how good it actually was. Great direction, cast and script, an all-time classic.

So onto the 2nd half of the year! Here come the BIG ONES!