Jack Reacher (2012)

The first film that I saw in 2012 was Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and its quite fitting that the last film of 2012 is a Tom Cruise film. Jack Reacher is based on a character created by Lee Child. I wasn’t aware of the character or author before seeing this film. The only thing I knew about it was that the character is suppose to be 280lbs and very tall and with the best will in the world, Tom Cruise is neither of those things. But I wondered whether that would make any difference to the film and to be honest it didn’t have an impact. Another thing that I wasn’t aware of was this was based on a book called One Shot which according to Wikipedia is the ninth book in the range. Quite why they didn’t go with Killing Fields instead of going for this one.

The plot of the film sees a guy named Charlie shoot dead five people (seemingly at random) and a lawyer is trying to prove doubt on him to avoid the death penalty. Jack Reacher is called in to try and help. The film seems to be plodding along when Werner Herzog turns up and instantly makes the movie better, the problem with that is he’s not on screen for very long but when he is then I’m interested. Another piece of good casting was for Robert Duvall who again is in it for very little but again I was interested when he was on screen.

The screening that I was in (which was early on a Saturday afternoon) there was a good 20-25 people there and there were a couple of instances of people laughing which when its suppose to be an action sequence is a bit unusual.  There were comedy moments which I found funny but there were times when people were laughing and I genuinally didn’t know why they were laughing. Was it that they were trying to find humour in something that wasn’t there or was it my sense of humour? Not sure about that but the thing I am sure of is that whilst watching this I felt that it was a bit like Taken where there is a guy and all he has is his quick moves.

Jack Reacher isn’t a terrible film but neither is it great. It’s middle of the road with some quite good action sequences the film suffers from being an unremarkable film. If there are to be more then they will need something

The Running Man (1987)

The Running Man is a film that being made in the 1980's hasnt aged very well. It takes the viewer to a world in 2017 where the economy has fallen on its arse (out by five years) and there is a grizzly gameshow where the contestants (mainly criminals) are put in to effectivley get killed. Arnie gets put in the show after being framed and labeled a butcher. What the film then dones is put Arnie in a position where he and his fellow contenstants have to basically survive but they are on a mission to try and tell the truth to the public.

The story is pretty good but the visuals havent really aged very well but the film is one of the better non-Terminator films thats not really saying much. It has a nice pace to it and there are some good performance in it.

Richard Dawson is brilliant as Damon Killian. Whenever the action moves to him I find myself more interested in the story. There is something about the way that he presents himself that makes the character so utterly unlikeable. Arnie is pretty standard in this though its always funny watching him because he is so utterly incapable of delivering lines in anything that is believeable. Thats why his most famous role is Terminator where he doesnt have to say a lot.

The Running Man is a film that could probably benefit from a remake but at the rate that their doing remakes, there is a good chance that twelve months from now there will no doubt be news on Den of Geek or somewhere saying the Jason Statham will be starring in it.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Now I havent read the Hobbit but from what I understand its a short single book. Quite why Peter Jackson has decided to turn it into three films is a mystery. I understand why he did it with the Lord of the Rings because each book has a lot in it but The Hobbit? Anyway the film is one that I have been slowly waiting for a while. The story sees Bilbo Baggins go on a journey with Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain.

Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins and if I’m honest then I must say that I am not a fan of Freeman’s as I just don’t think he is a strong actor. However saying that I don’t think he did that bad in this. However Ian McKellen does steal the limelight a lot but that’s just because he is Ian McKellen. For me the most interesting piece of casting is that of Sylvester McCoy as I am a Doctor Who fan and was just waiting for him to be on screen and I cant tell you how happy I was that it wasn’t just a cameo role but quite a significant one. Other interesting pieces of casting was James Nesbitt as Bofur and Richard Armitage as Thorin. But it was Andy Serkis as Gollum that I think everyone was looking forward to seeing. He was quite comical in this film but there weren’t glimpses of the LOTR version which is when I think the film was at its best. Serkis is fantastic because he manages to produce an incredible performance everytime and even 10 years after The Two Towers was released it is impressive how the character can still make people marvel at him.
 
I liked how the film tries to set things up for the Lord of the Rings films there was a scene where a sword from Mordor appears in front of Saruman and he has a look of someone who was being turned. There are also nice appearances of Hugo Weaving as Elrond and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. Also I liked the scene where there are the rock creatures and they are throwing rocks at each other. It was the first time since I saw the wall blow up in The Two Towers that I went ‘wow’. It was an impressive scene and shows that Peter Jackson can direct impressive set pieces.

I rather enjoyed The Hobbit, I don’t think you can compare this to the Lord of the Rings trilogy because this is aimed at a slightly younger audience. I thought that they managed to pad the story out well enough but I wonder just what they are going to do in the next two films. The plot for this film was good and the whole thing felt like a slightly less grown up version of the LOTR films.

 

Capricorn One (1977)

Capricorn One is story of a bunch of astronauts that think they are going to Mars but behind the scenes they are told that it cant happen and they have to fake the landing in a studio. When they return from Mars there is a problem with landing and the world is told that they have died but the astronauts decide to stage a breakout and the chase is on. The story doesnt really get going until the astronauts stage the breakout. Then there are plot stories with Elliot Gould’s character trying to uncover the truth and astronauts trying to show they never left earth.

For me it was Hal Holbrook that really shone in this film because he starts off as a quite likeable person and as things start to spiral out of control his mask slips and he becomes a rather unpleasant person. Even as he is at the funeral you can see just what a nasty person he is. Its quite an impressive transformation. Elliot Gould was also quite good as Robert Caulfield. Gould is always a guarantee of a good performance and he doesn’t disappoint here.

Capricorn One is a very enjoyable film that has a slow first half but picks up massively in the second. I  strongly urge anyone who hasn’t seen this film to buy or rent in now because it really is worth watching.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

It’s hard to believe that its been 11 years since Fellowship of the Ring was released. When I went to see this at the cinemas, I was like a good chunk of the audience that had never read the books. So I wasn’t one of those that would be able to see what they had missed out. This is the extended edition with plenty of stuff added in. The original film was always good but what’s great about an extended edition is that it can pad things out a bit and despite not really adding anything new to the overall story its always good to have these bits instead of being in the deleted scenes part of the DVD.

The story itself is one that doesn’t really have much of a key scene such as Two Towers, but what it does have is the time to show us each character and what purpose they play. Elijah Wood is ok as Frodo but every other face he pulls is like he’s just pooped in his pants. Sean Astin is quite good as Sam but the bromance is what gets in the way. Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan are a good double act and have some funny scenes together, especially at Bilbo’s birthday party. Orlando Bloom is just plain annoying, Viggo Mortensen puts in his best performance of the trilogy in this one. But it is Ian McKellen who steals the film. Everytime he was on the screen I was loving the film and just wished that he would be in it more. When I first saw his ‘death’ I was gutted thinking that it was the last we would see of him.

The Fellowship is a really solid film that sets the trilogy up nicely. Its quite easy to make fun of the bromance that happens between Frodo and Sam but it doesn’t detract from what is otherwise a fine film. At 178 minutes it doesn’t rush itself at any point and that’s good. The actors range from ok to fantastic but it is such an ensemble film that you could get away with a mediocre performance because there wouldn’t be time to notice.