Blind Spot 2016: Vote!

Posted on December 22, 2015 by jaycluitt

This year I’ve tried to take part in Ryan McNeil’s Blind Spot series over at The Matinee, wherein every month we cross off an unseen classic from our own blind spots. I’ve nearly finished, just got the last one to write up (The Conversation), and as it’s nearing the end of 2015 it’s time to decide what next year’s blind spots will be. And to do this I’m enlisting you fine folk to help me vote.

Below, and on the sidebar, there is a poll to vote for the films I’ll be watching next year. I’ll watch the 12 highest voted movies, so please be kind. They’re all taken from the 1001 Movies list, as indeed were this year’s. I’ll close the poll on New Year’s Day, and please vote for as many or as few films as you’d like.

Thanks for voting!

My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 51

Posted on December 21, 2015 by jaycluitt

This past weekend I decided to stop moaning and worrying about how many of my goals I’m going to miss and instead just get on with doing what I can. It’s unlikely – very unlikely – that I’ll complete at least two of them, but let’s try anyway, right?

Here’s what I’ve been watching this week: Continue reading →

Traffic

Posted on December 20, 2015 by jaycluitt

Two Mexican police officers (Benicio del Toro and Jacob Vargas) become embroiled in a corrupt drug investigation. Meanwhile a judge in Ohio (Michael Douglas) is tasked with heading the Office of National Drug Control, whilst his daughter (Erike Christensen) becomes more experimental with her own drug use. Even more meanwhile a DEA investigation (led by Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) arrest a dealer (Miguel Ferrer) and keep him in custody to testify in court against a drug lord, whose wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) suddenly finds herself having to deal with her husband’s way of living with the help of her lawyer (Dennis Quaid).
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The Wages of Fear

Posted on December 19, 2015 by jaycluitt

In an unspecified town in South America, a multi-cultural group of men strive for a means to leave their location, but none of them can afford to exorbitant fares for air travel, and they cannot earn much working for the town’s sole business, a major oil company. However, when the opportunity arises to earn big bucks transporting trucks full of barrels of unstable nitroglycerin 300 miles as quickly as possible, in order to cause an explosion to put out an oil fire, four of the men set out to get the job done.
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 50

Posted on December 14, 2015 by jaycluitt

All I can think about right now is Star Wars. I’ve been trying not to get my hopes up for The Force Awakens, but it’s now just three days away, so I’m getting more than a little excited. Today I picked up my pre-booked tickets in an effort to avoid queues come Thursday evening (I was tempted with the one-minute-past-midnight showings, but they didn’t have assigned seating and I don’t want to have to queue up for hours and fight for a decent view for the sake of a few hours), and now the day is almost upon us. That’s the next Lambcast episode as well, and if there’s one thing I’m looking forward to more than finally seeing the film is discussing it with some other like-minded nerds, that’s where the real fun will begin.

Oh, and speaking of Star Wars, to celebrate the release of The Force Awakens the guys over at Simplistic Reviews have created some re-enactments of how some scenes from Star Wars maybe should have played out, and I participated by recording some suitably degrading intros and outros for each show. They’re all hilarious (especially my bits) and you can find links on their site here, or at the bottom of this very page. Anyway, here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →

My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 49

Posted on December 8, 2015 by jaycluitt

I’m feeling overwhelmed, run-down, depleted and frantic, so it must mean we’re nearing Christmas. As such I don’t have time for this introductory nonsense this week, plus I haven’t got much to say, so let’s get straight into the movies. Here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →

Katniss Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Mockingjays

Posted on December 5, 2015 by jaycluitt

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers everywhere!

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) lives in the world of Panem, and land rife with civil unrest. 74 years ago Panem, which is split into twelve working-class districts and one wealthy capitalist Capitol, was host to an uprising, during which the unruly numbered districts were defeated by the Capitol’s military powers, and during which District 13 was destroyed. As penance for this act, every year the Capitol holds an annual Hunger Games, for which a boy and girl aged 12 to 18 from each district are randomly selected, trained, presented to the public and thrown into a specially made arena to fight it out to the death, until only one player survives. Katniss lives in District 12, and the when her younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is picked in her first draw, Katniss volunteers in her stead. Her male counterpart is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), a baker who only tangentially knows Katniss. Katniss asks her friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) to look after her sister and emotionally frail mother (Paula Malcomson).

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Inside Out, or Why I Should Never Have Kids

Posted on December 3, 2015 by jaycluitt

Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is an 11 year old girl living in Minnesota with her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan). She is a normal girl who enjoys hockey, spending time with her friends and having fun with her family. All that changes when they move to San Francisco, and Riley finds herself having to deal with some unfamiliar emotions and situations. Most of this plays out in her head, where Riley is operated by her five core emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Fear (Bill Hader) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). However, when Joy tries to prevent Sadness from interfering with Riley’s memories, the two find themselves lost in Riley’s long term memory, leaving Anger, Disgust and Fear at the helm.
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My Week in Movies, 2015 Week 48

Posted on November 30, 2015 by jaycluitt

This is going to be tough. Tomorrow is the first day of December. 25 days until Christmas, 31 days until the end of the year, and I’ve got a heck of a lot still left to do to meet my goals for the year, and that’s without taking into account everything I need to do in real life for this time of the year. There’s just four weekends left until 2016, and I’ve got four Road Trip posts left to write for FTS, so that’s one a week, no option. The only problem is I haven’t watched any of them yet (we got about 10 minutes into Garden State for New Jersey and had to bail about a week ago, and I’ve been unable to bring myself to turn it back on again since.). Add to that 14 nominated movies, 2 “Bad” movies and a bunch of others I’ve watched but not reviewed yet, and it works out that I need to watch 17 and review 26 all in the next month. Jeez.

On the plus side, however, this week has seen me all but complete another goal, to watch 59 movies released in the UK in 2015. Granted I’m only at 58 as of typing, but I’ve already got my ticket booked for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so this goal is in the bag. That, and San Andreas has just been dispatched from LoveFilm, so I’m going above and beyond with this little chestnut. As for those other as-yet-uncompleted goals? Well I guess I’d better stop prattling on here and get back to writing a review or two. I’m all-to-aware that after Christmas I’ve got three days at home alone whilst my partner is at work, so I’m anticipating a deluge of watching and writing taking place then, but given how poorly past plans have turned out, there’s no guarantee. Here’s what I watched this week: Continue reading →

King Kong (1933)

Posted on November 29, 2015 by jaycluitt

Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is a film director, planning to make a moving picture on Skull Island, a mysterious land in uncharted waters, to which Denham has obtained a map, but he is short one lead actress. Scouring New York he finds penniless Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), and convinces her to take part before whisking her away and setting sail along with first mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) and a large crew. On the way to the island, the crew become wary of the legend of the great Kong, a mythical beast who, upon arrival, turns out to be a giant gorilla worshipped and rightfully feared by the native tribesman on the island. When the natives kidnap Ann – blondes being something of a rarity to them – and offer her up to the beast, he takes her back to his lair, prompting Jack, Carl and the rest of the crew to attempt a rescue mission.
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