Review: Horns - Alexandre Aja

" I'm gonna love you for the rest of my life.
 Just love me for the rest of mine."

          Well to say this film wasn't what I expected would be an understatement. I went into this film blind, which is rare for me and i really had no idea what to expect from the story, other that Daniel Radcliffe's character grows horns and become some devil like character. If that's all you know then great, stop reading here and go see the film then come back and see what i have to say one it. Ok I'm hoping anyone reading from this point has either seen the film or doesn't care if they have it ruined on them.

          The film starts out and you're instantly thrown in to the middle of the story which is a method of story telling I like, the main character Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) has been accused of the murder and rape of his girlfriend Merrin Williams (Juno Temple). It feel similar to Gone Girl's first act's who-done-it plot and revolves around Ig coming to terms with losing his girlfriend and how this affects him. Most of the big character revelations come in the form of flashbacks which flesh out Ig and Merrin's relationship and those of their friends and family. It also unravels the night Merrin was killed from several characters points of view and the limited time they had with Merrin that night.

          Ig doesn't take the sudden loss of his girlfriend and the blame he's receiving from the press and the local townspeople, so he gets drunk and does a lot of stupid things. When he's drunk he sleeps with a girl he knows and wakes up in her bed the next morning it's here he (and we the audience) notice he's started growing horns, becoming the devil the local people and media see him as. From here on out the film becomes strange, Ig's horn give him a certain control over people, they confess their darkest desires to him and seek him allowance to carry them out, which freaks him out and is very weird to watch not knowing what or why this is happening. This leads to some hilarious scenes where people carry out their hearts desires when in the presence of Ig, my favourite one is in the doctors office, with the doctor and his nurse. Ig soon realizes that this power can help him find out who really attacked and killed Merrin. He tracks down the oppositions star witness the waitress from the restaurant where Ig and Merrin had their fight the night she died, she confesses she lied to the police just to get famous. The film then flashes back to Ig seeing Merrin for the first time as children and also show's Ig and his friends as children.

          I think I've talked about the plot enough and don't want to spoil the film, but there are several revelations that completely change how both we the audience and Ig see people and there is a powerful scene where Ig uses his powers to get revenge on those who have hurt him and and eventual show down with her killer that is amazing.

          As I said I really had no idea what to expect from this film when I watched it. I was blown away by how engaging the story was and how it slowly built and fleshed out things. From the director's previous work I was expecting something more generic and a cheesey Halloween flick, I could not of been further from the truth. Daniel Radclife does an amazing job in what is essentially a one man show (even if hearing him with an american accent is weird). I also had no idea this film was based on a novel of the same name by Joe Hill. I would highly recommend this film and I’d give it a 10/10. One of my favourite films this year and that's saying a lot given how great a year this has been see the previous mentioned Gone Girl.

          p.s. I know I haven't done this in awhile, I hope to change this and hopefully I'll get a lot more reviews done next year. I'm going to make up a top ten movies of 2014 list and hopefully another review before the years out. Thanks David K.

Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Peter Jackson

"Why don't we have a game of riddles and if I win, you show me the way out of here?"

          To say I’ve been looking forward to this film along time is an understatement, so unfortunately I cannot promise an unbiased review, I can instead promise a fan’s review. So for me personally the build up and production history of this film are as big a part of its story as the actual film and book on which it’s based. This is quiet a rare film for me where I knew the story going in and for the most part knew what to expect having read the book, and yet half the films story was new to me, you could say the story  was Unexpected.

          Ok on to a bit of the history of this film, I’ll try and keep this brief. The film has been in production since late 2007 and was originally set to be two film directed by  Guillermo del Toro, with Peter Jackson serving as Executive producer, development of the film was notoriously slow which eventually lead to Del Toro’s departure from the project and Jackson taking over directing duties. Now as most of you will know the story of The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord Of The Rings (LOTR), it was originally written as a children story and having read the book the story is very light and doesn’t have the same depth to it as LOTR so I was shocked when it was announced that Peter Jackson was looking to split the story up into three films, as I personally thought two was stretching it a bit but made sense if they were going to tie the plot of The Hobbit into that of LOTR. I think what we got in the cinema was the extended version cut of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re a fan of the extended versions of the LOTR movies, but can turn off casual/new fans of the film franchise. Also the addition of a lot of extra material from JRR Tolkien’s other works mainly the Appendices from the end of The Return of the King and possible taking some cues from The Silmarillion (especially the parts filling in the blanks between as well as around The Hobbit and LOTR stories).

          So thoughts on the film, as much as I loved it, it was a bit slow and took ages to get going. We’re introduced to a younger Bilbo (Sixty years before the events of the LOTR took place), who for the most part isn’t as likable character as the Bilbo we meet in the LOTR. This younger Bilbo is quiet reserved and stuck in his ways and has very little interest in doing anything out of the ordinary. He is whoever forced into action by his friend Gandalf the grey and eventually agrees to join an adventure with a group of thirteen Dwarfs and Gandalf looking to reclaim the Dwarves lost home from the possible deceased dragon Smaug. This first film is mostly following Bilbo’s journey to overcome his more comfort-loving reserved side and him realising that he can be a useful member of the team and that he has unique skills to offer. There is also a lot of side plots introduced in this movie that weren’t present in the book that while the fill in the blanks of what’s happening in Middle Earth, do little to serve the story except increase the running time. Having said that though, I really did enjoy this film, visually its stunning and while practical effects such as having actual actors in make up as the Orc’s were replaced with Computer Generated Graphics this time around I still found myself being drawn into the story and investing in the character.

          While I think the decision to split the story into three films was foolish and resulted in scenes that would have normally been included on an extended cut of this film making it into this movie, it was still a great movie. The only warning I’d put on it was to only go see it if you love The Lord Of The Rings movies (especially the extended cuts) if you only liked them maybe just wait until its out on DVD/BluRay and rent it then. For me personally this film was an 8/10, great potential but a bit bloated in part.