THE HOBBIT: GANDALF EX MACHINA

I sure do love chocolate Hubba Bubba

I sure do love chocolate Hubba Bubba

Full disclosure, I am not a massive Tolkien fan. I tried to read Lord of the Rings and put it down after several chapters due to excessive boredom. I have seen the trilogy of films and really enjoyed them but never went full fan-boy.

Yesterday I ventured out of the safety of my quiet, dark house and went to the cinema which appeared to be under attack by hordes of teenagers. Avoiding their stench of aura of self-entitlement my friend and I purchased two tickets, dropping over $50 to see the 48 FPS, 3D xtreme-Screen magic. (Cinemas take note: this is why people download movies).

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CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER [REVIEW]

Marriage can be hard and getting married young and trying to maintain the same ideals as you grow as people is understandably a tough thing. Young love can’t maintain a lifetime of responsibilities, but at the same time it is difficult to lose your best friend as well. Walking into a film I assumed was going to be a quirky little indy romantic comedy, with the always lovely Rashida Jones and reliably affable Andy Samberg, it was a refreshing surprise to leave having just witnessed the emotional unfurling of a woman who didn’t know how to handle having everything she wanted, and struggled to remain solid amid the crumbling of her world. Continue reading

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THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY INTO THE SILMARILLION [REVIEW]

The-Hobbit-poster-2

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) just wants to be left alone to blow smoke rings and eat a healthy six meals a day. What he doesn’t want is a flood of dwarves raiding his larder and a wizard telling him to be more like his younger, adventurous self. Despite this, less than twenty four hours after Gandalf (Ian McKellen) scratches a mysterious symbol into his newly painted door, Bilbo is off, without a handkerchief, on a quest to help the dwarves reclaim their home from the grips of a dragon.

That is the basic plot of The Hobbit (book). The Hobbit (film) is still essentially this at heart, but, much like a real heart, whilst integral in keeping something alive, only makes up a small part of the bigger picture. The original book was penned with children in mind, and is therefore less dark in terms of content and a whole lot more twee than its sequel. It is also significantly shorter.

So, keeping in mind that you could pretty much use The Hobbit as a bookmark for The Lord of the Rings, it is interesting then that it is also going to be split into three instalments at around three hours each. Continue reading

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INTERVIEW WITH JIM BUTCHER

WARNING: Contains a spoiler if you haven’t read Ghost Story yet.

For years now my friends have been bugging me to get into The Dresden Files. I didn’t know what they were, other than a long series of books. They told me it was a fantasy series and I assumed from the title that it was some kind of weird Nazi/Tolkein crossover. Not exactly my cup of tea.

Then, at the start of this year I wound up having to make a long drive and decided to grab a couple of the audiobooks, read by James Marsters. I was hooked from the minute he said “detective wizard.”

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WRECK-IT RALPH [PREVIEW]

The Walt Disney crew have been up and down the animation ladder for a few years now (the underrated Princess and the Frog, the ‘only ok’ Tangled and the ‘did anyone even bother?’ Winnie the Pooh) and their latest outing – which has actually been in and out of development since the 80s (!) – is a surprising delight, and I found myself laughing without irony or guilt and being genuinely moved by characters I cared about. In Wreck-It Ralph, Disney had a rare injection of intelligence that may or may not have to do with their poaching of some Pixar talent, but nonetheless it is very welcome in my heart.

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#SDCfilms

If you have Twitter and a whole lot of film-related opinions you should definitely share them with us. We want to get a cross section of tweets about whatever movie you are watching, whether it is something that came out today, or Troll 2. Especially if it is Troll 2.

We’re looking for reviews, one liners, facts, puns, but most importantly your thoughts. Some will go up on the site and on our Twitter page. So procrastinet, or may life withhold all future orange mocha frappechinos. Do it. Do it. #SDCfilms

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FRANKENWEENIE [PREVIEW]

Tim Burton returns to the short film he made in 1984, with feature length claymation fable, Frankenweenie. It’s family friendly Frankenstein, as a science genius boy resurrects his dog after it gets tragically killed. There is the fight between science and rationality and good and bad and life and death, and in the end it’s really sweet.

OK. So I’m going to start with the good… Continue reading

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