As the year ends - it's time to look back at those films that thrilled just a little more than the rest... You can disagree or debate via twitter: @Cleric20 but here are the ten which made the wall of Darkmatters fame...
10 Far From The Madding Crowd
Director Thomas Vinterberg's Far from the Madding Crowd is lush, stylish and powerfully emotive - it is also turbo charged by Mulligan's central performance. Screenwriter David Nicholls' new take on Hardy's tale of a single woman in Victorian England inheriting a farm from her uncle and dealing with the attentions of three very different suitors is a compelling adaptation. This is by far my favourite of Hardy's novels - and the only one to really send readers / viewers off with a smile on their faces, an affirmation of life in their hearts and a romantic glow in their neither regions!?
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
9 Steve Jobs
Choose Life. Choose a career. Choose an industry changing vision. Choose good health, but low self esteem and childhood adoption insecurity. Choose mortgage repayments for a woman who may be the mother to your daughter that you claim isn’t yours. Choose a series of awkward run in with your colleagues. Choose having very few friends. Choose world changing Apple products. Choose Steve Jobs...
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
8 American Ultra
I am a highly trained special agent – able to tackle any threat with little more than the objects around me. In my hands a dustpan becomes a means of decapitation, a spoon a potent murder weapon and a frying pan - a bullet deflecting trick shot bullet guidance device. But I’m not active like Borne or Bond, my name is Mike Howell (played here by Jesse Eisenberg), and I am a stoner convenience-store clerk.
Director Nima ‘Project X’ Nourizadeh brings his ‘A’ game with American Ultra – an action comedy indie and thanks to screenwriter Max ‘Chronicle’ Landis, the film crackles with enough dark comedy alongside the crunchingly violent action.
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
7 Ant Man
Yes it’s another superhero origins tale but Ant-Man stands out because it exists in a cinematic universe where his first suggestion can be to “call the Avengers”… Here we have the really likeable and very funny Paul Rudd stepping up as Scott Lang / the new Ant-Man and he totally nails the lead role. Thanks to Rudd and some sublime writing (the credits for which include Edgar ‘Hot Fuzz’ Wright), Ant-Man is definitely the funniest Marvel film to date but it doesn’t let the humour dilute the threat, peril or epic action for a moment.
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
6 The Martian
Strap yourself in and prepare for a truly ‘out of this world’ quality sci-fi tale that doesn't skimp on the 'sci' and yet manages to still be thrilling, funny and life affirming…
This is a superb survive-em-up blast that sees human spirit and scientific skills stretched to the limit as one man grapples with the challenge of surviving whilst millions of miles from safety. It’s wonderfully easy to get caught up in this science-based fable, packed with so much technical NASA jargon that you’ll feel like you might have got a bit smarter just from having been exposed to it.
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
5 Sicario
“You will not survive here. You are not a wolf… and this is a land of wolves now.”
Step this way brave soul, Sicario will assault your senses with a terrifying, heavy-duty insight into the human cost of America’s war on drugs. Sicario is a kinetic overload of horrific situations and palpably dangerous action scenes which blow the doors off the dark operations being carried out – beyond the view of the regular news channels. Heavy duty crime and punishment that will stay with you long after the credits role.
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
4 EX_MACHINA
“One day the A.I.s will look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa - ‘upright apes’, all set for extinction…”
EX_MACHINA or as I’d call it ‘Do Girl Androids Dream of Human Boyfriends?’ is a superb cyber-thriller from the mind of Alex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd. It feels like an extended sci-fi movie version of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror – which is a high compliment. This is a must see film for those who like their thrillers high tech and packing a brain (or an A.I.)!?
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
3 Mad Max: Fury Road
The future belongs to the mad – so get ready for a wonderfully insane thrill ride. ‘Mad’ Max is back and he’s better than ever, George Miller's anti-hero hasn’t graced the screen sine 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome and whilst he’s swapped actors from Mel Gibson to Tom Hardy – this is a most welcome return. Once the action kicks off in Fury Road it absolutely does not let up – this is 120mins of outrageously over-the-top ‘car’nage, it’s incredible, exciting and breath-taking.
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
2 Kingsman: The Secret Service
A total endorphin rush, cheeky, classy & action packed, both a reverent homage to and a street-smart update of the ‘old-school’ James Bond movies. It’s also beat the crap out of Specter - co-writers Jane Goldman and Vaughn are on top form adapting Millar’s hyper-violent, rousing story of young Gary Unwin (Taron Egerton) – known as ‘Eggsy’ to his pals - who transforms from teenage council estate petty crim to smooth Kingsman agent with the help of the erstwhile Harry Hart (Colin Firth).
Can’t wait for the sequel!
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a film I have anticipated for decades, I’m a self confessed huge Star Wars fanboy – my firstborn son is named after Luke Skywalker… Lightsaber battles have never looked so good, X-wing vs Tie Fighter dogfights are more impressive than ever and the sheer joy of seeing the Millennium Falcon fly again brought tears to my eyes.
There’s not a single reason I can give you not to go and enjoy this on the biggest screen you can find!
The Force, it’s calling to you. Just let it in.
Read the Darkmatters review: HERE
"The FORCE IS STRONG!"
Check the: Darkmatters Top Ten Films 2014
1 comment:
Great list! Nice to see Star Wars at #1 (as it will be mine also)
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