13Hrs (2010)

A British Werewolf film starring Isabella Calthorpe, Gemma Atkinson and Tom Felton, it starts in a lonely farmhouse when Isabella Calthorpe playing Sarah Tyler returns home and links up with her two brothers and her best friend played by Gemma Atkinson who is now going out with her brother. They head from the party in the barn where they are drinking and smoking and head back to the house, when the power goes out and as they are trying to see what has happened they discover that there is a wild animal in the house and it then starts picking them off one by one.

The further away from the film I am the better I think it was this, is a good thing as my initial reaction was one of not very good. As I am thinking about it I really have a better opinion of it. You follow a fairly interesting cast as you have Tom Felton, famous from all of the Harry Potter films and it is good to see him in a totally different role and you can see some of his skills coming through. Gemma Atkinson, of men’s magazine fame and Hollyoaks is actually playing not to bad a character. Yes overall there are weaknesses, the acting is not great and the story is a bit clunky but overall the ending if you are paying attention is quite clever and you have a bit of an epiphany at the end that shows they were thinking about the whole thing.


Overall not a great film but then the low budget shows and really it has some interesting ideas that show hope for the future from the actors and the writes and directors, overall 6 out of 10, up from an original 4 out of 10.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

So I went to see the final film of the Harry Potter series, now I am a big one for expectations and have in the past been badly let down because my expectation were far to high for the film, the hype got to me and gave me a hope for something that was not possible. Perhaps it is now that I am older, wiser and have the experience to appreciate good film making but this film, totally met my expectations. It was everything I hoped it could be and it brought forward all manner of emotions from me. I am not embarrassed to say as a 33 year old man I had tears running down my face at a couple of points in this film and I knew they were coming due to the fact that I have read the book twice and listened to the audio book twice. I know the story of the book and love it, the characters are actually good because at times they annoy me, their decisions are infuriating but also they do not just make decisions for the story, there is reason behind their decisions because of the characters that JK Rowling has created over the 7 books.

This is a visual representation of a book and therefore was never going to be exactly the same as the bok but what it showed was that you can make a great film using a source material without destroying the essence of the story and what the book conveys. Yes there are sections changed and different directions taken but in the main it is the same story told in a different format and it holds up. There will be some people that do not like the decisions made, I however love them they work so well. At times during the reading of the book as the series was in full swing on film, I thought there is no way they can make this work on film, I am happy to say that I am wrong.

You are at film 8 in a series, they are all sequels but the story is still strong, the characters are beleivable within the world in which they are set. This is the strongest film in the series and a worthy conclusion to the series and the long years from J K Rowling's original conception of the characters. This is a 5 star film for me and I recommend the investment in all of the books and then the films, it takes it's time but at the end of the road it is such a worthwhile journey.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

preparation for the final part of this saga coming to the cinema I decided to watch the first part again, I think that it is only fair to put all my cards on the table regarding these films and books. I love everything about them, even the worst film or book in the series is still really good to me. I have seen all of the films in the cinema and I own all of the films that have been released, all of the films have been watched more than once as well. So when this film was coming out I was very nervous as the final book is my favorite and the best decision I heard was that it was going to be done in 2 parts.

They captured everything almost perfectly in my eyes, there are a few things they could have done slightly differently that would have been easy enough and just made it fully perfect for me. Watching it again I knew what was going to happen and how they were going to do it and still they emotion bubbled up in me at the points that were sad and the exciting bits. Somehow they manage to make the scenes of risk work and you still feel the peril which is usually lost when you have read the book or seen the film before.

The only real flaw in this film for me as it is the 7th film it is not stand alone, there is so much happening in the books and film that there is little to no exposition so you would have to have invested in all of the previous films. Therefore it is a 5 star film for me and I would recommend it but only if you have seen all of the other installments.