White House Down

I'll start off by saying that Director Roland Emmerich is a genius! He's responsible for Independence day- which should be seen for the president's speech if nothing else, The Day After Tomorrow - incredible film and 2012- which somehow gets humour in an end of the world film and now with White House Down added to his resume he should get an award for disaster films with an uplifting ending. White House Down see's John Cale (Channing Tatum) on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, as a Capitol policeman he springs into action to save his child and protect the president (Jamie Foxx) from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. Also starring James Woods, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke and Richard Jenkins. I wasn't that excited for this film and wasn't bothered if i saw it or not but luckily I did, despite the outrageous circumstances and the over the top-ness of it all, I found it to be quite an enjoyable movie, I think its safe to say that Tatum has redeemed himself after the catastrophe that was Magic Mike and Jamie Fox was incredible as usual but the real scene stealer was Joey King who plays Cale's daughter Emily, who was fearless and incredibly brave when people twice, three times her age were not. An enjoyable film despite its unbelievable plot.

The Host

Despite it being written by Stephenie Meyer, The Host is an amazing book, I'll admit it takes time to get into but once you do it's hard to put down. The Host follows the story of Melanie Stryder, a girl trying to survive after earth has been invaded by an alien parasitic species. When she does get captured, her body is given to one of these aliens called Wanda, however when these beings take over a body the human is supposed to just fade away but Melanie refuses to, her only goal is to find her brother and the guy she loves and keep them safe. Saoirse Ronan plays Melanie/Wanda, at first when I heard the casting, I wasn't convinced, I thought she's too young and not right but now after seeing her performance, I was a complete idiot for thinking otherwise. This girl could be twelve in real life and it wouldn't make a difference because she's such a good actress, she carries herself well on screen and is a true heroine. As for her love interests, Jared (Max Irons) and Ian (Jake Abel), I thought they did pretty well, I think it's the best acting either have done and both have great chemistry with Ronan. Having said that, the film itself- the story does not translate well on screen, it's patchy and poorly edited and the world building is rushed over. I recommend the book but not the film, as much as it pains me to say. 2 out of 5 stars.

Epic

I had been waiting for this film to come out for a while and It was worth the wait, there's nothing worse than waiting ages for a film to come out for it to be a piece of crap. Epic is the story of a world hidden within our own, one where tiny forest people are in a war with a race that is hell bent on destroying the forest. MJ is sent to live with her dad after the death of her mother, when she hears her fathers theories on little people that live in trees and fly around on birds she thinks he's crazy just like everyone else, its not till MJ is shrunk down to the size of a peanunt and thrown into the middle of a war that she finally believes her dad. I thought this movie was really funny, I laughed more at this than I did the new hangover film. With the voice talents of Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz and Beyonce Knowles.

Safe Haven

Katie (Julianne Hough) moves to the small town of Southport in North Carolina and at first she's reserved and keeps to herself in her house outside of town but then she meets Alex (Josh Duhamel), a widower and a father of two, and Katie starts to realise that she has to let people in but with her mysterious past it's easier said than done. As Alex and Katie grow closer, her past also starts to catch up to her. Based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. I adore Nicholas Sparks books, I mean they are sappy and predictable but they're not always happily ever after endings. Sparks' stories means you'll laugh and cry and when you've finished reading you'll want to take a trip to North Carolina to see if you can find love there because NC is the new Paris or Rome, well... not really but his books make you think that for a while. Lately there have been a lot of Sparks' books being made in to movies and it doesn't really matter if they're good or bad, girls will still flock to see the next one and I'm one of them. I didn't particularly like The Lucky one but that didn't stop me from seeing Safe Haven, it's like we have this misty view of the world and what we think makes a good movie when it comes to these films because its a cute love story, two pretty leads, breathtakingly beautiful scenery and some obstacle that somehow we all seem to relate to even when its so far away from our own lives that it seems impossible to relate to. The point is is this, Safe Haven won't change your life, its not particularly memorable and the concept is just a little too ridiculous, however I really liked it, a lot more than The Lucky one anyway. I don't expect much from these adaptions anymore because after The Notebook there hasn't been a film that rivals it in epicness. Now whenever I go to see a film thats based on a Nicholas Sparks book, I know what i'm getting, I know I'll love the relationship and the setting, I know I WILL cry because that is inevitable and chances are I will get it on Dvd. So, if you want a cute little love story thats not too heavy (like Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge etc.)then Safe Haven is a safe bet.

Beautiful Creatures

When newcomer Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) arrives in the small town of Gatlin, she quickly captures the attention of Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), who only wants to escape what he views as a boring and dead-end town. He quickly gets more than he bargained for, as Lena possesses strange powers that have long kept her at a distance from others in her life. Lena and Ethan are drawn together, but their budding romance is threatened by the dangers posed by Lena's being a Caster and her family's Dark powers, for upon her sixteenth birthday Lena must undergo the Claiming, a process that will decide her fate forever: Light or Dark. Also starring Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis and Emmy Rossum. Okay, so lets pretend Twilight never existed, just for a second because for some ridiculous reason people are comparing it to the wonderfully gothic Beautiful creatures. Not only can the actors actually do their job and act but the relationship is an innocent and frightening one that actually is light hearted and can make fun of itself unlike the awkward relationship that is Bella and Edwards. Don't get me wrong I went all fan girl for Twilight just like the rest of the world but when I came up for air from the misty vampire craze I saw that it wasn't actually as good as I wanted it to be and now when I look back at it the realtionship between its star crossed lovers actually makes me cringe. So, moving on to the film at hand. I'm a big fan of the books, they're beautifully done and so well written that I've recommended them to everyone I know and a few I don't. The unbelievable cast were everything I wanted them to be and now I can't imagine anyone else playing these characters, Thompsons portrayal of Mrs Lincoln/Sarrafine was amazing while Mrs. Lincoln was an awful God-fearing Southern disaster that most women would like to bitch slap, Sarrafine was deliciously evil and despite this one of my favourite characters for how she embraced it. Emmy Rossum is without a doubt one of my favourite actresses and how she played Ridley Duchannes can only be described as perfection, I've always loved Ridley because she knows who she is and isn't ashamed, kind of like Sarrafine in that way. Rossum makes Ridley more human than seen in the book and I think by doing this she creates a character that the audience can understand and lets be honest, a beautiful girl with powers riding around town in a red convertible is someone we're gonna like or at least enjoy. Overall, the acting was amazing, however what let this film down was the script and the editing - which a lot of YA adaptions are suffering from at the moment- everything is extremely rushed trying to cram in as much as possible, which is a shame because the world of Beautiful Creatures is one that is perfect for screen. To wrap this up, great acting from all but this film was magically disappointing, 2 1/2 stars.

Warm Bodies

The film focuses on the development of the relationship between Julie (Teresa Palmer), a young woman, and "R" (Nicholas Hoult), a zombie, and how their eventual romance developed throughout. The film is rare for its human characteristics in zombie characters. It is also unusual in such stories because it is told from the point of view of a zombie. Also starring Dave Franco, John Malkovich and Rob Corddry. I read the book of this last year and absolutely adored it, it was funny and quirky, smart and fresh and the characters are well developed and likable. I can say the exact same thing for the film and I might even go as far to say that the film was better. When I heard Warm Bodies was being made into a movie I was excited and itching to see it but I still believed that it was not going to beat the book because they never do. However I was so happy when I came out of the cinema knowing that for once the film industry knows what they're doing with an adaption! I loved Hoult and Palmer as the two leads, they had great chemistry considering this is a zombie-human romance. When hearing the plot for Warm Bodies, I think everyone assumes that its ridiculous and to be honest, it is, but in the best kind of way. The world created is horrificly realistic and you don't have a hard time believing that the zombie apocolypse is a possibility but despite the brain eating, slowly decomposing zombies in this, at its core Warm Bodies is a romance that is truly funny. Men and women will both enjoy this, its oddly romantic, dryly funny and provides just enough scares. 5 out of 5.

Mama

A man takes his two daughters Lily and Victoria (who are aged 1 and 3 respectively) away from home, planning to kill them and then commit suicide, before he can do that however he is dragged away by an unknown entity and the two girls are left by themselves. 5 years pass and they are found by two men hired by the girls' uncle to find them. Lily and Victoria are placed in the custody of their uncle Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain). While in the house they're constantly showing animal-like behaviour which worries Annabel and there constant referal to 'Mama' is even more disturbing. A ghost story that- unlike many others that involve children- presents itself with real heart and genuine intrigue. I was really excited to see this film when I heard that Guillermo Del Toro and Jessica Chastain were involved and I was far from dissapointed. 'Mama' actually had me covering my eyes at parts because I was so scared, which I hardly ever do with horror films. I liked the ghost in this, she's a distorted version of her former self with elongated arms, legs, fingers and neck and a seriously bad attitude. If you had told me the ending before going to see it I wouldn't have believed you, I would think "no way they'd do that" and I'd be wrong, it was so shocking and weird and sad and slightly corpse bride-esque that I left the theatre with my mouth open in complete amazement at the ending, it really was a twist and with most horror films you can predict the ending before the film even starts so it was a nice surprise. Jessica Chastain as usual is brilliant and her character Annabel is extremely impressive, she starts off a bit cold towards the girls but she gradually starts to warm to them and by the end she's so determined to save them that she's willing to risk her own life, it was quite a sight! The only thing I would have liked more of, is the back story of Mama, they showed the important details but just delving a bit more into how she came to be this malevolent spirit would have made this film better- for me anyway, I think an extra 10 minutes dedicated to that would have opened the film up a bit more. Taken as a whole 'Mama' was thoroughly enjoyable, one of the better ghost stories in the last 5 years and one I'll definitely be buying on DVD.