Skyfall

REVIEW BY NATALIE WARWICK

Celebrating 50 years of the James Bond franchise, skyfall, the 23rd film and Daniel Craig's 3rd outing as the 00 himself, finally hit cinemas last November. I went with one question on my mind: Will it be as good as Casino Royale?

As soon as Craig's Bond didn't give a damn whether his martini was shaken or stirred we all knew that the new bond movies weren't going to follow the same mould as the rest. And Skyfall, in particular, doesn't follow the same course as any other Bond movie. Sure it keeps some vital bond ingredients, but then it goes off on its own and throws the blueprint in the bin.

This Bond movie is much more sentimental than the rest. Despite having lots of references to the bond franchise as a whole and being tongue in cheek with it, Skyfall, at its heart, is a much bleaker insight: Showing the MI6 and its agents being hunted down by an old adversary leading them into Bond's past.

At times Skyfall is more Home Alone than James Bond but an enjoyable experience all the same. It made me laugh, cry and route for their triumph. Dame Judy Dench's performance, like always, was excellent and Daniel Craig's Bond has always been great. Although, in my estimation, it wasn't as enjoyable a ride as Casino Royale, it is a good film in its own right. I can't wait for the next one!!

Year: 2012
Classification: 12A
Duration: 143 minutes
More info at IMDB

 

End of Watch

REVIEW BY NATALIE WARWICK
Wow it has been a while! Life took over and Tom and I took a back seat from film blogging, but for the time being we are back! I might have made a honey-boo-boo and I might have deleted most of our images, so watch this space for such time when we trawl through the archives and reinstate the images.

I wanted to review End of Watch because I want to raise its profile. Honestly it isn't a blockbuster and it hasn't been thrust in our faces via posters and trailer campaigns so knowledge about this film is low. In truth it was on, we had a space in our cinema schedule and we went for it, not knowing completely what we were letting ourselves in for. I don't imagine it will be in the cinemas long and as such I urge you go and watch this film soon.

End of Watch is a gritty, hypo-realistic (new word made up there I suspect) documentary style film which is raw and savage; which throughout has an atmosphere of tragedy and despair looming over it. It follows two downtown LA cops, Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) as they fight crime amongst gangsters, turf wars, drive bys, drug deals and GBH and murder. If your adverse to on screen violence or disturbing scenes in general, don't watch this film. Also, in detriment to the film you could say, the pacing of this film is slow and sometimes painfully so. The storyline is not your typical movie storyline whereby there's a bell curve type linearage (I.e it gradually builds to a crescendo and then levels out again) It is more a slice of life which stops at an important part in Taylors and Zavala's lives and careers. Like real life whilst watching you don't know where it is going.

The storyline is filled with highly violent and nasty scenes which, in my humble opinion, are superbly acted out. The acting, off the bat, is second to none. Your completely sucked into this dangerous world; humbled still by the realisation that this is based very much on real life events and that people like that, presented in this film, really exist. It's awful, but thought provoking and through that you get a much more important filming experience from this. Sure it lacks the pizazz of a blockbuster movie but the overriding lesson, if you like, makes the movie great.

I want to reiterate again, if you like your films action packed or with a half decent pace don't watch this. At its heart End of Watch appears to be propaganda almost and hero-ing the work of the police force; which is an admiral feat and one which is done well. Loud and clear I hear you! All I know is I went on their journey with them; I hoped the best for the them, worried  for them, laughed and cried with them. It's a memorable film which will stay with me for a long time.

Year: 2012
Classification: 15
Duration: 109 mins
More info to be found on IMDb