What movies are you most excited for this month? Let me know in the comments!

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness

I’m so excited for this! I’ve tried to stay away from most of the trailers, but I know it looks amazing. I loved the first Star Trek movie despite all the lens flares and I can’t wait to see how this sequel turns out. I’m still quite pleased with myself that I managed to book tickets to the IMAX on opening’s night next week. This is going to be awesome!

Release Date: Thursday 9th May

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

I never really understood the lure of The Great Gatsby. I remember hearing about it as a teen and expecting it to be the most romantic book ever. Once I actually started reading though, I remember being bored out of my mind. I wonder what I’d think of the book if I read it now though… Seeing the trailers for the movie version makes me think I might have been wrong as a teen. Or is it just that everything Baz Luhrman touches looks epic and grand?

Release Date: Thursday 16th May

Fast and Furious 6

Fast and Furious 6

I’ve always enjoyed the Fast and Furious movies. They’re big not-particularly-bright action movies, but always a lot of fun. This latest instalment seems to be giving us more of the same: fast cars, awesome races, cool heists.

Release Date: Friday 17th May

Epic

Epic

Part of me still thinks this looks like a 2013 version of Fern Gully, but it still might be good.

Release Date: Wednesday 22nd May

The Hangover Part III

The Hangover Part III

The gang is back in Vegas. What could possibly go wrong?

Release Date: Thursday 23rd May

Others:

I still haven’t seen Pitch Perfect, but I really want to. I somehow missed it when it was in the cinema, but it seems like my type of movie. This clip only makes me want to see it more:

Tags: Movies

Trailerrific: Rush

April 8th, 2013

Ooh, I had heard about Rush a while ago, but this is the first footage I’ve seen from it. It’s directed by Ron Howard and it’s about the rivalry between Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

The past few weeks have been so busy! I didn’t even notice last month that I didn’t do a Coming Soon post for March. It’s a couple days late, but I definitely wanted to do one for April!

A Late Quartet

A Late Quartet

This one isn’t really my cup of tea, but I’m including it cause I know my dad will be reading this post and I think it will be something for him (*waves* Hi Dad!). It’s about a classical string quartet approaching their 25th anniversary, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener and Imogen Poots.

Release Date: Friday 5th April

Oblivion

Oblivion

I loved the one trailer I saw for Oblivion. Tom Cruise, an interesting possibly twisty story and gorgeous scifi visuals. It looked like the type of movie that could be spoiled though by seeing the wrong type of trailer, so after that first one I’ve stayed away from any videos/clips/etc. Fingers crossed all my effort was for something.

Release Date: Friday 12th April

The Place Beyong The Pines

The Place Beyond The Pines

Before writing this post, I hadn’t actually looked up what this movie was about. All I knew was it starred both Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, meaning I of course have to go see it. It’s about a motorcycle-stunt-rider-turned-bank-robber (Gosling) as a way to provide for his lover (Eva Mendes) and their newborn child. It puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop (Cooper) navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective (Ray Liotta).

Release Date: Friday 12th April

Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen

This looks so over-the-top-ridiculous, but I so want to see it! It stars Gerard Butler as the ex secret service member who’s the only one not captured when the White House is attacked. Aaron Echkart plays the President, while Morgan Freeman plays the Speaker of the House.

Release Date: Wednesday 17th April

Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3

Suit up!

Release Date: Friday 26 April

Others:

I’m gutted I only heard about the event after it happened, but last Saturday there was a special Star Trek themed light show organized by Paramount Pictures to support WWF’s Earth Hour. Using quadrocopters they created the Star Trek Federation logo besides Tower Bridge:

I really enjoyed The Hunger Games. I loved the first book and I think the movie adaption managed to stay quite true to the story. So of course I’ve been looking forward to its sequel, Catching Fire!

I loved the marketing for the first movie where they focused on the kooky couture of the Capital, and I’m quite glad they’re doing that here again. Eleven portraits have been released of the main characters, each wearing the latest high fashion. I couldn’t find a full list of what designers were used; does anybody know?

katniss

peeta

haymitch

cinna

effie

gale

caesar

finnick

johanna

beetee

snow

Trailerrific: Kick-Ass 2

March 13th, 2013

I loved Kick-Ass. It still is one of the highlights of my blogging career (getting to attend the first proper screening of it on my birthday), and I just love the movie. So of course I’ve been looking forward to its sequel…

Well, we now finally got a trailer. And it looks great:

Chloe Moretz looks awesome, Aaron Taylor-Johnson looks buff and Jim Carey looks almost unrecognizable. What did you think of the trailer?

It’s time for another giveaway! This time around I’m giving away 5 pairs of tickets to a special screening of Red Dawn on March 11th in London.

Red-Dawn-Poster

I love the look of Red Dawn; I think it’s going to be so cheesy, but a lot of fun. It’s a remake of the 1984 movie of the same name, which starred Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, and this time they’ve got quite an awesome cast as well. It stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Avengers Assemble) Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Josh Peck (The Wackness), Adrianne Palicki (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Friday Night Lights), Connor Cruise (Seven), Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, Grey’s Anatomy).

So I’ve got 5 pairs of tickets to giveaway. The special screening will be at a Central London screening room at 18:30. To enter the giveaway, just fill in the form below:

You’ll also get an extra entry if you mention the giveaway on Twitter with the hashtag #missgeeky, and another extra entry if you follow @Red_DawnUK. The competition is open to everyone, but you’ll be expected to make it to a Central London on March 11th at at 18:30. The winners will be drawn randomly and I will contact them on Friday March 7th.

Tags: Movies

I had a lot of fun staying up and watching the Oscars on Sunday. I really enjoyed the show, even though I didn’t really like Seth MacFarlane as the host. He had some great moments (I loved the dances in his opening), but some of the jokes just weren’t funny.

I actually managed to watch all the movies from the main six categories (so Best Picture, Best Directing and the 4 Best acting categories) before the ceremony and came quite far with all the others. I tend to struggle with “Oscar” movies: some movies are just too depressing and serious, while I just want to relax and be entertained. I do end up watching things though that I most probably wouldn’t have given a chance and end up loving, which is the main reason I do this every year.

Silver-Linings-Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook is that type of movie that I think I normally wouldn’t have watched or if I had attempted it, I think I would have switched off twenty minutes in. It’s about Pat (Bradley Cooper), who after a stint in a mental institution moves back into his parents place to try to get his life back on track while dealing with bipolar disorder. In that first half an hour his character is just so unlikable and unrootable for; you just have to cringe at some of the things he does. Once Jennifer Lawrence’s character is introduced though (a recent widow with mental health problems of her own), it becomes a really sweet and interesting movie.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of The Southern Wild

Okay, I did not like this movie. I get what it was going for and I can see what people liked about it, but for me it just didn’t resonate at all. Beasts of The Southern Wild is about six-year-old Hushpuppy, who lives with her father in the Bathtub, a flood threatened bayou community. I think what I didn’t like about this movie is that to me it felt like it was glorifying poverty, turning the avoidance of using common sense into something magical and wise. Quvenzhané Wallis does give a stunning performance as Hushpuppy, but I never felt I cared for her or her father through the entire movie.

Amour

Amour

I loved Amour. It’s a sweet, but also brutal and harrowing tale about the final stages in a couple’s life. Georges and Anne are retired music teachers in their eighties, when Anne suffers a stroke paralysing half of her body. Both Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant give great performances as Georges and Anne, and you really feel for the suffering both of them go through.

As regular readers will know, I’ve been trying my best to watch all the Oscar nominated movies this year. I’m going to fail massively on the Documentary, Foreign and Short categories, but I think I might actually manage watching everything else (which would be a first for me!). Reviewing all of those movies though… I’m not sure how far I’m going to get with those.

I’m going to at least try to review all the Best Picture nominations. I already blogged about Les Miserables, Life of Pi and Argo (read that blog post here), so only six more to go! I’ll do three today, and hopefully the remaining three tomorrow or Sunday.

Django Unchained

Django Unchained

Here’s a confession: I still haven’t seen Reservoir Dogs or Jackie Brown and I didn’t really like Pulp Fiction. But I loved Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds, and now also loved Django Unchained. Tarantino’s past three movies have been all over-the-top, odes-to-certain-genres, unique movie experiences, and I can’t help but admire his style.

In Django Unchained, Tarantino manages to blend the elements of a spaghetti western with 70s blaxploitation. And bizarrely that works. Jamie Foxx is excellent as the titular character Django, who turns from slave to bounty hunter. But it’s Christoph Waltz that again shines; there’s just something about the combination of him and Tarantino’s dialogue that makes it all awesome.

I know some people don’t like Tarantino’s movies, cause of the bloodiness and gore, but actually? I think it’s so over-the-top to the point of unrealism that it’s not gory. Blood exploding in a fountain after one shot? It makes me ponder the tech they used to get that effect and once I start thinking of all the gore in terms of special effects it all becomes laughable. Am I the only one that does that?

Lincoln

Lincoln

The West Wing meets American History 101. That’s the way I heard Lincoln described to me. And they weren’t wrong. I have to admit I think I normally would have struggled a bit with the background politics and history, but having just played Assassin’s Creed 3 I actually had recently read up on that bit of history (I know we covered it in high school, but it’s been a while).

Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance as Lincoln is awesome. It’s impressive how he breathes life into this character, without it turning into a caricature which I think in the hands of a lesser actor would have very easily happened. He fully deserves the Oscar this year, so I’ll be rooting for him on Sunday (although I don’t think my rooting is needed, he seems to be winning every award this year!).

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty was one of the nominated movies I was least looking forward to. The topic just didn’t seem like something I’d be interested in and I wasn’t a huge fan of Kathryn Bigelow’s previous movie The Hurt Locker either. I have to admit though I was wrong and was pleasantly surprised by Zero Dark Thirty. Although “pleasantly” might be the wrong word. Zero Dark Thirty is a great movie, but it’s one I wouldn’t say is “enjoyable” or “fun”; it gives a stark, harsh, visceral look at the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks.

Even though you know how it’s going to end (well, I’m assuming most people would know how it ends) it still is exciting to see the entire story unfold. The first half of the film features a brutal and unsettling depiction of torture, making you aware of the disturbing lengths people went to to obtain the truth. Jessica Chastain gives a powerful performance as the CIA operative who is relentless in her search for bin Laden and in her belief of this one flimsy lead. Bigelow has managed to create a movie that is intense and exhilarating to watch, keeping you at the edge of your seat the entire time.