Review #2

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Year: 2010
Director: David Yates
Country: UK
BBFC: 12

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ : 8/10

An observation I've made whilst waching the Harry Potter franchise is that they get better and better with every release and that defianetly applies to this one. I never read the book to this but I thought that it was good I didn't beacause I had no idea what was going to happen making it a lot more intense. Britain isn't well known for making high-budget films that have excellent plotlines, but Harry Potter is just one of those examples along with James Bond that have had a huge amount of money put in and the outcome is excellent.

Harry, and friends, are being taken to a safer place by 'The Order of the Phoenix' due to the huge conflict with Voldermort, however now that Snape is plotting alognside Voldermort they know exactly when and where Harry is being moved to causing a huge battle during the journey, resulting in the deaths of Mad-Eye Moody and Harry's owl Hedwig, also George Weasley loses his ear. When at Ron's house, Rufus Scrimgeour (Bill Nighy), brings rounds old possessions of Albus Dumbledore that he placed on his will to Harry, Ron and Hermione. During the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur, the deatheaters (who have now taken over the Ministry of Magic from which they are persecuting muggle-born witches and wizards) disrupt the wedding to find Harry, however Harry, Ron and Hermione disapparate to Piccadilly Circus in London and go to a cafe where they are attacked by two more death eaters. Eventually they find a place to stay at The Order of the Phoenix's hideout at "Number 12, Grimmold Place". After find information out from Kreather about R.A.B and the stolen horcrux, him and Dobby go to find Flethcher, when they return they find out that the real horcrux is in the possession of the Ministry, under the effect of Polyjuice potion they go to the Ministry and steal the horcrux and escape. They are unable to destroy the horcrux so they all take turns wearing it and whilst Ron wears it, it has and effect on him causing him to become suspicious that Harry and Hermione are forming a relationship and therefore abandons them. Without Ron, Harry and Hermione visit Godrics Hollow (Harry's birth place) where they meet Bathilda Bagshot who they believe has the sword of Griffindor which they think will be able to destroy the horcrux. However Bathilda Bagshot was murdered and the body they are seeing has been taken over by Voldermort's snake. The two manage to escape to the Forest of Dean, whilst there Harry find the sword of Griffindor underneath an ice lake which he breaks and jumps into to recieve the sword however the locket he is wearing reacts and attempts to drown him, however Ron appears and saves him. Ron then destroys the horcrux (after facing his fears of spiders and having a vision of Harry and Hermione kissing). The three of them then visit Luna Lovegood's dad to ask him about the recurring symbol they have seen throughout their journey, they find out it represents the Deathly Hallows consisting of an elder wand, a resurrection stone and an invisibility cloak, then after disrupted by more death eaters they escape to some woods where they are attacked by a group of Snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor where Bellatrix imprisons Harry and Ron and tortures Hermione for information. Dobby appears and helps Harry, Ron and Hermione escape but is killed in the process when Bellatrix throws a knife at him. The final scene is of Voldemort finding the elder wand in Dumbledore's tomb.

This was a very good film indeed, that is really all I can say, it is more intense than the last ones and the sense of threat and peril keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way through.

One final note I wrote a review about this on iMDB and an American complained that it was an American film because it is produced by Warner Brothers, after experience in film studies I can say that this is incorrect, it is filmed in Britain, the cast is British, David Yates (The Director) is from England, the funding is from Britain (with 1/8th of it from US), the writer (JK Rowling) is from England, and the production company is not Warner Brothers, it is HeyDay Films (who are from London), Warner Brothers are the 'distribution' company who release the film, not produce it.

Review #1

Title: Law Abiding Citizen
Year: 2009
Director: F. Gary Gray
Country: USA
BBFC: 18

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ : 7/10

Law Abiding Citizen was a very good film, unlike your usual thriller of just a cop chasing a criminal this one has the added sense of mystery. It really keeps you on the edge of your seat because its unclear what the destiny of the next character is, will he live or will he die a slow and painful death. Just to make a point, this film isn't for the faint-hearted due to the excessive amounts of gore in certain scenes, particularly the torture scene near the beginning. If you are just trying to watch a good film mainly focusing on the plot then you can probably push the instances of gore aside because the plot of this film is extremely unique and clever.

Clyde (Gerard Butler) witnesses the murder of his wife and daughter. The two murderers, Clarence and Rupert, are caught and sent to a trial. During their trial, their prosecutor Nick (Jamie Foxx) tells Clyde that the evidence against the murderers is "inadmissible", however Nick strikes a deal with Clarence that will send Rupert to death row. From this outcome Clyde feels betrayed by Nick and the entire court system. Rupert is later executed via lethal injection, however someone switched the drugs around causing Rupert to die a slow and agonising death. Clarence is suspected of the murder, however Clyde helps him escape the grasps of the law enforcement, only then to drug him with a neurotoxin via some needles in a gun handle that are activated when the trigger is pulled. Whilst Clarence is under the influence of the neurotoxin, Clyde slowly tortures him. When the police find whats left of the body they arrest Clyde as the chief suspect, Clyde then confesses to the murders of both Clarence and Rupert. Shortly afterwards Nick learns that Clyde had kidnapped Clarence's attorney and hidden him somewhere and will only reveal the location in return for a hot meal at 1 o'clock on the dot. However the meal arrives past the deadline resulting in the police arriving too late to rescue the attorney, meanwhile Clyde murders his cellmate by stabbing him in the neck with a steak bone and is therefore sent to solitary confinement. Slowly Nick learns that Clyde used to be a black ops assassin in which experience he utilizes to murder the judge, several members of the police squad and the district attorney. Nick wonders how Clyde has been killing the justice members whilst in jail but shortly discovers a tunnel from an outdoor garage leading all the way into his solitary confinement cell that he dug before he was arrested, he deliberately killed his cell mate so he could be moved to solitary confinement so he could get out to kill the justice system. Clyde then plans to kill the mayor and Nick discovers a napalm bomb at the city hall, however they are unable to disarm it. When Clyde returns to his cell, Nick is already waiting there for him, he tells him not to press the detonator and strikes one last deal but Clyde refuses and presses the button, Nick leaves the cell only for Clyde to find out that whilst he was getting back to jail Nick had moved the bomb from the city hall to Clyde's cell, killing him.

Law Abiding Citizen was a fun film to watch, some people have mixed feelings about the ending whether it was good or bad, it was a relatively good ending because it was something that you weren't expecting and really stamped a strong ending in my opinion, but I can also see why the ending has negative reviews because in the end Clyde was only teaching the people a lesson because he lost everything, but to the extreme he went to was going to suffer consequences. All-in-all a very good film.

My Top 10 Film List & Reviews

I sometimes get bored and have written reviews on film and games websites to pass time and I realised that a friend of mine (www.phatrob.co.uk) has done some film reviews and I was thinking, why dont I? I have heard that universities like it when a student has a blog and if i can clearly annotate an object it would be good. My favourite films range from the 70's up to the 00's.


10. Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Steven Spielberg
- A war film that will never be forgotten, telling the story of 6 soldiers risking their lives to save one, the camerawork is amazing really immersing you in the action from the start of D-day at omaha beach to the end at 'the alamo' this film is defianetly worth watching.

9. The Terminator (1984) - James Cameron
- Science-fiction films were largely made in the 80's and the terminator is defianetly one of the best ones created. A cyborg is sent from the future to assassinate sarah connor who is liable for the birth of john connor, the leader of the human army in the future during a nuclear war. However, kyle reese a soldier from the human army is also sent back to make sure that sarah survives. One of the best sci-fi's created, a must-see.

8. Rambo: First Blood (1982) - Ted Kotcheff
- The first, and the best in the rambo quadrilogy. John rambo is a vagrant who has come to a little town in canada to visit a friend who has unfortunately passed away, however a trouble-causing police officer eventually arrests him for vagrancy and resisting arrest. Rambo escapes the custody of the police and runs to the mountains after accidentally killing a police officer, however the police wont let him go and go on the hunt for him only to have misjudged him as rambo slowly but surely gets his revenge. A film that emphasis's the thriller genre, great film.

7. 28 Days Later... (2002) - Danny Boyle
- Set in present-day britain during a zombie uprise, 28 days later portrays the zombie genre better than any other zombie film i have seen. The film is astoundingly directed by danny boyle, director of trainspotting and slumdog millionaire. Jim awakes in a hosptial after being in a coma for 28 days only to find that a virus released into the atmosphere has put the whole country into quarantine. The empty streets of london and manchester really emphasise the sense of isolation, great film.

6. Lethal Weapon (1987) - Richard Donner
- This is a feel-good film thats worth the watch. A film that combines action with comedy to create the buddy-cop genre that made Mel Gibson and Danny Glover big in cinema history. It has your typical storyline about bad guys doing bad things being hunted down by the good guys, but the actual concept of this certain film makes it so amazing that it brought on three sequels.

5. Die Hard (1988) - John McTiernan
- Die Hard, the first in a great trilogy (not-so-good quadrilogy since number 4 came in). Bruce Willis plays the New York cop who has come to Los Angeles to see his wife on Christmas Eve only for the building to be taken over by a group of German terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). It's a great film, full of action and foul-mouthed humour, a really good film.

4. The Untouchables (1987) - Brian DePalma
- Set in 1930, The Untouchables portrays the uprise of crime boss Al Capone (Robert De Niro) during the prohibition in Chicago. Elliott Ness (Kevin Costner) and Jimmy Malone's (Sean Connery) jobs are to bring him down and this film focuses on the build up to the final scene in the court. Brian DePalma portrays this film very well, a film focussing on Capone's lust for blood and revenge. The film contains one of the most famous shootouts in film history taking place on the steps of Chicago Union Station.

3. Heat (1995) - Micheal Mann
- The perfect duo to make a film, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro star in this cop'n'robbers style film that Michael Mann has directed wonderfully. Robert DeNiro plays a criminal who plans a huge heist in downtown LA, Al Pacino plays the cop that has to bring DeNiro to justice. Greatly acted out and amazing choreographed gun fights. The intensity builds up all the way to the ending of the parting words of Pacino and DeNiro.

2. The Godfather (1972) - Francis Ford Coppola
- A classic in the film industry, The Godfather focusses on the Corleone family who are at war with 3 other families. I would like to say it is your typical gangster flick, but it isn't, it is a special film that was written so well by Mario Puzo, plus its great ensemble cast of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall and John Cazale. The film is long and some people get bored with the long scenes of dialogue, but personally I think of them as the build-up of tension to the final deaths of the heads of the families. Amazing film!

1. Scarface (1983) - Brian DePalma
- My favourite film of all time is the modern adaptation of the 1932 gangster flick of the same name, Scarface. The film tells the story of Tony Montana (played by Al Pacino), a refugee from Cuba who has just arrived in America to live the American dream, however not is all he had imagined. Montana starts working for the Miami mafia doing small jobs and slowly working up to bigger jobs only to be betrayed by his boss causing his to go his own way and start drug trafficking. The film is an unyielding production, a true classic, nothing is left to the viewers imagination, the story is all onscreen and extremely intense. I have watched hundreds of films and none of them have beaten the expectations of Scarface, it is truly amazing beyond belief and every minute of the film is full of tension. This is Brian De Palma's strongest directorial effort ever and it is full of well-handed scenes, particularly the memorable finale. Trust me when I say that you will not be disappointed.