Movie Taco Magazine: January 2013

7/30/2019 Movie Taco Magazine: January 2013

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J a n u a r y 2

0 1 3

CatchingFire

Theexclusivefirstlookat

thehighlyanticipated

sequelto‘TheHunger

Games’

Oscars2013

Wepredictwhatwethink

willwin,andsaywhatwe

thinkshouldwin!

Reviews

TheHobbit,Wreck-It

Ralph,CloudAtlas,Zero

DarkThirtyandmore!

THEHOBBIT:ANUNEXPECTEDJOURNEY

This is not so much a disappointment of a film as

an underwhelming, unsurprisingly and predictable

remake of something we all adore. That’s not the

description of a bad film, is it? I’ve spent weeks

deciding whether to see this is 3D 48FPS, 2D

48FPS, 3D 24FPS or 2D 24FPS. IMAX has not yet

reached rural Western Ireland. I eventually chose

the most exciting option, and the one I have

preferred since my birth- two-dimensional 24

frames per second. Yay! I won’t therefore be

commenting on the new format Peter Jackson

has used to make The Hobbit . The opening

prologue, which tells of how the dwarves losttheir mountain to Smaug (pronounced smowg,

fyi), is notably lighter is tone and visuals than

anything in LOTR. It’s also very beautiful,

breathtaking even in the boring old fashioned

format I watched the film in. We then begin our

time in The Shine literally a few hours

before Fellowship begins, with Frodo heading off

to read under that tree. I know, I was crying too.

We then go 60 years backward, when Bilbo is

played by the excellent Martin Freeman, who

shines in this as expected. Thirteen dwarves

whom vary in annoyance arrive at his front door

and barge their way in. Some of them are old and

wise, some middle-aged and aggressive and

some young and foolish (“Do you have chips?”)

The ones I was most interested in (‘Dwarf with Axe-head in Head’, ‘Dwarf that is Gimli’s Dad’)

didn’t speak once, weren’t referred to at all

and featured on screen for less than 5

seconds each. Why? It’s not like the film

had to be cut down! It was almost 3 hours

for God’s sake! I was almost asleep by the

end, and it was only 6.30pm by the time it

ended! The Shire bits were too long, the bits

with the Orcs and Wargs were

WAAAAAYYYY too long, and their were at

least 3 endings. Jackson has two more films

to deal with this story! The highlight of the

film by a mile is the Riddles in the Dark

portion, which sees a technically improvedGollum appearing on film for probably the

final time ever! It was directed by Andy

Serkis (who plays Gollum and should have

gotten an Oscar for Rise of the Planet of the

Apes), whilst PJ was filming some other

stuff, and you can really tell that it was a

different person behind the camera.

Everything about it deserves an award, but

especially Serkis’ performance as

literature’s greatest schizophrenic, which is

way more playful, experimental and

absolutely mad than it ever was back in the

Noughties films. Smeagol and Gollum’s

personal arguments are absolutely hilarious

beyond belief, and had me rolling around on

the floor laughing. Sir Ian McKellen (I usuallyignore the ‘sir’ but, you know, it’s Gandalf!)

is amazing as always as the ol’ guy, and

cameos from Sir Christopher Lee, Ian Holm,

Hugo Weaving and (should be) Dame Cate

Blanchett really add to the small amount the

atmosphere the film has. Richard Armitage’s

performance as Thorin gets better and the film

progresses, and by the end is very good

indeed.The main problems I had with the film

were the length, the repetitiveness of everythi

from the music to the dialogue to the fighting

and how unsurprised I was by the events that

occurred. I predicted exactly how it would end

with us catching a glimpse of Smaug’s eye, a

I left feeling a bit bored. Who am I kidding, a lo

bored. The film has received no Golden Globe

noms, and I can see why. It feels like a decen

Christmas blockbuster which I wouldn’t mind

seeing a few times again, but it’s not the well-

made masterpiece, the work of art that Peter

Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films were. All tha

said, it was nowhere near as bad as George

Lucas’ first Star Wars prequel, The Phantom

Menace.




BESTPICTURE

ShouldWin: ZeroDarkThirty

WillWin:Lincoln

Snubbed:MoonriseKingdom

BESTDIRECTOR

ShouldWin:MichaelHaneke

WillWin:StevenSpielberg

Snubbed:KathrynBigelow

BESTLEADINGACTOR

ShouldWin: JoaquinPhoenix

WillWin:DanielDay-Lewis

Snubbed: JosephGordon-Levitt

BESTLEADINGACTRESS

ShouldWin:EmmanuelleRiva

WillWin: JenniferLawrence

Snubbed:HelenMirren

BESTSUPPORTING

ShouldWin:ChristophWaltz,Anne

Hathaway

WillWin:RobertDeNiro,Anne

Hathaway

Snubbed:LeonardoDiCaprio,

ScarlettJohansson

BESTANIMATEDFEATURE

ShouldWin:Wreck-ItRalph

WillWin:Frankenweenie

Snubbed:Madagascar3

BESTSCREENPLAY(ORIGINAL,

ADAPTED)

ShouldWin:MoonriseKingdom,

SilverLiningsPlaybook

WillWin:DjangoUnchained,Arg

Snubbed:LiberalArts,CloudAtla

BESTMUSIC(SCORE,SONG)

ShouldWin:Skyfall,Ted

WillWin:Lincoln,Skyfall

Snubbed:MoonriseKingdom,

BreakingDawn-Part2

Oscars2013

TheAcademyAwardsarecoming

nextmonth,andsincethenominationswerejustannounced,

hereareourpredictions!

WORDS:JERRYCOLLINS

LISTENTOOUR

LIVEREACTIONSTO

THEOSCAR

NOMINATIONSON

THEFIRSTEPISODE

OFOURNEW

PODCAST,MOVIE

TACO




EveryRevolutionBeginsWithASpark

IMAGES:LIONSGATEENTERTAINMENT

ThisNovember,oneofthemosthighly-anticipatedsequelsofalltimewillhit

thescreen-CatchingFire-theadaptationofthesecond(andbest)bookin

SuzanneCollins’record-breakingHungerGamestrilogy.Here,onthispage,are

thefirstexclusiveimagesfromthefilm.

Above:DirectorFrancisLawrence

(centre)withLiamHemsworth

andJenniferLawrence

Belowright:OscarwinnersPhilip

SeymourHoffmanandWoody

Harrelson




Jessica Chastain doesn’t do a lot of acting

in Zero Dark Thirty . In fact, she barely says

anything at all in Kathryn Bigelow’s multi-

Oscar-nominated thriller, which charts theCIA’s ten-year search for Osama bin

Laden. Chastain stars as Maya, the

operative placed in charge of the bin

Laden search, and she really does STAR.

She’s in almost every scene, yet barely

does anything. She makes one decent

speech about halfway through, swears at

important people a few times, and gets her

big moment in the final shot of the film, but

it’s not really the kind of performance that

deserves an Oscar. Speaking of the final

shot, the film’s ending came as a complete

shock to me, with it’s subtlety and failure

to follow the traditional Hollywoodnationalistic, militaristic protocol of

welcoming the ‘hero’ home with applause.

Instead, we realise that Maya has nothing

to go home to after killing bin Laden. She

says earlier in the film to one of her

colleagues that she has no boyfriend, noteven any friends. We also realise that we

know absolutely nothing about Maya, not

her surname, age, place of birth- nothing.

Joel Edgerton, who we can see this

Summer in The Great Gatsby, appeared in

the trailer more than he did in the film, and

seemed to be wasted in a few quick shots

during the extended, incredibly tense Abbottobad raid scene. TV’s John

Barrowman also made a quick

appearance, saying approximately 6

words whilst standing next to a barely

recognisable James Gandolfini. Neither

Obama nor Bush are named in the film,

although they are both seen briefly on

screens, and apart from recreations of real

terrorist attacks of images of real terrorists

being used, the only reference to the real,

outside world is when, during an

interrogation, a suspected terroristdescribes another as being “tall, with a

long white beard and a cane”, and Mayasays “so, he’s Gandalf!” It was this, among

other things, that made Bigelow and Mark

Boal’s script so engaging, and deserved of

awards. There are also many similarities

to Argo, a far less superior film released

recently, such as the constant scenes of

American delegates driving through

protesting crowds in Middle-Eastern cities,

which was basically all of Argo.

The tension that made The Hurt Locker so

interesting is only seen here in small parts,

but features enough to keep fans of that

film interested. The performances by allactors are excellent, notably Mark Strong

on top form. The torture sequences

towards the beginning are not particularly

graphic or violent, but are still a painful

watch. Overall, this is a very solid, tense

thriller which I hope to see win some

awards, even if not for Best Actress.

CLOUD ATLAS

It’s always sad when you watch a film and

you can tell that the filmmakers thought itwould be a masterpiece. The Dark Knight

Rises is an example, but the difference

with that is that we all thought it would be

a masterpiece too. David Mitchell’s

novel Cloud Atlas is very well written, well

paced and well-structured. Andy and Lana

Wachowski and Tom Twyker’s overlong,

ridiculously complicated and hard to follow

film is terribly structured. All the stories

from different centuries and decades are

mixed together, cutting back and forth. In

other words, we have five or six versionsof Tom Hanks who all look pretty much the

same, on screen just seconds after oneanother. I had to bring a list of characters

and descriptions of the plots to the

screening with me, as I was told by a

friend that I would get a headache trying to

follow the story otherwise. The cast list is

amazing, and the performances by most of

the actors are great, particularly Hugo

Weaving, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Ben

Whishaw and, as always, Hanks, who at

one point plays an Irish fighter with a book

called Knuckle Sandwich, the idea of

which and the Irish stereotyping had me in

tears of laughter for ages. Although the

actors are good, and the CGI settings aredelightful to look at, the film is ridiculously

overambitious, and its lack of success has

proven that people like The Matrix but

not The Really Long, Complicated Follow-

Up.

WRECK-IT RALPH

Disney haven’t had the best year. Th

underrated John Carter was a

comically huge flop, Brave was

probably Pixar’s worst film, Timothy Green‘s box office performance was

as underwhelming as the film itself,

and although they did distribute The

Avengers, the biggest film of the yea

it wasn’t theirs , and so much of the

box office takings didn’t go to them.

is good however, that those gifted

people at Disney Animated Studios, a

section of the company who are

quickly proving themselves to be mo

talented that Pixar at the moment,

have come up with this geniusly-

made, incredibly entertaining and

surprisingly sweet CGI romp. In the

film, John C Reilly voices Ralph, a

lonely game baddie who regularly

attends meetings of Bad Guys

Anonymous. I am one of a few

members of my generation who have

never owned, and rarely played, a

video game, and so the apparently

obvious game character references

went right over my head. Give me afilm with Hitchcock baddie sidekicks

popping up in the background and i’

there! The fact that I was able to find

such pleasure in watching WIR

without getting these references is a

true testament to how good this film

really is, and how it will truly stand th

test of time, just like the film it is

clearly trying to copy, Toy Story. It

most certainly will live on like that, fo

the next generation, with its quite

mature, yet lovable and relatablecharacters, and its simple, yet not so

simple it will bore adults, plot. Sarah

Silverman, Jane Lynch, Jack

McBrayer (not yet forgiven for A

Thousand Words- my worst film of

2012) and the fantastic Ed O’Neill

( Modern Family , in a role far too sma

for his awesomeness) provide voices




(Continued)

for some of the hilarious characters

Ralph meets along the way. The main

villain of the piece is an excellently

terrifying creation called King Candy,whose voice is a delightfully 100%

copy of Ed Wynn’s turns in Mary

Poppins and the animated version

of Alice in Wonderland . This is by far

the best animated film of the year so

far!

HITCHCOCKIf you’ve even had a quick glance at

my list of favourite films, you’ll know

that Alfred Hitchcock is pretty much

my favourite director ever. From The

Man Who Knew Too Much to The

Birds to my No.1 film ever, North by

Northwest , his masterpieces have

entertained, educated and astounded

me with their brilliance since I first saw

them. Whilst BBC and HBO’s recent

TV movie The Girl was a Hitchcock

biopic for the haters and only mild

enthusiasts, portraying the great man

as a perverted sleaze-bag, Sacha

Gervasi’s star-studded film is a biopicfor the fans. That is apparent from the

opening, and made me prone to like

this, whatever was given to me. It’s

easy to see that Gervasi is a

documentary maker by trade. The

cinematography and editing are quitepoor, and let down the excellent story

and actors. Boy! What a cast! Sir

Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Helen

Mirren on top form as his wife Alma,

Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh,

Jessica Biel as Vera Miles… the list

goes on! I was slightly disappointedhowever, that Andrew Garfield wasn’t

cast as Anthony Perkins, as I have

always been almost distracted by hisstartling resemblance to the Psycho

star, and thought he would have been

excellent in this. Also, the great

Michael Stuhlbarg, who has had a

busier year than Joseph Gordon-

Levitt, starring in Men in Black 3,

Lincoln and this, turns up as Hitch’s

agent. This portrays Hitch as the man

I believe he truly was- empathetic,

funny, kind and easily hurt- this can

be seen when he thinks Alma hasbeen having an affair with her

screenwriting partner and takes to

comfort eating. I dearly hope that

everyone who saw The Girl watches

this and realises what a great man he

really was, despite his somewhat odd

fascinations with his leading ladies. I

enjoyed this more than I have with

many other films this year. It’s not

an amazing film, but it’s about as

good a Hitch biopic I would expect t

see in 2013.

LINCOLN

I’m not one of those people who thinks

Steven Spielberg is the greatest filmmake

in the world. In fact, I can count on one

hand the films of his that I actually like:

Raiders, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Empire of

the Sun, Last Crusade. The stuff he’s

made over the past decade has been, in

my honest opinion, mostly shit. Lincoln is

somewhat a return to form for the Oscar-

winning director, however. He has,

surprisingly, managed to make a film tha

is purely 150 minutes of aging actors in

wigs sitting in dusty rooms, discussing

American history that I, being Irish, know

little about, quite interesting and

entertaining. Daniel Day-Lewis gives one

of his best performances in the lead role,

and Sally Field is a lot better than she wa

in this Summer’s Amazing Spider-Man.

The supporting cast is incredible. If this

cast were put together in any film ever

made, they would make it enjoyable to

watch. There’s Tommy Lee Jones, Josep

Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal

Holbrook, Jared Harris, John Hawkes, an

we’ll give special mention to the excellen

Michael Stuhlbarg, who you may know

from A Serious Man or Men in Black III. S

although the actors were great and the

plot entertaining, Lincoln didn’t feel like a

film, it felt like a play. A film, especially on

that wins awards, should make use of th

magical medium, and Lincoln failed to do

anything even the slightest bit cinematic.

NEWS

>>>>> Christopher Nolan, the genius

behind such masterpieces as

Inception and The Dark Knight , is in

the process of choosing his next film,and several sources have revealed

that it is likely to be sci-fi adventure

Interstellar , penned by his brother

Jonah, who co-wrote The Dark Knight

and Rises . If this happens, it will be

Nolanʼs third film with ʻIn-ʻ in the title!

>>>>> Jurassic Park IV has been

confirmed for a June 2014 release

date, and will be produced, but not

directed by Steven Spielberg (whose

Lincoln is reviewed on the right of this

page!)

>>>>>> It wasnʼt enough for Skyfall to

be the biggest movie ever at the UK

box office, but over Christmas it

crossed £100m, the first film in history

to do so!

AnimagefromCloudAtlas

,oneoftheleastsuccessfulfilmsof2012,

reviewedonpage4.




IFTHEPOSTERSFOR2013’SOSCAR-NOMINATED

MOVIESTOLD

THETRUTH!

NEXTMONTH:THEHOST,OBLIVION,BEAUTIFULCREATURES&THE20HOTTESTSTARSOF2013!

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Movie Taco Magazine: January 2013