The Golden Globe 2014 winners

The Golden Globe 2014 winners

Not even a burst sewerage pipe (aka sprinkler as the spin machines would have it) could keep the glamour away from the red carpet in Hollywood as the Golden Globes 2014 awards were handed out.

Cutting through all the glitz and glamour, here's a list of the winners of the 2014 Golden Globe Awards:

Best Drama - 12 Years a Slave Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama - Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama - Cate Blanchett
Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: American Hustle
Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street
Best TV Series - Musical or Comedy: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"
Best Director - Motion Picture: Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Best Actress in a TV Series - Musical or Comedy: Amy Poehler for "Parks and Recreation"
Best Animated Film: Frozen
Best actor in a TV series, mini-series or TV film - Michael Douglas
Best Foreign Language Film - The Great Beauty
Best Actor in a TV comedy or musical - Andy Samberg
Best Screenplay - Spike Jonze - Her
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress in a TV series, Drama - Robin Wright, House of Cards
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Amy Adams
Best Supporting Actor in TV Series or Movie: Jon Voight
Best Original Song - "Ordinary Love" - Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
Best TV Series - Breaking Bad
Best Actor in a TV Drama - Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Best TV Movie / Miniseries - Behind The Candelabra
Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries - Elisabeth Moss - Top of the Lake
Best Supporting Actress, Miniseries - Jacqueline Bisset
Best Supporting Actress in a movie - Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Nebraska: Movie Review

Nebraska: Movie Review

Cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, Stacy Keach, Bob Odenkirk, June Squibb
Director: Alexander Payne

With talk of an Oscar nomination for lead actor Bruce Dern and an award from Cannes in the bag, Sideways director Alexander Payne's latest is already being lavished with attention.

And rightly so.

In this film, Dern plays Woody Grant, an old man, who's been sent a letter saying that he's won a million dollars but will need to collect it from Nebraska. Determined to get there come hell or high water, Woody's son David (Will Forte) decides, on a whim, to help the old man out. But Woody's not the easiest of fathers - an alcoholic, ageing dad, whose distance from his son is never more pronounced than when they're on the road together. Throw into that mix, a road trip which includes family members and an old colleague of Woody's who believes he's owed money and it's clear that fractious times lie ahead.

Nebraska is a film which thrives on the understated and perfectly captured view of small town America.

Shot lavishly in black and white and with a sedentary pace as well as shots of mid-west America scattered throughout, Payne's created something remarkable that perfectly encapsulates the lifestyles of many living in places of its ilk. (It helps that Payne is from the region he's filming.)

There's an inherent sadness to Dern's near-silent cowed and stooping portrayal of Grant, a man whose life has been swilled in alcohol and who now finds himself permanently housed beneath a white shock of hair, teetering on the edge of dementia. But there's humour and stubbornness to in his belief that the million dollars he's been promised will come true; it's a bittersweet belief that sustains this road trip, binds him inexorably to his son as the journey continues.

However, it's his occasionally irascible and naive interaction with others and a sense of self-belief that comes to the fore on the screen. Nowhere is this more evident than with his interaction with the bullying Stacy Keach's Ed Pegram, a former colleague who's now desperate to claw back some borrowed money. Along with the straight man Will Forte, there's a tenderness as this plays out its inevitable path.

But this is not a film about a cranky old man and hilarity therefrom - this is a movie dripping in poignancy and drenched in the details of family lives that all of us share and all of us will recognise; from the family gathering in the front room around the TV talking about nothing, to the ties that bind fathers and sons together.

It feels as if Payne's film-making and story are from experience this time around and there's a naturalness which pervades the movie that's hard to deny and difficult not to revel in. Sure, you could argue that in this day and age, who's going to believe a scam like that, but in mid-western America, populated as it is with family squabbling over the trivial minutiae, this film is packed with insight - Nebraska is completely watchable, affecting and utterly engaging.

Rating

Mud: DVD Review

Mud: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Entertainment

Matthew McConaughey continues to impress in this film from the man who brought us the wonderful Take Shelter.

When two boys, Ellis and Neckbone, cross a river to discover the truth about a boat found in a tree, the pair meet up with Mud (McConaughey) a drifter, who tells them he's waiting for his true love to show up so they can run off together.

But Mud needs the pair's help to get the boat going and to get things ready - soon, Ellis and Neckbone find themselves deep in Mud's world and questioning who's right or wrong in this love story.

Mud's a coming of age tale which quietly impresses, despite its somewhat bloated run time.

There are touches of Huck Finn/ Tom Sawyer aplenty in this Southern fried piece, which throws in a serious Reese Witherspoon for good measure. It's Ellis (Tye Sheridan) who anchors this tale as his innocence is shattered and his world view warped by those around him, but it's McConaughey who provides a solid presence as the enigmatic drifter on the run after what he claims is justifiable homicide.

Mud shows director Jeff Nichols is a force to be reckoned with - and while the tale has a sedentary pace in places, it's got a kick that's undeniable.

Rating:

The Book Thief: Movie Review

The Book Thief: Movie Review

Cast: Sophie Nelisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Ben Schnetzer, Nico Liersch, Roger Allam
Director: Brian Percival

Based on the book by Australian author, Markus Zusak, the movie version of The Book Thief aims to tug at the heartstrings.

It's the story of Liesel (a wonderful first time turn from Sophie Nelisse, who's rightfully getting awards), a young girl pushed onto a foster family in pre-war time Germany in the 1930s. There's the cold-hearted Rosa (Watson) and the more kindly, music loving and nurturing Hans (Rush). As the road to war escalates, the initially illiterate Liesel finds herself growing up in a world she understands less but discovering a love for literature.

When a young Jew, Max, comes to shelter with Rosa and Hans, the harsh realities of war and the fear of the Nazis becomes a reality for the family - and their lives will never be the same again.

The Book Thief is an emotionally flat piece, despite the deliberately emotive ideas and the potential for manipulation. Yet, despite Nelisse's beautifully fragile yet confident tone, it never fires on any real level, leaving you lamenting how empty the pay off is as the horror hits home.

It's a shame because the attention to period detail is impressive and initially oppressive, but the maudlin tones of the film never really lift or give you the push to connect and care about these characters as childhood innocence and naivete are shattered asunder.

The slow, solemn tone gives way to a feeling that The Book Thief is way too over-long and the narrative twists can be seen a mile off - the step-mother isn't actually a cruel harpie? While the friendship between Liesel and the boy next door Rudy (Liersch) is solid enough, the emotional pay off as their relationship reaches its tragedy is curiously lacking; and it's a shame. Rush delivers a strong performance and injects the war time mope with some much needed warmth and earnestness and Roger Allam's deliciously liquid tones work well as the narrator Death.

All in all The Book Thief delivers a competently told tale, but fails to find the emotion needed to turn you into a blubbering wreck as the tragedy kicks in.

Rating:

47 Ronin: Movie Review

47 Ronin: Movie Review

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyaka Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi
Director: Carl Rinsch

Keanu Reeves returns to the martial arts world with this story, wrapped in dishonour, magic and vengeance, and based on the 47 Ronin of Japan.

Reeves is Kai, a half-breed and outcast living in Feudal Japan. Raised by demons, but rejecting them, he doesn't fit into the world of the samurai, but tries to live by their code. However, he's cast out from them as well - but finds himself part of a group setting out to avenge the death and dishonour of their master at the hands of the evil Lord Kira. But things aren't as easy for Kai and the gang, as a witch (played by Pacific Rim's Rinko Kikuchi) is slinking around, trying to ensure that they fail.

47 Ronin is a curious beast; neither magical nor mystical enough to engage that side of the audience and not exactly brimming with character development to make you care as this quest for vengeance continues afoot. Reeves is characteristically wooden in most of his scenes but he certainly impresses in the fight ones, with clearly some of that Matrix training still there in his background.

Of the rest of the Ronin, barely any outside of Hiroyaka Sanada's disgraced samurai register - the one comedy chubby Ronin gets a few laughs, which immediately marks him out for trouble ahead; but that's half the problem with 47 Ronin, it doesn't have character development or writing to make you care about half of what's unfolding on the screen. Certainly, there's no discussion over why Kai was so desperate to abandon his demon upbringers - just one of the crimes which stops you developing any kind of bond with the heroes within.

The visuals are incredibly flat also - despite some wonderful costumes and colours being painted on the celluloid pallet. The 3D is largely wasted and despite a few visual touches (such as a temple showdown and a final confrontation with Kikuchi's witch), there are moments that you really wish they'd just stuck to a 2D release, with subtitles rather than broken English from the actors.

Themes of honour, regret and retribution are there mingling in the pot, but they're never really brought to narrative boil, and emotion that should be present in suicides, deaths and lost love is curiously lacking. Kikuchi gives a turn that delivers a bit of pantomime villainy, but adds a touch of much needed OTT to the final mix.

47 Ronin could have been more - but by choosing not to embrace one thing or another, lacking in the action department and cooking up something that's way overlong, director Rinsch and the writers have concocted something which won't be remembered one way or the other - which, believe it or not, is a real shame for a legend that's supposedly resonated throughout the years.

Rating:

The Fall: DVD Review

The Fall: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Entertainment

Gillian "X Files" Anderson stars in this five part thriller, set in Belfast.

She's Met Police officer DSI Gibson, brought into Ireland to review an investigation into a killing after it fails to result in a prosecution and arrest. However, on arrival, her job's made even more complicated by the fact the killer strikes again, targeting professional women and with no rhyme or reason.

Along with the politics of the police, the fragility of the Irish peace and a race against time, Gibson finds herself stuck in the middle of something that may be tricky to resolve...

The Fall owes a debt to Danish TV - it's cool, complicated, slow and compelling.  Mixing masterful suspense with long swooping storytelling and a strong female lead, it's a heady mix which appeals from the start. Anderson concocts a brew of iciness, calm and strong leadership as Gibson. Equally Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan is impressive as the killer, a man whose motives are unknown but who mixes family with sneaking around stalking.

Don't expect this to be all wrapped up in 5 episodes - and that perhaps is the only real disappointment of The Fall - while a second series is due, it's to be hoped the resolution, explanation and fall out from the politics won't be lacking; because the ending gives The Fall something of a flat feeling and a cliffhanger doesn't tantalise as much as perhaps it should.

Extras: Behind the scenes.

Rating:

The Heat: Blu Ray Review

The Heat: Blu Ray Review

Rating: R13
Released by Universal Home ent

The cop buddy movie returns - this time with two female leads.

Oscar winning actress Sandra Bullock stars as uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn in The Heat; she's hoping for a major promotion despite being unloved by most of the troops she works with. Keen to please the powers that be, she's sent to Boston to help bring down a ruthless drug lord.

The only thing standing in her way is the brash and abrasive Boston cop Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy, re-teaming with her Bridesmaids director Paul Feig) - they're as incompatible as chalk and cheese. But, whaddya know, they've got to work together to bring down the bad guy - cue friction and fireworks.

The Heat is a buddy-cop movie which is lacking in sizzle, despite initially showing some promise.

Sandra Bullock does uptight very well - and perhaps a little too much, given how her character's roundly disliked by all those working with her but she borders on being arrogant and unwatchable that it's hard to initially latch onto her.

Likewise, Melissa McCarthy once again rocks her out abrasive, brash and rough cackling character to maximum crude comic effect throughout - and of course, given the two extremes of these career women, there's likely to be clashes ahead before the inevitable buddying up / slight agreeing to each other's point of view / thawing of the female rivalry gives way to their complementing each other. Sure, it's formulaic with the slightly different slant on the cop movie in that this time, it's two female cops who don't quite gel (what a shocker), but what's more problematic about this film is how unfunny it actually is during its nigh on two hours running time. Which is a real shame given the pedigree it's come from. A few unexpected curve balls here and there in the forms of acerbic put downs really lighten the mix. There's a lot of fun to be had at a couple of running gags - one of which comes at the expense of an albino cop and another about Ashburn's penchant for the neighbour's cat, but it's not enough to sustain the load.

McCarthy and Bullock have good chemistry together but after a while the abrasive squabbling and squirm inducing excruciating moments tend to outstay their welcome and really grates. The Heathad real potential as a final pre-end credits piece shows which brings more laughs than have gone before.

The buddy cop genre has many entrants - and this recalls Rush Hour in some ways given the clashes - but The Heat isn't a memorable entrant into the admittedly already crowded pantheon thanks largely in part to a weak script and a lack of doing anything really new and different with the formula.

Extras: Bloopers, acting classes, 5 commentaries, deleted and alternate scenes

Rating: