Monday 13 October 2014

The hilarious misadventures of Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike aka Gone Girl Review


David Fincher. He has some of the most stunning movies out there. Seven, Fight Club and The Social Network to name but a few. This time around he goes for something a little bit different,with Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris along for the ride. The story to Gone Girl is about Nick Dunne (Affleck) who comes home one day to find his wife, Amy Elliott Dunne (Pike), is missing. He brings in the police and that is where I am going to leave you. I will not spoil Gone Girl for you, I can’t and won’t do it. I will give you a spoiler free review though so here we go.

Gone Girl is a fascinating movie. It’s incredibly real but at the same time surreal. The characters are people you know in your life but then they do the most off the wall intense actions which will leave you dumbfounded. I never say this, but it was a roller-coaster of emotions from start to finish and by the time the end credits roll you will be exhausted. I haven’t watched such an intense and engaging movie in a long time, I honestly can’t, and that is where Gone Girl excels, being utterly unforgettable. Our leads are superb, in particular Pike who gives the best performance of her career, I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t get an Oscar nod at least. Then comes Affleck’s Nick Dunne, who is very much a mystery for most of Gone Girl as you get many different perspectives on him, with Ben Affleck bringing his A game to Gone Girl.

Please just accept me as Batman and we can all move on with our lives.

Unfortunately it’s not all a bed of roses. Some of the characters are a bit on the clichéd side which could be forgiven in a lesser movie but not in Gone Girl. Then there is Neil Patrick Harris, who gives in a cartoonish performance as Desi Collins, a cheap knock off of Barney Stinson. I know I said that the surrealism of the movie at times adds a great layer to Gone Girl but Harris felt slightly out of place. His character feels like Bizarro Barney; Imagine all the ridiculousness of Barney thrown into a real world situation and it just comes off as odd.

There is then the time, clocking in at just two and a half hours, Gone Girl feels bloated. I have to say, as the movie came to its conclusion, I wished that Gone Girl had ended just fifteen or twenty minutes sooner. These are however a few nitpicks but they are still nitpicks which take away the perfect score Gone Girl deserves. What surprised and intrigued me was the level of humour that was so organic and felt well earned. The preview screening was packed and roaring with laughter whenever a situation called for it. It was great, and again added another appreciated layer to the film.

Between the stunning scene set ups, the outstanding performances and the intense atmosphere, Gone Girl flirts with perfection. Unfortunately a bloated length, a clichéd supporting cast and a cartoonish Neil Patrick Harris takes away from this almost masterpiece. I'm being harsh but with such strong expectations you have to. Let me know what you thought. Too tough or too nice? Did it hit perfection or was it just shy? Catch you later.

3/5

Some Movie Reviews and a movie interview


Hey guys, so it's been a little while and I've been up to a ton of stuff. I've seen a ton of movies and I've again gotten to interview some choice actors and an up and coming director. A week or two back I got to interview Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon and Irish director Gary Shore for Universal's latest, Dracula Untold. There's a link below for the interview with them and it was pretty great. Again I owe it to Scannain.com for giving me the opportunity because it was a lot of fun. I've also seen some movies as well, Annabelle, Gone Girl, The Maze Runner as well as A Most Wanted Man and Robert Downey Jrs up and coming passion piece The Judge with Robert Duvall. Things are going really well with Geek Ireland, you should definitely check out our site and as per usual I'll keep you guys up to date with my goings ons, my interviews, my reviews and my shenanigans. So as to not leave you with nothing. I'll leave you a few images from the Dracula Untold premier and the link to the interview with Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon and Gary Shore. Later guys.

Interview with the cast and director of Dracula Untold.



Tuesday 7 October 2014

It's been awhile, what have I been up to?


Well it's been a a few months since the last update from my blog. Since the Noah review I've been interviewing, reviewing and acting. I've been in a movie called Poison Pen, which opened in the Galway Film Festival. I've seen a lot of movies, ranging from the grand Guardians Of Galaxy to the terrible Tammy.

My work with Geek Ireland has really grown in popularity, I'll link some of the articles I've penned as well as some of the competitions Geek Ireland has set up. In particular, we have a great competition where you can win a pair of tickets to a Studio Ghibli Movie season going on in Screen Cinema.

What's been really weird is that I even got to stretch my acting muscles in Fair City, that's right Fair City. If you're a fan of Fair City you can probably catch me on an episode in the next week or two.

I've gotten to interview the Director and Producer of Planes Fire and Rescue, as well as voice acting legend Liam O'Brien, who has given life to animated characters like Gaara of the anime Naruto, War from the Darksiders video game series and Nightcrawler and Angel from Wolverine and the X-Men. The cherry on my career cake was my interview with Daniel Radcliffe for his new movie What If. You guys should seriously check it  out, it's a great movie. Check out the video below and I hope you enjoyed my long overdue update. Next one shouldn't take as long.