Directed By: Tomas Alfredson
Written By: Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan (Based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré)Starring:
Gary Oldman
Mark Strong
John Hurt
Colin Firth
Tom Hardy
Benedict Cumberbatch
Toby Jones
Ciarán Hinds
Stephen Graham
Amanda Fairbank-Hynes
There’s a mole, right at the top of the Circus. And he’s been there for years. – Oliver Lacon
She told me she had a secret, the mother of all secrets… – Ricky Tarr
Things aren’t always what they seem. – Easterhase
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the best MI5 film ever. It explores the actual intelligence and spy work done without clouding over the realism with pointless action and cheesy lines, like in Bond films. Although I love Bond movies, this film is so good it surpasses the limits of Bond and shows you how isolated and dangerous spy work is.
Tinker Tailor is set during the Cold War and follows the story of espionage veteran George Smiley, who after being forced into retirement, is asked by a livelong friend to undercover and find a Soviet mole in MI5. In this compelling story we taken back in time and shown the relationships between Smiley and his former co-workers, the former operations of suspects and then taken to the present and shown his search and investigation to find the Soviet spy.
Gary Oldman gives his best performance ever as George Smiley. He really should have won the Oscar for Best Actor instead of Jean Dujardin, who won for The Artist.
At one stage he is having a conversation with a colleague and when he is asked about a previous meeting he sits forward and has a conversation with an empty chair, recalling the exact meeting for his colleague. It is here that Gary shows the best of his humility in his subtle performance, he makes you feel as if you are in the room and that the meeting is actually taking place.
This film boasts one of the best British cast ever, even allowing Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy (as Peter Guillam and Ricky Tarr respectively) to showcase their profound ability. Apart from Gary Oldman, it is Mark Strong who stands out as the best actor in this film. He can change his expression with ease and shows you his suspicion, fear and loneliness extremely well.
The film has distracted many movie fans and even some critics as it is a slow film but if you pay attention all the way through to absolutely everything it will all make perfect sense. At first I didn’t like this film nearly as much as I do now, it took a second and definitely more attentive viewing to fully appreciate this films scintillating quality.
It’s cinematography is amazing and dark, the writing is very intricate and clever and the all round performances are well, just plain brilliant!
10/10 – Michael10/10 – Cody100%
I am vengeance!… I am the night!… I am Batman! – Batman (From: Batman: The Animated Series)
It’s humiliating to admit Batman has his limits. That none of my abilities makes any difference if the mark doesn’t believe – Batman (From:The Hill)
I am Bane — and I could kill you… but death would only end your agony — and silence your shame. Instead, I will simply… BREAK YOU!’ – Bane (From: Knightfall)
Christopher Nolan does a decent job of bringing his Dark Knight trilogy to a close
Batman being my favorite hero/superhero since I was very young and watching Batman Begins and The Dark Knight in Cinemas when they came out and even going as far as to go to the Batman Begins/The Dark Knight Double Feature in cinema on the Eve of The Dark Knight Rises opening night.
On opening night in the cinema, there was me, front of the line ( I had showed up really early to make sure I was at the front) with my ticket in hand (which I was compelled to buy well in advance) wearing my batman t-shirt so excited to see this film.
I can tell you now after sitting through the 160 minute runtime I was surprisingly underwhelmed.
There are things in this movie that hindered my enjoyment such as plot holes, (which I will not get into as there are spoilers) and Tom Hardy’s Bane voice.
Bane I found to be an interesting villain but I thought the Bane Voice was off-putting, and kinda sounds like hes constipated the whole time (some people found his voice hard to understand, I myself did not have the same problem).
Tom Hardy’s screen presence as Bane is very good however and he manages to do a lot of acting with just his eyes.
Christian Bale does a solid job of playing an older Bruce Wayne a man who now feels that there is nothing else out in the the world for him now that he has hung up his Cape and Cowl.
Catwoman is an interesting character who is played really well by Anne Hathaway although i prefer Michelle Pfeiffer turn as Catwoman in Tim Burton‘s 1992 film Batman Returns. I think Anne Hathaway is better as Selina Kyle rather than here alter ego.Her backstory isn’t gone into in much detail but I feel she is meant to be a little mysterious. But really she’s not even Catwoman, shes either “The Cat” or the “Cat-burglar” which I mean come on Chris are you ashamed of the character i really don’t understand why she can’t be Catwoman. But i digress.
Although Bane isn’t as great a villain as The Joker, Heath Ledger played that role perfectly and he was a near impossible act to follow, Tom Hardy was up to the challenge.
All in all I do think The Dark Knight Rises is alright, but I like it less and less with every viewing. I think we all expected a bit too much from this movie, things that it couldn’t possibly deliver, but that doesn’t make me any less disappointed.
6/10 – Cody10/10 – Michael 6/10 – Matthew 7/10 – Jason 9/10 – John76%
Directed By: Tomas Alfredson
Written By: Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan (Based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré)
Starring:
Gary Oldman
Mark Strong
John Hurt
Colin Firth
Tom Hardy
Benedict Cumberbatch
Toby Jones
Ciarán Hinds
Stephen Graham
Amanda Fairbank-Hynes
cjm868 reviews 