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Review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
I quite liked the first Hobbit, though it was worryingly over-stuffed with Christopher Lee cameos and whatnot. The second film on the other hand was all stuffing and no meat, a relentless parade of middling events and characters apparently only there to pay off in the third film. In retrospect, so few of those moments and characters actually do pay off that it makes me dislike the middle film all the more. →
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Review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
There's a moment in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug where Gandalf has wandered off from the company of dwarves and is creeping his way through an ancient crypt. Discovering an open tomb, he's startled by Radagast the Brown. "Why are we here, Gandalf?" asks Radagast. Good question, I thought; "To set up the next film" appeared to be the answer. →
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Review of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Managing expectations is important; this is not strictly an adaptation of The Hobbit. Instead, it's a prequel to Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. This is crucial, because if you go in hoping for a lightweight children's fable, which is more or less what The Hobbit is, you'll find something bloated and overly dark in tone. As a prequel it's a success, though a qualified one. Note: To try and avoid confusion, I'll be referring to the film as An Unexpected Journey, and the book as The Hobbit. →
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Hot Fuzz
I've mentioned before that there are only a few directors who, in my mind, can do no wrong --- Aronofsky, Raimi, Singer and Nolan. Having just seen Hot Fuzz, I'm now going to add Edgar Wright to that list. I don't want to be overly hyperbolic, but I think that the British film industry ought to get down on their knees and thank whatever deity happens to be passing for not just Edgar Wright but for Simon Pegg as well, because their films are not only excellent, but because it means we, as a nation, can finally stand behind ensemble comedy pieces that don't have the words 'Carry' and 'On' in the title. →
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
There is a phrase that is often used to describe a point where something is no longer worth watching. That phrase is 'jumped the shark’, and has its origins in an episode of the tedious sit-com Happy Days. During the screening of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I realised that there was room for a new phrase with a similar meaning, and that phrase is ‘switched the windscreen wipers on'. →