This week's releases

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: The second book by Suzanne Collins is shown on the big screen with its star Jennifer Lawrence back as Katniss Everdeen.

Full preview here

Parkland: Zac Efron stars in this drama about the events on that fateful day in Dallas where John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The film focuses more on chaotic scenes at the Dallas Parkland Hospital that Kennedy was taken to after he was shot whilst the Police try to piece together exactly what happened to the President of the United States.

The Family: Luc Besson's latest incarnation is a comedy about a mafia family that is forced to leave America under the witness protection programme. There new home is to be in Normandy in France but unfortunately old habits die hard as they try to adjust to a law abiding life in France. Starring Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Favourite movies of all-time revisited

In June last year I named my top 10 favourite movies of all-time list, a bold list that created some good debate. The issue with producing such a list is that it will change based on your mood at the time of writing and will constantly be in flux, or in my case you'd forgotten some key movies you loved like The Shining and Metropolis. It only took a few weeks for me to start picking apart my own list and critique my reasons for choosing certain films.

The main films in peril were the most recently released in Drive and Margin Call. The issue is that are they on the list because they are very good recent films that are stuck in my mind? Is it because they look even better against most of the predictable dirge served up by Hollywood these days? Looking back now with both films having been out for well over 18 months I'd say I'm happy with both being included. Drive is easily one of the slickest and aesthetically pleasing films I've ever seen (and I've seen it 5 times in the last 18months or so). Whilst Margin Call was clever, depressingly realistic and sharply scripted that it felt like a film for our time whilst we all suffer and endlessly hear about the recession.

The two films that may fall close to being axed would be Alien and Vanishing Point. I had considered one of the David Lynch films but it just can't happen, axing one of those would be like choosing which of your children you'd like the least. Alien is a great tense sci-fi classic that set the standard for so many films afterwards whilst Vanishing Point is the ultimate road chase movie but are they both films I love that much to include still? Possibly not when considering the films I mentioned above that I missed out and others such as City of God which wasn't included because I only saw it for the first time this year.

The list from 10-6: http://therollingpicture.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/10-favourite-movies-of-all-time-part-1.html
The list from 5-1: http://therollingpicture.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/10-favourite-movies-of-all-time-part-2.html

Film Review: Hitlerjunge Salomon

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Based on the true story of Solomon Perel who released an autobiography of his life during the second world war when he hid his Jewish heritage to avoid capture and became part of Hitler's youth. The film was released under the name 'Europa Europa' in the UK but was sometimes confused with the Lars von Trier film Europa so many reverted to the original German name.

Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider) is a Jewish teenager living in Nazi Germany and has to escape naked on the day of his bar mitzvah to avoid the Nazi's attacking Jewish homes and shops. His father originally came from Lodz in Poland so he decides to take the family there. His family then sends him and his brother East towards the Russians who are less likely to persecute the Jews but they are seperated and Solomon starts a long journey to survive during the bleak Second World War.

Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider)

The story of Solomon Perel has divided people for many years with some saying it showed an amazing will to survive to go through what he did whereas many others accuse him of turning his back on his religion and his own people. At the end of the day we are all selfish people on some level and at some point your own will to survive will kick in and you may act in your own best interests. Other critics said it did embellish upon the book and made it more interesting for the screen with him not actually coming as close as it seems to being caught as a Jew by the Nazi's.

Where the film should be lauded is for its depiction of ordinary people, this film refuses to make sweeping judgements about groups of people purely based on what history has told us. Not every Jewish person was good and the victim just as not every Nazi was evil at the time, many sympathized with the plight of Jewish people and other victims of the regime. It was refreshing to see this and the acting from the star Marco Hofschneider was impressive as he is very much left to carry the film, this was very much a depiction of his time during the war and nothing else.

2.5/4 Alternative look at one Jew's experience of the Second World War

Film Review: Rush

Director: Ron Howard

Howard is an experienced man whose produced many impressive films over a long film career spanning four decades. A documentary was also produced by the BBC called Hunt vs. Lauda: F1's Greatest Racing Rivals which aired in July. This gave viewers a chance to see old footage of them racing with interviews etc and get a feel for what the film would be about.

The film follows both Hunt and Lauda as they start their careers and their rivalry at a Formula Three race where Lauda blames Hunt's reckless driving for him spinning out of the race. The rivalry is renewed when they both enter Formula One but Lauda forces a move to Ferrari to help him win the 1975 Championship whilst Hunt struggles on a poor team. With Hunt moving to MacLaren both drivers are primed for a huge run at the 1976 Championship.

James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl)

Howard moves back to the 70's following his film Frost/Nixon that was so well received and also sees two men slug it out on the international stage but in this case in driving a Formula One car. Chris Hemsworth actually puts in a decent performance which surprised me having seen him play very similar characters in his previous work but he is still no match for Daniel Bruhl who coolly impresses as the genius Lauda. The driving scenes are quite impressive but on the whole the film didn't wow me and certainly lost momentum with Hunt's marital problems. I think F1 fans will find a lot to enjoy here but for the rest of us I'm not sure.

2/4 F1 fans aside, it doesn't offer a whole lot

Film Preview: Dallas Buyers Club

The main news associated with this movie is the huge amount weight that the lead actors Matthew McConaughey (50lbs) and Jared Leto (30lbs) have lost in preparation for this movie. McConaughey is almost unrecognisable in the lead role in which he dieted for 5 months under the supervision of a doctor to protect his health, although he is still said to have suffered due to the weight loss whereas Jared Leto mainly just stopped eating. The film is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée who is Canadian and mostly known for doing French-language films so it was unsurprising that the film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.

Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof

In 1986 Dallas, homophobic, drug addicted party boy Ron Woodroof is diagnosed with HIV and is given 30 days to live. He starts taking the Food and Drug Administration approved AZT, the only drug legally available in the U.S, which brings him to the brink of death. To survive, he smuggles anti-viral medications from all over the world, which were still unapproved and unavailable in the U.S.

Dallas Buyers Club is released in the UK on 7th February 2014.

This week's releases

Don Jon: Joseph Gordon-Levitt writes, directs and stars in this comedy drama about Jon who is a New Jersey guy who is a great friend and family member but suffers from an addiction to pornography. As he meets Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) he is forced to confront his addiction and make choices about the life he wants for himself.

The Butler: Classic Oscar material, Hollywood is now rolling out films set during the civil rights movement to push for Oscar nominations and to be fair you can't blame them with the Oscar buffs being even more obsessed themselves. Forest Whittaker plays Cecil Gaines who plays the butler to eight different presidents during his working life as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War take hold of America.

The Counselor: The latest film from director Ridley Scott is a crime thriller with an ensemble cast. After much anticipation the initial reviews were poor from America with many blaming a laughably poor script, we have to wait till this Friday to find out for ourselves. The film is set by the troubled border between Texas and Mexico at Juarez with a lawyer finding himself in deep trouble with drug trafficking.

Film Review: Moon

Director: Duncan Jones

The debut film from director Duncan Jones, son of popstar David Bowie, is a science-fiction film with a nod to the heroics of 2001: A Space Odyssey among others. It was praised by scientists for its generally realistic depiction of what life would be like on the Moon. The film was written by Jones along with Nathan Parker who wrote the film specifically as a film for Sam Rockwell to star in and it was a film that many felt was snubbed by the Oscars.

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his three year work contract at the lunar mining base on the Moon. Lunar Industries are mining Helium-3 from the moon to meet the energy needs of the planet and seem to be very profitable from doing so. With no live link to Earth he speaks to his wife and daughter with delayed video messages and his only companion is an AI machine called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). Sam starts to suffer from loneliness as he starts to hallucinate but how many of the images are actually real?

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell)

The film lines up a few surprises which took the plot in a completely different direction to what I was expecting. It is a clever and thought provoking piece that deals with many of the mysteries of life and who we are and what we believe. Sam Rockwell is decent in the lead role that he carries well through the first half of the movie. Kevin Spacey's deadpan tone as the computer GERTY is pitched perfectly although is slightly more sympathetic than his spiritual brother HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

In a bizarre coincidence I watched this film straight after Ridley Scott's Blade Runner which Duncan Jones said would be the spiritual descendant of his next movie which is believed to be a semi-sequel to Moon. Clearly looking at some of the same questions as Scott's film I actually think Jones does a great job in questioning our existence and our reality in a more engaging way than the lauded Blade Runner ever did. For a debut film this is a very impressive effort.

3.5/4 Thoughtful clever sci-fi drama