Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Not quite the Golden Ticket...

Dear the Reader(if there are any of you left out there.)

 I'm sorry for my erratic and frequent absences from this blog. But I have continued going to the movies, consuming boxsets and watching an occasional play - so I am sitting on some material that I will attempt to cajole into reviews, discussions, musings...

I'll start with a review I wrote a while back of the West End show Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that I never got round to publishing. This is the first theatre production I've written about on Amateur Reviews so here's to firsts.

A couple of weeks ago I journeyed to London on a Law related excursion involving a night at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane - many thanks, Slaughter & May.

As Sam Mendes is one of my more revered directors I was looking forward to seeing his rendition of the much adapted classic by Roald Dahl. And I enjoyed it, but only just.

First off, there is something mildly boring about watching something when you already know the plot like the back of your hand. Did I feel suspense every time Charlie opened a chocolate bar? Well obviously not, as we all know where the tale ends up. And yet conversely I was disappointed that, bar one song, there was none of the classic Charlie songs we know and love. I understand that some of the new tracks could go on to be equally as well known but it's like listening to a new album for the first time, you only really get into it after you've replayed it, and clearly I had not listened to the new Charlie tunes beforehand.

So qualm numero uno is I knew the plot which made it a little uninteresting and qualm numero dos is that I didn't know the songs which, once again, made it a little uninteresting.

With that said I'm not sure my familiarity with the story is all that is dulling my appreciation of the musical, as I could watch Les Miserables knowing the plot and songs every month and still dig it.

No, I think my real disappointment stems from the fact this play is undoubtedly shopped for the under tens, and whilst still enjoyable for a parent perhaps, I found myself hyper aware of the target demographic. This is a family play and if I went with a young child I'm sure I'd find it magic watching them enjoy and become invested in the story but I didn't go with a young child - I went with a bunch of second and third year Law students.

I'm not a theatre connoisseur, but I am more gripped by actual stories, like The Woman In Black and recently 12 Angry Men without razzmatazz and singing and dancing . It's not that I dislike musicals but somehow I can't see Charlie having the longevity of something like The Lion King.

But it is undeniably fun, genuinely humorous at times and the set is unbelievable. If you're into big budget productions, with a huge cast, great costume, inventive set design, magical lighting and something to gawp at in every scene - Charlie excels in this respect.

Would I describe my ticket to this musical as golden? Probably not.

But am I glad I went? You betcha.

Arty one from my Instagram 

Jameson Empire Awards: The Red Carpet

This post marks the end of awards season for another year (sob). Here are a couple of pictures from the Awards which have literally just ended over in London. Stay tuned, there's more to come!

The ever dapper Tom Hiddleston 

Looks like Martin Freeman may have retained some of Bilbo's knit wear...

Daniel Radcliffe - Hero

Sam Claflin 

Sir Ian McKellen 

Samantha Barks 

Reunited: Sam Mendes and Kevin Spacey 

Jameson Empire Awards: The Winners

Best Male Newcomer 

Domhnall Gleeson (Anna Karenina)

Rafe Spall (Life Of Pi)

Steve Oram (Sightseers)

Suraj Sharma (Life Of Pi)

WINNER Tom Holland (The Impossible)

Extremely worthy winner, I had voted for him after the short list was released in that post.

Best Female Newcomer

Alice Lowe (Sightseers)

Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina)

Holliday Grainger (Great Expectations)

Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts Of The Southern Wild)

WINNER Samantha Barks (Les Miserables)

Two out of two so far, as predicted!

Best Comedy 

21 Jump Street

Moonrise Kingdom 

WINNER Ted

The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists 

Silver Linings Playbook 

There's no disputing Ted was hilarious. Maybe 21 Jump Street was funnier...

Best Horror 

WINNER The Woman In Black 

The Cabin In The Woods 

Sinister 

Sightseers 

Dark Shadows

Happy this won, this was my pick for the category 

Best Thriller

Argo 

Skyfall

Zero Dark Thirty 

The Raid 

WINNER Jo Nesbo's Headhunters

Definitely a tough category, I had chosen Argo for this - Headhunters definitely bucks the previous award season trend.

Best Sci-FI/Fantasy 

Prometheus 

Looper 

Avengers Assemble 

Dredd 3D 

WINNER The Hobbit

I had chosen Avengers for this nod, but The Hobbit makes for a very worthy winner 

The Art Of 3D

Avengers Assemble 

WINNER Dredd 3D

Life Of Pi

Prometheus 

The Hobbit

Had predicted the Hobbit, but there wasn't much in it 

Jameson Best Actor

Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Daniel Craig (Skyfall)

Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln)

WINNER Martin Freeman (The Hobbit)

Robert Downey Jr. (Avengers Assemble)

I threatened to eat my hat if Daniel Day-Lewis didn't win. I'll let you know how it tastes...

Best Actress

Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises)

Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

Dame Judi Dench (Skyfall)

Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

WINNER Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games)

Thought Watts deserved this, but happy to see J-Law's winning streak continue. 

Best Director 

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises)

Joss Whedon (Avengers Assemble)

WINNING Sam Mendes (Skyfall)

Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Peter Jackson (The Hobbit)

Unsurprisingly I had wanted this one to go to Nolan, but Mendes is definitely a hugely talented director, no qualms here.

Best British Film 

Dredd 3D

Les Miserables 

WINNER Sightseers 

Skyfall 

The Woman In Black

Bit of a curve ball don't you think? Over Les Mis and Skyfall though, really?!

Best Film 

Django Unchained

Avengers Assemble

WINNER Skyfall

The Dark Knight Rises

The Hobbit 

I wanted The Dark Knight Rises, but it sort of had to be Skyfall didn't it?

Check out Amateur Review's prediction post and also the Red Carpet post still to come. 

Jameson Empire Awards Shortlist

BAFTA 2013 Winners

Every aspect of the industry was celebrated last night: the initial seed of an idea, the classic works of literature that inspire screenplays, the great people who are worthy of endless portrayals, the wild thoughts that ignite these movies. The technicality of filming, the original shots, the page turning scripts, the costumes, the sweeping scores and soundtracks. Actors; people who breath life into concepts, who enact words on a page into a visceral and tangible reality, who bring us laughter, fear, tears and entertainment. Press junkets, premieres, the spectacle of trips to the cinema, opening night anticipation. Then awards season buzz which eventually leads to these tremendous shows where the story tellers of this world are celebrated and decorated. Films have the power to change lives, brighten days, distract you from the mundane, remind you it's not that bad, help you to imagine, to feel, to dream. 

Hopefully, after last night's show, this great art form has inspired many more future directors, writers, actors...

Scroll down for the winners list and some pictures of the stars with their awards. Bet the Academy are feeling a bit red faced for snubbing Argo now...

Best FilmArgo

DirectorBen Affleck (Argo)

Leading ActorDaniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Leading ActressEmmanuelle Riva (Amour)

Supporting ActorChristoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Supporting ActressAnne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
Bafta FellowshipSir Alan Parker

THE EE Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)Juno Temple

Outstanding British Contribution to CinemaTessa Ross

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or ProducerBart Layton, Dimitri Doganis (The Imposter)

Film Not in the English LanguageAmour

DocumentarySearching For Sugar Man

Outstanding British Film Skyfall

Animated Film Brave

Original Screenplay Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

Original Music Skyfall (Thomas Newman)

Cinematography Life Of Pi (Claudio Miranda)

Editing Argo (William Goldenberg)

Costume Design Anna Karenina (Jacqueline Durran)

Make-up and Hair Les Miserables (Lisa Westcott)

Sound Les Miserables

Short Animation The Making Of Longbird

Short Film Swimmer

Adapted ScreenplayDavid O Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Production DesignLes Miserables (Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson)

Special Visual EffectsLife Of Pi

Skyfall - Review

SKYFALL

 

2012

12A

Directed by Sam Mendes

Starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem and Judi Dench

 

When a hard-drive listing all undercover NATO operative is out of the hands of British Intelligence and into the hands of cyber villain Silva; James Bond must resurrect himself from a near death experience in order to recover the drive, salvage M’s reputation and control a man who wants ultimate revenge.

From a personal point of view, Daniel Craig is the most impressive James Bond to date even in the shaky second instalment: Quantum of Solace. Here Bond is back in fine form in a film specially made to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Ian Fleming’s juggernaut series. Having rebooted the film series away from the campness of the Brosnan era, Skyfall picks up a while after the first days of a licence to kill in Casino Royale. In this film he is more of a hurt hero battling with ghosts from his past.

The film opens with an adrenaline laced chase sequence through a Turkish bazaar. What’s beautiful about this opening is what director Sam Mendes has described as a “Russian doll” approach. You think it’s a car chase, which evolves into a bike chase, which morphs into a train chase: and this happens seamlessly. Praise must be given early on for cinematographer Roger Deakins who has delivered searing and dramatic visuals; stunning cinematography would be an understatement.

Sam Mendes has taken up the mammoth challenge of this 23^rd Bond movie with refreshing poise. He has spoken of trying to get a quality plot cemented to begin with and then to incorporate all the obligatory elements we expect from a James Bond film. This seems to work better than starting with necessary fundamentals (the credits sequence, the Bond girls, the exotic locations, the cars, the villains and the explosions) and trying to fit in something of a plot around it. There are charming odes to Bond films of yester year and finally a director has been happy to utilise the breathtaking British scenery for the majority of the movie: Skyfall is definitely worthy of the 50^th year anniversary.

This movie’s iconic credit sequence is one of the best ones yet. Craig takes a tumble through morbid animations supplemented by Adele’s dulcet tones. They definitely cracked it this time. James Bond spends a hour or so as an unshaven wreck who is out of shape and hitting the bottle. I say “out of shape” but fear not, Craig’s glistening musculature is not impeded by this. And rightly so because he has multiple Bond girls to please. Fellow agent Eve (Noamie Harris) gives a reasonable effort as MI6 sniper and Berenice Marlohe is utterly beautiful; but Skyfall is most definitely about the men.

Javier Bardem’s villain Silva does not surface until the second act, but when he does, it is glorious. In a lengthy tracking shot he delivers a parable about rats which acts as a recurring motif throughout the rest of the movie, he then probes Bond about his drink, his form, his relationship with M and even his sexuality in an erotically charged scene. It’s moments like this where Mendes is at his American-Beauty-best and Daniel Craig shows that subtlety is his ace. Silva is multifaceted and a highly original creation, a foreigner with a Nolanesque deformity to boot (echoes of Harvey-two-face anyone?) What’s bracing is that Silva’s motives are personal, and his way of going about his revenge is in a very 21^st century way.

There’s a wonderful reinvention of Q by Ben Whishaw who brings youth and humour while reminding us of, quite sinisterly, the damage that can be done with a computer before breakfast in the wrong hands. The banter between him and Craig is inspired, another example of Mendes getting the absolute best out of his actors. As commented by members of our viewing party, Ralph Feinnes plays it as enigmatically as ever but gets some excellent action scenes in the third act.

Skyfall provides everything we have come to expect and love from James Bond, it’s sleek, traditional, thrilling, fun and laden with classic characters. All in all, if Skyfall was to be the last Bond movie, Sam Mendes most definitely ends it on a high. However thankfully one thing’s certain, 50 years in, James Bond will remain on our screens as a Great British icon for many more years to come.

Rating: 8

Daniel Craig as 007

Ready for action: Daniel Craig as James Bond

Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem get to know eachother

Gadget man Q played by Ben Whishaw

James and Severine

Skyfall - Trailer

Apologies for the delay in blogging about the first trailer for Daniel Craig’s third James Bond movie Skyfall, it seems Amateur Reviews were too preoccupied watching the Olympics and listening to Wiz Khalifa…

If the action packed trailer is anything to go by, this instalment looks utterly explosive. In the trailer we see 007 faking his own death, getting to grips with some insane gadgets and stunning bond girls. There have been a few mumblings criticising villain Javier Bardem’s blonde crop, it appears these people learned nothing from No Country For Old Men: even with a ridiculous haircut, he’s not a man you’d want to trifle with.

It’s highly probable that you have all seen the trailer in question by now, but in any case, here it is!

Skyfall will be hitting cinemas in November so until then, keep it Amateur Reviews for the news!

Have your say - Ultimate favourite Bond? Amateur Reviews has to say Pierce Brosnen, but a fellow film fan who is a staunch fan of Roger Moore said he would be the ultimate Bond "at a push"! They also provided a Fun Roger Fact for you all... He was scared of guns so when he shot them he flinched!