The last King of Scotland (2006, Kevin MacDonald)

After his graduation, Dr Nicholas Garrigan decided to go to Uganda because he didn’t want to work with his father. There, he became the President Idi Amin’s physician and his closest advisor. At first, Garrigan enjoyed His Excellence’s hospitality but later discovered his dark side.

As stated, the film is inspired by real events and real people (Bob Astles, a British soldier serving in Uganda and Amin, an Ugandan dictator). James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class) portrays a young doctor from Scotland and the acting is perfect: the is too naive, sometimes foolish and irresponsible. But the praise goes to Forest Whitaker who plays the dictator. The role fits him like a glove: the character’s tone is convincing and what I think was the most impressive is the sudden change of humor, the passage from trust to paranoia, satisfaction to anger, sometimes accompanied by ironic smile and laugh. I know these are two different characters but it reminded me of the famous FX TV The Shield (2002-2008) in which the IA lieutenant (played by Whitaker) excels in manipulating the subjects of his investigations.

The story is not original though. The cliches associated to Africa are highlighted: coup d’Etat, civil war, ethnic issues, child soldiers, diseases, poverty and foreign interference especially from the Western world. Unfortunately, those are real… At the same time, it also shows wonderful exotic landscapes, wildlife, kids playing on dusty ground, enthusiastic people hoping for change, nice music, etc. Africa is not poor. It just needs good leaders…  

Forest Whitaker at the 79th Academy Award Ceremony

Memorable quotes

Amin: Here is where civilization began. Here in Africa. Here is where the Greek stole the philosophy and the Arabs took the medicine. We, Ugandans, must be more proud of this history. We are an independent African nation living in peace and economic power, black power.

Stone: Do you know what they’re calling you? His white monkey

Garrigan: I’m his doctor. It’s not my job to judge the man

Stone: Is that you defence? How pathetic, f*** off Carrigan. Just hand passport to chimps like you. Particularly not chimps with blood on the hands.

We bought a Zoo (2011, Cameron Crowe)

Exit Jason Bourne! Meet Benjamin Mee, a writer, good dad, good husband and good at almost everything he does. Then something happened, something he was not prepared for: his wife died. Mee struggles to find a balance between his family life and his job. One day, he decided to quit and move to the countryside to have a new start. 

We bought a Zoo

The idea of the film is simple. Buying an 18 acre zoo seems to be a good investment but problems arise: 

-Mee did it on an impulse and had no idea how to run it

-He knows absolutely nothing on animals

-The tension between him and Dylan doesn’t make it easy

-He has few weeks to renovate before Walter Ferris comes for the inspection

 

Some helpful elements though

-Hard-working, competent and dedicated team working on the renovation of the zoo

-Scarlett Johansson's pretty eyes

-The money his wife left for him

All’s well ends well. Let's not say this is the american dream, this is a dream: wonderful countryside, beautiful animals, kind people and great story. Watching films like this reminds us that there are good things in this world: wow, this is HEART WARMING!!!

Memorable quotes

Benjamin: I’m the one who gets the emails about your lack of effort man, ok ? Either you know where the book is, or you don’t

Dylan: Dad, it’s whatever,look, I’ll know it when I get to school

Benjamin: You know what, whatever is THE laziest word of the 21th century, alright, I’ve had it with whatever  I don’t wanna hear it again, in this century ever again, whatever is over.

Benjamin: Hey Rosie, am I doing anything right?

Rosie: You’re handsomer than the other dads. Most of them don’t have hair, so that’s good

The Avengers (2012, Joss Whedon)

It must have taken years to prepare something like The Avengers so the expectation was high but the result was up to it. Remember there was a post-credit scene in Iron Man? Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is approached by Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), Director of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistic Division aka S.H.I.E.L.D about a project called The Avengers Initiative. Later:

The Incredible Hulk (2008): Stark introduces the idea of putting a team together.

Iron Man 2 (2010): Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) finds Thor’s hammer and reports to Fury. In the film, Coulson tells Stark he is reassigned somewhere in New Mexico, the small town the Asgard demi god landed when he first came to earth.

Thor (2011): Fury shows the Tesseract to Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard). Selvig's skills are needed to work on developing that source of energy. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was there too.

Captain America, the first Avenger (2011): Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) wakes up in 2010 and Nick Fury announces he's part of the team.  

Good to know:

Captain America was the result of a lab experiment conducted by Dr Abraham Erskine and Howard Stark, Tony’s daddy.
It was Howard Stark who discovered the Tesseract after Red Skull died (Captain America, 2011). 
Hawkeye appeared briefly in Thor.  

Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)

WE WANTED IT, WE GOT IT

The main pieces are all there. At first, the Avengers Initiative was abandoned but the file had to be reopened as our dream team is needed to prevent Loki from starting a war to destroy Earth.

I haven’t seen such remarkable action film lately so of course, the Avengers delivers. The music, the fast-paced action, the dialogue and the humour entertain and the interaction between the characters is perfectly performed. Add the scenes when they fight to each other (Thor/Iron Man, Thor/Hulk, Hawkeye/Black Widow, etc.) and you’ve got the ingredients that makes of this a well-packed piece of work  How Hulk put Loki down was the most particularly hilarious one. As for the cast, Jeremy Renner is Clint Barton, Cobie Smulders, the heroine of How I met your Mother plays Agent Hill and Mark Ruffalo (not Edward Norton) joins the team, how wonderful he is when he turns green, huge and angry.

The only thing I regret is that no film about Hawkeye or Black Widow has been made for the Avengers project. Whatever is going on between Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) needed to be developed but hey, the film already runs for two hours and a half so this is perhaps a subject for the sequel.

Cobie Smulders as Agent Hill

Memorable quote

Nick Fury: There was an idea - Stark knows this - called the Avengers Initiative). The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more, see if they could work together so when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could.

Funny quote (among others)

Stark: When they come, and they will come, they’ll come for you

Loki: We have an army

Stark: We have a Hulk

Joss Whedon (Toy Story) and the cast

OT : Sherlock (BBC 2010-, Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss)

SHERLOCK REVISITED (novels by Arthur Conan Doyle)

At the beginning, there was the story of the famous detective Mr Sherlock Holmes, based on the reminiscences of his companion, John H Watson M.D, a former doctor from the Army Medical Department who retired due to the injury he got from the second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-1880. Now, we live in the 21th century, the novels are redesigned and given a new fresh look. Sherlock is a consulting detective, John is starting a new life after the war in Afghanistan (what a coincidence) and both of them are looking for a flatmate. They meet through Stamford, a mutual acquaintance. Things don’t change much except that high tech devices are omnipresent.

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch)

Telegrams become phone calls and emails, books and diaries become websites. Also, Bohemia becomes Belgravia, Baskerville is a military base, The Reichenbach Fall is the new title for The Final problem. John is now Sherlock’s blogger and he keeps it updated with details about the investigations they conduct: the Geek Interpreter, the Speckled Blonde, etc. and sometimes he even tells too much. So funny, that scene from The Great Game (Season 1, Episode 3) when Sherlock opened a mysterious enveloppe and took the pink phone inside it, Watson was nearly convinced it was the pink phone. Lestrade’s reaction: from the Study in Pink? Sherlock (surprised): Study in Pink, you read his blog? Lestrade: Of course, I read his blog. We all do… do you really not know the Earth goes round the sun? Lol.
John's blog here

Lestrade (Rupert Graves)

Sherlock also owns a website - name’s Science of Deduction - where he puts his theories like he can tell a software designer by his tie or an airline pilot by his thumb or enumerate types of tobacco ash, etc. Holmes’s sharp intellect combined with Watson’s skills creates an outstanding pair and the plot, even slightly altered still stands and hasn’t aged a bit. On the contrary, those state-of-the-art means of communication, advanced scientific knowledge plus effective (british) humour make up a fast-paced, mesmerizing story full of suspense, keeping you awake during one hour and half and making the whole thing more obvious, easier to follow than in the old versions.
Sherlock's blog here

Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) and John (Martin Freeman)

Furthermore, seeing the elements illustrating Sherlock’s sense of observation is very authentic. It’s interesting to see him coming up with information when he takes a look at someone or something. It just keeps pouring in like text messages, like in A Scandal in Belgravia, his brother Mycroft sent someone to take him to Buckingham Palace, he only looked at the guy and this is what is written on the screen: suit £700, unarmed, manicured, office orker, right handed, indoor worker, small dog, two then three small dogs. Same thing at the palace with Mycroft’s acquaintance: dog lover, horse rider, public school, early riser, left side of bed, father, keen reader, non smoker, half Welsh. The sole exception was the beautiful and cunning Irene Adler alias ‘The Woman’ who, the first time, left our detective speechless as once in his carreer, he was unable to detect any information about someone, just question marks ??????, bad for the ego. To make sure he was fine, he turned to John and saw things again: two day shirt, electric not blade, date tonight, hasn’t phoned sister, new toothbrush, night out with Stamford. Turned back to Irene again and… ?????? Lol.   

Irene (Lara Pulver)

So after hundreds of adaptations, Sherlock is to me one of the best. How come? Only one explanation: Sherlock Holmes is an anachronism who is now living at the right time.  So far, Jeremy Brett is the best Holmes I have ever seen on TV but now every time I see Benedict Cumberbatch I’m starting to believe I might be SHER-locked.   

Memorable quotes

John: People don’t have archenemies (talking about Jim Moriarty)

Sherlock: I’m sorry?

John: In real life. There are no archenemies in real life. Doesn’t happen

Sherlock: Doesn’t it? Sounds a bit dull.

John: So who did I meet?

Sherlock: What do real people have then in their…’real lives’?

John: Friends? People they know, people they like, people they don’t like…girlfriends, boyfriends.

Sherlock: Yes, well, as I was saying, dull

John: You don’t have a girlfriend then

Sherlock: Girlfriend? No, not really my area

John: Oh,right, do you have a boyfriend? Which is fine by the way

Sherlock: I know it’s fine

John (smile): So you’ve got a boyfriend, then

Sherlock: No

John (smile): Right. Ok. You’re unattached, like me…fine, good

(Silence)

Sherlock (thinking John may be interested in him): John, I think you should know I consider myself married to my work and while I’m flattered, I’m really not looking for any…

John: No, I’m… not asking. No. I’m just saying, it’s all fine

Sherlock: good. Thank you

The woman in Black (2012, James Watkins)

When Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe)  was summoned to deal with the estate of a woman deceased years ago, he seized the opportunity to prove he is a confirmed lawyer. But when he got there, what he saw was  suspicious  inhabitants and a vengeful spectre who kills children.

The woman in Black revives the traditional horror genre: the decor, the make-ups, the visual effects, the music, a story that stands, everything is there. Seeing it makes me feel like reading the book it is based on. At some point, the main character reminds me of Bram Stoker’s Jonathan Harker when he was to do business with a mysterious gentleman from Transylvania.

Daniel Radcliffe and Ciaran Hinds in The Woman in Black

DANIEL RADCLIFFE

Though a bit young to play a father in my opinion, Daniel did a decent job in this. Question is how long does he need to get rid of his longtime Harry Potter tag.        

John Carter (2012, Andrew Stanton)

Captain John Carter from Virginia was looking for gold when he was attacked by a Thern and accidentally landed on Mars (Barsoom) where he has to deal with strange creatures, tyrans and a beautiful princess.

THE CURSE OF THE MAN OF MARS

John Who? Never heard of him. Why in the world is John Carter of Mars not a familiar name for some NON-comic books fans (like myself)? Many people wanted to adapt it on screen but had to give up due to budget cut. And now that it’s out, the reviews were harsh for many reasons. Plus it suffered from bad marketing and comparisons to flicks such as Avatar or Star Wars. My opinion is it is great and entertaining so I just sit, relaxed and had lots of fun watching. Had it been made way earlier, would have hit it big. 

Here is what I’ve found after some researches to feed my curiosity:

-A century ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs (who is also Tarzan’s Daddy) created John Carter

-30s: Tarzan was brought to life on screen. John Carter seemed too expensive to make at the time.

-50s: A famous special effects creator named Ray Harryhausen (Clash of the Titans, 1981) wanted to make it but noone apparently didn't pay attention to him

-80: Disney bought the rights to John Carter. Tom Cruise was approached to be the lead actor. Mission aborted

-2000s: Paramount bought the rights to John Carter. Jon Favreau was to direct but the project was too expensive. Paramount sold it back to Disney

-2012: Taylor Kitsch is John Carter     

Taylor Kitsch (John Carter)

Memorable quotes 

Tars (introducing himself): Jeddak Tars Tarkas

John: Captain John Carter…from Virginia

Tars (called him): Vor-Ginia

Detachment (2011, Tony Kaye)

A substitute teacher works from school to school so he won’t get attached to anyone.

At the beginning, some adults share their experiences at school and what they have become afterwards. Yes, our education is the key that shapes and defines and in the film, the events suggest that something is wrong with the school system.    

Detachment depicts the reality of the modern society through the eyes of Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody). Henry shares his thoughts with the audience, looking straight at the camera as if he features on a documentary.

« At one point they (teachers) believed they could make a difference. I know how important it is to have guidance, to have someone help understand the complexities of the world that we live in…I didn’t really have that growing up ». Barthes understands how ruthless the system is and for him (probably for many of us) the solution is simple: indifference. Barthes’ job is to deal with disturbed teenagers and try to help them overcome their problems without having any emotional connection with them. Barthes’ life is boring and empty. When he doesn’t work, he visits his grandfather at the hospital and that’s it. Things started to change when he decided to help a young prostitute and one of his students.  

Detachment is very depressing and yet, the truthfulness of its content is poignant (and in passing two thumbs up for the actors for their performances). The film reminds us that each of us is partly responsible for what is happening.

 

Betty Kaye (Tony Kaye's daughter)

Memorable quote

"And never have I felt so deeply at one and the same time so detached from myself and so present in the world" Albert Camus