PRISONERS - FILM REVIEW

Release Date: 20^th September 2013

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 153 mins

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Writer: Aaron Guzikowski

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis

Prisoners is gripping, fascinating, exciting, electrifying and any other positive words capable of fitting into a sentence. 

When Keller Dover’s daughter and her friends go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family? 

Prisoners is directed by Denis Villeneuve who bought us the highly acclaimed foreign film, Incendies. Incendies was disturbing in many ways and so is Prisoners. The only difference is that this film wasn’t written by Villeneuve; instead he just chose a disconcerting tale of events. In terms of his directing style, it is clean and well shot. Even in the most difficult times of the film he makes us care for the characters, this compliment should also be given to Aaron Guzikowski, the writer. I’m definitely looking forward to Villeneuve’s next film, also starring Jake Gyllenhaal, if it is anything to go by it should be another content viewing. 

The acting in the film also contributes to the overall fantastic finish. This has to be one of Hugh Jackman’s best performances on the big screen. Furthermore, Gyllenhaal’s character is incredibly believable, and even though he is supposed to be a tough cop you still feel for him. It’s a good thing before he started filming The End of Watch he did police training, it helped for his role for sure. Another actor I would like to discuss is Paul Dano, he plays a young man, who is described in the film as ‘the brain of a ten year old’. I sometimes feel that Dano tries to over act his roles but in this film he seemed to calm down a bit and become a more mature actor which was defiantly evident. 

The story is gripping and should be watched by a vast audience. Prisoners is nearly two and a half hours long, but funny enough it seems to skip by. The directing, writing and acting are all superb. Oh, and I almost forgot, the editing is also top class, it keeps up the pace and when you think there is going to be a long conversation which isn’t neede. Perhaps without the great editing it wouldn’t have glued you to the seat as much. 

Prisoners is one of the best films this year. 

8.0/10

Argo Review

Release Date: 7th November 2012

Age Certificate: 15

Running Time: 120 mins
Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Chris Terrio and Joshuah Bearman

Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin

The film Argo is a dramatisation of the 1980 CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic prisoners out of revolutionary Iran. The way they try and carry out this mission is to make a fake film called Argo and pretend that these six people are the film crew. Ben Affleck's character comes up with this idea. Affleck directs Argo and obviously stars him. It’s a really intense dramatic thriller that was one of the best films from last year.   

You can tell that hey have put their research into the film this is because it has a great sense of realism. Ben Affleck is amazing. His first film was Gone Baby Gone, which was a fantastic film and then he came out with The Town, which in my opinion was not as good as Gone Baby Gone but still amazing. And now he has Argo which I believe is his best film. It’s fast and real. The 120 minutes of Argo seems to fly past far too quickly.

This is also one of Ben Affleck’s best performances, playing this American hero he has put himself as he may want to dramatise the role. But he is so toned down and makes the audience believe he is just a normal person with an idea that is so ridiculous it’s amazing. A good performance also comes from Bryan Cranston, which I’m kind of getting a little bit tired of saying, every time he comes on screen he takes on the role like it is himself. Alan Arkin and John Goodman's relationship is really funny, it's fantastic, you couldn't get two better people to work with each other. It always seems that Alan Arkin plays the same role in each film (the guy who swears a lot), which is still great to me.

Oh, and the mustaches will also keep you entertained.  

8.5/10

Argo trailer: