Film 56 - Hamlet

An excellent RSC production of the classic play, adapted into a 3 hour TV film, and starring the incomparable David Tennant as the title character and Patrick Stewart as King Claudius and the ghost of the former King Hamlet.

The quality of the plot and writing is obviously beyond doubt, so what makes this a really good film for me is the quality of the acting and direction. Not just the normal cinematic direction but the costume, set and emphasis that you only get with the theatre.

Previous versions of Hamlet have always been either film or theatre, so this being a hybrid of the two really works, giving it the authenticity of the shows theatrical run along with all the benefits that come with the medium of film.

Film 55 - Magicians

I had high expectations for this comedy, what with Mitchell and Webb starring, a host of other brilliant British comedy actors and actresses being involved and the script having been written by the writers of the excellent Peep Show. Those expectations were not let down, Mitchell and Webb managed to play off their brilliant comedic partnership whilst playing new but similar characters to those they had before.

The supporting cast - including Peter Capaldi and Jessica Stevenson - was excellent as suspected and the writing was just as good, including a brilliant final twist, perfectly set up.

It's just really good to watch two successive really good British films, it seems there is hope for the industry here after all.

Film 54 - Trainspotting

The third Danny Boyle film I've seen this year, and it far surpasses Sunshine and as for Shallow Grave... well I can't separate the two. 

You could see watching it how Boyle's direction had progressed since Shallow Grave, the film was shot brilliantly and the post-production work gave it all a very real, grimey feel. Ewan McGregor gave the best performance  in the film as Renton although Robert Carlyle is very convincing as the psychopath Begbie.

It was just a really great film, and I know I say this about a lot of films, but it's got to rank highly in my end of year list.

Film 53 - Soylent Green

I thought it was a good film, but with one fatal flaw, I'd worked out that Soylent Green was made out of people before halfway. That kinda took the suspense out of it, but I am a dystopian film/fiction fan so I did enjoy this. The concepts were all thought provoking and the situations believable.

One of the parts I liked the most was the ending, perfectly scripted and an action ending, rather than like in too many films which go on a little longer than they should. There were parts of the storyline I didn't quite get, but that didn't bother me too much and certainly didn't spoil a pretty damn good film.

Film 52 - Home Alone

Family Christmas fare despite the fact that it's only November... and it's a (cliché I know) film of two halves.

The first half, I really disliked, I saw nothing interesting or funny, Macaualy Culkin was just annoying and the film just wasn't going anywhere at all.

Then came the burglars, awfully acted but the perfect victims of Kevin's booby traps, resulting in some hilarious physical comedy and a surprisingly good second half of the film, and the fact that the latter part was better makes this a passable family comedy.

Film 51 - Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

One of those films that didn't have to make a huge point about anything, it was just content with being hilarious. Sometimes that's a very admirable goal, so the film includes smoking pot with the president, getting pissed on by a member of the KKK, a bottomless (as opposed to a topless) party, an inbred cyclops freak and a show stealing cameo by everyone's favourite (and actually gay) druggie womaniser... none other than one of my favourite people ever Neil Patrick Harris.

Harris's cameo including hallucinating a unicorn and branding a prostitute might actually make it even better than the brief cameo by Bill Murray in Zombieland

Not many films in this list had more laughs than Harold & Kumar, so much so that the frankly ridiculous storyline didn't matter.

Film 50 - The Royal Tenenbaums

I don't think this Wes Anderson directed comedy is a bad film, I just didn't get into it. Sometimes that happens, there was nothing that I particularly liked about it, or even particularly disliked...

...

Sorry.