2013 F1 Season Review

The 2012-2013 silly season was filled with so many questions about the forthcoming season of the world's top bracket of motor racing. Could triple-world champion Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team be stopped? Was Lewis Hamilton's choice to join Mercedes the right one? How would Perez do at McLaren? And how on earth are we to cope without HRT??

The 2013 season was far from a classic, but it stirred up one or two points of interest. When I think of 2013 season one word will spring to mind: tyres.

The silly season was dominated by numerous drivers leaving the sport, a host of rookie's coming in and more moves between teams than the previous 2 seasons. Testing gave us vague clues about the season ahead, but what it didn't tell us was that it was to be a season of two, extremely contrasting halves!

Wet qualifying in Australia saw a delay which meant all the qualifying and racing action was to happen on one single day. The first race however did not give an indication on the things to come as Australia gave us a very unpredictable race. Kimi Raikkonen was the victor and took what was to be his, and Lotuses, only victory of the entire campaign! And how did he achieve such a win? It was clear that the Lotus was the best car at managing it's tyres in the early parts of the year!

Yet, the season saw the relationship between the Finn and the Enstone team deteriorate rapidly! They regarded him as one of the best on the grid and a title challenger at the start of the season, but by the end they saw him as dead weight. His decision to rejoin Ferrari clearly hurt the Enstone team and their ugly side was broadcasted to the entire world, when a radio message along the lines of "Kimi, get out of the f***ing way", was transmitted.

However what was welcome was the maturity and professionalism shown by erratic Frenchman Romain Grosjean. Famed for his countless first-lap collisions branded him a reputation amongst fans of the sport, yet his performances became stronger and stronger as the year progressed and by the final few races he was consistently on the rostrum.

The second race in Malaysia highlighted 2 things; the French Marussia driver Jules Bianchi is a star for the future (his 13th place here and domination over his British teammate Max Chilton ensured Marussia achieving 10th in the Constructor's standings at last!), and a clear feud in the Red Bull garage.

Whilst leading the race, Mark Webber was overtaken by teammate Sebastian Vettel, despite being told by the team quite onviously that he needed to stay behind him. Multi 21 Seb? This was to be Mark Webber's final season in Formula 1; the tough Ozzie deciding Endurance racing with Porsche was the way forward.

Seb took his first win of the year in controversial circumstances. Webber was to be replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, the Toro Rosso driver who was able to out-shine the talented Jean-Eric Vergne in the Red Bull junior team.

The brilliance of Fernando Alonso was highlighted the most in his 2 victories in China and Spain. The Ferrari was never able to improve on it's good early-season form. Felipe Massa gradually improved during the year and it was gratifying to see him racing for his own career when it was announced he had lost his seat at the Scuderia. Williams is to be his home next season.

Spain also highlighted the amount of work Mercedes needed to do. It was obvious that Hamilton had settled in well and Rosberg was proving his assets to the Brackley-based team by putting his car on the front row week-in week-out. But, in Spain Mercedes proved that it's car was not meshing well with the 2013 Pirelli tyres (that word again!). "I've been overtaken by a Williams" -  Lewis Hamilton. Sums it all up really!

However, Nico Rosberg was to take victories in Monaco and at Silverstone, which proved how far that team had improved from last year.

Bahrain saw Alonso recover from 22nd place to 8th without the use of his DRS and also a battle between the McLaren's. McLaren had a woeful season by their standards and failed to muster a single podium finish, but their 2 driver Jenson Button and Sergio Perez entertained us with closely-fought on-track battles. Jenson scored way more points than Sergio, the Mexican was to cruelly lose his place within the team and his 2014 destination is unclear.

Vettel dominated Bahrain as well as Canada. Canada was also unfortunately marred with tragedy due to the tragic death of a marshal. I have immense respect for those people who make Grand Prix weekends as smooth and safe as possible. RIP.

Silverstone was the best race of the season and was probably the most controversial of all with tyres being at the centre of it. I remember being sat their watching on from the Hangar Straight when Jean-Eric Vergne's left-rear tyre blew up to the shock of everyone. Without exaggerating, it sounded like a bomb went off!

That was not the only incident though. My heart sank when Lewis Hamilton, who was leading the race convinclingly, suffered a tyre blow out. However he did recover to 4th place but we thought that Sebastian Vettel (who's luck never seems to run out) had been handed the victory. But no! He retired 10 laps from the end setting up a grandstand finish! Rosberg withstood immense pressure from Webber and Alonso to take the victory at such a fitting and such a historic venue.

Pirelli was forced into action and who could blame them? The tyres were of danger to everyone and a change had to happen. For the German GP at the Nurburgring, temporary tyres were brought in until Pirelli could find a permanent solution for Hungary. Vettel brilliantly won his home event, but Kimi should have had this one in the bag and would have had he not come in for a final pit stop.

Hungary saw Lewis take his only win of the year, and the Summer break seemed to flash past as the drama of the 2013 Belgian GP qualifying session unfolded. Oh how unlucky Paul Di Resta and Force India were! If the conditions had stayed as bad as they were, he would have been on pole.

The close racing behind first place never stopped from this point on, but for the remaining 9 races Vettel won dominantly. This may spark a load of conspiracy theories but he is still a world-class driver who has talent in abundance. His wins are all merited, but I would have loved to have seen a Ferrari, a Lotus or a Mercedes at least try to stop him!

Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, USA and Brazil were not that exciting at all to be honest. The new tyres suited Vettel's Red Bull the best. Along with having the best car, the German was able to exploit his advantage to the maximum and claim a glorious fourth world title on the trot, with Red Bull claiming honours in the Constructor's Championship.

Over the course of the season Williams disappointed me, with  third in Canadian qualification being the highlight of the year. Toro Rosso declined slowly and Force India, who had a consistently quick car, faded as well. Sauber and Nico Hulkenberg in particular improved rapidly in the second half of the year. He is currently the hottest property on the transfer market and for good reason too!

2013 was not the best year and at times it bored me to hell. But there is plenty of positives to take into 2014. The V8's are gone, Webber has said his final goodbyes and Formula 1 enters a new era next season. The 2013-2014 silly season will be better than every with an ever-changing calendar and a driver market that good turn one way on one day, the do a U-turn the next.

I hope Red Bull's domination ends next season and we get more entertainment as we sit on our sofas watching the most glamorous, and most misunderstood sport in the world.


See you all next year and thanks for reading,
Matt

The Counselor Movie Review

This movie is not popular with the critics at the moment, but I thought I would watch it myself and draw my own conclusions...

The Counselor is directed by Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Prometheus) and stars Michael Fassbender in the lead role, along with other world-famous actors such as Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem. Admitttedly The Counselor can say that it has an exceptional cast of actors at it's disposal. Ridley Scott movies are either hits or real misses.

Unfortunately, The Counselor misses.

It is one of the worst movies I have seen all year for many reasons. However, I did take away a few minute positives from it.

Firstly, I must commend the guts of the director for making this film in such a unique way. Also, I thought that, despite the material they had in front of them, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt all gave good performances. Honestly, they tried hard to redeem this movie..

However the underlying issue with this movie is absolutely huge in that the screenplay is a complete f***ing mess!

The script is dull and uninteresting and at times when characters were talking I felt like falling asleep because I really couldn't get interested. Honestly, I tried! In movies, you should be completely riveted by a conversation between 2 characters but The Counselor does not offer you that. It is just a string of irrelevant and poorly written dialogue that sends you to sleep..

The film's editing is a mess and some of the story elements really don't make much sense. I just didn't get behind The Counselor's style unfortunately and that makes me sad because I really wanted to like this movie.

The plot is poorly told in my opinion, it could have been handled so much better if in the hands of better writers and better directors. At times, the movie tries to be gory and violent but those scenes come out at you without much notice, they feel unnatural compared to the rest of the movie.

At other times, the story becomes really weird. There is one scene which involves Cameron Diaz dry-humping a car! Was I supposed to laugh? I didn't laugh. It was the biggest "wtf" moment of any film I have seen this year.

As for Cameron Diaz, I feel sorry for her. The dialogue is written poorly and she solidifies that fact by delivering the lines with no real heart or conviction. It felt unnatural. Plus, practically every line she says is audio-dubbed which is even more distracting.

In all honesty, The Counselor is an odd movie that is unfortunately boring and uninteresting. The performances do save it slightly but they are over-shadowed by a screenplay which is literally all over the place..

I don't like giving movies low ratings but I must give my honest opinion:


Rating - D+


1 sentence summary - A poorly written movie that comes across as dull and uninteresting!


Can't recommend you seeing this one. Wasn't a fan...

Thanks for reading,
Matt

Thor: The Dark World Movie Review

Nothing like a Summer movie in November for a bit of relief from all the "Oscar" films that have come out recently? Here is my review for Thor: The Dark World...

Thor: The Dark World is the sequel to the 2011 film Thor and the Avengers, directed by Alan Taylor and starring Chris Hemsworth in the lead role.

In Thor: The Dark World, the mythology and story is explained to us by a narration from Anthony Hopkin's Odin. Before light, he explains, there was darkness, and in that darkness lived a race called the dark elves, led by Malekith. Malekith, after a defeat by the Asgardians thousands of years ago, has awoken again and wishes to cover the 9 realms in darkness during an event called the convergence; this is where all 9 realms (including Earth and Asgard) align in a "once every 5000 years event" which sees the laws of physics go ballistic. He wishes to harness the energy of the Aether in order to perform this evil feat. Thor, must stop him.

Now before watching Thor: The Dark World I watched the first Thor to prepare myself. I really enjoyed the film but it did have numerous issues. Thankfully, I walked out of the movie feeling like a lot of them had been addressed. Yes, like all of the superhero movies that have come out this year, this is a very good movie.

Thor and Asgard have a lot of mythology behind them which these movies can play off to create a larger scale movie within Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this movie they do go bigger, and of course better!

In this movie we got to see more of Asgard, plus more of the 9 other realms, which is always cool and interesting to see.

Kenneth Brannagh did not direct this movie, that task went to "Game of Thrones" director Alan Taylor and boy does that show. The titled camera style is now gone to the relief of neck muscles all around the world and in comes a man who films this movie beautifully.

Some of the scenic shots in this movie were, I thought, very well handled which is a refreshing thing to see, as it also uses this as well as the special effects to create a clear looking comic book film. I thought the CGI elements had improved as well which was awesome to see.

The first Thor was a good movie in the sense that Thor was stuck powerless on earth and has to become himself again by learning humility. However, this one saw our hero kicking-ass in true Thor-like fashion, His entrance to the movie is exactly how it should be. Chris Hemsworth proves in this film that he can lead a superhero movie.

However, it is hard to strut your stuff when you have to share a scene with Tom Hiddleston's Loki. I think Marvel have realised that Loki is the best part of this branch of the story and yes they are right for thinking that. He is awesome, plus has so many lines which are delivered with such humour and sarcasm. Tom Hiddleston plays up this man so much and he steals every scene he is in.

I was also thankful that we saw more of practically every other character. Natalie Portman, Renne Russo, Jaimie Alexander, Anthony Hopkins and Idris Elba all have more to do and that's really good because they are all interesting characters that needed more screen time. It really is an impressive cast..

The villain Malekith is played by Christopher Eccleston and I really like the guy, he was a great ninth Doctor! But he let's me down in Thor: The Dark World as I never found him to be that imposing or intimidating, he seemed to be a 1 dimensional villain with 1 dimensional goals. That is unfortunate but that is the way it is..

Also, I came to realise the sheer scale of the humour in this movie, as well as other Marvel properties, recently. Admittedly, a fair amount of it does work but some really does fall flat and creates kind of an awkward theatre atmosphere.

As for Kat Dennings, I have nothing against her as a person, but her character really annoys me. There is this whole story-arc with her character and her intern which hurts the movie due it being completely unnecessary! I just think her and Malekith could have been better written and as a result, more interesting to see on screen.

The film's finale is pretty cool and the laws of physics seem to fly out of the window! Some of the science-fiction elements could be seen as over-complicated for some but the movie does stay on point in that it's absurdly entertaining and Loki steals the show.

It also has one of the coolest cameos I have ever seen. The theatre erupted with laughter!

Thor: The Dark World, like Iron Man 3, does have a fair amount of issues but it's fair to say that both are ludicrously entertaining and are both welcome additions to this growing cinematic universe, plus improve a lot from their predecessors

I enjoyed Thor: The Dark World, and like most superhero movies this year, I'm going to rate it like this:


Rating - B+


1 sentence summary - An improved sequel, a thoroughly entertaining experience!


Next up, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We have a while to wait though but I do recommend seeing Thor: The Dark World in theatres.

Thanks for Reading,
Matt

12 Years a Slave Movie Review

If you ever want to feel like a massive dick inside, then definitely go out and watch 12 Years a Slave. All I did was watch it and now I feel like the world's biggest douchebag..

12 Years A Slave is a true story which is directed by Steve McQueen and has a huge cast to boast about; the likes of Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano and Michael Fassbender join Chiwetel Ejiofor in a tale set in one of the darkest times of recent history.

It documents the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in upstate New York, who is sold into slavery. The film then shows the harsh and brutal events that follow during Northup's 12 year period as a slave. Along the way, you meet a whole host of different people and numerous events begin to happen, events that make you feel horrible and guilty inside.

This is a movie that effects you deeply in ways that it should do. This film is brutally honest and takes an un-flinching look at slavery in the 1800s. It shows us just how satanic and barbaric people were and how awfully these people were treated.

12 Years a Slave was at times a very difficult watch because at times it would show the brutal extent of the suffering of these slaves, in camera shots that seemed  to last a lifetime.

The direction from Steve McQueen is seamless and impressive as every single shot is framed and lit to absolute perfection. Some of the takes in this movie are so good because they shows us the extent of the brutality of slavery by simply lasting forever. They stick with you, I can't get the images out of my head..

For example, one shot sees a barbaric event continuously happening in the foreground of the shot and the background just sees people ignoring the event and getting on with what they have to do. Not only is it excellently thought-out and delivered with precision, it is also impressive because it visually
gives audience members the true extent of the suffering of these people.

Also, the quiet yet effective soundtrack reminded me of the last song from the Inception soundtrack. Am I the only one who noticed that? It doesn't matter, it worked perfectly for this movie..

Slavery is a very delicate topic and still happens in the world today and it was a very bold choice of McQueen and the rest of the team behind the screenplay to display the harsh reality of it. I am happy that they did do it, even if it does have such a depressing effect on you.

The performances in this movie were all great. With such a huge cast it was difficult for everybody to stand out but I think it's fair to say that everyone really does deliver.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is perfect as the main character as it only takes you 5 minutes into the movie before you are full on routing for this guy to succeed. It isn't a performance that screams "Look at me! Look at me!", it is perfect for the role he is trying to play. Excellent job.

Brad Pitt and Benedict Cumberbatch are 2 other stand-out performers in this movie and some of my favourite scenes were when Solomon Northup is simply talking to Pitt and Cumberbatch's characters. They played 2 very sympathetic characters and I thought they did well. Mind you, they probably looked like even better people when you look at this next character..

Michael Fassbender is truly excellent in 12 Years a Slave. His character is the most barbaric, twisted and evil soul in the world and boy does Fassbender live it up when playing him. You can tell he really enjoyed playing this guy and I enjoyed his performance.

12 Years a Slave is an excellent film, there is no denying it. Critics all over the world will give it their highest possible praise, that is inevitable and fully justified.  However, I felt that 12 Years a Slave let itself down as an experience..

This movie is 2 hours long and boy does it show. I have nothing against long films, but when you pack in so much emotional weight and eye-opening brutality into 2 hours like 12 Years a Slave does, it will ultimately detract from the experience.

I ended this movie admiring the performances, the technical ingenuity and the brutal, eye-opening honesty it showed, but I also left feeling horrible about myself. Some scenes in this movie are difficult to watch because they are just so horrible, so depressing. In the end, I can't give 12 Years a Slave my highest possible praise because I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

That being said, I still think 12 Years a Slave is one of the year's best and deserves all of the credit it gets from fans and critics alike. People may disagree with my rating but I stand by it:


Rating - A-


1 sentence summary - A well made, honest and brutal look at one of the darkest times in recent history, an emotional and sometimes a difficult watch!


I expect this one to be up for either Best Picture of Best Adapted Screenplay on Oscar night, it's a terrific movie.


Thanks for reading,
Matt

Ender's Game Movie Review

It has been a good year for science fiction movies. Super hero epics such as Man of Steel, Iron Man 3 and the Wolverine were all good plus other science fiction flicks such as Elysium, Star Trek Into Darkness and Gravity all seriously impressed me. Does Ender's Game face up to it's stiff competition?..

Ender's Game, directed by Gavin Hood, stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley in a science-fiction adventure inspired by Orson Scott Card, the man who wrote the beloved Ender's Game novel back in 1985. Does this movie do the book justice?

I wouldn't know because I haven't read it.. However as a film on it's own Ender's Game isn't that bad. My low expectations seemed to benefit my Ender's Game viewing experience and as a result I had a fairly good time watching it.

The basic premise of this movie is that the earth was once invaded by a force of insect-like creatures from outer space called Formics. The result of the attack was a human victory but at a great cost. The danger of the Formics must be avoided at all cost so an attack on their home world is being coordinated by, of all people, children. Early on, Ender's Game explains that it must be children who coordinate the attack because their minds are more intuitive than those of adult's. Yay for children!! Ender (played by Asa Butterfield) is believed to be the one who will lead the attack against the Formics.

There you have it. It is an interesting premise in all honesty, so how was the movie?

The movie did not impress me much at the beginning as I thought that the screenplay was lazy and things did seem to happen too quickly for my liking. There is one story arc mentioned early on in the movie (revolving around Ender's brother Peter) which would have made for some good viewing, but was simply glossed over.

But Ender's Game does recover through a strong middle-act. This is where characters developed well and the actors began to shine through their performances.

In particular, I was impressed by Asa Butterfield. As far as kid actors go I think he is one of the best because I don't feel like he over-acts his lines at all, plus portrays good human emotion through his performances.

As for the rest of the children, I thought that the rest of the children were very much likeable characters who were played well by the rest of the young actors.

Harrison Ford, as Graff, did a good job in my opinion playing the seemingly emotionless Colonel who expresses his personal feelings towards Ender towards the end of the movie. He played the development of his character well, good to see a solid Ford performance nowadays.

Viola Davis is sufficient with her role and Ben Kingsley, who appears an hour in to the movie, did a good job with the allocated time he had on the screen.

As I said previously, the movie picks up during it's middle act and not just because of Ender's Game's good pacing and excellent character work, but because some of the CGI elements of the movie were very well handled.

Most of the film is set around "boot camp" for these children and I thought that was the movie's strongest point. The training and simulation scenes were all well filmed and blended in some terrific special effects and sound editing.

Admit it, it was a good looking movie. It sounded well too, with a good soundtrack backing up the tense action towards the finale.

I was really getting into Ender's Game but left confused by it's ending? It just didn't seem that cohesive in comparison to the rest of the story. I wasn't really a fan. Also, I thought that the narration in this movie was kind of unnecessary, it was rather a failsafe for the film to help clearly explain the story. It wasn't needed unfortunately!

But, Ender's Game is a good sci-fi movie in general, despite it's ending. I would rate it like this:


Rating - B


1 sentence summary - A smart science fiction film with some very good elements, even if a few plot elements aren't quite as cohesive as they should be!


It is a good movie, it does a good job at sucking you in to the story and it is one you should probably check out.

Thanks for reading,
Matt

Gravity Movie Review

This year's highest rated film on IMDb has received practically unanimous praise from critics and fans for numerous reasons. My one fear was that the hype would ruin this movie for me. However, I was fortunately proved wrong..

Gravity is directed by Alfonso Cuaron and stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in a 90 minute thrill ride set in the dark recesses of space. A group of astronauts, while performing a spacewalk, encounter a dangerously large amount of space debris coming from another exploding satellite near to their position. The following scenes show the events which happen prior to that and thus here we have Gravity..

I can safely say that Gravity is one of my favourite films of the year. When I was thinking about the movie before reviewing it I realised that I had absolutely no problems at all with any aspect of this film. Gravity sets out to do job and does it with aplomb!

One of the largest complaints I have heard from people is that at times the script attempts to be more emotional than need be, due to Gravity being a straight up thriller. However, I have to completely disagree with you and say that the emotional tone is 100% necessary. What is the point in placing a load of characters in danger if you aren't going to feel nervous for them when "shit hits the fan"? Exactly..

The characters are established well form the offset during an incredible scene which lasts for well over 7 minutes, with only 1 take necessary to capture it. There, Clooney's character Matt Kowalski and Sandra Bullock's character Ryan Stone share interesting and believable dialogue that sets them up as people you can care about.

George Clooney is good in Gravity but has a lot less screen time than Sandra Bullock and is thus overshadowed by her mesmerizingly good performance. This is probably the best I have ever seen her, it wouldn't surprise me if an Oscar nomination came her way..

Good characters and good dialogue established, now on to the meaty stuff. Gravity as a thriller is exceptional, the pulsating events that occur are so well realised and do excellently well at escalating the tension. There were points where I felt like shouting "For God sake Sandra Bullock, grab on to something now!!". Thriller's should affect you which Gravity does!

Gravity will win numerous awards in the technical categories come Oscar night. This movie is a technical phenomenon!

During the 90 minutes of this movie I saw some of the best special effects ever achieved in filmmaking. The people behind this movie spent such a long time at refining the visuals and I am so grateful for their time and effort. Practically all you see on screen is fake but never was I taken out of the movie. They are clean and beautiful. Actually that is understating it. They are BREATHTAKING!

The movie also does an amazing job at sucking you in due to the masterful work going on behind the camera. The cinematography, as it always is in a Cuaron movie, is outstandingly brilliant. POV shots, wide shots, long and swooping takes are all used to perfection to envisage this setting of awe, wonder and admittedly danger! I can't describe to you how good they really are. Let's just say, they make you feel as if you are weightless, as if you are up there floating around in space.

The musical score is as chilling as it is memorable. Sound, or the absence of it, is used exceptionally well. For example, there is one shot in particular with Sandra Bullock in the foreground trying to fix something and all you can see in the background is space debris obliterating the space shuttle. And not a single sound is to be heard.

That shit was terrifying!

Gravity has good characters and is a good thriller, but is made exponentially better by it's technical superiority. Expect to see this one up for numerous awards! I have no complaints, Gravity deserves my highest possible praise:


Rating - A+


1 sentence summary - A technical phenomenon, a master class of a thriller!


Gravity could well become a space classic like Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey in the future. Top notch film..

Thanks for reading,
Matt