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12 YEARS A SLAVE - REVIEW

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The new film from increasingly impressive director Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave follows a free man's heartbreaking story as he is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, whose personal account of what happened to him the movie was based on, and we sit there and chew on our popcorn guiltily as he is beaten, hanged, given cruel, impossible tasks and whipped over and over again. It's certainly a tough watch but how could it not be? That said, the idea that a man everyone tried desperately to rid of his humanity still managed to keep that and his dignity intact even after 12 years of hell is a quietly promising thought. After being beaten, dragged to New Orleans and given a random name, Paul Giamatti's soulless slave trader sells him to Benedict Cumberbatch's plantation owner. The latter immediately realises Northup's potential and even offers him a violin but, when things turn really sour as Paul Dano's petty, jealous worke

DJANGO UNCHAINED - REVIEW

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Remember when the harshest subject Quentin Tarantino ever tackled was ear-slicing? Well, that time is long gone and after scalping nazis in (pretend) WWII flick Inglourious Basterds , QT now takes on slavery! And you know what? The glourious basterd has done it again. Django Unchained takes the 70's spaghetti western, the blaxploitation genre, adds that fresh Basterds-style raw brutality, QT's trademark razor-sharp, dark-as-night sense of humour to make a thrilling and unique Southern (as opposed to a Western) full of everything you'd expect from a rough-edged QT effort. This time, however, it isn't a revenge mission we're undertaking or even the mindless extermination of bad guys but rather a rescue with some bounty hunting along the way. Which is not to say Django Unchained plays it safe or isn't violent, FAR from it, it just means that at its core, the film is something of a fairy tale with the love story driving the plot fighting to survive among

LINCOLN - REVIEW

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I should start by confessing that I tend to miss Steven Spielberg's more serious efforts and instead usually wait patiently for his next sci-fi epic. I missed War Horse but flocked to Minority Report three times upon its release, to give you an idea. Maybe I'm an idiot but... Tom Cruise riding a jetpack! Come on! Lincoln is the type of film you don't need to watch to see, if you catch my drift. It's typical Oscar bait with loads of talking, loads of courtroom "action", loads of safe lighter-hearted moments, big performances and smoky rooms. You've seen the trailer: you've pretty much seen the movie. That said, I am happy I saw the whole thing. All in all, it's hardly unpredictable, especially if you know what historically happened, but it keeps your interest until the end mostly thanks to terrific performances and a sharp script. Daniel Day-Lewis is as good as you'd expect, as is Tommy Lee Jones and although Lincoln is pretty darn l