My Top 10: Michael Fassbender Films

For almost the last 10 years, German born Irish actor Michael Fassbender has become one of the most popular and wanted actor of the modern era.

His screen presence is second-to-none and there are many people calling him the new Marlon Brando, which really shows how good he is becoming.

What I really like about him is that he seems to be interested in both the big blockbusters and the independent features.
Fassbender is certainly on his way to winning an Oscar. When he will get it, we will just have to wait and see.

Just missing on my top 10 that is worthy of an honourable mention, is Frank. A strange comedy drama that is loved by many hardcore film fans.

This unique story sees Fassbender play Frank, an eccentric musician who recruits a new member to his band and shows him his expressive style of music.

Out of his 38 films, I have only seen 25 of them. I will rank all of the films that I have seen, and give a short review for each of my top 10:

25) The Snowman
24) Jonah Hex
23) The Counsellor
22) Haywire
21) X-Men: Dark Phoenix
20) Assassin's Creed
19) Centurion
18) Prometheus
17) Eden Lake
16) Alien: Covenant
15) Jane Eyre
14) Macbeth
13) Slow West
12) X-Men: Apocalypse
11) Frank

10) X-Men: Days Of Future Past - After his debut in First Class, Fassbender returns as the dangerous Magneto.

We see the X-Men send Wolverine back in time to prevent an event that puts both humans and mutants in peril.

9) Shame - The first of three Steve McQueen films in this list and Fassbender has become a regular fixture within his films.

Michael leads as New York City native whose private life is disrupted by the arrival of his sister.

8) 300 - Fassbender's first performance on the big screen. After a few TV movie's and TV series, Fassbender begins his cinematic life in Zack Snyder's visual epic based on the battle of Thermopylae.

It may be a minor role, but it is quite an impressive debut for the big screen.

7) The Light Between Oceans - Fassbender's latest project and it is the one that brought him and girlfriend Alicia Vikander together.

This heart-breaking romantic drama sees a lighthouse keeper and his wife rescue a baby in boat adrift at sea.

This film is all about the strong performances of Fassbender and Vikander.

6) Kneecap - More of a minor role for Fassbender. But enough to make him an integral character.

It sees a chance encounter with a teacher and two troubled youngsters create an Irish rap group that prides itself on its native language.

It's funny, hard-hitting and pulls no punches. A very satisfying watch.

5) Hunger - After 14 years of directing short films, Steve McQueen's first feature sees Fassbender star as an Irish prisoner that sees his fellow inmates go on a hunger striker.

It is quite a transformation for Fassbender and is a tough watch, but the wonderful technical features makes this an intense watch.

4) 12 Years A Slave - Steve McQueen's Oscar winning feature that tells the true story of Soloman Northup, a free man who is abducted into slavery.

With many terrific performances, this is another hit by McQueen.

I personally would not have given Best Picture, but it is captivating viewing.

3) Fish Tank - Before he was famous, Fassbender was breaking through with this dramatic British indie.

It sees a teenage girls life on a rough London council estate turn around when her mother dates a new man.

Its raw and gritty vibe brings some amazing performances. Its gripping and moving viewing and yet it still manages to bring out that all important cinematic quality. A real hidden gem.

2) X-Men: First Class - After a few failures in the franchise, we are back with a romping thrill ride as we see the early years of the X-Men.

We see a group of mutants helping out the U.S Government to stop a malicious dictator looking to start a world war.

Fassbender plays a young Magneto who is a wonderful replacement for Sir Ian McKellan.

1) Inglourious Basterds - Probably the film that everyone got introduced to Fassbender in Quentin Tarantino's amazing war drama.

It sees the adventures of a group of U.S soldiers known as 'The Basterds' defacing Nazi soldiers in Nazi-occupied France coinciding with a cinema owner exacting revenge on the German high command.

Fassbender plays a British agent looking to help 'The Basterds'.

Review: The Martian

With Director Ridley Scott not exactly hitting the mark with this films in the last few years, I was not sure how excited I should be for this venture back into space.

After the seeing the trailer, I was excited but not expecting something astonishing from the same man that has made masterpieces in the form of Gladiator, Blade Runner and Alien.

The movie definitely does not waste time in getting started and quickly sets up the main plot. From the very alert opening scene, we are now set in for a enjoyable, captivating and fairly straightforward survival story.
With all that in mind, it had very few moments of threat. But thankfully those times where it did provide it was unpredictable and kept you gripped to the story.

One thing that I definitely was not expecting was the high amounts of humor throughout and the disco soundtrack that managed to work. Thankfully, that is apparently quite faithful to the novel. It was nice to hear author Andy Weir take part in the screenplay as well as Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, The Cabin In The Woods).
What I also liked about it was the heavy detail in the Science of the story. It's accuracy and approval by Nasa is enough to tell how detailed it is within the writing.
The film may not be as detailed as the novel, but it definitely tells enough of it to tempt you into reading the book. The screenplay definitely ended up one being one of its strongest points. They manage to balance the peril of the situation and upbeat nature of the characters.

One guy that definitely knows how to portray humor in any situation is Matt Damon. Gone are the days of his Team America grilling. We have a highly successful and very popular actor. Damon's performance and the sharpness of the script really went hand-in-hand and it made never with the overall tone of survival.
Damon remains a hugely watchable actor and deserves anything that is coming to him.

For the supporting cast, everyone seemed pretty solid. Jeff Daniels portrayed a strong Nasa director that at times would feel like the villain. I always like anything Jessica Chastain does. I have become a huge fan of hers and her character as mission leader is great bit of casting. Sean Bean wonderfully bounced off every character and became a nice relief throughout. Chiwitel Ejiofor did a solid job and it was interesting to see Kristin Wiig be involved in by far one of her most serious roles.
One supporting actor that looks to have a bright future was Donald Glover. He definitely had a pleasant screen presence which was a nice surprise.

All in all, I would say this film was pretty good. Compared to other recent sci-fi's, it may not have the technical ambition of Gravity or the emotion of Interstellar. But this definitely is a good watch with a surprising amount of laughs.
The cinematography by Darius Wolski is gorgeous. Ridley Scott is well known for his practical effects and real set locations. He gave Wolski a lot of great landscapes and he definitely made the most of it.
The score by Harry Gregson-Williams is subtle but definitely has a tingly feeling to it. Gregson-Williams is not a composer that I have really taken notice of. When I look at the notable films that he has scored (Chicken Run, Shrek, Shrek 2, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), they were never any that I would go back and listen too apart from maybe one or two. But this latest score will definitely interest me.
It is clear to see that it is a mix of Apollo 13 and Cast Away. Like with all Ridley Scott features, the visuals are the biggest positive. The script and character development makes this a film worth watching multiple times. The pacing was fairly solid throughout. However, the duration felt a bit too long for me.
Nevertheless, this is still captivating viewing that is well written, has a great lead in Damon, never had me bored and is Scott's best film since probably American Gangster in 2007.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Everest

There have been a solid amount of films dedicated to the highest mountain on Earth.
However, they have mainly been documentaries. So this is first major feature film to be about the most dangerous place on Earth.

Based on the true events of an expedition in 1996, director Baltasar Kormakur really shows us how brutal that place can be.
Not only that, but I think he has made a wonderful thrill ride that deserves to be on the big screen. After a wonderfully visual opening scene, we get some interesting character development all coming to a dramatic second half of the film.

The start gives you an interesting brief on the history of mountaineering on Everest on who could or could not climb the summit. After seeing it, that felt to be a really important part as you get to really understand how crazy that period was at the mountain's base camp.

I was amazed as to how much I got engaged with it. The mountain is definitely the star of the film.
You can tell that the characters had to do a lot of physical work to make this look as believable as possible. There is very few CGI moments and you can tell that they filmed it in tough locations.

The performances are lead by Jason Clarke who leads the expedition. His calmness really makes you feel safe when he is around. By the time the second half of the film comes around, you really want him to get down the mountain safely.
Josh Brolin is probably the supporting actor you will end up caring the most. Not many of the minor characters give enough develop to care for. So Brolin is probably the one you will root for the most. It was great to see Jake Gyllenhaal play a care-free role as the leader of the rival expedition group. Other notable performances go to John Hawkes and Emily Watson. One appearance that was a nice surprise was Naoko Mori who I loved in Torchwood.

Like I said, I think it did lack in character development. But I think I am willing to let that go as the action really develops the film enough for us to really care for the characters.

Where Everest succeeds, it is astonishing. It really felt like I was part of the expedition. It is well paced, the build-up really gets you ready for the thrilling second half. One positive that I hope many others notice was how they showed each stage of the climb. It really helped you know exactly where everyone was and what part of the mountain each character was on. That part felt really educational and makes me want to see documentaries on why people do this.
I always look out for a good soundtrack. Dario Marinelli's score does not appear throughout. But when it is there, it really fits in to the situation, especially in the awesome opening scene.

Everest is such a tense and tragic watch that shows a great tale of man vs. nature. From the very beginning, I was intrigued. By the end of it, I was just amazed at what I saw.

This was also my first IMAD 3D experience. The film really makes good use of the technology when needed.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Legend

The story of the Kray twins has always a tempting one to be put on the big screen.

Set in 1960's London featuring two of the most famous gangsters in Britain will involve a lot of strong violence and deceit. This is content that usually interests many film studios, especially when Tom Hardy will be the star attraction.

Hardy has quickly become the most wanted physical actor in the filming industry. From his breakthrough in Bronson, to big action blockbusters like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. Hardy will be playing both Kray's, which I think is a great idea by the casting team as we get to see more of Tom, which I think many will agree is a good thing.

A lot of people rightly had their suspicions of Hardy playing both roles would end up being quite gimmicky and be a big distraction. I did have a slight uncertainty, but I was highly confident Tom would knock it out of the park.

Thankfully, by far the best part of this film is Tom Hardy's two performances as Ronnie and Reggie Kray. The clever use of editing makes the dual performance possible, and within minutes of the film starting, you do forget that Hardy is playing both twins. His performance of Ronnie especially makes you see Hardy disappear into the character. His unnerving showing as the psychotic Ronnie with a nice amount of humor really deserves praise, as well as portraying an understated, slick and suave portrayal of Reggie. If it is not for these performance, then Hardy will get nominated for an Oscar and possibly win one in no time. He just gets better and better every time.

Emily Browning was a solid contributor as the leading female and gave us an interesting side to the people who loved the Krays. But not David Thewlis or even the short appearance of the amazing Paul Bettaney could contend with Hardy.

The use of violence and swearing can make this an unpleasant watch at times. But at times, they do give it a comedic twist to it which was good to see. It also shows the reality of the Krays crimes, which makes the events all the more frightening.

From a technical side, it is well directed by Brian Helgeland who has experience with gangster flicks such as 'L.A. Confidential'. Also the set designs looked wonderful. It really felt like I had instantly travelled back and was dropped into the cobbled streets of the East End. The cinematography by Oscar nominee Dick Pope is slick and at times very film-noir, and the use of music from that period was wisely used.

Despite an intriguing opening act, it does gradually slow down to make it not as exhilarating. When you break it down, the plot does take a long time to get going. It also seems to tell a part of their story that not many would be expecting.

With that in mind, Legend is still a good watch and I was never bored. It definitely gives you a sense of the world the Krays were part of. But the climax I don't think never really came to anything. It was more like the director and his crew showed a slice of their life during the time when they were all conquering across the East End of London.

While the potential is there for a great story, there is an unfortunate structure to the choice of story despite the amazing performances, surprising amount of humor and well presented violence. There are definitely better gangster films out there, but this is still worth seeing.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Me And Earl And The Dying Girl

After making quite an impression at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the drama category, we have the latest hit from independent cinema.

It is always easy to dismiss something that looks quirky, which if you see the trailer, it definitely shows signs of that.

I feel that making a film too quirky could put you off, make the film only target a specific audience and feel quite pretentious. However, a subtle amount of it can really give a film that nice mixture and make it quite charming.

That along with a good blend of comedy, emotional drama and you get Me And Earl And The Dying Girl.

When looking at this on paper, many would initially think "who wants to see another high school quirky drama about a girl suffering with a serious illness". But with its smart wit, almost Wes Anderson-esque style, and wonderful performances from unknown actors, this is a film that will really shake up your emotions. I was pretty much sold in the first 10 or 15 minutes, especially with the high amount of references to classic foreign language cinema.

The performances are definitely the biggest attraction. Thomas Mann and Olivia Cooke and a supporting role by RJ Cyler all show a fine range of dramatic and comedic moments that really enhance the viewing experience so wonderfully. There was also enough minor support from well seasoned actors and a surprisingly funny voice cameo by a Hollywood star.

The cinematography makes the film stand-out on its own. From the very first scene, it has some crazy angled shots that fits in well to the tone of the film.
It was also really nice to see the screenplay be done by the author of the novel Jesse Andrews. It is carefully re-constructed to make it viable to the big screen.

The negatives are probably my fault as I do not usually go nuts for films like this. The style of film-making I appreciated rather than place in a category that I always go and see whatever the story is.

That being said, I felt it to be an very heart-warming enjoyable watch and glad that something going its own way is getting a big chance in the multiplexes. I enjoyed the subtle mix of various moods during the film that is elevated by three wonderful performances by Mann, Cyler and Cooke. The screenplay has great wit and charm that really draws you in. You can definitely see the delicate treatment that Andrews has done when transitioning from his novel to the film. It is definitely hard to find comedy out of a serious topic. But they manage to do it, when I really appreciate them pulling it off so nicely.
The film really mixes your emotions throughout, the cinematography will suck you into this world and I love the constant references to some of the greatest classic foreign language films. It can be a great guessing game for hardcore films fans.

Rating: 8/10

Review: The Gift

This is not my usual film to go and see at the cinema. But the people involved and the trailer intriguing me, that was enough for me to go and see a horror film on the big screen.

The reason that I don't go and see many horror films, is not because I am a big wimp. It is because we have rarely had a successful film from this genre in the last decade or so.

But despite being billed as a horror, it is actually more of a classic thriller. This is one of the few genres that should be done a lot more often.
Thankfully, one director Dennis Villeneuve seems to be the modern thriller director of our time after making Prisoners.

With The Gift, we have Joel Edgerton running the show in his directorial debut. With many people associating him with his acting and notable performances in Warrior, The Great Gatsby and Zero Dark Thirty, I can confidently say that Edgerton has given us a thriller that can get us talking about it long after seeing it. Even with it's stylistic cinematography and wonderfully paced story, this is one film that does make you think about your own history.
The film's story examines something that I think we can all relate to and that will make this gripping viewing for everyone.

The performances are strong, particularly from Jason Bateman who is in a rare serious role. I remember seeing him in Disconnect and he seems more comfortable in drama than comedy in my opinion.
Bateman has great moments throughout and is a wonderful choice to lead this film. Rebecca Hall as the leading female does some good work and has a believable on-screen relationship with Bateman.

Edgerton is cast in his own film in the main supporting role. It looked quite a challenging one. However, Edgerton's approach managed to give us such an intriguing and unpredictable character. You really struggle to see what is wrong with his character, which makes him essential viewing anytime he appears on the screen.

The tension is really well judged. There are a couple of big 'jump out of your seat' moments, and the Hitchcockian style soundtrack really amplified these particular moments.

Unlike most big studio thrillers, the pace never really has any explosive moments. Where something you think would not happen, does, and there are some great twists. I thought I had the finale of this film sorted, but it went somewhere I did not think it would go to.

Edgerton's craft is very impressive to watch for a debut. As director, writer, co-producer and actor, The Gift really shows of all his talents in every department.
He has created a thrilling modern suspense that had constantly nervous, fearful for the leading characters and was never bored
With the cinematography almost looking a Fincher feature, there is a certain eeriness that seems understated, and the surprise moments really sneak up on you.

There is a lot to like about this. If it was done by anyone else, this would still be a solid job. But as it is a directorial debut, I think extra Brownie points are to be given.
It is very well made with a lot of realness that toys with your emotions. It is consistent in its tone, theme and pace.
I am now really excited for anything else Edgerton is involved in as director, producer or writer. He has proved himself and have more success behind the camera then in front of it.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Fantastic Four

Despite all this success that Marvel has created, there are still some stinkers from the past that many have tried to erase from their memories.

From Elektra, to Ghost Rider, Marvel has had a fair few errors before finding that winning recipe.

With Marvel not owning all of the source material (yet)`, Fox still have the rights to Marvel's oldest set of superheroes.

The Fantastic Four is cemented in many people's minds as one of the most popular superhero teams.

Sadly in the filming world, there has been little to shout about for this quartet. 2005 saw the first of two installments released. It was not totally terrible, but it was definitely not that good.
Two years and not even it's sequel The Rise Of The Silver Surfer could give the franchise it's redemption. Despite a pretty cool pursuit scene with Silver Surfer and the Human Torch, they still did not learn from their mistakes.

With a childish tone, pantomime villains, weak story and nowhere near enough action to make it exciting, we are still waiting for the film this story deserves. At best it was serviceable and the only silver lining for me was Chris Evans' wonderfully arrogant performance as John Storm a.k.a The Human Torch. That performance for me helped Evans get his iconic role as Captain America.

With this new release, will we finally get what we have been waiting for? Or will it be third strike and it might give Marvel Studios the chance to finally get their hands on the rights?

Well, I went in with low expectations, and luckily I managed to see some good in a film that truthfully is another disappointment.
It is definitely another failure, but this one definitely had an interesting idea that was not fully grasped.

Director Josh Trank (known for making Chronicle) puts a darker spin on this origins story and bringing a grittier plot that every studio seems to want these days.
You can see their efforts to try and make this a worthy feature. But they will never succeed as the execution, directing and writing massively let itself done.
Not even the talented cast of Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell could save the day.

Despite moments of potential, this is slow and amazingly quite boring considering it is a superhero film. There is not much action to speak of which I feel will anger a lot of the mainstream audience. The interaction between the characters is probably its lowest point as the script just felt awful. It never gave us any interesting moments, and with no action to please our eyes, there is very little to enjoy about this.

The cast did the best with what they were given. So thankfully, there was definitely nothing bad about the acting.
The visual effects were not impressive, but perfectly fine. I liked the design of Bell's character when he turned into Thing. Jordan's character when turned into the Human Torch actually looked quite scary at times. Kebbell's introduction as Doom took quite a graphic turn in the film which amazed me that this film stayed at a 12. Another part of the film that shocked me to keep the certificate being a 15 was the amount of swearing involved. This is definitely a high-end 12 at least.
And finally, the most interesting thing about it was the tone. With the use of super-powers being seen as a drawback initially felt realistic and refreshing. But as the film went on, I could see they lost faith in that idea.

Some people could see this as superhero fatigue. But I'm afraid that does not excuse the flaws in its narrative, little character development and slow pace.
It is a difficult film to care about anyone, and that will lose the majority of your audience. With a fourth failure now confirmed, it will be tough to attract people to see another installment.
My only positive is that the negatives are not terribly bad, just not that good. There is enough to make it ok viewing. But when it has enough interesting source material to work with, you have to mark it down.

I really hope this is when Fox suddenly realise that they just cannot make a good Fantastic Four film. I hope they look at what Sony have done with Spider-Man and let Marvel take rightful control.

Seeing this really made me want to watch the Fantastic Four film, because I forgot how funny Chris Evan's performance was as The Human Torch. However, the best Fantastic Four film is still The Incredibles.

Rating: 6/10