Jimmy's Hall

SF: I wasn't certain what to expect from this film and even after it was finished I wasn't sure what to make of it. The story is interesting at points, the life of an Irish communist and his struggle in the society of his day. I just didn't feel it had the emotional depth of Wind that shakes the Barley  or the enjoyable tone of The Angel's Share. The performances were fine but that is the most I can say because I forgot this film within days of seeing it. 5/10

50Eggs: n/a

DonkeyB: My fellow reviewers' paragraph above highlights my problem with the film. Irish politics is probably the most nuanced and difficult to disentangle as anywhere I have studied. The film certainly plays down James Gralton's (Jimmy) communist activities on his return from America and plays up the community activities of the hall; instead portraying him as persecuted and forced into exile (both of which are true). The Catholic church in Ireland is not getting a very good press in films at the moment, I shudder to think what we are in for when the revisionism starts. Without a PhD in Irish history I'm not sure how anyone is going to follow who's who let alone what the film is about. I certainly came out of the film and felt like I needed to go and look a whole load of things up- maybe thats a good thing? In this case I'm not sure. 6/10



Overall: 5.5/10

X-Men - Days of the Future Past

SF: This righted every wrong in all the X related movies for the past 10 years. Being a Marvel devotee, my love has been tested, again and again. Five minuets into this and all I can say is - you had me at Warpath. This is a fantastic blend of action, story telling, drama and humor. The effects are rather impressive too. Did it divert a lot from the original comic yes, but it remained tantalizingly good.  I've already been to see it twice and the post credit scene has me waiting eagerly for the next one. As there is nothing I can really fault...
10/10

50Eggs: I still remember watching the X-Men cartoon doing it's own version of 'Future Past' way back when I was a sweaty teenager. It was a great script then and it still is now, but for some reason I didn't love this as much as I loved the prequel 'First Class'. But considering I gave that 9/10, it's not really a criticism. This is another fine addition to the X-Men series and whets the appetite for the one I've been waiting for for 20 years...X-Men Apocalypse. 8/10

DonkeyB: I rather enjoyed this, I think I sort of understood the ludicrously unoriginal time travelling plot! Read SF's review if you're a comic book adaptation person because she is in a much better to judge on that aspect, but as someone who has universally hated every single one of the X-men films, and actually looked forward to Saturday morning swimming lessons when they clashed with the cartoon all I can say is that even I was pleasantly surprised. Its about as good as Winter's Soldier 7.5/10

Overall: 8.75/10