50/50 (2011)

50/50 centres on Adam, a 27 year old guy given a spinal cancer diagnosis that helps him to discern his true friends from the pretenders. Played deftly by the cool-headed Joseph Gordon Levitt, and an atypically likeable but still comic Seth Rogen, this becomes a buddy movie that bounces between being heart-breaking one second and hilarious the next. With fresh dialogue that reminded me of the good parts of Friends with Benefits, it is elevated by an excellent soundtrack full of both  golden oldies and a few more youthful tracks too. The only downside might be that there's nothing truly genre-breaking here but maybe that's not even necessary as I can imagine watching this over and over again over the years.

9/10

War Horse (2011)

A story about a stubborn horse and his rider who travel from England to German-occupied France in World War I, this film requires some open-mindedness: Steven Spielberg and Love Actually's Richard Curtis are involved. The horse, Joey, is made the focus which causes the story to meander through side stories which never quite come together over the 150 minute epic. Compounding this,  War Horse is clumsy due to sentiment and takes a good hour-plus to pick up any pace - quite a chore with only old-fashioned orchestra as accompaniment. Thankfully it improves and starts to pay-off further in but, on the whole, it only grazes film excellence a few times with scenes such as the unlikely co-operation of ally and axis troops. Disappointingly, this makes it hard to imagine seeing it more than twice without a fast forward button (for many: once may be the limit).

7.5/10