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NIGHTCRAWLER – JUST WOW – WHAT A MOVIE. Jake Gyllenhaal is my pick for Best Male Actor Oscar this year and the movie deserves a nomination, as does first time director, Dan Gilroy. In the words of Lou Bloom "A friend is a gift you give yourself" – this movie is your friend!

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a loner, a dedicated and passionately driven loner. He has absolutely no friends and spends his time by himself, learning a vast amount of skills on the internet or stealing items to sell. He desperately wants love (or his idea of love) and a job with a steady income. His social skills are based on what he has learned online, as such, he has no social graces or knowledge. He speaks like a text book and is void of emotion and a path to live on. He tries asking for jobs and selling himself to various places but he has no luck, until he sees a fascinating and bloody piece of inspiration. He could become someone who works for himself and gets a reward if he does the job well, that of a nightcrawler, overnight freelance trash journalism. The stuff that trash TV news wants a piece of, the darkest of society at its worse. You all love seeing a train wreck, you know you shouldn't watch but you can't take your eyes off it. Lou films it and sells it to TV for you to watch over your morning breakfast. But as a freelancing job there are other freelancers and if you want your item sold you need to have the best footage, what would you, or in this case, Lou do to get the best sellable footage?

Lou is a vampire, a manipulative murderous vampire, he is terrifying in his matter of fact speak, unpredictable and unstoppable, could it turn into a serial killer movie? Lou is another train wreck you can't take your eyes off, while his delivery is humorous his belief in himself and the world is beyond freakish, the worst part, people like him probably exist.

Lou meets KLWA night news editor, ruthless, trash TV editor, Nina Romina (Rene Russo), who he sells his footage to exclusively. Romina is at the end of her career tether and knows that train wrecks will sell and get people viewing. In Nina Romina's own words describing the ideal footage "a screaming woman, running down the street with her throat cut," she says, and Lou is willing to go the extra distance to get it for her. It's a match made in television hell.

At the start Nina views Lou as a simple determined guy, the new kid on the block who may have some good footage. But their relationship grows into much more.

Russo's husband, writer/ director Dan Gilroy has delivered a fresh and nuanced screenplay and delivered it on a golden platter with his debut movie. The unintentional wit and candour of Lou is reminiscent of Norman Bates and Frank. Gyllenhaal provides a dedicated tour de force with his performance. He was so dedicated to the role, he worked out eight hours a day and rode his cycle to set to lose weight as he wanted to be a "hungry coyote," he also was so involved in the "mirror" scene he ended up in hospital getting his hand stitched, he then came straight back to set.

The supporting cast of Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed and Bill Paxton is the icing on the cake for this movie, they were all perfectly cast and perfectly delivered their characters. All of these characters have a small but pivotal piece on Lou's chessboard and it all comes through on screen, there is never too much nor too little delivered. That being said I always want more Paxton on screen, he plays such a great character in this, he could have his own movie. And Russo is still one woman I would turn for, ever since LETHAL WEAPON 3 I have crushed on her, I never thought she could do a trashy and desperate look, an aging and needy power woman, and she does, while slowly falling into Lou's world of insanity.

Academy Award Winner Robert Elswit's cinematography is the cherry on top of that icing on this glorious cake of a movie. It has a definite Scorcese look and feel to it. The seedy undertones and dark moodiness of Los Angeles created by Elswit have never felt so unappealing, it literally is a hunting ground for Lou. At the same time the colours are all striking, to match the increased sight by Lou's large "all-seeing" eyes, eyes that Gyllenhaal rarely blinks - he did the same thing in DONNIE DARKO.

NIGHTCRAWLERS' satirical dark comedic thrilling look at paparazzi styled freelance guerrilla journalism is at times hilarious and at others terrifying. This is the closest film to Scorcese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD I have seen. It is an amazing piece of cinema for film lovers, this is not for the family or date night. Gyllenhall for Oscar!

Be sure to visit us at www.saltypopcorn.com.au for more review, comps and genuine awesome :)

LAND OF STORMS is based on a true story and this flawed me. It is one of the most beautiful films I have seen all year, slightly "BROKEBACKISH" and one of the most evocative films of love and pure tenderness. It is sensual, powerful, filled with love and heart and it is also a Shakespearean-styled tragedy of the heart that embraces martyrdom. Shakespeare would have have given this film a standing ovation. Szabolcs (András Sütö) is an exceptional football player, he is in running to play for Germany, but he does not know what he wants from life, he plays football purely for his father and has little passion in it. He barely knows himself, being in the football team there is a lot of bonding and near nakedness from teammates, his roommate is pretty much in love with him and possibly vice versa. Szabolcs sabotages his position on the team and basically runs away back to his bequeathed home in Hungary. The place is falling down and it leaks like a sieve but he likes it. One night Szabolcs wakes to see some guys trying to ride away on his bike, he tackles one of them to the ground who hits his head and becomes unconscious. He does the right thing and nurses Bernard (Sebastian Urzendowsky) back to the sunlight. Bernard feels guilty and helps Szabolcs fix his house up and start patching the roof. They bond, they form a friendship, they get drunk and have a lot of fun and one thing leads to another and a sexual encounter occurs, an encounter that is all about Szabolcs pleasing Bernard, Bernard keeps himself removed but enjoying the sensation. At this stage that Szabolcs falls in love and sees his moment to get away from it all, he doesn't give a XXXX about his football life, he wants the picket fence and he could possibly have it here with Bernard. And this becomes a difficult love affair in a town that has never had a gay. Bernard is confused and also spends his life looking after his sick mother, he confesses in his confusion that his new employer Szabolcs felt him up but he didn't stop him. It gets to the town, poor Szabolcs gets beaten and outcast, but he really doesn't give a XXXX. In the meantime Bernard is struggling with his newfound sexuality that for the first time in his life involves tenderness and love and it goes beyond his dick, it reaches to his heart. And so begins an on again off again relationship set in a strange Hungarian country town that are naive to the ways of homosexuals and preferred they didn't taint the town with their dick on dick action :). To throw a spanner in the works, once Szabolcs is head over heals his old roommate Áron (Ádám Varga) turns up to see Szabolcs in the hope their love will start. And here we have a tense life choice, love or love, country bee-keeping with a new life, or possible love while playing for Germany in football. The direction, acting and cinematography of this film are superb. The film felt subdued and slightly sepia but this gave it a poetic and emotive hue. Hungarian director Adam Csaczi's assured debut feature delivers in every way, it never becomes melodramatic, it maintains heavy drama and sensual romance but still has moments of high comedy and moments that will make you cry and then his finale, a moment that will punch you in the stomach, with a car. I never saw it come, but it did and I questioned it the entire way home and then reminded myself it was based on a true story, this never helped. The thing that got me about this film was the heartfelt tenderness and chemistry, these aren't incredible sex scenes with a set of 50 people and Angelina rubbing ice down her boobies, these are two guys, scruffy, and I have never seen something so loving and tender, I would kill for that chemistry and tenderness, and the scene with the door, a glass door, it is really short, but honestly one of the most cutest and romantic scenes I have ever seen, these guys are incredible as an on screen couple. The film is also strong in its thoughts and values on homophobia, there are some brutal scenes that had an audience of Sydney gays gasping. It is basic in its approach, people can be cruel, narrow minded bigoted people who would rather beat something than learn about it. It never lingers and it never lectures but nearly every gay man would have experienced something like this in their life, it covers so much of the spectrum of homophobia. Finally the cinematography, it is subtle and it is stunning, it is painted canvas with vastness in colours and camera angles that light up the screen, the high angled shots of the farm house and using the centred shot as opposed to off-centred shot works well. The shot towards the start of Szabolcs walking through the field towards the dilapidated house is beautiful, it was these scenes and the use of sunlight and beautiful night lit scenes that made the film stand out. I clap the film cinematography from Marcell Rev. This is the closest movie to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN since BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, it is stunning, it is sensual and it is tragic but at the same time beautiful, romantic and filled with comedic and also deeply emotional moments. I LOVE THIS MOVIE, DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVOURITES FOR THE YEAR.

This is THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of the franchise, so far it is the best paced and darkest, it is the moment before the grandiose epic conclusion and it fits the bill nicely. It is superior to the previous two films on every level, this is no longer a kid's series, this is a world class franchise.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE from 2013 ended with Katniss exploding the games arena forcefield/ holographic wall. She was delirious and in and out of consciousness, as it happened the good guys from the secret, and long believed dead, District 13 came to the rescue and got Katniss and Finnick safely out of there before the Capitol could get their hands on them. The problem is that Peeta and two other tributes were left behind. Pushed beyond imaginable pain and emotional destruction Katniss is now struggling to cope with life. She never wanted a part of The Hunger Games and stood up solely to protect her sister. She also fell in love with Peeta and would do anything to protect him. The districts, seeing Katniss becoming their symbol and hope for freedom of the Capitol commence rebellion against the "leaders" of Panem and this leads to thousands of people being slaughtered in the name of order by the Capitol and dastardly evil President Snow.

All these deaths Katniss feels responsible for but nothing she can do can stop the building tsunami of rebellion she started and the people longed for. President Snow will not stop, he wants to completely destroy her in every way possible and hates anyone not of the Capitol, he sees them as mere slaves to continue his privileged life. The people are willing to die for the fight and so begins the most political and intelligent film in the franchise. This is the commencement of war, covert battle movements, propaganda and mind games. President Snow is much better at destroying the people from within and he has the master weapon against Katniss, the rebellion and Panem……….Peeta Mellark.

JLaw again goes above and beyond in what appears to be the hardest role of the series for her, she is just sensational. It must have been a heavy shoot for her to take home at nights. She borders on psychotically destroyed in the movie and the pain Snow rains on her never relents. Katniss is best under pressure and in anger – she is, after all, the girl on fire. You know this movie is her second act, where she is put in the worst of everything and there appears to be no hope, but push Katniss too far President Snow, and I cannot wait to see the clouds clear for Katniss in Part 2. If it is as good as part one I can see a part two to rival and/ or better HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS.

Donald Sutherland is also superb, he must have so much fun being so evil. Woody Harrelson owns every scene he is in, he has so much character in front of a camera, as does Elizabeth Banks as a much more toned down but as eccentric, Effie Trinket. Julianne Moore is a brilliant addition as President Alma Coin, the leader of the rebellion, she is the other side of the coin, she is the leader of politics, she is incredibly serious and her role is very under-toned, she has a sombre position as the president of the rebellion going up against the almighty Capitol, if she fails she will see millions killed.

It was incredibly refreshing but sad to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman on screen, the film is his last and it is filmed and completed in his honor, his role is flawless. I suppose I better mention the love triangled duo. Liam Hemsworth's role I found quite flat, he is great as a combat warrior and shoulder for Katniss but sometimes his heart hardly seems in it. It should be noted he did fracture his ankle on the set so this may have limited some movement and made him appear a little wooden? Then there is Hutcherson, his performance in this film is sensational and for the first time it matches JLaw's. He filmed the entire movie without his lead partners as he was in the Capitol as a hostage, his role was also much smaller than the previous outings. That being said, his performance in the last 10-15mins of this movie is his best in the entire series, the entire cinema's jaw hit the floor.

There are a lot of new characters in the movie and a bunch of them are Katniss' unit when she's out in the world battling bad dudes and shooting planes down with a bow and arrow, they are also her documentary propaganda filmmakers who try and film her to play throughout the districts. Natalie Dormer, Elden Henson and Mahershala Ali being most notable but their parts in this first half of the finale are quite small, Sam (my guest for the evening) was even quite surprised that they were in it and found them quite boring. But they are all warriors and this was the quieter half, each these characters will come into their own in next year's outing.

Director Francis Lawrence has given us the best movie in the franchise, a movie that has lifted the production values of everything to next level, this is possibly one of the greatest young adult movies of all time. You can also see that everyone involved got on board, everything just looks, feels and is huge, no shortcuts, epic in visuals, effects, scripts, acting and then the music, sombre dystopian brilliance including peeps like Lorde, Major Lazer with Ariana Grande, The Chemical Brothers and Tinashé.

This film will destroy the box office for 2014 and make everything else grovel for scraps.

Be sure to head to www.SaltyPopcorn.com to see more of our reviews.

The one thing that makes animations a success is magic, it is hard to explain but the film has to come alive with abundant heart, the characters must hold your heart strings and the story has to mesh and not really try to be magical or funny - it will succeed or it won't when the magic happens. The Toy Stories have it, Shrek 1 had it, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, WallE, Happy Feet, The Incredibles, Up all have this magic. They are forces of animation to be reckoned with - and Gnomeo and Juliet does not have this magic. It has moments of forced, and sometimes clichéd, humor and is animation by numbers - it has all been done to death before and did not hold my attention for its near 90min length. I found it overly cutesy with limited entertainment to keep adults happy. I can see 10yr old girls loving it - 10yr old boys will love the boy stuff like races on lawnmowers but the rest is too pretty and pink for them.

It did have moments and characters I really enjoyed and is voiced by some big names but overly I had no love for the characters. James McAvoy plays Gnomeo and he does it OK but there is nothing special about Gnomeo, same for Juliet - I got excited hearing Emily Blunt's voice but m'eh it really didn't do much for me either - I did like her Ninja moves and wish they had headed more along this line. Likewise Sir Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, Hulk Hogan, Jason Statham, and even Ozzie Osbourne were all kind of flat and/ or underutilized. Most of Ozzie's lines are in the trailer.The standouts that lifted the tone of the film were the Nanny - now a plastic frog that spurts water out of its mouth voiced by Ashely Jensen and the Friar - now a giant plastic pink flamingo voiced by Jim Cummings - these two lifted the flow of the film from mundane. I also found it very appropriate having Patrick Stewart (Capt Picard) voicing Shakespeare.

The film is packed with numerous Shakespearean in-jokes. It takes place in contemporary Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace; a shattered gnome is put together with a brand of glue known as The Taming of the Glue; there is a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern moving firm; Gnomeo is carried away by a van for Tempest Teapots (ie. a storm in a teacup pun) and so on. Various lines of classic Shakespearean dialog (not just from Romeo and Juliet) make sporadic appearances throughout.

I was expecting this film to be quite cute for kids, like most animations, but a quiet payout of Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet for the adults - it actually opens doing just that and I got all excited hearing a little garden gnome saying "Before this story is this large introduction" He then reads about 4 lines of the opening of R&J and then says something along the lines of "Blah Blah Blah - let's just get on with it". But it kind of ends there. If you are a serious Shakespearean appreciator - avoid this film like the plaque - it changes most of the story and to the point it completely alters the story from a tragedy. But what do you expect - it is a kid's cartoon. A statue of Shakespeare actually comes alive and debates with Gnomeo the merits of the story being a tragedy - I think the real Shakespeare would be turning in his grave .

I think the biggest letdown for me with this film is that basically it's a B Grade ripoff of Toy Story, although as opposed to toys that are really alive but do not allow humans to know, it is garden toys and animals. It is the exact same premise but wrapped in Romeo and Juliet story. For young kids this is fine as they can get a very VERY remote piece of Shakespearean education in some cute colors but for me none of the characters get even close to the likability of any of the characters from Toy Story plus R&J is one of my all time favorite stories and films (I love you Leo).

There is some good music from Elton John spread throughout the film that lifts it a bit and while I did not watch it in 3D I could seem some scenes that could be good in 3D. Regardless of my thoughts - this film is made for young kids - and if it can keen your kids entertained for 90mins then its job is done. The film will be releasing on Feb 11th in the USA and Feb 17th in Australia. Worth 4/10. Suss all my reviews at saltypopcorn.com

First Love is about love, friendship and following your dreams. I had the pleasure of attending a screening for this today and I was so impressed with myself and Brookie for making it - we had less than 1hrs sleep last night and were so hungover it was criminal. I am quite annoyed with myself though as the three leads were there and I was offered the opportunity to meet them after the screening but felt so horrible I couldn't do it - really wish I did now as these three girls will one day soon be world champions and besides that - they were so much bloody fun in the film I would love to spend time with them.

This feature length film of only 1hr follows the lives of three passionate young girls from Phillip Island and documents their trip to Hawaii - the first step on their journey to making a career out of surfing. The girls enjoy and love everything they do and watching it through the eyes of these three is hysterical and just a shiny world of joy, fun and passion for a sport they are all amazing at.

17-year-old Jess Laing has grown up surfing with, and competing against, her two friends Nikki van Dijk and India Payne. They're all sponsored, surf the same breaks and live within 10 minutes of each other. The girls are all different in their own ways, but one thing's for sure, they all love the same thing.

But when Jess is injured everything changes. Her trip to Hawaii is replaced with surgery, recovery and rehab. It's only her love of surfing that pulls her through. I truly feel sorry for Jess, and not just for the injury and recovery she went through but because she is probably the only female in the world of surfing with brown hair. Besides Jess everyone has blonde sun bleached hair

Discover the trials and tribulations of training, competitions and injury whilst gaining an insight into life on the tour through the eyes of three girls. With magic footage and stellar photography, First Love will surprise, entertain and inspire a generation of female surfers.

This film really gets into the spirit of the surfing circuit and it was amazing to see the camaraderie of the women's competitors - these women fight each other like Gladiators on their boards during the day and then at night hang out, cook BBQs, go shopping and party together. They are nothing like the men. It is also similar with their surfing - I find it more like watching women's tennis - not as hard hitting but more graceful, fluid and technical. The film also captures the heart and spirituality of surfing - it is a religious movement of sorts and it is a religion of pagans - the followers are all at one with nature - they reach a harmony with the earth's force to glide over it's sets of pristine waves. The film shows this well.

I have grown up my entire life on the Northern Beaches of NSW - I spend oodles of time at the beach and have always had boards at my house but never actually surfed - this actually inspires me - these girls make it look bloody easy. Perhaps 2011 can be the year I do my Manly Surf School.

The film has been going really well overseas having just won the Best Documentary at X- Dance film festival. XDance is basically the Sundance Sport film festival. Director Claire Gorman also took out the Emerging Film Maker award. Nice work guys - I think Claire has some amazing direction and the story told in the docco is very engaging - the girls are very lovable and exude this positive vibe that is extremely contagious. The film has some spectacular cinematography from Claire Gorman, a Phillip Island local. The copy of the film we watched was quite pixelated in many scenes - I am wondering if we got a lower resolution copy of the film for the screening or if the projector was not set up to screen it correctly. The photos on the site are all high resolution so am hoping the release of the film will be in a better presented format.

Another character in this film that really stands out is the amazing music - it is so beach scene it worked a treat. And I did not know one single band or artist and the film makers instead used all relative unknowns. There are songs by Dan Flynn, Matt Walters, Dash and Will, Big Scary, Tom Richardson, Justin Carter, Ghost Mutt, The Smoke, Dardanelles, Liz Cogger, Seth Sentry and HEAPS MORE. The soundtrack will soon be out on Itunes. Worth the buy!

Great docco!

I was expecting this film to be a lot worse but it was supported by my JC - James Cameron as executive producer and it does have some of the best 3D visuals out there. I praise Alister Grierson for using proper 3D cameras and not only that, the ones JC prefers and created. It was a joy to actually watch a proper 3D film and not the hideous post production 3D I have bitched about on numerous occasions. I think the utilizing of JC written everywhere will definitely help this film immensely and to some extent it truly deserves it.

Some of the scenes in this film are poetic artwork and sheer beauty and provide some mouth agape splendor. And the 3D really does immerse you in the environment, there were moments of vertigo and a constant claustrophobia suffered by myself. The only thing I have struggled to do that I have tried is scuba diving - I chewed through the mouthpiece and kept wanting to rip my mask off - not a cool way to dive . If you can see this one in IMAX 3D then do it - would be totally worth it.

The film also has a really worked out plot, the story is great, although it has been done to death before in different settings, it's an escape film like Towering Inferno. In fact think of The Poseidon Adventure minus the boat . If you don't work out who will survive in the first ten minutes then good for you . It is extremely clichéd with some obvious flaws - for example, the one lady who doesn't wear a wetsuit but wears this huge red outdoor storm gear thing nearly dies of hypothermia and shivers the whole time and yet all the guys are wearing wetsuits, although all sleeveless so we can see some flesh and they are always nice and cosily warm. What this film really lacked though was a decent script - some of the lines in this film had me laughing and cringing in equal parts. It really needed someone like Roberto Orci and/or Alex Kurtzman from Star Trek fame to flesh it out and make it justifiably awesome. But the script brings a lot of the film to B grade level.

Then the other thing that let this film down was one actor, Ioan Gruffudd - I could not believe how bad he was in this film. This guys is a lead in Fantastic 4, was in Titanic, King Arthur and numerous other films but in this he plays this over the top, heavily and badly accented American and it was so badly played he brought the film down a few notches - there were scenes I was hoping he would die so he would be gone from the film. It was shocking.

I will say thank god for the two main leads, Richard Roxburgh and Rhys Wakefield, playing his son. When I first saw the trailer I wasn't too impressed with Roxburgh - he always puts on a silly accent in films and in things like MIssion Impossible 2 he was this hideous bleach headed idiot. But in this film he really pulls it off and I preferred him as a leading man than as a supporting cast member. I found his role very believable and a strength in the film.

Then there was Rhys Wakefield, I found him great in the film and see a strong future for him following that Australian to US market. He is incredibly attractive and has smoother skin that Just Bieber after a buffing. Josh (Wakefield) has a superb relationship with his father in the film, Frank (Roxburgh). It is a love hate, make them tough relationship and it developed nicely and made Josh a man by the end of the film. His good looks were quite distractive in some scenes - as Josh is holding someone dying both Paul, my viewing partner, and myself were going oooh - nice arms. LOL. I am sure this is not what they were after in this scene . He holds the camera well and I look forward to his next role - those Hemsworth boys need to watch out - this guy is coming for all your parts.

I think this film will do OK. It is a guilty pleasure action film that requires limited thinking. It will be a teenager's dream film . I think with the combo of JC, some great direction in a difficult environment by Alister Grierson and the acting of Roxburgh and Wakefield really made this film a pleasure for me. If Gruffudd was never in this film and the script got a work over this could have been a much much better film. It is out this Thursday Feb 3rd in Australia and I recommend a big screen in 3D. Worth 6/10. Suss all my reviews at SaltyPopcorn.com :)

This timeless classic Australian masterpiece did not disappoint in the slightest. The cinematography is brilliant, the acting is great (remember this was 1976 Australia) - especially from child actor Greg Rowe (who is now all grown up and living with his wife and two kids in Canada). David Gulpilil also provides a wandering Aboriginal man mysticism to the film and he looks quite younger than in Australia but it's like he is playing the same character. A character well suited to him. The area in which it is set is just beautiful and while Storm Boy battles with his needs to see the greater world and gain an education - all I wanted to do when watching was to swap places with him. The film supplies a lot of themes about nurturing, growing, the circle of life (thankyou Lion King), isolation, friendship and the morality of right and wrong. The battle between life in general and the life the rest of the population says we should be living.

The film is funny at times, touching, sad and inspiring and will make you want a pet pelican!!!

Try and get to see this one - I know Target has them for $7- and you can probably pick up at most places for same price - or rent it. One disappointing thing about it - the DVD is a straight copy of an older print - it is not remastered, but somehow to me this added to it's age and quality - like a fine port on film.