The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

It was a monumental relief to see The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug was a much better movie than its predecessor. That being said, it is a surreal movie, which is a strange thing to say when talking about a bunch of short bearded men going off to fight a dragon.

The newest addition to the LOTR series, which can be now abbreviated to the ridiculous LOTR:TH:TDOS (which sounds like an elven name), picks up not long after the first Hobbit film ended. Would-be dwarven king Thorin (Richard Armitage), his band of misfit dwarven companions and increasingly out-of-his-depth Hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) continue on their way to the reclaim the lost mountain kingdom of Erebor from a dragon.

American Hustle

If you're anything like me, American Hustle is not the movie you were expecting.

That's not to say it's a bad movie. It's actually quite a good movie with a great cast and a pretty engaging story.

The trouble is, it's billed as basically Ocean's Eleven but set in the 70s. Woooooah, look out, Christian Bale is wearing a hairpiece. Wooooooah, Bradley Cooper has a perm. Lololol.

The reality is that it's closer to a flick called The Bank Job that was released a couple years back. But seeing as nobody actually remembers that movie, this was kind of a dumb point to make.

The Day of the Doctor

The 50th Anniversary Special of Doctor Who was an episode of two halves - one was a fairly standard romp with shape-shifting aliens invading from the Elizabethan-era...the other was a monumental tying up of loose ends and creating story hooks with one of the most popular Doctors of all time.

The Day of the Doctor focuses on three incarnations of the Doctor. Matt Smith, the current Doctor. David Tennant, the previous incarnation. And John Hurt, the "lost" in carnation - the War Doctor.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Get ready to bleak it up once again as some teenagers are forced to commit mass murder!

This time, however, the two surviving teenagers from the first movie have to mass murder a bunch of experienced mass murderers instead.

Isn't the "young adult" genre fun?

Catching Fire picks up almost immediately after the end of the first Hunger Games film and spends very little time rehashing or recapping - if you've forgotten something or are inexplicably starting the series at the second film, you're likely to be extremely lost extremely quickly.

The Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence

The Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence

I don't think I've come across a series that divided me this much for a long time. I couldn't even finish the first book the first time I picked the series up, but I'm glad I went back and finished the series.

The Broken Empire Trilogy is Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns and Emperor of Thorns and follows the story of ruthless aristocrat Jorg Ancrath and his quest to become emperor.

Winner of Worst Gallant Prince Award: Jorg Ancrath.
Art by Kim Kincaid at The Twirling Dragon blog.

The Butler

The cynic in me says the historical drama The Butler with a cast that must have cost a pretty penny (and several ugly ones) is pure, unadulterated Oscar Bait.

Starring Forest Whitaker, The Butler follows the life of Cecil Gaines, an African American doorman, barman and eventually butler to several Presidents of the United States of America.

Thor: The Dark World

Out of all the Avengers I think Thor probably has to be my favourite, which is why I was so excited to see the big beardy hammerman get a sequel.

Thor: The Dark World follows directly from The Avengers and beardface's first film, with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) crusading around outer space/the Nine Realms cleaning up after his brother Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) mess.

For those not in the know (which is weird. Who goes to see the sequel of two separate movie franchises without seeing both said movies?) Thor was forced to destroy the main mode of transportation around the Nine Realms at the end of the first Thor film.