In this opinion piece, George shares his views on the recent Hollywood trend of aging actors reprising their prior famed roles in sequels to 80s classics.  He asks: will this really give us the Hollywood magic and endings those classics deserve?

This evening the 87th Academy Awards - replete with glitz and glamour - will be watched by expectant viewers from across the globe. But what do the Oscars really tell us about the world in which we reside? In this collaborative piece, the best and brightest of IANS staff talk about representation, popular culture, politics and at points - and somewhat refreshingly - an unashamed love of film. Unlike the members of the Academy, we did not reach a consensus! 

Whiplash is the story of aspiring jazz drummer Andrew, played by Miles Teller, and his experiences at a prestigious music conservatory with Terence Fletcher, the conductor of the country’s top jazz ensemble. J.K. Simmons plays Fletcher, and I’ll go ahead and make my prediction that he will not only win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this performance, but that he deserves to by a mile.

The Lion King is one of those spectacles you cannot help but enjoy.  Whether you are watching the 1994 animated film or the 1997 Broadway musical, to quote Scar, It’s to die for. For this scene analysis I’ll be looking at Scar’s ‘villain song.’  Every Disney film has one, and “Be Prepared” might be the best, and is definitively the most political, of the lot.

Before we bid adieu to 2014 and open our hearts to the mystery of the New Year, however, we would like to take a moment to reflect on what has been and gone. As such, in what follows, the brightest and best of IANS staff contemplate what made the past year great, what it made it awful and, above all, what made it memorable.

A Most Wanted Man, starring the late great Phillip Seymor Hoffman in one of his last roles, is a movie that clings to your psyche long after the credits roll. **ALSO** a bonus second review of Dracula Untold!

Proof that the paranoia political thriller can be filled with action, the exquisitely enjoyable The Winter Soldier should be viewed not as another Marvel film, but as a standalone commentary on contemporary security issues.

George Ligon recently approached the IANS Editorial Team with an exciting proposition. "IANS editorial team", he said, "I want to write movie reviews; movie reviews with a twist; movie reviews which use political and philosophical theories; I want to create a great amalgam of movie-review-theoretical goodness which will elucidate and illuminate both the films in question and the ideas discussed".