Written by David Domscheit-Berg and David Lee (both who were involved with the novel) and director Bill Condon, “The Fifth Estate” goes right to life of Julian Assange. Condon’s former films “Kinsey” (2004) and “Dreamgirls” (2006) are both well-crafted films. “The Fifth Estate” plummeted at the box office opening weekend and its budget only got up to $28,000,000 (estimated). This is shocking given that it gears on one of the most wanted man in history…Julian Assange.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks: a website invented to share the deceptions and corruptions of power in the government. His colleague is Daniel Berg (played by Daniel Bruhl); a professional hacker that teams up with Assange. Berg tags along, but becomes hesitant once he realizes that Assange wants to expose the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in history.

Once Berg realizes that Assange and him are on the grid for exposing illegal information, they both begin to criticize a defining question of their time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society-and what are the costs of exposing them? That question remains anonymous until the end of the movie.

The rest of the movie shows Assange getting too much into Berg’s personal life. The setup suggests suspicion, but Cumberbatch’s attitude is so laid-back that it seems his ego is all that matters to him. He advances at intelligence, but seems to struggle with caring about others. This is an issue for Berg and viewers. Lacking characterization, viewers wonder more about Assange and not so much about Berg.

Berg is playing against Assange. “The fifth Estate” quickly makes its viewers realize that Berg and Assange’s friendship is torn apart. Primarily the fact that colleagues work together for so long and become aggravated by the element’s of one’s behavior. “The Fifth Estate” portrays this issue as if it was a key-element of corruption–this is not just Assange’s ego, but that Berg tried to tell Assange from the beginning that what he is doing is wrong, but Assange continued doing what he wants and did not listen to Berg at all. “The Fifth Estate” easily leaves government to not be the meaning of the film (government should be the meaning though). “The Fifth Estate” ends up gearing on betrayal and revenge. That is why its adaptation is not accurate to the true story.

The relationship between Assange and Berg appears as if there friendship led to major accomplishments. As the camera focuses on the facial expressions on Berg at a convention, it becomes repetitive. Their friendship–like mentioned, their criticism–is causing them to hate each other. Assange himself, at first wonders but in the end, he still only cares about his ego.

Assange and Berg frequently find a concern to argue about. With an adaptation though, the issue is money is the bigger importance than the quality of films. Due to this, “The Fifth Estate” is unorthodox. The film enters a serious subject unprofessionally; whenever it seems to be a moment of truth, it only relies on arguments and jealousies that are not the purpose of the film.

I did not know anything about “Le Week-End” much before I saw it. The trailer captivated me to see it, given the fact that I love movies taking place in Europe. “Le-Weekend” is a dark comedy that is feeling like viewers are watching a retired version of “The Before Trilogy.” However, this is just ok. It is not amazing, it is not heartfelt, and it is not structured.

The two main characters are a couple and their names are Nick and Meg (Jim Broadbent and Lindsey Hunt). Both are a couple that travel to Paris (their former honeymoon location) to try and salvage their marriage. “Le Week-End” barely has any elements to understanding what the conflict is between the couple. If there was any key moment, the only one I recognized was Nick and Meg struggling to feeling like they are young and falling in love.

The dialogue was not very audible. Most of the conversations sounded like watching something through a computer monitor with computer speakers. I understand that independent films make their goal for their films to be low-budget, but what is a film that is not audible? I almost thought of asking for a hearing device from the manager of the cinema.

Director Roger Michell (director of Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) and Morning Glory (2010)) seemed to have lacked the quality of “Le-Weekend.” I remember that “Hyde Park on Hudson” was not that great, but the acting was phenomenal, and the same goes with “Morning Glory.”

The writer Hanif Kureishi wrote for Michell for a variety of his films. The following films include “Intimacy” (2001), “The Mother” (2003) “Venus” (2006), and more. Most of his films have a depressing premise and have received mixed reviews over the years. I do not see thing being an issue because of a lack of ideas or organization, I see this because of the movies they have made to just be very depressing and not uplifting whatsoever.

“Le Week-End” had a good concept, but lacked throughout. This film is intended more for a DVD viewing or on demand viewing. In the cinema, it is not very cinematic or memorable. Would be if the filmmakers cared about the audio.

Now this is a college party movie that is actually awesome. “Neighbors” is satirical all the way through. The characters are funny, the setup is funny, the situations are funny, and above all, it is a film that will make parents wonder if a fraternity house is actually safe for their children. 

The movie starts out with a married couple Mac and Kelly Radner (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne). They move into a luxurious neighborhood filled mostly wealthy families. They have one kid and they try to blend in with other families as soon as they move in. Rogen obviously still has ways of getting stoned into his films, and he does this in a variety of weird places and can still play the good father.

A few days once they are settled in, they realize they have got some new neighbors as soon as a mover’s truck shows up. After the mover’s truck stops in, a herd of cars filled with college boys fills up around it. Soon to realize that for the Radner family they got a fraternity house living next door.

They two leaders of this fraternity are Teddy Sanders (played by Zac Efron) and Pete (played by Dave Franco). Most of the time we are use to seeing Dave’s brother James be in films with Rogen, but in this one, this one really makes the mark for a comedy by James Franco’s younger brother.

The Radner family tries to be cooperative the fraternity and not to stir up trouble with police authorities. They do everything they can. They party with them, drink with them, and prove they can be trusted.

Neighbors is a hysterical thrill ride and a highly recommend. Four stars.