Saturday 31 October 2015

Trivia Round-Up: October 2015

Phew, October is over and I can come out from hiding from all the horror movies around. I'd like to think we've been particularly brave this year at Flick Chicks as horror is definitely not our thing! Am I officially allowed to feel Christmassy now? I have felt Christmassy for 2 weeks already, I think its because it's not raining and it usually rains a LOT in October!!


Anyway, here's some fun trivia we've dug up about the movies we've talked about this month, with links to the original posts:

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
The title is intentionally misspelled, as it also appears as graffiti in a scene in the film. The misspelled phrase is actually taken from an essay written in 1776 that argued that whites and blacks were created equal. The essay, which was written by Lemuel Haynes, a biracial man living in New England during the Revolution, quoted Thomas Jefferson's well-known sentence from the United States Declaration of Independence, but spelled the last word of the sentence with a y. The sentence, as it appears in Lemuel's essay, is as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-Evident, that all men are created Equal, that they are Endowed By their Creator with Ceartain [sic] unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happyness."
A long one I know, but when I was feeling much more awake I found this really interesting!

Ed Helms is the sixth actor to play Rusty Griswold after Anthony Michael Hall (National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)); Jason Lively (National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)); Johnny Galecki (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)); Ethan Embry (Vegas Vacation (1997)); Travis Greer (Hotel Hell Vacation (2010).
If for whatever reason we get another Vacation movie, it's got to follow this trend! *cough*Jason Sudeikis*cough*

The script originally has no back story about Robert, so Denzel Washington contributed much to the character's background and back story including Robert having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In addition to his daily physical and fight training before filming, Washington met and interviewed several real-life OCD people as to gain insights of how to play that disorder correctly.
Thus proving - Denzel Washington is awesome.

Entourage (2015)
The series and the film are loosely based on Mark Wahlberg's life and the character, Turtle, was based on his real life assistant, Donnie "Donkey" Carroll, who died December 18, 2005 from an asthma attack at age 39.

Stand By Me (1986)
River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell got up to much mischief in the hotel they were staying in during filming. This included throwing all the pool side furniture into the pool, Wheaton fixing video games in the lobby so they could play them for free and Phoenix (spurred on by the other boys) unknowingly covering Kiefer Sutherland's car in mud; only discovering whose car it was when Sutherland confronted a scared and nervous Phoenix about it later.
I want to see that made into a movie of its own!

Inside Out (2015)
Psychologists and other experts were consulted so the writers could make the way Riley's mind works scientifically accurate. For example, it is believed that short-term memories made during the day are converted into long-term memories during sleep, which is what happens in Riley's mind.
My fascination with psychology is probably another reason as to why I loved this film so much.

Aloha (2015)
Received a great deal of criticism from audiences and reviewers who objected to the fact that although this movie is set in Hawaii, it depicts almost no Asian- or Native-Hawaiian-descended characters, and the one main character who is supposed to be of both Chinese and native Hawaiian descent is played by a white actress, Emma Stone. 
Less 'fun trivia' and more 'proof this movie was a mess!'

Cooties (2015)
Several movie and video game references are in the film. Lord of the Rings, Aliens. Resident Evil, State of Decay, Terminator.
I only spotted a few, drat!

Magic Mike XXL (2015)

Matthew McConaughey was in talks to reprise his character role of Dallas for the sequel which he played in Magic Mike (2012) but talks fell through because of financial reasons. According to the studio, since winning his Academy Award for Best Actor in Dallas Buyers' Club (2013), McConaughey's pay rate had increased which is a tactical procedure for an actor after he just won an Academy Award to capitalize on his acclaimed success. This led to the studio optioning to pass on bringing McConaughey back for the sequel.

The Visit (2015)
According to statements made on Twitter, M. Night Shyamalan prepared three different cuts of the film. One that was "pure comedy", another that was "pure horror", and a final one that "fell somewhere in between."
I want to see the pure comedy cut, just for the 'lols'!

The Final Girls (2015)
This is the second film Alexander Ludwig has starred in that has ''Final Girl'' in the title. Both films are released in 2015.
Sorry, the trivia for The Final Girls isn't the best...

Thursday 29 October 2015

Review: The Final Girls (2015)

the-final-girls-review-2015
Despite my hatred of horror movies (hate is a strong word, I’m actually just a wimp) I think I might have found my happy medium this October. Horror Comedies! Just enough spookiness to make me nervous, but plenty of laughs to distract myself. This one will have been my third watch this year (after Cooties and The Visit) and I’m definitely on the hunt now for some more. Any recommendations?

Sort of tumbling into the sci-fi category also, The Final Girls is a horror comedy that likes to poke fun at itself. During a special screening of Camp Bloodbath & Camp Bloodbath II, a devastating fire breaks out in the theatre and Max (Taissa Farmiga) and her friends Chris (Alexander Ludwig), Vicki (Nina Dobrev), Gertie (Alia Shawkat) and Duncan (Thomas Middleditch) find themselves trapped inside the movie itself in their attempt to escape.

the-final-girls-taissa-farmiga

Even I know those basic horror movie rules. Anyone who takes their clothes off and has sex will die, and in the end there will be just one girl left, a virgin at that, who manages to kill the killer and live to the end. The killer themselves will have been the victim of something awful years before, which made them the killer they are, yet they are nothing but a legend to the characters in the movie.

I really love the concept of The Final Girls. From the moment the group stepped into the movie, and the van drove past playing the same music every 92 minutes as if on a loop, I was just amused. Something that I don’t often pay attention to are the sets, I get too engrossed in dialogue most of the time, but they were great in this. Visually, The Final Girls is beautiful which I didn’t expect from a low budget movie.

the-final-girls-malin-akerman

Something else that surprised me was the amount of heart the movie had. Okay, at one point it got a little too sappy and I was sort of expecting something goofy to happen to lighten the mood a little, but I actually wouldn’t change that scene because it was quite beautiful.

Of course, this movie would be nowhere near as funny if it didn’t have Adam DeVine in it. The guy is hilarious, and there are some outtakes of his during the credits which show how much he was ad-libbing, which I love.

Definitely worth a watch!


Wednesday 28 October 2015

Happy Back to the Future Day (1 Week late!)

I was desperate to post on the blog on Wednesday 21st October 2015 as I was completely obsessed for the whole day – I can prove it by showing anyone my Facebook on the day because it was a steady stream of information from my own excitement at getting to see the film at the cinema to fan theories and memes that cropped up throughout the day - I even changed my profile picture to this:


However, I thought if I post on the blog about what I was doing to celebrate Back to the Future day it was get lost in the thousands and thousands of blog posts on the subject. So I waited, then I forget and then I remembered, so here we are, exactly a week later!




I’ve always loved Back to the Future since my Dad let me watch it as a kid (while muting out all swear words), not that I understood a lot of it but I didn’t care, it was my Saturday afternoon film with my Dad and that’s all I cared about.  I thought I had seen the first two films a million times and I would have bet I could write synopsis with my eyes closed and quote numerous lines before they happened….but I didn’t and I doubt I could have.  


Settling in at my local cinema to watch all three films back to back on Wednesday I very rapidly realised I didn’t remember a lot of the plot – I couldn’t remember how they got out of the various scrapes or how history was changing and had to be fixed.  This could have upset me, films I have sworn to love for two decades but I can’t remember the basic premise but it was the best thing that could have happened.  Sitting in that cinema was like seeing Parts 1 and 2 for the very first time, there were jokes I had forgotten about, scenes that had completely slipped my mind.  I got to see Back to the Future Part 1 and 2 for the ‘first time’ on the big screen – I got to laugh at the gags like I hadn’t seen them before and cheer for the good guys (even though I did remember they would win!).  What an amazing experience!

Congratulations, we are now living in the future!


Tuesday 27 October 2015

Review: The Visit (2015)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t do horror. But I am a downright sucker for a plot twist, mainly because I’m too oblivious to ever see it coming. However, knowing a movie has a plot twist always kicks your brain into overdrive, doesn’t it? Being told The Usual Suspects had an amazing plot twist ruined it for me a little, because for the first time ever I worked it out halfway through, and don’t even talk to me about The Sixth Sense!

So, all I can really tell you about The Visit is that it’s shot documentary/found footage style by brother and sister Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) when they go to stay with their grandparents (Deanna Dunagan & Peter McRobbie) for a week whilst their mother (Kathryn Hahn) is on a cruise with her boyfriend. That’s all I can say! Trust me, the less you know, the better.


Knowing how terrible I cope with horror movies, I tried to extensively research The Visit before deciding whether I could actually watch it or not. Most reviews I read were similar to this, and gave nothing away, which was of course no help in my quest. Then, I remembered the Parent’s Guide on IMDB. See, I can cope with gore and nasty images, but it’s the cheap thrills that absolutely kill me, so I was hoping IMDB’s guide would help me out with that. This is what I was greeted with:



Thanks, IMDB. At least it warned me of ‘various jumpscares’, my worst nightmare. But look at all those spoiler warnings! It was just too much for my curiosity threshold, so I put on my big girl pants and gave it a go. For the hardened viewers out there, you would probably rate this one as quite tame, but for me, I was nervous laughing to myself throughout, and found something very interesting to look at on the ceiling any time Becca and Tyler wanted to open the bedroom door after 9:30pm.


From what I’ve read, The Visit has really split opinions, with people either hating it or loving it, but I feel like I fit somewhere in the middle. The parts I could bring myself to watch, I enjoyed. I thought the kids did a great job, Ed Oxenbould in particular. I have a 13 year old brother myself and their personalities are a great match. I would image horror fans wanted more, but that would have been too much for me. I read that M. Night Shyamalan prepared 3 different cuts of this film, one pure comedy, one pure horror, and the final product, a mix of the two, and I think it works well. 

I wouldn’t class The Visit as a comedy, but there are enough laughs to break up the tension, which I needed!


Sunday 25 October 2015

Review: Magic Mike XXL (2015)

I  have been quite looking forward to this since Magic Mike.  I know you're all thinking, typical woman, can't wait to watch muscular chaps get their kits off and dance around.....and you would be right!  But also, the original one had quite a dark story which I really enjoyed....I did....I swear.....

Magic Mike XXL starts 3 years after Mike (Channing Tatum) bowed out of the stripper game for good.  A phone call from Tarzan (Kevin Nash) brings the old gang back together (less Matthew McConaughey's Dallas and Alex Pettyfer's 'The Kid') for one last hurrah as a convention in Myrtle Beach.  Tito (Adam Rodriguez), Ken (Matt Bomer), Big Dick Richie (Joe Manganiello) along with Mike and Tarzan embark on a road trip (interjected with various strip teases) to perform their final routine.


I can't say I didn't enjoy this film, I really did but not for the story.  That was poor in comparison to the original and it became a bit more cheesy than dark and sometimes grim original which was a bit disappointing to be honest.  I can say however that the strip sequences made the film watchable, i'm not even being a pervert (i swear!), I love dance routines in films and that is effectively what they were.  It didn't hurt that they were half naked mind......


The ensemble don't quite nail the chemistry that they had in the first one and they overplayed some of the elements from the first film but the finale absolutely blew the whole film out of the water, I replayed it twice!!  


Awesomely entertaining but didn't quite match up to the first one.


Friday 23 October 2015

Mini Reviews: The Maze Runner (2014), Fantastic Four (2015) & Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Doing overtime at home to pay for our cat Loki's vet bills has meant I've worked my way through a lot of movies recently, which in turn means plenty of reviews to write up! This little set mainly contains movies that Jenna's already seen and reviewed, so it seemed silly to dedicate a whole post to each!  You know I drafted a post for Mission Impossible but never wrote it or posted it?! You didn't?! I thought you did, ha!

fantastic-four-movie-review-2015

I have very little interest in the Fantastic Four series, it’s just never had much appeal to me. However, I won’t miss a chance to see a superhero movie and despite the appalling reviews, I gave Fantastic Four (2015) a go. Boy, it really was terrible. The introduction was alright, although the characters were boring, and the ending was okay, especially in terms of special effects. The main problem was everything else, cheesy dialogue, awful acting and just a boring plot that didn’t flow well at all. I guess Green Lantern isn’t the worst superhero movie anymore, huzzah! I’ll take that as a win. Damn it!!





the-maze-runner-movie-review-2014

When the trailers came out for The Maze Runner (2014), I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I hadn’t read the books, and I was still in awe of The Hunger Games so I wrote this off completely. Curiosity got the better of me though and I ended up enjoying this much more than I thought I would. The tension and now knowing where the plot was going kept me hooked and I was pleasantly surprised. Dylan O’Brien impressed me in Teen Wolf and he makes a great lead in this. I’m quite looking forward to watching The Scorch Trials now!






mission-impossible-rogue-nation-review-2015

Although I was very late to the party, I really enjoyed 2011’s Ghost Protocol and when the trailers came out for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) I couldn’t wait. It sounds silly but it’s probably one of my favourite trailers, I think it was the music that did it for me. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the latest mission. Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg have such a great on-screen chemistry, I’d happily watch them together in anything! I got a little lost in the game of ‘Is Isla a good guy, bad guy, double agent, double double agent’ malarky but that’s normal for me, ha.


Thursday 22 October 2015

Review: Cooties (2015)

cooties-movie-review-2015
You know when you say you have to be in a certain mood to watch certain genres of film? What sort of mood do you have to be in to want to watch a silly horror comedy? A weird one, probably! I don’t do horror at all, but when it’s a comedy I’ll give it a go. Throw in a couple of my favourite TV actors at the same time, and sure, count me in! That’s how I ended up watching Cooties the other night.

Cooties was never a thing in school for me, is it more of an American term? We still had the whole ‘don’t go near Sally’ but it was normally an actual disease like the mange or rabies that kids would decide upon. Anyway, Cooties is a fun little zombie-like comedy in which an entire school gets infected with Cooties, turning the children into flesh eating monsters. Trapped in the school, the teachers, including Clint (Elijah Wood), Wade (Rainn Wilson), Lucy (Alison Pill) and Tracy (Jack McBrayer) are left fighting for their lives.

cooties-movie-elijah-wood

I would firstly like to thank Cooties for making me never want to eat a chicken nugget again. Those opening credits were possible the most grimm thing I have ever seen, and was actually the most horrible part of the whole movie! Shudder. 

The plot and the general premise had all the elements of a winner, but also a stinker, and honestly I think it fell somewhere in the middle. It was funny, but it never made me laugh out loud. Okay, I laughed out loud once. But really, when is a kid shouting the ‘C’ word not funny?! It wasn’t scary either, which isn’t a complaint from me! I feel like it’s more of a horror spoof, but without the stupidness of actual spoof movies, if that makes sense. It was really enjoyable though!

cooties-movie-zombie-children

I liked how it poked fun of other horror films. How many times have you sat watching a horror and just thought, if they simply took their mobile phone out of their pocket and made a quick call, they would be perfectly safe? Cooties knows how you feel, man. It deals with that for you. It also pays homage to a lot of 80’s action films, which is pretty funny actually. Rainn Wilson get’s some cheesy one liners that will make you smile.

Without giving spoilers, I just don’t know how to feel about the ending. I’m not sure if it was laziness in the writing, or simply opening itself up to a sequel, but I’m undecided. All in all though, Cooties was much better than I thought it would be, and is a half decent popcorn comedy.


Tuesday 20 October 2015

Review: Aloha (2015)

Whilst on the hunt for an easy to watch Rom Com type movie to pass the time the other evening, I stumbled across Aloha. This was the first time I’d ever heard of it but the cast list alone was enough for me to decide it was worth a shot. Check out this cast! Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride & Alec Baldwin. A winner for sure, right?

aloha-movie-review

This is the part where I sum up the plot for you, in case you’ve never heard of the film. But I really can’t. I just don’t get what it’s about! Bradley Cooper is some kind of military/spaceman guy who’s been sent to Hawaii for a welcoming ceremony, Emma Stone is the military’s youngest and brightest, with the task to follow Bradley Cooper around like a lost puppy. John Krasinski is a colleague of Bradley Cooper’s who doesn’t talk to his wife, like, at all. Alec Baldwin and Bill Murray are important douchebags, and now my head hurts!

Aloha wasn’t a boring film at all, I was entertained throughout, but in the glimpses when I actually understood what was going on, the plot was terribly predictable which ruined the crucial moments. Both Emma Stone and John Krasinski are so great at that dry, sarcastic humour, and they just didn’t get the chance to shine this time around, which was a shame.

aloha-bradley-cooper-emma-stone

Admittedly, I know absolutely nothing about Hawaii’s history and culture. My knowledge goes as far as me excitedly exclaiming ‘Hey! Those kids are doing the same dance as the kids in Lilo & Stitch!’, which even I know is terribly ignorant of me. I think the whole film would have made more sense had I more knowledge on the subject matter, so I’m not blaming the film entirely here.

My favourite part was witnessing the changes in Rachel McAdams and John Krasinski’s relationship. I could really feel the heartbreak, and there was one particular scene that stood out for me, where Krasinski and Cooper are in the kitchen having a full blown conversation without saying a word. We as the audience know what they’re saying through the powers of subtitles, but their facial expressions match what they’re saying perfectly.

aloha-bradley-cooper-john-krasinski

Overall, Aloha was enjoyable, but confusing, and sadly, a forgettable experience for me I think.


Sunday 18 October 2015

Fall Season Premieres 2015

Please note, there are spoilers below, if you don't want to know the end of last season or this beginning of this one, don't read on....

I've spent a long time waiting for the Fall (or Autumn as we call it here in the land of tea and crumpets!) premieres, I have spent months feeling like I'm missing a limb when I have nothing to watch every week...  So here is my low down on the this years season premieres.....


Grey's Anatomy - Season 12



I am used to the overly dramatic and emotional finales when it comes to Grey's Anatomy but Season 11 was a disappointment, after the death of McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) earlier in the season there was no more feels to be had.  There was no cliffhanger to wait for in the opening of Season 12, so where they usually open with a BANG, this season opened with a fizzle.  It was entertaining, don't get me wrong but just not what I'm used to, and I'm not sure about this new found bond between Meredith, Maggie and Lady Shepherd but there are definite storylines I'm looking forward to them getting their teeth into.  Owen and Amelia (will they won't they), April and Jackson (will they won’t they) and Miranda coping with the Chief job.  Lots to look forward to in the coming weeks I reckon......


Once Upon a Time - Season 5



No no no no no!!  I had a feeling I wouldn’t be happy with this season with what last season had to offer and the direction it was going to go in after the finale of Season 4.  I found Season 4 pretty average, there was no excited relationships developing, no unrequited love and no memorable bad guy (the Wicked Witch had her moments, but let’s face it Cruella, Ursula and Maleficent were ok at best!).  The season ends with Emma ‘eating’ the Darkness, so as expected Season 5 opened with her trying to fight the darkness within and stay one of the good guys.  Unfortunately, the presence of Rumpelstiltskin in her head seems to have other ideas.  Cue, 6 weeks later, countless memories lost and were back to the present day and flashback format (which I actually like) but in the present day Emma I the full blown Dark one with all the powers and evil of Gold and none of the charisma of Regina.  She has the power but Jennifer Morrison can not play a bad guy to save her life, she is terrible and I am willing them to get the Darkness out of her ASAP just so I don’t have to put up with her resting fish face any longer.  Other than that it was watchable (well Hook was watchable!).


Chicago Fire - Season 4



The end of Season 3 was tense and fortunately I was behind with last season so I didn’t have to wait long to find out what happens.  Gabby had found the young stripper, Katya dead in Casey’s apartment so I was all geared up for a murder arrest and subsequent fight for freedom for Casey as he has clearly been framed.  Instead, we got a very limp start where the police knew he didn’t do it (assumption over evidence I think!) and proceeded to get him involved in a sting operation to take down Nesbitt and his people trafficking business.  Lame indeed! (there is a possibility I am missing the bulk of the story by not watching the spin off series Chicago PD, may need to get into that!) Ok there were a few good points, Gabby and Casey are finally where they should be and Severide appears to be back to his womanising ways!  Here’s hoping they will up the drama in the coming weeks…


Supernatural - Season 11


Never ones to do anything by halves, Supernatural started with a BANG (and a cloud of black smoke)!! Dean has met with the Darkness and had a good old chinwag, Sam is fighting of strange construction workers with black veins and penchant for murder and Crowley is back on form in his usual and slightly unusual forms in the season opener.  So we know who the big bad guy is going to be but as the boys seem to have no allies left, how are they going to defeat the darkness?! I’m definitely hooked….again!

Vampire Diaries – Season 7


I was already annoyed with this season of vampire Diaries, before it even started, here’s why… In every other season, if someone has died, got trapped in an alternate universe, been possessed or lost their humanity, under no circumstances do they give up.  In fact, they always happen to come across and artifact, person or spell to help them bring that person back, until now!  As Nina Dobrev has left the series, they have had to trap Elena in a spell tied with Bonnie’s life so Bonnie dies, Elena wakes up – simple!  So in previous seasons they would have killed Bonnie for a second or two with a spell and hey presto Elena is awake and all is right with the world.  Obviously, this has to be different because Dobrev has left the programme but it’s annoying that the whole premise of the Vampire Diaries has just changed completely – why didn’t they just fully kill her, no chance of resurrection or spells and be done with it.   Other than that though, I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to what the rest of the season involves now we have new bad guys, the Heretics involved.

The Flash - Season 2


Oh so many feels…. I thought I had cried as much as I possible could over Barry Allen but they manage to stretch it that much further.  I cried happy tears and sad tears but all in all it was a great opener.  Getting a little bit bored of Ronnie being killed off…again… but hey ho – that should be the last time (fingers crossed!!).  Loving the new mentor in the form of Dr Stein, played by Victor Garber and hoping to see a view visits from Oliver Queen and co in the episodes to come.

Arrow - Season 4 


Speaking of which, there will have to be a crossover episode soon to find out who’s grave Oliver was standing over (please don’t be Felicity, please please please)  Laurel has somehow managed to become a new level of irritating and I can’t hope enough that it’s her grave that Oliver is standing over.  Loving Thea’s new bad-assery although it feels like she may spiral out of control very quickly and it will be down to Oliver to save her (or Roy if we are feeling hopeful!).  All in all a great opening and definitely got me itching to see the rest of the season, let’s hope it stays this good unlike last season that seemed to deflate from the middle onwards in my eyes.


Nashville - Season 4


The end of Season 3 was a cliffhanger to say the least, Deacon and his sister both went in for surgery so she could donate part of her liver to Deacon.  The episode ended with Rayna being told there was bad news..... I spent months panicking that Deacon may be dead - only to realise 2 days before the premiere that its likely his sister that had died and Deacon blamed Rayna for forcing her into.  However, what I actually got was his sister in a coma and Deacon 100% fit and healthy and just a little bit upset about his sister’s condition!  It was just a bit bizarre that it started and there was no real drama, other than Juliette's breakdown... I hoping it will step up the drama....and soon!

Friday 16 October 2015

Review: Inside Out (2015) & Lava (2015)

It’s taken me a long time to get my thoughts on Inside Out into words. Let’s just say I hold this film in a very special regard! It’s extremely rare for me to see a film in the cinema twice, but I saw this once with a close friend of mine on the day I found out that my very poorly Granny was terminal, and then again with my family just a few days after she died. 


From the original trailer, it was difficult to determine a plot for Inside Out, but it made the film a complete surprise which rarely happens now. Too often a trailer gives away so much of the plot it’s barely worth even investing the time at the cinema. So, the plot is simple in theory, a young girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) moves to San Francisco with her parents when her Dad gets a new job. Her emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Fear (Bill Hader) struggle to cope with the move, a new school, new friends, and a difficult life at home.

To begin with, let me quickly mention the short played before Inside Out, Lava. As a Disney fan, I get just as excited for the short as I do for the feature film, and although nothing will be able to top Feast for me, Lava was beautiful. Told in song, Lava is about a volcano in Hawaii who is lonely, and wishes he has someone to love just like everything else around him. This song is absolutely making it onto the wedding playlist somewhere my fiance won’t notice, ha.



Back to Inside Out, and one thing I can’t get over is how complex the whole thing is, but also how simple it is at the same time. I mean, any small child would love this. It’s bright, it’s colourful, it has plenty of funny moments, but as a grown up going through some stuff, this film really spoke to me. Riley has ‘personality islands’ which represent her core beliefs and loves, and I spent the car ride home trying to work out what my own islands would be. I’d have a blogging island, for sure!

Everything to do with your mind and thoughts are in this film. There’s a thought train, which is literally a train, and subconsciousness which is scary as hell. Down in long term memory are little workers who dispose of all the memories that have been disused for so long, they’re deemed no longer needed. That’s why I’ve forgotten nearly everything I was taught in Math class I reckon!



The casting for the main emotions was perfect, too. I know Amy Poehler from Parks & Recreation and she just buzzes with Joy. Phyllis Smith as Sadness was a great choice, too. If you’ve seen her in anything else you’ll know that she doesn’t put on any other kind of voice for Inside Out, that’s just her and she portrays it perfectly.


It was the lesson of the film that hit me the hardest. The fact that sometimes, we need to feel sadness to become happy again was something I’d forgotten all about, and it’s so true. Going to see this with my family whilst we all felt so sad was difficult, but we all said we couldn’t remember the last time we all went to see a film together. In fact, we weren’t even sure it had ever happened, and so that night will be a happy memory of mine forever.



Wednesday 14 October 2015

25 Thoughts I Had Watching Fargo's Season 2 Premiere

fargo-season-2-premiere

It’s finally that beautiful time of the year when my favourite TV Shows start up again. Nothing has disappointed me so far, but the one show I was most anxious to see was Fargo. After reading all the hype before it’s Season 1 premiere and realising Martin Freeman was the lead, and well into a Sherlock withdrawal, I decided it was about time I found out what Fargo even was. I started with the movie, which I loved, and so once the show aired, I was a terribly knitted sweater away from being a super fan. Here's my thoughts on Season 1.

fargo-season-2-loki
I looked up absolutely nothing beforehand so that I could go into Season 2 blind. I made myself a cuppa, cuddled up on the sofa with my cat Loki (the one who got lost, remember?) and got started! My mind can’t quite put together any kind of formal review, but here are my scattered thoughts, and beware of cryptic spoilers!

This is the best opening to anything, ever.

Every movie and show should start like this.

I forgot how snowy Minnesota is.

It’s been 5 whole minutes without an ‘oh yah?’, I don’t know how to feel about that.

What kind of children’s book is this?!

He doesn’t even know!

Ejaculate is a funny word though. Hahaha.

I’m sure there was a hint of a ‘yah’ there.

That posh fancy lady has a giant milkshake. I’m glad adults are still allowed to like milkshakes.

*some sort of joke about bringing boys to the yard*

This isn’t going to end well. 

Nope.

Watch that knife. Ugh. Please don’t pull it. Ugh!

Run, lady, run! I don’t know where, but run!

Oh...nevermind.


What! This woman be crazy! How can she drive away like that?! Can can she see?

Oh duh. You’re cars have the driver on the other side of the car. But still!

Hold on a minute. RON SWANSON?! Nobody warned me Ron f*cking Swanson was in this! Fargo just got 1,000,000 times better.

fargo-season-2-nick-offerman

Your wife is hiding something from you. She’s shady.

Don’t go in there.

Deer my ass!

Oh lordy. That’s messed up.

RAYMOND’S BROTHER!

The episode’s already over?! NooOOooooOooooo!

I never even heard an ‘oh yah’. Sadface!

Tuesday 13 October 2015

The Stephen King Blogathon

Original Post here

I’d like to thank Movierob and Darren of Movie Reviews 101 for letting me take part in their huge blogathon this month, aptly named ‘The October King-a-thon’. When they posted the 62 movies available to choose from, I was ashamed that I could count the number of Stephen King movies I’d seen on just one hand. I’ll just hand in my blogger badge now, right?

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Anyway, I knew this was a great chance to get involved and tick another ‘must watch’ off my list, so I chose my movie based on two factors:

It’s in IMDB’s Top 250 list, and conquering that list is a not so little mission of mine
One of the main cast is played by my favourite geek when he was barely a teenager, Wil Wheaton!

So, the other night, I snuggled up on the sofa and watched Stand By Me (1986). Based on Stephen King’s novel, The Body, the story is told through the writings of a grown up Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton). After a close friend of his died, he decided it was time to recount the journey he and his friends Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O’Connell) went on to find the body of a missing boy, reportedly found just off the railway tracks.

My first thought was how much I wished I had seen this when I was younger, although I think I can be forgiven as Stand By Me was released 3 years before I was actually born. It’s the perfect film to watch in that transitional period between schools, when even though times were much simpler, the fact of moving on and potentially leaving friends behind is the worst feeling in the world. You know, maybe I should scrap that, I’ve just realised this was rated R! What does that equate to in UK ratings?

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Moving swiftly on, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I was surprised at how well acted it was from such a young cast. I read that in the scene on the bridge, the director, Rob Reiner thought a couple of the boys didn’t look scared enough so he shouted at them till they cried and then re-took the take! So hats off to him for that one.

There’s one scene that will stick out in my mind for years to come, and I hold it in the same regards to the Bruce Bogtrotter scene in Matilda. I’m talking about Gordie’s story when they gang had set up camp for the night, about Lardass Hogan and the pie eating contest. It was gross enough and then I found out that the vomit was made from ‘cottage cheese and blueberries’, and my stomach hasn’t felt the same ever since.

stand-by-me-lardass

All in all, I would rate Stand By Me as a film that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime, it’s such a beautiful story.