Review: Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Did you ever have a favourite movie during your teens, that was downright stupid but you watched it nearly every weekend with your friends or family, and quoted it constantly? For me, it was Dude, Where’s My Car, which I still love to this day. I’ve always been aware of a movie called Napoleon Dynamite and knew my husband loved it, I knew his siblings tease him and call him Napoleon, but it wasn’t until our wedding night when him and his Sister stormed the dance floor to do ‘the Napoleon Dynamite dance’ that my curiosity got the better of me.

If you’ve never heard of it, Napoleon Dynamite is a super low-budget comedy about a guy called, well, Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder). He’s a big of an odd-ball at school, doesn’t have many friends, and lives with his 32-year old brother and grandma, who goes missing for a while, leaving steak-loving Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) to look after the pair.

There’s literally no plot to this movie whatsoever, and that’s just all part of the charm. Napoleon eventually makes friends with Pedro (Efren Ramirez), the new kid who Napoleon eventually helps to run for school president (that explains all the ‘Vote for Pedro’ t-shirts I’ve seen everywhere). The two of them work together to ask out a girl to the prom, with varying levels of success. Along the way, they become close with Deb (Tina Majorino), who runs her own glamour photoshoot business at home.

Literally every scene in this movie has something stupid about it, and I mean that in the most positive way. It’s that kind of humour that you either love or hate, and it tickled me endlessly. Sometimes it’s not even the lines that are funny, it’s the way they’re delivered. I think my favourite line is when Deb first knocks on the door of the house and tries to sell Napoleon some of her crafts. She explains that she’s trying to earn some money for college, and Napoleon’s brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) shouts from inside ‘Your mom goes to college’. I guarantee it’s not funny now you’re reading this, but I had to pause the movie because I was laughing too hard!

Let’s not forget the most romantic line in movie history, “I see you’re drinking 1% milk. Is that cause you think you’re fat? Cause you’re not. You could be drinking whole if you wanted to.”

Not every joke lands of course, I’m still not sure what the scene with Napoleon and Pedro appraising cows and tasting milk was all about, but there’s enough here to keep you laughing from start to finish. It’s one of those movies that deserves a re-watch every couple of years for sure.

Of course, now I’m clued in, I can’t help but agree with my siblings-in-laws when they say how much my husband reminds them of Napoleon. I mean, in college his hair was exactly the same of course, and he was a skinny little thing who loved to dance! (He still loves to dance now, but I’ve fattened him up a bit with my home cooking). In fact, now that I think about it, before we started dating he drew a picture of me and gave it to me as a gift...I need to ask him about that one!

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Review: The Machinist (2004)

Let me set the scene for you. It’s Friday afternoon in the office, we’re all eating far too many chocolate biscuits, whilst discussing diets, weight loss and squeezing into occasion dresses. Someone mentions Christian Bale and the extreme weight loss he went through for a movie, the movie that solidified his career, apparently. It’s called The Machinist. I’d never heard of it, and none of my colleagues could tell me anything about it. A quick Google search told me everything I needed to know that I had to watch this movie ASAP.

Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is suffering badly from insomnia. He looks awful, he’s losing weight rapidly, and he hasn’t slept in a year. Well, I won’t complain about feeling tired anymore, that’s for sure. Trevor is, quite rightly, starting to question his sanity. Why? You’ll have to watch to find out…

The Machinist starts just as mysteriously as it means to go on. In the dead of night, a beaten-up Trevor attempts to dispose of what seems to be a dead body, wrapped up inside of a rug. Someone approaches him with a light, and asks, ‘who are you?’. From there, the movie moves at a relatively slow pace, but builds up a horrendously long list of questions that end up swimming around your brain.

I’m not familiar with the lineup of award nominees for that year, but they must have been amazing for Christian Bale not to have featured in them. His dedication to losing all that weight is worth noting alone, but this is the best I’ve ever seen him, and I’ve always enjoyed his performances. You can’t help bet feel desperately sorry for Trevor, but he gives off an unsettling feeling at the same time. How on earth he went from this state to bulking up for Batman I’ll never know!

I got right up to the point where my head wanted to burst open from all the unanswered questions, and then the movie started unravelling itself and everything fell into place, slowly at first, but the last twenty minutes or so were brilliant. It’s hard to say any more than that because I don’t want to give away spoilers, but I think a second viewing would be really helpful to see just where all the clues were. Some were given so early on I was kicking myself for not picking up on them. Then again, that’s why I love this genre so much. I get so sucked into the story I never see the reveal or the twist coming.

I’ve mentioned this movie to a few people now, and it’s a shame that it seems to be known as ‘the one where Christian Bale is really skinny’. It’s so much more than that! It doesn’t top Memento for me as my favourite Mystery/Thriller, but it certainly comes close.

Review: Mean Girls (2004)

So, um, funny story everyone. You know that classic teen comedy that every girl, guy, grown up and their dog has seen, Mean Girls? I haven’t. Well, I have now obviously. But yeah. I really don’t know why, I haven’t been avoiding it or anything, it’s just always been too far down my watch list for too long, I guess.  I'm not sure how we are friends!!

Can you keep a secret? I need to tell you what gave me the final push to see it. One of my bridesmaids is also getting married next year, and I’m one of her bridesmaids (I know, right?) and whilst I was getting my first tattoo, she was with me, as well as her other bridesmaid. Still with me? They were both saying the three of us should get tattoos together, all themed around their favourite movie, Mean Girls. Of course, I had to tell them it was my favourite movie too.

They’re going to be love hearts, with the famous quotes in them. I can’t remember what I was allocated, it might have been ‘so fetch’, but the more this conversation went on, the more I wondered if they were joking, and so I figured that if I’m going to end up with a Mean Girls tattoo, I should probably watch the darn movie!  Having planned a group tattoo with a group of friends of mine, I would not recommend this!  We never quite got round to actually getting said tattoos, which was kind of fortunate as less than a year later there was a big hoohaa and we no longer speak.... my advice never, ever, get matching tattoos with anyone!

So, our main girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is the new girl at school, and winds up mixing with ‘the plastics’, Regina (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried). When she falls for Regina’s ex-boyfriend, the plastics put her in her place, and Cady vows to take them down.

I think the main thing I took away from this was the amount of lines I already knew that I can now visualise, but also things friends have said that I never even knew were lines from Mean Girls! It took me a while to get over my friend texting me ‘Boo, you whore’ when I had to cancel plans, I genuinely thought she was really mad at me!  I think it may have been at lease 5 years since I used a Mean Girls quote in everyday life, I'm clearly slacking...

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting amazing things from Mean Girls. There are films that 10+ years ago I may have loved, that I probably wouldn’t rate well anymore, and I think I expected everyone’s fascination with Mean Girls to be the same sort of thing, but I really did enjoy it! It was funny throughout, but some lines really made me laugh out loud, which I don’t tend to do when I watch something alone. Did anyone manage to keep a straight face for this line?

“If you’re from Africa, why are you white?”

“Oh my God Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white!”

I really love this film, I can honestly say I haven't watched it enough!!  In fact, I feel like I need to watch it right now.  I still love the slutty jingle bell rock scene and who doesn't LOVE Regina George in all her vileness, Rachel McAdams is a special kind of awesome.

All in all, despite the cliches and the predictable nature of it, I really enjoyed Mean Girls, and I’m kicking myself for not watching it years ago. That tattoo won’t be so bad after all I guess, ha! Thankfully it hasn't been mentioned since... phew!!

Thursday Movie Picks: Train Movies

It’s Thursday again! Time for another round of Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. 

This week, it feels like Autumn is well and truly on it’s way, and it won’t be long before the work commuters will be hearing the dreaded ‘...delayed due to leaves on the line’ whilst they wait for their busy train to work. I’ve been there! So, without further ado, here are my train related picks this week.

"Tickets and passes please...tickets and passes..."

Probably one of the most obvious choices, but absolutely one of my favourites, Source Code (2011) is a cracking thriller in which Jake Gyllenhaal discovers he is part of an experimental government program in which he needs to find out who the bomber of a commuter train is. He has only 8 minutes to find his target, or the train will blow up and he’ll have to start all over again. I thought it would be a little stale with the repeated scenes, but it’s actually one of my favourite movies ever.

It’s only September, I know, but we’re talking about trains, and how can I not mention one of my favourite Christmas movies, The Polar Express (2004)? A magical movie in which Tom Hanks plays over 50% of the entire cast, Santa’s elves not included, and I can’t believe that it’s 11 years old now. Since starting to blog I’ve come to realise not many out there like The Polar Express much, but the songs in it give me festive goosebumps!

The only reason I watched Unstoppable (2010) a couple of years ago was for Chris Pine, and I fully expected it to be a bore-fest. How interesting could a movie be about a freight train out of control? Very, it turns out, and I was sat on the edge of my seat for quite some time. It had a great mix of action scenes and drama, and I was really proved wrong.

I want to put out an honourable mention to Snowpiercer which I would have included, but I’ve picked it for a different theme already. 

Thursday Movie Picks: Teachers

Hellooo. Allie here, remember me? I kind of disappeared for a long time. I’m back now, I promise! Whilst I’m still kicking myself into gear I thought now would be a great time to jump back on the Thursday Movie Picks wagon, what with it being Thursday and all that.

Thursday Movie Picks is hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. Each week brings a new theme, and each week we all pick 3 movies that fit the theme. This week is Teachers, which is very fitting as all the kids are heading back to school. Is summer really over already?

My first pick is a movie I haven’t seen in years, but I’ve seen it so many times I remember it clearly. Plus, any time I hear the song ‘On My Way’ I start thinking about pancakes. Anyway, there are a number of teachers in Matilda, but the one on my mind is Head Teacher Mrs Trunchbull. She was the worst! I think we all saw our own Head Teachers that way though. The scene with her and Bruce Bogtrotter will forever be etched in my mind, and chocolate fudge cake never tasted the same after I watched Matilda.

Moving on to something a little more obscure, my second pick is Starter for 10. It’s so conventionally British it’s almost cringey, but it was an entertaining watch. James McAvoy joins his University’s University Challenge team, schooled by the leader, Benedict Cumberbatch, who takes on a teacher’s role for his team. Only he’s a bit of a jerk, and gets a well deserved fist in the face. Even I laughed at that part!

I realise I’ve picked 2 terrible teachers so far, so for my third choice, let me pick my favourite movie teacher of all time, Professor Lupin, played by David Thewlis. Okay, so Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban isn’t a movie about a teacher, but it’s filled with teachers! Professor Lupin in my opinion is/was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and his bond with Harry was one of my favourite things about the whole film.

Thursday Movie Picks: Mother-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)

This week’s theme has been surprisingly difficult, and I had to break the rules a little too. If you’re not familiar with the Thursday Movie Picks, it’s an amazing thing hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Each week brings a new theme, and all you need to do is pick 3 movies that fit the bill to discuss. This week is one of many 'All in the Family Editions', this time featuring Mother-Son relationships.

Only God Forgives is probably the anti-choice for this week’s themes, as I can’t imagine the mother has a ‘Best Mum Ever’ mug at home for her actions. Ryan Gosling’s character’s brother is murdered and his crime lord mother compels him to hunt down his killer and cause trouble. Still, I’d like to think it shows how much he loves his mother to go and do this at her command, but maybe he’s equally afraid of her? This movie made little sense at the best of times!

How to Train your Dragon 2 introduced us to a character we thought was long gone, Hiccup’s mother! (Not a spoiler - much to my disappointment this was all over the trailers). Getting to see Hiccup reunite with his mother after all those years and to see the similarities in the two of them was heart warming and a real highlight of the whole film. If only it could have been kept as a surprise.

Here are my three:

Who doesn't love Shaun's mum in Shaun of the Dead and who wasn't completely heartbroken when he realised she had been bitten.  As well as the awkward everyone threatening to stab each other stand off while there is a gun pointed at his mum!   It was one of the really emotionally moments in this zom-com that made us all fall in love with the Cornetto trilogy.

At the beginning of this movie, Trevor's mom, Arlene (Helen Hunt) is a bit of a waster, she keeps letting her alcoholic, abusive ex (and Trevor's father) back into their lives while apparently skipping on much of her parental duties.  However, as the film moves forward you learn more about Arlene and what she has been through and she also realises what her son actually needs from her.  Its great to watch Trevor (Haley Joel Osment) be the parent in there relationship and to see the tables turn as the story progresses.

This is where I am technically cheating because the reason I chose this film was because of the relationship between Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and Michael (Quinton Aaron), hence the cheating as they are not biologically related.  However, the more I thought about it the more I considered her relationship with her biological son SJ (Jae Head).  He has been raised with all the luxuries in life and has never wanted for anything and yet he is willing to share his whole life with Michael because of the way he has been raised.  My all time favourite scene in this movie is after the boys are in a car crash while Michael was driving, Leigh Anne is running down the street shouting 'My kids, they are my kids...' such a heart-warming moment.

Review: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The other night, me and my other half had a much needed film night in. Pizza was ordered, the freezer was stocked with ice-cream, and we just needed to decide what to watch. Then he just happened to casually mention that he'd never seen Shaun of the Dead before. What! Well, that was one dilemma solved! When will you pair learn to hide your shameful non-movie watchingness, you just get shouted at from all angles!!

Shaun of the Dead is the first of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, and also fits into the extremely niche zombie rom-com genre! A Zom-com if you will! Shaun (Simon Pegg) isn't having a great time. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) has just dumped him; she's tired of spending every night at the Winchester pub with Shaun and his best friend Ed (Nick Frost). To drown his woes, Ed takes Shaun to the Winchester pub to cheer him up. Ed's speech is actually foreshadowing the rest of the film if you listen carefully!



So, Shaun and Ed get horrifically drunk, completely p*ss off their housemate Pete by playing electric music in the middle of the night, and wake up the next morning to find out that everyone around them has turned into a zombie. Despite the warnings of the news reporter on TV, Shaun and Ed set out to rescue his Mother (but not Philip, sorry) and Liz.  Just reminds me how much I love the scene when they are deciding on the plan:

"We take Pete's car, we drive over to Mum's, we go in, take care of Philip - "I'm so sorry, Philip" - then we grab Mum, we go over to Liz's place, hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for this whole thing to blow over. "

I don't watch horror films and the only other zombie film I've seen is Zombieland, so I can't really discuss the parody characteristics of Shaun of the Dead, but as a comedy, I absolutely love it. From terrible throwing skills to Ed's driving skills, this film makes me laugh just as much every time I watch it. I don't remember when I first saw it, but I know it was with my Dad, and we still talk about it and quote it all the time. We were on a caravan holiday and it just happened to be on TV one evening, and so we sat and watched it on a TV smaller than most tablet screens!

I too am not a horror fan but I am a zom-com fan (i'm not entirely sure if I came up with this or its a common thing to call them zom-com's but for the purpose of this post, I am staking claim!).  This was a great start to what turned out to be an awesome trilogy, I still love the scene where Shaun and Ed are throwing records at the zombie lady but don't want to throw the 'good ones'.  I laughed out loud nearly all the way through this film, its typical British humour paired with a zombie apocalypse - what more could you ask for?!

Don't be fooled though, because nestled in this loud-out-loud comedy are some serious moments that really grab you. I'm sure everyone must have seen this but spoiler alert anyway: the part where Shaun has to shoot his Mother brought a genuine tear to my eye.  I'm pretty sure the first time I saw this I cried, she was so lovely about it all as well!

I recently got a copy of Shaun of the Dead on DVD as I'm pretty sure the last copy is my Dad's, and there are a crazy amount of extras to go through. I've already watched the gag reel which is great, and there's a little section for the plot holes too. I'll make sure I get through all of it at some point! We need to have a movie night solely dedicated to the Cornetto Trilogy and its extras!!!

Now, I don't like giving out full scores because I tend to think that nothing can be perfect, but if any film deserves it from me, it's Shaun of the Dead.  Ooooh this is interesting, have you given a 10 before?  I don't remember seeing one!! I think Gone Girl is my only other 10 so far!

I did love this film, I can't give it a 10 because it's not up there with my other 10's but it's pretty close.