Halloweenie Review: Krampus (2015)

October is Halloweenie month here at Flick Chicks, the month that Jenna and I put on our big girl pants and force ourselves to sit through a few horror movies. You can read more about it in our announcement post here!

Upon realising that Jenna and I don’t live close enough to watch every single scary movie together, I think I fell into my comfort zone a bit, Christmas movies! Krampus (2015) was originally going to be the movie of choice for my family’s annual ‘weekend before Christmas’ cinema trip, until I managed to convince them it was by no means a movie for children, and hey, perhaps we should see The Force Awakens instead?! I have since happily reported back to my Mum she would not have survived this movie.

Krampus is exactly what you think it is. One Christmas Eve, a young boy has a hard time understanding why his family have to get together every year when they clearly can’t stand each other, and in his anger, he accidentally summons a horde of Christmas demons to his home, led by none other than Krampus himself.

The opening scene to this movie might just be my favourite of any festive films I’ve seen. The contrast of the beautiful music “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” with the chaotic, hellish scenes of the rush before the big day, screaming children sat on the laps of miserable mall Santas, people barging others out of the way to finish their shopping, it was so well done. The movie also stars some of my favourite faces from TV, Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Allison Tolman (Fargo) and David Koechner (The Office) so I had plenty to look forward to.

As funny as it was, the first chunk of the movie felt like a poor man’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for a cheesy festive flick. It’s actually easy to forget that you’re watching a horror, that it, until a once hopeful letter to Santa gets torn up and thrown out of the window. From there, it’s a fast paced, adrenaline fuelled ride to hell. It’s quite jumpy in parts, especially the scenes outside in the blizzard, but I got used to it after a while. Watching the movie through a layer of cardigan sure helps.

I do have a few issues with Krampus. It’s described as a Horror Comedy, but it doesn’t blend the two genres well at all. The first half is pure comedy, the second part is pure horror, but that cheesy kind of horror that makes you laugh because it’s a bit well, bad. Perhaps that’s what the team was going for, but it felt off to me. The characters were scary enough, that’s for sure. It’ll be a while before I forget that teddy bear’s face!

If you can see past the corny one liners, Krampus is actually quite enjoyable. It also has quite a sentimental lesson behind it, and although it felt rushed, I enjoyed the ending. It wasn’t as ‘happily ever after’ as I expected it to be. 

Wayward Pines Seasons 1 & 2 (Spoiler Free)

Living with someone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be sometimes. Sure, the bills are halved, there’s someone to help tidy up the mess (isn’t there just twice the amount of mess though?) but you know what sucks? Having to watch your favourite TV Shows at the same pace as them. (I’m kidding, love you - by the way it’s your turn to wash up). It’s taken my husband and I months to work through a few small comedy shows, and we haven’t seen any dramas since Dexter. Anything I suggested I could watch alone was suddenly something he was interested in too, so I needed something fairly short and gripping, so we could watch it at a good pace. I needed my TV fix!

We’d burnt through Parks & Rec, The IT Crowd and 30 Rock, and we aren’t horror fans, so it was going to have to be a gripping drama for us. After a few recommendations, Wayward Pines sounded like the winner, so a couple of weeks ago we gave the first episode a try. Let me tell you now, this is a mysterious show indeed, and so I promise I’m going to keep in spoiler free, in case you’re interested in giving this show a go.

There are just 2 seasons out so far, and we managed to burn through them in 3 weeks. That’s pretty good going for us, I promise! There’s 10 episodes per season, and they’re your usual 45 minutes without adverts kind of length. I’m told in the opening credits that the show is based on a trilogy of novels by Blake Crouch. I’m so tempted to read these but I love the mystery of the show! I’m curious to see if they follow the same sort of format as the show. Does anyone know if each season is based on each book? I’m too scared to google anything…

You see, each of the two seasons has a completely different feel to it. Season 1 is a mystery for sure. The main character, Ethan (Matt Dillon) is an FBI Agent who wakes up in the town of Wayward Pines on a mission to find two missing agents. He soon realises there is something completely off about this town. Everyone is acting strange, and he seemingly can’t escape. I spent half an hour after each episode explaining my new theory on just what on earth Wayward Pines even is! 

Season 2 introduces a new host of characters, and at this point we as the audience know the truth about the town. Newcomer Doctor Yedlin (Jason Patric) quickly rises in power to become one of the most important members of the town, as a threat rapidly becomes more and more urgent with each episode. This season is much more thriller, and as much as I missed some of the mystery, there are still plenty of twists that had me quite literally gasping aloud.

On Twitter I think I summed it up pretty easily. Season 1 is ‘what the ****?’ and Season 2 is ‘they’re all ****ed’.

It’s not one of those shows you should research to see if you’d like it. Don’t even look it up on IMDB because you’ll see the cast list, and that tells you straight off how many episodes each character is in. Just take my advice. If you’re the slightest bit curious about Wayward Pines, give the first episode a try. If you’re not hooked after the first episode’s ending, this perhaps isn’t the show for you.

Oh, and screw this carousel, man. Wayward Pines isn't even a horror show but this carousel gives me the creeps and should probably get second billing in most episodes.

Have any of you seen the show? Or read the book? I’d really love to know your thoughts.

Mini Reviews: 4 Minute Mile (2014), Kelly and Cal (2014) & Equals (2015)

Sat in an airport, flight is delayed and all I have to entertain me is the films I downloaded the night before (thank god for that!).  I managed two films during my wait, one was 4 Minute mile and the other was True Story (there is a full review for that coming soon).

Drew Jacobs (Kelly Blatz) has natural athletic talent that is being wasted until Coleman (Richard Jenkins) decides to train him in the mile race. This is a typical coming of age/sports drama - everything you expect to happen, happens.  It was utterly predictable and not very exciting to boot.  Richard Jenkins is the only thing I actually enjoyed about this film.  Thank god i was stuck in an airport with nothing else to do or I would have just switched it off as I already knew how it was going to end.

This was another one I watched when I was out and about with nothing else to do, the difference with this is that I would have continued watching it if I was at home.  Kelly is a suburban housewife who craves her younger days and wonders if she will ever feel happy in her home life.  Cal is a 17 year old boy who is in a wheelchair and feels like he has no control over his own life.  When the two meet they develop a deep connection, a friendship that most would find strange but gives them a sense of purpose.  I really enjoyed this film, the chemistry between the actors was perfect (if not a little awkward which worked well), I loved Juliette Lewis' and Jonny Weston's performances we amazing.  This is a definitely one to recommend.

I had a feeling I would know how this film would go and how it would end- I was right!  In a world with no emotions, a couple fall in love after catching a 'disease' that allows them to feel emotions again.  I actually quite enjoyed this regardless of the predictability, it had a Romeo and Juliet meets Delirium vibe both of which I love.  Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart had real chemistry (no wonder there were rumours about them afterwards) and although I had guessed, I was intrigued to know how it would end. Worth a watch I would say.

Against the Crowd Blogathon 2016

We’ve been following Dell on Movies and taken part in a few of his brilliant blogathons for a couple of years now, and I was so happy to see in our Blogger feed that he was hosting his Against the Crowd blogathon again, this year in partnership with KG’s Movie Rants! We somehow missed last year’s edition so there was no way I was going to let that happen again. Especially so soon after watching a ‘must watch classic’ that I actually kind of hated, and have been too scared to review…

As always, a blogathon comes with a set of rules, and here they are in Dell’s own words:

1. Pick one movie that "everyone" loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of at least 75% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it.

2. Pick one movie that "everyone" hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of less than 35% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you love it.

3. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies.

4. Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own.

5. Comment on this post, or on KG's Movie Rants with the two movies you intend on writing on.

6. Publish your post on any day from Monday August 22 through Friday August 26, 2016.

Even better, check out Dell’s original post here to find out more and to check out the other banners.

Let’s kick this off!

The Departed (2006)

Everyone loves The Departed, right? It’s ranked #42 on IMDB’s Top 250, and it features some of the biggest names in the movie industry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholson to name just a few. There’s a cop who’s undercover as a gang member, and a gang member undercover as a cop, there’s backstabbing, deceit, lies, etc. I lost track of who was actually working for who very quickly, and boy was it a long movie!

Spoiler alert right now for the very few who haven’t seen this...was it really worth anything in the end anyway? I spent the last 20 minutes or so with my jaw on the floor because it was just such a ‘WTF’ moment. In fact, let me tell you a funny story. On the way home from our honeymoon, my husband and I couldn’t get seats next to each other on one of the flights, so we caught up at JFK once we landed. I asked him what movies he’d watched and he said he watched The Departed. ‘Ugh!’ I cried out in the middle of Departure Gate 18. ‘I hated that movie. Everyone just died in the end anyway!’. That’s the moment my husband told me he’d ‘started’ to watch the movie. He still had half an hour left. Sorry, love. He has since seen the ending, and explained (at length) the importance of it all. I smiled and nodded the whole time to make up for spoiling the ending like a jerk.

Taxi Driver (1976)
This is also listed on IMDB's Top 250 and a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes so it must be good right?  Every person I have spoken to who has seen this film has loved it and I just don't get it. I don't hate it by any stretch, I just didn't particularly enjoy it.  I think there is a chance that I am missing something that everyone else is getting because I don't understand why everyone loves it.

I have gone into depth in a full review on the blog previously so I won't ramble on too much about the ins and outs of this one but I felt like it took a long time to get into the real heart of the story and honestly in the last few scenes I actually started to enjoy it.  It just took too long to get to that point.  Maybe i'll watch it again at some point and give it another chance, who knows!

Chappie (2015)

So I went digging through the Rotten Tomatoes website for this one. There are plenty of terrible movies that I kind of liked, but not enough to defend publicly. Once I started scrolling through the ‘rotten’ movies, I was heartbroken to spot Chappie on the list! 

The plot is a little crazy, sure, and I know a lot of people hated on Ninja and Yolandi (I still don’t know who they are) but Chappie alone made me love his movie. I always have a soft spot for the underdog, and so Chappie was loveable from the very start as the cursed robot forever coming back damaged from every mission. Then he was given artificial intelligence, he gets excited about rubber chickens, and going for rides in the car. I’d like my own Chappie please, with the orange antennae and reject sticker and everything.

It didn’t have the political agenda that District 9 had, but I thought the lessons about how impressionable Chappie was in his ‘infancy’ were well thought out, and I’ll carry on defending this movie for as long as I’m a blogger!

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
I was not on the bandwagon with this one, I wasn't thrilled when they announced Ben Affleck as Batman and so I gave up on being excited.  I put it to the back of my mind, hardly watched any of the trailers and managed to completely miss it in the cinemas.  Therefore, I missed a lot of the negativity surrounding the film, I refuse to read reviews before making my own choices so all the negative reviews just went over my head.  

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to watch it, so armed with a glass of wine and an endless supply of junk food, I prepared myself to be disappointed....and then I wasn't.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the greatest film in the world but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.  I like all the actors that were in it and it provided a fix for my latest Jesse Eisenberg obsession (thanks Now you see me 2!!).  I do have a full review to write up for this so I won't go into too much detail but I thought the story was clever pitching Batman against Superman (even if it was only for a short time) and the introduction of Wonder Woman. Considering I am more Marvel than DC, I really was surprised that I enjoyed it but I think my lack of expectations made it that much better.

Review: Circle (2015)

I’m back with another Grampy suggestion special! I’ve had to take them with a pinch of salt lately after one fateful movie night where he shunned Everest in favour of The Last Witch Hunter...but I couldn’t resist the sound of this latest suggestion.

Circle (2015) is a small, low budget movie which opens with 50 strangers awakening to find themselves all stood on circles, forming a large circle, in an even larger circular room. Notice the theme? Every 1-2 minutes, someone in the circle is executed by an electrical surge from the centre of the room. It seemingly chooses its victims at random, but the group soon realise that they have the power to choose who is sent to their death, by voting in secret.

From there, the movie descends into chaos as leaders attempt to emerge to decide who in the group should die first. Within the group are people from all ages, races, religions, classes, professions, and it doesn’t take long before personal prejudices come into play. Attempts to not vote at all fail, attempts to all vote one person to the left or right fail, and so the group are forced to make terrible decisions. It really does make you wonder what you would do in that situation yourself. Honestly, as much as I’d like to think I’d be a brave soul who would keep a level head, I would probably hop off my circle and end it all on my own terms! That’s a bit dark when I think about it, ha.

This movie is definitely not for everyone, I accept that. As I said, it’s a small budget kind of movie. There are no faces here I recognised from other movies, and the entirety of the movie takes place within the circular room. It’s very narrative-driven, which admittedly is something I would normally struggle with, but I was so drawn into the conversation, wondering who was going to go next, who was going to survive at the end, how this group of people got here in the first place, and what on earth would happen when just one person was left. Circle is a short movie anyway with a runtime of 87 minutes, but the time flew by much quicker.

It’s not a perfect movie by any means. You have to question how level headed some of the characters actually are. They freak out to begin with, but stay quite calm for the rest of the time. It definitely needed a few characters having a panic attack or simply sat in their circle sobbing relentlessly to feel slightly more real. The reveal of who/what is behind the whole situation also felt a bit short, and didn’t have much of a ‘wow’ factor. I can forgive that though, because the whole focus of the movie is the characters, and how they make these decisions. 

If I could describe it in simpler terms, I’d say that Circle is like 12 Angry Men on crack. The movie 12 Angry Men that is, not 12 actual men who are angry and...you get what I mean. Sorry to compare it to such a legendary movie, but that’s honestly the first thing that came into my head. All I can say is, if Circle sounds like something you think you’d enjoy, give it a try! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Review: 45 Years (2015)

I made a real effort to watch all of the Oscars Best Picture nominated movies this year, and I did much better than last year, working my way through all of them but Bridge of Spies. Embarrassingly though, at the time of writing this, I’m not even halfway through watching all of the Best Actress nominated movies. That’s something I’m trying to change! Why I started with 45 Years though, I’ll never understand. I like moving out of my comfort zone…

In 45 Years (2015), Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay play married couple Kate and Geoff, married for almost 45 years, funnily enough. Their 45th anniversary, and a huge party is looming, but when Geoff receives a letter on Monday morning with some difficult news to take, their relationship becomes terribly strained.

Kate and Geoff live a seemingly wonderful life. Retired, living in a huge detached house seemingly in the middle of nowhere in the UK, with their dog Max. Now, we all enjoy movies when we can relate to at least one of the characters, don’t we? So why I, a not yet married woman in her twenties thought I would enjoy this movie, I don’t know. But the weirdest thing was...I really did!

If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay were married in real life. They just bounce off each other so well and it’s so effortless. Although only Charlotte Rampling got an Oscar nomination, I thought Tom Courtenay was just as fantastic, especially during his speech at the party.

45 Years is such a small, quiet movie I think it’s better to watch it not knowing anything about the plot. Indeed, if someone told me they found it completely boring, I’d have a hard time trying to convince them otherwise, but my fascination was with Kate and Geoff themselves, and how they were going to work through the problems that this letter has brought. It’s a desperately sad story where there are no bad guys, no one in the wrong.

Just as Saturday rolled along, my heart swelled at the visible change in Geoff. His speech actually made me cry at the end, which I wasn’t expecting, and I thought it was so sweet that they danced to their wedding song from 45 years ago. But then Kate’s face changed, and the credits rolled, and I found myself completely confused. And then I looked up the lyrics to Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Utter heartbreak. That’s what I felt.

Review: Carol (2015)

My New Year’s resolution for the last few years has been to watch more movies. Resolutions are meant to be difficult, and take some effort to achieve, and this year has been the first year that I could confidently say I’ll do this without much effort, so I needed a new movie-related resolution for 2016. This year I’m resolving to move out of my comfort zone, and be more open to movies I’d never normally watch. And that’s how I found myself watching Carol.

Carol (2015) is the story of an unexpected love affair between Therese (Rooney Mara), a young woman working at a department store, dreaming of a career in photography, and Carol (Cate Blanchett), an older woman stuck in a loveless marriage and a difficult custody situation over her daughter.

Is this a period drama? I’ve just realised I’ve never actually understood the term. How many years ago does a movie need to be set before it’s classed that way? I’m going to learn something new today, that’s for sure. Anyway, that’s something I wanted to say. How the sets in Carol were beautiful. The department store in particular reminded me of the one in Brooklyn (the movie, not the place, although it was set there...you know what I mean) which put me at ease instantly. The costumes as well, were so well done and I found myself missing dialogue at some points because I was marvelling at everything else.

This isn’t my kind of movie at all. I struggle with romance movies without the comedy element, and of course with the nature of the romance in Carol, there’s no leading man. So I was baffled when I found myself completely sucked into this story. I loved following Therese’s story, wondering whether she would leave her quiet life and love interest Richard (Jake Lacy) behind for a life with Carol. Equally, my heart sank when Carol’s husband Harge (Kyle Chandler) opened up a custody case for their daughter.

It even took a much darker turn and a twist I wasn’t expecting. It’s all thanks to the amazing job that Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett have done, and it’s a shame this year’s awards season looks so strong, as I’d love to see them both win for their work here.

Something else I wanted to highlight in this movie is something I don’t normally notice, the music. It really stood out in Carol, and in 2 key moments. One I don’t want to mention because spoilers, but it burst out again at the ending, and it was so powerful it kind of gave me goosebumps!

So all in all, my New Year’s resolution is going well, and I’m really glad I gave Carol a chance. I don’t think I’m a fully converted fan of the genre yet, but I’ll certainly give more movies like this a chance.

Review: Sicario (2015)

Argh, I was so gutted to have missed Sicario in the cinema! It’s one of those movies that only came on my radar because of being a part of the movie blogging scene. There wasn’t much promotion of it at all in the UK in the run up to its release, but once it came out in the US my Blogger feed was full of reviews, and every single one was singing its praises. It just turned into a moment of too many movies and not enough time, so I had to wait till the DVD release before I got my chance.

Sicario is the story of FBI Agent Kate (Emily Blunt) who volunteers to join a government task force with the aim of ending the escalating war on drugs at the border of the US and Mexico. The cartel they are hunting down are responsible for the deaths of multiple of Kate’s team members, and that’s her reason for joining, although she quickly finds herself way out of her depth.

It sounds like a typical, generic ‘war on drugs’ plot but it’s just done so well. Straight off the bat you know what you’re in for, as the first scene throws gruesome images at you and sets your stomach on edge. This is not your everyday action movie, and should not be watched with your Sunday lunch, as I did…

Emily Blunt is just my hero at the moment. She’s so badass! If you loved her role in Edge of Tomorrow you’re going to love her in this. There’s a scene early on in the movie where you see she’s clearly the only woman in this task force, surrounded by menacing men, and in that scene she seems so small and vulnerable, but just minutes later she’s absolutely holding her own, and I love it!

I didn’t realise a movie that wasn’t a horror could have so much tension. Seriously. There are a few scenes like it, but a fairly early one takes place on the road leading right up to the Mexican border, and the pacing, coupled with the music, had me on the edge of my seat hiding behind a cushion. I was almost glad in that moment I wasn’t in the cinema where I couldn’t hide! 

What I wasn’t expecting was the performance by Benicio Del Toro. Holy moly, this guy was terrifying! His character started off as fairly quiet and sort of faded into the background a little, but then he came out of nowhere!

Sicario is simply a must watch. As someone who has very little interest in movies like this, it was one of my favourites of the whole of 2015. Now why did I have to write that list just a week before watching this?!

Mini Reviews: Mr Right (2016), Urge (2016) and No Stranger than Love (2015)

I have spent the weekend watching the most random of films, mostly due to my new obsession with Justin Chatwin.  

Mr Right (2016)

Martha (Anna Kendrick) meets and falls for the 'perfect' guy, Francis (Sam Rockwell), only he has one fatal flaw...he's a hitman on the run from his previous employers who are trying to kill him.  

This is one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen, but I have to say I really enjoyed it.  Its been battered on Rotten Tomatoes but from reading some of the reviews, they seem to all be overthinking it.  I enjoyed the romance (I wanted them to get together)  and the action scenes were energetic and engaging (I wanted the good guys to not die).  It was weird and confusing but I have already recommended it to Allie (and not in the 'from the makers of Sharknado' kind of way).

Urge (2016)

What happened when you take a drug that takes away all your inhibitions and you play out any urges you so choose.  Apparently, you make an insane film called Urge!!  A group of friends, led by narcissist Neil (Danny Masterson) head for a weekend away on a remote island.  A mysterious nightclub owner (Pierce Brosnan) introduces them to a new drug, Urge with one rule, that you can only use it once.  No one listens of course and the party descends into chaos.

I spent 90% of this movie confused about what was going on, I felt more confused than that characters I think!!  I didn't want to turn it off because I wanted to know how it ended and then when it ended I wished I hadn't bothered!

No Stranger than Love (2015)

Lucy (Alison Brie) has her pick of men in the small town that she lives in but instead chooses to engage in an affair with married Clint (Colin Hanks).  Just one problem, Clint falls down a mysterious black hole that opens up in her living room and mysterious stranger Rydell (Justin Chatwin) turns up to confuse Lucy even more.  

It's difficult to review this, I don't even know what to call it, is it a rom-com, is it a drama, is it science fiction!?  I got more confused as it went on but I really enjoyed it.  I love Alison Brie and she really stole the show here and the whole thing reminded me of Pleasantville from way back when (the sci-fi crossed with rom-coms) and I loved that film.

Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

Okay folks, lets for just a second imagine that time travel is a thing. Now you're probably wondering what on earth time travel has to do with The Hateful Eight, right? The answer is nothing! It's just that my review found itself buried in our drafts list for 6 months, and most of it won't make sense now. So, cast your minds back, your fridge is full of leftover Christmas turkey and you're either still hyping about The Force Awakens, or desperately avoiding spoilers...got it?

If you live in the UK, you’ll have no doubt heard about the drama Cineworld have created by taking the decision to not screen The Hateful Eight in any of their cinemas. The distributors chose the Odeon at London’s West End for their special 70mm premiere, and well, Cineworld threw a temper tantrum. They’ve spent too much time watching Kylo Ren, clearly!

Thankfully, my local isn’t a Cineworld, nor do I pay them monthly for their Unlimited card, so I’m safe, but poor Jenna does and last I heard she was boycotting this movie in protest! It’s started a great marketing campaign for the other cinema chains though. Showcase have offered their usual member discount prices for tickets to Unlimited card holders, and Vue just went out there and offered UNLIMITED popcorn to anyone watching The Hateful Eight!

Just to rub salt into the wounds, I wasn’t that fussed about watching The Hateful Eight, the runtime made me want to cry, but movies like this are best enjoyed on the big screen, so I stuck on my comfiest hoodie and fluffiest socks, and fought my way through the wonderful UK winter weather to Odeon.

The Hateful Eight is the story of 8 characters brought together in a haberdashery store to stay the night due to an awful snowstorm that has kicked up. Each character has their own reason for being there, and I’ll let them tell their own stories to you respectively when you watch it, because it’s all part of the charm of the movie. That first hour drags like a female dog, and I was grateful for being stuck in a cinema at the time because if I were at home I’d have spotted something shiny and stopped paying attention.

After the introductions though, a game of ‘who done it’ quickly surfaces, and that’s where The Hateful Eight really gets going. The whole cinema burst into hushed whispers to their movie-buds of who they thought was guilty at this point (Jenna you’d have hated it, I could picture you giving everyone your evil eyes!), and then the bloodshed started.

It would take forever to tell you about all the characters, but Samuel L Jackson’s character Major Marquis Warren was by far my favourite. I’m actually quite gutted he wasn’t nominated for an oscar this year, he fully deserves it for this. He goes from terrifyingly menacing to absolutely hilarious with a click of your fingers, it’s great. I don’t mean to be ‘that guy’ right now but is it just me or was Tim Roth channeling his inner Christoph Waltz in his role? Was Christoph Waltz offered the part and turned it down?

I think, when you go into a movie with low expectations, it’s much easier to fall in love, because I really enjoyed this, to the point where I can almost forgive how darn long it is! Sometimes it’s the littlest thing that gives you joy, but those moments where the whole cast is screaming about the door just cracked me up, and Samuel L Jackson has so many great one liners in the final chapter. I dare not type them out here however!

Review: Black Mass (2015)

I’d put off watching Black Mass for a while, despite wanting to see Johnny Depp’s performance, only because gangster movies aren’t my usual go-to movie. I tend to get confused with who’s on what side, and who’s killing who - it’s a mess inside my head sometimes. Anyway, after enjoying Tom Hardy’s Legend, I thought it was about time I gave this a go, too.

Black Mass (2015) is the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp), the brother of State Senator Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and leader of the Irish Mob. It covers three periods (1975, 1981 and 1985) with flash-forwards to the present day, where various members of Whitey’s gang recount the stories of his rise and eventual fall.

For the first time ever, I watched The Godfather a few months ago, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt like I wasn’t quite switched on enough to understand everything that was going on. Since watched Legend, and now Black Mass, I realise that’s just the way gangster movies are. It also doesn’t help that I am completely ignorant to history and world affairs, and didn’t know anything about James Bulger until seeing this!

Despite that, I really did enjoy Black Mass. It was so nice to see Johnny Depp play a serious character without a full face of makeup and acting either drunk or high. There’s an amazing actor after all! It made me want to check out some more of Johnny Depp’s older work actually. It was also wonderful to see my Benedict Cumberbatch again, although I don’t think I listened to a single line of dialogue from him as I was too fascinated by his accent!

There are some great names in the cast list but my favourite character was without a doubt John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), the FBI Agent and close friend of James Bulger. I don’t even know what it was about him, but he had a real sense of power about him which turned to despair as the movie went on.

I haven’t seen enough movies similar to Black Mass to give an informed opinion, but one thing I will say is that it was brutal, without the need for glorified violence. It’s very heavy on character development and dialogue which might turn some viewers off, but it’s a fascinating story at the very least.

Review: Descendants (2015)

Yeah, I went there. My local Disney store has had a ton of Descendants merchandise for a while now, and I wanted to find out what it was all about! It’s perfectly acceptable for a 26 year old to watch a Disney Channel movie about the children of the Disney villains, right? Right? As a 31 year old that has just watched a Disney Channel movie about the children of the Disney villains, I say hell yeah!

In the present day, the son of King Beast (Does Beast have a name?! This is going to bother me!) and Queen Belle, Ben (Mitchell Hope) is ready to take the throne. His first decree as king is to offer the chance of redemption to the children of the villains who have all been banished to the ‘Isle of the Lost’, but welcoming them places at the school in Auradon. Before simply opening the floodgates, he first invites 4 children as a trial. These children are Mal (Dove Cameron), daughter of Maleficent, Evie (Sofia Carson), daughter of the Evil Queen, Jay (Booboo Stewart), son of Jafar and Carlos (Cameron Boyce), son of Cruella De Vil.

It’s clear that this is typical Disney within the first five minutes. Loud, colourful characters, beautiful sets, and a musical number just moments into its opening. Only something is off. This first song has very clear dubstep beats to it. I’m also pretty sure Maleficent (Kristin Chenoweth) is speaking the slang that the kids of today are speaking, too. Still, it’s really difficult to not start tapping your feet to the tune of ‘Rotten to the Core’.  Loved the opening, it is still my favourite part of the whole movie, the kids all had the cocky confidence of their evil parents and I loved spotting the ways they had dressed them to match their parents.

Maleficent is happy for the children to be taken away to Auradon, but only because she’s made them promise to steal the Fairy Godmother’s wand and bring it back to her. Queue another musical number in the museum as Mal struggles between wanting to be good and obeying her mother’s orders. Wasn't so sure about this one, think I may have drifted off in the middle, it was the longest Disney song EVER! However, I do love Kristin Chenoweth, she is just made for musical theatre, I would have loved to see her in Wicked on stage.

Honestly, at face value, it’s so easy to hate this movie. It’s cheesy to the level of High School Musical, and hardcore Disney fans will watch with disgust as their favourite villains are turned into comedic characters better placed in slapstick comedy sketches. There’s even a version of Be Our Guest, which I actually struggled with as it’s one of my favourite Disney songs.  

I really liked Carlos, the son of Cruella de Vil and his irrational fear of dogs (felt quite familiar!) and his one liners really made me laugh.  I didn't like Jafar's son, Jay, I think they got their villains and heroes mixed up, they made Jay a small time thief, which is Aladdin's character not Jafar and their version of Jafar was more like the market trader at the beginning of Aladdin!  If my rant hadn't made it obvious, that REALLY annoyed me because the others were so well thought out.

At the same time though, my inner 14 year old self was bursting with excitement. Tweens will absolutely love this movie. The costumes are so well designed, down to the exact colour schemes, the songs are catchy and the girls in particular will fall head over heels for Ben. Descendants is going to be up there in my list of ultimate guilty pleasures.

The kid in me was so excited about the idea of finding out what happened to my favourite characters after the credits rolled on their movies.  I smiled all the way through and would happily watch it again.  Need to get my niece over here so I have an excuse.