Review: While We're Young (2014)

This is the part where I tell a fun little anecdote of what lead me to watch this movie, and more times than I care to admit, attempt to mask that the only reason I actually watched this movie was because of a particular actor or actress. I’m not even going to try that this time round. I watched this for Adam Driver. There. I feel so much better now. What I did learn though is that my husband has such a strong hatred for Ben Stiller that he refused to even be in the house when I watched this. That was new to me!

While We’re Young (2014) introduces us to Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts), a married couple in their 40’s with a deteriorating relationship. They aren’t able to have children and are drifting apart from their best friends who are new parents, and Josh is also struggling professionally with his latest documentary, which he has been working on for 8 years now. Whilst out for lunch one day, they bump into younger couple Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried). Jamie is a huge fan of Josh’s work, and the four become good friends.

It all starts so well. There’s such chemistry between the couples, everything seems so effortless. Problems that are all too real are portrayed, like close friends growing older and taking separate life paths. Then there’s the humour, often  and subtle as we watch Josh and Cornelia get involved with the fun a carefree lifestyle that Jamie and Darby live. It’s around the midway point that I felt although this movie seemed predictable, it was still an extremely enjoyable watch.

Oh, that soon changed. The two couples go away on a spiritual cleansing break, which was weird enough, but then that ended in a far too long scene of everyone throwing up everywhere, which was just grim, not funny in the slightest. I’m pretty sure there was some kissing straight after too which is making me feel a bit ill just thinking about it. That’s where everything just takes a turn for the worst.

I don’t know what happened to the movie after that. The tone takes such a sharp turn it actually felt like I was watching another movie entirely. It becomes more and more about Josh’s documentary work, and it gets very dark, almost entering thriller territory. That’s all I can really say, because my attention soon started to wander.

It’s a shame, because this could have been a great movie. I can’t fault any of the actors involved, I thought they all did a great job, but something went wrong somewhere along the line.

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!!

Mini Reviews: Dear John (2010), Enchanted (2007) & The Interview (2014)

Rom-coms used to be all I would watch, but since starting this blog and widening my horizon, it’s left a whole ton of films like Dear John sat around just waiting to be watched. I get the TV all to myself on Tuesday nights whilst the other half is away, so I got to tick Dear John off my list not too long ago. It stars Channing Tatum as John, a US Army soldier, who meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) whilst on summer leave.

It’s exactly what you’d expect, and it’s fairly predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and I can’t speak for the rest of my fellow ladies out there, but I’ll happily watch Channing Tatum shirtless on the beach any day! Not a film I feel the need to re-watch any time soon, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of comments I received on the Thursday Movie Picks: Fairy Tale Adaptations post I did which featured Enchanted. It felt like I was the only one in the world who had never seen it! Needless to say, I made sure I watched it very soon after. If you’ve been hiding under a rock like me for the last 8 years, Enchanted is a real-life, Disney musical about the princess Giselle (Amy Adams) who gets sent to real-world New York city.

It was just the right kind of cheesy, with songs that are catchy and easy to recall (as my 20 year old brother can prove!) and it was so full of charm from beginning to end that I just couldn’t stop smiling. The CGI work is a little off, but that can be forgiven. Glad to say that I’ve finally watched it!

Why do I keep doing this to myself?! I can’t stand James Franco, I really, really just can’t bear him, and yet I just can’t help myself and keep giving him chances. I guess I’m still trying to find another This Is The End. I’m not sure how much of the ‘The Interview has been banned/Oh no it hasn’t’ scandal I believe, but it was enough to get me to watch it one weekend. So, in this, Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) run a celebrity chat show, and are tasked with interviewing North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un. Um, and kill him.

Honestly? I thought James Franco was alright in this. He surprised me. However, the film itself fell flat. The first half was decent, just the right kind of silly, but it wasn’t the un-believable factor that killed it for me. It just wasn’t very interesting! I got bored halfway through and caught up with Twitter instead. Sorry!

Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Thursday night was our first Flick Chicks night out, and what an awesome one at that! After wolfing down a Nandos in record time, we went to see A Million Ways to Die in the West at Jenna's local Cineworld. I practically skipped into the screen; I was really looking forward to it! I've watched Ted too many times to count so I had high hopes for this.  I have realised that I need to watch Ted again after Allie mentioned someone who was in it and I don't remember seeing them AT ALL!! Think that might be a SkyGo job for my next flight!

Albert (Seth McFarlane) is a cowardly sheep farmer who gets dumped by his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried). She hooks up with the local douchebag Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), and Albert is determined to win her back. He meets Anna (Charlize Theron), who just so happens to be the wife of the toughest guy around, Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), although he doesn't realise that. That's really all you need to know, I'm sure you can guess the rest!

Me and Jenna were in a bit of a giggly mood when we saw this, I guess it must be a side effect of scoffing a huge plate of Nandos! I laughed plenty throughout this film, even laughed quite loud at some parts. Admittedly, some jokes were a bit drawn out and started off as funny, but should have ended sooner. I'm thinking of the hat scene in particular which will make sense if you've seen this.  I had, what can only be described as, a fit of hysteria at the 'drunk and horse' scene where I couldn't catch my breath for a good five minutes and my glasses steamed up from the tears!!  Fully agree, the hat scene pushed into 'spoof movie' instead of comedy which wasn't great but didn't ruin the film for me at all.

I was mostly looking forward to the cameos. I'd heard that there were some great names and I've been making the biggest effort to steer clear from IMDB before I saw this so I wouldn't ruin it for myself. They were awesome! Some quite hard to spot because of everyone's moustaches, and one in particular literally made me do this:



This was her face exactly, I wish I could explain why but if you know Allie at all and you have seen this movie, you can probably guess which cameo did this to her!!

This was nearly everything I expected it to be. The humour wasn't as good as Ted, but some of the cameos were better, Neil Patrick Harris showing his 'inner Barney' was a massive highlight for me, and the moustache song in particular needs to get onto my iTunes fast. Sadly I can't find a YouTube clip of it anywhere, but I'll keep searching! LOVED the Moustache song, as I type I am singing it in my head!!

This film had one of my favourite cameos EVER (although not beating the Zombieland one which I just did not see coming) I won't say who it was but if you know me and you see this film, you'll know!!  I couldn't help but love this film at many points throughout, I kept thinking 'I shouldn't love this, this will end up on my guilty pleasures list with the likes of Pearl Harbour and Armageddon.'  The funny bits had me in hysterics meaning I wasn't even paying attention to the rest as I was still laughing from the last thing that happened!!  I have to agree with some of the critics, Seth MacFarlane did let this down, he seemed very stiff and awkward when delivering the lines that were obviously scripted and too casual and 'stand up comedian waiting for applause' in the parts where he was clearly adlibbing.  The contrast between the two was so obvious, I noticed every time it changed.

If you liked Ted, there's no reason why you wouldn't like this, but if Ted wasn't really your thing, then steer clear!

Still found this hilarious and as Allie said will recommend to anyone who laughed at Ted.  Definite 'buy full price DVD' contender.