Review: In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

At the local cinema that I go to we have an Unlimited card, you pay one price and you can go tot he cinema a many times as you want in the month.  Another perk of this is Unlimited advanced screening and secret screenings.  I always book the secret screenings, mostly just to find out what it was but the day before the latest one there were lots of tweets about the Odeon secret screening and that is as Room.  So i'm super excited because I've wanted to see this since i saw the trailer, so imagine my surprise when I get to the theatre and the lady behind the counter gives me 3D glasses.  I'm starting to think may the secret viewing isn't Room and then while waiting for the film to start the trailer for Room comes on...now I'm really upset because I know for certain we are watching In the Heart of the Sea, which I did not want to see, Dad however was thrilled.

In the Heart of the Sea is the story of the crew of the whaling ship, the Nantucket.  The youngest crew member Tom Nickerson is now an old man and played by Brendan Gleeson telling Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) the story that inspired Moby Dick.  The Nantucket heads out with new Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and experienced first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth).

I think there is a good chance the studio had hoped that the idea of Chris Hemsworth with his top off and windswept hair would attract hoards of young ladies (oh, hello!), however most of those young ladies are now Star Wars fans (wait, did you just say Star Wars?!). Being released around the same time at Star Wars pretty much guaranteed a low Box Office figure and with a target audience of 50+ males (most of which enjoyed the original Star Wars theatrical release) ruined any chance of success for it.

Personally, i enjoyed the film a lot more than I expected to, the story was interesting, if not gross in a few places, and it held my attention all the way through.  Hemsworth wasn't bad to eyeball either!  I had a bit of an issue with the 'story teller' not actually being present in parts of the story that were told (how did he know?!) but that was minor.  The scenes on the water were brilliantly shot did at some points have me on the edge of my seat.  It needn't have been in 3D, there was really no benefit and actually the 'on land' scenes just seemed blurry to me and actually gave me a bit of a headache!

By far better than I anticipated but I don't know if I would watch it again.

Review: Spectre (2015)

I’m not going to pretend I was excited about this because I wasn’t, I have never liked James Bond.  I find all the films very samey and nothing new ever happens, to me it all seems like money that could be better spent.  However, my Dad loves them so as the dutiful Daughter (and because I want him to see Mockingjay Part 2 with me) I accompanied him to see it.

Do I even need to provide a synopsis? James Bond (Daniel Craig) receives a cryptic message from the past leading him to a criminal organisation, that must be stopped.  I wish that could have been longer but I don’t really know what else to say!

Ok, ok I’m going to try and stop sounding so bitter about this whole thing.  In fairness, I didn’t hate it (I did take 2 naps throughout) but it didn’t keep me gripped nor was I on the edge of my seat.  In fact, instead of being worried when Bond is in precarious situations, I find myself thinking ‘well Bond will never die’ which kind of takes the edge off it.  Furthermore, in the opening Helicopter scene, I couldn’t help but think that the helicopter would have stalled at numerous occasions and crashed into hundreds of people, but that’s none of my business!  I know I am being too picky and fussy because I wasn’t interested in it all and you all know I don’t make such a fuss over the ‘defying of gravity’ in Fast and the Furious films for example, which makes me feel mean but I can’t help it, I didn’t enjoy it.

There were bits I did enjoy, I like Q (Ben Whishaw) and how he is becoming his own character and coming out of his shell a little bit, personally I would have liked a bit more screen time for him.  Also, in going against every review I have caught on this movie, I liked Christoph Waltz.  I really like him as an actor and when I finally got some screen time, I woke up and bit and gained some interest. His character’s motives do borderline on ridiculous and his long speeches lost me around the middle but I think he has a great presence and the development of his character can’t be blamed on him as an actor surely. 

I have also read that there are lots of inspiration from previous Bond movies in this installment and die-hard fans who have seen all of them will love influence they have had on this.  As someone who has only seen Skyfall, once, a long time ago, these homages to previous movies were lost on me.

I would like to like Bond movies but I just don’t and I don’t think I ever will.