Blind Spot Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

I’m back! I missed last month’s Blind Spot due to a wedding-related meltdown, but then the beauty of sharing this blog means that Jenna reviewed Terminator 2 still. I did watch about half an hour of it, but certainly not enough to comment! We’re back as a pair this month to review a movie we both loved, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).  I had this downloaded on my iPad and spent an evening watching it while on holiday abroad, I should have been out partying but I got so into it, I had to stay in and finish it!

Despite it being one of my choices for the year, I actually had no idea what it was about, I’d just heard the title so many times, it sort of stuck with me. In fact I was on the verge of dragging my heels about watching it, until Jenna told me what it was all about and I literally watched it the very next day. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) pleads insanity after getting into trouble with the law to avoid prison, and is sent to a ward for the mentally unstable. Whilst there, McMurphy meets a variety of patients, each with their own stories, and rallies them together to stand up and rebel against Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).

I think the reason I loved this movie so much was the characters. There are so many of them, and yet the movie explores each one perfectly. We find out what their story is, what their quirks are, we witness their highs and their lows, and we just can’t help but root for them. Chief (Will Sampson) in particular was one of my favourites, I thought the basketball scene was brilliant.  There wasn't a single character I didn't love (Nurse Ratched excluded) even the scary guy from Ghost was loveable.  Mostly though it was all bout McMurphy, what a character, he couldn't have been played better by anyone, Jack Nicholson was so perfect. Nurse Ratched was eerily creepy all the way through and bloody terrifying at the end.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is such a feel-good movie. It’s also hilarious for all the right reasons. I think when mental illnesses are portrayed in movies, it’s too easy to fall into the ‘depressing’ category or ‘mocking’ in its humour, and this isn’t like that at all. My favourite scene is early on when the gang are playing cards and betting with cigarettes, and Martini (Danny DeVito) tries breaking cigarettes in half to ‘bet a dime’. It doesn’t sound funny in written words, but I was crying whilst watching it!  I laughed out loud countless times and I found myself smiling all the way through, up until the end of course.  The same as Allie the basketball scene was the one of the bestscenes but for me it was all about the ending with McMurphy and Chief, my heart absolutely broke and it stuck with me for days afterwards.

It’s so easy to see Nurse Ratched as a simple villain, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her at the same time. I mean, she was looking after that peaceful ward for goodness knows how long, and literally the moment McMurphy shows up, it all goes to hell. I actually felt a bit sorry for her until the last 20 minutes or so, when she showed her true colours. Ugh, just thinking about the ending leaves me feeling cold.

With a runtime of over 2 hours, this was just a bit too long for my poor attention span, but it felt too short at the same time. Poor movie, right? Just can’t win with me! What I think I mean though is that I’d love for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to be a TV Show, similar to Orange is the New Black, just to spend more time with each of those characters. That would be awesome, right?! I would only want a TV show if it was the same actors, if they tried to reboot it I would just be pissed!!  This felt to me like the shortest movie in the world, I just wanted it to go on and on and learn more about the characters and what happened to them after the movie ended.

I’m so glad I watched this. I’ll happily see it again.  Loved loved loved, it have already watched it again and it will have a permanent place on my re-watch list!!

Blind Spot Review: Terminator 2: Judgement Day

I sit here at 19:33 on Sunday night with a stinking hangover, having watched Terminator 2 curled up in a ball in my sofa.  I thought with my fuzzy head I might struggle to follow it but I'm pretty sure I got it all!

The sequel to Terminator (which was in last years Blind Spot list) "T2" brings back the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) but this time recruited to protect John Connor (Edward Furlong) from the advanced T-1000 (Robert Patrick) sent to kill him.  John, Sarah (Linda Hamilton) and the T-800 go on the run staying one step ahead of the killer robot.

First thing I have to say is straight away you can see the improvements in the special effects, helicopters, huge explosions and melting robots, its exciting from beginning to end.  I have to admit, I think I prefer this one to the original, mostly because of Sarah's kickass-ness and also the humour and light heartedness that John brings to the game.  Him trying to teach the T-800 how to be a bit more human really made me laugh and I can see where this movie influenced Terminator Genisys with that version of Sarah Connor teaching "pops" how to be more human.

I think this is an important time to mention the bizarre order in which I have watched these films, I started years ago with Terminator Salvation, followed by Terminator 1 then Terminator Genisys and now Terminator 2.  If the timelines get confusing when you watch them in order, try watching them in the wrong order.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, I was entertained from beginning to end (even with my hangover) and loved the father/son type bond that developed with John and the Terminator.  I did miss Kyle Reese though!

Not going to wait until the next Blind Spot challenge to watch Rise of the Machines, I'm so intrigued as to how Arnie is in it again!

Blind Spot Review: Alien (1979)

We’re way out of our comfort zone this month. I think we’re getting braver, but neither Jenna or I watch horror movies. It’s not even the movie itself that’s so bad, it’s trying to go to bed that night that’s the worst! Also, whilst I won’t speak on behalf of Jenna on this point, I don’t do too well with space movies. They tend to be far too clever for my simple mind to follow. Star Wars is the exception!  I'm good with space movies but as someone who lives alone horrors are a big no no, even with someone.  Its the countless nights afterwards when I have to check every cupboard and nook and cranny in my house before I can 'safely' go to bed!  

Which I guess is why Alien (1979) was the perfect choice for our Blind Spot list. I mean, that’s what it’s all about, right? We teamed up for this one, also joined by my fiance, who somehow claims to love this movie despite being a bigger wuss than I when it comes to horror and also appearing to not know what was going to happen!

Thanks to the super helpful opening scene, I can actually explain the plot of this. A commercial towing spacecraft carrying 20,000,000 tons of mineral ore, named Nostromo, is on it’s way back to Earth, along with it’s 7 crew members. The inside of the Nostromo is quiet, until the crew are awoken by the ship’s computer system, Mother. Turns out, they’re not even close to home. Mother has altered their course after picking up a distress signal from another planet, and the crew are forced to investigate, much to the annoyance of some of them.

There’s so much tension between the crew members here that I’d happily watch them all together completely away from the Sci-Fi components of this movie. Speaking of the crew though, there are some huge names here, some that I embarrassingly only knew once I’d looked them up, too. Collectively, we have Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Chief Engineer Parker (Yaphet Cotto), Engineering Technician Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) and last but certainly not least, Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).   I recognised a few of the faces but the only name (other than Sigourney Weaver) I knew was Harry Dean Stanton (because he is Pretty in Pink's dad!!) - we are terrible aren't we....

There are trust issues left, right and centre, grudges held over wages paid, and at some points this crew is on the verge of mutiny. I got so engrossed I forgot what we were watching for a while!

Oh! How could I forget the final crew member, ginger cat Jonesy! Within the first five minutes I felt the need to warn the others, this cat is gonna be an ass. And he was! He was indeed! He got the second biggest jump scare for sure, the little furry bugger. I was rooting for him, though!  I was not!!  Can you spot the one of us that has pets?

Thankfully, this wasn’t nearly as scary as I feared it would be, but I think that’s just the movie’s age. I do imagine this would have been terrifying when it first came out, and some of the final scenes where Ripley was walking alone around the ship with the flashing lights and the ominous music had me quite tense.  I have to admit, I'm not sure that I would personally count this as a typical horror, it had the jumps but I didn't spend the whole time with my head behind a pillow.  In fact due to a long day of bridesmaid dress shopping I nearly dozed off a few times!!

I expected a bit more from this, I seem to do the same thing every time and forget to account for movies aging.  I don't think they have the same impact on us watching for the first time in 2016 as they did for the guys watching it when it came out.  The cast were really great and there were some significant twists that I didn't see coming, at all.  I loved Sigourney Weaver, she was everything I had heard she would be, a strong lead characters, no sidekick here.  My guess is I will get to experience more of her strength in the rest of the films I have yet to see.

I’m really glad I watched Alien. It’s not my go-to movie of choice at all but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve since heard from colleagues around my office that the second movie in the series is even better. Is that the general consensus?  My Dad agrees...

Blind Spot Review: Rocky (1976)

Ah, it feels good to be back on the Blind Spot wagon! Earlier this month, Jenna and I watched Creed, and although we really enjoyed it, we both agreed we’d have probably found it better if we had any knowledge of the Rocky movies. So that’s how the original ended up on our Blind Spot list! If you fancy reading an abysmal attempt at us both trying to understand how boxing even works, check out our review of Creed here.

Rocky (1976) is the story of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), a struggling boxer who works as a debt collector by day. When the undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) looks to set up an exhibition match to give a newcomer a chance at fighting him, Rocky, the Italian Stallion is chosen, and thus begins Rocky’s training and the wedding march ;-)

I’m just going to go straight out and say it. I wasn’t expecting to love this movie. I wanted to watch it, don’t get me wrong, especially after watching Creed, but all I was hoping to gain from it was an understanding of the story. I was engrossed from the first few minutes, and was kind of gutted when it ended, which is unusual for me, 2 hours is normally the point that I start to give up.

Rocky is such a loveable character! This is a guy who goes from using intimidation tactics to collect debts to dropping by a pet store just for the chance to spend a few minutes with the girl who’s captured his heart. What a guy!  I didn't expect Rocky to be the character he was, i expected this big ol' hardman that never lets up so to see him fall in love and be all romantic was a pleasant surprise.

Watching Rocky and Adrian’s (Talia Shire) relationship grow was definitely a highlight for me. It reminded me so much of Adonis and Bianca's relationship in Creed, they've obviously really taken note from Rocky when making Creed.  A completely clueless Rocky asking Adrian’s brother what she liked to do, and then spending $10 for just 10 minutes on the ice rink with her just melted my heart. I even spotted the line ‘Why do I fight? Because I can’t sing and dance…’ which was on Adonis’ shirt in Creed! Mega proud of myself there.  

Like Allie, I didn't think I would be bothered by this movie but I really did love it.  I got very excited when I saw the 'Rocky' steps and even sent a photo to Allie.  In all honesty, I thought it would have ruined this film watching Creed first it had the same impact as if i had watched them the right way round.  I got so excited when I saw places in this that had been featured in Creed like Mighty Micks Gym.  I much prefer Stallone back in the day when I can understand what the heck he is saying and really loved the build up to the fight, I was adamant I knew what the outcome would be....I was wrong!

Then of course we had the famous music startup (which Jenna swears sounds like the wedding march, still does!) followed by Rocky running up the stairs which was nothing short of awesome. I can really see now why this is such an iconic movie! I was told it would really gear me up for going to the gym but I was in my pajamas finishing off a tub of chocolates from Christmas at the time so I can’t really comment on that.  I have been tempted to go to the gym of late, I didn't go after this however, I sat and ate a monster roast dinner! oops!

And then of course we had the final fight. Some of the tension was taken away from me because I knew the outcome, but when you watch a movie 40 years after it was released, I think you lose the right to scream ‘spoiler alert’ at someone!  Can you believe I didn't know how it ended, the movie has been out since before I was born and I have never heard a spoiler?!

I’m torn now between saving Rocky II for next year’s Blind Spot or just watching it next weekend…!  

Great start to the Blind Spot challenge, here's hoping the other 11 are as good!

Blind Spot Series 2016

We were so excited to be joining in with the Blind Spot Series in 2015! We watched 7 of our chosen movies from January to July, and then August hit us, I disappeared for a few weeks and Jenna and I barely saw each other between then and Christmas! So very sadly we fell so far behind we decided to call it quits for the year.  I don't even know what happened, we missed one and then it was December!

But we’re back again in 2016 more excited than ever, and we’ve transferred the remaining 2015 movies to our list for this year. We are determined to do the whole 12 months this year and watch all 12 films, 2015 didn't start off so great with me missing the first two movies! We’ve got an even split of choices now, and some we’ll watch together, others apart but we’ll still review them together like we do with most of our posts.

Just like last year, it’s fairly embarrassing to admit that we haven’t seen some of these movies before, especially as he rapidly approach the 2 year anniversary of running this blog, but hey, better late than never, right?! At least when the blogging community turns against us for being frauds, we'll still have each other.  Yet another bonus of co-blogging :-)

If you're new to the series, it's ran by Ryan McNeil at The Matinee, and this year marks 5 years of Blind Spots! Check out his 2016 page here to find out how to take part.

Here’s our list, in no particular order:

Platoon (1986)

On the Waterfront (1954)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Life is Beautiful (1997)

Goodfellas (1990)

Terminator 2 (1991)

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Alien (1979)

Mary and Max (2009)

Scarface (1983)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Rocky (1976)

We’ll link up our reviews to this post as we go along, and I think after very recently watching Creed, we’ll kick January off with Rocky!  Maybe we should start with Rocky Balboa and work backwards seen as we've started at the end!

Blind Spot: Casablanca (1942)

My Dad was thrilled when I told him I had included this in the Blind Spot list and he has asked me every time he has seen me if I have seen it yet.  After mine and Allie's movie night last week I just sent him a text saying 'Here's looking at you kid', I think I made his day as this is by far and away his favourite film of all time and in fairness I can see why.

 

In the city of Casablanca in unoccupied Africa during World War II, Rick Blane (Humphrey Bogart) gets a surprise when his ex Girlfriend, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) turns up in his bar with her husband (Paul Henreid) in tow.  It's down to Rick to decide if he will save his one time love and her husband or take the selfish road and keep Ilsa for himself.

Admittedly, I spent a lot of the movie trying to work out the politics of it all, who was good, who was bad, who is from what country.  About half way through, I gave up.  I had no idea who were the good and the bad guys (in regards to the War, I know who I was rooting for in the story!) and once I stopped over thinking it, I bloody loved the movie.  Everyone knows I'm a sucker for a romance and this is the ultimate romantic film, its obvious from the start that Rick and Ilsa still love each other and you are desperate for them to admit it from the second she walks into the bar.

I wasn't planning on enjoying this, I have yet to really enjoy a black and white movie, I think my mind had been brainwashed by high action super hero movies and left no wanting for only 'story-based' films rather than the visuals being the priority.  It was quite obviously that this was mostly filmed on a sound stage but that didn't take anything away from my experience, as I expected it would.  This is also the first film I have seen with Humphrey Bogart, but I think I am going to have to make a list and start ticking them off.  He's not what I would call 'classically' good looking but he has such a charm and confidence that he instantly becomes attractive!!

I can't wait to watch this again and try to get my head around the back story, but mostly to watch the ending again.....

Blind Spot: The Terminator (1984)

It’s been a strange and busy old month this month, what with Jenna’s new house and my family members seemingly dropping like flies, and I’m surprised we’ve managed to get together, but we did it! This might also be the second most fun I’ve ever had watching a movie with Jenna. I was about to say the absolute most fun, but then I remembered Sharknado.  Nothing will ever beat Sharknado but this did come pretty close, especially with the exceptional CGI work! I think we’re both a little embarrassed to have never seen our pick this month, but hey, better late than never! 

We were planning on watching Platoon for this month’s Blind Spot, but time and tiredness wouldn’t allow for it, and with Terminator Genisys out next month, it seemed like a suitable swap around.

If you didn’t know already, or had simply forgotten, The Terminator has been sent back in time to 1984 with one mission, to murder Sarah Connor, who, in the future, will give birth to John Connor, who in the future leads a war against machines and computers. Future John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah...and now my head hurts. Did I get that right? Yep I think that's right...ish!

A fly on the wall would have had a great time whilst we were watching this.

‘Oh, he’s naked!’

‘Umm...he’s very much naked, oh my’

‘Where’d that other naked guy come from?!’

We also had a funny discussion over the plot twist (spoiler alert, obviously) which we had worked out fairly early on, which went something like this…

Jenna: Oh, what if Reese is actually Connor’s Father? Wait, how would that even work…

Allie: No, no, what if he was actually John Connor’s Father!

Jenna: ...That’s what I just said.

Allie: I thought you meant Sarah Connor’s Father!

Jenna: How would that make sense?!
This conversation was too funny and also spanned about 40 minutes - i.e. it took Allie a further 30 or so minutes to come up with the same theory as me but without realising I had already stated the same theory 30 minutes earlier! 30 minutes!! It was 10!

Sometimes I worry for us...but we do have fun when we watch movies together! Onto something more constructive though, I really did  enjoy watching The Terminator. I kind of wish I had done so years ago when I could appreciate the special effects, because watching them know was laughable. Some of the stop motion effects were really dodgy, but that’s just down to the time this was made. I’m sure we’ll all be poking fun at our recent special effects in years to come.  We shouldn't have found it funny because as Allie said it would have been great when it was realised THIRTY years ago, but it was a great giggle comparing the work to an episode of Thunderbirds and watching the scenes quite obviously change from prosthetic faces to real faces, real filming to stop motion!!

In fairness, looking past the graphics and CGI (or lack of it) this is a great Sci-fi movie, the concept is bloody brilliant (if you don't get tied up in time travel paradoxes as I did a couple of times while watching).  Its terrifying to think that in the future machines could take over the world.  Did anyone else think that the writers of Avengers: Age of Ultron may have taken some influence from Terminator?!  There seemed to be a lot of similarities in both the storylines and the robots.

This is a really hard one to score. If I put on a professional blogger hat and analysed the effects, cheesy dialogue, etc, then this would have a lower score, but we’ve always scored films on our enjoyment more than anything else!  As much as I took the piss out of the dialogue and the graphics I do have to account for when the film was released and the awesomeness of the story...

  

Blind Spot: My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

This month brings something a little different to the blog. Even as the grown ups we are, we both still enjoy animated films and review them frequently on Flick Chicks, but this is the first time we’ve reviewed an anime film! I was a huge anime fan in my teens (Bleach and Dragonball Z were my favourites) and although I saw Spirited Away years ago, I hadn’t ever watched My Neighbor Totoro.  I however, am a newbie, this is my first anime experience so bear with me ;-)

My Neighbor Totoro is a magical children’s film following the story of two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who have recently moved house with their Father to be closer to their Mother who is currently ill in hospital. From the first few minutes, the girls discover magical ‘soot sprites’ living in the house, and whilst adventuring, they also come across another magical being, Totoro himself.

What exactly is Totoro? I had him down as a cross between an owl and a bear before watching the film, and then Jenna pointed out he has several rabbit features too. I didn’t expect him to be so loud! He’s still very cute, stood in the rain with his umbrella. Admittedly, it was seeing Totoro’s cheesy grin and his soft belly in every geeky shop I’ve ever been in that made me want to watch the film itself, and I definitely want my own one now! I also want a cat bus, cat bus looked so comfy!  He looked so cute and you expected him to have the sweet soft voice and this great roar pours out of him and suddenly you realise, maybe anime isn't just your everyday kids cartoon! Cat bus scared me, I'm not going to lie, I don't like animals at the best of times and this is a GIANT CAT!!  Nope nope nope!!

I think sometimes it’s too easily to be really critical when reviewing a film like this. It needs to be enjoyed for what it is. One could complain about a slow start, a lack of ‘a moral to be learnt’ which most children’s films have, but to just sit back and take in the story, it’s beautiful. It’s all about family, and friendships, and believing in magic.

Anyone can say there no lessons to be learnt but after stewing on it overnight it really hit home for me.  These children and in the middle of dealing with the possibility of losing their mother.  There lives could be downtrodden and miserable and they could spend day after day crying and missing out on so much of their childhood but no.  Their Father (although works a lot) spends his time with his children, making them laugh and telling them magical stories that their imaginations bring to life in the Totoro, Soot Sprites and the cat bus.  There coping mechanism for this very scary and real situation is to be children and jump in puddles, get dirty and imagine a magical world where they can forget the 'grown up stuff' for a while.  My Mother was ill for most of my childhood but it was never sad, I never even realised what was happening, my childhood was filled with laughter, parties, mud pies, cake making, singing, shopping trips, face paints, dancing, Happy Meals, play houses and tooth fairies. 

Maybe there is a lesson here but for the grown ups rather than the kids :-)

We watched the English dubbed version with the Dakota twins providing voices for Satsuki and Mei, as we were both too tired for subtitles, but I’d like to watch this again sometime soon as it’s meant to be viewed, just for the experience.  Apparently, after reading the trivia for this there are a few differences between the original Japanese version and the English dubbed version, mostly due to language changes.

All in all, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, and my appreciation grew for it overnight. Definitely a film I’ll see again soon, and a film I’ll keep back for any future children I may have. Now I’m tempted to see another film by Studio Ghibli...does anyone have any recommendations?

 

Review: Taxi Driver (1976)

So the Blind Spot challenge has been a bit hit and miss for me, time constraints meant I missed the first two movies but I'm trying to keep up now.  Therefore, two weeks ago we arranged the movie night to watch our April movie - Taxi Driver.  As an contender for the Oscars Best Picture, I assumed it would be amazing.

The Blind Spot Series is proving to be a great way for Jenna and I to keep putting film nights in the diaries! This month we’re trying to be healthy so whilst Jenna cooked enough stir-fry to feed a wedding party (thanks for the extra lunch by the way!) I picked up some Weight Watchers dessert and headed to hers, armed with Taxi Driver on DVD. It proudly boasted its new ‘Wide Screen Presentation’, oh boy…

An unstable war veteran, Travis (Robert DeNiro) finds a job as a night time New York taxi driver to kill time after developing insomnia.  His obsession with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and his determination to save pre-adolescent prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster) lead him down a dark and dangerous path.

It was so strange to see Robert DeNiro in this! I've never seen any of his older films so I had to keep reminding myself it was even him.

I feel like is should love this movie because it is so highly praised by so many people.  I have read countless reviews from both professional critics and the bloggerverse and I just don't understand it.  I just found it a bit boring, it was a interesting subject and a creative take on the effects insomnia can have on a person but it felt like it dragged. 

All the synopsis's I have found for this, imply that him being psychotic and his obsessions lead him to extreme violence, however this seems to take forever to get to and feels dragged at the beginning and the middle.  Now I know this won't be a popular opinion so please be kind :-/ but I just didn't enjoy it.  Once it gets to the latter part of the film, it starts to get interesting and I love the shoot out scenes and the hospital scene near the end.

After Pulp Fiction last month, I wanted to mull over this film for a while before I really made a verdict on it. Taxi Driver to me was like the 70's answer to Drive (although I realise that should actually be the other way round) and it took me several viewings to really appreciate Drive for what it was. I hated it the first time round. I wouldn't say I hated Taxi Driver at all, it was an interesting character story and I was never bored, but I wasn't thrilled either.

Maybe, I need to watch it again to get a better feel for the making of the film now that I know what to expect.  The actors were all great, without a doubt, one of the highlights being Harvey Keitel but I don't feel like there was much of a story to it.  The shooting, I guess was great when it was made in the 70's but now comes across a little bit cheesy to me.

I think I need a second viewing, too! Although it's going to take a serious amount of willpower to get round it it...

I hope I don't get too much of a battering for this but that's the point of reviews I guess, multiple opinions :-)

After 3 cracking Blind Spot films, maybe it was about time we had one I didn't love so much.

Blind Spot: Pulp Fiction (1994)

This month marks the first time Jenna and I have been able to watch our Blind Spot film together, huzzah! Chinese food ordered, cups of tea made, fire on, the perfect Flick Chicks film night. Pulp Fiction was one of Jenna’s choices, one that I’d completely forgotten about because I had actually seen parts of it before, but couldn’t remember anything other than that couple robbing the diner!

Pulp Fiction is the telling of four connected violent, hilarious, and downright crazy stories following the lives of two mobsters, a boxer, a gangster’s wife and a thieving couple. It boasts one of the most amazing casts I’ve seen, John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth and Uma Thurman just to name a few.

Bear with me here, but man did this film drag! We paused at one point for a drink break thinking that we were near the end, but we were just about an hour in. Not quite even half way at that point. Thing is, all the scenes we had heard about had already happened, so we couldn’t work out what was even going to happen next. Kettle boiled, we were introduced to the Gimp. Oh! Traumatised is not a strong enough word!!

In fact, when the film actually finished, I was feeling pretty ‘meh’ about the whole thing. Sure, I laughed my socks off at many points, and couldn’t fault anything other than how darn confusing the whole thing was, but I couldn’t work out if I enjoyed it or not. It made Fargo seem simple!  Now although I found it really complicated I actually really enjoyed it - I am still running through the scenes now trying to put them into chronological order, i don't think i'll ever manage it.

On the drive home though, and indeed while I was trying to get to sleep, I couldn’t stop thinking about the film, and the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated it for what it was, and then I felt guilty! Did anyone else find this?

I can't really place much commentary on the storyline because i'm still trying to work out what happened, what I do know is that I really enjoyed it and I won't forget it in a hurry. Samuel L Jackson was amazing, I think he has taken a little part of this character and injected it into every character he has played since.  It's typical Quentin Tarantino, bloody confusing but so entertaining that you get over it.

There are so many jokes and memes that make sense to me now. Every time someone mentions the game, Guess Who I put on my best Samuel L Jackson impression to ask ‘Does he look like a b*tch?’ without even realising it’s a reference to Pulp Fiction. There was an episode of Community all about that suitcase that I need to re-watch now, and I’ll never let anyone order an expensive milkshake quietly.  Don't forget the Direct Line advert (for our UK readers) and The Wolf - who knew!!

Don't really know why BUT I loved it...I think I may need to watch it again though to get my head around the storyline!