Happy Birthday Anna Kendrick!

Anna Kendrick turns 29 today and I thought it might be nice to share with you all my Top 5 Anna Kendrick films. I first saw her in the Twilight series back in 2008 and since then she just seems to have popped up in loads of other films I've seen!

Anna hasn't actually been in an awful lot of films if you take a look through her filmography, but she has an awful lot coming up in the next 2 years so my Top 5 list could well look completely different by then.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's Twilight. But this is the first time I ever saw Anna, and I think she played her character really well, and stayed true to the book version. Plus, her graduation speech Twilight Eclipse was brilliant, and made me cry a little. Not that it takes much to make me cry!

 

 

End of Watch makes my list purely for the scene with her and Jake Gyllenhaal singing in the car. It was just so natural and I think Anna's natural charm really shined during the scene. I don't know how true this is, but I heard that the song just happened to be playing anyway and the scene was completely improvised. Cute if true!

 

 

I wasn't a huge fan of 50/50 to be honest, but Anna's character was just so down to earth that I mainly enjoyed it just for her. Although her character is very similar (I think anyway) to her character in Up in the Air, the completely different topic kept it fresh for me.

As someone who gets to travel a little for work, I really appreciated Up in the Air and I just loved how it didn't follow a predictable plot. Anna played the role of a some what cold, by the book professional really well, a role which I don't think reflects her true personality at all.

 

 

I'm a human of the female variety, it's just in my nature to love Pitch Perfect, sorry! Just everything, from her dress sense, her non-cornforming attitude to her singing just had me smiling throughout the whole film. If there was ever a film on my life (highly doubtful, and a box office flop if so), I would love Anna Kendrick to play me!

 

What's your favourite Anna Kendrick film?

Review: End of Watch (2012)

I'm not the cop film type to be honest, although I have been known to watch the occasional car chase on some obscure channel late at night when I haven't been able to sleep. End of Watch kept cropping up in some conversations however, and as I'm not type of chick to say no to a film, I thought why not!

End of Watch is what I guess to be your average cop film, but with a twist. It's all shot documentary style by Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal). It follows the daily lives of Brian and his work partner Mike (Peña) who are also best friends in real life. They end up getting in way over their heads with the local dangerous gangs after a lucky drugs bust.

I think The Day After Tomorrow was the first Jake Gyllenhaal film I saw, and that sparked off my first of what turned out to be many mild actor obsessions. Mild? I went straight onto the interwebs and purchased Donnie Darko, Bubble Boy and The Good Girl, on VHS if I remember right! As you can guess, no one needed to sell this film to me, and Jake in police uniform? Hi.



Exactly. Without my immediate bias, I really loved this film and it's completely changed my view on cop films, so if anyone has any suggestions of similar films, I'd be happy to hear them!

The bromance made this film what it is, and even though it's a drama/thriller, I laughed during End of Watch more from banter alone than some comedies in total. Gyllenhaal and Peña are an awesome duo! Just a short example below...

The camera work was really effective too, but there were a few continuity issues that made some scenes really quite confusing. However the ending made me forget any issues I may have had; it was so well done and I didn't see it coming at all!  Now I know there is a twist I want to watch it!! Honestly you need to! I was a bit 'meh' before watching it but I loved it!

If you love cop films anyway, then you should have already seen this. If you're not, give it a go, like I did! It won't be wasted time I promise you.