Review: Eddie the Eagle (2016)

I am unashamedly obsessed with Taron Egerton, he has not made enough films to keep my obsession at bay and I've watched all the interviews I could on YouTube so Eddie the Eagle came out just in time!

Eddie the Eagle is based on the true story of Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton), the British downhill skier who became the much loved underdog in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Accompanied by his trainer Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), Eddie fights to compete as the first ever British ski jumper at the Olympics.

I can safely say I have never smiled so much watching a movie, my face was aching from grinning.  It is the ultimate feel good movie, if you ever need a pick me up, this is the way to go.  I went in fully expecting the laughs to be at Eddie's expense, but brilliantly they showcase him as a hero that you desperately want to succeed because of his determination to achieve his childhood dreams.  Comedic relief is provided through his relationship with Bronson, training montages and his supportive Mom (Jo Hartley) and not so supportive Dad (Keith Allen).

Egerton was absolutely brilliant as determined Eddie, he just makes him so lovable and even though you know he's not going to get he gold you are willing him to succeed.  I was jumping up and down in my seat, I gripped the seat for dear life whenever he did a jump and more than once I very nearly jumped up and fist pumped.  Jackman, although fictional, is great as the near opposite of Eddie, having his pessimistic nature slowly chipped away by kind hearted and ever-optimist Edwards.

Love, love, love this movie, I cannot wait until its out on DVD so I can watch it again and again.

Decades Blogathon: The Fountain (2006)

Originally posted on Three Rows Back and Digital Shortbread as part of the 2016 Decades Blogathon. To see the original announcement post, click here. To see this post in it's original form as part of the Blogathon, click here.

I was a spectator for last year’s Decades Blogathon, so I am absolutely delighted to make the cut to take part this year! As someone with a worryingly long ‘must watch’ list, this was the perfect chance to tick off a movie that I’ve been putting off for a while. The Fountain has been on my list for a while now, I can’t remember exactly what first brought my attention to it, but I was fascinated by the mixed opinions on it. Simply look at the chart on Letterboxd here to see what I mean. There aren’t many ratings charts that look like that.

The Fountain (2006) is an incredibly artistic and complex movie, but in it’s most simplest form, it is the story of a scientist named Tommy (Hugh Jackman), desperately trying to find a cancer cure for his dying wife, Izzi (Rachel Weisz).

It is, of course, much more than that. There are actually 3 separate stories here, all woven intricately within each other. For the first half of the movie, it’s incredibly easy to get confused with the stories, and the timeline itself. There are so many perplexing details that the movie focuses on, that it’s hard to switch off and simply enjoy the story for what it is. Rest assured, all those questions you build up get answered in a drip feed as the time goes by.

In fact, it’s incredibly rewarding to see such tiny details explained such a long time afterwards. It’s really one of those rare movies where nothing is shown or said without a purpose, and I like that. My one piece of advice actually would be to stick with this if you find it getting a bit too much. If it wasn’t for the fact I was watching this for the Decades Blogathon, I can’t confidently say I would have watched the whole thing.

What lies beneath these intricate tales is one of the most heartbreaking yet beautiful love stories I’ve ever seen. It’s a real testament to both Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz for their amazing acting skills and natural chemistry together. Izzi’s battle with cancer is all too familiar any Tommy’s refusal to accept the reality in front of him was so difficult to watch. The name of the movie comes from the book that Izzi has been writing as she documents her journey, and the scene in which she asks Tommy to complete final chapter for her, because he ‘knows how it ends’ is a very memorable one. 

My only real complaint is that the spiritual elements of the movie just get too complicated for me to understand.  Second viewing might aid this, as I literally went in blind, whereas knowing even just the blurb on IMDB would have probably helped me greatly. That said, anyone who is naturally interested in spirituality will have an amazing experience with this. It’s so well done, and considering the fact that it’s 10 years old now, it hasn’t aged at all. If it weren’t for the famous faces in the lead roles, this could easily be mistaken for a current release.

With a runtime of a little over an hour and a half, this movie whizzes by, and the ending comes all too soon. That said, I think if this was any longer some might give up before the end, when all their questions are finally answered. I highly recommend The Fountain, but I accept that it isn’t one for everyday viewing.

Looking Forward to Seeing in the Cinema this Month: April 2016

I cannot possibly be writing the post for April already, surely!  When this post goes live, Allie will be getting married and I will be turning 31 NEXT MONTH...WTF!!!!!

I've known for ages what my movie would be for this month due to my slightly inappropriate obsession with Taron Egerton.  

Eddie the Eagle is the true story of Brit Eddie Edwards AKA Eddie the Eagle and his determination to get to the Olympics in the 80's.  He went on to compete in the Ski Jumping category at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988 with the help of fictional coach, Bronson (Hugh Jackman) and won the hearts of fans everywhere.

I don't know many details of the history of Eddie the Eagle and I dying to google all about him but I'm fighting the urge so hopefully I won't know the entire story before I see it!!

Eddie the Eagle is released in UK Cinemas on 1st April 2016.

I'm suspicious of anything that happens on 1st April! I guess that comes from having prankster parents, but how funny would it be if you turned up for Eddie the Eagle on April Fool's Day and the cinema was just like, 'LOL. Here, watch some turd movie instead'. But I digress. You know what...... that wouldn't be in the slightest bit funny, in fact Cineworld if you're reading this, I would be mighty pee'd off and would consider boycotting your establishment!  Ok I wouldn't boycott as such, but I would certainly start bringing my own snacks.....

 

Can we rename April 'weird obsession' month here? As much as I know I'll be seeing Captain America: Civil war soon, there's something else I'm looking forward to more.

Midnight Special, baby! You heard me. I didn't even know this movie existed until last week when my family went out to see 10 Cloverfield Lane. The trailer for Midnight Special started playing and I darn near threw popcorn everywhere before squealing at the sight of Adam Driver on the big screen again!

It's a Sci-Fi flick about a child with special powers. I'm assuming the authorities want to perform all kinds of research on him, and that's why his father goes on the run with him, but I'm trying not to read too much into it. The review scores look good so far though, and the rest of the casting sounds promising. Fingers crossed!

Midnight Special is released in UK cinemas on 8th April 2016.

Review: Chappie (2015)

Although Orange Wednesdays are over, the cinemas are still playing games with each other, and so thankfully (for me) my local is still allowing 2-4-1 tickets every Wednesday during March. I don’t even have to pester a friend for a code, huzzah! My excitement for Chappie stalled a fair amount after reading so many negative reviews, but I always like to save judgement until I’ve seen the film myself. We got to the cinema a little early, and if you follow us on Twitter you’ll have seen my fiance wasn’t great company while we waited.

Took the fiancé to the cinema. Great pre-film conversation right here...not! - A pic.twitter.com/cuIQIp2Lll
— Jenna and Allie (@FlickChicksBlog) March 11, 2015

I was gutted when I missed this as the cinema because I loved District 9 and the trailer really reminded me of it.  I ended up only seeing it last week in the end.

Despite what the trailers made me think, Chappie (Sharlto Copley) is a damaged police robot, created by Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) and stolen by gangsters Ninja and Yolandi (played by themselves - who even are these two?! Apparently a South African rap duo?!). Deon has cleverly created software giving Chappie his own consciousness, and once switched on, he’s comparable to a highly impressionable child.   What did the trailers make you think?  This was not at all what I expected but I can't put my finger on why, I don't know what I was expecting!!

Chappie is the life and soul of this film. It has a fairly slow start during the storytelling of Chappie’s origins, but his reveal is great. He’s likeable before he even comes to life, a Scout Robot who seems to be cursed, always coming back from the field damaged. His one orange ear (antennae) and ‘Reject’ sticker make him instantly recognisable. For a robot, he’s highly expressive, and so hats off to the robotics/animation team behind that.  Chappie was by far the highlight, he was so lovely and made me smile whenever he was on camera, Sharlto Copley was fantastic playing the defect robot with the perfect level of charm and innocence.

One thing I liked about the film, which I imagine is a criticism in others’ eyes, it that you’re never sure who the real bad guy is. At the outset, it’s the gangsters Ninja and Yolandi, living a life of crime and stealing Chappie to help them with a heist. Without spoiling the story for you, they don’t appear to be the bad guys towards the end. The real rotten character is Vincent, (Hugh Jackman), who will literally stop at nothing to see his own work get the credit he feels it deserves. I really don’t like Hugh Jackman as a baddie! He’s just too much of a nice guy usually… and that mullet!!

Fully agree with Allie, its so confusing, you never know whose side to be on.  Instinctively, you want to side with Deon but he just seems like a bit of a wet lettuce who just lets everyone walk all over him.  Then there is the rap duo who are astonishingly irritating, initially, they are a breath of fresh air after Deon's blandness but Yolandi's high pitched squeal and Ninja's shouted are just too much to bear, I nearly turned the whole thing off at one point. 

Granted, Chappie doesn’t have a huge social/political agenda like District 9 did, but I think it still spreads an important message about how impressionable children are. Chappie knows and understands that crime and murder are wrong, and yet he can still be taught to steal and kill, just by the way he’s told how.  I did enjoying seeing how they got round his promise to not hurt people, it was really clever - my favourite moment in the film was probably when he trashed 'daddy's stolen car' instead of getting the driver out!!

There’s plenty of humour in this film too, largely thanks to Chappie himself. His excitement over rubber chickens, riding in the car, or just the way he repeatedly tells the gangsters, ‘Chappie can’t do heist. Heist is a crimes’ just made me smile again and again. I love him!

I’m scared that this might be another Green Lantern situation here for me, judging by the reviews I’ve read so far, but I hand on heart loved Chappie, and despite its flaws, I want to see it again soon.

Honestly, I loved Chappie and the ending was pretty clever (although convenient) but the story didn't keep me entertained.  I fell asleep twice trying to watch it.  I am gutted it wasn't as good as District 9 but it just wasn't up to par.  It would have been a 5 but Chappie brought it back....

Review: The Prestige (2006)

You're all aware that Jenna & I are making our way through IMDB's Top 250 list, which The Prestige is on. I've also been recommended the film multiple times after watching The Usual Suspects. I tried to get the family to watch it with me but the youngest won the vote and so I had to watch this with the cats the other night instead!  I hadn't seen this film for years (and fortunately couldn't remember what happened) so poor Allie has had to sit with this review in drafts for ages until I could find the time to watch it again.

The Prestige opens with its ending, as we see Hugh Jackman's character Robert Angier die after a magic trick has gone tragically wrong. We then see Christian Bale's character Alfred Borden face a trial for his murder. Makes sense, right? I thought so too. Oh, how I was wrong. The rest of the film steps back in time as we see the story unfold whilst Robert and Alfred read each other's journals. At this point we aren't even sure how they obtained these, but that gets explained later on.  Easy peasy...No point lying this is probably the third time I've watched this film and having forgotten the plot I was completely and utterly confused from 20 minutes in onwards!!

Once I realised that we had simply gone back in time a little, my confusion vanished (ta-da!) and the rest of the film was much more enjoyable. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale did a fantastic jobs at playing these two leads and the feud between them felt real.  I was lucky, as the film went on I remembered bits from watching it before and luckily I remembered the ending pretty sharpish because my Dad stumbled home (pretty drunk) and promptly announced "oh is this the one with *Insert spoiler here*" "Yes Dad, thanks for that!" Nice one haha!

I won't discuss the story in too much detail here because the film is a fantastic experience to watch for the first time, spoiler free. What was a shame for me was that I already knew that there was a huge twist, and so whilst I enjoyed the story immensely, I was also shouting across the room to my other half with my guesses for the twist. Admittedly, I worked it out, only right before the end though and even then I didn't work every detail out.  I can't remember if I worked this out the first time I watched it, I doubt I did, I think The Usual Suspects might have been a fluke!

The final 10 minutes were fantastic, and I would give a lot to view them again with a fresh pair of eyes. I couldn't believe how many subtle hints that I'd completely missed, just dotted throughout the rest of the film. 

This is a great film, the actors have so much chemistry and I even liked Scarlet Johannsen (I think she might actually be growing on me, yes I am shocked too!).  The good thing about watching this film again, is as Allie mentioned, you spot so much more, you notice things that are said and done that you wouldn't bother even thinking twice about the first time round.  Another factor for me was even when you know what is going to happen your loyalty for the characters shifts and changes throughout the whole film, one minute you love him and hate her, the next you like her but hate him, you are kept on your toes the whole time.

Firstly, I'd like to re-iterate how brilliant I thought The Prestige was. I would honestly recommend it to anyone, and I'm so gutted that I didn't see it when it first came out. You may not have praised it so highly then as it swiftly followed Batman Begins, which was such a high accolade for Nolan, could have made this one seem a little slow in comparison.  Secondly, I want to congratulate myself for reviewing this film without once referring to Batman, Alfred and Wolverine. You don't know how hard that was for me! (Oops!)

Amazing film, I cannot recommend it highly enough.  It is slow moving at times but keeps your interest throughout and the tension between the lead characters is so high you can't help but want to see how it turns out.

I can't fault this film, I love Nolan's work and this is some of his best.  Only makes me more eager to see Interstellar.