Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

What would you do if you read this ad in your local paper? “WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid when we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed.” I like to think I’d get in touch, for sure.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) is a ‘Dramedy’ based on this classified advert that a man named Kenneth (Mark Duplass) has written. At a magazine publishing company, Jeff (Jake Johnson) proposes to investigate the author of the advert to chase an amusing article for the magazine. One of the interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) volunteers to join him, and a second intern, Arnau (Karan Soni) gets dragged along too. The three of them set out on a road trip to a coastal town to research the story.

It is very quickly evident that Jeff actually has a more important reason for taking the job on. It just so happens that his old high school crush Liz (Jenica Bergere) lives in this coastal town, and so he leaves both Darius and Arnau to do the work whilst he gets in contact with Liz to try and rekindle their romance. When that plan fails, Jeff takes Arnau out to make sure he doesn’t waste his youth. I enjoyed their side of the story, but it is secondary compared to that of Darius and Kenneth.

Darius succeeds where Jeff failed in gaining Kenneth’s trust thanks to her aloof yet tenacious attitude. Aubrey Plaza gets to play the sarcastic character she does so well but with a much more serious overtone this time around, which she nailed. She is one talented and awesome lady! I wasn’t expecting the story to take the romantic turn that it did, but it was fascinating to watch Darius and Jeff’s relationship grow.

What I loved most was the question you find yourself asking throughout the entire movie. Can Kenneth really travel back in time? There are no clues (that I noticed) that give any indication either way, but you are definitely left questioning Kenneth’s sanity more than once.

I won’t spoil anything for you, but the ending of Safety Not Guaranteed really got me thinking! At first I was a little disappointed, but the more I questioned it, the more I realised there just wasn’t a better ending. It was actually brilliant!

Highly recommended if you enjoy quirky little movies!

Review: Jurassic World (2015)

After reading more blog posts than I can count about Jurassic World, I was starting to feel like the only person in the world. Thankfully, I finally found the time to get out to the cinema and me, my fiance, and a surprisingly full cinema screen finally got to witness what we’d been waiting for for so long.  Similar experience but without the reviews, I was seeing everyone tweet about and Facebook about seeing this but hadn't seen it myself (felt like a fraudulent movie blogger when people kept asking me if I'd seen it and I hadn't!!).  Finally got to see it (in 3D) a few weekends ago...

You’ve got to know the story here, but for the sake of continuity I’ll tell you anyway. Jurassic World takes place 22 years after Jurassic Park, where seemingly, no one has learnt their lesson and the Park is now bigger and better than ever. Behind the scenes, researchers and scientists have finished developing a new, genetically engineered dinosaur called the indonom..y...something or other. It’s bigger, scarier, and more dangerous than anything they’ve created before. What could possibly go wrong? Ha!!

The slow start introduces us to our main characters. We have Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) who runs the park, and most definitely does not have time to look after her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) who have come to visit, presumably whilst their parents sort out their divorce. Owen (Chris Pratt) seems to be the chief dinosaur handler, and the smartest person in the room. Er, park.

Honestly, I got everything I could have wanted from Mercedes World. Sorry, Jurassic Converse. Wait, what? Okay, product placement is everywhere, I know, but most of the time it goes straight over my head. That’s the point, right? All these brands being pushed into my subconscious. Jurassic Pandora goes one step too far by ramming brands down our throats. From Chris Pratt making my knees weak, slowly drinking from a glass bottle of Coca-Cola to the most ridiculous close up shots of the brothers’ branded shoes, product placement is everywhere here. I may actually start a drinking game based around this.  How did I not even notice this?!  I am casting my mind back through the whole film in the hopes that i can imagine one product placement but nothing... I have to see this again now so I can keep my eyes peeled! Seriously? Maybe it was the caffeine but it really put me off the film itself!

Back to the point though, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Sure, the start was a little slow but once the pace was set, it just kept going. It was exciting, and I found myself hiding behind my box of popcorn during some of the jumpy moments. I’m not sure I agree with the 12A rating, but it’s replaced the standard 12 so there’s nothing else it could have been given!  Do you not think it would have been a bit gory to be anything less?!  There was quite a lot of blood! I meant it should be higher, not lower! :D

I have to admit, although I was looking forward to this, I tried not to have too many expectations. I enjoyed Jurassic Park 3 but it was no where near as good as the original so I didn't want to get my hopes up....BUT....BUT....this was amazing.  It was extremely close to being as good as the original (if it wasn't for Bryce Dallas-Howard's character) and I was fully engrossed from the very beginning.  I don't usually watch live action movies in 3D because I generally think they use it for cheap thrills but the quality of the 3D in this was brilliant, the feel of souring over the vast landscapes of the Jurassic World park and through various wooded landscapes chasing the tail of a lose Raptor.  There was nothing flying directly at the screen or cheap thrills to make you jump and I loved that!

My biggest niggle with this was Bryce Dallas-Howard, I have never been her biggest fan in anything I have seen her in but i'm 100% if it was a dislike of her characters or her directly. Either way, this was no different, workaholic Claire is arrogant and rude and a really unpleasant character that all of a sudden we are meant to believe 'gives a crap' about anyone after allowing the situation to happen in the first place for her own validation.  Also, her hair.  Am I the only one who noticed that she didn't have a hair out of the place for the first half of the movie and then all of a sudden the style changed to perfectly styled curls...how?! why?! what were hair and make up thinking?! - I think this may have bothered me a bit too much! I think I was too busy creating my product placement bingo game to notice this, ha!

Just for laughs, they had to throw in a hilarious scene where Claire was running full speed (in stillettos) while been chased by a T-rex, which miraculously never caught up with her......

Ok so I spent most of this review ranting but I loved it, cant wait to see it again (and spot some product placement) and get another eyeful of Chris Pratt.....

I fully realise this is the most off topic review I may have ever written, so to conclude, this was pretty brilliant on the big screen, although I’m not sure if I’ll love it as much after multiple viewings.

Review: Let's Be Cops (2014)

So, here's a funny story. I had been looking forward to Let's Be Cops for ages, and I wrote my review pretty much straight away, and then Jenna destroyed it. Well, what I mean is that her laptop somehow duplicated our Premium Rush review and deleted my Let's Be Cops one. Sadface! That was ages ago now, but I was just in Letterboxd when I realised I had copied and pasted my review in there! So, resurrected from the dead, here's my review!

Note to Jenna's laptop: Please be kind, I really want to publish this! Sorry!!

On a plus note, since all that happened I have managed to see the film so I can comment :-)

Let's Be Cops is a fake buddy cop movie about two friends, Ryan (Jake Johnson) and Justin (Damon Wayans Jr) who have never found their true calling in Los Angeles. They decide to move back to their home town, but first they go to a costume party as cops. It turns out that they pass for the real deal, and so the two friends pretend to be real cops, which lands them in trouble with a local crime gang.

I worried that all the funny moments would be in the trailer leaving nothing else, but I was wrong. There were plenty of moments where I laughed out loud, mainly due to the chemistry between the two main characters. I read that most of the dialogue was improvised, which worked really well. The film itself introduced a new character who I don't remember being in the trailer, Pupa, played by Planet's Funniest Animals host, Keegan-Michael Key. Pupa was hilarious. He was the highlight of the film for me!

The only thing that let the film down for me was that there was virtually nothing new brought to the table. There's the basic plot of two guys pretending to be cops, but then everything else is just a mash-up of other films I've seen. The plot was almost the same as The Heat for a start, Pupa reminded me a lot of Jamie Foxx's character in Horrible Bosses, and there was an End of Watch vibe to it all too. I can forgive it though, because it's still really funny.  

I think they were aiming for the success of The Heat but the male version but lets not kid about, this is not The Heat, this isn't even in the same area code as The Heat!  Yes it's funny but it for me it wasn't hilarious and its not at all memorable, I can run off 20 brilliant one-liners from The Heat but I am struggling to remember a single funny part from this!

I thought the soundtrack was brilliant too, once I find out what the name of that dub-step song is, it'll be playing in my little girly car as I drive to the supermarket on a Sunday morning! Hard as nails, me.

All in all, Let's Be Cops wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it was still a funny film and I wasn't disappointed. Bring on Horrible Bosses 2! <--- obviously this was written a while ago!! haha!