Review: Arrival (2016)

Oh boy. I know this year has been a bit of a stinker for blockbusters, but overall I personally think it’s been a fantastic year, and now a new movie has rocked up threatening to become my favourite of the whole year. November, you are awesome. This also means that I’ve been to the cinema two weeks in a row, which is honestly the first time that’s happened all year. Two Amy Adams movies in a row, too!

Arrival is directed by Denis Villeneuve, the master behind Sicario, Prisoners, Enemy and Incendies. He’s currently working on Blade Runner 2049. This man is fantastic, I can’t emphasise that enough. I haven’t watched a movie of his yet that hasn’t wowed me, and Arrival is no exception. The UK has been marketing the hell out of this flick, in fact last time I was at the cinema, during the trailers we were shown 2 different Arrival trailers in a row. It was starting to get on my nerves a tad, but only because I didn’t want to know so much before going in.

First and foremost, this isn’t a Sci-Fi in the typical sense. It’s an alien invasion, for sure, but if you’re expecting Independence Day then this isn’t the movie for you. The world is most definitely at risk here, but there’s no room-shaking action sequences or alien punching of any kind. Our main character is Louise (Amy Adams), an expert linguist recruited to work with scientist Ian (Jeremy Renner) to learn from the aliens what their purpose on Earth is. Twelve pods have descended in seemingly random locations around the world, and they don’t seem intent to blow us into smithereens. 

I never excelled in science, and I can’t speak a second language, so I was grateful for the fact that I could easily understand what was happening during the movie, and actually found myself completely in awe of the linguistic work that Louise was doing. It’s fascinating stuff! How she went about teaching the aliens (heptapods, if you’ll excuse my most likely bad spelling) simple vocabulary, to lead up to actually asking a question was something that seemed impossible at first, but when broken down into stages, actually made a lot of sense.

Louise herself is a captivating character. We are drawn to her instantly and warm to her within the first few scenes when we’re shown a tragic moment in her life. She feels so real, and relatable. I’m pretty sure if we were sent up into a pod to talk with an alien we would freak out as much as she did, rather than staying cool and calm, with our hair and make-up perfectly in tact. But I’m getting off topic now.

I’m almost trying not to talk about the movie to be honest, because I want to be really careful about what I say. The less you know, the better, because the final 20 minutes of Arrival was one of my favourite movie experiences ever. That feeling in your mind of everything clicking into place is just amazing. 

Safe to say, my husband fully forgave me for scaring the crap out of him last week when we saw Nocturnal Animals, and he’s even gone so far as to say this might be his favourite movie of all time! It’s definitely threatening to become my favourite of the year.

Halloweenie Review: Psycho (1960)

October is coming to an end, but I felt like I still had enough nerves in me to go out with a bang. I started a modern classic, It Follows, and thought, why not end with a classic classic? That sparked me to check the IMDB Top 250 list which I’ve largely ignored for a few months, and on there spotted a movie I knew I needed to see. Psycho! I don’t know the time limit on spoiler alerts, but I’m going to discuss the entire plot in this post, so beware.

I’m fairly certain I’m not the only person out there who has never watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), but everyone in the world knows about that famous shower scene. I’ve seen it parodied countless times, most notably in National Lampoon’s Vacation when Clark scares Ellen with a banana whilst she’s showering. In fact, if you check out the references section on IMDB, it has over 1,000! That’s pretty impressive.

So the funny thing is, despite this movie being 56 years old, I actually didn’t have a clue what it was about! All I really knew was that it ended with our heroine being tragically murdered whilst having a shower. Turns out, I was even wrong about that.

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is fed up with her life. She has to meet her partner in secret, and they aren’t able to get married because he’s had to give up his money in alimony. When tasked at work to deliver $40,000 in cash to the bank, Marion uses the opportunity to run away and start a new life. When the weather takes a turn for the worse, she is forced to spend the night at Bates Motel, a deserted little place ran by an oddball by the name Norman (Anthony Perkins) who is dominated by his mother.

I can count the number of black and white movies I’ve seen on one hand, they’ve never really had much appeal to me. That said, I’ve enjoyed every one I have seen! I think what makes them great is that there’s no glitz and glamour to distract me, the focus is on storytelling, and the storytelling in Psycho is spot on. The first half an hour or so is dedicated to building up Marion’s character, showing us why she’s taking such drastic measures. It also builds up suspense in a very successful way, when Marion is stopped by the police and the whole ordeal at the car garage, I was on the edge of my seat.

Shock number 1 for me was when that pivotal scene happened only half way through the movie. Shock number 2 was that it was Norman’s mother that did the deed, rather than Norman himself. I’d always thought it was him! The scene was still difficult to watch, despite knowing what was coming. I can’t imagine the reaction when it was first released. If only time travel were real!

The second half of the movie turns into a crime solving story, as more clues are thrown out, and more questions raised about Norman and his mother. The moment when it’s revealed that Norman’s mother had been dead for 10 years gave me goosebumps. But who was it in the window upstairs?! The final scenes got too suspenseful for me, I hid behind my blanket, poking my head out every now and again, but what an ending! 

This movie is a huge two finger salute to the trailers of these days that give the entire story away. Almost the whole of Psycho was a complete surprise to me, despite it being one of the most famous movies of all time. Not my genre at all, but a bloody fantastic watch. Is the Bates Motel show worth a watch? I’m tempted.

Halloweenie Review: Orphan (2009)

When I thought up the ‘Halloweenie’ idea for this blog over October, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I have so far. Really, I was just looking for an excuse to watch It Follows and The Babadook without having to try and write a proper review for them, but having knocked those two out of the park early on, I found myself on Sunday night actively looking for another good Horror movie to watch. That’s how I came across Orphan (2009). I came across a list of ‘The 25 Best Horror Films of the 21st Century so far’ and didn’t get any further than the first one on the list.

“An original chiller co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio”

“...it ramps up to a rare (and essentially unguessable) twist”

Oh, I’m sold.

The orphan in question is a young girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), who is adopted by troubled parents Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) who already have 2 children younger than Esther, one of which is deaf. I’m still not sure why, or how that’s important to the plot, but okay. At least it made me keep my eyes on the screen to read the subtitles whenever she was signing.

It’s quite a long movie, but it never really dragged. The characters are all well introduced, we learn about the struggles Kate and John have had, Kate’s drinking problem, John’s infidelity, their miscarriage. I question whether it’s the right time for them to adopt, but then so did they, so I can accept that. Esther is an instantly likeable character, she’s quiet and doesn’t like like to play with the other children at the home, but she enjoys music and art, and she’s very smart. She’s a little odd, with her dress sense, ribbons and the way she talks, and that only gets worse as the movie goes on.

Esther quickly takes a liking to her new younger sister and her new father, but doesn’t like Kate much at all. She manipulates the whole family in such a way it’s frustrating to watch at times. I haven’t seen many of Peter Sarsgaard’s movies but I always find his character unlikeable, and I can’t explain why. I couldn’t stand him in this either. Would you really trust the word of your newly adopted and down right weird daughter over your wife?

I’ll keep this post spoiler free for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet, but I can’t argue with the second point that sold the movie to me in the first place. I did NOT see that plot twist coming. Personally, I try not to work it out anyway, because I love the thrill of the twist when it comes, but I couldn’t help but laugh at this one. I mean, really?!

I feel so conflicted. The movie felt well written (almost), well made, well acted, but so much made so little sense. It felt like so many details were thrown in to throw the audience off the scent, but really, the clues were there from the very beginning. I’m going to have to mull over this one for a while I think!

Halloweenie Review: It Follows (2014)

October is Halloweenie month here at Flick Chicks, the month that Jenna and I put on our big girl pants and force ourselves to sit through a few horror movies. You can read more about it in our announcement post here, and get involved if you’d like!

So this is the first is a long line of horror movies that me and Allie have promised to watch for Halloweenie, this was no where near the scariest we are going to watch and yet there were were hiding behind cardigans, cushions, hoodies and cats! We gave ourselves a choice between It Follows, Unfriended and The Babadook, and It Follows was the winner!

It Follows centres around what we named a "supernatural STD". After a sexual encounter, Jay (Maika Monroe) starts seeing people following her that no one else can see and they are trying to kill her.  Should she pass it on or try to stop it?

This was not what I was expecting, I thought it was going to be a teen slasher movie, Scream 2.0 but this was completely different. It had more of an indie feel about it and focused on really slow build ups rather than cheap scare tactics to entertain. I read afterwards that the idea of 'it' walking towards the camera makes it feel like a scary dream when someone is following you but you can't get away.

Jump scares are what keeps me away from Horrors, and it's so cool that It Follows only really made me jump once. From memory someone threw a rock at a window? I jumped a mile. The only other time I jumped was when Jenna quite literally punched me in the arm for no reason. Cheers mate!

However, it was the lack of jump scares that had me nervous the entire time. Those slow shots of a window, or open door, had me holding my breath and squinting, waiting for something to jump at me. That suspence barely lets up, and when you do let your guard down, is the moment the movie strikes with something horrifying. I'm just amazed, still. Is this what it feels like to love a Horror movie?

The whole film has a dream vibe about it, everything was so slow and calm (but terrifying at the same time). It made mine and Allies freak outs about every bathroom mirror, windows with curtains and closet doors seem ridiculous as there was minimal big 'jumps'.  I do need someone to explain the swimming pool scene to me and how they came up with that plan? Why did they think it would work? It baffled me?

I have no idea how we are actually going to watch the real jumpy horrors after the state we were in after this. Allie kindly walked me to my car (because I had lots of stuff not because I was scared!!!) And the first person we saw we looked at each other and said "you can see him right" - crackpots! This part is true, whenever Jenna comes to my house she has enough stuff with her to move in with me for the week. I'd imagine we terrified that poor guy though, wondering if he was real or not!

I've spent every day since questioning anyone walking slowly, I feel the need to nudge someone nearby and ask them if they can see that person too.

Oh, and if you're looking for a second opinion, why not check out Courtney's review over at On The Screen Reviews. This was creepy timing, just as I'd finished polishing off this post, Courtney emailed me looking to join in on our 'Halloweenie' activity and sent me a link to her review of It Follows! Weeeeiiiiirrrrrrd! Thanks Courtney...now can anyone else see that person outside? No?

Review: Circle (2015)

I’m back with another Grampy suggestion special! I’ve had to take them with a pinch of salt lately after one fateful movie night where he shunned Everest in favour of The Last Witch Hunter...but I couldn’t resist the sound of this latest suggestion.

Circle (2015) is a small, low budget movie which opens with 50 strangers awakening to find themselves all stood on circles, forming a large circle, in an even larger circular room. Notice the theme? Every 1-2 minutes, someone in the circle is executed by an electrical surge from the centre of the room. It seemingly chooses its victims at random, but the group soon realise that they have the power to choose who is sent to their death, by voting in secret.

From there, the movie descends into chaos as leaders attempt to emerge to decide who in the group should die first. Within the group are people from all ages, races, religions, classes, professions, and it doesn’t take long before personal prejudices come into play. Attempts to not vote at all fail, attempts to all vote one person to the left or right fail, and so the group are forced to make terrible decisions. It really does make you wonder what you would do in that situation yourself. Honestly, as much as I’d like to think I’d be a brave soul who would keep a level head, I would probably hop off my circle and end it all on my own terms! That’s a bit dark when I think about it, ha.

This movie is definitely not for everyone, I accept that. As I said, it’s a small budget kind of movie. There are no faces here I recognised from other movies, and the entirety of the movie takes place within the circular room. It’s very narrative-driven, which admittedly is something I would normally struggle with, but I was so drawn into the conversation, wondering who was going to go next, who was going to survive at the end, how this group of people got here in the first place, and what on earth would happen when just one person was left. Circle is a short movie anyway with a runtime of 87 minutes, but the time flew by much quicker.

It’s not a perfect movie by any means. You have to question how level headed some of the characters actually are. They freak out to begin with, but stay quite calm for the rest of the time. It definitely needed a few characters having a panic attack or simply sat in their circle sobbing relentlessly to feel slightly more real. The reveal of who/what is behind the whole situation also felt a bit short, and didn’t have much of a ‘wow’ factor. I can forgive that though, because the whole focus of the movie is the characters, and how they make these decisions. 

If I could describe it in simpler terms, I’d say that Circle is like 12 Angry Men on crack. The movie 12 Angry Men that is, not 12 actual men who are angry and...you get what I mean. Sorry to compare it to such a legendary movie, but that’s honestly the first thing that came into my head. All I can say is, if Circle sounds like something you think you’d enjoy, give it a try! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Review: Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Picking a movie as my ‘Looking Forward to this Month’ choice each month seems to put some kind of curse over it, meaning I don’t even get to see it at the cinema. How does this keep happening?! Hail, Caesar was my choice for March, and I think I had 3 different occasions planned to see it, all of which got cancelled on the day.

I’ve been excited for this since the trailer first came out last year. I think I was on a bit of a George Clooney hype, and the addition of Channing Tatum was too much for me to take. Then I watched (and loved) Inside Llewyn Davis and decided from that point I was a Coen Brothers fan. Still haven’t sat through the whole of Bridge of Spies, though…

So, the plot is fairly simple. This movie is about a guy who makes movies! Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) runs the joint, and spends every living moment of the day solving problems within the studio. Things go a little more pear shaped when his leading star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) goes missing. 

I think even if you didn’t enjoy the movie itself, you have to appreciate how beautiful it is to watch. If the film world in the 1950’s really is this colourful, then sign me up! It’s greatest strengths are ultimately its greatest weakness, sadly. A lot of the movie is filled with snippets behind the doors of different sets. We see Scarlett Johannson put on an incredible synchronised swimming act, and Channing Tatum dressed as a sailor, dancing on tables. I mean come on, what more could a girl want? The only problem is that most of these acts have nothing to do with the plot of the movie at all.

That sounds harsh, especially when I really enjoyed watching Hail, Caesar! It’s just that I hyped it up so much in my head, I was thinking of placing it next to Fargo on my hypothetical shelf. And it definitely doesn’t deserve a place up there. Although the twist is takes is unexpected, it takes a weird, political turn that kind of bored the pants off me. I don’t do politics. Or history. Sorry.

By far, the star here was Hobie Doyle, played by Alden Ehrenreich, as the young actor, famous for his Westerns, that is suddenly thrown into a highbrow drama, directed by the ever patient Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). Would that it were so simple...It doesn’t matter how many times I watch that scene, it will be hilarious every single time! I heard Alden is in the running for playing a young Han Solo? Don’t let Jenna know but I think he would be great!

All in all, and despite sounding negative, I really did enjoy this. I was just my own worst enemy and hyped it up too much. It’s not the best Coen Brothers movie out there, but as a fan of quirky humour, this was definitely my cup of tea.

Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

Okay folks, lets for just a second imagine that time travel is a thing. Now you're probably wondering what on earth time travel has to do with The Hateful Eight, right? The answer is nothing! It's just that my review found itself buried in our drafts list for 6 months, and most of it won't make sense now. So, cast your minds back, your fridge is full of leftover Christmas turkey and you're either still hyping about The Force Awakens, or desperately avoiding spoilers...got it?

If you live in the UK, you’ll have no doubt heard about the drama Cineworld have created by taking the decision to not screen The Hateful Eight in any of their cinemas. The distributors chose the Odeon at London’s West End for their special 70mm premiere, and well, Cineworld threw a temper tantrum. They’ve spent too much time watching Kylo Ren, clearly!

Thankfully, my local isn’t a Cineworld, nor do I pay them monthly for their Unlimited card, so I’m safe, but poor Jenna does and last I heard she was boycotting this movie in protest! It’s started a great marketing campaign for the other cinema chains though. Showcase have offered their usual member discount prices for tickets to Unlimited card holders, and Vue just went out there and offered UNLIMITED popcorn to anyone watching The Hateful Eight!

Just to rub salt into the wounds, I wasn’t that fussed about watching The Hateful Eight, the runtime made me want to cry, but movies like this are best enjoyed on the big screen, so I stuck on my comfiest hoodie and fluffiest socks, and fought my way through the wonderful UK winter weather to Odeon.

The Hateful Eight is the story of 8 characters brought together in a haberdashery store to stay the night due to an awful snowstorm that has kicked up. Each character has their own reason for being there, and I’ll let them tell their own stories to you respectively when you watch it, because it’s all part of the charm of the movie. That first hour drags like a female dog, and I was grateful for being stuck in a cinema at the time because if I were at home I’d have spotted something shiny and stopped paying attention.

After the introductions though, a game of ‘who done it’ quickly surfaces, and that’s where The Hateful Eight really gets going. The whole cinema burst into hushed whispers to their movie-buds of who they thought was guilty at this point (Jenna you’d have hated it, I could picture you giving everyone your evil eyes!), and then the bloodshed started.

It would take forever to tell you about all the characters, but Samuel L Jackson’s character Major Marquis Warren was by far my favourite. I’m actually quite gutted he wasn’t nominated for an oscar this year, he fully deserves it for this. He goes from terrifyingly menacing to absolutely hilarious with a click of your fingers, it’s great. I don’t mean to be ‘that guy’ right now but is it just me or was Tim Roth channeling his inner Christoph Waltz in his role? Was Christoph Waltz offered the part and turned it down?

I think, when you go into a movie with low expectations, it’s much easier to fall in love, because I really enjoyed this, to the point where I can almost forgive how darn long it is! Sometimes it’s the littlest thing that gives you joy, but those moments where the whole cast is screaming about the door just cracked me up, and Samuel L Jackson has so many great one liners in the final chapter. I dare not type them out here however!

Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

I was so late to the Cloverfield party, I arrived after the footage was found. In fact, I only really arrived on the same day that the teaser trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane landed and took the internet by storm. That night, I tracked down the 2008 original and watched it there and then, without even reading a synopsis. It wasn’t a perfect movie by far, but watching it completely new to the story was rewarding, and so I decided I would do the same with 10 Cloverfield Lane. That said, if you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly encourage you to close this page. I’m not going to talk spoilers of course, but I do think this is one that’s better the less you know.   I would have watched this as I really enjoyed Cloverfield but Allie listed 'horror' in the tags for the review, so for that reason...nope!

So, it’s unclear where 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) fits in timewise with the original movie, although multiple cases have been made online. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that this could easily be a stand alone movie, entirely unrelated to the 2008 movie. It starts with our main character Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), leaving in her car hastily, arguing with her boyfriend on the phone. She’s involved in a car accident, and wakes up chained to the wall in a bunker belonging to Howard (John Goodman). After a day or two Michelle also meets Emmett (John Gallagher Jr), suffering with a broken arm.

What 10 Cloverfield Lane does best is make you feel uncomfortable straight from the get go. It’s pacing is incredibly slow, and the first half is perhaps too slow, but it gives you plenty of time to look at the facts and try to work out what’s actually going on here. The real question is, can Howard be trusted? Sure, he saved Michelle after her car crash, but she’s literally chained to the wall. Howard says they have to stay in the bunker for at least a year, maybe two, because the air outside will kill them, but how does he know?

Every few minutes a new clue is unveiled, and you change your mind, and just when you start to think ‘okay, but where is this going?’ Something game changing happens and you’re left guessing all over again. The suspense is unbearable at times, and my poor Mum who was in the cinema with me at the time was terrified (she’s worse with scary movies than I am, which is saying something!). Nope!

The performances by the 3 main actors were brilliant and really made this movie great, but a whole heap of praise has to go to John Goodman here. He’s been a supporting character in everything I’ve seen him in, and I still don’t have the right words to explain how good he was in this. Is there any hope of his performance being memorable still by the time awards season rolls round again? I sure hope so!

This next part is going to push the spoiler boundary, so take care. I just really want to talk about the ending with someone. What’s Houston all about do you think? Are we getting a third Cloverfield movie at some point? Was the footage that forms the original movie found by the team of survivors/fighters based in Houston? I need all the answers!  Does this film actually have anything to do with Cloverfield?!

Review: The Machinist (2004)

Let me set the scene for you. It’s Friday afternoon in the office, we’re all eating far too many chocolate biscuits, whilst discussing diets, weight loss and squeezing into occasion dresses. Someone mentions Christian Bale and the extreme weight loss he went through for a movie, the movie that solidified his career, apparently. It’s called The Machinist. I’d never heard of it, and none of my colleagues could tell me anything about it. A quick Google search told me everything I needed to know that I had to watch this movie ASAP.

Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is suffering badly from insomnia. He looks awful, he’s losing weight rapidly, and he hasn’t slept in a year. Well, I won’t complain about feeling tired anymore, that’s for sure. Trevor is, quite rightly, starting to question his sanity. Why? You’ll have to watch to find out…

The Machinist starts just as mysteriously as it means to go on. In the dead of night, a beaten-up Trevor attempts to dispose of what seems to be a dead body, wrapped up inside of a rug. Someone approaches him with a light, and asks, ‘who are you?’. From there, the movie moves at a relatively slow pace, but builds up a horrendously long list of questions that end up swimming around your brain.

I’m not familiar with the lineup of award nominees for that year, but they must have been amazing for Christian Bale not to have featured in them. His dedication to losing all that weight is worth noting alone, but this is the best I’ve ever seen him, and I’ve always enjoyed his performances. You can’t help bet feel desperately sorry for Trevor, but he gives off an unsettling feeling at the same time. How on earth he went from this state to bulking up for Batman I’ll never know!

I got right up to the point where my head wanted to burst open from all the unanswered questions, and then the movie started unravelling itself and everything fell into place, slowly at first, but the last twenty minutes or so were brilliant. It’s hard to say any more than that because I don’t want to give away spoilers, but I think a second viewing would be really helpful to see just where all the clues were. Some were given so early on I was kicking myself for not picking up on them. Then again, that’s why I love this genre so much. I get so sucked into the story I never see the reveal or the twist coming.

I’ve mentioned this movie to a few people now, and it’s a shame that it seems to be known as ‘the one where Christian Bale is really skinny’. It’s so much more than that! It doesn’t top Memento for me as my favourite Mystery/Thriller, but it certainly comes close.

Review: The Gift (2015)

This gem of a movie has been so falsely advertised! Look at that poster. There’s some really creepy guy at your door with the most beautifully wrapped gift for you. It’s going to be a severed head, isn’t it? A bloodied knife? Am I going to die now? No, calm down. It’s not that kind of movie!

Married couple Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) have moved cities and are settling into their new home. Whilst out shopping, Simon bumps into someone he used to know in school, Gordo (Joel Edgerton), although he doesn’t recognise him at first. Gordo leaves a bottle of wine as a gift at their home the next day, which worries Simon and Robyn as neither remember giving Gordo their new address. 

Eventually, Gordo starts to turn up uninvited at their home when he knows that Simon is at work during the day. Robyn feels sorry for him and lets him in to chat with him, although she’s never truly comfortable in her presence. The movie starts to take a turn when we see a meaner streak in Simon, telling Robyn that Gordo was given the nickname ‘Weirdo’ in school, and he even crosses out Gordo’s name on their noticeboard to replace it with the cruel nickname.

After a dinner party ends rather disastrously, Robyn hears a strange noise the next morning and finds the koi fish in their pond dead, and their dog, Mr Bojangles, missing. I don’t want to go into any more details in this review as I think it’s better to watch The Gift when you know very little about it, but that should at least be enough for you to know whether it’s worth your time or not.

What fascinated me about The Gift was the lack of definition between good and evil. How on earth can you work out who to root for when you don’t know who the bad guy is? More importantly, how do you interpret that open ending?

This has been the first serious role I’ve seen Jason Bateman play, and I was really impressed. I thought I could only enjoy him when he brings dry, sarcastic humour to the table but that was nowhere to be found, and instead he was quite terrifying.

If you’ve been thinking about watching The Gift, please give it a chance. It isn’t the horror it’s made out to be, although there was one moment that made me jump out of my seat to be honest. It actually gave me tingles down to my fingertips! But then, that time that the cat jumped out in Horrible Bosses made me to the same, so interpret that however you like!

Review: Flightplan (2005)

Another family recommendation for me here. My love of mystery/thriller movies must stem from them, but I do have to take their suggestions with a pinch of...something. They thought San Andreas was the best action movie of the year, and well, they’re still telling me how much they loved After Earth. Bless them. After I told them about Non-Stop (which I shamelessly loved, making me a huge hypocrite I know!) they said it had a very similar plot to Flightplan, and I should get on that. So I did!  I must have watched this the year it came out, it was so long ago i had forgetten the film even existed!

Flightplan (2005) centres on Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster), a bereaved woman who is flying back from from Berlin to America with her young daughter. On board is the coffin carrying Kyle’s husband. Shortly after their flight takes off, Kyle’s daughter goes missing, and after a brief search of the plan, she is nowhere to be found. What’s worse is that the passengers around her claim to not even remember seeing her daughter in the first place.

So, it’s difficult to discuss this movie without spoilers, but I’m going to do my best! Kyle is aided in her search by Air Marshall Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) who honestly, to me, looked stoned the entire time. Is that part of Sarsgaard’s general demeanor? I haven’t seen enough of him to know, but he was instantly dislikeable to me. 

Of better help to Kyle is the plane’s main pilot, Captain Rich (Sean Bean). Now, come on...don’t you want to watch Flightplan now just to see if he lives or dies? I won’t tell you… My memory fails me so you'll have to tell me at the next movie night ;-)

As most movies of this nature do, we have several distractions thrown at us to confuse us about what’s really happening. Only, in this case, they seem to serve no purpose. At one point, Kyle picks out a couple of passengers and says she remembers seeing them outside her house the night before, watching her. The passengers act suspicious instantly and later in the film physically attack Kyle, which no one seems to care about, and unless I fell asleep like Kyle, I don’t remember that plot point being tied up at all.   Turns out I don't remember this film at all, I think I have a combination of this and Panic Room all caught up in knots in my aged brain!

Despite that though, I did enjoy the movie overall. It’s not the best mystery movie I’ve seen, but it did keep me guessing. About a third of the way though I had a brainwave and sat all smug knowing I’d worked out the plot already, but I was proven wrong, and I like that.  So much for me adding to this review, can you please text me a plot summary so I have some idea what this film was actually about haha!

Give me Non-Stop over Flightplan, but it was an enjoyable watch at least. Now to adjust my Sean Bean ‘survived or died’ chart…

Mini Reviews: Citizenfour (2014), Self/less (2015) & Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)

I’m back with a round of Mini Reviews! I haven’t done a post like this for a while, but there are 3 films I’ve watched recently which have either been a bit ‘meh’ or just far too mind blowing and terrifying for me to review properly. Here we go!

Citizenfour (2014) has been on my radar for a while. It’s a documentary by Laura Poitras about the findings of Edward Snowden, who has evidence of the illegal surveillance programs ran by the NSA in conjunction with other intelligence agencies around the world. It was a fascinating watch, but it was only went I went to bed that night that it really hit me, how terrifying it actually is. and I’ve been thinking about it ever since whilst using my phone or tablet. Is someone really watching me right now? Freaky! Citizenfour is a must watch.

I watched Self/less (2015) purely down to my undying love for Ryan Reynolds, but I wish he would stop appearing in terrible movies. Ben Kingsley is a dying man, but a highly successful and clever man, so he spends million on a dubious scientific program to have his mind transferred to a younger body. Only now, he can’t use his actual identity, rendering the point of the program useless. That’s just the start of the many plot holes, but it was an entertaining watch at the very least. 

I’ve never watched the TV Show, Spooks, but assumed Spooks: The Greater Good (2015) would stand on it’s own, which it did. It’s a typical terrorist on the loose movie in every sense, with the added twist of a traitor amongst the MI5 staff. My fiance and I took a stab in the dark guess on who it was within the first 10 minutes, and err, we were right. An interesting and fun watch, especially for Jon Snow fans, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

Review: Predestination (2014)

Every now and again, I come across a film that is just too smart or artsy for me. The last time that happened to me was Taxi Driver, but it’s happened again now with Predestination. This was a recommendation by my Grampy who loves all things Sci-Fi, who convinced me to watch District 9 and Moon.

This is as much as I can tell you about the plot. Ethan Hawke plays a time-travelling Temporal Agent who is on the hunt for a criminal known as the Fizzle Bomber. Ethan has spent his life travelling through time stopping terrorist disasters before they’ve even happened. On his final assignment, Ethan goes back in time, disguised as a Barkeep, and strikes up a conversation with a man known as The Unmarried Mother (weird, I know), a writer of trashy magazine stories.

Honestly, that’s all I can tell you. Predestination is an incredibly difficult film to review, not only because of my own confusion but also the nature of the film itself. It’s so full of twists and turns, that you just have to witness it for yourself. If you enjoy time travel and the consequences of it, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this. 

I understood Predestination, or at least the main plot line, and predicted the end before it happened, but it was just such a weird film I don’t know if I can truly say whether I enjoyed it or not. It was an experience, for sure.

If you’ve seen Predestination, you’ll understand this short post, and I’d love to know your thoughts on the film. If you haven’t seen it yet, I hope I haven’t put you off, and if you have a spare 90 minutes and an open mind, please, give it a go. It’s had great reviews, but it just wasn’t the film for me.