Mini Reviews: Love and Mercy (2014), Hot Pursuit (2015) & Unfinished Business (2015)

This was a complete accidental find, I hadn’t even heard of this film but I love the Beach Boys music so I thought I may enjoy it.  It’s based on the true story of Brian Wilson, who was once a member of and continued to write for the Beach Boys, he wrote some of their iconic song such as Wouldn't it be nice and Good Vibrations.  I can say that the soundtrack to this was brilliant, I was singing along and I loved hearing the development of the music as Brian (John Cusack/Paul Dano) was developing it. It was terribly sad to watch his breakdown over the years but great to see his relationship with Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) develop and her save him from his manager.  Heartwarming and awesome awesome soundtrack.

When I first saw the trailer for this, I thought, great a rip off of The Heat but not as good.  Then I warmed to the idea (since falling in love with Modern Family and Sophia Vergara) so a quiet Sunday night on the sofa with my duvet led to this.  Turns out I was right the first time, it was a terrible version of The Heat with Cooper (Reese Witherspoon) as the ‘play by the book’ cop and Mrs Riva (Sophia Vergara) the high maintenance witness in her ‘care’.  The jokes are poor, the story is worse and the characters are completely unlikeable.  Where Sandra Bullock was hilarious in portrayal of the stick in the mud cop, Witherspoon was just irritating, I know Vergara can be funny but the script just didn’t give her enough to work with.  Pretty poor across the board to be honest.

Vince Vaughn’s movies have always been of the hit and miss variety, The Internship – big hit, The Delivery Man – big miss!! Unfortunately, this was the latter.  I really wanted to love it, I really liked the cast and as a story it has kind of potential, it just didn’t play out well.  Honestly, I saw it a few weeks ago and I can’t remember most of it already.  What I do remember was a host of gross out comedy (if you can call it comedy) and ridiculous surname jokes (Mike Pancake, really?!).  I wont be watching this again and I am rapidly losing faith in Vince Vaughn as a leading character without his partner in crime, Owen Wilson.

Review: Wild (2014)

Another day another Oscar nominated movie, although this one for Best Actress which is didn't win but hey ho had to give it a go anyway, I'm a huge Reese Witherspoon fan so what could it hurt. It was pretty neat to be able to watch this on the day of the Oscars, it really got me in the mood!

 

Wild is an adaptation of the true story of Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) who after spending years in drunken stupors and the midsts of what can only be described as a sex addiction after the death of her Mother (Laura Dern), decides to walk 1,100 miles over the Pacific Crest Trail.  Bearing the literal scars from her trek and the emotional scars of her past she makes the extensive journey and provides flashbacks to her life before her drastic turn around.

 

 

As a visitor to the great state of California in recent months, it was great to see these amazing sights again and certainly made me want to go back and do some of the Pacific Crest Trail (maybe not the 1,000 that Cheryl did!!).  It's actually a great movie to watch for more than just the views, Reese Witherspoon does an amazing job of keeping you interested when she has nothing to say.  It reminded me a little of 127 hours where I was worried there would be nothing to watch except this one guys face.

It's quite amazing when I reflect back on Wild, because if you take the film in it's most basic form, you're watching a woman take a long walk alone for just under 2 hours. Yet, I was hooked from start to finish and didn't feel bored once, or even close to it.

 

hort cameos throughout the film break up the jaunt (even though you still feel exhausted just watching her trek...) and almost provide comfort for you as a viewer.  I felt tense throughout the whole film worrying that she was going to injure herself, get lost or get attacked so once she was at a trading post or with a nice couple (once you realise the husband wasn't an evil rapist) I felt a huge sense of relief.  That is until she went off on her own again!! There were definitely moments when I wanted to shout 'Noo!' at some of Cheryl's choices, and it made me realise just how untrusting we can be, as I always expected the worst to happen.

 

Definitely worth a watch for yourself, even if it's not your type of film you might just enjoy it.

Wild isn't my usual type of film, but it was an enjoyable experience and I would happily watch it again, or something similar.