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.

Christmas Movie Cast-a-Thon

The nights are darker, supermarkets are full to brim with ‘festive’ items, and the cups at all the coffee shops are now red. Let’s face it, Christmas is here folks. Don’t try to fight it.  I wasn't, I've been waiting for months for everyone else to catch up ;-) Me too!

To help us all get into the festive mood, we thought now would be the perfect time to host a Christmas-themed Cast-a-Thon. Over a year ago now one of our favourite bloggers, Dell at Dell on Movies hosted a Slasher-themed Cast-a-Thon, and we’ve been wanting to host another for ages now! 

So, think about your favourite Christmas movie right now. It could be a heartwarming movie like Miracle on 34th Street, a classic comedy like Elf or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, or a downright rude, adults only movie like Bad Santa. Regardless of your theme, there will be a standard set of characters. So, who would you choose?

Here are the rules:

1. Choose a character from TV or film for each of the roles below, and tell us what they’ll be contributing to your movie. 

2. Compile your list and post it on your blog before the 1st December, 2015. We’ll put together a master list shortly after that date and link back to you.

3. Feel free to use one of the banners above, or create your own.

4. Most importantly, have fun! Tis the season to be jolly after all.

The Roles:

Santa Claus - You can’t have a Christmas movie without Santa, that just goes without saying, but what kind of Santa are you going to cast?

Santa’s Helpers - Santa has a lot of work to do each year and when winter kicks in, he can’t do it all by himself. Just one helper or a whole army? It’s up to you.

Scrooge/Grinch - Our Christmas movie can’t be all sunshine and rainbows, there’s always someone trying to ruin the day.

Parents - Tirelessly working to give their children the perfect Christmas day, usually at the detriment to their own relationship. Who are you casting as the perfect, or not so perfect, couple?

The Children - Sometimes young a starry eyed, waiting for the sound of reindeer bells, sometimes fully grown up with children of their own.

Others - This Cast-a-Thon is purely for fun, so please feel free to add more roles as you see fit!

I really can't wait to see everyone's responses to this and its just another great excuse to start celebrating Christmas early!! 

Review: Her (2013)

I think I owe this movie a public apology. Her’s release was pre-blog for me, at a time when I was ignorant towards anything attached to the Academy Awards. Naive me thought Oscar winners were nothing more than boring, serious movies loved by boffin-critics. Now of course I know much better! How bad is it that I watched this and completely forgot about it?!

Her was another recommendation from my Grampy, and before he told me a little about the plot I actually knew nothing about it. I could picture the poster as clear as day, and I don’t know what my mind had assumed it was about, but it wasn’t this!

In the near distant future, when we no longer have to read our own emails or write our loved ones letters, lonely Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is struggling to deal with his recent divorce. When he sees an advert for a new operating system, OS1, he buys it and installs it immediately. This new OS has an exceptional AI and the voice Theodore speaks to calls herself Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). As Samantha learns more about Theodore and indeed herself, the two fall in love, but encounter difficulties when trying to define what their relationship actually is.

Even knowing that this is a work of fiction, it’s still quite harrowing to think that this is where technology is leading us. Actual human contact is becoming less and less necessary, and it’s not difficult to imagine a world whereby we walk alone, but talk constantly to our devices in our pockets.  

Despite knowing the name, Her is the first movie I’ve seen with Joaquin Phoenix (gasp!). I’m not actress myself of course but I can only imagine how hard it must be to act out a script when most of the conversations you have are with a device in your ear. That said, I thought he was amazing, and I’d love to see more of his work. Can anyone recommend me anything? Gladiator? Walk the Line? Signs? The Village?  To name but a few ;-)

The supporting cast were just as delightful, from the instantly recognisable and lovable Chris Pratt to the nearly completely unrecognisable Amy Adams. Honestly, I did a double and triple take before I realised it was her. She is absolutely beautiful!

I thought the cast, particularly Johannson and Phoenix, were amazing playing the key parts of their roles in near isolation and yet they express their emotions perfectly!

Her was such an emotional rollercoaster for me. It was at times heartwarming and yet heartbreaking. It was also hilarious in parts, especially if your reaction to anything sexual is to giggle and look away, like I do. My fiance looked a bit panicked during some scenes as at the time I was watching, he had an active headset on his PS4, and had to explain to his friends what they were hearing through the mic. I was banished upstairs after that!

I found this film so bizarre to watch, its completely advanced of our technology, in a world where relationships with AI's is relatively normal.  However, it felt like a normal love story, Scarlett Johannson did such an amazing job using only her voice that you could actually understand how they could be in love.  It's scary to see how this scenario can seem so normal and yet the world its set in seem so obscure.  The technology is more advanced than our world but the fashions and people seem to have drifted back to the 80's.

I made myself laugh last night when I thought hey, could Her be the sequel to Lucy? What an awesome fan theory!!

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies about Music/Making Music/Musicians

I rarely seem to contribute to Thursday Movie Picks, which is strange because I love it and everytime I see everyone's posts I think 'damn it I had a great idea for that...humph!'  Anyway, enough about me.....

Thursday Movie Picks is a great series hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, where each week she picks a theme and we all choose 3 movies that we feel fit. This week’s theme is movies about music/making music/musicians (no biopics allowed).

I was so excited when I saw the theme for this week, here are my picks:

Begin Again (2013)

A chance encounter between Gretta (Keira Knightley) a young musician just arrived in New York and Dan (Mark Ruffalo) a disgraced music executive, leads them to collaborating on a musical journey creating and reviving their careers.  I love this film, because it's so different to any other music based movie I have seen and the music was great....plus Adam Levine! *Swoon*

Pitch Perfect (2012)

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is a newbie at Bardon University and is encouraged (while naked) to join the Bardon Bellas the college's female a capella singing group.  Beca's presence provides the Bellas with a much needed shake up and helps them face off against the local boys group, The Trebles.  This was mine and Allie's very first review, way back when (check it out here) and we both loved it.  Its ridiculously hilarious, no matter how many time I watch it I laugh out loud and the music has me tapping my feet and singing along every time. (and I still blast 'Cups' in my car!!)

Whiplash (2014)

Andrew (Miles Teller) is desperate to be the World's best jazz drummer and gets into a prestigious music conservatory only to be pushed to his limits by the iron fist of Fletcher (J K Simmons).  I was amazed after watching this film as not a huge amount happens in the story, but I was completely and utterly engaged the whole time, I didn't take my eyes off the screen once.

Review: Legend (2015)

I was so desperate to see this when it came out at the cinema but I took an assumption that it would be NSFD (in hindsight it would have been ok as the 18 rating was for the violence rather than anything else) so I never got the chance.  Luckily, booked in a movie night with Allie and she still hadn’t seen it – win!  Tom Hardy, twice on the big screen!

* just a bit of trivia about this, The Guardian actually gave the film 2 stars and rather than ignore it they put it on the poster between Reggie and Ronnie's head so at a glance you assume they have given more but they are hidden!!

Legend, is based on the true story of 1960’s gangsters, the Kray twins.  Ronnie and Reggie Kray (both played by Tom Hardy) controlled the streets of London in the sixties through violence, celebrity status and fear, this adaptation of their lives focuses on their rise to fame from owning one billiard club to ruling London as well as Reggie’s relationship with Frances Shay (Emily Browning).

I can’t explain how much I loved this film, it had a great mix of drama, violence, romance (ish) and humour (even though much of it probably wasn’t meant to be funny).  Hardy had the perfect confidence and suave of Reggie Kray and also mastered his unnerving, mentally ill, loose cannon brother, Ronnie.  How he played both roles at the same time, and made them so different astounded me.  I actually kept forgetting that Ronnie was actually Hardy he was so different to Reggie.  As I mentioned, I don’t think it was necessarily supposed to be, but Reggie was hilarious and his one liners cut through the tense scenes perfectly.

Tom Hardy really has outdone himself with Legend, but so did the masterminds behind the camera. One actor playing two characters on screen isn't anything new, but this time it was done so well it was really quite astounding to watch!

I have never been a huge fan of Emily Browning but I thought she was great in this, if not slight underutilised.  I wanted to learn more about her mental health and how this was effected by her relationship with Reggie but it was only briefly touched upon (if only to explain the ending) and not really considered in depth.  However, at over 2 hours long they may have struggled to fit it in and not have it drag out, I can’t pick a scene that I think could be cut to account for a more in depth look at Frances and her role in the downfall of the Kray brothers.

I've waited a couple of days before jotting down my thoughts, but I'm feeling really conflicted. Firstly, I really enjoyed Legend. Like, really enjoyed it. I can't wait till the DVD release so I can watch it again and convince others to do the same. But at the same time, I have niggles. The run time was too long for my short attention span (not the movie's fault of course) but it felt like there was either a heck of a lot cut out of the final edit, or there were scenes included for the sake of it with no deeper meaning.

My knowledge of the Kray Twins is virtually non-existent so maybe it's assumed the audience knows more, but what happened with the work in Africa? I wanted to know more. Also, like Jenna said, I wanted to know more about what happened to Frances and the events that led to her diminished mental state.

As with Everest a few weeks back, I now want to read every book I can find on the Kray Twins and find out more about them.  I did scout through Wikipedia when I got home from the cinema and found out that Ronnie’s cell mate in prison eventually reported that Ronnie confessed to murdering Frances and making it look like suicide to get his brother back.  If it’s on Wikipedia it must be true, right?

Can’t wait for it to be released on DVD so I can watch it again!

I realise that I'm being a big pain by complaining that it was too long but also too rushed, ha!