Review: The Goonies (1985)

This is by far my favourite film of all time, so I had to review it at some point.  I have read numerous reviews on this film that have found reasons not to give it a full 10 stars! 

I know this film isn't perfect and it's fair to say, it's hasn't aged particularly well but that doesn't take anything away from this film for me.  It has the action, adventure, bad guys, good guys, a giant squid (if you watch the deleted scenes), water slides, skeletons, friendship and the good looking older brother.  It feels to me like they are ordinary (ish) characters, in an extraordinary situation, similarly to the reasons why I love E.T: The Extra Terrestrial.  These kids argue, fight, swear and pick on each other, like I did with my cousins and friends when I was a kid.  The truffle shuffle scene is one of the key scenes that makes the characters seem so realistic:

Some of the lines throughout the film have stuck with me over the years and I still quote them on a regular basis.  The action keeps the film on pace and the bond between the friends makes you want to see how it ends.  Mikey's monologue at the bottom of the well is one of my favourite quotes of all time and as a child made me feel involved and like I was a Goonie myself and I could do anything. 

This nostalgia has carried through the years with me, leaving me unable to criticise this film, there is too many memories and good feeling tied to it.  You may way to read Allie's opinion on the film to get a slightly less biased review!

Yeah see I'm coming at this from a totally different angle, about 6 months ago I watched this for the very first time! Shocking, and totally unacceptable I know, but I was re-watching Jumanji too many times as a kid to even notice this film.

I did enjoy this film, honestly I did, but I have to agree with you when you say that it hasn't aged well. I watched this with friends and there were certain parts that people were quoting and really laughing at, that I just didn't get! Please don't hate me...

All in all a great action film with clever, comical dialogue by a great group of young actors that can be watched again and again.

Everything else aside, this was a really heart-warming film and I would definitely watch it again!

Review: Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

Oh boy, I really loved the 2011 Muppets movie. Greatest Valentine's Day ever that was, sat with my better half in the cinema full of parents and children. We were the only ones who fangirled/fanboyed at Jim Parson's cameo, and the only way we can do any housework effectively is if we blast 'We Built This City' out of our phones. So needless to say, I was mega excited to see Muppets Most Wanted.

I knew it wouldn't be as good as the previous one. Heck, even Disney knew, they even told us in the first 5 minutes of the film that this one wouldn't be as good! Sadly, it wasn't as good, but it still had that Muppet charm that you expect from them. The songs were frequent, and they were funny, and it was great fun trying to spot all of the cameos. My favourites were Tom Hiddleston as The Great Escapo, and Usher, as an usher!

The only thing that I think really let this film down was that there was too much emphasis on the human characters, Ricky Gervais in particular. Kermit and Constantine should have been the stars of this film, but I felt they were pushed back a little too much. The songs weren't quite as good either, it felt like they were created for the sake of having songs in the film, rather than to add to the storyline and its humour.

The clip below though sums up the greatest part of a Muppet movie:

My verdict? You should definitely see this film, it's worth it. There's also a great short before the film from Monsters University, which was really funny! I'm torn between a 7 or an 8 for this film, I would really love to give a 7.5 but Jenna wouldn't allow that. So from me, it's a 7.

Top 10 Film Quotes (Jenna)

So following Allie's Top 10 quotes, I thought I would follow suit seen as I had already decided on mine.  So here goes:


10.  'Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get'
- Forrest Gump (1994)

This is a classic line, from one of my all time favourite films and said by one of my all time favourite actors, so how could it not be in my top 10.  Tom Hanks is incredible as Forrest Gump and it was so difficult to choose just one quote, but this has to be it!

9. 'Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me... it brought me to you. And I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm thankful. You must do me this honor. Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless.  Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise'
- Titanic (1997)

I am a soppy bugger to say the least and I love a good romantic monologue and this has to be the best one (i.e. the one that made me cry the most!!)  I could watch this scene over and over again and it would never get old.

8. 'I'm glad he's single, 'cause i'm gonna climb that like a tree'- Bridesmaids (2011)
 
I love Melissa McCarthy, I think she could say anything and it would make me laugh!  This line, literally made me howl with laughter.

 7.  'If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball'
- Dodgeball: A true underdog story (2004)

No explanation required!!

6. 'E.T Phone home'
- E.T The Extra-Terrestrial

One of my favourite films as a child and this was the moment in the film when you realised that ET was just a being that had been left behind and it humanised him, making you bond with the character so much more.  I was heartbroken when I realised that ET didn't want to stay with Elliot but he was so alone on Earth.  It's amazing have this one quote had such an impact on the whole film, it was the turning point from the children having their strange pet, to them needing to help him find his way home.

5. 'There's no crying in baseball!!!'
- A league of their own (1992)

My second quote from Tom Hanks.  I love his character in this film and how he interacts with the girls on the team.  This quote showed just how frustrating it was for Jimmy Dugan working with these girls but it comes across so hilarious to the viewer

  
4. 'You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off' - The Italian Job (1969)

Brilliant!

3.  'Just shut up.....you had me at hello'
- Jerry Maguire (1996)

I loved this whole speech, but this line just made it.  My heart just melted, I re-watched this scene over and over again, so romantic and heartfelt.

2.  ‘What do tigers dream of when they take their little tiger snooze? Do they dream of mauling zebras, or Halle Berry in her Catwoman suit? Don't you worry your pretty striped head, we're gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed. And then we're gonna find our best friend Doug, and then we're gonna give him a best friend hug. Doug, Doug, oh, Doug, Dougie, Dougie, Doug, Doug! But if he's been murdered by crystal meth tweakers….well then we're shit out of luck.’
- The Hangover (2009)

Don't even read this quote, just watch...

1. 'Don't you realize? The next time you see sky, it'll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it'll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what's right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's bucket.’
- The Goonies (1985)

Without a doubt, my favourite film EVER! Had a tough choice to pick my favourite quote, there are funnier, sharper and wittier quotes in the film that I could have chosen, but this one holds a special place for me.  As a kid, it made me feel like I could be a Goonie and I could have adventures like them.

However, I had to add these little gems in, I quote these in the office all the time to make my colleague laugh and they still have me in stitches after all these years:

Top 10 Film Quotes (Allie)

Me and Jenna are planning a lot of 'Top 10' lists for this blog, in fact, we even have a list of the different lists we want to do! We're starting off with Film Quotes. Now, this was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. The films themselves were easy, these are some of my favourites. The problem was chosing a single quote, for a couple of these I had up to 5 quotes each!

Anyway, I whittled them down, and here is my Top 10...

10. "It's your job to know these things." The Change-Up (2011)

Okay, so not the most memorable moment from this film, but I use this quote so much now I actually had to try and remember where it came from. Sadly I couldn't find a clip of it, so have this funny moment below instead.



9. "To the windows, to the walls..." The Proposal (2009) 

Oh man...this scene! Excuse me for not typing out the whole quote. One of my favourite guilty pleasure films, and I could watch this clip for days and never get bored of it.



8. "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

This was one of the films that I had 5 quotes noted down for. I wish I could just quote you the whole film! If you've never seen any of the Monty Python films (I'm looking at you Jenna) then you'll either love or hate them. Me and my Dad will watch these and cry from laughter, whereas my Mum just doesn't get it at all.




7. "You hear that? It's the winds of change..." Monsters Inc (2001)

Again, maybe not the most memorable quote from this film, but me and my brother, 13 years later, still quote it all the time and find it hilarious. Plus, Randall is my fave!



6. "I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you." Taken (2008)

Oh man, hasn't this got to be one of the greatest quotes of all time? Liam Neeson is just such a badass, and that voice could put the fear of God into anyone!



5. "Remember that you were loved by me, and you made my life a happy one. And there's no tragedy in that." Third Star (2010)

Not a film many people will have even heard of, but I watched it on one of my Benedict Cumberbatch binges. This whole film was a giant kick in the feelings, and I'll remember this quote forever. If you fancy watching the film, don't watch the clip below. It's more of a fan-made compilation, and filled with spoilers.



4. "Who's...the...moosiest moose we know? Marty Moose!" National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

My childhood film! In fact, my whole family's childhood film...I can't even remember how many times we all watched it but from my little brother, to my parents, to my aunt and uncle, to my grandparents, we all know every word to this song. Should I be bragging about that?



3. "Stop breaking the law a$$hole!" Liar Liar (1997)

I love this film so much. In fact, I love Jim Carrey so much! This is another of my favourite films from when I was younger, and I was torn between this quote or the moment he made an origami goose in the courtroom, which I think was actually a blooper at the end?



2. "Now if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed, before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled." Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter just had to make it into this list somewhere of course. The problem is, there's a whole lot of films in that series and a scroll full of quotes to choose from! My family always told me I was just like Hermione though (insulted?) so I had to go with my favourite quote from her.



1. " When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around." Love Actually (2003)

Here it is! I've had quite a few funny quotes in my top 10 so I had to finish on something beautiful didn't I? I watch this film every year and I love it more every time I watch it.



So there you have it, my Top 10 quotes. How many are your favourites too? Which quotes would you include in your Top 10?

Flick Chicks guide to Cinema Etiquette

This is an odd post, I will grant you that but it is something I am VERY passionate about!!  I go to the cinema ALOT, I love it.  It's my happy place :-)  I have a card that I pay £15 a month for that allows me to go as many times as I want and I get 25% off food - this makes me very happy :-)



However, one thing that can really rile in me in the cinema is a lack of what I call 'cinema etiquette', rules that I think should be posted all over the cinema for everyone's benefit but they aren't.  I consider the following to be the worst cases:

1.  The screen tells you before the film starts to turn off your phone and I understand that no one does this anymore, I don't even do this in case there is an emergency.  However, just because your phone is on does NOT constitute checking it every 30 seconds for a message or having a long text conversation throughout the film.  Does no one understand that the light from a phone is as annoying as a ring tone.  Plus why are you texting if you are supposed to be watching a film?  Surely you can't really be enjoying it if you are texting 'How's u?' to Joe Bloggs throughout it!  The worst case of this I have seen was a teenage girl in the cinema watching The Impossible, what I consider to be one of the most poignant and emotional films I have seen and I thought it was gripping from beginning to end.  However, the young girl in front of me apparently thought different and at the *SPOILER ALERT* key scene where they children see their brother and dad and run towards them in such an emotionally charged scene I had to restrain the urge to cry out loud, she decided to check her Facebook account, you know to see what's going on in the world - my dear this film is what's going on in the world!!

2.  Kicking the seat in front, putting your feet up on the back of someone chair and tapping your foot on the floor making the whole row of seats shake!  Irritating at the best of times and worse when you highlight to said person that it is irritating or stare in their direction for a while but they just continue, why?  Do you have a nervous twitch?  If so I can let you off but most of the time it's rebellion or boredom in which case, piss off home and put your feet up on the back of a chair there or kick the back of your sofa, oh that's right you would feel no need to do that at home, so why at the cinema? Why when there are 90 other people around trying to watch a film and not be rocked to sleep by your incessant twitching.  A young man in the cinema while seeing Les Miserables reminded me how bad this can be, he clearly did not what to see the film but had been dragged along so he twitched his leg for the first hour, finally I started glaring at him to let him know that it was irritating me.  To which he smiled at me and continued through the entire 3 and a bit hour film.  He did it because he knew it was annoying me and it he had nothing better to do because he didn't want to watch the film, then don't go to the cinema and ruin the experience for everyone else!

 

3.  Popcorn diving!!  This drives me up the wall.  People who insist of digging and diving through their giant bag of popcorn to get the popcorn at the bottom of the bag...why?  why?  The popcorn at the top is the same as the popcorn at the bottom, it has all come from the same machine.  In fact if anything the popcorn at the bottom is worse because the kernels that haven't popped are heavier therefore drop to the bottom - ready in waiting to break your teeth when you have run out of good popcorn!!  So WHY would you dig to the bottom to get that, is it just to make the noise?  Also when offering your friend some popcorn, you can gently tap them and lean tha bag towards them, common sense states that they will understand and take some if they want some or silently wave it away if they don't.  Oh no there are the lovely people who persistently shake the popcorn at their friends 'do you want some' shake it again, and again.  They silently wave the popcorn away suggesting they don't want any but no 'persistent man' must insist that you have some - therefore continue to shake it in their face for the remainder of the movie...that little gem ruined Life of Pi for me!!

4.  Talking!!!!! I have put this last because it is my biggest issue with cinema goers!!  Why go to the cinema and talk through the film, go to the pub if you want to talk - you are in the wrong place!!  Worse still people who talk through the trailers and when you ask them to be quiet they say 'why the films not on yet!' I don't know about anyone else but I go to the cinema not just to see the film but for the whole experience, that my friend, includes the trailers - which I might add are my favourite part of the whole experience! I want to know what I'm coming to see next, I do not want to know what so and so said about so and so on Facebook and how this effects the people sitting behind/in front/near me in the cinema! Nor do I to hear whether you have figured out what film that actor was in before this or if that is in fact the monkey from friends in The Hangover Part 2 - what I want to do is watch the film in the quiet and then maybe go for a drink afterwards and discuss the parts you didn't get or who that actor was...I do NOT want to hear this throughout the film - whether you're my friend or not!!  In fact if you are my friend it's worse because at this point I am embarrassed to be sitting with you and also trying to tell you to shut up without talking myself and being the person I hate.  It's a tough call but I have established the best plan, I no longer go to the cinema with any of my friends who are guilty of disastrous cinema etiquette, therefore avoid the awkward situation entirely.

The reason I was prompted to share this little rant of mine was this:  As a Premium Unlimited member of Cineworld with my dad we get advanced screenings of certain films before they come out on general release.  Therefore everyone in that screening are also card holders, so I foolishly thought, these people are all regular cinema goers and will be the creme de la creme of cinema etiquette.  Oh how wrong I was, in fact this group of people were the worst I have ever come across collectively in one screening - everything I have mentioned above was present as well as chomping, fools who came late so had to sit apart so had to shout various requests 'pass the popcorn' 'do you have the water' across the 2 rows and 6 chairs and late arrivals!!

I love this post so much! I completely agree with all of these points and it does make you think sometimes. When cinema tickets cost so much these days (£8.50 now for a standard 2D film at my local) why are there people like this that go?

My number 1 gripe is lateness. I'm a ODEON go-er so we don't have an unlimited card, so I rely heavily on Orange Wednesdays. It's no secret that there are more adverts on before a film on Wednesdays than any other film, and at its worst you can wait 30 minutes before your film actually starts! So it drives me crazy when the lights have gone down, the film has started, and then you get a phone torch blinding and distracting you whilst people are trying to find left over seats. The very worst was during a particularly gripping film when the cinema staff turned the lights back on for a group of 6 people to find a seat! You can literally be 30 minutes late and still get a seat before the film starts, so I swear these people do it deliberately!

I think we would both really love to know if any of our readers have anything else to add to this list? 

Definitely, readers share your thoughts on Cinema Etiquette, we would love to hear them and more than likely agree with them!

Review: Pitch Perfect (2012)

After it was announced that Pitch Perfect was getting a sequel, my girl-friends (Jenna included) were horrified to hear that I hadn't seen the film yet! It's been on my ever-growing list for a while now but I finally got around to watching it.

Pitch Perfect is the ultimate girls night in comedy. It stars Anna Kendrick, a freshman at Barden University called Beca, who produces her own mash-up music tracks and dreams of being a DJ in Los Angeles. She's a bit of a loner but is forced by her father to join a club and make some friends. She ends up joining an all-girl A capella group, and the events that follow are hilarious.

I have to be honest, the plot was completely predictable, but that really didn't matter because the humour and the musical moments just blew me away! The Riff-Off was a favourite moment of mine. 



I'm really looking forward to the sequel now!

The ultimate chick flick (so what a good review to start Flick Chicks on!), what I would call the chicks version of the Hangover.  Plus I love the music and I'm not usually one for noticing music in films let alone commenting on it but this had me dancing and singing along!

Rebel Wilson is currently one of my favourite actresses, she can blink and she has me in stitches, leading me to my two favourite parts of the movie:

Wilson, without a doubt, steals the show.

I don't know, I have to say that Anna Kendrick was amazing in this! She's literally gone from 'that annoying one in Twilight' to one of my favourite actresses right now.

The plot is the standard formula for comedy chick flick but that does not take away from this movie at all.  It may be a bit hard for some to consider watching this after the horrific phenomenon of Glee and I can fully relate to that BUT this might be wrapped up like Glee, but inside it's all sarcastic, gross out comedy goodness that everyone should try!  I myself have called it a chick flick but have found my 61 year old Dad watching it, twice! 

Sadly I couldn't get my better half to watch this with me, I got a mumbled 'not watching that Glee nonsense' response to my invitation! 

I would definitely recommend this film to anyone who wants to laugh their socks off and (pretend not to) sing along to this awesome soundtrack.  Here's hoping the sequel can hold up against the original.