Monthly Round-Up & Blogger Links: October 2016

Happy Halloween folks! You’ve probably noticed it’s been looking a little...purple here lately at Flick Chicks. Jenna’s taking a break from blogging as she’s struggling to find the time. I hope she’ll be back, but for now, I hope you don’t mind sticking around with just me for a while. 

Moving swiftly on, October has been Halloweenie Month, and although I didn’t watch as many horrors as I’d hoped, I’m still pretty darn proud of myself! If you’ve missed any of my Halloweenie Posts, here they are for you:

It Follows (2014)

The Human Centipede, First Sequence (2009)

The Babadook (2014)

My Favourite Halloween Special TV Episodes

Krampus (2015)

Orphan (2009)

Psycho (1960)

It’s been a quiet month for cinema trips, there haven’t been many ‘must watch’ releases, but I did catch The Girl on the Train, and Doctor Strange in IMAX, which was well worth the extra money, I have to say. I’ll post my review of the latter as soon as possible for you guys. In between all the scary movies I did watch some more of my usual kind of movies, and if you missed any of those reviews you can find those here:

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

The Nice Guys (2016)

As far as TV goes, I was super excited to see that a release date for Sherlock Season 4 has finally been announced, New Year’s Day! I’ll be going to my parent’s house to watch that with them. Boy, it’s been so long I’m going to have to have a catch up over Christmas, because I honestly don’t remember how it all ended. Speaking of ending...last week brought the final of The Great British Bake Off, which basically crushed our whole country. The show moves to another channel next year, which led to judge Mary Berry and presenters Mel and Sue dropping out. It’s the end of Bake Off as we know it! Fingers crossed the BBC creates a new show.

I’ve started watching Westworld too, and managed to fall behind on it already. This show is so good so far, you guys. I’ve never seen/read the original (Movie? Show? Book?) so I have no idea where any of it is going, but it’s just so well made. I’m loving all the crazy theories flying around.

Finally, I wanted to share a few posts that I’ve loved reading this month from my fellow bloggers. Check these guys out if you don’t follow them already!

Dell at Dell on Movies has been celebrating all things horror this month, and introduced me to Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. 

Brittani (I triple-checked this month!) at Rambling Film reviewed a movie I'm not sure I'll ever have the guts to watch, Hush.

Keith at Keith and the Movies reminded why I still really need to see Cafe Society.

Sati at Cinematic Corner has been recapping Westworld for us. I'm behind on her posts because I'm behind on the show - but I'll catch up!

Rebecca at ThePunkTheory shared with us all her Top 4 Scary TV Shows, of which I've only been brave enough to watch 1.

m.brown at Two Dollar Cinema always writes fantastically amusing reviews, but my favourite of his this month was The Jungle Book.

Last but certainly not least, check out Ruth's blog FlixChatter for all the latest coverage of Twin Cities Film Fest.

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.

Review: The Nice Guys (2016)

Have you ever seen a movie trailer for the first time and get the feeling that you know it’s going to be brilliant? Like, no fear of disappointment or anything because you know you’re going to love it? That’s what happened to me and my husband in January this year. We were at the cinema to see Spotlight, and after having a bit of a movie/blog hiatus over Christmas all of the trailers were a surprise to me. Cue a 70’s looking Ryan Gosling wrapping fabric around his knuckles, punching through a window, and then gripping his wrist, bleeding everywhere, followed by Russell Crowe accepting $30 to beat up a little girl’s friend, and I was practically dancing in my seat.

Of course, like every other movie I’ve been looking forward to this year, it got released in the cinemas during my wedding/honeymoon weeks, which meant I missed it. 

There was a game I used to play on the Xbox 360 called L.A. Noire, it’s possibly still one of my favourites games of all time. You play as an LAPD Officer called Phelps, trailing Los Angeles for clues and interviewing witnesses to solve cases. That’s just what The Nice Guys is like, only it’s side-splittingly hilarious at the same time. In The Nice Guys, Holland March (Ryan Gosling) has been hired by a worried mother whose daughter, a porn star by the name of Misty Mountains, has been missing for days. She was last sighted 2 days ago by her mother herself. The only issue here? Misty died in a car accident 4 days ago…

Holland’s search puts him in the line of fire of Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), who has been paid to stop Holland from nosing around. And so our pair meet, which as you can probably tell from the movie poster, ends badly (and painfully) for Holland. If I had any doubts about the chemistry these guys might share on screen, they were fizzled out by their performance at the Oscars earlier this year. They bounce off each other so well! 

I’ve been so used to watching Ryan Gosling play a tough guy (Drive, The Place Beyond The Pines, Only God Forgives) that this completely threw me off balance. I’m really not joking when I say he screams like a girl, and it didn’t matter how many times it happened, I laughed till I cried. He’s just a bit of a doofus, but a very good detective at the same time, which means when he does slip up and does something stupid, it comes without warning. His character Holland also has a young teenage daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice) who is constantly trying to help. Characters like Holly normally get in the way and get annoying, but in some cases, she actually saves the day, and she’s a delight to watch. 

It was just so much fun to watch, and I’ll be watching it again and again over the years, I’m sure. If there were only one movie this year that deserves a sequel, it’s this, because I could watch Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe work together solving cases for hours on end. In fact, I don’t even know why I’m scoring this a 9/10, I can’t think of a fault to pick at, but I hate giving out full marks!

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!

Describe Yourself in 3 Fictional Characters

A few weeks ago, our Twitter feed and my own personal Facebook feed was full of these ‘Describe Yourself in 3 Fictional Characters’ posts. Now, I take my lists seriously, and so whilst making sure I chose my 3 characters perfectly, I kind of missed the boat. This isn’t going round anymore. But perhaps you missed it, too? Either way, I need a break from terrorising myself with horror movies, and this seemed like a great chance.

Originally, all 3 of my picks were from TV Shows. It wasn’t deliberate, but when you dedicate years to a TV series you really get to know the characters and empathise with them, but I wanted to give myself at least one pick from movies. So, here we go!

Liz Lemon, 30 Rock

Have you ever watched a show and just felt the need to point at a particular character and shout ‘that’s me!’ over and over again? Man, I don’t know how anyone puts up with me when 30 Rock is on the TV. I’m not a girly girl in the slightest, I’m far happier in my joggers at home with a big bag of snacks on a Saturday night than out clubbing in high heels. I have no idea what I’m doing with my life half of the time, I tend to just stumble into everything. In fact, I could really do with a Jack Donaghy in my life to mentor me. Liz Lemon, you are my spirit animal!

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter

Yeah, I kind of cheated here considering how many Harry Potter movies there are. Hermione Granger is the character that everyone else thinks I’m most like. My brother still tags me in things on Facebook on a regular basis. I’d like to think it’s because everything thinks I’m pretty and intelligent, but deep down I know it’s because I’m a complete teacher’s pet, I’m bossy, and I like to correct people on the correct way to say things. Not that my grammar and spelling is perfect of course, but I want to scream when I see someone type ‘could of’ instead of ‘could have’. And you know, it’s levi-O-sa, not levios-A.

Winston Bishop, New Girl

I know, I’m not a man, trust me, but I have such a connection to Winston! To me, New Girl feels like the new age of Friends, where everyone can relate to at least one of the characters (I’m Monica apparently, as much as I’d like to be a Phoebe). Winston has that never ending optimism that I try to channel as much as I can, and hey, it turns out that there is someone out there who loves cats and bubble baths just as much as me! 

Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

I’ll give any movie a try, within reason. I don’t listen to critic reviews, but I place a lot of faith into bloggers’ opinions. Bloggers review movies for fun in their spare time, you know you’re going to get nothing but their own opinions from their reviews. Hunt for the Wilderpeople only came into my radar a few weeks ago, and every blog review I read had nothing but praise for it. That was enough to convince me to add it to my watch list, but once I realised that it’s directed by Taika Waititi, the genius behind What We Do in the Shadows, I made it my mission to watch it as soon as possible.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is based off a book by Barry Crump called Wild Pork and Watercress. It has that book-adaptation feel to it (don’t ask me to explain that feeling - I can’t) anyway, and it’s broken up into Chapters which sum up the ongoings well. In fact, I’d really love to give the book a go, I hope it’s as funny as the movie.

Ricky (Julian Dennison) is a troubled young boy, moving around different foster homes. He’s dropped out at the farm belonging to Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and Hec (Sam Neill) as a last chance. If he screws this up, he’s going to end up in Juvy. Ricky struggles to settle in his new home, despite the love and attention given to him by Bella, and so he runs away into the bush. Hec goes out to find him, and the result is a national manhunt for the pair as it appears that Hec has kidnapped Ricky.

It’s a funny coincidence that I watched this in the same week as Swiss Army Man, because they both have a lot of similarities!

Waititi’s style is clear in this movie. It’s got that same sense of humour as What We Do in the Shadows, and it’s quirky from start to finish. Julian Dennison absolutely shines as the child star of the movie, and his delivery of the witty lines is perfect. He’s just like a lot of other 13 year olds, thinking he’s a gangster because he’s shoplifted a chocolate bar, played GTA and listens to rap music. Yet he’s such a likeable character!

Every time I watch a movie set in New Zealand, I’m taken back by the beauty of the country. I’m sure a lot of work went into the cinematography, but honestly, the setting does half the work itself, it’s gorgeous to look at.

The movie walks that line of Comedy and Drama perfectly without throwing the tone all over the place. It has some horrendously sad moments that had me sobbing quite openly, although I won’t discuss why because of spoilers, but it’s also one of the funniest movies I’ve seen all year. The dialogue is brilliant, thanks in part to the chemistry Julian Dennison and Sam Neill share. 

I’ve been trying to balance this review out with a few negatives to warrant the 9/10 score I wanted to give it, but I’m really struggling. Originally I thought the roles of the Child Protection Officer and her Policeman companion were too campy, but actually, they fit the overall feel of the movie perfectly, especially when I try to compare it to What We Do in the Shadows. I very rarely give perfect marks to any movie, I think there’s always room for improvement, but I can’t find it here!

Halloweenie Review: Krampus (2015)

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!

Upon realising that Jenna and I don’t live close enough to watch every single scary movie together, I think I fell into my comfort zone a bit, Christmas movies! Krampus (2015) was originally going to be the movie of choice for my family’s annual ‘weekend before Christmas’ cinema trip, until I managed to convince them it was by no means a movie for children, and hey, perhaps we should see The Force Awakens instead?! I have since happily reported back to my Mum she would not have survived this movie.

Krampus is exactly what you think it is. One Christmas Eve, a young boy has a hard time understanding why his family have to get together every year when they clearly can’t stand each other, and in his anger, he accidentally summons a horde of Christmas demons to his home, led by none other than Krampus himself.

The opening scene to this movie might just be my favourite of any festive films I’ve seen. The contrast of the beautiful music “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” with the chaotic, hellish scenes of the rush before the big day, screaming children sat on the laps of miserable mall Santas, people barging others out of the way to finish their shopping, it was so well done. The movie also stars some of my favourite faces from TV, Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Allison Tolman (Fargo) and David Koechner (The Office) so I had plenty to look forward to.

As funny as it was, the first chunk of the movie felt like a poor man’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for a cheesy festive flick. It’s actually easy to forget that you’re watching a horror, that it, until a once hopeful letter to Santa gets torn up and thrown out of the window. From there, it’s a fast paced, adrenaline fuelled ride to hell. It’s quite jumpy in parts, especially the scenes outside in the blizzard, but I got used to it after a while. Watching the movie through a layer of cardigan sure helps.

I do have a few issues with Krampus. It’s described as a Horror Comedy, but it doesn’t blend the two genres well at all. The first half is pure comedy, the second part is pure horror, but that cheesy kind of horror that makes you laugh because it’s a bit well, bad. Perhaps that’s what the team was going for, but it felt off to me. The characters were scary enough, that’s for sure. It’ll be a while before I forget that teddy bear’s face!

If you can see past the corny one liners, Krampus is actually quite enjoyable. It also has quite a sentimental lesson behind it, and although it felt rushed, I enjoyed the ending. It wasn’t as ‘happily ever after’ as I expected it to be. 

My Favourite 'Halloween Special' TV Episodes

Until now, I never really got into Halloween in the movie sense, I was too much of a wuss. For the record, I still am, but I’m doing it for the blog this year! Anyway, what I always look forward to in October is the Halloween Specials that my most loved TV Shows air. So, to take my mind off the Babadook, and that creepy teddy from Krampus (he was in my dream last night) I thought I would take the opportunity to share some of my favourite Halloween Specials!

Costume Contest (The Office US, Season 7, Episode 8)

You could always count on The Office to put on a good Halloween episode, I could have dedicated the whole post to them, but my favourite of them all has to be Costume Contest from Season 7. Gabe dressed as Lady Gaga was absolutely hilarious, but in another beautiful moment from one of my favorite TV couples, Jim finally gives in to his hatred of ‘couple costumes’ and turns up with baby Cece, dressed as Popeye and Swee’Pea to match Pam dressed at Olive Oyl.

Halloween (New Girl, Season 2, Episode 6)

So, perhaps not the most exciting name for a Halloween episode, but Season 2 brought a fantastic haunted house themed episode. Jess is working the night shift at a haunted house nearby, and the gang thinks she looks like a zombie Woody Allen. I’m sure my fellow movie bloggers appreciated the impressions that followed. This episode also features one of my favorite Winston moments that I’m still not convinced was scripted, “Shelby you made me so mad my mustache is coming off!”.

Halloween I, II & III (Brooklyn Nine Nine)

Oh boy, okay I’m breaking my own rules now. So far, every year Brooklyn Nine Nine features a Halloween special that gets bigger and better every year. It started in Season 1 where Jake makes a bet with Captain Holt that he can steal his Medal of Valor before the night is over. In Season 2, Jake steps up his game and bets that he can steal Captain Holt’s watch from his very own wrist. Last year the whole precinct was divided into two teams to see who can steal a crown from the interrogation room. I really hope this theme continues into the latest season!

Epidemiology (Community, Season 2, Episode 6)

Ah, why did I give up on Community? It was such a brilliant show in the early seasons. Anyway! Epidemiology kicks off with Dean Pelton dressed as Lady Gaga (is there a theme here!?) for the annual Greendale Halloween Party. There’s something wrong with the food, which it turns out the Dean bought on the cheap from an army surplus store. The catastrophic result is that the entire college gets put on lockdown as what seems like a zombie outbreak occurs.

Two Guys, a Girl and a Psycho Halloween (Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, Season 2, Episode 6)

You know it took over 10 years for the UK to get this show on DVD? A crime, I say! Hilarious to watch if you’re a fan of either Ryan Reynolds or Nathan Fillion, by the way. Anyway, Two Guys, a Girl and a Psycho Halloween was a really clever episode, where a psycho version of Berg shows up and goes on a murderous rampage. At a costume party, his friends have no idea that this isn’t the Berg that they know and love, until they come across the real Berg. The episode comes to a close in the pizza place (of course) as they attempt to work out which Berg is real.

I could honestly talk (type) all day about Halloween specials, so I should leave it there. I’m so looking forward to seeing what my current TV shows come up with for 2016! What’s your favourite Halloween Special? I’d love to know!

Halloweenie Review: The Babadook (2014)

There are several coping mechanisms that I use when watching a horror movie. My favourite is keeping a cardigan nearby, and watching the tense scenes through it. Cardigans are the perfect thickness for obscuring most of the scariness without blocking the screen entirely. Hoodies are no good, as I sadly learnt whilst watching It Follows, they’re just too thick. They’re perfect for weepy movies though, I just pull up the hood and hide myself away. My latest trick for horrors that I can find on VOD however is watching on my tablet with headphones. Super easy to look away from and tear out a headphone when the creepy music is just too much.

The Babadook (2014) is a wonderfully creepy movie. Amelia (Essie Davis) is still struggling with the tragic death of her husband 7 years ago. Her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) is having problems of his own. He’s plagued by a monster that not only keeps him awake at night, but has led to him becoming quite a violent and disturbed young boy. Just when things seem like they can’t get worse for this Mother and Son, they read a book called Mister Babadook, turning their lives into a living nightmare.

I got pulled into a false sense of security with this movie’s first half, which does a brilliant job at building the two leading characters and explores their backstories and the reasons why they are who they are. It honestly makes a great movie of it’s own right, without the horror part that follows. It was easy to take an instant disliking to Samuel, he seemed to be the stereotypical ‘weird kid’ you expect from a horror movie, but my heart ached for him and Amelia after a while. It was such a sad situation.

Sadly, the movie moves on from their tragedy and cranks up the scare factor once the ‘Mister Babadook’ book is found. The book itself is written in that rhyming couplet style that many children’s books are written, and starts off fairly innocent. You know, until the part about wishing you were dead. That was a bit off. Amelia does the WRONG thing by tearing the book up that night (personally I would have burnt it, and my entire house down) which I can only assume just angered the Babadook.

I can’t even tell you through words just how terrifying the sound the Babadook makes. Even through headphones rather than quality, cinema speakers, it’s chilling, and I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it. Move over Godzilla, you ain't got nothing on this hat-wearing monster.

What I liked the most was that we didn’t actually see the Babadook that often. We just didn’t need to, the atmosphere and the music is enough, and it makes those scenes with him in that bit more powerful. Admittedly, I was hiding for a lot of the final chunk of the movie, whispering (spoiler alert) ‘please not the dog’ over and over again, but it was a justified kind of scaredness, I wasn’t just hiding from endless jump scares.

I’m so glad I braved this one, and ooh boy, that ending! I won’t spoil it for anyone, but it was definitely not what I was expecting.

Review: Everybody Wants Some (2016)

UPDATED POST with Jenna's Review: So, I have a lot of apologising to do. Last year when Boyhood stole the glory that I thought Birdman deserved, I had a grump and kind of swore off any Richard Linklater movies. School of Rock was the only movie of his I’d actually seen, but when I hold a grudge I put 100% into it, so I told myself I wouldn’t watch any more than that. I hear nothing but praise for the Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight trilogy, and I know Dazed and Confused is a cult favourite, but I had a grump on me. So when the trailer came out for Everybody Wants Some (2016) I grumbled some more. I didn’t find it funny, and it had ‘he who must not be named’ attached to it, so I was going to avoid it like the plague.

But, y’no, curiosity killed the cat, and every review I read upon it’s release was not only positive, but absolutely singing it’s praises, so I sucked up my pride and went out to see it.  I didn't think about it nearly as much as Allie, I saw Allie's review and popped it onto my 'to watch' list and only just got around to actually watching it.

It’s hard to explain the plot, because there isn’t one, really. The movie starts with Jake (Blake Jenner AKA that guy from the later seasons of Glee) arriving at a college house that he’ll be living in three days before classes start. Jake will be sharing the house with the rest of the school’s baseball team. After introducing himself to the guys, he goes out with a few of them to rustle up some girls for a party they’re going to throw that night, despite the fact their coach has given them only 2 rules. No alcohol in the house and no girls allowed upstairs. Safe to say, it’s not long before both of those rules are broken.

From that, the rest of the movie moves from one party to the next, with a separate plot of Jake chasing after Beverley (Zoey Deutch). It’s fun filled from start to finish, with raunchy moments, booze, short shorts, baseball, booze, moustaches, drugs, ping pong, booze, cowboys, the occasional fight, and did I mention booze? I don’t know how I got so engrossed watching these characters that normally I would find so annoying. I found myself laughing at nearly everything Finn (Glen Powell) said, and I was waiting (not so) patiently to see whether the guys were right, whether Beuter (Will Brittain) would ever return after finding out his girlfriend might be pregnant.  I should have realised before watching that this was a Richard Linklater films and he likes the types of films where nothing really happens, but I just kept getting this feeling that something bad was going to happen.  

I was convinced someone was going to get injured before first practice or they were going to get caught having a party in the house or someone was going to die from drugs and then the film just ended.  I did really enjoy the film, I feel like I want to watch it again without the 'edge of my seat' panic about someone dying/being injured/getting caught.  I wasn't ever bored and the film flew by - I loved all the various outfits as they attended different style clubs, disco to country to punk.  

What I loved the most about Everybody Wants Some is how natural it felt. I’ve seen plenty of college comedies, they rely on d!ck jokes, fart jokes and naked women to get their laughs. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy most of those comedies, but this just feels more real. I found myself laughing with the characters, rather than laughing at event unfolding, it’s kind of hard to explain. Of course, I wish Beverley wasn’t the only main female character, but I can forgive that.

I’ll definitely watch this again soon, it’s one I’m trying to recommend to friends and family right now. There’s still a lot of 2016 to go, but there’s a good chance this will be in my Top 10 of the year.   I don't think this will make my Top 10 but I'm not sure yet, I feel like I should have more idea of what my top 10 will look like with less than 3 months to go but hey ho!

So, Richard Linklater, consider this my formal apology for being a grump, I’m cutting myself a nice big slice of humble pie right now and I’ll go enjoy it in front of the TV later when I watch Dazed and Confused. I’m still not convinced Boyhood will be better than Birdman, but I’ll give it ago, for you.

Apparently, this is the 'spiritual' sequel to Dazed and Confused so I feel like I really need to give that a go now.

Oh, and I have to know? Is that Space Invaders trick for real?!  I really want to know this!

Review: Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)

I have been absent from the blogging world for a while due to some family issues but luckily for me I have the best blogging buddy who completely takes the lead and looks after the whole thing – without complaining once!!  My blogging buddy is better than yours….. Aww :)

So, here I am back ready to write up the masses of films that I have seen while I’ve been away and do you think I can remember a single one – nope!  So instead I will be reviewing the latest film I saw just a few days ago, because that’s about as far back as I can remember!!

Bridget Jones is back, and this time she’s having a baby!!  Bridget (Renee Zellwegger) has spent the last 10 years on and off with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and is now in a definite off position as he is married to someone else.  Until one week of ‘living life to the full’ leave Bridget pregnant with no clue who the Dad is, Mark Darcy or the McDreamy Jack (Patrick Dempsey).

I didn't know how excited I was about this movie until the day came along and I was planning an outing with a few friends. I got so pumped, but then I started to worry. Teenage me would say Bridget Jones's Diary was one of her favourite movies ever, but this was pre-blog when I didn't watch much, and didn't know what made a good or bad movie. What if the original was actually awful, and this latest installment would be too?

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I questioned whether I'd even seen The Edge of Reason. After reading the plot on Wikipedia I realised that yes, I had, but I'd pushed it out of my memory completely. Those little workers in my long term memory tossed it out along with Bing Bong!

I never have high hopes for a sequel and I wasn’t even that bothered by the first two Bridget Jones movies but my heavily pregnant best mate desperately wanted to see this before she dropped so I went.  I’m so glad I did, I laughed constantly and cried on more than one occasion.  The scene with the hospital rotating doors and the countertop, well I had to look away because I nearly wet myself!!  The story was great, I was expecting to be very judgmental of Bridget for getting herself in the situation but I couldn’t, she just worked it so well. 

This is a movie I'll have to re-visit when it's out on DVD, because I had such an amazing cinema experience. The screen was fully sold out, and we all laughed, 'oooh'd' and 'ahh'd' with each other throughout, it was incredible. For the revolving door scene, we all laughed so hard we missed the next five minutes of movie!

The highlight of the show however, was Emma Thompson.  She stole every scene she was in with witty one liners and feigned horror at Bridget’s little ‘situation’ – she absolutely nailed it.  I had forgotten how much I loved Thompson, she is now well and truly back on my radar – more Emma please top movie boss people!!!

Sometimes, all you want from a movie is an escape from reality, and that's what Bridget Jones's Baby was all about. Of course the story is over exaggerated, it's campy, and no, I highly doubt Mark Darcy would really throw his phone out the window and carry Bridget all the way to the hospital, this is London, there are cabs everywhere, but would a taxi scene have been as funny? I didn't think so.

Minus Hugh Grant (kind of), the entire original cast came back, which gave me so many nostalgic feelings, and it wouldn't have worked without them. The addition of Emma Thompson was a brilliant move, she was funny in the trailer but in the movie itself she really shined. This might just be a rare instance where a sequel is just as good (if not better) than the original!

Highly recommend even if you don’t think you want to see it, go and see it anyway!!