Review: Cloverfield (2008)

When I heard about a trailer being released for 10 Cloverfield Lane, I got all excited and then when I tried to recall the plot of the original, Cloverfield, I came to the sad realisation that I never actually watched it. I think once a movie has been on your mental ‘watch list’ for 8 years, that’s when the long term memory workers decide it’s time to throw it away. If you don’t understand that reference, go and watch Inside Out already!  I had completely forgotten about this film until I heard rumours about the sequel but I do remember that I enjoyed it when I did!

Anyway, after trying to get into too many heavy Oscar contenders I decided this would be the perfect break. Cloverfield is a found-footage action/horror that follows a group of friends in New York City as they try to escape a devastating monster attack and rescue their friend who is stuck in Midtown.

All I looked up before watching this was that very straight to the point plot summary, and so I must have been about 20 minutes in when I got very close to taking the DVD out of the player and checking it. See, the movie starts with the friends all together at a leaving party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David) but it really drags, to the point where I honestly thought I was watching the wrong movie. If I remember right its all very shaky camera work as its supposed to be a home movie but it gave me a stinking headache!

Not long after that though there’s what seems like an earthquake, the lights all go out, and then I know for sure I’m watching the right movie. Every moment from here has me on the edge of my seat! Found footage movies take a lot of stick I think, but I’m on the fence. I think it worked amazingly well here, we didn’t see much of the monster at all which adds to the suspense, it does give me a nasty case of motion sickness! I was okay with Cloverfield because it’s quite short and I watched it at home, but in the cinema I might have struggled.  Honestly, for me this achieved what I think Godzilla was trying to achieve a few years back, the suspense of what is happening rather than the fear of the actual monster, for me this did that, Godzilla didn't!

The funny thing is, I mentioned this movie to my Grampy who wasn’t very fond of it at all! Although, to an extent I couldn’t argue with his complaints. He said that not much really happened. Well, I suppose the whole movie’s plot is one escape/rescue attempt, but I think the suspense alone makes this a great movie to watch. There was a moment when the gang rounded a corner to find themselves face to face with the military that made me jump a mile, and the helicopter scene where the military were bombing the monster from the sky actually made me do a little scream!

It’s all got me very excited for 10 Cloverfield Lane. Plus, the trailer gives nothing away at all, which is even better! I’m still wondering whether it’ll be a follow up from the events of Cloverfield or another side of the same story. I think I’d be happy with either!  Should be good and they've waited long enough that just the idea of a sequel is a surprise...

 

Review: WALL·E (2008)

Despite my undying love for animated films, every now and again, one slips through the net and it takes me ages to get round to watching it. It was just last year that I watched Up (2009) for the first time, which is bad enough, but one film I’ve been putting off for far too long is WALL·E. It seems to have cropped up again in the blogging community thanks to some blogathons, and that gave me the final push I needed.

The film is set in a waste-filled future, where the situation became so dire that mankind has fled the planet on a giant cruise-ship, whilst waste collecting robots clean the planet up. Hundreds of years later, the plan seems to have failed as one little robot and his cockroach friend seem to be the only ones left on Earth, until one day a ship drops off a robot named EVE to scan the planet for signs of life.

That little plot summary is something I wrote after watching the film; I watched it the other night without reminding myself what it was actually about. The first 20 minutes or so really took me by surprise as it introduced this almost post-apocalyptic scene, and I began to wonder whether this was really meant to be a family film after all. The scene where we are introduced to WALL·E’s little bunker really tugged on my heart strings. I saw this one later than I normally would, I didn't see it at the cinema and felt no urge to watch it for ages, but when I finally did and this little chap popped up on screen there was just too many feels!

Once EVE was introduced and the location of the film changed, we were back into family-friendly territory once again. The shift wasn’t subtle, and honestly I wished we could have been on earth longer, but the second half of the film was at least more of what I was expecting. The concept of these fat, immobile humans was humorous, but a little chilling at the same time. It’s certainly not a future that could be impossible in the real world. Yet another film that poses an actual possibility for future generations, terrifying!

Back to a lighter topic though, I really did enjoy WALL·E. The love story was beautiful and surprisingly emotional, and every time WALL·E pronounced EVE’s name wrong it brought a silly smile to my face. I was also super happy to spot the Pizza Planet truck without having to look it up afterwards, I love things like that. Ohh where was it in this? I can't remember if I found it or not it's been that long since I've seen it! It was really early on when Eve was first scanning Earth for live, the truck was one of the things she scanned :D

WALL.E really showcases what I love about Disney/Pixar films, they don't treat children like idiots.  They know that children of any age deal with situations like loss and love and also deal with the emotions that are tangled within these situations.  These types of movies bring those emotions to the surface and I think highlight to children (and adults alike) that emotions are normal and the world isn't all sweetness and light fairy tales like classic Disney movies (although I do still love those!).  On top of that there is some great animation work here and the background is so detailed, I loved looking around WALL.E's bunker trying to spot things he had collected.

All in all, this was a truly enjoyable film, and I’m still kicking myself for taking so long to watch it. I’m not sure it beats some of my favourites like Toy Story and Finding Nemo, but it’s definitely up there with the greats.  I don't know about but the look of the film from the outside didn't appeal to me, it was only when I watched it that I loved it.  Another case of not judging a book by it's cover....

 

Review: How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)

Just a couple of weeks ago, me and the other half were talking about The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy and it reminded me of how much I actually love Simon Pegg as an actor. I sort of forget about him and then when I see him in something, I'm reminded of how great he is. It's now turned into a bit of a game to try and watch all of his films. So, we sat down last weekend and watched How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is based on a memoir written by Toby Young. The film tells the story of Sidney Young (Simon Pegg), who runs an alternative magazine in Britain called Post Modern Review. It pokes fun at celebrities who are media obsessed, and strays away from trends. One morning Sidney gets a call from the editor of Sharps magazine (Jeff Bridges), possibly Post Modern Review's biggest threat. Sidney is offered a job there and he leaps at the opportunity, leaving his old life behind and starting fresh in New York. When he arrives he meets Alison (Kirsten Dunst) and the rest, well, you'll have to watch it to find out.

I was a little apprehensive about this film at first, I mean, Simon Pegg as the lead role in a romantic comedy?  It didn't really make much sense. However, that crazy opening scene with him, James Corden and Chris O'Dowd just dissolved those thoughts instantly. It just gave me that warm, British comedy fuzzy feeling!

However, once it all moved to New York, I really felt that the film lost its charm a bit. I wish I could elaborate further on this, but honestly it was just a weird vibe I got. It might have had something to do with Megan Fox's character, who irritated me immensely. I could never call myself a fan of Megan Fox anyway, but honestly I wanted to scream at the TV whenever Sidney showed any kind of interest towards her.

Again, I'm not a massive Kirsten Dunst fan either, but I liked her in this and I rooted for her to the bitter end. Jeff Bridges was brilliant, as always. I actually refused to believe that it was him when I saw his character, because I don't think I've ever seen him without a beard! Another acting highlight for me was Gillian Anderson, who admittedly I have only ever seen in the BBC show The Fall. She really stole the limelight in her scenes and was a truly interesting character to watch.

Simon Pegg was the ultimate highlight though, who completely proved me wrong and absolutely nailed his part. His character really developed throughout the film, and although he made some terrible choices that you wanted to shout at him for, he learnt his lesson and got everything that he deserved, both good and bad.

So in conclusion, this was an interesting but totally obvious story. It would have been a really forgettable film if it weren't for the cast, who were excellent minus Megan Fox. In fact, without her, it may have even been a great film. Sorry Megan.

Review: Nick and Norah's Inifinate Playlist (2008)

I could have sworn Allie told me to watch this, so I got all excited when I'd seen it text her straight away to tell her.  Turns out, not only was Allie not the one who told me about this film but she hadn't even heard of it.  So there you go!  I watched it anyway so here is the review:

Nick (Michael Cera) meets Norah (Kat Dennings) during a particularly crazy night out trying to find the band Where's Fluffy.  Norah has to prove she has a boyfriend so asks Nick to pretend to be it, only to realise the girl she is pretending for is Nick's ex Tris (who he happens to be obsessed with).  Nick's band mates try to push Nick and Norah together while they search for Where's Fluffy and Norah's drunk best friend, Caroline (Ari Graynor).

I didn't really know what to expect with this film as I  knew nothing about it before I started watching it.  I think not having expectations can make all the difference when watching a movie.  I loved it, it was funny, heart warming and different to most rom-coms out there right out.  I always like Michael Cera, I think he has a real dry humour about him, which makes him that much funnier and Kat Dennings is always great.  They actually work really well together (which i'm not sure I expected) you actually ended up rooting for them and their over-before-it-starts romance.

They have thrown in some gross out humour, particularly the drunk Caroline toilet scene which actually nearly made me gag on my cheese on toast (kind of wish I hadn't been eating at that point).  Most of the scenes with Caroline, although comical, seem to have been thrown in at the last minute and sort ruin the flow of the movie.  They could have made it just as good without all the background noise, instead sticking with Nick and Norah's blossoming love story.

More romance than humour but everyone knows I'm a sucker for a love story, so I'm sold.

Review: The House Bunny (2008)

My friends like to rant at me about films I haven't seen before. There are an awful lot of films I haven't seen, but in my defence, I only really got into films about 4 years ago, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I get gasps of horror when people find out that I've never watched The Godfather, or The Green Mile (which I have now seen, thank you), but I also earnt a gasp of horror from a couple of girl friends when they starting quoting this film and I had no idea what they were on about.

 

 

Last Saturday afternoon I cuddled up on the sofa with my kittens Loki and Sherlock, and we watched this together. My other half snorted and went to play a game, I think.

 

I want to start by saying that I really did enjoy this film. It's so funny! A little while in, I remembered why this film sounded so familiar to me. You see, every now and again I get a little obsessive over an actor or actress, and I make it my duty to work my way through their IMDB list. I think this all started with Jake Gyllenhaal when I was 14, and 10 years later I'm onto Benedict Cumberbatch. Anyway, back on track! I absolutely love Emma Stone, and so that's why this film was on my radar!

 

The film follows Shelley Darlingson, a playboy bunny who gets kicked out of the mansion, and has to find somewhere else to live. She comes across a sorority, led by Emma Stone's character, and becomes their house mother as she helps them to become popular and save their home.

 



Oh, this film really made me laugh! It isn't the greatest film I've ever seen but I've definitely seen worse. It's also a perfect chick flick so gets a big thumbs up here! Anna Faris is exactly what you would expect, but Emma Stone was amazing! She plays a massive geek quite scarily well and I love her even more after watching this. I have to share this moment with you below...



I was going to post this scene as well - this is by far my favourite moment in the whole film and I still quote it now!

I watched this film with a group of girl friends drinking wine and eating pizza and it is the perfect film for that.  We howled with laughter and compared ourselves to various characters throughout the film!  Adam Sandler's influence on this film is evident and as a big fan of (most) of his work (particularly the silly stuff, Billy Madison being my favourite!) the laughs were exactly to my taste.  I love Anna Faris and as I have recently taken to watching the American series Mom, I love her a little bit more! 

All in all, not a film everyone should rush out to see, but a perfect film to put on for a night in with the girls! Agreed!!