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. 

Review: Black Mass (2015)

I’d put off watching Black Mass for a while, despite wanting to see Johnny Depp’s performance, only because gangster movies aren’t my usual go-to movie. I tend to get confused with who’s on what side, and who’s killing who - it’s a mess inside my head sometimes. Anyway, after enjoying Tom Hardy’s Legend, I thought it was about time I gave this a go, too.

Black Mass (2015) is the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp), the brother of State Senator Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and leader of the Irish Mob. It covers three periods (1975, 1981 and 1985) with flash-forwards to the present day, where various members of Whitey’s gang recount the stories of his rise and eventual fall.

For the first time ever, I watched The Godfather a few months ago, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt like I wasn’t quite switched on enough to understand everything that was going on. Since watched Legend, and now Black Mass, I realise that’s just the way gangster movies are. It also doesn’t help that I am completely ignorant to history and world affairs, and didn’t know anything about James Bulger until seeing this!

Despite that, I really did enjoy Black Mass. It was so nice to see Johnny Depp play a serious character without a full face of makeup and acting either drunk or high. There’s an amazing actor after all! It made me want to check out some more of Johnny Depp’s older work actually. It was also wonderful to see my Benedict Cumberbatch again, although I don’t think I listened to a single line of dialogue from him as I was too fascinated by his accent!

There are some great names in the cast list but my favourite character was without a doubt John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), the FBI Agent and close friend of James Bulger. I don’t even know what it was about him, but he had a real sense of power about him which turned to despair as the movie went on.

I haven’t seen enough movies similar to Black Mass to give an informed opinion, but one thing I will say is that it was brutal, without the need for glorified violence. It’s very heavy on character development and dialogue which might turn some viewers off, but it’s a fascinating story at the very least.

Review: They Came Together (2014)

I’m really riding out this Parks and Recreation obsession right now. I’ve moved onto the phase of looking up the entire cast’s filmography and consuming it as quickly as possible. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine…

They Came Together (2014) is a spoof rom com of sorts, starring Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd as a couple telling their friends over dinner one night about the story of how they met. They claim their story is just like a romantic comedy, and so the movie plays out their telling of the events. As we all like to do, many of the details are exaggerated, which is the core of the comedy in this movie.

Molly (Amy Poehler) runs her own boutique sweet store in New York City called Upper Sweet Side, and Joel (Paul Rudd) just so happens to work for a huge corporate business who are trying to shut Molly’s business down. It was hate at first sight!

So, here’s what I loved about this movie. The cast was amazing. It had so many of my favourite TV faces in (Cobie Smulders, Ed Helms, Jack McBrayer, Max Greenfield, Adam Scott, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, just to name a few) that I could have happily watched just to spot them all. The comedy style was right up my street. It almost has a Muppets feel to it, it’s so literal, which I realise will probably put a lot of people off straight away, but honestly, I love that kind of humour. 

Just a really quick example off the top of my head: Mollie is chatting with her colleague at the sweet store and her colleague warns her that Joel is right outside. Mollie gaps in horror and exclaims “But I look like a chimney sweep!” and then we see Mollie, literally dressed as a chimney sweep, with soot on her face and everything. It just tickles me!

I think the humour more than makes up for the predictable plot, but I don’t even think that needs to be apologised for. There’s a line Mollie says very early on in the movie that clearly indicates where the plot is going, so it was deliberate anyway.

My one gripe with They Came Together, and it pains me to say, is that some of the jokes fall so flat they’re quite painful. One minute I was actually crying from laughing so hard, and the next, a joke would fall so flat I winced and kind of wanted to pretend the moment never happened.

I imagine this movie really splits opinions, but my score will rest somewhere in the middle.

Bonus screenshot:

Mini Reviews: She's Funny That Way (2014), The Overnight (2015) & Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)

She’s Funny That Way (2014) is a crazy little comedy made from the same DNA as Love Actually and similar movies, where multiple stories all come together. Owen Wilson is a director who enjoys giving large amounts of cash to call girls, including Imogen Poots, who just so happens to be auditioning for the lead in his latest play. Every other main character in the movie is connected to one another, but I won’t spoil it for you because to be honest, that was one of the only things that kept me entertained. A decent movie nonetheless, but it just feels forgettable. I wasn’t sure whether the audience is meant to be on side with Owen Wilson or not, but he was a bit of a douchebag in my opinion.

What even is this movie?! I can’t tell if it’s a really low brow comedy or an indie dramedy! It’s a movie about a married couple (Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling) who are having intimate issues, and have just moved to a new city. They meet another couple at the park one day (Jason Schwartzman and Judith Godrèche) who invite them over for a pizza night. Things get very awkward very fast, when we learn that this couple paint buttholes and make breast pump videos. I’m not even kidding!

I felt awkward from start to finish, but it was still strangely enjoyable and funny. Not one to see in front of your family, friends, or anyone really. Watch this alone, or drunk!

Why did I put myself through this? I wasn’t overly fond of the first movie, but Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015) was pretty terrible. For the record, I love the idea, and there were a few jokes that were funny. Basically, Lou (Rob Corddry) gets shot and so the group have to go back in time to find his killer. Only they end up in the future instead. There’s a big debate about the theory of time travel, and many gross sex jokes that are just plain awkward. Not even Adam Scott in a skirt(?!) could save this for me.  (Is anyone starting to see a trend in Allie's recent reviews?! Like they all happen to have one particular person in them?! Shuuuush don't draw attention to it!) The nerd song made me laugh though, and the credits scenes are actually the best parts.

Mini Reviews: Max (2015), Bride Wars (2009) & A.C.O.D. (2013)

Max (2015) seemed to fall under the radar for me, but I spotted it on IMDB first. A movie about an army dog suffering with PTSD? I’m in. Why do I love to torture myself like this? To say I was disappointed in this movie isn’t fair, but it wasn’t the movie I thought it would be. I was expecting a drama about trying to rehabilitate this beautiful dog, and the question throughout being whether or not it would work or if he would have to be put down, but instead, this was a family orientated action movie. It’s a good one, but not what I was expecting at all.

So, I’m on the hunt for wedding related movies right now, and Bride Wars (2009) was the first on my list. Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway play two best friends who have always dreamed on June weddings at the Plaza Hotel. Of course, after a mishap, their weddings end up scheduled on the same day, and a war breaks out. Going through the planning experience myself, and being bridesmaid for 2 other weddings in the same year as mine, I could ironically relate to many things in this movie, which I think aided in my enjoyment! It’s amazing how the littlest things are huge problems when wedding planning!

In full swing of a Parks and Recreation obsession, I was on the hunt for a light comedy and spotted A.C.O.D. (2013), or Adult Children of Divorce featuring not only the loveable Adam Scott, but Amy Poehler too! Weirdly though, Poehler actually plays Scott’s mother-in-law, and that was a hard pill to swallow throughout. Adam Scott’s on screen brother, Clark Duke is getting married, but their parents are divorced and well, you can probably guess the rest. It had a really promising cast that never got the chance to show their full potential. An entertaining watch, but forgettable.