Mini Reviews: Mr Right (2016), Urge (2016) and No Stranger than Love (2015)

I have spent the weekend watching the most random of films, mostly due to my new obsession with Justin Chatwin.  

Mr Right (2016)

Martha (Anna Kendrick) meets and falls for the 'perfect' guy, Francis (Sam Rockwell), only he has one fatal flaw...he's a hitman on the run from his previous employers who are trying to kill him.  

This is one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen, but I have to say I really enjoyed it.  Its been battered on Rotten Tomatoes but from reading some of the reviews, they seem to all be overthinking it.  I enjoyed the romance (I wanted them to get together)  and the action scenes were energetic and engaging (I wanted the good guys to not die).  It was weird and confusing but I have already recommended it to Allie (and not in the 'from the makers of Sharknado' kind of way).

Urge (2016)

What happened when you take a drug that takes away all your inhibitions and you play out any urges you so choose.  Apparently, you make an insane film called Urge!!  A group of friends, led by narcissist Neil (Danny Masterson) head for a weekend away on a remote island.  A mysterious nightclub owner (Pierce Brosnan) introduces them to a new drug, Urge with one rule, that you can only use it once.  No one listens of course and the party descends into chaos.

I spent 90% of this movie confused about what was going on, I felt more confused than that characters I think!!  I didn't want to turn it off because I wanted to know how it ended and then when it ended I wished I hadn't bothered!

No Stranger than Love (2015)

Lucy (Alison Brie) has her pick of men in the small town that she lives in but instead chooses to engage in an affair with married Clint (Colin Hanks).  Just one problem, Clint falls down a mysterious black hole that opens up in her living room and mysterious stranger Rydell (Justin Chatwin) turns up to confuse Lucy even more.  

It's difficult to review this, I don't even know what to call it, is it a rom-com, is it a drama, is it science fiction!?  I got more confused as it went on but I really enjoyed it.  I love Alison Brie and she really stole the show here and the whole thing reminded me of Pleasantville from way back when (the sci-fi crossed with rom-coms) and I loved that film.

Review: Get a Job (2016)

There’s a song played frequently on the radio at the moment which I’m in love with. It’s called ‘Stressed Out’ by Twenty One Pilots, and at first it just had a catchy tune, but now I really feel like I can relate to the lyrics. Bear with me, this is going somewhere, I promise.

The opening to Get a Job (2016) is perfect. It reminds us that when we were kids, everything was given to us, and we were praised for every tiny thing we did. Then, one day, at the end of our mandatory education, we’re thrown into the real world where no one cares about our small achievements, and we have to actually work for a living. That’s how I feel about life right now, or at least did a few years ago. I’ve found my feet now, thankfully.  I've just about found my feet and now I'm counting down to retirement!

Back to that song, Stressed Out. There’s a particular line that give me same feeling as the opening to that movie: Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,

Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."

So, with a relevant and relatable plot, and a huge cast of some of my favourite actors and actresses, (Anna Kendrick, Alison Brie, Bryan Cranston, Miles Teller, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) I knew I couldn’t go wrong by giving this movie some of my time. Yeah. About that.  How could it be anything other than awesome with this cast, no seriously how?!

Everything starts out perfectly fine. Will (Teller) and his girlfriend Jillian (Kendrick) are celebrating Jillian’s new job, which stirs up trouble in their relationship when Will is told he needs to step up. His father is fed up of financing him, and he needs to put his creative dreams aside and enter the corporate world. With an unusually short runtime of 1hr 23mins, this plot is plenty, especially when Jillian winds up losing her job and the roles get reversed, but so many sub plots are thrown into the mix that I couldn’t work out what was actually going on anymore.  Ditto, completely lost!

It’s a shame, because each plot in itself is absolutely fine. Will’s father loses his job, and has huge difficulty finding a new one because of his loyalty to his previous employer and his age. That’s a huge problem for the older generation right now, and could have tied in perfectly with Will’s story, given a longer runtime. But that’s not all. Each of Will’s friends has their own storyline of taking their first step on the career ladder, and that’s where it gets too messy. Whilst trying to desperately tie up the loose threads in the plot, it seems those responsible forgot to add in any jokes. The only comedic relief came from Alison Brie’s character who seemed to serve no purpose other than making sexual innuendos. She was funny, at least.

I have to completely agree, they really jam packed a lot of plot points into a particularly short running time.  In honestly, I kind of gave up about half way through, I didn't give a monkey's if any of them got a job, lost a job or sold their mother for a job and with the title being what it is, I'm guessing you are supposed to care about that stuff.  It starts off really logical and believable and rapidly becomes ridiculous, becoming a vice president of something or other after 6 months in a company or rugby tackling various security staff so your Dad can get an 'interview' in an elevator.  All bloody ridiculous!

So finally, after looking the movie up online to find out whether I was just being a miserable sod, I found out that Get a Job was made in 2012, and has sat on the shelf for the last 4 years, with Anna Kendrick herself confident that the movie would never get a release date. That says more than I ever could.  I think she was probably secretly hoping as well to be fair!

 

Review: How to Be Single (2016)

There’s something a little ironic about going to see How to Be Single when you’re getting married in 3 months time, accompanied by one of your bridesmaids who is getting married herself in 6 months time, and her other bridesmaid who also isn’t single. In our defence, we actually wanted to see Fifty Shades of Black, but found out the release date got pushed back, and well, we’d already seen Deadpool!  We had a similar situation where we just rocked up at the cinema and this was all that was on, I did want to see it though so it's not all bad!

How to Be Single (2016) is set in New York City and follows the lives of 6 singles living there, looking for love. Alice (Dakota Johnson) has never been single so tells her boyfriend she wants a break so she can find herself. Robin (Rebel Wilson) is single and loving it, so takes Alice under her wing to show her the ropes. Meg (Leslie Mann), Alice’s sister works too many hours as a nurse to be in a relationship, but wants to have a baby. Tom (Anders Holm) runs a bar and has tinkered with his apartment to make it the perfect bachelor’s pad. Lucy (Alison Brie) spends all her time online using the Wifi in Tom’s bar seeking her ideal partner. Finally, David (Damon Wayans Jr.) is a struggling single parent who finds it difficult opening up.

Phew, that was exhausting. I think I’ve nailed one of the problems with this movie. Too many main characters! The posters make it look like a movie about 4 single girls coming together to either help each other find love, or to simply support each other. Instead, the main story arc revolves around Alice, her sister Meg and her new friend Robin, none of whom ever actually meet Lucy in the movie, which just seemed odd. It’s like her character was just thrown in for the sake of it. On the plus side, with such a great cast, there’s bound to be a reason here for anyone to give the movie a chance!  I think they may have been going for a Love Actually/Valentines Day type thing, an ensemble cast where everyone is connected in weird ways!  However, they kind of missed the mark with forgetting to include Lucy in anything and then having characters thrown in for the hell of it....I'm talking about you Damon Wayans Jr!

This movie has been heavily marketed in the UK, and I can safely say that I’ve seen the ‘tit punch’ scene enough times to just not find it funny anymore (I laughed, a lot!). I loved the ‘dicksand’ joke but Rebel Wilson already explained it all on the Graham Norton show! Thankfully, there were still plenty of surprise funny moments, largely thanks to Rebel Wilson herself who is on top form here. Leslie Mann was also hilarious, and the scene with her talking to the baby early on was equally sweet and silly.  I thought (and I said this countless times throughout) that Wilson actually saved this movie, I'm not sure I could have say through it if i wasn't waiting for her next clanger, she was on top form.  Unfortunately, I can't say the same for anyone else or the film in general.

I think the main problem with How to Be Single is it doesn’t know what it wants to be. There weren’t enough funny moments for me to really rate it in my favourite comedies, but there were also lots of serious and heart warming moments that were wonderful, but just a bit out of place. One scene with Damon Wayans Jr. in particular had me sobbing quietly into my jumper sleeve!  The heartwarming stuff was painful to watch, completely random and I don't think added any value whatsoever, I'm feeling a bit ranty about this, can you tell?!

I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about it. The ending was good, I won’t spoil it but I started to worry it would end with everyone finding the loves of their lives, which would ruin the whole point, and it didn’t. I just think there are going to be more rom coms out this year that will be a lot better.

I think it was utterly predictable all the way through, somewhere around the half way mark they indicated that they weren't going to be predictable therefore letting the audience know they were going to do the exact opposite of what you initially expected.  predictable!! Thank god for Rebel Wilson is all I can say!