Review: About Time (2013)

I’ve been watching a lot of heavy movies recently, trying to catch up on a lot of the Oscar nominations. It’s exhausting! That’s how I found myself on a Sunday night looking for something light and fluffy that I could chill out with. After previously looking up Domhnall Gleeson’s filmography (for blog research purposes, of course) I remembered spotting a movie I’d been curious about for a while, About Time! How its taken you this long to watch this I do not know!!!!  Also, I think the real question here is how I have watched this film countless times and never reviewed it?!

Written by Richard Curtis (also responsible for Love Actually and Notting Hill), About Time is the story of Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), and his search for love after discovering at the age of 21 that the men in his family have the ability of time travel. It’s a premise I laughed about 3 years ago when I saw a trailer, but I have a much more open mind now. If you’re a huge sci-fi fan and love time travel theories, you’re going to need to switch off a little, but there’s enough to make the movie stand out from other romances without making itself look silly. Admittedly, the first time I watched this I did overthink the time travel stuff and tried to make it work in my head but once I gave up it was so much better!

All Tim needs to do to activate his powers is hide in a closet, clench his fists, and think hard about the specific time in his life that he wants to go back to. Whereas his Dad (Bill Nighy) used his power to read an inhuman number of books, shy Tim simply wants a girlfriend. He falls in love with his sister’s friend Charlotte (Margot Robbie) who is staying for 2 months, and finally professes his love on her last night with the family. When she tells him he waited too long and should have told her sooner, he does exactly that, only to be told to see how things go and come to her on her last night. Doh. Sorry men, us ladies can be annoying like that sometimes.  Oooh I really didn't like Charlotte, who wouldn't love Tim and his bumbling charm, foolish girl!!

This is what makes Tim leave his parent’s home in Cornwall and move to London to live with his Dad’s friend and pursue his career in Law. Only, the world of Law is male dominated, and Tim finds himself constantly stuck with his annoying colleague Rory (Joshua McGuire). A night out at a blind date in the dark restaurant changes everything when Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), although Tim very quickly realises the problems with the butterfly effect when he travels back in time.

The first time I watched this, I felt the butterfly effect coming on and I was panicking, I really wanted him and Mary to get together.  I was convinced the whole time however that time travel was going to have a much bigger part in the film.  One of my favourite tag lines for the film was "A new funny film about love. With a bit of time travel." 

I won’t go any further into the story because it’s so much fun to watch it all unfold. I thought the 2 hour runtime would be far too long, but it moved along at such a fast pace I was actually a bit gutted when the credits rolled! I wouldn’t class About Time as a comedy as such, but there’s one scene in particular that had me laughing out loud so hard I cried. It was the combination of typical British weather on a majorly important day, and the dramatic, Italian music playing that was just pure comedic genius! Agreed, loved that scene! My favourite, had to be the repeated bedroom scene!

I still watch this over and over again, i still laugh, cry and fell completely gutted when its over.  Domnhall Gleeson provides perfect geeky charm, while Rachel McAdams is her usual lovable self.  Everything about it is just perfect.

This could have been such a cliche movie, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever watched before, and tugged on my heartstrings in ways I didn’t know was possible. It didn’t end the way I was expecting at all, and really made me re-evaluate how to find happiness.

Review: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The other night, me and my other half had a much needed film night in. Pizza was ordered, the freezer was stocked with ice-cream, and we just needed to decide what to watch. Then he just happened to casually mention that he'd never seen Shaun of the Dead before. What! Well, that was one dilemma solved! When will you pair learn to hide your shameful non-movie watchingness, you just get shouted at from all angles!!

Shaun of the Dead is the first of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, and also fits into the extremely niche zombie rom-com genre! A Zom-com if you will! Shaun (Simon Pegg) isn't having a great time. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) has just dumped him; she's tired of spending every night at the Winchester pub with Shaun and his best friend Ed (Nick Frost). To drown his woes, Ed takes Shaun to the Winchester pub to cheer him up. Ed's speech is actually foreshadowing the rest of the film if you listen carefully!



So, Shaun and Ed get horrifically drunk, completely p*ss off their housemate Pete by playing electric music in the middle of the night, and wake up the next morning to find out that everyone around them has turned into a zombie. Despite the warnings of the news reporter on TV, Shaun and Ed set out to rescue his Mother (but not Philip, sorry) and Liz.  Just reminds me how much I love the scene when they are deciding on the plan:

"We take Pete's car, we drive over to Mum's, we go in, take care of Philip - "I'm so sorry, Philip" - then we grab Mum, we go over to Liz's place, hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for this whole thing to blow over. "

I don't watch horror films and the only other zombie film I've seen is Zombieland, so I can't really discuss the parody characteristics of Shaun of the Dead, but as a comedy, I absolutely love it. From terrible throwing skills to Ed's driving skills, this film makes me laugh just as much every time I watch it. I don't remember when I first saw it, but I know it was with my Dad, and we still talk about it and quote it all the time. We were on a caravan holiday and it just happened to be on TV one evening, and so we sat and watched it on a TV smaller than most tablet screens!

I too am not a horror fan but I am a zom-com fan (i'm not entirely sure if I came up with this or its a common thing to call them zom-com's but for the purpose of this post, I am staking claim!).  This was a great start to what turned out to be an awesome trilogy, I still love the scene where Shaun and Ed are throwing records at the zombie lady but don't want to throw the 'good ones'.  I laughed out loud nearly all the way through this film, its typical British humour paired with a zombie apocalypse - what more could you ask for?!

Don't be fooled though, because nestled in this loud-out-loud comedy are some serious moments that really grab you. I'm sure everyone must have seen this but spoiler alert anyway: the part where Shaun has to shoot his Mother brought a genuine tear to my eye.  I'm pretty sure the first time I saw this I cried, she was so lovely about it all as well!

I recently got a copy of Shaun of the Dead on DVD as I'm pretty sure the last copy is my Dad's, and there are a crazy amount of extras to go through. I've already watched the gag reel which is great, and there's a little section for the plot holes too. I'll make sure I get through all of it at some point! We need to have a movie night solely dedicated to the Cornetto Trilogy and its extras!!!

Now, I don't like giving out full scores because I tend to think that nothing can be perfect, but if any film deserves it from me, it's Shaun of the Dead.  Ooooh this is interesting, have you given a 10 before?  I don't remember seeing one!! I think Gone Girl is my only other 10 so far!

I did love this film, I can't give it a 10 because it's not up there with my other 10's but it's pretty close.