Mini Reviews: Sisters (2015), A Most Violent Year (2014) & Burnt (2015)

I was so excited when I saw the trailer for Sisters (2015) months ago that I can’t believe I missed it at the cinema! Everything just got drowned out with Star Wars, I think. After binge watching 30 Rock and Parks and Rec, and deciding that Liz Lemon and Leslie Knope were the best friends I needed, I had really high hopes for this. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as sisters, this can never go wrong! It was really funny. Perhaps not up there with my favourite comedies of all time, but one I’ll happily watch time and time again.

Spiralling into Poe Dameron hell heaven, I convinced my fiance to watch A Most Violent Year (2014) with me. “It’s a crime/drama darling, you’ll love it. What do you mean it has Oscar Isaac in? Was he in Star Wars? I had no idea.” It was actually a really gripping drama about an honest, hard working guy desperately trying to keep his business growing and his family safe during what was the most dangerous year in New York City.

I think the only reason I didn’t love it so much was that considering it’s name, it wasn’t really that violent? That sounds awful I know, but all I really mean is it wasn’t the movie I was expecting. I still really enjoyed it!

I love Bradley Cooper. I love food. I love movies. Combine all three and I thought this was the recipe to my heart. Har har har! I even picked this as my ‘Looking Forward’ choice for whatever month this came out in. In my defense, it was a slow month anyway, but I was genuinely looking forward to seeing Burnt (2015). Well, when your dinner is served burnt, you’re disappointed, and I was disappointed with this movie. I didn’t mind the pretentiousness of everything it offered, but every single character was unlikeable, and I didn’t care who succeeded. Not a boring movie at all, but a disappointment.

Looking Forward to Seeing in the Cinema this Month...November 2015

So when I came to do this post I went to search for all the films in the month and by mistake searched for October, because there is no way its nearly November....is there?! Where has the year gone....

There is only one film I'm looking forward to seeing this month and that is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.  Admittedly, the third is not my favourite book and the third film wasn't my favourite of the films but I'm so excited to see how they play this final out.  I don't think I need to say anymore, I'll just leave you with this:

Oh and the trailer of course:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 will be released in UK cinemas on 19th November 2015

I am so stuck this month! Despite not making it to the cinema nearly as much as I would like to, there are two films this month I am desperate to see! They're both so very different, and that's why I can't pick. I need to pick though, I need to pick...eeney, meeney, miney, mo. Okay, I'm really looking forward to seeing Burnt! (but also The Lady in the Van!)

It's no secret that I love food (I mean, who doesn't?) so when I first saw Chef (2014) I instantly fell in love, and also wanted to eat the contents of my kitchen. That said, there are similarities between the two films, as they both feature down-on-their-luck chefs. Only, Burnt looks much more serious and dangerous, and I like that. How weird, I saw the trailer for this (and you know I too love food) and thought it looked terrible, I can't find anything to like about it.  I may let you watch it and give me an update ;-) Booooo!

Did I mention food? The wedding diet is going great, by the way. Anyway, here's the trailer if you haven't seen it yet:

Burnt will be released in UK cinemas on 6th November 2015.

Review: Aloha (2015)

Whilst on the hunt for an easy to watch Rom Com type movie to pass the time the other evening, I stumbled across Aloha. This was the first time I’d ever heard of it but the cast list alone was enough for me to decide it was worth a shot. Check out this cast! Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride & Alec Baldwin. A winner for sure, right?

This is the part where I sum up the plot for you, in case you’ve never heard of the film. But I really can’t. I just don’t get what it’s about! Bradley Cooper is some kind of military/spaceman guy who’s been sent to Hawaii for a welcoming ceremony, Emma Stone is the military’s youngest and brightest, with the task to follow Bradley Cooper around like a lost puppy. John Krasinski is a colleague of Bradley Cooper’s who doesn’t talk to his wife, like, at all. Alec Baldwin and Bill Murray are important douchebags, and now my head hurts!

Aloha wasn’t a boring film at all, I was entertained throughout, but in the glimpses when I actually understood what was going on, the plot was terribly predictable which ruined the crucial moments. Both Emma Stone and John Krasinski are so great at that dry, sarcastic humour, and they just didn’t get the chance to shine this time around, which was a shame.

Admittedly, I know absolutely nothing about Hawaii’s history and culture. My knowledge goes as far as me excitedly exclaiming ‘Hey! Those kids are doing the same dance as the kids in Lilo & Stitch!’, which even I know is terribly ignorant of me. I think the whole film would have made more sense had I more knowledge on the subject matter, so I’m not blaming the film entirely here.

My favourite part was witnessing the changes in Rachel McAdams and John Krasinski’s relationship. I could really feel the heartbreak, and there was one particular scene that stood out for me, where Krasinski and Cooper are in the kitchen having a full blown conversation without saying a word. We as the audience know what they’re saying through the powers of subtitles, but their facial expressions match what they’re saying perfectly.

Overall, Aloha was enjoyable, but confusing, and sadly, a forgettable experience for me I think.

Review: American Sniper (2015)

One of my favourite things about going to the cinema is watching the trailers. Does that sound silly? I know I can easily watch as many as I like on IMDB, but it’s kind of a game trying to guess which trailers will have been picked for a particular audience. There’s one trailer from the end of last year that I’ll never forget, mainly because I genuinely forgot to breathe whilst watching it!

American Sniper is the real-life story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) who was a legendary sniper in the war in Iraq. Chris was nothing more than a ‘wannabe’ cowboy until he reached his thirties, when he decided he should do something to express his talent, and help his country which he loved so much. That’s when he joined the SEALs as a sniper and began his first tour in Iraq. Once home, he struggled with normal life and the weight of his conscious.

I hope I can do this film justice with this post, but I have to admit I’m completely out of my depth here. I recall Chris Kyle’s name being in the news and the reason why, but that’s as much as I know. War films have never interested me either, but as I said, the trailer took my breath away, and I’ve been dying to see more of Bradley Cooper since seeing him in Silver Linings Playbook.

American Sniper had me gripped from start to finish. I quickly realised the trailer I remembered so well was simply 2 minutes of footage from the start of the film, and so I was going in blind for the rest of the duration. Good lord, I could barely recognise Bradley Cooper at first, he really beefed up for that role! I just read he had to eat 8,000 calories a day (and work out of course) to prepare, and that made me feel a little ill. He really is on top form in this film, in every single way!

There were plenty more heart stopping moments, the sniping scenes especially, and I thought there was a perfect balance between the scenes at war and the scenes at home. Can I be ‘that guy’ for a minute though? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a faker baby in a film before, seriously! Although, I read that they used a real baby to begin with which was sick on someone, so I might just forgive it for that right there.

All in all, I’m so glad I watched American Sniper. It was a breathtaking and heartwarming film, and it’s opened my eyes to what really goes on behind the news reports I read.

Limitless (2011) Vs Lucy (2014)

Sometimes, films sit in my ‘to watch’ list for so long, I forget how they ended up there in the first place. That was the case with Limitless, that I decided to finally watch on New Year’s Day. I didn’t even know what it was about! It was enjoyable, anyway, and it made me think of Lucy, which I hadn’t bothered watching after so many bad reviews. What I thought would be interesting was to watch both and compare them, as they kind of tell the same story after all.

In Limitless, Eddie (Bradley Cooper) is a down on his luck writer, recently dumped by his girlfriend, who is introduced to the drug known as NZT by a friend. The pill boosts his brain’s abilities exponentially and Eddie rapidly rises from a nobody to being highly successful and rich. The horrible side effects of NZT mean that Eddie can’t stop taking it, and his supply is dwindling.

Although I enjoyed Limitless and never felt bored, my overall feeling was ‘just a bit meh’. It wasn’t too predictable and unlike others, I enjoyed the ending, but the whole film was just lacking something that I can’t put my finger on. At times it feels like not much is happening, and then I focused on little annoying things that shouldn’t have mattered. Eddie’s girlfriend for example, who wanted nothing to do with him at his lowest, but was all over him once he was rich. What a cow!

I think Bradley Cooper is brilliant but he didn’t get a chance to use his full potential here. Still, it was an enjoyable film, but that’s about it, really.

Lucy’s (Scarlett Johansson) terrible boyfriend lands her right in the middle of a drug scandal. She winds up as a drug mule for CPH4, a drug that makes a person able to utilise up to 100% of their brain. The bag inside Lucy’s stomach rips as the drug goes straight to her bloodstream. She then seeks revenge on her captors, and well, then it turns weird.

Honestly, I thought the first half of this film was brilliant. I loved how it went back and forth from Lucy as she unlocks more of her brain to Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman) explaining his theory, and the clips of nature to tie in with it all. Then it hit 40% brain power, and it all went to hell. No one seemed as alarmed by Lucy as they probably should be, and I have no idea how to explain the scene on the plane. I went from fully understanding and enjoying the film, to a confused mess.

Once the credits rolled, my fiance and I looked at each other and said ‘what?’. That’s my only way of describing it. So, perhaps not surprisingly, Limitless is my winner!

Thursday Movie Picks - Unrequited Love

It’s been ages since I took part in Wanderer’s weekly Thursday Movie Picks, I really need to kick myself up the backside and get involved more often because I’m loving the look of this year’s themes! If you want to take part check out the master post here.

This week the theme is Unrequited Love, and I er, had to look it up to find out what it meant. You learn something new every day, right? Well now I know! This theme is more challenging than I originally thought, but I had great fun scouring my brain for movies I’d seen that fit the subject. Here’s my list!

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Possibly my favourite movie of his, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays broken-hearted Tom, who reflects on the time that he spent with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) - all 500 days, funnily enough. The tale is told in a non-chronological way, which really sets it apart from similar movies.

Tom falls for Summer almost instantly, but the feeling sadly isn’t mutual and Summer admits that she doesn’t believe that love is real. That doesn’t stop Tom, and for a time, the two of them seem to have a relationship, but it sadly doesn’t last. It’s a brilliant movie, and it wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Worth a watch!

Love Actually (2003)

Hold up, don’t worry! I do understand what unrequited love is. Google told me, remember? Love Actually is one of my all-time favourite movies, and one of the tales sums up unrequited love perfectly. Juliet (Kiera Knightly) is convinced her husband’s best friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) hates her, but when she finally convinces him to show her the wedding video that he shot, she realises that the camera was focussed on her for every moment.

It all concludes with a beautiful scene of Mark stood on her doorstep to silently explain with the use of signs that he loves her.

All About Steve (2009)

This one came to me as I was scouring my Letterboxd account for inspiration. How could I forget All About Steve? Easily, clearly, as it wasn’t the best movie around. But it’s Sandra Bullock! Of course I can forgive it, and it’s a more lighthearted take on the unrequited love theme. Mary (Sandra Bullock) is a crossword puzzle creator and a bit of an oddball. She gets set up on a blind date with Steve (Bradley Cooper), a news cameraman, and she’s besotted with him. Unfortunately, the feeling isn't mutual, but Mary doesn’t see this.

It’s a nice twist on the usual romantic comedy tale of the guy trying to get the girl to be honest!

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

UPDATED:

You'll know by now that although I have a few Marvel graphic novels knocking around, I'm more of a DC girl. Understandably then, when I first saw the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, I had no idea what was going on. I watched this film the other night mainly because I felt I had to; the trailer didn't excite me at all to be honest.  This is weird, because I don't have any graphic novels lying around and the trailer for this had me jumping up and down in my seat, so when I realised it came out while I was in the US on holiday, I had to find the nearest cinema (and lucky for me it was an IMAX!) - Happy Jenna!

So, if you've been living under a rock and don't already know what's going on here, Guardians of the Galaxy is about an odd bunch of outlaws who eventually form a team who try to save the world.

The team is formed of leading man Peter Quill/Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket the racoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and loveable tree, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).

I want to just say right now before I continue that I really did enjoy this film, so anything that I whinge about is purely me being picky. I find it much easier to pick out flaws in films I enjoyed for some odd reason. 

The film opens to your usual comic-book scene, a heart-breaking family tragedy. Seriously Marvel, can you stop it? Five minutes into this film and I'm crying, I was sold an action packed space film with a bucket load of comedy! A few tissues later though and we're into the story that ties our 5 heroes together.  Ditto, I was in tears, as you all know I am a sucker for a sob story so it didn't take much!!

I loved the little introduction scenes, but Rocket and Groot just owned every scene they were in. Sorry Star Lord, but you really weren't the leading man here. Where did Groot come from though? We got a backstory for everyone but him. I guess we wouldn't have understood it anyway, as all Groot says is 'I am Groot!'. Which provides many laughs throughout the film actually.

My favourite was by far Rocket, his sarcastic humour and general presence stole every scene, maybe a first for Bradley Cooper?!  Still no entirely sure why they used a high profile (probably expensive) actor to voice Groot when he had a total of 2 lines?!  Any ideas?  And Peter Quill, Chris Pratt where have you been hiding all my life (I think it was under a layer of pudginess) this man is beautiful and funny - swoon!!!

We also get introduced to our film's main bad guy, King Thranduil Ronan the Accuser, who wants to destroy the galaxy. I'm not too sure why, to be completely honest, but let's face it, he needs to be stopped.  I hadn't even noticed this until you mentioned it, but there is no real back story as to why this guy wants to destroy the galaxy and himself, but hey ho, every superhero film needs a bad guy!

This film was simply beautiful to watch in terms of visuals, it really was. The action scenes in particular were amazing and I wish I had seen them in IMAX. The humour just never stopped either and I think it'll still be just as funny when re-watched, especially that prosthetic leg moment! Considering I had no expectations whatsoever, I was really pleased in the end. Only one moment made me groan, which was the *spoiler* 'I hope he doesn't realise I switched the real artefact with this completely identical fake one I somehow obtained!' part. But only that moment.  Actually, I had a bone to pick with the ending as well: Why did this artefact that can destroy entire galaxies not kill Star Lord, why is he so powerful?! Thoughts?

I found this film to be an experience, for a start it was a live action movie that I actually enjoyed in 3D (this is extremely rare with me and I've discussed 2 in the last week!) but also because I didn't go in with any expectations.  With the likes of Superman etc as I know the stories and the backgrounds, I expect them to be good.  I knew nothing about GOTG, therefore I had nothing to base an opinion on, I think because of that I enjoyed it so much more!  The 3D didn't make any of the action scenes difficult to watch (which is my usual peeve) and it made some of the flying scenes look incredible, especially in IMAX. 

The comedy was the best part by far, Rocket and Groot were hilarious but they also skipped out of any cheesy or awkward moments by throwing a joke in.  This is so different from the other comic book movies I've seen where they love their cheesy, love in moments.  In fact, the only real serious moment I could think of (Peter and his gift) finished with a comedy twist.

The characters all seemed to get the right amount of airtime and enough back story to make you care about what happens to them, which is impressive with five lead characters (although one is a tree!).  I think I heard there will be a sequel, I hope there is but now I will have expectations so they will have to step it up a notch!

I don't know how to rate Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm under strict instruction not to give out half-points, in fact I had to argue out of having a 5 star rating system, but I'm sat between an 8 and a 9. It was better than 8 for sure, but I've seen better films that I gave a 9. Ugh...I'm going to stick with an 8, and maybe change my mind!  Sorry but I just think 1-10 is enough, half points just make it that much more complicated! And if you keep moaning we will go back to 5! ha!

This would have been a 10 except for my one annoying gripe (see above, spoiler in grey!) which knocked it down to a 9!

Looking Forward to Seeing at the Cinema this Month...July 2014

I was just looking through the UK film releases for July and I'm quite shocked. There isn't actually a lot coming out as far as I can see! A few rom coms, sure, and two big blockbuster films. I can guess what Jenna will want to pick and I won't pinch it from her, so my choice this month is Transformers: Age of Extinction.

I saw the first Transformers film when I was at College and loved it, I think a younger family member of mine had some of the toys too and it was equal parts fun and frustrating to try and get the toys to transform from vehicle to robot! I didn't enjoy the second one quite as much, and shockingly, I haven't even seen Dark Side of the Moon. I will though! Just in time to see this actually.

Just like Pacific Rim, Transformers never had the greatest story line, but you just can't beat watching giant robots smash each other up in IMAX. It's just enjoyable. No thinking required, just hand in popcorn, watching the action. I'm sure it'll be the College gang I see this with, actually.

I haven't really seen Mark Wahlberg much as an actor, so I don't have much of an opinion on the casting yet, but I'll be going in with an open mind. I also need to watch Pain & Gain soon so that'll help!

 

Transformers: Age of Extinction is released in UK cinemas on 5th July, 2014.

 

 

Mine has to be Guardians of the Galaxy (if only for a bulked up Chris Pratt!).  If I'm honest, I know nothing about this film, I haven't read the Comic Books or looked it up, I'm happy to be surprised for once.  However, as I am the Marvel girl (and Allie is he DC) I really do hope this is good and lives up to the comedy genius in The Avengers, I mean what can beat this:

 

 

I don't suppose it will be better than The Avengers in my book, but if it can live up to it, I would be very impressed.

 

Here is the trailer (just in case you have been living under a rock!):

 

 

Guardians of the Galaxy is released in UK cinemas on 31st July, 2014.