Review: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

When I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel last year, I had to admit it was the first Wes Anderson movie I’d seen. I remember a good few of our blogging buddies recommending Moonrise Kingdom to me, and I’m just sorry it’s taken me quite this long to give it a go! After exposing myself to more action moves than I could handle, I was ready for something quieter, and this was the perfect choice.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) is a beautiful story of young love. Sam (Jared Gilman) is a member of the Khaki Scouts, extremely skilled but liked by no one. He lost both of his parents and currently lives with foster parents, who he has difficulty with. Suzy (Cara Hayward) is a troubled young girl whose parents don’t know how to deal with her. Together, they decide to run away, which sparks a huge search party to look for them.

I now understand the skill that others have in spotting Wes Anderson’s work so quickly. The colourful characters, camera shots, fancy title opening, even the colour yellow, after watching just two of his movies these things are already standing out to me. It’s really quite fascinating. That said, I loved The Grand Budapest so much that I had really high hopes for Moonrise Kingdom, and I wasn’t let down.

We can all sympathise with Sam and Suzy. When you’re 12 years old, it’s easy to fall in love with someone, and feel like the whole world is against you. In fact, he won’t thank me for this, but when one of my brothers was younger than Sam, he proposed to his girlfriend on the school playground, and they vowed to get married when they were old enough. It didn’t happen, but they remained very good friends!

Moonrise Kingdom had a great mix of a being a heartwarming, relatable story, but with just enough exaggeration to make it exciting, like Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) leaping an impossible distance, and Sam surviving being struck by lightning. It’s like how we all tell our own stories, making certain moments more heroic or dramatic to make them more interesting.

The star studded cast just added another element to the movie. Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) is a compassionate man who just wants the best for Sam, despite barely knowing him. Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) provides most of the comedy as the bumbling leader who can’t control his scouts. Mr Bishop (Bill Murray) is the classic grumpy Dad who argues with authority. Mrs Bishop (Frances McDormand) is the perfect worrying, struggling mother, and last but not least, the Social Services lady (Tilda Swinton) is cold and heartless. Just a great cast all round!

I’m so glad I finally watched Moonrise Kingdom, and now I’m on the lookout for my next Wes Anderson movie. Can anyone recommend one for me?

Blind Spot: Pulp Fiction (1994)

This month marks the first time Jenna and I have been able to watch our Blind Spot film together, huzzah! Chinese food ordered, cups of tea made, fire on, the perfect Flick Chicks film night. Pulp Fiction was one of Jenna’s choices, one that I’d completely forgotten about because I had actually seen parts of it before, but couldn’t remember anything other than that couple robbing the diner!

Pulp Fiction is the telling of four connected violent, hilarious, and downright crazy stories following the lives of two mobsters, a boxer, a gangster’s wife and a thieving couple. It boasts one of the most amazing casts I’ve seen, John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth and Uma Thurman just to name a few.

Bear with me here, but man did this film drag! We paused at one point for a drink break thinking that we were near the end, but we were just about an hour in. Not quite even half way at that point. Thing is, all the scenes we had heard about had already happened, so we couldn’t work out what was even going to happen next. Kettle boiled, we were introduced to the Gimp. Oh! Traumatised is not a strong enough word!!

In fact, when the film actually finished, I was feeling pretty ‘meh’ about the whole thing. Sure, I laughed my socks off at many points, and couldn’t fault anything other than how darn confusing the whole thing was, but I couldn’t work out if I enjoyed it or not. It made Fargo seem simple!  Now although I found it really complicated I actually really enjoyed it - I am still running through the scenes now trying to put them into chronological order, i don't think i'll ever manage it.

On the drive home though, and indeed while I was trying to get to sleep, I couldn’t stop thinking about the film, and the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated it for what it was, and then I felt guilty! Did anyone else find this?

I can't really place much commentary on the storyline because i'm still trying to work out what happened, what I do know is that I really enjoyed it and I won't forget it in a hurry. Samuel L Jackson was amazing, I think he has taken a little part of this character and injected it into every character he has played since.  It's typical Quentin Tarantino, bloody confusing but so entertaining that you get over it.

There are so many jokes and memes that make sense to me now. Every time someone mentions the game, Guess Who I put on my best Samuel L Jackson impression to ask ‘Does he look like a b*tch?’ without even realising it’s a reference to Pulp Fiction. There was an episode of Community all about that suitcase that I need to re-watch now, and I’ll never let anyone order an expensive milkshake quietly.  Don't forget the Direct Line advert (for our UK readers) and The Wolf - who knew!!

Don't really know why BUT I loved it...I think I may need to watch it again though to get my head around the storyline!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 9 Die Hard (1988)

Who in the world hasn't seen Die Hard, well actually me, until now!!  I have seen some of the sequels but never the original and I don't even know why.  Luckily it popped up in Total Film's Top 12 Christmas Films which gave me an excuse to watch it.

 

 

John McClane (Bruce Willis) is a New York cop estranged from his wife who moved to Los Angeles for a job.  For Christmas he heads to her office party (with limo driver xxx (xxx) in tow) but before he can enjoy the festive season he has to foil the plans of money grabbing terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and save his wife and all her colleagues single handedly. (if anyone can do it, it's Bruce Willis!)

 

 

I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, Bruce Willis is at his acting peak (recently saw A Good Day to Die Hard and his acting abilities seem to have taken a bit of a nose dive in recent years) he is brilliant hard man with the best one liners ("Yippie-ki-yay, motherf*cker" being my all time favourite!).  Alan Rickman is great as the evil Hans Gruber, his calm façade is brilliant right up until you notice the panic in his eyes as his plan starts to fall apart.

 

 

I know a lot of people consider this to best action movie ever made and I kind of wish I had seen it around the time it was released before the numerous formulaic copycats got hold of it.  Unfortunately I have already seen countless movies with this formula (including some of this ones sequels) so it doesn't have quite the same impact on me.  However, I did love it, the first 20 minutes of action worried me a bit because I just wasn't feeling it but then it picked up and I was gripped.  I now feel like I should watch the rest of the set in the right order!!

 

Its hard to fault this movie, great action, awesome bad guy, perfect good guy and one-liners that make you punch the air in excitement.  Even if you didn't get to see it when it originally came out, see it now!!

 

 

Review: The Sixth Sense (1999) - Guest Post

I've really been enjoying these Blogathon's that we've taken part in recently. There have been quite a few, I'm still working on my half for another, and I hope that one day we can run our own!

One of our favourite film blogs, Cinema Parrot Disco is hosting a Guest Blogger series for the IMDB Top 250 List. By now, you should know that here at Flick Chick's we've made it our goal to watch all 250 and review them, so this was the perfect opportunity for us! Thankfully The Sixth Sense was still available.

We don't watch/review horror movies very often so the fact that we get to review a horror movie on Friday 13th is pretty awesome!

 

 

Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is a young boy who can communicate with spirits that don't know they're dead. He spends a lot of time with a child psychiatrist, Dr Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) to try and help his problem.

 

The Sixth Sense is a really hard film for me to review. I first watched it at a sleepover with my friends when I was about 12, and just as we pressed play, my friend blurted out 'Oh, this is the film where *insert major spoiler here*'. I have to admit, that really killed it for me. If I could somehow come across a time machine, I think one of the first things I would do is go back to that year and watch the film alone, spoiler free. 

 

I got to watch this completely spoiler free, I think I went to the cinema with my friend Hayley to see it - I was terrified the whole way through.  The down side was I missed a lot of the story because I constantly had my cardigan over my face waiting for something to jump out!  It was only after I watched the whole film that I realised it wasn't that kind of horror but by then I knew the 'major spoiler' so the second (non-scared) time just didn't have the same impact.  Also, my friend started belting me in the arm (Allie will confirm that this is something I also have a nasty habit of doing when something exciting/scary/interesting happens in a film! - It's true, I still have the bruises) when the wedding ring dropped, she knew what was going on and I didn't have a clue!  I'm pretty sure she had to explain the spoiler to me afterwards as well! ha!

 

However, back to the film.  I did love this film, apart from being scared the story is great and Haley Joel Osment was brilliant as the terrified Cole and Bruce Willis actually does well in a non-action hero role.  The ending definitely makes this film as it can become a little slow in the middle, but that is all forgotten when the film ends.  I generally love M Night Shyamalan films anyway, I think I am the only one of my friends/family who enjoyed The Village, I thought it was really clever and Signs was hilarious

 

The scenes of teenagers who have blown their brains out and women hanged from the ceiling still terrify me but it's worth it to see the story play out.

 

Do you fancy feeling like a total old person? This is what the little boy, Cole looks like now:

 

Wow, I feel old now!!

 

 

 

This is a film that everyone should watch at least once. There are a few films in the Top 250 that I question, but this firmly deserves it's place. I wish I could give it a 10/10 but it's just not the same knowing how it ends. 

 

This is a must watch for everyone, just don't be scared and ruin it for yourselves, its not that kind of horror movie.