Review: The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)

This post has been sitting in drafts for MONTHS with no text in it, I have a theory that if I start the post title then that will remind to write the post - my theory does not work in case you were wondering!

So I am browsing Sky Box Office looking for something to watch and this popped up.  I really enjoyed the first one (preferably the parts without Kristen Stewart...) so this had to be even better due to her lack of casting and a replacement in the form of Jessica Chastain....

Winter's War takes place both before and after the events of Snow White and the Huntsman, delving into The Huntsman's past with his beloved wife and the present day trying to recover the stolen Magic Mirror along with a rabble of dwarves.  I don't want to add anything more for fear of spoilers, so that's all you're getting!

Any film with Chris Hemsworth being all manly man is a winner for me!!  The story could have been dull as dishwater and I still would have been happy.  Thankfully, the story wasn't dull, it was quite entertaining. There was plenty of action and the dwarves (Rob Brydon, Nick Frost and Sheriden Smith) provided some great comedic moments.  Finally, it never hurts to have a bad ass woman around (Jessica Chastain) who can kick all their butts into touch.  

It wasn't the best film I have ever seen, it seemed to have all the elements required for a good film but just fell a little bit flat.  The bad guys we're played by some of Hollywood's finest (Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt) a fact that seemed to be forgotten, leaving them both completely wasted.  Less fannying about in the woods and more screen time and history of these two would have helped.

It could have been better but it entertained me enough to not turn it off midway through. Probably wouldn't watch it again though.

Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

My main friends group who I still see after we all finished college is full of guys. To begin with, there was only 1 other girl in our group but we do have a couple more now the lads have found them! What it means is I get a lot of invites to ‘lads’ film nights that I tend to turn down. There were some last minute plans to see Mad Max on the opening night, and so I said yes and just went with it!

Now, I haven’t seen any of the other Mad Max films, but from what I gather, Max used to be in the police force until his family were murdered. I should probably go back now and watch the others for some backstory, but I was told I wouldn’t need to see the others before watching Fury Road to appreciate it.

Mad Max: Fury Road is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the desert where humanity barely exists. Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) rules a small town known as The Citadel with his  ‘War Boys’, farming women for their breast milk, and keep several wives to provide him with heirs. Joe’s most trusted Lieutenant, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) betrays him and makes a run for freedom with his wives, and whilst on the road, Max (Tom Hardy) joins them.

I’d heard beforehand that this would be one of the year’s biggest action films, but I wasn’t expecting what I saw. The film opens on what must have been a 10 minute-long action scene, and it never slowed down for a minute. You know when you’re watching an action film and you get an actual action scene every now and again? In Fury Road, you get a scene every now and again without it. Even when there isn’t any action, it doesn’t last for long!

Multiple viewings are definitely needed just to fully appreciate the visuals in this, from the colourful desert setting to the fine details in each of the vehicles. It’s just crazy, that’s my main way of summing this film up. I mean, there’s a huge vehicle in Joe’s army with 3 great big drums, a drummer at each, and at the front, a guy on an electric guitar hanging in suspense with elastic. How is that not crazy?!

I don’t mean this to sound like a criticism, but although this is Max’s film, I thought Furiosa was the leading character. She was everything a female character needed to be, and she rocked it! Even the wives weren’t silly, pathetic girls who needed looking after every two minutes. One thing that only really sprung to mind when I was trying to sleep that night was that this film didn't include any bad language or sex scenes. It's just pure action, and how could that not be awesome?

This has ruined any other action film for me right now, because I don’t think anything could live up to it. If you get the chance to see it in the cinema I urge you to do it, because the experience alone makes this a 10 for me. At home, it might be a 9, but ask me again when the DVD is out.

Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Thursday night was our first Flick Chicks night out, and what an awesome one at that! After wolfing down a Nandos in record time, we went to see A Million Ways to Die in the West at Jenna's local Cineworld. I practically skipped into the screen; I was really looking forward to it! I've watched Ted too many times to count so I had high hopes for this.  I have realised that I need to watch Ted again after Allie mentioned someone who was in it and I don't remember seeing them AT ALL!! Think that might be a SkyGo job for my next flight!

Albert (Seth McFarlane) is a cowardly sheep farmer who gets dumped by his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried). She hooks up with the local douchebag Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), and Albert is determined to win her back. He meets Anna (Charlize Theron), who just so happens to be the wife of the toughest guy around, Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), although he doesn't realise that. That's really all you need to know, I'm sure you can guess the rest!

Me and Jenna were in a bit of a giggly mood when we saw this, I guess it must be a side effect of scoffing a huge plate of Nandos! I laughed plenty throughout this film, even laughed quite loud at some parts. Admittedly, some jokes were a bit drawn out and started off as funny, but should have ended sooner. I'm thinking of the hat scene in particular which will make sense if you've seen this.  I had, what can only be described as, a fit of hysteria at the 'drunk and horse' scene where I couldn't catch my breath for a good five minutes and my glasses steamed up from the tears!!  Fully agree, the hat scene pushed into 'spoof movie' instead of comedy which wasn't great but didn't ruin the film for me at all.

I was mostly looking forward to the cameos. I'd heard that there were some great names and I've been making the biggest effort to steer clear from IMDB before I saw this so I wouldn't ruin it for myself. They were awesome! Some quite hard to spot because of everyone's moustaches, and one in particular literally made me do this:



This was her face exactly, I wish I could explain why but if you know Allie at all and you have seen this movie, you can probably guess which cameo did this to her!!

This was nearly everything I expected it to be. The humour wasn't as good as Ted, but some of the cameos were better, Neil Patrick Harris showing his 'inner Barney' was a massive highlight for me, and the moustache song in particular needs to get onto my iTunes fast. Sadly I can't find a YouTube clip of it anywhere, but I'll keep searching! LOVED the Moustache song, as I type I am singing it in my head!!

This film had one of my favourite cameos EVER (although not beating the Zombieland one which I just did not see coming) I won't say who it was but if you know me and you see this film, you'll know!!  I couldn't help but love this film at many points throughout, I kept thinking 'I shouldn't love this, this will end up on my guilty pleasures list with the likes of Pearl Harbour and Armageddon.'  The funny bits had me in hysterics meaning I wasn't even paying attention to the rest as I was still laughing from the last thing that happened!!  I have to agree with some of the critics, Seth MacFarlane did let this down, he seemed very stiff and awkward when delivering the lines that were obviously scripted and too casual and 'stand up comedian waiting for applause' in the parts where he was clearly adlibbing.  The contrast between the two was so obvious, I noticed every time it changed.

If you liked Ted, there's no reason why you wouldn't like this, but if Ted wasn't really your thing, then steer clear!

Still found this hilarious and as Allie said will recommend to anyone who laughed at Ted.  Definite 'buy full price DVD' contender.