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.

My 5 Favourite Chris Hemsworth Roles

G’day, folks! Did you know today is Chris Hemsworth's birthday? Well, today is Chris Hemsworth’s birthday! In true Flick Chicks fashion, I thought I’d celebrate by sharing my 5 favourite roles of his. For such a famous face, it’s surprising how few movies Chris has actually been in, but there’s still far too many I haven’t seen yet. Sigh, if I weren’t at work right now I could be having a Hemsworth-related movie marathon at home! 

Anyway, let’s kick this list off! I’ve even managed (with difficulty) to rank my list for a change:

#5 Stone Crandall, Vacation (2015)

So, only a small role this time, but 2015’s remake/sequel of Vacation was so packed with cameos this felt like a much larger role. And sure, his only real job here was to take his shirt off and pose in those far too tight grey boxers, but I’m a warm-blooded female dangit, I enjoyed it! 

#4 George Kirk, Star Trek (2009)

Again, a small role in the newly rebooted Star Trek movie, but arguably a very important one. I mean, there’s no James Kirk without George Kirk, right?! What excites me the most though is that Chris Hemsworth has been confirmed for the next sequel. I know next to nothing about Star Trek so can’t speculate much, but I’m looking forward to it!

#3 James Hunt, Rush (2013)

Any actor who can leave me raving about a Biographical Motorsport movie should be handed with every award going. I can’t even remember why I let myself be dragged to the cinema for this one, but the chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl was just phenomenal, the rivalry felt so real.

#2 Kevin, Ghostbusters (2016)

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that Kevin was downright hilarious in the Ghostbusters remake. From answering the phone terribly, posing with musical instruments, to the whole interview scene where he asks if he can bring in ‘Mike Hat’...which is his dog...who lives with his aunt. I’m genuinely laughing right now, that joke will never get old.

#1 Thor, The Marvel Universe

Come on, there was never any real question about the number 1 spot, was there? Chris Hemsworth was born to play Thor! I haven’t picked up a Marvel comic in a couple of years now, but Thor was my favourite character, so I had high hopes when the first movie was announced. Needless to say I was very happy! It’s not just that he has the look, either. It’s in his mannerisms, and the ease that he pulls off that old-timey way of speaking. He can be this powerful God among men one minute, and a loveable oaf the next. I’m really looking forward to Ragnarok next year!

What about you guys? Are there any roles you'd have included, or movies Chris Hemsworth was in that you can recommend for me? I may just have that movie marathon this evening, instead!

Review: Ghostbusters (2016)

Oh boy. I don’t think I’ve been this nervous about writing a review since, well ever actually. Let’s start a few months ago, when the first bits of news came out that Ghostbusters was getting an all-female remake. I’ve never seen any of the original movies (gasp!) and even as a woman myself couldn’t see the need for an all-female team, and the trailers that eventually came out had me feeling pretty ‘meh’ about the whole thing. We’ve had a fair number of reboots over the last few years, and the lucky few have had mediocre reviews.  I am still horrified that you haven't seen the original Ghostbusters!!

Of course, a few days before the release, IMDB and Letterboxd users rated the movie as low as possible, before they could even have a chance to watch the movie, which honestly winds me up more than is rational. I try not to judge a book by it’s cover, but I use sites like those to get a rough idea, and on the UK release day Ghostbusters had an abysmal score of 3.7 on IMDB. With a rare Monday night free and cheaper tickets at my local cinema, I thought ‘screw it’ and went to see it on the opening night.  Now I had seen the opposite, I hadn't looked as early as Allie so the annoying pre-reviewers had been overpowered by an array of positive reviews.  This unfortunately led to countless people coming out of the woodwork to state that Sony clearly had brought their reviews!! argh - why are people so annoying?!

Out of the Ghostbuster ladies, I’m only really familiar with two of them, Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, who were brilliant together in Bridesmaids (2011), so I had a little hope. I know Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones are from Saturday Night Live, but we don’t get that show here in the UK, although something clicked half way through the movie when I recognised Leslie Jones as the technician who shouted at Kylo Ren in the Undercover Boss sketch, which led to me laughing out loud during a non-funny part of the movie.

Um, I gotta say as well, it certainly is something spectacular when Chris Hemsworth isn’t the hottest blonde in the room. Where has Kate McKinnon been my whole life? I had such a lady boner crush on her the whole time. She’s aloof, gorgeous, and fierce, and everything I want to be!  You may have to fight me for her, she was amazing!!

Anyway, I’m going off topic now. I think what I’m really trying to do is stall, because what I need to say is I really, really enjoyed watching Ghostbusters. Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen the original, maybe it’s because I was expecting something even worse than Independence Day: Resurgence, but it doesn’t matter because I had a blast. The jokes were funny, the special effects were hella-cool, and those ladies kicked ass. 

I have to disagree with Allie, it can't be because she hasn't seen the original because I have seen, and loved the original Ghostbusters and I still loved this.  It was a film of it's own, it wasn't a carbon copy of the originals but had enough easter eggs to keep me happy!  I feel like Allie needs to go and watch the originals and then watch the new one again and it will be like a whole new movie for her!

Chris Hemsworth playing a goofy receptionist was an absolute stroke of genius. He got guaranteed laughs every time he was on screen, but nothing was funnier than his interview for the job. I really don’t want to ruin the joke but I’m laughing just thinking about it. I wish I could get away with being as bad at my job as he is, though. Admittedly, I’ve pretended there’s a really bad line on the phone and hung up when someone on the other end is making absolutely no sense.   This was the first gag I mentioned to Allie when I had seen the film and spent Saturday evening (a bit tipsy) repeating it over and over while laughing hysterically.  I wish I could tell the joke because at this point this whole paragraph is a bit vague!

Look, I’m off topic again! I don’t know what else to say other than I hope people at least give this a chance. I’ll give the original Ghostbusters movies a watch at some point so I have some kind of comparison, and maybe that’ll change my mind, I definitely saw Jurassic World in a different light after finally watching Jurassic Park. And if you hate the cast, hate the new effects, maybe it’s worth watching for some pretty awesome cameos? I didn’t get them all of course, but I could make a pretty good guess when one showed up by everyone else’s reactions. Wait, what am I even talking about? Forget those guys, the best cameo (which isn’t even a cameo, it’s a small role) is DOPINDER. Dopinder, guys!!  This is where Allie lost me, the cameos throughout the whole film made me squeal and whack my Dad in the arm, I didn't even realise that Dopinder was Dopinder until Allie told me afterwards!!

I have to repeat that I loved this entirely as a movie of it's own.  The action was great and the comedy was really. At one point I laughed so much that I had tears in my eyes and missed about 3 other gags that followed.  Chris Hemsworth and Kate McKinnon were by far the highlights, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't utilise Melissa McCarthy's comedy genius more but she can't always be the centre of attention! Honestly I'm glad for that, she's driving me crazy lately and I was worried she'd be as annoying in this as she was in The Boss. She makes such a great supporting cast member, it's when she's the lead that it all goes wrong for me.

Oh, and stay till the end of the credits! Not just for the dancing, I promise, there’s actually a proper scene right at the end.

Thursday Movie Picks: Storms/Adverse Weather

It's Thursday! Time for Movie Picks. If you're new to this, Thursday Movie Picks is a fantastic series hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, where each week she picks a theme and we all choose 3 movies that we feel fit.

So, this week’s theme of Storms/Adverse Weather seems oddly fitting, as whilst I’m typing this it’s raining really quite heavily outside. No, wait, it’s actually snowing now! It’s not sticking though, sadly. Man I’d love to build a snowman right now.

Anyway! The three movies I’ve picked this week aren’t actually about a storm per se, but they do have very memorable storms within them. This was a really difficult week to whittle down to just three movies.

This was funny timing, as I watched Identity just last week, and so you’ll see my review soon. It’s an interesting, quite compact mystery/thriller about a group of people who find themselves stranded at night at a motel in Nevada due to, you guessed it, a particularly nasty rainstorm. The rain is that heavy it’s caused huge floods around the roads, leaving the group with nowhere else to go. Of course, things get tense as the group is murdered one by one, and the darkness and heavy rain really helps to build the suspense during those scarier scenes.

Time for some silliness. If you aren’t familiar with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), it’s the story of a young scientist whose inventions constantly fail. That is, until he builds the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, or FLDSMDFR for short. Rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? Well, the FLDSMDFR has the ability to turn water into food, but an accident sends the machine hurtling up into sky, inadvertently causing it to rain cheeseburgers! Things turn worse when a tornado formed of spaghetti and meatballs tears through the town.

You can’t talk storms without mentioning the God of Thunder himself, Thor. Subsequently, I can’t talk Thor without mentioning that scene in his original movie, titled Thor (2011), funnily enough. Forgive my girlish ways, but the scene at the crash site at night where Thor creates a storm as a distraction to take back his hammer Mjolnir is memorable indeed. Especially when the rain made everything all muddy and slippy, and the fighting ensued. Phew! 

Oh, and in true British fashion, there are blue skies outside now!

Review: In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

At the local cinema that I go to we have an Unlimited card, you pay one price and you can go tot he cinema a many times as you want in the month.  Another perk of this is Unlimited advanced screening and secret screenings.  I always book the secret screenings, mostly just to find out what it was but the day before the latest one there were lots of tweets about the Odeon secret screening and that is as Room.  So i'm super excited because I've wanted to see this since i saw the trailer, so imagine my surprise when I get to the theatre and the lady behind the counter gives me 3D glasses.  I'm starting to think may the secret viewing isn't Room and then while waiting for the film to start the trailer for Room comes on...now I'm really upset because I know for certain we are watching In the Heart of the Sea, which I did not want to see, Dad however was thrilled.

In the Heart of the Sea is the story of the crew of the whaling ship, the Nantucket.  The youngest crew member Tom Nickerson is now an old man and played by Brendan Gleeson telling Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) the story that inspired Moby Dick.  The Nantucket heads out with new Captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) and experienced first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth).

I think there is a good chance the studio had hoped that the idea of Chris Hemsworth with his top off and windswept hair would attract hoards of young ladies (oh, hello!), however most of those young ladies are now Star Wars fans (wait, did you just say Star Wars?!). Being released around the same time at Star Wars pretty much guaranteed a low Box Office figure and with a target audience of 50+ males (most of which enjoyed the original Star Wars theatrical release) ruined any chance of success for it.

Personally, i enjoyed the film a lot more than I expected to, the story was interesting, if not gross in a few places, and it held my attention all the way through.  Hemsworth wasn't bad to eyeball either!  I had a bit of an issue with the 'story teller' not actually being present in parts of the story that were told (how did he know?!) but that was minor.  The scenes on the water were brilliantly shot did at some points have me on the edge of my seat.  It needn't have been in 3D, there was really no benefit and actually the 'on land' scenes just seemed blurry to me and actually gave me a bit of a headache!

By far better than I anticipated but I don't know if I would watch it again.

Review: Vacation (2015)

Just when you thought I couldn’t talk anymore about Vacation on this blog, bam! Sequel/remake time. I’m in my prime right now. On a serious note though, the original Vacation was my whole childhood, and since the very recent passing of my Granny I’ve felt even more of a connection to it. Every Bank Holiday as a child would be spent at my grandparents with a KFC, and National Lampoon’s Vacation would be played.  I only watched the original Vacation once as a child so I don't have the same connection to it as Allie but I did enjoy it (even if I don't like Chevy Chase - Sorry Allie!!)

I’ve been waiting for this film for about 2 years now since it was announced. In fact, Jenna and I still worked together when it was announced! I think I had a celebratory Subway for lunch that day. I do however realise that sequels are very rarely as good as their originals, and by the time I bought my cinema ticket I was mainly just hoping it wouldn’t suck.

Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) is all grown up now and with his family life stuck in a bit of a rut, he remembers the fun he had as a child on his family road trip and vacation to Walley World. Clearly he didn’t remember it very well, as it was a disaster, but nonetheless he decides to take his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate), and two sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) on the same road trip. As James wisely points out, he’s never even heard of the original vacation, but that’s okay, Rusty says it will stand on its own.  This was a great scene where they basically explained that you didn't need to see the original to enjoy this one...very clever!!

Whilst Vacation is never going to win any real awards, can I just award it an honourary ‘best opening credits ever’ award? Seriously, I was in stitches! Before I let this post turn into gushing praise though, I do accept that it’s not the best comedy in the world. No, it’s not better than the original and there are jokes that fall flat. Kevin was really irritating, and a lot of his bad language was just unnecessary.   I don't even remember the opening credits - is that bad?!  I don't think at any point I laughed hysterically, all the jokes were set up so you could see what was going to happen, which limited the surprise laughs to be had!

Other jokes though are making me laugh while I type this just thinking about it. The rocket button on the car’s key fob? I don’t even know what it was about that scene that made me laugh so hard, but my sides hurt after it! The Korean sat-nav joke never got old either, and completely caught me off guard every time. Even if you aren’t a fan of the film itself, this has got to be fun just to spot all the cameos! I didn’t even know half of them, but my friends did and we all know how fun it is to spot one of our favourite actors or actresses when we weren’t expecting them to turn up.  Thanks Allie for the reminder, I did laugh out loud a few times and they were all related to that car/key fob.  Although the fob joke was set up really early, I never had any idea what was going to happen to the car when they pressed any of the buttons so that did keep me entertained!

Hmmm...what was I saying again?

For fans of the original, there are plenty homages to spot. I think I confused everyone around me when I chuckled as the Griswold’s drove over that bridge. The biggest throwback for me though is the Holiday Road song that was played multiple times. It doesn’t matter where I am or what mood I’m in, that song will make me smile.  I think I missed most of the homages, as it has been a looooooong time since I saw the original - Allie we'll have to watch this together and you'll have to enlighten me!

I accept I may be alone in my praise of Vacation, but that’s okay. 

In this particular post, yes you are alone....

You don't understand!!

Looking Forward to Seeing in the Cinema: August 2015

This time its my turn to get in there first :-)  especially as there doesn't seem to be that much out in August - sorry Allie! I'm absolutely fine with this...there's only one thing I'm looking forward to this month! Of course, completely forgot about that one....

I was initially disappointed when I heard they were remaking Fantastic Four, the original was my first experience if a superhero/comic book movie and it started an obsession that would stay with me for a long time to come.  Unfortunately, I think I am the only one who thought much of that film so eventually the remake was inevitable.

I was also a bit disappointed to find out it was the same bad guy again but then I saw the trailer......... consider me converted.  It looks amazing and the advancements in CGI are evident plus it is another fix for my recent obsession with Miles Teller.

Fantastic Four is released in UK cinemas on 6th August 2015.

Allow me to re-name this post briefly to 'Looking forward to and absolutely terrified to be seeing in the cinema' for my half. It seems all summer I've been talking about National Lampoon's Vacation and Christmas Vacation too. This year we get a remake, named simply, 'Vacation'.

You lucky folks across the sea have already had the chance to see it, and by the time this post publishes on our blog I'll have probably already read the onslaught of one-star reviews, but as this is released on my birthday weekend in the UK, I'll be one of the first to see it over here, still holding out hope for a decent film.

Vacation will be released in UK cinemas on 21st August 2015.

Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

How long have we been waiting for this movie? I think the world and his wife went out to the cinema this weekend to see the long awaiting sequel to 2012's Avengers Assemble (The Avengers to the US residents among us) - the cinema was packed out and we went to see the very late 2D version in the hopes that it would be a bit quieter.  No such luck!

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) tries to protect the Earth from alien invasions using the power of the Sceptre to create Artificial Intelligence in his robot army.  Unfortunately, things don't quite go to plan and its down to Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth),  Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) along with newbies Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) to save the world....again.

Do you think there will ever be a superhero film in which the world is perfectly fine on its own?

So this was not what I expected, I expected a replica of the first Avengers but with a different storyline, I thought it would be just as playful and witty and off the cuff as the first, but it wasn't.  Initally, I thought it was a bad thing, I didn't understand why they weren't sticking to the tried and testing formula that worked so well for its predecessor and the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy.  Instead it took a tone more like the Captain America sequel, much more dark and in some ways realistic.  It has to be considered that going through these battles and wars with various monsters and bad guys would leave some psychological scarring, and this touches on that, particularly with Tony Stark (RDJ) and his fears for the Earth. 

We definitely got into their heads a little more than last time. One thing I really enjoyed was the amount of screen time Hawkeye and Black Widow got, they're easily forgotten and so it was a breath of fresh air to see them more.

It may not have been what I expected but that doesn't mean I didn't like it.  There were a few niggles that bothered me, the Russian twins god awful accents and the lack of Thor's biceps but nothing that ruined the film for me.  In fact, the inclusion of a bit of romance, a well kept secret and a developing bromance kept my interest peaked for the majority of the film, but what kept me well and truly gripped was Ultron.  James Spader's angry, calm, uber-intelligent robot just stole the show at every opportunity, took me the whole film to place the voice and I still found out from the credits but he was perfect.  He was the perfect villain.

As much as I enjoyed Age of Ultron, I too have my niggles about it. The romance was a little un-necessary I thought, and kind of came out of no where! The spoilerific (yes, I made that word up) ending which I won't go into detail fell flat, and I found myself glad it wasn't what the film had been hinting at from the very start!

James Spader as Ultron was brilliant! I wasn't bothered about Ultron in the slightest before the film, and I couldn't remove the image of The Office's Robert California until Ultron's reveal, and then I realised just how great the casting was. Still not a better villain than Loki I'm afraid!

There was nothing I didn't like about it, I may have preferred a few more comedy one-liners in there but I think that would have taken away from the overall goal of the film.  There was no messing about either, the opening sequence made way for a fast paced, non-stop, action packed superhero fest.

It was definitely darker, but the running joke about Captain America disapproving of swears never got old, and the scene with everyone gathered around Thor's hammer was hilarious! I'm trying my very hardest here to not make jokes about being able to raise Thor's hammer...

Great cast as always and a few surprise cameos (one that I hoped for didn't appear *sob*) made this just as good as the original but for different reasons. 

Seeing this in 3D IMAX made this an awesome experience for me, but I think the original is just that little bit better.

OH, and can I just say? Worst mid-credits scene ever. Tell us something we didn't know, Marvel!

Review: Thor: The Dark World (2013)

I had to check with Allie because I couldn't believe we hadn't reviewed Thor 2 when we both thought it was great.  So here it is:

Thor: The Dark World follows on from the events of Thor and Avengers Assemble, with Jane Foster on Earth and Thor back in Asgard preparing to take over the throne from his father.  However, on yet another one woman mission, Jane gets 'infected' by the one thing that can destroy the nine realms and has to be taken to Asgard to be saved and of course help to save the world and the nine realms. I hate it when that happens...one minute I'm shoe shopping, and the next, a planet of aliens is trying to destroy my home world. Such a nuisance!

Is it just me, or was there no real need for Natalie Portman's Jane in this movie?  Don't get me wrong as a romance fan, I like the idea that you get to see the development of her relationship with Thor, however I feel like the story had to be forced to include her character, when not really necessary.  This does not take anything away from the movie, which for me was great. 

That never occured to me actually but you have a point. On the whole romance thing I would have loved a Thor-Jane-Sif love triangle! 

I still love Chris Hemsworth as I did in the first film (mostly for his biceps) and his response to being on Earth (cracking scene with a coat rack - although I have read good points about this, in that the coat rack surely should have been ripped off the wall by the weight of the hammer) always makes me laugh.

As a sequel, I was all ready to be disappointed (as I usually am with sequels) and I wasn't even close and there is only one reason for this..... Loki!! Without saying a word, he stole every scene he was in with his witty one liners, genius facial expressions and brilliant timing he just made this film for me.  One word ... TA-DA!!! I think that's two. I put a dash in it to make it one ;-)

Somehow I just knew that the sequel would be better than the first. I really loved the first too - it's the first film I saw at the cinema twice in years. In The Dark World, it just feels like more is at risk, and the world is in greater danger than before, which makes all the action that little bit better.

The first half of the film was a little bit slow and I was a bit worried for a minute but as soon as Loki made his appearance and they were on their brotherly mission, all became well again. I still love Darcy played by Kat Dennings and her sarcasm and general normalcy in a film made up of Gods, elves and alternate realms.  

Tom Hiddleston was just born to play Loki, I couldn't image anyone who would be able to equal him in the role, let alone do it better. His chemistry with Chris Hemsworth is fantastic, and he just steals every scene he's in. In fact, Loki is so amazing that I named one of my cats after him. It doesn't get much better than that, folks.

A sequel that can live up to it's predecessor, should be watched for that reason alone.  This was a 7 but Loki makes it a solid 9!