Thursday Movie Picks: Movies Adapted from Movies of a Different Language

It's Thursday! Time for Movie Picks. I'm so gutted I missed last week's theme, especially as I had only recently watched Flightplan! Anyway, 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.

I really love taking part in this series, but every now and again there will be a theme that just sits right outside of my comfort zone, and I back out. This week’s theme in Movies Adapted from Movies of a Different Language. This is well out of my comfort zone. Firstly, I can count on one hand the number of foreign language movies I’ve seen, and I don’t need to use many fingers, either.

In fact, there are only 3 movies I can think of that I’ve seen that were adapted from a movie in another language, so this is not a ‘best of’ or a ‘hidden gem’ list in the slightest! They’re also all English language movies. So, please forgive me this week, but I’m looking forward to learning a lot from everyone else taking part.

Brothers (2009) is adapted from the Danish-language movie, Brødre (2004). It’s actually a fantastic movie in my opinion, but hard to watch for sure. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character is left to comfort his brother’s sister after he goes missing at war in Afghanistan. This is heartbreaking enough, but when his brother, played by Tobey Maguire, is found and returned home, tensions run high.

Delivery Man (2013) is adapted from the French-Canadian movie, Starbuck (2011). I’m a big fan of Vince Vaughn, but this was a bit of a let down. I didn’t actually realise until this week that it was a remake, and I’m curious to see the original now. Surely it wouldn’t have been re-made if it was terrible? Anyway, Delivery Man is based on a real-life situation where a man in the US came to realise that due to his donations, he was the father of 150 children.

And now I’m breaking an unspoken rule by picking a movie I’ve already chosen for another theme. Sorry! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is adapted from the Swedish-language movie, Män som hatar kvinnor (2009). Now say that 5 times quick. This is also based on a book of the same name, which I’m sure you knew already. It’s a great read, if you’re on the hunt for something new to start. It’s the story of a journalist who hunts down a woman who has been missing for over 40 years, with the help of a young computer hacker. It’s compelling, and gritty, and I highly recommend it!

Mini Reviews: Max (2015), Bride Wars (2009) & A.C.O.D. (2013)

Max (2015) seemed to fall under the radar for me, but I spotted it on IMDB first. A movie about an army dog suffering with PTSD? I’m in. Why do I love to torture myself like this? To say I was disappointed in this movie isn’t fair, but it wasn’t the movie I thought it would be. I was expecting a drama about trying to rehabilitate this beautiful dog, and the question throughout being whether or not it would work or if he would have to be put down, but instead, this was a family orientated action movie. It’s a good one, but not what I was expecting at all.

So, I’m on the hunt for wedding related movies right now, and Bride Wars (2009) was the first on my list. Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway play two best friends who have always dreamed on June weddings at the Plaza Hotel. Of course, after a mishap, their weddings end up scheduled on the same day, and a war breaks out. Going through the planning experience myself, and being bridesmaid for 2 other weddings in the same year as mine, I could ironically relate to many things in this movie, which I think aided in my enjoyment! It’s amazing how the littlest things are huge problems when wedding planning!

In full swing of a Parks and Recreation obsession, I was on the hunt for a light comedy and spotted A.C.O.D. (2013), or Adult Children of Divorce featuring not only the loveable Adam Scott, but Amy Poehler too! Weirdly though, Poehler actually plays Scott’s mother-in-law, and that was a hard pill to swallow throughout. Adam Scott’s on screen brother, Clark Duke is getting married, but their parents are divorced and well, you can probably guess the rest. It had a really promising cast that never got the chance to show their full potential. An entertaining watch, but forgettable.

Christmas Cast-a-Thon - Allie's Post

You know, whilst I was dreaming up the post for our Christmas Cast-a-Thon, I actually had no idea what kind of cast I was going to create, or what kind of movie it would end up being. I was more excited to see everyone else’s posts! But it would certainly be rude to not take part in your own blogathon! So here’s what I’ve come up with.

If you'd like to take part, check out the announcement post here.

Christmas is the perfect time to watch cheesy movies without feeling guilty, so that’s exactly what I’m making here. I’m going for typical rom com with a Christmas flavour!

Santa - Benji, Mission Impossible Series (Simon Pegg)

Let’s say the IMF were shut down. When your entire career is a secret, your CV isn’t going to look that great, and so poor Benji is forced to work at a toy megastore as Santa over the Christmas holidays just to pay the rent.

Santa’s Helpers - Olive, Easy A (Emma Stone) & Winston, New Girl (Lamorne Morris)

Just because their job title is ‘Helper’ doesn’t mean they’re actually helpful! Olive is providing all the laughs here with her dry, sarcastic. humour, at the expense of everyone around her. Winston is looking for some extra cash on the side of his cop job, but he’s also Santa’s perfect wingman in his search for true love. Speaking of which…

Parents - Sabrina, The Change-Up (Olivia Wilde) & Owen, Jurassic World (Chris Pratt)

Married life as a legal secretary and a velociraptor handler is busy, and stressful, and that’s what ultimately led to the divorce of Sabrina and Owen. Sob. Luckily, Sabrina’s best friend Olive just so happens to work very closely with an eligible bachelor. See where this is going?

Child - Alexander, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Ed Oxenbould)

Alexander is having another terrible day it seems. Not only have his parents just finalised their divorce, but he’s being dragged Christmas shopping with his Mum to meet up with his rude Aunt Olive who isn’t even his Aunt, and he’s reached that age where he’s 99.9% certain Santa isn’t real.

Scrooge/Grinch - Dwight, The Office (Rainn Wilson)

Let’s say Dunder Mifflin really did shut down in the end. Things were looking pretty bad, but now Dwight has secured a role as Assistant Store Manager (or should that be Assistant to the Store Manager?) at the city’s biggest toy store. Only thing is, he hates Christmas. The only thing he hates more than Christmas are the company’s new hires, Santa and his Helpers. They spend far too much work time chatting, and Dwight is going to make darn sure all three of them get fired.

Extra Roles:

Grandad - Bryan, The Taken Trilogy (Liam Neeson)

Let’s face it, if you’re going to end up dating the daughter of any Liam Neeson character, especially Bryan Mills, you best make sure you don’t hurt her feelings. Or he’ll find you. And kill you. Wait, no. This is a lighthearted movie! Cool it, Bryan!

Family Pet - Grumpy Cat, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (Aubrey Plaza)

I’m cheating a little here. Last week I discovered that this movie existed. I scoffed that Grumpy Cat has his (her??) own Christmas movie. Then I noticed Grumpy Cat is voiced by Aubrey Plaza. Never before have I bought a DVD so quickly! I haven’t watched this yet, but come on, what Christmas Movie is complete without a (dis)loyal family pet?

That’s it! Would you ever consider watching my stereotypical, predictable Christmas Movie? I would, and then I’d add it to my list of guilty pleasures. Can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Review: Her (2013)

I think I owe this movie a public apology. Her’s release was pre-blog for me, at a time when I was ignorant towards anything attached to the Academy Awards. Naive me thought Oscar winners were nothing more than boring, serious movies loved by boffin-critics. Now of course I know much better! How bad is it that I watched this and completely forgot about it?!

Her was another recommendation from my Grampy, and before he told me a little about the plot I actually knew nothing about it. I could picture the poster as clear as day, and I don’t know what my mind had assumed it was about, but it wasn’t this!

In the near distant future, when we no longer have to read our own emails or write our loved ones letters, lonely Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) is struggling to deal with his recent divorce. When he sees an advert for a new operating system, OS1, he buys it and installs it immediately. This new OS has an exceptional AI and the voice Theodore speaks to calls herself Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). As Samantha learns more about Theodore and indeed herself, the two fall in love, but encounter difficulties when trying to define what their relationship actually is.

Even knowing that this is a work of fiction, it’s still quite harrowing to think that this is where technology is leading us. Actual human contact is becoming less and less necessary, and it’s not difficult to imagine a world whereby we walk alone, but talk constantly to our devices in our pockets.  

Despite knowing the name, Her is the first movie I’ve seen with Joaquin Phoenix (gasp!). I’m not actress myself of course but I can only imagine how hard it must be to act out a script when most of the conversations you have are with a device in your ear. That said, I thought he was amazing, and I’d love to see more of his work. Can anyone recommend me anything? Gladiator? Walk the Line? Signs? The Village?  To name but a few ;-)

The supporting cast were just as delightful, from the instantly recognisable and lovable Chris Pratt to the nearly completely unrecognisable Amy Adams. Honestly, I did a double and triple take before I realised it was her. She is absolutely beautiful!

I thought the cast, particularly Johannson and Phoenix, were amazing playing the key parts of their roles in near isolation and yet they express their emotions perfectly!

Her was such an emotional rollercoaster for me. It was at times heartwarming and yet heartbreaking. It was also hilarious in parts, especially if your reaction to anything sexual is to giggle and look away, like I do. My fiance looked a bit panicked during some scenes as at the time I was watching, he had an active headset on his PS4, and had to explain to his friends what they were hearing through the mic. I was banished upstairs after that!

I found this film so bizarre to watch, its completely advanced of our technology, in a world where relationships with AI's is relatively normal.  However, it felt like a normal love story, Scarlett Johannson did such an amazing job using only her voice that you could actually understand how they could be in love.  It's scary to see how this scenario can seem so normal and yet the world its set in seem so obscure.  The technology is more advanced than our world but the fashions and people seem to have drifted back to the 80's.

I made myself laugh last night when I thought hey, could Her be the sequel to Lucy? What an awesome fan theory!!

Christmas in July Blogathon

Originally written for and posted by Drew at Drew's Movie Reviews. Original post can be viewed here.

Today is a wonderful day, everyone. No, I’m not talking about the beautiful July weather right now. It’s Christmas! Or more specifically, it’s Christmas in July, which is just as good! I love this time of the year even more than Summer. Don’t you just love wrapping yourself up in a blanket, lighting some festive-smelling candles, and curling up on the sofa with a good movie?

I’m the worst for reminding people how close Christmas is (I normally start in April) but I have it on good authority that it is completely okay to talk about the C word today! Err, Christmas, that is. 

See, I have proof and everything. Drew has invited us all to celebrate early with a post. For mine, I’d like to share the Christmas movies that I’ll be watching this year. We’ve all got one of these lists, surely? Those movies that become a tradition to watch each year. Well, here are mine!

Love Actually (2003) is the first movie I turn to. It has such a brilliant cast, and never fails to make me laugh and cry within minutes of each other. It’s set in the run up to Christmas, and shows several different storylines that all tie into each other in the end. Plus, that scene with Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln with the cardboard signs is the sweetest thing ever!

Jingle All the Way (1996) is a movie I was introduced to when I had just started dating my now fiance. It’s his family’s traditional Christmas movie and since watching it at their house 7 years ago, I’ve watched it every year since. This doesn’t really happen anymore, but it’s about one parent’s mad dash on Christmas Eve to buy the sell-out toy of the year for his son. Thanks to Jingle All the Way, I can name all the reindeer!

Christmas Vacation (1989) follows on from my love of National Lampoon’s Vacation. Featuring Chevy Chase, it’s a hilarious tale of Clark Griswold’s experience of that festive time when his whole family come over to visit. No matter your age, there’s definitely something to relate to here.

I’m not sure if this should count, but Shrek the Halls (2007) was a half-hour TV short that my family still has recorded on their TV box. At the time, my littlest brother was Shrek obsessed, but even now we get together and watch it. It’s kind of sad, because we know all the words by heart, but it’s such a funny little short!

I watched Bad Santa (2003) for the first time last year as part of our 12 Days of Christmas blog series, but I fell head over heels in love with it. Billy Bob Thornton is the best bad santa ever, and this is probably the only Christmas movie I’ve watched which is strictly not for children! It only took 1 viewing for me to know that this will be added to my list every year.

Oh! I almost forgot, Drew also wanted to know who we would like to meet under the mistletoe. This is such a difficult choice! Normally I would try to choose between my usual favourites Ryan Reynolds, Chris Pine or Benedict Cumberbatch, but right now I’m going to make a wish to meet my current crush, Chris Pratt!

Drew, thank you for letting me gush about how much I love Christmas and it’s festive movies in July of all times. Now, to sing Christmas carols for the rest of the day till I get told off…

Review: Jurassic World (2015)

After reading more blog posts than I can count about Jurassic World, I was starting to feel like the only person in the world. Thankfully, I finally found the time to get out to the cinema and me, my fiance, and a surprisingly full cinema screen finally got to witness what we’d been waiting for for so long.  Similar experience but without the reviews, I was seeing everyone tweet about and Facebook about seeing this but hadn't seen it myself (felt like a fraudulent movie blogger when people kept asking me if I'd seen it and I hadn't!!).  Finally got to see it (in 3D) a few weekends ago...

You’ve got to know the story here, but for the sake of continuity I’ll tell you anyway. Jurassic World takes place 22 years after Jurassic Park, where seemingly, no one has learnt their lesson and the Park is now bigger and better than ever. Behind the scenes, researchers and scientists have finished developing a new, genetically engineered dinosaur called the indonom..y...something or other. It’s bigger, scarier, and more dangerous than anything they’ve created before. What could possibly go wrong? Ha!!

The slow start introduces us to our main characters. We have Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) who runs the park, and most definitely does not have time to look after her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) who have come to visit, presumably whilst their parents sort out their divorce. Owen (Chris Pratt) seems to be the chief dinosaur handler, and the smartest person in the room. Er, park.

Honestly, I got everything I could have wanted from Mercedes World. Sorry, Jurassic Converse. Wait, what? Okay, product placement is everywhere, I know, but most of the time it goes straight over my head. That’s the point, right? All these brands being pushed into my subconscious. Jurassic Pandora goes one step too far by ramming brands down our throats. From Chris Pratt making my knees weak, slowly drinking from a glass bottle of Coca-Cola to the most ridiculous close up shots of the brothers’ branded shoes, product placement is everywhere here. I may actually start a drinking game based around this.  How did I not even notice this?!  I am casting my mind back through the whole film in the hopes that i can imagine one product placement but nothing... I have to see this again now so I can keep my eyes peeled! Seriously? Maybe it was the caffeine but it really put me off the film itself!

Back to the point though, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Sure, the start was a little slow but once the pace was set, it just kept going. It was exciting, and I found myself hiding behind my box of popcorn during some of the jumpy moments. I’m not sure I agree with the 12A rating, but it’s replaced the standard 12 so there’s nothing else it could have been given!  Do you not think it would have been a bit gory to be anything less?!  There was quite a lot of blood! I meant it should be higher, not lower! :D

I have to admit, although I was looking forward to this, I tried not to have too many expectations. I enjoyed Jurassic Park 3 but it was no where near as good as the original so I didn't want to get my hopes up....BUT....BUT....this was amazing.  It was extremely close to being as good as the original (if it wasn't for Bryce Dallas-Howard's character) and I was fully engrossed from the very beginning.  I don't usually watch live action movies in 3D because I generally think they use it for cheap thrills but the quality of the 3D in this was brilliant, the feel of souring over the vast landscapes of the Jurassic World park and through various wooded landscapes chasing the tail of a lose Raptor.  There was nothing flying directly at the screen or cheap thrills to make you jump and I loved that!

My biggest niggle with this was Bryce Dallas-Howard, I have never been her biggest fan in anything I have seen her in but i'm 100% if it was a dislike of her characters or her directly. Either way, this was no different, workaholic Claire is arrogant and rude and a really unpleasant character that all of a sudden we are meant to believe 'gives a crap' about anyone after allowing the situation to happen in the first place for her own validation.  Also, her hair.  Am I the only one who noticed that she didn't have a hair out of the place for the first half of the movie and then all of a sudden the style changed to perfectly styled curls...how?! why?! what were hair and make up thinking?! - I think this may have bothered me a bit too much! I think I was too busy creating my product placement bingo game to notice this, ha!

Just for laughs, they had to throw in a hilarious scene where Claire was running full speed (in stillettos) while been chased by a T-rex, which miraculously never caught up with her......

Ok so I spent most of this review ranting but I loved it, cant wait to see it again (and spot some product placement) and get another eyeful of Chris Pratt.....

I fully realise this is the most off topic review I may have ever written, so to conclude, this was pretty brilliant on the big screen, although I’m not sure if I’ll love it as much after multiple viewings.

Looking Forward to Seeing at the Cinema: June 2015

So, this is probably the most confusing post we have ever co-written, first Allie starts with this:

Okay, so I know what I want to pick this month, but I know Jenna's looking forward to it more, and I stole Avengers: Age of Ultron from her last time I started this post off, so I'll let her have it. There's a film coming out in June that I'm not 100% sold on yet, but I'll absolutely still see it at the cinema, and probably at the IMAX.

Obviously, followed by her reasons for choosing this (see below), which strangely include the fact that she hasn't seen the previous 3 Jurassic Park films).  At this point, this is my face....

...mostly because I have no idea which film Allie thinks I was going to choose (mainly because I was going to choose Jurassic World).  So I text Allie to ask what film she was referring to and of course she meant this:

This was true, I was looking forward to Minions but didn't realise it was out in June (the post above appears to agree with me).  Anyway I agreed as Allie had already written her bit I would go with Minions.  Que 2 days later when we text again and decided to go the other way as Allie hadn't seen the Jurassic Park movies anyway.  There was further texting and now its 10pm on May 31st and I have text Allie to check which way round we were going with this and she can't remember either!! So in short, here is why me and Allie are looking forward to BOTH Jurassic World AND Minions:

That's right, Jurassic World! I'm over my 'why does Chris Pratt have to be cast for everything' rant by now (why would this bother anyone, he is beautiful!), I'm over that, but I do have a confession. I haven't seen a Jurassic Park film. At least I don't think so. I may have seen the original, but I was too young to remember any of it. I'm going to make sure I watch it before I watch Jurassic World though, don't worry.

I LOOOOOOVE Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park 3 (The Lost World was a waste of money and perfectly good dinosaurs!) and as soon as I heard about this coming out I was beyond excited and then they announced Chris Pratt was in it, could it get any better! I have a few niggles, i.e. WHY after the disaster that was the park in the first movie, why would anyone even think about opening a dinosaur park??! Why would anyone visit it?! This better be explained early on in the movie or so help me God...  Other than that, can't wait!

What's the verdict so far? Is everyone geared up for a rip-roaring success or is it going to be another un-necessary sequel? Here's the trailer by the way, in case you haven't seen it already:

Jurassic World will be released in UK cinemas on 12th June 2015.

Aaaaand as promised, why i'm looking forward to the Minions very own movie, put it this way, the only reason I went to see (and even remotely liked) Despicable Me 2 was for the Minions, they were the only good part.  The concept of the story looks really clever from the trailer and hopefully it will have the adult inside jokes that all grown ups know and love while being colourful and entertaining to keep the small people distracted for a few hours.

My only worry would be that it's not good, people have been demanded a Minion movie since the first Despicable Me hit our screens back in 2010 so there is a lot riding on this.

If you missed it, here is the trailer:

Minions will be released in UK cinemas on 18th June 2015

Mini Reviews: Brothers (2009), Taken 3 (2014) & Delivery Man (2013)

I watched Brothers as part of my crusade to watch every Jake Gyllenhaal film out there. Brothers is actually a remake of a Danish film of almost the same name, back in 2004. It’s a powerful drama that begins with Capt. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) being presumed dead in Afghanistan. The main focus of the story is how his wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) cope with his disappearance. 

Although slow paced at times, I was glued to the screen the whole time and was fascinated by the events on screen. It’s some of the best acting I’ve ever seen from Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire. The ending in particular stuck with me all night, and as much as I could praise this film, it’s not one you would happily re-watch on a Saturday afternoon. One thing I’ll say is that if you fancy watching this, don’t watch a trailer! It gives away the whole film.

This is what I dream of every time I hear the doorbell ring...

My ultimate guilty pleasure, Liam Neeson. To be honest, even I can say now that the guy really needs to play a different character soon. Although admittedly, I’ll still go and watch whatever film he’s in! Taken 3 is...exactly what you expect. Although, no ones been taken this time. Unless you want to be poetic and say Bryan’s ex-wife’s life was taken away. Boo. Now Bryan is on the run trying to find her killers.

Taken 3 wasn’t as bad as I was gearing myself up for, but it certainly wasn’t a masterpiece either. Still, it was miles better than Taken 2. There was a twist I guessed a mere milisecond before it happened, but most people probably would have guessed it ages before. This really needs to be the end of it though now, I won’t support any more Taken films. I just get too much stick. Oh, who am I kidding…

I can’t believe Delivery Man was out two years ago. Wow! I was a huge Vince Vaughn fan a few years ago and I try to make an effort to watch his comedies when they come out. Delivery Man tells the story of David (Vince Vaughn), who discovers that after his many fertility clinic donations he is the father of over 500 children, and now a large quantity of them are trying to oppose the anonymity rules.

Although this isn’t my favourite of his films, I did enjoy Delivery Man. It’s a silly premise, but fairly unique (to me at least!) but I can’t help but think it would have worked better as a drama?! One with dark humour of course. It just felt like the jokes weren’t funny enough, but there were some touching moments and I had a little cry at the end. Worth a watch for sure, but don’t rush!

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.