Review: Spectre (2015)

I’m not going to pretend I was excited about this because I wasn’t, I have never liked James Bond.  I find all the films very samey and nothing new ever happens, to me it all seems like money that could be better spent.  However, my Dad loves them so as the dutiful Daughter (and because I want him to see Mockingjay Part 2 with me) I accompanied him to see it.

Do I even need to provide a synopsis? James Bond (Daniel Craig) receives a cryptic message from the past leading him to a criminal organisation, that must be stopped.  I wish that could have been longer but I don’t really know what else to say!

Ok, ok I’m going to try and stop sounding so bitter about this whole thing.  In fairness, I didn’t hate it (I did take 2 naps throughout) but it didn’t keep me gripped nor was I on the edge of my seat.  In fact, instead of being worried when Bond is in precarious situations, I find myself thinking ‘well Bond will never die’ which kind of takes the edge off it.  Furthermore, in the opening Helicopter scene, I couldn’t help but think that the helicopter would have stalled at numerous occasions and crashed into hundreds of people, but that’s none of my business!  I know I am being too picky and fussy because I wasn’t interested in it all and you all know I don’t make such a fuss over the ‘defying of gravity’ in Fast and the Furious films for example, which makes me feel mean but I can’t help it, I didn’t enjoy it.

There were bits I did enjoy, I like Q (Ben Whishaw) and how he is becoming his own character and coming out of his shell a little bit, personally I would have liked a bit more screen time for him.  Also, in going against every review I have caught on this movie, I liked Christoph Waltz.  I really like him as an actor and when I finally got some screen time, I woke up and bit and gained some interest. His character’s motives do borderline on ridiculous and his long speeches lost me around the middle but I think he has a great presence and the development of his character can’t be blamed on him as an actor surely. 

I have also read that there are lots of inspiration from previous Bond movies in this installment and die-hard fans who have seen all of them will love influence they have had on this.  As someone who has only seen Skyfall, once, a long time ago, these homages to previous movies were lost on me.

I would like to like Bond movies but I just don’t and I don’t think I ever will.

Review: Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)

As much as I enjoy a good mind-bending thriller or a jaw-dropping action film, there are times when I just need to watch a comedy. I don’t like having just 1 favourite film of any type, but if I had to pick my favourite comedy, it would be Horrible Bosses. Nick, Kurt and Dale have cheered me up after many a bad day at work, and I was both excited and nervous about seeing Horrible Bosses 2. The sequel is never as good as the original, right?

If you saw the original Horrible Bosses, you’ll know that the trio (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day) finally rid themselves of their awful superiors. Well now, they’ve decided to become their own bosses and create their own company, selling a product they invented, the Shower Buddy. They find an investor (Christoph Waltz) who puts in an initial order of 100,000 units, but then he rips off their product and cancels, putting the guys’ company in jeopardy. To save their business, they decide to kidnap the investors son (Chris Pine) and hold him to ransom.

Putting aside the silly plot and the brilliant one-liners, what I love the most about Horrible Bosses is the chemistry between the 3 main guys. It’s all so real and they bounce off each other so well, I can’t help but smile no matter what they’re saying. None of them is the main star here, they all have equal parts to play and they shine together. As much as I love Chris Pine, I wondered how he would fit into the cast but he played a fantastic ‘bad guy’. Think of Kirk from Star Trek in the bar, but a little more over the top, and that’s how he is in this.

You can expect the crude humour that Bateman, Sudeikis and Day spout throughout the film, but some of Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston’s lines made me cry with laughter. They’re just not the kinds of things you can imagine them saying, and the gag reel in the credits proved how difficult it was for them to keep straight faces at time. Really, the cast as a whole were equally brilliant.

Some of my favourite moments were the Sharpie marker incidents, the foolproof ‘plan’ the trio put together, and the support group scene, but honestly, I loved it all. If I were to give any criticism, it would be that the plot was just too predictable, although that didn’t really take anything away from it for me because although I worked out what would happen, there were still little details I wasn’t expecting, and plenty of laughs to distract me.

Honestly, I don’t think I could rate the two Horrible Bosses films now. I’d have to go back and watch the first again, but right now I rank them together, and highly! I know this film isn’t for anybody, but it’s just my cup of tea.