Review: Life After Beth (2014)

I watched this film with no real idea what it was about and what to expect, I had read about it but forgot before I watched it.  So when it started I thought it was going to be a coming of age drama about and young guy trying to get over his girlfriend dying and his relationship with her parents.  I was so wrong.....

Zack Orfman (Dane Dehaan) is trying to deal with his Girlfriend Beth's (Aubrey Plaza) death but after her parents stop returning his calls he goes round only to find Beth alive and well.  But things aren't quite what they seem, Beth has been brought back to life and may not be the same as she was before she died.

The is without fail now my favourite zombie movie, I loved it.  The humour was great and Dane Dehaan did a great job at being the brooding teenager distraught over his dead girlfriend right through to being terrified she was going to eat him!  My only wish was that they used more Anna Kendrick, I love her awkward relationship with Zack and I felt like it could have been utilised a bit more.

Dehaan and Plaza had great chemistry, so much so that you almost wanted them together even though she might have eaten his brains.  It's very much dark humour throughout which is perfectly timed to make this just one step better than Warm Bodies.  It has the blood, gore and general grossness but the focus is on the relationships between the living and the dead people that keep popping up alive again and inevitably trying to eat them. 

Ridiculously awesome, could happily watch it again and again.  Love the plot, love the cast and really really love the dark humour.

Review: Kill Your Darlings (2013)

Am I the only person who will watch a film just for the cast alone, or does anyone else do it too? I don't mean just one actor either, when I look up a film on IMDB and see at least 3 actors/actresses I really like in it, I just feel the need to watch it, regardless of the genre or plot! I actually text Jenna about this film so I could tell her I was watching a film starring Harry Potter, Harry Osborn and Dexter Morgan!

There are a few films sat right at the top of my list of 'need to watch very soon', I won't tell you them now, but as I snuggled up with a cup of tea and two kittens, very sleepy, most seemed either too long or too complicated for me at that time. I actually couldn't remember anything I'd read about Kill Your Darlings so that's why it was chosen!

This is no reflection of the quality of the film at all, but I fell asleep half way through. It's an odd film, but definitely not boring. My point being I watched this in two halves in the end.

Now that I've seen the film in full, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It was certainly interesting, I wasn't bored at all, but that might have been because I was trying so hard to understand it. I now understand after doing a little digging that this is a film based on a true story, and now feel a little silly as I sit typing this, reading the tag line on the movie poster right above me!

The romance between Allen and Lucien was really believable and also very sad, I really empathised with Dane's character and he is most definitely an actor to watch out for. He reminds me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio in more ways than one.

If you've been thinking about giving this film a try, watch the trailer and I'll leave you to make your own mind up. I don't think I could sell this to you, but I wouldn't discourage anyone either.



Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

I finally went to the cinema to see this last week and I was not disappointed (as I knew I wouldn't be!) I am a huge fan of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man and he completely lived up to my expectations, building on the character from the first film and making you love Spidey even more!! I had to wait till yesterday but I was seriously looking forward to this, the first one is probably one of my all time favourite comic films.

This sequel focuses mainly on Peter Parker (Garfield) trying to find out what happened to his parents as well as battling various enemies including Electro (Jamie Foxx), Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) and - all be it briefly - Rhino (Paul Giamatti).  It also continues to build on the relationship between Parker and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), which personally is my favourite part, but I'm a sucker for a love story! How can you not be when it's Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, probably the cutest couple on the planet ever?!

As a big fan of the Amazing Spider-Man film, I had high hopes for this and superficially I wasn't disappointed, the flying scenes were particularly impressive, even without 3D.  The comedy one liners from Spider-Man were there and the love story was there.  However, I did feel like the whole film came across a bit choppy and hard to follow.  One minute it's this bad guy, then it's that one and then this one is back and then oh look another different bad guy.  It almost felt like two different versions had been filmed and then cut and pasted together.  Certain parts of the film felt rushed while other parts dragged on and on.  When I left the cinema, I read the reviews as I do for every film and the Total Film review actually mentioned that MJ was going to be in this film and Shailene Woodley had filmed scenes but they were all cut. 

The comical moments were great, with one exception! Electro in Times Square, cue dramatic music, tens of police officers on standby, guns ready, and what does he say? "It's my Birthday...time to light my candles..." Urghhh... This clip below though? Comedy gold!

I wish I watched this at the IMAX Giant Screen like I did with the first, because some of the action scenes would have been incredible! They were great enough in 2D to be honest. My heart was literally racing throughout the final fight scene, it was incredible. I thought the film was fine to follow, but it all got a bit rushed at the end. There was really no need for Rhino at all, he was only really in it for about 5 minutes anyway.

I personally didn't see the big shock of the film coming, but after it happened I looked back at the whole film and they had been teasing and hinting at it all the way through, dragging it out unnecessarily I think.  I won't put any spoilers in here but it was a shock for me but it was clever as it curves away from what a comic book movie would normally do, if you have seen the film this will make perfect sense, if you haven't - well go and see it and get back to me!

I've read the comics so I knew what was coming, but damn they really didn't try to hide it. I've learnt from this to never like a film's Facebook page until you've seen it, as I saw a lot of people's angry reactions when a screenshot was posted with the caption 'Will Peter have to pay the ultimate price?'.

None of these 'issues' took away from my love of the film though, it held my attention and I was gripped from beginning to end.  I love the actors and the way they play these characters (although never saw Paul Giamatti as Rhino but it worked!!) and I did very much enjoy the story and would happily watch it again and again.

Great filming, great actors and great characters, if only the story had kept up this would have been a 9 for me. I can't give this a 10 because even I will point out some flaws, but I loved it and can't wait to see it again.