Review: Black Mass (2015)

I’d put off watching Black Mass for a while, despite wanting to see Johnny Depp’s performance, only because gangster movies aren’t my usual go-to movie. I tend to get confused with who’s on what side, and who’s killing who - it’s a mess inside my head sometimes. Anyway, after enjoying Tom Hardy’s Legend, I thought it was about time I gave this a go, too.

Black Mass (2015) is the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp), the brother of State Senator Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and leader of the Irish Mob. It covers three periods (1975, 1981 and 1985) with flash-forwards to the present day, where various members of Whitey’s gang recount the stories of his rise and eventual fall.

For the first time ever, I watched The Godfather a few months ago, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt like I wasn’t quite switched on enough to understand everything that was going on. Since watched Legend, and now Black Mass, I realise that’s just the way gangster movies are. It also doesn’t help that I am completely ignorant to history and world affairs, and didn’t know anything about James Bulger until seeing this!

Despite that, I really did enjoy Black Mass. It was so nice to see Johnny Depp play a serious character without a full face of makeup and acting either drunk or high. There’s an amazing actor after all! It made me want to check out some more of Johnny Depp’s older work actually. It was also wonderful to see my Benedict Cumberbatch again, although I don’t think I listened to a single line of dialogue from him as I was too fascinated by his accent!

There are some great names in the cast list but my favourite character was without a doubt John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), the FBI Agent and close friend of James Bulger. I don’t even know what it was about him, but he had a real sense of power about him which turned to despair as the movie went on.

I haven’t seen enough movies similar to Black Mass to give an informed opinion, but one thing I will say is that it was brutal, without the need for glorified violence. It’s very heavy on character development and dialogue which might turn some viewers off, but it’s a fascinating story at the very least.

Review: Midnight Special (2016)

Date night! This might be the first movie Jenna and I actually watched together at the cinema THIS YEAR. Is that right? What did we actually watch together last?  Urm I think you might be right, I don't actually remember the last time we went!

Anyway, I do love our cinema trips. They almost always involve a cheeky Nandos, and I get a free ticket thanks to those delightful meerkats and Jenna’s Cineworld card. I did not approve of the life size, all too real Idris Elba cutout in the foyer that terrified me every time I looked it. So mesmerising at the same time, though… This feels like the ideal time to mentions Allie's joke about Idris' elbow....you may have had to be there! Did you actually hear that? I can't help calling him Idris Elbow but I thought I only got halfway through that sentence before the cardboard version of him terrified me!

On to the movie! I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot of Midnight Special, because it’s one of those that’s better the less you know, but this is what I could tell from the trailer and the summary on IMDB. A young boy named Alton with mysterious, special powers (Jaeden Lieberher) is on the run from the government with his father (Michael Shannon). That really is all you need to know. That, and the fact that this is a Sci-Fi movie.

It’s got one of the greatest openings to a movie I’ve seen for a long time. The logos of the production companies are still being played, but you can hear a news report in the background giving an amber warning for a missing child, kidnapped by a man named Roy (Shannon). Quickly we realise we’re in the motel room occupied by Roy, Alton and a friend of Roy’s, Lucas (Joel Edgerton). In the middle of the night, the three leave their room and drive at speed through the night. 

Right from the outset, my mind had questions floating around. Who is Lucas? Why are they on the run? Where has Alton been kidnapped from? As the movie creeps along, most questions get answered, but more crop up constantly, and that’s one of the greatest things about Midnight Special. It leads you on at a relatively slow pace, but keeps you guessing throughout. Just when your mind has caught up, it picks up pace again and gives you a fresh batch of thoughts. It also made me jump pretty badly, twice! I’d actually only started trusting the movie again when it got me the second time.  

I am struggling to put together any kind of coherent review for this film.  One thing I will say is that I'm glad I completely forgot the trailer, going into this with an open mind is kind of the only way to watch it.  It's a slow burner that's for sure, refusing to give away anything but the bear minimum of information and building on that.  I think it was nearly 30 minutes before they confirmed that one of the men 'kidnapping' this boy, was actually his father. Had they have provided all the information as we went along I don't think I would have been as engrossed as I was, i was constantly waiting for the answer to a question which inevitably posed a new question!

The performances are great all round. I only really discovered Joel Edgerton last year in The Gift, and his role here was completely different. I’m looking forward to seeing more of his movies. Michael Shannon is an actor I’ve seen very little of also, and he was the star in this one, saying more with his expressions and body language than he did with actual words. I felt Kirsten Dunst was a bit wasted, personally, but maybe that’s because I wanted to know more about her past, and didn’t. Adam Driver was everything I wanted him to be, playing a more serious role than I’m used to seeing him in, but with the right amount of awkwardness for it to still be him.

I was really impressed with Shannon (i'd expect nothing less), Edgerton (no idea what to expect) and Driver (if I said I didn't like him Allie would cut me out of her wedding!). Lieberher did a really good job of playing someone smarter than all the adults around him but still providing a vulnerability that made you want to just hug him.  Don't get me started on Dunst, I don't like her, this had not made me like her anymore.  In fact, I think the whole film could have been just as good without that character entirely.

I want to keep this spoiler free, so I won’t discuss the ending, but afterwards, Jenna and I both agreed we needed to sleep on this one before we knew how to feel. I thought about it the whole drive home, stayed up far too late reading into it, and spent my break at work telling a colleague about it. I love movies that do this to me! When I started writing this, I’d told myself I was giving Midnight Special an 8, but actually putting my thoughts into words has made me realise I enjoyed this more than I thought I did.

It took me four days to work out how I felt about this and how to put that into words.  It's slow paced, providing enough tension to keep me on the edge of my seat without having to resort to excess CGI and huge set pieces. 

Looking Forward to Seeing in the Cinema this Month: April 2016

I cannot possibly be writing the post for April already, surely!  When this post goes live, Allie will be getting married and I will be turning 31 NEXT MONTH...WTF!!!!!

I've known for ages what my movie would be for this month due to my slightly inappropriate obsession with Taron Egerton.  

Eddie the Eagle is the true story of Brit Eddie Edwards AKA Eddie the Eagle and his determination to get to the Olympics in the 80's.  He went on to compete in the Ski Jumping category at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988 with the help of fictional coach, Bronson (Hugh Jackman) and won the hearts of fans everywhere.

I don't know many details of the history of Eddie the Eagle and I dying to google all about him but I'm fighting the urge so hopefully I won't know the entire story before I see it!!

Eddie the Eagle is released in UK Cinemas on 1st April 2016.

I'm suspicious of anything that happens on 1st April! I guess that comes from having prankster parents, but how funny would it be if you turned up for Eddie the Eagle on April Fool's Day and the cinema was just like, 'LOL. Here, watch some turd movie instead'. But I digress. You know what...... that wouldn't be in the slightest bit funny, in fact Cineworld if you're reading this, I would be mighty pee'd off and would consider boycotting your establishment!  Ok I wouldn't boycott as such, but I would certainly start bringing my own snacks.....

 

Can we rename April 'weird obsession' month here? As much as I know I'll be seeing Captain America: Civil war soon, there's something else I'm looking forward to more.

Midnight Special, baby! You heard me. I didn't even know this movie existed until last week when my family went out to see 10 Cloverfield Lane. The trailer for Midnight Special started playing and I darn near threw popcorn everywhere before squealing at the sight of Adam Driver on the big screen again!

It's a Sci-Fi flick about a child with special powers. I'm assuming the authorities want to perform all kinds of research on him, and that's why his father goes on the run with him, but I'm trying not to read too much into it. The review scores look good so far though, and the rest of the casting sounds promising. Fingers crossed!

Midnight Special is released in UK cinemas on 8th April 2016.

Review: The Gift (2015)

This gem of a movie has been so falsely advertised! Look at that poster. There’s some really creepy guy at your door with the most beautifully wrapped gift for you. It’s going to be a severed head, isn’t it? A bloodied knife? Am I going to die now? No, calm down. It’s not that kind of movie!

Married couple Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) have moved cities and are settling into their new home. Whilst out shopping, Simon bumps into someone he used to know in school, Gordo (Joel Edgerton), although he doesn’t recognise him at first. Gordo leaves a bottle of wine as a gift at their home the next day, which worries Simon and Robyn as neither remember giving Gordo their new address. 

Eventually, Gordo starts to turn up uninvited at their home when he knows that Simon is at work during the day. Robyn feels sorry for him and lets him in to chat with him, although she’s never truly comfortable in her presence. The movie starts to take a turn when we see a meaner streak in Simon, telling Robyn that Gordo was given the nickname ‘Weirdo’ in school, and he even crosses out Gordo’s name on their noticeboard to replace it with the cruel nickname.

After a dinner party ends rather disastrously, Robyn hears a strange noise the next morning and finds the koi fish in their pond dead, and their dog, Mr Bojangles, missing. I don’t want to go into any more details in this review as I think it’s better to watch The Gift when you know very little about it, but that should at least be enough for you to know whether it’s worth your time or not.

What fascinated me about The Gift was the lack of definition between good and evil. How on earth can you work out who to root for when you don’t know who the bad guy is? More importantly, how do you interpret that open ending?

This has been the first serious role I’ve seen Jason Bateman play, and I was really impressed. I thought I could only enjoy him when he brings dry, sarcastic humour to the table but that was nowhere to be found, and instead he was quite terrifying.

If you’ve been thinking about watching The Gift, please give it a chance. It isn’t the horror it’s made out to be, although there was one moment that made me jump out of my seat to be honest. It actually gave me tingles down to my fingertips! But then, that time that the cat jumped out in Horrible Bosses made me to the same, so interpret that however you like!