Mini Reviews: 4 Minute Mile (2014), Kelly and Cal (2014) & Equals (2015)

Sat in an airport, flight is delayed and all I have to entertain me is the films I downloaded the night before (thank god for that!).  I managed two films during my wait, one was 4 Minute mile and the other was True Story (there is a full review for that coming soon).

Drew Jacobs (Kelly Blatz) has natural athletic talent that is being wasted until Coleman (Richard Jenkins) decides to train him in the mile race. This is a typical coming of age/sports drama - everything you expect to happen, happens.  It was utterly predictable and not very exciting to boot.  Richard Jenkins is the only thing I actually enjoyed about this film.  Thank god i was stuck in an airport with nothing else to do or I would have just switched it off as I already knew how it was going to end.

This was another one I watched when I was out and about with nothing else to do, the difference with this is that I would have continued watching it if I was at home.  Kelly is a suburban housewife who craves her younger days and wonders if she will ever feel happy in her home life.  Cal is a 17 year old boy who is in a wheelchair and feels like he has no control over his own life.  When the two meet they develop a deep connection, a friendship that most would find strange but gives them a sense of purpose.  I really enjoyed this film, the chemistry between the actors was perfect (if not a little awkward which worked well), I loved Juliette Lewis' and Jonny Weston's performances we amazing.  This is a definitely one to recommend.

I had a feeling I would know how this film would go and how it would end- I was right!  In a world with no emotions, a couple fall in love after catching a 'disease' that allows them to feel emotions again.  I actually quite enjoyed this regardless of the predictability, it had a Romeo and Juliet meets Delirium vibe both of which I love.  Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart had real chemistry (no wonder there were rumours about them afterwards) and although I had guessed, I was intrigued to know how it would end. Worth a watch I would say.

Mini Reviews: Ask Me Anything (2014), American Ultra (2015) & The Night Before (2015)

When Jenna texts me to tell me about a movie she’s just seen on Netflix that takes a dark and strange turn, I’m game. Just tell me where I can watch it! She also warned me that it was NSFW/T/P/D and other letters of the alphabet, so I made the most of an evening by myself to avoid any awkwardness! Just for the record, it’s currently watchable on Netflix.

Ask Me Anything (2014) is a quirky little drama starring Britt Robertson as Katie Kampenfelt, who takes a year off before college in order to try and find herself. She uses an anonymous blog to write about her innermost secrets and well, looking at her page hits, Jenna and I are clearly in the wrong blogging scene! Kidding, of course. It’s a decent watch, but takes such a crazy turn right at the end that it just left me a little cold, rather than awestruck.  As I had seen 2 out of the 3 movies on this post, I thought I would just tag along, hope you don't mind Allie ;-)

This was a really average film until the end, I was convinced it was a true story and set about finding out what happened, but it wasn't.  I was so shocked and dismayed by the ending, I had to find someone else to suffer with me, hence the text to Allie.  Between us we still haven't worked out a decent theory so I may have to just forget about it!

 

I’m pretty sure Jenna & I were meant to watch this together at the cinema but the times were weird, and then I forgot all about it! How can I even describe American Ultra (2015)? It’s like Pineapple Express, Kick-Ass and the Jason Bourne movies all had a baby together. Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg are stoners in love, but Eisenberg is also some sort of Government experiment which means he’s super skilled in combat, but he doesn’t know that. It was actually a pretty decent movie, but it got really messy at the end with far too many twists to keep track of!

Finally got to see this movie after missing it at the cinema with Allie and I loved it!  You may remember that I have a bizarre and inexplicable crush on Jesse Eisenburg which fortunately meant I could suffer Kristen Stewart for 2 hours!  It could have been funnier in places and there was a lot of talking but I was thoroughly entertained throughout and really did enjoy all the twists and turns.

So, I’d have liked to have posted a review for The Night Before (2015) actually around Christmas time, but as it does, life got in the way. Heck, I’m just super happy I got to watch this before Christmas!

Seth Rogan is back and has teamed up with Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a surprisingly heartfelt festive movie. It has everything you would expect from Seth, including one of the funniest drug-induced scenes round a dinner table that had me in stitches. It’s just such a shame that the first half of the movie is pretty bland. It’s worth sticking with, though!  I have never heard of this but now I really want to see it...is it too late now Christmas is over?! Never! Christmas lasts forever!