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: Dope (2015), John Wick (2014) & Kill Your Friends (2015)

It feels like the whole of the UK has fallen ill this month. My house didn't escape sadly, but it did lead to many evenings curled up on the sofa too tired to do anything than watch a movie! I've seen too many this last week to review them all so here are some Mini Reviews of Dope, John Wick and Kill Your Friends.

I have this blogging community to thank for putting Dope (2015) on my radar. Last summer my feed was full of positive reviews for it, so I saw it as soon as I got the chance. It’s a colourful ‘coming of age’ movie that seemed so familiar, and yet completely different to anything I’d watched before. Shameik Moore plays Malcolm, a geeky kid living in a rough neighbourhood with dreams of attending Harvard. One night at an underground party lands Malcolm and his friends into more than they bargained for, and the movie rapidly changes moods as the situation gets more dangerous.

It’s a really entertaining watch, and it’s worth giving it a chance for the amazing costumes and soundtrack alone!

It’s rare that I let my fiance pick a movie for us to watch, as I can guarantee it’ll be something like this. It’s a genre I can deal with, but it’s not my favourite. John Wick (2014) definitely stood out a little for me, though. There’s always a reason for the revenge killing, and this one in particular really upset me. It doesn’t help that it was Theon Greyjoy himself that carried out the murder, the horrible little rat! The action scenes and stunts were really well done, and I cringed quite a few times. You know when you see something and you think ‘oooh, I felt that’? That happened a lot!

Still not my favourite kind of movie, but this was an entertaining watch, and I’ll definitely see the sequel when it’s out.

When the trailers came out for Kill Your Friends (2015) I was so excited, and then it just completely fell off my radar. I haven’t seen Nicholas Hoult play this kind of character since Skins, and even though he comes across as such a sweetheart, he plays the bad guy surprisingly well. This one is an eccentric comedy/thriller/crime following the British music industry in the 90’s. It’s an entertaining watch, with a shocking start and a satisfying ending, but the rest is just a bit dull.

Regardless, there’s one proper laugh out loud scene that I’ll never forget, and it was worth watching for Nicholas Hoult alone. The guy does such a good job!

Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

My main friends group who I still see after we all finished college is full of guys. To begin with, there was only 1 other girl in our group but we do have a couple more now the lads have found them! What it means is I get a lot of invites to ‘lads’ film nights that I tend to turn down. There were some last minute plans to see Mad Max on the opening night, and so I said yes and just went with it!

Now, I haven’t seen any of the other Mad Max films, but from what I gather, Max used to be in the police force until his family were murdered. I should probably go back now and watch the others for some backstory, but I was told I wouldn’t need to see the others before watching Fury Road to appreciate it.

Mad Max: Fury Road is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the desert where humanity barely exists. Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) rules a small town known as The Citadel with his  ‘War Boys’, farming women for their breast milk, and keep several wives to provide him with heirs. Joe’s most trusted Lieutenant, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) betrays him and makes a run for freedom with his wives, and whilst on the road, Max (Tom Hardy) joins them.

I’d heard beforehand that this would be one of the year’s biggest action films, but I wasn’t expecting what I saw. The film opens on what must have been a 10 minute-long action scene, and it never slowed down for a minute. You know when you’re watching an action film and you get an actual action scene every now and again? In Fury Road, you get a scene every now and again without it. Even when there isn’t any action, it doesn’t last for long!

Multiple viewings are definitely needed just to fully appreciate the visuals in this, from the colourful desert setting to the fine details in each of the vehicles. It’s just crazy, that’s my main way of summing this film up. I mean, there’s a huge vehicle in Joe’s army with 3 great big drums, a drummer at each, and at the front, a guy on an electric guitar hanging in suspense with elastic. How is that not crazy?!

I don’t mean this to sound like a criticism, but although this is Max’s film, I thought Furiosa was the leading character. She was everything a female character needed to be, and she rocked it! Even the wives weren’t silly, pathetic girls who needed looking after every two minutes. One thing that only really sprung to mind when I was trying to sleep that night was that this film didn't include any bad language or sex scenes. It's just pure action, and how could that not be awesome?

This has ruined any other action film for me right now, because I don’t think anything could live up to it. If you get the chance to see it in the cinema I urge you to do it, because the experience alone makes this a 10 for me. At home, it might be a 9, but ask me again when the DVD is out.