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!

Mini Reviews: Dear John (2010), Enchanted (2007) & The Interview (2014)

Rom-coms used to be all I would watch, but since starting this blog and widening my horizon, it’s left a whole ton of films like Dear John sat around just waiting to be watched. I get the TV all to myself on Tuesday nights whilst the other half is away, so I got to tick Dear John off my list not too long ago. It stars Channing Tatum as John, a US Army soldier, who meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) whilst on summer leave.

It’s exactly what you’d expect, and it’s fairly predictable, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and I can’t speak for the rest of my fellow ladies out there, but I’ll happily watch Channing Tatum shirtless on the beach any day! Not a film I feel the need to re-watch any time soon, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of comments I received on the Thursday Movie Picks: Fairy Tale Adaptations post I did which featured Enchanted. It felt like I was the only one in the world who had never seen it! Needless to say, I made sure I watched it very soon after. If you’ve been hiding under a rock like me for the last 8 years, Enchanted is a real-life, Disney musical about the princess Giselle (Amy Adams) who gets sent to real-world New York city.

It was just the right kind of cheesy, with songs that are catchy and easy to recall (as my 20 year old brother can prove!) and it was so full of charm from beginning to end that I just couldn’t stop smiling. The CGI work is a little off, but that can be forgiven. Glad to say that I’ve finally watched it!

Why do I keep doing this to myself?! I can’t stand James Franco, I really, really just can’t bear him, and yet I just can’t help myself and keep giving him chances. I guess I’m still trying to find another This Is The End. I’m not sure how much of the ‘The Interview has been banned/Oh no it hasn’t’ scandal I believe, but it was enough to get me to watch it one weekend. So, in this, Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogen) run a celebrity chat show, and are tasked with interviewing North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un. Um, and kill him.

Honestly? I thought James Franco was alright in this. He surprised me. However, the film itself fell flat. The first half was decent, just the right kind of silly, but it wasn’t the un-believable factor that killed it for me. It just wasn’t very interesting! I got bored halfway through and caught up with Twitter instead. Sorry!

Review: Bad Neighbours (2014)

I'm used to busy cinema screens, as the only time I really go is on Orange Wednesdays. Who can afford a full price cinema ticket these days?! Certainly not me. What I wasn't expecting was for our screen to be completely full, every single seat sold, for Bad Neighbours this week. Wow!  See this is where we differ, I have a Cineworld Unlimited card, so I avoid Wednesday's like the plague, however they have recently introduced allocated seating which is AMAZING! - Sorry little off topic there! You leave my review sat in draft for 6 weeks and then hijack it with your Cineworld nonsense?!



 

The last time I was in a cinema screen that busy was a few years ago for Horrible Bosses, and the atmosphere was fantastic. It's always a worry, especially with a comedy like this, that the screen will be full of rowdy kids but apart from missing all the trailers so staff could find seats for everyone, it was absolutely fine! Cinema Etiquette is a big deal to us here, which you'll know if you've read our Guide to Cinema Etiquette before!

 

If you've seen the trailer you'll know the gist of the film. Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) are trying to deal with their new 'grown-up' lives now that they have a house and baby together. The unoccupied house next door gets taken by a fraternity, and Mac and Kelly then face the dilemma of trying to keep cool but also getting some sleep at night! Things take a turn for the worse when they call the cops on the frat house one night, and war ensues...

 

 

From what I've seen, reviews for Bad Neighbours are mixed, but I loved it. I laughed from start to finish, and probably missed a few jokes because I was still laughing from the last. There was one moment that I thought was maybe going one step too far, but Rose Byrne made it fantastic! I really can't wait to see this again.  I reckon when I finally get around to watching this, I will find it hilarious.  Mainly because I have just watched 'That Awkward Moment' and laughed violently out loud (on a plane) multiple times! I'm actually super excited about That Awkward Moment now, I didn't know how to feel about Zac Efron but he was brilliant in this.

 

There's always a worry with comedies that all the funny moments were put into the trailer (Identity Thief, anyone? So painfully true!), but that isn't the case with Bad Neighbours. There aren't many clips on YouTube just yet but let me share this one with you... 

 

 

I will be buying this on DVD as soon as it comes out, invite some friends over, order some pizza, and stick this on for a night of laughs. Jenna I suppose you can come too!  I probably still wont have seen it so yeah I'm in ;-)