Review: Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

As I have reiterated numerous times, I like Adam Sandler, most people don't like him and I will happily admit he has made some terrible films but Hotel Transylvania is one of my favourites so the sequel had to be watched.

It took me ages to eventually watch Hotel Transylvania, but I was surprised at how much I loved it, so I was really looking forward to the sequel.

Hotel Transylvania 2 follows on from the first one with Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Jonathan (Andy Samberg) married with a half human half vampire baby, however Dracula (Adam Sandler) is worried that his monster side hasn't come through yet.  To rectify the situation, Dracula sends Mavis to visit her human in-laws and recruits his monster friends to try to encourage Dennis' evil side to come out.

You didn't warn me the first few scenes would make me cry! I'm deep in the middle of a wedding hotel room drama so anything sweet and wedding related sets me off right now. Watching Dracula and Mavis' sweet moments made me do a bit of an ugly cry.

Straight up, this is not as good as the first one.  The jokes aren't as good and the story is pretty poor, however when it does pull a funny, it was really funny.  I laughed out loud countless times and was thoroughly entertained, no naps in this film!! I left my adult self at the door and spent an hour and a half being a kid again, laughing at fart jokes and trying to work out the which voice belongs to who from various Adam Sandler movies.  I was gobsmacked to find Nick Offerman yet again, that man is literally in everything...ever!  Also, did we know that he is married to the awesome Megan Mullally, why did I not know this?!  I would love to be a fly on the wall in that house!

You also didn't warn me that Nick freaking Offerman was in this! We need to talk. Also I had no idea until now that Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are married. That's awesome on so many levels!

The animation is fantastic as well, the attention to detail never fails to amaze me in modern animation.  Particularly the scenes with big group, such as the birthday party, there are soo many other things happening in the background, I want to watch it again and again to catch them all.

I really enjoyed the story, although this is another case of the sequel not being quite so good. The jokes were okay, but not laugh out loud for me, other than one moment which struck a weird funny bone for me. That moment when both families are having a big meal together, and there's that phantom of the opera styled guy playing the organ. Someone says something a bit controversial and the organ guy just shouts 'AWKWARD' and I don't know why, but it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

Don't overthink it and you'll love it!

Definitely worth a watch, but I prefer the original!

Review: The Big Lebowski (1998)

To celebrate Flick Chicks receiving 10,000 page views, we wanted to do something fun and a little different to celebrate, so we asked you all to suggest a film (or a few!) for us to watch at our next movie night. Thanks to everyone who made some suggestions, there were more than a fair few that we hadn’t seen before! We chose one at random, which turned out to be The Big Lebowski, suggested by John at Hitchcock’s World. Thanks John! I have been meaning to watch this for a long time so I'm glad it got picked :-)

How can anyone really explain the plot to The Big Lebowski? It’s a crazy film! Here’s my best attempt. ‘The Dude’ Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) lives a simple life, and is part of a bowling team with his friends Walter (John Goodman) and Donnie (Steve Buscemi). One dreadful day, three guys break into his apartment demanding money owed to them. It’s a case of mistaken identity, but in their anger one of them urinates on The Dude’s rug. Walter convinces The Dude to go to The Big Lebowski to demand compensation.  Nailed it!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of friends quite like it before. In fact, group isn’t the right word because any time Donnie tries to say anything, he is told quite rudely to shut up., meaning most of the film concentrates on The Dude and Walter, who lands The Dude in an amazing amount of trouble, but is faithfully loyal at least. I really enjoyed John Goodman in this, I think it’s the type of role he is born to play. Another favourite of mine is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, the bumbling assistant, who had a brilliant flair of humour.

I actually have to admit, I found John Goodman's character a little irritating, I kind of got tot he point where I thought, why would anyone be friends with this douchebag!  However, this does show his great acting skills because usually I love him.   I did feel better knowing the point of this meme:

The Big Lebowski is without a doubt one of the craziest films I’ve watched. I like to think that the perfect film is realistic with a touch of fantasy, and although this sits well outside that spectrum, it’s still brilliant, and I think that’s what makes it stand out so well. From throwing a bag of dirty underwear from the window of a moving car for a group of kidnappers to surreal dreams that make you feel high, there are very little ‘normal’ moments!  I have to agree, this film is insane and completely loses the plot at some points, but it remains entertaining all the way through, so even though the plot line is completely shot you're still interested.

This is one of those films (essentially a Coen Brothers film) where you have no idea what's coming next, you cannot predict this film with any certainty, nor would you want to.   The story is not that interesting to be fair but the characters more than make up for it with sharp dialogue and quirky drug induced fantasies.

There are a few people I know that haven’t seen this yet, but no one I’ve mentioned the film to has responded with ‘what?’. It’s just one of those films that everyone knows, I think because there’s nothing else out there like it. Other than Dude Where’s My Car perhaps which I’m getting the strong feeling is actually a spoof of The Big Lebowski. How I didn’t pick up on this before is beyond me!  I couldn't believe how much of this film was taken to Dude, Where's my car?  I kind of wish I had seen them in the right order now.  The moment when they walked out of the bowling alley and said 'Dude where's my car' me and Allie just looked at each other and burst out laughing.  Nice to know we are getting to the point where we have seen enough films to spot references and nods to other films :-)

I watched The Big Lebowski for the first time about 4 years ago, when I was forced by my now fiance, telling me it was the best film in the world. It’s his all-time favourite and I can see why. I’m really glad to have had an excuse to see it again and I urge anyone who hasn’t already seen it to give it a try!

I've never been a huge Coen Brothers fan (more because I have never liked the look of their films than from critical perspective) but I think I am coming round since this and Fargo, so I may have to keep on watching.  Just shows, you can't judge a DVD by it's cover ;-)

Review: Fargo (1996)

Movie morning.

As me and Allie appear to be too old to watch two movies in a row (but a movie and an episode of Sherlock is fine!) We decided to watch Fargo this morning instead of last night. Who doesn't want to watch an episode of Sherlock before bed? Sorry, let's talk Fargo...

This film was always going to be on our radar at some point because it's part of IMDB's Top 250 Films, but as you probably already know, a new TV Show based on this has just started on Channel 4 in the UK, starring Martin Freeman. I've got the first episode recorded, but I wanted to watch the film first so I had an idea of the story.  I haven't seen any of the series yet (although from the trailer I'm not sure about Martin Freeman's accent!) but I intend to, once I have finished the other 6 million series I'm currently attempting to watch! It's crazy! I'm timehopping through posts now I know but my jaw hit the floor! I'm not quite over it yet...

 

Fargo tells the story of Jerry Lundegaard, a simple car salesman who has found himself dangerously in debt. His father in law is a bit of a douche but he's also incredibly wealthy, so Jerry hires a couple of co-worker's friends to kidnap his wife and demand a ransom from her father.  Actually, he hires one of his co-workers friends (Buscemi), Shep (the co-worker) doesn't know the other guy (Stormare) who turns out to be a violent psychopath!  This just adds to the chaotic nature of the film. Alright Miss Pedantic...!

 

I would really like to think that if my other half was in this situation, he would try something a little less extreme, but you've got to give the guy points for creativity here!

As with many films I watch, I struggled to follow this a little, and I'm still not 100% sure how much he was in debt and what went on before the kidnapping. Not the film's fault though! I thought the plot was brilliant and I didn't see many of the twists coming. I just found some of the characters too odd, to the point of distraction in some places. Yeah they don't cover why he is in debt or how he got to this point, but you realise as the film goes on that the debt isn't the key point of the movie, the 'kidnapping' is, so really you don't need to know anyway.

*SPOILER ALERT* This lady! The heck man! Maybe it's because I'm watching Dexter at the moment, and maybe it's the age of the film now, but where is the urgency? Where is her back up? I mean bless her at the end for catching that guy all by herself, but it was just a bit odd. That guy she meets up with, Mike? What was the actual point in him? I loved her though, she was too cool!  Pregnant sheriff solves the crime all by herself, amazing and odd enough to be part of this film.  I still don't understand the point of Mike and how he added to the film but any scene Marge was in was hilarious because of her.  (I only remember her name was Marge because they said it approximately 365 million times throughout the film!) I actually looked this up you know. You know later on, when she finds out that Mike lied about his wife/that lady and stuff? It was to make her see that you can't trust anyone, and that's why she really starts to suspect Jerry.

 

I really enjoyed this film, mostly because I found it hilarious.  The way of life was so slow and as Allie said not at all urgent, it made everything so comical.  Also, tiny parts of the film had me in stitches, for example, when Marge and Norm are in the café the volume of food she puts on her plate is unreal. 

 

Although comical, it's quite a dark movie and it provides some shocks that I personally didn't expect.  This is a one off film no other will ever be quite like it, extremely unique and very enjoyable to watch.

 

Ignore my rants though because I did enjoy this film, but I have a feeling I'll enjoy the new TV Show more. I get the feeling the series is going to drag a bit, I don't know how they are going to keep it interesting!!  We'll soon see though!