Thursday's Thought: Writing Blocks and Mini Reviews

It’s been a while since I’ve written a Thursday Thought post, in fact, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything at all for the blog. Truth be told, both Jenna and I have been stuck in a bit of a writing block recently. It gets to us all I guess!

Sharing this blog is super fun, it allows us to keep in touch without having to actually meet up, and at the same time we get to take part in this awesome little community. Having two people looking after our blog is also amazingly helpful in terms of constantly having new posts being published.

But recently, its felt like all we do is write reviews. Don’t get me wrong, we love it, but too much of a good thing is bad for you. We’ve lost our way a little bit, but we know how to get ourselves back on track. Between the two of us, if we wrote a full review for every film we saw, we’d have to publish a post every single day to accommodate for it. As I write this now there are about 15 reviews in our draft queue waiting for either mine or Jenna’s input.

There are some films we see that are just difficult to review. We might not have fully understood them, or found them that enjoyable, and that makes it incredibly hard to write a full review for. So what we’re going to start doing is a series of ‘mini review’ posts, which will contain roughly 3 different reviews, of a much smaller scale!

Between us we do have limited time to blog and therefore reviewing EVERY film we see each would be insane, that's why this is such a good idea for us!  Plus, I can't speak for Allie but I know I watch a lot of crap films, Netflix is my downfall.  Somedays I would rather watch a cheesy, terrible, live action Disney inspired movie (the likes of Picture This, Whatever it takes and She's all that) rather than a big action blockbuster or an Oscar nominated wonder.  I just don't always have the brain capacity for it after a long day at work, but if I reviewed every terrible 90's rom com film I watched I would never get an opportunity to sleep so this is a perfect opportunity for me to let everyone know what I've watched without having to analyse it within an inch of it's life.

This isn’t a new concept as we know a lot of bloggers are already doing this, but we’re super excited to get back onto the blogging wagon. We're always a little bit behind everyone else ;-)

Thursday's Thought: Disney DVDs

Apologies in advance, as this is more of a Thursday Ramble than a thought. In fact, it could possibly be a Thursday Story That I Find Funny That Probably Isn't, but that just doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely. Nor do I want to make a new banner for that.

I promise there's a point to all of this, if you can make it to the end. The other day, I was feeling either unwell or grumpy, and all I wanted to do was watch my favourite Disney movie, Lilo & Stitch. I knew I must have it on DVD somewhere, but alas, whether it got lost in last year's move or whether it's still at my parents house (could it be old enough to have been on VHS?), it wasn't on my bookshelf. Great.

Cue a trip to our local shopping centre the next day, which is fairly large actually. Not quite as big as Birmingham's Bullring, but not far off. There were a good few shops I could check to find the DVD I was looking for. Well, HMV, a shop which specialises in films & music, didn't have it. Oh, they had Lilo & Stitch 2, some sort of Christmas Special and probably another 3 Lilo & Stitch variations which I'd never even heard of, but not the original.

I didn't even want to ask for fear of coming across as the crazy lady hunting down a children's film. It might have been better if I had a child with me, but all I had was a very bored fiancé. We tried another shop which only sells second hand copies of DVDs and CDs, and I hear a very excited shout of 'I've found it!' from across the room. He's found it, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. Thanks to the power of Google, this is what the case looked like:

See the spine? There's no number on it. All of my other DVDs have a number on, and eventually I would love to collect them all. It was only up until this point that I realised not every Disney DVD has the number on them. As you can imagine, I had a very disgruntled fiancé after I announced I couldn't buy this version. I had to give up.

Ironically enough, as soon as we got home, I put Netflix on to find that they had added a new film that day. Lilo & Stitch. Can you believe it? Well, at least I finally got to watch it! 

One week later, I was doing my food shopping at the local supermarket, and lo and behold, they were doing an offer on Disney DVDs. Two for £8.00, what a bargain! They even had Lilo & Stitch, and what was that I saw? It had the number! Queue lots of excitement, the throwing down of my basket, and a text to Jenna, because she absolutely had to know what I had just found.

Oh and yes, that's A Bugs Life in my basket too. I loved that film when I was younger.

So now here lies my point, sort of. Do you collect Disney DVDs too? And if you do, are you fussed by the numbers?

Sorry, I'll resume blogging with purpose tomorrow.

Thursday's Thought: Independent Cinemas

I consider myself quite lucky when it comes to cinemas. I have an Odeon and a Showcase within a 15-minute drive of my house. Birmingham is just a 25-minute train journey away, and there I have the choice of a Cineworld with IMAX or The Giant Screen. Normally I stay loyal to Odeon, but the Showcase do excellent offers on Sunday nights, and they offer me advanced screenings every now and again too.

Anyway, me and my little brother went to see The Purge: Anarchy the other day (review coming soon) and none of the timings were really ideal for us. That's when we remembered a little independent cinema again, a 15-minute drive away that we never go to. The tickets were nearly half the price and there was a showing at 6pm that was perfect.

Here it is, in all its...okay, glory isn't the right word. No, it isn't very pretty to look at. There's also a load of construction work going on next door which doesn't help the aesthetics either. But we were going to see The Purge, there wasn't any need for a gigantic screen, IMAX quality picture or 200 seats. Inside, it's actually quite cool because they have all of the Odeon's old signage, so it's like a little piece of home.



We queued for less than 5 minutes on an Orange Wednesday, and we could buy snacks at the same time as our tickets which saved queuing twice, and the popcorn only cost an arm rather than a leg as well. There are only 4 screens at the Reel, and Screen 1 is their biggest which they save for the big films like Guardians of the Galaxy.

Upon entering the screen, we had no problems finding seats in a spot that wouldn't hurt our necks, and we didn't have to cram in with a bunch of strangers. The seats were surprisingly comfortable, much better than its fancier rivals. We had about 5 minutes of adverts compared to the half an hour we're used to, and although the screen wasn't very large, the picture and sound quality were fine.

All in all, we had a great experience, and I'll definitely be back again soon. For any of our UK readers, on a Tuesday and Thursday a standard 2D ticket costs £3.55 at any time of the day, which I'm sure you can appreciate is a fantastic price!

Has anyone else shunned their local big-chain cinema for an independent one?

Thursday's Thought: Dexter Finale

 

Okay so I might be cheating a little here, as my last Thursday's Thought was about TV Show finale's in general. However, I recently finished all 8 Seasons of Dexter and I feel the need to vent a little. There are spoilers ahead so if you haven't finished Season 8, please stay away!

 



 

Before I spiral away from any points I actually want to make, I want to say that I have truly loved watching Dexter. Me and my other half started watching it in March earlier this year and it's always been something to look forward to, coming home from work and eating dinner with an episode of Dexter. We don't know how to fill this serial killer-shaped hole in our lives now!

 

Everyone has their favourite Season of course, and mine was Season 4 with Trinity. Plus if I remember rightly, it's also got the episode with the alternative opening scene, which was brilliant. I also enjoyed Season 6 with Doomsday, and the cliff hanger at the end was possibly the best in the entire Season.

 

However, for me, Season 7 is where it all went downhill. The story arc with Debra knowing who Dexter really is, and having LaGuerta looking into Dexter could have made this Season the best of all, but everything was just dragged out too far. In the end, we found ourselves watching each episode more out of habit than anything.

 



Let's talk about Hannah McKay. I couldn't stand her to begin with, but there were pretty obvious signs that she and Dexter were going to hook up. I warmed to her pretty quickly though, as a 'bad guy you love to hate' to begin with. I never thought I would get over Lumen, but Hannah and Dexter are pretty darn cute together. Plus, that winter wonderland scene was hot!

 

In the end, it was their romance story that kept me going through the final season. I was keeping everything crossed that they would make it to Argentina together, although in my mind I knew it wouldn't end well.

 

 

I'm sorry if this is controversial, but I didn't care for the Evelyn Vogel story line. I know Dexter saw her as a motherly figure but I didn't warm to her at all. It annoyed me how she kept telling Dexter that his feelings of love weren't real, and I couldn't understand why she was doing that in the first place. I'm glad she managed to help Debra though, although that didn't end well either. I think Deb's story is what saddened me the most.

 

When we were on about Season 2, I was happily reading some Dexter trivia on IMDB and accidently read something along the lines of 'Originally the producers were going to kill Dexter off at the end, but then they changed their minds'. Oh great. I'm so bad at accidently seeing spoilers!

 



 

With that in mind, I thought right, well this can only end one of two ways then. Dexter is either going to escape with Harrison and Hannah, or he's going to get caught. I found my peace with either of those endings. Then, 5 minutes before the end of the episode, there Dexter is on his boat in the middle of a storm, waiting for death! But I thought I read - oh wait, here's a closing scene. This will explain everything. Wait, what! No. No, no, no, no, no. I will never accept that lousy ending!

 

Is there anyone out there who did?

Thursday's Thought: TV Show Finales

It's going to get messy soon if I don't stop thinking about things too much!

I was away last weekend for my Mum's 40th Birthday, so not only was I without TV and Twitter, I was also away for the finale of Fargo! Spoilers ahead...

If you follow us on Twitter, you'll know how much I've been enjoying the Fargo TV Show. I wasn't sure what to think at first but it just gripped me out of nowhere, and I've found myself more excited about it than Game of Thrones. I got round to watching it on Monday afternoon, literally just as we got home. I said on Twitter that I wasn't sure what I thought about it, and I guess I still don't know.

Of course, I always knew it could only end one of two ways really. Lester was either going to go down for his crime(s?), or he wouldn't live to tell the tale, so I'm not going to whine about how it didn't end happily for him. To be honest, after episode 9, I didn't want it to!

What I wasn't expecting was for my homeboy Gus Grimly to be a total badass and save the day, and for Lester to just...well, die. I don't know, maybe there's something symbolic there. In fact, I'm sure there is. Someone clever is going to have summarised it all into a 5,000 word essay and it'll all be much clearer I'll bet. 

 

Yes Gus, you really have, but you're a little sweetheart so I forgive you.

My main point though here is, is anyone ever 100% happy when one of their favourite TV Show ends? Especially long running shows. I pretty much grow up watching Friends, and although I never wanted it to end, I felt like they did it justice. Sure, there were things I would have liked to change, but on the whole, it was good.

I saw a few weeks ago nearly the whole internet raging over the finale of How I Met Your Mother. I haven't seen it yet, I don't actually think it's finished here in the UK, but I read how it ended. And again, I have mixed feelings. I'm glad that it took a turn, because really, who would have been satisfied with a candy floss ending? The whole Robyn thing though? I'm still not sure.

Going back to Fargo though, it was an amazing TV Show and I'm so glad I watched it. I really hope it picks up a few awards when the season comes round, because it deserves it.

What about you guys though? Have there been any TV Show finales that really let you down? Or even, have there been any that actually, you thought were perfect? I'd really love to know!

Thursday's Thought: Ignorance is Bliss

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a cheat, co-running a film blog. I only really got into films in the last few years, and there's a whole ton of films that are considered 'must watch' that I haven't seen, or even heard of. Then I think to myself, well that's the reason this blog is so enjoyable. I get to discover great films I've never heard of, watch them, and then share my thoughts with like-minded people.

I'm also fairly easily amused by many films, and struggle to understand heavy plots (hello, Inception), which does lead to my more 'hardcode' film fan friends to poke fun at me. What I think though, is that ignorance is bliss.

The idea for this post came to me whilst driving to work this morning listening to Busted (don't ask) and Thunderbirds Are Go came on (Love it!). It reminded me of when the film came out, how it was the first time I ever even heard of the Thunderbirds, and how much I loved the film at the time, even though it felt like the rest of the world hated it. So today, I want to talk briefly about Thunderbirds and two other films I really enjoyed.

Thunderbirds (2004)

This is quite fitting, as it's been 10 years since this film came out! Me and my friends went to see this for the sole reason that Busted provided the song, Thunderbirds Are Go. I didn't know anything about the Thunderbirds and I fell in love with it! My email address contained Virgil Tracy for about 8 years before I finally changed it. I still have the DVD and I would love to watch it again soon to see if I still enjoy it; I'll review it on this blog too.
In this case, I was completely ignorant to the horrific reviews but that year, I watched some of the original TV Show episodes, and my parents got me some of the old school toys from eBay too.  I too only watched this because of the Busted song and I was really disappointed when it was only played at the end.  I don't actually hate this film, I found it rather entertaining, maybe a bit too cheesy and certainly not enough of the other Tracy brothers (Scott was always my favourite in the original series).  I have watched it a few times since and still the credits (with the Busted song) are still the best part overall!!

Green Lantern (2011)

Jenna's going to rib me for this, I know. In fact, even now I'll happily file this under 'Guilty Pleasure', but before I saw this, the only comic book film I'd seen was Thor, which I loved, and so I was happily dragged to another comic book film. Again, I had no knowledge of who the Green Lantern was or what made him special, and so the origin story was awesome for me. It spurred on my love of comic books (and Ryan Reynolds) and after collecting loads of graphic novels, I see now that although the film certainly wasn't bad, it could have been a hell of a lot better.
But still, if this film brought on an appreciation of comic books, and the films, it can't be a bad thing, right? You justify this however you need to haha!!  If I'm going to be honest the first time is saw this I didn't completely hate it but then I watched it again and I DID completely hate it.  Some of the graphics used are great, Ryan Reynolds suit is awesome but the story lacks and I didn't find myself caring whether Hal Jordan survived or not! Sorry Allie!!

Robocop (2014)

Can you see the pattern emerging here? I've never seen the original Robocop, whatever it was. I don't even know if it started as a film, TV show or comic. My guy friends are fans though, and so after I had seen the Robocop film I happily struck up the conversation. "Hey guys, I saw Robocop last night, what did you guys think?" Which was followed by groans and then ten minutes of getting my ear chewed off about how his accident was lame, and something about the giant robot things. Oh. I actually really enjoyed it. Sure, it took half the film before the action really kicked in, but that's not always a bad thing!
I'm probably going to watch the original Robocop now, in whatever form it may have. I'll have to write up a review of the new version first before I end up hating it!

I hope I haven't rambled too much but these things play on my mind every now and again. I'd love to know, is there a film you love that everyone ribs you for?