Allie is currently taking a short break from the blog (one of the many perks of running a joint blog!), so I have been trying to keep on top of the our posts in the meantime. If she manages to get online before this is posted, she will have updated the trivia to what she wants it to be, but just in case (and as I am camping this weekend with a distinct lack of internet access) I thought I better hazard a guess as which trivia she would find interesting!! Here goes:
The Longest Ride (2015)
This movie features three actors who are descendants of notable film directors: Scott Eastwood (son of Clint Eastwood), Jack Huston (grandson of John Huston), and Oona Chaplin (granddaughter of Charles Chaplin).
Philomena (2013)
There are flashbacks which are done with "home movies". Some of these were created for the film but some of them are from actual footage of her real son.
Magic in the Moonlight (2014)
Stanley's onstage persona of Wei Ling Soo is a reference to the magician Chung Ling Soo. Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of William Ellsworth Robinson (1861-1918) and was a popular magician in the U.S. and Europe for many years. Like Stanley, Chung Ling Soo was also known for trying to debunk spiritualists, even writing a book about it in 1898. A major difference this movie makes from its inspiration, however, is how careful the men were to protect their Chinese personas. In the movie, it seems as though people are rather aware of Stanley's role as Wei Ling Soo; in reality, Robinson was very careful to protect against the public's knowledge of who Chung Ling Soo really was. (This protection of Soo's character was a major point in the movie The Prestige (2006).)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Jason Clarke is the sixth actor to play John Connor in the many portrayals of the character. This has lead to people referring to him as the "Rusty Griswold" of the Terminator series as five different actors have portrayed that role in the many films. On behalf of Allie, I thought she would like the connection to Vacation!!
Moon (2009)
Kevin Spacey read the script and agreed to voice Gerty but when the film was finished and only if he liked it. Having loved it, he recorded his lines in half a day. This is another one for Allie, there was probably better trivia for this but i didn't want to read any spoilers as I haven't seen it!!
Insurgent (2015)
The plot of the novel, Insurgent, is vastly different than that of the movie. This probably explains why I had no idea what was going on!
Focus (2015)
It was originally scheduled to star Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone but both dropped out. Now that would have been interesting to watch!
Predestination (2014)
If you look closely at the newspaper article text in the beginning of the movie the paragraphs are the same for each article, only the headlines changes. Sorry Allie, again I was scared of spoilers so I didn't scroll any further down to find more trivia!!
American Sniper (2015)
In the beginning of the movie, Clint Eastwood makes his "Hitchcock" appearance as an extra, entering in the church where Chris will steal his Bible. This made me want to watch the movie to spot him, the kind of trivia me and Allie love are the ones that make you ant to watch the movie again!
The Spectacular Now (2013)
The ending in the movie differs from the ending in the novel. In the movie, there is a more hopeful ending for Sutter, and his relationship with Aimee is left slightly open ended. In the book, Sutter lies to Aimee, telling her that he cannot go to Philadelphia right after graduation like they had planned because he must attend summer school. He convinces her to go without him and promises her that he will go once he finishes school. However, Sutter tells the reader that he will never contact her again and will block her email and phone number. The book ends with Sutter drunkenly walking down the street by himself with a bleeding finger that he cut while opening a beer bottle. I hadn't watched this film when Allie wrote her review but I have since watched it so wasn't afraid of spoilers.
The Road Within (2014)
According to the podcast "An Irishman Abroad" Robert Sheehan continued the ticks and tourettes outbursts throughout the whole shoot.
Fantastic Four (2015)
The decoration hanging on the mirror in Johnny Storm's car during the race is a Fire Flower from Nintendo's Mario Brothers series. When Mario uses the flower he gains the ability to throw fireballs, much like Johnny Storm when he becomes the Human Torch. There was a lot of trivia about the Director and his dislike for the final film, rather than get into all that I went with something more lighthearted.
Monday, 31 August 2015
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Review: Fantastic Four (2015)
Yet another case of blogging memory loss, I could have sworn I had written and published this review but I hadn't even started it - What the heck!? As you all well know I was really looking forward to this and hoping it would not be a disaster after being perfectly happy with the 'rubbish' original...
Reed Richards (Miles Teller) spends his young life working on a teleporter with the help of his best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), which when working with scientist, Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara) realises it transports to an alternate reality. Reed, Ben, Sue's brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) get drunk and decide to test the transporter before the Government can take it away from them. Unfortunately, the alternate universe is not what they expect and they end up with strange super powers.....
I had such high hopes and said hopes were dashed...epically. This was nothing like I expected, the CGI and the graphics were amazing which IS what I expected but the story was terrible and really not much about super heroes as much as a really boring story about four boring people (one of which is barely in the film!). Ben's character barely had any presence at all but randomly got called by Reed near the end to be included in the trip (and therefore become The Thing), Victor von Doom, the supposed bad guy, is ridiculously likeable (and to me more like how I would expect Johnny Storm to be) and Johnny Storm was just plain boring (much like his sister).
I was so excited to see Miles Teller again, after falling in love with him in Whiplash and he was so unbelievably bland, I couldn't believe it was the same actor. These were all great actors, so it must have been down to the story or the screen play because it just had nothing about it. It spent so long on the run up to the 'transporter disaster' and hardly any time on the 'becoming super heroes' part - I fact where it ended, I thought that would be in the first 40 minutes or so. I get that it is setting up for a series (as per usual) but it is blatantly obvious that Fox have rushed out a remake to avoid losing the rights to the characters and threw in as many up and coming actors/actresses as they could get their hands on to hype it up.
Not good, not good at all. I am VERY concerned about Deadpool now!!!
Reed Richards (Miles Teller) spends his young life working on a teleporter with the help of his best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), which when working with scientist, Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara) realises it transports to an alternate reality. Reed, Ben, Sue's brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) get drunk and decide to test the transporter before the Government can take it away from them. Unfortunately, the alternate universe is not what they expect and they end up with strange super powers.....
I had such high hopes and said hopes were dashed...epically. This was nothing like I expected, the CGI and the graphics were amazing which IS what I expected but the story was terrible and really not much about super heroes as much as a really boring story about four boring people (one of which is barely in the film!). Ben's character barely had any presence at all but randomly got called by Reed near the end to be included in the trip (and therefore become The Thing), Victor von Doom, the supposed bad guy, is ridiculously likeable (and to me more like how I would expect Johnny Storm to be) and Johnny Storm was just plain boring (much like his sister).
I was so excited to see Miles Teller again, after falling in love with him in Whiplash and he was so unbelievably bland, I couldn't believe it was the same actor. These were all great actors, so it must have been down to the story or the screen play because it just had nothing about it. It spent so long on the run up to the 'transporter disaster' and hardly any time on the 'becoming super heroes' part - I fact where it ended, I thought that would be in the first 40 minutes or so. I get that it is setting up for a series (as per usual) but it is blatantly obvious that Fox have rushed out a remake to avoid losing the rights to the characters and threw in as many up and coming actors/actresses as they could get their hands on to hype it up.
Not good, not good at all. I am VERY concerned about Deadpool now!!!
Thursday, 27 August 2015
Review: The Road Within (2014)
Random weeknight in with my friend Shola nothing on TV to watch, so we put this film on and was pleasantly surprised.
The Road Within starts with Vincent (Robert Sheehan) struggling to contain his tics due to his Tourette's Syndrome at his Mother's funeral. His father (Robert Patrick) embarrassed by his sons illness, sends him to an experimental medical facility where he meets Alex (Dev Patel), an OCD sufferer and germ-o-phobe and Marie (Zoe Kravitz) an anorexic who has already been on deaths door once before. Within a day of being in the facility, Marie steals the facility director's (Kyra Sedgwick) car and they end up on a road trip.
This was not what I expected, I thought it would either be a full comedy, making light of mental illness or a drama where it was all emotional and heart-breaking but in fact it was some where in the middle. It had the perfect mix of comedy and drama and both me and Shola found ourselves cheering at the screen one minute and crying the next.
The three main actors are by far the main reason for loving this film, I absolutely loved Robert Sheehan as Nathan in the British series Misfits (note his Irish accent sneaking through every now and then) and I have been waiting to see him in another role he could get his teeth into and for me this was it. His portrayal of a Tourette's sufferer was really amazing but his comedic edge stopped it from being uncomfortable to watch. Dev Patel is amazing in every role I see him in and this was no exception, he brought a real charm to his character.
I really could watch this again and again and probably will and I cant wait to see Robert Sheehan in more films as soon as possible and checking out his IMDB profile, I won't have long to wait!
The Road Within starts with Vincent (Robert Sheehan) struggling to contain his tics due to his Tourette's Syndrome at his Mother's funeral. His father (Robert Patrick) embarrassed by his sons illness, sends him to an experimental medical facility where he meets Alex (Dev Patel), an OCD sufferer and germ-o-phobe and Marie (Zoe Kravitz) an anorexic who has already been on deaths door once before. Within a day of being in the facility, Marie steals the facility director's (Kyra Sedgwick) car and they end up on a road trip.
This was not what I expected, I thought it would either be a full comedy, making light of mental illness or a drama where it was all emotional and heart-breaking but in fact it was some where in the middle. It had the perfect mix of comedy and drama and both me and Shola found ourselves cheering at the screen one minute and crying the next.
The three main actors are by far the main reason for loving this film, I absolutely loved Robert Sheehan as Nathan in the British series Misfits (note his Irish accent sneaking through every now and then) and I have been waiting to see him in another role he could get his teeth into and for me this was it. His portrayal of a Tourette's sufferer was really amazing but his comedic edge stopped it from being uncomfortable to watch. Dev Patel is amazing in every role I see him in and this was no exception, he brought a real charm to his character.
I really could watch this again and again and probably will and I cant wait to see Robert Sheehan in more films as soon as possible and checking out his IMDB profile, I won't have long to wait!
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Review: The Spectacular Now (2013)
Recently it feels like I’ve watched nothing but blockbusters, and so over the weekend I was after a change. After being woken up far too early on Saturday morning by my delightful, hungry cats, I curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea and hunted down something light to watch. I suddenly remembered a romcom-type film I’d actually mentioned to Jenna a while ago, which I hadn’t gotten round to watching yet, so I put on The Spectacular Now.
The Spectacular Now is a coming of age type film that leans more towards being a drama than a comedy (in my opinion at least). Our main character, Sutter (Miles Teller) is a popular, fun loving guy who lives in the moment and doesn’t plan for the future. His whirlwind romance with Cassidy (Brie Larson) sadly comes to an end but when Sutter meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley) his outlook on life starts to change.
Hopefully I’ve summed that plot up okay without butchering it! This is what I thought was a twist on the classic ‘Jock goes out with Nerd as a dare and ends up falling in love’ plot but ended up having much more depth than that. Sutter is one of the popular kids, sure, but he’s also a huge alcoholic with problems at home with his Mum. Aimee reads anime books and draws her favourite characters for fun, but she’s far from a loser.
I wouldn’t say there were twists in this film, but there were certain events I was expecting to happen, which didn’t. For example, I expected Sutter to change his mind about prom. There was one moment towards the end of the film which took me by total surprise, and my cats were glad my cup of tea was almost empty by that point as they’d have been soaked!
The Spectacular Now was a beautiful and painful story, and I would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of ‘coming of age’ films.
Now Jenna, I think it’s time to bring up the scoring system again. This was far better than a 7 for me, but I don’t think it’s 8 material. It’s a 7.5 for goodness sakes! For the sake of peace, I’ll stick with my Letterboxd score (which also doesn’t allow halves - are you one of the founders Jenna?) Yes, yes I am, didn't I tell you ;-) They kicked me out though for being adamant half scores are useless on a 1-10 scale!!
Sunday, 23 August 2015
Lessons learnt from...... Horror movies
I'm not a huge fan of horror movies as you probably all know but I am fully aware of them and I watched a fair few when I was younger (for fear of being ridiculed by my peers for being scared) so I know the general gist of how they work and how they start. I've spent the last few weeks travelling around the UK for work trips and I have had various situations where I feel like I am in the beginning of a horror movie. Luckily I have learnt from these movies what to do (or more importantly, what not to do!) and so wasn't brutally murdered....
Do not EVER get out of the car
I found myself driving down the darkest country lane which become darker when driving through dark wood where the trees had grown over the path. I had to stop briefly to readjust my satnav...what I didn't do was get out of the car! What I also didn't do was leave the car unlocked! Had some shady character come out of the woods wielding a machete I would have calmly driven away (maybe not calmly and I may have stalled a few dozen times) but I would not be outside of my car running through the woods.
Courtesy of Dead End (2003)
I found myself driving down the darkest country lane which become darker when driving through dark wood where the trees had grown over the path. I had to stop briefly to readjust my satnav...what I didn't do was get out of the car! What I also didn't do was leave the car unlocked! Had some shady character come out of the woods wielding a machete I would have calmly driven away (maybe not calmly and I may have stalled a few dozen times) but I would not be outside of my car running through the woods.
Courtesy of Dead End (2003)
Don't turn off the lights
You are asking for trouble, if you turn out the lights and turn them back there is always a killer/vampire/demon etc standing behind you waiting to slaughter you! I checked into my latest hotel to be greeted with the setting of all great horror movies...high ceilings, chandeliers, long dark curtains, creaky beds...it was literally a scene from The Haunting. I kept the lamp on at all time (and the TV for safety) - serial killers never strike when someone is watching their favourite soap with the lights on!
You are asking for trouble, if you turn out the lights and turn them back there is always a killer/vampire/demon etc standing behind you waiting to slaughter you! I checked into my latest hotel to be greeted with the setting of all great horror movies...high ceilings, chandeliers, long dark curtains, creaky beds...it was literally a scene from The Haunting. I kept the lamp on at all time (and the TV for safety) - serial killers never strike when someone is watching their favourite soap with the lights on!
Don't check out strange noises
I hear strange noises (shouting/screaming/creaking/growling) I stay exactly where I am and maybe lock the door. I don't look out the window, I don't check the corridor, I certainly don't check outside...I hide safely in my room and turns the volume up on the tele - I reiterate no movie serial killers strike during Eastenders!
I hear strange noises (shouting/screaming/creaking/growling) I stay exactly where I am and maybe lock the door. I don't look out the window, I don't check the corridor, I certainly don't check outside...I hide safely in my room and turns the volume up on the tele - I reiterate no movie serial killers strike during Eastenders!
If you accidently hurt someone (I.e hit them with a car) don't try to hide it, call the police.
I don't understand why anyone would do this but if it happens in movies it must happen in real life...right? If you leave someone to die they will more than likely not be dead and come back to haunt/kill/torture you
Courtesy of I know what you did last summer (1997)
I don't understand why anyone would do this but if it happens in movies it must happen in real life...right? If you leave someone to die they will more than likely not be dead and come back to haunt/kill/torture you
Courtesy of I know what you did last summer (1997)
Dolls are NOT toys!
I was always a big fan of dolls and had a lot as a child, then I watched Childs Play for the first time - suddenly the collection of China dolls that my Nan brought me became a sight of terror...I shut them in cupboards but I knew they were there and any noises was obviously my evil China doll come to life and trying to kill me!
Courtesy of Childs Play (1988) and Annabelle (2014)
I was always a big fan of dolls and had a lot as a child, then I watched Childs Play for the first time - suddenly the collection of China dolls that my Nan brought me became a sight of terror...I shut them in cupboards but I knew they were there and any noises was obviously my evil China doll come to life and trying to kill me!
Courtesy of Childs Play (1988) and Annabelle (2014)
Just Leave
This seems like an obvious one, if you are on a group holiday with friends or a big family trip and people start dying....leave! Would you not just up and leg it to the nearest city and book a Premier Inn?! A nice safe premier Inn?! #justsayin
Courtesy of Cabin Fever (2002)
This seems like an obvious one, if you are on a group holiday with friends or a big family trip and people start dying....leave! Would you not just up and leg it to the nearest city and book a Premier Inn?! A nice safe premier Inn?! #justsayin
Courtesy of Cabin Fever (2002)
Sleep...a lot!
Terrifying situations often happen when it's dark, generally at night time! My advice, sleep! When you wake up in the morning, everything seems much less scary, sleep through the fear and and check everything out in the morning! If it keeps happening...move house!
Courtesy of Paranormal Activity (2007)
Terrifying situations often happen when it's dark, generally at night time! My advice, sleep! When you wake up in the morning, everything seems much less scary, sleep through the fear and and check everything out in the morning! If it keeps happening...move house!
Courtesy of Paranormal Activity (2007)
I 100% feel that in learning lessons from various horror movies I have in fact avoided a traumatic murder....it's obviously got nothing to do with that fact that I don't live in a horror movie!
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