Lets go to the movies: The Heat review

It's a terrible thing when you're in love with a film such as Bridesmaids, and you hope that every film to follow with Melissa McCarthy in will be as fantastic because you are almost certainly going to feel disappointed. So I may not have laughed out loud like I did with Bridesmaids and wanted to watch it again and again, but it wasn't unpleasant viewing and there were some funny moments.

The Heat is based around FBI agent Sarah Ashburn trying to get a promotion, she's not too popular with her colleagues so is sent to take down a drug lord as a way of proving herself and having a better chance of a promotion. Sarah's investigation is disrupted by Shannon Mullins who is as very territorial police officer (maybe FBI agent?), but ultimately doing good without doing it 'by the book'. The rest I'm sure you can guess, after intial teething problems, they use their strengths and weaknesses to work together to save the world (well almost)
So here are my thoughts on the whole sha-bang:
There was a lot more violence than I expected, although I did go into the film not knowing that much about it, so I suppose when there are a lot of drug themes, violence goes hand in hand with that, nonetheless it made me squirm in my seat a little.
Sandra Bullock has some real gem moments for example, the neighbours cat, who she adopts as her own cat...It doesn't sound so funny typed out...Anywho, but she always seems to play the same 'isolated focused workaholic' character.
There is also some mega cheddar moments, for example when Sarah bursts in on a meeting to tell everyone what a good agent Shannon really is bla bla bla

So it was enjoyable, and yes I did laugh out loud (especially at the cat bit) but I wouldn't be rushing to see it over again!

Lets go to the movies: Iron Man 3

Today I saw the New Iron Man 3 at the cinema and I have to say, I was not very excited. I was being dragged along by others who on the other hand sempt very very excited. I didn't think much of the Avengers and films with fire and bombs and helicopters and guns do have the tendency to make my eyelids feel droopy. I wasn't charmed by Tony Starks personality in the Avengers and I wasn't expecting to be charmed now.

Well, I was proved wrong, slightly.
Knowing basically nothing about anything to do with superheroes or Iron Man it was still incredibly easy to follow along the story and it was actually pretty good. My all time favorite bit is his to-die-for house, it looks like a UFO from 2050 landed on a cliff side, it's really truly beautiful but

*SPOILER* Watching it get smashed to dust was hard *SPOILER END*

Tony Stark is actually quite charming, he made me laugh although I'm not keen on his mustache.
Then the story takes an odd turn with a terrorist threat that actually sort of scared me at the time, but it all turned out quite comedic in the end.
Alongside the terrorist story there's a whole dangerous botanist self-healing part too, which is quite interesting.
The funniest part is the relationship between Tony Stark and Harley who is a young boy that to be quite frank, looks adorable. They together make for smashing some film cliches, humorously of course. Unfortunately the film still has some cliche moments of it's own, my #1 worst line being said by Tony "She's already perfect" - Maybe I'm mean but that immediately takes him down a peg or two in his 'charismatic cool' character.
All in all : expect a lot of goodies who turn out to be baddies, and baddies who turn out to be harmless. Ultimately, I enjoyed this and I had already decided that I wouldn't before I had sat in my seat and I would watch it again.

Lets go to the movies: Wanderlust

If you're a Friends fan, just the poster of this film is concerning. Mike... you're meant to be with Phoebe not Rachel... everything's wrong!

Once you get past the initial shock that the cast have a life after Friends you can enjoy 'Wanderlust'
It's a comedy genre, but I don't distinctly remember laughing out loud that much, maybe I did, I watched it quite late so when I'm sleepy I'm less likely to vocalise a laugh. Regardless, I know that at least in my head if not outwardly that I really enjoyed this film. It's just easy watching, no hidden meanings, no weird symbolism- it's just a fun story!

George and Linda are a couple in New York with jobs in the city, after forking out for a 'micro-loft' in New York things rapidly go downhill for George and Linda, they can no longer afford to live in the city and have to move in with George's brother who is the most horrible man imaginable, ugh he's just frustrating and a mean person. On their way to live with George's brother George and Linda are in a (non-serious) car accident and end up staying at Elysium which is a huge hippy cult (but not sinister like a cult usually is) and everyone is very welcoming but also very 'themselves' (think nudists, free love, sing-songs)
After a night or two there seeing how the cult live George and Linda accept that they have to go back to reality and live with George's brother, which becomes unbearable and they end up going back to live at the cult.
There are all kinds of catastrophes and disasters that occur on this 'new life' they embark upon that basically ends up causing more trouble than they first anticipated.

It's the kind of film that I could and would watch again, I really enjoyed it, and it kind of made me want to live in Elysium because it's a nice way of living, except they're all vegan and I like lasagna too much to be vegan.

Lets go to the movies: Life of Pi

I got to view Life of Pi in an Imax screening which meant that it was full 3D which maybe makes my thoughts on it a little biased because taht extra dimension cranked up the 'wonderment and awe' notch a bit!
The story is about a young boy named Pi who is from India which makes for a beautiful backdrop for the story to unfold, he and his family move themselves to Canada and sell the zoo that they own to America. A storm at sea leads to a shipwreck and Pi ends up stranded on a boat with a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker.

 
There are a lot of charming parts to the film, aswell as some jumpy parts made worse by the 3D and some parts that are just outright psychadelic viewing.
The story is beautiful, quite simple to follow but at times slow. There are no other stories running alongside the one being told, it literally is following Pi through his childhood, important life lessons then trying to survive. This story was enough for me because of the stunning visuals, but it may not be enough stimulation for everyone.

The ending has a little twist of it's own which isn't a huge huge shocker, but it gives the film a little more meaning and creates a slightly philosophical tone.

It's a nice film, it's a pretty film and it's a quaint film but it's not the kind of film that's going down in history as one of the 'greats'

Lets go to the movies: Despicable me

I put off seeing this film for a long long time based on the title, which is the valuable lesson of the day.
Never judge a film by it's title!
First of all I though that this was an adult comedy with actors, it's actually a kids film that's animated yippee! My favorite type of kids films!
It's your typical kiddy plot of bad guy planning to do some bad things, then he meets a crossroad in his life that changes his whole outlook then happily ever after the end!
It's the generic template storyline that makes it 'not quite' Pixar.
Nonethless I still enjoyed it so much that I could watch it again!

The cross road in this baddy's life:

Is meeting these three orphan girls:

At first he's not so nice to them, and for ages and ages he's still not nice to them- it actually takes much longer than expected for his stone heart to be melted into a pool of gooey parental-love for the girls he has 'accidentally' adopted.

My favorite moments are:
When he puts them to sleep in old hollowed out bombs- it's just so cruel but half funny too

When he reads the hilarious 'three little kitty' story to the girls and has to use the finger puppets in the book. If this book is real, I want it!

The unicorn toy that is 'SO FLUFFY I WANNA DIE'

When he tells them his own storybook and uses his nose as a unicorn horn- this will make no sense if you haven't seen it, but it just made me laugh!

This is a super-cute-feel-the-fuzzy-love film
and I want to watch it all over again!

Lets go to the movies: Ted

I watched Ted because it had a cute teddy in it, that literally was the only reason, I thought the teddy was cute and I wanted to watch it despite everyone telling me that he really isn't all that cute.

The first five minutes or intro of the film were like the beginning of some magical kids film, it told the story of how Ted came to be, and how he is magical enough to talk, it like melted my heart!
Then you flash foward like 20 years to the future and he's picked up some much less cute habits... including hookers, drugs, swearing all that kind of stuff, but I just had to let that stuff go over my head.

I didn't laugh a whole lot because it wasn't really my kind of humour, but I loved the cute teddy bear and his different outfits.

There's a scene where he wears a suit for a job interview and oh my gosh he just looked adorable! He's all tubby and cuddly looking I just wanted to squeeze him!

As the story goes on Ted's like #1 creepy fan tries to steal him, and the story gets a whole lot more sinister, for the past ten minutes of the film I actually cried, solidly, real tears! I can't say why because it will give it away, but it really made me weep, I just freakin' love that bear!

To sum up:
I cried a lot more than I laughed at this film, and probably liked it for all the wrong reasons, but gosh darnit I want a life-sized Ted plush

 

Lets go to the movies: The woman in black

Okay, so this is kind of an oldie now as it's not even in the cinema anymore, but I only just saw it today and this is probably my absolute limit on a film that leans towards the horror genre but I can just cope with it although I did believe that the Woman in Black was waiting for me behind every door that I have opened since watching it.
Anywho onto the film, so the main guy is Harry Potter... I mean Daniel Radcliffe, and he plays as a widower lawyer with a young son, and he goes on work to visit a quiet village where he has to deal with legal documents in a classic haunted house, we're takling high ceilings, cobwebs, creepy paintings and dark corridoors.
The whole time you're on edge and I find films like that physically exhausting!
THere appears to be some kind of curse on the house where the same recurring bad event (I won't specify what) happens when someone sees the woman in black.
So Harry Potter has a good crack at breaking the curse and in the last few moments of the film you find out if he was successful or not.

A sum up-
This film is jumpy and eerie and is best watched with the lights on and a friend or two
I didn't know the story at all and it was a pleasant surprise
If you hate creepy kids toys or creepy kids in films then avoid
No matter how much you may want him to, Harry doesn't cast a spell to make all the bad things go away

Lets go to the movies: Looper

I was persuaded that going to the cinema to see Looper (not Taken 2, that I really wanted to see) was a good idea.

Here's my movie lowdown:

The concept of the film is time travel- it's set 30-ish years in the future and time travel has been invented but was immediately made illegal. So the only people that do time travel are gangster-type people who send people to the past where a gun waits to kill them, because it's much easier to hide a body then rather than in the modern day where technology is all tip-top.

So why is it called Looper?

Crime bosses turn to time travel to send their targets to the past to be killed using "loopers" When crime bosses want to end a looper's contract, they send his older version back to be killed by his younger self, referred to as 'closing the loop'

Then alongside all this a section of the population have been given some magical coin floating powers that seems kind of irrelevant for a long time
If it sounds a bit weird, it's because it is! It's been referred to as the new 'Matix' but to be honest, I didn't really like that movie...

To sum up it's a lot of guns (a lot) a lot of death (a lot a lot) and a lot of time travel and concentrating so that you don't miss something important!

 

This is their 'concentration' face

I hope I havent put you off, I think it just either is your sort of film or it isn't.. and this sort of isn't!

Come with me to the movies: Lawless

First thing is first:
Lawless is rated 18, I didn't even realise this until I was sat down in the cinema and then after the trailers but before the movie the litttle age rating popped up and it was a glaring red circle with '18' in it, i turned to me friend and said 'but whyy??' feeling frantic as though I'm about to watch a horrendous horror film but was informed that it was because there was 'some violence'

Some violence is an understatement... probably the most violent film that I've ever seen but then I usually avoid those kind of films but there was no avoiding this!

I sound like I'm about to launch into some sort of film related rant but that's not the case at all, the film was really interesting and about the prohibition of alcohol in America. Throughout I felt like I was wathcing a western film but it was essentially pretty heavily gangsta themed. I loved the romantic themes throughout, there were funny moments too which were a relief to the much more tense moments. The movie time whizzed by in a heartbeat and I shed a little tear when ... I don't want to spoil it but when someone sweet is killed.

The blossoming love stories made me want to live in 1930s america with the fancy cars and flowy dresses!

 

I give Lawless two thumbs up! Because it reminds me of a classic and the story itself is pretty easy to follow, but go in with the knowledge that it's pretty gory but ultimately a lovely story!

Being Brave Seeing Brave

Incase the title didn't make it completely obvious to you, I saw the new Disney Pixar film 'Brave' today and thought I'd share with you my two cents on how it went down with us (the us being me and my best friend)

 

Now before we begin here is a song to listen to as you read what I write to set the magical-mood for you, and also becuase the soundtrack was my absolutely number 1 favourite part

Brave is about a redheaded princess with the most enviable hair of any of the Disney Princesses, it's in these perfect curls that are the colour of ketchup- who is- surprise surprise- fiesty. Kids films love to play the 'fiesty' card with red haired characters... Anywho, it's set in Scotland which made for a nice change and actually sempt quite realistic as the skies were almost always grey and stormy looking. Basically, the red haired princess doesn't want to be married but somehow ends up in a story seperate to that to do with breaking a bear related curse.. It is as odd and random as it sounds.

There are lots of great and sweet moments mostly from the Princesses triplet younger brothers who are too adorable for words, and other great magical moments when the princess follows these blue sprite things through the forest- very 'Avatar-ish' not to mention how great the music was and added purpose to everything when scenes were moving a bit slowly.

The story as a whole was not that great to me, better than most kids films for sure, but not up there with Pixars greatest whatsoever. Aside from the setting being in Scotland the rest wasn't that original and reminded me of some Shrek-Snow White mash up. The Princess in Brave basically being a younger Princess Fiona... and the whole thing with the curse needing to be broken by two sunrises or being permanent forever is very Shrek-ish too. Then the evil lady in a little forest in the house resembled the Dwarves home, with the woman resembling that shape shifting evil stepmother from Snow White.
It's diffcult to explain how a storyline is both 'weird' and unoriginal at the same time, but Brave just is. Not to mention pushing the boarders on PG rated films, I jumped pretty violently at some parts.

Alright... positive things:
The soundtrack was amazing (I know this is the third time I've said it)
The backdrop was up there with being as magical as the underwater world of Finding Nemo
There is no slushy love story whatsoever
Did I mention the soundtrack?

So there you have it, my movie roundup! Let me know what you thought of Brave!