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Saturday 19 May 2012

Recently Watched

Somehow in between watching The Walking Dead, Mad Men, Homeland and The Killing, we've managed to find time to watch a few (ahem) films as well. Most of these were (clearly) HTB's choice but in spite of that, some were surprisingly good!

1) Warrior, starring Tom Hardy (nom nom) and Joel Edgerton (no, me neither), is the story of two brothers, alienated from each other due to their seriously dysfunctional family, who both enter a mixed martial arts tournament in the hopes of winning the 5 million dollar prize. Anyway, there's loads of fighting scenes, some excellent acting, a few tense moments and an emotional ending. Full disclosure: I did fall asleep for a few minutes during this but that's no reflection on the film- it was warm and I was sleepy. Anyway, worth a watch if you like mixed martial arts...or more realistically, if you like Tom Hardy in the semi-nip.

2) Hugo in 3D, starring Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen and Jude Law, amongst others. This is a rather sweet drama, produced by Martin Scorsese and Johnny Depp, which picked up 5 Oscars. Set in Paris in the 1930's, it follows the life of a 12 year old boy, Hugo, who now orphaned, lives in the walls of the train station and maintains the clocks there, while working on his deceased father's last project (he was a gifted clockmaker). Although a bit sad to start with, this turned into an interesting little love letter to the origins of film making and movies in general. Overall, a charming film, which will happily while away a couple of hours for you. Worth a watch!

3) The Avengers in 3D, which we were both greatly anticipating, did not disappoint. This is a Joss Whedon project, which as I've previously mentioned, is always a plus for me.  This action/adventure brings together Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), IronMan (Robert Downey Jr), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), as the members of Project S.H.I.E.L.D, lead by Nick Fury (Samuel L.Jackson) to fight against Loki (Thor's evil and much less attractive brother- he's adopted) and his attempts to enslave all humans. This was surprisingly funny and although I thought it was a little long in places, we both really enjoyed it. There were also lots of "in" jokes which all the nerds in the audience (and to my shame), HTB and I chuckled at (we're marvel comic nerds and enjoy a good superhero tale). This is currently no.1 in the box office everywhere so I'm not alone in my appreciation. Go see!!

4) Contraband, starring Marky-Mark and Kate Beckinsale, is a thriller wherein Mark Wahlberg's character is forced into returning to his former life of crime by running contraband on a cargo ship, in order to satisfy a rather scary mobster (Giovanni Ribisi), who's been threatening his family. I wasn't expecting to like this but it was real nail-biting, edge of your seat stuff and very entertaining. I would recommend!

5) Puss in Boots. HTB got me this, knowing my love for possibly the world's cutest cat (I used to think he was like an animated version of my now sadly departed cat, Mr Meowington. Sniff). Puss, voiced by Antonio Banderas is amazing. I LOVE this film. There's no point in me telling you the plot of this, you just have to watch it and ignore said plot and focus on Puss and his unbelievable cuteness. He has some amazing lines and somehow Banderas manages to make a cartoon cat both dashing, (akin to a feline casanova) AND adorable- like that surprised kitten video clip on Youtube. Watch it!!!
..(the film and the Youtube clip-both are great).

6) Lastly, Safe, starring Jason Statham. Brutal. I fell asleep (again, it was warm and I was tired but mostly cause this was terrible and my dreams were a much more entertaining alternative). I missed most of this but HTB reliably informs me this was awful and not worth seeing. So now.

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