Recently Viewed

I've been avoiding going to see Les Mis like the plague, (which seems appropriate given the subject matter- poverty and misery) mostly cause I can't stand all of that dramatic singing and despair. Instead I went to see The Hobbit (not my choice) and a couple of new releases:

End of Watch
This is essentially a buddy/cop drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, America Ferrera (Ugly Betty to you and me) and Anna Kendrick. The trailers for this looked really promising- lots of action with a lot of the scenes shot in a kind of "COPS" style, i.e hand-held camera, high-speed chase, lots of gun play and crazy-ass criminals and it did deliver all of that, it's just by the end of it  felt like I'd seen nothing new. Not bad, just not new.

Pitch Perfect
This is Anna Kendrick again and Rebel Wilson, both of whom are excellent in this. Kendrick plays a college freshman who joins an all female a cappella group at the urging of her father, who wants her to get more involved in college life. Turns out she has an amazing voice and can bring a lot to the group, whose song choices have become more than a little stale. Wilson provides comic relief and dude whose name I can't be bothered to look up provides a bit of romance. I was so pleasantly surprised by this film, I would never profess to be a big fan of musicals (check out reference to Les Mis in the first paragraph) and although I liked the first series of Glee, I felt it got old quite quickly. This however is really fresh- yeah, it's a bit cheesy in places but the music is brilliant and it's really funny! Watch it!!

Silver Linings Playbook

Ooh I loved this!! It's been nominated for several Oscars and rightly so- it's the story of Pat (Bradley Cooper) who's just been discharged from a mental health hospital following a break down after finding out about his wife's cheating. Pat has to come to terms with his aggression and newly diagnosed bipolar disorder while living with his parents (his dad is played by Robert De Niro) and plotting to get his wife back. Along the way he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who following the death of her husband, also had a mental break down. Pat agrees to help Tiffany with a dancing competition and she agrees to try and help him get his wife back. I won't reveal the ending but I will highly recommend it- the acting in it is so good- especially from Cooper and Lawrence (both nominated for Best actor awards) and it's just a really great story. Plus it's really refreshing to see mental health portrayed so realistically but not as bleak as it usually is. Definitely watch this one!

Moonrise Kingdom
This is a rom/com/drama by Wes Anderson, he of The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic fame. Typically for Anderson this is a quirky little production starring an ensemble cast (Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Jason Schwarztman). Full disclosure- I'm not actually a huge Wes Anderson fan..I did like The Royal Tenenbaums but once I've seen any of his films I have no desire to see it again, if that makes sense? Not cause I didn't enjoy it but more cause it's enjoyable to watch once but not a classic in the "I can watch this a million times" type of way. Anyway, this is about two youngsters in love who run away together and set up their own island while their families, police and cub scouts all search for them. It's a sweet film and a nice one to watch.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
In the books The Hobbit came first so this goes back to what happened pre The Lord Of The Rings. The first 30 mins of this is a lot of mild hobbit action, it only really got interesting for me when all the fighting started. I do love a good battle scene. This is an arse-numbing 3 hours long, so prepare yourself for that if you're gonna go. It is worth a watch though, I did enjoy it. Plus Aiden Turner (he of Being Human fame and and all round great big Irish Ride-bag) is in it too, so that's clearly the best reason to go.

Anyone seen any good films lately I should be checking out?

xx