Recently Viewed

Yet again I've been indulging the film addict in me lately. As I can't get to the cinema I've just been watching lots of recent and slightly older releases at home with a big mug of tea and some double chocolate chip cookies..it's a tough life but someone has to do it! Top of my list was to see Django, which did not disappoint..

Django Unchained

The long awaited new release from Quentin Tarantino, it stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz (he won best supporting Oscar for this) and Leonardo DiCaprio. Django (Foxx) is a slave set free by a German bounty hunter/former travelling dentist (Waltz) who then goes on a mission to rescue his wife from a terrifying and brutal plantation owner (DiCaprio). The acting in this is absolutely superb and although the storyline and particularly some of the flashback scenes are quite harrowing, violent and difficult to watch it's without a doubt one of the best films I've seen in a long time. Like other Tarantino films this has a real sense of a heightened reality- even though you know the events that are portrayed are completely unrealistic and there's no way it would ever have happened like that (like Hitlers face being shot to pieces in the cinema at the end of Inglorious Basterds or The Bride killing Lucy Liu at the end of Kill Bill 1), somehow you can forget that while you're watching it- possibly because it's just so gripping. Basically if you haven't seen this yet then you need to get your hands on it, stat! Also, look out for the Samuel L Jackson cameo..legend.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I wrote about the book this film is based on in my Recently Read Part 2 post and I loved it so I was keen to see the film adaptation. The screenplay for this was written by the author of the book, Stephen Chbosky so the storyline doesn't stray too far from the original. The film centres on Charlie, an emotionally disturbed teenager (he possibly has autism but we're never told that for certain), trying to deal with life and the events taking place around him while navigating the pitfalls of adolescence. I liked this but not unusually for me, I did prefer the book. This is a nice quirky little film though and if you're looking for something a bit different you could do worse. Plus Emma Watson is in it and she's great.

This is 40
This is one of those Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Bridesmaids) comedy vehicles in which every possible funny actor of a certain age make an appearance. Supposedly this is a follow on from events in "Knocked Up", whereby the couple from that are now married with 3 kids, are both approaching 40 and are not too happy with their lives. At times this was funny but mostly I just found it really dragged out. Genuinely, it felt like we'd been watching it for about four hours and by the end of it I wasn't really sure I cared that much about their ailing relationship anyway. What I will say is that Paul Rudd, Chris O Dowd and Lena Dunham are all in it and I love them. Also, they played the Pixies at one point so there's that...

The Sapphires
Another Chris O Dowd film, in which he stars as a drunken Irishman (shocking) who discovers a very talented girl group of Australian Aboriginal women with amazing voices (they really are fabulous- the soundtrack is great) who then travel to Vietnam to entertain the US troops. The films themes are mostly based on the huge issues of racism that were so insidious at the time (it's based on a true story) and family, as it looks on a closer level at the bonds between these four women. I really liked this one, it was enjoyable to watch and just nicely entertaining. Definitely worth a viewing!

Wreck it Ralph

Ralph is a video game bad guy (hence the 'wreck it" part) who wants to be a good guy and so sets out to leave his own game and become a hero in a problem-shooter one instead..unfortunately he ends up making a powerful enemy that threatens to destroy all the games in the arcade (I know I've said "game" about 5 times now but there really is no other way to describe it). Along the way he meets Vanellope Von Schweez, a ridiculously cute troublemaker from a candy coated racing car game and they both set to work on helping each other out. If you're looking for a bit of video game nostalgia or y'know, you're a small child, this is the one for you. Personally it didn't do a whole lot for me but it was pleasant viewing and certainly lived up to the hype.

In Time
This is a terrible film but had a fairly decent premise. So it's set in the not too distant future and instead of money, the currency is now time. As in, a cup of coffee will set you back four minutes, a bus trip two hours etc. Most people are incredibly poor and live each day with literally just that- a day. One such person is Justin Timberlake. I can't remember his characters name so lets just call him Jim. Anyway, without going into too much detail, Jim decides to take revenge on the people in charge of all the time and kidnaps Amanda Seyfried who's father is incredibly time-wealthy (and also happens to be the same guy that plays Pete Campbell in Mad Men). Somehow they took that idea and went nowhere fast (see what I did there) with it. For shame on everyone involved-especially you, Cillian Murphy. I thought you were better than that..sniff.

So that's my lot. Anyone else seen anything good lately?
xx