Recently Viewed Part 2

See Recently Viewed Part 1 HERE.

300 Rise of an Empire

Hubster and I both really loved 300 so we were greatly anticipating the follow up, Rise of an Empire. We were sadly disappointed. We realised afterwards that the reason why we loved the original so much was because it was so original; the fight scenes, the slow motion killing, the colours, the creepy monsters. It was all so dramatic but the storyline was also captivating; you really got behind the Spartans and wanted them to win. This fella though, was like watching your boring next door neighbour getting mildly upset over how long the paint was taking to dry on his fence. I couldn't even tell you now what his name was. Lena Headley (the Queen) is in this one again and I like her but I felt she was underused. I loved the character of Artemesia (Eva Green) who was strong, merciless and more than a little bit evil. Although you clearly weren't meant to, I was backing her all the way, as was hubster. We cared that little for the plight of "the good guys" cause it was just so badly written. I could also rant on here about the lazy scriptwriting that insists that any female character who is seeking revenge is doing so because she was raped but I may leave that for another post. Either way this gets a giant MEH from me.

Captain America The Winter Soldier

We're also big Marvel fans so obviously couldn't wait to see this, especially after catching a 10 minute trailer of it before something else. If I'm honest, I was a bit nonplussed by the first Captain America but I really enjoyed this one. It seems to have found its feet a bit more and it seemed more like a proper action/adventure movie than it did a cartoon (which is how I felt about the first one). This time Captain America is up against a super soldier (that Winter fella in the title) who appears to be unstoppable while also dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D who may or may not be compromised (I'll say no more). This moved along at a nice pace, the fighting scenes were really well done and overall It was just really entertaining. Don't get me started on all the ass shots of Scarlet Johannson though. You know, it just annoys me; she's this amazing fighter, a super-assassin and yet they still have her saying things like "Oh, hello sailor" in a sexy voice before punching a guy on a boat. Why? Captain America doesn't do that, why should she? All I'll say is that her character said nothing so stereotypically "female fighter" when Joss Whedon wrote her lines in The Avengers but whatever. 

Non Stop

This is just your standard Liam Neeson action film. He plays a US Federal air marshal on a regular flight when he starts getting text messages from someone to say that people on the plane will start to die unless money is transferred into an account. Unfortunately, as events unfold it appears more and more obvious that Neeson's character is being set up and now everyone thinks he is the guilty party, which means he now has to stop the terrorist and clear his own name. This wasn't bad at all, I mean it's total nonsense but it's entertaining nonsense and Julianne Moore is in it too, so that's a reason to see it right there. Love her.

Dallas Buyers Club 

This is the true story of real life AIDS sufferer Ron Woodruff who upon diagnosis, finds out he cannot gain access to medications that could prolong his life because they aren't FDA approved. He then sets up a smuggling business to bring these medications into the country and give them to fellow patients as part of the 'Dallas buyers club". From there it's basically about his many run-ins with the law, how his illness affects him as a person (his growing tolerance for others and his friendship with Rayon, a HIV positive trans woman who he originally is hostile towards but grows to love as a friend) and his lengthy fight with the FDA to make his medications legal. This film was just brilliant. Difficult to watch at times but so compelling and so well acted. I loved it really and cried like a baby a couple of times. Both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto truly deserved those Oscars.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 1 & 2

I'm way late to this party (the first film was out in 2009 I think) but himself recently found these on Netflix and we said we'd give them a go (I said I'd give them a go- he loves animation, I have to be in the right frame of mind for it). Regardless, I loved both of these, more so the first but they are both very, very funny. Incredibly witty actually. Although one of the more basic jokes was the one that got us the most- Flint is a wannabe scientist, all of his inventions are terrible, including a monkey speech translator for his pet monkey Steve. All Steve ever says is "Steve!", so now himself and I spend a lot of time going "Steve!" to each other. Sad, yes. Hilarious also. Anyway, Flint comes up with a machine that turns rain into food, which is great to start with but goes a bit awry...the second film is a follow on from the fallout of his invention in the first film. This is one of those ones that's suitable for kids and adults. If you haven't seen them you definitely need to watch these!!

Lego Movie

I really loved this computer animated comedy, all about the world of Lego (unsurprisingly). So many brilliant in-jokes, visual gags and hilarious characters. The cast list is great too- Will Arnett as Batman was a stroke of genius! Lets also not forget the amazing soundtrack...EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!! etc. 

Love.

Have you seen any of these? Any other good films recently I should be checking out?

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Recently Viewed Part 1

I've seen a load of films since January and am only getting around to talking about them now...apologies! The first three were obviously all seen in the cinema and the last four were recent DVD releases. 

I've seen plenty more since then so I thought it'd be easier to just divide them up into different parts and start with the ones from January.

American Hustle

Sydney (Amy Adams) and Irving (Christian Bale) are two con artists working together, who also happen to be in love. Without giving too much away, they end up involved in a hustle with Bradley Cooper in charge which leads to hilarity, success and disaster in equal measure. Nominated for a rake of Oscars, this was hyped up a fair bit but I actually really enjoyed it. The characters were well developed, the storyline was exciting and the acting was brilliant. It was also really funny in parts, especially some of Bradley Cooper's scenes. If you're worried this may not be your sort of thing then you should see it anyway for the style, if nothing else. My god, Amy Adams. I could look at her in this all the live long day. Amazing. 

Anchorman 2

I loved the first Anchorman and can regularly be heard quoting "Milk was a bad choice", so I was really eager to see the second instalment of the ridiculous life of news anchor Ron Burgundy. Similar to the first film, there's lots of running gags, great cameos and bizarre subplots. While it seems slightly less together than the first film it is very funny and well worth a watch.

The Wolf Of Wall Street

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a dodgy stockbroker with no ethics, who quickly becomes accustomed to a decadent lifestyle of money, drugs and beautiful women at his beck and call with little to no regard for the crimes he commits or people he destroys along the way. DiCaprio and Jonah Hill are both brilliant in this, as was Matthew McConaughey (in a very minor role) and it was very entertaining at times. It was also an arse-numbing three hours long. Look, I appreciate Martin Scorsese as much as the next person but he could seriously have done with editing a few of the same repetitive scenes. I'm specifically referring to all of Belfort's rousing speeches on the trading floor and of course the many, many scenes of naked women being degraded. Before you say it, yes, I understand that it's "of its time" and is depicting a particularly misogynistic period of American history but you know, just because something is historically accurate doesn't mean you need to hammer it home. We get it, it was decadent. I understand that Belfort did everything to excess and that was well expressed, a bit too well expressed for my liking, to the extent that it felt irresponsibly glorified. The fact that the film is based on the book written by the real Belfort means that him and his cronies are being celebrated in this film while their victims are barely alluded to. For me that feels wrong and more than just a little bit icky.

Behind The Candelabra

This true story of entertainer and pianist Liberace and the secret relationship he had with his young lover Scott, is at times bleak, darkly humorous and difficult to watch but mostly it's a fascinating look at the bizarre secret lives of celebrities. Both Michael Douglas and Matt Damon were excellent in this and although it's sad at times, it is also stylish and entertaining.

You're Next

I've been a long term fan of horrors but have avoided them a bit in the last year unless I've heard good things beforehand. You're next was critically acclaimed so we said we'd chance it and I'm really glad we did. The film centres on Erin who along with her boyfriend, is staying in a country house for the weekend with his family. What they don't realise is that there's a group of ruthless killers in creepy animal masks surrounding the house. From there it's basically all about survival, who's next and what horrible way are they going to be killed. This is more like my kind of horror because there's no awful torture scene, no one gets raped and at no point did I have to say "ah here!!" and turn it off. Also, Erin is pretty amazing and I rarely have cause to say that about a female character in a horror movie.

We're The Millers

We threw this on purely for something lighthearted to watch but we were both pleasantly surprised. The Millers are a pretend family comprised of weirdos, put together by low level drug dealer David. He needs to look wholesome to smuggle drugs from Mexico as a favour to his boss and so calls on a runaway and a neighbour to be his kids and Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper, to be his wife. They obviously end up getting into a load of scrapes along the way but the film moves along at a nice pace. It's incredibly predictable but is entertaining nonetheless.

Drinking Buddies

This was actually a bit of an odd one. Kind of a romantic comedy that doesn't really go anywhere but in doing so is actually quite realistic and because of the cast, was enjoyable to watch. The two main characters are clearly perfect for each other but are both in relationships so it's kind of a "what's going to happen here" type of thing. I liked how it was shot and that it was a bit different from a lot of other films around at the moment so I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. 

Have you seen any of these? Any thoughts?

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Marilyn Monroe and Body Shaming

This evening, someone I know liked this image on Facebook, so it showed up in my timeline. As I had to be subjected to it I went onto Twitter where you're always sure of getting a discussion going and thankfully, many people agreed with my disgust. I said I'd pop it up here too to spread the word.

There's so many things wrong with this, I'm not even sure where to start but here goes. 

Firstly, anorexia? It's an eating disorder. An illness and not as this would suggest, a choice, like implants. Also, are we to take from this that these people somehow think that anorexia didn't exist before Marilyn's death? Really? That's kind of laughably stupid.

Secondly, what's with the body shaming? Yes, she was an attractive woman but does that have to mean that those who don't look like this are by extension, not "sexy"? What happened to beauty being in the eye of the beholder? This for me is just more of this "real women have curves" nonsense. Newsflash; real women can look like whatever they choose to and if you "liked" this picture then you probably just haven't thought of the repercussions for people seeing this who have an altered body image. Imagine for a second this was the other way around; a photo of Kate Moss back in the 90's with a comment shaming those who don't resemble that one particular body type? Would that be acceptable too? I'd sincerely hope not.

Lastly and depressingly, this thing has 88,414 likes. That means that all of those people deemed this to be a good message to be put out there, something they agreed with. Sure, some of the likes are men (I know this cause they've left some fairly predictable comments about what they'd do to Marilyn..if she wasn't dead for the past 50 years, of course) but an overwhelming amount are women. Seriously? I have to say I struggle with that mentality. Women really are their own worst enemy sometimes. Certainly, Marilyn Monroe was a beautiful woman and plenty would love to have her figure but in expressing that, do we also have to shame other women who don't have that body shape? What about the naturally thin or over weight?
Also, sorry to burst the bubble of whoever created this image, but Marilyn had plastic surgery, in fact she had an implant in her chin that gave her the illusion of perfect bone structure. There is of course, nothing wrong with this, each to their own. I just find it incredible that the person behind this image has such an extremely narrow ideal of what the "perfect" woman should look like that they've ignored the reality of the situation, popped an image of a well-loved movie-star up in order to get more traffic to their page and that so many people are completely oblivious to that. Women, I think need to start being a bit kinder to each other and while you may think "this is just a picture on facebook, get over it", well, I disagree. This sort of thing is actually really insidious and incredibly damaging in the long-term and personally, I'm getting weary of seeing it everywhere.

Anyway, end of rant. Let me know in the comments what you think. Am I being overly sensitive or do you agree that this just isn't acceptable in this day and age?

Recently Viewed: December.

Apart from the odd Christmas movie, we also fitted in these films this month:

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

The second part in the Hunger Games trilogy and this time we find Katniss undergoing the victory tour of the other districts with Peeta while struggling with PTSD after the horrors of the games in the first film. Having been warned by President Snow to convince everyone that the whole poison berry thing was due to her love for Peeta, and not defiance against the capitol, they both agree to this but when they reach district 11, the home of Katniss's dead friend Rue, they go way off script. This leads to not only an uprising in that district, but to President Snow deciding that the best way to deal with Katniss and Peeta is to put them back into the Hunger Games. Brilliantly though, this is a completely different set up to the first games; all of the tributes are former victors and the games themselves are full of new and disturbing challenges. As with its predecessor, this is pretty accurate with regards to the book's storyline and Jennifer Lawrence is amazing, as always. I really enjoyed this instalment and I think it's probably better than the first. 

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

This is the usual craic; hobbits, dwarves, elves, orcs, lots of unnecessary shots of Orlando Bloom leppin' about the place firing arrows, Gandalf being awesome, a lot of arduous journeys through forests, over mountains and a sh*t tonne (official quantity) of life-threatening battles with giant evil spiders (I was unaware they featured so heavily in this film, you can be sure I wouldn't have gone had I known. I can thank Himself for that), a pretty cool fire-breathing dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) and the afore-mentioned Orcs, who are actually quite scary. The best thing about this whole film for me was the part of Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), a seriously skilled elf who saves all the men's lives several times over. Although you wouldn't know that if you were to take a closer look at the poster above. You'll see she's at the very back of the shot, even behind the elf king and the guy beneath him, both of whom are on screen way less than she is. Gah. The whole dragon part was grand too but otherwise, it's a no from me. Lookit, if you're a huge LOTR fan, then you'll obviously want to see this and no doubt you'll enjoy it. For me, these films are just waaaay too dragged out. For fecks sake, it's a short enough book that Peter Jackson has seen fit to make into a trilogy. A TRILOGY!! I couldn't believe it when the credits came up and we were no closer to a resolution. So yeah anyway, it's grand. 

*The enthusiasm*

Kick-Ass 2

No. Just no. I really liked the first Kick-Ass but this was pretty awful. In this sequel, Kick-Ass is now being trained by Hit-Girl until her guardian finds out and puts a stop to it, as he wants her to live the life of a normal teenage girl. Kick-Ass then joins a superhero team, fronted by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carey) and together they set out to put a stop to the bad guys, one of whom is Chris d'Amico from the first film. He's seeking vengeance against Kick-Ass for the death of his father and although he's pretty useless himself, he has plenty of money so can afford to buy a troupe of bad guys to have on his side. I did enjoy parts of this; the fight scenes (especially those involving Hit-Girl) are entertaining at times, although often, a bit too graphic for my liking. Also, the film sends out some seriously skewed messages about women. At the start, when Hit-girl is training Kick-Ass and he's not doing very well, she tells him to "take his tampon out" because, of course, the worst insult for any man is to be compared to a weak, menstruating woman. As she herself is the very image of a strong, capable woman, I find it hard to believe she'd denigrate her own sex like that. Stupid but I can get over it. However, I next refer you to the scene where Chris d'Amico, while trying to get back at Kick Ass, decides to rape his girlfriend. He fails in this, due to his own..eh, inabilities and for some reason the whole thing is treated as a big laugh. Sorry..what now? Note to the script writers: Rape scenes are not funny. They never have been and they never will be and if that's your best attempt at humour then you really need to find yourself a new occupation because you're clearly incapable of the one you currently (and inexplicably) have.

Basically, it's utter tripe.

White House Down

I won't insult your intelligence by going into the details of this. It's one of those films by the people who did Independence Day and The Day After tomorrow; lots of special effects, the standard shot of the White House being blown up (always from the top for some reason), an all-American guy running around in a dirty vest saving everyone (see Channing Tatum above and Will Smith in Independence Day), LOTS of patriotism, several plot holes and a ridiculous amount of guns being shot. There's also loads of "God, that person is so irritating" moments. In summation, it's terrible. Not even one of those "so bad they're good" films, even my husband thought it was awful, and that's saying something (sorry love). The script is shockingly bad, parts of it look like the actors filmed it on their own and they edited it afterwards to make it look like they were actually on set together- it's that disjointed. Which surprised me because I normally like both Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum. Probably best to avoid this one altogether. Die Hard should be on about a million times over Christmas anyway, give that an old re-watch instead.

Have you seen any of these or any good films recently? Let me know in the comments.

XX

Recently Viewed

Apart from watching pretty much all of The Real Housewives of New York on Netflix over the past month (I know, I'm scarlet for me too), I also managed to fit the following in:

Thor 2: The Dark World.
This is the usual Marvel craic, big baddie threatens Earth, one of the Avengers (obviously Thor in this case) steps in and shows off for a while. I'm a big Marvel fan in theory but there's something about this latest batch of movies that fall short a bit. The Avengers was fantastic but Thor on his own (same goes for Captain America..but never Iron Man!) is a little lacking. There are definitely some funny moments that had me loudly chuckling, Darcy and Loki are great characters and Chris Hemsworth is easy on the eye for sure but overall there's just this unnecessarily convoluted plot that is at times difficult to follow when really all anyone wants to see are the big fight scenes and Loki saying something snide. That said, it's enjoyable and I will no doubt be watching it again..I just wish it was as good as the Avengers.

Gravity.
Sandra Bullock plays a medical engineer on her first shuttle mission into space alongside veteran astronaut George Clooney. All is going fairly routinely until disaster strikes; they lose contact with Houston and are left stranded, tethered only to themselves. The film then becomes a lesson in survival when everything is overwhelmingly against the characters. Clooney is his usual, affable self in this but for me, Sandra Bullock is the real stand-out performance. I like her anyway but I felt this was quite different from her usual parts, given how stripped back and honest it is.
Also, I dare you to watch this without biting all your nails off; it's very tense and a bit too stressful for me, truth be told. Overall, it's very aesthetically pleasing; the expansive shots of Earth from space are stunning and it's well worth seeing this in 3d- it's one of the few movies that actually warrants its use. 

The Conjuring.
I went through a brief period there of avoiding horrors because I was a bit jaded by them. Then I got my terror-mojo back and gave these two a go. The Conjuring is similar to The Amityville Horror in that "large family moves into big old house in the country in the 70's with terrifying results" thing. This time, they have the help of paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine who tell a few creepy stories at the start to confirm their weirdness credentials and then basically move in with the family to help rid their home of the malevolent presences within it. I actually really enjoyed this, it's far from perfect but it's an old-school, jumpy ghost-horror that won't scar you for life but will give you lots of "sweet jebus!" moments. There's one in particular involving a wardrobe...I'm still a bit traumatised after it and I haven't been that scared by a horror in a long old time (but in a harmless way). Well worth a watch.

Teeth.

This was a Netflix pick, around Halloween. An independent comedy/horror about a teenage girl who discovers she has teeth in her vagina..yes, you read that correctly. This contains plenty of scenes of sexual violence but mostly involving male victims, which is definitely a new take on these sort of films. In parts it is a bit of a revenge-horror but because of the subject matter it deals with that in a refreshing way. Interestingly, one of my husband's friends watched it and said that it made him aware of how desensitised we've become to films that use sexual violence against women as a plot device (because of how common it is), whereas films like this with male victims are so unusual that it is even more shocking because there is such a sharp contrast between the regularity and the use of two styles. That said, if you have a sensitive disposition, avoid this like the plague. It's graphic and gory and while I have no problem with that, Himself did squirm a bit so definitely not for the faint of heart, or those of a male orientation, in his case!

Have you seen any of these? Anything you'd recommend for me to watch?
XX

Halloween Costume Rage

Don't be fooled by the cranky title, I actually love Halloween but this year an email from the Costume Shop Ireland has left me with a slight case of the Hulk smashy-smashy. "Check out our new costumes", they suggest. Surely, says I. To my delight and being a lover of all things popular culture, they have Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands costumes. To my horror, they also have them in  "women's versions". This can only mean one thing; near nudity. Granted, in my time I have worn the obligatory skimpy Halloween costume. I'm a big fan of fancy dress and have previously been She-ra, Marie Antoinette (the dead version) and a Freudian Slip and yes, most of those were revealing in some way but the primary difference being that none of those were "male" costumes to start with that someone felt the need to make appealing to women by adding some arse and cleavage flashing. 

If I want to dress up as Beetlejuice, why can't I actually dress up as him? Why the bastardised version on the right? Aside from everything else, she doesn't even look like Beetlejuice, more like an old timey umpire/prostitute, if such a thing ever existed.

Another thing that bothers me about these, is how sweet and demure the female versions are while the male ones actually resemble the real characters; creepy and weird, just like Halloween should be. My question is, why can't women enjoy popular culture how it is? Why do we need our own separate "sexy" version of it? Do women themselves find the concept of dressing up in the more authentic costumes unappealing because they would feel less attractive or is this something that, dare I say it, the patriarchy has foisted upon us over the years? 

I myself had planned on dressing up as Ripley from the Alien movies this year and had the whole thing planned. All I needed was a flight suit. A cursory search on eBay gave me these results:

What I wanted was the man's suit on the right (which would be unwearably large on me) and what I find for women is the "suit" on the left. Ripley would've laughed in that woman's face, probably before rescuing her from a horrible death. 

Gah.

Does this bother anyone else or is it just me being persnickety? 

Recently Viewed September..to, eh, now.

I actually only saw four of these in the cinema and the rest were watched when we discovered US Netflix (well worth getting by the by), which is great as there were a couple there that I might not have found otherwise. 

About Time

This is a refreshingly different romantic comedy. Domhnall Gleeson learns he has the power to travel through time- a family trait passed on to him by his dad (Bill Nighy, brilliant as always). There are limitations- he can only go back to times and places he's been to already and he can't change certain things. Mostly though he just wants to use it to get a girlfriend so he sets about finding love. Although that is a huge part of the storyline and his relationship with Rachel Mc Adams' character is well documented, in the end the film is really about family and the bond between a parent and their child, which I wasn't expecting and I have to say, had me weeping away (quietly, I should add) for most of the film. This is a really great film, it is a bit cheesy in places but thoroughly enjoyable and heartwarming and I can't recommend it enough. 

Prisoners

Hugh Jackman plays a dad whose young daughter goes missing, along with her friend. A search led by cop Jake Gyllenhaal gets underway and a motor home that was in the neighbourhood when they disappeared is found but there's no evidence that the driver took the girls. Jackman thinks otherwise however and decides to take matters into his own hands to find out the truth. From there there's several plot twists and lots of uncomfortable viewing. That said, I really enjoyed this film, I spent most of it hiding my face, on the edge of my seat and going "ah Jaysus, no, don't do that", which you know, sign of a good'un. It also left me thinking what I would do in a similar situation. The acting is superb and there's a very impressively gloomy, dark atmosphere (not dissimilar to the Silence of the Lambs actually) with a strong sense of dread and a decent storyline. Well worth a watch.

Room 237

I have a bit of an obsession with The Shining. I'd seen the film about a million times before eventually getting around to reading the book (for shame), which I naturally then preferred. I definitely still have a soft spot for the film so I was keen to see this documentary about others who are also a bit obsessed and their perceptions of the film's hidden meanings. While some of it was interesting, generally I was just a bit sceptical of the various conspiracy theories it presented- it heavily focuses on the moon landing conspiracy, the Holocaust and the genocide of American Indians for instance and a lot of it just felt a bit desperate, like they were grasping at straws. The "hidden clues" were often real stretches of the imagination and didn't seem anywhere near as important as those interviewed deemed them to be. If you're a big Shining fan then there's no harm in giving this a watch but you might be better off just watching the film again. 

Elysium

This is by the same guy that made District 9 so I had high hopes for it. It's similarly dystopian themed- set in 2154, the world is horribly over populated, all of the wealthy folk now live on a man made planet/Utopia (Elysium) where no one gets ill thanks to a fancy machine called a med bay. The planet's Secretary of Defence (Jodie Foster, who is amazing) is pretty tough and considers those who try and sneak in from Earth for badly needed medical care to be scum. Step in Matt Damon's character- a lowly factory worker on Earth, broken by the system who goes to extraordinary lengths to try and bring equality to the two worlds. Like I say, I really wanted to like this but struggled with the politically saturated tone of the film- overpopulation, restriction of health care and exploitation of the poor being the main themes which felt like one long lecture with a bit of fighting and pseudo sic-fi thrown in for effect. Overall, meh.

This is The End
A comedy starring the likes of Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Evan Goldberg as fictional versions of themselves, this is really just an excuse for a group of friends to have a bit of craic and make some money out of it, from what I could tell. Franco has a house party that various famous actors, comedians and singers attend, only to be stuck together after a powerful earthquake leads to the onset of the apocalypse. They then have to figure out how to survive when everything seems stacked up against them. This was definitely amusing in parts but I felt like it lost the run of itself at times and just ended up being a bit drawn out. Having said that, the performances of the actors themselves were all very self deprecating which I think saved this from being a bit of a disaster in itself (pun intended).

God Bless America
This is a dark comedy about a middle aged insurance salesman, weary with America's newfound adoration for all things popular culture, reality TV and those who pursue fame for the sake of being famous. This combined with a diagnosis of terminal cancer and his horrid family, tips him over the edge and he goes on a shooting spree with the help of an equally apathetic teenager Roxy. The two become good friends and end up mirroring Bonnie and Clyde a lot, except without the romantic connotations. All in all, this was an interestingly dark view of modern culture, enjoyable at times but if you're looking for something to melt the cockles of your heart, this is not it. 

It's A Disaster
A small ensemble cast of unusual characters, the film centres on four couples gathered for Sunday brunch in one of their houses. It's all rather tense and awkward as there's lots of history between all of them and a few secrets but things are relatively alright until they realise that all lines of communication with the outside world are no longer working and that there has been some unknown disaster (potentially bombs exploding around major cities in the US) that could spell the end. From there, things devolve even further within the group leading to hysteria and rash decision making. This is an enjoyably quirky, dark comedy with an interesting take on the "end of the world" themed films we've seen so much of. Also, Tobias from Arrested Development is in it and he's always worth watching!

Jurassic Park 3D
We all know the story of Jurassic Park so I won't bother going into it but I thought I'd include it here just to mention that we went to see it in 3D and it was pretty cool. It's definitely one of the few films of that nature that haven't really aged a huge amount- the special effects are still fairly impressive and it was enjoyable to watch on the big screen again but this time in 3d. A great exercise in feeling like an auld one too. 

Have you seen any of these? What did you think if so?

XX

Recently Viewed June/July

Man of Steel

This probably isn't even in the cinema anymore but here, let me save you the fiver or whatever it is to rent a new release these days. Brutal, so it is. Henry Cavill plays Clark Kent, just as he's figuring out who he is and where he comes from. This coincides with a baddie from his home planet arriving to Earth to destroy everything and act out other nefarious plans. Naturally, Superman has to stop him and although he's all super strong and whatnot there's just always something a bit lame about his character.. he's no Batman, you know? Amy Adams as Lois Lane was the only redeeming feature for me but I think she's great in everything. Overall though, himself and I spent pretty much the last hour of this laughing at how ridiculously bad and pointless it is so I won't be recommending it. 

World War Z

I read the book of this and was a bit underwhelmed so I wasn't expecting a huge amount from the film but then it bears hardly any resemblance to the original storyline, so that's probably that then. The film starts off with the beginning of a quickly spreading zombie viral outbreak that Brad Pitt then has to then spend the rest of the movie travelling around the world trying to find a cure for. I actually really enjoyed this, it was nail-biting stuff, the zombies were scary and you didn't get a whole lot of time between action scenes for your heart rate to settle down. There were of course, plenty of holes in the plot but if you're expecting reality from a zombie film then best of luck. Plus, Brad Pitt was fairly watchable, as always. 

Pacific Rim

Sweet Jebus, this was terrible. Set in the future, giant evil alien monsters have started arising from the Oceans to wage a war against humans and take Earth as their own. In retaliation, similarly gigantic robotic creatures are then created by the army to go out into the water and fight the bad guys. The acting in this was shockingly bad, not even Idris Elba was any good, and that's saying something. Also, the main female character in this really annoyed me. She couldn't just be a great fighter and leave it at that, she also had to be all obedient and timid and has to be taught by Charlie Hunnam how to be cool. Pah. 

The Heat

I really enjoyed this. I love Melissa McCarthy, who plays a tough and at times deranged cop opposite Sandra Bullock, an uptight and generally disliked FBI agent, on a mission to take down a drug dealer. So far, pretty much your standard 'odd couple' but somehow the combination of humour and unexpected physical violence really shook up that whole "buddy-movie" approach. It's not gonna win any Oscars but if you're looking for a good chuckle, I can definitely recommend this one.

The World's End

I am a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead, I also enjoyed Hot Fuzz so I was really keen to see the final movie in the "Cornetto trilogy" and mostly, it didn't disappoint. Basically, Simon Pegg's character is on a mission to complete the "golden mile" of pubs in the village where he grew up and so enlists the help of his former school friends (they've all moved on with their lives and are fairly successful, unlike Pegg's character). Unfortunately, their sleepy home and it's inhabitants have since been taken over by robots, who they then have to battle to survive. There were some really funny gags but probably not as continuously humorous as Shaun of the Dead. One thing Pegg/Frost/Wright do really well is create a mixture of witty in-jokes, slapstick and sentimental moments that can often bring a tear to the eye. I found that was less evident in this one, but entertaining nonetheless. 

Warm Bodies

I love this. My thing for zombies is well documented at this stage and this story, based on the book of the same title, unusually follows a zombie narrator around in his daily life at an abandoned airport where he lives with a load of other zombies. He ends up coming across a human girl (who's there to kill him) and he falls in love with her. This in turn gives him back his humanity and he then has to learn how to be a person again, which also rubs off on the other zombies, with the potential for a cure. Unfortunately, her father hates his kind and wants to destroy him. Very Romeo and Juliet. What I really liked about this was that it took a well established genre and completely turned it on it's head. It's a really fresh and interesting concept and actually, a lovely storyline. 

The Wolverine

I'm a big comic book/superhero fan so that combined with himself telling me this was getting good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (he always does that to me, and invariably the film is still always terrible) meant I put my better judgement aside to go see this. To be honest, I don't think they've made a truly good X-Men film in a while, the last one featuring Michael Fassbender (old Ridebag himself) as a young Magneto wasn't bad at all but that was a blip, I think. This is Hugh Jackman in a role he plays quite well but with a very disjointed storyline- the fight scenes are enjoyable but there aren't enough of them and mostly it seems to be about Wolverine staring into space and looking wistful, which I could probably do without. There's also a pretty amazing kick-ass Asian red-haired woman in it but again, they don't really make enough use of her character. If you're a big fan of the franchise, you'll probably want to see this before the next X-Men instalment, although you could just take my advice and not bother, because you won't be missing anything.

Spring Breakers

The story of a group of really annoying college students who rob a load of people to go on Spring Break, get done for drug possession and end up in debt to sleazy dealer James Franco, this was a creepy and at times unexpectedly bizarre film. Apparently it's become somewhat of a cult classic (already...*eye roll*) but the seriously gratuitous amount of female skin on show and sexual imagery was more than a little unnecessary for me. Also, the constant use of repetition in the film has left my brain melted...James Franco saying "Sprrrinng Breeeaaak..." over and over again is on a loop in my head, even as I write this. So generally, just meh. I suppose it could be argued that the female characters in it aren't as submissive as I expected them to be starting out, but given that I couldn't stand any of them, I'm not sure that's enough of a redeeming factor.

Sharknado

Ah, Sharknado. Genuinely, I assumed this was a joke when I first heard about it, but thankfully, no, it was not. Ian Ziering (STEVE FROM BEVERLY HILLS 90210, the ORIGINAL series...yes, I'm that old) plays a Californian bar owner who finds himself, his bar maid and his best friend in the unfortunate situation of having to go rescue his truly horrible wife (Tara Reid, yer one from American Pie and yes, I'm old, once again) and kids from an insane mix of tornado's and sharks. That's right. Everything about this film is terrible. The dialogue, acting, scenery, CGI, the sharks themselves, the attack scenes, but mostly the continuity, or lack thereof. One minute the scene will show a horrific storm with dark clouds and tornado's (naturally enough), while the following shot (supposedly the SAME SCENE) will be of a gloriously sunny beach with people sunbathing and the odd scream dubbed in for effect. What the what?? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's hilarious, but I could've spent that time dancing around maniacally to Daft Punk, or something equally as productive, you know? Basically, it's terrible but if you are like Phil and Clare Dunphy and enjoy films like "Croctopus 3D", then this is for you (apologies for the obscure Modern Family reference).

Let me know if you've seen any of these and if so, what did you think?

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Female Action Heroes Part 2

Part 1 looked at Alice from Resident Evil, Ripley from Alien, The Bride from Kill Bill, Trinity from the Matrix and Sarah Connor from Terminator. Now for the rest of my top ten female action heroes!

Hit girl from Kick Ass is a young but seriously skillful vigilante with an impressive ability to use any weapon and hand-to-hand combat to beat her opponents. She's notably brutal and remorseless when fighting and is easily the strongest and most powerful character in the comic series/film. She's a joy to watch.

I love the Hunger games trilogy so was really hoping they'd do a daycent version of the first film, which thankfully they did. Jennifer Lawrence is pretty amazing as Katniss, a teenager form the poorest district in Panem (the ruins of America), who volunteers as a tribute to replace her little sister in The Hunger Games- a battle to the death between 12 children. Being incredibly skilled at archery and hunting, she survives to the end and eventually becomes a symbol of the revolution for the twelve districts against the oppressive leadership of the Capitol. She's strong, brave and a fighter and I personally am glad that the young'uns have someone cooler than yer wan from Twilight to look up to when it comes to Young Adult literature. 

Ah, Scarlett. It feels like a bit of a cop out putting Black Widow in, cause lets face it, one of her most prominent features is how hot she is but equally she's a skilled warrior and the fact that she has no superpowers but still kicks ass AND wins is incredibly cool. She's an expert martial artist, marksman, weapons specialist and has extensive spy training. She also seems smarter than most of the male characters (except for Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, I think they're all on a par, really) and is one of the most capable and uncompromising female characters that's been in anything in a long time. 

Having read the books and found them disturbing, I was reluctant to watch the first film in the Millenium trilogy but I gave in as I really liked the character of Lisbeth Salander, a skilled computer hacker with an eidetic memory and the ability to change her identity at the drop of a hat, in order to get up to all sorts of mischief. Having had a terrible childhood, she's antisocial at best and potentially has Aspergers. She's not your classic hero, more of an antihero really, which is what I like about her. The part in the first book and film, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo where she takes her incredibly graphic revenge on her attacker is, although obviously unpleasant viewing, also a real moment of victory for such an abused and downtrodden character. She rocks.

Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. I recently had to stop watching Game of Thrones because of the amount of really disturbing sexual and general violence in it but I tune in pretty much only for the scenes with Daenerys in it, who considers herself the rightful queen of the seven kingdoms and is all set to claim the Iron Throne as her own. She's super clever and commands an army of warriors through her strength and by being a really good leader. I generally want to punch the air whenever she's on screen cause her scenes are just extremely cool and also, you know, DRAGONS. 

I could easily have included Scully from the X Files, or Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs in here too but if I did we'd be here forever.

Let me know in the comments if I've left anyone really important out of the list!

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Female Action Heroes Part 1

I've been making himself watch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer lately (as he never watched it when he was younger..I KNOW) and it got me to thinking about other female TV and film characters that well, kick ass basically. I'm thinking specifically of tough women who can fight, are self-sufficient and at no point need to be rescued by a man. Buffy aside, (because I dedicated a whole post to her before HERE), these are the first of my top 10 Ultimate Female Action Heroes:

Alice, from Resident Evil. OK, so this is cheating slightly because Alice has been genetically modified to make her the superhero she is but nonetheless, she's ridiculously cool and is on a continuous mission to pretty much single-handedly save the world from zombies. The films are kind of terrible from the second one onwards but the first is worth watching for the greatness of Alice alone.

Ripley, from the Alien films. I've loved Alien since I was a chill'un, primarily because of the amazing Ripley. For me, she's one of the best female protagonists of all time- just as tough as her male counterparts, if not stronger because she manages to face off the scariest of creatures and survive. Interestingly, in the films while she's portrayed as an almost masculine space-engineer, she's also very maternal- protecting first a cat and then a small, orphaned child. I always think that was really brave for the time- it was certainly one of the first truly empowering roles for an actress and gave world recognition to Sigourney Weaver.

The Bride, from Kill Bill. Also known as "Black Mamba", the bride is a ruthless warrior trained by a martial arts expert, who following the gunning down of herself (while heavily pregnant) and her fiance on their wedding day, sets out to get her revenge on those who murdered her entire wedding party, with seriously bloody consequences. Each fight scene is more thrilling and gory than the last and aside from the fact that she is justified in her quest, you want her to win anyway cause she's just far too cool.

Sarah Connor, Terminator films. I'm also a huge fan of the first two Terminator films, again after that they weren't so great and that may well have something to do with the lack of Sarah Connor, John Connor's ma. What I love about her is that you really see the evolution of her character from the first to the second film- she starts off as a timid waitress, oblivious to the awful future that awaits her and by the second film has become hardened, muscled, ferocious and completely determined and focused on preventing judgement day and protecting her son. She's just awesome. 

Trinity is a very talented computer programmer who escapes from the Matrix, is an expert at operating various different vehicles and is astoundingly good at the old martial arts (that leaping in the air and hovering before kicking the crap out of people move is particularly legendary). Although she is primarily Neo's love interest, her importance in the film is also based on the fact that she helps to locate and  'unplug' new recruits from the Matrix in the war against the machines. She's pretty stealthy.

Stay tuned for Part 2- Black Widow from the Avengers, Hit-Girl from Kick Ass, Katniss from the Hunger Games, Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones and Lisbeth Salander from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the meantime, let me know in the comments who your all time favourite female action hero is!

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Romantic Literary Quotes to make you go "Aww"

I don't know why, but I'm feeling particularly smushy today so prepare to be overcome with romance as you read the following- some of my all time favourite romantic literary/movie quotes!

 “Because,” he said, “I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you—especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame.  And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I’ve a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly". Mr Rochester to Jane Eyre (people really need to make more declarations of love involving the words "bleeding inwardly", I feel).

"Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear". -Jane Eyre.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking- Anna Karenina.

 "What did my arms do before they held you?" -Sylvia Plath (poor old Sylvia, wha?)

"I've never had a moments doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life".- Atonement

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same"- Cathy, Wuthering heights.

“When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.” ― Juliet

"How doth my lady? For nothing can be ill if she be well". -Romeo, seconds before everything went really unwell.

"When I first met her, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there'd be room for her to stay"- The Great Gatsby. Swoon.

And eh, lastly..

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.- Ahem, Winnie the pooh.

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?
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March Favourites

Behold!-My latest favourites from the world of entertainment, beauty and eh..walks around Dublin.

TV

Game of Thrones, the third series has just started up and I'm loving it. If you haven't seen any of this epic show, you need to get watching- the characters (especially some of the female characters) are amazing, the story lines are completely convoluted yet so exciting and the scenery and settings are just incredible. Plus, DRAGONS!

The Mindy Project

I mentioned this in my Recently Read Part 2 post, I started watching this show after reading Mindy Kaling's book and also loving her work on the US Office. This sitcom about Obstetrician Mindy follows her disastrous love life from one hilariously awful date to the next. Lots of great characters in this too and it's just very funny. You'll like it if you already like....

New Girl! Ah, Zooey, I love you so. New Girl has been around for a while too, this is the second series that's currently being shown and it's just been confirmed that there'll be a third. If you haven't seen it yet, it's about Jessica Day- a very cute and quirky school teacher who moves in with three equally weird male housemates and the general hilarious consequences of that. This show is just so great. There's something I find really comforting about it- whenever I'm not feeling too brilliant Hubster pops on an episode for me, makes me a cup of tea and suddenly things are a bit better..the power of harmless comedy :)

The Walking Dead

Not so harmless is this show about the (undoubtedly unavoidable) zombie apocalypse and a particular group of survivors. This is based on the comic books of the same name and is also in it's third series. It's been hugely successful since it started and it's easy to see why- it's just very well made and has it's viewers constantly on the edge of their collective seats. This is also another great one for strong female characters and if zombies are your thing (if not then they should be!) then you definitely need to check this out.

Books

I've been reading loads lately and have come across some excellent books, which you can read more of in my Recently read posts HERE and HERE but I haven't had a chance to review this little treasure yet- I'll go into it properly in my next book round up but if you're looking for a good read between now and then, please check out 'Me Before you' by JoJo Moyes..this is just so great, I had been avoiding it because I thought it was chick-lit and I generally have to be in the right frame of mind for that but this was completly not what I expected and I could not put it down. Excellent stuff.

Walks in the sunshine- the park and the beach

I've really been enjoying the recent sunshine and have been making the most of it with walks in the park and at the sea. Ireland really is a beautiful country when we get the right weather :)

Cath Kidston Strawberries iPhone Case

My phone is pretty much always adorned with Cath Kidston's cute and kitsch designs so I had to get this new Spring/Summer case when I saw it online- it's such a cheery pattern, I love it.

Camomile Tea

I picked this tea up this week to try and encourage more restful sleep, so far I'm loving the taste and I do find it quite relaxing to sip this while reading my kindle every night. Also- check out the prettiness of the packaging..good old M & S.

Beauty stuffs

Clarins Lip Perfector Gloss

My new favourite lip product, which is saying something for me. I wrote a full review of this HERE.

Kiehl's Creme de Corps

I mentioned this in my Post Hospital Recovery Kit post and will be doing a full review on it soon, this is a really, really great body moisturiser. Pricey but so worth it.

Dainty Doll Blush in My Girl

I did a full review of this super bargainous blush HERE..I adore this, such a pretty colour, so pigmented and beautiful on. I've since picked up a couple of other shades to try and another of these for my friend's upcoming birthday present.
Topshop Polish in Celestial
As I've previously mentioned about a million times, I love pastel blue polishes and I also love Topshop nail varnishes so this is a match made in heaven really. I got this as part of a birthday present last year and I love it- it's the perfect Spring shade, blue with a good whack of lilac in it, so very pretty.

And that's my lot! Let me know in the comments if you agree with any of my picks and what your own current favourites are!

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Recently Viewed

Flight

Ah, Denzel you little legend. I really didn't think I'd enjoy this film-the story of a huge plane crash where the pilot (Denzel, who is brilliant in this by the way) was heavily intoxicated and on drugs and his subsequent trial but it had me gripped right from the start. I particularly liked that I was left questioning how I felt about his character- a man who although completely in the grip of his demons somehow still emerges as both a hero and a villain- a very non black and white way of looking at someones actions. Definitely worth a watch.

Argo

By now everyone's probably seen this Oscar winner, directed by and starring Ben Affleck but I really enjoyed it so thought it was worth a mention if you didn't get to see it in the cinema and were looking for something good to rent. I'll be honest, political thrillers generally aren't my sort of thing (although I have been loving Homeland) so I was initially reluctant to watch this. Like so many times previously *half sarcasm* Hubster talked me into this one and I'm glad he did. The true story of the audacious CIA rescue of 6 U.S diplomats from Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, this movie moves along at a surprising pace and as cliched as it sounds I really was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I'd definitely recommend.

American Mary

As you all know by now I love horrors. This however is just an awful, awful film. I shouldn't even mention it in case somewhere, someone reading this is intrigued enough to go and watch it themselves. Basically Mary is a surgeon in training and starts to supplement her income by performing weird surgical fetish procedures for people. All pretty weird but harmless till her college professor drugs and horrifically assaults her and she goes a bit mental as a result. The rest of the film documents her revenge against him and others and her general devolution into becoming a full on psychopath. Unless you've got a serious love for the macabre, the psychologically scarring and the visually disturbing, I'd be giving this one a skip.. So that's a no then.

Frankenweenie

This being the brainchild of Tim Burton and starring Winona Ryder, I had a feeling I'd enjoy it and I did. It's a 3D sci-fi black and white movie about a young boy who resurrects his dead dog through Frankenstein-esque techniques with slightly ghoulish but also hilarious consequences. To be honest, I thought this might have been a little dark in places for younger audiences but any adult Tim Burton fans will love this- it's beautifully made and feels quite different to everything else I've seen recently.