Bad Grandpa!!!!

Bad Grandpa.

It's been a good few years in which we have been subjected to the sheer stupidity of the funny situations the Jackass team put themselves in. This time round the Jackass team have come up with a more story based film and I have to say with the ammount of Jackass shenanigans it is really funny and feels fresh and new.

Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) is an 86 year old man who has recently lost his wife, with his daughter being sent to prison he has the task of taking his grandson Billy (Jackson Nicoll) to his father. With the two of them never having any contact and knowing each other they have to learn to get along in order to drive across the US.

Obviously with a grandson who is a little mischievous both of them get up to some stupid antics, Irving getting his penis stuck in a vending machine and stretching it,  Billy trying to gain entry into a strip club, Irving having explosive shitting and kissing his own granddaughter passionately the list of antics is endless. 

Theirs not alot to the plot of the film but it does have the Jackass candid camera elements thrown into the plot between the Grandpa and Grandson and it works really well. Both characters are both as worse as each other and they both fool so many members of the public into thinking they're real situations taking place. 

Scenes where penises stretch, shit is thrown on walls, chairs are knocked over, bodies flung through windows and testicles are shown it's all part of the fun and I could have watched it for another few hours. Knoxville is obviously a pro when it comes to playing Irving and just transforms perfectly into this old 86 year old naughty grandpa and Jackson as Billy just plays along with it. 

Knoxville has said in interviews he met the kid when he followed Knoxville around on set and kept hitting him in the balls and wanted him on a future Jackass project. And this is the perfect setting for him to unleash his antics, Jackson is a perfect little hellraiser and he plays up to the cameras so perfectly and is willing to do anything to get a reaction and a laugh. 

The finest moment for me in which I was in stitches with laughter would be where they dress Jackson up as a little girl for the beauty pageant and Jackson does a routine of pole dancing to Motley Crue's 'Cherry Pie' song. The fact Irving comes on-stage and starts firing off dollar bills Billy's way just had me crying with laughter. 

Being a massive Jackass fan I loved this film because it brought back some of the old style Jackass stunts but it didn't present it in a way we've seen before. If this was Jackass the movie 5 or 6 people would have been bored of it but bringing in a moral storyline to take you along was genius and Jeff Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville have created something really funny. 

A laugh out loud funny, crude, ridiculous, cringe worthy, Jackass film that Knoxville and co should be proud of, LONG LIVE Jackass.

8/10.

Enders Game!!!!

Enders Game.

Sci-fi films have been coming thick and fast this year and this an adaptation of Orson Scott Card's book is another one to add to the list. Set in the future it sees the human race devastated by an alien attack, with a future much bigger attack imminent the government seeks out a young mind to lead them. 

Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) is a young demure character who is nothing but tormented every day while on the program. Being shunned as an outcast he struggles to socialise with his other cadets and is soon kicked off the program as he didn't make the grade to advance to the next level of training. Finally back home he is visited by Colnel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) who decided to recruit Ender to come back as he showed great potential. 

As Ender again struggles to fit in he finally finds a friend in Petra (Hailee Steinfeld) with whom he trains with and strikes up the one true friend he can rely on. Moved onto lead his own Dragon Army he finally starts to earn the respect from his fellow cadets and again shows promise working on tactics in practice sphere's and also impressing Colonel Graff in simulation alien attacks. 

Ender of course has psychological problems to overcome as well, vivid dreams and a relationship with his sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin) that is constantly strained with long periods of lost contact with her. He not only has the moral dilemma of what he should do during the finally battle with the alien race but also what the aliens are trying to tell him in his dreams. 

Showcasing what is a more younger style sci-fi film it is an interesting take on the future of the human race when an alien race threatens to attack. Asa Butterfield plays Ender really well and brings across a very confused and conflicted but strong character who values his family alot especially his sister. 

I have to say the ending was to be desired it just felt too up in the air and no particularly nailed down but it was an overall goo film. The special effects were great and brought the film to life, a better more elaborate back story for the alien race would have made the film more interesting but then sticking to a story from a book and not deviating from the text can be hard to do. 

An overall good sci-fi film that showcases alot of younger up and coming actors with an interesting future of the human race.

7/10.

Le Week-end!!!!

Le Week-end.

What has been a flurry of teenage rom-coms featuring high profile stars it is getting abit saturated, the latest release of Enough Said has brought forward a love story of the older generation. Le-Weekend is a love story for the much older generation in every greatest respect.

Focusing on an ageing sixty year old couple, Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg Burrows (Lindsay Duncan) they are to celebrate what is their thirty year wedding anniversary in the very place they honeymooned, Paris.

With Nick booking what looks like the cheapest hotel in Paris Meg takes the initiative to book into something a little more comfier and cleaner to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Wandering around Paris the couple sit in bars drinking, go to expensive restaurants and try to enjoy each others company. 

On the surface the couple look happy but soon enough you see the little flaws and cracks in their long standing relationship. Meg says to Nick "once the kids have gone what will become of us" clearly showing that she has her doubts as to what their future will hold. Slight digs and laughter at each others misfortunes are what keep the couple happy, tring to rekindle their love they run from restaurants without paying, run in the road and generally go back to what they were thirty years ago .

Constantly questioning each other they bump into one of Nick's old students Morgan (Jeff Goldblum) who is always impressed by Nick and has the typical American attitude positive attitude about everything. With their relationship on the rocks and both of them having to deal with their potential future they have alot to think about. 

For what is another rom-com for the older generation it's refreshing and also enlightening to see what happens between a married couple of thirty years, the problems they go through and how they deal with life. What is shown on trailers is all happy is quite the opposite when you watch the whole film, at times dark themes run through some of the scenes. Broadbent and Duncan are great on screen together and at times show a more natural connection and relationship between each other showing their years of acting they have mastered how to become a character. 

A funny, interesting and enlightening film that shows perfectly what an older couple go through after the kids have up and left and they're left with just each others company.

7/10.

Enough Said!!!!

Enough Said.

Romantic comedy's tend to target the younger teenage age range to mid/ late twenty's but they never cover any other ages. Well, Enough Said switches things up and is a romantic comedy for the older generation, in particular here people who have had children, divorced and are not really looking for love.

Showing the lives of Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) a divorcee masseuse who travels around to massage various clients she lives a normal life with her teenage daughter Chloe (Tavi Gevinson) with who she doesn't particularly get along with and isn't looking for love. Albert (James Gandolfini) is also a divorcee video archiver who lives on his own and has regular visits from his teenage daughter Ellen (Tracey Fairaway). 

Both of them aren't really looking for love and don't really see a reason to, as Eva attends a party with her close friend Sarah (Toni Collette) a chance meeting happens and she is introduced to Albert. As the two give each other a sly dig saying their is no-one around they find hot at the party the two leave the party and go their seperate ways. Soon enough the two start meeting up for dates and start to get along really well and they start a kind of unofficial relationship. 

Carrying on with her job Eva contacts a client she met a the party Marianne (Catherine Keener) who is a new age kind of person who earns her living writing poetry. As the two become friends and go out for meals Marianne can talk about nothing else but her ex husband with whom she had a daughter and explain in detail all his faults and misgivings. As Eva gets more close to Albert and strikes up a great friendship with Marianne she soon enough finds out that Albert is Mariannes ex husband, then she starts to see Albert differently but how differently?

I have to say I found this film very heart warming as it touches upon the more older spectrum of 50+ single divorcees and what they go through with relationships. Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are great as Albert and Eva as they both portray two totally different people but who are going through the same situations. The little in jokes really make you feel they know each other well, Albert's dodgy nasal whistle and how he can't whisper and Eva's compulsion to knit all the time. It shows that these are things older viewers can relate to and it makes you warm towards the characters. Bringing in their children also adds another dimension and how older parents tackle the "sex" talk and the kids going off to college it's current.

Throughout the film they never say that they're boyfriend and girlfriend, they are mature adults and never need to use that social tag. Introduced as "my good friend...." it keeps it current again as they are older adults and don't need that social tag. A truly heart warming, funny, life affirming film that has you smiling throughout.

9/10.

Captain Phillips!!!!

Captain Phillips.

Whenever a film about true life events comes to the big screen I often wonder if it will work, will the true story be told, will it be engaging and most importantly will they choose the right actors for the film. Luckily director Paul Greengrass has pulled it off perfectly and produced a film that sticks to the main story narrative, is thrilling to watch and has a perfect cast. 

Telling the story of the Somali pirates highjack of the freight ship the Maersk Alabama in 2009 it shows how Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) handled the situation on board his ship and the actions he took to save his crew and the ship. The film starts showing the backstory and family life in which Phillips has with his wife and how he is on edge seeing news reports of Somali pirates in the area which he is about to sail through. 

Fast forward to on the ship and you see the hijacking as an almost coincidence moment in which Phillips gets the crew of the ship to do a possible hijacking security run through as to if it was to happen. During this test this is when Phillips sees two small boats heading towards his ship and decides to take evasive action. As the first capture attempt fails with the pirates boats engine cutting out the whole crew is on edge and they know they'll come back eventually somehow. 

As the single Somali boat heads towards the ship Phillips takes decisive action and puts the water hoses on hopefully to sink their vessel and ward of the pirates but to no avail. Their ladder is fixed onto the side of the ship and their heading for Phillips and his fellow officers, Muse (Barkhad Abdi) threatens Phillips and announces "look at me, look at me, I'm the Captain now".

As the film progresses you see the relationship between the Somali's and the relationship between Phillips and the pirate leader Muse who has conflicting thoughts of his own. Showing how Phillips was to be taken hostage by the pirates and kept on board of the escape pod boat the film is kind of split into two. Again the relationships between the pirates and Phillips is shown and how at times they compromise, work together and also sympathise with each other at times, it's a nice little dynamic on screen. 

For a film with the storyline that you would think is quite simple and boring Greengrass has made is look and sound intense and thrilling and have you hooked all the way through. The conflicting personalities all thrown together in a life boat allows each character that time to come through even if it is in a confined space. Like I said the film feels like it was split in two and almost juxtapose each other. The first half being quite fast paced, wide open spaces and an almost cat and mouse game and then the second half being a slowed down tight intense, confined space edge of your seat thriller. 

Setting the film on a real freighter was a perfect decision to make, making the film with green screen just wouldn't have given that size scope to the film and would have hindered the film. Working on real waters gives that almost your really there feeling and transports you to the heart of the film.

Hanks is perfect in the role and the scene which hit me hardest was right near the end with Phillips having a bandanna over his eyes he just screams out and writhes like he has been shot. The sheer emotion and talent of acting from Hanks is just incredible, to when Phillips is checked over for injuries Hanks stays in character and shows the startling effects a traumatising ordeal can be mentally on someone. Credit has to go to the Somali pirates which I understand this was their first film and were normal people picked for the roles, Abdi is impressive portraying the drug addicted and emotionally conflicted Muse. 

A seriously impressive film that I think has topped any of Greengrasses Bourne films as this has everything. No doubt come awards season and I can see Captain Phillips being nominated for quite a few awards. Best film, best director, best lead actor, best cinematography and best supporting actor all accolades I could easily place this film into. 

10/10.

The Fifth Estate!!!!

The Fifth Estate.

A film that struck a chord with me that I looked forward to seeing was this one, the main reason being that I am a Journalism graduate, how this happened I will never know. So being a person who has done a Journalism degree, got the batman cape and the piece of paper it obviously sounded like an interesting idea for a film. 

Starting with some fast moving news images you see how the information can be broadcast around the world from phones to laptops to TV screens. it's a clever little fast paced montage of how images, text and video can be accessed around the world by everyone on the planet. The film of course follows the story of Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he starts up his website WikiLeaks in order to leak important information to the public for them to see the truth and corruption that is happening everyday in politics. As Assange works in various countries to take down powerful leaders he arrives at a conference to be met by Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl) who is an activist and wants to help Assange with his website. 

As the film progresses more and more information is leaked, a most famous video that shows US military forces gunning down civilians and reuters journalists was to be leaked and hit people hard. With Assange working with the newspaper the Guardian and in particular the editor Alan Rusbridger (Peter Capaldi) they were to work out a deal. As the Guardian redacts some of the thousand documents that Assange has they were to publish pages of this information for Assange to pubish the un-redacted information. 

You see on screen the relationship between Assange and Berg slowly fall to pieces and both of them fighting for what they see is the best decision to make for the information they have. Seeing not only this but part of Assange's up bringing and what he had done to become the person he is today. Obviously we all know what the end result would be and what was to happen to Assange who is now holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy and fighting extradition. 

Cumberbatch plays Assange spookily well and he really does act and have Assange's mannerisms down to a tee. Having Assange e-mail him the day they were to start filming to say that he shouldn't do the film must have been hard but a story that needed to be told. Bruhl is ok but not as strong a character and force as Cumberbatch, both work well together on screen and portray and very tense and fraught relationship between Berg and Assange. 

In my own honest opinion when it comes down to leaking documents I see it that if documents were to leak, change a government and help people for the better then why not. Certainly information that could topple corrupt governments and change a countrys history for the better surely the documents should be leaked and read by all to see. It's when peoples lives are at risk that you have to take into account your own moral stand point and question your own ethics as to whether documents should be leaked. 

Back to the film and I have to say it is a good little thriller film that entertains, informs and lets you decide your own point of view on WikiLeaks. If your after something more meaty and full of information then I suggest you look elsewhere as this film is mainly just basic information and is here to entertain and not really inform much.

7/10

How I Live Now!!!!

How I Live Now.

One thing that was close to happening in the UK in the early 1960's was the Cuban Missile crisis where the UK was at panic stations and under threat from all out nuclear war. With the United States finally agreeing to a un-heard kept quiet arrangement with Cuba the threat of Nuclear War was to be stopped dead in its tracks. 

This is where the premise of How I Live Now comes in. A young girl Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) is flown from her home in the United States to spend a summer in the UK with her cousins Edward (George MacKay), Isaac (Tom Holland) and Piper (Harley Bird). As the three are left to fend for themselves in the countryside while Daisy's Aunt Penn (Anna Chancellor) travels back and forth to London as she works for the government the four get along well. Daisy soon starts to become attracted to Edward as he shows her that she doesn't need to be so uptight and nerurotic all the time, finally giving in the two soon become a couple and enjoy each others company. 

As a bomb goes off in London the whole of the UK is now into lockdown, with a US consulate arriving to give Daisy a flight back to the US she has to decide what to do. Staying with her cousins they are soon rounded up by the Army and are sent to different locations within the UK. Edward shouts to Daisy to travel back to the house if they have the chance as he will meet them there and they can be together again as a family. Situations change for the girls and for the boys, being attacked and nearly held hostage, staring death in the face and learning to love what you have in life now they go through alot of motions. 

For a film that has the underlying theme of a Nuclear bomb going off in the UK it shows how the government would have reacted to this and how to protect their own residents. It is of course a typical boy meets girl, get seperated, vow to find each other, bad things happen, find each other and live happily ever after type of film which I didn't expect. Ronan as Daisy is the main impressive force in the film and you see her character change and learn to be a better person over the course of the quite short film. The on screen love story between Ronan and MacKay could be seen as happening for real on screen as the two outside of the film are now dating. 

For a film about a Nuclear threat I found it too bland and not enough information was given out, who attacked the UK, what happened to change the situation in the end, what was the resolve and what happened to the mother/aunty. Obviously it wasn't to go into too much detail as it would baffle and confuse a much younger generation in which this film is mainly aimed at. A nice film that lacks that information based history that I wanted to get from the film but praise to Ronan again showing she is a strong actor and on the verge of great things. 

7/10.

Blue Jasmine!!!!

Blue Jasmine.

Now I'll admit I'm not a massive Woody Allen film fan, in fact this would be my first Allen film I have seen and it's on a big screen. With this in mind I will review the film as I see it as a stand alone film with no bells and whistles reverting back to Allen's past films as I have no knowledge on that at all. 

Landing in San Fransisco we first see Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) get off her plane from New York to go and live with her less fortunate sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in her cramped flat. Learning about how Jasmine has gone from riches to rags in a matter of months you see how her husband Hal (Alec Baldwin) had done some dodgy business deals and had taken alot of peoples money.

Now for Jasmine life is hard as she tries to work out what she can do in life, interior design is one idea and she decides to go back to school to learn how to use a computer. With flashbacks to her previous life with Hal you see Jasmine is a more materialistic person who has everything she could ever ask for, jewellery, clothes, expensive cars, grand dinners and lots of money. 

With the tension rising between the two sisters they argue about how different their lives were and how similar there lives are now. For Jasmine it is hard as she has to adjust to a different way of living from now on and has to learn to compromise and take what is necessary to survive even if be it working reception at a dentist office. Both sisters go through the motions with finding love and happiness and always seem to be the ones who lose everything.

The comedy comes through in little one liners, from Jasmine "can you not shout my prozac hasn't kicked in yet" just little quips that make you chuckle. Jasmine's sheer stupidity as well is interesting to see as she had everything but did nothing but now she has nothing and has to do everything for herself again. 

For me it is a great short funny comedy which showcases what can happen in life when you have it all it can all be taken away in a heartbeat. I have to say this has to be Blanchett's career defining performance as she plays Jasmine perfectly, she laughs, she worries and she cries and you feel every single emotion with her. Considering this was my first ever full Allen film and at the cinema it was really enjoyable and no doubt I will no go educate myself and watch Annie Hall and Manhattan to see what the hypes about. 

But do believe the hype of this film as it is a great situation comedy with some really strong performances especially from Blanchett. For any Woody Allen film fans you will absolutely love this film as I know I did.

8/10.