Carrie!!!!

Carrie.

Horror re-makes are something that has been quite popular recently, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead and now here Carrie has it's own re-make/re-imagining. Of course we all remember the Brian De Palma original from 1976 that saw a demure little girl go to prom and unleash her telekinetic powers. This re-make is something that obviously follows in the same vein as the original but with a few added little tweaks and changes to keep up to date. 

Starring as Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) we see her this time in a water polo game, the outcast and near the side of the pool she eventually hits the ball straight into a girls face. Back in the changing room and this time the girls are alot more covered up Carrie experiences her first period and mistakenly screams that she is dying. The girls in tern throw sanitary products at her while one of the girl films Carrie's misfortune on her mobile phone which later on will be posted onto YouTube. 

As Carrie starts to notice these strange things she can do she decides to research her telekinetic powers, reading books in the library and watching videos on YouTube she learns about what she can and can't do. With the girls who bullied and taunted her being punished one girl Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) feels bad for what she did to Carrie and asks her boyfriend Billy Nolan (Alex Russell) to take her to prom. 

Of course Carrie has the constant struggle with her very devout religious mother Margaret White (Julianne Moore) who says she should have killed her at birth. Locking her in a cupboard under the stairs and telling her to pray she does nothing but scare her daughter. 

With Carrie deciding to go to prom she makes her own dress and goes against her mothers word "they'll all laugh at you" is the only words she gets from her mother. Of course her fellow school bully and now banned from prom Chris (Portia Doubleday) is hatching her revenge on Carrie by putting a bucket of blood up above the stage to pour all over Carrie and humiliate her even more.

For people who have seen the original we all know what happens, Carrie is covered in blood and she

 soon enough exacts her revenge on everyone who had laughed, taunted, maimed or given her false hope. Bodies fly across the room, fires erupt and alot of people are killed in her mad fit of telekinetic rage. She also goes after Chris and her boyfriend and in a clever new way she gets her final revenge. 

For a re-make it isn't too bad, it has the blood filled deaths that we all expected and being 2013 the CGI and special effects are used to make them look more sinister and impressive. Chloe Grace Moretz for me didn't look too demure enough and this isn't to criticise her natural size she could have been alot slimmer and look more vulnerable. She does look alot more menacing with the upwards glare you can see the evil in her eye which is not what Carrie was she was an innocent girl with scary new powers who just wanted to fit into society. The odd little tweaks of how a mobile phone video is posted of Carrie on YouTube brings the film more up to date with current times which is good.

The film went with the tact of having Julianne Moore being more psychotic, bashing her head against the wall, stabbing herself in the leg, scratching her wrists till they bled she was more menacing. To me this was a great idea as it shows the ferocity in the mother and the determination she went too to protect her only daughter. 

Overall a good re-make that could have been so much more if it had changed and made it alot more appealing. For anyone that hasn't seen the original then you will love it as a standalone psychological style film for anyone else who HAS seen the original be ready to grumble and constantly compare the two.

7/10.

Kick-Ass 2!!!!

Kick-Ass 2.

When the first Kick-Ass movie came out it was a ground breaking film as it showed just what would happen if real everyday people decided to don the mask and go out and become a hero. So the expectations for the second film were of course to be set high and In my opinion they've done a great job with this second film as it has everything. 

Set in the future the film shows how Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) have both decided to try and move on from the superhero days and live a normal life. With Mindy still being drawn to saving people after swearing to her dying father she would she finds it hard to adjust. Finally giving in Mindy stops and tells Dave that it's over and she has to lead a more normal life and go to high schools. Dave can't stop and so he soon enough joins up with a group of other superhero's called Justice Forever. Leadup by ex mob boss and born again Christian Sal Bertolinni/Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) the gang set out to do good in the world, taking out and setting free a brothel is just one of their achievements. 

Soon enough Chris D'Amico/The Motherfucker (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) hears of Kick-Ass still on patrol on the streets and vows to kill him and avenge the death of his father who Kick-Ass killed with a rocket launcher. With Chris starting up his own team of superhero villains he soon enough decides to take down Justice Forever one by one and finally kill Kick-Ass. 

With a final fight between both teams who will come out on top?, will Mindy finally give in and accept she is Hit-Girl? and what will the future hold for the superhero's?.

Overal I loved the film because it brought in more superhero's who do exactly what Kick-Ass does and they try to do good. The whole revenger storyline has been done a thousand times but it fits in well with the superhero theme and comes off as funny at times. I'll admit the storyline is basic but it does what it says on the tin, it brings in plenty of fighting, a nice moral story of acceptance, some comedy and a little bit of swearing. 

Carrey is in my eyes the BEST casting for this film, his simple one liners are just instant and bring a laugh "there's a dog on your balls". Chloe brings in a different side we've never seen of Mindy, now all grown up we see her teenage problems and how her hard stern self deals with this (in gross situations).Obviously the film has violence but at times it is that silly it becomes funny and you accept it for what it is. A great film with plenty of action and no doubt with the ending that took place we may yet see a Hit-Girl only movie which I would easily welcome with open arms. 

8/10.