Drinking Buddies!!!!

Drinking Buddies.

Rom-com's, especially with big budgets tend to come across as too polished and always always have the happy ending that everyone goes "awwwww" at the end, Drinking Buddies turns this idea right on it's head and it works really well. 

The story takes place in a Chicago brewery where Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson) both work, flirting with each other constantly you are sucked into thinking their perfect for each other. But they are both surprisingly taken, Kate is with Chris (Ron Livingston) and Luke is with Jill (Anna Kendrick) and they are both happy in their relationships. 

The two couples finally meet at a party and decide to go on a break out to Chris's family's cabin in the woods. Kate and Luke do what they do best and drink and make a bonfire on the beach and stay up all night while Chris and Jill go on a hike and enjoy a picnic and a mistaken intimate moment where they both feel bad. 

Kate soon enough becomes a newly single woman and decides to do what she does best and that is to drink and party with her male co-workers, sleeping with Dave (Ti West) this angers Luke who is very protective of Kate. With Jill and Luke constantly talking about marriage it's only a matter of time for Jill's stupid actions on the trip away to come to the surface. Will Kate ever find happiness on her own or does she need to win Chris back.

Like I said this is a more realistic rom-com as everything that you expect to happen never takes place, Luke being asked to go skinny dipping with Kate doesn't happen. Expecting Luke to break up with Jill and run over to Kate's arms doesn't happen and the awkward moments are at times really awkward but true to real life situations.

The way in which this film works is that it is mainly un-scripted so the improvisation comes from the actors who have no doubt had awkward situations themselves. Johnson and Kendrick bring across a really cute couple who are secure enough with each other, Wilde and Livingston bring across a more stern couple who you can feel have different ideas of their relationship. 

A really basic, indie and quirky, funny comedy that is very much more of a realistic rom-com that every couple can really relate to.

8/10.

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.