Blu Ray Thursday #4

The movie: Like Crazy


Girl Roomie and I have been dying to see this movie.  It’s a story about an American guy and an English girl who fall in love when she is studying in America and their trials during a long distance relationship.
It was SUCH a hipster movie.  Sorry if it is your favourite movie but it wasn’t for me.  The leads were really good and genuinely likable   And Alex Kingston and Jennifer Lawrence were in it (two of my fave ladies!) but it just didn’t GO anywhere.  And I guess that was the whole point of it.  Love isn’t like what we see in the movies, you have to work to make it work.  The dialogue was as banal as conversations in every day life, which again I think was a conscious effort on the movie’s behalf but I have to live with stuff like that everyday.  I want my characters to be witty and insightful, coz I use movies as escapism.  I feel bad ragging on an indie movie, especially because I’m sure a movie like that must have some hardcore fans.

Recommended?: “Like Crazy”?  Like crazy boring.

Boom.

Blu Ray Thursday #3

Well this is most definitely late.  It is Sunday night here and I should be getting ready for bed but this has plagued me since Thursday that I haven’t posted this.  So in interest of my sanity and getting a good night's sleep, I will scribble down a few words.

The movie:


I love this poster, I’d not seen it before.  I think it’s much better than the one that they seem to have mainly used. 

Well, this is a horror/thriller/kinda comedy, according to Boy Roomie.  This is a movie I’d seen before but I have been dying to see it again and knew Boy Roomie would love it because he is a giant horror fan.  Me, not so much.  I don’t get too grossed out by gore but I’m really not a fan of horror.  So why do I like this movie so much?  Probably because it’s a meta horror movie (that’s a thing, right?), so it doesn’t take itself seriously, but in a different way to the Scream movies.  And it’s written by my good pal, Joss Whedon.  In my head, he is part of common pop culture fodder.  Apparently not.

Actual conversation during the movie:

Boy Roomie: This movie is weird.
Me: I guess.  It *is* Joss Whedon.
Boy Roomie: ???
Me: It’s Joss Whedon.
Boy Roomie: It’s… just… what?
Me: It’s written by Joss Whedon.
Boy Roomie: Who?

And then my brain exploded and everyone in the room died with me too.

So I write this review from the afterlife.  I think the less you know about this movie going on, the better.  Sit and watch it.  Listen to the dialogue.  Enjoy the journey.

Recommended?  I know it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.  If you are a Joss fan and you don’t mind gore, go for it.

Blu Ray Thursday #2

What I watched:

… or if you’re American, “Pirate Radio”.

What I thought:  I really enjoyed this movie.  I’m a huge Richard Curtis fan, I love his style of writing so I was relatively sure I’d like the movie, despite it being not a very big commercial success.  Sure, it’s long and a little bit muddled but darn it, I watched it with a big smile on my face the whole way through.  And I even cried at the end.  And then laughed again.

It’s jam packed with fantastic music and some even better actors.  All those funny guys that you recognise from English movies, the ones whose face you know but might not know their name?  They’re all in it.  Oh and my beloved Kenneth Branagh.

Recommended? Yes.  Fun movie about silly people on a boat.  With bonus good music.

Blu Ray Thursday #1

Lookie here, a new segment.  More like a rehash of an old one.  Yay, movie reviews are back on my blog and that makes me happy!!!!!!!!!  Thursdays are my day off and more often than not, I end up watching a movie so I thought I’d revamp BRT :)

What I watched:


A movie with an awkward and long title, that’s what I watched.

I thought it would be a biopic about Jesse James and the man who killed him.  Instead it was a movie about celebrity and what happens when you get to meet your heroes.  Do they live up to your expectation and are they worth your emulation?  And what happens if they’re not what you hoped they would be.  Not sure if that's what I was supposed to get from the movie but that’s what I got. So for me, Brad Pitt was a good choice for Jesse James, a man so famous that the ‘man’ doesn’t exist, only the ‘name’. And he did a real good job of it too. He played Jesse as I imagine he would be, part charismatic leader, just one of the boys and part psychopath with a mean and violent streak. Brad Pitt was surprisingly chilling.  I’ve never really had any positive or negative feelings about Pitt but I thought he did some really good  work.  I forgot I was watching “Brad Pitt”.

There were some good supporting parts too (Jeremy Renner, Sam Rockwell, Garret Dillahunt,Paul Schneider, Mary Louise Parker and Zooey Deschanel), all actors delivered.  Apart from the ladies who seriously had nothing to do and I only recognised Zooey Deschanel from her singing voice.  Take away her fringe and I have no idea who she is!!  But I guess the star of the show was Casey Affleck, playing the Robert Ford of the title.  I’m really creeped out by him ever since I saw him in this movie “The Killer Inside Me” where he plays an awful, awful human being so I really dislike watching him.  Which means he’s a good actor and the unsettled feeling I get worked well for him in this film too. My only gripe with him was that he was supposed to be young, barely 20, and Affleck (although baby-faced) looks way older than that.  I feel like the movie kept having to remind us how young he was because he certainly didn’t look it!

This movie was L-O-N-G.  Two and a half hours.  And slow.  Very slow.  I ended up watching it in three parts.  I am a sucker for punishment though and I watched the first hour over two days, then had a four day gap… and then started the whole thing from the beginning again!  But for some reason, I didn’t hate that it was a long, slow movie.  Nor did I mind watching it from the beginning again.  I think that’s coz I was watching a good movie in the hands of some talented filmmakers. 

Last shout outs go to the soundtrack (beautiful!!) and the cinematography.  The scenery was gorgeous and a lot of the shots tried to emulate old photographs and hit just the right note.  Oh so pretty :)

Recommended?  Hmm, not sure.  It’s a good solid movie and I enjoyed it.  Just bear in mind that it’s two and a half hours of your life you’re never going to get back.  But I don’t think you’ll regret it.