The Good Dinosaur AKA the saddest Disney movie ever

So a Disney movie about dinosaurs, safe bet for a cute film full of laughs right? WRONG!
So very wrong. This film is not for...well to be perfectly honest I'm entirely sure who it's for.
I entered the cinema charmed by the typically Pixar-esque short that preluded the film and then had my heart unceasingly ripped from my chest for an hour and a half and handed to me on a platter by the bizarreness of the actual film that was everything other than expected.
Now I'm no stranger to the tear inducing emotional trauma that Disney and Pixar craft so wonderfully (I've willingly watched Up more times than I can count) however I believe it's fair to claim that the token this-parent-child-relationship-is-flawed-but-uplifting storyline has become a clique that almost automatically triggers a feeling of Oh my gosh this parental figure is about to die tragically and this film was no exception. So, despite going against my basic nature and releasing a spoiler into the world, I think I can safely say that anyone accustomed to Disney's penchant for killing off parents and breaking the tiny fragile hearts of children and adults alike could predict the death of the Daddy Dinosaur from the get go.
However what made this predictably sad death actually hit hard was Arlo, the small, clumsy and evidently so relatable underdog, who was unable to process the passing of his father properly. Arguable this was worsened by him, for some unknown reason, having to take on the tasks of his late father instead of his clearly more capable, fully grown, brutish and what I can only describe as animated version of Butch (the douchebag brother from Home Alone) sibling Buck.

Now what initially seemed intriguing about this plot was its play with Dinosaurs surviving and eventually evolving, despite the apparent necessity for opposable thumbs, into...farmers (yeah I'm not sure either). Meanwhile humanity remains in the ME MAN. ME BEAT THINGS WITH STICKS. OHH AHH FIRE! stage. As a consequence of this a hop, skip and a jump into the plot line Arlo adopts a small rabid human in place of a puppy which he names Spot.
This is were it gets weird, Arlo and Spot the human puppy get washed up by the same river that killed Arlo's Dad (not at all traumatic then) and end up stranded miles from home. They run into a mentally unstable styracosaurus who seeks safety through the protection of small adorable woodland creatures with names such as Destructor, DreamCrusher (who stops him from setting unrealistic goals apparently- told you this film was weird) and Debbie.
Now at this point I have no real memory of where the story went because it had no cohesive plot...or script really. However they did have a drug scene! Yeah I shit you not, one minute our two underage protagonists are strolling along on their way home and then- oh look berries!-cue weird trippy scene in which faces puff up, the animation gets hazy and body parts are swapped. What sort of children's movie is this?!
So I promised you tears and now I'm getting to the part that had adults in the cinema clutching their hearts whilst small children struggled to comprehend the concept of loss. As Spot lacked the ability of speech Arlo the evolved dinosaur began to try and demonstrate to him a sense of family by placing five conveniently dinosaur shaped twigs in the ground and then drawing a circle around it. Once Spot had grasped this concept and set up his own three person family unit he then heartbreakingly buried the two twig representation of his parents in the ground. Excuse me whilst I weep silently into my popcorn. Arlo then buries his stick father as well whilst the whole audience scream internally for him to pick up the stick symbolising Spot and put it in his Goddamn family circle! The scene continues with tears of both dinosaur and human variety whilst- PUT TWIG SPOT IN YOUR FAMILY CIRCLE YOU WANKER! No nothing? What is this film?!
As if children weren't traumatized enough, Arlo and Spot run into three nasty looks dinosaurs with wings that I couldn't spell the species of if you put a gun to my head. The three villains appeared to be a weird parody of extremist evangelicals following a storm that's shown them the light and preaching how it provides for them. This isn't dwelled on for too long though because eventually they prove themselves to be foe but doing their upmost to eat Spot the dinosaur movie equivalent of a chubby big-eyed pug and thus the wandering journey home gains some fast paced incentive.
Other than an all too familiar quest to get home this film appeared to be merely several offbeat inside jokes that made the creators chuckle and had no distinctive cast other than Anna Paquin who played Dino Suki Stackhouse. I'm not sure I could say I enjoyed this film, most the time it had me alternating somewhere between oh gosh what the hell am I watching and wanting to sob quietly into my coat whilst simultaneously cuddle a dinosaur and cavebaby. However what I can say for this film is that it was highly ascetically pleasing with regard to background and that the bizarre script displayed a new format for Disney movies in which the story lines are somewhat less predictable and grown men will require a packet of tissue to make it through (yes I'm referring to you Man who sat next to me on his phone for every part bar the twig scene and still looked heartbroken).

Into the Woods

I'd find it hard to imagine that anyone could have managed to make it through the last few months without hearing at least one excited statement about the new winter film phenomenon that is Into the Woods. I have not seen such a build up of eagerness and anticipation for a film in quite sometime but then again I guess such delirium is to be expected when a film has been in the pipelines for over twenty years. Yes that's right, the rights for Sondheim's musical fairy-tale mash up were first requested in the early 90's but after numerous attempts, by numerous directors, to take this tale to screen it seemed that the adaptation was going nowhere.
Thus, when in 2013 it was announced that Rob Marshall (Director of Chicago) had been given the green-light to direct a screen adaptation, backed by Disney, fans went mental. The feverish nature of these musical-theatre nerds only intensified as the dazzling cast was revealed with such names as Meryl Streep, James Corden, Anna Kendrick and Johnny Depp, it seemed like the film was already destined for it's own happily ever after.
I must say I felt a near hipster level of protectiveness towards the musical when I walked into the cinema on it's opening UK release date. I'd already listened to the full soundtrack at least twenty times and had kept myself fully up to date on all the Into the Woods info that the internet had to offer but I was more than excited, I was dubious. It had been announced sometime ago that Disney were changing some of the major plot lines to make it more of a child-friendly film, and frankly where's the fun it in that!
With that said I eased back in my seat as the film began, realising that not quite as much as I had feared had actually been axed from the film, with the except of the Narrator and his gruesome demise. Although I'd already prepped myself  for the worst AND the best, I was quite content to just sit through  the two hours of just good musicalish fun that I was given.
There were some genuine moments where the acting of Emily Blunt as the Baker's wife seemed so real and starkly tender that she completely stole the show and everyone in the cinema seemed to forget about the rest of the star-studded cast singing their little hearts out. Two other close contenders as far as stealing the show goes, were the two young actors Daniel Huttlestone and Lilla Crawford who seem to have baffled most with their stupendous vocal abilities and offbeat delivery of lines.
But at the end of the day we all know who takes home the prize for entrancing the audience whether you heard on the news or online or haven't been told at all, it goes without saying that Meryl Streep was, as always, spellbinding. Despite spending the first half of the film dressed in what literally appeared to be a Halloween witch costume, complete with a backcombed blue wig, Streep flawlessly filled her role as the not-good-the-not-nice-the-just-right witch. And to be perfectly honest once they ran a brush through the wig...I mean once she transformed back to her beautiful self, blue hair really suited her.
While we are on the topic of actors worthy of a mention shall I bring up Chris Pine. Phwoar who'd have thought seeing the rugged Mr Pine mince around singing of his o-so tragic love life could be as startlingly attractive as it indeed was. To put this into context Pine played the role of Cinderella's Prince who was "raised to be charming, not sincere" and spent a vast majority of the movie seducing women in a surprisingly camp manner. Then in the song Agony, sung by the two princes, Pine proceeded to jump into a waterfall and rip his shirt open with frustration this was then followed by Rapunzel's Prince doing the same in a wittier but mildly lacklustre manner. Needless to say that in a cinema that seemed to be 80% female, this went down exceedingly well indeed. The excessive nature of this spoofery could have easily made any other musical unwatchable but for some inexplicable reason it simple made this one more gripping.
Although all the actors fulfilled their roles and seemed to please the wide fan base of musical nerds, it simply wasn't enough. And that's not to say I didn't find it a thoroughly enjoyable two hours, that's just the only way to express how unnecessary it was to make this stage-show a film. The only moment where I felt the plot benefitted from being on screen as opposed to stage was the volatile scene where the Baker's wife talks her self back into reality right before her untimely death. As I have previously mentioned Blunt's performance was beyond empathetic, it evoked pity which wouldn't have been nearly as effective without the aid of a close-up but that's about it. Even the angles at which the film was shot and the costumes of the character's felt sort of theatresque, it had no real impact on screen. In fact it sort of had no intended audience either, it was evidently too dark for most children which begs the question why did they take out the more risqué moments of the original script. For example the brutal death of Rapunzel or the illicit inmate exchange between the Baker's wife and Cinderella's Prince or even the additional subplot where the two princes explain their affairs with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Each and everyone of those subplots was put into the stage script for a intended purpose and that was to clarify that this was not a children's tale which is where I think Marshall and Disney have gone horrible wrong.
Although I loved this screen adaptation of Into the Woods, it was dreadfully misadvised and let both new audiences and old fans down. That being said I can still assure you that I will be watching this film over and over again but this with an idea of what to expect.

 

The Riot Club

This is one of those films where people either know every detail or haven't heard a thing about it. In fact I only heard about The Riot Club by chance, when I flicked channels and caught the tail end of a Sky Movies special. To be perfectly honest I stopped for one main reason, Sam Claflin. Like most 17 year old nerd-girls Sam Claflin's face alone is enough to stop me dead in my tracks and cause me to drool for a while but if you happen to be one of the minority who aren't familiar with the name alone you may know him as Finnick Odair from The Hunger Games series.
I'd like to say that my raging teenage hormones didn't get the best of me but I'm afraid they did when I then found out that the cast basically included every gorgeous young British actor that I had recently developed a fondness for. It's safe to say that in that moment I was sold on the charming beauty of the cast alone. Once I had listed the cast to a few of my friends it really wasn't a hard job to get a group together to go see it but as we sat in the cinema there was no way we were prepared for what we were about to see.
This is a film that cannot be likened to anything else I have ever seen. Never have I been so repulsed by a film and yet not be able to look away. What seemed to start out like your typical British comedy in the opening scene, by that I mean a posh man in a tactfully shot montage of naked women, booze and intellectual debates, turned into a horrifying classist rally climaxing in one spectacularly shot evening of violence and drunken debauchery.
Okay so I know that that last sentence sounds much like a pompous load of words strung together but there is truthfully no other way to describe the plot in all its intense bizarreness. It was honestly fascinating to be faced with ten wholly unlikable protagonists. The plot of The Riot Clubs gives the audience a brief insight into the lives of ten very wealthy male Oxford students and then puts them into a small middle class pub where they have the intention of getting absolutely shit-faced and causing a riot.
Having gone into the cinema knowing most of these actors in one lovable role or another, I was suddenly struggling to find even one soul amongst them that wasn't detestable. In the climax of the film, and their evening, Sam Claflin's character climbs up onto the table and pours out the most horrific classist speech which was so unbelievably believable that I struggled to look at him without feeling a sinking in my gut for some weeks after. With the group then rallied, in one spectacular shot (yes! It was all one long shot) the cast go hell for leather and tear apart the very interior of the pub and the final push comes when the owner walks in and asks them "What gives you the right?". Needless to say the owner does not escape the wrath of these railed up children and gets beaten like a human-shaped punching bag.
I've struggled to truly capture the enthralling nature of this film but I can undoubtedly say it's the British film industry at it's best. The Riot Club draws you in with it's dreamy cast, then makes you loath each and every one of them while you deal with the morality of the film itself. There are so many questions. Were all of the club to blame? Is sitting by and letting it happen just as bad as doing it? How do people get away with this just because they have money? Are these really the people we want running our country in future? Is our university system really allowing these things to go unspoken of?
If this hasn't been enough to persuade you to run down to your nearest HMV and  pick up a copy of the DVD and then I don't know what you are looking for. The Riot Club left me, not speechless but savagely excited and morally revolted and frankly I can only quote the film and leave you with the words: Oh. My. Wow.

 

 

Maleficent

Other than Angelina Jolie's unbelievable cheekbones there seems to be very little that people know about the plot of the film Maleficent. For those of you who aren't up to scratch on your Disney history, Maleficent is the villain originally voiced by Eleanor Audley in the 1959 animated version of Sleeping Beauty.
When the announcement of this film came out I have to admit I was dubious to say the least. Maleficent has always been my favourite Disney character (yes not villain but character) and it wasn't that I doubted Angelina Jolie's ability to create a villainous persona, but that I was concerned that returning to this classic tale would somehow shatter the childlike perspective with which I viewed the film.
Moreover, Maleficent has consistently been the one Disney villain that people either never knew the name of or couldn't pronounce the name of, therefore she was fairly under appreciated. But in the first 20 minutes of the film it felt as though they were really overworking her name by slipping it in at the end of every sentence.
However the actual production of the film was truly splendid and immersive. I am not someone who frequently wowed by the CGI advancements that one film could make but Disney really went all out by linking realty and fiction to create the imagery of magic.
Where I found issues was with the script. Although brilliantly written the intermittent dialogue of the narrator was really quite aggravating but as an (almost) adult watcher I was forced to remind myself that the film was in fact designed for an audience younger and less perceptive than myself.
So all in all the film was really quite brilliant, and although I feel that Maleficent being unjustifiable evil was good enough the whole cast of the film really focused on the details and seemed to have brought to life the world that was first created back in 1959. I would say that if the Disney team can please even this old Maleficent fan then it is well worth any of you heading off to the cinema to go see it.

Angies Logs

Hello, so to start off with I really should say sorry for my utter lack of posting lately, being in my final year of school exams have taken control! However I am back and I shall try to post as frequently as possible. Now over Christmas I was sent a request through Twitter asking me to watch and review an online web-series. This was something new to me and I was very excited to see what it was like.
Initially I was unsure what was happening or even what exactly it was that I was watching however within the space of the 2 and a half minute first episode I was hooked. The concept is short and sweet a young girl and her fluffy bear witness the first signs of an alien invasion. The second episode was equally as short but arguably doubly effective, young Angie has not (as with every great truth teller) been believed when telling her parents of the impending invasion. So she sneaks out to get a closer look and well the rest? You'll have to watch and see....
I think what is so promising about the future of this web-series is not only the brilliant graphics and catchy titles but particularly the marvellous wit that is written into the script and the consuming voice of the 8 year old Angie, so please if you have a spare three minutes just check out this link, you never know you might just enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/user/theinvaderswebseries/feed

With the promise of improving to five!

 

Cherrybomb

Now I know this film has been out since 2009 but its really worth a watch because I can guarantee 9/10 of you will appreciate it. With a cast of brilliant British actors who I predict will be seeing a lot more of soon and (to quote a Wikipedia warning) nudity, drinking, drugs, shop-lifting and stealing cars, Cherrybomb is an edgy film for older teens.
I loved being immersed in every level of the main characters, peeling back the layers on there what looked like ordinary life to see a bigger picture. Rupert Grint played your standard teenager with a loving family, a crush and a wildcard friend leading him astray. This seemingly predictable rogue chum was portrayed heart-wrenchingly by Robert Sheehan and dealt with tough family issues and constant drug use and really made the viewer wonder why we (people in general) do these things to ourselves. And finally watching Kimberley Nixon battle between friends and parents and eventually giving her sleazebag Dad the finger only to be faced with the sobering consequence was really a eye opening plot twist.
But honestly if you are not up for the emotional roller-coaster that comes with this film or don't want to be subjected to the hideous costumes they put Rupert Grint in then don't bother. However if you can bare with the tracksuits and the occasional slipping Irish accent then give it a try, what's the worst it can do?

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Upon reading this book I felt a tad dubious about watching this film as I found the first few chapters a struggle to get into. Don't get me wrong the book is good and well written but until the story really gets going it's pretty much like a constant cringe waiting for Clary to see the unrequited love of her friend Simon. So while watching the film it came as a great relief that although that factor was there, it was not constantly played on.
Despite some mixed reviews I think this film was good, although it truly is another teen fantasy romance. It really does show promise of progression into something with a level of intellectual demand than a film such as Twilight (which I hate a love/hate relationship with) and contains some really quite complex and intriguing plots twists. However I think the part I found most interesting was the attention to detail on costume, set and props. everything was so well done I occasionally found myself in that space where you forget your watching a movie.
So really I urge you don't dismiss this film just because it's a teenage love triangle and you all believe Twilight wrecked that (and let me remind you SHAKESPEARE DID IT FIRST and no one thinks he over played it). I would give this film my seal of approval any day and partially because of the wonderful number of young English actor within it, so go buy that cinema ticket and take a chance.