Despicable Me 2 (2013) – Sequel starring Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig

★★★★☆

5 word summary:

So silly but very enjoyable.

5 sentence review:

Gru's next step on his road from evil is to get a love interest and she comes in the quirky secret agent played by Kristen Wiig, the two get into a few scraped while trying to discover who stole a dangerous chemical.

There is a lot of charm in this franchise, from the cute little girls to the oddly loveable minions, and this film adds to the charm by affirming the themes of family and unity that were present in the first film.

Aside from the deeper aspect of this film, the humour is also enjoyable, although quite heavily dependant on slapstick (which is forgiveable because the film is aimed for a younger audience).

The new characters, like Lucy and El Macho, are good additions who managed to hold their own in amongst the already assembled kooky collection of characters.

It's an enjoyable and well made sequel that builds on its original rather than simply trying to replicate it (which in my opinion is the downfall of any sequel).

5 good things:

1. The heart-warming moments.

2. The soundtrack (I have to admit that I've listened to Happy too many times).

3. The humour.

4. The guacamole hat.

5. The minions' musical number.

5 bad things:

1. The girls haven't' seemed to have aged enough, I wish they were older.

2. They obviously focused a lot on the minions, who are funny but not really important.

3. No one noticed that minions were going missing.

4. The minion with sirens on his head was only in one scene.

5. Gru wasn't dressed as a fairy for the whole film.

Season by Season Review - Breaking Bad

Season Review no. 4: Season 4

★★★★☆

5 word summary:

Shit’s starting to get real.

5 sentence review:

I have a confession to make, and this may account for the slightly lower mark for this season than that last…I watch breaking bad while either scrolling through Tumblr or playing random apps on my phone.

This season had a lot of talking, serious talking, a lot of which was also in unsubtitled Spanish (which is probably because I’m not watching this on DVD or TV…) but with such intense conversations either being incomprehensible to this monolingual girl or requiring my full attention, I didn’t get a lot of what was going on.

This season decided to focus on a lot of plotting, it seemed every character was scheming, even Skyler was getting in on the action, and this was enjoyable however it was also confusing because sometimes I didn’t know how much I was meant to know and whether I was only confused because I hadn’t been listening properly.

Everything seemed more devoted to tension and increasing the danger for these characters (which worries me because only one season to go and I’m expecting a lot of deaths) but I miss the old ‘funner’ days with Walt and Jesse, I’m sure this is an intentional affect, because they want the audience to realise that the two have gotten in over their heads, but that doesn’t mean that I still want it to go back to the original set-up.

Another unfortunate thing is that I knew what was going to be the climax of this season, which meant that I was just waiting for it to happen and was not overly interested in anything else going on in the episode because I knew where everything was leading too, this is the main problem with watching an incredibly popular show after it has finished – spoilers everywhere!

5 good things:

1. Jesse being paternal.

2. The final episode (although not a surprise).

3. Skyler being really intelligent and helpful.

4. Hank getting so close to the truth.

5. Giving Gus more of a back story.

5 bad thing:

1. Trying to drag up interest in Marie by having her nick things again.

2. Ted being annoying and Skyler falling for it.

3. Walter Jr. having all sorts of car troubles.

4. Walt sabotaging Hank’s investigations (let the poor guy do his job).

5. A lot of the scenes being in Spanish and yet none of them subtitled (my fault but still annoying).

Kill Your Darlings (2014) – Film starring Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan

★★★☆☆

5 word summary:

Another pretentious Beat poet film.

5 sentence review:

This film tells about Allen Ginsberg’s first years in university, and his encountering the soon-to-be murderer Lucien Carr. Carr and Ginsberg’s relationship becomes strained by Carr’s older lover. We see how Ginsberg struggles with his admiration of Carr while other characters and circumstances get in his way.

I can’t say that I am a fan of the genre of film (such as On The Road) which just present the way these guys lives and worked as mesmerising, which I’m sure it was, because these men are incredibly talented and interesting, but not for a modern cinema audience, because unfortunately we need more than just well read poetry to draw our attention now-a-days.

Another thing I dislike about this type of film is that it is ‘based’ on real events but this begs the question…how much of this is true and how much is just artist licence? Coming from this film I think I know more about Kerouac and Ginsberg and this is now all that I really know about Lucien Carr and this seems slightly unfair to their memories because a lot of this is probably not true, even if the barebones of the story is.

The assembled cast was good, Dane DeHaan is phenomenal (I’m very excited to see him in a big-budget film like Spiderman) although I would like to see him doing a role that isn’t essentially evil, and even Daniel Radcliffe wasn’t as bad as he is in everything else.

The film looked good, Radcliffe’s glasses and hair were a particular highlight, and the way it was filmed drew you into the actors, which makes sense because this is a biopic, you could enjoy their performances without being too distracted with the 1940s regalia (this could be because they couldn’t afford to fill a scene with authentic 1940 scenery).

5 good things:

1. The acting standard was generally high.

2. Costuming.

3. How pretty but gritty the 1940s looked.

4. If you are a Harry/Malfoy shipper then Radcliffe has a slightly graphic sex scene with a blond gentleman.

5. I finally saw a film with Elizabeth Olsen in (although she wasn’t in a lot of it).

5 bad things:

1. How many times Dane DeHaan hanged himself.

2. Not knowing how true anything is.

3. The fact you don’t meet people this passionate in university.

4. The odd scene where Ginsberg is on drugs but thinks he has stopped time in a bar (not sure if I explained that well).

5. Michael C. Hall wasn’t very effective.

Just 5 quick thoughts on 2014 Oscars:

1.       Although I haven’t seen 12 Years a Slave, from what I’ve been hearing it was the best of the rest. I will now be rushing out to watch it ASAP.

2.       I’m very happy Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o won for their best supporting roles.

3.       Evilly I am equally pleased that American Hustle won absolutely nothing because I didn’t feel it deserved nominations anyway, it was a very bland film with a very big cast.

 

4.       I don’t think that Her should have won Best Original Screenplay, because I hated the way it was written, I thought it was clichéd and quite boring.

5.       It’s not a surprise but Gravity definitely deserved all its cinematography, editing and visual effects awards.