Beastly

The Synopsis
Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is completely obsessed with looks, convinced that they will take him anywhere. But when he upsets the witch Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), she puts a spell on him, taking away his looks for what could be forever if he doesn't find someone to fall in love with him in just one year. Devastated, he moves away from the city, only allowing his housekeeper Zola (Lisa Gay Hamilton) and teacher Will (Neil Patrick Harris) to see him. He's convinced he will never break the spell until he meets Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) who gives him hope that perhaps he has more to offer than just his appearance.

The Review
Okay, this is a guilty one. The film won't be winning any oscars and there's nothing about it to go 'wow' about, but I have to admit, it was sweet.

I tip my hat to Neil Patrick Harris who proves once again that he can bring comedy to a scene beautifully. This I knew he would be able to do before I went to see the film.

What shocked me however was the performance I saw from Mary-Kate Olsen. She was just so... enchanting. She played the witch in this modern day version of Beauty and the Beast and boy did she play it well. I particularly loved the physical theatre that she gave the character. She bent her body around as she talked in an understated way that, as Film-Buddy-Kezia aptly commented "Commanded your attention to her whenever she was in a scene." She owned that part man. Well done Mary-Kate. Plus, you know, if she ever got tired one day, she could always have just thrown her sister in to play the part. Ah the advantages of identical twindom are endless.

There was one scene that was possibly the worst scene I've ever seen in the whole of my film watching life. It was clear that there were two halves to this film, the part that was before Lindy arrives at Beast Kyles house to live and the part after. It was also clear that there was a large transition to get the girl who had barely spoken to Kyle to decide to live there. This would have to be dealt with well to show the marked change.

The film makers I get the impression however, decided to forgo the idea of even attempting to do this well. Instead they decided to go with the option of cramming half an hours worth of transition into two minutes and have the people who perform these two minutes to be pretty much the worst actors in the world. I'm not kidding, it was probably the funniest scene in the whole film purely for how BAD it was.

That being said and overlooked because I was sheepishly enjoying it up to this point. I continued to sheepishly enjoy it, whilst knowing in the back of my mind that this probably wasn't really a good film. But you know what? I really don't think I care. I'm going to say I enjoyed it because I did and in all fairness I will be buying the DVD because it was sweet and I like a bit of feel-good sweet every now and again so I shall generously give it four faces from me... with the warning that this one you may not agree with.

Scream 4

The Synopsis
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is back in Woodsboro to promote her new book on how to move on from being a victim. However, from the moment she comes back, she is thrown into a world she is sadly all too familiar with as calls begin to come in asking a whole new generation the big question. "What's your scary movie?"

The Review
Okay, so I don't know if I am able to be anything other than completely biased with this film review as the whole Scream series are such a massive part of my teenage life that I can't help but completely geek out over there being a new one!

I have many a memory of girly sleep overs where we would curl up under a blanket on the sofa and scream into our popcorn at each new death. If you know me at all from my randomthoughts blog page, you would know that I am not a fan of the scary movie. However these films I tend to have a little bit of a immunity to due to my excitement for re-living my teen years being a far more dominant emotion.

I can't tell you the feeling of joy I felt when I first saw Dewey (David Arquette), Gail (Courtney Cox) and Sidney (Neve Campbell) all together in one scene again. And although yes they are not life changing films and yes they may not have much substance to it and yes they're even not particularly that scary but it is SCREAM man!! It is it's own thing.

It did what Scream did best, it analysed the film for you as you watched. Really there is no need for me to review it because they do it all themselves. The whole film constantly played the pros and cons of the series off each other through the film version of the real life events called 'Stab.'

Film-Buddy-Kezia had not seen any of the others and managed to enjoy it still (which I'm not surprised because it's awesome). My FAVOURITE bits throughout were when they tipped their hats to the previous films (mainly the first) and created in some cases almost identical situations as we have found previously (garage door opening, boyfriend tied to chair).

I also LOVED the opening sequence, creating a series of scenes of a 'film inside a film' idea and, again, doing what they do best by bringing a few well known actors into the mix for one scene cameos (Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell).

This is the first film for a while where I've come out, punching the air and saying 'Yesss man, I'm buying the DVD.' I guess that means it can only have one score.

Your Highness

The Synopsis
Thadeous (Danny McBride) is the younger brother of the impressive and good looking warrior Prince, Fabious (James Franco) and has always been in his shadow. But when Fabious's bride Belladonna (Zooey Deshcanel) gets kidnapped by the evil warlock Leezar (Justin Theroux) he is forced to work with his brother and brave his first quest to bring her back home. Along the way they meet Isabel (Natalie Portman), a beautiful warrior who Thadeous immediately falls for.

The Review
I liked this. It was funny in a way that these particular film makers and writers are. It had an feeling that screamed if Pineapple Express had been set thousands of years prior then this is what it would have been.

I loved the juxta positioning they did of the Medieval time they were in and the modern language and other little bits and pieces of today's time thrown in. It became a running joke throughout the film that didn't ever get old.

I particularly adored Fabious's almost incestuous love that he had towards his younger brother, always hugging him that little too close and talking about him with just that little bit too much adoration in his eyes.

I also realised that I hate Natalie Portman's body (in the sense that I loved it and mourned that I do not have it). I'm usually not that fussed about my own weight, I'm too lazy to really do anything about it anyway. But I watched this and thought, hmmmm, I definitely envy you Natalie Portman. Film-Buddy-Kezia had a particularly humourous moment during watching this film as she turned to me just as Natalie Portman was taking off her clothes to bathe and said "I love Natalie Portman." She then stopped, tilted her head to one side and added, "Probably not the best point of the film to mention my appreciation for her acting is it? It just sounds sort of pervy now." Oh how I laughed.

Overall it was a fun film, I did have to take a moment of amazement at one point as I realised I was watching a scene with 6 or so actors all speaking in an English accent and not one of them actually was from England. That seemed a little weird lol.

I can't bring myself to give it anymore than three faces because although I enjoyed it, there were moments I felt dragged and, well, there really wasn't anything about it that made me get that excited tbh. It is a fun one though and I definitely do recommend it if you fancy laugh. Especially if you are a Pineapple Express fan.

Red Riding Hood

The Synopsis
Valarie (Amanda Seyfried) lives in a village that is haunted each month by a werewolf. This werewolf, the town soon begins to realise could only be one of them. Valarie has to find out who this wolf is, could it be her secret love Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), the man that she is betrothed to Henry (Max Irons) or even her own Grandmother (Julie Christie).

The Review
Okay, so to say I've been excited about seeing this one would be a bit of an understatement. The idea around the film caught my eye and then to top it all off Amanda Seyfried was starring in it, Catherine Hardwicke was directing it and Leonardo Di Caprio was a producer. How could it possibly be anything other than amazing?

I think that there may be the reason for my not actually enjoying it as much as I hoped. My standards were unbelievably high and although it was an entertaining and highly competent film, there were just a few things that forced it to fall short of how great it could have been.

Let's start off with the things I did like. The iconic images from the fairy tale were portrayed in amazing light throughout the film. For any of you who have seen the trailer, you might remember the shot of Valarie walking up a snow filled mountain a long trail of red cloak blowing behind her. The magnificent red on white imagery was a token part all the way through as you can see in the above picture. It made me feel excited about what the film had to offer, like seeing a fairy tale shown with some level of reality (well, as real as you can get when your talking about a village being terrorised by a werewolf).

I also loved how true it was to the fairy tale whilst completely standing out as it's own piece. It kept the memorable scenes of the travelling to Grandma's with a basket and red cloak and managed to get away with using the "Grandmother, what big eyes you have" sequence without losing the integrity of the film which was quite a feat. There was one particular moment close to the end where they may have stretched the bounds of reality a little too much in order to accommodate the fairy tale but all in all, an awesome job.

Okay, here are the bits that forced me to drop a face off my overall score. As important as the whole "Whodunnit" plot was to the story, I fear they may have gone a little overboard. Due to absolutely everyone being a possible murderer it was really hard for me to form any kind of attachment to the characters or their relationships with each other. This left me therefore uncomfortable throughout the film and not really able to settle on any particular character. It caused a detachment that I don't think they intended to make.

Also the ending was a little strange and although Film-Buddy-Kezia seemed to approve of it, I was on the fence. Probably due to the fact that I had no involvement with the film by the end. That whole premise unfortunately just threw the quality of the film slightly out of whack but other than that, it was an enjoyable film that I would see again now I am aware of what happens. I might actually enjoy it a lot better that way.

Three faces from me.

The Roommate

The Synopsis
Sarah Matthews (Minka Kelly) is starting her first year of College when she moves in with her roommate, Rebecca (Leighton Meester). At first things seem fine, but after a while, when Sarah starts dating Stephen (Cam Gigandet) she starts to realise that there might be something more sinister to Rebecca than she had first thought.

Warning. Could possibly contain spoilers.
I think.
I don't know.
I'm not too sure if I've actually given anything away but I may have alluded to things that you could probably guess at if you tried hard enough so I thought I should probably say something before you started.

The Review

Film-Buddy-Kezia: If you say anything bad about Leighton Meester in your review I will kill you.
Me: You terrify me.

If you have joined this review via this link then, I well and truly hyped myself up over nothing. I got the genre of this movie COMPLETELY wrong. If you haven't, then I'll actually get to the review bit now.

When I initially turned up at this film, I assumed it was a horror because the trailer had scared me to my very core. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was less of a horror however and more of a Psychological Thriller which is far more up my street.

I'm going to take a guess and assume whoever was behind making this film also has a lot of influence in American teenage dramas as well. The cast consisted almost solely of characters from either Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill or The OC and those are only the ones I recognised, who knows what others there were.

That being said it wasn't as trashy as you would think with a cast like that. Previous movies who had done similar things with their cast usually ended up being B movies where it was just any excuse to get a girl naked and lathered up then murdered in some awkward and embarrassing position. This film, dare I say it, had a touch of class behind it.

This was all mainly down to an amazing performance by Leighton Meester who played Rebecca (No I'm not just saying that because Film-Buddy-Kezia told me to). She played the classic murderer but she actually gave her some character and portrayed her in a convincing enough way that I was feeling sorry for her for the majority of the film.

Unfortunately, however, this accurate representation did then clash with the rest of the performances as all the way through they gradually started to treat her more and more like a lost cause that needed to be stopped.

I don't know, maybe it's because I work in Mental Health and almost definitely it was because, thanks to Meester's performance, I was expecting FAR too much of the film, but I was not impressed with the way this ended. It felt a little harsh and I was totally on Rebecca's side by the end which I'm pretty sure was not where the film makers wanted me to be. This is not to say that I have any inclinations to get all murderous on my friends, but whatever she did wrong the ending was certainly not what she deserved. I'll say no more, don't want to ruin it for you if I haven't already.

All in all, the film was okay but the rest of the performances really didn't come anywhere near what Meester brought to the film (A particular, what could have been potentially chilling juxta positioned sex scene proved this, Meester was good the others involved... not so much). But I almost feel stupid giving this a serious review as I'm pretty sure you were meant to take it with a pinch of salt. Ah well. In total, I'll give it three faces because I did actually enjoy myself watching this.

Killing Bono

The Synopsis
This film follows the story of two brothers, Neil McCormack (Ben Barnes) and Ivan McCormack (Robert Sheehan), who went to school with U2's Bono and had the same dreams of forming a famous band as he did. However the journey wasn't as smooth for them as it was for Bono and they soon struggle under the strain of constant bad decisions and the overwhelming shadow of their former friend.

The Review
Well this was a first. Never before in my life have I ever gone into a movie that I hadn't even seen a poster for. Sunday afternoon I found myself waiting in the queue and scanning the screen to see which films were starting. The only one that seemed to be available was the mysterious film "Killing Bono" so I thought... hmmm why not?

I must admit I was a little concerned, especially as the title sounded a bit dubious and I had NO CLUE what it was about, but all in all I was pleasantly surprised and here's why.

The opening credits come up and immediately I spot Robert Sheehan's name. Being a complete and utter HUMUNGOUS fan of the amazing Channel 4 drama 'Misifts' I perk up straight away and figure, well even if the film is rubbish at least I'll have his stupidly sparkly eyes to look into (I'm not kidding, they LITERALLY sparkle).

Then Ben Barnes appears in a car talking in an Irish accent and I thought to myself, "Well you might as well give the film a chance."

Once the perving stopped and the plot began to progress I actually started to watch the film and it was smart, funny and very well put together. It's based on a book that as far as I can tell is the true story of Neil McCormack, the lead singer of a small time Irish band called Shook Up. He was friends with Bono at school but due to Neil's constant inclincation to make stupid decisions and pass down amazing opportunities, they never reached anywhere near their potential.

Robert Sheehan and Ben Barnes both give very funny and genuine performances of two brothers who struggle to keep their bond together through all of Neil's shortcomings.

I love Irish humour and I loved this. The writing was just right and the film made me chuckle. It took me a while to get into the swing of what the film was trying to say but I blame my complete lack of knowledge about the film prior to seeing it for that one.

It was refreshing to see a genuinely unique and good film again after the dry spell of late and it is with great happiness and pride I dust off my four faces and present them for all to see.

I'll have to go in blind to films more often.