I’ve been to the cinema quite a few times in the last few weeks, mainly to try and de-stress and get out of my head which has just been filled to bursting with things I need to do, things I’ve forgotten to do and things I’ll never have the time or the energy to do. So in an attempt at self care I’ve been taking myself to the cinema to spend a couple of hours not thinking about everything that I’m not doing, not able to do and what I have to ask other people to help me to do and I thought I’d share my opinions.
Storks: I took my nephews Lewis and Harvey to see this when they came to stay a couple of weeks ago. It’s an animated film in a world where storks have stopped delivering babies because a rogue stork fell in love with one of his deliveries and broke her destination device which left her as an orphan living with the storks. Today they deliver anything and everything, our hero (Junior) is trying to get a promotion so The Boss tells him that he has to fire orphan Tulip. Obviously he can’t, and chaos ensues with her accidentally switching on the machine that makes babies, and Junior and Tulip have to try to find the baby’s family before The Boss finds out. On the other side of this is a family where the young boy desperately wants a little brother, but he can barely get his parents attention away rom their jobs long enough to tell them. Throughout the film Junior and Tulip have adventures whilst trying to deliver the new baby, and the family come together to prepare for a new baby that the parent don’t believe is coming.
The film isn’t too bad, it’s not magical like some kids films are, and it won’t be going to the top of my rewatch list, but it does have some nice moments. The Wolf pack are brilliant! Definitely the best part of the film! It’s a sweet story about paying attention to the important things in life, and money and work should never come before family and friends.
Trolls: I really didn’t fancy seeing this film, I wasn’t a huge fan of the dolls the first time around (although I did have a rocker troll with a cool Mohawk and a guitar) but I figured with Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick it couldn’t be that bad. I went with Rachael and Jacob and was prepared to just have a rest for a couple of hours. The story follows a group of Trolls who escape from the Bergens (Giants who have to eat Trolls to feel happy, so they keep them in a tree in the middle of town and have a ceremony to feel happiness with yummy Troll dishes) and find a nice part of the forest to live happily. Justine Timberlake’s character is Branch, a Troll who is constantly worrying that the Bergen’s will come and find them and eat them all. Anna Kendrick voices Poppy, the Troll princess who is just as happy and sparkly as a Troll can be, giving hugs to everyone around her when her hug alarm goes off, and singing her way through life. Poppy tries to cheer Beanch up, but his fears become reality when a loud Troll anniversary party alerts the evil Bergen Chef to their secret location. The Chef manages to catch Poppy’s friends and takes them back to the village to cook up a banquet for the Bergen prince who has never felt happy in his life as the Trolls escaped before he could eat one.
Obviously Poppy feels responsible and her and Branch set off to rescue their friends from being eaten by the Bergens. Once they get to the town they make friends with a maid in the castle and work their Troll magic on her to make her feel pretty and good enough for the king in return to help rescue their friends. The story is pure fairy tale and is very cute. The songs are catchy and I really got into it! I was rooting for the Trolls, and loved Poppy and Branch as well as the glittery one who shoots glitter from his bum! I was very pleasantly surprised at this film. I’m looking forward to it coming out on Netflix so that I can watch it again.
Inferno: This is the current one of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon thrillers to be turned into a film. I’m not a huge fan of the books, but I have really enjoyed the previous 2 films, so figured this would be good as well. The story is based around Robert Langdon waking up in a hospital in Florence with memory loss and having to solve the clues that he uncovers to figure out what happened to him, and stop a catastrophic event from happening. I wish that I understood all of the history and symbology that is packed into these books/films but I generally don’t have a clue! So I have to rely on the dialogue, characters and my general understanding of thrillers to keep up as Robert and his Doctor go on an exciting journey through Florence and onto Istanbul following the clues and keeping one step ahead of the people who are chasing them. This film was a bit more complicated than the previous two so I struggled to keep up with everything, or it might be that my brain just isn’t working very well at the minute! I loved the scenery as we toured Florence and then the impressive underground caves in Istanbul, and almost groaned loudly as one of the characters falls through a painted ceiling during a chase scene!! Aaaahhhhh the art!!
I’d like to watch this again to see if I can keep up a bit better the second time round, but it was really engaging and the action was non stop so I couldn’t get distracted by my list of things to do!
Jack Reacher: OK, I’ll admit it, I love Tom Cruise!! I love everything he does and think he’s just amazing to watch! I especially love his action films and thoroughly enjoyed the first Jack Reacher film which I watched again last week. I haven’t read the books, I started a Lee Child book once, years ago, and just couldn’t get into it, and haven’t tried again, but I was told that I need to start at the beginning of his story and I’ll understand Jack Reacher. I was looking forward to this film, and I wasn’t dissappointed. Cobie Smulders will always be Robyn from How I met your Mother to me, and I haven’t rally warmed to her in the Avengers films, but she surprised me in this film. I believed her character of hard ass MP officer and she gets some great action sequences in the film. The story follows Reacher as he goes to meet Turner for the first time in person and finds out she’s been arrested. He breaks her out of military jail and they work together to find out who is framing her.
As you’d expect there are some brilliant action scenes, lots of running, and lots of clues coming together slowly until you figure out what’s going on. It’s basically about a defence contractor, some shady goings on, and trying to get rid of everyone who might know what’s going on, including Major Turner. Reacher gets involved by trying to help her and they end up with his “daughter” in tow as the girl’s mother claimed child support from the army and the bad guys find out about her. Tom does what he does best with some amazing fight scenes and Cobie gets some great action herself with only one rant about how she has to fight sexism everyday, the film doesn’t need it, she’s as tough as nails and obviously able to handle herself. I personally didn’t need the obvious shout out to empower women, as it is nice to see a character who is just herself, without there having to be the feminist conversation about being just as tough as the boys. Overall a great film.
The Accountant: This one I was really looking forward to seeing. The trailers looked really interesting and I’m a big fan of Ben Affleck and was really interested to see how he would play an Autistic character. The story is completely mental! It made me think of Gone Girl with all of the twists and turns and Ben Affleck was utterly transfixing. We follow Chris, the accountant, as he works, goes shooting (hes crazy good), eats dinner, manages his stims and flick back in time to see his Mum leaving the family and his Dad teaching his two sons to stand up for themselves and each other in a brutal manner. We learn that his Dad raised the 2 boys as he travelled the world for his job in the army and felt that Chris needed to learn how to live in the world, instead of going to a school which wanted to focus on his abilities and cosset him in a safe environment. Pretty quickly we learn that all is not as it seems to be, and Chris is not just an extraordinarily good accountant. He works for cartel’s and crime families managing their money and is going to do a “normal” job to keep the attention of law inforcement away from him. Attempting to find The Accountant is a Treasury analyst and her boss, who has been following him for years and is due to retire soon. We see Chris make a friend and struggle to manage that relationship due to his autism and his lifestyle, and watch as his “normal” job becomes something altogether more dangerous.
There are some really funny lines and moments in this film which come from Chris’s reactions to extreme situations as his autism means that he fails to notice verbal cues, tone and sarcasm from the other characters. One of my favourites is when he kills 2 people pretty dramatically and leaves his neighbours covered in blood and staring at him, he just nods at them and walks away. It’s the juxtaposition of what we deem to be “normal” behaviour that he has had to learn, adapt to and sometimes just can’t manage due to his autism with extreme situations that is really interesting and engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and can’t wait to see it again. Well Done Ben! Fantastic performance.
I haven’t managed to see The Girl on the Train yet, and also want to see Mrs Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, I Daniel Blake and Doctor Strange, so there’s lots of films to keep my brain from overloading at the minute! I hope that’s helped you narrow them down you. Enjoy.
Vic xx
The Amazing Adventures of Stick Girl 