John Clark is a lawyer who writes Wills. He has a humdrum existence but a loving family that he seems happy with. One day on his home from work, he spots a beautiful woman gazing out of the window of a dance school. On a whim he gets off at the stop, and decides to take dancing lessons.
What follows is a very sweet and heart-warming journey about following your heart and finding happiness wherever you can.
What I LOVED about this movie is that he doesn’t leave his wife or family for this woman. In fact, she actively discourages him from pursuing her. But John finds something fulfilling and something he’s good at.
And the scene where he’s coming up the stairs to his wife with the rose, one of the most romantic scenes ever! You can tell he’s crazy about her even after 20 years of marriage!
A lovely heart warming film about dance, life and love.
5 out of 5 stars.
Random fact: About $4,000 worth of jewelry worn by Susan Sarandon during the filming of the movie was stolen and recovered at murder scene in Winnipeg on 4 July 2003. According to news sources, the jewelry was stolen from a vehicle on the movie set and found in a downtown hotel room.
I’d been looking forward to this film since I found out Ben Barnes of Prince Caspian fame was in it – not that I’ve seen the second Narnia movie.
Set in the 1920s, John Whittaker has married an American Racing Car Driver who is a widow. This is her second marriage. He takes her home to meet his eccentric English family, who all immediately hate her. She finds an ally in her father in law, Jim. John thinks Larita is imagining things when she tells him his family doesn’t like her, but Larita tries her hardest to fit in – in her own unique way of course.
This film is a funny period film. I haven’t had this much fun with a period film since Mrs Pettigrew Lives for a Day! The dialogue is fascinating and sharp. Larita is sassy, beautiful, funny but also sad and steely. John is fun loving but slowly realises his responsibilities once a few home truths hit him.
But its Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Whittaker who steals the film. Her firm dislike of her daughter in law is fun, but also the sadness, desperation and the way she tries to keep a crumbling family and house together is touching.
I’d recommend this film if you’re in the mood for a fun period piece with an edge and a bite.
Random Fact: In the vintage Monte Carlo scene which opens the movie, when Larita first sees John both her and John’s movements are slowed down while the rest of the cast play at ‘normal’ (i.e newsreel) speed. This was accomplished by filming the crowd, Larita, John, the background and the foreground mechanics separately against green screen and compositing them together at different speeds.
A film about an anarchic girls school sounds a little over done, but this one is actually funny.
A remake of the original St. Trinian’s movies, updated with the brightest and best of British, this movie will make you laugh.
From the slightly insane Headmistress, Miss Fritton, to her more deranged pupils, this film will make you giggle. It has not only slap stick humor and funny situations, but a credible storyline.
New girl Anabelle, who also happens to be Miss. Fritton’s niece is landed in the school from hell. The Head Girl is a smart and street wise, Kelly who keeps the girls in order. The anarchic twins who are good at explosives, the posh totty girls who will do anything, the Chavs always willing to pick a fight and the Emos.
The girls have to save the school by finding £50,000 to stop it from closing. They also have to win School Challenge against their arch nemesis.
Of course the girls do save the school, in their own unique way of course.
This is a delicious comedy for a lazy sunday afternoon.
5 out of 5 stars.
Random fact:The movie was inspired by the original drawings of the girls of St. Trinians by Ronald Searle.
Wild Child follows Poppy Moore an angry young American girl who’s annoyed when her father moves his girlfriend into his house. Poppy decides to trash the girlfriends furniture which pushes her father too far and he sends her to boarding school in England. There Poppy does her best to try and get expelled whilst contending with the evil Head Girl for the Headmistress’s son’s affections.
Along the way she makes friends and learns who she really is as well as making a profound discovery about her deceased mother.
I didn’t like this film to be honest. It doesn’t have the heart or the bite that Mean Girls has, but its a cute film if you want to drool over Alex Pettyfer who provides the eye candy as Freddie, the Headmistress’s son.
I like Emma Roberts better in Nancy Drew to be honest, this role didn’t really suit her.
3 out of 5 stars.
Random fact:Actress Daisy Donovan, who also appeared in the film, contributed some additional dialogue to the screenplay, mainly consisting of contemporary phrases or sayings. She said one of the ways she did this was to go to the library and listen to teenagers talking to their friends whilst revising their A levels.
This was the first movie I ever bought on DVD, so this is pretty special to me.
Bartelby and Loki are two angels who got kicked out of heaven for defying God. Loki was the Angel of Death and Bartelby talked him out of the job because he felt that murder in the name of god was wrong. So god kicked them out.
Now someone has informed them of a way to get home, and its up to Bethany a cynical woman who works in an abortion clinic and who has a grudge against God for denying her a family, to save the whole world from being unmade.
She’s joined by Rufus the Apostle, foul mouthed prophets Jay and Silent Bob and the beautiful Muse, Serendipity. Its up this unlikely crew to get to New Jersey and stop these Angels from getting into a 100 year old church and gaining absolution for their sins, and thus unmaking existence.
This film is funny, sharp and simply made. It talks about fundamental religious ideas and makes you think as well as laugh. Its an engrossing tale, well worth the time!
5 out of 5 stars.
Random fact: The hoods worn around the neck of the three angels in the film, Metatron (Alan Rickman), Bartleby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon) represent their haloes.
This has to be one of the most intriguing films I’ve seen in a while.
Lars is a withdrawn young man living in a small town in the garage of his brother’s house along with his pregnant wife. They practically have to scare him into coming to dinner or breakfast.
Lars is lonely so he orders a Real Doll from the internet. He pretends she is his girlfriend, Bianca from Brazil who’s a Missionary. At first his brother and sister-in-law don’t know what to make of his silent girlfriend who Lars manages to have whole conversations with. They take him to the doctor who advises them to go along with his delusion until he no longer needs Bianca.
Eventually the whole town embraces Bianca. She gets a job, volunteers to read to kids and even gets elected to the school board. She has a full schedule despite being inanimate. Lars also starts developing an interest in one of his co-workers who has shyly made advances to him before.
Eventually, Lars realises he’s going to have to let go of Bianca to start having a real relationship which he does in the most extraordinary of ways.
What struck me about this film was that it was very funny. I laughed out loud at the absurdity of some of the situations, but Lars is such an endearing character, that it was painful laughter. He makes you want to wrap your arms around him, but he abhors touch so it would make it impossible.
Standout praise to Ryan Gosling for a powerhouse performance as the withdrawn, socially awkward Lars who is just trying to make a connection. Emily Watson is fantastic as Lars’ endearing sister-in-law Karin and special praise must go to Bianca who made this film possible.
Fantastic film to watch to understand mental health issues, to understand companionship and just if you’re looking for a quirky film about an important social issue.
Mean Girls stars Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, a student from Africa who has been home schooled by her research zoologist parents all her life. For the first time, she is going to experience a real school, and the experience changes her life.
At first Cady makes faux paux’s as she tries to navigate high school in America. She dresses differently, wears no makeup and tries to fit in. Then she makes friends with Janis and Damien, who talk her through the intricacies of the school and the different social groups. Cady catches the eyes of Regina George, the Queen Bee of the school who along with her co-horts, Gretchen and Karen make Cady one of the Plastics, Teen Royalty.
At first, Cady tries to sabotage the Plastics to expose Regina for what she really is, a lying mean girl. But then she slowly morphs into one of the Plastics, complete with dress sense, vocabulary and attitude, and loses her identity completely.
Its based on a real book, but the movie is a very good social lesson on how we socialise girls to think that dressing and acting a certain way is socially acceptable. And being mean to each other is also acceptable, when its clearly not. Its a good character study on the intricacies of teenagers and the fickle alliances of girls.
A fun teen movie, with a social message behind it.
5 out of 5 stars.
Random fact:This movie is based upon the book “Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence” by Rosalind Wiseman, even though it is a non-fiction parental self-help guide with no narrative at all.
This is an adorable movie, that makes you feel good. Its a cross-cultural shock to the system and I loved it!
Todd Anderson is a Manager at an American firm for novelty products, who finds out his job is being outsourced and he has to train his replacement in India. When he gets to India, he has trouble with the language, culture shock and stomach upsets.
He also has the impossible task of getting the MPI “Minutes per Incident” down from 12 minutes to an impossible 6! Along the way he falls for the beautiful and opinionated Asha, but finds out she’s engaged to be married.
There are also some amusing characters like the kid who keeps robbing his cell phone, his replacement at the call centre who needs the job to get married to the love of his life and the people working at the laundry, one of whom invites him to dinner.
Its a beautiful film about the real India and the realities of life in an Indian call centre, captured very charmingly here.
I have been waiting for this movie forever, because I love The Simpsons! They’re the funniest cartoon family on the screen and its about time they got their own movie.
Springfield’s Lake is extremely polluted, so much so that it swallows up Greenday who were giving a concert on it. The townsfolk don’t want to hear about the call to unpollute the lake and stop dumping stuff on it, but soon Lisa persuades them otherwise and falls in love with an Irish environmentalist who is NOT Bono’s son.
Homer acquires a pig who he treats as a second child. Bart grows closer to Flanders and Marge makes a huge choice regarding her marriage to Homer. Along the way The Simpsons must save Springfield from utter destruction!
All in all, I was disappointed with the film. It felt like a very long episode and not the movie I was expecting. For one, as its a movie they could have explored more of the other townspeople’s lives like they do sometimes to give depth to some of the lesser known characters.
The Simpsons themselves felt tired and worn out because we’re so used to seeing them on the screen, I didn’t feel the same shock at Marge’s decision as I would have had this movie been a regular episode, and I think she gave in way too easily in my opinion. Marge is a strong woman, but she always takes Homer back. Any other woman would have divorced him years ago!
All in all, its a good movie but not the kind of movie I was expecting.
Random fact:The magazine Grandpa is reading, when Homer falls through the roof, is called Oatmeal Enthusiast. This is in fact a genuine Internet based magazine/journal.
Kathryn Heigl plays Jane, a woman who has been a bridesmaid 27 times but has never had a wedding of her own.
Jane is in love with her boss, but her kooky and spoilt younger sister meets up with him and sparks fly, and Jane finds herself planning her sister’s wedding to the man she loves. Along the way she meets a writer for the Commitments page for the New York Journal who is incredibly cynical of weddings and thinks Jane is crazy. Eventually Jane realises she has to stop planning other people’s weddings and live her own life so she can have a wedding of her own.
I found this movie funny, cute and a little bit different to what’s already out there in terms of Romantic Comedies. Kathryn Heigl despite being very beautiful, is very funny, as shown in Knocked Up. Her facial expressions are hilarious and she has really good chemistry with James Marsden who plays the writer who tells her to start living her own life.
Overall, a good film with good storytelling and natural progression, but for some reason I just didn’t connect with this story as I would have liked to.
Random fact:The wardrobe department reported that their initial designs for the dresses all looked too good on Katherine Heigl because of her figure, and they were hard-pressed to design bridesmaids dresses that would look bad on her.
