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Unfortunately A Levels are being a bitch at the moment so I've been neglecting this blog for a considerable amount of months now - but that's not to say that I haven't been procrastinating revising for said exams. The past three months have been a variation of slightly disappointing sequels, over-hyped Disney films and eye-opening (and actually life changing) TV shows for me, so I thought I'd give a brief overview of what I've loved, disliked and absolutely despised from the media recently.
FILMS
Over the past three months, I've been to cinema a number of times, pretty much all of the visits to see sequels. Back in March I saw the second film in the Divergent trilogy, Insurgent, which did indeed live up to my expectations and despite changing the plot beyond belief, I thought it a worthy follow-up to the first film in the series. More recently, I've seen Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pitch Perfect 2, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Duff. Even though I did enjoy the second Avengers film and all it's controversial revelations, it did not live up to the high standard created by the first one; and a similar thing could be said for the Pitch Perfect sequel. Pitch Perfect is one of my favourite films and I've been anticipating the second for years, and whilst it was more openly funny than the first (got to thank Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine for that one) the plot was sketchy and the music not as good or memorable. I hope for the life of me that there isn't another film in the series because I feel it would be stretching the franchise to its limit and really tarnish the success of the first film.
I'd never seen a Mad Max film before Fury Road, but I'd heard excellent things about the latest addition to the series and dragged my dad along to a viewing. It was gruesome, exhilarating and continuously brutal in the best possible way: the virtually all female cast (and a flawless Charlize Theron) made the film a non-stop feminist thriller which gripped me from beginning to end. You'd have to have a strong stomach to see the full thing in 3D, though: 2D had me gripping on the arms of my seat with the weight and projection of the explosions and the extent of the gore. On the flip side, The Duff was a predictable yet mildly enjoyable stereotypical teen rom-com which I saw on my sister's request. There was no way that the male lead was still in high school and you could tell the conclusion from the opening few scenes, but the main protagonist, Bianca, was relatable and funny and it was by no means the worst film I've seen aimed at the teenage demographic.
Outside of the cinema, I've been trawling through YouTube for small-scale production British movies, and I came across two little comedies: Hotel! (2001) and Death at a Funeral (2007), which were both so preposterously absurd that I couldn't help but enjoy them. Hotel! has, to a modern audience, a stellar cast: Peter Capaldi, Paul McGann and Keeley Hawes all star in this weird, ridiculous and frankly stupid one-hour film, full to the brim with visual gags and incongruous circumstances and odd, one-dimensional characters. Saying that, it had me laughing all the way through, purely because of how farcical every single moment was (there is a scene, discussing Peter Capaldi's character's divorce, that had me in stitches for hours). Death at a Funeral followed a similarly delightfully unrealistic plot, this time starring Matthew MacFadyen and Rupert Graves as the main characters, as well as that guy we all know who used to be in the BT adverts. MacFadyen's portrayal of the "family disappointment" who tries so hard not to be melted my heart and the whole "valium" situation had me snorting - it's definitely worth a watch, even if it's just stare adoringly at Matthew MacFadyen or mumble under your breath how Rupert Graves seems to appear in literally everything you've ever watched.
That concludes my brief round up: I hope to review in full a few of these and this isn't the full extent of my film endeavours for the past few months, so I'll get back to that. Hope you enjoyed!
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