I've been lucky enough to see some new movies lately, both on the silver screen and also the eerie light of my late night laptop, and they are so awesome I can't wait to share them with you.
The Lone Ranger
Johnny Depp is brilliant as Tonto, and the outrageously named Armie Hammer fits the role of The Lone Ranger to a T. This is bought to you by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean) so rest assured the slick production values are very high quality. There are plenty of gun fights, big explosions and amazing stunts, but there is no swearing. I would be happy for my 8 yr old to see it, even though it is rated M. I am not normally a westerns fan, but I
lurved this action/adventure/romance/comedy so much, I can't wait to see it again. I think it is going to be something we own on DVD and watch frequently, and I predict my monkey boys will be wearing dead birds on their heads very soon. Hell, maybe even I will.
Monsters University
This rocked. Mr BC & I took the boys to see this and they loved it. It was very funny, sweet, and had a really nice message about friendship, team work and the importance of being yourself. I liked it more than the first Monsters movie, I found it to have more laughs and less saccharine, and I really liked that the boys are already excited about going to university when they finish high school! I hope we can maintain that enthusiasm! As always with Pixar movies, there are plenty of jokes for mum and dad to laugh at as well, making this an excellent school holidays movie.
Silver Linings Playbook
Wow - I can see why this won Oscars, it is brilliant. Bradley Cooper is coming to terms with being bipolar and resuming his life after a violent incident left him in a psychiatric facility for an extended stay. Robert De Niro and Jackie Weaver play the parents who love their son but struggle to come to terms with the day to day. Jennifer Lawrence does a great job of being the troubled girl who has issues of her own. This movie, for me and I'm sure many others, really shined a light on the love and strength that families can manifest when mental illness touches their lives. Bradley Cooper is certainly not just a pretty face, and good lord that Jennifer Lawrence can act! She is the real deal.
Gangster Squad
I liked this movie, it was kind of like brain candy when you don't want to think but cannot stomach a chick flick. I mean, really
good brain candy - Lindt rather than no name compound chocolate - it has excellent actors playing gangsters and cops in 1940's LA. The movie might have a 2 dimensional plot but performances by Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone (again! she's everywhere!) and Ryan Gosling give this movie character and depth. Ryan Gosling has a strangely high voice that I found a little odd, but the rest of his performance was spot on. Sean Penn is genius.
The Paperboy
I think many people will not like this movie, and it's not really every one's cup of tea. It ticks plenty of boxes for me though - America's south, crazy swamp people, John Cusack in a scary and confronting role (hello, John Cusack, full stop. The rest is icing on the cake) Actors smashing it in roles they don't normally take on (Mathew McConaghy is a secretly gay, idealistic lawyer, Zac Efron is brilliant as a love struck hero, and Nicole Kidman as the trashiest white trash you ever saw) It's a thriller. I loved it. Brace yourself for the orgasm scene.
xx