Sort yourself out blogger app

I ranted about Life of the Party. It was decent but structureless. Then when fact checking a tangent, the app goes and deletes most of the review. This and my Wonder Woman review now make me very annoyed. I will continue to write this review as I'm angrier now and I have plenty of free time.

Breaking In review

Breaking In is about a mother who must protect her children after her deceased father's house is broken into.

There is an interesting role reversal in the film. Once the antagonists show up, they are inside this impenetrable mansion with the children as hostages, and their mother is outside, trying to break in. I quite liked this aspect of the film. During this portion, she's shot how villains are usually shot (in the shadows, lurking around). That's about all that's good though.

The rest of the film is your typical home invasion story: bad guys want something in the house, good guys don't like that they are in their house so they need to defend themselves. There are clichés and dumb moments all throughout the film. Although, to its credit, there are two characters who make some smart decisions. But this is outweighed by the characters whose motivations switch from scene to scene and are never solid, and therefore make stupid decisions.

The one part of the film which I really didn't understand was why the criminals didn't keep this impenetrable fortress locked down for the whole film. They start off with it locked, but after a character shows up, they don't decide to lock it again. This allows for the main character to get back inside the house. If they had actually thought it through, then they could have kept her outside until they've done what they need to do. It's dumb things like this throughout the whole film that keep it from being any good.

That said, it wasn't unwatchable. The awful elements kept it watchable for me, and I found myself laughing at the terrible dialogue and delivery at points, particularly from the blonde guy.

In short: It's rubbish, but with a good idea.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties review

This film is about a teenager in the seventies who teaches an alien tourist how to be punk.

This is one of the weirdest films I've ever seen. From the plot, to the characters, to the costumes, to the aesthetic, to some of the sequences, to the mythology, and also the acting.

I honestly didn't mind the weirdness of it all, I actually respected it. What I did mind was the disjointed plot and the muddled history, beliefs, and rituals of the aliens. The story hops from point A to B to C without taking much time to reflect on most of the previous points. This results in many scenes having no proper conclusion, or reason to be included other than 'this would be fun'.

It does seem like the sort of film where the filmmakers know that their original audience will be small, so they are relying on it becoming a future cult classic. But, the best cult films are the ones which do not set out to be cult films. There's a reason why people love The Room, but Sharknado - or any Asylum movie - is a joke. Or why Wet Hot American Summer has proven so successful since its release, and They Came Together - an attempt to make lightning strike twice - has largely been forgotten. A cult movie can't be manufactured, and it is rare for a film made in this vein to succeed in its cult intentions. Outside of the cult audience, I really don't know who else this is meant to play for (The nostalgia of '70s punks? Sci-fi fans? Romance fans?).

In short: It's weird. It's all over the place. It's watchable.

Tully review

Tully is a comedic drama about a mother who decides to hire a night nanny to help her with her new born.

It was entertaining. There were some good jokes, a strong story, and some interesting ideas about growing older and being a parent. And that is why I think people older than me, or anyone with children, would probably like it more than I did.

I would have also liked it more if it was a bit more ambiguous. There is something interesting that happens towards the end, and I would have liked it more of it were an idea and not confirmed true.

I just watched... I Love You, Man

Last night I decided to watch I Love You, Man again. And it is still funny and entertaining. There were good jokes I had forgotten about, the parody of rom-com tropes and clichés is smart. And, of course, Paul Rudd and Jason Siegel are hilarious and endlessly likeable.

Song by Butterfly Boucher and David Bowie Featured on the Shrek 2 Soundtrack

I've come up with an idea to help me to keep up with reviews better:

I'm going to make a post about every film I watch. If it's in the cinema or a Netflix original, it will be a proper review. If I find it interesting or decide I need to properly discuss it, I will write a review. For most other things, it will just be a post where I briefly give my thoughts on the film. I'll probably start this tomorrow, or sometime after that. I may also start reviewing TV shows; but I'm not making any promises.

Avengers: Infinity War review

As a fan of Marvel movies, of course I liked it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society review

It's alright. Different story to what I thought it was based on the trailer, so I wasn't as interested in it as I thought I might be. However, I wasn't ever really bored, and it will work for its target audience.