The Reel Life of Real Life

Following the death of their child, Eleanor(Jessica Chastain) leaves her husband , Connor (James McAvoy) and flees to her parents’ suburban home to try to begin again and “ find a new version of herself”. I like the idea behind this movie and I think the characters are quite interesting. The fact that the same story is essentially split into two movies where we get to see Connor’s side of the story, then Eleanor’s side. It’s a very different way of structuring the whole story. They have another film that was released some months later titled "The Disapearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them" but really I don't see the point of watching that if you've already seen the the "Him" and "Her" stories, because it's literally the exact same story, exact same scenes. There is nothing different. The “Him” version of the story - I did find this quite slow moving. James McAvoy is, as always, fantastic and his American accent is very good. It...

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a troubled student is bitten by a spider and takes on some of its characteristics. Deciding to use his new powers for good, he becomes a web-slinging, wall-walking superhero. Directed by Sam Raimi, and co-starring Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco. Based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Dtiko. Spider-Man would have been the last major comic book character to have avoided big-screen treatment, therefore its potential was the subject of speculation and rumour for two decades. That is, until Sam Raimi finally brought Spider-Man to the cinema screen. I only watched this very recently. I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed this film. It’s brilliant. I love it because it’s a lot more character-orientated than I thought it would be. While there are a lot of fight scenes (which are amazingly done and I imagine would have looked mind-blowing on the big screen), the story always comes back to the characters, which I loved. ...

I think this is a really great film. For the most part maybe it’s a bit predictable, a bit sentimental and has the occasional clichéd moment…but it has a really important message that everyone would do well with seeing. That’s really why I love it!  A social studies teacher (Kevin Spacey) gives an assignment to his class to think of an idea to change the world for the better, then put it into action. When one young student (Haley Joel Osment) creates a plan for "paying forward" favours, he not only affects the life of his alcoholic single mother (Helen Hunt), but he sets in motion an unprecedented wave of human kindness which, unbeknownst to him, has become a national phenomenon. The story itself is different, original and one that provokes a lot of thought from the audience. This film has the potential to inspire you to be a better person. My only predicament with it is the ending. Not to spoil the film too much but I feel like it was completely random and fra...

The first robotic boy programmed to love, David (Haley Joel Osment) is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee (Sam Robards) and his wife (Frances O'Connor). Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David. Without final acceptance by humans or machines, David embarks on a journey to discover where he truly belongs. This film is amazing. The imagination that went into it, the kind of world created, I loved it. I loved the sheer basicness of the plot. David’s main desire was to become a real boy because he wanted his mother to love him. The film makes many references to Pinocchio and in a sense, it is like an elaborate version of the famous fairy tale. The film was shot in 67 days.  Haley Joel Osment is so fantastic in this film. It’s definitely one of his best. He’s extremely talented, for an actor that age, to do what he’s done. David’s character, being the central one in the film, is very i...

This film is absolutely AMAZING.  Directed by Sam Mendes, Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening) are on the outside, a perfect husband and wife, in a perfect house, in a perfect neighbourhood. But inside, Lester is undergoing a midlife crisis, slipping deeper into a hopeless depression. He soon develops an infatuation with one of his daughter, Jane’s (Thora Birch) friends, Angela (Mena Suvari). Meanwhile, Jane develops a friendship with a boy next door named Ricky (Wes Betley), who lives with an abusive father (Chris Cooper) and videos her through his window.  I love this film so much!! I really do. It is without a doubt one of the best you will see! The narration in the opening scene by Kevin Spacey sets the atmosphere perfectly. I’m a fan of narration like this in movies anyway but whatever it was about this I liked a lot. Maybe it’s the fact he says “In less than a year, I’ll be dead” – That’s bound to peak anyone’s interest! You get a...

This film is class! " The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist, " – words uttered by con-man Verbal Kint, as he refers to the enigmatic criminal, Keyser Soze. Throughout the film Verbal attempts to convince the police that the mythic Keyser Soze not only exists, but is also responsible for drawing Verbal and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro Harbor leaving few survivors. The question is - Who is Keyser Soze? Directed by Bryan Singer, written by Christopher McQuarrie, and starring Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Chazz Palminteri and Pete Postlethwaite.  I loved this film more than I initially thought I would. The first time I watched it I found it quite confusing between the complexity of the plot, and all the different names of characters being mentioned because they’re all quite ‘different’ names. But it’s so go...

Despite this film first opening with a disappointing $6 million in sales, within the following weeks it generated great word of mouth amongst movie viewers, allowing it to steadily climb to the number 1 slot until it became the highest-grossing movie of 1988. When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home where he discovers that he has an autistic older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives. This is such a good film! I can't imagine anyone not liking it. Just both the acting and cinematography are wonderful. I didn’t really like Tom Cruise's character, Charlie, but I don’t think you were supposed to! Money was...

When retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) tackles a final case with the aid of newly transferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), they discover a number of elaborate and grizzly murders. They soon realize they are dealing with a serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is targeting people he thinks represent one of the seven deadly sins. Somerset also befriends Mills' wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is pregnant and afraid to raise her child in the crime-riddled city. This film is unreal. It’s chilling, creepy, and written fabulously. I absolutely love the way it's constructed with the whole thing around the seven deadly sins being the backdrop for each murder. I think the way it’s done is really clever. I love how you can see how much thought went into the writing of the plot. But it’s so original! It’s horrible but bloody brilliant! I love the title sequence in this film. I just think it’s really cool. Sort of creepy. I found this a lot easier to get...

Directed by Alan Parker. David Gale (Kevin Spacey), a college professor and long-time activist against capital punishment, has been sentenced to death for raping and killing a fellow capital punishment opponent. Four days prior to his execution, reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) has been asked to interview him. Over three days Gale proves his innocence through a series of lengthy flashbacks.  Laura Linney also co-stars. I sort of randomly decided to watch this film yesterday without really knowing anything about it other than Kate Winslet and Kevin Spacey were in it, so I said ok let’s see what it’s like. But oh it was so stressful to watch. And heart breaking. I was literally at the edge of my seat towards the end. Not figuratively speaking, literally the edge of my seat with the tension. That’s only ever happened to me for one other movie and that was ‘Ghost’! I get far too engrossed in films… I don’t regret watching it but I couldn’t sleep at all last night aft...

When the FBI fail to develop any leads as to the identity of a brutal serial killer operating in the mid-west chief Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) assigns trainee agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) to interview convicted psychopath, Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Crawford hopes to wrong-foot the dangerous cannibal by sending an unworthy trainee and Starling must attempt to gain profiling information from Lecter without revealing too much of herself. Directed by Jonathan Demme and based on the novel by Thomas Harris. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen it and I’ve only seen it the once but I just thought I might as well do a review on it! But oh my, where does one start? Ok. Technically I didn’t like this film because, I know everyone says that the conversations between Starling and Lecter are the best bits from the film; really tense and frightening or really great, but omg I found them kind of boring. Personally I just could not get into the film. I don’t reall...

Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a taxi driver with strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the only exception out of New York City is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palantine. He becomes a bit obsessed with her, but when their date ends badly and she refuses his apologies, he cynically realises that “she is just like everybody else” and decides he has to do whatever he needs to make the world a better place. One of his priorities becomes saving Iris (Jodie Foster), a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession but is confined to it by her pimp and lover Matthew. Directed by Martin Scorsese, this is a bloody good movie! I liked Travis’ character. I don’t normally seem to like Robert De Niro’s characters very much but I liked him. There was something kind of humble about him and there wasn’t any real pushiness like in many of Robert De Niro’s characters. I felt sor...

I was very intrigued to see this film when I realised Martin Scorsese was directing it and Robert De Niro was starring in it. I couldn’t imagine either of them working on a musical. I just never thought this would be a genre I’d see either of them do. But needless to say it is a film worth watching some time. Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro), an egotistical saxophone player, and Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli), a lounge singer, meet in Times Square on V-J Day and decided they’re meant for each other. However their romance proves rocky and strained as their careers slowly begin to take flight. Robert De Niro is quite something. I’ve only seen him in his newer movies, so this was an interesting watch for me. He’s so much younger! Not sure what to say to his character. He wasn’t always very nice and could be quite domineering. But Robert De Niro plays this well I think. For example there’s a scene when Jimmy is telling Francine to get in the car and he’s quite bossy about it, like...