The Reel Life of Real Life

This is a quite a different take on the classic story of “Sleeping Beauty”. Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) grew up with the other fairies, a beautiful and pure-hearted young girl with an idyllic life in the peaceful forrest kingdom. She makes a friend, a human, and they grow very close. However, following the invasion of an army threatening to distrupt the peace where she lives, Maleficent experiences a terrible betrayal in her new friend. Years pass, and he is now king. Still extremely hurt, and bent on revenge, Maleficent decides to place a curse on the king’s new born daughter, Aurora. As Aurora grows, Maleficent finds herself unwittingly growing quite fond of the girl… Well, it certainly puts a whole new spin on the original Sleeping Beauty. I always liked the original. Even now I still enjoy it. The fairy god mothers are great entertainment!! And I like the song " I know you I walked with you once upon a dream... " But I love the new slant this film has brought t...

An anxious and clumsy office worker named Wesley Gibson leads an excruciatingly mundane life. His boss humiliates him by shouting at him at work, while his girlfriend goes behind his back with his colleague and best friend during lunch breaks. Amidst all of this, Wesley has simply lost the will to feel passionate about anything in his life. That is to say, until he meets Fox, a trained assassin who tells him of his estranged father’s recent death and that he must now come with her to follow in his father’s footsteps as one of the greatest assassins of their time, and extract revenge by killing the man who murdered him. Wesley of course hops at the chance of escape from his numbing lifestyle and thus the film takes flight…. This movie was good. It has a brilliant cast including James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, so you know straight away it’ll be something great. I don’t think action movies are really my thing, personally. There was a big scene at the beginning am...

This is a biological portrait of Jane Austen before she was famous and her romance with young Irishman, Tom Lefroy. What I found particularly interesting about this film was the manner in which it opened. Where the credits were appearing one would normally expect to hear some kind of music, but this was just completely silent which I thought was quite effective. In a way it brought about curiousity through a differently creative means. I haven’t seen this done very often so I liked it. I wish I’d known more about Jane Austen before sitting down to watch this film as I probably would have enjoyed it more if I did. Well, that is to say, I did enjoy it, but…I would have had more understanding of the story. I haven’t really watched movies set in this era much, like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or ‘Jane Eyre’, and I wouldn’t really know a whole lot about this time period, (I don’t have the compelling interest) so I have no real frame of reference for comparison. I can just tell you ...

This is a modern tale of romance depicting a young girl born under a curse that gave her the facial features of a pig. The curse can only be broken once she finds true love and someone who will love her faithfully. I’m not entirely sure what to say to this. My initial thought was how clichéd it was probably going to feel being based around the idea of “true love is the only thing to break the spell”, but I was prepared to look past this given that this film is probably aimed at younger viewers anyway(!) *clears throat* I’d never seen it and was curious since it had James McAvoy...   However, as I started watching it, my disgruntlement settled on Penelope’s mother.  I know she may mean well, but the woman is, to some extent, quite horrible. A mother is supposed to love their children no matter what kind of “flaw” or “imperfection” they might be born with but this one just made such a deal out of it, like it was the most awful thing ever! And what’s more, it w...

Leonardo DiCaprio plays sixteen year old rambunctiously self assured poet Arthur Rimbaud, who engages in a forbidden romance with his mentor, another older poet, Paul Verlaine (played by David Thewlis). They soon make a deal to “elope” together, leaving Paul’s younger wife with their recently born child. However, while they enjoy their capriciously free lifestyle initially, things begin to go amiss… Um…I remember I went into this film with more expectations than were met. The trailer appealed to me because they were both writers and to be fair they do cme out with some very thought provoking and likeable lines from their poetry…But I was widely misguided… It’s…a very unique film. I did not care for the characters. I can no longer look at Lupin in Harry Potter in the same way again, since watching David Thewless as the character of Paul. He is portrayed as the most pathetic, horrible person and I found him so aggrivating to watch! (This is not a critism of David Thewlis, he’s...

When Briony (Saoirse Ronan), age 13, sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy), a servant’s son, at the fountain on the family’s estate she misinterprets what is happening. To make her conclusions worse, Briony reads a letter from Robbie intended for Cecilia, ultimatly adding two and two together and getting eight. When her cousin is raped, out of childish and slightly petty jealousy, she falsely tells the police that it was Robbie she saw committing the crime. Her actions seperate the pair and change all their lives in a bigger way than she could ever have known. Based on a novel of the same name by Ian McEwan, and directed by Joe Wright. This is such a stunning film. It really, really is - in every sense. One of my favourite movies definately. I absolutely love it! It’s brilliantly made. Amazingly written. I don’t think any other film has brought out of me quite the same intense reactions. There were moments I found myself actually screamin...

I was intrigued when I heard about this film because of its genres: psychological crime/thriller. However I have to say, I think it is frankly the most confusing film I have ever watched! The plot can be summed up quite neatly though: An art auctioneer (James McAvoy) who has become mixed up with a group of criminals, seeks help from a hypnotherapist as a means of recovering a lost painting. Directed by Danny Boyle, I was looking forward to seeing this film but unfortunately my enjoyment sort of fizzled away a bit after a point. However, that’s not to say there wasn’t impressive moments! Danny Boyle  doesn't  disappoint! I loved James McAvoy’s narration at the beginning, and the shots back and forth to him looking at the camera as though he is in fact talking to you. I felt it pulled me into the film in a far stronger way than just having the action with no narration. The shots coming back and forth to him while narrating pulled me in further as it made it feel more ...