The Reel Life of Real Life

This is one of the best films out there. Set in the 1940s, his amazing adaptation of Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, centres on Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who has been accused of killing his wife and her estranged lover, is sent to Shawshank Prison with two life sentences – one for each of “his” victims. Andy is a quiet and unassuming person and once at the prison keeps to himself mostly. However, he soon gains the respect of his other inmates and befriends Red (Morgan Freeman), the prison ‘fixer’. Throughout his time in prison Andy keeps hold of his unquenchable hope showing us there are two choices: “Either get busy living, or get busy dying”. I remember the first time I watched this film a few years ago. Mum and Dad had been telling me it was once to watch for a while. I knew there was something good about it when Mum was recommending it since this was really not a genre she would normally insist upon viewing. So I sat down with them a...

Whether we’ve seen the movie or not, we all know the story! Following the thoughtless unkind remarks made by a prince to an enchantress, as ironic punishment she curses him to spend his days as a beast, a curse which may only be broken once he has found someone to love and who loves him in return. However, there is a catch. He must find the person before the final petal falls from an enchanted rose that would bloom until his 21 st birthday. But who could ever learn to love a beast? Years later, Maurice, an inventor from a nearby village, becomes lost in the woods and seeks shelter in the Beast’s castle but rather than helping him, the Beast imprisons him for trespassing. Maurice’s daughter, Belle, a bookworm who dreams of a life beyond this village, finds him trapped in the castle and offers to take his place instead. The Beast accepts with a promise she’ll remain in the castle forever. At first Belle views the Beast as nothing more than a cold-hearted monster, while he views h...

This film takes place before Charles Xavior and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto. We go back to a time when they were just discovering their powers for the first time, and a time before they were archenemies, but instead close friends working together with other Mutants to stop a terrible threat to the world. During this process however, a rift between them surfaces, thus beginning the war between Magneto’s Brotherhood, and Professor X’s X-Men. Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholous Hoult and Kevin Bakon. I feel a bit ashamed given I’m a big fan of James McAvoy and I hadn’t actually watched any of the X-Men movies until a few months ago. And his role as Charles Xavior seems to be the one he’s most well known for... So if there are people reading this who are already huge fans of this series, you’ll have to excuse my ignorance a bit in this review since I’m writing it off of my first viewing with no particular background kno...

Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are two hitmen who are out to retrieve a suitcase stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Marcellus has also asked Vincent to take his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out a few days later when he himself will be out of town. Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) is an aging boxer who is paid by Marcellus to lose his next fight. The lives of these seemingly unrelated people are woven together in an intricately clever script comprising of a series of funny though occasionally bizarre incidents. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The first time I admit I wasn’t mad about this film because I just found it so bloody confusing and so had to watch it again to try and follow what the hell was going on. The time-frame is a little muddled. It switches from one story to the other, but despite my initial disgruntlement, having watched it a few more times since then, I do see the brilliance of its s...

Once upon a time in a swamp far, far away there lived an ogre named Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers), who very much likes his solitude lifestyle. When his swamp suddenly becomes bombarded by fairy tale creatures, Shrek sets out to find Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow) to amend this annoying predicament – with the help of an extremely loud-mouthed but fun loving donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) who Shrek meets on the way. A deal is made: Farquaad, who wants to become King, sends Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz) who is trapped in a lonely tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon until her “true love” can come to break the spell that was placed on her as an infant. On the journey back however, Shrek, an ugly ogre, begins to fall in love with Fiona, who, it becomes apparent, is hiding a big secret of her own… Shrek is actually based on a children’s book by William Steig of the same title (I’d always assumed it was an original movie, so I found that particul...