#cineworld cinemas

'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' by Matt Ferguson.

FREE poster exclusively available by booking UK Cineworld tickets for 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' in IMAX, 4DX or ScreenX between May 9th and May 12th.

1 x exclusive poster per person to collect in-cinema, subject to availability.

Well, well, well it's been a long time hasn't it!

I'm so sorry for neglecting this blog but so many things have been going on that I have been forced to make cut backs in areas I probably shouldn't have! But I'm making more time for me now, so in the words of Emperor Kuzco 'I'm back baby!'

Just a quick mention as well, I started up a sister blog for my Disney content which is a wee bit more active than this one, if you fancy a look into the mind of a Disney obsessed weirdo then go take a look at lozdoesdisney on Instagram!

What a brilliant film to come back to the world of reviews with! I have waited so long for new Ghostbusters content, as I'm sure has everybody else, and honestly I wasn't disappointed at all.

STOP NOW IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS!

ALRIGHTY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

So we are approximately 30 years after the original Ghostbusters movie. Egon has recently passed away and we meet his family who he had left behind in both senses of that phrase. Focus is primarily on his Granddaughter Phoebe, she looks like him, she acts like him, and she's a bloody badass, no wonder she is our leading lady.

Now what I disliked about the first half of the movie is the fact that the Spengler kin have basically disowned Egon due to his absence. They claim not to have known him and painted him in a very negative light. I find this unbelievable, obviously the plot point is he ran away to make everyone safe from the wrath of Gozer and that is in keeping with his character, and I know that Callie is only saying that rightfully as any upset daughter would if you want to blame someone for leaving without understanding why. But surely she knew enough, especially as she knew who her dad was, to know he wouldn't have left her in the lurch in cold blood? Whatever.

The other bit which doesn't sit right with me is the fact that I didn't see Slimer once. He is an integral part of the GB brand and unless I missed it he wasn't in it for a second.

Otherwise I found the narrative quite compelling and entertaining. Seemed a little slow but that was purely down to needing to set an accurate picture of where we are and who we are with or else the explosive ending wouldn't have been nearly as climactic as it was.

I was due to see Afterlife on opening night but went out to a work meal instead so I was absolutely chomping at the bit Friday and booked the last screening. My poor brother got dragged along but he enjoyed it just as much as I did. High praise indeed especially as he has only seen the first film. I found myself explaining some relevant plot points in the car on the way home, like the fact Egon didn't have any dialogue was because Harold Ramis had died in real life, he didn't realise that was the reason we were missing a Ghostbuster, nor that was the reason I was bauling my eyes out during the final sequence. Goddamn Ghostbusters had no business making me cry like that.

I felt the dynamic between Phoebe and Trevor was lacking a little, the few times they interacted didn't overly seem like they were siblings until we started moving towards the end. There isn't much of an age difference between them for the movie but a huge difference in personality, but even then I thought I would see some bickering or teasing but instead it was straight up indifference and awkward interactions. My brother and I are awkward with each other, but it's usually followed up by a gesture of niceness or straight up sibling rivalry, we didn't see that on screen.

Gary and Callie on the other hand, woah. Get me a romance like that, banterships are the new mascots of healthy relationships and those two are onto a win. They are totally themselves and don't hide it, and Gary already loves the kids so he's a winner, not to mention the fact that he is a straight up nice guy (as expected from Paul Rudd) and Callie deserves some stability and true love like that. My only grievance with Rudd's character is his polar opposites. He did a great job of combining scientist with hot sorority guy but seemed a bit off. I got dick vibes as he was marching around that Walmart and putting horror films on for 12 year olds, he seemed like the stereotypical American jerk type but then has this great brain and amazing personality. Great this shows a depth as don't judge a book by it's cover and all, but still a weird thing as I felt like I was watching two different characters depending on the plot device. I feel like Gary is the type of guy to go smoke weed in his car on his lunch break only to go home and smash out an award winning thesis on tectonic plates and it's involvement in paranormal happenings.

What I loved most about this film is the parallel it draws to the first movie. Gozer, the gate keeper and key master. The dialogue which is repeated in those crucial scenes. The costumes, the set. They were bloody faithful to the original and god the nostalgia was killing me. This was a movie dedicated to the memory on our childhood and surpassed expectations at every point. I had an idea of what I was walking into and I was wrong. I thought I was going to see a film with a new threat, a tribute to our boys AND gals but more so a wave at a memory but moving on to a totally new story and the inevitable breaking up of a team in order to pass the mantle. I was not expecting a completely valid continuation of story, a beautiful ending, a team united to include, NOT pass on to the next gen, and a chance to worship and say goodbye at the same time. This was a creation worthy of our time, this was brilliantly done.

I'm not going to go too much into the ending as that is one spoiler too many and I'd be pissed if I had read it on the internet 3 days after the film's release. But what I will say is yes the heroes return in all their glory. Wasn't as long as I wished it could have been, but it was just as awesome and left me with the intense desire to binge watch the original movies the second I got home. It also broke my heart, the apologies which I know from research on all the actors extend to the real world and things they wished they could have said but never got the chance, the tribute to my favourite Ghostbuster and the fact the film hadn't even finished and it stated his dedication. I was a mess, I sat there sobbing silently for a good ten minutes and my poor baby brother had no idea why until I explained. With this in mind I implore you to go and see this movie especially if you are a fan, just for closure if anything else. It was a final nostalgic trip to pay respects and say goodbye to our childhood heroes. As let's face it, even if you weren't a kid from the 80s Ghostbusters have still found a way to enter the lives of every single person here to date. The movies are a legacy which here here to stay.

All in all, I give Ghostbusters: Afterlife an 8/10. If I am being truly honest with myself it was a little disjointed, a teensy bit rushed, but completely sugar coated by nostalgia so nobody minds. In my humble opinion it was not long enough to fit in all the pieces and I would have loved to see more of the original team, but it wasn't about them, not really. But I sure am happy with what we got.

Just finally I want to talk about sequel potential. We've got an open ending where naturally more films could come. But these would be films for the new generation of Ghostbusters and this is the reason I am in two minds. I full believe the mantle should be passed and the legacy continues. But at the same time I don't want it to, this is perfect as it is, this should be a stop, we have said goodbye in a fitting way as we are all grown. I just don't want the magic to be spoilt but at the same time would love an expansion. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this. I just don't think it would be right to have a future in this universe without the original team.

So during my christmas stint in November I also viewed yet another remake of the classic green Scrooge, Mr Grinch.

I’m not going to lie, as with a lot of remakes I was reluctant to see it, in my personal opinion nothing will ever beat Jim Carrey’s version but it was worth a go.

I have to say I did quite like it. There I said it. However I was really disappointed that a lot of things from the trailers that I have seen many, many, many times that did not seem to make it into the film that I viewed that night. Obviously the stereo would replace ‘Happy’ with a christmas song, but why did we need to dub over the lady with the jam with an overly fake British accent?

Anyway, it was a decent take of the story we are all familiar with, and it has a decent modern day spin on it, with Cindy-lou being proactive and her mum being widowed with 2 or 3 kids and making it on her own however hard. It was empowering and really needed in a feel good time of this kind of year.

The Grinch didn’t seem to be as nasty or bad spirited as previously depicted so a bit of the magic was lost there, there was just an overhang of depressing and yet oh so realistic childhood trauma being the reason the Grinch isn’t so jolly at christmas. 

Hello Tumblr, I do apologise I said I would complete my reviews and then I never came back, oops!

So to set the record straight here we go….

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween was a feel good family film, with cheesy jokes and cheesy visuals, basically one of those films you put on for the kids and see snippets of because the rest of it doesn’t really make sense. So I viewed this on Halloween which made it seem better but that was probably the effects of the holiday, you want cheesy spooks to get you in the mood.

What annoys me is they didn’t credit Jack Black. Jack Black was very visibly in it, and he even voiced Slappy the Dummy, which makes me happy due to the rumours he wasn’t in it at all but I still feel he deserved a mention.

I feel like having a whole new cast was a bold move and one that worked, but  this film just seems like it was better suited as an original tv movie on nickelodeon rather than a cinematic spectacular. It just seemed like a waste of talent because the acting was brilliant but the story let it down and you could tell it was low budget, by all means low budgets normally produce the best stories but this was not the case.

The gummy monsters were fun, the dummy was fun, the superstore full of monsters was a nice touch it just didn’t hold any magic which was a shame, as although the first film wasnt *that* great it was still far better as a Stine adaptation.

I want to start this review off with complete honesty. I didn’t like Wreck It Ralph all that much so as you can imagine I wasn’t that thrilled when the sequel came out, but as I’m still on my Disney quest even though I have now been to Disneyland (if all goes to plan I will go again in 2019) I decided to give it a go.

I don’t know if it was because of the way I was feeling that day but the very obvious themes of anxiety and confidence issues actually made me cry and leads to to conclude that I didn’t like this film very much at all. I appreciate the effort to include these very real problems but I don’t feel like they were handled very well at all, the fact Ralph’s insecurity was exploited so visually and he was belittled and turned into a literal monster because of this was almost traumatising. I know this was supposed to be away to address these themes and show everyone they understand and give people who suffer and outlet and something to relate to and what not but bringing up those issues so abruptly and displaying them so forcefully was wrong. But again, maybe that was just how I was feeling that day.

What I did like about the film was the references to everything else, the Disney empire, the Princess’ scene was excellent, the Stormtroopers and Stan Lee cameo again added such a surreal feel to the film, it made it seem so familiar.

The other themes expressed were decent enough, the acute separation anxiety Ralph showed before the monster ending seemed like a nicer way to address something so real. Vanellope wanted more, she wanted new, but her fit with Ralph didn’t seem convincing after all, and Ralph didn’t seem like Ralph, we knew he had existential issues after the previous film, and he coped by putting such a strain on V’s shoulders and maybe this is what drove them apart and to be so different. I just wasn’t that keen. But it was nice to see the bonds grow between the other characters, and to see life beyond the games progress, but I feel like this could have been better explored in some Disney shorts rather than a film that made me sad.

So it is now a while ago that I watched this refreshing tale. Twas a day full of christmas films in November for me, I had Hallmark movies on the telly in the morning and watched The Nutcracker and The Grinch at the cinema in the afternoon.

I have to say this was a magical film to watch, even though it isn’t technically a christmas film it definitely felt like it had brought the spirit home early. I experienced the magic of the realms there with Clara and I had my own adventure there and then in the cinema.

I have to say although the twists were obvious they were still quite fun, let us just say that Mother Ginger isn’t who/what they say she is and Sugar Plum is so overly sweet she soon turns rotten. Also, tin soldiers are creepy af...

The only major thing that bugged me about this film is how annoying Keira Knightly’s voice was pushed to be, I get it, high and sweet but there was a limit and I preferred the deeper tone in her darkest scenes. I also had an issue with how rushed the end few scenes seemed to be, there’s nothing wrong with a few more minutes of screen time to make it flow better and that is all it needed.