I Love You Phillip Morris

I Love You Phillip Morris

I wasn't too sure what to expect from this movie at first, but after watching it I absolutely loved it.

The film stars;

Jim Carrey as Steven Russell

Ewan McGregor as Phillip Morris

The film is based on a true story, and a book by Steve McVicker called I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Life Story of Life, Love and Prison Breaks, which focuses on the life of con-artist Steven Jay Russell, played by Carrey. 

Jim Carrey gives a truly amazing performance in this film. It starts with Steven lying in a hospital bed talking about love and how "love's the reason I'm laying here dying."
Then the film goes to Stevens, childhood and how he is adopted then quickly moves on to his adult life, with Steven narrating. As an adult Steven is a married 'Christian' man with a wife and daughter, and shows him trying to find his real mother. Then, out of the blue, shows a scene of Steven having sex with a man, with him narrating "Oh, did I forget to mention I'm gay?".

There is a lot of humour in this film, particularly when Steven is a child, laying with his friends in some grass guessing what shapes the clouds look like, and Steven thinks one looks like a mans weiner.

Then, Steven has a car crash which makes him want to start his life over, being the real him with no lies - including being open about the fact he is gay.

Steven starts to go crazy spending money, well by using credit cards, and says "being gay is really expensive". So he becomes a con-man; insurance fraud, credit card fraud, passport fraud, anything to get money.

This is a really funny film, but it is different to the usual funny that Jim Carrey does, e.g. he doesn't do a lot of silly voice or pull stupid faces. This is a serious sort of funny.

It is during Stevens first time in prison when he notices Phillip, and he even lies to him about who he is - telling him that he's an attorney. 

There is an immediate chemistry between them both from the moment they meet, even though Phillip is moving to another unit in the prison that same day.
Even with the pair separated, they write to each other almost everyday.
Then the pair are reunited when Steven manages to get a transfer to Phillips' cell.
The love soon blossoms between the two, then Steven is transferred to another prison as punishment for paying an inmate to beat up another inmate.
Three months later Steven is released from prison and pretends to be a lawyer to get Phillip released early.
The two begin to make a life for each other, with Steven still pretending to be a lawyer, and still by credit card fraud - which Phillip has no idea about. But then Steven decides to stop scamming and create a REAL life for him and Phillip. However, that doesn't last very long.

A great quote from this film, is when Steven is going to play golf with his new boss, so his boss won't know that he's gay, and Phillip says "Golf? Why don't you just eat pussy?" That really made me chuckle. 

Its not long before Steven is caught again and sent back to prison, where he scams his way out and end back in again. And again.

Seeing Jim Carrey in red leather hot pants and fishnet tights is one the greatest things I have ever seen, I mean he has some pins!

Soon, Steven starts to become really poorly, and is told he has A.I.D.S. Then the film goes back to Steven lying in a hospital bed at the beginning of the movie.
But, is the A.I.D.S another lie, or is he telling the truth this time? I'll leave it to you to find out!

My overall rating of this film is 8/10.
It has a really good story line, some really funny scenes, and an amazing performance by Jim Carrey.

Definitely not one too miss. 

The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods

First of all I'd like to say how much I really loved this film, the idea of it an the execution of the film is all fantastic. Also, Joss Whedon is amazing and I do usually love his work; Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Angel are all my favourite TV shows. 

I wasn't to sure what to expect from this movie, as the description for it was somewhat vague. 

Whatever I thought about it , it definitively exceeded any expectations I had.

The main cast in this movie are;

Kristen Connolly as Dana
Chris Hemsworth as Curt

Anna Hutchison as Jules

Fran Kranz as Marty
Jesse Williams as Holden

Bradley Whitford as Hadley
Richard Jenkins as Sitterson

I liked the fact that the only name I really recognised from this was Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor. Sometimes I think it makes a film better if it isn't just full of a major A-list cast. There are some other big name cameo/performances in this movie, by the likes of Sigourney Weaver which I loved.

I was super happy when I saw Amy Acker appear in this movie, who plays Lin, and when I saw Tom Lenk (Ronald the intern) as both appear in Buffy/Angel which made me geek out a little bit. 

The idea of the movie is that there is a facility (government, not really sure) that ritually sacrifices a group of young adults/teens every year worldwide to some ancient gods under the earth to stop them from rising and destroying the world.

The film creates aspects of typical horror movie stuff, by having the basic sort of characters; A 'nerdy'  good girl, the alpha male jock type, the hot blonde, a stoner guy and a somewhat ordinary nice guy.  However, the teens in this movie are not like this at first, they are made to inherit these personality traits by chemicals that have been planted and made by the chem lab within the facility.
The film also has the standard horror film creepy gas station guy, but he is also put there by the facility.

I love everything about this movie, the whole concept of it is a really great, refreshing idea compared to horror movies nowadays.
There is parts of humour in this movie, at the facility, that break up the horror scenes, specially the 'fun' parts where the facility workers place bets on what type of monster/demon the teens will awaken. It creates suspense for the audience too, when they are in the cellar looking at all these strange items, not knowing which one of them will awaken something, and what they will awaken.

Hadley and Sitterson try to somewhat justify sacrificing these people by saying that it is there own free will. They admit they rig it, but only so far, that the teens choose the outcome; it was their choice to ignore the creepy gas station guy, who they say 'practically wears a sign, 'YOU WILL DIE' '', it is there choice to go in the cellar and mess with the items down there etc.

The beginning of the film has a real 'The Evil Dead' vibe about it; 5 young friends going to a remote cabin, a cellar door randomly flying open, strange things in the cellar, and the incantations to awaken the ghouls.

Also, there is a certain system that has to be followed, they all have to die in a certain order. The 'virgin' is an optional death, but if she does die, as long as she dies last.
The order they die is also controlled by Hadley and Sitterson.
The first death scene is great. Hadley and Sitterson encourage Jules and Curt to have sex by previously changing their character traits, changing the temperature in the woods so Jules no longer feels cold, and even by changing the lighting so they can see. They also do this to not only encourage sex, but to make Jules take off her shirt and get naked, which is important to the ritual - sticking to basic horror movie 'rules' that if you get naked and have sex, you will die.
The actual death part of the scene is great too because it isn't to gorey and doesn't show you every aspect of the death, but still shows parts that make the scene scary. Which is unlike most horror films today, where they rely on quantity of the gore rather than the quality of the story line.

After the first death, you can see in Hadley and Sittersons' faces that they are really disturbed by the deaths of these people, and really with what they are doing, even if it is what's best for the world. It is as though the betting and fun they had earlier was just a way for them to escape the horrifying reality of what they are doing.

As previously mentioned the virgin death is optional, and it looks as though Dana is about to die when she is fighting one of the Buckner zombies - but I like the fact that Hadley says he is actually rooting for Dana to win, which does show that he doesn't enjoy watching these people die, but that they have to in order for everyone else to survive, so the fact he wants Dana to survive really shows that he isn't really a bad person.
Also, I love that Dana isn't a virgin, but they say "we work with what we have" after all, it is the 21st Century!

My favourite scene in this film starts with Marty and Dana in the elevator, and they start to see the other monsters that are 'locked in' waiting to be awakened/called. This is when Dana realises that they were made to choose how they would die.  But the best part of this scene is when Dana releases all the monsters into the facility, the security gunmen are silent, then you hear a 'ping' of the elevator then bloodshed ensues. It is truly a great scene, every time you hear the 'ping' of the elevator you realise there are more monsters waiting to fill there blood lust.

Hadley's death is amazing and incredibly ironic, as he was previously going on about how disappointing he was that they hadn't awoken the merman, and how it would've been better with it.

I really love the appearance of Sigourney Weaver towards the end, as she is a true horror/sci-fi legend, which I felt brought a iconic feel the the film. 

The ending of the movie is weird, as you want Marty & Dana to live through it, but then again you don't want the 'ancient ones' to rise and destroy the world, as that would also kill Dana and Marty. So a mix of emotions ran through me at this point.  I don't want to say too much about the ending as I don't want to spoil it!

Overall, I give this film a 9/10.

The acting performances throughout the film were great, and the original idea of the movie is truly fantastic and a refreshing change to the basic horror story.
Definitely the best in its genre I've seen in a long time. 

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer

The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom, and Zoey Deschanel as Summer.

I only first watched (500) Days of Summer a few months ago, when I was highly bored in my diggs and had generally nothing better to do.
My expectations of this film were pretty low, as much as I loved Zoey Deschanel, I'm not one for 'love story' type films which I thought this was.
How wrong I was.
With one line in the narrative introduction of the movie being "...you should know upfront, this in not a love story".
Even after hearing this line i still wasn't overly convinced that it wasn't a typical boy-meets-girl romantic movie. After all, the opening scene was of day 488 and the pair touching hands, with Summer wearing a wedding ring.

I felt this film was the opposite to the average romantic comedy drama movie, as it was the male (Tom) that was the protagonist of the film. Tom is the one who strongly believes in love, who becomes obsessed with Summer, a girl who doesn't believe in love, or labels such as 'girlfriend', opposed to the traditional 'norm' of these genres of movies being the female who is looking for love, falling for the guy.
I really liked the start of this film, by it starting with the couple breaking up.
The film then goes back to day one, when Tom met Summer and his love for her began.

The line "Why is it pretty girls think they can treat people like crap and get away with it?" spoken by Tom, brought a little smirk to my face as generally women think the same about guys, that the really hot ones tend to be assholes.

I found it a little strange that Zoey wasn't a highly likable character in this film, compared to the majority of her movies where she plays a lead character, and also that she isn't her usual quirky self. However I did feel that that fit better with her character of being somewhat an antagonist in this film.
Elements of quirkiness were there when relaying jokes and humour in the film. Whether this was down to the script or director, or whether it was the actors themselves I don't know, but I like to think that it was the actors.
When watching the days before the break-up, I sort of forgot that they broke up! I got so caught up in the romance between the too in the beginning of the 'relationship' that I had entirely forgotten that they do eventually broke up. Which had my mind wondering all sorts about what could make them break up because they seemed so great together, specially in the Ikea scene. 

I have a few favourite scenes in this movie. The first one being when Tom and Summer are at a bar for a works do, of which there is karaoke. Tom is pretty drunk by this point and is heckled/encouraged by Summer to get up and sing. Before this point the only other film I remember Joseph from was 10 Things I Hate About You, and I was unaware he could actually sing. Sure is this scene he cant sing great as his character is drunk, but you realise he can definitely carry a tune. After watching this film I surfed around on Youtube and found a duet of Zoey and Joseph which I absolutely fell in love with! He has such a great voice.
(Watch it Here)


One of my favourite quotes in the movie comes from Paul (Toms friend) and Tom himself, which goes like this;
Paul : "Did you bang her?"
Tom: "No."
Paul: "What, humjob?"
Tom: "No."
Paul: "Handjob?"
Tom: "Mane, no. No jobs, I'm still unemployed."

It may not sound as funny out of context, but when watching the film I found it quite laugh worthy. 

Another one of my favourite scenes is on Day 34, when Tom and Summer are walking around in Ikea, and are pretending to be a husband and wife in their own home. I found this scene really cute, and made me think like Tom, that they are perfect for each other. It also made me want to go to Ikea and do exactly the same thing! At the end of this scene I had all sorts of questions running around in my head, as Summer holds Toms hand. I was thinking, "Does this mean she has feelings for him? Is she falling for him?". 
But my favourite scene is the one that follows Day 34 (Ikea scene). The pair have just had sex and Tom walks to work with the biggest smile on his face, and with a general 'lust for life' attitude. Then he goes into a dance number to Hall & Oates 'You Make My Dreams Come True'. It truly is a spectacular scene in the movie, and it really expresses his happiness, in a way that words cant describe, of how he feels about the fact he has finally got the girl of his dreams. The video for the dance number is Here if you care to watch it.

The days, in this film, don't go in order. For example, following the dance of scene of day 35 is day 303. I loved this about the film as one minute a scene would be really happy and romantic, then in a second its a day after the break up where Tom is really depressed and melancholy. This aspect of the movie really toyed with my emotions with using such quick transitions between extremities of emotion. 

I felt Joseph's performance in this film was great, specially during the post break-up scenes showing the emotional downfall of his character, showing him falling further and further into misery and depression, and how it starts to ruin his life.

The scene of expectations vs. reality is such a great scene. I just loved the idea of splitting the screen to show how different things can turn out compared to how you want them to, and imagine them to go. 

I felt this image was really strong in the movie, as he is standing alone with everything around him erased. The lyric 'no-one gets it all' plays alongside this image, and it is at a part when his entire world has just been shattered. I felt it was a really emotional part in the movie as you really empathise and sympathise with Tom at this point more than any. 

I don't want to say too much about the end of this film, because I don't want to give to much away! But it was a really strange scene in a sense that i had mixed emotions. I still felt sorry for Tom, but at the same time I felt happy, as he had gotten his life back on track and was happy himself again.
I also loved the moment on the bench, where the pair seem to exchange roles and swap beliefs, in a sense, compared to the beginning of the movie. 

My overall rating for this film is 7/10: 
I thought the acting from both Joseph and Zoey were brilliant, which was aided by a good storyline with added quirkiness. A different take on the normal romantic comedy and a joy to watch. 

Note: A fun little added bonus is a video of Zoey and Joseph dancing to one of her songs, which was also made by Mark Webb, who directed (500) Days of Summer. You can watch it Here