The Other Boleyn Girl- Rating ✰✰✰


Produced and Distributed by Universal, this film features; Natalie Portman,  Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana,and is WAY better than the BBC TV version based on Phillipa Gregory's novel.

It is based on the much untold story of Anne Boleyn's Young sister Mary, that alot of people don't know about.
Its a tale of sex, scandal, and lies. Mary Boleyn seems the much nicer sister whom Henry VIII had alot of respect for, interestingly as he didn't have alot of respect for many people.
I have to say Anne Boleyn comes across as a nasty character in the film; she is terribly jealous of her younger sister Mary for getting married before her and most of all for being in the kings bed first. Anne appears a rebel as she secretly marries Henry Percy and then when the king takes an interest in her, she denies all knowledge of having done so. After being sent to France she comes back a changed character and has learnt many ways of seducing men over there. She uses these new found tactics to seduce the king and eventually become Queen herself. This hurts her sister Mary who has subcutaneously fell in love with the king at this point.
Not a happy ending, i think anyone who knows anything about history knows how this story ends. However im not sure that many people know the story of Anne's sister Mary. At the end of the film i couldn't help but think that perhaps Mary would have been better off marrying the king. In effect the Boleyn's family ambitions cost them 2 children.

Worth a watch to anyone in my opinion not just a history story but a story of scandal, gossip and dynasty.  

Bad Teacher- Rating ✰✰✰

True comedy. Cameron Diez plays a very lazy teacher that doesn't pay any attention to the kids. She only decides to pay attention when she discovers that the state test provides a prize for the teacher’s class who gets the best results in the state, of $5,700. Which is very conveintient for her as she has been trying to raise money for her boob job?  She likes the look of one of her male co-workers but gets into a tough competition with the female teacher across the hall (Miss Squirrel) to win his love.
She uses her unorthodox ways to help her class cheat on the state test, will she get caught? The films plot can get a bit slow and repetitive. In the end the teacher is a changed character, for the better. The movie is light watching, funny and a laugh. At times it can be too silly, very unrealistic, and stupid. This just spoils it! There is also some swearing used in the movie which is not needed, appropriate or realistic in a middle school environment. Some sexual references, not too explicit but really not needed.
Worth a watch. Cover your ears though!

The Women - Rating ✰✰

Near enough a complete copy of Paramount Pictures 'Sex and the city'.  Not a bad film to be fair. The character resemble the Sex and the City characters, for instance the main character has big curly hair like Carrie, one is sex mad like Samantha and another is a bit dizzy like Charlotte. I felt like i was watching a sex and the city Movie but with different actresses init. However the film represents everyday women and everyday problems they face. Worth a watch. I just guess i am all for 'original' new ideas. 

The Time Travellers Wife- Rating ✰✰ and 1/2



Interesting Plot to begin with. A couple struggle to do things that normal couples do, like spend holidays together, get married and have kids. They struggle as the husband is constantly disappearing due to his uncontrollable ability to travel through time. However as they grow older things get more difficult, the wife falls pregnant many times yet cannot deliver the baby because they inherit the ability to time travel from their father and they travel before they are born. A Smart doctor eventually helps them have a baby. However this isn't the end of their problems because the time traveller keeps appearing to die aged 40, can they prevent this? Will he and his wife grow old together?
A predictable ending without much meaning. Could have been far more exciting and i feel the producers didn't maximise the experience that this film has to offer to its audience.
Good start and middle, Poor ending.

Mrs Brown- Rating ✰✰✰✰

From the title you wouldn't guess that this film is based on queen Victoria's later life, (unless you had background history knowledge). The film is good to watch after the young Victoria, as you find it almost follows on in telling you what happens to Victoria after her husband died.
In the fillm Victoria seems a lost soul in comparison to her younger days. It is interesting how a common Scottish man named John Brown (played by Billy Connolly) could bring her out of her darkest days.The film is humerus in many ways and brings social surprises that you wouldn't expect in those days, for example John Brown referes to Victoria as 'Woman', nobody else in the royal household would have got away with this. He becomes a companion a friend and most of all for the queen a comfort blanket. However what the royal household are asking and the British public is 'how long will this friendship really last? Will Victoria eventually cast him away, as any monarchs did with commoners those days?'.
I personally understood how Victoria behaved in her later days. She wasnt slacking on her duty's, she was totally grief stricken. Unfortuneatly the film doesn't quite have the happy ending i would have hoped for.However it is based on a true story and true stories don't usually have happy endings. John Brown Died before her and she reigned for 18 years after that. Becoming Britain's longest reigning monarch (maybe our Lizzy will take her over eh?).
Again not a film for everyone however if you are interested in this type of genre i would reccomend it. I may even (dare i say it) go as far as saying that this film is better than the all glittery blockbuster 'The young Victoria'.

Sex and the City the Movie- Rating ✰✰✰✰

A story of the ever predictable Carrie and Mr Bigs wedding. Not surprisingly Big gets cold feet just before the wedding, however her trusty girlfriends are always on hand to bail her out. Charlotte finally gets the blue line that she has always wanted, however she becomes extremely scared that the blue line will turn into a dark cloud. As for poor old Miranda , she encounters her own marriage problems that may not be able to be fixed. Even the ever confident, 'i don't fall in love' Samantha finds herself in a tricky situation regarding her relationship with Smith Gerard.  The film shows how friendship is a key to survival and shows the importance of being faithful in friendships to each other.
A nice happing ending that everyone wants to happen.
All in all a good laugh! 

My Sisters Keeper- Rating ✰✰✰✰



Based on a true story, this film explains how a family struggle to come to terms with their young daughter’s cancer. It is a very sad film yet a very good film. A young girl named Katy has been battling with cancer all her life and her parents have done everything they can in order to save her life. They even had a 'genetically designed baby' that would in effect be a 'donor baby' to save Katie’s life. However when this baby is 11 and is no longer a baby, she decides that she no longer wants to have her body parts taken out of her to donate to her sister. So when they ask her to donate her kidney to her sister, she refuses. She makes sure that they won’t trick her into donating her body parts like they did when she was younger by employing a top lawyer to take her parents to court to put a law suite against them for the rights to her own body.
The films plot has been made incredibly clear by the producers’ as they used a multistrand narrative between the characters in the opening sequence. The opening sequence has every man character narrating to the audience from a first person point of view about how Kate’s cancer affects them personally.
If you haven’t already then i would say yep! Get the tissues out! This film is a real tearjerker!
However what i do like about the film is that is includes a lot of flashbacks into Kate’s life and shows what she has managed to do despite her cancer. It shows that she did get to have some sort of a normal teenage life when she gets her first boyfriend Taylor. The love story between Taylor and Katie is one of the best parts of the film.
After the explanation through the flashbacks of a small part of Kate’s life so far; at first sight you would think that the sister refusing to donate her kidney to the dying girl, is just plain selfish!
However don’t take everything at face value during this film, everything is not as it seems!
The only problem with the film is that it can get repetitive with them always arguing over the issue of whether Ana (the younger sister), will donate the kidney or not. The film tells some of Kate’s life; however it mainly focuses on Ana's law suit. I felt it should have concentrated more on Kate’s story than the family’s arguments. i would have liked to have seen more of her love story with Taylor and i would have liked to have known how she coped with normal things like school etc. Also was she jealous of her little sister being healthy? I felt the film didn’t explore that category well enough.
A good film, emotional. It makes us realise how lucky we are!

Sex and the City 2- Rating ✰✰✰✰ and 1/2 

This time the girls are on a fabulous holiday to Abu Dhabi, which is a male dominated society. This is naturally a harsh environment for a bunch of feisty strong american women. There acceptance of the culture over there proves to be harder than they once thought.
Once again Big and Carrie encounter problems in their relationship and marriage this time. Big predictably gets his USUAL attack of cold feet. After all his feet are like ice blocks. However what's different this time is that Carrie finds herself in a touch of trouble regarding being faithful (which isnt like the usual Carrie). Will they resolve things?
Also Charlotte struggles to trust her husband with the new nanny.
The holiday seems perfect at first, however the girls soon get into a tricky situation because of Samantha's sexual openness, which is not appreciated in the middle-east. The question is, can the girls bail each other out of this trouble yet again?
The best of the Sex and the City material in my opinion. Its not just a fun, comedy, silly one big joke style, about men, women and sex. This Movie has true meaning and tackles the issue of the changing patriarchal (male dominating) society, whilst being just as hilarious as all the other Movie's and material.    

Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1- Rating ✰✰✰✰✰

The film had a good plot synopsis. It is the first half of 2 consecutive films, for the final version of 'The Twilight Saga'. Based on a fantastic book by  Stephenie Meyer, the film puts the audience in the middle of a love triangle between Edward, Bella and Jacob.
The film is a rollercoaster of emitions and displays celebrations but yet encounters near tragedies at times. You are constantly left on the end of your seat asking 'what happens next?'. It also leaves enigma codes (Bathes) for the next film. Will Bella adjust to her new life as a vampire? Now that Jacob has imprinted on her child, how will she react? Will Charlie find out of Bella's new identity? How about her child, How will the Volturi and the wolfs react to  what they think is an 'Immortal child'?.
Personally the film left me 'hooked' and anxiously anticipating what the next one will bring. I recommend this film highly. 

Closer - Rating 0/5 ✰'s 

Not very good at all. A hard plot to follow. Some explicit sexual references and actions. Not suitable for family watching. Cringe worthy to watch. A strange and complicated ending which is not suggested to the audience throughout the course of the film. Good actors init (Natalie Portman, Jude law, Julia Roberts). Surprised they acted in such a poor film. 

The Young Victoria- Rating ✰✰✰

This film aims to explain to the audience the early life of Queen Victoria. Many people (me included), have a misconception of Victoria from the bad press she got as queen in her later life, (due to her mourning over the loss of her husband). However the film shows that Victoria was an ambitious strong young lady who had every intention of being a good queen to her people and helping those who were less well off in society. Her plans got overshadowed by the loss of her husband though.
At first i found the Movie slightly hard to follow, but luckily i had my mum on hand with a big of background history information to explain it. You find some interesting facts out from the film, for instance did you know Victoria was the first monarch to live in Buckingham palace? (near did i! and i do A level history!)
The film addresses her life's love stories and relationships. The prime minister appears to be a good ally to the queen at first however we soon find out that he is taking advantage of the young queen for his own political gains. Her husbands uncle is also trying to put pressure on them for his own country's gains. Will he disturb the piece?. It also leaves an enigma to the audience of 'how will Victoria cope without Albert (when he dies) ?'.

True enough this film isn't for everyone, as not everyone is not into period drama and historic Movie's, however if you are, i would definitely say its worth a watch.  

Shaw Shank Redemption- Rating  ✰✰✰✰✰

Featuring Morgan Freeman, this film revolves around a prison and its inmates. It shows that some men adjust to prison life so much so that they become to depend on it and eventually don’t want to leave. However one man who doesn’t adjust well to prison life is the smart ex-banker Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins). Andy's prison experience is not what a normal experience would be to most men. He is a 'Favourite' of the prison guards because he knows how to help them fiddle taxes. He also becomes a sort of 'inmate banker' for the guards by setting up their savings accounts for them. Andy is rewarded for his hard work, by being allowed to set up a library, write applications to prison boards for more funding for the library but most of all to Andy’s pleasure the governor allows him to have posters in his cell of the pin up girls at the time such as Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Raquel Welch .What the governor doesn’t know is that by allowing Andy to have the posters he is actually allowing him to work on his escape. Andy was falsely accused of murdering his wife and isn’t prepared to spend his life behind bars for it. So Andy decides to make his escapee.
The film does show the injustice and corruption of how the prison guards were allowed to treat the inmates in those days. It shows how things have changed to the present day in the western democratic world. Prison guards wouldn’t be allowed to get away with it now days. It has funny, sad and happy parts to it. It does have a slight fantasy element to it with the guards ultimately getting there comeuppance. I’m not sure that would happen in real life. It’s not quite the ending that you would expect. The film does get slightly repetitive at times and i personally found it very long, running time 142 minutes.
One of the best movies of all time.
It’s a must see.

Charlie and the chocolate factory - The new version - Rating  ✰✰✰✰✰

Based on the ever famous Roald Dahl’s  novel. This film features some good actors such as Johnny Depp (Playing Willy Wonka) and Helena Bonham Carter (Charlie’s mother). The new version of this film is truly fantastic. Without spoiling too much of it for you, the basic plot follows that a Strange chocolate factory owner (Willy Wonka) decides to allow 5 lucky people a chance to look into the factory that has not been open to the public for many years. He does this through the pursuit of 'Golden Tickets', whereby the tickets could be hidden in any Wonka bar in any store anywhere and only 5 people will get one. Not only that but he will offer a special prize to one of the 5 lucky winners.
Meanwhile a little boy named Charlie from a poor family gets his hopes up that he will be able to get a golden ticket. However he only receives one Wonka bar a year for his birthday due to his family’s poor wealth. Secretly Charlie’s Grandpa Joe would like him to win a golden ticket too as he used to work at Willy Wonka’s factory as a younger man and hopes to return again as Charlie guardian. Things change for Charlie and he discovers that all is not as it seems regarding Willy Wonka and his factory. Even the 'special prize' at the end has its catches. Will it be the happy ending that Charlie wants? Also will Willy Wonka get the happy ending that he has so longed for?
The special effects during the film are fantastic (especially when they are inside the factory). The film includes humour regarding some of the characters eg.  Augustus Gloop falling in the chocolate river. What i also personally found good about the film is that it sticks to the plot synopsis of the book, whilst in the old film the scene where Veruca Salt gets taken away down the squirrel shoot for trying to steal one of the squirrels, had been replaced with her getting taken down a hen shoot for trying to steal one of their 'golden eggs'. Roald Dahl Unsurprisingly wasn’t very happy with this. Johnny Depp plays an excellent part as Willy Wonka, quite a bizarre character actually (as always the bizarre character is played by Johnny Depp, directed by Tim Burton and involves Helena Bonham Carter somewhere acting in the film).

What this film got me to think, which the old film failed to do was 'is Willy Wonka really nice person?'. He seems to know what is going to happen to the kids as they get taken out of the factory because the Umpa Lumpa's have rehearsed songs especially for the occasions. So i was questioning 'is Willy Wonka responsible for the children encountering temptations which they couldn’t resist leading them to problems?'. Did Willy Wonka plan these temptations deliberately for the children, so they would get into accidents? In the old film he just comes across as weird but nice, too nice. Rather as the new Willy Wonka comes across as weird and hard to work out. A bit more like you would imagine a strange character like Willy Wonka to act.
All in all i cannot fault the film, its better than the old one. It has some great actor’s init and some that are unknown but the mix works well. The opening sequence introducing the actors has fantastic special effects which are also used through the course of the film. Also the musical sequences are fantastic and everything works well.
Great for all ages, all people and all cultures. Not offensive to anyone and everyone can relate to the plot and the characters because there is such a range of characters in the film. It challenges the stereotypes and differences between people regarding their wealth power and positions in the social hierarchy of society. However it does show that good honest and nice people do prevail as the winners in the end. There is no place for nasty people. Tim Burton acts as an auteur representing his own ideology of what a perfect world would look like to him.
A true piece of art by Tim Burton, he has managed to take an old classic and revive it into a new blockbuster by putting his own twist on the fantastic novel by Roald Dahl.
Fantastic!
5/5 Rating