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Reviews
Kids in Love (2016)
Will Poulter Graduates From The School of Comedy
Having watched Kids In Love last night, and quite enjoyed it, I thought I would log onto IMDb and see what others thought of it. But nobody else had seen fit to review it. Nobody. Not a single review. And I thought that was rather unfair, so here I go.
It's not bad. The acting is solid, the script is pretty good and the characters, whilst not entirely likable, are developed reasonably well. So far, so-so. However, it is Will Poulter as the protagonist, Jack, that elevates the movie above the mediocre. He really is a credible actor these days, and I really enjoyed his performance in Kids In Love.
I guess, at its heart, Kids is basically a coming of age movie, but it has a lot of heart, and I genuinely cared that things would work out for Jack. However, I am not so sure about Alma Jadorowsky as the ethereal Evelyn. Yes, she is attractive, but I did not feel that she exuded the "je ne sais quoi" (it's okay, Evelyn is French) that the script demanded.
That said, the London locations are fun, and although things became a little predictable in the last twenty minutes (as these sorts of films generally do) I must confess that I was left with a smile on my face.
Undemanding, but enjoyable.
Room (2015)
Half Way To A Great Movie
I just wanted to add my thoughts here because, as great as some of the movie undeniably was, I felt the balance was all wrong. Once they had escaped, with barely half the running time elapsed, all the tension went out of the film. I was sitting there thinking - okay, so what is going to happen to fill the next fifty minutes? The answer? Pretty much nothing, sadly.
Don't get me wrong, the final scene was very moving, but I still got the feeling that the movie peaked during the escape and then just sort of ambled around for the remainder. which is a great shame, because I was really enjoying it up until that point, not least the stunning turn from the young actor playing the kid.
I think I understand what the film was trying to achieve in being structured the way that it was, it just didn't work for me personally. I'm actually quite a fan of non-linear plots, and maybe that's something that would have enabled the director to keep building the tension to the very end whilst still showing us the aftermath of the ordeal.
Wild (2014)
Wild Child
It has just occurred to me that the title refers not only to the protagonist's journey through the wild, but also to her wild antics prior to setting out on her journey. Go me! Anyway, "Wild" has to be one of my favourite movies of the last couple of years. Firstly, Reece Witherspoon is an absolute revelation. She totally nails the part of a lost soul embarking upon an epic journey in order to rediscover her spiritual mojo. Witherspoon is one of those actresses that seems to have been around for a long old time without ever really catching the imagination, but here she gives wonderfully gutsy performance showing just the right balance between defiance and vulnerability. And she's hot, too. To be fair, she probably isn't what you might call a dead ringer for the real Cheryl Strayed, but I can live with that. Secondly, the cinematography - those North American landscapes - wow! If watching this movie doesn't make you want to get off your backside and go hike the PCT, I'd seriously check for a pulse. Okay, so most of us will never do it (me, included) but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't done some internet research in the PCT since watching "Wild". Now, I'll admit that "Wild" doesn't have much of what you might call a plot. It is the story of one woman's journey of self-discovery, and the various characters she meets along her way are all pretty much incidental. Hence I accept that it won't be everyone's cup of tea - certainly if you prefer a more pacey, plot-driven type of movie then "Wild" may not be for you. But if you enjoy a wonderful (and funny) central performance and sumptuous landscapes, you won't find many better. Witherspoon fully deserved her Oscar nomination, in my opinion, and would have been a worthy winner. Superb.
Curse of the Witching Tree (2015)
Shocking - and not in a good way
Oh dear. I have contemplated creating an IMDb profile to be able to post reviews in the past, but this was the movie that finally compelled me to get off my a**e and put pen to paper. Not because CotWT is so irredeemably awful (although it is), but because a number of the early reviews to be posted here were so thoroughly misleading. I can only re-iterate what others have already suggested: the positive reviews can ONLY have been posted by people with a vested interest in promoting this pile of garbage. But, to an extent, they did their job - I was suckered into watching the movie, and I daresay I wasn't the only one. Hey-ho.
I'm not going to bother saying too much about the movie itself, there's no real point. The script is direction-less and largely incomprehensible. The acting is laughable - there is a reason you have never heard of any of these actors before, and you certainly won't be hearing of them in the future. The plot consists of taking just about every scary movie cliché and putting them together in a series of badly-acted, largely unrelated scenes. And the editing is absolutely laughable, probably the worst aspect of the whole sorry enterprise. I was sat watching this with my wife and daughter and, after fifteen minutes or so of us all sitting in embarrassed silence at the horror unfolding before our eyes, I turned to them and said "This is without doubt the worst movie I have ever watched". I wasn't even joking. However, this was a turning point of sorts, since from that moment onwards we were all able to relax and enjoy the movie for its unique awfulness, rather than trying to discern any sort of artistic merit in it. It actually made for quite an entertaining ninety minutes or so, as we sat there laughing as one pointless cliché followed another in this procession of over-acted, poorly scripted dross.
If I were to recommend this film on any level, it would be just that: if you are looking for a challenger for your own Worst Movie Ever Watched list, this could well be the one you have been waiting for.
Bleuch.