House at the end of the street

Hey guys!

It's Leila again, back with another film review. Coming off from my last post, this movie is a massive step up.  'House at the end of the street' starring a fresh-faced Jennifer Lawrence is a horror and mystery movie which focuses on uncovering the tragic accident that happened in said house. With the protagonist befriending the sole survivor, it makes for a suspenseful hour and 41 minutes.

Now I am not usually a fan of horror movies, in fact, the first time I watched this was at a year 10 sleepover with six other girls. However, I do love a good mystery that gets you thinking, analyzing every single scene for clues. What I love about this film is that it seems like the mystery is one-dimensional. A strange kid living in a creepy house where his parents were murdered? He is definitely a psychopath and the audience is just waiting for the main character to figure that out in a battle to the death. But because the audience is already anticipating the events, the unfolding of an even deeper plot surprises the viewer, leaving in 'ohhhhh' and 'ahhhh' feeling.

This was pretty much me at the end:

I am surprised by its rating of 11% on rotten tomatoes (unsure how #realityhigh beat this), because honestly, who doesn't love the moment where the protagonist and the antagonist are foot stepping around each other in the battle royale. The cinema goes from being quiet out of fear for our beloved main character to yelling 'what are you doing?! Pick up the gun!'. It creates this sense that everyone in the cinema lived through this together.

Okay sure, horror films like this may be overplayed. The edgy teen protagonist finding interest in the trouble next door neighbor? You have probably seen this before. Nonetheless, it is one of the first ones I've seen and so if you are apprehensive towards such genres, I highly recommend this film as it gives you all the classic horror movie moments. Plus, Jennifer Lawrence.

Summary quote: "That's messed up"

Spy Kid's not Drop Kicks

SPY KIDS NOT DROP KICKS

FILM NAME: 'Spy Kids' (2001)
RUN TIME: 1 h 30 min
DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez
LOU REVIEW: 5 out of 5 a Catch 🎣 + Spies are cool

The ultimate cinematic trio of all time, going where no other film would dare try, reaching new heights, depths, creating characters made entirely of thumbs and expanding the careers of many greats, 'Spy Kids' began a beloved film experience of a generation.

Seriously! Made entirely of THUMBS! 
How do they see??

Now, this film falls into a strange limbo of so bad and so, so good because of its basic child audience and what appears to be a simple plot. However, the incredible casting, film techniques and cinematic genius that is director Rodriguez enabled this film to surpass the generic expectations of a kids Spy Film. In fact, in some ways, such as the intense romantic introductory scene between Gregorio (Antonio Banderas) and Ingrid Cortez (Carla Gugino), the dramatic isolating relationship between feuding brothers, and the haunting concept of kidnapping and transforming innocent victims into monsters through science to gain power and control create a very adult- like parable that is often overlooked by its younger audience. The success of the first film enabled the creation of two other original sequels, and then later a fourth film casting a new generation of "spy kids".

BASIC PLOT:
Brother and sister Juni and Carmen Cortez are shocked to find out their parents are spies and must deal with the consequences that come with living in a world of a double life.

Mr Clooney Himself?? No way :0

Famous Actors you forgot feature in the film/series:

By far the best character of all the film

- George Clooney
- Steve Buschemi
- Sylvester Stallone
- Teri Hatcher
- Alan Cumming
- Danny Trejo
- Salma Hayek

FAVOURITE LINES:
Juni Cortez to Machete Cortez: "You mean you're our real uncle? Because we already have a fake one.

Carmen Cortez: Go ahead. You've got nothing on me, warthog.

Juni Cortez: Try me... Diaper lady.

Carmen speaking to love interest Gary Giggles in Spy Kids 2:
"You're so full of shii...take mushrooms!" The ultimate burn in any quality children's film!

Interesting ideas brought forward: - Social anxieties and the fear of the outside
- Reuniting and the importance of family/ a support system
- Lack of trust of the system, one must only trust themselves
- Age does not reflect ability and one should never underestimate another


OVERALL:

Spy Kid's plays on the child mind and it's innocence when facing traumatic experiences and the way in which children's intelligence and abilities are overlooked when fought against in combat. It discusses the strength and courage that prevails when overcoming obstacles and that although individuals are strong on their own, a group of people fighting for the same cause are stronger together. This film emphasises in so many ways the importance of family and close relationships when facing challenges, and that 'everyone' is your family. This is a positive message for young and old and enables the need for more trust and friendships to improve quality of life. It's really just a good film. Go watch it. And Kid's are pretty kick ass.

----------------------------- L O U I S E - 2 0 1 8  -----------------------------------

Killer Bean Forever

Killer Bean Forever (2009)

Rate: 😎😎😎😎😎

Production: Jeff Lew

Genre: Animation/Action

Rating: PG, fantasy violence

Starting off with an ugly movie, one that I absolutely just can't get enough of! 😍😍😍😍
If this isn’t the most underrated animated feature film of all time, then I don’t know what is. 

It’s action-packed, loaded with guns and manages to weave in references to other, more notable action movies and iconic actors like Al Pacino. Oh, and I should probably mention that the story is set in a rough, little place called Bean Town where all the characters are MORTAL COFFEE BEANS. 

These coffee beans know no bounds to their ruthlessness.

Yes, just about all the beans who get screen-time are actually lean, mean, killing machine-beans. This may sound horrible on paper but trust me, it just makes it all the more enjoyable and funny.

Especially when bean gangsters make really serious and dramatic threats of violence relating to their coffee bean nature. Some outstanding phrases come to mind here like getting roasted or decaffeinated (instead of decapitated). The script is just flawless for this reason.


Killer Bean leads as the anti-hero of Bean Town, a reckless, secret government agent. Working for the Shadow Agency has funded and trained him to be the best assassin bean that the universe will ever know. Equipped with his gold bullet casing dual guns, he is pretty much unstoppable.

 His motive is clear, to rid Bean Town of all crime lords, mobsters and gangsters... one bullet at a time. That is until KB's recklessness draws too much attention and he realizes his personal vendetta against the criminals doesn't necessarily align with the true motives of the Shadow Agency.

Another reason to watch this is purely for the quality of the animation,
just check out the synchronization in this group performance.

And yes, the dance moves are just as mesmerizing as the fight scenes in case you were wondering. Even the score soundtrack is beyond complimentary because it was specifically and perfectly made for each scene.

Can we also just appreciate that someone who loves this film more than I do went out of their way to make this cute video? This is a censored version I made, but the original is by Fluffle on YouTube. If you're still wondering how Killer Bean Forever earned cult status, I think this can speak for itself.
💖💕💘💝💟💓💗💞💜

(source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTrfle0EZFc)

Not bad for a small budget. Not bad for a full length animation in the 2000's. Not bad for someone who wrote, produced, designed and even voice acted as various beans in this masterpiece. This movie is kind of ugly, but it's not bad at all! Well done Jeff Lew, but I'm still waiting for a sequel! 💀

- Melissa Yates

#RealityHigh

Hi everyone!

Leila here, and welcome to my first film review. This review happens to fit into the 'ugly' category of 'The Good, Bad, and Ugly film reviews'. This is a good thing though because we can only go up from here. And trust me, this is about as worse as it gets.

The movie '#RealityHigh' is a Netflix original that centers around Dani Barnes, a classic good girl with good grades and a bright future ahead of her. That is until she meets a guy that used to date an Instagram model and puts her life in turmoil. An interesting take on the modern teenager lifestyle.

First, I would like to acknowledge how difficult it is to portray modern ways of life such as the social media spike into cinema. Though things like Instagram modeling, vine, and viral phrases such as 'slay', 'swag, and 'lit' are normal, no audience member wants to be confronted with the reality of how cringy these things actually are. This could have been well-executed through subtle hints of the new age, but it was not. Instead, the overly saturated scenes were jam-packed with references to musically and vlogging. I think I lost 5 kilos just from cringing. It was truly a moment of self-reflection and I've never watched a vlog since.

Probably my biggest critique, however, is that there are so many avenues a movie can take, especially when employing technology, yet this movie happened to tick every cliche. I was expecting some grueling online torture like -A or gossip girl, but I was left disappointed.

Let me set the scene...
Girl has a best friend. Girl ditches best friend for more popular friends and a potential boyfriend. Doesn't fit in with new, popular friends. Old queen bee spreads rumour about the girl. Popular friends ditch girl. Girl returns to the best friend.

Sound familiar?

Nonetheless, this was not the worst. The tipping point that caused me to shut my computer out of respect for myself was this...

Popular friend: "We need to get outfits for tonight's party"

Girl: "I don't have any money"

Popular friend: "What about your dads' credit card?"

Girl: "Yeah but that's only for emergencies"

Popular friend: "Honey, this is an emergency!"

Now, I am not lying when I say I literally said the lines alongside the characters without any prior knowledge of this movie. Here is a glimpse of what I looked like watching this:

Okay, fair enough, I didn't actually finish the movie so there could have been an unexpected plot twist. But I gave it a good shot with 50 minutes and if a movie hasn't impressed me in all that time, then it definitely is not worth me trying to finish it. No matter how hard my OCD is pushing me to.  

I applaud the creators for managing to pull a 56% on rotten tomatoes. 

Summary quote:

"The shiver you feel when you watch this movie is your dignity leaving your body"

Welcome!

Hi everyone!
Leila here. Now I'm going to be honest with you, I don't watch many movies. I'm more of a watch
an entire television series in one day kind of girl (the current show is gossip girl). However, I still have my opinions on what makes a decent movie. For example, I am a Gryffindor, meaning that I gravitate towards daring characters, that have nerve, courage and obviously bravery. This is translated in some of my favourite movies and at the top of that list is Disney Pixar's 'Cars'. Sure, it is a kids movie, but it remains close to my heart, being the first movie that I ever watched in theaters. What really makes it my go-to film is that 'oh my god' moment when Lightning Mcqueen selflessly gives up the Piston Cup to save The King. This 'hero' moment resonated with the young me and is something I notice immediately in any movie I watch. So, when you read my reviews, expect to see movies that achieved this as well as ones that went in the completely opposite direction.
-Leila

Hey! I'm Louise and believe the longevity of the emotion felt the first time you read your most loved novel or viewed your favourite film have few comparable rivals. However, neither of these experiences compared to the first time I watched Into the Woods (2014), and immediately knew I disliked it. I believe the strength it takes to sit through a two-hour film that you wished you’d never heard of, and the disappointment one suffers before a film adaptation when you’ve read the (sometimes superior) book is an odd rush in its own right. It’s fair to say that it’s easy watching a good movie, in fact you walk away blissful, even grateful, but sitting through a sub- par, disappointing train-wreck that you’ve been waiting to see, takes a lot of resolution and determination. I love 'bad' movies and I believe they hold a similar, if not greater, value than well-admired films, if not just to sit and have  laugh at, but to discover more about the human condition. I love the authenticity and raw feel of a shitty film where someone had nothing, or everything, to lose and I hope I am able to review some "bad" films in a way that might make you appreciate them some more! I'll be reviewing my personal thoughts about a film, the soundtrack, the public critique, actors and props/ costuming in the films, and giving them a rating out of 5! Stay tuned.  🎣 🎣 🎣 🎣 🎣 

 - Louise -      

Hi, I'm Melissa.
My favourite movies tend to be classified as cult classic, coming of age, sci-fi or comedy and usually have a decent soundtrack. As long as they tick all my boxes, they tend to be amazing films. In my well-versed opinion, I would describe a bad movie to be anything remotely like Brandan Fraser’s entire filmography. They are bad because they have over-the-top poor acting, bad soundtrack/score choices, boring storylines, etc.. All making me feel like I'd rather sleep. 

Someone, remind me why Fraser keeps getting paid because I am

truly clueless. ☕ Seriously, what is this?

The world thankfully isn’t that black and white; not all things in this world are either good or bad, we are blessed with things that are ugly too. Every now and then, I love to indulge in an ugly movie. People like ugly movies either because it is nostalgic to them or because the idea that someone thought such a monstrosity should ever be released to society is so absurd that it becomes amusing and very entertaining.  

They're kind of good, kind of bad, but you can't stop watching movies like these and I don't think anybody really knows or cares to ask why! They are the marvels of films like The Room (2003) or Labyrinth (1986) which dismantled traditional film rules, flopped at the box office, and eventually became cult classics - despite all the odds. I'm looking forward to push my manifesto-like blog contributions on why cult classics are actually the best kind of movies to watch.

Melissa's Rating Key (out of 5): 😎

Just a cute pic of ReviewBrah as he is my Review/Critic inspo

Each 😎 is awarded for quality if the following categories were cool:

- script and character development/s

- story

- soundtrack

- acting/voice acting

- effectiveness of genre or artistic medium including film techniques

- Melissa 😎

Hi, I'm Vanessa ☺️. With all passion for movies and music, I'm very happy to join my group to create a blog channel for review movies. As my background is Vietnamese I prefer to introduce you some movies, drama from Asian countries. For me, the best part of one movie is its soundtracks, so in most of next reviews, I sharing via this blog will have a part talking about soundtracks of the movies. The imagine about movies I'm gonna writing review will be a comedy and crime like Kungfu Hustle (2004)🤣, comedy and drama like Flipped (2010)☺️, fantasy and comedy like About time (2013)😍 and The Age of Adaline (2015)😘. I'm so excited to share my hobbies with you on this blog channel. And if you have any recommendations about the movies you want us a review or any questions related to the movies we have reviews, feel free to keep the comments below our posts. Peace out!😍😍😍

- Vanessa