The Revenant (2015) Review

The Revenant is the film everyone is talking about – the film that has finally won Leonardo DiCaprio his well-deserved Oscar. But is it everything that it has been hyped up to be? In a nutshell; no.

I don’t know whether my expectations were set far too high or this film just didn’t have the WOW factor it was made out to have but I found it long, dragged out and for the most part, uneventful.

The Revenant is based on true events and revolves around fur-trapper, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is left for dead  after a vicious bear attack in the early 19th century. Barely alive, Glass journeys through the wildness in the quest to find the “friends” who betrayed him.

I found the first 60 minutes or so of this film very gripping. It had a lot of potential and I was hooked as the fur-trapping expedition were attacked by Native Americans and a bloody, intense fight broke out on screen. I could see why this film had so much attention directed at it. And when DiCaprio battled it out on screen with a very realistic looking CGI bear, I had pretty much decided this was going to be a great film. But then things began to go downhill; the fur-trapping group tried to carry Glass for the rest of the trip but finally decided to abandon him after being convinced by a very conniving John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Glass was left on his own to fight for his life and here the movie begins to slow down to a snail-like pace.

DiCaprio is of course fantastic; he manages to portray Glass brilliantly and shows the true determination of his character. The film however, is not very dialogue driven and the majority of the film involves DiCaprio huffing, puffing and heavily breathing. He has a handful of lines and when he does speak, its only ever delivered in a hoarse, croaky voice that is barely audible. The person who gave this film life however was the ever brilliant, Tom Hardy. Hardy grips the audience and adds darkness to this already intense film. He kept me interested and managed to capture the evilness of his character, whilst still being believable. He was definitely my favourite out of the two characters.

The Revenant also includes Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Harry Potter) and Will Poulter (The Maze Runners, We’re The Millers), joining Hardy as the fur-trappers.

This is essentially a film about one man’s battle with nature and here we see DiCaprio gutting a horse and climbing inside to keep warm, catching fish to eat, and scrapping marrow out of a bone. It is DiCaprio’s most challenging role yet and here we see the actor push himself to the limits in a bid to finally win that Oscar.

Maybe my expectations were set too high but after the fast paced battle scenes at the beginning of this film, the film took a whole new turn and the 156 minutes running time dragged out. The Revenant is worth a watch as it is the film that finally won Leo his Oscar but don’t be surprised if it isn’t what you expected.

As for me, I’ll take The Wolf of Wall Street over The Revenant any day of the week.

Overall Rating: 3/5

Spectre (2015) Review

The name is Bond. James Bond.

He’s a lover of flash cars, hard liquor, and beautiful women – it’s no other than 007 cruising back on to our screens in the long anticipated Spectre.

Daniel Craig returns for the fourth (and rumoured final) time as our cool, stylist, and slightly arrogant James Bond. With a license to kill, it’s not long before buildings are being dramatically blown up and intense fighting scenes are breaking out. This is a fast paced, action packed movie that is full of amazing visual effects from beginning to end.

The film begins with Bond in Mexico City at the Day of the Dead festival, a popular Mexican festival that honors the dead. Bond calmly takes a woman back to a hotel suite but he is soon jumping out a window and sliding himself down to a building where his victim awaits and after firing a few shots at the windows, the building blows up and soon Bond is chasing a baddie through the city which ends in a dramatic fight scene in a helicopter. All in a day’s work for our beloved agent.

In the first five minutes we can see that the cinematography is beautifully thought out and constructed to make it as visibly astonishing as possible. Everything we love about Bond is reinforced in the opening scene; he’s slick, cool, calm, and nothing seems to phase him. And it only gets better from here.

After the fast paced scenes in Mexico City, we soon find ourselves back in London where we find out that MI6’s Double-0 program is under threat due to surveillance agent, C (Andrew Scott). There’s no rest for our Bond however as he zooms off to Rome, Austria, and North Africa, accomplished by Bond Girl, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) in a bid to kill assassins, terrorists, and all round bad guys who are all run by  Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz).

The action scenes in Spectre are fantastic, each one had me on the edge of my seat as I watched Bond wind up in a plane chase in Austria, a car chase in Rome, and beating up bad guys at every given opportunity. Spectre is a film full of action scenes that makes it impossible for you to tear your eyes from the screen for even a split second. And Daniel Craig brings in the humour, giving us a lighthearted Bond, whilst still oozing his cool and collected attitude.

With a running time of 148 minutes, Spectre is a long but enjoyable watch. At times I felt like not a lot was happening however and although it was entertaining to watch, I feel like they could have edited the film down without any real effect to the plot.

Good film? Certainly! But it wasn’t on the same level as Skyfall, and Casino Royale will remain my favourite Daniel Craig Bond film. Nevertheless, for all Bond fans out there, you will not be disappointed with this latest addition to the franchise.

Overall Rating: 4/5

The Sound of Music Review

The von Trapp family have come singing their way to Liverpool this week and I was lucky enough to see the show on Wednesday (16th September).

‘The Sound of Music’ is centered around Maria Rainer, a young woman who desires to become a nun however when Maria returns late to the Abbey, the Mother Abbess and the other nuns decide to send her to a widowed Navel officer’s house to become a governess to his seven children. There Maria is expected to have some time away from the abbey and to consider whether she is truly ready to be a nun and devote her life fully to her religion.

At first Maria is reluctant to go but she soon develops a strong bond for Captain Georg von Trapp and his seven children. Although at first Maria disapproves of the Captain’s strict military upbringing of his children, she soon tears down the layers of the family and teaches the children how to laugh and be children again through music.

As Maria gets closer to the von Trapp family she soon realises she in in love with the Captain but like any love story, it doesn’t come without complications.

In this stage production, a chirpy Danielle Hope plays Maria. She sings every note perfectly and her performance throughout the show was phenomenal. Hope delivers an uplifting atmosphere to the performance and it is hard not to love her character as we see she is full of good intentions and has a big heart.

Even the younger cast members delivered flawless vocals throughout the show however, each holding their own on stage and capturing the audience. Every one of the von Trapp children offered charisma to the show, as well as adding a big of cuteness to the otherwise semi-serious production.

Jan Hartley as the Mother Abbess stole the show however with her powerful voice and managing to sing ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’ perfectly. And she managed to hold a note for what seemed an entirety without her voice breaking once. She sang perfectly and with grace, delivering the best vocals of the day.

The set and costumes were beautiful and everything came to life on stage in this production of ‘The Sound of Music’. I found it to be very realistic and above all else, believable. The actors were all very convincing and performed impeccably and not a single note was missed.

The cast put on an excellent show that was enjoyable from beginning to end. I would definitely recommend everyone to go and watch this stage production.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Poundland’s Make Up Gallery ‘Colour Story’ Eye Shadow in Galaxy Grey Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with eye shadow but seeing as I have dabbled around with the majority of products in the Make Up Gallery range available at Poundland, I thought it was about time I indulged in the ‘Colour Story’ eye shadow too.

Next month I am going to ‘The Bran Stoker International Film Festival’ in Whitby and as it is a Gothic event, I went for a Gothic looking eye shadow colour. I fell in love with this ‘Galaxy Grey’ colour as it is dark but as it is grey instead of a bold black, it won’t give me massive panda eyes or look too intense, something which I feel a black eye shadow would have done. I found this grey colour was slightly more subtle and would give me a softer colour than black would have.

I love the name of the eye shadow range, ‘Colour Story’ and the ‘Galaxy Grey’ name gives me connotations of the night sky. The product comes in a small square container which is small enough to pop in to my bag to carry out and top up on the go. I bought an eye shadow brush from New Look to apply this product.

I really love this eye shadow but as you can see, it made my eyes look very bold and intense looking. Although it is very dark however, I do think it is a lot more subtle than a black eye shadow would have looked. I think it is great for drawing attention to the eyes and can also be used to create a smokey eyes effect.

This is a soft powder matte eye shadow product that contains Vitamin E. Overall it is a great product that will last throughout the night.

Make Up Gallery ‘Colour Story’ Eye Shadow comes in a variety of 20 different colours so you are sure to find one suitable for your needs. And at £1 each, they are hard to resist. I found the quality of them were just as good as other eye shadow products I have used for a much dearer price. If you are looking for cheap but good quality make up, Poundland is the ideal place to go.

Overall Rating: 4/5 

Ickle Baby Bot Bath Bomb from Lush Review

I got a couple of bath bombs from Lush for my birthday and last night I decided to give the super cute ‘Ickle Baby Bot’ bath bomb a try. To tell you the truth, I am not much of a bath person and I much prefer to have a shower instead but the bath bombs at Lush always look so relaxing and so I decided to have a mini-pamper night to myself and test out this gorgeous smelling bath bomb.

The ‘Ickle Baby Bot’ bath bomb is a cute little blue robot that is largely aimed at children to relax them before bedtime (although we could all do with something to help us wind down before bedtime and this is sure to help for those stressful days). It smells amazing too! There’s a lot of sweet scents with hints of lavender which make it smell almost too good to use. It’s quite small in comparison to the other bath bombs available at Lush but for the price of £1.95, it’s a pretty good deal.

The lavender contained within the bath bomb is great for achieving soft, silky smooth skin and it also helps with irritated skin, including sun burn and inset bites.

As soon as I dropped the bath bomb in the water, it started fizzing up and it didn’t take long to dissolve completely. I loved watching it fizz away in the bath water and watching the lovely pastel blue colour change the bath water.

The bath turned this lovely pale blue colour and then it was ready to get in.

I loved the colour; it looked really pretty. The aromas of the bath bomb were very subtle however and at times it was hard to smell it at all but it was quite soothing although I would have preferred for the scent to be a little bit stronger.

It made my skin feel really soft and smooth and overall, it made my bath quite relaxing.

The only downfall was the scent was too subtle for my liking and I struggled smelling it but I did enjoy it and for my first Lush experience, it made for quite a nice one.

Overall Rating: 3/5

Poundland’s Make Up Gallery ‘All About The Pout’ Lipstick in Pink Berry Review

Pink lipstick is fast becoming my favourite lip colour to wear and I absolutely love this Pink Berry colour in the Poundland’s Make Up Gallery range. It’s bold, bright, and is great for a party-ready look.

I love lipstick and I think a perfect lip colour can completely transform an outfit and this lipstick is no different. I love how it’s a very deep, almost red colour and it matches my hair perfectly too – you know because that’s always our first need when it comes to choosing a lip colour. I find the deep pink shade is also great for a girly rock chick look too and you can really play around with this shade to create different, unique looks to match your own personal style.

I think my own style is quite girly and so I love using this lip colour as it adds a subtle girly twist to my outfits. I also like using colours that most people don’t use to create my own individual look and I find most people go for red or purple lip shades instead.

This is a gloss type lipstick that adds a lovely shine to your lips. I also love that even though it only cost £1, it stays on for a long time and when I go out, it still seems to stay on without having to reapply it a lot like you can find yourself doing with even the more expensive lipsticks.

Personally, I love the Make Up Gallery lipsticks (as you can tell my looking through my blog) and I absolutely adore this Pink Berry shade. It’s a bold, cute and girly lipstick all rolled in to one.

Overall Rating: 5/5

A Storm of Swords: Part 2 Blood and Gold (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3) Review

Although Blood and Gold is the second part of the third Game of Thrones books (A Storm of Swords) by George R.R Martin, it can be enjoyed as its own unique, individual book. At the time I bought the 2 parts on my Kindle, it was cheaper than buying the book as a whole so this is the way I read them.

Part 1 has set us up nicely for the second part of the book and even more shocking and outrageous story lines unfold in part 2. And just when I start to think I am beginning to understand a particular character, they throw me off and do something completely different to what I would expect of them. They’re cunning, they’re sly, and most of all they are full of wits, which makes the Game of Thrones books such an exciting and interesting read.

So, how do I describe this book without giving a whole lot of spoilers away?

Well, as all Game of Thrones fans should know by now, you should expect the unexpected. Expect a lot of deaths. Nobody is safe. Usually we can expect important characters to survive but oh no, not in A Storm of Swords: Part 2. For me, this was the most exciting book out of the 3 I have read so far and everything seemed so intense and brutal. But it was certainly exciting!

Part 1 left us with Jon Snow escaping the Wildings and making his way back to the Wall and in part 2 we see him arrive back at the Wall but not without making the Night’s Watch wary of his presence, who are all but convinced he has turned and now follows the King Beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder. Jon Snow is in a sticky situation and has to prove to the Night’s Watch that his loyalty has always been with them.

Each character goes around gaining power and allies in an attempt to win the crown and be the king of Westeros. It is pretty much still up for grabs and it is interesting to see the characters try to gain the power they need to win.

And it’s not a Game of Thrones books if we don’t have a massacre at every opportunity and in this case at the event of not one, but two weddings. I won’t give any large spoilers away but there are a lot of deaths, some that will make you cheer and others where you will be upset and defeated that one of your most beloved characters has died. Martin sure knows how to pull at our heart strings!

What I liked most about A Storm of Swords: Part 2 however was the character development; you can see how John Snow has grown from the start of the first Game of Thrones books until now, we are made to sympathies with Tyrion, and we especially see how Danenery’s has turned in to this confident warrior-type leader. Each character has come a long way from the beginning where everything at first seemed at peace.

We watch the characters play the game of thrones and each character moves around and gains and loses power. At the end of the book we see Jon Snow becoming Lord Snow and here he is given the Commander of the Night’s Watch position.

It’s hard to describe the plot of this book without giving too much away but you will not be disappointed by it. It is beautifully written and is full of twists and surprises that will make you not want to put the book down. An excellent read full of adventure and action, and I can’t wait to find out how the story unfolds in the next book. This is the best book from the franchise yet!

Overall Rating: 5/5

#CeCeIsA – Pretty Little Liars Season 6 End of Summer Finale Review

If you haven’t watched the summer season finale of Pretty Little Liars yet, it might be best to stop reading now. There is likely going to be spoilers in this post.

Who else feels cheated by who the “Big A Reveal” was? We waited five whole years for this! And A, Red Coat, and The Black Widow all turned out to be minor characters who didn’t have a whole lot to motivate them in to destroying the lives of the liars for 5 years.

Season 6, episode 10 started off with A on top of the rooftop with the liars who are trying to convince A not to jump, but at this point we still have no idea who A is. We are then taken back to earlier in the evening where the girls are back at prom looking for Ali. Mona makes her entrance and tells the girls she has been tracking Ali for the past few days and has figured out where Charles texts were coming from. The liars, Mona, and Sara, are lead in to the Carissimi Group headquarters where they figure out the security code and find themselves in A’s liar. As the girls enter the liar, Sara refuses to enter due to claustrophobia, which causes huge alarm bells to go off for me. The girls go in to the lair and bring up a live feed where they see Alison and A together. And when A turns around to face the camera it is no other that CeCe Drake!

I had all but forgotten about her at this point as she has not been in the show for ages. She is all but irrelevant to the show.

Questions started to flow; I thought Charles was a boy? She must be helping A. Did they actually go with the transgender theory? What is her motive?

But as CeCe tells her story we find out that CeCe is Charles and all Charles ever wanted to be was be a girl. And Charles loved Ali like his own living doll.

We find out that Charles was sent to Radley after he ran Ali a bath to soothe her and accidentally nearly drowned her. Kenneth, who thought Charles may be a danger to his other children, sent Charles to Radley. None of that sounds like a good reason to lock a child away in a mental asylum but could this just be the case of an unreliable source? This is A telling the story after all.

At the age of 12, Charles befriends Bethany Young is Radley, who pushes Toby’s mother, Marion Cavanaugh, off the rooftop of Radley and blames it on Charles. Again this is another loophole as Marion had supposedly died when Alison and Toby were teenagers, which couldn’t have been the case if Charles was still a child when she was pushed from the rooftop. Thinking Charles to be the murderer, he is put on heavy medication, which almost killed him. And somewhere along here Charles mother, Jessica, paid Wilden, to cover the murder up as a suicide and Charles was let out of Radley to attend a funeral, his own. His father, Kenneth believed the funeral was real and Charles returned back to Radley as CeCe.

During the episode we are also reminded that CeCe and Jason use to date… Yes, they are siblings! It all gets very weird and despite the screen writers desperately trying to piece everything together, it just leaves us as the viewer disappointed and frustrated at the show. Everything seems so wrong!

And another frustrating secret revealed was that Sara was both Red Coat and Black Widow, for reasons entirely unknown. She doesn’t even know the girls so it seems weird why she would want to hurt them for so long. I did start suspecting Sara a while back however as she always seemed so shady and basically appeared out of nowhere in to the girls lives.

CeCe also planned to bomb the whole of Radley with the liars inside but luckily Spencer being Spencer managed to diffuse the bomb first. And here we are lead back on to the rooftop scene where CeCe declares that it is “Game over!”.

And now, with thousands of questions left unanswered, we now jump to 5 years later where Ali seems to be a teacher and married to someone with the surname “Rollins”. Here the girls run in and tell Ali that a mysterious man is after her. And that’s it.

I did like some aspects of the episode but I have never really been that involved in CeCe’s character and so to find out it was her all along, I felt disappointed. And her backstory wasn’t thought out enough. And I want to know why we have skipped the whole of the liars college years and jumped right in to adulthood. Who could possibly be after the girls now?

There are so many questions and missing pieces in the show and it is by far one of the most frustrating programmes I have watched.

What did you think of the summer finale? What questions do you have? Let me know in the comments below!

Overall Rating: 2/5

‘Minions’ Review

I went to see the Minions movie a couple of weeks ago and despite being 21, I absolutely loved it. I don’t care if it is mainly aimed at children and I have no kids of my own, Minions is a lighthearted comedy that will have you in a fit of giggles from beginning to end.

After the success of Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, it was just a matter of time before these fun loving, crazy yellow minions got given a unique film of their very own. For unusual yellow creatures who cannot speak in a language we understand, it seems almost impossible to create an entire film around the minions but somehow it works.

Minions is a slapstick animated film that is full of laughs and you will start to feel like a big kid as you sit watching, and actually enjoying this film. Minions is the prequel to Despicable Me and mainly concentrates on the minions and explains to the audience how they have got to where there are today. In a quest to find the world’s best (or worst) villain, minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob team up and go on an adventure to find their villain to run errands for and help take over the world. After a series of events, the minions end up becoming the henchmen for the world’s first female super villain, Scarlet Overkill, who is voiced by Sandra Bullock. Demanded to steal the crown from our very own Queen Elizabeth II, the minions find themselves in a spot of bother that will have you crying with laughter.

Although Minions is a prequel, this is a stand alone film and can be enjoyed without having seen the first 2 Despicable Me films. There is next to no references regarding the Despicable Me films except for a small scene at the end where the minions bump in to a young Gru.

With so many minions, it is a surprising that this film only concentrates on 3 of them, and I found villain, Scarlet Overkill and her husband, Herb, had a large part in this film that sometimes overshadowed the minions but overall, it is a fantastic film that is can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

I have read a lot of reviews that have said Minions is a fast money making film that has no real plot, which I find unfair. Yes, the film is bound to bring in fast money but they have also given the fans what they want. And people should remember that this is a children’s film, there was never going to be a complicated plot, this was always going to be a simple, carefree film. I think when watching Minions, you need to stop comparing it to its parent films but instead see this film as an individual. It made me laugh a lot and I was not disappointed and so I do not have a bad word to say about this film.

If you’re looking for a film that will make you laugh and is suitable for all the family, this is the film to see.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Orange is the New Black Season 3 Review

There is not a doubt that all ‘Orange is the New Black’ fans will have watched season 3 of the prison drama by now, and they will probably have completed the season in 2 days. There is something about Piper, Alex, Red, Crazy Eyes, and co that pulls us in and we can’t seem to be able to get enough of these feisty girls.

I’ve been waiting for June 12 since season 2 was released and naturally when the date did finally arrive, I binged watched it all.

Season 2 was a whirlwind of a season and so much happen that it was hard for OITNB to compete with that level of drama in season 3. Did they succeed? No, I don’t think they did. Season 3 had some great comedy moments and it got me to laugh on several occasions but at the same time, I didn’t feel like a whole lot of stuff happened this season. It felt like a filler season to move the storyline along without a great deal actually happening.

We did get to see a bit more of a back story about the characters but it was no where near as in depth as it was in season 2. And I felt that there was no single main plot for the season but instead there were many small sub-plots instead. Yes, it moved the story along and at times created many laughs but after the intensity of the Vee driven plot last season, I would have thought Netflix would have wanted to keep it at that same level of entertainment for the fans. This season lacked shape and as a result, as a fan of the programme, I was left disappointed as a whole. It kills me to say that as it is one of my favourite TV programmes but I expected to see the characters develop and grow and I didn’t really see it happening this season.

One of the things I was happy to see however was Red claiming the kitchen back for herself. For me, Red belongs in the kitchen and its great to see her claim her power back.

And Alex returns back to Litchfield prison! She spends most of the season moping around though, devastated that she has landed herself back in prison. And you probably will have noticed everyone talking about newcomer Ruby Rose who plays Stella Carlin. Move over Alex, Piper has a new love interest!

Overall, after the intensity of last season, OITNB has taken an entirely different route, opting for a light comedy drama for the main focus of season 3. Nothing entirely gripping happens but instead, this is the season to make us laugh. Lots of things happen but at the same time, it feels like nothing really happens at all. And I felt like the ending of season 3 left us on a bum note and unlike many season endings, we were not left devastated that we had reached the end of the season already.

As much as I love OITNB, I think season 3 is the worst season yet. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it but I wasn’t as gripped to the programme as I usually am.

Overall Rating: 4/5