Mini Reviews: The Bling Ring/ Byzantium/ Cloudy with a Chnace of Meatballs

Having a bit of a film catch up at the moment. It always feels good renting from my local video store, as its a family run business, in a world where even Blockbusters have been killed off by Love Film and Netflix. Decided to try making a simple little casual video review too (see below!).   

The Bling Ring


Director - Sofia Coppola
Starring - Katie Chang, Emma Watson
Run Time - 90mins

90 minutes of essentially young, annoying kids stealing from rich celebrities and partying. That really is it. Okay, the parting and stealing is filmed well and I did feel immersed in their world, but by the end of the film I felt like I'd learnt very little. The characters were shallow and I couldn't connect to any of them - even the young boy who I think we were supposed to sympathise somewhat with? They were all complete unlikable bitches, and not even interesting bitches for that matter. Maybe this was the point, but why bother when you can just read the true story online which its supposed to be based on? Meh, I guess it was short and held mine and my girlfriends interest but on reflection I'll definitely forget about this by next year.    

5 - At a push maybe a rental if there's literally nothing else you want to watch.

Byzantium

Director - Neil Jordan
Starring -  Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton
Run Time - 118 mins


The second film we rented on Halloween night after The Bling Ring. This time more relevant to the occasion - about vampires in the modern world as two female vampires survive by being in the prostitute industry. It started out promising - boobs, beheading, blood - but slowly became a bit of a drag, meandering here and there, never really having a real focus, until we were both bored and uninterested in the ending. I think part of the problem was the tone was a bit everywhere. The modern vampire theme didn't clash very well with the period drama that sometimes made itself apparent. The acting felt fake and out of place and resulted in some of the characters just feeling awkward and bizzare. It was okay and watchable, but our interest soon dwindled to "please just end now" by the time the final showdown happened.

6 - Promising start. Promising concept. But badly and awkwardly executed. Again another rental - at a push.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Director - Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Starring - Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Bruce Campbell
Run Time - 90 mins

We finally got round to watching this after needing a fun, easy to watch animation, and being inspired by the sequels amusing trailers (with a talking strawberry). And that's exactly what we got. It was fun, easy to watch and very random - although by the title I probably shouldn't have been surprised. It looked great, the only downside being it left us feeling very hungry.

7  - Rent or buy cheap.