While I’ve never been a big film lover I thoroughly enjoy a trip to the cinema. It’s a rarity for me to actually want to see a movie so something has to look truly spectacular for me to hand over £10 to watch it. In the past 9 months I’ve been to the cinema 4 times and I thought for day 6 of Blogtober I would share my thoughts on those 4 films with you.
My first cinema trip of the year was on the last ever Orange Wednesday. For whatever reason my other half and I decided to see American Sniper and were truly blown away by it. I usually enjoy films that focus on the US military in the Middle East but American Sniper was something else. I’m always a little wary about films based on true stories but Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Chris Kyle was phenomenal and really did the man justice.
While American Sniper predominately focuses on how brilliant a sniper Chris Kyle was it does show snippets of his family life and his struggle to readjust to “normality” after serving in Iraq. I found it to be a nice contrast to the usual war films that hit our screens and the inclusion of Chris Kyle’s funeral precession was heart wrenching. I loved American Sniper so much I pre-ordered the DVD as soon as I got home and now have plans to read the book.
The second trip was to see Southpaw. The original plan was to watch Ant Man but my other half and I agreed a film about boxing would be more entertaining. I didn’t know what to expect from Southpaw but I definitely didn’t expect to like it so much. While Southpaw is a film about a boxer (played by Jake Gyllenhaal, yum) it focuses more on his downfall, his struggle in coming to terms with the death of his wife and losing custody of his daughter.
I’m not usually one for feeling any form of emotion while watching a movie but I couldn’t help but well up a little when Rachel McAdams died and Jake Gyllenhaal was crying all over her. I’ve always been a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal but his dedication to his character in Southpaw and his overall performance was unbelievable. Southpaw is one of the few films where I haven’t started daydreaming part way through.
Straight Outta Compton was at the top of my list of films to see and we ended up watching it on the opening weekend. I’m a sucker for hip hop and it doesn’t get any better than the story of NWA. Like Southpaw, I didn’t know what to expect. I was worried this was going to be a really bad Hollywood film that didn’t do NWA any justice whatsoever but my fears were proved wrong. Straight Outta Compton may have missed out some parts of NWA’s story (and angered a few people in the process) but it has all of the group’s key moments ranging from Ice Cube going solo to Eazy E’s untimely death. If you’re uncomfortable with loud music, nudity and the n word then stay away from Straight Outta Compton but if you’re a fan of genuinely good movies and fancy finding out more about NWA then you need to see this film!
Last but not least is Everest. I may have chosen to see Everest due to Jake Gyllenhaal’s presence but I wish I hadn’t bothered. Everest seems to be a marmite film and I’m afraid to say my other half and I did not like it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s now an awful film, it’s just lacking something. I didn’t connect to any of the characters and while I knew the story I just didn’t feel anything towards it. There seemed to be no sense of urgency, no fight to survive and no real emotion in the film. Even when Keira Knightley was crying over the inevitable death of her husband I was completely emotionless. Everest is beautifully shot but it just didn’t do it for me. There was also a distinct lack of Jake Gyllenhaal.
Admittedly I can be a bit of film snob so I do find it a little hard to enjoy mainstream, Hollywood blockbusters but, aside from Everest, the films I’ve seen at the cinema so far have made me rather happy. I wish I hadn’t bothered wasting my time on Everest but you can’t have it all. I would urge you to see three out of four of these films (Southpaw comes out on DVD in November, hint hint) and if you don’t like them, you can throw bananas at me.
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