Chuckles Film Reviews

This will be, I hope, a recurring feature that will be on the blog each time I watch a film. I used to love films so much and could watch a pile of them in my spare time. However with my focus on reading, I find little time to enjoy films that are new to me but now I need to start clearing the unwatched pile and get some space back!

This week! On Sunday I actually watched FOUR films in one night, which is outstanding!  Here are the first two reviews.

1) The Fault In Our Stars
Starring Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Willem Dafoe, Laura Dern and Sam Trammell.

Two teenage cancer victims meet at group therapy and develop a close bond, and go on a final journey to meet the reclusive author of their favourite book to discover what happens after the book ends.

I read the John Green book during my final experiment with contemporary fiction, which was a bit of a disaster. This was actually one of the few that I didn't DNF. I thought it was an emotional rollercoaster of a read, watching Hazel struggle with her breathing and her trips into hospital as her medication fights to hold back the cancer which will kill her at some point. At her group therapy meeting she meets the bright and cheerful Gus, who is currently cancer free, and supporting his friend Isaac whose own cancer is turning him blind. The three become friends and are there for each other through the ups and downs of being a teenage cancer sufferer. I enjoyed the relationship that they all had and I was so gutted for Isaac when he gets his bad news about his condition. The ending was so incredibly sad in both book and film.

I liked the three main characters in the film and enjoyed their acting very much. Willem Dafoe is one of my favourite actors and he took the part well as the rude reclusive author the couple go to meet. But I just don't get why so many people love Laura Dern as an actress because I just find her very wooden and sort of the same in every film she is in. I'm not a great fan of her acting at all, and didn't like her much as Hazel's mother. I loved Isaac and the film scenes where he was getting his own back on Monica and using Gus' trophies to work through his anger issues. There are many scenes that are just heartbreakingly sad as you would expect and overall it was a good film.

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was the sub plot about the book Hazel loved and her attempts to contact the author. Peter is just such a total arse of a man that his character really did nothing for me and that part of the story wasn't very interesting. I'd have preffered seeing Hazel wanting to go somewhere in Europe to just visit something like the Anne Frank house as that is more interesting in book and film than the whole Peter plot. This is not a film I could watch again but I liked it well enough to watch and cry at!
 
2) My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Laine Kazan, Michael Constantine and Andrea Martin. 

An unmarried Greek woman decides on a makeover and a new job, leading her to finally fall in love with schoolteacher Ian. However with her traditional family, she is unsure if they can accept the non Greek into their lives.

I know this film came out an eternity ago and I always meant to watch it but never seemed to get round to it. I admit that I don't watch a lot of comedy films as I tend to find them not very funny ie Twins, or over-rated like every Jim Carrey film. It just isn't my genre. The adverts for this looked funny so when I saw it cheap in a charity shop I picked it up to watch it.

For me personally, it was an ok film but not as funny as I was expecting it to be. My favourite bit was when Ian comes to the travel agent to speak to Toula. He gets assaulted by an old woman outside the shop and she makes an idiot of herself nearly getting her head ripped off by her headphones and ending up under her desk. That was a really funny scene and gave me hope of many more laughs to come. I found other bits mildly amusing but it didn't make me laugh the way Mamma Mia or Barnyard did so I was a little disappointed in it from that point of view.

I wouldn't call it a bad film by any means and I guess it is pretty standard for a romantic comedy. I found it fine to watch for an evening but I wouldn't go back to it or seek out other films like it. I think I'll stick to a bit of action and horror rather than this film genre!