Rob at the Movies- Great Movies!

Rob at the Movies!

Yet Another Two Great Movie Recommendations

Hey hey hey hey hey, maybe a few more Heys or we could have a big long Hey like Mr Fonzie... Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! Anyway now I’ve said Hey enough times to make it worthy of a national holiday, ‘The Day I said Hey a lot’. Erm yeah, tangent time! Anyway Hey guys and welcome to this week’s blog, life is so much fun (and at points not) but always busy so it’s tricky to get even two blogs out in one month but heck I’ll try and not disappoint you fans... if you’re there! If you’re there please hand me a Milkybar next time I see you! Oh yeah, that’s how I roll!

There’s plenty fun stuff happening in the world that is Rob... oh yeah, I’m a world, believe it! I’ll work backwards from the moment I’m typing and then forwards and then run around going woop woop because I can’t think of something other than back and forth. So, this past weekend (May 20^th through to May 23^rd) was a good ‘un, oh a good ‘un! You know it’s a good ‘un when a lot of your body is in a bit of pain and you keep dozing off whilst sat upright. Starting from Friday, there was Sparks Unleashed... a ton of fun, good games and talk and all that, great fun night... though *whisper it* that Obstacle course was a bit naff, please don’t tell Wade! Then we moved on forward to our newest haunt, the Billinge Family Church youth hut where he had a sleepover... highlights include the Lucy Dixon tennis table collapse, the many faces and impressions of Cazza DD, the stealthy disguises in cars of Cazza DD, and a small spider that gave the mighty Care Bear one funky jolt... the less said about the Care Bear snore the better.... my word it was like a drill! That was fun and all that of course, and then after just getting home at 2pm... That’s one heck of a sleepover! (Yes that is a pancake with a spider on it... two of Ben’s favourite things, haha!)

After that we went to the Vicarage to celebrate the lovely Mark Cockayne (our humble vicar) and his 50^th birthday along with the whole of the church, that was fun and there was good cakes and some nice chat ahead of the main event of the weekend.... the big one, the Consiglio Casino on the Saturday evening!! Basically a giant poker tournament, it was a very fun evening... even if I didn’t last that long into the tournament, though to be fair I did ok, I just didn’t have the skills that killz that all the other guys clearly have.... kudos to Nathan Talbot for getting to the final three! After all the poker was over, we settled down to watch the excellent School of Rock, a film that never gets old.... Jack Black we love you, do another good film!! (Though Kung Fu Panda 2 is gold, it’s only a voice!) That was a great evening and the capper to one big long day that started on the Friday night. There was church this morning too, which was fantastic... Mark did a brilliantly poignant talk about recession and the story of Joseph and there were some wise words from Cazza DD that will stick with me for a while, essentially ‘Instead of being the guys cheering the people on who are giving their life to god, instead of being the guys cheering them on... then why aren’t we the guys going through and giving it all over again’ that’s it in a nutshell and it’s real food for thought. Cheers Cameron, what a guy!

A great weekend and among many great times including the beach (or not) trip on the previous weekend (May 13- 16) where we went to Ainsdale but due to weather decided just to go to Nandos for tea and then back to Billinge for those usual larks... the beach was actually brilliant! Whilst everyone sat in their cars and kept warm, I decided that I’d just go for it and ran right down to the end of the beach in the blistering wind and rain... what an experience, at first it’s kinda taking your breath away from the battering wind but it’s kinda cool and the best way to look at it is just going for it... throwing caution to the wind (literally) you really only live once and it was such a cool trip... that whole thing I mentioned before about being alone on the beach really stood this time, perfect windy solitude, brilliance and a perfect situation to embrace the atmosphere and have a bit of a pray even! Just fantastic! And yep, plenty of great times... plus there’s cell group as great as usual, usual job stuff and other bits and bobs including a few good films (not watched as many recently to be honest, but good uns include Hanna, Thor, Leon, When in Rome, and Pirates 4: On Stranger Tides) and some great shows as always too, shamefully the superb No Ordinary Family has been cancelled despite a cracking finale! Whilst Glee, V, House, Fringe and Chuck all head towards brill finales....

So yeah life is all pretty decent, there was a lull in the week a few times recently due to my ears acting up... but heck, got em syringed now so I can move ahead with the good times! Off to Cefalonia next Sunday (29^th) for a week which will be brill, plus there’s a cell meal in Liverpool, and some other great films to come including The Hangover Part II, Blitz and Attack the Block... good times! Then the Summer heads this way, and I particularly can’t wait to finally get to Alton Towers, I love that place so much so can’t wait to go if I can!! I think this calls for some movie recommendations...

I Love You, Man (15)

A seriously underrated buddy comedy, or Bromance as the genre then became, from the spring of 2009... This little gem stars Paul Rudd (known to loads of people from Friends but also in films like Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin and Role Models, and soon to be voicing a Muppet!) as Peter Klaven, who is soon to be getting married to love of his life Zooey (Rashida Jones, the lawyer from The Social Network), but when it comes to looking for a best man, he soon realises he doesn’t have that many close friends, so begins the odd search for a new best friend who can then become his best man, and this leads to Sydney Fife (Jason Segel, most notable for Forgetting Sarah Marshall and playing Marshall Erikson on the brilliant How I Met Your Mother, and one of the brains behind the new Muppet movie), a wild and loose sort of guy, but never the less a great guy, and the two soon hit it off... and as always in these films, there are the highs and lows of their new found friendship and the inevitable perils of the big day itself. Overshadowed by the later comedies of 2009 like The Hangover, this still did decent business but still gets nowhere near the right amount of love... it’s a charming and very funny tale with two effortlessly great leads and a brilliant support cast, plus it’s got a very healthy amount of love for Rush, who even appear... and not to mention The Hulk!

What I Love about it:

- Paul Rudd. The guy is a legend and I’ll watch literally everything he appears in (regardless of reviews, I enjoyed Dinner for Schmucks and was gutted to miss How Do You Know? When it was at the cinema). He is every inch the quintessential everyman and is effortlessly charming and funny, and you always feel his woes and enjoy his adventures as he trundles along... he’s less successful when trying to play a dodgy character as Dinner for Schmucks proved, in that he was meant to be morally dubious yet he still came across as sweet, though I guess Brian Fantana in Anchorman is slightly dodgy, but who cares, that guy’s a legend!

- Jason Segel. As mentioned, he is most notable for playing Marshall Erikson in one of my favourite shows, How I Met Your Mother... he is a brilliantly charismatic character and does brilliantly playing anything... mad, charming, down and out or even a bit of a sleazebag... and his Sydney Fife jumps between these... at first he seems a bit too much, a bit like Zach’s Alan in The Hangover... a bit too quick to open his mouth but he’s not stupid like Alan is, and knows when to man up. He’s essentially a great friend, and a bit like Karl Pilkington with his odd but true knowledge about men and life in general. He’s the friend everyone would want essentially, not always smart but in the end a true friend and great to have around. His Sydney is a truly great character, and everyone would want a friend like Sydney.

- The support cast. You have Rashida Jones who plays Zooey perfectly well, not an amazing character but fun when she’s around and you understand her frustration both before Peter gets a friend and then when his friendship with Sydney overshadows their relationship somewhat. You have people like the brilliant Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressley (from My Name is Earl) as the friends that surround Zooey and Peter, as well as the legendary J.K Simmons as Peter’s dad and Jane Curtin (from 3^rd Rock from the Sun) as his mom, plus the sublime Andy Samberg (of Lonely Island fame) as his brother. Not to mention a scene stealing Thomas Lennon as an ill-advised man date that Peter attends... plus there’s Lou Ferrigno, yes the Hulk is in this!

- Rush! A truly great rock band anyway, the love lavished upon them in this movie is refreshing... from the now infamous references to ‘Slappin’ Da Bass man!’ through to numerous renditions of their sounds by Pete and Sydney in the man-cave. They even make an appearance as they attend a concert and rock out. My love for Rush grew tenfold after this movie, and that’s yet another reason to praise this movie!

- The film in general really, it’s very refreshingly funny and engaging with a great cast, a great soundtrack and it’s the first Bromantic comedy which has got to count for something... clearly realising the need and gap in the market for a romantic comedy about two guys embracing their Bromance.

Any weak spots?

- This is a tricky one, but I might have to say no. There’s nothing in particular I can pick upon and say ‘Oh I didn’t like that’. Maybe Jon Favreau could have had some more screen time but he does fine anyway. It’s a particular favourite of mine and a film that more people really should see!

Easy A (15)

Another film that I guess you could say is a tad underrated, though it did garner a huge following of great reviews, it still seems not enough people saw it, shame really because it’s up there with Mean Girls in brilliant high school movies with a biting wit. The film that showed Hollywood that Emma Stone deserves to be a star, and most likely led to her casting as Gwen Stacey in the upcoming Spiderman reboot (quite why they’re rebooting is a rant for another day though this new version is looking better and better every second so guess I don’t mind, they’re crafty those Hollywood folks!!) and more films to come hopefully as she’s a brilliant star! Playing Olive Penderghast, a relative outsider who decides to get herself noticed, but not really in the best way advisable. After a rumour spreads about her, and she notices the unwanted attention, she decides to start more rumours till things get kinda out of hand.

Any films that references, acknowledges and blatantly admits it’s a John Hughes film is alright by me (John Hughes for those who would shockingly announce they don’t know such a genius, is the mastermind behind such teen classics as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Say Anything, and even Home Alone and Uncle Buck... so basically some of the coolest films ever) and this is a smart, savvy, charming and very enjoyable movie... that balances its wit and charm with a message about being yourself with a perfect measurement of balance. There has been talk of a rule with teen films that says they come along every next year in a series, that sentence makes no sense so I’ll lay it out straight... Clueless released in 1995, 4 years later in 1999 comes 10 Things I Hate About You, 5 years later in 2004 comes Mean Girls and then 6 years later in 2010 came Easy A. By this rate, expect a cracking teen comedy to rock our world again in 2017... Now that surely can’t be right... but heck, hopefully it’ll be worth the wait!!!

What I Love about it:

- Emma Stone. A born star, graced with perfect comic timing, brilliant savvy delivery of dialogue, and a very clear intelligence. She’s perfect here... making Olive a very clever and witty character who like all of us, makes mistakes but deals with them and then again doesn’t and sometimes makes things worse. She is truly terrific, and from the evidence here I really want to see more of her in literally anything!

- The John Hughes connection. When a film is so free of shame, it can literally say out loud it wants to be another film, you have to admire it... especially when that movie is one by the master of the teen movie genre John Hughes, sadly no longer with us. Refreshingly, that claim is more than valid, Easy A can happily sit alongside some of the best of the Hughes teen cycle... and it’s great to spot all the little references to past Hughes movies... most notably the cover of Don’t You Forget about Me that the film ends up, plus the clear nod to Say Anything, where the male lead picks up Olive with a tractor and an iPod speaker, genius!

- The endless support cast. There’s Amanda Bynes’ last role as the hateful then slightly loveable Amber, the leader of the Christian club at school whose endless hounding of Olive could be seen as controversially one note, but her character ends up sweet in a way and the whole Christian thing never feels being too harsh on them. There’s the absolutely brill Aly Michalka (currently leading the brilliant Hellcats on MTV) as Olive’s best friend who winds up falling out with her. There’s Patricia Clarkson and the ever epic Stanley Tucci as the greatest on screen parents ever for Olive. Malcolm McDowell as the stern school principal, and Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow as two married teachers who get involved in proceedings in a dramatic turn. So many great actors and actresses ably supporting the leads adds plenty of depth, flavour and wit to proceedings and a lot of them would make you see the film just on their own, so a bunch of them together is dynamite!

- That rare thing, a great teen film! Like I said, the whole rule with them coming along every five or six years means that whilst we’ve had some solid teen films (Bring It On, Get Over It, Superbad, Charlie Bartlett, 17 Again) it seems all the good ones come in the same year (American Pie and Election the same year as 10 Things, Saved and The Girl Next Door the same year as Mean Girls, Scott Pilgrim and Easy A) so it’s always great to embrace a new great teen film when it comes along, thankfully we have Glee on TV providing the endless TV equivalent but it’s great when we get a really solid and brilliant teen film so hooray for Easy A!

Any weak spots?

- There isn’t many to note again... one could be that whilst it is witty and brilliant, it’s maybe not laugh out loud enough but it doesn’t really matter because when it’s funny it’s pretty funny, it doesn’t really need to be a wacky hilarious comedy at all anyway. I don’t really think I can pinpoint things I don’t like about this one either, not to say it’s perfect but the negatives don’t spring to mind too readily. Nearest one could be that Stanley Tucci should be in every sense, but that would also be ridiculous, unless he took the lead and then again, Tucci in an orange wig probably would and wouldn’t work... wow off on a weird tangent, and stop.

And that’s the lot of that! I’m jetting off to the lovely island of Cefalonia on Sunday May 29^th, it’s only for a week so doubt it effect the output of blogs considering they only come along every blue moon but still in case you wonder that’s why there won’t be one for a week or two, I’ll be treading the same steps as Nicolas Cage when so badly tried to be Italian, never again! Bar that, I’m very very very much looking forward to seeing The Hangover Part II tomorrow (Thurs May 27) and going for a lovely meal and drinks in Liverpool on Friday night (28^th) with the cell posse and then it’s off on holidays... so a few nice things to come and a holiday... ain’t that the dream?

Then comes the summer, which this year could well be the most truly magical one yet if the events of last August hold true... I did so much cool stuff in the last few weeks of August so imagine what could occur over the whole of June, July and August... even more so seeing all the sleepovers at Billinge we’ve had so far amongst countless other things... and one thing above all, Alton Towers... the thought that we might be going makes me happier than Tigger on a pogo stick... bring on the fun! Until our next magical encounter...

You stay classy.... Planet Earth! X