Summer Cinema
Further to my previous post about Scandi-Drama (read it here) I have had a chance to catch up with The Killing 2 over the last couple of weeks (again box set borrowed from the in-laws - thank you very much). I'm not going to say much about it here but how good was it to see Birgitte's dishy husband from Borgen in a rather more sinister role? Fantastic! However, moody crime drama with subtitles was as high culture as it got this summer and for me, it was all about kids films at the cinema which is what this post is about.
I appreciate we had some great weather and that you wouldn't want to spend too much time at the flicks when it's blazing outside - which is why we haven't seen all the blockbusters - but sometimes you want something different to do and being able to take advantage of Cineworld's Movies for Juniors has meant that we've had a few trips out that haven't been completely extortionate. Now if they can just subsidise the Magnum Classic for me.....
Our first visit was to see Despicable Me 2 - this was a full price trip but worth the money. As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of 3D, so we watched it in bog standard 2D and I loved it! We had watched Despicable Me 1 a few days earlier, which I also enjoyed but I think the sequel is lighter and has lots of funny moments right from the start for example Agnes's birthday party when Gru avoids being set up on a blind date by "accidently" squirting his neighbour with the garden hose whilst dressed up as a fairy princess.
I also loved seeing Gru doing his Dad dancing and trying to deal with his own love life whilst over-reacting to Margot's first relationship with a boy. I laughed a lot! Unfortunately my daughter didn't feel quite the same though. She can be a little bit of a scaredy-cat at times and right from the very beginning she was hiding her eyes behind her hands. She resisted telling me she wanted to go home (which happens when she's really scared) but when the purple minions appeared she was on my lap with her face snuggled into my shoulder! Like many films this one really does appeal to the adult audience but in my case it wasn't such a hit with my child.
The next film we saw was The Smurfs 2. This was a birthday treat for my little one and she really enjoyed it but it wasn't such a treat for me! She didn't find this one as scary and it wasn't until the end that she hid behind her hands. I quite enjoyed Brendan Gleeson as Victor (I do love him as an actor and have done ever since seeing him in 28 Days Later) and the naughty smurfs were quite cool but the plot was overly complicated, there was a massive amount of product placement (a bit naughty in a kids film) and I found Gargamel completely unbearable. On a positive note it was a trip to the cinema and gave me the chance to do a little research into the film About Time which I will study with my students later in the year.
The final film we saw this summer was Epic. My daughter had got a book about this film earlier in the year and, as the plot seemed a bit lame and all the characters had odd names, I wasn't convinced this would be a film I would enjoy. How wrong I was! From the very start we were both completely captivated and caught up in the storyline - which was miles better than the book.
The cast was surprisingly good and the animation was beautiful, especially the part where queen Tara journeys to choose the new pod. I also really liked the slug and the snail and some of their jokes did make me laugh. Overall this was probably our surprise hit of the summer. As soon as it was over my daughter said "I want to see it again" so we will now have to wait for the DVD. When we got home I downloaded the app on the iPad but unfortunately it has been really disappointing. Instead of going for a simple hide and seek kind of game (perfect when you have a group of tiny forest folk) you have to develop your own kingdom. It seems very money driven and overly complicated for a small girl. Anway, we enjoyed the film, would watch it again and would go and see a sequel if one appeared.
I appreciate we had some great weather and that you wouldn't want to spend too much time at the flicks when it's blazing outside - which is why we haven't seen all the blockbusters - but sometimes you want something different to do and being able to take advantage of Cineworld's Movies for Juniors has meant that we've had a few trips out that haven't been completely extortionate. Now if they can just subsidise the Magnum Classic for me.....
Our first visit was to see Despicable Me 2 - this was a full price trip but worth the money. As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of 3D, so we watched it in bog standard 2D and I loved it! We had watched Despicable Me 1 a few days earlier, which I also enjoyed but I think the sequel is lighter and has lots of funny moments right from the start for example Agnes's birthday party when Gru avoids being set up on a blind date by "accidently" squirting his neighbour with the garden hose whilst dressed up as a fairy princess.
I also loved seeing Gru doing his Dad dancing and trying to deal with his own love life whilst over-reacting to Margot's first relationship with a boy. I laughed a lot! Unfortunately my daughter didn't feel quite the same though. She can be a little bit of a scaredy-cat at times and right from the very beginning she was hiding her eyes behind her hands. She resisted telling me she wanted to go home (which happens when she's really scared) but when the purple minions appeared she was on my lap with her face snuggled into my shoulder! Like many films this one really does appeal to the adult audience but in my case it wasn't such a hit with my child.
The next film we saw was The Smurfs 2. This was a birthday treat for my little one and she really enjoyed it but it wasn't such a treat for me! She didn't find this one as scary and it wasn't until the end that she hid behind her hands. I quite enjoyed Brendan Gleeson as Victor (I do love him as an actor and have done ever since seeing him in 28 Days Later) and the naughty smurfs were quite cool but the plot was overly complicated, there was a massive amount of product placement (a bit naughty in a kids film) and I found Gargamel completely unbearable. On a positive note it was a trip to the cinema and gave me the chance to do a little research into the film About Time which I will study with my students later in the year.
The final film we saw this summer was Epic. My daughter had got a book about this film earlier in the year and, as the plot seemed a bit lame and all the characters had odd names, I wasn't convinced this would be a film I would enjoy. How wrong I was! From the very start we were both completely captivated and caught up in the storyline - which was miles better than the book.
The cast was surprisingly good and the animation was beautiful, especially the part where queen Tara journeys to choose the new pod. I also really liked the slug and the snail and some of their jokes did make me laugh. Overall this was probably our surprise hit of the summer. As soon as it was over my daughter said "I want to see it again" so we will now have to wait for the DVD. When we got home I downloaded the app on the iPad but unfortunately it has been really disappointing. Instead of going for a simple hide and seek kind of game (perfect when you have a group of tiny forest folk) you have to develop your own kingdom. It seems very money driven and overly complicated for a small girl. Anway, we enjoyed the film, would watch it again and would go and see a sequel if one appeared.
.JPG)
Comments
Post a Comment