Movie Reviews Archives

Love, Simon | Movie Review

Mar 17, 2018

Love, Simon

Release date: March 29, 2018
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Director: Greg Berlanti
Starring: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel and Katherine Langford.
Links: IMDb | Rotton Tomatoes | Fox

Simon Spier keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he’s gay. When that secret is threatened, Simon must face everyone and come to terms with his identity.

Love, Simon:

Thank you to Student Edge and 20th Century Fox for the advance screening of Love, Simon. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the movie.

I’ve had the opportunity of seeing Love, Simon twice and gosh both times I was left crying, smiling and laughing all at the same time. It’s the type of movie that is heartbreakingly truthful, beautiful and hits you in the right places.

Love, Simon based on the novel by Becky Albertalli Simon vs the Homo Sapien Agenda, follows Simon (Nick Robinson) as he navigates his last years in high school. And he is keeping a massive secret from everyone in his life – he is gay. After becoming ‘pen-pals’ with a closet gay guy from school, he starts to let himself feel free. But when his secret is threatened, Simon has to come to terms with himself and tell the truth.

I loved, loved, loved this movie with everything in me. It’s so real and heartbreaking but also everyone should watch it. It’s of the first YA movies that really does focus on being part of the LGBT+ community and I think it was done really well. It was really great to see a coming out story of a current teen on the screen. It’s so rare and I think that it was done justice

I adored Nick Robinson as Simon. He is this very shy person that is hiding a secret that hurts him. He doesn’t know what his family will think, or his friends and that scares the shit out of him. While not part of the LGBT+ community (that is known) he really does encompass the coming of age story really well. But it isn’t all sunshine and daisy and it hurt to watch. Love, Simon really does show some of the harsh reality of coming out and while heartbreaking, I thought that it was done really well.

Along with his parents played Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel, Simon has really good friends support system. Leah (Katherine Langford) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) have been his friends for years and Simon is terrified to tell them the truth. And even though Abby (Alexandra Shipp) is new to this friendship group, she fits in with these amazing misfits. It was both heartbreaking and beautiful to see this friendship group. And it was so hard to see Simon struggle with who he was when it came to telling people.

After a boy from their school comes out as gay anonymous on their social media platform, Simon strikes up a friendship with him. Which was done so well? Unless you have read the book, you wouldn’t have a clue who Blue is. Simon eventually falls in love with Blue, without knowing who he is. And when everything hits the fan – oh gosh it broke my heart.

Love, Simon also deals with the darkness of not wanting people to know. It’s was really hard to watch it, but it’s also so important to show it. Love, Simon looks out the reactions from classmates, family, and friends. There are still horrible people in the world and this movie does show that.

The acting in Love, Simon was fresh, youthful and put a smile on my face. It just fit perfectly with the essence of the movie. We didn’t have all 30-year-olds playing teens and that was great to see for once. The movie felt very real. I also really liked how Love, Simon was filmed. I do not expect, but like the acting like the acting. It was fresh and just worked so well with the book. I loved the scenes with Blue and how the viewers also spent the whole time trying to work out who he is.

Overall, Love, Simon is a coming of age novel for the current teen. It’s a heartbreaking but beautiful novel that really pulls at your heartstrings. Love, Simon is such an important movie for everyone to watch. For teens, for parents for every adult out there. It made me cry, laugh, and I left with a smile on face both times. I cannot wait to go watch it again.

Have you watched Love Simon? What did you think of it? Are you planning on checking it out? Let’s Chat!

Movie Review: The 5th Wave spoiler free

Jan 14, 2016

I got the chance to watch The 5^th Wave early from Penguin Teen Australia and Dymocks.

First, I want to say that I have not read the books. So I went into the movie blind – I knew things that happened because I did a little research, but other than that I didn’t know all too much.

I liked The 5^th Wave. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate. It was a pretty okay movie. I really didn’t know what to expect, nevertheless I wanted more. It rather lacked and I was just waiting for something to really happen and it didn’t happen until the last 15 minutes or so of the movie.

The 5^th Wave, directed by J Blakeson adapted from Rick Yancey’s novel The 5^th Wave, with the screen adaptation by Akiva Goldsman, Susannah Grant, and Jeff Pinkner.

The movie follows Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she tries to get back to her brother Sam (Zackary Arthur) after 4 waves of alien turmoil have hit the earth. As the 5^th wave is looming on everyone’s head, Cassie teams up with Evan Walker (Alex Roe) who may be her final hope – if she can trust him.

The start of The 5^th Wave reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, a girl running in the woods. The way that the camera angles were shot, the fast movement. It seemed familiar – until she had her gun hoisted in her arms. That was what shot me out of reality.

It starts off with the running scene in the forests and then flashes back to when it all started. The day before the first wave. Cassie is behaving like a normal teenager with a cup of beer in her hand instead of Gun. This is where we first meet Ben Parrish (Nick Robinson), Cassie long time crush. The scene was “very awkward teenager”.

As the movie goes through the waves – many people die including some close to Cassie, on the other hand it all happened quite fast that it was hard to process what was happening.

There are quite a few graphics used in these scenes and well, I was disappointed. They kind of fell flat for me. I thought they were going to be so much better, however at parts it really did look fake.

The was also far too many close up camera angles that put the character right there in front of your face. Over time it was starting to get annoying, when they could have gone back a few steps.

The acting was pretty okay. When working with younger cast members it’s really hard to get it perfect. But I thought that all the side characters were done well. Zackary Arthur was a cute little Sammy. While Moretz highlighted her sheer determination as Cassie to get back her little brother back.

However, let’s talk about the bear. Sammy’s little bear. It is going to get Cassie killed. I don’t know why she doesn’t keep it in her backpack or strapped around her or something. Why was she carrying it a lot of the time? Put it in your backpack and you won’t drop it.

The romance – oh the cheese. The romance was cheesy it was making me cringe so much. It wasn’t even the chemistry between Moretz and Roe. It was the lines and the looks – I just wanted to turn away. Hopefully in the next movie, they get rid of the cheese.

I did like humour though. It might not have meant to be funny, nonetheless there were scenes that you couldn’t help, but laugh at. It was those really teenager scenes. Where everything is awkward and weird, it felt like it was like real teenagers.

Overall The 5^th Wave was full of laughs, cheesy romance and a little bit of action. I do wish that there was a little more action. The graphics could have been done better, however, the acting of the younger cast member’s stood out. I hope that the second movie can do better.

The 5^th Wave is out in the cinemas now in Australia. 22nd of January in the USA and UK

I hope you enjoyed. You can find me on twitter at @angel_reads and on facebook and also on Instagram at angelreads. Subscribe to my email through the sidebar or follow me on bloglovin’ to keep up to date

The Fault in Our Stars Movie Review No Spoilers + Giveaway

Jun 13, 2014

I knew as soon as this was becoming a movie I would need a tissue box by my side and I wasn’t wrong.

The Fault in our Stars movie was just perfect. I cannot explain how I feel about this movie enough.

On opening night, my friend, sister, mum and I headed to the movies to see it (I made both my mum and sister read the book before we went) with our tissue boxes in tow.

The casting for this TFIOS is just perfect. Gosh Ansel Elgort is Gus, through and through, man. His smile, his laugh, just everything. I couldn’t help but smile at everything he said, even if it was so cheesy.

Shailene Woodley captured Hazel so well. I was very hesitant at first because I have seen her in so many different roles and I just didn’t know how she would capture Hazel, but she did just perfect.

Nat Woff, man. He is Issac. I hadn’t seen him in much before TFIOS so it was my first really seeing him act and, man, he was perfect. To me, he was just like Issac.

Even though I did cry so many times in movie, Issac did make me laugh. Quite a lot actually. It was just so funny at times and I couldn’t help but laugh in hysterics. Even if it was just something little like a face that Gus or Hazel pulled. It didn’t make up for all the crying, but it did put a smile on my face.

The other thing that I really liked about the movies, was when Gus and Hazel or anyone else had text conversations or emails that a little screen would pop up with the conversation. It was just so cute! I loved it a lot.

I think that TFIOS is one of the best book to movie adaptions. It was just so good. All those lines from the book were in the movie as well as those big, scenes and moments. I can say that most of them were in the movie. It was really nice seeing a YA contemporary novel being turned into a movie, and an amazing one at that.

Yes, they still missed certain scenes and all because they had to, but overall, I was really happy with how it turned out. I think having John Green on set really did help.

As I said before and many others will say, it was an emotional journey. I cried, much like I did in the book from that scene in Amsterdam. Gosh, so many emotions. Also the gas station scene wow, wow. I applaud you Ansel, I know that was the hardest scene, emotionally, to film and, man, you did it well.

The music, wow, the music was so well picked and placed. It set the emotions for everything.I felt things so much more when music was played. And come on playing Ed Sheeran at the end, no thank you please, the tears just didn’t stop flowing.

Overall I really loved The Fault in Our Stars Movie. it was just so beautiful, it was a masterpiece. Even though I was a sobbing mess I would see it again, and again.

Have you watched The Fault in Our Stars yet? What did you think? Are you looking forward to watching it?

I have also written spoiler free reviews on Divergent and Vampire Academy.

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of The Fault In Our Stars, I am going to be giving away a hand painted Okay? Okay. T-shirt to one lucky winner. All you need to do is fill out the rafflecopter and done! Here is the top that I will be giving away.

Obviously it will be new for you and to your size. The Sizes that I have are Size 10 (bust 30 Inches), Size 12 (bust 33 Inches), Size 14 (bust 35 Inches), Size 16 (bust 37 Inches), Size 18 (Bust 39) and Size 20 (bust 40). Sorry these are the only sizes I can do at the moment, hopefully I can do more soon.

Terms and Conditions

– This contest is open INTERNATIONALLY

– You must be 18 years or older, or have parents’ permission to enter.

– All your entries will be disqualified if you pickup entries for something you haven’t done.

– If you only use ONE account to do all these tasks and enter under different names, they will still only constitute as ONE entry.

– If the winner does not respond to my e-mail within 48 hours, I will have to choose another winner.

– I am not responsible for any items lost in the mail. Sorry.

a Rafflecopter giveaway