Mini Movie Reviews

So when a movie isn't quite good enough to get a whole post written about it, I review it in mini style in a post like this.
This is my second post like this. These are recent movies I have seen that I have a few thought on and I want to share with you.


Goodbye Christopher Robin {2017}

I was very much looking forward to watching Goodbye Christopher Robin because I have recently done a little study on A.A Milne. I was expecting a golden, lovely childhood story of how they came up with the books and Christopher Robin's relationship with his father. I had known that CR had not been happy with his parents in later years about the publicity of the books and the media attention he got but I didn't know it was that bad. The movie portrays is as his parents (his mother anyway) using him and his publicity through the books, as a means of profit. If that was really what his childhood was like, then my heart breaks for little CR (Cristopher Robin). Daphne Milne's hair colour was wrong-blonde instead of brown/black. That bugged me. So this movie a good insight as to how the books affected their lives but it is also quite sad, I cried in fact and movies don't often make me cry. The little boy they use to play Cristopher is soooo adorable though!

Murder on the Orient Express {2017}

After some hesitation, I (and my family) watched this a few weeks ago. The reason I was hesitant was because of Poirot. Kenneth Branagh just isn't Poirot, David Suchet is! He did do an ok job (accent was good), but he just wasn't the same as Suchet. Aside from that, I do think it was a pretty good version of this story by the crime queen. It's the only adaptation I have seen of Murder On the Orient Express anyway. It had a pretty good cast too. Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, and others. Agatha Christie had big talent for making you wonder and puzzle about who did it. I loved all the aesthetic of the time period. The train itself, the costumes, the architecture, and the decor, it was all so wonderful.

Andre {1994}

My family saw this on a weekend away(going to a wedding). It was on tape so we decided to see it. It's a good family movie. It's one of those family-finds-a-wild-animal-and-decide-to-keep-it-and-it-becomes-tame-but-then-something-happens-and-they-have-to-return-it to-the-wild-but-then-the-ending-still-works-out-to-be-happy movies. Got that? There's a lot of them out there. So I give it like, 3 stars.

The Young Victoria {2009}

What a beautiful movie. It's so fantastic! The costumes are delicious, acting is brilliant, aahhh, it's so beautiful. I really loved this movie and how it covered more of their romance. Their letters were so sweet. Albert is a darling! Emily Blunt makes a pretty good Victoria, even though I am used to Jenna Coleman. I liked Rupert Friend better than Tom Huges as Albert though. Oh, also I did not like Paul Bettany as Lord M, no, the only Lord M is Rufus Sewell (to me anyway). So all in all, I think that this is a great portrait of Victoria's earlier life.

The Lady and the Highwayman {1989}

If you like the type of movies where a handsome mysterious man on a horse rescue and beautiful lady in distress. A very young Hugh Grant play our highwayman. Silver Blade, the Highwayman's nickname, it a bit like Robin Hood, rescuing and helping the poor and such like. There is, of course, a happy ending! So yeah, it was good.

A pre-gushing post by Yours Truely

You know when you hear some new thing and it sounds good but you don't really care at first, but then you learn more about it and you go mad?
If that didn't make a smidgen of sense then I 'll explain in English. I had heard this movie mentioned but it wasn't until I watched the trailer when I fell in love with it.
I show you what I mean in a minute. While I was watching the trailer I was smiling so much and the excitement was building up so later I almost exploded with happiness. I can just tell this will be a favourite of mine after I watch it. I already love it!
Now I 'll insert the trailer so that you can see what I mean.......

*squeals so loud the window cracks* (mild exaggeration)
But do you see now how wonderful it looks is! And doesn't Claire have the most stunning eyes!

0:02 "I could ask you to dance...."

0:06 All the looks! Her hair and red lipstick(♥)

0:16 Dancing, it's gotta be good!

0:57 Him and the baby.....awww

0:59 "You can love this." "Yes, I can!"

2:03 "Your life is my life"

2:08 "I don't want to just survive, I want to truly live."

To sum up why I want to see it in 4 points:

1. It looks soooooooo beautiful and the kind of movie that will have you smiling and crying.
2.Claire Foy ♥ (Little Dorrit, The Crown) She is simply lovely is period dramas!
3. It's based on a true story which makes it even more amazing and moving.
4. It's set in the 1950's or thereabouts. It's a period drama movie!

Anyway, I am thrilled about seeing this! What about you?

5 Mini Movie Reviews

Remember when I wrote that post about the movies I wanted to watch?
In case you don't, I 'll put it right here. Movies I Want to watch
Since I posted that I have ticked off a few from that list. Here are my thoughts on them.

Saving Mr Banks (2013)

To describe this movie in one word.....delightful. Truly delightful! Emma Thompson is a wonderful actress and plays this role so well. 

I loved the Sherman brothers too! How they try and try to write the songs to Pamela's liking.
The filming was lovely. Pamela's flashbacks to her childhood were sad and beautiful at the same time.
You've also got to love her taxi driver, who's always trying to be optimistic. There were so many wonderful characters in this movie. ♥
I would recommend this movie to you all if you haven't already seen it!

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Viceroy's House (2017)

I didn't enjoy this movie as much as some I have seen. It's was good because I never knew much about the topic and Hugh Bonneville was great of course. So it was historically interesting. I'm not really sure what else to say. Don't get me wrong though, this is not a boring movie. Period dramas set in places like India always make them seem so exotic, though this movie also captured the suffering well. The man that played Gandhi looked amazingly alike him too!

So I would recommend to people who are interested.

Victoria and Abdul (2017)

This is a lovely film about friendship. And the amazing Judi Dench returns to play Queen Victoria.

My aunt and my mother went and saw this in the cinema together and my mother came home and said it was really nice.

So, of course, we all watched it when it was out on DVD!

It annoyed me how the government was so dead against the Queen cultivating a friendship with an Indian servant, learning Hindi and spending time with him. Let her be happy for once in her mournful life after her dear Albert's death!

It was a good movie though and I enjoyed it enough. There are some pretty cute scenes with Victoria and Abdul.

The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)

I was pleased and disappointed at the same time after watching this film. I was excited to see it because of Jessica Chastain who I quite enjoy watching on screen. It was a great and quite different story from the II World War. Set in a zoo in Poland was a very unique setting for a war film. But I liked it. The animals added something to it. I always admire people who rescued the afflicted souls affected by the Holocaust.

However, there were two things I strongly disliked. Lutz Heck (played by Daniel Bruhl) was horrible! Ugh, ugh, eww! That's all I have to say about him.

And a couple *cough* bedroom scenes which could have been left out. Oh, and the animals that got killed in the bombings. That was sad too.

I did enjoy seeing the war from a new perspective. 

Swallows and Amazons (2017)

My wonderful Nonna took us to see this last year and it was soooo lovely. These four Walker children remind me of the Pevensie children in The Chronicles of Narnia! There is no magic though.
The story is based on the book by Arthur Ransome. The scenery was stunning, acting was great and the story and a twist of mystery to it. Perfect right?
It's a great adventure movie for any age. When we went to see it in the cinema half of the other people watching were older folks. I bet they remembered reading the books when they were kids!
Highly recommend this to everyone!
Rodger Walker is so cute(the small boy) and Tatty has a great imagination(the smaller girl).
Nancy and Peggy are also pretty cool.


And so there are my reviews on those five movies. I love it when you find a perfectly delightful movie with an intriguing story, brilliant acting, beautiful scenery and a happy ending! Don't you?

This Beautiful Fantastic movie review (with Spoilers)

I watched this movie recently and LOVED  it.
This post with be me rambling on about this movie and a LOT of pictures. *smiles*

'This Beautiful Fantastic' is about a rather odd, single young lady named Bella Brown who wants to write a book and is scared of plants, who finds love, overcomes her fear (of plants)  and befriends a grumpy but kind old man.
I love the fact that Jessica Brown Findlay plays Bella Brown. I had only ever seen her as the lovely Lady Sybil Crawley in the amazing Downton Abbey series.

(How pretty is this picture of Sybil!)

Bella Brown's neighbour Mr Stevenson is upset that she has neglected the garden. He makes a complaint and an inspector arrives and tells her she has a month to tidy it up.

As their friendship blossoms, Mt Stevenson helps her out in fixing the garden.

 She begins hating gardening and ends up loving it. Alfie Stevenson is the type of person who is grumpy on the outside but inside there is a kind heart. I really like that about him. When he shows Bella his garden it is magical. Colour blooms everywhere, and he names them all as they walk though this forest of flowers.

Bella Brown is a very odd person and she keeps everything very perfect and organised. Bella's job is at the library which suits her because she has loved books since she was a girl.
It is at the library she meets Billy. Billy is a designer and comes in to the library to work on ideas and gain inspiration from other designers books.

Jeremy Irvine plays Billy. He is a very cute character and I like him a lot. Jeremy played Albert in the 'War Horse' too. Though he was quite young in the 'War Horse' he acted amazingly well.
I love this scene where they meet by accident in the park.

They suit each other because they're both a bit odd in their own way.

Billy shows Bella (Billy and Bella isn't that cute!) is mechanical creations.

                                                          Luna, the mechanical bird

Billy asks her to tell him a story about Luna and that is where she gets her inspiration for her children's book. Luna's name comes form the fact that she is powered by light even moonlight, hence Luna!
I also love this part. As she thinks up the story in her head.

Now I have to talk about the Irishman Vernon for a moment. He is so funny but very caring and you feel sorry for him because he is a widower dad looking after his twin girls.

Vernon works as Alfie Stevenson's cook at first and then he becomes Bella's cook.

Vernon still cooks meals for Mr Stevenson and passes the meals through a 'window' in the garden shed between the neighbours.

One of my favourite parts is when Billy comes to see Bella because she hasn't been at the library for a while. She thought she had seen him with another girl and was upset but Billy explains that that was his identical brother as he is the oldest of triplets. Billy wasn't able to meet her because he had had an accident and wound up in hospital.

Bella completes her garden project and since it was Alfie who called the inspector he tells him to leave Bella alone now.
The Luna story idea develops into the story for her children's book which is named 'This Beautiful Fantastic' .
Before she publishes it however, Mr Stevenson unfortunately passes away. Alfie Stevenson leaves his house to Vernon and his girls.

Here everyone is happy, sitting in Bella's garden, listening to her reading her book aloud.
Overall this is a very warm and charming story and I definitely recommend the movie.

What did you think of this movie if you have watched it?