The To-Do List

! Warning ! There will be many spoilers ahead, skip to The Conclusion at the end to avoid, thanks and enjoy.  This review will contain spoilers, everything in this post is in my personal opinion and nothing is meant in any offence or against any persons. ! Warning !

Just as a starter this film was very surprising and funny seen as from a first look, it seems like it would be a witty and low key indie comedy with a few laughs but nothing to cry over. However this film is different or at least it was for me, there were more than a few laughs, almost constant throughout this film was providing me a good load of chuckles.

The Cast

The cast was just like the film a big surprise, Aubrey Plaza was outstanding as per however I do hope that this will not just push her further by only taking roles similar to that in Parks And Rec, the quiet, sarcastic and witty role that she does play so well made another appearance in this film however there was a slight glimmer of innocence which is suppose mixed it up a little but the character that we have all seen many times before was definitely present.

Other than her the cast was impressive and did work very well with Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Sarah Steele (Spanglish) playing the devout expert friends. Rachel Bilson (Hart Of Dixie) was great as the slutty sister expert, and she played it well with the typical 90's sibling drama and fighting however she did this with a bit more humour.

And with any teen comedy the two love interests Johnny Simmons (The Perks Of Being A Wallflower) and Scott Porter (Hart Of Dixie) one in love with the protagonist and one that she is in love with, a little cliche'd i know but its a necessary evil in this film.

 Bill Hader (almost every comedy film from the past 10 years, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and one of the best parts of the film and that is the parents Connie Britton(Nashville) and the very protective father Clark Gregg (The Avengers), they provide this film with similar to what was seen in Easy A with their parents, a comedy that is so funny, true and allowed for the film to grow to be much more than just a sketchy crappy comedy film

Other than these main characters to the film is littered with comedy newcomers and legends all over the film from basic cameo's or smaller roles however some of these were pretty hilarious from Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) to Andy Samberg (Hot Rod), they fill out the loose edges of the film with some refreshing differences in comedy and for the first half of the film make you cry with that lovely laughter that you are watching this film for.

 The Comedy 

The film was absolutely filled to the brim with great comedy but there is definitely a fair share of cliched cheesy moments in the film but these are all forgiven when some of the golden moments of the film that do make you shout out with laughter, Brandy seeing her parents  while they both enjoy that great night of sex and their eyes meet mid intercourse, this moment is only predictable when you see the two vans both shaking at the same time and it hits you, oh it does hit you and make you laugh.

The moments when you think that the story will take over towards the end and that the comedy will start to fade away but you would be terribly wrong the comedy stays and it stays strong and if anything gets a little stronger, this if anything puts this comedy aside from all those cheap cop offs with one of two jokes at the end but the To-Do List gives and it gives good.

It delivers a witty and common dirty jokes that you would expect but they aren't the jokes that make you laugh the ones that you have heard and seen a thousand time before the ones that get you are the ones that are unexpected to father daughter moments the brute honesty that is the relationship within their family, the moment that Rachel Bilson and Bill Hader share some 'fun time' and they are caught is just gold, the length of time that it lasts is the core of the comedy and the line

"And get out of my daughter" just breaks you.

The Story

 The story is ..... impressive at time and then at others a little too predictable, some moments when you just know where this film is going, these are the moments that are unforgivable and that chip away at the integrity and great rating in this film, the moments that diminish the glory and Holiness of this film. But having said that all hope is not lost, the film still remains to be a great comedy and one of the best modern comedies in the past 5 years.

The film goes through the general discovery teen comedies,

• You need to do something
• Starting to do it
• An obstacle sometimes a love interest or a lost relationship happens
• Overcome the obstacle and try to continue
• realisation that you do not need to complete it anymore
• Happily ever after......Sadly

 When you realise this is where the film is headed you shed a little tear and reach for the remote, but don't, don't do that, give the film another ten  minutes so it can throw a great chunk of comedy gold into your face and shut you up. This, this is what the film does and what it does well, it keeps you gripped and wanting to watch more and goes through all the boring story arcs until you find yourself on the verge of the happy ending and it pulls up some great comedy primaries that have been set up and hinted at the whole film and throws them all together to create a meca or humour and entertainment and just end abruptly.
 
This may seem bad but for a teen comedy like this i think should be the new way, it leaves you in stitches to make you watch the credits a little longer than before when you turn of the film and tweet about it, but relax you can now tweet you have stopped laughing that tweet will be glorious.

 The Conclusion

How to sum up this film, with its strong comedy backing and great easter eggs (Parks And Rec) it keeps you attached to the title. This film is not just another failed attempt at teen growing story that will end up in the Bargain Bin this is a film that you should buy and let it sit proudly in the collection, even the top shelf dare i say it, but its great jokes and the amazing Aubrey Plaza bringing some flat comedy to the film that you don't usually get from your female comedienne actresses.

I would say this is a film for the friends and maybe a date movie but you should NOT see this with members of your family that you are not completely open with, this film has many awkward and cringe worthy moments that if your parents were they this would open to many discussions but they will laugh or get flustered which would make it all worthwhile, I will let you decide.

Go and see it, go and buy it, keep it and recommend it do not let this film fall into the reduced section of HMV.

YEY! You made it all the way to the end, thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed the film as much as I did, and I hope to see you next time.

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Evil Dead (2013) Review.

! WARNING ! There will be many spoilers ahead, skip to The Conclusion at the end to avoid, thanks and enjoy.

Just to start with this film was excellent it was such a good blend and i found it very hard to pick out all the faults and even then they were just Little nit-picks. And I decided to split this into categories below.

Acting:

Well near the beginning the acting was very.... eennnaarrrgggyyy, not great but as soon as Mia started to have 'withdrawl' symptoms it really kicked of. The begging of the film I'm referring to is when they just get to the cabin and they're all chatting and Mia's sat on an old car out back which by the way how did that get left there and as for the whole film when the hell was the last family member at the cabin, a century ago. But that aside it was very soap opera with cheesy lines and when David says "hey sis" I was almost out, who says that really ? But it very hastily redeemed itself so its okay and that part of the film is about ..... hmmm 20 minutes long give or take so it was bearable.

After the whole finding the book and reading it and the 'demon' is released and inside of Mia, when she sees a clone type character in the forest and starts to 'lose' it Jane Levy really shows up her peers and from then till then end of the film she is so impressive, raw and realistic, every little cut and slice she gets as an un-possessed is so real that I (I'm a huge horror buff by the way) was cringing and gritting my teeth and that goes for the whole cast, it all seems so real. But back to Jane throughout the possession that can look horribly cheap in a film just worked, everything just worked so well, and the choking scene towards the beginning was so string i was almost shouting in the screening I was in.
The rest of the main cast were impressive as well but they were easily overshadowed by Jane however when Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) had her individual scenes she started to shine through but if you've seen the film you know it didn't last long.

Gore:

This is what got many people in my screening, there was two people threw up and to my left was a huge guy deep breathing and he was so jumpy you wouldn't believe, but the gore (I found) was not overdone, it all had a purpose. Where with many horror flicks there is lots of gore and severing of limbs for next to no reason just for the sake of being gory but with this everything was done and you understood why it was done. It wasn't that unbelievable the measures of blood or what the characters could stand before they died apart from Eric(Lou Taylor Pucci) who withstood a hell of a lot before he croaked, hit repeatedly in the head with a crowbar, shot with a nail gun, stabbed with shards of glass, stabbed in the eye with a needle and then still maneges to walk from outside the cabin to the basement through the house, down a set of stairs and into another room and then bash Mia in the head. Really, still not dead. But if that it put aside it was all very believable.
Well done to some of the actors for dealing with some scenes like when Mia vomits blood and other stuff directly into Olivia's (Jessica Lucas) mouth, I don't know how she put up with that and Mia and Natalie's scene in the basement stairs that was just so grungy and sick it was crazy, and I know that what they are paid for but that was impressive that they did that so many times as well just well done. And just to up the ante on any other horror film the last 20 minutes are scenes filled with raining blood from the sky so that happened.

Make-up/practical effects:

Obviously this film was shocking everyone with its no CG at all, the effects throughout are all practical and in many parts i was questioning how did they do that ? there was use of animatronics with the torching of the girl in the opening scene and the cutting mouth part in the bathroom. But major applause for the make-up team for this production, it was all phenomenal and looked very realistic and really intensified the movie. I really found that the no CG qwerk was such a right decision it made it feel so much more real and authentic and even more terrifying than other gore-fests. If nothing else it also made the film feel like a classic horror not these modern day haunting s**t. Even the standard dark eyes and boil make up was great it just looked beautiful. The iconic rape tree was amazing how did they make it look so smooth, with Mia's scream, it just shuck me through. Then at the end the demon giant thing looked fantastic and  lovely hand tearing looked real it didn't look plastic and easily torn it looked f***ing painful.

Camera Shots:

My favourite part and the part that most horror films fail miserably on is camera shots and angles, this film was littered with unique and perfect camera movements especially the over the shoulder shots that worked so well here but really shouldn't, the best one was Mia at the bottom of the basement and Natalie is at the top that angle was so amazing I just fell in love there and then but it shouldn't have worked for the film, but it did oh it definitely did.

It is hard to mention all of the amazing shots without all of you getting very confused and mixed up but the most memorable and cool was the through the forest shot where the 'demon' moves through the woods to the characters, this scene which was also in the original was so perfect and just uplifted the films quality every second.
Towards the end the camera just like the action was intensifying very fast, quick changes and extended shots and angles making you try with the characters to help them survive, all of these rolled up together were just pushing this film from a horror flick to some great cinematography.

Story:

The story was very different to the original thus proving this is not a REMAKE, its just so frustrating when people use that term but anywho, it is a strong story but this may be the weakest part of the film but that is in no way saying this film is weak that just the weakest part. Being that it has to compete with 'horror' audiences that like paranormal activity, insidious and other slosh, it was a challenge for the writers but they did well pleasing the possession fans while giving us fans some proper real horror action which was just so refreshing In this age of films. it is all very strong until one part near the end when Mia gets killed to lay the demon to rest and David tries to bring her back with a home made defibrillator (which was so cool) and fails, then two minutes later or so she pops up with "David?" in the sweetest scared voice, this just killed me so much because they left it too long between his last try to bring her back and her popping up. But as an overall standard the story was fantastic it felt real and feasible(for what it is) with some strong foundations and lore there.

Nods to the original:

The film had many noticeable nods to the original such as Mia severing her hand and then using a chainsaw with her other hand and the stump as support, the camera movements in the forest, Natalie cutting her hand/arm off because its possessed/infected,  pages in the necronomicon (as seen above), some of the dialogue, the opening scene with the man in the forest, the 'boomstick' and so many
more its hard to keep count. It was so nice to give us true evil dead fans something to notice throughout.

In Conclusion:

I would say this is a true horror film filled with gore, possession, demons and slaughtering on a massive scale. With some really strong performances and an updated horror film that felt like an evil dead classic told a bit differently just empowered the horror genre so that we may have a strong horror comeback in the next few years which would be great as the died around the early nineties. Lots of little references and an amazing ending I would recommend this film to any evil dead fan, horror fan or just anyone wanting to see a great (actually) scary movie. Take your friends, partners and family and go'n check this out it will be worth it.

Cograts! you made it to the end of the review and thanks for reading hope you enjoyed this review as much as I did the film and ill see you next time bye.

P.S wait until after the whole credits for a little extra 'tit bit', its worth the wait trust me.

If anyone has any requests of what review to do next I will happily do them, just leave a comment, bye.

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