Tag: Movies

Aladdin (2019) – My Review

I grew up in the 90s, and Disney songs were the soundtrack to my childhood.

Like everyone else, I was in awe at the rapid fire, keep up if you can, jokes for everyone, performance of Robin Williams in the 1992 animated tale of Aladdin.
I was romanced by ‘A Whole New World’, cooed at Abu & the Magic Carpet, and feared the evil Jafar.

As the 2019 remake of Aladdin, is not the first of the Disney remakes, it’s taught me to go into these movies with an open mind.
They generally have the same storyline and songs, but sometimes add little bits to the storyline and every now and again they add a new song. I’ve learnt to just kind of go with it.

20190527_154022_0000.png

The beginning of the movie starts slightly differently to the animation but has the same kind of prepare for the story vibe and jumps into ‘Arabian Nights’ with the opening scenes and I have to admit it got me a little excited and feeling the vibes of the movie.
Fast forward to ‘One Jump Ahead’ and the quick paced scene didn’t quite live up to the animation.

From there, I was entertained throughout every scene. I was captivated by the fantastically colourful Royal outfits, mesmerized by the beauty of Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, fixated with the amazing dances, and won over by Will Smith’s version of the genie.

Will Smith must have, by far, had the most difficult role. He was the one who had to follow in the footsteps of the late great Robin Williams, who had brought an essence of Disney magic to the 1992 genie.
I’ll be honest, I do like Will Smith, but I wasn’t sure of what I thought of a blue Will Smith trying to play a genie in Aladdin.
My overall opinion? He did a job better than I could have hoped! I don’t think there would have been anyone able to follow on the footsteps better.
He played it true to the original but with his own kind of twist and the writing was all right for him.
We of course know he can sing already, but when he began ‘Friend Like Me’ it was going to be the deciding moment. The fact that I laughed out loud at one part of this, I knew he’d done the best possible job anyone could have done.

I liked Will Smith as the genie. I enjoyed his take and believed the character.

The only character which I didn’t really feel much from is Jafar. He did not have the same evil essence that his animated counterpart did.

20190527_155441_0000.png

The talking point of the movie is Naomi Scott.
I hadn’t ready any reviews before going to see the movie. I like to make my own mind up.
On twitter though, I had seen a lot of interest in Naomi Scott’s portrayal of Jasmine.
Having seen the movie I can understand why. Disney has brought some female empowerment into the movie – most notably with the introduction of the new, relatable on so many levels, song ‘Speechless’. Her voice is on a par with her beauty.

My view is it may divide opinions but I enjoyed this modern live action version and was entertained the whole way through.
To put a percentage score on it, I’d give it 80%.

Advertisement

Great Expectations (Of Others)

Isn’t it nice when people show an interest in us? In our lives?
It’s good to know they are interested in how our lives are going.

But what about when we respond with something that they didn’t anticipate?

What if we are not up to the ‘right point’ in our lives that society expects us to be?

There are so many expectations for every stage of life… So many questions… So much judgement that comes with it.

SocialMediaPostMaker_03022019_020419.png

The earliest age I remember someone commenting on one of the first stages of my life was when I was about to turn 13.
My Aunty commented on the fact I was about to enter my teens and that now my life would be all about boys and having my first period – to which my mum corrected her that I had already had my first period. Of course I was already into boys too – so I guess first test passed!

Throughout my teens, adults wanted to know all about “do you have a boyfriend?” and “What are you going to do when you leave school?”
Meanwhile peer pressure pushed us into smoking, drinking, and comparing tales of sexual experiences.
There was a constant pressure to grow up fast and constantly focus on the future and where we were going rather than being in the moment and appreciating what we had.

So what happens when you reach adulthood?

Leaving school, it is all about the next stages – Uni and/or work/careers, meeting someone etc.

So, you get a job and meet someone and the next questions are all about where you are going next – the expectation to move out, settle down, get engaged.

Onto the next ‘stage’ – save for a house, get engaged, and save for a wedding (this is the point people start helpfully telling you what they think you should do or have for your wedding – despite it being your money going on the wedding).

And if you’re not at that point? Well that’s when the questions come:
“Do you not want to get married?”
“Do you have to save for a deposit – Could you not rent so you can move out sooner?” “Are you looking for a relationship?” “Whatever happened to ‘So and so’, I thought you two would have got married”.

The expectations are always there from others. The pressures of what you should do in your life and when.
It amazes me the lack of boundaries some people have at times.

I’ve known people to have opinions on, and comment on women in their 30’s who are single. I’ve heard comments on women who have children but work full time. Comments on stay at home mothers who don’t work.

I’ve been asked multiple times if I am going to have children now I am married. I have been asked outright if I am able not able to have children.

I had a friend who fell pregnant and gradually told work colleagues, only to be asked by one of them if the pregnancy with her husband was planned?

And when someone does have a child… they can be just out of the hospital before someone is asking “Do you think you’ll have any more?”

There is always more expectation and judgement… “I think it’d be nice if you had another so he/she isn’t on their own”

And if you have more children than people expect, again, comes the judgement!

Before we know it we have bounced from life event to life event living under the expectation of others!
And if we haven’t reached any of those expected life events, then what? We failed?!
A life without those means a life not well lived?!

Each person’s life is their own. They may want to meet someone, they may not. They may want to live alone, they may not. They may want to get married, they may not. They may want to have children, they may not.
And sometimes life takes these decisions out of our hands.

Stop pushing people. Don’t judge. Expect things from your own life not from the lives of others.

Live and let live.

80s Movies

For anyone who doesn’t follow me on Twitter, is a new follower, or just missed it – for a while I have been doing regular Theme posts on Thursdays (#ThemeThursday).

The idea is that a topic is selected (sometimes with the help of my followers and sometimes my personal preference) and I post related tweets all day on that subject. This may be memes, gifs, article links, YouTube links etc.

Themes I have had so far have included:
• The Walking Dead (#TWDThursday)
• Game of Thrones (#ThronesThursday)
• Disney (#DisneyThursday)
• 90s Nostalgia (#90sNostalgia)
• Harry Potter (#PotterThursday)

…& many more!

Some of these were successful enough that I may have future repeats with new material and new followers included.
I will also be running #BuffyThursday again as it has to be cut short on the day unfortunately, so look out for that soon.

To kick off 2019 I decided to have my first #ThemeThursday of the year as #80sMoviesThursday (inspired partially by my husband’s love of 80s movies).

socialmediapostmaker_10012019_175516

As someone who was born in the 80’s, they were a big part of my childhood and I remember going to the local video shop with my mum to buy the Little Mermaid which was from 1989.

As a child I watched movies such as Back the Future, ET, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Karate Kid, Ghostbusters… I remember going on a school trip to see The Land Before Time at the cinema, and I remember other animations such as an American Tail, and puppet movies like Labyrinth. I remember being both entertained and yet quite disturbed watching Return to Oz (scared by the Wheelers for one).
I remember as a child I went to my friends house wherr we were unsupervised and she introduced to the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’, as well as being scared when we sat and watched ‘Poltergeist’ together.

Growing up I watched ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and learnt the secrets behind what made Freddie Krueger so scary (someone my older brother had always taunted me about).

I asked my Twitter followers about their favourite 80s Movies – running a poll (#SM80sMoviesPoll) and also asking them to comment their favourite movies and gifs.

Here is what some of them said…

@KrochetxKorner said “The Nightmare on Elm Street. I mean it’s a classic horror film, one of the very first I watched. I was born early 80’s so didn’t get to see it properly until mid 90’s, but I loved it from start to finish.”

@LivvieBrundle responded “oooh um… The Never Ending Story. The story is enthralling & thought provoking. it says a lot about innocence & imagination. The puppet/makeup fx are fantastic. The scene with the horse always gets me & the gmork, with those teeth & eyes… & words, is terrifying. ”

@donnafarrell43 replied with a ‘Dirty Dancing’ gif

@Carly_marie85 is also a Dirty Dancing fan “My favourite film since I was a kid! Obviously bcuz I thought Patrick Swayze was hot in this film! ”

@79_Alexandra is likes a lot of 80s movies, saying”There’s ALOT of really good ones so a tricky one to choose, but I will go with ‘The Breakfast Club’…The SoundTrack is pretty awesome (it’s in my car at the mo) and Some moments are Laugh out loud funny.”

What @PaHe56435751 likes about ‘The Breakfast Club’ is “This is a great movie which shows how we can get along even if we are really different from each other”

@MaddDawgDailey told me his favourite 80s movie is ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ “because it has pretty much everything u could want in an adventurous blockbuster movie. IMO it’s the darkest, most emotional and most engaging movie in the franchise and of all of the big selling 80s movies I’ve seen or in general. Plus it’s the debut of Yoda and has the biggest and most intense cliffhangers in any trilogy. “I am your father”? Nuff said. And while Han Solo’s death in Force Awakens was very sad, him being frozen will always be the hardest moment to watch in a SWs movie…”

 

You can check out some of the related tweets here:

You can also check out my 80s movies polls by checking out the hashtag on Twitter: #SM80sMoviesPoll

Whatever your favourite 80s movies is, it seems one thing is for sure – the movies of this decade were certainly appreciated by many.

What is your favourite 80s movie? Do you prefer another decade for movies?