Pitch Perfect 2

SF: How much did I love the last installment! This was no disappointment, the same zany comedy, brilliant songs and vocal performances. I laughed all the way through and I can't wait for the DVD. Das Sound Machine was a hilarious addition and *spoiler* I now adore the Green Bay Packers. Also Snoop Dog can actually sing. Is this going to be ground breaking now, it is really enjoyable - totally.  Don't miss it.
7.5/10

50Eggs: Watching Pitch Perfect 2 cemented a life lesson for me. It taught me that I do in fact like musicals, and that the reason I have never ever liked one until this series is that they all had rubbish songs. I'm looking at you Chicago, and Les Mis. So you can guess that I enjoyed this film, and personally I would say it's just as good as the first. The songs are still great and, if anything, it's funnier than the first. 8/10

DonkeyB: n/a

Overall: 7.75/10

Pitch Perfect

SF: I'll admit it I really enjoyed this film. I wasn't keen on seeing it because I thought that Glee had covered this pretty well (at least in the first two seasons). Ten mins in I find myself starting to like it, about 30 mins in I'm ready to sing along. It is a bit cliche at points and yes chances are you can predict it. Don't watch this if you are looking for a deep and meaningful art house film. This is pure entertainment. It's well paced and keeps you laughing throughout and there is nothing bad about that. I think I like it more than Mean Girls.  Watch out for some great lines from Hana Mae Lee. Also, is it me or does Anna Kendrick have the whitest teeth on earth? 7.5/10

50 Eggs: Ok this is good. Ordinarily I wouldn't go within sniffing distance of a musical, but I very much enjoyed this.  It really is very funny and the music is great - rather than using the normal cheesy ballad style songs we get to hear modern music that will get your toe tapping whether you like it or not. I'd have given this an even higher score if it weren't for the fact that I found the lead character totally unlikable. 8/10

DonkeyB: Lots and lots and lots of fun. It's a feature length episode of Glee. Funny: really, really, really, laugh out loud funny. I was very ready for this film, I was absolutely delighted to see something frothy and entertaining and that is exactly what this is. Even the songs are fun. The most I've smiled in the cinema since The Muppets. 8/10

Overall: 7.85/10

End of Watch

SF: After all the hype I had high hopes for this film. In many ways it was very satisfying, the acting is spot on and the setting seems to work, a good mix of serious, gritty, humour and at times disturbing. There are three particular moments that really surprised me (I'll let you guess which moments these are). I liked that the whole story didn't take place in one day or week but over a staged period of time. However there were just a few things that stopped this from being a great movie and left merely a good movie. Which is a shame as it had a lot of potential. Firstly the use of found footage as a medium, this is fine at times but if you are going to do this then you must stick to it relentlessly. Secondly not enough character depth and lastly not enough tension in the finale. 6.5/10

50Eggs: n/a

DonkeyB: It's an entertaining cop buddy movie. These guys see some truly horrific and depressing things, and do some downright stupid and undeniably brave things, which makes me think that maybe the film was trying to be gritty. My problem with it is it seemed too one dimensional, without ruining it ***SPOILER ALERT***, cops good, bad guys bad.

The other thing that film makers have to stop doing now is the found footage thing. It was getting old for me by the end of The Blair Witch Project but now it is seriously boring as a concept. It also fairly seriously undermines the story telling in this film, right from the start, I was thinking, 'ok so if Brian got that shot, who filmed that?' Why are the street gang filming what they do? What becomes of Brian's film project? Was he just making that up because he liked to film his life? He doesn't seem like that sort of character in the film.

We are surely not far away from the time when some bright spark film maker just out of film school makes a play within a play, with made up 'real found footage'. i.e. they shoot fake real footage to make a found footage film, but then use different actors who look a bit like the first set of fake real people to make the bits in between, so they can fake pretend that it is really a found footage film they have padded out with dramatisations and alternative angles.

I understood that concept I'm not sure anyone else will, which is good because that means they can't steal my up-its-own-arse-pretentious-film-school-project I'll never make.

6.5/10

Overall: 6.5/10