Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

Sundays are made for chilling on the sofa with some chocolate in one hand, a cup of tea in the other whilst enjoying an incredibly lazy movie marathon. So it seemed only appropriate that my recommendation today had to be a perfect Sunday movie.

When Ned gets released from jail prematurely, after being caught attempting to sell marijuana to a police officer, he has no choice but to rely on his family to help him get back on his feet, after his girlfriend breaks up with him, kicks him out and worst of all keeps their joint dog, Willie Nelson. But his sister's aren't too pleased about having their bum of a brother barging in to their grown-up lives!

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

Courtroom dramas have never been my thing. I've never watched an episode of Law & Order in my life and the genre doesn't usually appeal, so whenever I saw an article about how The Good Wife was one of the best television shows of the moment or no matter how many people recommended it over Twitter, I fervently ignored it.

If truth be told, unless I really like the sound of a new series' storyline, its the cast that draws me in. Seeing as I only really knew Christine Baranski from things such as Mamma Mia and The Grinch, I never liked Chris Noth in Sex & The City anyways and don't hate me, I always thought Julianna Marguiles always came across as a little stuck up. So quite frankly, I was put off. I now realise that impression was COMPLETELY unjustified.

Academy Awards - the announcements in a nutshell!

It was a film fan's most anticipated day today as the Academy Award nominations were announced by a gaggle of famous names including Chris Pine, J.J Abrams and Alfonso Cuarón.

Here's a brief low-down of who and what was nominated, for the awards you've actually heard of, for this year's Oscars. With the added bonus of me stating my personal favourites of the season and those who I think are favourites to win! (You heard it here first, folks).

New Year, New Awards!

Eddie Redmayne in The Theory Of Everything

There's a reason why I love the turn of the new year; the later months of 2014, mixed together with the first couple of 2015. Not just because Christmas has just been and we're still in that overly full, overly spoilt and over-joyed stupor. Nor is it because it's the start of a new chapter, thus presenting a fresh new start. No, it's because the movies that are released around that time are normally of high calibre, and that's because it's a time we movie-nerds like to call "award season". 

Life Partners review: Leighton Meester and Gillian Jacobs play co-dependent soul sisters

We all know the feeling of worry that sets in when your best friend tells you they've got a new other half. The romantic kind. Okay, for the most part, you're pleased for them because we all want our friends to be happy, but particularly if you're very close to said friend, in those few brief moments, it's almost impossible not to think about how your own life will be affected, regardless of how beaming their smile is whilst talking about their new life partner.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

I like to believe that I have a very open mind and things that are little out of the norm have always fascinated me greatly. I also love happen to love things that are little on the odd side and I like being grossed out, and I mean that in the best way possible.

I'd seen Freakshow on Netflix for a while, but because I was watching other shows simultaneously, I always skipped past it. But one sleepy night and knowing that reality is always the easiest genre to relax to, I started episode one! And it didn't take me long to watch them all.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

If you haven't watched Portlandia before then, while I'm not surprised, I'm quick to state that you are missing out. The show is relatively unknown to those who aren't big Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein or even Saturday Night Live fans but it really is worth a watch if you like more observational comedy.

A Walk Among The Tombstones review

I don't really need much encouragement to see a Liam Neeson film. Okay, so his back-catalogue of movies has had a fair few misses as well as hits (I'm looking at you, Unknown and The Grey), but films I love him in such as Taken and Non-Stop are more than enough to convince me that this actor is actually a talent and despite being relatively typecast, does still make some good'uns.

Unfortunately for me, I think this blind admiration for Neeson may have shot me in the foot when it came to his latest drama. Despite many people telling me it looked a bit naff, I refused to listen and wandered into the cinema with a spring in my step to see A Walk Among The Tombstones.

Before I Go To Sleep review: A well-executed thriller... but not one you'll want to relive again and again

When a best-selling book gets turned into a movie adaptation, as it hits the big screen, viewers are usually split into two camps. Those who have read it and want to see a book they enjoyed created, within the medium of cinema, and those who haven't read it at all and are simply looking for a few hours of immersive entertainment of a film they like the look of. 

But as odd as it may sound, I fell into both categories when I went to see Before I Go To Sleep. You see, I was about half way through the book when I went, which put me in an unusual position of knowing some of the story but not all of it, and I am undoubtedly glad of that fact having now seen the film.

Will Friends always be the greatest comedy show of all?

Watching the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards the other night got me thinking about all those television shows that I love at present, shows I've loved for many years and shows that have been off the air for even longer!

Despite my love of drama and thriller, particularly in movies, I always seem to gravitate towards comedy TV series more than any other genre.

Guardians of the Galaxy review: I-I-I-I-I'm hooked on a franchise!

The unusual suspects 

The master moviemakers at Marvel must have been so determined not to let DC show them up with their upcoming Batman V Superman, that before the rival production company even had a chance to release their first superhero ensemble movie, Marvel released it's second. And what a corker of a second it is! 

Having been randomly abducted by galactic thieves and outlaws when he was just a boy, and forced to live a new life in space, now grown-man Peter Quill spends his days stealing and doing odd-jobs for people who want stuff done that isn't quite, let's say, legal within the galaxy.

After taking a job for a niche collector, Quill goes after an orb he knows absolutely nothing about, when he unwittingly runs into a few others who are also desperate to claim the object themselves. He soon realises he'll have to shrug off his lone wolf demeanour and work with his rival criminals in order to save the power of the orb from falling into the (even more wrong than his) hands.

The Nut Job review

First question: hasn't this movie been done before?! Whilst watching the 3D animation by Canadian director Peter Leponitis, I couldn't shake the fact that The Nut Job bares an uncanny resemblance in storyline to 2006's Over The Hedge.

Cute little animals with huge cartoon eyes and even bigger teeth on a seemingly impossible mission to get food for the winter? The leader of the gang of woodland creatures is trying to redeem himself to the rest of the group? Oh, it's about a racoon, a squirrel, a dog and some other not-so-important animals? And they're all voiced by actors who really shouldn't be associating themselves with such twaddle? Yeah, they're definitely the same movie.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

I know it's quite hard to believe seeing as I do appear to watch pretty much every show that has ever been made but up until a week ago, I had never, ever watched The Walking Dead. But within just 7 days I've managed to watch the first 3 seasons of the HBO smash-hit show on Netflix, patiently awaiting the fourth season to start on 5* tonight. (I timed it well it would appear, which is good because we all love a binge-watch, don't we?) 

Judged: Emmy Nominations 2014

This may not come as a shock after seeing the content of my blog, but I am a massive award show buff and try to watch every single ceremony related to such subjects or at least try and know everything about them if I can't in fact, watch them. After all, I am the girl that pleaded with her Mum to ring up Sky and request they give us the movie channels for a night just so I could watch the Oscars. (It worked though, don't judge).

And because I watch a crazy amount of television shows, I always feel a little more involved with the ones that focus on that category, like the Emmy's for example. I feel like because I've actually watched 99% of the shows that are in the running for awards, I feel like I can judge it a little more than film awards. 

So when they announced all of the nominees for the 2014 Emmy Awards, I couldn't help but pick holes in the nominations I really didn't agree with. I always come to the conclusion that the Emmy's just can't let go of some shows that they clearly think are still good but most viewers have switched off and gotten bored. Biased about their noms much? In this years case, I sadly think so. So here's the lowdown of the things I think are totally wrong (and right) about this year's nominations...

What I'm Watching This Month...

If truth be told, there was one reason I bought the first season box set of a show I'd never even watched before and that was Laura Prepon. Orange Is The New Black had left a massive Alex Vause shaped hole in my heart, and after re-watching both the first and second season and having already watched the entirety of Are You There, Chelsea? twice, I wasn't sure what else would successfully fill the void. 

How To Train Your Dragon 2 review

[*Warning* Watching this film may cause obsession with all things dragon and result in crippling disappointment that there is a) no such existing thing and b) you do not, and cannot, in fact, ever ride one.]

When How To Train Your Dragon came out in 2010, no-one would have expected that it would become one of the most well-loved animations of the last decade, but it almost instantaneously became a fan favourite after children (and adults) everywhere fell in love with the movie's heart-felt charm and witty wonder.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

I usually recommend a film or a fictional television series when it comes to Netflix but documentaries have had my attention this past week and I've thoroughly enjoyed learning as I've watched them. Makes a change from the usual comedy that I normally just put on in the background when I'm busy doing something else.

Along with a few others, one that I found very interesting was Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine. Made in 2002, the feature focuses on gun crime and violence in the US, whilst exploring the reasons behind the 1999 Columbine High School massacre which killed 15 people.

I'm not ready to say goodbye to True Blood!

*WARNING* Contains enormous amounts of gushing over a TV show and even more spoilers.

Despite being the creators of critically-acclaimed, fan-adored shows such as Game Of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, HBO has received a LOT of hate over the past couple of years. It seems to be that many viewers are sick of seeing a show coming back year after year, a show that I am personally, still very fond of; True Blood.

What I'm Watching This Month…

When I've watched a fair few episodes of a television show at one time, I occasionally get a bit too attached to them. This can come and go and I frequently fade in and out of what are my favourite shows at any given time. Now that season two is coming to an end this weekend (and I've simultaneously started re-watching season one already to fill the upcoming void), I find that my current obsession is Orphan Black.

Netflix Recommendation Of The Week!

This week I'm recommending a film that, I admittedly haven't watched myself on Netflix yet, but know is brilliant and have just recently noticed is on there, and that's Our House. 

Okay, so I'll start by saying it's very, very silly. If you don't like slapstick, comedies with simple (yet funny) plots or typical Stiller humour in genera;, then go be overly picky elsewhere! But if those points make up the kind of film that you think you will enjoy, then this will undoubtedly have you cracking up.