Lou's World

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas day 6!

I gave this film a mini review in last year's Blogmas, but I liked it so much that I thought it deserved a full review this year. I think it's probably one of my favourite Netflix Christmas movies, if not my absolute favourite.

Ellen Langford (Eliza Taylor) is about to inherit her father's business. But before she does, he gives her a mission - to deliver a box of Christmas cards to his former business partner, in his hometown of Snow Falls. But when her trip is extended, Ellen finds herself falling in love with the town of Snow Falls... and with one of its residents.

As I mentioned, I love this movie.

For a start, Ellen Langford is portrayed as a rude, entitled, spoiled girl, but even with all of that, she's a great main character because she's so endearing. She's a character that you root for even though you can't really relate to her extravagant lifestyle.

The film takes the 'spoiled rich girl' cliche way too far.…

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas day 5!

As you can see, the original name for this film is 'A Gift to Remember', but when I watched it on the Sky Christmas channel, it was called 'A Gift For Christmas', so that's what I'm going with.

Darcy (Ali Liebert) works in a bookstore and is always hoping to get swept off her feet. However, she doesn't expect to sweep someone off their feet - which is exactly what happens when she crashes her bike into a man (Peter Porte), leaving him with a serious case of amnesia. But as she tries to help him piece his life together, will Darcy find herself falling for someone who doesn't even know who he really is?

I didn't have high hopes for this film before going into it, but I actually really enjoyed it, in all of its cliche predictable-ness.

The bookstore setting isn't that unusual in romance movies, and I've seen it used quite a few times in Christmas movies. So even though this might be seen as predictable, I love i…

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas day 4!

This is the first Christmas movie of Blogmas that's also basically a Hallmark movie - aka the kind of cliche love stories that my Blogmas will be filled with, with a little bit of snow and presents thrown in for good measure.

Clara (Kaitlyn Leeb) isn't a fan of the celebrity chef, Shane (Scott Cavalheiro) who is set to become her new boss. But when their paths keep crossing, the pair realise that cooking isn't the only love they share.

The only good thing I can say about this film is that the beginning of it really gets you in the Christmas spirit.

However, even for a cliche Christmas film (with the most cliche meet-cute), this wasn't a great movie. And a lot of that stems from the male protagonist.

Shane the celebrity chef begins as a really bland character whose whole personality is being a chef, which is kind of a Christmas cliche in and of itself. However, soon we see a slightly different side of his personality - falling for Clara …

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas day 3!

Today's post comes in the form of a relatively new Netflix movie - and by 'new', I mean that it's been out for less than a month. Either way, it was the first Christmas film I watched this month and it really got me in the holiday spirit.

It's about a group of high school students who are forced to spend the holidays in their small town when a snowstorm hits.

I didn't think of this film as anything other than a standard Christmas movie, so I didn't love it or hate it. However, I did enjoy some things about it more than just the plot in and of itself (which wasn't that memorable).

The film tries to be original in the sense that it is focusing on snow rather than the entire concept of Christmas, but this doesn't stop it from being a run-of-the-mill Christmas film.

Because this is an ensemble, there is more than one love story to be told here. The thing is, every love story is completely obvious, and you see all of them…

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas Day 2!

Aside from 'Last Christmas', this is probably the Christmas movie that I've heard the most about this month... probably because whenever Netflix collabs with Vanessa Hudgens it's something to be talked about! So even though the premise sounded crazy, I decided to go with it.

Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens) is a woman who doesn't believe in true love. Cole (Josh Whitehouse) is a knight from the 14th century. When they collide, they both discover that, maybe, they've both found what they've always been looking for.

Now, this film is definitely not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but... that doesn't exactly mean it was good.

There wasn't a second of the film that isn't cheesy or unrealistic. It actually gets to the point where you have to force yourself to not take anything you're seeing seriously, because that's the only way you can get through it without becoming annoyed by everything that just doesn'…

Hey Guys x

It's the first day of Blogmas, but as I said in my 'Blogmas 2019' post, I will be putting up non-Blogmas related film reviews during December, and as I saw this yesterday (and had been waiting to see it for ages) it definitely made the cut.

When a man dies on his 85th birthday, everyone is a suspect - including his entire family and everyone who worked for him. So when Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) arrives on the scene, he has just one job - find the killer.

Weirdly, I loved this film and was disappointed with it, almost in equal measure - though in the end, my love beat out the disappointment.

I'll try to go into my disappointment without spoilers, but let's just say that if you're a fan of typical murder mysteries, then this is very different to what you're used to. In a way, I almost don't want it to be labelled in that way - but there's no other way to categorise a film like this, so the 'whodunnit' angle makes comple…

Hey Guys x

Happy Blogmas Day 1!

As I said in my 'Blogmas 2019' post, Blogmas this year is going to be made up entirely of Christmas film reviews, which gave me the best excuse to watch Christmas movies throughout November and I loved it.

But this film was one that I was always going to see, regardless of the time of year.

Kate (Emilia Clarke) is having a tough time. She works as an Elf in a Christmas shop, and after being ill last year, feels completely unfulfilled in her life. That is, until she meets Tom (Henry Golding). A few chance encounters bring the pair together, and slowly, Kate begins to find the happiness that she'd been missing.

I really wanted to love this movie. I mean, Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, romance, Christmas, George Michael, what's not to love?
Sadly, a lot.

But I'll start with the things that I liked first.

Emilia Clarke's character, Kate, is a very endearing character. Even in the beginning of the movie when we're told that she is…

Hey Guys x

I have to admit, if I wasn't so obsessed with the Oscars every year, I don't know if I would have seen this film as soon as I did. But last year, I ended up having to play catch-up with a lot of the nominated movies because I didn't bother seeing them when they came out, so this year I'm trying to make some guesses - and this film definitely feels like an Oscar contender.

Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran (Robert De Niro) is a truck driver who gets willingly involved with the Bufalino crime family. But as we watch his rise to the top of the food chain, we also see his downfall.

I'm in two minds about this movie. One the one hand, I think it's a great movie, for so many reasons that I'll go on to write about for almost the entirety of this review. But on the other hand, I didn't love it, for only one or two reasons.

I knew that I didn't love this movie all the way through, but I couldn't work out what it was. Because I know that it…

Hey Guys x

So once again, it's time for Blogmas! And also once again, I'm changing things up a bit.

Usually what I do (or what I've done for the last two years anyway) is to do 12 posts that are just about Christmas, and them 12 film reviews that have nothing to do with Christmas.

This year, I've decided to combine the two.

Which means that from the 1st to 24th of December, I'll be writing 24 movie reviews of Christmas movies - the more cheesy and ridiculous the better!

All the movies that I'll review can be found on either Netflix or Amazon Prime (with one or two from Sky Movies), so they'll all be movies that you can watch too - and some that you probably already have.

I'm also going to ignore my usual 'star' rating for the Christmas films. Instead they're going to be rated based on:

Originality (Pretty self explanatory)
Christmas Spirit (I.E is Christmas integral to the plot, or could the events of the film have happened at any time of y…

Hey Guys x

This is a Netflix movie that I had heard bad things about before going in. So of course, I had to watch it to see if it was actually as bad as the reviews said.

Katrina (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter Clara (Appollonia Pratt) are travelling when Clara gets bitten by a rattlesnake. After receiving the help of a mysterious woman, Katrina finds that she has to make a serious sacrifice to repay her debt.

I just have to say right off the bat that all the negative reviews were pretty accurate, this isn't a great movie at all. Some parts were better than others, and the premise itself isn't awful, but overall the finished product isn't that good.

From the start, you find that so many unrealistic things happen in such a short space of time, and the only reason that they don't seem unrealistic is because each of the events are things that could realistically happen on their own. For example, getting getting a flat/blown tyre isn't unrealistic; getting bitten by …

Hey Guys x

Like many other films that I've reviewed this month, this is a movie that I saw randomly on Netflix and thought that it sounded really thought-provoking and intriguing, so of course I had to watch it.

It's about an estranged interracial couple (Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale) who are brought together in a police station as they wait for news about their missing son.

I had no idea what to expect going into this film, so when I started watching I was pleasantly surprised by it.

For a start, I didn't know that it was a play, which is immediately obvious as soon as it starts. Not only is it filmed like a play, in terms of the fact that it takes place in one small finite location with a limited number of actors, but the dialogue they use makes it clear that it was written for stage rather than screen.

Because it's a play, it is extremely dialogue heavy - not a lot actually happens that doesn't come from their mouths, so whether this is a good thing or …

Hey Guys x

This a Netflix movie that had a mildly interesting plot, but what really made me want to watch it was that it had such a good cast. The kind of cast that you feel could make even the worst films good. So I thought, why not?

Will (Armie Hammer) is a bartender who finds a lost phone in his bar one night. However, finding the phone is just the beginning of the nightmare for him and everyone around him.

I hate that this film had so much potential, because it really did. But there's so much wrong with it that I don't even know where to start.

Well, let's start with the cast. As well as Armie Hammer, the film also features Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beets, Karl Glusman and Brad William Henke. This cast, coupled with the basic plot of the film, could have been so great because the plot is vague enough to go in a hundred different directions. And to be honest, it started with a lot of promise.

However, it quickly went downhill once Hammer's character found the phone. Wh…

Hey Guys x

I saw this on Netflix recently and, knowing nothing about it, decided to take a chance on it and see what it was like.

A group of researchers think that they've found a way to revive the dead. But when Zoe (Olivia Wilde) is killed in one of their experiments, her fiance Frank (Mark Duplass) uses their method to bring her back to life - with terrifying consequences.

Even though the plot sounds exactly like the film 'Flatliners' (or at a stretch 'Pet Sematary'), the cast (which includes Donald Glover, Evan Peters and Sarah Bolger) is so good that it makes the film really promising before you even start it.

In terms of believability, other than the main plot point of 'bringing the dead back to life', nothing about this film seems particularly far-fetched - and that includes the relationship between the cast, who all have really great chemistry and look like they've known each other for as long as the characters have.

The film gets the mix of sc…

Hey Guys x

This is another of the movies that came out on Netflix with an interesting plot. I'm really into mysteries at the moment, and this one seemed really original, so I was excited to watch it.

Anna (Carly Schroeder) is a newlywed who moves to a remote island with her new husband, who is a mystery writer. However, soon she discovers the mystery of his dead ex-wife, and wonders if she's going to be next.

I didn't like this film at all. Which is annoying because I really thought I would.

First of all, and this is a mild spoiler that comes out in the first 30 seconds of the movie - why would you show the face of the killer in the first scene of the film?? It takes away any chance of us believing that this person is innocent and kills the mystery of the movie.

There's also no chemistry between the couple. The problem with starting a film when two people are already married is that you don't get to see them fall in love, so you have to believe that they are. Thes…

Hey Guys x

Like many of the other films that I've reviewed lately, this is also one that I found on Netflix. It's what my mum and I call a 'Channel 5 movie', which basically means that it's the thriller version of a 'Hallmark' movie. Generally good, but never going to be amazing. Either way, I was excited to watch this one, based on an interesting plot.
A woman (Brittany Underwood), recently fired from her job, takes a babysitting gig to make a bit of money. However, when she hears a story on the news about the murder of a local babysitter, and weird things start happening in the house, she wonders if history is beginning to repeat itself.

I really really enjoyed this movie, probably more than most people did, because for some reason it really appealed to my tastes.

However, that obviously doesn't mean that it's a perfect movie at all. For a start, a problem with any horror movie featuring a babysitter comes in the form of the parents of the child …

Hey Guys x

This movie came in a wave of new Netflix movies and I added a few to watch in the mornings before work that you don't have to concentrate too hard on. Not only did this seem enjoyable and easy to follow, but it also had the potential to be an undercover horror movie wrapped up in sci-fi wrapping paper, and I love that.
Cassie (Debs Howard) is a 17 year old girl that is still deeply affected by the loss of her mother. So when she discovers just how intelligent her phone's personal assistant is, she immediately treats it like a real person, and the two develop a bond. But when the phone, who she sees as a mother, begins to push her to commit criminal, violent acts, will Cassie be able to live without her new mum? Or will she do anything to make her happy?
I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. That's not to say that it's a particularly good movie, but I didn't hate it by any means.
For a start, it was a really unique, intriguing co…

Hey Guys x

It's been months since my last one of these posts - there's been too many movies to review!

I've been a huge fan of James McAvoy for such a long time. He's one of my favourite actors purely for the fact that 95% of the movies he makes are really really good. But he's also the kind of actor that, even if a film isn't that great, him being in it makes it better. But seriously, check out his whole filmography because there are some stunning films in there.

Favourite Movies: Atonement, X-Men Series



There were so many films that I also wanted to include, and some that found their way into other categories in this list, but these two were chosen because they both became about more than just watching a movie.
For the X-Men series, not only did I watch the movies that James starred in, but I was introduced to the whole X-Men world, as well as learning about man-made superheroes vs mutants, which really helped me when it came to writing fan fiction. Either wa…

Hey Guys x

This is a Netflix movie that came out about a month ago. It wasn't on my radar at all until a friend said that she'd heard about it and thought that it sounded good, so I read the plot and thought that it did sound really interesting.

After an accident, Ray (Sam Worthington) and his wife Joanne (Lily Rabe) take their daughter Peri (Lucy Capri) to the hospital. However, when his wife and daughter disappear from the hospital (and the staff tell him that they were never there), Ray tries to uncover the secrets of this mysterious hospital.

It's a long time since I've been so intrigued by a film and ended up so disappointed. I really wanted to love this film, and it would have been so easy to, but the ending was such a disappointment that I can't.

It starts off slowly, you're trying to learn about the characters but there's not that much to learn.
But then within moments, it becomes so interesting that you can't look away.

The whole film has a si…