In honour of International Women’s Day, I think it only necessary to watch and review a film about a strong female character. Captain Marvel certainly does showcase a strong female superhero. I would expect nothing less from Marvel Studios after producing characters such as Captain America, Iron Man and Thor (all male characters I might add).

Captain Marvel is another installment in the Avengers Universe. It is an origin story about the self discovery of who Carol/Vers (Captain Marvel) is, who she used to be and who she wants to become. She sets out to remember her past to understand the world around her. Many secrets are revealed while Carol/Vers finds herself in the middle of a galactic war between two alien species. This is also the film that actually explains why Nick Fury (a recurring character in the Marvel films) starts the Avengers initiative in the first place. Captain America might be deemed the first avenger but Captain Marvel turns out to be the original. That’s right! [spoiler alert] A woman is the reason behind the Avengers.

Not only does this film show us how the Avengers came to be but it also links heavily with the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (also a part of the Avengers Universe). There was no direct connection between the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avenger films until Infinity War where all the characters came together to defeat Thanos. Captain Marvel however becomes some sort of a gateway between these two worlds even more so and actually pre-dates all the Avenger and Guardian films.

I love how Carol/Vers/Captain Marvel is one kick-ass superhero. She has immense power that makes for some amazing fight scenes. This film makes me proud to be a woman. Not only does she make me proud because of her exceptional fighting skills that could take down the hulk but also through the things she says. This is a film for any woman who has ever been belittled or underestimated or disregarded because of their gender. There are many moments in this film where Carol is belittled or underestimated or disregarded because she is a woman. But she has the strongest come-backs I have ever heard in a Hollywood film. Each time she comes-back at someone it’s as if she is speaking on behalf of all women who has been put in that position. The words are so powerful and I have to give a quick shout-out to Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet who wrote this screenplay. My personal favourite is “I have nothing to prove to you”.

Unfortunately I did find one aspect of this character ‘annoying’. Carol/Vers had no flaws or no visible flaws that we could see. She was so perfect that she is almost unreal in some moments of the film. You could argue that her character is reckless and head-strong but most of the time her biggest obstacle portrayed in the film was that she was a woman and better yet a woman who didn’t remember where she came from and therefore had no control over her ‘emotions’. It was as if the filmmakers were pushing this idea of a underestimated woman that they kind of forgot to give her any real human/character flaws. This underestimated woman idea works for what the story is trying to achieve but some viewers may disregard the character because she was too perfect and therefore defeats the purpose of the story.

If you are an Avengers fan and have seen all/most of the Avengers films as well as Guardians of the Galaxy then there are already some spoilers as you watch this film. It becomes apparent very early on in the film that Carol/Vers works for the Kree and Ronan the Accuser who we know to be the ‘bad guys’ from the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Therefore when it turns out later on in the film that she has been on the wrong side this whole time it is not so much of a shock as it would have been to those who might not be as heavily invested in the Avengers Universe. Therefore I felt there was no big impact on me as I kind of saw it coming. But as an origin film, these things do happen because they pre-date the films we have already seen.

Having a strong female lead in this film means that women and girls today and in the future have someone to look up too. A character that isn’t the at home wife of a man in power or a character that needs saving by a heroic male. Captain Marvel can save herself as well as an entire planet. This character will become a role model to women everywhere. You will be underestimated and belittled, you will be shoved to the side, you will face obstacles in life that may seem impossible to overcome. Captain Marvel teaches us that everytime we get pushed down we must get back up.

I am not going to give a rating for this film because I am properly a little biased but I will say that it’s worth the watch. If you enjoy watching all the Avengers films then this is yet again another great one. If you are a woman and want to see a different kind of female character in a film, watch this one. At the end of the day, this film will mean lots of different things to each person who sees it. It has had an big impact on me (as a woman and as a filmmaker) and I hope you come away with an impact just as good.

Two words: mind blown! This is a film I highly recommend you see. Especially if your looking for an action-packed, exciting, heroine film with amazing CGI and visual effects. I knew nothing about this film before going to see it and now I feel like I have been introduced to a whole new world and the franchise surrounding it. I believe that just like with Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, this film is only the beginning of many more.

This film follows the story of a deactivated female cyborg, Alita (Rosa Salazar), who is rescued and repaired by Dr Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz). Alita remembers nothing from her past and so starts a journey to find out who she is. Along the way it becomes apparent that some powerful people want her dead. The film is set in a futuristic dystopian world where people on the planet surface try to fight their way up to the last surviving floating city, Zalem, where there is no rags and only riches. It becomes clear that Alita is the only one who can change the world as it is. She is the key to end the poverty and destruction of the people; to start the fight against the patriarchy.

As I said, I knew nothing about this film before seeing it but now I want to know everything and anything about it. It has engaged my interest and that’s what a good film should do! Make you want to see and learn more about it after you have seen it. But I won’t go into much detail outside the film; I want to stick with reviewing the film itself.

From the producers of Avatar, you already know that this film is going to be visually amazing. Of course, it was none other than Weta Digital who was responsible for the transformation of Alita and other characters into the stunning CGI creations they became. Weta Digital have been arguably the front-runners of CGI since the release of The Lord of Rings back in 2001. They’re ahead of their time and have used ground-breaking technology to bring a lot of films (some you wouldn’t even know of) to life. Alita: Battle Angel is no-exception to this. There is obviously a lot of CGI but the most noticable is the CGI on Alita, the character, herself. Some may argue that it being so noticable is a bad thing however the CGI is suppose to make her look different as she is a cyborg. With her enlarged eyes and petite body, I almost forgot there was an actress behind the CGI.

Rosa Salazar was, in my opinion, flawless in her performance. She was so convincing and fully adopted the entirety of the character she was playing. I had to look up who it was playing Alita, I had no idea it was her. One of the best things I liked about her character was how strong she was as a hero and as a female. Alita is a fighter, literally, and she kicks arse! I won’t say too much more because you’ll have to watch the film to really enjoy it. However, there are scenes in which Alita is losing fights but at no stage does she become weaker in her fighting ability. She is still as strong as she is when she is winning fights. I love that they didn’t compromise her ability to fight and her strength just because she was losing. Most of the time, filmmakers will rely on the usual stereotypes of women. Women are apparently frail, weak and need saving. But not in this film. She is the saviour.

I have to give a quick shout-out to Christoph Waltz for yet again a wonderful performance. I have seen him play a villian, a dark-horse and now a loving father figure. He is proving, always, that he can do a wide range of characters. He is a great actor and it’s a pleasure to watch him.

Finally, I want to speak about the director Robert Rodriguez. According to his IMDB page, this seems to be the biggest project he has ever worked on. He should be very proud of what he’s achieved. This is a brilliant story in which young women, not too young, can watch a female character be the hero and yet experience a lot of the emotions and life events of a young girl. Even through the tough times, this film shows that women can still be not only their own hero but others’ as well.

As I have said from the get go, I highly recommend this film. Even so to rate it a 10/10. I can not wait for the sequels and to see how this franchise grows to influence another generation of young people.

It’s the start of a whole new year (well sort of, we are now in February!) Slowly but surely we have been getting back into the rhythm of the business that is MEAN Productions. I thought I would start off this year’s film reviews with something easily accessible and light. Why not a Netflix Original!! Netflix has been so consistent with their great content (not just films but TV series) and I am very rarely disappointed. Unfortunately this is one of those rare occasions.

IO is an adventure drama (apparently) following the life of a young scientist, Sam (Margaret Qualley), trying to find a way to live on Earth after it has turned into a toxic planet. All other humans have fled to a space-station above Jupiter’s Moon IO; the last shuttle from Earth to this colony will be leaving in 4 days. She has a choice to make: does she give up on her work to save Earth; or will she join her new friend and another survivor Micah (Anthony Mackie) on his journey to the shuttle to leave Earth forever?

The premise is promising and the trailer makes it looks exciting but it is anything but. The pace of the film is so slow and even though I hoped it would quicken as the action builds it never did. It was a flatline film without dimensions. It stayed on the same level from beginning to end which is not what you want or need as a viewer. I crave layers and depth to the characters and story but this was as flat as a pancake. The acting was emotionless but I guess it doesn’t help when your character is wearing a full face mask as apart of the costume for half of the film. The only choice the actors had was to act with their eyes but I wasn’t moved.

With most previous Netflix films, there is a big twist or a big moment. I was waiting and waiting and waiting but nothing ever came to be this. There was no revelation, no turning point of the film. I’m unsure as to what the director (Jonathan Helpert) was going for here; whether he was trying to create an alternative, boujee vibe that’s different from the common americanisation in most Hollywood produced films. Whatever it was it was completely lost in translation. I found this film to be the biggest waste of my time. The worse thing for me is that I struggled to stay awake. I wasn’t invested. I lost interest and had to force myself to concentrate. I endured but that isn’t what a filmmaker wants to hear about his film. “His audience endorsed till the end”. No, not a good outcome.

I hate to write bad reviews, especially when it’s the first review of the year. I always try to see the good in a film even when it’s the most insignificant part of it. Unfortunately the only good in this film is that the story is promising. Its execution was poor and therefore it was a major flop for me. I’m giving it a 2/10 out of respect to Netflix and the great content I know it can make.

Ok, I might be a bit biased as I’m a lifelong Harry Potter fan (both films and books) so I’ll try to be as objective as possible in my review of this film. Biases aside, I really enjoyed the second installment of Fantastic Beasts. Even though it hasn’t done as well in the box office as expected, It’s a well made film with a strong storyline. It picks up 6 months after the last film left us. WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD. Grindelwald is still being held by the America Ministry of Magic and is being transferred to a faculty with higher security. During his transfer he escapes and flees to Europe. What we are not aware of from the last Fantastic Beasts film, is that Credance (the obscurus) has survived. Credance is also in Europe looking for his real birth family. It becomes clear that Grindelwald’s objective is to get Credance to side with his cause. Credance who has survived so long as an obscurus (when most die before the age of 10) is a very powerful wizard. It is left up to the original team, Newt Scamander, Tina Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, Queenie Goldstein, to help save Credance from those who want to destroy him and from joining Grindelwald’s Army.

The CGI is great! This film is full of wizarding duels and new fantastic beasts (as well as some old ones from the first film). Without CGI this film would be a bust and you would just have a bunch of actors and actresses running around with sticks. I have to mention that Grindelwald’s magical duels and spells are particularly outstanding. This film really casts the wizard in a dark light, showing just how powerful he is and how much of a threat he was to the wizarding world in the early 20th century. I wasn’t so impressed with the fact that they had casted Johnny Depp in the first Fantastic Beasts film as Grindelwald. He is such a well-known actor that I was worried we would be watching Johnny Depp instead of the character himself. However this wasn’t the case in the second installment of Fantastic Beasts. Johnny Depp was able to remove his trademark quirks and really become this terrifying wizard. NOTE: he will never be as scary as Voldemort. Sorry Johnny! Someone I did struggle to see past was actually Jude Law as Dumbledore. This might be because Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore is so iconic that it’s hard for anyone else to convincingly play him. I could see that Jude Law was trying to portray the mannerisms Gambon had used in the Harry Potter films so we could relate however it was lacking for me. I haven’t written him off yet though, I’m excited to see what Jude Law will produce in the third installment.

As always, I loved how they keep referencing the wizarding world that we already know and love. It brings a familiarity; a sort of comfort. The use of the word Muggles, references to characters like Nicholas Flamel, it all brings an instant understanding to the story for the audience. That is of course if the audience has retained as much detail as “diehard” Potter fans otherwise it would go straight over their heads. Something I did notice was that the wizards in Fantastic Beasts don’t seem to have to speak the enchantment of the killing curse. It was used quite a lot and they did keep the green flash that comes with the spell but not at any point did anyone actually speak the words “Avada Kedavra”. I’m not to sure about this decision but maybe there is an explanation that will come in time with the sequels.

Of course, I cannot finish this review without giving some sort of mention to the ending of the film. I won’t give it away but obviously the ending has caused a riffed amongst the Harry Potter fans. Some will love it and some will hate it. Those that hate it will claim that it can’t happen because it hasn’t been mentioned in the original books, etc. I for one do not hate it, I love it. Why? Because it’s exciting and it draws me in more to find out what has happened and what is going to happen. To those who think it’s nonsense because it hasn’t been mentioned sooner in the original Harry Potter books need to realise that these storylines have been in J.K Rowling’s brain since the beginning. There is so much she didn’t include in the original books because it would have made them even bigger than they ended up being. She is writing the stories for the Fantastic Beasts films, she is telling us the history of the wizarding world as she has always known it to be. These are her stories and she can tell them when she wants. So, I guess what I am saying is ‘Get Over It!’ and be thankful she is sharing with us this world she has created and is now inviting us in (again) to see.

Overall, the film was fantastic and I can’t wait to see the next installment. Word of warning though, the cinema was full of little kids some of which started to cry when it got a bit violent. The film is rated “M” for a reason, some kids shouldn’t see this at such a young age. Death is a big part of these films.

Some people won’t understand this post and that’s ok. They probably haven’t experienced any struggle in their own mental health or witnessed the struggle of somebody else. They can’t understand something that isn’t visible if they haven’t had some experience with it.  But to those people, I say, the struggle is very real. Please do not dismiss something simply because you do not understand it.

It’s so hard to explain but mental health can be more crippling than a physical (visible) injury. I recently hurt my foot while travelling with work. Work at the time was miserable, stressful and trying. Most days were a struggle for me even before I injured myself. The pain from the injury in my foot was immense. I couldn’t walk on it; I couldn’t move around. It was debilitating. My accident took place 2 days before the end of our work travels and when I got home and was removed from that dark and miserable environment; the pain decreased dramatically. I could walk again, without pain. It shocked me how much my mental state affected the way my body felt and reacted. It was then that I realized that my mental health had a massive influence on my well-being. Of course, this is only scratching the surface of mental health. This is only viewing the stress that the work environment can have on your mental well-being. This isn’t even looking at conditions like anxiety and depression which many people suffer from regardless.

I have anxiety. I have had it since I was 10 years old. I have lived with it for 14 years. Depression also comes with anxiety and so I have also dealt with depression as well. I can’t remember what I was like before my first mental breakdown when I was 10 years old. I can only remember myself with anxiety. And I will be this way for the rest of my life. I’ve had to come to terms with that reality. But I’m accepting of that now. Anxiety has made me who I am but it doesn’t define me. Through all the trials and tribulations that having anxiety has put me through, it has made me the strong, determined, mentally mature, hungry and passionate person I am today. I wouldn’t have learnt the lessons I have without the struggles of anxiety. But I am not just the girl with anxiety. It doesn’t define who I am completely.

I think I would be a much different person without anxiety. I’m not sure that person would be as great as the person I am now because of it. Would I be as strong as I am without overcoming my fears? Would I be as determined to better myself while not letting my anxiety get in the way? Would I be the passionate person I am about living, learning and travelling the world without letting my anxiety hold me back? NO, I don’t think I would be.

As hard as it is to accept that this is me and this is my life and anxiety is always going to be a part of that (and believe me, I am still learning to accept it); if I had a reset button on my brain that could restart and reboot the way I process, the way I think; I wouldn’t push it. I don’t know who I would be without my anxiety and, frankly, I don’t want to find out.

In the past, I’ve been embarrassed and scared about openingly talking about my mental ‘disability’. 10 years ago, no one even thought to say anything about it. It was an unspoken reality that many people struggled to deal with on a day to day basis. Nowadays, everyone is talking about mental health. And that conversation needs to keep going. Talking about mental health and the struggles people go through is the only way to not only combat the social stigma against it but to help people start to deal with their mental health. As soon as I say it out loud; as soon as I say that “I have anxiety” and “some days it can be really bad”; I feel free. The pressure is released and I don’t feel as anxious anymore. Let us talk about it and not just during Mental Health Awareness week but all year round. Speak up for yourself or someone else. This world will be a much better place for it.

My anxiety is like a rollercoaster. I have my highs and I have my lows. At the moment, I’m going through a low. Each day is a struggle and I’m having to re-teach myself how to deal with my anxiety in most situations. But I remind myself that with the lows come highs and I will get better again. If you are in a low point (mentally), do whatever helps you to get better. Reach out to someone; go to a specialist for a chat; make a plan. Whatever it is, do it! You have something special to give to the world so don’t give up on yourself. Keep your head up and “just keep swimming” as Dory would say (yes, that’s a Disney Pixar reference; you have no idea how much those films speak to me).

So it’s been a while since we have updated the blog. We have all been really busy lately but that no excuse. However we will have loads of blog post coming from all our adventures over the last couple of weeks so stay tuned for that!

I have been a quiet fan of Kevin Hart’s for some time now having caught him on various American Chat shows and more recently in his film Central Intelligence co-starring Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson.  However it wasn’t until the other day when I went to watch The MEG that I caught the trailer for his latest film “Night School: Dream Team” that I nearly wet myself laughing at just those short clips. I knew then that this had to be on my list of must watch movies.

Kevin Hart plays Teddy Walker, the victim and not the hero, with many references are made about his height. In this film Teddy is a popular lad in High School but not academically bright.  Reading, writing and maths are a total mystery to him. His twin sister is clever and very bright and this just makes him seem dumb. His family tease him about his lack of ability. He leaves school without completing his GED exams and therefore he has no qualifications. Jump about 15 years ahead to the present day where he is a successful sales guy in a BBQ store.  He’s got a beautiful girlfriend, expensive car and lives in a lovely apartment. But it is all a big con because he only has enough money to get by from paycheck to paycheck. After losing his job he goes about finding a new one only to find that his lack of basic qualification prevents this. So he goes back to his old school to re-sit his exams and study at night school together with a collection of other adults who for a variety of reasons didn’t complete their GED exams either.  But it’s not that easy because Teddy wants to cheat life and just be handed the qualification on a plate. The hard ass teacher Carrie played by Tiffany Haddish, who is streetwise, won’t give an inch and Teddy has to work his butt off whilst also trying to make ends meet working in a fast food store dressed as a chicken! Of course what he hasn’t done is tell his girlfriend any of this because he’s too proud.

Although this is a comedy and has multiple very funny scenes throughout – there is a serious side to the story. Teddy has several learning issues which have affected his ability to learn. We get to see Carrie (Tiffany Haddish), his teacher, recognize and help him overcome these issues which no other teacher did in the past. Not only do we get to see Teddy trying to turn around his life around but his other classmates who have different but similar challenges of their own all rise to the challenge and support each other.

The storyline of the film is a bit predictable but the twist at the end makes you wonder just how it is going to finish (happy or sad?). Now there could be some spoilers ahead so I’m warning you now. Some of the scenes are hilarious. The teacher farting on Teddy’s head is very funny but it was a chemistry lesson after all and methane was discovered! Teddy’s father, played by Keith David is an arsehole. He makes you want to be a better parent – it’s not hard being a better parent than him, you just don’t moan at your kids and tell them they are a waste of space.  Unfortunately there are some people out there that think that is what parenting skills are all about.

The supporting cast were very funny especially Tiffany Haddish as the teacher – bad ass but had some really good funny moments.  I did struggle at times to understand some of the dialogue as it was full of American fast talking street language.

Overall, though if you’re looking for a funny film to watch, which also delivers a real life story line; you should watch this film. Life isn’t easy a lot of the time and you’ve got to work hard to achieve anything these days so the message is a good one and you can have a really good giggle at the same time.

It’s that time of the month again; Netflix review time!! Ever since my last Netflix review on Extinction, I’ve made it a personal mission to watch as many Netflix films and television shows as possible. I have been through so many! Ones that everyone has watched (Stranger Things, the Kissing Booth, etc) and ones not many people have heard off (When we first meet, Reality High, etc). Overall the quality of the content has been pretty consistent. I have some personal favourites though. One of those favourites is “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” which is our Netflix review for this month.

“To All the Boy I’ve Loved Before” is a story surrounding Lara Jean, a high school student. She is very shy, has few friends and prefers to stay in with the family on weekends while the rest of her high school year date each other and party. Lara Jean has had many crushes while growing up and as she didnt want to act on them she wrote each one a love letter instead. She kept her love letters in a secret box which no one ever knew about. One day, somehow, the letters were all sent out. Those crushes, who she is still in high school with, receive their love letters and she has no idea how to deal with it.

This was advertised as a typical girly “romcom” however it turned out to be way more than that. It was funny, hilarious even. It had great witty moments not only with the main character but with all the characters. The witty moments didn’t feel staged or rehearsed in anyway and this made the film feel so realistic. It was as if we were watching a documentary even. The characters were so natural and they made the events of the storyline feel so natural as well as making the story more believable.

However the film also seemed realistic because of the style of the film as well. It was beautifully filmed and edited together. For me it reminded me of the style from Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Those wide angled documentary framed shots that appear every so often throughout this film gave it a feel of some personal insight to the lives of this camera. Made it feel more like a documentary of sorts and that we had a special window to look through and watch.

Overall, my favourite thing about this film is the main character and her family. More so, I should say, the ethnicity of the main character and her family. Lara Jean was written as an American-Asian character. They wanted a mixed cultured main character and that meant that most of her family was also american asian as well. I found this incredibly refreshing to see. So many leading men and women in big blockbuster films are ‘white’ characters. I can not tell you how refreshing it is to see a main character who is so obviously from an Asian background. I even watched an interview by Lana Condor, who plays Lara Jean; she said that she has always dreamt of being a lead in a romcom but of course had never seen anyone that looks like her as the main character before. She was so happy when Netflix wanted to cast an American-Asian as the lead in the film. I think it’s really cool and I think we need to push the boundaries like this in the future. We can not change the hate in the world without taking leaps like this.

If you’re looking for a funny romcom with a bit of an edge to it, then this is definitely a must watch for you. It’s light-hearted, humorous and just a plain good old happy film to watch. Even my dad found it funny!! As far as the quality of what Netflix is producing, I’m still very happy and will continue my subscription if they continue to produce good quality content like this film.

Definitely an 8 out of 10!

Hey! It’s been awhile since we have posted anything but a film review on here. Thought I’d give everyone a quick catch up of what we’ve been doing.

So, as most of you would have realised, we all have our day jobs that still continue even though we want to spend as much time on this business. That means having to spend every second of spare time outside our day jobs working on MEAN Productions. This can be a little exhausting and sometimes we lose sight of the end goal but we always pick ourselves up and put each other back on track.

Recently we had our first ever promo!! Naturely, as we have day jobs, we spent the last weekend working on our first ever promo. It was such a rewarding experience! The promo was for ARAN animal rescue, which are an organisation who focus on rescuing dogs straight out of the pound. These dogs have usually been found wandering the streets and have not been claimed. Over the last 6 years, ARAN have rescued and rehomed 1000+ dogs. This includes our own dog, Cludo, who was picked up on the streets; we adopted him in 2016. ARAN is a really great organisation and we wanted to do anything we could to help.

We reached out offering our services (free of charge); we were happy to travel anywhere in the Wellington region to film and produce small films of their dogs needing to be rehomed. We believe that it really helps to see the dog in a film/video format doing what dogs do so potential adopters can understand the dog better before meeting them. ARAN did have a dog up in Levin (which is a good hour and a half anyway from where we are based) called Blue; who hadn’t had a lot of interest in him for the last couple of months. Even though they wanted to keep him, his foster home was beginning to become overcrowded and ARAN really needed to find him a forever home. They were desperate for this.

Being dog lovers/owners, we travelled up early on a Saturday and spent a few hours filming with Blue. He was adorable, sweet and loving! I was so tempted to take him home myself. I knew that people just needed to see him the way I was seeing him now. If they could, he’d have no problem with being adopted. I spent all those hours trying to really capture the essence of Blue, I wanted to make a film that really showed how silly, loving and playful he was as well as showing potential adopters his ability to grow and learn (being a young pup). It was such a blessing to film Blue and his foster family. I got to be apart of his process in finding a forever home as well as being able to see the wonderful work a foster family can do for a dog who has ended up at the pound.

It was hard leaving Blue behind but I knew that this short video would help him. I just had to get it out there asap. I edited it together on the Sunday and made sure I sent it to ARAN on the Monday morning. They were very happy with the outcome of the film and posted it on their Facebook page that Tuesday. This was already enough for me in respect that we had gone out, made a short video in a weekend and delivered a quality product which was happily accepted in a short amount of time. Nonetheless I really hoped it would generate some more interest for Blue so he could finally find a home of his own. And as luck would have it, Blue was picked up on the Wednesday to a new home. Not even 24 hours had passed since the video was posted and Blue had potentially found his forever home.

As I said, it’s been hard and exhausting running MEAN Productions in our spare time and sometimes we do lose sight of the end goal. However it is times like these where you see what we can achieve and how we can help great organizations like ARAN. I couldn’t be more proud of the work we produce and of the outcome that came with it. We told ARAN that a short film/video of the dogs can help them with their adoptions. We said that potential adopters would get to see them as they naturally are before actually meeting up which should help in their interest and ultimately speed up the process of getting them rehomed. But never in a year of Christmas’ did I think it would work that well or that fast. We are over the moon! We only hope we can continue working with ARAN and help more.

If you want to check out the video of Blue, click the link below:

If your looking to adopt a dog who needs a home, check out ARAN’s website, link below:

https://www.arananimalrescue.org.nz/

You know when there are a whole range of good movies out there – the car park at the local cinema is full and then you worry about getting a good seat!  I was watching the TV the other day and there were reports that Jason Statham was annoyed because his latest film The MEG had been released and he had just seen the final film and was upset because the editor had cut out the really disgusting gorrie stuff and basically dumbed down his film to a PG-13.  So I thought why not let’s go see if he was right! Therefore the topic of this week’s film review is “The MEG”.

Jason Statham is famous now for his action hero type films and this one doesn’t disappoint on that level if you are a true die hard Statham fanatic. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away but Jason plays (Jonas Taylor) the guy you call if you get stuck in your submarine and need rescuing.  But it starts with it not going too well and the nuclear sub he is now on trying to find survivors gets attacked by something pretty big!

We then have a five year gap and Jason has hit the bottle and won’t go back to his old job. We also have a state of the art underwater marine research facility looking for a lost world deep in the ocean in the South China Sea.  Tragedy strikes again and the only one they can call to rescue the small team stuck on the sub is – yes you guessed it Jonas. Funnily enough Jonas’s ex-wife that is piloting the craft; this adds funny banter in the film and the interaction between the research staff is also funny.

One of the stand out actors is little eight year old Meiying played by Sophie Cai. Her funny one liners with Jonas and other characters keep it all a bit light at times but don’t let that fool you because you end up jumping out of your seat and spilling your popcorn several times – even though you know it’s going to happen you still can’t stop it.

There are lots of similarities with “Jaws – The Movie” even the beach scene when the shark comes in to get the swimmers but The MEG has a slightly different twist all through the film which keeps you guessing.  The FX is a bit obvious but the underwater scenes and sets are good and more realistic. Lots of fake blood and limbs and shark teeth galore!

I can remember after watching Jaws (many years ago now) that it took me years to go back into the sea – I can’t say I feel the same level of anxiety after watching this one but nevertheless was an entertaining movie but probably won’t win any Oscars this year. I’d give it a solid 6/10.

There were so many good films out this week so I was spoilt for choice – I saw the poster for the film earlier in the week while walking down the main street. I know we have already been to see Mission Impossible this week but I had to go and see this film as well.

I had no expectations at all. I thought it would be a wholesome family film and by looking at the average age of the audience in the cinema (11-12 years of age), you would assume it to be a family film. But don’t let that fool you. This film is about survival. It’s full of action-packed scenes but instead of adults being the main characters, it’s the children taking on the main role.

The film starts off all nice; happy family life continues as normal and then BANG kids start dying! All of a sudden 90% of kids in the world are dead and the kids that survive are imprisoned. For those who haven’t seen the trailer, this film is about a disease that only children can contract. Most of the children that are affected by the disease die but those who survive the disease now have special powers. The surviving children are rounded up and imprisoned. Their special powers range from advanced intelligence to telekinesis to mind-control. The children are given a colour that represents the level of super power they have. If they are assigned an orange or red colour they are immediately terminated because they are apparently too powerful to control.

Our lead character, Ruby, (played by Amandla Stenburg) is a 16 year old girl. She is also an orange. Since she was captured at the age of 10, she has been able to hide her powers to blend in and survive.  Since the disease erupted, all the children of the world are imprisoned, working as slaves; there are no more children left in the world, adults have moved to the city for work, schools are closed down and playgrounds are left deserted. This film follows the events of Ruby’s life as she eventually escapes the camp and must find a way to survive in the outside world.

Although it is dark in parts it is also funny as we are reminded at times that these are just children who are expected to drive cars in fast chases and fire guns without any previous training, living off scraps they find in closed down shopping malls. The acting by these young actors and actresses is really good. There is even a sweet love interest which emphasizes a teenage crush one might have at that age. I’m not going to give away too many plot secrets but this is the first in what, I believe, will be a number of sequels. This film is only the appetizer of a three course meal.

If you enjoy trilogies like the Maze Runner, this is definitely the film for you. It’s definitely another must watch film. It has left me wanting to see more and now I can’t wait for the next instalment to be made!

Next week, we will be crapping ourselves at the cinema as we watch “The Meg”. None of us are really good at watching thriller/horror films so this should be interesting!