Peppermint Friday Review #46: Dunkirk

Hello its been a while, I'm very sorry for the lack of content on here recently but I'm still alive (just about!) its been extremely busy in the life of Zara. If you follow me on my instagram or twitter you might know that I have a new job well ish its something that I'm doing and I'm really enjoying. It's meant that its taken up alot of time, and what I mean by that is, its taken up alot of time, and time that I would have used to watch films and its hard to find that time. This blog is not over I still love it I just need to be abit more disciplined when it comes to time management and such. 

Let's talk about Dunkirk I watched this on Sunday night, and I've been so so so excited for this film since Suicide Squad I say that I remember the trailer of this coming out before watching Suicide Squad. Its so worth the wait, because its just simply gorgeous, the way the camera techniques were done and everything was just wonderful, it felt at times that you were in battle, the way the camera was and I loved that. I have never seen a film about Dunkirk before, and I'm glad the first one I got to see was this one such a brilliant film and well written. 

Its a quiet film, but thats something I've noticed alot in terms of War films and Period Drama films that are good they're usually very still and let the film speak for itself, instead of shouting about it. Kenneth Branagh was brilliant as per, you don't expect anything less from him let's be honest. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite directors ever, and one of the best directors, this film has just made me love Christopher Nolan even more. Personally I think this is my favorite of his films so far of course, because I know he'll do more films which I'm so excited for and obviously I'll go and see. I have a prediction I think, he will get a really prestigious award, like an Oscar, BAFTA or Golden Globe because he really deserves it for this film. 

The film is told in three different ways, so the Land, Sea and Air. In the sea the Navy need private boats to help out in evacuation, Mr Dawson takes his son Peter to help out along with George who wants to do something and contribute. I love how all that plays out with them, and as they get survivors the story progresses with all the characters in the boat without forcing it too much. I love history and to find out about different stories whether they be true or not, its wonderful and its life on the edge. The story had to be done well, because its such an integral part of history and Great Britain aswell, so I'm thrilled that its got the reviews it has. 

Harry Styles was good, I don't get why people are going so gaga for him I mean it is cus he's Harry Styles but he was good in this film and if he does acting in the future then great he could be the next Justin Timberlake if he plays his cards right. But see this for how amazing it is not because of Harry Styles, but hey if Harry Styles is getting people into films and cinema I'm not gonna complain because its always a good thing to have more people into films. 

Definitely give this film a watch it's worth your money 100% and when the DVD comes out or when it becomes downloadable on Amazon, I'm gonna be buying it as it is so wonderful, its the kinda film everyone will like, well apart from when you're a 5 year old but that doesn't matter. Its a all rounded amazing grown up film to watch. Oh and one last thing because I missed last Friday I'm doing 2 Friday reviews one will be uploaded either today or tomorrow to make up for not doing a review. Hope you all have a wonderful day and I shall see you very soon! 

Review: Pearl Harbor

So I've been watching alot of films that people have told me to ages ago, but I never got round to it. This film is one of them, plus it has Kate Beckinsale in and she's an actress that doesn't get talked about enough, well from what I think anyway. Its also a Period Drama set in the 1940s and who doesn't love that? What the film is about is a love triangle between childhood best friends Rafe, Danny, and Nurse Evelyn played by Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, all during the run up and battle and aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

That's basically it, in terms of the story line purpose of it all, its just a love story during the war. The reviews of this film I saw, and the ratings it got on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB was just ridiculous basically its an either average film or crap film. But don't take that as gospel truth because its a matter of opinion at the end of the day. I do agree its not the best film I've ever seen, I mean I love the costumes but thats a given and the battle action scenes of Pearl Harbor, but again with the budget they had and it was apparently a bigger budget that actual Pearl Harbor itself. I mean that could be hear'say but the money was showing on the screen definitely. 

In terms of characters and storyboard wise, I hated it. I love the actors in this film, I think they're brilliant and have no doubt can act, as I've seen them in better roles and better films. I hated Kate Beckinsale's character Evelyn she was just so wet and she had a really crap personality. I couldn't relate to her and usually I will try to find anything in a character that I can relate to, even a Villian or the Hero but with her I just couldn't. I found her bland and with a love story I don't know about you guys but I wanna fall in love with one of the couples, but I didn't like her at all. The only positive thing I can say about her is first of all its not Kate Beckinsale's fault its the writers, and she looked beautiful in the film her costumes to her hair and makeup, but that's being a model not an actor and in her defence, she's an actor she turned up did the job very well and got paid then went home.

I didn't get Danny and Rafe, they again were extremely bland and irritating brilliantly acted but I hated the script it felt very robotic and it became a little too slick. Some minor characters were just awful, Jennifer Garner played a part of a nurse in this and I didn't like at all, she was this stereotypical awkward nerd and I didn't get what kinda part she played, was it supposed to be comical? Because I didn't find it funny at all. There were some characters that died and not to sound horrible, but I didn't care I didn't like them at all. They all seemed very generic, boring, bland just really crap uninteresting characters. It's gonna sound abit weird but I'm actually glad that I've found a film that I don't like because I always try to find the positive side to films with this I did, but the majority of which I care about films which is the story line and characters both of which this film just lacked in. 

You could tell that this film was trying to be the Titanic of its time, it being a Period Drama and a Romance with a big budget its obvious what it was trying to be. I don't hate that but I just felt with it being Pearl Harbor they could've had more substance to it like they could have given Evelyn more of a backbone and made Danny and Rafe less pushovers. One thing was all three characters were on the same level in terms of strength and blandness. I loved the action scenes but they had to spend money on them because history nerds would throw a hissy fit and a riot would happen saying that 'Its not accurate!' now that does annoy me because of course its not going to be 100% accurate to the event its a film! its done in a filmmakers mind and put out there in a story. If you want accuracy of an event or a person then watch a documentary about it or read a book. Although there was inaccuracy in this film, but I mean again that's gonna happen, just like with book to film adaptations. 

I feel like this film showed me that just because a film has a big budget doesn't mean its automatically gonna be an amazing film. Because with the big action scenes, and the amazing costumes and extras and all that, if the story isn't good and the characters aren't relatable then no matter how big the budget it means nothing if the plot is crap, then its a crap film. Because in my opinion a great film is a brilliantly written story line and fantastic characters, nothing to do with budgets or genres thats how I feel about it anyway. The technicality of the film with the shots and camera technique was brilliant. I love the flip between the panoramic shot to it being from a soldier's perspective or an injured person's perspective. I would've preferred abit more consistency with the shots and camera technique. 

Also and this is gonna make me sound like an old lady but the film was way too long that what it should be, its 3 Hours long and that's quite long in terms of film I think the only film I know that's that long is Lord Of The Rings, but that's based of a book that's huge. I know that this film is based of the Pearl Harbor and is very important in history but I don't think it should take that long. As I've seen War films and they're not that long and have way more added on to them than this film. Overall I liked some aspects of this film, but not the reasons as to why I love films like story line and characters. 

Review: A Matter Of Life and Death

This week I wanna do a War themed film week, So I thought I'd talk about about one of my favorite 40s films. 

This film is about a war pilot who gets a call from a radio operator, and they end up falling in love. The war pilot's plane was about to crash and die, and he should of died but he didn't and the guide, who is like an angel is told by headquarters (heaven) that he needs to die, you know go back to how he should of died. 

Its such a modern film, David Niven stars in it along with Kim Hunter, and he is just amazing in it. He's probably your grandmother's favorite actor, but he is seriously good in this part. He plays it with such Britishness I know that sounds weird, but I have a feeling if this was played by an American this would have been a very different film, where I believe it would have been more of a heroic guy, rather than a heroic gentleman. I also love the French Conductor as he is more of the comedy side of it, where when he leaves you have a stench of onions. He also asks, who do you want to take your place, and its just fantastic, as they discuss who's worth it and isn't.

Kim Hunter is also amazing, because they could of used someone like Elizabeth Taylor or Lauren Bacall I love those actresses, but they didn't they used someone her, and she was amazing. She wasn't a breathtaking beauty she was a very pretty girl, with a giant heart. Plus they have such good chemistry together, they look good aswell. 

They used colour and black and white in a really nice way aswell, where they had for heaven headquarters they put it in black and white, then for back to earth it was in colour. Which isn't strange for 1930s-40s films as Wizard of Oz did it. 

The dialogue though it amazing, I love the whole court case kinda style during the end. It is a love story evidently but its also, a political story aswell in a way, the poetic dialouge particularly from Niven is just beautiful, he speaks the words with such warmth. Its funny aswell, as this film came out in 1946, just a year after World War II ended. Its amazing how brilliantly they showed a War film, but at the same time it wasn't it was soo much more than that. It had real intelligence about humanity, and life it is a really deep film but it needs to be. Its just amazing how after a horrific time they're not gonna bitch or slag anyone off, or make it too in your face about war or about politics, or life, its just a very simple complex. Its just a very modern film for its time. So overall I give this film 10 peppermints out of 10!.