Paddington (2014) Film Review

So, Paddington (voiced by Ben Wishaw) ends up in London, gets adopted by Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) and his family, but the evil Millicent (Nicole Kidman) wants to get him and so adventures take place.

Many kids in the UK and Australia grew up with Paddington – a bear from deepest Peru who came to London and was adopted by a family. Possibly, you could even say most kids know of him. I’d heard of him, but I didn’t know the story, and had very little interest in watching this film despite being told repeatedly that it was amazing. And it was a really good kids film with a great cast, a fair bit of humour and a lot of niceness. Enjoy with some kids – that’s the best way!

Paddington was nominated for BAFTAs for Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay.

 

World War Z (2013) Film Review

A mysterious plague has suddenly hit the world, with little information being disseminated. People are turning into zombies, and not zombies like I’ve seen before. They are super fast – not just running, but zapping. The population of the world is rapidly disappearing, and the only way Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family are able to be evacuated is that he is an ex UN guy who specializes in war-torn areas, and the UN want him back. The film follows Lane as he travels the world attempting to discover anything that will help them survive.

If I’ve never made this clear, I am not a horror film lover. I don’t like being scared, I don’t generally chose these types of films. But I’d heard World War Z was an excellent book and had translated well to film. What’s more, it wasn’t totally gore-fest, but looked at the choices people made, more about characters and relationships. There is most definitely some gore-fest elements, but a lot of the time, the zombies are too fast to see an awful lot. What it leaves you with is an awful lot of suspense, and that almost killed me. It is just so tense and magnificent. The CG is definitely worth noting – especially my favourite part, which was the whole Jerusalem wall part. It’s on the trailer. It’s fantastic.

I’ve requested the book from my library now, because the idea of a zombie book fascinates me.