Freaky

Once I heard the concept for this film, I looked it up and was excited for it. First I really like Christopher Landons previous Happy Death Day films and it has Vince Vaughn in it so I avoided any trailer for it because I really wanted to be surprised.

Starting with the positives, the best thing about this film is it feels made for me. I love slasher films and this film is a love letter to slasher. This film just has fun with the tropes and cliches and puts it own spin on it. Some fun I noticed is there were certain elements that reminded me of the iconic slasher films such as Friday the 13th, nightmare on elm street, Halloween, even scream and whilst others may say it's a rip off or unoriginal, I see it as a homage and an appreciation of  the films and genre.

That's another reason why I enjoy Christopher Landon. Now I would like to see him do another genre sometime but in the meanwhile, he can stay in the horror community because he just comes up with these interesting concepts that puts it's own spin on horror; with happy death day, it was a time loop slasher, with its sequel it went more sci-fi and with this film it's a body swap slasher and that makes me interested what else he'll come up with.

Okay I've delayed it long enough, it's time to talk about the cast. Vince Vaughn is perfect in this film. He's surprisingly turned into a very versatile actor with his more serious films over the recent years but this is his most versatile. When the film begins, this guy is terrifying. In fact when a new Friday the 13th film is announced, I want Vince Vaughn to play Jason because this guy has the built and screen presence for it and I never thought I'd be scared of the actor who was in Fred Claus.

But when he swaps bodies, he just goes for it and is the funniest I've seen him in a while and it's just fun see him act like a girl with the way he walks and acts around stuff. Also you know those situations where you need to prove you are who you are? Give this character an award for coming up with the most convincing situations as proof. Thats all I'm saying.

Kathryn Newton is also great in this film. It's very impressive when she goes from shy bullied teen to this scary sexy killer and she does a good job with making her performance scary whilst funny at the same time.

I also really liked the characters as well. The slasher genre is known for having really bad or pointless characters but with these ones, they have something about them that makes them standout for me. They also help provide the comedy which definitely works and there's one line that had me in stitches "you're black, i'm gay, we're both dead". I just love that line because it fits with the tone and genre with the film.

Finally and my biggest surprise are the kills. There are some very inventive and gory kills and I really wasn't expecting it since this is a horror comedy but weirdly enough the kill scenes feel tonally consistent especially when you see how far they go.

Moving onto the mixed aspect of the film and first it's a certain aspect of the concept that may divide viewers. When you have a 50 year old man in a teenage girls body, immediately that just puts a bad taste in your mouth but I do think this film draws a line with how far it goes with that.

Also whilst Kathryn Newton is great in this film, it's a situation where she gets better as she goes along because when she starts off as the killer, her scenes are so awkward to watch to the point where I started thinking the concept wasn't going to work. She literally spends scenes just looking at people weirdly and making it obvious something wasn't right.

Onto the negatives and I don't have many. First thing that comes to mind is this film tries to do the ugly duckling trope with Kathryn Newton and for me it doesn't work. She is a very attractive girl and even with how the film styles her, it's a little hard to buy that most of everyone sees her as very unattractive.

Also whilst this very does have fun with the cliches, there's other times where the cliches just become inevitable and at times I rolled my eyes at how apparent they are.

Finally I felt one of the police characters wasn't utilised as best as they could have been. I won't spoil who this character is or where they fit in the film but I just felt the film could have had more fun with the character.

But overall, this is a very fun and successful film from Christopher Landon and I'm excited with what he does next. I even think this could be a little bit better than happy death day but I may need to rewatch to find out.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Soul

Now this is a film I've had a bit of anticipation for. Pixar has a great track record for great storytelling and I was very impressed with the trailers as well. Before I go on, I will say that this is going to be a hard film to give my thoughts on because there's so much I want to talk about but I also want to keep this spoiler free.

Right off the bat, the best thing about this film is this is a very different Pixar film. It has quite an artistic direction to it at times especially when we get to the death life scenes and it just looks beautiful at times. It's gets very cosmic and just had a different feeling to it and the animation is just on another level. I love how far we've come where we can have animation where it is at the moment. 

The voice cast are also great. Jamie Foxx gives a great voice performance as the lead character. He has to provide passion, emotion and comedic performances for his character and he does a great job with it. Tina Fey is another standout in this film and her and Jamie Foxx have fantastic chemistry between one another. The rest of the cast are great but those two were the main standouts.

Something that really impressed me was how this film was able to develop the characters. With Jamie Foxx's character, You're able to understand his character with just visual effects and minimal dialogue and I love it when Pixar does that sort of thing. Tina Feys character gets a fantastic character journey that has a really fitting end and has fantastic emotional payoff.

I was also impressed how this film was marketed. When I saw the trailers, I enjoyed them but I wondered how the story would be constructed together and this film has a lot of twists in it that it's able to keep secret so that's an example of a good trailer.

But what makes this film a true standout and why I loved this film so much is because of the story. What I love about pixar is they're able to come up with bizarre concepts that should never make sense at all but instead are executed where they resonate with not just children but adults as well and this film is a true exception. I'm also going to make a statement and I believe Pete Docter is the best Pixar film director. He just brings such emotion but also tells fantastic stories in such different and compelling ways and three of his four pixar films are in my Top 3 favourites.

When you realize where this film is going, you can just connect with the story and the message it has with it. This film has multiple messages that can be interpreted in many different ways but for me, this is a film about discovering your purpose in life, what you're good at and how your one dream doesn't have to be the only thing you hang on to and that just meant so much to me.

I don't talk about my private life much but this film has so many elements that just means so much to me. I do these reviews as a hobby which I enjoy doing but my dream is to be an actor and how this film expresses your dream job or opportunity is realistic but also inspirational as well.

Moving onto the mixed aspect and first this film takes a while to get used to. I enjoyed it more once the film went on but when it starts it takes a little bit to get into and to get used to the characters.

Second are some of the twists, some people will be fine with the twists and others may roll their eyes and assume it's rinse and repeat of events we've seen before in other pixar films. I'm in the former of the category but I suspect others will be in the latter.

Finally it's how the film ends. I don't want to go into it too much but it feels like the film is going to end in a bold and brave way but instead feels a little too safe like they thought not many would appreciate the ending.

Moving onto the negatives and honestly after much thinking, I only have two. First there are a few moments that feel a little unclear and leaving you questioning how certain moments are able to happen. I can't say more than that without going into spoiler territory.

And my final negative is the villain. I found the villain to be incredibly annoying, quite forced in places and was just unnecessarily used as well. It felt like a short role that was extended for filler moments.

However besides those negatives, this is an outstanding achievement from pixar which will resonate with a lot of people and has some incredibly touching moments. This could potentially be the best pixar film ever made but I really need to think about it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Love and monsters

This is a film I had no idea was coming out but as soon as I found out Dylan O'Brien was in it, I needed to watch it. I'm a big fan of Dylan O'Brien. I loved him on Teen wolf and I love the maze runner franchise.

And right off the bat, I absolutely loved this film. This is one of those films that just felt was made for me. It has everything I love squished into one film; adventure, humour, monsters, action. Just my thing all over and that is probably the best thing about this film. If you're into that sort of thing, this film is just pure escapism and has fantastic worldbuilding. This film creates an interesting dystopian world that you'd probably like to explore yourself. 

I also really liked the concept and execution of the story. Combining a love story with a monster movie does sound very cliched and overdone but what this film does well with it is helps us buy into the relationships and chemistry of the characters and surprises us with other means of a love story. So whilst it's essentially a love story between a man and woman, it also becomes a love story between a man and his dog and being a dog lover, I can relate to that so much.

The cast is also really good. Dylan O'Brien is just a fantastic as he always is. It feels like he went back to his Teen wolf roots because he provides so much humour with his funny one liners and his non hero status. Jessica Henwick and Michael Rooker (who seems to be in everything these days) are also good in their roles with their limited screen time but my heart went towards the dog Boy in this film. Unlike other films, this film treats Boy like he's an actual character and not just an extra. He helps when he needs to, he has his own personality and best of all, he's just so adorable.

I also liked the main characters development along the films journey. He avoids classic action hero cliches and instead stays true to his own personality and fights for survival in his own unique way whilst becoming a stronger character as he goes along. And whilst the action isn't the forefront of the film, it's very nicely handled and well staged at times.

And as this is a monster movie, you got to talk about the monsters and I loved what how they looked, how they were designed, how they were used and not overused but what also impressed me was essentially how they were created. I won't spoil it since I don't know if this was revealed in the trailer  but when we learn about how these creatures were created, when you stop and think about it, it's the most realistic and creative solution. There's also a few twists about certain monsters that is cleverly foreshadowed for the third act.

Finally there's a nice amount of emotion in this film that feels used enough to stay true to the tone and also contributes to the development of Dylan O'Briens character.

Onto the mixed aspect of the film and the only thing is the use of Michael Rookers character. I really liked him in this film but he doesn't have a lot of screentime and there was times I actually missed his screen presence once he was no longer onscreen so I wish his role was extended quite a bit.

The only negative I have with this film is there's a couple of plot conveniences that  occur where things happen just because the script requires it and I wish the film had found a way to avoid that little tropes.

But overall I loved this film. It's fun, it's adventurous, it's has good monster action and it's just such a good time and I think this is definitely going to be in my top 10 of this year. Usually I get worried about films getting sequels to then but I would be up for this to get a sequel and even becoming a franchise.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Clouds

Clouds is a Disney+ original film and it's a film I was intrigued about but was unsure how it would deal with its subject topic whilst under the Disney brand. In case you're unaware, Disney have a brand to keep their content family friendly and whilst Clouds is a family film, I think it's a debate on whether it's family friendly because this is one of the most emotional and saddest films I've ever seen.

Starting off the positives, easily the best thing about this film is just how the main story is tackled. A young boy is diagnosed with terminal cancer and sets out to become a singer before he dies. That immediately becomes an engaging story and it could have come off as melodramatic but instead the story is explored very sensitively and fully relys on its characters to tell the story and not just the subject matter.

Speaking of the characters, I loved pretty much all the characters in this film. Zach, the main character, is just a great character to watch. He's someone who wants to appear all happy go lucky but deep down is scared about his future and that really gets you to care about him. He has some fantastic relationships with his family, friend and girlfriend who are all greatly utilised characters and it also helps when we have great actors portraying them.

Fin Argus is just fantastic as Zach, Neve Campbell is also in this film and she gives one of the best performances I've seen her do. Some other standouts are Sabrina Carpenter as Zachs best friend and Madison Iseman as his girlfriend and they both give such heartbreaking performances, it's impossible not to feel sorry for them. As I stated before, this film fully relys on its characters and their reactions to tell this story and it succeeds with flying colours.

The songs in this film are just beautifully written and performed with such heart and passion. I'm not a musical guy and I don't usually pay attention to the lyrics in songs as much but the songs performed in this film are just incredible and the lyrics are just beautiful and might I add just how catchy some of them are, especially when it comes to the sell known and YouTube sensation Clouds.

This film also has a satisfying amount of emotional payoff towards the third act. Along the films journey, it's a real emotional roller coaster and when we get toward the end of the film, there's a scene that happens that is heartbreaking, emotionally moving and satisfying all at the same time.

Finally, the biggest praise I can give this film is its the first film in over 10 years that made me shed a tear when watching it. There are only two films I have watched that made me cry; Bridge to Terabithia and Marley and Me. The fact this film got to me that much makes me love it even more.

Moving onto the mixed aspect of the film now and this is just to say this film is NOT for everyone. This is a very sad and emotionally driven film that not everyone will enjoy and certain people may find it hard to watch.

Onto the negatives and honestly, I only have one negative that is like a one percent nitpick and that is I feel at times, the film relied on the emotion a bit too much. There's times where it does feel a bit much and too directly in your face.

Besides that, this is just a beautifully made and emotional film that is a very strong contender for my number one film of the year.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐