So You Want To Be A Pirate!

Exclusively in Tesco stores, the DVD So You Want To Be A Pirate! is available to keep your little pirates entertained.  This all new short comes from Aardman and provides a swashbuckling stop-motion animated adventure with the Pirate Captain and his band of misfits.

Hugh Grant voices the dashing Pirate Captain and his crew are voiced by Ashley Jensen, Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson and Russell Tovey.  Together, with the Captain's trusted Dodo Polly, they give hilarious tips on how to become a seaworthy addition to the crew and help them in their madcap adventure to win the coveted Pirate of the Year award.  You can learn how to remember where you buried your treasure, the secrets of navigating winds, get an inside look at pirate recruiting and even cook a pirate’s recipe suggestion - doesn’t a giant squid with lemon and barnacles sound delicious?

 David Tennant and Brian Blessed also make guest appearances with their very distinctive vocal talents!

The DVD also boasts a treasure chest of extras with lots of child friendly activities for the kids to enjoy.

DVD Bonus Features Include:

• •        How To Animate Your Pirate
• •        How To Draw A Pirate
• •        Printable Colouring Pages
• •        How To Talk Like A Pirate – Words And Phrases From Your Favourite Characters

SO YOU WANT TO BE A PIRATE! is as an introduction to Aardman’s most ambitious stop-motion film to date  THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS, which is due for release on Blu-ray™  3D, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital Download on September 10, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

So You Want To Be A Pirate! has a running time of 17 minutes and is a U certificate making it suitable for all the family.  It costs £5 exclusively from Tesco.

We were sent a copy of the DVD and it was great to get a taste of the Pirates ready for the release of the new Aardman movie.  We are big fans of Aardman and love their distinctive brand of animation.  The Pirates are a quirky and madcap bunch of characters that are very funny and entertaining.  We loved the TV Chat  Show style of the DVD, with the house band and guest stars adding to the fun.  Both children and adults will enjoy the brand of humour in this short and I for one am looking forward to seeing The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists when it is released next month.  

The added booty of the bonus features will provide hours of fun long after the short has been watched adding to the value of the DVD.  Budding pirates will definitely love joining in with the high seas fun!

Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love was the film I chose to watch last night from my Valentine's Package from Warner Bros. with my daughters Megan 20 and Ella 15.  I didn't know anything about this film, other than it starred Ryan Gosling who we all love, so had no expectations whatsoever.  I would now rate it as one of my favourite films in the romantic comedy genre ever!

The all-star cast includes Steve Carell,  Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, Ryan Gosling and the adorably quirky Emma Stone.

Middle-aged Cal Weaver is living the American dream with a beautiful wife who was his high school sweetheart, a lovely home and great kids.  Suddenly, his life is turned upside down as his wife admits to having an affair and asks him for a divorce.  His 'perfect' life unravels as he realises he has forgotten who he is and is completely out of his depth as a singleton.  A meeting with handsome player and serial womaniser Jacob Palmer in a bar, leads to Cal finding himself a mentor.  New clothes, new hairstyle, new confidence and new opportunities with women open Cal's eyes to a whole new world.  But the one thing he can't change is his heart.

Meanwhile, Cal's teenage son is harbouring a crush on the babysitter, but the babysitter has a crush of her own.  Other characters are having their own dilemmas, seeking love in all the wrong places. Then ladies' man Jacob eventually finds what he has always been looking for leaving Cal feeling abandoned.  When all the loose ends come together it culminates in a fantastically funny confrontation, with the characters having to face up to the reality of "Crazy, Stupid Love".

The intertwined story, the inspired performances and the beautifully written script make this an absolute gem.  I laughed out loud so many times and found myself totally rooting for the characters!  

I genuinely loved this film.  My girls loved it too and are now even more in love with the very sexy Ryan Gosling.

Buy "Crazy, Stupid Love" now at Amazon on Triple Play for just £13.99.

Fall Out from Metal Mummy's Movie Meme!!

On Tuesday I posted this for the Movie Meme prompt...Best Director.  


Since then I have been embroiled in a heated debate on my Facebook wall about my choice and its lack of substance.  Now, I know that mainstream Hollywood blockbusters are not there to be world changing works of art.  I understand the separation of popcorn culture and art house cinema.  But I also appreciate the joy of film watching for its own sake.


I share with you some of the exchanges:


Mr X: Booooo!!  He's a disgrace. End of. :P


Me: What is your beef with Mr Jaws??


Mr X: That would certainly be an epic response, as I would need to take each film and systematically deconstruct to reveal: a consistent absence of worthwhile 'substance'; mawkish sentimentality; and an adolescent's concept of what cinema should be (something I've done for the past 12 years whenever he's come up in discussion. In fact, I once took on an entire class at Uni who couldn't come up with a single constructive defense of his work beyond nostalgic validation).
Oddly, my favourite of all his films is the vastly underrated 1941, which utilises much of what little talent he has to great effect. Hey, that's me ending this reply on a positive note - by recommending one of his films! :P

Me: But there are dinosaurs and sharks and little cute Drew Barrymore and big shiny spaceships...I don't need deep and meaningful life changing substance. Mawkish sentimentality obviously appeals to me! I appreciate your intellectual standpoint but to me cinema is not and can never be about intellectualism. I save that for politics, economics and things that matter. Mainstream cinema is only about distraction, escapism and entertainment. Dedicating your cognitive processes to deconstructing a film that is quintessentially about a killer shark or a marauding T-Rex or an alien that got lost and watched TV seems like a lost cause. Clearly there are millions of film-goers who have spent their cash to line Spielberg's pocket and don't care about the lack of substance in the face of an excess of special effects. We're a shallow bunch, but we delight at seeing Richard Dreyfuss kick that shark's arse! Easily pleased...but happy! xxx

Mr X: ‎>Mainstream cinema is only about distraction, escapism and entertainment. -- which is essentially political by design (pacify/neutralise the masses through escapism, so they won't think and/or implicate your own agenda through the status quo).

>I save that for politics, economics and things that matter. -- art certainly matters to me, and considering all those subjects cross over, it's a very powerful tool indeed (News is entertainment, for example).

>Dedicating your cognitive processes to deconstructing a film that is quintessentially about... -- they can be about more without a passive viewer needing to worry themselves about 'deeper meaning'. Kinda like making a film for children, but simultaneously appealing to adults.

>Clearly there are millions of film-goers who have spent their cash to line Spielberg's pocket and don't care about the lack of substance -- a majority liking rubbish - business as usual.

Me:  Rubbish = Good Fun. I'm sure that by watching ET I'm not closing my mind to the real problems in the world. I'm just watching ET. I'm still aware, I just don't care that much. Propoganda via Indiana Jones? Yeah right. There is "art" and there is "cinema". You don't need deeper meaning in some things. Questioning everything to the nth degree closes yourself down to the simple things in life. Spielberg makes cracking films. So if he is the new opium of the masses...then dope me up man!

So does my choice make me naive?  Am I falling prey to the secret plan of Spielberg to de-sensitise myself from reality allowing our governments to go unchecked?  Should I, as a thinking adult, be looking deeper into what I consider fun and enetertainment?  

I'd love to hear your responses!

*I'd like to point out that Mr X is a dear friend of mine...we just fail to see eye to eye! * 

Movie Meme Week 1...The 21st Century!

Hannah has come up with a brand new Movie Meme linky for us all to enjoy.  Yay Metal Mummy!!  Her prompt for this first week is really broad... a 21st Century film, which gives us a whole decade of cinematography  to choose from.

There are so many fabulous films that no sooner do I decide on one, I think of ten others that are just as worthy. However after much deliberation I have decided on a film that I think sums up this brave new world of movie making.  Or more to the point re-making!!

Hollywood has taken upon itself recently to take inspiration from the late 70's/80's which was my era for discovering great movies that influenced my life.  When I hear that they are remaking my favourite films, I take the news with a degree of trepidation.  All too often the classics are destroyed by an ill conceived, over budgeted travesty.  However, this film remake is a triumph, reworking the essence of the original at the same time as interweaving a back story which serves to bulk out the lead character, adding flesh to his bones and giving an injection of empathy to one of horror's greatest antagonists.

Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007) is the film I have chosen.  Reworking the original slasher classic unleashes the mask wearing Michael Myers for a bloody rollercoaster ride.  The re-telling of the original story unfolds alongside the back story that reveals the secrets of young Michael's childhood.  We discover the horrors that created the monster.  It was a brave move by Rob Zombie and it worked brilliantly with the excellent casting of the young angel-faced Myers.  New life was breathed into one of film history's most terrifying tales.

This re-make restored my faith in the concept of re-working originals and old favourites.  This is why I have chosen it for Hannah's meme!

*Sadly the remake of Halloween 2 sans Zombie was atrocious...another travesty. A remake of a classic that should have been left well alone.*