What We’ve Been Watching – March & April 2018

What We’ve Been Watching – March & April 2018

I can’t quite believe how quickly this year is passing us by! How are we already in May? How is it under a month until I’ve been married for a year? and how is it that Ben and I have already watched so many films! We’re almost halfway through our entire 100 movie challenge for the whole year in just four months and we’re already well ahead of previous years progress when I compare in the notebook I jot everything down in.

I don’t quite know how we’ve managed to watch so many as we’ve been so busy being away – but I think we’ve squeezed in movies whilst we’ve been staying away in the evenings which has really helped give a boost to our total. This past week however has let us down slightly as we were both so busy in the week which left no time for movies, and Ben was away for a stag do over the bank holiday weekend leaving any movies I watched not countable towards our total (although I will give a quick mention to them at the end!).

2018 so far is still the year of the rewatch, I feel like most of the movies which are coming on our sky package are either great films we already saw at the cinema, or d-list movies that you never heard of. It’s very rare we are using our package on a weekly basis at the moment.

As there’s clearly so many films on the list I’ll whizz through these all as quickly as possible.

The Mask of Zorro (Rewatch?)
If I have watched this when it was first out but I can’t remember for definite, this however for Ben was a film he watched a lot. Oh how many plot-holes can one film have.

Black Panther (New)
I wasn’t sure what to expect of this new Marvel franchise but I loved it. It could have completely stood alone from the rest of the Marvel world and still been a strong movie, and had a very different vibe to the other movies. The box office results for this movie speak for itself – it’s well worth a watch!

La La Land (Rewatch)
Ben had been wanting to rewatch this for a while as he’d been listening to the soundtrack a lot. I liked it as much as the first time I’d seen it, I love the charm that this movie has and I still love the ending of this film. If you’ve not seen this an like old hollywood and musicals this has all the right vibes.

Chips: Law & Disorder (New)
It’s not really a good sign that two months on from watching this I had to look up plotline… But it’s a twist on an american 70s popular show. Dax Shepard becomes a partner in the traffic department with Michael Pena and discovers he’s an undercover FBI agent. It was average at best, but a little boring.

Thor Raknarog (Rewatch)
This was the first time we’d watched this since the cinema. Definitely the best Thor film, I haven’t been the biggest fan of this line from Marvel in the past but this film is so good – funny and clever. I wouldn’t necessarily say you would need to see the other Thor Movies to watch this as I think you’d catch the drift quite quickly.

Skyfall (Rewatch)
My favourite Bond film by far – I love the character that Javier Bardem plays in this movie and the crescendo ending that sets off a new era for the next movie.

Going in Style (New)
Starring three elderly gentlemen who lose their retirement fund after a company takeover and decide to form a plan to rob a bank. Starring Morgan Freeman, MIchael Caine and Alan Arkin, it was a charming comedy that was the perfect watch time.

Despicable Me 3 (New)
I’d loved the first DM film, the second less so and the third I felt was a slight improvement on the second. Controversially I find the Minions so annoying (I’ve not seen the dedicated Minions film!). But Gru discovers he has a brother, they join up to fight crime, yada yada.

Get Smart (Rewatch)
One we’d not seen in ages – this reminds me of an American Johnny English film. Starring Steve Carrell who finally makes the jump from working behind the scenes to becoming a spy, alongside Anne Hathaway.

Pink Panther (Rewatch)
This has been on my rewatch list for ages – this is the most recent one with Steve Martin and Beyonce – a very guilty pleasure from years ago. Just as silly as I remember, and glad I took it to wales with us to watch.

This Means War (Rewatch)
Another one that we’d not seen in a long time and a cottage watch – Reese Witherspoon is a single career woman and her friend puts her on online dating, she begins dating Tom Hardy a spy and before long she’s also dating his best friend and fellow spy Chris Pine – without them knowing, until they do find out and it turns into a competition. Whilst I’d seen it I couldn’t really remember the outcome and anything with Tom Hardy is a winner for me.

The Monuments Men (Rewatch)
Something we watched ages ago and I couldn’t really remember it and it was one of the DVDs available at the cottage we could agree on watching. At the tail end of WWII a group of soliders begin trying to recover artwork, sculptures and gold stolen from the Nazis, and it’s the tale of them trying to get it all back.

The Lion King (Rewatch)
Do I really need to say how amazing The Lion King is? No. I’ll leave it there.

Justice League (New)
I’ve come to the conclusion I’m just not that into the DC universe, I can just about cope with Superman and Batman alone but when they all meet together it’s just ugh. Yet again wasn’t into this – although I did like Wonder Woman better in this one than I did her dedicated movie.

Game Over, Man! (New)
A Netflix original movie which stars the cast of Workaholics (the only one I know is Adam DeVine) as three hotel house cleaners in LA, where a high profile party is taking place and turns into a hostage situation. The three of them decide to try and save the day. Worth a watch.

Ready Player One (New)
I wasn’t really that interested in going to see this at the cinema but Ben was keen and it took me by surprise, I haven’t seen anything that I can really compare it to. It was like an the hunger games and wreck it Ralph combined in the oddest way. It’s set in the future where everyone in their free time visits an virtual reality game where people can become whoever they want and play what ever game they want which begins crossing over to real life as they compete to find keys to ‘inherit’ the game after it’s creator dies.

The Foreigner (New)
I was recommended this by FiveZero – a netflix original movie, starring Jackie Chan as a man with a vengance after his daughter is killed in a terrorist attack. Really was a decent movie and definitely worth a watch, Jackie Chan still go it.

The House (New)
I hadn’t even heard about this movie but this is the kind of comedy that seems so rare at the moment. Starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler as parents of a teenage daughter who was destined to receive a scholarship for college from the town and then did not. So they set up an underground casino in their friends (Jason Manzuka) house and following the obvious mess that happens. Really enjoyed it, worth a watch!

The Dark Tower (New)
We’d heard through the grapeivine that this wasn’t very good, and my god what a bloody boring movie. Based on a Stephen King novel which I’m sure is better, but even Idris Elba couldn’t bring life to this movie. Once we got to the end of this I turned to Ben and said well yep that was as shit as they’d said.

Beauty and the Beast (Rewatch)
First time rewatching this since seeing it in the cinema this time last year – Ben bought me the BluRay at Christmas and we hadn’t got around to watching it yet. I still love this version and the little alternate twists it adds in music and storyline from the orginal. I like that it’s not a carbon copy of the OG as it feels like it stands alone from it more – whilst still retaining the obvious charm of the original.

Avengers Infinity War (New)
I think I might be the only person in the world who didn’t gush over this movie. I didn’t not like it – but the bar had been set so high for me from Raknarog and Black Panther, I was expecting so much more. This film is a long one but I felt like it needed to be an hour longer to actually allow for more dialogue – there’s so many characters to give screen time to that some of them end up feeling like they’re there for the sake of it. I think I’ll like this more the next time I watch this and it is still worth a watch but the bar was just very high and it didn’t quite hit the mark.


Television (Full Completed Series)

I only talk about series that I/We have completely finished to save talking about it multiple times – e.g Grey’s Anatomy would span about three of these updates!

Hell’s Kitchen
I watched three series in under a month which were available on Netflix – why is there not more? I couid blitz through all of them in under a year.

999 What’s Your Emergency?
I’ve always enjoyed catching this in pieces and the odd episode here and there, but I’ve never watched the series properly – I started watching the reruns and I’m now completely up to date. It’s about 999 call handlers in police and ambulance departments and then it follows the paramedics and officers to the call. It’s really interesting and each episode has a certain theme, such as burglaries, prank callers or pregnancies.

James Acaster: Repertoire
A Netflix four part comedy special – I don’t find many comedians funny, but I loved this four part show. Very witty and clever and had me giggling the whole way through.

Save Me
This was such a good series on sky, it starred Suranne Jones as the parent of a daughter who is kidnapped, she gets wind that her estranged biological father has something to do with it (played by Lennie James) as she leaves a video saying she’s been talking to him online and is going to meet him, making him the number one suspect. This was addictively good and binge worthy – they released all the episodes at once and we’d watched them all within 3-4 days.

Jane the Virgin (Series 4)
I’m so sad that this series is over and I’ve got to wait for the next one, I wasn’t sure what the dynamic of this season was going to turn into but I ended up really enjoying it. If you’ve never seen Jane the Virgin and are in the market for a new series, give it a try, it’s funny with a great storyline and is a bit different as its in a telenovela style.

Nailed It
A Netflix baking competition series about people who were shit at baking. It filled a gap on an afternoon when I had a tonne of ironing to do.

Santa Clarita Diet (Season 2)
Ahh these series feel so short and it’s another one we can’t help but binge our way through. Drew Barrymore turns into a cannibal and anything but blood/meat does not fill the gap. This series was all about discovering more about why and how she suddenly became a flesh eating monster, with the help of her husband, daughter and the daughter’s best friend. A dark and funny comedy and the series needs more episodes in one go!


Thanks for reading, if you’re interested to see what we watched in January and February you can click here to take a peek.

As always if you have any recommendations of things that we need to watch please leave a comment, we’re always after suggestions!

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10 Comments

  1. May 8, 2018 / 6:50 am

    I’ve seen clips of James Acaster before and thought he’s funny too. This Means War sounds good, if I remember rightly it was on TV here not long ago, I should have recorded it. I saw Avengers: Infinity War last Friday and I thought it was good. I haven’t seen most other films leading up to it but I kind of agree about all the different characters and screen time x

  2. rinkydinkyrhi
    May 8, 2018 / 9:08 am

    Definitely agree that Santa Clarita Diet is too short! We watched it in about 2 days and now we have to wait again for the next season x

    Rhi | http://www.rinkydinkyrhi.com

  3. May 8, 2018 / 12:20 pm

    Ah I want to watch black panther so I can watch the new Avengers movie

    Candice

  4. May 8, 2018 / 2:07 pm

    Love this post, thank you so much for sharing! I got the insane opportunity to go to the World Premiere of Avengers: Infinity War two weeks ago and meet all the cast at the after party. It was truly a blast! I’m also really grateful I got to meet Tom Holland last weekend for his charity event. I wrote posts about it if you’d like to check them out!

    Love, Tiffany Lea
    https://zimmylifestyle.com

  5. May 8, 2018 / 8:24 pm

    The tv show CHiPs was not a comedy but they made the movie one, which made me angry. They did the same with 21 Jump Street which REALLY made me angry. Why turn drama tv shows into comedy movies?! It’s stupid.

    Oh the Dark Tower books (there are 7 in the series) are my favorites but the movie was not good. The story is WAY too complex to try squeezing into a 2 hour movie. It just can’t be done. This would do much better as a series on like Netflix or Hulu and focus each season on one book. They tried to treat this movie as a “sequel” to the books (if you read them you’d understand… it’s too complex to explain here) but it just didn’t translate. Most Stephen King books don’t translate to screen well because they’re very complex stories. They broke IT into 2 movies (don’t know when the 2nd comes out), which does the story better justice. The Green Mile was a 3 hour movie because the book was so long and complex (it was originally released as a 6 part serial novel, with each part being 100 pages or so).

  6. May 8, 2018 / 9:31 pm

    I don’t remember watching Despicable Me 2 which probably means that I haven’t watched it, but I did adore the first and third film. The Minions dedicated film is okay and you get a few chuckles out of it but I would probably just stick to the original line.

    I have YET to watch Black Panther but everyone has said it’s amazing and separates itself from the other Marvel films which I think is a very smart move. I watched Thor Ragnarok in the cinema without watching the previous and definitely found it easy to follow! I don’t know how I will find Avengers Infinity War though because I don’t think I watched the previous one before it and like you said, it gets overwhelming with all the different characters.

  7. May 9, 2018 / 3:23 am

    Blimey Rachael, nearly 50 films! You are impressive. I’ve seen 3 this year😂 I still want to see Ls La Land and I need to watch Beauty and the Beast again x

  8. May 9, 2018 / 8:31 am

    You two are crazy, whizzing through them films like no mans buisness 😂

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