Day 145: How To Train Your Dragon

Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) just wants to be part of his Viking community but finds that he can’t kill dragons. That’s a big part of what makes up the community so it’s a bit of a problem. He catches a dragon known as ‘night fury’ and he names him Toothless and the two become friends. Hiccup helps him fly again and changes the way his community think about dragons.

I’m going to admit to something here, try not to laugh. I believe in dragons. I believe they existed and perhaps they do still and just haven’t been found yet. But it’s a good thing we don’t know where they are because you can just bet that humans would kill them or try and use them for some military purposes. In the film humans do try and kill them for years because they don’t understand them and are frightened. It takes almost complete annihilation of the Viking community before they change their minds about the dragons and stop attacking them.

I do really like this film. Toothless is such a wee cutie, how could you not love him?

8/10

Day 94: Despicable Me

Gru (Steve Carell) is losing his status as the greatest villain to new kid, Vector (Jason Segel). To try and regain his power he plans to shrink the moon and steal it but in order to do that he has to use some cookie-selling orphans. Initially he is reluctant to get close to the girls but they melt his heart and he ends up caring for them a great deal.

I quite like this film even though it’s entirely predictable that he’ll end up loving the girls. It’s funny and sweet, what’s not to like?

7/10

Day 32: Bridesmaids

Annie (Kristen Wiig) is having a rough time of it; her business went under, her boyfriend left her when that happened, her fuck-buddy is an asshole, and she is living with odd strangers. But her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is getting married and she’s trying to keep it together so she can be there for her. Not helped by Helen (Rose Byrne), Lillian’s new friend, who tries to take over everything and upstage Annie at every opportunity. The film follows Annie hitting bottom and it causing problems for her friendship with Lillian.

Judging from my description there you’d think this was a sad film but it manages to remain funny throughout. Probably the funniest moment being when they are dress shopping. I remember seeing the film in the cinema and everyone was just laughing so loud, it was great. The line delivery of all the cast is perfect, couldn’t have got a better cast for it.

Helen makes me sad. She’s clearly very lonely despite being popular. Her husband isn’t interested in her, her step-kids hate her, she finds it difficult to make friends. She’s so desperate for a best friend that she sabotages the relationship between Annie and Lillian. And while that’s obviously wrong, it’s difficult to hate her for it when it’s so clear she’s lonely. Saying that though, she did put a real butterfly in the invitation. Who actually does that? A psychopath, that’s who.

Actually all of the bridesmaids are interesting. Megan (Melissa McCarthy) is my favourite though. She’s so unapologetic for who she is and she’s clearly got it all worked out. I love when she goes ‘round to see Annie and she tells her what she needs to hear to get her back on track. “You’re your problem, Annie. And you’re also your solution.” Nothing is going to fix itself unless you take charge and fix it for yourself.

Since it’s a film including weddings, I guess it’s only right if I talk about how I’d like my wedding to be. Not that I spend a lot of time thinking about it, marriage seems like an odd concept to me. But sometimes when you’re daydreaming you get to thinking about things. I’ve always pictured it taking place at night, outside. There’s snow falling but it’s not too cold. And there are candles and fairy lights everywhere, and maybe a fire in the background. Not too many people, either. Big weddings just lose the intimacy that I think it should have. And there would be the minimum amount of stress. Why do people stress themselves out so much about one day? Focus your stress on the fact you’re going to have to stay interested in one person for the rest of your life. That is so much more stressful.

8/10