The King's Speech: a surprisingly eloquent film

I know, its taken me a very long time to see this film, so unfortunately have had the hype built up for this whole time too. So, I really did enjoy the movie BUT it wasn't the experience I was expecting. A friend of mine said it was the best film she had seen in years...I would actually say Colin Firth's last serious piece A Single Man is better. Controversial I know.

That being said The King's Speech did live up to the acting talent and fully deserved all the Oscars and Baftas it received. I think of all the films in the Best Film category at the Oscars The Kings Speech was the rightful winner, it has the best direction, story, acting, and general feel compared to its rivals.

Of course everybody, especially the Academy, loves a Royal based movie, especially one with such controversy as the abdication of a King for his American lover. This is an underdog story, one that we Brits excel at, the unassuming hero, especially one with a speech impediment, is somebody everyone can get behind and support. Colin Firth does a simply brilliant job as Prince Albert, later King George VI, a man with an imposing family and an equally imposing future, struggling to be a good husband and father all the while coping with his stutter. He is also rather short tempered, something I did not expect, especially how angry he gets toward his family. However Colin also displays admirable fatherly connection to the young Elizabeth and Margaret (played magnificently by Freya Wilson and Ramona Marquez), pretending to be a penguin and working through his stutter as his utterly patient and grown up girls listen.

Support for Colin comes in several forms, two being his children, then his wife played by Helena Bonham-Carter and his speech therapist in the form of Geoffrey Rush - both remarkable and BAFTA worthy performances. Helena provides a sincere portrait of the Queen Mother, whom we all in Britain I feel safe to say adored during her lifetime. She is a sweet and loving wife, stoic as all Royal women are, and a wonderful support for the future king. She is the one who finds Rush, a charismatic Australian speech therapist who takes on the load of having a Royal on his books deftly and without much change in his demeanor. I do not know much about Lionel Logue and his influence on King George, but by all accounts - his own diaries included - he and the sovereign were friends of sorts, and he was relied upon for his expertise for many years. Rush takes on the task of teaching Firth to speak publicly with relish, enjoying the familial relationships, even displaying typical husbandly cowardice when faced with a wife completely surprised by the Queen sitting in her parlour as he hides in the back room with the King.

I feel after watching this film I know the Royal family a little more, which makes me sincerely hope that the facts presented in these two hours were not skewed, I loved seeing the young Queen Elizabeth, and the normal family time they managed to create in the circumstance of war and upheaval of position.

I did really enjoy this film, but I would warn people not to listen to all the hype, take it for what it is and don't push your hopes sky high, because no matter how good a film is you will always feel just a little let down if it has been put upon a pedestal, as this film had been to me.

Paul: the foul mouthed Alien you gotta be a geek to get

Now the title is not disparaging at all to geeks, in fact am quite sad I wasn't geeky enough to get all the references and jokes in this film. I feel I probably would have enjoyed it more had I seen any Alien films or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

What I have seen in regards to sci-fi helped an awful lot, there are many Star Wars references, especially enjoyable is hearing the Mos Eisley Cantina music played by a country band in a hick bar. Of course even without seeing Alien I recognise the importance of having Sigourney Weaver as a main role, albeit an evil one, and the turning of the tables as Blythe Danner protects Paul screaming "get away from him you bitch!" These moments made me smile and laugh out loud, but the film I wouldn't say is a laugh riot from start to finish, in fact it is really quite sweet.

Paul was written by Pegg and Frost, but for the first time no Edgar Wright in the picture, and they have called it a love letter to Steven Spielberg, King of the aliens come to Earth movies. It definitely shows, but this is not a bad thing as this is an Alien film with heart, something Spielberg is quite adept at, who has not welled up at E.T finally going home? If you haven't clearly you have no heart. I say this film has heart, but Paul is actually one of the filthiest (in terms of language) films I have seen in quite a while, and also unafraid to poke fun at religion, it is incredibly forthright in saying there is no God, evolution exists, you're all dumbasses who believe in Creationism. I liked this very much.

So Clive and Graeme (Frost and Pegg) are two geeks who are also writer/illustrators, much like a Kevin Smith movie, following Comic-Con around the USA but end up picking up Paul and taking him to where his people will collect him over 60 years after he crash landed on a young Blythe Danners dog, also called Paul. Because Paul is so very human in his behaviour, he speaks English, makes coffee, swears profusely, and smokes it is very easy to accept him as another character in this film. Kristen Wiig's character Ruth is actually more strange because she is a creationist Christian, I can understand and accept geeks and people who believe in life in outer space more than I can creationists. Of course her beliefs are soon put right (in my opinion) by Paul, who gives her his memories of time and space and other worlds through a touch of his hand. Other talents Paul possesses are the ability to bring birds back to life (and later bigger things, but I won't spoil it) and to heal disabilities (again I won't spoil it, but its very cool and really sweet).

Clive and Graeme are your stereotypical geeks, nervous, need a good wash, kind hearted, and a bit rubbish with the opposite sex. They take on Paul with mostly good grace, helping him where many would have shopped him to the authorities, and protecting him from the three FBI Agents after him in the forms of Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Bill Hader (Superbad), and Jo Lo Truglio (Role Models). These FBI agents provide many of the laughs, Bateman is the hardass who knows what is going on, Hader and Truglio his inept 'helpers' he has had to call in who spend most of their time in comic book stores and playing hide and seek.

Finally of course we have Paul himself, voiced by Seth Rogen. Seth was the ideal choice to voice this bad mouthed stoner alien, he has a gruff quality to his vocal chords that stop him sounding like an idiot, but he also has a relaxed way of speaking so that nothing is too much of a problem, just go with the flow and everything will be okay. I love Seth, I think he is a great comedic actor and could listen to his voice all day, sounds odd I know with it not being a smooth charming George Clooney type of voice, but thats what stops me falling asleep.

The cast and characters of this film are well played and well scripted, Pegg and Frost have done a fine job of not forgetting about themselves whilst writing, but also have given enough importance to the side characters for you to be interested in the whole cast and not just the nerds and the alien. The director, Greg Mottola, was a great choice as he brings the characters together in a cohesive blend of laughter and emotion, much as he did in Superbad.

Paul is a great film, I wish truly that I was more intune with the world of sci-fi before I watched it, but that did not stop me liking the story or the characters. Paul is the definitive alien, he also creates his own family in his short time trying to escape Earth, bringing Clive and Graeme closer to their dreams than they ever though possible. This is probably why many more hard core sci-fi people did not appreciate Paul, who needs heart when you have a laser gun? Well, I do. I enjoy a good bit of emotion, and I definitely enjoyed watching Paul.

Bridesmaids: a how not to guide to being a maid of honour

Firstly let me say that this film has a small amount of significance to me as one of my very best friends is getting hitched in 2 weeks, so as I missed her hen party I took her to see this film.
We both were almost in tears with how funny it is.

Written by star Kristen Wiig and cameo appearance Annie Mumolo (as an extremely nervous fellow airline passenger, priceless moments), this film follows the life of almost at rock bottom Annie (played by Wiig) and how she copes with becoming her best and childhood friend's maid of honour. I'd like to say here how happy I am to see Kristen Wiig in a starring role, she is likeable and engaging on screen and capable of playing many different personas.

So the storyline is fairly basic, many people have called this the womans Hangover but I don't think thats fair to the writing or the story, because its very different. For one thing the personal focus on Annie makes this film more intimate, you get to know the lead and you have somebody to root for, whereas The Hangover is a case of 'what the hell is gonna happen next?!'
Suffice to say there are no tigers in Bridesmaids, but there is toilet humour, foul language (appropriately directed I thought) and some lesbian action to suit the more debase funny bones. Normally toilet humour is not what I find remotely funny, but its actually really well done here and you laugh so hard at the embarrassment of the situation rather than the poo. Unlike the first Sex and the City film and its attempt to create a laugh by having Charlotte poo herself being unnecessary to the plot, the food poisoning episode in Bridesmaids is integral to Annie's attempts to be Maid of Honour falling apart from the start.

All Annie's plans go awry, and she is not helped by the competition in the form of Rose Byrne for being the best friend. Rose is a revelation in annoying, she has become a fine comedy actress in this film and when you don't want to punch her for upsetting Annie's plans you almost feel bad for her own personal troubles (step-children who hate her).
Maya Rudolph plays the bride to be with suitable nervousness, excitement, and ruthlessness as she cuts out Annie from her bridal party because of a disastrous plane journey to Vegas (the funniest series of scenes in a film I have seen for a very long time).
The rest of the bridal party are mostly just filler, with the clear exception of Melissa McCarthy who is the reason for the majority of laughter in this movie, with what she says, how she says it, and how plain and greasy looking they made her. Melissa is a very pretty, if slightly large, actress who has always been able to pull off comedy, but not been given such free reign before. There is a particular conversation on the plane with a fellow passenger where she is so very dead pan and the guy (actually played by her real life husband) is struggling without much success to not laugh.

This film does not suffer from bad casting, poor writing, tedious direction or any other annoying facet that you find in many supposed laugh out loud comedies. There is a Judd Apatow feel to the storyline, its funny but there is romance in there and an underdog coming good. Its predictable but you don't get bored, the support are suprising and funny, and most importantly Annie is a wonderful heroine to be indentified with and rooted for.

Big praise to Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumalo, I think I prefer Bridesmaids to The Hangover because I simply laughed more.