REVIEW: Pitch Perfect 2

Hi chums!

It's been a while since I've been to the cinema to watch a musical, so this was a long awaited film for me - as in, it's been in my calendar since about March!

Source

It's no secret that I love musicals and since Pitch Perfect I also have a new found love for acappella! This film was fairly different from the first, it was still mainly focused around Beca but Fat Amy has a bit more screen time too which is always  good! 

Much to my enjoyment the 'rift off' was back but in a different form, and there are several familiar faces back too - not just the ones that are on the film poster - so look out for those!

As seen in the trailer there is a more cultural feel to this film and the German singers are INCREDIBLE, the first song they sing which can be heard in the trailer is almost haunting it's so good!

The only things I didn't like about this film as much was the occasional sexual and racist comments made - no harm is meant by them, but I feel like a few too many are made.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film and it was so nice to have old and new characters joining together and creating so many cool songs!

Have you seen this film yet?

Abi :)

Review: Into The Woods

I know I'm late to jump on this bandwagon BUT I did actually watch this a couple of weeks back and have only just come about to write my review!

Source

When I saw the trailer for this I knew right away I'd want to see it: a musical, Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick and many more famous faces - what more could I want!? Oh yeah, the fact it's DISNEY!!

Source

Source

The film is very clever in the sense that it captures many fairy tales and puts them all into one, there's elements of: Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Cinderella and Jack and The Beanstalk. The film is actually based on the Broadway musical going by the same name which I thought was very cool and how amazing would it be to see this live on stage!?

Source

The basic synopsis is that a baker and his wife wish desperately for a child but a witch has laid a curse on them and only if they bring her: a cow as white as milk, a slipper as pure as gold, hair as yellow as corn and a cape as red as blood will the curse be lifted! You can probably already picture the individual fairy tales just by that list but what I liked was the fact that I thought I knew what the film would be like and then suddenly other characters are revealed and more events occur and it keeps the audience on the edge of their seat!

Overall, I really liked this film and will now be taking some of the songs with me for my road trip around Europe!!

Abi :)

Review: Annie

Source

As some of you may know, I LOVE MUSICALS so when I saw the trailer for this film I really really wanted to see it! It's a remake of the original and some things have changed a lot, Annie herself is physically very different from the original Annie which I think is good as this film really captures the multicultural society we all live in. 

I loved the songs, my favourites include: "Tomorrow", "It's a Hard Knock Life" and "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here" the songs aid the upbeat feel to the film, however I did feel that because the songs are quite old and already well-known, performing them in a 21st century set up seemed a little mismatched. 

I think the time in which this version of Annie is set also means that some of the characters are less realistic and believable for example Cameron Diaz's character Hannigan should (in my opinion) be a lot like Ms Trunchbull from Matilda during the majority of the film, so having an actress like Cameron Diaz playing her made this character less believable for me. 

Overall though, this is a feel good film and the songs are great to sing along to as well as enjoying a happy ending!

Abi :)

My Favourite...Musicals

I absolutely LOVE musicals. Many of my favourite films are actually film versions of musicals, I'm not much of a singer or dancer myself but I love to watch them and maybe even attempt to sing/dance along! I have done some 'musical' acting in the past, as I did drama GCSE which included performing Blood Brothers as Mrs Lyons and Linda, I also took part in Grease as a chorus member for a local drama group which I loved doing! Here are my favourite musicals (not in any particular order).

• Chicago - I love Catherine Zeta Jones in this, Cell Block Tango is my favourite song!
• Blood Brothers - Watched this when Maureen Nolan played Mrs Johnstone it was VERY good, cried at the end!

The stage set for Blood Brothers!

My Programme

• Mamma Mia - One of my favourite films and have seen this on stage too! The Winner Takes It All was fantastic live! 

I loved seeing Mamma Mia live - it's so funny!

• Lion King - Seen this twice on stage and I adore the film, amazing musical to see for all ages - highly recommend this!
• High School Musical - I love all of them, my (not so) guilty pleasure! 
• Grease - I own the DVD and love it, it's such a timeless and feel-good film! 
• Hairspray - Recently seen this on stage and I love the songs especially I Know Where I've Been

Photo is from HERE by Maureen Lee

• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - I think the original film is better, I'd love to see it on stage!

Hope these give you some ideas if you'd like to see or watch a musical!

Abi :)