Celebrity entitlement: Are celebs above the law?

No.

You would think that this straight forward answer is the case, but something made me think about this topic recently when the scenario of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s dogs arose in media again.

If you are Australian you would’ve heard the scenario that occurred with our agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce and Depp’s dogs illegally entering the country without quarantine. The media then had a field day when Barnaby Joyce made comments (harsh but sort of true) which goes:

“There is a process if you want to bring animals: you get the permits, they go into quarantine and then you can have them, but if we start letting movie stars — even though they’ve been the sexiest man alive twice — to come into our nation (and break the law), then why don’t we just break the laws for everybody? It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States.”

The dogs were given 50 hours to be removed, and at least everyone ended up okay with the dogs returning to the US. I thought that Barnaby could’ve been more polite about the situation but I understand his frustration because Australia’s agriculture is safe from many diseases due to the strict border restrictions.

Pistol and Boo, Johnny Depp’s dogs

 However Amber Heard in recent time stated that she and Depp will most likely not travel to Australia again because of all of this.

I laughed so hard when I heard this because Johnny Depp has traveled around the world many times so he should’ve bothered to read up on the strict quarantine laws, and second Rabies is pretty much non existent in Australia, so should they be let in to increase the chance of rabies entering the country just because they are famous? No.

So many times in Hollywood I have read cases where the celeb gets off easy because of their social status. I remember in 2013 when Chris Brown and his bodyguard was supposed to go to jail for a felony assault but only got sentenced for assault misdemeanor.

It sucks that there are celebrities with this kind of attitude who think they are above the law and get all “boohoo” when they break it and the law gives them no leeway. I have a feeling though that the US may be more lenient than Australia because there is such thing as a general hierarchy where rich and famous people are treated better than the average folks.

In Australia these hierarchies exists in the work place and of course can be seen sometimes, but a majority of us believe we are all equal so hence we try to make the law as equal as possible. Is there flaws in the system? Sure. However in a case like this where there could be a threat to the agriculture? Amber and Johnny: You were wrong.

I still think Depp is an incredibly talented actor so I look forward to seeing his work, but this whole thing though could’ve been avoided if he had the dogs just go through quarantine. But hey, most Australians aren’t going to lose sleep over this whole drama anyway.

Jurassic World review

The park has opened again, and by now you would think these people would learn their lesson.

Jurassic World is directed by Chris Treverrow, who only has a few films under his belt. The film is basically about how 22 years has passed since the events of the previous Jurassic park and there has been a new park titled “Jurassic World”. It revolves around these two kids who get sent to see their aunt, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) who manages the park. There has been a recent hybrid created called Indominus Rex which appears dangerous, and obviously in good old Jurassic Park fashion, things go down.

Chris Pratt plays Owen who is a guy who is a Velociraptor expert who can train these creatures (I know right so awesome!). He was easily the best character in the film, which is expected because Chris Pratt is so likable. Unfortunately he was the only human I liked in this film, because the real stars of the films were the dinosaurs.

Like how cool is this bad boy. He is eating a FREAKIN’ GREAT WHITE SHARK DO YOU KNOW HOW BIG THOSE COOL THINGS ARE LIKE WHAT!

Also the Velociraptors were so cool, and be prepared to be extremely attached to them but cry at the same time about it.

I wish I could talk about another cool dinosaur but that will be heading into spoiler territory so I can’t go there. The kids were sufficient enough in this film, with some scenes between the two brothers being sweet which is hard for me to feel when it comes to children in film.

Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Claire, is alright but I felt she was essentially a blend of cliches put into one character. If I tell you she is a hardworking manager, think of every cliche ever placed about a woman in a role similar and you will get it right. I must say I am glad she was not useless in this film, with scenes of her actually helping out but being the spectrum of reason. Those heel running skills though… girl, teach me!

Now the dinosaur hybrid was a very interesting and cool design, with it essentially being a T-rex hybrid with arms that is actually long and retractable. It sort of reminded me of the 1998 Godzilla (forgive me for mentioning it), but actually scary.

I will not compare this to the original films because that is unfair, as this film has its own merits with cool effects and some moments which were fairly touching (the herbivores will make you upset, because it nearly killed me watching it). It is a summer blockbuster film essentially, but I am unsure if it earned the title of ‘classic’ but I say it is a film that one should at least check out in the cinema.

I shall give this 3.5 Velociraptors out of 5.

Pitch Perfect 2 pitches.

I wanted to watch Mad Max, however my sister was more keen on Pitch Perfect 2 which fits the genre she generally watches. I always do what she says anyway so we ended up watching this film. I liked the first Pitch Perfect, it was so surprising how good it actually was.

So this was a film I expected to be at least an enjoyable time in the cinema, and it was.

Anna Kendrick and crew returns for another musical comedy that has taken on a larger scale now, with the world Acapella competition being the main focus as they need to win it to continue as a group. However they encounter fierce rivalry with a German team called Das Sound Machine, and I don’t speak German very well (I struggle even with basics), but even I know “die” is more grammatically correct than “das” but hey most people wouldn’t know the difference.

They are freaking awesome in this movie, and I felt that the Kommissar who is one of the leads in the group, played by Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, was pretty funny and had a super cool voice. Flula Borg, of youtube fame, was also pretty great in this movie and I never knew he was so talented given that I have only watched very few videos of his.

Now the real giver of laughs though was Rebel Wilson’s Fat Amy/Patricia, who at one point made me laugh so hard, the people around me were staring and my sister cracked up. I honestly think if she wasn’t in this film, this would’ve been a crap film, because she is the one who carries this film unlike the first one where Anna Kendrick owned the movie. However, Rebel is playing the same characters she always plays: the fat girl who is hilarious and makes jokes at her expense.

Anna Kendrick is after all the lead in this film, but I somehow felt she has taken a backseat and her story arc was sufficient but not exactly enough for me to care. This film never explored her relationship with Jesse much, and her inability to decide between internship and Bella’s is so generic and overdone that I could give two craps about that knowing she will choose both blah blah. She is still a great actress, and her scenes with Kommissar really gave me a chuckle.

Hayley Steinfeld is the new chick in this film, and someone who I assumed was casted in hopes of taking the mantel from the group. She played a dorkyish girl named Emily who dreamed of joining the Bella’s due to her mum being an ex-Bella, making her a legacy. She was an a serviceable character with not as much charisma as the other ladies but she played her role to the best of her abilities.

This film was nowhere near as coherent and good as the first film, but it was enjoyable with enough laughs and cool acapella moments to keep me satisfied.

I will give it 3 Bella’s out of 5

Official Suicide Squad picture

The official picture for suicide squad has been dropped by Geoff Johns on Twitter, and it has been most positive to mixed in reactions.

This picture included Slipknot, Katana, Enchantress, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Deadshot, Killer Croc and El Diablo.

The squad has that dark DC cinematic look, and my favourite look surprisingly is Will Smith’s Deadshot which David Ayer tweeted out later on

He has that classic Deadshot look with an edge by changing the placement of the eye thing (my mind couldn’t recall what it was called) and changing the classic costume a tad, it added something new that can even satisfy the hardcore fanboy.
I have no doubt about Will Smith’s talent so fingers cross writing and direction will do him justice.

The most mixed reactions has been of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. This has been mainly coming from the minority comic book fans who believed she should’ve had the classic Harley look with the red and black.

To me Harley has always been extravagant and flamboyant in her outfits so I was actually ok with this different iteration of her outfit. She has been depicted differently through out her 20+ years, and this can just be another look to add to that collection.

Overall I feel they have a cool look, but I will wait till I see a trailer and then the film to get an idea of how they will be portrayed.

Avengers: Age of Ultron movie review

There is a mid credit scene. Not an end credit scene.

It is finally here. After the three year wait I finally have seen the second Avengers film. Australia has got something first!!!

I learned from my previous mistake that if there is one franchise I should go early to find a seat in, it is a Marvel Studios film. The cinema was crowded for the advanced screenings and I could smell the sweatiness of the geek everywhere. A nice surprise though was seeing families and couples as well which was very lacking when I went to the first Avengers film.

Now onto the movie: it was of course a good movie. Marvel at this point has given us so much in terms of films that it is almost impossible at the state that they are in to give us a bad movie. However was this movie great?
I’ll give it a slight yes.

This is not the best marvel film to have come out, which is in a sense disappointing because I was hoping this would be as great as its predecessor or even greater. That’s just due to my high expectations that went through the roof; this movie still is pretty cool.

The opening scene was breathtaking with action shots of the team working together to retrieve a particular object. This scenes was easily one of the best filmed shots throughout the film, and the witty banter which goes back and forth between the team is reminiscent of the first Avengers. There was some slow-mo camera and rotating shots of the team defending the world, which were badass.

Hulkbuster. Does one honestly think a fight between Iron man and Hulk wouldn’t give geeks a boner which transform their Bruce Banner into The Hulk? As if.

A different story was in fact… the story. The coherency is a bit off pace at times, which threw me off guard. The themes didn’t give that light and darkness that flowed well which Marvel usually has. Marvel Studio hasn’t explored dark themes until Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but even then they always balance it with fun. It has not been in their universe to be completely dark as campy and fun suits the Marvel tone, unlike the DC universe which suits darkness and super serious themes.

Character overload can be felt at times, but it is not to the extent of Spiderman 3 or the Amazing Spiderman 2. The newbies include Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Vision. There are other extras but the focus is on these three.

The twins were pretty brilliant, but in particular Elizabeth Olsen. The talented Olsen has proven herself more than worthy as an actress, but here she displays her vulnerability and anger.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has his moments, but he wasn’t as charming and warm as Evan Peters in X-men: Days of Future past. It was not his fault, just the way the writers decided to place him. Let me just say though that they have really found a way to fix the fact that there are two Quicksilvers.
Vision is something one has to watch the movie to understand, but he is a character that can be fleshed out well in future films and I hope so.

There were scenes which really were emotional such as Romanov and Banner’s scenes and also Hawkeye’s scene. Hawkeye was a character that many movie going audiences didn’t connect well with in the first movie, due to his immediate introduction of him being a bad guy. This movie made audience’s realize he is human with lots to lose and he was finally seen as a necessary character in the Marvel universe.

ULTRON. Super badass but surprisingly have elements of Tony Stark’s humour. Marvel has really struggled with villains on the big screen being memorable, so will Ultron be as memorable as Loki? I’m not sure. He didn’t leave an impact on me that I really hope he would, but his intentions weren’t one dimensional and that voice (James Spader to thank) is so menacing.

Overall I give this film a solid 4 Hulkbusters out of 5 Hulks.

The Breakfast Club review

I am so embarrassed that as a big movie fan I have never seen The Breakfast Club until last week. I mean, it is iconic in its status and people always seem to quote it or sing that song “DON’T YOUUUUU FORGET ABOUT MEEEEE”. John Hughes also has some iconic movies under his belt (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Home Alone) So now as a 20 year old who obviously did not grow up in the 80’s: will it still hold up for me?

The movie’s premise is basically 5 kids who get sent to Saturday detention and do nothing that exciting, but it was entertaining from beginning to end. The kids consists of a jock (Andy), a nerd (Bryan), a popular girl or “princess” (Claire), a rebel (John) and a strange outsider or “basket case” (Allison). The stand out to me was John, as he started out as the generic rebel with his loud mouth and back chatting. As the film progressed he revealed little details about his abusive household which seems to be why he acts the way he does.

The scene which was probably what made this movie stand out among the typical teen flick was when the five of them gathered around and just had a heart to heart. I was balling, and I rarely cry in movies. They all shared things that many teens can relate to which was the pressure of peers and parents.

The acting in this film was brilliant by every cast member, including the nutcase assistant principle Mr. Richard Vernon. He demonstrated the way adults have the tendency to view teens as one dimensional with an inability for mature thought, which I liked because even as someone who has only been out of school for 3 years I tend to forget teenagers are not as stupid as they behave.

Now I will continue to watch all these 80’s teen flicks and see whether many of them still hold up, because if any of them are half as good as the breakfast club: they will.

I will rate this film a solid 9, and the reason I wouldn’t rate it to be perfect is because the ending before the awesome fist pump felt a bit forced with the kissing.

Kingsman: The Secret Service review

Manners maketh man.

9:30pm in Malaysia on a holiday and what we decide to do? Eat? Night life? Nope. Watch Kingsman.
So worth it.

I’ve been delaying watching this film because my dad wants to watch it and he has been slack about it. Finally we saw it and I love it so much.
It opened the same day as Fifty shades of filth, and it held up pretty well at a 30 million plus opening.
Word of mouth seems to be keeping it in the box office with it still be in the top 5.
The biggest surprise to me was not that Eggsy held up pretty well as a character, but that Colin Firth is an action star! My gosh man, you are a badass! His scene in the church in particular was the best display of this.
Now that church scene was gruesome as hell, but it was entertaining as it was judgemental assholes that are getting brutally killed. This church likens to Westboro baptist, which was an obvious link.
My sister obsessed about Eggsy throughout the film, claiming him to be a hotter Josh Hutcherson. He is a fairly new actor and a really good one so I hope to see him have a successful career.
I would go into details but everyone and their dog has seen this so I will just say I give it an 8, which it completely deserves.