John Cusackalious

I can't escape my John Cusack phase and I can't escape him!!! And after the latest film I watched starring him, I really don't want too.

A friend and I watched 1408 the other night and compared to the previous John Cusack film I watched, this one was a massive improvement!!
This film is really awesome and contains another actor whose films and acting ability I greatly admire and enjoy, Samuel L. Jackson (I really like his voice!)

This film centers around Cusacks trip to the Dolphin Hotel, where he plans to stay in the notorious room, 1408, where all of its previous guests have committed suicide. Cusack is a novelist, writing books on the 10 most haunted... and is a massive cynic, so much so that he laughs in the face of Samuel L. Jackson when he tries to warn him off staying in the room, believing it to be only a story made up to attract guests.

once in the room, a whole manner of creepy and bizarre things start to happen, and from this moment on, Cusack is essentially the only actor who appears in the film and he does an amzing job of carrying the film. He plays the smug/cynical/know-it-all perfectly, but as I feel this is most likely quite similar to his real personality, it is his ability to convey fear and terror and show how it mainfested in such a realistic and (in my case) a heart-wrenching way which really deserves praise.

This film keeps you guessing until the end and it is neither predictable nor a let-down. It does not have the usual happy ending (not that this one is horrifically sad) which I normally demand from films I enjoy this much, but the end it has is perfect and the only one which the film COULD have, no others would have fit.

The film does try to send you off in several conclusions, you wonder whether he is sleeping, unconsious or merely mad, but none of these are case!!

This film also manages to keep the cliches to a minimum! He does have an estranged ex-wife and dead daughter, but for once, I feel this was essential to the plot.

John Cusack is really outstanding in this film, possibly his best acting from what I have seen. This is also a slightly different film from the roles which he normally takes and unlike in 2012, the gamble paid off.

I give this film a 5 out of 5, as I really don't have a bad word to say about it and I massively impressed, as it is one of a very few number of films which has succeeded in making me jump.

If you have not seen this film, I really recommend you watch it!!

I will just give a quick mention to another film I watched this week, The Mighty Ducks are the Champions. I adore this film! It is cheesey, tacky, kinda crap, predictable but perfect :D


Emillio Estevez (an 80's favourite of mine) is a ruthless lawyer who is made to coach an Ice-hockey team as part of his community service. He used to play when he was younger, but one mistake ended his promising career. You can guess the entire plot now, he hates it at first, but then loves it, they are crap at first but then the underdogs win!! But it is just the perfect feel-good film. However, Joshua jackson is in it when he was very young and it is a bit scary, as he has the exact same face then as he does now!!!

I cant rate this film, as it is both awful and brilliant!! It is a classic and a guilty pleasure of mine!!!

Now I am going to watch Sherlock Holmes for tomorrows entry!! Night night mumma!! xx

2012 = a MAJOR disappointment!!

I'm soooo annoyed! I was really excited to watch 2012, expecting the normal big-budget action type film such as War of the World, Iron man, Transformers etc, all of which I enjoy hugely, but instead what I got was 158 minutes (yes, itt really was that long!!!) of utter drivel!!!

It was awful!!!



It was just STUPID!!!!

I don't expect this type of film to be ground-breaking in terms of storyline, in fact, I quite enjoy trying to work out the plot of the film from the trailers, and I more often than not succeed in doing so, but this one was awful. It was as though they just took all the elements which made other action films good and lumped them all together, threw in John Cusack and produced 2012! There was nothing original at all.

The main character in this film, Jackson Curtis is divorced from his wife and has a bad relationship with his children, especially his son. Sound familiar? It should, as they clearly borrowed heavily from War of the Worlds. This plot device worked well in War of the Worlds, as it set up sevaral confrontations and situations later in the film, which they were evidently hoping would work aswell in 2012, but it didn't.

I hated the actors which played John Cusack's ex wife and her new boyfriend. Him because he was really annoying and her because she was just dumb and spent most of the film relying on other people to look after her children, who I also take issue with. Also, when her supermarket was just torn apart by the Earth's crust moving, she called john Cusack and made him bring the children home (they were on a camping trip). She wanted her children in the place which had just been destroyed, the place she had nearly died!!! John Cusack was just a dumb, he took them back!!

There were just so many things wrong with this film! Woody Harrelson's character was just dreadful. He played the guy who seems a crazy conspirist by turns out to have been correct all along!!! But it was a really bad version of this character!!

It was just so unrealistic aswell!! I know the whole premise of the film IS unrealistic, but aside from that, its just so unrealistic!!! For example, John Cusack very quickly works out was happening!!! Doubtful! Then he manages to persuade someone to rent him their plane, by giving them his watch!!!! Even more doubtful!!! Then when he dies, his ex-wifes new boyfriend helpfully knows how to fly planes! hmmm, doubful!! And, its a completely different type of plane to that which he can pilot, but somehow he manages it!!!!! He is even able to co-pilot a giant plane later on in the film!!!!!! I refuse to believe this is possible!!!!! John Cusack is even able to run so fast, he can actually catch up with a plane on the runway!!! Now, whilst I believe John Cusack is very healthy, I doubt he can run as fast as that, I refuse to believe anyone can, because they can't!!!



They had the obligatory dumb blonde, who risks her life TWICE for her stupid dog!!! Nobody would do this in real life!!! It was all just ridiculous, everything managed to work out for them! Even when they were abondened in the new north pole, now in China, they manage to get picked up a Buddhist monk, who was on his way to the Arks being built to take a select few to safety! This monk just happened to have a brother who was working on the Arks, who just happened to know a way to stow them away!!!! Come on!!! If this was really possible, why would he be the only one to think of it?? And of course, at the end, there is the moment when you think John Cusack is dead and everyone is really sad, but he miraculously isn't and everyone is really happy! It was terrible!!

The CGI is also a bit crazy in this film, they seem to spend alot more time trying to make that amazing than worrying about the acting or the plot!

I also hate the children. They were everything I hate in children in films, cute, bratty, stupid (but ultimately brave) they scream, cry and generally just annoy me!!!

There is so much more wrong with this film, that I would need several blogs to tell you it all in! And I'm disappointed, as I hate it when an actor you really like is in such a bad film, you like to think they have a bit more taste.
I really did waste 158n minutes of my life!!

I give this film, out of a possible 5Ks, a well deserving 0K's.

Don't watch it, seriously, even tidying is more entertaining!!!

John Cusack stalking!!

This is my third attempt at blogging, my other two previous attempts being side-lined for a while, though I'm hoping the start of this one will result in the revival of the original blog!!

This blog will be dedicated solely to reviews of films which I watch, and since I tend to watch a film each night, I'm hoping I will not run out things to say!!

I love films, I really do! And I'm quite easy-going when it comes to watching films, I'm able to enjoy most genres, though I do particuraly favour cheesey eighties teen movies!! In fact, I have made my mission to try to watch all eighties movies, and despite having got off to a brilliant start, I still have a loooong way to go! So if anybody reading this has any suggestions (and not just for eighties films) I'd be most happy to hear.

This past week I've watched four films;

• The Sure Thing
• Better off Dead
• One Crazy Summer
• The Class

They all have something in common, other than all from the early eighties, can you guess?
They all have John Cusack in them!!



He is one of my absolute favourite actors (despite my mum hating him) and I am currently going through a 'John Cusack phase'. I find that a great way to discover new films, by 'film-stalking' an actor I rather love!!




'The Sure Thing' was most enjoyable, it was a typical and predicatable story of a boy travelling to California to sleep with a girl. He travels to California with a nerdy girl who is travelling to California to see her boyfriend, but along the way they have to hitch hike, pretend to be pregnant, get attacked by 'lonely' truck drivers, all whilst, of course, hating each other. Whilst the ending was terribly predictable (I won't ruin it for those who have yet to see it) it was still sweet and a very fitting ending. I really enjoyed this film, for me it was just the perfect eighties teen comedy and John Cusack really shone in his first film lead.Watch out for the amazing cameo by Tim Robbins.



Better off Dead was also a film I thought was terrific, despite once more being an old and predictable story (though maybe it wasn't in the early eighties!) This film see's John Cusack being dumped by the girlfriend he has been obbsessed with, for the smug and rather ugly (in my opinion) ski captain. John Cusack then spends rather a lot of time failing at committing suicide (despite sounding morbid, it is all very humourous) until he meets Monique, a French exchange student, who seemingly can not speak a word of English, staying with the family across the street. The mother of this family (nicknamed the 'Dorks') seems sure Monique will end up with her loser of a son, with extremely questionable fashion sense (be sure to check out his trousers). This film was really amusing, causing me to laugh out loud several times and again had a sweet ending (I really really love happy endings) which had the ugly ski captain getting what he deserves.



I didn't really enjoy the third film 'One Crazy Summer', for a start it has Demi Moore in it and I really am not a fan of hers! A large portion of the film is also in animation which I didn't like. This film is about an aspiring cartoonist who goes to Nantucket for the summer with a friend to find inspiration to draw a cartoon which will gain him a sponsorship to art college. Still reading?? Its gets worse. On the way the save Demi Moore from a motorbike gang (by throwing the money she had purposely hidden from them, at them. If I was Demi Moore, I would be most enraged by this, but she just says thank you!!!!) they meet two twins, who clearly have some mental health issues and are supposed to be amusing, but really just mmade me cringe everytime they opened their mouths!!! A girl with an ill dog who doesn't talk, but seeks revenge on everyone who is mean about the dog!!! And a strange family who want to take Demi Moore's family house, but she doesn't want that to happen, not because its her house and she wants to live, noooo, but because she has lodgers and she doesn't want them to be homeless because she is soooo thoughtful like that. So there is of course the typical plot where it seems all hope is gone but suddenly (and most unbelievably in this film) they come up triumphant! It really was a stupid film!!!!



The fourth film, 'Class' which I watched last night, was brilliant. It was John Cusack's and Andrew McCarthy's first film, and they were excellent in it. It also stars Rob Lowe (another favourite o fmine, as is McCarthy.) McCarthy plays a boy who has won a scholarship to a very posh college, where he is room mates with Rob Lowe. Their friendship gets off to an interstingly mean start, each pulling horrific tricks on the other, but they soon become best friends. However, McCarthy has no luck with women (there is always one in these films) who gets sent to Chicago by Rob Lowe to find a female to sleep with. So he does, though unfortunately it turns out to be Rob Lowe's mum. This film is extremely good, like an updated version of 'The Graduate' but watchable, which 'The Graduate' wasn't. You can also see why he fancied the mum in this film, which again, in 'The Graduate' you couldn't.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now, and continuing the John Cusack theme, I'm going to watch 2012 :D
Night Night xxxx