Sunny Grewal’s June film watch

June 13 2014

Sunny Grewal (pictured left above), one half of the radio partnership that is Sunny and Shay (his wife) – and with her, they both host the Sunny and Shay show on BBC London 94.9FM, every Sunday between 6pm and 8pm.
The intrepid pair have also just launched their youtube channel, see here, charting the small joys and annoyances of being in a relationship in their own inimitable and distinctive visual style.
Be sure to tune in every Monday and chuckle away – look out for a special piece on www.asianculturevulture.com which charts how “As We Proceed” #AWP came into being. On here soon!

Sunny, a massive film buff and nascent actor-director, gives www.asianculturevulture.com his thoughts exclusively on the films he has seen every month and the ones he’s most looking forward to seeing…

Hi, welcome!

There are not a lot of new films out this month – there’s still a spill-over from last month and the big films we previewed, like “Edge of Tomorrow” and “A million ways to die in the West” are still in the theatres..

So what to look out for this month…

“22 Jump Street” It looks like a really good comedy. Basically Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and Ice Cube are doing more of the same, from what happened in part I. The trailer is giving away a lot of the movie, but then you are not watching this movie for the plot line, you are watching it purely because of the comedy and these guys and their relationships.

“Grace of Monaco” – graces our screens and now you can see what we watched in Cannes. This was the opening film there, you can make up your own mind, it looks very European, very clean and cut, and I would like to see this a second time before I give you a review of this film, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

“Oculus” – There’s a horror film out there, it’s quite tempting to think it’s a good horror one, but like all horror films it could be a hit or miss, it’s something you will have to discover for yourself…

“3 Days to Kill”- If you are a big fan of the old crew, there’s two actors from the past that are coming to our screens…there’s Kevin Costner being a hit man, that’s what it tells us in the trailer and he’s trying to get out and in a classic way, they have got him back in somehow by threatening his family, so he has to do one last kill.
This is all in the trailer, so I am not giving anything away. If you’re a fan of Kevin Costner and you want to see him be a bad****, this is it, but he’s never been an action movie hero in my book…that’s why he is not in “The Expendables”… which I am really looking forward to later this year… (“The Expendables 3”)

“The Art of the Steal” – One actor I am a big fan of is Kurt Russell. This is a comedy/heist movie…you’ve got Russell and Matt Dillon, so there’s some young and old faces there, it looks entertaining. It’s definitely worth a watch, and worth my money.

“How to Train your Dragon 2” for all your kids so watch out for that. That is going to be more of the same from part I, but it’s nice they took the time with the sequel, think it’s going to surpass the original film.

That’s basically it…if there are any films I have missed out from this month, please let me know via twitter @Sunny&Shay and if there’s any trailers that I should be aware of, maybe some films on YouTube do let me know.
I have been on there a while and we have just opened up our own YouTube channel, it’s worth checking out our channel there .
There are independent films on YouTube that can’t get distribution which we found out about in Cannes, so do tell me about them too. Suggest some movies to watch on YouTube, that would be kind of cool, then we can give a heads up to those directors as well in this column. We don’t discriminate, we preview just what’s out there…
Now to the movies I did see and what I made of them…

“X-men” – Bryan Singer (the director) has come back to the helm of this movie and has apologised for ever leaving this franchise – he has done a very good job and has surpassed most of the previous films that preceded this. He has rewritten everything and thank God – if you are a fan of ‘X-men’ this by far is a brilliant release.
Someone is in charge of the franchise and knows what they are doing – and it’s up there with the best. There are some surprises in this movie and Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”) is in the movie. When I saw him in the trailer he looked a bit silly – not knowing what he was doing but am happy to say he is a great addition to the film. They did spend a lot of money on promotion – they must have spent over a £1m plus and you had a lot of information before you went into this movie.
It works well for the audience who are new to this franchise and it kind of works well for the fans – but at same time they can’t complain because he (Singer) did keep close to the original. I am happy, can’t wait to see the next one – my only gripe is that there were too many characters that came in and gave just a nod. Go and watch it in 3D and Imax – it’s even better.
4 X-men. (All ratings out of five)

“Edge of Tomorrow” – I was really looking forward to this. It stars Tom Cruise, one of my favourite actors and he can’t do any wrong in my eyes and again, he did not prove me wrong, this is FANTASTIC! I am going to give this FOUR stars! Four stars, I don’t give these stars out very often, it’s not going to be guns, it’s got to be STARS – this guy gets four stars and this film is amazing – the way they take the time with the story and it holds up.
In time travel movies you can pick away at it – if you just forget about that and just take on the science that the movie is providing you – just go with that and you’ll love it.
Go and watch it again in IMAX, there’s a lot going on that screen you may miss out if you only see it in 2D, I have seen this film TWICE! Once in 2D, in 3D. It’s worth spending your money, take your boyfriend/husband out, like Shay did with me…Shay is saying no (in the background) she didn’t take me, she was forced to go with me as she wanted to see another film…she’s just moaning now. She’s not very happy and is just making faces at me but she did enjoy the film! Hmm… She just has to get herself into this column some way!
Four stars

“Maleficient” – not a strong movie. Lead actress Angelina Jolie is the only one who has brought credibility to this movie – BUT the make-up artist and costume designer are FANTASTIC and AMAZING – it is brilliant in that respect. But the girl who we are supposed to feel for…it’s just a meh film…the only thing that holds it up is Angelina Jolie. Her daughter is in this movie too, if you are interested. It’s Angelina’s movie – that’s it. It doesn’t hold together, unfortunately.
Two and a half needles

“Fading Gigolo” – This is the one where one of my favourite directors – Woody Allen – is just an actor and I haven’t seen him being an actor for a while now. And it’s BRILLIANT, man! I was treated to one of the best performances of his life. He was just amazing – I want to see more of him. I hope he does more of these films in the future. It’s a simple movie, it’s a nice little independent film. I know it’s difficult to find these movies on limited release, even for me it was difficult to watch, but worth hunting down on Netflix or on demand.
5 dollars

“Godzilla” – First time around it was 2 growls, I was upset. You have to watch the film twice. You’ve got that guy in there and you’ve killed him, you’ve got that woman in there and you have killed her in the first five minutes, you’ve got a lead who I didn’t feel much for…where the hell is Godzilla? He destroys half of San Francisco…why can’t I see Godzilla? I don’t care about the actors, I want to see Godzilla.
He is amazing. Why can’t I see more? There’s a lot of social commentary. They have gone back to the original and if you look at the uncut version, which is not gimmicky, it makes a lot of deep points about society. But make sure you see the old one, the uncut version, not the one meant for a Western audience.
They have gone back to that era, and the opening sequence is really intriguing. It’s beautifully done, if the whole film was shot like that I would have been very happy. I wasn’t keen on seeing it a second time but my friend forced me to watch it again, even though I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t want to tell him by spoiling it for him.
Second time around I really loved the movie, it was one of the best of last month. You know what is going to happen, so you stop expecting something to happen…and you just enjoy what is on the screen. My only gripe is there was not enough Godzilla, but the visuals are amazing and how they show Godzilla is brilliant…second time around I appreciated the detail.
I expected too much as a fan, and that was my fault, I was almost obsessing over this movie, but second time around as an audience member I actually enjoyed it, it’s amazing. If they get to make part 2, you are going to see a lot more of Godzilla and how do you make a monster like Godzilla a hero?
It makes sense, it’s like nature balancing itself out…because these monsters do come from nature…and nature has to send something to destroy bad things…we don’t realise they are on our side.
He looks almost like the original but a bit better. The Fight sequence is amazing. We really felt we were there – it’s better than “Pacific Rim”. One of the best shots of this year, is where they jump out of the plane and you look to the side and see Godzilla through the goggles having a fight. It is worth watching just for that. It is one of my favourite movies of the year.
Three and half growls.

Haven’t seen “Million Ways to Die in the West” or “,Blue Ruin” or “The Wind Rises”.

I’ll see all you next month…and if you want to smile on Mondays, please tune into our youtube channel www.youtube.com/THESUNNYANDSHAY

Tell me what you think, contact me on twitter @sunnyandshay or us or on facebook facebook.com/sunnyandshay or us

You can listen to Sunny & Shay on BBC London 94.9FM here

Sunny and Shay from the Bafta nominated Channel 4′s “The Family” delighted us as members of the Grewals whose antics were followed daily on the Channel 4 series – their Punjabi wedding became a major part of the series and gave its non Asian viewers an insight into the build up to a British Asian wedding! Since the success of the show Sunny and Shay now present their own Sunday evening show for BBC London 94.9FM at 6pm.