The Lucky One

Certificate: 12A Directer: Scott Hicks Cast: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling and Blythe Danner Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures  Running Time: 101 mins

Logan (Zac Efron) is a marine serving his third tour of Iraq whilst there he finds a picture in the sand and when he goes to pick it up a bomb lands from where he was previously sat, the picture had the words "be safe" written on the back, the picture saved his life. When he arrives home from Iraq to his family he is suffering from a lot of guilt and doesn't know where he fits in especially since he survived and many others didn't. So he decides to find the woman in the picture using the landmark in the picture behind her, he and his dog Zeus head off to Louisiana to find the woman who saved his life.

When Logan arrives in Louisiana to find that the woman in the photo is named Beth (Taylor Schilling) and that she runs a dog kennel and when he turns up at the kennel she assumes that he is there to apply for a job and she also thinks hes crazy, Beth's grandmother Ellis (Blythe Danner) hires him anyway. Through the first  40 minutes of the film we find out that Beth has a son, Ben, and has a bad and slightly abusive relationship with her ex-husband who also happens to be a police officer who doesn't like Logan. We also find out that Beth's brother was also a marine who died a year earlier in Iraq.

As per the normal Nicholas Sparks stories the relationship between Logan and Beth develops into romance, which Beth's ex husband Kieth doesn't approve of and gives Beth the ultimatum of having full custody of her son or Logan, which drives her to finally stand up to him and start living her life for her self, which leaves us with some very steamy scenes with Logan (i won't give any spoilers you will have to watch for yourself).

Logan still hasn't told Beth about the picture, which predictably leads to Keith finding the photograph in Logan's house and he telling Beth about his discovery and a confrontation with Logan later and the truth comes out. Without giving to much away a storm comes to town and we start to see one character in a different light, but you will have to watch the film to find out who and how the story ends.

The film follows to typical pattern that all the other Nicholas Sparks stories follow the boy meets girl and falls in love with a lot of complications along the way. The film is good, it was weird seeing Zac Efron playing a much older character i think i still picture him as Troy Bolton but he puts in a great performance along with Taylor who plays the role of Beth really well and manages to get the emotions across and has some great scenes with Blythe Danner that made me laugh. Riley Thomas Stuart puts in a great performance as Ben and the relationship between Ben and Logan is heart warming. Even though the film didn't make me cry like most of Spark's films (cried like a baby watching A Walk to Remember) as i have connected with the characters but it was still a good romance film and would suggest watching it.

Rating: 6/10

The Lucky One is out now in cinemas

Other Nicholas Sparks adaptions you should check out are:
The Notebook
Dear John
A Walk to Remember
The Last Song

Mirror Mirror

Certificate: PG Director: Tarsem Singh. Cast: Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer and Nathan Lane. Distributor: Relativity Media. Running Time: 106min 

One of the Snow White adaptations due out this summer with the second being a much darker Snow White and the Huntsmen. Mirror Mirror taking a much lighter comical approach to the legendary tale. You still have the basics of the tale single father (who just happens to be the King) marries a seemingly innocent women to become the mother of his only daughter (Snow White), the dad mysteriously disappears and Snow is left with her step-mum who turns out to be evil.

There is some brilliant comedy moments which mainly come from the "Seven Dwarfs" who have become outcasts from the village by order of the Queen (Julia Roberts) who is quite shallow and is extremely jealous of Snow White even if she doesn't quite own up to it, she is all about staying young and has kept Snow White locked away for 18 years. Snow White (Lily Collins) has been trapped in the castle for 18 years has no idea what state her kingdom is in and has no idea what has happened to her farther only that it happened in the woods and that there is something bad that lives in the woods. not just the bandits that live there. The tale wouldn't be complete with out a Prince Charming (Armie Hammer) who provides some brilliant comical moments with each of the character through out the film and were some of my favourite scenes. Whilst i was watching the film there was one character i was trying to place throughout the whole film it was one of those moments where i was like "i know you! who are you?" and it turned out to be Nathan Lane (I will leave it to you to work out which character he plays) but he puts in a good performance as he always does.

 The film all in all had the basic structure that Snow White has but has not taken it to literally, by doing this they have given themselves to make there own stamp on the legend of Snow White. The costumes in the film are fabulous and at some points scary (referring the the ball scene) Snow White being my favourite. You see some of the classic scenes you would associate with Snow White the mirror on the wall and the apple but in a way you don't expect them to come.

If you are looking for a light hearted comedy then i suggest this film for you! :D

Rating: 8/10