The Vow

                                                                    The Vow

Leo Collins (Channing Tatum) and his wife Paige (Rachel McAdams) have been at the theatre watching a show.  On their way home, Leo stops at a stop sign when Paige decides to unbuckle her seat belt and leans over to kiss Leo. Out of nowhere a truck goes straight into the back of their car which results in Paige crashing through the windscreen.  Paige is unconscious and they are both rushed straight to hospital. The film then shows scenes of when the couple first met and when they got married with Leo doing a voice over talking about special moment that happen that help in finding who we are.

When Paige wakes up, she has no idea what has happened and has no memory of the past few years as she thinks Leo is her doctor.  Paige’s parents Bill and Rita have lots of money and a big house.  When they find out about their daughter they rush to the hospital to visit her where they meet Leo for the first time.  Paige is confused and cannot understand how Leo has never met her parents if they are married and she finds it even stranger that Leo did not know the answer either.  Page is also shocked to realise she has left law school, broke up with her fiancé Jeremy and no longer talks to any of her family or friends. Her parents decide they are taking are back home which Paige is happy about but as she is about to leave Leo plays her a voice mail she has left him on his phone.  Paige hears how happy she sounds so decides to go back home with Leo, hoping it will help get her memory back.  Leo thinks it would be a good surprise to have a welcome home party with all of Paige’s friends but she gets upset as she has no idea who anyone is.

The next morning while Leo is at work, Paige decides to go out a walk.  She ends up going to a café which turns out to be her regular but she cannot remember what she usually orders and cannot remember how to get back home. Paige has her phone on her but the only number she can remember is her mum and dad’s house so she phones them.  Her parents invite Paige and Leo over for dinner later that evening. It is clear that Leo does not fit in with her family or friends.  Leo is desperate to help Paige get her memory back but Paige is more interested in why she left law school and Jeremy. 

Paige’s sister Gwen (Jessica McNamee) is getting married soon so Paige decides to stay at her parent’s house to help out with the wedding plans.  Leo asks Paige on a date and takes her to the same place they had their first date and she enjoyed it just as much as she did the first time.  Back home, Paige’s dad is trying his best to persuade Leo to divorce his daughter which is the last thing Leo wants but realises it might be for the best as Paige just wants her old life back.

Paige re-joins law school and starts living her old life again.  At a local store, Paige meets an old friend she hasn’t seen for a while called Diane.  Diane had not heard about the accident so she apologies to Paige for having a brief relationship with her father which sets bells ringing in Paige’s head about why she left her family.  Paige rushes home to confront her mother who tells her that she decided to stay with her father for all the things he had done right instead of leaving him for one wrong act.  Paige then turns to Leo to find out why he never told her about her father.  Leo replied by telling he wanted to earn her love instead of driving her away from her parents

While sitting in class at law school, Paige starts sketching in her book, depicting why she first left law school.  Paige continues her interest in art and slowly she returns to drawing and sculpting.  Jeremy hopes him and Paige will get back together after telling her he has finished with his girlfriend for her, but Paige rejects him stating she needs to know what life would be like without him.  As the months pass, Paige finds the menu card on which she had written her wedding vows and gets very emotional over it. The film ends with Paige finding Leo at their regular café which is closed due to the snow so they walk off together to a new place. 

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) is the “How to….” Girl for a popular magazine called Composure.  Andie enjoys writing the how to stories but wishes she could write about something she is more interested and passionate in such as politics, poverty or religion.  Andie’s friend and colleague Michelle Rueben (Kathryn Hahn) is not very good with romance and keeps making mistakes.  Andie offers to write an article called “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” using Michelle as inspiration.  Andie plans to date a guy and then do what she can to get him to dump her by using classic mistakes like most women like Michelle make.

Meanwhile an advertising executive called Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey) is striving for the chance to win a pitch to advertise diamonds.  When Ben’s boss questions his knowledge on love, Ben replies by betting he could make any woman fall in love with him if he wanted to.  Ben’s boss Phillip Warren (Robert Klein) is impressed with Ben’s answer so he decides to make a bet with him.  If Ben can make any women fall in love with him before the important upcoming ball which takes place in 10 days then he can advertise for the new diamond company.

Judy Spears (Michael Michele) and Judy Green (Shalom Harlow) do not like this idea as they also want to advertise the new diamond company.  The Judy’s will do whatever it takes to make sure Ben loses the bet so they can have the campaign.  The Judy’s were at a meeting at Composure earlier in the day so they know all about Andie and what she has to do for her next article.

Later that night Andie and her friends/colleagues Michelle and Jeannie (Annie Parisse) go out to a club so Andie can find the man she is going to use for her article.  Ben and the two Judy’s happen to be in the same club at the same time.  They Judy’s spot Andie and encourage Ben to go and talk to her.  Andie talks to a couple of men first buy they are engaged or not interested.  When Ben approaches her, they start talking and they both think they have found the perfect person to use for their articles. Neither of them reveal their true intentions to each other. 

Their first few days together are perfect and they both get along together so Ben thinks winning the bet is going to be easy.  They go to watch basketball games and have romantic dinners out.  Andie then plots what she needs to do to get Ben to break up with her.  She becomes clingy and annoying and ruins his boy’s night when he plays poker with his friends.  The couple go to the cinema and Andie talks through it which results in Ben getting punched and knocked out for a few seconds.  Andie also start moving lots of pink, girly accessories into Ben’s apartment.  Ben continues to stick it out with Andie as he really wants to win the bet and hopes he can get her to fall in love with him.

The couple come close to breaking up after Andie is not happy that Ben has not been looking after their love fern.  They agree to finish the relationship and Andie leaves the apartment, thinking finally. Ben’s friends Tony (Adam Goldberg) and Thayer (Thomas Lennon) convince Ben to try couples therapy and it will get him closer to the 10 day mark.  Ben goes running after Andie and asks her to go to couple therapy, which she agrees to and she says she knows the perfect councillor who could sort Ben out.

Andie’s perfect councillor is her friend Michelle which Ben does not know, he thinks it is a real session.  While at couple’s therapy, Michelle comes up with idea of going to visit Ben’s family in Staten Island for the weekend to help solve Ben’s problems.  On their weekend away, Ben and Andie begin to form a genuine bond.  Ben teaches her to ride his motorcycle and they play a game of cards with all Ben’s family.  Ben also refers to Andie as his girlfriend when introducing her to his family.

Once back home, Andie goes to speak to her boss Lana (Bebe Neuwrth) to tell her she can no longer write the article as she has strong feelings for him.  Lana insists it is too late as the magazine’s front cover is already.  The 10 days is up and it is the night of the ball and to find out if Ben has made Andie fall in love with him.  Phillip goes over to talk to Andie to see if she does love it or not which she admits she does but asks him not to tell Ben.  Phillip then goes over to Ben and says “met her, she loves you, you win”.  Judy and Judy hear this conversation and are jealous so they decide to call trouble.  They decide to tell Tony and Thayer that Andie knew about the bet and she was playing along to help Ben.  Tony and Thayer run over to Andie and beg her to keep quiet not realising that she knew nothing about the bet.  At the same time Lana is talking to Ben about Andie and her how to story, not realising that he is the man Andie is writing about.

Andie is mad and decides to humiliate Ben in front of many important people.  She gets up on the stage, grabs a microphone and tells the audience that Ben has prepared a ‘special treat’ which was to sing a song.  Andie then runs off the stage and heads for the exit.  Ben then declares they have prepared a duet so Andie gets dragged back on stage.  The couple then ran off the stage and argue outside. They are both hurt as they have been used and lied to.  Ben and Andie go their separate ways after the fight and Andie decides to quit her job so she can go and write about the things she is interested in.  Andie’s ‘how to’ article is published and Ben’s friends encourage him to read it.  In the article Andie explains how she “lost the one guy she has ever fell for”. Ben rushes to her office to find out she has quit.  He catches her going in to a taxi and decides to follow it on his motor bike.  He manages to catch up with her and stop the taxi, where they reveal their true feelings for each other and Ben instructs the taxi to turn back and take Andi’s belongings back to her home.   

The Other Woman

The Other Woman

Carly Whitten (Cameron Diaz) is an attorney in New York who does not take dating too seriously and does not let men walk all over her.  All that changes when she meets a businessman called Mark King (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).  Carly thinks he is special and really falls for him until. She realises their relationship was too good to be true when she drops by his house in Connecticut to surprise him but instead she becomes face to face with Kate (Leslie Mann), who she is shocked to learn is Mark’s wife.

Carly is furious and plans to dump Mark straight away and forget about him but Kate isn’t so eager to forget about her husband’s unwitting mistress.  For the next few days Kate tries to talk to Carly any way she can.  She goes to the law firm where Carly works and then decides to go her apartment with a lot of questions she wants answers to.  When the two women start talking, they realise they have a lot in common and Kate is hurt to realise how long Mark has been cheating on her.  Together they both decide they want revenge on Mark.

A few days later Mark tells his wife Kate he has to go away on a ‘business trip’.  Kate and Carly decide to follow mark and they go to stay at Kate’s brother Phil’s (Taylor Kinney) house.  The girls are shocked to find Mark sunbathing on a beach with yet another mistress.  A young pretty girl called Amber (Kate Upton) who turns out to be very sweet and a bit ditzy.  Carly and Kate approach her when she is alone and fill her in on who they are and who Mark really is.  Amber is shocked and decides to join their club as she also wants revenge on Mark.  Meanwhile sparks start to fly between Carly and Phil.

When the 3 girls get back home, they set up a plan and they do whatever they can to ruin Mark’s life.  The spike his drink with estrogen tablets and put laxatives in his drink while he is in a busy restaurant and they decide to put hair removal cream in his shampoo.  While plotting to carry out these pranks on Mark, they discover he has been embezzling money from various companies within his work.  The 3 girls start to argue and fall out with each other after Mark and Kate go to an investor’s dinner together and Kate finds herself falling back in love with Mark.  Carly explains to Kate how Mark has been using her name as the owner of all the companies he has defrauded.  If anyone discovers this then Kate would end up going to prison which pushes Kate to put an end to it with the help of Carly’s legal expertise.

When Mark goes on another ‘business trip’ to the Bahamas, Kate decides to follow him again.  When she gets to the airport she is happy to see Carly and Amber there waiting on her.  While in the Bahamas Kate sorts out a lot of business, ready to ruin Mark’s life when they get back home.  The girls also decide to let their hair down and have a good time in the Bahamas while they are there.  When Mark returns from his vacation, he goes to Carly’s office to visit her.  He was shocked when he walked in to find the 3 women staring back at him.  Kate tells him she wants a divorce while also confronting him with his infidelities and embezzlement.  Mark also learns that Kate has returned all the embezzled money back to each company which has left him bankrupt.  Mark doesn’t believe any of it until his business partner Nick also arrives and fires him.  He is so angry and tries to get out as fast as he can but instead he smashes into the glass office which leaves him covered in blood and in ripped clothes.  Meanwhile Nick really appreciates Kates work and offers the chance to take over Mark’s job.  Carly and Phil fall in love and are expecting their first child.  Amber marries Frank (Carly’s dad) and Kate takes the job as a CEO with Mark’s former business partners. 

Pitch Perfect 2

Pitch Perfect 2

Three years after pitch perfect 1 was released, the Barden Bellas are back, bigger and better than ever.  Becca Mitchell is now leading the group along with Chloe, taking over from Aubrey.  The film starts with the Barden Bellas signing at President Barack Obama’s birthday party which turns into a disaster as Fat Amy’s comes in swinging on a rope and her pants end up ripping, leaving the president and all the audience seeing more than they wanted to.  This accident leaves the Bella’s being suspended from the ICCAs and they are not allowed to hold any more auditions which means the Bella’s reputation is ruined.  At a meeting with the a Capella commentators, Becca makes a deal which allows them to be reinstated if they can win the World Championship of A Capella, the commentators accept the deal but they tell the Bella’s they have no chance as no American team has ever won the world title.

Emily Junk (Hailee Steinfeld) is starting her first year at college and her dream is to follow in her mum Katherine (Katy Sagal) footsteps in becoming a Bella.  At orientation, the Treblemakers perform a routine, who is now being led by Becca’s boyfriend Jesse.  Emily gets the chance to talk to Jesse after their performance and tell him of her dream to join the Bella’s.  Jesse’s best friend Benji over hears the conversation and instantly gets a crush on Emily.  Meanwhile most of the Bella’s are learning that a German a Capella group have replaced them on their victory tour while Becca has her first day working at a recording studio internship, which no one knows about apart from Jesse.

Emily goes to the Bella’s sorority house to audition for them.  At first she is rejected as they are not allowed to hold any more auditions but once she announces her mother is a legacy, the Bella’s let her audition.  Emily sings a song she has written herself but has not quite finished yet called ‘Flashlight’.  Since Emily came to the house and they did not actually hold auditions, Emily is successful and is now a member of the group.  The group then go to a party where Benji tries to ask Emily out but she kindly refuses as it is only her first day of college.  Bumper Allen (Adam Devine) returns from being back up to John Mayer and starts dating Fat Amy.       

The Bellas decide to check out the German group (Das Sound Machine) who is their replacements at a car show where the ICCA winners were supposed to perform.  Becca is mesmerised by the German group and tries to give them smart answers back but she fails.  The Bellas are determined to beat DSM at the world finals so they decide to practise a routine which is similar but supposed to be better.  At the internship, Snoop Dogg is signing his Christmas album.  Becca’s boss is looking for ideas to make it better so Becca should him her mash up skills which he is impressed with.  That night the Bellas get invited to an exclusive riff-off but the Bellas lose out to DSM in the final round because Emily panics and signs her own song which is not allowed.

Becca’s boss is disappointed with the mash up’s she gives him as they are all the same, he expected better than that so he gives her another chance to prove herself.  Becca feels stressed as the Bellas have tough competition and the internship is not what she thought it would be.  Fat Amy tries to make Becca feel better and also reveals she has known about the internship for a while.  The next night, Bumper invites Fat Amy out and attempts to get serious with her but Amy rejects him as she does not liked to be tied down to anything.  The next day the Bellas perform for some older people but it ends in another disaster with too many props being used and Cynthia-Rose’s hair catching fire.  Chloe has an idea to regain harmony and try to find who they are by going to a retreat which, led by former leader Aubrey.           

    

The challenges at the retreat are very physical and at first the girls moan and do not want to take part.  Becca gets mad and feel like this is a waste of time and there is more important things she could be doing.  Amy reveals to the group about Becca doing the internship as well which starts an argument between Becca and Chloe as Chloe is obsessed with the Bellas and winning every competition.  Becca storms off but is captured by a bar net which Chloe finds funny before being concerned for Becca’s safety.  The net starts to rip and fall but Lily manages to get her down safely

The girls all sit down together and talk about what their plans are for the future.  Becca and Emily come up the idea of letting Emily produce ‘Flashlight’ at the studio where she does her internship.  When the group realise that after graduation they may all go their separate ways so they will not see each other again, they regain their harmony by signing ‘Cups (when I’m gone).  Amy realises she made a mistake with Bumper and goes to win him back but gets caught in a bear net.  Once she is free, she sails across the lake singing ‘we belong’ to him.   

At the studio, Becca and Emily present their song to Becca’s boss and he is jealous of their talents but looks forward to producing with them in the future.  The senior Bellas of the group now graduate before they all head of too Copenhagen for the world finals along with Benji and Jesse.  DSM go on before the Bellas and the crowd love them, which makes the Bellas nervous but Fat Amy gives the group a pep talk and brings sprit back amongst them.  The Bellas go out and start their performance by a handclap introduction and finish with a harmonised version of ‘flashlight’ with all the past Bellas joining in.  In the end the Bellas win the championship and repair all the damage they had created for themselves. 

The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars

A teenage girl called Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) is always seen carrying around an oxygen tank with a cannula in her nose which helps her to breathe.  This is because Grace unfortunately suffers from stage 4 thyroid cancer.  She attends a cancer support group at her local church which is run by a man named Patrick (Mike Birbiglia) who is suffering with testicular cancer and is recently divorced.  One day at the support group, Hazel meets a boy called Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) who is in remission from osteosarcoma after he had to have his leg amputated.  Augustus best friend Isaac (Nat Wolff) also attends the support group as he has a tumour in his eye and now has to wear a glass eye.  Once the meeting is finished, Hazel is waiting outside for her mum and Gus stands with her and talks to her.  Gus tells Hazel she is beautiful and then puts a cigarette in his mouth which Hazel gets upset about because it changes her impression of him.  Gus explains to Hazel “I never smoke the cigarette, I put it between my teeth so as to not give the killing item any power”.  They then go to watch a movie at Gus’s house.

During the drive to Gus’s house they discuss Hazel’s                              

cancer story.  She was 13 when she was diagnosed

and has went through lots of treatments but nothing

was working.  When they arrive at Gus’s house he

takes her to the basement and gives her a copy of

his favourite book ‘Counterinsurgency’ which in return Hazel recommends he reads her favourite book which is ‘An Imperial Affliction’ which is about a girl with leukaemia.  After a few days Gus finishes‘An Imperial Affliction’ and is surprised by the way the book ends.  Hazel reveals to Gus that she has wrote lots of letters to the author of the book Peter Van Houten asking questions about what happened after the story but she has never had any reply.

A few days later Gus phones Hazel to tell her he has managed to track down Van Houten’s assistant and he has received a response from a message he sent him.  Hazel is shocked and cannot believe that Gus got a reply so she decides to send him an e-mail herself.  A few days later, Hazel is so happy to receive an email back from Van Houten and he invites her to visit him in Amsterdam.  Hazel is upset as she knows there is no way they can afford to go to Amsterdam but when she tells Gus about the email he comes up with the idea to ask the Genies (a Make-A-wish sort of organisation) but Hazel has already used her wish to go to Disneyland.  Gus surprises Hazel by telling her he has spoken to the Genies and managed to convince them to grant him the wish of taking Hazel to Amsterdam which Hazel is so happy about.   

Hazel takes a turn in the middle of the night and ends up in hospital as she needs fluid drained from her lungs.  Once she is feeling better, Hazel has a meeting with her doctor and finds out they say she is physically unfit to travel anywhere in the condition she is in.  Hazel is feeling upset and hating the world right now.  She tries to block Gus out and ignore him but he tells her that her keeping her distance from him does not lessen his affection towards her.  Hazel decides she just wants to be friends with Gus as she does not want to hurt him.

Hazel’s mum and Gus arrange a surprise for Hazel to go to Amsterdam for a few days after all.  When the day comes for them to go to Amsterdam, Gus arrives in a limo to pick them up.  On their first day in Amsterdam they go to a restaurant for dinner where Gus declares how much he loves Hazel.  The waiter gives the couple champagne and then tells them their dinner and drinks was paid for by Mr Van Houten.  The next day they both go to meet Van Houten.  Hazel and Gus have many questions to ask him and they are excited about meeting it but he is not what they expected.  Van Houten is in his pyjamas and drinking scotch, he is not interested in anything Hazel is saying and he isn’t very nice to them.  Hazel and Gus storm out and go to the Anne Frank House instead where they share their first kiss.

On their last day, Hazel and Gus have breakfast with Hazel’s mum before going a walk together.  Gus tells Hazel he has been in pain and has had a PET scan.  He revels his cancer has returned and has spread all through his body.  They then arrive back home where Hazel’s dad is waiting to pick them up.  A few nights later Gus phones Hazel and asks her to come to the gas station as he needed help.  When Hazel arrived she got a shock as Gus was covered in his own vomit caused from an infection in his abdomen.  Hazel phones Gus an ambulance straight away.  Gus has to have more treatment which leaves him needing a wheelchair to get around. 

Gus phones Hazel and asks her to go to a local church and to bring the eulogy that he asked Hazel to write for him.  When she arrives at the church, she is greeted by Gus and Isaac for a ‘pre-funeral’ for Gus since he wants to attend his own funeral.  Eight days later Gus dies.  Hazel receives a phone call in the middle of the night to hear the heart breaking news.  At Gus’s funeral, Hazel is very surprised to see Van Houten there.  After the funeral Van Houten talks to Hazel and she learns that he and Gus had kept in touch prior to his death.  Gus told Van Houten that he could redeem himself by visiting Hazel and answering her questions.  He answers the question that Hazel really wanted to know then hands her a letter which she crumples up and throws away. 

Later Isaac goes to visit Hazel and asks her if she has read the letter from Van Houten and tells her it was actually written by Gus.  Hazel rushes to find the letter to read it.  At the end of the film, we see Hazel reading the letter and Gus’s voice reading the letter which turns out to be a eulogy for Hazel from Gus.   

The Blind Side

                                                                    The Blind Side

Michael Oher aka “Big Mike” (Quinton Aaron) is a young boy who had a bad start to life.  He was born in Memphis and grew up not knowing who his father was while his mother spent all the money she had on drugs.  Michael was in and out many fosters homes as he always went back home to take care of his mother and make sure she was okay, he ended up sleeping on his Uncle’s couch.  His uncle tries to get him into a white christian school but it does not look hopefully as Michael has not got much knowledge for his age.

Big Mike is seen shivering, walking home from school one day by a woman called Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), she decides he needs helps to she stops to talk to him.  She decides to ask him to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her and her family. Leigh Anne is a socialite who buys and sells things.  She is married to Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) and they have two children S.J Tuohy (Jae Head) and Collins Tuohy (Lily Collins).  As a family they all love sports and have/are participating in some sort of sporting activity such as basketball, cheerleader, volleyball and running.

                                                                                                       

                                                                                    Leigh Anne starts to change Michael’s life

                                                                                around for the better by doing everyday things that his mother should of done for him such as

having new clean clothes, having his own bed and helping him study for school.  Leigh Anne’s life also changes as she sees “The Projects” which is the side of Memphis where Michael had been living. She realises just how bad Michael's life had been.

While living with the Tuohy family, Michael’s life was not always good.  He still faced some horrible experiences such as being involved in a car accident and seeing the house his mother lived in is now locked with an eviction notice on it.  Michael also faced racial abuse while playing football.  Leigh Anne does the best she can to help Michael deal with every problem he is faced with. 

Michael is really good at football and gets the chance to play at university level and many schools are interested in him and try to offer him free stuff so he will go to their school.  His grades are letting him down though so the Tuohy’s decide to help him by hiring a private tutor called Miss Sue (Kathy Bates).  Miss Sue and Leigh Anne try to persuade Michael to decide to go to Ole Miss school  and an investigation then takes place to find out if Michael was influenced by the Tuohy’s or Miss Sue to benefit their alma mater.  After going back to his home town and realising how much his life has changed for the better, he decides the Tuohy’s are now his family so he tells the investigator that he chose to attend Ole Miss as it is his family’s school.