Susan Sarandon stars as Marnie Minervini an aging widow who finds herself at a loose end after the death of her husband. She has been left a large sum of money but she finds that she has nothing to do with it. So she decides to follow her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) to Los Angeles to see if she can find some purpose but unfortunately for Lori her purpose becomes that of a smothering mother as she tries to take over and tell Lori where she is going wrong. Soon Lori, her friends and anybody else who will give an inch become victims of the overbearing Marnie.

Don’t be fooled by the title of the seemingly comedic set up as, while it has plenty of funny moments, The Meddler has much more going on as we learn that Marnie and her overbearing demeanor is just her way of trying to deal with the grief she still feels from her husband’s death and the guilt she has over having all this spare cash and nothing to do with it. She is trying to find some way to be able to pay it back a little and help those less fortunate than her and this is where the smothering comes in as she only knows one way to play it.

Sarandon is absolutely superb, I know it’s a little early to be mentioning awards yet but I think there’s a possible nomination here. She’s brash, compassionate, shy and needy all at once and Sarandon plays each trait perfectly. Ably assisted by Byrne as the frustrated daughter who hates her mother being around at every turn yet finds comfort in the situation as well, J.K.Simmons as ex-co Zipper and Michael McKean as the nerdy Mark who are both showing an interest in the widow, all are very believable in the roles and even the smaller characters in the movie feel right bringing a dynamic feel to the situation.

A surprise movie for me, it was far better than I was expecting. It’s a comedy but it runs a lot deeper and director Lorene Scafaria has brought together an entertaining look at the life of a woman with no purpose who learns that there is a lot more to life when you step back, take a moment to breath and have a closer look at what is going on around you.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6.5 Out Of 10

Based on a meeting which took place on December 21st 1970, Elvis & Nixon is a dramatization of the events leading up to and occurring during the event. Elvis (Michael Shannon) is tiring of his place in the entertainment world, he has become a parody of what he started out as and his movie career is long gone. Young people are more interested in the latest drug culture music. Elvis feels that he would like to do something to help with the rising tide of anti-Americanism he can see and so he believes that using his fame while working undercover as an agent at large for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs would be the best way he could assist with the elimination of this threat so he heads off to Washington D.C and writes a letter for the President on the way and rolls up to the White House requesting a meeting with Richard Nixon (Kevin Spacey).

While the potential discussion during the meeting is the main point of the film, it only plays a small part in the movie as most of the main body of the film is focused around the build-up. Nixon refuses the meeting while his aides Egil Krogh (Colin Hanks) and Dwight Chapin (Evan Peters) try and convince him that spending a small amount of time with Elvis would be a great PR opportunity, particularly in an attempt to get extra votes from the youth and Southern demographics. Elvis is searching for a valued purpose to what he does as he is becoming increasingly disillusioned by and isolated from reality as his entourage of yes men constantly pander to his every need but he feels are only there because of the perks the situation brings.

Both Shannon and Spacey do a great job as the central characters. Spacey’s impression of Nixon is as good as I’ve seen anywhere and Shannon has the mannerisms of Elvis spot on as he waves his hands and finger points his way through scenes and if not for these two performances the movie would have struggled as the rest of the cast is only filler. The acting is fine, it’s just of lesser importance and is all just build up to actual meeting and when the two leads are alone in the room together it’s where the real talent of both men come to the fore, playing off one another and trying to outdo each other each step along the way while slowly coming to realise that they are not as different as each originally thought and the irony of the situation where Nixon is speaking about the lack of honesty and integrity in America while Elvis is speaking of his disdain of the drug culture was a great touch.

It’s a speculative look at what may have occurred when two iconic figures met for a brief snapshot in time but even despite some heart felt moments of vulnerability in some speeches from Shannon, take out the final twenty minutes and it’s little more than a made for TV movie with two outstanding lead performances.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

The Secret Life Of Pets gives us a comic look at what a group of New York pets get up to once their owners leave the house each morning. Central to the plot is a Terrier named Max who has a great life with his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) but his world is turned upside down when Katie brings home another dog Duke (Eric Stonestreet) who quickly takes over. While out with their dog walker one day Duke tricks Max and leads him away planning on abandoning him in the city however they are attached by a gang of alley cats and subsequently caught by Animal Control however while on the way to the pound the van is attacked by a rabbit called Snowball (Kevin Hart) who frees them on the basis that they come to work for him. Duke and Max manage to escape however they end up on a boat to Brooklyn and so begins their adventure to find a way home while being chased by the crazy Snowball and his gang but luckily Sam’s friends are also on the case lead by Pomeranian Gidget (Jenny Slate) who is crazy about Max despite him being oblivious to this fact.

Brought to screen by the same studio that gave us The Minions so you know it’s going to look fantastic and it doesn’t let you down in that sense. The voice acting is really good however Kevin Hart is so over the top as the crazy rabbit, which makes the bunny in Monty Python and The Holy Grail look tame, and he causes so much carnage at times yet at no point is there ever a policeman or police car seen which seemed a little silly. Maybe that’s what the filmmakers were going for and if so then mission accomplished but for me it detracted from the film as it dominated the other aspects of the movie and you really need to let any semblance of brain activity behind to look past the weak plot. Also, given the talent behind the voice works I was expecting more actual comedy in the script and there seems to be a lack of clever, witty one liners that I kept waiting for.

Even taking the movie at face value as a kids film it’s still just okay and nowhere near as good as the recently released Zootopia, your kids will, without doubt, enjoy it as a fun, comic, action romp but there not much for me to recommend for adults unless you’re a real dog lover then you might get a laugh out of hearing them talk through some of their thought processes behind their everyday mannerisms. It left like a bit of a let-down as the premise was there for a great film and my expectations were high, perhaps the inevitable sequel will address this.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

Learning to drive is a tale of two very different people in New York City who are brought together in unlikely circumstances through the medium of driving lessons. Wendy Shields (Patricia Clarkson) is a hard-nosed book critic who is dumped by her husband Ted (Jake Weber) in the back of a cab during a night out. As she struggles to deal with the sudden loss she realises how much she relied on him and since her sister and daughter both live outside of the city she is finds herself feeling stranded so she is finding it difficult to stand on her own two feet. Luckily for her she inadvertently leaves a package behind in the cab and when the good natured driver Darwan Singh Tur (Ben Kingsley) drops the package back to her she notices that he also gives driving lessons so she takes a step towards self-independence by deciding to get herself behind the wheel with Darwan as her tutor.

While the concept may not sound like the most exciting premise for a movie Spanish director Isabel Coixet brings the best out of the three stars of the movie in Kingsley, Clarkson and the city itself which looks great on screen. While Clarkson is the main feature and she gives a good performance as a woman who’s tries to stay strong while the comforts of her normal world are crumbling around her, yet she grows into the situation as the movie, and her relationship with Darwan develop it is once again Kingsley who shows why he is a legend of the screen as he plays the taxi driver/driving instructor brilliantly, bringing a gentleness to the screen despite the manic surrounding of the bustling metropolis. Even through his troubled past, which we find out about, the hassle of being a legal asylum seeker in America and the pending arrival of his arrange marriage bride Jasleen (Sarita Choudhury) his calm demeanor rarely fades and the budding relationship between the characters flows nicely from opposite ends of the cultural spectrum to a friendship where they both end up being a rock for the other through their tribulations as the film shows us that we can learn valuable lessons about relationships, life, and the value of friendship in the most unlikely of places with many superbly shot scenes around the backdrop of the Big Apple.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

It has been a while since we have heard from director Garry Marshall but after his last helpings of Valentine’s Day and New Years Eve he once again brings to the screen a movie based around a calendar Holiday in Mother’s Day and once again we get an ensemble cast of characters with multi plot lines which start to click in together as the movie progresses.

This time we see Kristin (Britt Robertson) who is planning to get married to Zack (Jack Whitehall) but the fact that she was given up for adoption at birth is holding her back. She is encouraged by her friend Jesse (Kate Hudson) to track down her mother. However, Kristen has already done so but is scared to take the next step as her mother is successful TV personality Miranda Collins (Julia Roberts). Miranda is all business but in her search for a new assistant she is drawn towards divorced mother of two Sandy (Jennifer Hudson) as she feels her own guilt over giving her child up. Sandy is struggling since her ex-husband Henry (Timothy Olyphant) is re-marrying a much younger woman. The aforementioned Jessie is also trying to build bridges with her own mother who she rarely sees but this is proving difficult as her mother is unaware that she has married a man of Indian heritage Russell (Aasif Mandyi) and her sister, Gabi (Sarah Chalke) is gay and has married her partner without telling her mother, plus there are two grandchildren to throw into the mix. Bradley Barton (Jason Sudekis) a widow who is successful from a business point of view but is struggling as a lone parent, whom Sandy is taking an interest in.

So, you have a cauldron of people and personalities who all vie for screen time but because there is so much going on you never get a chance to really take a liking to any of the characters unlike some of Marshalls earlier movies such as Pretty Woman, Beaches or Frankie And Johnny.

Somehow all these people seem to be intertwined yet it’s never really explained why. How is Jesse seemingly friends with both Kristin and Sandy despite them being three different generations in age? How does Zack win a stand up comedy competition despite not telling single joke in the final? Why is Sandy such a nice person even though she is essentially being replaced as a mother by a younger woman? I know its Hollywood but give us some credit for having a certain level of intelligence and having at least one foot set in the real world. I can switch my brain off to a degree when I need to but to accept or enjoy this script it felt like I’d have needed a lobotomy. There is just too much crammed into the two hour run time for any real moments of drama, compassion or even joy and if there had have been a focus on one of two of the characters instead there might have been something decent on screen.

So how exactly would I describe this movie in simple terms? Like a two hour bus journey where the best course of action you can take is to zone out and switch off until you reach the end, yes it is that bad.

DJ Speaks Rating: 3.5 Out Of 10

Following on from one of the best horror movies of recent years The Conjuring 2 revisits paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren (Vera Farmiga & Patrick Wilson) as they are investigating the Amityville house where Ronald DeFeo murdered his family, to establish if it was a genuine case of possession or not. During the course of this investigation Lorraine has a vision where she encounters demonic nun figure (Bonnie Aarons) and sees a vision of Ed being murdered before the connection is broken. Soon after Ed is working on a new painting and puts the image of the nun on canvas and this leads to Lorraine wanting to retire from their work but Ed believes they are doing Gods work and cannot give up.

They are contacted by the Catholic church with regard to a potential possession taking place in the UK where Janet Hodgson (Madison Wolfe) seems to be controlled by the spirit of an old man Bill Wilkins (Bob Adrian). When they travel to see the scene for themselves they, and some other investigators Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurney) and Anita Gregory (Franka Potente) try and contact the spirit of Bill before he destroys Janet and her family but all is not as it seems and the demonic nun also has a part to play as both Ed and Lorraine battle for their lives along with the Hodgsons.

I really liked the first movie as it gave us less of the jump scares which populate most horror movies these days and places focus more on the psychological side of horror which is always a good thing. Thankfully this movie goes the same way, there are no spectacular death scenes, theres very little blood and yet the terror feels more magnified. Although there are a few more jump scares than the original, most of which are shown in the trailer, there is more than enough here to scare particularly since it is all based around a true story and there are some great scenes which are reminiscent of the classic horror movies of the 70’s and early 80’s. When you have a horror film where what is happening in the background or even off screen can be key you are onto a winner as it builds the tension superbly.

Once again both Farmiga and Wilson do an excellent job as the investigators and in yet another great performance by a young actress Wolfe is wholly believable as the tormented and possessed girl who shows a huge range of emotions as she swings from terrified girl to evil spirit and back again and the demonic nun is something straight out of your nightmares, there is a brilliant scene based around the above mentioned painting which I guarantee will have you on the edge of your seat.

It’s not a perfect movie but any means, the kids are a little too clean cut for a working class family in 1970 UK and the lack of character building for the rest of the family means that your are less invested in the family unit than you were in the first movie also, the lack of interest by the police considering the potential danger to the family is a bit of a stretch but these are minor quibbles and director James Wan once again really creates an eerie atmosphere through his use of foreboding settings coupled with some terrific camera work and he has solidified himself at the top levels of the horror genre with another hit after his recent work on Insidious and Saw before that. In conjunction with a great script from the Hayes brothers Chad & Carey, who have worked very closely with the Warrens and apparently have their approval to continue to bring their stories to the big screen, they have created a classic horror movie for the modern era. I’ve seen many horrors over the years and I don’t scare easily, but this was one of the few that I’ve seen in the past few years which has stuck in my mind long after the movie ended.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

Inside Out is a more mature Pixar effort telling the story of Riley Anderson (Kaitlyn Dias) through the medium of her core emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) & Fear (Bill Hader) who we see based in Rileys mind. It is their job to manage Rileys well being through her thought processes and core memories. In general it is relatively easy for Joy to keep things in check and manage Rileys mind from day to day however when Riley has to relocate to San Fransisco because her father needs a job which is on offer she begins to struggle emotionally and thus Joy begins to struggle to remain in control. When Sadness begins to change some of Rileys long term memories Joy steps in to regain control and inadvertently sets the wheels in motion where she ends up being transported along with Sadness to the deepest parts of Riley mind leaving the other, less organised, emotions to hold the fort with disastrous consequences. It is then a race against time for Joy to get back to the fore front of Riley’s mind before it is irreparably damaged.

Taking the above paragraph it hardly sounds like Pixar material but it is done so cleverly by the animators that kids will not even realise the dark subject matter around the effects of depression which is on screen and will love the comedy adventure film which it actually is. The voice acting is brilliant, the tale itself is excellent and although it’s a children’s film it doesn’t feel like one. Riley struggles in her new school, when her parents give out she storms to her room, her mind is filled with moments and objects you recognise from real life and there’s a hilarious take on Riley’s Bieber-esque imaginary boyfriend which ties it all together nicely into a plausible situation which makes the movie. The reactions of the emotions and how they are shown impacting Riley is genius, we’ve all been in those situations and have wondered afterwards why we reacted the way we did and for such a supposedly simple movie it is very complex behind the brightly coloured animations.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6.5 Out Of 10

Greta (Lauren Cohen) arrives in the UK to take a job as a nanny to the Heelshires son Brahms however Brahms is not a child but is a doll with a realistic porcelain face. At first she believes this to be a joke however it is soon apparent that it is all too real and before the Heelshires leave for their holiday they supply Great a list of rules which must be followed without failure.

Not long after the Heelshires have left and Greta has ignored the supplied rules strange things begin to occur around the creepy old house and when Great confides in the grocery delivery man Malcolm (Rupert Evans) who tells her the back story about the human Brahms and his subsequent death so Great believes that the doll is possessed by the spirit of Brahms and begins to treat the doll as initially instructed but where her ex-boyfriend Cole (Ben Robson) shows up and starts to react angrily towards the door going so far as to smashing it the real secret behind Brahms and the house reveals itself.

This is yet another of the creepy doll movies which have become more popular as movie themes but unfortunately this is just as bad, there’s no reasoning behind how the Heelshires bring a woman from the USA to the UK since they don’t seem to have any Internet, there’s no explanation as to who Rupert is any why the Heelshires seem to trust him, there’s the usual moments of jump scares which occur inside a dream which has been done to death at this point. The real star of the movie is the house which always gives a sense of foreboding towards something bad happening, which say a lot for the script and while the twist is at least a little different by that point I didn’t care and of course the ambiguous ending leaves it open for a sequel which I can only hope never sees the light of day.