The Purge

Well, that’s 85 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. The purge was a bigger disappointment than I am to my parents. The film failed to scare me in any way, and that’s coming from someone who still checks behind the shower curtains to make sure there’s no murderers. Released in 2013 The Purge is set in futuristic America where once a year for 12 hours all crimes are legal. A well-off family harbour a man on the run from a gang of people participating in the annual purge which leads to the gang threatening to breech their extensive security system in order to kill the man as well as the family.

My first grievance of the film is the concept, which is just ridiculous despite being set in the future. If the film was set in an alternative universe it would be easier to accept the plot, as socially it would be very different. However only being set a few decades in the future people’s mind sets would not have changed that dramatically, the majority of people appose violence so I’m pretty sure a group of middle aged, middle class people would not go out ‘hunting’. Nor would anybody for that matter as pretty sure most people would stay inside for fear of being murdered.

In addition to this the genre features of a horror film are forced onto the plot. Firstly a terribly poor reason is given for the house having no electricity whilst trying to find the hidden man, that being that the gang have switched it off from outside. However the group clearly don’t want to waste any of their 12 hours so why would they slow down the return of their target by making it harder to find him? The answer to this being that it is a cheap excuse for the house to be dark and atmospheric and therefore scarier. Furthermore the gang were willing to negotiate with the family so surely it would have been easier to just let the gang, or at least one member, into the house to find the man. This way none of them would have been killed as the gang would have got what they want and moved on, they wouldn’t have killed the family as they are considered “one of [them]” as in a rich person.

Wouldn’t recommend this film, the plot is cheap and clearly just churned out to make money easily.

Kinky Boots (film)

Kinky Boots follows the story of Charlie who, following his fathers death, inherits his shoe business. With the business failing and having already had to fire a handful of the long-serving employees charlie is in need of a miracle to save the family legacy. This miracle comes in a form that neither Charlie nor his colleagues would ever expect, that being Lola, a drag queen in need of some kinky boots. With Charlie in need of a niche market and Lola being an ambassador of that niche market the pair set off on a mission to design boots fit to carry the weight of full grown men and bring this innovative footwear to the fashion capital, Milan.

Kinky Boots was made in 2005 and directed by Julien Jarrold, it is also a very popular play that features at a west end theatre in London. The part of Lola is brilliantly played by Chiwetel Ejiofor who doesn’t shy at all from the diva that Lola is. The sassy confidence of the character is perfectly executed by Ejiofor and I have to say, he makes a very good woman! And, for once, Nick Frost plays a bad guy. Not actually the villain as such but a negative voice that stands to challenge Lola and Charlie, in fitting with the happy ending of this feel good film however he is convinced in the end and learns to love the company’s new direction.

Although I was skeptical of this film at first, as I didn’t even know they’d made a film of the play, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Although I don’t think I’d watch it again any time soon I still enjoyed it whilst watching and would recommend it to anyone who is stuck for a film to watch on a lazy Sunday.

Pulp Fiction

Finally I got round to seeing this film and to be honest I’m not sure I can write a blog that does it justice or sum up in words how much of a masterpiece it is! The plot follows the lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits cleverly intertwined by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. After seeing the film I couldn’t help but tell everybody, although I’m sure they already had the same view, how great the film was. This lead on to a conversation with my mum about who was the best actor in the film which, after thinking for some time, I decided could not be answered. Every single actor in the film was absolutely perfect for the role they were cast in, there was no weak link in the whole film. Although in terms of my favourite character I have to say that Vincent Vega was easily the most entertaining. His confidence whilst with his partner in crime, Jules Winnfield, contrasted perfectly with his awkwardness around his boss’s partner named Mia Wallace and played brilliantly by Uma Thurman.

What I love about Tarantino’s work, especially in pulp fiction, is although he is notorious for graphic violence in his films, in my opinion, he always manages to execute this scenes artistically and the gore is always with purpose rather than blood for the sake of blood. The depth into each character is also something I admire in this film, by focusing on the stories of multiple characters the film is able to show the audience a lot more about each character and realistically I will pretty much love any film that manages to write four stories into one no matter what the quality is. This film, after just one watch, is already one of my favourite films and yet another off my list of 1001 films to watch before I die.

The Inbetweeners movie 2

The second film based on The inbetweeners series is a great follow up to the first film released in 2008. Neil, Simon and Will embark on yet another adventure, this time being in the footsteps of their mate Jay who insists he has ‘made it’ as a DJ in Australia. In true Jay fashion however the stories are completely made up as the lads realise when they discover him working as a toilet attendant in the nightclub he claimed to DJ in. Desperate to convince his mates of his story he ends up getting fired and the boys decide to backpack instead of stay in Jay’s Mansion, or rather tent in the front garden of his uncle’s house which it turns out to be. As was the focus of most of the inbetweeners episodes the lads chase girls in the aim of scoring ‘clunge’. These girls however turn out, as always, to be uninterested or to take advantage of the boys. What I love about this film is that although the film is predominantly a comedy it does still make you feel really bad for the character. What is most surprising about this is my sympathy for Jay in the film, despite his crude comments it is clear that this is a cover up for him missing his ex girlfriend and his is displayed perfectly subtly to the viewer.

What I have always loved about The Inbetweeners series is how true to teenage boys the comedy is. Although the films are not as good as the series they are still miles above most comedies and would definitely recommend the second film despite being labeled as ‘not as good a the first one’.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

 

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer and written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer as a remake of Wes Craven’s 1984 film of the same name. The plot follows a serial killer who murders his victims in their sleep. The teenagers are forced to battle their sleep deprivation to avoid the killer, Freddy Kruger, whilst trying to find a way to end his murdering

Despite the films mediocre reviews I actually really enjoyed it! fair enough it wasn’t as good as the original ‘a nightmare on elm street’ but on its own it was a really good film. Without wanting to compare it too much I have to just highlight that the main difference that let it down was the fact that the dream state was not used to its full potential, meaning that throughout the film it was very clear which parts were dream and which parts were reality. Whereas in the original the viewer was often left questioning this.

What I loved about this film though was the fact there was no ‘the main character won’t die’ factor. As throughout the film the focus was on different characters that looked as though they were the main character until they were murdered. In addition to this Freddy Kruger’s voice, initially at least, was chilling and perfect for the character.

This film was so much better than I expected despite not being of a genre I would usually watch. Even if you usually don’t like remakes of films I would definitely recommend this one!

 

The Lady Vanishes

The Lady vanishes is a 1938 Mystery/thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, it is often referred to as ‘the film that made Alfred Hitchcock the master of suspense’. The plot of the film focuses on a soon to be wed young woman, played by Margaret Lockwood, named Iris Henderson. After Passengers on a scheduled train out of the mountainous European country of Mandrika are delayed by a day due to an avalanche the passengers that were due to travel on the train are forced to get to know each other in the local overcrowded inn. Iris was vacationing with friends before heading back to England to get married, she is comforted by fellow passenger Miss Froy on the train after suffering a concussion she is frustrated when Miss Froy suddenly disappears and none of her fellow passengers, which she and Miss Froy socialised with, remember the lady. 

At first I was doubtful of the film as the majority of it is set in the single location of the train and staging a mystery there would be very difficult however I was proven wrong! The film was clever and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, justifying to me why it was a breakthrough film for Hitchcock. What was brilliant about the film is the fact that whist watching I couldn’t think of a single possibility to explain where Miss Froy had vanished to as the train had not stopped since leaving the station and none of the passengers had any recollection of her.

Despite my initial doubts I thoroughly enjoyed this film and was able to tick it off my list of 1001 movies.

 

1001 Movies you must see before you die

As one of my christmas presents I received a book titles ‘1001 Movies you must see before you die’ featuring the most iconic films from different countries and languages. Having only seen 32 of them so far its safe to say I have a lot of watching to do! My first thought was to set myself a challenge to watch all 969 films within a time limit such as three years however I think the end of my life is already challenge enough.

Some of the films featured in the book are films that have been commonly recommend to me such as Magnolia, Momento, Birdman, Trainspotting and Dirty Harry. However the rest of the book consists of films I have never heard of before, which makes a change from the usual ‘101/1001 things you should X before you die’ books which usually consist of the most popular and obvious choices which provide nothing new.

To begin crossing the films of the list I will start by watching Trainspotting and Avatar, both of which I have recorded to watch.

 

The secret lives of 6 year olds

I absolutely love this channel 4 documentary series which first began as ‘The secret lives of 4 year olds’. The documentary follows 10 6 year olds children from around the country brought together in a  camera rigged nursery. The team of scientists set social challenges for the children and then observe their varied and often humorous reactions, showing that even a this age the children are already diverse in personality and often have a very mature understanding of what is wrong, what is right and what they can get away with.

It’s interesting to watch how a lot of time the children who are considered more intelligent and advanced for their age often find being social more difficult in comparison to the overruling and sometimes less intelligent children. easily the best part of the show is the eccentric lies the children come up with. For example when presented with a sweet dispenser which all the sweets come out of when touched by one of the children the boys begin thinking of lies to explain how it happened rather than telling the truth. Similarly in the secret lives of 4 year olds after licking an  unsupervised cake left specifically to tempt the children the boys panic trying to think of a reason for the cake being damaged, which as well as interesting is just brilliant to watch.

It’s interesting which to watch the children interact as they already seem to have developed typical adult personalities. Some of them are law abiding, some of them are bossy and dominant and some of them are instantly ‘cliquey’, much as it is in the adult world. In addition to this it’s impossible not be impressed by the young kids understanding of topics such as death, marriage and democracy.

This series is only two episodes in so I am much looking forward to more to come from this programme

The Grinch

Partially to stop people exclaiming “you haven’t seen the grinch?!” I decided to finally watch this christmas classic. I am a self proclaimed ‘christmas person’ therefore practically anything that reminds me vaguely of the festive time of year is impressive and exciting for me. This being the case I enjoy every christmas film, the exception being The Grinch.

After watching this film I am in complete understanding as to why my mum never let me watch it as a child, I didn’t believe until now that any film could be as creepy as ‘Coraline’. After debating for much time with Lisha we still hadn’t managed to reach a conclusion to justify the world in the film existing inside a snowflake, does the whole community melt and die at the end of the christmas season? if so that seems rather morbid for a christmas film. Then again it is Dr Suess after all, its not meant to make sense right?

I cannot describe how much I disliked this film. The plot of the film tells the story of the Grinch who, after being bullied is discouraged from the christmas spirit and isolates himself away from the community. After being taunted by the teens of the village he visits the town in retaliation and causes havoc. Eventually he loves christmas again. If I’m honest, although predictable, the plot is reasonably ok. What ruins the film is how it looks, which is pretty much the basis of every film. There is something incredibly disturbing about grown men dressed in fairytale-like clothing.

Although this film is supposedly a christmas classic I will definitely not be watching  it again!

 

A Clockwork Orange

“Being the adventures of a young man who’s principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven” 

  

Having heard so much about this 1971 film I finally got the much anticipted chance to watch the classic after my mum bought it for me, clearly she didn’t know much about the film or it’s graphic rape scenes otherwise I presume she would’ve been more hesitant to allowing me to watch it. A Clockwork Orange was all I had hoped for and more: visually captivating storyline that demands your full attention, it is impossible not to be completely engrossed with this film!

It tells the story of Alex DeLarge, the leader of his group of three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Of an evening the group terrorise people through beating, rape and theft. After trying to maintain his dominance among the boys the group leave him partly blinded at a scene of the crime which resulted in the murder of a woman. He is convicted of murder and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Whilst serving his time Alex learns of an experimental new treatment which if he undertakes will result in him being released within a fortnight. The experimental works to make convicts physically sick at the thought of violence.  But, after being released,  Alex’s ordeals are far from over once he hits the mean streets of Britain that he had a hand in creating. He faces those who had previously done wrong to and is unequipped to defend himself. As a result of this he becomes almost a weapon used by the government and peers for personal gain, leading to the deterioration of his life and sanity; none of the people working to fix Alex have his welfare in mind.

A clever aspect about this film is that it persuades you to like Alex despite knowing that you should hate him, everything about him you should hate; murderer, rapist, thief! And yet you can’t help but sympathise with him for some reason despite all the terrible things he does. This could be partially because of the narration, which is friendly yet menacing. He has many idiosyncrasies in the way he talks, his lightheartedness and honesty towards the topics of rape and violence downplay his actions somewhat. 

Alex: The Durango ’95 purred away a real horrowshow – a nice, warm vibraty feeling all through your guttiwuts. And soon it was trees and dark, my brothers, with real country dark.

Alex: So I waited and, O my brothers, I got a lot better munching away at eggiwegs, and lomticks of toast and lovely steakiwegs and then, one day, they said I was going to have a very special visitor.

The role of Alex is perfectly executed by Malcolm McDowell and has become iconic and internationally recognised, as has the film. Films such as this can often seem pretentious and hard to ‘get’ however A clockwork orange strikes the perfect balance between reality and fantasy whilst delivering a captivating storyline. I look forward to watching it again and am sure it will fast become one of my favourites.