Paranormal Activity *******

First, imagine the setting: sat in a darkened room, alone, at 11pm. the thought occurred to me,"I feel like watching Paranormal Activity". This was a bad move.

Initially everything was fine, the silly noises, the door drifting slowly, the psychic, the cheap horror film premise was very present, the film continues, the tension builds and the smile of 'this is fun' slowly turns into an intense stare of fright, taking a deep breath every time the night sequences begin. You see, this film is an experience, you see hardly anything, hear only distant noises, yet the fear of what comes next lingers.

Ok, plot. a couple who live together start to hear strange things in the night, specifically the girl who has had experiences with these noises before, she even claims she has seen a figure at the end of her bed (in her mysteriously burnt down house) when she was a child. The guy decides to buy a camera to document the goings on and catch the goings on, he is initially humouring his girlfriend as it is apparent he doesn't actually believe her, this of course changes as the noises and door slamming begin the occur.

Despite the film's slow, gimmicky start, Paranormal Activity is the strongest, in terms of believability at least of all shaky cam style films I have so far seem, the fact that there are only two main characters (and 2 hardly seen supporting cast) allows you to engage much more easily than the gang of 5 or so in 'Cloverfield' or 'Blair Witch'. As you get to know these people, and their flaws, you fear for their life, the things that go bump in the night get louder until the devastating climax happens, which is, may add quite perfect.

Watch this film, don't watch it at midday surrounded by friends, watch it at night, alone, like any other good horror film deserves to be watched

The Village or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Shyamalan

Watching The Village today, with its twists and turns and crazy ending, made me think of how much of an amazing movie director M. Night Shyamalan really is. All of his films fit the criteria for any film watching experience, to entertain.

From the moment you are thrown into the strangely dark world of 'bad' colours and secrets, your mind is racing, many people watching will be aware that the film has a twist, some may already know it, some may assume due to the director and his certain methods, but you never guess it and when it comes its the most obvious thing you kick yourself, laugh about it and tell all your friends to watch it. The same applies to nearly all of his films (most notably The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable).

The conclusions of these films are always full and proper, never showing more than is needed and ending the film on conclusive note, not drag it out for extra 20 minutes. of course the films are slated for being cheesy and ridiculous, but the filmic snobs don't get the thrill of seeing a movie with twists and turns and an explosive ending, did anyone actually enjoy the Godfather? or did you have to watch it 5 times to realise how good it is? M. Night Shyamalan does not make these films, he makes films that are made to a standard, made to measure, made to entertain. I would rather watch Signs or The Village in a heartbeat over 12 Angry Men, yes, please watch and analyse 12 Angry Men, its a masterpiece, set in one room, shows the power of stubbornness and how wrong a large group of intelligent men can be (or something like that). but enjoy Shyamalan films, for they are the purest pieces of exciting fun filled entertainment thats currently being thrown at us from the CGI crazed, 3d Hollywood that nobody loves.

District 9 *******

D.O.V - 03/10/09
Where - Printworks

I saw District 9 yesterday after losing a battle for either this or Pandorum, another film, for another day. So the premise is that an alien ship has been hovering over Johannasburg for about 20 years and the aliens that brought it here have been living in slums on the cities' outskirts for quite sometime, when it comes to relocating them, it all goes badly wrong.
skipping between a documentry style layout and a handhold camera realism fest, this absurdly interesting film asks the question, 'what if the aliens were very much like us'. not as in they are completely non violent and actually just want peace, nor are they all malicious savages. A very human alien, in the mental sense. The documentry style rarely duells on the fact they are from another planet, but merely classes them as outsiders who shouldn't be there, a drain on society. We are shown the publics dismay over the government spending on the 'Prawns' and there sometimes violent tendencies. After this we are introduced to Wikus, the man in charge of the relocation programme, we see him go through the slums finding illegal weapons etc and inflicting formalities upon the aliens. It is about this point the documentry style begins to slide, the plot gains focus, and the fun begins! Wikus is sprayed by an unidentified liquid and, for him it all goes badly wrong. I do not want spoil anymore of the film as this film is a fantastic genre busting film, its other rave reviews show this is a great film that is accesible at numorous levels, as a sci-fi action alien gore fest or a very subtle comment on the treatment of people living in slums in todays society. A definite watch
Also notice the the ship is kept in the background throughout the film, the graphics on it are hauntingly real.

If you can't wait to see the film, check out this short film that the film is based on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlgtbEdqVsk

Full Metal Jacket ********

This a review of Stanley Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket'.

Often hailed as the most realistic depiction of war, Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’ shows the dehumanisation of young men into trained killers in The Royal Marine Corps, and their time in Vietnam. The film follows ‘Pvt. Joker’ (Matthew Modine) a normal guy who is pushed through the gruelling basic royal marine training and then into Vietnam.
On the surface, the film appears to be a gritty, gory war flick. Although it is both gritty and gory in places, there are so many more factors in this film’s equation that makes it a movie which will enrapture the viewer from beginning to end. One of these winning factors is the unique Kubrickian way it was shot. Camera angles are a definitive part of this movie with many being fixed on canted angles and portions of it shot in documentary style gives a massive amount of realism and make you totally immerse yourself into war-torn Vietnam. The film begins with the recruit’s hair being shaven with the camera panning from one man to another. This short scene is a perfect set up for the film as it introduces the main characters, instantly giving you a glimpse of the recruit’s personality through haircuts and facial expression. You see the character’s old hair styles, (which all uniquely said something about the owner’s personality) be replaced by a shaven head making them all equal.
‘Full Metal Jacket’ is crammed full of classic war movie characters and events, from the over audacious marine shouting ‘GET SOME!’ to Vietnamese villagers while shooting at them from a helicopter, to Sgt. Hartman (Lee Ermy), the intimidating, harsh drill instructor who is oozing one liners from his first to last moment on screen.. Each scene has its own uniqueness and is memorable for different reasons, whether it is Private Joker’s awful attempt at intimidating the Vietnamese thief or the sickening sight of 20 soldiers lying dead, covered in lime.
The film itself is set up almost as two smaller movies each having its own plot. The first being the marine’s training which climaxes with a murder and a suicide in an awesome scene which will both terrify and grip you. The second part of the film captures the marine’s work in Vietnam which ends with a haunting piece of film in which a group of marines search for and eventually shoot a female soldier, we know nothing of her or her circumstance and the emotional torment we see her killers go through in that final scene truly epitomises the chaos and brutality of war. This film is of course not flawless with some scenes being dragged on longer than is needed and some of the marines are overly stereotyped into clichés. Funny, gory, beautiful, bloody, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ ticks a tremendously large amount of film watching boxes. Watch it to view the dehumanisation of marines and the effect on their personality or just to enjoy the spectacle of a classic, Kubrick war film.

Hello World

Hi i'm Rob, as you can probably tell this is my blog. Here I plan to do whatever bloggers do and speak my mind. I hope to have a diverse range of blogs from film reviews to funny pictures.

And here is a truly aweful film I made a long time ago with a £14.99 webcam and pull back and go Porche... enjoy!