SOCIAL MEDIA

Tuesday 30 November 2010

Other Films Watched in November


Avatar the Last Airbender (M. Night Shyamalan, 2010)
Independence Day (Roland Emmerich, 1996)


Monday 29 November 2010

Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009)

Coraline (2009) Poster
"Be careful what you wish for"

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, John Hodgman and Robert Bailey Jr

Summary: An adventurous girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.

Genre: Fantasy, Animation


I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I think I should start off by letting you know (in case you haven't seen it) that this is a kids film, rated PG and it scared the bejeebers out of me.

I definitely think I would have needed more then parental guidance if I had watched this when I was younger. The film is really strange and pretty creepy at times, so much so that I would have said that maybe it's more for teenagers/adults then children, but apparently kids are loving it.

I really liked Coraline, she seems like such a cool kid (although she can be incredibly grumpy) by the end of the film I was thinking yep she's pretty bad ass. Often ignored by her parents and left to her own devices Coraline finds a mysterious door which lead her to an alternate world, where she discovers her 'other mother and father' (who are super creepy).
Coraline (2009) Still
I think there's some kind of message in this film for children or maybe I'm thinking too much in to it.
I feel like its telling kids to never go with strangers (especially when they look like your parents and have buttons for eyes) even if they tempt you with new clothes, family time and your favourite foods.

If you do you'll have to sew buttons on your eyes. Yep I'm probably thinking into it too much.


My Rating: 10/10
One Final Word: Excellent

Saturday 20 November 2010

Babylon A.D (Matthieu Kassovitz, 2008)


Cast: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Mark Strong, Gérard Depardieu, Charlotte Rampling

Summary: Torop, a ruthless mercenary is hired to smuggle a mysterious woman from the post-apocalyptic of eastern Europe, to the glittering megalopolis of New York City.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action


I was super super excited to see this film after seeing the trailer for it but months had past before I actually got the chance to watch it and I have to say people, I was thoroughly disappointed.

Firstly the acting was terrible. Vin Diesel again plays the typical hard man, a mercenary called Torop who is willing to do almost anything for the right price, now his acting wasn't insanely terrible but it wasn't great. Personally I think the insanely terrible acting award goes to Mélaine Thierry.

I was even more disappointed when the film ended, it has a relatively short running time of 90 minutes but it ends up feeling like 40 minutes due to the awful plot and narrative. It was a little difficult to keep up with and make sense of everything that's happening. It is extremely fast paced and feels like massive chunks of information are missing and then the final 20 minutes or so had me super confused. It's like someone decided that the original plot was no good and then thought that the best thing to do start a new one in the last 20 minutes.
Babylon A.D. (2008) Still
Now I'm thinking that maybe the acting is only that bad because he narrative, plot and story are just rubbish.
I've actually seen this film a couple of times since I first watched it purely because I didn't have a clue what was happening the first time around. As awful as it was I have to say this is definitely one of my guilty pleasures, it's just great to find a film that's so awful you can just watch it for laughs.


My Rating- 2/10
One Final Word- Nonsense (but I secretly love it)

Saturday 13 November 2010

The Exterminating Angel (Luis Bunuel, 1962)


Cast: Silvia Pinal, Enrique Garcia Álvarez, Jacqueline Andere, César del Campo, Nadia Haro Oliva

Summary: Guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.

Genre: Fantasy, Drama


This is another film that I studied in my A-Level Film class. For our exam we had to look at surrealism studies and we were asked, “How does Bunuel use surrealism in the film ‘The Exterminating Angel’ to attack the bourgeoisie?”

Bunuel attacks the bourgeoisie in several ways, one by using the characters within his film. The bourgeoisie were the social class opposed to the working class and this social class thought they were better and above everyone else.
However within The Exterminating Angel two of the characters, Francis and Juana are an incestuous brother and sister, who also steal and do drugs. There is also another character by the name of Letitia, who is nicknamed La Volkaria. In Norse mythology, valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decided who will die in battle.

Luis Bunuel had a strict catholic education in Spain and in his later life he used surrealism within his films to attack both the middle and upper class and organized religion, with his main targets being the bourgeoisie and the Catholic Church.
The Exterminating Angle (1962) Still Surrealism is used in his films to make political statements about world. He attacked the institutions of the bourgeoisie as he believed the society was organized to benefit the bourgeoisie at the expense of the proletariat.

The characters at the party represent the bourgeoisie, who become stripped of their pretence and their true nature is revealed. Their behaviour is primitive and self-serving, worse than the proletariat that they look down upon and the depiction at the end of the film also shows Bunuel’s perception of the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

Louis Althusser called the institutions Luis Bunuel attacked Ideological State Apparatuses and they included the government, the legal system, the church, the military, the police, the education system, the media and the family.
He believed that the bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat, who were unaware of this. The ISA sought to promote exploitation between high and lower classes, this is the reason Bunuel chose to expose them within his films.


My Rating: 2/10
One Final Word: Odd