Train Spotting

If you like pulp fiction, i'm sure you'll like this movie too. I don't want to compare this movie to pulp fiction but all i'm suggesting is that if you liked the memorable characters and dialogue of tarantino's masterpiece, then you'll enjoy this film too.

Without giving too much away, i would like to add that Trainspotting does not have that crazy narrative loop in pulp fiction, but it is one of those film where narrative is secondary to charactes/dialogue + style. I would not say that this film is visually attractive, but that is director Danny Boyle's purpose here- his film making, especially choice of camera angles and shots fits the mood and context here perfectly. You really have to see it to understand.

Now regarding the movie itself. On paper, the plot summary sounds nothing extraordinary: Train Spotting follows Renton (Ewen Mcgregor) a Scottish druggie enveloped in the drug culture of his hometown as he tries to 'break the habit.' But like I said before, it's not the plot that counts. When you go and watch the movie, which i hope you would, just enjoy it for the characters and film making. i'm not saying the story is crap, but just that it's not the most important thing here.

Many of you may know Ewen Mcgregor from playing obi wan kenobi or the dude in moulin rouge but this is the definitive ewen mcgregor that you have to see. What I will say is that his performance as Renton in this movie makes the other two roles i just mentioned look like child's play (well to be honest the acting in the Star wars prequel trilogy have not been that great just think of Hayden Christensen....enough said). Mcgregor plays the anti hero Renton perfectly and I say this because we are meant to feel disgusted by his actions (he says himself that he is not a good person) yet, at the same time we can not help but feel for him. The supporting cast is also great and before you know it, you feel as if you really know the rest of the druggies (Spud, Sick Boy etc) and become their "mates."

Credit must also go to Danny Boyle (Slum Dog Millionare, 28 days later, 127 hours ). This was, i suppose, THE break for Boyle (same goes to Mcgregor i guess). I must say he was very brave for making a movie like this, because it easily could have been a miss, but instead he has worked his directorial magic and has created a piece of art in the league of pulp fiction.

It's also worth mentioning that the movie is based on a book and i guess it would help to read the book for a more complete understanding and appreciation- there were references and things i did not get until i read up on it.

Oh yeah, and expect the offbeat and unexpected stuff. The movie is different (it;s not a complete drama nor complete comedy, hard to define really), but i feel that it's a refreshing type of different.

Movies

Ok because this blog has only received advertisers as viewers I will try to bring it back to life with a quick summary of movies I've watched since hac has been over

Midnight in Paris: probably one of the best movies I've watched this year. I don't want to ruin any plot details for those who have never heard of it before but I will say that the historical figures are cast particularly well and always manage to bring a smile to the face. Ernest Hemingway just has a way with words. Until he becomes drunk.

Transformers 3: this movie is almost three hours long and in total there was about one minute of footage I actually enjoyed which was mostly just panning shots of the city. I will admit some of the cinematography and visuals are really good but some of it almost unwatchable. And a commendation must go to Michael bay for making what could have been an hour and a half movie this long by making sam seem like an absolute douche and also inventing methods to get robots to fight other robots which don't even contribute to the plot

Kung Fu panda 2: although I haven't seen cars 2 yet, looking at the rt ratings it seems that pixar won't get an Oscar this year. This movie will probably win it and it deserves all of it. Better than the first one and having an opening fight sequence which is equal to or better than Kung Fu hustle.

That is all.

Video Game Music

There are some video game music that make you go: Wow this is focking great!
Well here are some youtube comments about video game music that I found to be badass.

1. Guile's theme - Street fighter
- Me and my girlfriend were driving home from our 81 mile vacation from Wisconsin. I decided to hook up my mp3 player and blast Guile's theme out the car. My girlfriend said "Ugh, is this some video game? Wow I didn't know you were so nerdy!" The bitch walked the rest of the way....

RESPONSE TO ABOVE: You'll never be a family man now.
- I gonna watch some porn now while listining to the guile theme.
-this should be the american anthem.
-Those american flags on guile's arms aren't tattoos...they are fuckin' birth marks!
-This was played at my funeral.

-I am back.


2. Vampire Killer - Castlevania
-Just goes to prove a song doesnt need lyrics to be fucking win.
-That's it, im getting a NES , screw my Xbox 360
-back in the day, vampires sucked blood, not cock.


3. Tetris Theme
-I have discovered the ONLY problem with Tetris:
When you play it too much, you have stressful Tetris dreams that the pieces won't fit together. Then, the only way to cure yourself of the negative effects of the bad dreams is to play MORE Tetris, in order to create some sense of order in the universe. Speaking of which, it's about time for me to go play some Tetris.
-LLETS PLAY SOME TETRIS MOOTHER****ER ^^
-Your Windows crashed?
You probaly placed the blue block of death. :P


4. Dr. Wily Stage - Mega Man
-SXEDRGTBZSEXDRCFTGVBHSEXZWCDFV­GB
XDCFGBHXDRFCTGBHDXCFTVGYHBDXRT­CFYGVUBH
ESDRFHGWSERDTFYGFVBGYHTFGYHJ
Huh? Oh dont mind me, just wiping some jizz off my keyboard
-How much would I have to pay you to follow me around and play this?


5. Riviera - Most of the songs
This game has some of the coolest music ever...I remember stalling the battles just to listen to the battle theme for longer

Harry Potter

I saw Harry Potter today, which I liked. Seeing how I really love the books though, it's hard to imagine a Harry Potter movie I wouldn't like unless it was really god-awful. So having said that, there were several things about the movie that I didn't particularly care for.

At times the film seemed to struggle with deciding how seriously to take itself. There were several one-liners and comic relief moments that fitted very awkwardly in the broody atmosphere of the film.

The precise events of the ending in the novel were changed to make the ending in the movie more subdued. This was quite a sensible choice since Harry Potter should always be about Harry Potter and so by applying some restraint, Yates prevented Harry's personal journey from being overshadowed by the spectacle and chaos of everything that happens in the Battle of Hogwarts. However, this came at the cost of the huge emotional payoff at the end of the novel. When Harry defeats Voldemort the feeling of triumph is notably missing and there's just a feeling of relief. There's more reflection than celebration at the end of the movie which I didn't like because there's not much to reflect on unless you're really familiar with the series.

But there were a lot of great moments that surprised me too. The spectacle of Hogwarts preparing for battle was quite impressive. Helen Bonham Carter was really good when she acted as Hermione in Bellatrix's body. Several moments involving Snape like his duel with McGonagall were tragic and touching. Alan Rickman does a good job of making Snape look like he's constantly in pain. I should probably say that I might not have noticed a lot of this stuff if I hadn't randomly browsed through all the Harry Potter-related pictures and posts on Lozi/Janet's Tumblr a few weeks ago.

Children of Bodom

COB is a Finnish metal band. They were the band that got me into metal.
As such, they are my favourite metal band.
As well has having Alexi (who hasn't been sober for several years), they have fucking cool keyboard work.
One could argue that COB has horrible lyrics that hold no meaning.
But to me, I don't know what the fuck they are saying, so this is not a problem.
Alexi has a sexy voice, some half aggressive growl thing.
Anyway here are songs that I like from them
1. In your face - This is like...epic shit. Who could have thought that a riff with only one note/chord could sound so cool? This is really thrash-like, focusing more on riffs then their previous work, which involved a lot of synth and neoclassical elements. Then again, the whole Are you Dead yet? album is like that. The keyboard also adds to the variety of riffs in this song, maintaining at least some of the COB-vibe. My favourite lyric: 'I don't give a flying fuck.'

2. Kissing the shadows - I don't really like the singing in this one, but the solo is jizz, which makes up for it. It also has some delicious neoclassical like riffs by both keyboard and guitar.
The solo is like a duel between guitar and the keyboard, and sounds fucking amazing. In particular, the first phrase sounds awesome, really exoticy.

3. Downfall - This is the most coolest opening riff ever...Seriously. And I fucking love Alexi's YAOO thing. So stupid sounding but fun to listen to at the same time. Also, the moment just before the solo is incredibly cool. Build up of suspense.

The actual song doesn't start until about 1:50, the beginning is like some famous riffs for fun. Also Alexi's playing is rather sloppy here, he's drunk as fuck.
Ofc there are so many other songs I like but I can't be bothered.

Overall, the best thing about COB is the ability to make you wanna jump around and punch something.

Adaptation

Continuing on from the other blog, this is another more obscure movie that I watched recently (well before trials)

Adaptation is about how Charlie Kaufmann who is affected by writer's block and is unable to come up with a new screenplay because the book that he is adapting has no plot. Meanwhile his brother, Donald, is having great success as a new screenwriter even though Charlie thinks all he writes is cliched crap. And if you've noticed, it actually is the same Charlie Kauffman who wrote Being John Malkovich. Like actually, the character and the real life person here are meant to be the same. The movie was also written by Charlie Kauffman and also directed by Spike Jonze who directed Being John.

I guess the first hour or so of this movie is really pretentious. There's first person voice over narration, self references (there is actually a scene where Charlie is at the set of Being John Malkovich) and also all the sort of stuff you associate with a film trying to be arty. If you get through this first hour, you will realize that the actual point was to make that hour as pretentious as possible. Then the movie gets more conventional I guess until the conclusion which is so cleverly done you probably have to sit there thinking about it for like 10 mins to realize the implications of it.

I think this film is a little harder to follow than Being John and a little harder to get into, but if you stick with it, I'm pretty sure it's worth it.

cinema - benny benassi ft. gary go

benny benassi has for a long time been a very good artist. he made the infamous "satisfaction" song, renowned for its two music videos - the one with chicks working out with power drills and then a more regular music video.

he released something recently and its been stuck on my mind - " cinema - benny benassi "

its a very good song. the music video is i suppose, very well done, unlike some of the very random music videos which are irrelevant. and if you didn't notice, the three girls in all three visions are identical i think. sort of deep, whatever.




for those who truly appreciate dubstep, there is good news. i've realised how big the dubstep community actually is, particularly those who like skrillex. skrillex is a crazy dubstep artist, like from his "scary monsters and nice sprites" and now to his cinema remix. poreotics already used it in their routine. :)

but overall the song is really nice, and in terms of a dubstep, it has a pretty nice drop.



more to come soon, i hope :) :) maybe i'll do one on periphery to make ao happy.

Sunshine, Transformers, Shutter, Potter

Early in the holidays I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I'll use ES from now on), but felt that it was a bit difficult to review so I've left it for a bit. It's not that the movie was too confusing, it's that it has a very unique way of telling the story, through 'flashbacks'. Without giving too much away, it explores the concept of removing specific pieces of memory regarding a single person. So for example if you wanted to forget your deceased grandfather, you could have your memories of him removed, thus taking away your grief. Overall, ES is a very thoughtful and somewhat murky film, but I would still have to say there are bits of romance and comedy in it. At first there is confusion as with most great sci-fi films, however as the plot develops, you catch up quite quickly and get enthralled in the story. I think it was made even better by having subplots, which helps the main plot seem faster in my mind. Ultimately it was very enjoyable and made me feel 'happy' despite some of the darker themes explored in the film; the ending was logical and felt perfectly timed. 9/10

Out of stupidity I then watched Transformers: Dark of the Moon. If you've watched either of the first two films, then you've seen this one. Lots of explosions and big robots like the past two films with less comedy. The plot is: good guys have to beat bad guys in robot fights. 3/10

Shutter Island, directed by the great Martin Scorsese, is a dark mystery thriller, revolving around a mental institution. The amazing thing about this movie is that despite the fact I watched a version that looked like it was recorded on a calculator, Scorsese still managed to create a sense of suspense and fear. The lighting, music and acting were all very well done, with Mark Ruffalo playing a very nice support character. However the major downfall of the film is its ridiculous plot. Set up very nicely, it just seems so random and almost unedited at points. The ending seems quite illogical and feels as if the audience is back at the start of the film. Again without giving too much away, there is a lot of confusion throughout the film and little of it is resolved by the ending. 6/10

Lastly I watched Harry Potter 7 Part 2 with relatives (free tickets and free food woot!). Not to be a party pooper but I only watched the first 4 or 5 movies and finished the books so many years ago I forgot the whole thing. Therefore I had to Wiki the plot the night before to catch up. This led to the highlight being the free popcorn. The graphics were awesome as always (in a theater), the plot seems interesting (but hard to follow if you don't know what's happened in the last 3 years), but that was about it. I guess for followers, fans and young children the movie was amazing, but not for a random film-goer like me. The thing that irks me so much is the wasted talent in the film. So many great British actors just stood there saying the dumbest lines. Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman (Voldemort and Snape) were the only ones who had much input and did quite well (however Hans Gruber will always remain my favourite Rickman role). But for actors/actresses like Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters and even Helena Bonham Carter (Sirius Black, Trelawney, McGonagall, Slughorn, Molly Weasley, Bellatrix Lestrange) all seemed wasted in their roles. Looking at the list, the only input came from the bad characters. If you've watched all the others then this should be a good film for you. 7/10

I know it seems like I had lot of time in the holidays but one movie every two days doesn't take long. Reviews to come: Clockwork Orange, Goodfellas, Memento.

Tarantino

I read Bob's post on Tarantino and thought I'd write about him too seeing as he's also one of my favourite directors. The first Tarantino movie I saw was Pulp Fiction. When it ended I thought I'd never see something so brilliant again for the rest of my life. Never before had I seen a movie so exciting, so full of surprises and so utterly unconventional. It certainly piqued my initial interest in film.

I can't really remember in which order I watched Tarantino's other films so I'll just guess.

Inglourious Basterds was the only one of his films I saw in a theatre. To be honest, I didn't like it that much when I watched it. The dialogue didn't seem as brilliant as the dialogue in Pulp Fiction and I couldn't help but compare the two movies and feel that Basterds was a letdown. I also didn't understand why people thought the Christophe Waltz character was so amazing. Anyway, this can likely be explained by the fact I saw this movie over two years ago. My tastes have changes a lot since then so I intend to see this movie again soon.

I think the next one I saw was Jackie Brown, which is probably lesser-known among his films. I didn't get this one either. People say that this was his 'mature film' where he developed strong, full-bodied characters. But I just found it really boring. I guess that I could blame this again on how I was two years younger when I saw this and couldn't understand a lot of stuff I can understand now. But my feeling is that I wouldn't like this movie that much even if I saw it again now.

Sometime after I saw Reservoir Dogs, which I more or less enjoyed. The story on this one is a bit harder to grapple on first viewing because the narrative keeps switching to different characters and to flashbacks. I'm really bad at watching gangster or crime films, especially when the plot gets really complicated and I can't tell what's happening and why. I really think though, that when this happens it's the filmmaker's fault that they let their movie get tied down in exposition.

The last set of Tarantino movies I saw was the Kill Bill series, which I loved. I think these are the first movies where Tarantino got to employ lots of great cinematography and create great images. Certainly, they are the most visual of all his films. The first film is a bit of an all-out action film that pays homage to a lot of old Asian movies full of martial arts and stuff. You're presented with this mysterious 'Bride' who is out to seek revenge on 'Bill' and his team of assassins. Not much explanation is given to anything, really. The second movie is a lot more calm and develops the story a lot. I can't entirely understand why Tarantino directed the movies to be so different but they still work together to form a satisfying whole.

So these have been my experiences watching Quentin Tarantino films. As of now I've seen all his films except for 'Deathproof' which I've been avoiding because of the bad reviews. I always like to advocate forming your own opinion instead of checking RT or something but I guess sometimes you just can't be bothered.

If there's anything you take from reading this, let it be to watch Pulp Fiction if you haven't already done so. It really is even better than I made it sound.

12 Monkeys

Hey there reader, this is my first time doing this, so please bear with me as i try to get this down.

Here, I would like to share with you my movie experiences, or recommend movies that I think are really worth watching, and they'll generally be movies that aren't well known, or are old etc- i.e. not mainstream movies like Transformers or Clash of the Titans.

So, you know how everyone says Inception is mind fuck or what not. Well, i think this movie will probably fuck with your head even more. I dont know about you, but the poster already looks cool... yeah, the tagline is a bit....

Anyways, to put it in a nutshell, the movie is about time travelling, BUT before you stop reading because it is about time travelling, let me tell you that it deals with more than just that. In fact, the less I tell you about it, the better, because the plot is crucial. Of course, if you dont get the story, you can still enjoy it. The director Terry Giliam or something, came from Monty Python, and he really conveys the crazinesss which drives the movie along perfectly.

It's also important to note that the film stars Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, but in roles you've never seen before- yes, bruce willis does act as a tough guy again, but theres a BIT more, and i think its enough to really enjoy. So if you want to see Brad Pritt become a retard, you should definitely watch this.

Basically, to anyone who wants to watch a movie after the trials, or even during the trials if you're a boss, go watch Twelve Monkeys, especially if you like something different from the usual stuff. Tell me what you think about it =]

Basterds, Dogs and Fiction

Quentin Tarantino is one of those directors who just make movies fun to watch. About a month ago, I watched Inglourious Basterds, which is about the plot to assassinate Hitler. Although the themes are relatively serious and mature, there is still room for some black comedy. Christoph Waltz's performance really did deserve the Oscar he won, with the line "That's a bingo!" sure to be one of the classics. For those who are confused as to the concept of remaking Hitler's assassination, it is set in a parallel dimension where many events which occurred in real life didn't in the film and vice versa, which sets up the finale really well. Out in 2009, this film shows a big change in Tarantino's narrative style, but maintains his humour and love for violence and gun fights. Worth a watch if you want something interesting to do, but maybe not a 'must watch'. 8/10

During the holidays I watched Reservoir Dogs, a 1992 gangster film also directed by Tarantino. It will most definitely remain as one of the classics, with the final scenes eternally memorable. However it is the 'ear cutting' scene that gained the most controversy and fame during the film's debut. Told in classic Tarantino style, the scenes are out of order chronologically, and we slowly work out what has happened as the film progresses through flashbacks and continuing the current time line. A simple plot revolving around the theft of some diamonds, leads to a dark, violent and angry story of betrayal and madness. But true to his style, Tarantino has managed to squeeze in a few funny scenes and jokes. Overall though, the film wasn't anything special, it's just the atmosphere and tension prevalent throughout the film that gives its magic. 8/10

Finally I wanted to talk about Pulp Fiction, probably the greatest plotless film ever. Made in 1994, the story revolves around a suitcase which is filled with orange light. In a later interview, Tarantino said that he originally had diamonds, but that seemed repetitive, so he used a MacGuffin, a plot device so that the movie makes sense. The scenes are all out of order, and there is seemingly no goal for half the characters, but the movie is just great. Samuel L. Jackson's famous scene in the apartment including the quote "Does he look like a bitch?", and Christopher Walken's 'watch up the ass' scene are pure hilarity. This film is great in almost every way, however the aimlessness of it all made it feel sort of empty in the end. The lack of general direction left me waiting for more, it felt more like a conglomeration for 4 or 5 short films, squished together, with the characters' lives intertwining. But I've watched it three times now, and will remain as one of my most loved films. 9/10

I'll wrap it out there for the first post of this blog, will have more movie reviews coming out soon.