4 Lions

4 Lions is very interesting film to me for a few reasons. One would be that it’s set in Sheffield England which is near to where I come from; two is that the characters are all Muslims that become suicide bombers and finally... everything I said.  It just seems like a funny concept when you put it that way. It’s completely hilarious along the way. They all eventually turn out to get materials which allow them to make explosives. They then try to decide on what to use these explosives for.

There’s one scene where the explosives are in bags and they are trying not to drop the bags and bring them safely home without getting caught. In which one guy who is friends with of the Muslims throws one of the bags left behind and it’s either catch it or be killed, and it’s things like that which get in the ways and make the film funny.  It actually ends up with them attacking the London Marathon with them dressing up as existing characters such as a mutant turtle and the honey monster, thing is they have the bombs strapped around them all. Earlier in the film they are shown trying not to get caught in which they eat their SIM cards out of their phones simply because they are electronic and can be tracked. Later on the during the marathon however they get themselves into all kinds of trouble, I can’t help but think that the film was inspired all the crap you see on TV where foreigners are threatening to bomb places etc, which is wrong but it sort of based on that but it shows how we mostly stereo type these people in exact similar ways and they aren’t all like this.

The ending however was quite surprising, I thought it would of ended in the way of getting what they actually want but I didn’t quite understand that they wanted to become suicide bombers? It actually all ends up with them all dying, but the way they all die is made funny and it’s okay to laugh at all of them because it obviously not real. One guy eats the other guys SIM card and then when he starts t choke on it someone attempts to help him bring it back up but when he grabs hold of him and squeezes, it sets the bomb off and all you see is this mutant ninja turtle head come falling down. One of them and to quote the words says: “he fell over a sheep and exploded”, it’s just so funny all the way through and has that great British comedic sense of humour about it which I like. I felt kind of unfair that they all died in the end, two of them are brothers and one of them dies while in a restaurant but the thing is because the other brother has had his SIM card eaten he can’t contact the other brother, and so it ends with the older brother jumping into a local boots store and exploding to death, again even for the final death and ending to show it still managed to be funny.

It’s a good comedy but it sort of shows you the kind of things these people go through I thought besides all the comedy, I was well done and I would put it near the top of best films I’ve seen, I think one of the biggest things in this is that you become connected to the characters in which I’ve previously talked about before, talking about how you become connected to the personalities of the characters and the things they get up to and even the environments they are in, such as a certain scene were they in Pakistan hiding from helicopters hovering above and firing rocket launchers into the middle of nowhere , having no knowledge of how to properly use the equipment, causing disasters and getting themselves into more bother. Just brilliant!

Dark City

Dark City, well I think we all know what I’m going to say about this one... It’s another dark and gloomy science fiction, so basically I might as well just say “read what I thought about Blade Runner”.

But it wasn’t so bad; it’s about a guy who has this group called ‘the strangers’ after him. Murdoch (main character) has some sort of power that allows him to do stuff like make doors appear to that of what the strangers have. Basically he’s being chased over several murders that he didn’t commit. Basically what happens is that Murdoch finds out that he’s form a place called Shell Beach and wants to get there in hope of finding answers etc but he can’t because no one knows how to get there even though it appears on a map of the city. I think this is due to the strangers scrambling everything when they keep stopping time etc, the thing is Murdoch isn’t affected by this because he has the same powers as the strangers but it becomes increasingly frustrating.

He wants to get back to his wife etc but he then finds out that the city is surrounded by nothing but space. The strangers use his own memories of which he doesn’t have suffering from amnesia, but using them to track him down. Murdoch eventually takes on the strangers takes on the strangers and uses his powers to bring him back to Shell Beach and meet his wife.

Yes it is a very strange and weird film, but that’s what makes it unique. From what I’ve heard the setting for the film was inspired by the work of Edward Hopper. It does capture that feel of America I thought and turns it into a whole believable world or city in this case. It’s like as if Edward Hopper has already done the concept Art for the setting of this movie and all they needed to do was plan it out where everything is going to be how it’s going to and also what they are going to have for each scene. It’s quite clever; we’re always talking about nicking ideas of what other people have done and making them into our own thing and what better example of it. Personally I always try to stay away from these miserable looking films and games that are dark and what not but I didn’t think it was bad; it had a good story to it and they managed to create this whole believable world which I liked.

I talked before about how were not ever really rewarded watching a film but this comes a long and the entire movie is pitch black throughout it until the very end we get to see this beautiful beach setting, it’s as if all the way through you want Murdoch to reach Shell Beach, the place he grew up in but you don’t get it, so the story sort of sets itself up on him gaining the power to bring down the strangers and getting what he once had back, it’s quite simple and effective whereas most films over complicate stuff with mind games etc trying to make you think more. The names of the strange too such as Mr. Hand and Mr. Book, that’s pretty simple and effective to, wouldn’t you say?

The Others

‘The Others’ is set in Britain which is always nice to see. It’s about a woman and her kids living in an old house with history about it. The daughter starts to see a small boy around the house and the mother is convinced that it’s not true. However the woman (Grace) hears strange things going on like the piano being used when there’s no one visible she can see. She thinks it’s something unholy and needs the house to be blessed in order to get rid of it. The daughter however starts to scare her brother with this unknown small boy called victor. The three servants that enter the house at the start of movie, to me seemed suspicious. We find out that both children cannot be exposed to light, only weak light such as candles thus they must live in complete darkness for the rest of their lives. However the old woman (one of the three servants) says to grace that if you don’t expose them to it ever, then you’ll never know it’s cured or not. I couldn’t help but think this was used in a way of purposely putting the children in more danger. The kid’s sort of question Grace’s beliefs at the start of the movie, Grace doesn’t believe that ghosts exist etc and she doesn’t like the fact that her kids think they could exist. Grace then starts to think ghosts could be around and tries to find the graves of people that previously lived in the house, but the servants cover the graves up. That scene however is done in the way of they are purposely doing or that it was a mistake.

The servants become more and more suspicious all the way through. The curtains in covering all the windows in the house however are one day removed but the thing is the old woman servant says that, that is what might happen proving to Grace they can’t be trusted and thus kicking them out of the house. There is a part of the film where Grace finds a photo of people who previously lived in the house but died, the three people appearing on it are the three servants. At which point you think okay they are ghosts then, but if they are how can Grace and the two children see them? The children however run away at one point to find their father who at one point was with them when Grace found him in the middle of the woods trying to get the house blessed by the priest. The father however seems dead from the start, he doesn’t hardly or even say anything at all as far as I recall which I was weary of at first. Whilst in the woods the kids are confronted by the servants at which ultimately proves there’s something wrong with them. The start chasing the children back to house, what I found hilarious about all this is that Grace every time throughout the movie is constantly using a shot gun as protection, but that is only because she doesn’t believe that they are ghosts and that only find out right at the end that they are ghosts themselves as the children discover there’s a group of people in the house acting as mediums to get answers from the ghosts inside the house which is Grace and the two children.

In the end everything is just to find out that they killed themselves and the purpose of the servants is to tell them this and realise they are the ghosts. It’s kind of weird however; I’m a believer in ghosts myself and feel like what it would be to be a ghost. They’ve put in a perspective of humans and ghosts cannot see each other and basically both are scared of one another. It’s quite cleaver I think and it ends by the daughter standing by the window watching the family that is there move out and being exposed to the light which isn’t effecting the children at all. It’s odd when in the past I’ve seen these types of creepy things happen on TV etc like séances and it puts in into a way of how one may think it’s being conducted as the children whisper into their ears telling those reasons why they are here and answering questions...  I’d never try a séance however...

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Being so hooked up on video games my whole life, this was like the ultimate film for me. It starts out from the beginning introducing existing games such as Zelda etc. The opening to the film where usually you see the universal logo  was done in old bit text, form that moment I think pretty much all of us where going to enjoy this. Though my doubts about video game inspired films are always there because we’ve seen it so many times where they screw it up. Basically it’s about  Scott and he has this new girlfriend who he really doesn’t want to be his girlfriend, he starts to take more interest in this other girl who keeps appearing in his dreams eventually meeting her in real, the thing is to date her he must first defeat all her ‘evil exes’, 7 of them to be exact. This leads to them appearing just about anywhere and everywhere out of the blue and Scott must beat each one in a combat battle, but the way it is simulated is exact to that of a video game style of play, how could it not be anymore cool and awesome?

When Scott beats one of these ’evil exes’ they explode and thousands to millions of coins scatter everywhere indicating a sort of arcade style of winning, something that similarly reminds me of winning on a slot machine and it paying out like crazy, makes sense though! There was all these little things in there they had taken from gaming, like when Scott goes to the bathroom and the ‘pee bar’ appears and it decreases as he ‘uses the bathroom’. There’s one scene where Scott gains an extra life as it were, from that moment it stuck in my mind because I thought “Scott is going to get killed later on and his 1up will bring him back” and it did! I just knew it, when you’ve been play games as long as I have it’s so obvious that’s why they give him it. The battle of the bands thing during the film was kind of a cliché, we’ve seen it so many times in the movies etc and the main characters always seem to win, but one thing I liked about he name of the band was that it was inspired by a Mario character or enemy, the band name: ‘Sex Bo-omb’ I noticed the ‘-omb’ part and knew that’s where it was taken from straight away, quite clever if I say so.

The scenes and graphics used in the film was spot on, I think they really captured the atmosphere of gaming with all the bright colours and what not, that’s what gaming in the old days was all about they took the feeling of that retro style and put it in there, which to me is the core of gaming, it’s the start and beginning of where it all started, and I just love the old classics more than anything. That’s all gone now, it’s all about trying to be as realistic as possible with a billion different colours to use which I don’t see ever happening, it brings you back to the roots of gaming through film format... really? We needed a film to that?  Too many people forget about the old ones, it’s all about Call of Duty and Halo etc and to be honest I’m fed up with hearing it, I complain too much, maybe I should actually play it and see what it’s all about.

The one scene I remember the most was were Scott is using the bathroom however and the music is a remix version of a song from the Legend of Zelda, it actually sounds better than the original and as soon as it came on I clicked what it was from, they mentioned Zelda quite a few times in the film. I think it sort of portrays what it may have been like being a teenager (or a young person in Scott’s case)in the 1980’s where video games were at their peak, because to me it shows that in scenes like the battle of the bands etc.

It don’t think it’s the best film I’ve seen, but it’s definitely one I’d watch over again and again because it’s quite odd to see how a film director making a video game style movie actually got it right, or at least for me they got it right.

Sky Blue

What can you say...? I really didn’t like this, it’s an anime so it has its limitations but to be honest, but I’m not going to be fair on this at all, it was awful. Some anime is okay and the Japanese sometimes do good films but this just wasn’t up there at all. It’s apparently about some guy who works for a company but they get rid of him after he hacks into their databases without permission to do so or something and then 10 years later he comes back and also gets back into a love triangle with some girl and another guy apparently...

I didn’t even get what was going on half the time, I understood that the company which is called ‘Ecoban’ is the cause of the clouds blocking out the clear sky. ‘Ecoban’ would make sense since they are polluting the world and not being eco friendly so it’s ‘Ecoban’ would be logical? Anyway it’s set in the year 2142, which I think is a bit of a cliche just because it’s asking us all the question of how many times we’ve seen some anime set in the future with robots and flying transport etc, it’s annoying and I just don’t care because it’s all the same. When I realised it was a Japanese anime, I was praying to god that it was going to be good, some parts of it were okay and funny, but most times there was just so many pointless scenes like there’s one with a small boy and girl and they are looking up at the sky and smiling as if amazed by it, I mean the story is about this company and the world being dark and gloomy all the time but it was a bit exaggerated. The title of this film in Korea is called: ‘Wonderful Days’ what’s that all about? Really?! They sure don’t seem like wonderful days to me.

In the end there’s this one memorable scene that everyone pretty much remembers. All three from this so called love triangle are in the company and all floating around with no gravity, it’s very strange but the biggest laugh of this is one of the characters just float up and you don’t see him, but then he floats back down behind one of the characters standing in the fore ground, but he’s upside down! He’s like done some sort of flip in the air then comes down in the style of Spider Man not only that but it’s like a scene out of Spider Man the way it was shot.

Not much else to say really, I guess all these Japanese anime films and shows always try to be emotional about everything which is okay but they do it a little too often. It’s set in the future, but the thing about films set in the future to me is that once that time comes the film becomes a present day film and once that year passes it becomes a film of the past so it has the ability to change over time, but I think everyone will pretty much forgotten about this by the time 2142 comes.

The Thing

When I first saw the title of the film ‘The Thing’ I thought “this is going to be one of them cliché horror movies” and I was kind of dreading watching the rest of it. Set in the 1980’s however it was pretty good for its time. It’s all about an alien like creature that attacks a bunch of guys at a research institution in Antarctica. It starts actually attacking a dog that the team decides to keep at first, they manage to kill it and analyse it. They don’t know what it is however, which I think is where the title comes from because it is just a ‘thing’. They know however that it can imitate anything, in which adds a lot of suspense to the film because anyone of them at anytime could be the ‘thing’. So basically they are all against each other not knowing who to trust. They find out that the blood of the creature reacts with heat/fire in which it leads to them all carrying out a test with everyone’s blood samples. Apparently the creature was dug out of the ice after who knows how long, maybe suggesting they have been fused with the ice in some way because to me it only makes logical sense that heat would make the blood jump... right? Anyway they go on to literally tie everyone to a chair as they are carrying out this so they can kill them straight away if it is proven they are the ‘thing’. It’s done in such a funny way, they are all so nervous of each other and more tension and suspense is built up to each point they get the result. It’s one of them that makes you feel nervous with them and makes you think how you would react if you was in this situation. They know however that they must kill this thing before its gets out to outside world and takes over the globe and killing everyone and everything in the process.

It a funny film throughout which to me is good to have because I don’t really like films which are always serious about everything, I don’t think there is a film that doesn’t have a funny moment in it, but it’s better to see it more often than not because it gives you something to smile about and to me keeps the viewer (such as me, interested!). It’s basically about a bunch of guys running around an institute in the middle of nowhere trying to get rid of some ‘thing’ threatening to take over the world, it’s basically up to them to save the world. I like those movies and programs on TV where the concept of it the entire time is based in one place, it makes it more fun in my opinion and we get to see more of each character as no new ones are thrown in. This to me now makes me try to remember seeing any women in this film... I don’t recall seeing one and if there was then I certainly don’t remember it, think this is the only movie were there wasn’t one woman in it, this to me adds to the funniness of the film more because it’s a bunch of guys in the middle of nowhere trying to kill something that they don’t have any knowledge of but they must get rid of it before the situation becomes worse, but with no women in there, so there’s no one to make peace and to tell them what idiots they are acting like at certain points of the movie.

Some of the props and creature designs in the movie were good for the time of the 1980’s, there’s that one scene where the doctor shoves in hand into the creature to pull out its organs and see what’s inside so they can analyse the ‘thing’, it’s very gory and makes you want to throw up but it’s makes this ‘thing’ more creepy and scary making the funniness of the overall film better. There’s that one memorable scene where the alien head is trying to get away and it uses its tongue to escape after its body was just incinerated by a flamethrower, after it tries to get away it grows legs, transforming into a spider like creature, which says to me they took bugs as an inspiration to the design of this ‘thing’. We’re always being told that nicking other people’s ideas is a great way to producing our own thing and I think that was a clear yet great example. To me I thought it was a lot more funny than scary and I would actually regard it as one of the best movies I’ve seen.

Blade Runner

Never really understood what was going on in this film. From what I know it’s about some guy whose retired but comes out of retirement to catch these things known as ‘replicants’ which are illegal to create. Basically the ‘replicants’ are clones of humans but they don’t live forever, I guess this is because they could become dangerous and start destroying stuff so they have a fixed lifespan to counter that potential danger. I thought this was a more new film from the 21^st century, I didn’t think it was from the 1980’s at all, I guess its just the new digital age we live in able to re-master everything to look new.

It’s one of those movies I’d never go to see if I’m honest, but it’s the same with games, there’s certain ones I’d never touch. Everyone would probably say that how could I not like a film like this being a Game Art student. Its science fiction set in the future with robots etc. Well set in the future with all kinds of technological robots and stuff, sounds a lot like Halo is? You know all those wars going and fighting going on and blah blah blah... Its funny how when I look at the poster for the movie I think of that kid of thing and would automatically think “this isn’t for me” and “I won’t enjoy this”. And didn’t really, we can’t like every film we see and the same is for games.

I think that there’s too many game and movies that are similar, not saying they are bad but it’s like just repeating an idea that’s already been done over and over in different variations of it, I don’t want to see it over and over again one is enough for me, and that’s what I’m like with films and games now-a-days, I watch or play a game and don’t come back to watch or play it again or at least for a few years. Maybe getting a bit off topic here but that’s just the way it is, if I was around in the 1980’s when this movie was out ad I was offered to go see it, I would decline straight away, but it’s like living in the modern age of gaming, if someone offered to buy me Call of Duty or Halo or whatever, I’d decline straight away, if the ask me why I’d probably say that I’ve already played Grand Theft Auto and it’s basically the same thing and enough for me.

Everything I feel is just a repeat of Pac-Man which is funny because we discussed this not long ago how a game like Halo is basically a modified version of Pac-Man. Another important factor in this film is that it’s one of them dark gloomy looking films throughout, which I’m not a fan off at all. They are some certain instances when I don’t mind these kinds of setting but in film definitely not, in game a bit more likely because in game you control what’s going on, and interactivity is what makes gaming better for me rather than just having to sitting there for ages watching a film. I know I ramble on about this a lot but that’s just me really.

We did talk about the elements of environments within games not long ago, I sort of said that everything in a game or movie or whatever is created to try and make an impact on the person viewing or playing, for me though, as soon as I see the front cover a game, I’ll automatically think this is or isn’t something I’d play, I really shouldn’t judge books by covers as they say but for me that’s just the way it’s gone and is now, just like with this movie.

The ending to the movie is something of which I don’t forget but it's about as much as I can remember, I think it all comes down to the main character having to kill the last remaining replicate and it’s so close to killing the main character but doesn’t! The main character is hanging off a ledge and the robot thing doesn’t kill him! WHY?! They never take the chance, they always mess around and then they are the ones who are killed. The same thing is games though, can’t say I’ve seen this done a few times, but for me games have an excuse to end good, because you’ve actually got someone playing through the game and they aren’t going to be rewarded at the end if the character gets killed are they? But in films... well you can’t exactly be rewarded for sitting there and watching can you? Maybe that’s why they invented interactive DVD’s to compete with gaming more, you know if you beat a quiz and it shows you extra scenes? It’s just doesn’t work for me though. I find that maybe games and films take stuff from each other and that some games are inspired by movies and vice versa, they all can have different directions and everyone has different likes and dislikes, it’s just what you like really. We talked about clichés not long ago and I thought that maybe this movie and ending to it was a lot like seeing manga on Deviant Art really...