A Couple of Good Films

I watch quite a lot of films, as I don't usually watch any television. Only a couple of shows on BBC iPlayer, which I love.

I stopped watching TV pretty much all together a couple of years ago. There Is a lot of rubbish on and its easy just to zone out and watch whatever the box is pumping at you.

My favorite comedies of all time are:

Alan Partridge

Nathan Barley

The League of Gentlemen

Peep Show

The Office

Black Books

Last night I watched "District 9" after seeing the interesting advert on a phonebox (right). Its only now after undertaking a  little bit of research into the makers of District 9, Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tachell, that I see a reason for this film to have good marketing/advertising.

Written by Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell. This is Blomkamp's first feature length movie, he has previously worked on adverts for Nike, Gatorade and most notably the Citroen "alive with technology" advert (below). The advert was hugely successful, it did the one thing an advert should do and stood out. B

Because of the technologically and visually brilliant ice skating robot car, its links with the transformers saga and the choice of music. A Tocadisco remix of "Walking Away" by The EGG. I think its fair to say that the prolonged airing of this advert made this song very successful, increased mainstream interest in house music (granted only a little bit) and probably put another fat cheque into the hands of Tocadisco, who's studio I will look at in another post!

The Film was Great. Captured me from the beginning, violent, funny, action packed (but not over the top) and visually quite brilliant. Trailer below.

Just time for one more film...

I have a great memory of an extremely young me, sitting at a friends house watching one of the Terminator films, I think it was Terminator 2. I was scared. Very scared. Scared to a level that I don't find myself being scared to anymore, especially not by films. Like going on a scary ride at a theme park the thrill and exhilaration of a scary film is a release, both of emotions and of chemicals, we all feel a "fight or flight" high from the adrenaline and dopamine surging through our veins when we experience these emotions, our body is preparing us for one thing: survival. Only a brief time ago, by evolutionary standards, these "fight or flight" chemicals would have been the difference between life or death. Today they are leisure activities for us to experience within controlled environments and at our pleasure and taste. By far the scariest film I have seen in the last couple of years has been REC (record)

REC is a 2007 Spanish horror co-directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The film was released in Spain in November 2007. I think the film was quite widely publicized in the UK and I'm sure it received a good response. However no response can really demonstrate how brilliantly horrifying this film really is. Trailer Below.

The film follows a Spanish reporter for a television channel as she is recording a series called "while you sleep", for her show she accompanies people while they work during the night. The normality and believability of the whole storyline, tied in with the boring and seemingly everyday opening sequences lead you into a state of boredom. As a viewer I felt comfortable, I was lead into a false sense of security.

The film slips you in to a state of discomfort so gradually that you don't even notice it. Like a patient waking up from an anesthetic after the removal of a limb, at first you feel OK, almost dream like and unaware. Then you begin to notice things are very wrong.