Scre4m - What's your favourite scary movie?!

I definitely felt the horror genre yesterday as my day started with Sweeny Todd and ended with Scre4m. The demon barber musical directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp was very good and fulfilled all of its gory expectations but it is the fourth in Wes Craven's legendary psycho slasher movies that I want to talk about.

To be perfectly honest I wasn't expecting much. Most of the reviews I had read weren't great and I had already been quite disappointed by the second and third in the series. However, I was actually very good and I don't regret seeing it at all.

The film started very cleverly with a stabbing which turned out to be a film followed by another which also turned out to be a film. After this film inside a film opener it also set out a kind of feeling that it wasn't going to take itself to seriously but was at the same time going to stay true to the genre and the Scream brand. Almost a celebration of the corniness but also brilliance of these slasher movies! I was also quite pleased with the ending and despite guessing all the way through different murderers I was nowhere close to predicting the actual conclusion and it was a good one too!

The performances in the film were also good especially from the likes of Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettierre. I also liked the fact there were the original members of the cast and the return of Sydney Prescott played by Neve Campbell, Gale played by Courtney Cox and Dewey played by David Arquette, although they had all clearly aged and Courtney Cox has certainly been hitting the botox, it was a nice reference back to the original story which worked well with the new decade new rules horror remake idea!

The amount of gore was good too as usually 15 certificate films shy away from showing much of the gruesome stuff but this most definitely wasn't the case especially not in one scene with a murdered girl with her intestines spilling out from her stomach!

It was a really good film and although not totally scary and funny in places because if its stupidity, it did make me jump in places. Also there was enough gore and iconic Ghostface phone calls and attacks to make the film very enjoyable and actually pretty good! My friends and I have also decided to do a Scre4m style Stabathon with all the Scream films followed by all the Scary Movies! So I leave you with the slogan of the film, "What's your favourite scary movie?!"

Easter Holidays

The Easter Holidays seem to have brought with them a somewhat ample amount of material for me to post about. This is most likely because instead of tackling the mountain of homework and revision for my ever closer looming A- levels I have been spending the majority of my time watching films! I therefore have many which I could discuss and don’t really know where to begin so I shall give a sort of brief overview of each one I have watched so far!

Firstly, I have been to the cinema once as I took advantage of the KidsAM offer at vue where you can see a film for one pound and took my sister with my friend and her little sister to see Tangled. The twist on the traditional Rapunzel fairy tale was actually very enjoyable and it was nice to have an original Disney Princess classic once again. The animation was stunning especially the scene with all the floating lanterns. It really was beautiful and I felt myself along with all the younger children in the cinema gaping in awe at the screen! Tangled also appealed to the more modern audience in a manner possibly quite similar to that done by Shrek by lacing a traditional fairy tale with humour which to be fair many films fail at but this attempt was in my opinion very successful.

I have also recently taken great advantage of Sky Anytime using it to watch both Whip It! and Cemetery Junction. Neither was spectacular but they were both watchable and fairly enjoyable. Both debuts of supposed new directorial talent Whip It seeing Drew Barrymore’s first attempt and Cemetery Junction that of Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant. Whip It follows the story of a teenager who discovers her talent for roller derby. Starring Ellen Page it most definitely falls into the same genre of indie retro films as Juno or Adventureland and has a look and soundtrack to back this up. It was pretty good though, funny in places and easy to watch – just a nice and quite fun film! Also I was surprised by Cemetery Junction, although I am not a fan of Ricky Gervais and didn’t understand really what the need for his small cameo role was, but I found the film itself reasonably funny and just a sweet story too which I didn’t think Gervais would be capable of. The 70s setting came across well and the sets and costumes were very well chosen. I also thought that the acting was good and that the three main characters especially Christian Cooke were particularly good. So generally I was pleasantly surprised!

Also I have finally had the opportunity to read and watch The Time Traveler’s Wife. The book was absolutely amazing, I loved it and it has definitely become one of my favourites. Also despite the film not living up to the book as so many adaptations don’t I did like it and this was probably partially down to Erica Bana and Rachel MacAdams who were very good. It wasn’t how I had imagined the book but good as the same.

Then the final film which I watched just this morning is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which I loved! It was a proper action adventure film like Indiana Jones or even the Mummy which we haven’t seen for a long time! It was really good and Jake Gyenhaall and Gemma Arterton were brilliant and I was very impressed by Gyenhaall’s English accent. However the actor who stole the show was Alfred Molina whose tax dodging ostrich race organiser was really very funny. It was just generally a very well made film and I enjoyed the adventure film nature of it.

Hopefully I will get round to doing some work this holiday but I am also looking forward to a week of more film watching ahead, especially a cinema trip to see Scre4m which I can’t wait for!

Brighton Rock

This week I went to see Brighton Rock with a few friends. I am a huge fan of the book and studied it last year at AS level so I was really looking forward to seeing what this new adaptation was like. I had only read bad reviews of the film and so wasn’t expecting much but was still excited to see the film and actually I was generally pleased with most of it.

I thought that the choice to set the classic gangster novel in 1960’s Brighton was genius and the mods and rockers riots worked really well with the violent nature of the story. The cinematography and the look of the film were really good and I thought that the film really looked like it was filmed in the sixties and some of the shots were beautiful. I also really liked the fact that the gruesome and violent parts of the story were stuck to and Pinkie’s death was really effective. The burning of his skin with acid was horrible but amazing and the final shot of him as a crumpled mess at the bottom of the cliff was both disturbing and powerful.

Sam Riley was a very good Pinkie and really captured the confusion of the angry young man and there were very strong moments of him revealing the disturbed psychotic nature of the character’s personality. However, I thought that Pinkie disgust towards Rose wasn’t focused on enough but aside from that he was very well played.

Rose was equally good and I thought Andrea Riseborough really captured her blinding love for Pinkie. Also, I thought her look was very effective; she did come across as the slightly dowdy and dishevelled woman and Riseborough was particularly good at showing her naivety and youth in a way which highlighted Pinkie’s too.

Unfortunately for me the character of Ida wasn’t brilliant though. Helen Mirren is obviously an amazing actress and an icon but maybe this is why she didn’t work as Ida for me. In my head she is the slightly drunk, cheerful motherly figure for Hale and for me this just didn’t come across but it didn’t really take that much away from the film which was good. Also, I wasn’t too sure about Andy Serkis’s Colleoni and felt perhaps he wasn’t as gangstery or powerful as he could’ve been. However, I do think that maybe the period it was set in meant some of these almost stereotypical characters wouldn’t have fitted in that well so I do understand some of the toning down of their characteristics.

I also did like the other members of Pinkie’s mob though and thought that Spicer, Dallow and Cubitt all held their parts well and each added something to the screen be it humour, tension or whatever else.

So all in all it had been a really good film and stuck fairly close to the book but had enough effective alterations to make it something in its own right but for me it all came down to how Rowan Joffe dealt with the iconic ending. The ending of the novel is probably one of my favourite ends to a novel ever when Rose goes off to listen to the record and will inevitably find out the truth about what Pinkie thought of her and the first time I read it, it gave me a kind of sick and at the same time spine chilling feeling. Then, the original film changed the ending to Rose not finding out because the record skips and Rose only hears Pinkie say ‘I love you’ and I understand why they did it in the 1947 version to give a happy ending because it was right for the time. However, when it got to the final scene of this edition I was so disappointed they did the same thing. It actually made me quite angry and I couldn’t believe that this film which up to then had been one which had so much potential for me to be one of the best films I’d seen in ages ruined it by not taking advantage of the amazing ending in the novel.

However, apart from that it was a brilliantly made film and I would recommend it and was most certainly not a waste of time or money which I think is always a plus point to a film!

Books and Films

In a vain attempt to keep posting once a week I've decided to post before the weekend to ensure I do actually write something! So earlier, whilst enjoying a lonely albeit sunny train journey on my way to buy an new outfit for a party on Friday, my mum's birthday present and inevitably something I don't need most likely of the make-up variety, I decided it would be a good idea to start writing this post!

The sudden spell of sunny weather today has made me think that perhaps I ought to make the most of it and spend my free time reading instead of watching films. Although, obviously I cannot stop and still watch on average at least five films a week, I feel I need to start reading more too in order to be outside more! So, until I have something to read I have compiled a list of book related films which I love!

One of the best adaptations of a book into a film for me probably has to be Chocolat. The book is written by Joanna Harris and the film stars Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. To anyone who hasn't read or even seen it, it is about a woman who moves to a little provincial town in France and sets up a chocolaterie much to the disgust of the townspeople. Sounds terrible put like that but it's really sweet and I would strongly recommend it; it is probably in my top ten films of all time!

I also need to mention a disastrous adaptation of one of my favourite novels ever. PS I Love You by Cecilia Ahern is a beautiful book. I absolutely love it and it makes me cry every time I read it! However, the film was a huge disappointment. Not only did it totally change a lot of the original story, but it also failed to affect me emotionally at all! The casting was atrocious as well and possibly the main thing wrong with the whole thing! I generally have a problem with accents in films and they nearly always tend to ruin them for me. There are very few films in which there are actors putting on an accent that I would say is faultless. Naturally doing an accent is very difficult and I would say that Irish is particularly hard to get right without sounding like a ridiculous caracticature. Unfortunately, Gerard Butler fails to get the accent right and his performance completely brings down the film. Also, in the case of Hilary Swank, in my mind she couldn't be more wrong for the part. Intensely irritating throughout and what could've been an amazing film turned out to be a massive car crash of a disappointment!

Generally, I think it's quite hard to get an adaptation right and I think few are perfect. It is also difficult not to be over critical of any adaptation if you have read the book as without a shadow of a doubt it will be different to what you pictured and there are very few cases where the film will exceed your expectations.
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Never Let Me Go

Well it has been a long time since I've written anything as I've sort of fallen out of habit for various reasons. Firstly, there was the French exchange which seemed to last well over a week and took up nearly all of my time! Then I've been overloaded with work the last couple of weeks at college and I had a French exam too yesterday. But also all of my friends 18ths have seemed to come round really quickly and so I've been out pretty much every weekend too!! I also haven't had an awful lot to talk about either in terms of film then three films have all come at once but I want to focus solely on the best one which is possibly one of the best films I've seen for ages!!

Despite the French exchange being a bit of a waste of a week we went to watch Never Let Me Go the film based on the novel by Kazou Ishiguro. It tells the story of three children Tommy, Kathy and Ruth, who grow up in a boarding school for children who are created to become organ donors. It follows the journey of the three and how their relationships change and how their love for each other alters over time as they deal with this process and come to terms with their inevitable fate.

Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan were amazing and I thought they played their parts really well. There was also a very good albeit small performance from Domhnall Gleeson and a variety of others including Sally Hawkins. Unfortunately I found Keira Knightley to be her usual slightly irritating self but luckily it wasn't so unbearable that it distracted me from the film itself. The look of the film was also really good. I loved all the sets especially Hailsham and the cottages and the costumes were very well chosen and I thought showed the different eras and progression of time very effectively too.

Generally it was just a really sweet, nice film but it did unfortunately and rather embarrassingly make me cry a lot (much to the amusement of our French exchange partners who were not as involved in the film as we were!). I would definitely recommend it and it is worth watching!

One of the other films I watched recently, one which was equally cute, was L’arnacoeur/Heartbreaker with Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis. It was quite a soppy, girly film but it was good and quite funny in places. I especially enjoyed the scene where Romain Duris did Johnny’s dance from Dirty Dancing! The ending was also obvious as it was a typical two who shouldn’t get together do kind of story but I enjoyed it and was very surprised that I understood nearly all of the French without subtitles!

I am from now on going to attempt to post more frequently even though I am pretty sure it won’t last long. I’ll have to keep on top of my film watching too so that I have something to talk about too!

Billy Elliot and Pineapple Dance Studios

On Thursday I went on an amazing trip to see Billy Elliot The Musical in London. It was incredible! We started the day with a dance class at the legendary Pineapple Dance Studios with one of the cast members of the musical. We learnt the finale of the show and despite my having not danced for about five years I was impressed that I was actually able to do it! It was amazing and although to my disappointment we didn’t see Louis Spence, just being inside the Studios was fantastic. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be and so busy. There was an audition going on and so there were people everywhere but I absolutely loved it.

After a quick look round Covent Garden and a stop at Pizza Hut for lunch we headed to the Victoria Palace Theatre to see Billy Elliot. It really was amazing, jaw droppingly so, I loved it so much and it is definitely, without a shadow of a doubt the best musical I have ever seen. The show itself was mind blowing! The choreography was brilliant as were the songs and whole structure of it. The film was really done justice and translated really well onto the stage. The Billy we saw, Scott McKenzie, was incredible. He excelled Jamie Bell in terms of dancing and his singing and acting was amazing too. I especially loved the scene Billy is really angry and just dances, in the film it’s to the song Town Called Malice by The Jam, but on stage it was just so much more intense, it was incredible!

Also, just like the film there was a great balance between the themes and emotions. There were very funny moments, with Billy grandma’s song We’d Go Dancing and Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher. However, the star of the show with regards to comedy was the character of Michael. His song with Billy, Expressing Yourself was hilarious but again also showed just how talented the kids were with their incredible tap dancing! Also, the more intense moments were very well done. The relationship between Billy’s brother, Tony and dad, Jackie (played by Martin Marquez/ Gino from Hotel Babylon!) was very emotional as was everything to do with the miner’s strikes in general and when Jackie collapsed onto the floor into Tony’s arms I couldn’t stop crying. Even the song Electricity, when Billy is explaining why he loves dance so much, had me almost started to blub. But, by far the most emotional part which had me and, I would say, just about everyone else in the theatre, in floods of tears were the songs Dear Billy (Mam’s letter) and Dear Billy (Billy’s reply) both were beautiful songs and really showed Billy’s reaction to losing his mother when he was so young very well. Although, for some reason I think cried more at the film but I think this is mainly because of Julie Walters’ amazing acting!

I also would have liked it to have ended in the same way as the film with Jackie and Tony going to watch Billy dance in Swan Lake when he’s older and to have seen him dance then but I did love the dream dance between Billy and his older self. Although, the Swan Lake music gave me flashbacks to Black Swan, the dance was amazing and beautifully performed.

In general, as I am sure you can tell, I loved everything about it. I would most definitely recommend that everyone goes to see Billy Elliot The Musical if they have the chance and also votes for them for the Olivier Award because they certainly deserve it!

The Oscars

It is hard to know where to begin with regards to this year’s Academy Awards but I’ll give it a go by starting with the start!

The hosts. James Franco and Anne Hathaway. To be honest they started well with a fairly funny, very well put together homage to the year’s films just with themselves photo shopped into them. This reasonably good start was not kept up and what followed were four hours of stilted conversation, obvious lack of chemistry, bad jokes and over staging which was attempted to be rectified by the impressive use of technology for sketches. Although, I was very impressed with Anne Hathaway’s beautiful singing voice this was detracted from with James Franco in drag which was just another unfunny and unnecessary addition!

The look of the ceremony itself however was faultless. The Swarvoski crystal encrusted stage was beautiful as were most of the dresses which stood on it. I also loved the background screens and all the effects used were very impressive.

Anyway to the awards themselves. Overall I was very happy with the way they were distributed there was no clean sweep for one film and I felt that there were few films which missed out on recognition they deserved. I was so happy that the King’s Speech walked away with so many awards and very glad it won best film. Also, I am over joyed that Colin Firth has finally got an Oscar which he definitely deserves.

Other winners included the brilliant Natalie Portman for her unsettling role in Black Swan and Social Network also took away several well deserved awards as did Toy Story 3. The Fighter also received a substantial amount of acclamation but I can’t really pass judgement as I am yet to see it.

Generally, I thought it was a very good ceremony and I really enjoyed the commentary programme with Alex Zane, Brix Smith Start and Edith Bowman too.

On another note, this week a twitter craze has swept college and I have now become addicted. You can find and follow me here http://twitter.com/#!/RachaelJoTurner!! Also, at the moment I am beyond exciting for a trip tomorrow to London on which I am not only going to see the amazing Billy Elliot but get to take part in a dance class at Pineapple Dance Studios with the cast too! Now although this could lead to a lot of embarrassment due to the fact I cannot dance to save my life I am so excited it is ridiculous!