All The Reboots

So it seems as if the world of film has finally run out of original stories.

I'm getting sick and tired of all the adaptations and remakes. I guess it's not really too much of a modern thing. Films and franchises are always being remade. But right now I'm sad and tired it.

And the last straw for me, was yesterday, when I heard about the planned remake of Hitchcock's The Birds. Not only is The Birds a Hitchcock classic that should not be tampered with, it's just a story that will not translate into modern horror.

Horror has evolved a lot since 1963. Horror fans are always expecting one step up from the last in terms of horror, shock and gore. The audience will be expecting more and more. I just don't think that the story allows from much more in terms of those 3 elements and if they were to add it, it would diverge to far from the original - therefore losing precious pennies from people who come to see the new film because they are fans of old.

Take the new Carrie for example. For me, it didn't translate into a modern story. So they overcompensated by adding in the whole cyber-bullying aspect which made the whole thing reek of American High School Comedy Drama. Which is not what you envision when you think of a Stephen King novel.

It all boils down to the saying - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

So I felt slightly relieved after stumbling upon this (link) article today. 100 Books to Read Before They're Films. Looks like we will have (if they ever do get funding/produced) some new stories to look forward to and not just some hashed-together, modern, soul-crushing version of some of my old favourite films.

Not bitter at all.

Princess Mononoke

I recently watched a really old favourite of mine. The recite-word-for-word kind of favourite. It would be Princess Mononoke the 1997 Studio Ghibli film.

(source: http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/22800000/Princess-Mononoke-studio-ghibli-22837813-1067-1600.jpg)

Now there is just something about Ghibli films that will always hold a special place for me. The animation is beautiful and the stories are always so fantastically complex for kid's films. In fact, I feel a bit betrayed by the films Hollywood shoved down my throat as a child. I shall be upfront and admit to being a massive Disney cynic. I hate how every Disney princess is a dithering wallflower and give up everything to find a handsome bloke and suddenly everything is magical and sparkly. I hate how every bloody bad person is ugly and the good people are flawless (hello skewed perception and high value of an uncontrollable thing like looks). I generally hate most Disney films. So the highly moral issues tackled in the Ghibli films are refreshing to say the least.

Maybe I'm just glamourising Ghibli's because they are not British or American and are therefore enriching as a cultural change. Who knows. I digress.

So, Princess Mononoke, being my favourite Ghibli follows young Ashitaka, who has been cursed by a demon spirit and forced to become a nomad to find a curse. He finds himself in the position of being a human, part of a culture where unnatural, environment destroying habits are key to life and yet he believes in the natural reign of the forest and nature.

(source: http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/heights/5927/anime/conflict_01.jpg)

Ashitaka is a medium between two other key characters at war: San, a human raised by wolves and spirit creatures and is in denial about her own humanity and Lady Eboshi, girl-power ruler of an industrial Iron Town. This film makes such a brilliant commentary of how humans have strayed from the natural order, creating something not only revolutionary, but also destructive and selfish. Take that shallow Cinderella and your silver slippers!

Fantastic, thought-provoking watch and still, a favourite.

9.5/10

Buried

I heard about the concept for Buried and was immediately dubious about the concept. A film shot entirely in a 5/6ft whatever" set? Surely not! Surely a film needs locations and visual variety in order to be successful?

Now, I'm not going pretend this is the greatest film I've seen, because that, my friends, would be lying. But they have most definitely smashed my dubiousness into smithereens. The way this film works is by the power of suggestion and most films now do depend too much on plating up every bit of information, so this was a refreshing change.

Being completely central to the protagonist, Paul, the performance of Ryan Reynolds is key to the brilliance of this film. It isn't over-done in terms of dialogue. We have no reliance on cheesy internal monologues. No, you're forced to relate to Paul through his panic-ridden expression and actions.

I think if you are willing to watch this film with an open mind, then it's a thrilling watch. For sure a brave concept to pull off, which wasn't ruined by poor execution. I thoroughly enjoyed it as something outside of your multi-character, multi-setting film and as something that couldn't be easily replicated.

On a slight side note - How amazing is the poster for this film?! Very Vertigo.

8/10

Quick Update!

Please forgive me, for I have been shoddy.

So it's been like, what, 2/3 months since I've been on here. I guess I've kept all my film related rants on twitter, as soon as I've watched/heard news about something. Bad, I know. Slap my wrists for abandoning you all.

After receiving an ask.fm message related to SplodgerSpoilers, I decided to log in. I log- in to find I've hit 2000 page views, so thank you all! Seriously! You guys have given me the motivation to make it back and rebirth the blog.

The positive about my hiatus, is I've watched a mountainous amount of films to share with you all and rant about. Content will not be a problem, and now all my exams are over, just got to kick myself to boost my motivation.

Thanks again for helping me hit 2000.

Sincerely,

Apologetic Laura

Nikita [expect serious spoilers on this one]

This French film has a very interesting story line, so I was excited to give it a watch. We follow Nikita, a sociopathic ex-drug addict and gang member, as she is picked up by the government and trained as an assassin. I'm yet to watch the TV series based on this film, so I can't tell you how similar it is in terms of characters and plot, but I can only assume it's similar.

I shall start with the good points. Nikita is probably one of the most visually beautiful films I've ever seen. Every shot it truly gorgeous - just what I expect from a French film. With some really punchy action and gore scenes, expect to have your eyes metaphorically massaged. 

However, I can't ignore the bad. And the bad was the plot and the characters. Two major parts to the success of a great film. 

The biggest problem for me was the ending. This is not just me being an ambiguous ending hater. I love a good ambiguous ending! There was just all this fantastic action and complex set up of relationships, that the ending made the whole thing seem abundant. For one, the way that Nikita's fiance just declared he knew about her work, was a disappointment. The close calls of him finding out, was crying for a major emotional confession from Nikita or a shocking reveal. But no, it was just him casually bring up the missions. This leads on to my next point quite nicely.

I found the characters hard to understand or relate to. Just some of the actions from the characters weren't believable enough. I know this isn't the most realistic plot, but if you choose such a dramatised story, then you need solid characters to make it not seem like utter nonsense. As an audience, we need to believe in the characters in order to engage with a film. 

Saying this, Nikita, is still a very interesting an complex character in terms of her personal development. It was fascinating to see her emotional revolt against the gruesome tasks during the cleaner scene. This is a young female who was emotional shredded before her conviction and training, so to see her establish a life of her own afterward and then the aftermath breakdown was captivating. It's a shame the other characters were less developed and bland. 

Would have loved to have seen more of Jean Reno.

5/10

Saturday Small News

1) For any of you who don't already know (this is probably a minority of people), my all time favorite director is Stanley Kubrick. His work is stunningly cinematic and fascinating. I urge any of you who haven't already, to go and watch this list of fabulous Kubrick films: A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining. They are must sees for anyone interested in film.

Anyway back to the Small News!  For all of you fellow Kubrick fans, earlier this week Kubrick's daughter and grandson opened up a Reddit Q&A session. It is truly amazing to hear about their relationship with the director and get a true incite as Kubrick as a person, not just the meticulous filmmaker.

Here is a link for all that are interested: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/134rvs/stanley_kubricks_daughter_katharina_kubrick_and/

2) Just caught wind of Warner Bros. planning a live-action remake of Pinocchio. Jane Goldman, screenwriter of Kickass and The Woman in Black, is currently been negotiated as screenwriter for the new project. 

The one thing that worries me about this remake is one of the other names that I have heard to be in connection - Tim Burton. I'm not going to say I hate Burton, as I truly do love some of his films, especially Nightmare Before Christmas. However, the problem that I do have with him is he enjoys taking some of my favorite stories and overplaying the whole "I'm a quirky gothic director" thing, thus ruining them for me. I hated Alice in Wonderland, as Burton's style took over the brilliance of the classic tale. So please please, Burton, don't do the same to Pinocchio.

3) For everyone who hated Promethus, take a gander at this. Now I need to get my hands on a copy of the original script

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/opinions/the-8-worst-parts-of-prometheus-explained-in-the-original-script-jsarg.php

4) New Les Mis trailer everyone! Can not wait to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHHHUk8RCw

My Top 5 Favorite Crappy Films

This post was inspired by a blog set up by my friend Alex. His posts will all be "Top 5" list style. So in an attempt to help promote his blog, and because it's a brilliant idea, I'd thought I should it steal for one post, here is this shameless confession of guilty film pleasures.

Alex's blog: http://weebldude.blogspot.co.uk/

We all have those films that we love, but can openly admit that they are pretty shoddy. So, here are mine, laid bare for all you lovely people to see. Feel free to point and laugh.

1) Mean Girls

This is one of those fabulously cheesy American teen comedy films, so please take this film with a pinch (or maybe a ladle) of salt. Mean Girls follows Cady Harring (Lindsey Lohan - post child actor drug and booze rampage) as she enters the scary dog eat dog world of American high school. This over exaggerated representation of high school life is the nucleus for everything that is brilliant about Mean Girls - the bitchiness, the groups and the scare tactic sex education classes. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1y1JYvMlc

2) Exit Through The Gift Shop

A "documentary" from street artist Banksy. Basically this film is trying to pretend to pretend to not be factual.Confusing. In essence it is one big rip-take on how graffiti as an art form, with odd fictional (?)  subplots of the "filmmaker" turned graffiti artist Mr Brainwash. Let's all be honest with ourselves, I don't think the whole concept works, as it's trying a bit too hard to be some crazy commentary on consumerism, but a comedy also. Despite this, I actually like it. I have no idea why!

Lovely but uninteresting fact: The DVD comes free with these amazing Elton John-esque polarising glasses!

3) Bridget Jones' Diaries

Oh come on, I'm female. I'm not even sure if I could include this as a crappy film, it's so bloody brilliant! I'm sure this is one of the most relatable films to anyone with two X chromosomes.

4) Eight Legged Freaks

Giant spiders roam, hilarity ensues! This is a prime example of a mock horror film and it's cringe-worthily bad. Please skip this one if you are the type to faint at the sight of a spider, although this film may momentarily stop your phobia and lull you with its crappy charm. Remember it's all dated CGI!

5) The Human Centipede

Wait, who am I kidding, this film was shoddy and not even half as gruesome as expected.... Sigh.