Film Lover Reviews

So I’m starting a new mini project to jump start my film reviews and entertainment insider gossip. Hopefully I’ll review enough films for you folks to go out and get some new films or see up and coming films. I’ve posted a few film trailers of films i want to see or buy in previous posts, but I haven’t written a review of what I thought of them when I had watched them! I have a huge back log of films i have reviewed on my desktop which need to be published too, but I’m super behind and the films I’ve done are a year old or so. They shall be up and online soon!

Film reviews will have the titles, Glued, Film Review or Sy’s Movie Corner. I haven’t yet worked anything out, and any ideas will be greatly appreciated! I’ll also post links to various review content that i personally love or find so interesting, that I just had to share, beyond the means of Twitter or clogging up Facebook. Lots of support and idea’s my way please!!

My love of film goes very deep, but I will go into a another post a while about my history with film and my experiences studying for TV and Film, the funny comparison with Hitchcock and my birthday and the love of a brilliant actor over time. My reviews are old and shit, excuse my French, but check them out and comment anyway. I shall go now, enjoy previous posts below and watch the trailers of films I’m dying to see. I’ll also post up personal reviews from folks who are willing to have their thoughts shared, and links to other blog posts.

Films I Need to See!

And tomorrow’s showing of This is England ’88 (series 2) on Channel 4

Previous Posts

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain!

Karl Urban is Judge Dredd: Oh Yeah!

 

 

Related articles

• Film Review: The Artist (filmophilia.com)
• Film Review: My Week With Marilyn (filmophilia.com)
• Film Review: The Help (filmophilia.com)
• The Three Musketeers – Film Review (firstchoice.co.uk)

Love Letters To Myself

Last night, and this morning I watched the film Beautiful Lie’s starring Audrey Tautou, Nathalie Baye and Sami Bouajila. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see, as romantic films are a new venture for me. I hoped that the story wouldn’t be yet another girl meets boy and she messes everything up in the middle, with a bittersweet ending with boy telling girl he loves her after she has apologised. Funny thing is though, this film is quite similar except with a slight character twist and the unpredictable events. It’s a beautiful film, and all fans of Amelie and Coco Before Chanel will love it (especially as the director of the latter film has directed this one). I love it, and highly recommend it.

In fact, after watching it I became inspired to sit and write a few love letters to myself, and I thought about how I could introduce this film to a friend who is an avid film lover like myself – that is the tricky situation I will try to work out… he hates romantic films!

Beautiful Lies (2011)

The idea of writing love letters to myself is something I’ve thought about doing, but I never really sat down and ever planned one or wrote one. I didn’t see the point of writing letters about love since I had no positive understanding of it, and now that I’ve experienced it briefly with a Belgian man it seems I still have a lot more to learn. Besides, I’m 23 – I feel I’ve missed out of valuable years of learning already and I’m not getting any more chances to try again.

What goes in a love letter? How do I start one? How do you make the other person quiver at the sight and sense of your words? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself and to be honest I’m stumped. I can’t say ‘I love you,’ or ‘You are my sunshine…’ as I’ll be writing to myself. I want to feel the words leave my mind and see them on the page. I want my heart to flutter every time I refer to it in the future… I want it to be so fleeting that if I forget, it will brighten up my day when I’m feeling lost, low or bored.

Daily affirmations have come into my head; maybe I can write an extended affirmation and post it to myself? Writing about myself, writing about my body, my mind and the things that make me happy, however I’ll have to limit myself as I don’t want it to be too revealing. The love letter in Beautiful Lies is, well, beautiful. Watching the reaction of the characters’ once they had read the letter themselves was enough for me to wonder what it would be like to receive one. I’ve never had one and I highly doubt I ever would as classic romanticism is hard to find unless you are rich, if you are then you can pay for it.

For the following 7 days, I’m going to test something. I’m going to write several letters of love to myself, and possibly add that little bit extra with letters of self-love back. Who knows what I could find out? This could be a very positive project.

Have any of you written love letters to yourselves? Or sent one anonymously?

Sex and the City to Return to TV?

*Claps*

*Squeal*

OMG!

L - R: Charlotte, Carrie, Miranda & Samantha

I’m a huge fan of Sex and the City. I have both movies, and all the episodes on DVD sitting with the films and shows I ‘need’ under my widescreen TV. All in easy reach of course. When I saw the first film, like a real fan I cried when Mr. Big and Carrie Bradshaw were supposed to get married and he flaked at the last minute leaving the upset Carrie to drop her beautiful lilies in the middle of a one way New York street. I cried like so much when I bought the DVD and lay on the bed watching it. To this day, it is some serious hard hitting and emotional stuff. Oh how many women like myself, have fallen in love with the life Carrie leads. With her column, love, fashion and her fabulous friends, no wonder the show was a huge success.

WATCH THIS:

Links

Yahoo UK http://uk.omg.yahoo.com/gossip/the-juice/sex-city-return-tv-085544190.html

Marie Claire UK http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity/530251/sex-and-the-city-to-return-to-tv.html

Will Film Destroy These Comics?

As much as we all love a good film, and more importantly a great coercion of comic book whacking, and jaw dropping cliff-hangers with a colourful film reel with tights, spandex and PVC, there comes a point when I get, or you, don’t get what we expect. If like me you are a comic book enthusiast, then you know what I’m talking about. At the same time, it’s not just the comic book movies’, its adaptations taken from the written word that has a 50/50 chance of landing a good review or a bad one… maybe that quota is off somehow? 25% chance of a good review? I’m just being harsh… or am I?

I can’t tell you how romantic it is to lay in bed with AC/DC blaring through the stereo flicking through a new magazine, comic book or novel, just letting my mind escape into another dimension. A world where it’s possible to fly around and watch how love grows in Superman, or teaching lessons to young big-headed, drugged up superheroes in Bad Boys. Oh the possibilities are endless when bad mouthing ancient demons in Constantine or just trying to ‘live’ the best way you can in iZombie (Vertigo Comics).

I love movies, and I love comics, but there are some stories I never expected to come to the silver screen, and there are others I’ve read that I personally worry about coming to a cinema near you, due to past events of ‘good-but-grim’ adaptations. I won’t list any as I’m sure there will be films that I like that most people will not, and vice versa. Comic book fandom and debate is a huge arena and I can’t be bothered right now =P

Very classy Superman, very classy.

Ok, so here’s the thing, I’d love to find out what comics and graphic novels you’ve read and enjoyed so much, that you think the silver screen would ruin them… unless you have a writer and director in mind you think would do them justice. I wrote a script as part of a script writing module at film school a while back, and we had to base the scripts on books from the crime genre. It was straight forward; get a book, read it and develop a synopsis and a script for a new TV drama. What my lecturer didn’t say was the ‘kind of book’ I should adapt. I chose Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets issues #1-7 for episode 1. From the day I finished the script I started thinking about how awesome it would be to have it as a one time drama, shown on FX or the BBC. That got me thinking about other comic book movies/TV shows that have been, or have yet to be adapted:

House of Mystery (Vertigo), Sturges & Willingham

House of Mystery

I would love to see this as weekly TV series. The mini stories within a handful of comics is enough to entertain people, and keep drawing them in. The idea behind the story is a fantastic one too; paying for your drinks by telling stories to a pub full of strangers. Imagine that, not having any money for drinks! The story pattern is similar to that if many TV shows, as there is one main story that has the protagonist ‘growing’ over time, with mini stories that have a life expectancy of 2 or 3 weeks at a time. I wouldn’t know which actors would be great, but I’d love to see Ryan Murphy’s name as producer! Oh my… that would be amazing.

Cinderalla - Spin off from Fables (Vertigo), Willingham

Fables

I love Fables, and I love Willingham, but I don’t think a silver screen or TV adaption would help at all; whether it’s shown as a cartoon, animation, manga or a show with real life actors. It’s too good a series to be adapted, you have to read it, enjoy the artwork and immerse yourself into another world view of our childhood characters. There have been a few spin-offs within this series, like Jack of Fables and the amazing novel Peter & Max written by Willingham. This series is deep, fascinating and waiting a week for new comics is too much for me, so waiting for one TV series to end and the next series to start will have me boiling like a kettle on a hob. I’m just being selfish I guess… the wait for each new Wednesday kills me! Hehe!

 

Constantine

I can’t express enough how much I adore Hellblazer, but the movie has its major ups and significant minor lows. Okay, firstly John Constantine (the blond fella) is a Liverpool native, his age is questionable as he seems unable to age, blond and he is famous for wearing a brown trench coat. Was that reflected in the film? No…. there was a mini outcry at 2 comic book shops i love when we all discussed the poster of the film before it came out, and we were all apprehensive and worried Hollywood fucked up yet another British ideology. However, we weren’t too upset once the film had come out. Keanu Reeves was a brilliant John Constantine, and Djimon Honsou played an excellent Papa Midnite, but part of me still thinks they should have waited until an English guy could play Constantine. I see their reasons for casting Mr. Reeves (special features on DVD or Blu-ray), and I can’t blame them, but I don’t expect a second movie coming any time soon. These days there are more actors who could play Constantine, but who knows? Constantine (2005) is still one of my top films!

Those are my quick examples. Tell me of yours and give me links! Comment below =]

[CROATOA]

100 Bullets (Vertigo) Azzarello