Friends with Benefits

Mila Kunis is hot. Nuff said (and all there is to say).

Kill List

You know that game where one of you starts a story then take it in turns to complete it without knowing what had already been written on the paper? Well Kill List appears to have been scripted with that method,  the first hour and a half  was incredible but then the last 10 minutes totally leftfield and completely different.

Throughout the beginning of this film I was thinking what a directorial masterpiece.  The pace was slow but steady and intriguing; it was like reading a really good book, capturing your attention and sparking your imagination. Nothing you expected to happen happened, it came across as a really predictable film but wasn’t, you thought you knew for sure what was happening next and it was subsequently different.

It juxtaposed graphic violence that was gritty and real - think Paddy Considene and Shane Meadows - with fights scenes akin to Bridget Jones.  It was spectacularly done, with some pure comedic one liners, actual laugh out loud lines contrasting with covering your eyes/ears scenes of anticipation of the unimaginable.

Most people speak today of audiences being desensitized and that nothing shocks anyone anymore but this should have a rating all of its own.  It was almost a homage to QT with the black screens with white text and graphic violence but arguably million times better than QT and his Hollywood budgets.

I have never sat in a cinema where there was complete silence, no one moving, whispering, eating, drinking or, it seemed, even breathing.  Looking around everyone had their hands nervously near their faces.  It wasn’t so much that anything happened that was jumpy or particularly that horrific when thinking along the lines of commercial horrors (Saw, Hostel etc), but the build up with the emotionally evoking score that was masterfully composed to combine the right amount of pensive tension with fear.  At one point people actually were covering their ears rather than their eyes as the sounds were so creepy.

Have no idea why it changed at the end, it was truly bizarre, I will not spoil it but there is no way to guess unless you have read any real reviews.  I went into this film knowing that it was a British film and that the title sounded good, thinking to myself that I hadn’t seen an 18 that seemed that more disturbing than a 15 nowadays, however this needed its own rating.

With a virtually unknown cast and only the second outing for the director and a minimal budget of only £500,000; it shouldn’t  be put solely in the genre of “horror” and all the negative commercial ideas that generates, for it is more than just a horror,  it wouldn’t give you nightmares as you know you could never be in that situation, or if you are you have most definitely chosen to be, but it does provoke horrific thoughts whilst watching the film, as everyone knows the imagination is the scariest thing…

The skin I live In

So we walk out the cinema and my mum says to me “well that was a waste of 2 hours, but I didn’t not enjoy it!” make of that surmise what you will, but what I say is this… where the hell has Antonio Bandaras been hiding his acting talent all these years, the only thing recognisable about him was his static aesthetics, his facial gesticulation and body language was alien to his normal tongue in cheek performances.

There was none of the Hollywood slickness or sharpness however the grittiness of this film gave it character.  It was definitely “foreign” both in content and style.  The soundtrack once again made the film over the visuals, although one could argue that the mis-en-scene in each freeze frame was very thought through, perhaps the work of a want to be artisan. Which I suppose is to be expected from Pedro Almodóvar whose track record includes 2006’s Volver and Bad Education from 2004.

It was true escapism without a thought of the outside world (apart from the odd camera angle giving the leading lady, Elena Anaya,  a striking resemblance to the delectable Natalie Portman yum yum).   Although it is worth a mention that the themes of surgery potential and DNA/Genetic mutations are very current and thought provoking if you are that way inclined. 

The timeline was played with a little to keep your interest but not enough to lose the audience, the handy "6 years later" etc text helped as well!

I came away confused (not because it was to hard to follow more that it was hard to comprehend) or at least in the words of the special needs donkey “I think I am confused but I am not sure”, although what I am definitely sure of is that am taking up Spanish and Yoga again… 

Apollo 18

We’ve all done it, sat in the cinema, comfy(ish) seat in the dark and felt our eyelids slowly droop as we allow the lethargy to sink in, especially if the film is not exactly a thrilling gripper, just like this one, Apollo 18.  However every time your eyelids drop in this they are suddenly yanked wide open by the heart attack a sudden shit your pants jumpy bit flashes on the screen.  With hardly any dialogue (in its place a very compacted soundtrack) and absolutely no character building this film is hard to get into, add to the that the Blair Witch/Cloverfield filming technique which is no good  for epileptics or those to whom just the thought of Alton Towers makes them feel woozy there is not much really going for this film.  However there is no, in any way shape or form, love story sub plot so that is a refreshing bonus, but it does mean there is no eye candy!

Having said all that I did enjoy it, if only because I didn’t know whether the next pointless jump would be the end of me old ticker!  As well as, just like the next person I love a good conspiracy theory and cover up!