My blog: Some thoughts on films

So this first one I liked the sound of when I read an interview with Zooey Deschanel and she was describing the people in the film and how it all worked because they all looked like they could be related. When I read who was in it I knew I’d be into it, as mentioned Miss Deschanel is in it as is Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Rashida Jones, Emily Mortimer and Steve Coogan.

Our Idiot Brother:

30 Minutes or Less

This is another film that will be excellent for the people in it. Jesse Eisenberg is way up there on my hottie list (I like the nerd rocking a Jewfro look). Also Aziz Ansari is one of the best things about my favourite TV show Parks and Recreation and Danny McBride’s deadpan one liners can do no wrong. Two guys are made to rob a bank when one of them unwittingly gets a bomb strapped to his chest.

The Change Up

This one looks super silly but could be fun. Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds envy each others lives and in a Freaky Friday stylee they change into each other. 

Terri

This next one is from the producers of Blue Valentine and Half Nelson which got my interest. It looks like a nice light-hearted, warm film. Teased by his peers and orphaned to his ailing uncle, Terri finds a surprising friendship with his vice principle, played by John C Reily.

What’s Your Number?

This one actually looks like it could be terrible, but I couldn’t resist putting it in here for all the cool names that pop up- Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Andy Samberg, Chris Pratt etc, it just goes too oober soppy rom com at the end. Check it:

This has been a surprisingly upbeat non-bloody-horror-type trailer update, which makes a nice change. I’ll try and get some gore in next time.

who did not know that Jason Schwartzman was the drummer for the band Phantom Planet?

Doing my usual IMDB search (stalk) after becoming slightly obsessed with Bored To Death I found this little bit of info out. It said he started the band when he was fourteen so I assumed he left to do acting, but oh no he was there when they did that one song we all know from The O.C. Check out Max Fischer here on drums:

This may well be something EVERYONE knew except me, just like Skeet Ulrich NOT being Johnny Depp’s cousin. Which I’m still coming to terms with.

And that’s your fun fact for the day. Now go watch Bored To Death, Jason Scwartzman can do no wrong.

I got the fantastic opportunity to review a great film called Ink for HorrorTalk recently and as if that wasn’t enough, I even got to ask the director, Jamin Winans, a few questions. The film  is worth watching and Winans is definintely got a bright furture ahead of him. 

To read the review click here and to read the interview click here. 

My review for the film Red Riding Hood for the website Manchester’s Finest is here if you could check it out. Much obliged! 

Last night CUC Cinema (Liverpool’s newest independent cinema) showed a free screening of the George Romero’s classic horror film Night of the Living Dead, how nice of them was that? 

I really enjoyed it, I’ve seen it many times before but it has been a while since I last saw it and I remembered a few things I had forgotten:

1 How annoying is Barbara? You just want to shake her and say, “Goddammit woman! Get it together!” Yeah the world’s being taken over by flesh eating zombies but lying on a coach isn’t going to change that. It really made me think about how the representation of women in horror films has changed, you wouldn’t catch these chicks freaking out:

2 The line, “They’re coming to get you Barbara!” is probably my favourite line in a film ever and it’s all down to delivery. It’s fantastic,well done Johnny. So creepy and sets that mood for the entire film. We got there just in time as we were a little bit late and I would have been SO GUTTED to miss that line.

3 I was surprised at the amount of people there who had obviously never seen the film before, at the end the majority of the crows shouted, “WHAT??” Ha!

4 Lastly, Johnny makes a hot zombie, check it: 

We gotta support these independent cinemas, so if you’re in the area on a tuesday look here for listings of awesome films. Next tuesday in the spirit of weddings they are showing Muriel’s Wedding, nice choice. Tickets will be back to the cheap as chips price of £4.50. Follow them on Twitter here too.

The excellent website Manchester’s Finest features two reviews I’ve written recently 

Click on the pictures above to view the articles.

Follow Manchester’s Finest on twitter here!

I’ve been pretty reluctant to talk about the remake of The Crow which seems to be happening, mainly because if I don’t talk about it- IT WON’T HAPPEN (in my mind).

The Crow was one of my absolute favourite films growing up, in fact, before i finally watched The Lost Boys it would have been my favourite film. I watched it every weekend when I was 13 and knew all the lines off by heart. Add that to wearing a Marilyn Manson beanie hat to school everyday and you get the picture- I was a sad little goth girl. 

First I heard about it Mark Wahlberg was up for the role of Eric Draven, beautifully and sadly played by Brandon Lee in 1994. Today it has been rumoured it could be Bradley Cooper. My face winces at this news! I’ve generally been open to reinterpretations as sometimes they’ve worked, but as Hollywood has churned out numerous and pointless remakes, I’ve grown annoyed and tired. I think it was the Friday the 13th remake that really shattered my belief. This is my ultimate favourite slasher film, it was the first horror film I had seen and within the first MINUTE of the film I knew it was going to be the worst thing my eyes had seen. And I was right.

There is no one who could be cast, no storyline so great, so special effects so awesome that would warrant this film be remade. So please, please don’t.

If you’ve never seen The Crow, go do it now.

Little things used to mean so much to Shelly- I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial. 

I love Scream. When it came out I was obsessed, well…when it came out on VHS and my brother rented it for me, I was obsessed. I was only about 12, so technically too young, but I got how awesome it was. With time the appreciation got stronger as I recognised many of the references and in jokes about other horror films. Anyway, with Scream 4 coming out on Friday, here’s a few of my favourite things about Scream.

Wes Craven 

I always love to play spot the director cameo and this one may be my favourite ever. Henry Winkler (playing Principal Himbry) comes out of his office after hearing a strange noise only to see the Janitor “Fred” in full Freddy gear. So simple, so excellent.

Randy

Though I was young and always sniggered at his name (especially the line “I’m not Randy!” teehee) this guy was my favourite character. What a geek. That’s what I like. One of my favourite scenes is in the video shop where him and Stu are discussing who the killer could be and what motive they have “There’s a formula to it, a very simple formula! EVERYBODY’S A SUSPECT”. He knows his movies so he’s kinda my perfect guy. Here he is explaining “The Rules” of horror films.

Skeet Ulrich

Now I don’t want this to be a blog about fit men but COME ON! This guy is a fox, however something else needs to be said. Up until writing these very words on this blog I was CERTAIN that Skeet Ulrich was Johnny Depp’s cousin. I have infact, on a number of occasions, said “Hey, that guy there…that’s Johnny Depp’s cousin.” Well my world is now shattered as I have just gone to double check this fact and it appears it is not true. At all. So apologies to all of the people I have supplied this false information to HOWEVER, you can see how where my confusion lay as they look exactly the same. I like to think this is a nod to Nightmare on Elm Street, hiring a guy that looks just like Mr Depp in one of his first break through roles. Dammit I’m so annoyed that’s not true.

Kevin Smith

In Scream 3 you get the pretty random cameo of Jay and Silent Bob, I was never that sure about why they randomly turned up on the film and for a long time I thought it was because in the first Scream, when Gail Weather’s gets to the party and places the hidden camera on the video player, there is a close up of some videos one of which is definitely “Clerks”. So I thought this was like a little, “Hey be in this movie bro” type thing. But apparently it’s because Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was filming at the same set, it’s funny because in that film they’re on set of the then ficitional “Scream 4” which Wes Cameos in. I like my reason better.

Parker Posey 

A lot of people really don’t like Scream 3 but for me it’s still pretty perfect for the series. It’s not a serious film, but they know the way horror franchises evolve and it fits that system pretty well. It’s by no means a good film but I still enjoy it, mainly for the fantastic performance of Parker Posey who plays an actress playing Gail Weathers in Stab 3. She’s a fantastic actress and her comedic timing in this film is spot on.

Quotability

Having seen the original Scream films about a million times I can quote it pretty well, some of the lines are just hilarious and high quotability factor in a film is always something I love. Here are some of my favourites:

“Stupidity leak!”

“Ow! You fuckin’ hit me with the phone, dick! “

“Did you really call the police? My mom and dad are going to be so mad at me…”

“Liver alone!”

There is just far too many things I could write here but I’ve gone on too long already so I’ll just leave with this last little thing. The soundtracks to these films are amazing, Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand features in all three films and is super chilling, his voice is perfect for it. The moment you hear it you can’t help but think of Scream. 

What uppp. Haven’t done one of these in a while and this week some very interesting trailers have popped up.

Crazy Stupid Love

This one has the kind of cast that makes you think whoaaaaaah. Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling- all fine actors with great comedic presence. I think it looks really good, pretty funny and not too soppy romantic, check it out.

Hesher

Hesher is one I’ve heard about for a while, it the did the rounds at a few film festivals last year and I saw some very interesting pictures from it. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson. Levitt plays Hesher a loner who lives in a van and is befriended by a kid who invites him to live in his dad’s garage. The trailer doesn’t show too much, I think it’s hard to say what exactly it will be like as I’ve read its a drama but it seems to also have its comical sides to it.

Everything Must Go

This is a new Will Ferrell film, doing his slightly offbeat comedy (a la Stranger than Fiction) which I personally think he should do more of. Looks like a nice funny film to me.

Last up is a trailer from the Beastie Boys for a 30 minute film they will release later in the year called Fight For Your Right Revisited. This is mostly awesome due to the massive names they have featuring in it. It’s a fun game to spot as many as you can. Also it has Will Arnett shouting his signature “COME ON!” which is excellent.

I reviewed the British horror film Patrol Men for HorrorTalk recently, it’d be awesome if you could check it out here. 

I reviewed the latest in the Archie New Look series for Den of Geek, click here to read it.

Oh lord, as soon as I heard about this documentary I knew I HAD to see it. At the moment it’s just doing the rounds at film festivals so no word on when it can officially be seen by us regular peeps. 

This is a documentary about the amazing drummer Patty Schemel of Hole. It uses unseen video footage she taped herself and documents her time in one of the greatest (imo) bands of the grunge era, and then nearly losing it all to her battle with drugs. 

We’re here because Patty’s alive

Hole reformed for the first time in 13 years for the premiere of this film at MoMA  in New York this month for the first screening of the film.

For me grunge was all I listened to growing up and Hole were pretty much my favourite band (after that insane Manic Street Preachers obsession), I read every book about Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain and any book about the Seattle music scene. To delve into this era with unseen footage and interviews with everyone involved is just electrifying.

Check out the trailer here, it gives me goosebumps:

I reviewed a horror film “The Gathering” for the excellent website HorrorTalk which you can view here

You can follow HorrorTalk on Twitter here or “like” them on Facebook here depending on your social network of choice.