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The Greatest Speech Ever Written, by Charlie Chaplin is my favourite speech. Although, it is sad how relevant that speech still is to modern society.
The second speech that has really hit home is this one by Preacher Phil Snider. His 2012 speech creates shock and gives a fresh perspective on the pro-gay rights scene.
If you don’t have time to watch to the end of this speech, here is the surprise ending… Continue reading
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Zhon: The Alien Interviews is a sci-fi comedy/drama web-series made in Southern Arizona by a group who self-funded the project.
The series is of a man, known as Zhon Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt, who claims to be an extra-terrestrial and has wandered Earth for thousands of years. He tells his story during an interview by the Secret Service.
I have watched the first episode, “Here’s Zhonny!” and I am quite keen to see more!
This genre is right up my alley, since I am into the comedic and dramatic Doctor Who (David Tennant) series. Tapping into an original and creative tangent of the classic sci-fi genre with very eccentric characters! Zhon: The Alien Interviews is certainly one out of the box!
It is an off-beat journey with rather quirky characters. The script is well written with dialogue that is authentic. The use of silence is very well executed! Particularly… Continue reading
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Okay, it was NOTHING like I thought it would be like.
This is not a happy-go-lucky, up beat and freeing movie like the trailer makes it out to be. In fact, it has a lot of very serious themes, making this high school drama rather dark, and not at all light hearted.
Despite the totally unexpected storyline, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a very emotional journey – you laugh just as hard as you cry in some parts. So it evens out into a humbling story.
The main character, Charlie (Logan Lerman) and both of his friends Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller), each go through massive emotional roller coasters. Huge changes to their lives that are developed incredibly well. Feelings and emotions are messy, unexplainable and complicated, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower accurately represent them this way… Continue reading
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I literally did not sleep last night.
I remember seeing snippets of this film when I was about 11, but I had not remembered how effective the horror aspect of it was! It is the best horror/psychological thriller I have seen in a very long time.
Three film makers go missing in the woods while covering the legend of the Blair Witch that supposedly haunted the area. The film makers were never found again, but their footage was, which makes up this film.
Pretty simple plot line with amateur filming which is very convincing! The idea of this horror is that the less you see the more your imagination runs a riot. You never actually see any witch or any sort of witch craft or… Continue reading
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I mentioned this song in my review of Django Unchained in which this song was featured.
It is an amazing song with awesome voices! The slow pace of the song and the drawn-out lyrics represents the struggle of moving forward and finding freedom.
Life hasn’t been very kind to me lately…
…in time the sun’s gonna shine on me nicely
Fantastic singers! The drums are solid and sturdy with little in the way of ‘busy’ instrumentation. Continue reading
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Django.
The D is silent.
Well, I got to say, the first quarter of the movie is incredible! Django (Jamie Foxx) being freed by a strange man named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and the show-down that occurred between Schultz and the Speck Brothers who were transporting Django and other slaves to a plantation. This is where Django and Schultz become a team and continue the journey as Bounty Hunters (killing criminals and selling their corpses for rewards).
It was a fantastic start to another incredible Tarantino film… Or at least that’s what I thought… Let me tell you, the idea of “less is more” is not something that Tarantino agrees with.
It slowly (and boy do I mean slowly!) unravelled to reveal a story that consisted of long scenes of dialogue with very sudden outbursts of bloody gunfire that would last an eternity… Continue reading
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As you may have noticed, the world is not at its end. You may be pondering why this may have not occurred. Here are some of my suggestions… 1. After time travelling back to the beginning of the Mayan calendar, Doctor Who attempted to speak to the Mayan elders to extend the end of the calendar to a much further date in time. He was unsuccessful and was accused of being a witch doctor. He tried to explain that he wasn’t a Doctor Which, but a Doctor Who…
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Today may or may not be the end of the world.
If it is, I am predicting a zombie apocalypse, and armed with my knowledge of zombie movies, I shall guide you to survival with my top tips!
Of course, depending on what zombie movie we are studying, depends on what actions will be required. Because the Shaun of the Dead lazy and stupid zombies need to be treated completely differently to the manic sprinters that are in Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead and Zombieland, or the vampire-like zombies in I Am Legend who have wild dog side-kicks, meaning that animals are vulnerable to the infections too! Continue reading
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“Truth, beauty, freedom and love.”
I have never been a fan of sappy romance, and I still am not. Because Moulin Rouge! is not at all sappy or unbelievable, nor does the music break the suspension of disbelief. I think that it is because the acting is not over the top or overly theatrical at all.
Ewan McGregor plays the protagonist, Christian, who is a writer who wants to write about love, but with one problem being that he has never been in love. That is until he meets Nicole Kidman’s character, Satine, a courtesan at the Moulin Rouge. Satine is forbidden to fall in love, so they must keep their relationship a secret. Continue reading
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I have never really been a fan of musicals, but Grease is certainly an exception and an all time favourite of mine. Musical or not, it’s fifties costumes and authentic hair-dos are enough to make me love this optimistic film. I love this era and it’s portrayed in the most idyllic light. Obviously Grease is essentially a stage play which isn’t lost in the movie form with the occasional fourth wall barriers lost.
Based in a high school environment, the seventeen and eighteen year old characters were almost unconvincingly played by actors in their late twenties and early thirties. But the whole shebang is so up-beat, colourful and exciting that you…
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Big Fish is directed by Tim Burton, so already you have probably got an idea of what the feel of this film is. A little bit quirky with gothic undertones, but don’t be fooled, this is not a cookie-cutter Burton film (typically including the incredible Helena Bonham-Carter), this is an amazing tale about Edward Bloom’s (Albert Finney/Ewan McGregor) life.
The protagonist is a storyteller although he is known to exaggerate and embellish the story of his life… Continue reading
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‘Son of a nutcracker’! It’s almost Christmas.
Not only did Elf win the poll, but it is also appropriate as it is the festive season. This is a pretty funny Christmas comedy movie with many hilarious one-liners that have really stuck, even after all these years!
Will Farrell does a great job playing “Buddy the Elf” – the human who was raised by Santa’s elves – who goes on a journey travelling through the seven levels of the candy cane forest, past the sea of swirly-twirly gumdrops, and then, walks through the Lincoln tunnel to discover New York. This is where he finds… Continue reading
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This song was recommended to me by a friend of mine and I absolutely adore it. It is a sad song but very relatable. They are an Australian band consisting of brother and sister; Angus and Julia. Continue reading
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I’m not a huge James Bond fan, nevertheless I can fully appreciate the epic awesomeness of the 23rd film of the 50 year-long Bond series.
This had it all. Fighting, car chases, scary bad guys and beautiful women. Obviously all of these are the ingredients necessary to make a successful and authentic Bond film.
The lighting is absolutely amazing. It really accents the traditionally spectacular surroundings that are classically chosen for Bond movies. Skyfall was most certainly no different with beautiful Scottish environment where the final fight occurs – Bond fights Silva; ice fights fire – and everything makes a full circle. The storyline was very well… Continue reading
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If you love Forrest Gump and Big Fish, you’ll enjoy this. Just like those films, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an insightful biographical recollection of a fascinating character, whose life stories and moral outlook is inspirational to say the least. Benjamin Button is about a man who physically ages backwards but still ultimately grows up like any ‘normal’ man. Which does remind me of Forrest Gump; “What is normal anyway?” and Big Fish…
This movie explores personal identity, beliefs, motivations and pressures that makes people who they are. There are constant references to fate which I find intriguing; “you never know what’s comin’ for you”…
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I love time travelling films! I was in love with this film the moment it began as it explained the world of Looping, the jargon used and the dangers of it. It was so awesome!
But after the first 40 minutes it began to become a tad… Lame? I don’t know. It was just a really unexpected storyline.
So, Looper is set in the year 2044, where 30 years into the future (2074), time-travel has been invented. Badass rich people send back the people that need ‘taking care of’, meaning the body will never be discovered in the year 2074. This is the Loopers’ job… Continue reading
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Okay, this movie was actually pretty funny! I felt like I needed to suppress my laughing fits so that nobody thought I had such a weird sense of humour – which this movie kind of does.
I really enjoyed it – perhaps more than I would care to let on since it is just a chick flick… But not your typical “boy gets girl”, “random dudes stripping off”, “getting drunk and hooking up”… Okay, well that’s a lie, there was all of the above, but the movie tended to make fun of these stereotypical characteristics of the genre, which set it a part.
Also, the fact that it certainly focussed on the music more than anything – you should see the list of songs in the credits! Plus, I liked how Pitch Perfect had… Continue reading
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I am so disturbed! Okay, I know it was a black comedy, but where was the comedy?
It was about Deano (Hamish Blake) who showed his ability to dispose of the man that his friend, Nige (Brett McKenzie) accidentally killed. They both go on a wild adventure to dispose of the body, eventually Deano decides to cut the body up… Continue reading
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Well. It wasn’t bad. I mean, I wasn’t exactly expecting a lot after seeing the trailer, but it wasn’t as terrible as it made it out to be.
There were are few funny parts, but they were few and far between.The actors were good though, and the car chase scenes were pretty awesome. But, I swear the producers had a check list: … Continue reading
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So, it was between watching Total Recall or Bourne Legacy. I am not a fan of action so after watching the trailers I decided on Total Recall based solely on the fact that it mentioned dreams. Due to being an Inception fanatic, I decided that this action film would be the best choice.
It was alright. Not great. But not unbearable either.
The overall… Continue reading
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Perhaps my expectations were simply too high. I loved the 2008 Dark Knight so much that I expected this film to be equally as captivating and shocking… Just in a different way due to the obvious absence of Heath Ledger… *sigh*. Of course it was epically shot with… Continue reading
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I don’t think you can really read too much into this film. At the end of the day it is based on a simple fairytale, but it is an action-packed and exciting take on it. Quite a bit of violence, which was more realistic than I thought it would be, with battle scenes that were very captivating.
I know everyone, including myself, went to see it secretly to criticise Kristen Stewart’s performance. It wasn’t bad, but it was obvious that she was not the ideal Snow White. She had very little dialogue, and when she did speak, her typically emotionless facials were replaced by concentration, probably focussing on her English accent… Continue reading
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I love Sacha Baron Cohen’s work (for the most part), Ali-G and Borat as well as his amazing performance in the musical Sweeney Todd, where we discovered that he is a half decent singer!
I went into The Dictator with admittedly low expectations, since I quietly thought that perhaps Sacha had sold out after Bruno was released… Continue reading
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Yes, I take every opportunity to celebrate the survival of my blog – let’s just be thankful that I’m not doing one every month… But I won’t make any promises.
So thank you for all of your support! Especially America; you guys are always reading my blog. New Zealand… Continue reading
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It has been a long time since I felt uneasy going to bed after watching a horror film.
Actually, this psychological thriller isn’t that horrific (for the most part..), it’s just when it finishes that you realise how disturbed you feel…
I haven’t read the book, but it’s pretty common knowledge that Stephen King’s work translates to film very successfully (The Shining, The Green Mile, Secret Window…) so I knew that I was in for a spectacular treat.
In a remote town, the popular author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) checks out of the hotel where he stays every time he writes a novel… Continue reading
NZ Film Freak 