The latest Summerisle studios productions

Hey all, It’s A2 media coursework time, so guess what, yeah more from summerisle studios. Please check out the following and comment if you like.

Thanks, James

Heima, for free

If you caught my “mini-review” of Sigur Ros’ film Heima, you may be interested to hear that Heima is now available for free to watch on YouTube, no law infringement, official Sigur Ros stuff here.  Link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4s7KeCbV8 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Masterpiece, a term far overused by the cinema going public. I firmly believe that the consumer must learn to understand the criteria for a film to be given such an accolade. I’ll rarely argue with people who say a film is ‘good’ or ‘great’ if they can intelligently back up their comments, however i will argue if the term ‘Masterpiece’ is brought up within conversation. This is something i have found becoming more and more common in recent years as my cinema taste has matured. For example, if I take a quick look over Flixster I’m likely to find reviews of 300 claiming it to be worthy of our favourite term, but with nothing to back up the claims. Now, I enjoyed 300 as much as the next guy, but just because a film is enjoyable doesn’t make it a masterpiece, to be called this a film should do something interesting, it should engage an audience and be able to keep a theatre silenced for 2 hours and 40 minutes. This is something that ‘The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford’ does in the most brilliant of fashions.

Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, who rose to fame in 2000 with Chopper, ‘The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford’ stars Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck. The films plot centers around the demise of Jesse James and his eventual assassination, though is just as much about chronicling the rise to stardom of Robert Ford. The story tells the audience about the dangers of celebrity and how fame only brings pain into the lives of the film’s characters.

Performance are incredible all round, although so far Casey Affleck seems to be taking most of the critical praise. This is the first film I’ve seen monsieur Affleck in, he plays a brilliant role in the film, completely believable as a strange, reclusive psychopath, however I firmly believe that Brad Pitt deserves a huge amount of attention once again for his performance. Pitt is so believable as James in later life, becoming slowly more disenchanted with the world in which he resides, for the majority of the film, until the credits began to roll i forgot that i was watching one of the most unrecognizable faces of the screen for the past two decades.

The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford, features some absolutely stunning scenes, both visually and emotively (screen shots included in links below) in particular the death of James is one of the most passionately treated sections of film that I have had the pleasure of viewing in recent years, it not only portrays the brutality of the bullet for the recipient, but also the pain and suffering incurred by Ford in the followings days, months and years.

If there is one film, coming out of 2007 i have watched, that i can safely and honestly say will be discussed 30 years from now in the same passionate way that I’m discussing it now, that film will be The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford (bearing in mind that i am still yet to see ‘There will be Blood’). If the film is still screening in cinemas where you are I urge you to see it on the largest scale possible, otherwise wait for it on Blu-Ray, trust me, this is one film you do not want to miss.

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EDIT :- apologies… in my original write up, I neglected the awesome score in this film, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The music makes the film all the more poignant, etc, etc, etc…

Ginger Snaps Review

 

Ginger: [to Brigitte] A girl can only be a slut, a bitch, a tease, or the virgin next door.

In the Canadian suburb of Bailey Downs lives Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) Fitzgerald, two very strange sisters. Three years late for their first period, they spend their time staging gruesome death scenes for their own amusement, amidst the wilful ignorance of their relentlessly mother (Mimi Rogers). On the night Ginger finally gets her period, the sisters are attacked in the woods by a ferocious creature that may have some connection to “The Beast of Bailey Downs,” a werewolf currently disemboweling its way through the local dog population. The girls survive the attack, and Ginger’s wounds heal quickly, but her attitude grows even more bizarre, as hair sprouts from her scars and a tail grows from her spine, is Ginger turning into a werewolf?

I had never heard of the film ‘Ginger Snaps’ until recently when I researched into the actress Katharine Isabelle. I was amazed at her outstanding acting and beauty and decided that I wanted to see more of the films she was in and so I stumbled upon Ginger Snaps and after reading the plot I was determined to get my hands on a copy. I have to say that I was slightly worried that the film could turn out to be utter crap seeing that the budget was low and it was a werewolf film, which in many cases werewolf effects can be beyond awful.

After the opening sequence had ended, all of my worries had gone and I knew that I was going to love this film. The camera angles were perfect and the tracking shots just added quality and it also gave that extra professional feel. The director ‘John Fawcett’ purposely jumps straight in with the gore by making a mother and her young son discover their family dog torn to pieces with guts all over the place, thus really hitting at the horror genre target audience. Now the ball is rolling and the equilibrium is disrupted making the audience want to watch more.

There are many things I loved about this film but for me the most impressive technique and idea was the way they tied in Ginger’s transformation through puberty with the raging hormones and in Ginger’s case its happened three years too late but I cannot really comment as I am a guy. Not only was her body changing in that sense but also changing into a werewolf at the same time. Both changes are tied together well, for example, when Ginger starts growing hair out of the claw wounds in her shoulder, she consults the school nurse who explains to her about changes in the body, such as hair where there was no hair before. Taking this further both Ginger and her sister are disgusted with their own emerging sexuality and this is clear through the whole film. So after watching this film you could easily say that when Ginger gradually changes into a werewolf it is a metaphor for adolescence.I am not a huge fan of CGI and that is another reason why I loved this film as I think I am right to believe that there was no CGI used. The werewolf didn’t look like CGI but still was very realistic and it didn’t look silly. John Fawcett clearly restricted the werewolf from the audience using certain camera angles purely to keep the audience guessing to what the werewolf looked like, thus achieving them to watch more.

A lot of credit is paid to the screen writer Karen Walton as no man could have written something like that for obvious reasons. It is clear that the people involved with this film were obviously very dedicated and knew exactly what they wanted the outcome to be. It’s not easy with a low budget but in my opinion this film couldn’t have been even a touch better if it did have a bigger budget.It’s a pity how the film didn’t have many theoretical releases world wide as I think it could have done so much better, I’m also guessing that the marketing wasn’t great either.

This film is excellent, as a werewolf film it is outstanding, I absolutely loved it all the way through. All of the actors were good, but the best has to be Katharine Isabelle, she was perfect for the role of Ginger and after watching this film with her in it I have to say she is now my favourite actress. A superbly handled film with excellent werewolf effects, definately 10/10.

Ginger:

I get this ache… And I, I thought it was for sex, but it’s to tear everything to fucking pieces.

By Tom

Mini Review : Heima

In 2006, Icelandic band Sigur Ros, returned home to play a series of free concerts to thank the country’s people for supporting their efforts to gain acclaim in recent years. These free events were videoed by a documentary crew and are now available as Heima(at home) on DVD. If you don’t enjoy Sigur Ros’ music then this won’t really be up your street, but should you be like myself (huge fan) then this is exactly what you need. The film consists of interviews with the band members and 14 of the live performances during the 94 minute running time. A top recommendations from myself.

By James

Them

Before I begin, I’ll just apologise for the lack of a podcast this week, it’s school holidays and various podcast members have plans. We’ve decided that it’s better if we don’t put one out this week rather than a podcast with only two members which would very likely, suck.

Now forgive me if i miss anything important during this review, seeing as i watched it during a brief spell of insomnia early one morning before school. Them is a low budget French horror film written and directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud in 2006 based on “true events”. The action takes place during over just a few hours when a young French couple who have recently moved to a rural part of Romania have their house broken into and are attacked by a group of hooded menaces.

This really is Horror cut back to the bone, no snazzy special effects or camera techniques, all the suspense comes from a combination of sound and lighting. It may be a dangerous thing to do, but I’m going out on a limb here; it’s a bit like Hitchcock, in both the way it’s filmed and the suspense that the audience feel. Them is also about performance, both leads are top notch and without the quality of acting from Olivia Bonamy and Michael Cohen the film wouldn’t be half as successful.

If you’re like me and own a sky movies subscription check ‘Them’ out over the next few weeks while it’s still around, otherwise this is well worth renting on DVD. If you get a chance a home theatre system is near essential because the sound, more than anything makes this film something special.

By James

Podcast 4 – Pulp Fiction

Today there’s a mix of opinions as we review Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction
Something you’d like us to discuss on the show? Email us your comments at moviepagepodcast@gmail.com
also, check out the podcast blog at http://moviepagepodcast.blogspot.com

Link

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Podcast 3 – Primer

Today we review Primer, we are also joined by special guest Thomas Moore.

Download Now – Link
Please send us your comments to moviepagepodcast@gmail.com

Podcast 2 – The Thing

 

Today we review John Carpenter’s classic horror “The Thing”
Please send us your comments to moviepagepodcast@gmail.com
Subscribe to the feed at http://moviepagepodcast.blogspot.com

Download podcast 2 now – Link

A Tribute Or A Pillaging?

Ok, we all know the unfortunate news about Heath Ledger, shame really especially with ‘The Dark Knight’ on the way. At the moment i’m searching to get a 360 for a sensible price, looking around various websites and I stumble across this on HMV.co.uk…

I could be wrong and this may just be a simple tribute to a talented individual, although something’s telling me that they’re just trying to profit from an unfortunate event. Admittedly i wouldn’t go mad if they did this with someone like Kubrick, just seems sort of odd in the current climate.