the shawshank redemption

i chose to write about this film because i enjoyed watching this one the most in class.

i had seen the film once properly before and had never truly loved it untill i watched it again in class. i think the reason it was better the second time was that in a group environment together you can get behind characters and feel for characters, on my own i felt the same but had no one backing me up so it was a really good together atmosphere i felt that day in class and i think i enjoyed the film more for this.

The film is very warm and this i feel is due to many factors, morgan freemans voice is very warm in tone and soothing, the colours of the film is subtly positive i feel giving the underlying hope that andy has through out the film , his goal in the film is to escape to a life near the mexican Pacific ocean ,

"They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory"

even in this quote you can tell that this is not your average dreary prison movie which depresses and leaves you a little deflated, this movie is an uplifter , a joy bringer :) i think i can say this in confidence as well . the scene which i feel is the best example of this is the one were andy turns on the classical music over the tannoid , he knows that the rare piece of joy would be enough to bring some raw human emotions: hope and happiness to the me in the prison grounds, they could be free men in there emotions for that short period of time, even the theme of the movie shows this

" hope can set you free, salvation lies within."

i guess thats going to give you a good feeling no matter what, but its not really what in my opinion makes this film a classic, i feel that the ingredients working together, good acting , lovely cinematography and colours, and most importantly an amazing script. your drawn in from the word go and don't loose concentration until you see the Pacific ocean and end credits! I got into the film in a big way and at no point was thinking that i was watching a film.

i enjoyed this film the most out of the ones we watched as i feel it is the one which made me the most happy :) this is an important asspect in watching a film for me, i would like to see the film again but only with a large group of people because i think that really helped, 8/10

peace xxx

Jenifer’s body blog

A comedy horror? If there is such a thing!

About a beautiful girl who after a slight slip up with her being sacrificed to the devil becomes reliant on eating humans , but at the same time capable of leading her normal life. I have seen this film three times, the first I watched on my computer when I first arrived at the academy, how it was already on line and ready to stream in high definition I do not know , but it was and I watched it.

My first reaction to it was that I was a little scared and a little board. I felt that I needed to see it on a larger screen to get the full scared feeling , the story felt lacking to me on my first viewing and I didn’t really rave about it to anyone. However, there was something pulling me towards the cinema to see it.

So i went along quite excited to see it again after waiting the month and a half for it to come to the cinema, i think the wait had heightened my liking of the film and i went in with high hopes of being scared and for it to be more of a laugh than a boar! Yes , it was more scary – only marginally – at the cinema but i noticed that they panned away from the gore allot and the scares in the film were more suspense driven than gore , which i liked because it took the emphasis away from the horror to focus more on the comedy. I felt that it was more satirical comedy than laugh out loud gags. ( although the sex scene did make me lol )

Named for the Roman satirist, Horace, this type of satire is meant to be playful. It seeks to criticize some vice in society (oftentimes identified as foolish rather than evil) through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humor. Tools employed in this form are wit, exaggeration, and self-deprecating humor. This form is often sympathetic in tone. Horatian satire is far more common in modern society.

I think this explanation does explain the idea behind Jenifer’s Body- on a personal level for me anyway i found myself relating to both Jenifer and Needy the protagonist in the film . They both represent the emotions you feel as a teenage girl and i think that if you take away the “demon” and replace it with “bitch” your half way there to realising Jenifer’s body is just another metaphor for teenage life. Mean girls with a harder sexier edge maybe but still sticking to the Gide lines and following the similar themes which pull the teenage girl audience in ! The fatal flaws is not that she is a demon it is that she is so self loathing that Jenifer feels the need to crush and break everyone around her to make herself feel better, and was there not a girl like her in every school , someone that if you got close to them you would find they were really just as insecure as you were. The opening line of the film is “hell is a teenage girl “ and for anyone who has ever been bullied I think they would agree. or am i looking into this to much ? however, can we not expect there to be some underlying "teen themes" coming from the writer of Juno ?

i must say the film was very simple in plot and the story line like many comedy horror's was very straight forward and predictable - this being i think a comedic thing in itself and it worked really well this way and with the easy to follow story we could get to no the characters allot better .

i think the advertising for this film was some of the best i have seen: it mostly appealed to teenagers yes but this film which if advertised wrongly could probably have flopped completely is drawing in a teenage boy audience and allot of older males as well ! The trailers varied to lend them selves more to the genre of film that was going to be on , for example when i went to see saw they showed the trailer that made it look like a gory, sexy horror and when i went to see zombieland they showed a trailer that made it appear to be hilarious and full on slapstick teenage comedy. All the while reminding the girls that it was the makers of Juno and look another female protagonist you can all relate to . i think this was genius advertising especially and the hype around it seems to be working as everyone was really exited to see it at the cinema this week !

overall i think this film is a really good idea and has really played to its strengths, the acting is that of a teen drama and tat is all it needs to be , the direction is like that of juno and i think that the familiarity is a good link because i enjoyed it a similar amount that i did of Juno . I think three times is enough but to be honest i wouldnt say no if everyone was going to se it again its a good fun movie :) 7/10 peace xx

48 hour tv thingbob

ok so i dont watch much tv but decided to make an effort for this little task :)

going from sunday night to tonight , think thats 48 ...... anyway sunday night was my big tv night and i watched: 3 episodes of sienfeld ( box set ) , the X factor results , 2 episodes of never mind the buzzcocks .

It was the first time for watching the american hit tv program of the 90's about the continuing misadventures of neurotic New York stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York friends. Elliot can't stop talking about it so i decided to give in and let him show me the three he thought were the best, given one won an Emy i was quite eager to see why.

Given they were quite funny , at times, overall though i didn't really get involved with the characters, possibly because it was mostly male cast, friends for example worked better for me because there was a better mix of characters that i could relate to on levels, with Sienfeld i didn't quite get this, and like most things i felt quite stupid when i didn't laugh,

"was that a joke" i felt a little like a was wasting my time while i was watching this, i don't think i will watch it again!

Next i watched the X Factor results, this was better, i love how cheesy it is and i really got involved and was on the edge of my seat with probably half the country when they were reading out the people who got through to the next round. JLS were really good and i think are a credit to the X Factor because they didn't win but are still reasonably successful .

i Didn't feel like the right person went out but the whole thing was very addictive and im sure ill be searching for the nearest telly next saturday sunday night to see who will be the next ones out !

As for Never Mind the Buzzcocks a comedy panel game which really just consists of Simon Amstel slagging of contestants and grumbling stylishly about things. I have for a long time had a weird fascination about mr Amstell , who however cheeky and rude he is manages to keep the show on air and has only ever had one guest walk of, this being one of the best episodes i think :) So this was a kinda background thing with conversation over it , you dont really need to concentrate on it lets be honest its not very intellectually stimulating! however, this did get more laughs from me than Sienfeld did.

Over all i felt a little board and dumbed down from this night of television watching, i felt lazy and sluggish, as if i needed a work out and some fresh air, i wonder if i had watched something different if i would have felt so guilty for watching so much !!

So i haven't watched tv monday or tuesday , which feels a lot better for me , over all i do like watching tv and when there is something i like , Gossip Girl , Skins or a documentary that looks particularly interesting i will make the time to sit down and watch it for the most part im more of a film goer :)

peace xxx

An Education

this film was lovely:)

the first thing i said to Dilara when we left the cinema was what good acting there was in the film. From start to finish the delivery was convincing and subtle. We often talk about remembering we are in the cinema and watching a film, i can say throughout this film that happened not once.

Even the smaller roles of her giggly friends and Emma Thompson as the headmistress were played with great skill and the cast worked brilliantly as a whole. the father giving a very emotional performance as-well.

The film is not slow to get going as the insighting incident happens very neer the beginning of the film. i enjoyed this as i knew that an older man was to be a major part i was waiting for his apperance and i was not left waiting long as he rolled up in his big fancy car all swauv and handsom.

Jenny is Picked up by the very charming older man in his car who takes her home and soon sends her flowers and begins wooing her and her family away from her studies. Jenny is exceptionally bright and is planning on going to Oxford, personally i enjoyed this about the film because her preparation reminded me of my friend meg who is away to oxford this year and i felt sympathy for her as a character i was comparing her to my friend. I was suprised that most of the audience were older ladies but then i realised that they must have been the same age as Jenny when the film is set which is brilliant because it has timeless themes which younger girls like i can relate to but also has the sentementalitie and the nastagic effect for the older ladies who can remember being that age in that time. To begin with it is not certain what the antagonistic forces is, it is clear that Jenny needs to studie if she wants to go to Oxford but the audience isnt informed if this will be a possitive for Jenny untill neerer the end, i feel that even though as the plot thickens and it is clear that the handsom gentleman is the antagonist that her nievity towards emotions and lack of wisdom are really the antagonistic forces in the film , alass her parents condem her further by being no moral grounds or good advise. there is a clear turning point when she goes to her teacher and asks for her help , this part in the film really touched me as by this point in the film i was emotionally envolved with the characters.

i have recommended this film to my mum sister and aunty i think its brilliant and a great feel good , film with a cheeky we ending which you will have to watch the film to find out :)

lovely 7/10