Tyrannosaur- Film Review

Tyrannosaur is the debut directorial & written film by actor Paddy Considine. Set in The Midlands in around the same environment that Considine grew up in although its in no way meant to be autobiograhical. The film stars actors 'Peter Mullan' & 'Eddie Marsden' as well as a breakthrough performance from actress 'Olivia Colman'. The film follows Mullan's character Joseph, an unenployed widowed man who suffers fits of rage. After killing his dog with anger he decides to try and change his life.

The film itself is really hard to watch right from the start. Within a minute Joseph has killed his dog, and the film gets no easier to watch. Paddy Considine has won a BAFTA award for outstanding debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, and having seen 2 of the others that he was up against, and knowing alot of another I find it hard to see how any other film could have come close.

Through all of the misery that the movie holds there are some really poignant moments and performances. While Joseph is presented as a horrible character, the audience can easilly see that there is a sense of a caring but brooding man who appreciates his friends. Even after he has kicked his dog, the shots of him holding the dog as it dies and talking to a neighbourhood boy about the dog presents him as more than just a stone cold bastard. By the end of the film I had no idea whether i felt for the character or really hated him.But I can safely say I was mildly disturbed by the characters diologue and actions.

There is nothing more suprising about the film than Olivia Coleman's performance as christian charity shop owner Hannah. I think this is the 1st serious performance I have ever seen her in. Part of it frustrates me as through years of watching her on 'Peep Show' and 'Green Wing' I never knew she could pull off such an amazing performance. The character is so quiet and sullen as we watch her live her day to day life, Find it hard to be around her husband and try to run her shop (an especially poignant scene takes place in which she meets Joseph and prays for him in her shop). So it's especially hard for the audience to see her stable life that she's built up being torn apart by her abusive husband and her meeting with Joseph. Hannah's character goes through alot in the film with fear, sadness and anger being key emotions within the character. Introducing Hannah with such an ordinary backstory the film makes me think about the backstories of ordinary real people I pass on the street and really makes me aware about how horrible some people's lives are. Colman has a knockout performance with this film and frankly it's a crime that it was so overlooked by the main awards this year.

Although alot of the film is gut wrenchingly misreable and hard to watch, some really lovely scenes take place. A beautiful funeral scene at the pub where we can see Joseph in his home territory with people who care about him alot. It's also one of the only times we see Colman's character smile, the scene is beautifully woven together with a guitar song performed by one of the funeral attendees and edited to perfection. Some of the conversations between Hannah and Joseph are beautifully written and performed, one of the best being that about the nickname "Tyrannosaur," for Joseph's dead wife. For these lovely scenes I tip my hat to Considine.

The film is incredibly hard to watch. This would bring it down in my rating of the film, but in no way makes me appreciate how fantastic a film it is....But I'm just not in a rush to watch it again.

Top Tip- If your hate for an hard-to-watch film outweighs your love for a fantastic film. Don't watch it

Film Rating 8.5/10

Olivia Colman Rating 10/10

'How pissed off I am at how no-one thought to cast Olivia Colman as a Leading lady before' Rating 15/10

Hunger- Film Review

Tonight I watched 'Hunger' on Film4. The film started at 11oClock and finished at 1am and I can safely say that it was worth staying up for. 'Hunger' is Steve McQueen's (not 'The Great Escape' star) debut directorial work. The film was made in 2008 and is about the 1981 hunger strike in Irish Prisons supporting the IRA or the INLA.

The first thing to say about this film is that it isn't for the light hearted. It's very violent and towards the end, very troubling. The majority of the film follows Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the leader of The Strikes as he starves himself until the very end of the film. The film is quite strange as Fassbender's character doesn't even appear until about halfway through the film. No one character is presented as a lead character, alot of the narrative just revolves around the horrific treatment of the prisoners before The Hunger Strike started.

*Bobby Sands & Father Dominic in the most famous shot.

The start of the film doesn't revolve around dialogue at all. Occasionally there may be a line said but not responded too, but other than this the film is just almost silent at the start. What I noticed from the film is that McQueen seems to have a certain goal for every scene, something he may want to highlight. One of the most significant scenes is that of Bobby Sands telling 'Father Dominic' (Liam Cunningham) about his plans to carry out a hunger strike. The whole conversation is about 20 minutes long known notably for an unbroken 17 minute shot*. The lack of cuts between shots forces the audience to concentrate on the conversation and take note of what the characters are saying. This is just an example of McQueen's technique. He may want to highlight a particular aspect of a scene so alot of the time dialogue or cuts aren't necessary but at other times they are heavily relied on. McQueen's style of filmaking is very unique and in my opinion brilliant.

Fassbender's characterisation is brilliant to say the least. Although his acting abilities are only really spread out in the second half of the film, he is a stand out character. Towards the end of the film the scenes start to get very harrowing with Fassbender's body being dangerously small. I'm pretty sure (and I hope) that he didnt method act this one because by the end of the film he was pretty much flat from the side. The scenes in which he's starving himself are very hard to watch. One in particular that really gripped me is a frantic moving camera over Sands lying in a prison ward bed. Superimposed over this shot are flocks of birds flying and the crackles of there wings makes it sound like Bobby Sand's bones are crumbling and his body is falling apart.

Steve McQueen & Michael Fassbender.

This film is really powerful and a fantastic debut and it makes me excited to see McQueen's next film 'Shame' which is out very very soon and also stars Fassbender.

Rating 8/10

Top Tip-The film is fantastic but extremely hard to watch. It may not be everyone's cup of tea.

The Ides Of March- Film Review

'The Ides of March' is George Clooney's 4th directed film.It was produced and the screenplay was written by him too. The films revolves around Ryan Gosling's character Stephen Meyers who's a Junior Campaign Manager for Mike Morris (Clooney)as he is running for the leader of the Democrats & Presidential Candidate. He is soon offered a job by the Campaign Manager of the other Democratic candidates. Also finding out dark secrets about his boss (Clooney) he starts to doubt where he belongs as he has always said he works for what he believes in.

I like George Clooney. 'Up In The Air' is one of my favourite comedies and I've always seen him as a pretty great actor. I thought it would be interesting to see if i had a similar reaction to his directing. I didn't. Maybe politics just isn't my thing but still I must have found it at least a bit interesting. Paul Giamatti & Phillip Seymour Hoffman are both actors I really like and for me they didn't make me enjoy the film any more than It would have done without them. The trailer really set up the film as an exciting pacey political thriller but all the main plot points were placed so far apart that it felt like it was going on for hours. If Clooney had so much control over this film then George Clooney has really gone down on my lists.


I haven't seen alot of what Ryan Gosling does but apparently he has tendencies to be a bit dull and lifeless and this being the only major role I've seen him do, my expectations were met. My general boredom of the characters just got me hoping that someone would die or something so it could all come to a finish.



I always think if there's nothing positive to say then say nothing so I'll finish here. I didn't like it. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but i wouldn't watch it again.



4/10 Top Tip- Have a nice little sleep while you're watching. Chances are you won't miss much.

Super 8- Film Review

CHILDREN OF ENGLAND!!!

I KNOW LIFE IS BORING! BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO PROTEST FOR NO REASON!!! 

INSTEAD HEAD DOWN TO YOUR LOCAL CINEMA (independent one preferably) GET YOURSELF A LARGE POPCORN COMBO WITH A LARGE PEPSI MAX AND GO AND SEE SUPER 8! 

ONE OF THE ONLY FILMS OUT AT THE MOMENT THAT I WOULD RATHER SEE THAN HAVE MY EYES RIPPED OUT OF MY SOCKETS!!! (ahem Mr Poppers Penguins ahem).

JJ Abram's (The Director of The Newest Star Trek film) new 70's set Sci Fi coming of age film doesn't fail to disappoint. Set in the fictional town of Lillian, Ohio; the film follows 13 year old Joel Lamb (who's recently lost his mother to an accident at a Lumber Mill) as he helps his friend Charles (my favourite character XD ) and his other friends as they try and create a Zombie film for a film festival (With Super 8 film hence the name) as they film a scene at a train station they witness a car purposely drive onto the tracks to hit an Air Force train. Releasing a dark secret upon the town (I apologize for the cheesy line).

The film has the potential to be awful. If the group of kids playing the main characters had no acting ability then the film itself would fall apart. But the kids act with the perfect mix of humour and drama. My friends and myself ended our day by shouting out the funniest lines of the film at each other. So part of the reason that the kids performances blew me away can be owed to the writer of the film (JJ Abrams again). The character's personalities rely on each other well, from the chubby film director with an obsession with production value to the long haired, bracefaced, loud pyromaniac. The Characters are brilliantly played and very well formed and my favourite element of the film.

The special effects in the film are great. Unfortunately I can't go into detail on the extent of them as the whole set up of the film was brought about shrouded in secrecy. The first teaser trailer of the the film is one of the most Maxium charged trailers with almost minimal point to it. The only thing that the film introduced is that there is a train crash and reveals the title. But to be honest this approach made it the film that most excited me. All I can say is look out for the special effects cos they will rock ur sox.

The film acts as a homage to the Steven Speilberg movies of their time (Close Encounters & E.T predominantly). I think as a film it has the potential to have the same effect as these films by capturing the audiences mind's and going down in film history. I hope it does as i loved it.

8.5/10

Tip- Stay in your seats at the end as the kid's film within a film is shown over the credits

Attack The Block- Film Review

Before starting I just want to say sorry that I haven't done a review recently. I've been a bit preoccupied with exams recently and haven't watched many films. So thanks for sticking with me.

Attack The Block is the New Debut Sci Fi, Horror film directed by Joe Cornish (of Radio 6's Adam & Joe). It follows a gang of youths as they try to take one a army of massive scary aliens as they take on their council estate. All of the main characters are unknown actors playing the youths which is probably good as I don't think many professional actors would have been able to pull off as good a characterization as Cornish's leads did.

The film had a perfect mix of comedy & horror. With scenes being very tense to hilarious scenes featuring 2 nine year olds &  trying to fight the aliens with toy guns & water pistols. One problem for the film may be that a lot of the language may not be understood by international audiences and if they have to be subtitled in it may lose some of the biggest laughs of the films. But all in all for a British audience (more so for a younger one) the language can be understood and the brilliant script helped it flourish.

Cornish talks about how he was inspired by the 80's Sci Fi film's like E.T in which is mix of social realism & Sci Fi, with E.T being as much about divorce as it is about a little alien. As he believes The British are great at Social Realism & quite good at Sci Fi no where near as good at combining them as Americans are. So with the setting of The Council Estate which he quotes as being a very "futuristic & science fictional."this mix of genres works very well.

The Aliens themselves are fantastic and simple with the majority of the shots being non CGI as Cornish wanted the character's reactions to be as natural as possible. The cast members say they felt very scared as there are massive black monsters running at full pelt towards them. The size & sound of them works very well and I don't know about the rest of the audience but I felt them very menacing. I won't give away to much but I thought the monsters are fab and If a well crafted monster is a essential for you, you won't be disappointed.

All In all in my opinion it that this film is a fantastic well crafted debut by Cornish and lives up to such great British films as Hot Fuzz & Shaun of The Dead. I Want To Watch It Again!

9.5/10

Top Tip- GO SEE It AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!

Submarine- Film Review

Submarine is the latest stab at conquering British comedy Heights topped by Hot Fuzz & The Full Monty. Its A Debut feature film from Richard Ayode (Moss from the I.T Crowd as he is probably sick of  being known as) follows socially awkward teenager Oliver Tate as he tries to solve all of his problems including stopping his parents from divorcing, getting a girlfriend and losing his virginity.

My favourite aspect of this film is that I could picture exactly what Ayode was trying to present and represent from every aspect of the filmmaking elements like cinematography and mise en scene. At points the camera work was beautifully done to represent characters emotions or at other times to increase the overall awkwardness of the film (Look out for main character oliver looking straght into the camera a lot, Made me chuckle a lot)

The characters are fully crafted and work very well together. The odd extremely socially awkward main character, The polar opposite confident sassy girlfriend, the quietly boring parents, and the new age hippie loser antagonist. All of these characters work very well with the socially awkward Oliver who would in real life be the social outcast in all situations.

I was particularly looking forward to the original songs recorded especially by Alex Turner (Arctic Monkey’s frontman) but as nice as it is to hear a normally mainstream rocky sound to be replaced with a quiet simple guitar music, I did get a bit annoyed that I probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish any of the songs from each other making them utterly boring.

Loads of the aspects of the film were very different and quirky e.g. every time a letter is read by the character not only is the author’s letter being read out by the author himself but there’s a long slow zooming shot of the character reading it in a dark room. These kinds of things made me chuckle.

Although the film was overall a bit odd and I ideally may need Richard Ayode’s assistance to fully understand the film; As a film it shows real promise that Ayode could become known as ‘That really funny British comedy director,’ rather than ‘Moss from The I.T Crowd.‘

And It's bloody funny!

8/10 Top Tip- Don’t go expecting to laugh at every sentence, only chuckle when it feels natural.

Battle Los Angeles- Film Review

Yesterday I watched Battle Los Angeles. The Film follows follows a platoon of U.S. Marines during a global alien invasion, who are joined by an Airman and some Army infantry. The events of the film are inspired by the Battle of Los Angeles, a supposed World War II air raid of the city which turned out to be a false alarm caused by several unidentified objects. The film itself didn't receive the best reviews in the world as its said that the action in the film is relentless. Personally I enjoy a good bit of action, and saying this film doesn't lack any is an understatement so this could already be a problem for some people. From about 20 minutes in the action started and didn't stop until the credits started. I blabbered about being in the mood for films in my last review and I was right as I was totally in the zone and loved all this action.

Its important for anybody considering watching this that it isn't purely a Sci Fi film. Its a War Film that just so happens to have aliens. The aliens don't play a vital role in the story as in my opinion the film could be easily modified so Humans were the enemies. The aliens had spaceships- use Jets. The aliens had big rocket launchers- rockets can be fired by humans. The aliens could only die shot in a certain part of the body- The heart or Head? Keeping this in mind I'm not a big fan of war films and probably wouldn't have gone to see it and as alien based films come. I defiantly preferred it to Paul.

The film took time to introduce all of the marine characters and introduced all of them so they were all likeable characters that could be empathized with. I also liked this because there are alot of Action or War films in which the audience can pretty much tell who and in what order the characters will die in, but I had no idea, so this was a plus for me.

The pacing was a bit irritating to say the least. At times everything was going quite slowly with the platoon being stuck in a confined space for ages but at other times the action was quickly sprung onto the audience like a fly swat on a bluebottle. Take for example just before the finale the surviving soldiers jump out the chopper in the space of 60 secs and kept the action going for another 20 minutes. It seemed like the director said "oh crap, we've got a bout 2 days of shooting time to finish this finale, Just cut it down completely."

The ultimate conclusion annoyed me on 2 levels (which i don't really want to spoil) It just so happens that while L.A is saved that means that any of the 50 odd other cities stand a chance while the final thing the platoon do before the credits is very unrealistic. Watch it to find out what I mean.

I did enjoy this film, the content was good but the way it was put together was a bit naff.

7/10
Tip- Remember its a War film with Aliens not the other way round.