SDCC 2015 Thoughts #1

Another year, another San Diego Comic Con. Unfortunately I still haven't been able to make to the Con yet, but will still provide you with some of my thoughts on the news that has come out so far.

Lets start big with Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. No huge news came from Star War's first Hall H panel, but we did get treated to a very powerful and emotional behind the scenes video for the upcoming film. I feel this video did more than a trailer ever could, it created excitement by making you feel like something big is coming up and the people involved with bringing a huge part of my childhood back to life, are just excited as I am! Good move Star Wars, good move. Check it out below:

After the panel, fans were treated to a special concert and were escorted out of the building to witness the amazing soundtrack played live. Although this sounds amazing it did mean that Star Wars screwed over Kevin Smith, whose panel followed theirs, meaning he was left with a smaller crowd to witness the trailer for his new film Yoga Hosers. Hopefully the trailer will be released online soon! To tide us Smith fans over though, here's a picture of Kevin as one of the villains in his new film, a bratwurst...

The Walking Dead also released trailers for there new season at the con, as well as their spin off show Fear The Walking Dead. The trailer for season 6 looks good but is nothing special in my eyes. Fear The Walking Dead looks really good though! It's a lot different to the original series and I look forward to seeing what the creators do with show since they aren't constricted by the comic books. It looks a lot like World War Z to me as well. Check them out below:

That's it for now but make sure to check back tomorrow for more SDCC news, especially since we still have the Batman V Superman panel coming up, fingers crossed for a new trailer!

Thanks for reading!

SDCC Thoughts #3

More news again today! This time round big news from Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Tusk and Arrow.

Today we got the first reveal of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman for the Batman/Superman film coming out in 2016. The costume looks very cool and Gal looks pretty badass in the image below.

The trio was also seen together for the fisrt time, but unfortuantely out of costume.

Footage from the film was also seen, descriptions said Batman was in an armoured suit similar to the one in The Dark Knight Returns with completely whited out eyes. Superman was also seen with his heat vision eyes lighting up ready to take him on. Interesting stuff indeed... Here's a leaked shot!

Now the  trailer for Kevin Smith's new film Tusk, based on GumTree advert that was the talking point in one of his Smodcast podcasts. I am a big fan of Kevin Smith and cannot wait to see more films made by him. Take a look at his weird horror comedy film trailer below:

Definitely looks weird and wonderful! Micheal Parks looks on form yet again! I cannot wait to hear more from Mr Smith when I go see his show Hollywood Babble-On next month when I vist LA. #WalrusYes!

Next is the trailer for Season 3 of Arrow. The latest season of this show was awesome and really embraced the superhero genre and the mythology of the comic books. Here's hoping they continue their good streak later this year! The trailer starts off with a lot of already seen footage but trust me, it is for season 3.

That's it for now but check back later for more posts!

Thanks for reading!

Teacher & My New Project

Tomorrow I start shooting for my new short film so I thought it was about time that I finally released my last short film Teacher on the Internet for all you lovely people to watch. I had written about this short that I was making in a couple of production posts earlier this year so if you want to check them out before viewing you can read them here and here. After you have watched the short you can find out about my new project below.

On to my next project now, which I am very excited to film tomorrow! Now this project is quite different in tone and I have taken a lot of influence from the films of Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith whilst producing this one. This is a solo project that started off unrelated to my film course until I saw how I could tie it into my philosophy module. I have written the script and will be directing and editing it as well. The film follows two 'slacker' esque characters who are smoking a cigarette against a wall. They are both strangers but spark up conversation after one of them has just witnessed a suicide. The film looks at the contradiction of morality and the two opposing views of the characters on the suicide and taking a life in general. I've always loved 'Generation X' films from American independent cinema in the 90's and have tried to incorporate this into the pre-production process as well as trying to modernise it for present day England. I haven't really got anything to show you guys just yet but when I got in touch with my brilliant casting director Ashton Snow I sent her a mood board of the piece so she could help find my two awesome actors. So I thought I could show you that to give you a kind of idea of where I'm going with this short.

There will be more updates to come on this film but this is all I've got so far! Anyway I hope this has caught your interest so make sure you keep updated with my blog and twitter for all the latest news on this project.

So what do you think of Teacher and my new project? Let me know in the comments below.

The Dirties

Odds are you haven't heard of this film, but you really should watch it! If you are fan of Kevin Smith and his podcasting association Smodco then you might have heard him talking about The Dirties, the first film he picked up with his new company 'The Kevin Smith Movie Club'. It is how I heard about the film and now after watching it I feel that I should let you guys know about it as well, not just because it's a small independent film made by students but also because it is awesome!

The Dirties is a found footage film about some friends making a film together that involves them taking down a gang of bullies in their school called The Dirties. One of the friends however takes the idea to far and starts to actually plan a real life shooting of their school bullies on camera.

The school shooter concept is something that is quite real and topical right now, but the film is very good at not hitting any nerves or being offencive at any point. It humanises the school shooter and creates a very interesting character piece. The style of the film is a 'found footage' film and although we have had a lot of these recently, this one again is original by making the camera one that the friends are using to make a film. The reason they have wireless mics on them most of the time is for the same reason. This choice makes the whole film a bit more believable and adds to some of the scenes that already feel scarily real. Not that this film is a horror, it's more of a comedy drama about people who love film. And you can really tell they love film, because there are a bunch of references to many different films and pop culture scattered throughout.

For me as a film student, watching this group of friends on screen make a film is familiar but also inspiring as some of the filmmakers themselves are students. This film just makes we want to go out and make more films! They are a great success story of independent cinema and prove that if you try hard enough you can make it. This really is such a great film but I'm making this less of a review and more of a 'please watch this', because small films like this need to be supported, so if you're not convinced by me yet check out the trailer here:

Or again if you're not convinced you can check out an interview with the director Matt Johnson and Kevin Smith here:

Surely you're convinced now right? Well you should be because I thought it was brilliant. I'm giving it a solid 4/5. Look out for The Dirties to feature on my top 10 list of year later this year! Go check it out on VOD services now!

Thanks for reading!

Quick Reviews #2

So here is another round of quick reviews for you. This week we have a couple of Oscar contenders, a bromance and a Kevin Smith classic. Two of the films have Ben Affleck in them and two also have John Goodman. So please read and enjoy:

Flight

Oscar contender number 1 and the first of the films to star John Goodman (who is comedy gold in it). Flight's plot goes like this; 'An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.' When I first saw the trailer for this film I expected a pretty fun 12A certificate film starring Denzel Washington as the hero who saves a plane full of people. Instead this is a 15 certificate film that deals with anti-hero who suffers with alcohol and drug addiction. This is not a warm an fluffy film, it's pretty hard hitting stuff at times. This is not the Denzel Washington we are used to, here I didn't know whether I wanted the guy to go to jail or not. For the most part I ended up liking the performance but disliking the character. My praise for this film goes to the first and last 30 minutes. The start of the film is thrilling and terrifying, director Robert Zemeckis creates yet another incredible plane crash that had me scared to the bone. After the start it slows and turns into what can only be described a boring old 'oscar bait' it has it's moments and pays off in the end but I was disinterested throughout the middle of the film. I realised that the rest of the film was not going to be as thrilling as the start but I didn't realise just how slow it was going to be. There is no doubt that this is a strong film and a good return to live action for Zemeckis but I just wish I had a been a little bit more involved and had a character I could invest in and want good things to happen to him/her. A great load of performances but it probably won't win a lot at the Oscars. This film varied between a rating of 3 and 4 for me so therefore I am going to give it a 3.5/5. 

End of Watch

This film was the biggest surprise to me. End of Watch’s plot goes like this; 'this film follows the daily grind of two young police officers in LA who are partners and friends, and what happens when they meet criminal forces greater than themselves.’. I was first surprised at the camera work, the trailer led me to believe that this going to be yet another hand held found footage films but in fact only parts of the movie are like that. However a lot of the camera work it is still hand held and the shots last no longer than 3 second before cutting to another angle throughout most of the film. This technique might not be to everyone’s taste but it did add that extra tension and made for a very fast paced film, where you are on edge throughout the film, feeling a lot like the characters do. The story to this film is good but it would be nothing without the chemistry between Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena's Characters. Their friendship/bromance makes this film! I have never seen chemistry like it, their connections seems so real and it really makes you fall in love with the two of them. It is definitely the best bromance I have seen and there have been some good ones in the recent years. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, no matter how exaggerated some of the situations may be or how many ‘f’ words a stereotypical Mexican can say in one sentence, there is something about this film that draws you in and engages you to the very end and even after that you are left craving more. It’s thrilling, exciting, scary, emotional, powerful and full of kick ass action, I am rating this film a 4/5.

Mallrats

The first film in this post starring Ben Affleck. These last couple months I have been going crazy and watching loads of Kevin Smith films. Why have I not seen these before? The guy basically writes characters who are nerdy teenagers and chucks them into hilarious scenarios. Not everyone may want to hear about what would happen if Superman got Lois Lane pregnant but this is just the kind of rubbish I will talk about with my friends! Anyway Mallrats’s plot goes like this; 'Both dumped by their girlfriends, two friends take refuge in the local mall'. This film isn't going to blow your mind, it's just going to make you laugh and have a good time. The characters are lovable idiots and you enjoy watching them. Like in mist of Kevin Smith's films, Jay and Silent Bob are up to no good yet again, causing mischief and attemting to use 'the force' and other hilarious stuff, I will never grow bored of the two of them. It is unfortunate that we get no dance scenes from them however. The film is just stupid, but a good stupid. A familiar face turns up also (not that he was familiar at the time) and I'm not just talking about Stan Lee, you can also see Michael Rooker at his worse. Yeah the guy who plays Merle in The Walking Dead and my oh my have the years done his acting talent well! All in all this film is not amazing and not many people will remember it but people like myself will love it and that is enough to call it a 'cult' film. I love Kevin Smith but to me this isn't his best film, therefore I am giving Mallrats a rating of 3/5.

Argo

The second Oscar contender and the second film starring Ben Affleck and John Goodman. This film has a lot of hype and I can see why. It’s not your typical ‘Oscar bait’ but it sure is damn good. Argo’s plot goes like this; ‘A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.’ This film is tense, really tense. And that is just how a thriller should be. It’s hard and scary to believe that the events that take place in this film really happened. Ben Affleck and his team’s attention to detail to make this film historically accurate is astonishing, not one piece of set or prop looked out of place. It's not until the end credits do you realise how similar all the actors look to the real people they were portraying, a true achievement in attention to detail in the make-up department. The story is the strong point though, I love a bit of espionage and spy work! And the story is then held by an amazing cast of actors including my favourite at the moment, Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston, who is making his transition from TV to film, he stands his ground among a crowd of very talented actors. This film just is pure great and another great film from Affleck, a director/actor who is now at the top of his game and shrugging off previous projects such as Daredevil. I am hoping Argo will sweep the board at the Oscars soon as it deserves it! Finally a film I can get behind that has a good chance of winning. Personally I would prefer Django Unchained to win best film but we can all guess that it is unlikely. Either way Argo is brilliant and I am giving it a rating of 4/5.

Thank you for reading! Do you agree with my reviews? Please comment below.

Comic Con Documentary & The Pact

Today I have two reviews of films I have just seen. They are very different, one is documentary film about the San Diego Comic Con, and the other is a low budget horror film. Very different in terms of style, genre and quality! Here are my verdicts:


Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

Morgan Spurlock has made some great documentaries in the past, the most noteworthy being Super Size Me and 30 Days. He is a master of his art and he has made yet another masterpiece! This time he is not the star, the star is Comic Con. The largest and most famous Comic Con in the world, held annually in San Diego USA. Every nerd in the world wishes they could go to Comic Con, including myself. One day I will go, I will make sure of that and this film just made me more determined!

The film follows several different types of people and their journey throughout the four nerd filled days. One guy's showcasing his portfolio, one girl is designing costumes and another guy is getting ready to propose to his girlfriend at the Kevin Smith Panel. This isn't a documentary about the historical backgrounds of the convention, this is video diary of the events which occurred a couple of years ago.

The great thing about this is that you route for each guy and girl because they are so dedicated and passionate about their trade, you want the guy to draw for Marvel, you want the girl to win best costume and you hope that the guy's girlfriend says yes when he proposes. You even want the grumpy comic book seller to sell some comics! Basically you are routing for the underdog, the people who you usually associate as the nerd or the geek, you are now following and anticipating their journey.

The documentary has a whole load of interviews with some very awesome people like Joss Whedon and Stan lee, who actually produced the film. You also get some really funny antics from Kevin Smith who has you laughing out loud throughout most of his interview. Seth Rogen, Eli Roth, Frank Miller, Harry Knowles, you name it, they are in it! It's a nerd fest and I love it!

Though this isn't just a massive advert for Comic Con, the downside is highlighted. The decrease in comic book sales and how they are no longer the main attraction at the convention. They have been pushed aside for pop culture hits and franchises. Don't let that rain on your parade, you will still be dying to go by the end!

The great thing about this film is that you can show it to family members and they will finally understand your obsession with the place! I watched this with my girlfriend and she enjoyed it, maybe not as much as me, but she now realises why I want to go so much! She knows I want to go to a place where I fit in with the thousands of other nerds and speak about nerdy things! One of the reasons I made this blog was to share my opinions with people who care or have the same interests as my own.

I will be there, one day, dressed as Spider-Man and I will love it. This documentary has reinforced that fact and that is why I am rating it a 5/5.

The Pact

I admire people who write and direct their own films, it's something that I wish to do one day. This was the one thing that interested me about Nicholas McCarthy's first feature film The Pact, based on his previous short film of the same name.

The plot goes like this; 'As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her mother's death, an unsettling presence emerges in her childhood home.'
Though like most horror films, this film falls short of being good. Somebody needs to take the horror genre and take away the bad acting, women running around in underwear and terrible scripts. Something this film has a lot of! I was hoping for something different, something unlike anything we have seen before

The problem with this film, is that it feels as if it's trying to be like Paranormal Activity without the handheld element. Why does every horror film now have some kind of poltergeist haunting a house! Unlike Paranormal Activity this film shows us too much, which just takes away from the scares of which there were only a few. I was only scared about twice in this film, once I had kind of guessed what was happening I felt safe, which isn't something a horror film should make its audience feel.

Lets talk about the acting, it wasn't all that good. Maybe this was because of a pretty bland script or just because the people involved were bad actors. Thankfully the main character played by Caity Lotz isn't too bad but even she has her moments. She also had one green and one blue eye which they kept emphasising on, for no reason what so ever in the end. Apart from Lotz everybody else is pretty terrible or has hardly any screen time to tell.

There is one character in particular who feels very over done which was Stevie played by Hayley Hudson; the creepy girl who talks to ghosts. Although they really went overboard on the make up and she looks more like a ghost then a person, which just seemed like a bad decision.

There were good points to this film, it looked very good. The cinematography was spot on and everything looked good on screen. Also when there were scares they were good, but after that there's not really much else.

Maybe its because I'm not a big fan of the horror genre but I just wasn't into this film, I was hoping for more but it never really delivered. If you enjoy the genre then this might have enough scares to satisfy you but for me it was a bit disappointing. Which is unfortunate and why I'm giving this film a rating of 2/5.

Thanks for reading! Check back again this week for my big Spider-Man blog special! Remember if you have any fan art of Spider-Man it can be used on the post if you send it in to my email alex-moppy@hotmail.com - all who submit any images or art work will get a mention!