Super Powers - Super Strength

In this series of blogs I will be observing the various super powers that we'd all love to have. I'll look at the pro's and cons and see what we all think we could do with the powers. These powers won't necessarily be needed to act as a super hero, they could simply be thier to make your life easier. At the end of the each blog i will give a verdict on these abilities - Super? or Stupid?

Everybody wants to be a winner, particularly when it comes to fights. We all want to be the fastest, the smartest, and the strongest. Strength is what we're looking today, one of the more impressive super powers, and one that can be made possible in some ways. We see 'Test Your Strength' at the beach, and we have the worlds strongest men lifting incredible amounts of weight.
It would be great to lift a building, or smash through a wall unharmed. Wouldn't it?

Positives
Won't lose a fight
You can be sure you'll win any fights you get involved in.
Its impressive
People will be impressed if you do something awesome like lift a car or smash down a brick wall.
Dominate arm wrestling
You would become unstoppable in arm wrestling contests.
Clear rubble
If thier was a building collapsed, you could easily save lives and help people by clearing the blocks with ease.
Easy trasnport
Move things around your house and up stairs with no problems.

Negatives
You'll become a target
If you become super strong, everyone will want to try and take you down, could become annoying after a while.
You dont want to always be strong
You could accidently crush a glass, or break your door when you close it.
High expectations
You'll always want to go that bit further when lifting something, theirs a risk you could go too far.
What if you trip up?
Just because you can lift something, if you slipped and dropped it on yourself, it would crush you.
Unfair advantage
In a fight you'd always be in control, plus you could harm someone a lot more than you want to.

What you had to say
Twitter - What you do if you had had super strength?

@PatersonMark Use it to help with rebuilding Japan.

@Laura_220392 I would pick up America and move it closer to England. Or maybe the other way around for the added bonus of better weather

@Ren_1992 Hmmm, destroy anyone that gets in my way! Don't think it would be at the top of the list of super powers I'd want though lol

@JaimeCarroll I would make a fortune off opening jars which weaker people can't open, such as jam jars, toilet duck and pickles.

 

@GeorgeRoff Do anything I want, when I want.. knowing that anyone who tries to pick a fight with me will lose.

Conclusion
I think if you had Super Strength, it would be important that you keep precision grip, to avoid crushing anything you pick up.
I suppose thier are very few actual downfalls with this power. You're pretty much living your normal life, except you can lift cars and buildings...okay, so maybe not completely normal. But the only real issue you might have is the high expectations, it will become your part trick. Everybody will want to see you lift thier car, it could get frustrating, but i guess thats what secret identities are for. At the end of the day, its not really the most exciting power to have.

Verdict - Stupid

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World of Film - What's the deal 2011? -- Part 2

'Being Positive'

In my previous blog you saw me rant and moan about 2011, and at the end of it I promised to be more positive and upbeat for the next one. Here we are - My attempt at being positive.

Let's start with the fact that filming of 'The Hobbit' has finally got underway. There have been a lot of setbacks, and it has lead to a lot of people dubbing 'The Hobbit' as "cursed". But it's great to hear that it's now up and running. The lineup looks good, with a solid British cast.
Even though part 1 of the film isn't expected out until the end of 2012, it is obviously highly anticipated by a lot of people, and if it reaches the quality of the Lord of The Rings films, then it should be an enjoyable adventure.

Thier is one film currently out in the cinema that i would really love to go and watch. And that film is 'Submarine' which is the movie that is directed by IT Crowds' Richard Ayoade. Positive reviews, and a quirky trailer has really got me interested. Also Ayoades' witty (and sometimes wierd) humour that i've seen him make on various ocassions makes it even more appealing.

Another film that seems really interesting to me is 'Sucker Punch'. It looks like a film packed with great action. Also, with a female dominated cast, it should add something extra. I can't really say to much about this film, as I haven't read too much about it, but i've seen the trailer and it's caught my eye as a film that i would love to watch this year.

So thier you go, a bit of optimism. Maybe for the next world of film blog i'll try and be more balanced, or how about controversial? That would be cool...

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Twitter - Changes in Values

I'll admit it took me a little while to fully adjust to Twitter and truly understand what it was and how it should be used.

However, now that Twitter has gone 'mainstream' with loads of media hungry celebrities and companies jumping on the bandwagon, I can't help but feel that some of the soul of Twitter has been snatched away.

Twitter used to be about following people (usually complete strangers) that you find interesting. And through this you would form bonds and friendships that you otherwise never would. It was a chance to let out your emotions and opinions(both good and bad) to complete strangers. It meant that when someone 'followed you', they were genuinly interested in your life and what you were writing with your 140 characters.
Also a retweet would show real appreciation for a witty, or truthful observation by somebody. Now it's become a cheap way to gain promotion, and try to nab followers. Such as 'retweet if you think this too'.
I'm not going to write this and say that I'm not taking advantage of twitter, because i do. I've started to use it to help promote my blogs, and sometimes I do feel like it's not the best thing to do.
But I do try to keep the number of people I'm following below the 200 mark, and this sometimes means unfollowing people that i didn't connect with or that i don't find as interesting as i had hoped.
Twitter can be harsh, your views aren't always agreed with, you can be criticised, but you can also be critical yourself.

I feel like people are now just aiming to get large numbers of followers either to feel loved and popular, or to just promote all of thier projects and ideas.
Even some 'twitter celebrities' are emerging with hundreds of thousands of followers.
What was once a place to share your ideas and becoming closer to a few people has evolved into a place where it has become almost impossible to be noticed. But you can't blame twitter itself, it's something that happens to many new websites(partiuclarly social networks), they eventually outgrow thier original purpose simply because of thier popularity.

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New Banner

Ok, so it doesn't look amazing, and it's not that big a deal. Just thought i'd post my smallest blog ever about it. Go me....

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The class system - How strong is it?

Me and my housemates had a discussion yesterday regarding the class system. We were wondering whether it is still going strong.

Obviously, they aren't as clear as they were many years ago when you had chimney sweepers and 'gentlemen' walking around with top hats. But I feel there are still distinctions between those further up the ladder compared with the ones sitting at the bottom. Or are there?

An exaple i'm going to use is shopping. You always see the richer(usually elderly) people entering into Marks and Spencers for thier knitted jumpers and frozen steak and kidney pies. While you see the poorer(usually students) entering places like Primark and poundland to find the cheapest of the cheap.
Now this isn't a criticism, this is an observation, and i think you'd agree that it's a true one.

Although, i'm sure if any student suddenly became wealthy, they wouldn't start buying thier food and clothing from Marks and Spencers. They may still return to Primark, or go for slightly pricier(but trendy) shops. This could be because M & S have established thier target market as older, or perhaps because we just don't want to step out of our 'zone' that we've been set.

You know what? I have no idea what i'm talking about now, and for that I apologise. I thought this was going to be a witty observation of todays society and class system. But instead it seems like i've just been waffling on about complete rubbish. The fact i'm writing this shows how far off track i've gone. I don't know how to save this blog. I could scrap it, but i think the world deserves to see me fail miserably. Ironically, one of my housemates was suggesting i would be able to give blogging tips to which i replied 'its quite easy actually'. Now i've made myself look like an idiot. Great.

Until next time.... O_o

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Super Powers - Invisibility

In this series of blogs I will be observing the various super powers that we'd all love to have. I'll look at the pro's and cons and see what we all think we could do with the powers. These powers won't necessarily be needed to act as a super hero, they could simply be thier to make your life easier. At the end of the each blog i will give a verdict on these abilities - Super? or Stupid?

From Harry Potter to Spongebob Sqaurepants, we've seen invisibility explored in many different ways and by many different people. I suppose invisibility wouldn't be that great for society, we would likely all be bumping into each other and just generally avoiding people. But if this power was just given to you, and you only...would it be such a bad thing?

Positives
Avoid annoying people
We all have people that sometimes we just can't be bothered to make the effort with, and just like that you can go unseen and sneak by without a word.
No need for clothes
For this blog i'm assuming you can turn your clothes invisible, but why would you need them anyway? Strut your stuff, and be as lazy as you want without fear of being seen.
Play tricks on people
Invisibility is perfect for tricking your friends and family, and they'll never know it's you!
Stal....*cough*....spying on people
If you are invisible it's perfect opportunity to watch whoever you want and for whatever reason, without getting caught.


Negatives
People walk into you
It's going to be hard to stay invisible on a busy street
What if you can't change back?
Being invisible might be fun, but what if you can't change back? It would be hard to get help when people are running around screaming because of the mysterious voice they keep hearing.
You could die invisible
Maybe that is how some people go missing. Imagine you die while your invisible, surely you'd then be invisible to the world...forever?
Hard to be a recognised superhero
If you try being a superhero with the soul power of being invisible, nobody is going to know who or what you are. You're not going to get any recognition for all of your hard work. What's the point of that?
Door in the face!
If your walking along, and nobody else can see you, thiers a good chance that a door will occasionally get slammed into your face. Ouch.

What you had to say
Twitter Responses - What would you do with the power of invisibility?

@Harpieclan1950 - um become a hero!!

@bryanjones63 - I'd convince people that I could fly too!

@RevTheMag - With invisibility and a couple million bucks, I'd change lives. I'd bring groceries, stop bullies, deliver sleeping bags ...

@spiritwasteland - lol hm... Sneak around and spy on hot people?

@GeorgeRoff - That'd be so cool! Go wherever I want to, whenever I want to! :D Nuff said! :)

@JaimeCarroll - I would use it straight after having sex with a prostitute just so I can avoid paying her.

@Dona300 If I had a power of invisibility I will go kick all the people I hate in the ass, enter my Boy friend's house & kiss him. Travel to many cool places like Disneyland & do what I want without people know.

Conclusion
Invisibility is a power which really makes you feel safe and in control. You can do pretty much anything to anybody and get away with it. But is that reall a good thing? What if you become so obsessed with being invisible that not only your perance, but your personality could to.
Thier are obviously flaws with this power. People will notice if you push through a door or if you step a puddle. Also what if a dog is sent to sniff you out? You can't make your scent invisible.
I don't really feel like thiers too much to gain from this power. Once you've played a few practical jokes, and maybe done some 'innocent' stalking, the funs pretty much gone, other than occasionally avoiding the people that annoy you.

Verdict - Stupid

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I Am Sam Review

This has become one of my all time favourite films. I admit thier are some flaws in the story and thier can be some confusion over who you should side with. But it's such a beautiful film and comes with a great message.
(I'm starting to worry that i'm going to get get really soppy in this review). This film shows that when it comes to being a parent, nothing is more important than love.

At the start of the film we are introduced to Sam(amazingly acted by Sean penn) who has the mental capacity of a 7 year old. We soon discover that he is expecting a baby, and shortly after she is introduced into the world, the mother runs away, leaving Sam to care for his daughter Lucy alone.
With the help of Annie(the women across the road) he is able to comfortably raise Lucy and introduce her to the world. However, when she turns 7, things drastically change, and Sam finds himself fighting (with his easily frustrated lawyer) to try and keep custody of his daughter.

I'll admit that when I first watched this film, thier was a few tears. And even now i occasionally have to try and act manly, and hold back the emotions. But it is a film that explores a lot of emotional tragedy, and what makes it so sad is that it's the tragedy of the vulnerable.
We're not witnessing the lives of any average person crumble, we're seeing people that have already been dealt a bad hand in life, and thier life just gets worse, and they have it all thrown back at them.
On numerous occasions we see people fall apart and crack during this film.

However, don't be under the impression that this is just a gloomy film, it has many hilarious and joyful moments. Particularly between Sam and Lucy. This is partly because of the superb writing and the lighting of a lot of the scenes which added to the emotion. But I have to mention the incredible acting which truly makes this film what it is.
Sean Penn clearly did his research when preparing for his role as Sam and does an outstanding job, i barely recognise it as him.
Dakota Fanning does an equally brilliant job playing Lucy, and handles both the comical and emotional scenes very professionally for someone her age, and it's not surprising to see her continue to land great roles in the film industry. Her timing and facial expressions are perfect for the role.
Michelle Pfeiffer also deserves a mention for her portrayal of Rita Harrison, the stressed out, emotional lawyer. She does a great job in both emotional and more humerous scenes, and she bounces off of Penn's character comfortably, and allows him to invest in his character while still ensuring that she gets enough attention on her dramatic, crumbling life to keep the sub-plot slowly developing.

Overall, it is the superb acting, writing, lighting and soundtrack that combine together to make this film an emotional rollercoaster. Definately one to watch, but be warned that you will likely have to hold back some tears.

9/10

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Japan deserves our help

While the tragic events of the earthquakes and tsunami's still haunt the people in Japan, i can't help but feel we are currently seeing a slight crossing of charities with Red Nose Day now upon us.

It will certainly be expected that we dig into our pockets and donate to both charities with each recieving quite a lot of coverage in the UK. This leads to the common problem of having so many charities that need our support. Who do you give your spare moneuy too? And with the struggling economic state of our country, it's become even harder to scrape together some money to spread across the many people that desperatly need it.

However, i do feel that it is important we don't take our attention away from Japan. As important and worthwhile Red Nose Day is, i think we need to keep in mind the urgency and the scale of destruction that Japan has faced.

This is a country that(much like a lot of us) had money troubles before this disastor struck, and they are now looking at a bill of over a Billion pounds to get things anywhere near to what they once were.
We also can't forget how generous Japan have been to other countries in times of need, as this article from 2005 shows, they were very helpful and generous to America during the destructive Hurricane Katrina.
[http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2005/September/20050915165123ajesrom9.768313e-02.html#ixzz1GcNyqVdM]
They provided support as companies, governments and indivuduals. Private donations alone were around $1.5 million.

You can donate here - http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-Appeal

Or by calling  08450 53 53 53

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It's Friday! - We So Excited...?

I don't want you to base your judgement on what i've said in this blog. So if you haven't seen it yet, try and watch this music video. Friday by Rebecca Black. I'm sorry.
WARNING - The following music video is both annoying and addictive!

Surely everybody has now heard the horrific song by Rebecca Black. Now i'm not going to dedicate this whole blog to insulting her and critisizing her song. Now, dont get me wrong, i'd love to do that. But I can't help but feel that would be a pretty harsh thing to do. Particularly as the song has continued to grow on me over the last two days, and (to my shame) i've been finding it more and more addictive, and hate myself for it!

Rebecca Black has become famous practically over night with the official video alone already reaching over 12 Million views within the last week(despite the video being online for over a month now). She's suddenly getting a lot of attention, particularly in the online community, trending on Twitter, spreading on Facebook, and generally gaining a lot of attention. Although, i doubt anybody would agree that it's good attention.

Rebecca is not too different to a lot of the musical 'talent' that is recieving a lot of praise(and money) for songs that just don't reach the standard that we should be expecting and demanding.

Now, before i start defending her, i just want to get out of my system how awfully bad I consider 'Friday' to be. The lyrics are dreadful, boring and repetitive. Her voice has clearly been altered quite a bit, yet it still has a slight odd noise to it that it seems they just couldn't take out.

Why did they have lyrics such as 'We so excited'?! Is this what they see as targetting at a young audience? I mean the odd changes to grammer and pronunciation is fine, but 'We so excited' is just so bad, i don't even understand why the decision was made to say it like that? It's so much easier to add 'are' into the middle of that sentence.

I think it's important to note that Rebecca is simply a young girl trying to live her dream. Whether she should be trying to live the dream aged 13 is another subject for another blog. But I think the issue is that the intention is for all of us to take this song seriously and view it as an attempt to get good recognition and praise for a job well done.
If this was simply a girl putting in a lot of effort to try and produce something for fun and to share with people then i think it would not have exploded into anything near as big as it is right now.
The idea that this was made with the vision of projecting Rebecca into stardom much like Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus is what we find laughable. The rushed style of the song and the video makes it seem as though they are mocking the music industry and try to take in some easy money. Obviously this isn't the work of Rebecca, this is the people behind the music that are trying to target a very easy, gullible market of young teenagers.

In some ways i agree with a comment made on Yahoo! when they covered the recent products of 'Ark Music Factory' who are behind Rebecca Blacks songs. It stated that the company(based in LA) 'is a favourite of super-rich kids with pop star dreams, and, more importantly, plenty of parents' cash. The results are often music videos with high enough  production value but a deficit of talent and individuality'.

So before we start to be critical of her, i think we should turn out attention to the label and the people that have pushed ahead her song and made it the laughing stock that it has become. Because it seems that they've done her chances of a music career more harm than good. If they stopped trying to churn out as many 'young stars' as possible, and start giving each one more attention and focus, then maybe we wouldget some better quality products. And maybe, just maybe the music industry can get back some respect.

[You can read the yahoo article and see more horrific videos here - http://new.uk.music.yahoo.com/blogs/behind_the_music/47870/web-turns-on-13-year-old-singer/]

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Evolution

This is a very different film to the ones i have reviewed recently, in the sense that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's all about the great special effects and the cheap but enjoyable humour.

It follows two college professors (played by David Duchovny and Orlando Jones). They go to investigate a meteor rash in arizona and soon discover it is evolving at a rapid pace. Soon the governments gets involved and makes sure the two scientists no longer have a chance to investigate these strange creatures.

While some of the humour was a bit flat, their were a few laugh out loud moments. A lot of these came from Orlando Jones(who plays Prof. Harry Phineas Block), and his over the top reactions and funny one liners make it an enoyable film to watch while with a few friends.

Seann William Scott also has a role in this film, not as big a part as some of his films, playing the role of an 'in-training' fireman - Wayne Gray. He plays his usual role of the dim, clumsy but ultimatly determined young guy with some slapstick and stupid actions to attempt to add some more humour. Although, i feel like he doesn't have as much effect as some of his other films like 'American Pie' and 'Dude where's my car?'.

This film felt like the focus was more on the 'key moments' instead of the film as a whole. Because of this, their was a lot of hit and miss. This makes it hard to enjoy repeatedly, but as i said earlier in this review, it's good to watch with a couple of mates on a quiet night in. The special effects are impressive and the humour is enough to keep you entertained.

Acting - 4/10
Quality - 2/10
Entertainment - 8/10
Overall - 4/10

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Return of the Gameshow blog - What gameshow would you go on?

I'm sure everybody's thought about going on a tv gameshow, it's just one of those things that wed love to experience, the adrenaline, the excitement, the potential. Of course, we never picture ourselves losing, only winning. Although, we quite often see people come crashing down, defeated on tv gameshows, but we don't really pay too much attention to it, our focus is placed on the winner.

We've seen a lot of great gameshows pass us by - Bullseye, Catchphrase, Supermarket Sweep, Playour cards right, blankety blank and so many more.
Once great shows like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Family Fortunes are now just a shadow of thier original self.
Now we're left with pretty poor excuses for gameshows, and as i expressed in my previous gameshow blog(click here to read it) the gameshows we have now are normally crawling with celebrities trying to continue thier grasp on fame.

However, we have seen a slow progression into more physical gameshows such as The Cube and Total Wipeout(if you can call that a gameshow?). But are they as good as 'It's a Knockout' or 'The Generation Game'? I personally don't think they are.

Anyway, back onto the topic of this blog. I was just wondering what gameshow would be the best gameshow to go on. I mean obviously we all have preferences, some of us would prefer a more question based show, whilst others would like a more physical challenge. But pushing all that aside, if physicality and intelligence werent big factors, what would be the best gameshow to go on if you wanted the best chance of walking away with a decent prize?

Immediatly something like Who wants to be a Millionaire jumps to mind, you just have to answer a few questions then you can safely walk away with a decent amount of money, although, if you on a role, it's hard to just take the money, you just want to keep going and going and maybe even take some risks.
The harder shows are clearly things like Eggheads where you're competing with very intelligent people for (usually) quite a small amount of money which you would have to split between a group of you.

I guess it's hard to decide really, i'd assume we'd each base our choice on what we think our strengths are. I know that my dad is very good at catchphrase, and if that gameshow was still running, i would bet a lot of money on my dad winning.
We all know what we're good at, and what we can suceed in. I wouldn't like to go on a gameshow like Goldenballs or Deal or No Deal where it's mainly about luck, and where you have to rely on other contestants for you to suceed.
I'd prefer to win or lose based on my own decisions and ability. I suppose it's the taking part that counts, but when it comes to television glory and great prizes, is that really true?

Note- While writing this blog i've been talking to people ont twitter and gradual started thinking about all my favourite 90's shows. Gosh how i miss the 90's! Nostalgia..... =/

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Super Powers - Flying Ability

In this series of blogs I will be observing the various super powers that we'd all love to have. I'll look at the pro's and cons and see what we all think we could do with the powers. These powers won't necessarily be needed to act as a super hero, they could simply be thier to make your life easier. At the end of the each blog i will give a verdict on these abilities - Super? or Stupid?

This is a very common response when asked what sort of super power you would like to have. Who wouldn't want to fly? Travel to the shops with ease and minimal effort, life would become so easy. I've always wanted the ability to fly simply for the feeling of being weightless.

Positives
-Easy to be a superhero
All you have to do is fly around a town with a perfect view of everything. Then once you spot someone in trouble you simply fly down, pick them up to safety and place them away from the danger. The only issue may be fighting off the criminals, i suppose you could always just fly away...
-It would be a great way to escape danger
Imagine someone suddenly comes towards you with a knife, they want you phone and all your money. You can just laugh and shoot into the air away from any harm.
-Cheap and easy holidays
You can travel to your favourite destinations for free, as long as your prepared to carry your luggage all the way there.
-Best view in the house
You can get all the best views for your favourite music concerts, football games, music festivals- the lot! Just sit at the top of the stadium, or fly down backstage, or just hover right in front of them. Just be careful security don't try to take you out.
-Everything becomes more fun in the air...
Surely if you had the ability to fly, it would mean you can do pretty much anything while in the air. That means reading, playing sports, thinking, sleeping? The list goes on, and i'm guessing they would become even more fun to do.


Negatives
-Hard to stear?
Who knows how difficult it could be to turn left and right, particularly when your flying without any sort of wings. Even if you don't have too much difficulty, you may still become a fairly easy target for someone with a gun. If people can shoot a clay pigeon so easily, the won't have much problem with a flying human.
-Easy to recognise
Let's face it, thier's not going to be many flying people around, you'll be spotted pretty easily. So you won't be able to flee anywhere without people knowing it's you they've spotted flying away.
-Bugs
I'm guessing thiers a lot of bugs in the air, and if your travelling at fast speeds...they're going to go everywhere. All over you face and in your mouth - it won't be pleasant.
-Planes
I suppose you don't see them everywhere, and you don't see them all the time, but it could happen. I wouldn't want to get too close and get sucked up in the engine.
-Annoying friends
If you had the ability to fly, you wouldn't want to keep it secret, but that also means that everybody will want to take advantage. You'll be flying your mum to the shops, taking your best friend to thier football game it's a lot of work, and it's not like you can say no. You've been given this ability, you've surely got to share it out a bit?
-Careful clothing?
I'm guessing flying around in the air with wind blowing all around you clothing would be quite important, especially if you plan to fly at fast speeds. An all-in-one maybe be necessary to avoid stuff slipping off. Skirts and elasticated trousers are certainly a no.

What you had to say

Twitter Responses - What would you do if you had the ability to fly?

@bryanjones63 With the ability to fly I would leave this planet and find one that humans haven't fucked up yet.

@spiritwasteland I would use it to... fly?

@danielmackrell  lol, very creative =P where would you fly though?

@spiritwasteland Wherever I needed to go. But I would try and use my powers for good, like save people from being run over and whatever. :)

@JaimeCarroll Buy stronger hairspray so I don't mess my hair up. Oh, and go to places far and wide.

@RevTheMag Have mind-blowing sex. Oh, wait ...

@Ren_1992 I'd fly all around the world! :)

@GeorgeRoff Aha! ;D Well, fly closely above the sea to various places! :D #SavingMoney

Conclusion
Flying is a good ability to have, the most popular reason would be to travel across the world. Although, it may take a while, and won't necessarily be the most comfortable journey. But on a bright sunny day i'm sure nothing would feel better.

Thiers a reason we have(and love) aeroplanes. We would all love to conquer flight, we all want to soar into the air and look down on the people below. It's such a magical thought, and while writing this i'm staring out my window at the clear blew sky. In the last 5 minutes i've seen a bird and plane fly by, it's amazing thinking how much is going on in the air while most of us are stuck rooted to the ground. I suppose anything seems possible in the air, you'r unstoppable and thier is no limit to what we can achieve.
But i suppose we can give our dreams and asiprations wings to fly, and to break through the ceiling...ok maybe i'm getting a bit too cheesy. and off track.

Basically, flying would be an awesome ability to have at our disposal, and not only that, but it's a plausible one. What if we perfect the jet pack? Will we all be flying around 30 or 40 years from now? Wouldn't that be a sight...

Verdict - Super!


Let me know what you think of the ability to fly? Got any more positives or negatives? Is it what you would choose? What would you do with that power?

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K Pax Review

I've already expressed my love for Kevin Spacey, so you can guess that he's going to get another ego boost from me in this review of K Pax a film which again shows him to be such a convincing and diverse actor.

This film follows a man who believes he is an alien from the planet K Pax and calling himself 'Prot'. Within 5 minutes of the film, he is placed in a home, believed to be insane. It is at this point that we are introduced to Dr Mark Powell who is portrayed by Jeff Bridges.
Up to this point, i don't think i had really taken much notice of Bridges, but he portrayed the psychiatrist very well, a mixture of a man both 'in' and 'out' of control(soon seen to be in similar ways to Prot).

It's far from an amazing screen play, some of the dialogue is poor, and it feels as if the film could have been taken a lot further but perhaps a lack of imagination(or backing) restricted the areas it explored. Certainly the limited, dull scenery suggested that a small budget had some effect on the film. Also some scene's seemed to be placed into the film simply to create links with events later in the film and with no other purpose in mind.

To be fair to the writers, the plot is more complex than i first felt, and the ending still leaves you questioning what actually happens. You soon agree with the suitable tagline of the film - 'He says he's from the planet K-Pax...you'll want to believe him'. The gradually developments carry this film away from a cheap drama, into a much deeper exploration of the delusional and mentally ill. The characters that originally appear quite basic and 2 dimentional soon have more than meets the eye, and it's the talents of Spacey and Bridges which adds that extra spark to the characters that wouldn't necessarily be there without them being cast.

A great film to watch on a night in, it will make you think, but not too hard...

6/10

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The Social Network

I immensly enjoyed this film, it wasn't full of action, but it was certainly full of drama. The plot progressed so smoothly that i never found myself bored. The subtlety of the humour was charming in a way.

The star of the show had to be Jesse Eisenberg who did a very good job in the lead role as Facebook founder Mark Zucerberg. Having seen him in Adventureland, i was very unimpressed and was hoping that he would perform better in The Social Network, and it was a pleasant surprise. His acting wa spot on and I found him to be a very enjoyable character. He became a very different person.

The plot was based somewhat on real events during the creation of Facebook, and that adds some extra depth and interest into the film.

The thrill is very much in the dialogue, it is a very tight script whcih is carried out superbly by director David Fincher. Fincher has shown his ability of disciplined film making numerous times with films such as Zodiac and the Game. He doesn't have to pack that 'final thrill' unlike Steven Spielberg. I suppose that's one of the joys of Fincher. Some find it frustrating when a film doesnt have many moments that 'satisfy' you as an audience, but it's that discipline that can occasionally make a film so great. Also the complete focus on the dialogue and telling the story, instead of violence and action can create a much more intense atmosphere.

Certainly a film that stands as tall as the creation it is based on. A joy to watch, but just perhaps not repeatedly.

7/10

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Skyline - An Awful Film

I don't know how many people have seen this, it had quite small promotion as far as i was concerned, the only time i noticed it was when it was briefly featured on the front page of Youtube.
However, when i was told that this was the film that i'd be watching at the cinema for a friends birthday I made sure to watch the trailer(as i always do before seeing a film), and it really looked bad. When i told my friends that while we waited to buy our tickets, they were a bit critical of me, saying i shouldn't judge it so soon.

However, once the film had ended they were more than agreeing with me. Once the baffling, stupid film had finished, none of us really knew what to say.

I describe it as a 'Bad District 9', but thats an insult to District 9 which is a superb film.
Skyline is essentially an attempt to make a huge alien invasion blockbuster with quite a small budget (in blockbuster terms). Even as a 'B Movie' it was poor. The plot made very little sense, with wierd spaceships suddenly appearing and destroying everything, and if you hope for any answers to appear, i'm afraid they'll never come.
The cast wasn't anything amazing either. It included Turk from Scrubs essentially playing 'Turk from Scrubs' except in this film, he has loads of money.
They also try to add emotion and depth but the script is clearly so weak that everything feels thrown together just for the sake of action. Thier were a few glimmers of hope, but they were simply cheap shocks and some decent special effects.

My main annoyance with this film is the lack of satisifaction. By the end you want to feel like something has concluded, that it's built up to a moment. This doesn't always have to be a happy ending, or even always a good ending, we just have to feel like thiers something we can go away with, but this film left me unsatisfied. Perhaps they just dug thier hole deeper and deeper that thier was no way of turning back, so all they were left with was a dissapointing conclusion.

So if you see the dvd online or in a shop on it's release this week, a word of warning - don't buy it!

1/10

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The Man in the Iron Mask Review

A Dated Review

I've just been watching this film. If i'm completely honest, i don't think i had even heard much about it until the case was handed to me during a discussion with housemates over what film to watch.
What immediatly caught my attention was Leonardo Di Caprio (or Leando Decarro as one non-film watching housemate would call him), and of course anything with him in is generally a decent film. This film was promising double the Di Caprio(again who my housemate thought was just another actor that just looked very similar to him).

It was a good story and had a lot of potential, but i can't help but feel it missed some good opportunities. This film could have contained a bit more action, and the action that was used felt a bit dull, predictable and at times unnecessary. The deaths are few and when they do happen, they are very unconvincing.

Of course, this film isn't about death and violence, if anything, it's more about survival and revenge. The narrative story appears like a good one at first, without giving to much away it follows 3 men rescuing th man in the iron mask and setting out to dethrown their king. The plot is more complex than that, but only in terms of the characters motives. Not that much really happens in this film, and some actions and characters just seem to be placed in the film for as little time as possible with very little emotional coverage to really feel a connection with thier character. One character's death(who i wont reveal) is rather predictable and not that emotional after she gets quite minimal screen time for someone that influences a lot of the early events and emotion.

It was a good film that hit some good notes, but at the same time it missed many opportunities that could have propelled it from a 'good' film to a 'great' film. The acting was superb from all of the main cast, but the smaller roles could have been better cast. Di Caprio does well portraying two very different characters, and i particularly enoyed John Malkovich's performance, he was brilliant.

The cliches got a bit annoying at times, and some of the cheap humour meant that I ended up taking the film a little less seriously than i wanted to, but generally it was enjoyable film to watch and it certainly kept me entertained, and at some points it almost had me off my seat. Cetainly one to watch, if only for the great acting.

7/10

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Princess Mononoke Film Review

A Dated Film Review

Princess Mononoke is an anime film, and as such, it is not a style that (other than shows like Pokemon) i have not really seen much of. However, it's a genre that interests me because of it's very creative storylines.

I was recommended this film by a friend a few years ago, but just never got round to it. Finally, i did(obviously, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this now).

It was a good film, the animation was stunning and kept me captivated throughout. The storyline is exactly what you expect from an anime. It was wierd, yet wonderful. It seems to have a huge moral focus on nature and how we should all care and look after it. Which is fair enough, and it's delivered quite well.

One of the issues i found with the film was the slight lack of soundtrack use. Don't get me wrong, some of the music used was incredible and beautifully conducted, but i felt that could have used it more to get some more emotion into the film. I didn't feel as connected with the characters as i usually do, i don't know if that was just because i was watching it in Japanese, or that the director created some distance between the characters on purpose. Perhaps it was just the style of the film and the surreal events that i'm not userd to.

But it was a great watch, and at 2 hours in length, they didn't waste a second. Every moment was pure joy to view and the story was constantly moving and developing. Thier were not really any twists or shocking moments, but i guess you on' expect any. It's more about the beauty of the animation and the wonders of the strange lands that keep you enteratined.

If you watch the film, i do recommend the japanese voicing(with subtitles of course), i haven't watched it with the english voices yet, but i'm guessing they don't do it justice. I'm worried thatthey'll make it more about the empotions, instead of the much more interesting sides of this film. If you want to try out some anime, this is certainly a good place to start.

6/10

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The Life of David Gale Review

Spoiler free
Kevin Spacey is my favourite actor. I don't need any time to think about it, the man brings such intensity and life to his roles that he can make any film a joy. So when i purchased 'The Life of David Gale' featuring him as the star, thier was no doubt that i would enjoy it.

On the dvd, Empire are quoted as calling it an 'Exciting race against time...'
Now, while i somewhat agree with this statement, during the film, the race only seems to be the final half an hour, and during a 2 hour film, thats not really a very long time.

For me the excitement is in the slow build up of the story. this ios very much a mystery as the audience travels along with Bitsey(Winslet) to slowly unravel a rather interesting murder case.

Kevin Spacey plays the role of David Gale, a man on death row after being found guilty of murdering and raping one of close friends. The irony being that Gale was a fellow activist with the murdered woman(played by Laura Linney) against the death penalty. The film has consistent links to questioning whether the death penalty is a good thing in society, and this theme is continued throughout.

The acting is astounding, and the constant switch between past and present resembles a similar style to another Kevin Spacey film 'The Usual Suspects', although this is done with a slightly different effect. While the flashbacks do unravel the mystery, it occasionally feels like the answers aren't as complex as some may hope(maybe thats just me). What the flashbacks are good at is establishing some interesting background for the characters if David Gale and Constance Harroway(Linney), we soon realise that although Gale originally comes across as an intelligent man, we soon realise his flaws and that he's prone to a lot of mistakes.

I would certainly recommend this film if you've got 2 hours to spare, i don't think the film achieves the moral message as well as it hoped to, but it still packs a punch and provides a 2 hour story which keeps your attention and shows you exactly what good acting is.

7/10
Trailer

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World of Film - What's the deal 2011?

Well, 2010 was a fairly average year for cinema. I mean, we saw some great releases - Inception, Shutter Island, Toy Story 3 and The Social Network to name a few.

Before i move onto 2011, I just want to say how dissapointed i was with the slightly dull, predictable oscar results. It's clear that the men and women that are sitting at the back deciding who walks away with those golden men don't have much of a personal opinion.
It's clear that they refer to the Golden Globes when deciding who to have nominated. I'm not sure if they even bother to watch the films.

If you look back at the Golden Globes, you will see an awful film like The Tourist(i haven't seen it, but even I know it's dreadful) amongst the films fighting for an award, it makes you wonder whether it's about actual quality, or just the judges trying to secure top notch celebrities that they can meet(ie - Johnny Depp) to share a bottle of wine with at the after party.

Then, the people at the Oscars can't help but feel 'surely the Golden globes have got it right', so they pick from thier pool of nominations and provide very similar results.

I'm not saying i disagree with who won the awards, they're all very worthy winners, my point is that i still can't help but feel that some great films still miss out just because the Oscars refuse to put too much effort into the nomination process.

Now onto 2011, a year which, if i'm honest, doesn't seem to provide much in terms of excitement.
First thing i've noticed is that the world of sequels will continue for ever it seems. Just to name a few we have a fourth Pirates of the Carribean, a fourth Scream, a third Big Momma(help!), and some how, Michael Bay has made sure we've got a third Transformers to look forward too(i'm still scared to watch the 2nd one in case i fall into some sort of coma).

"Is thier going to be anything actually positive in this blog?" I here you ask, well, to be honest, thier isn't going to be much of it.

This spring thiers going to finally be a sequel to 'The Wicker Man', and rather creativly, it will be called 'The Wicker Tree'...clever.
Now when say finally, its not necessarily out of joy, i just mean that this is a sequel to a film that was originally screened in 1973(i'm going to ignore the 2006 version). Part of me is interested to see how the film turns out, from pictures and early news about it, the wierd nature of the people in Tressock seems present.

I'm sure i've kept you hooked for my next blog where i'll be tearing apart more future 2011 film releases. I'll try to make the next one more positive....promise.

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