Favourite Films

Saw 3D and What If…Other Films Had Too Many Sequels

Posted by Owen Nicholls in Blog
27/10/10

Preceding the first Million Pound Drop, the Davina McCall hosted quiz show where unfortunate members of the British public are baited with actual, cold, hard cash, only to have their hopes and dreams literally fall away in front of them, whilst we folks at home chuckle heartily at their misfortune, was a trailer question asking, “Which horror film has had the most sequels?

saw

The options were as follows…
A)Nightmare On Elm Street
B)Halloween
C)Friday the 13th
D)Saw

If you’d have answered, D) Saw, you’d now be staring at a large hole in the ground, the end of your relationship, widespread ridicule from your peers and a possible nervous breakdown.

More to the point though, how many bloody sequels does one film need?

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What If Your Favourite Films Had Their Budgets Slashed?

Posted by Owen Nicholls in Blog, News
21/10/10

Depending on your political preference and/or apathy, yesterday’s governmental spending review was either;
a) Necessary, fair and will bring Britain back from the brink (nice alliteration Georgie),
b) Too fast, too deep (creepily sexual Alan) and likely to make Britain resemble Pottersville from ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’,
or
c) Just another part in the never-ending cycle of politics where one party gets a chance to mess things up for a bit until everyone gets bored and votes in the other lot. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The Cuts Will Be This Big
“The Cuts Will Be THIS Big”

Forgive us our cynicism, as we here at ThisFilmIsON attempt to make light of the fact that close to 1,000,000 of our fellow Britons face redundancy and let’s instead take a wry look at how our favourite films would look with a hairy giant axe-wound in them. No you grow up.

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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Posted by Lewis in Reviews
12/10/10

As a rule I try to steer clear of movies that contain colons, both grammatical and anatomical. Granted there are some notable exceptions, but for every Dr Stranglove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb there’s fifty  Ballistic: Ecks vs Severs. Couple this with the fact that I’ve been whole heartedly underwhelmed by Oliver Stone’s last three box office contributions and you will see how the prospect of enduring Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was not something I was relishing.

Smug is Good

With twenty three years between Stone’s two trips to Wall Street you’d have thought the director had had enough time to really postulate on what exactly that time had done to the avaricious Gordon Gekko. Unfortunately it would appear that Hollywood’s favourite conspiracy theorist has been filling his time with other, more pressing questions like ‘Who did kill off the electric car?’ and ‘How do they get those boats inside the little glass bottles?’

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The Social Network

Posted by Owen Nicholls in Reviews
11/10/10

The Social Network is about many, many things. The fact that it’s about many, many things is one of the reasons why it’s quite possibly the best, certainly the canniest, film of the the year. But the first thing that The Social Network draws your attention to is ‘giving credit where credit is due’. So to Peter Travers, Rolling Stone magazines film reviewer, congratulations for being spot on when describing the movie as ‘defining the last decade’.

social

From the second The White Stripes kicks in over the opening credits to the closing shot of a ‘boy’ hitting refresh on his computer, the previous ten years of existence come flooding back to anyone born post 1980. That this is achieved by two (almost) 50 year old’s (Fincher and Sorkin) is just one of The Social Network’s remarkable achievements.

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The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin and The Five Scripts Ever Aspiring Writer Needs To Have Read

Posted by Owen Nicholls in Blog, Favourite films
07/10/10

“Did you hear the one about the blonde who was so dumb she slept with the screenwriter…”

As industry jokes go, that one is top of the pile. It proves quite succinctly that the life of a screenwriter is not a happy one. With so many amateur writers submitting literally thousands of scripts every day, an aspiring writer may never get theirs read. If it is read and doesn’t meet all the criteria needed by about page 10, it will almost certainly be binned. If it isn’t binned but completely read through and liked, but doesn’t fit in with the current climate it won’t be bought. If it is bought, it still may never get made. If it is made it’s quite likely that other writers will be drafted in to re-write. If the re-write leaves any of your original characters and themes remaining and the film is a success, finally the credit will go to… the directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, best boys, grips, frankly anyone but you.

face

Unless of course you’re Aaron Sorkin. With the exception of Charlie Kaufman (although he, like many writers, has chosen to direct his latest projects) Sorkin is a ‘name’ in screenwriting terms. Now The West Wing creators script for The Social Network is gaining as much praise as David Fincher’s direction, being hyperbolied, as “smart and canny”, “absorbing and nuanced” and that it “boasts enough great dialogue to fuel a half dozen Oscar-bait movies”. He’s the closest thing to a screenwriter as celebrity as you can get.

Yet regardless of fame, wealth or respect if you were the screenwriter of one the films listed below, creator of one of the following characters or even conjuror of just one line of dialogue in the preceeding cinematic delights, nothing would compare to that honour, that knowledge that you, above anyone else, were the true creator.

Still wouldn’t help you get laid though.

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Takers

Posted by Lewis in Reviews
04/10/10

History is, in reality, littered with crap ideas. The Penny Farthing, Esperanto, Lady Gaga. Now, with heist movie Takers hitting screens this weekend we have something else to add to this list. With an ensemble cast which reads like a who’s who of box office kryptonite very little about this film makes any sense. I’m under no illusion that teaming up the likes of Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Idris Elba (sorry Owen) and rap star Tip ‘T.I’. Harris ensures a certain portion of the ‘Burberry buck’ but if there is even a modicum of artistic integrity remaining in Hollywood films like Takers will be forever imprisoned in societies metaphysical bargain bin.

Bland of Brothers

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