Film 7 - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Teen comedies with Michael Cera in seem to be absurdly prevalent these days, enough so that now two of the first seven films I've watched this year have had him in them.

The shadow of 'Youth In Revolt' hung over this film from the moment the disk entered the DVD player, I was deeply sceptical that it could beat one of the funniest films I have ever seen... it didn't.

Despite this it was quite good, Nick and Norah made a good couple, the other members of the gay band were excellently played and the storyline was interesting.

Good... but not great.

Film 6 - Bambi

It's taken me a week to get round to writing up the bunch of films I and a group of friends watched on the first successful  film night that we've managed.

First up on film night, because me and another friend had never seen it before was Bambi... and I liked it.

Basic storyline, Bambi is born, then grows older and has kids of his own. In between is one of the saddest moments ever seen in a children's film, when Bambi's mother dies. If I look at the film with my Media Studies hat on it's an obvious use of the classical Hollywood narrative, but the symmetry with Bambi having his own kids at the end, despite being obvious was really heart-warming.

Nice kids film with some genuinely brilliant, heart-warming and sad moments is my final verdict.

Film 4 - Eating Out + Film 5 - Eating Out 2

To be honest, I watched these with a couple of friends and I remember them... very little. Two gay films, one about a guy who pretends to be straight to get the other guy and where the guy pretends to be gay to get the girl.

I think they were vaguely amusing but I'm just posting them here for the record.

I really need to get a move on if I'm going to make it to 100!

Film 3 - Youth In Revolt

Quite simply one of the funniest films I've ever seen. I went to see it about a week ago with a group of friends and we all laughed all the way through it. The plot seemed fine at the time although the more you think about it there is an element of absurdity about it, but then again how can a film in which the main character creates a split personality alter ego not be slightly absurd.

Funniest moments included:

1) Nick's alter ego trying to destroy the car and trailer whilst Nick inadvertently causes even more damage then walks away trying to look innocent.

2) Nick knocking over the cereal bowl, brilliantly deadpan acting, as Nick tried to think of something vaguely subversive and found nothing much.

3) Dodging the teachers as they try to stop him escaping the French boarding school

4) The book coming to life when he's high on 'shrooms' and the little finger moment, genuinely got the most laughs of any moment in the film

5) Nick being escorted away by the police in a dress

There were many other moments, and in many respects the film was just a vehicle for a series of vaguely connected skits. It was a pretty hilarious vehicle though.

Film 2 - Shallow Grave

A couple of days ago nothing else good being on TV and my internet down meant that I decided to watch Danny Boyle's directorial debut, Shallow Grave. I expected a lot, with Christopher Ecclestone, Ewan McGregor and Kerry Fox starring. The original premise, of three people having to decide what to do with a dead body and a suitcase full of money expands over the course of the film into something much more.

This was the most gripping film I've ever seen, David's descent into psychosis was just brilliant, drilling holes in the floor, holding a drill to his flatmates head, and all this caused by sawing the hands and feet off the corpse. The film continues to spiral out of control, making me ever unsure of what David would do next. The killing and body disposing parts of the film have a very horror theme, and the garish piano music is reminisicent of the beginning of  Halloween

It may have been easy for many people to dislike the main characters, but I found myself identifying with their very human greed. They didn't want to kill, they weren't insane to begin with, they just wanted the money. Who knows what they would do in the sort of situation they were put in?

Film 1 - Madagascar

Animated family films with talking animals rarely fail... and this was no exception. For my first film of this year I chose (because it was on BBC3) Madagascar, and it didn't disappoint me.

The group dynamic between the four main characters (Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria) was brilliant, the slapstick comedy was laugh out loud hilarious and they all delivered some very funny lines, especially Melman and King Julian.

The Penguins have a small subplot which could have been expanded. They were brilliantly funny and seemed to have some very socialist/marxist tendencies. Maybe that was just me.

As I was watching the movie, good as it was, my mind drifted to who the voice actors were for the main characters. I immediately worked out that Melman was David Schwimmer and not long after my suspicions were raised that Alex was voiced by Zach Braff. My wild guess for Marty was Chris Rock, it just sounded like him, but I couldn't be sure, and for Gloria I had no idea.

A quick look at Wikipedia shows me that I got two out of three, but not the ones I thought. Alex wasn't Zach Braff but rather Ben Stiller. It sounded so much like Braff though!. I also found out that the voice of King Julian was Sacha Baron Cohen, which makes sense now, but I couldn't tell at the time.

Brilliant fun, not hugely sophisticated, but then, neither am I.

100 Films

Yes, that's right, I plan to watch 100 films this year and blog about every single one of them on here.

That will give me 101 posts on this blog (including this one)

I may start today by watching Once Upon a Time in the West, a film which I saw the start of in a Media Studies lesson last year.

Hopefully in a year and 100 posts time some people will be reading!