Movies for Monday: Religion and Crime

Hey Guys

This is the part of the week where I will be looking into films and reviewing certain aspects or even a whole film. I will be viewing my opinions whilst also asking what you feel about it.

The films I look into may be new releases, or films that I have just watched on DVD.

This week I’m going to look into things with a deeper meaning to them. This might be a little tricky and may get me into a little trouble, but we all like to play the risk game once or twice.

So this week we are going to talk about a film that I watched awhile back, then thought of re-watching last night. The film is Se7en (1995) directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, is about two homicide detectives, a ‘rookie’ and a ‘veteran’ who are desperately searching for a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as justification towards his crimes, killing each person by ‘the sin they commit.’

Now the reason I said this was risky is because first of all I’m a born Baptist turned agnostic. So I know quite a bit about Religion, but tend to get annoyed at the contradictions most religious people fail to pay attention to.

In movies like these the aim of it is not just to show how cruel ‘The Big Cities’ are but also to show the conflicts between religion. First of all I would like to say that for people, not as extreme as our murder, say that people commit a sin should be punished. Well doesn’t the bible say ‘Thou shalt not kill.’

Therefore when I see movies about people killing for religion, or hear stories of Marta. I think back to the Ten Commandments and think; well you are not allowed to break any of these ten?

Let’s focus back on the film, as I feel I’m heading off the tracks, and it may get risky. The film itself is showing us the methodical tactics of this murderer, the time he’s taken to select his victims, the research done, even the torture he has place upon some of his victims, leaving Sloth victim for a year to ‘rot’ in bed.

With the use of sound and cinematography it is also showing us that no matter if the detectives are on duty or off, the city never sleeps. In one scene Detective Somerset (Freeman) is travelling in a taxi to a library, he hears sirens and screaming and when he looks out of the window he sees a body spasm whilst paramedics try to cover the body up.

There also seems to be some sort of siren in the background of scenes, where close or far away in the distance. Showing that there is always crime and sin in such a city as this.

Overall this film is a clever in the fact that it is well thought out and deep, the killer thinks that this is his calling from God whilst the detectives think he is crazed and psychotic.

If you have any films or film topics you would like me to look into the comment below. If you have any views on what has been discussed this week, also let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt 

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Movies for Monday: A bit of Rock & Roll

Hey Guys,

This is the part of the week where I will be looking into films and reviewing certain aspects or even a whole film. I will be viewing my opinions whilst also asking what you feel about it.

The films I look into may be new releases, or films that I have just watched on DVD.

I thought I would focus mainly on music and how it affects people. What better way to focus on music than a film about rock stars, right?

This week’s film is Almost Famous (2000) Directed by Cameron Crowe.

Based in America in 1973, this film is about a high-school boy who is excelling in life. His mother is an over-protective teacher who has lied to her son and made him skip grades. His sister walks out and rebels against the mother because she felt that music was ‘speaking to her’.

The story follows the boy, William, and his story. He gets a chance to write an article for The Rolling Stone Magazine about an ‘up-and-coming’ rock band, Stillwater. William accompanies them on their concert tour, confronts life and befriends ‘the enemy’.

This was a rather funny, feel good movie about a band, their fans and how they connect. It is also about the tensions between the band members, as they reach their big moment of fame.

This film focuses on the raw talent and characteristics of a band, looking into the way they tour and focusing on how ‘The man’ (record companies, etc.) is trying to change rock and roll and make things much more mainstream.

William’s adventure goes further than he first expect, with him travelling the full tour and seeing things nobody else would ever see. Listening to the same music that was inspiring this band to tour and perform.

The long list of songs used as both diegetic and non-diegetic is endless. I was originally going to place the full soundtrack on here, but that would have made the blog go on for quite some time. I mean it is a film about a rock band. What do expect?

There is mention of some great names such as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Black Sabbath (who Stillwater are touring alongside.), Neil Young, Lou Reed and many more (check out the amazing soundtrack at the bottom).

So this story, based on true events is one of charm and classic rock music, but what makes it so intriguing? Why do we watch these films telling us about how a certain band or person became famous?

Take Walk The Line (2005) directed by James Mangold and staring Joaquin Phoenix, for example, the story of Jonny Cash and June Carter; about the darker side of fame and of love.

We want to watch these films because they are real life stories. Stories where people have a raw talent, whether it be singing like Cash or Stillwater, or it be Journalism, they have a talent and they want the world to see this talent, they find difficulty in their journey and also might find love but eventually the bright lights of fame get too much for them and they stumble.

So do we watch these films for the stumble and the good music? Not at all, we watch them because it gives us courage to get out there and show our talents and skills, because no matter how bad they stumble, Cash ending up in Prison and Stillwater almost breaking up, they always seem to pull through and it’s their dedication.

This is why the music in films that are based on real stories are so important, because each band, each singer, has a story to tell. They will all inspire somebody in a different way, so overall it’s more than just the music. It is about inspiration.

Almost Famous (2000) Soundtrack: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181875/soundtrack

If you have any films or film topics you would like me to look into the comment below. If you have any views on what has been discussed this week, also let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Movies For Monday: Space, The Final Frontier

Hey Guys,

This is the part of the week where I will be looking into films and reviewing certain aspects or even a whole film. I will be viewing my opinions whilst also asking what you feel about it.

The films I look into may be new releases, or films that I have just watched on DVD.

You may not believe this, maybe you’ll be slightly shocked, but at times I can be slightly geeky! I know a little about certain things and have a fondness for old classics.

So when I watched Star Trek (2009) directed by J.J. Abrams last night, I felt my geeky side come out, as it probably will in this blog.

At first, when watching the opening scene, I was getting slightly annoyed as I thought they were about to kill off a captain that was very important without giving him two looks. I was wrong to think this as the film itself is based around him and his voyage with Enterprise.

The film tells of the story of the Romulans and how they believe Mr Spok to have destroyed their home planet, they start to destroy other planets to get back at the Federation for not saving their planet.

Now I have to say, may include spoilers, that the thought into the time, space continuum was really clever. Basically due to the fact that when future Romulans and the future Spok (Spok Prime) being transported back to the present day, it altered the course of people’s lives and made things change. 

(I told you this might get slightly geeky)

Whilst watching this film it brought back some memories of sitting down to watch Star Trek with my father. I saw almost every captain, almost every commander and knew the basic plot lines.

I was rather impressed by this film, and apart from a few minor CGI moments that were a little too much, the rest was perfect. The story line was clean and came through and they seemed to keep some of the old Star Trek charm in there.

I thought that Simon Pegg as Scotty did a fantastic job, his Scottish accent and his personality was great. To be honest, the whole film was tremendously well casted and all the actors portrayed the original characters as well as possible.

Overall the movie was rather impressive and it thrilled my geeky side to no end. It is worth watching and I don’t know why I have not seen it earlier. Also I was extremely glad to see that at the end of the film, they had the original Star Trek Opening Titles, obviously edited and re-mastered for a newer audience, but just the fact they included it made my geeky side happy.

One small little treat for you guys. J.J. Abrams is in the process of making an Untitled Star Trek Sequel, which will be coming out next year.  We all know how well Abrams is at keeping secrets, so I’m guessing we won’t know much detail until the trailer hits, but I’m guessing from what he has created with the first one it should be good.

If you have any films or film topics you would like me to look into the comment below. If you have any views on what has been discussed this week, also let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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