Hey man, how have the holidays been? It sounds like the holidays are nearly over but then I remember we've still got 2 months left! I've exhausted the crap out of Fallout 3 (50 hours) to the point that whenever I play it, it's like a chore. Red Dead Redemption is a good game but I'm not as addicted to it as I was for Fallout. There's nothing to do now! It's so weird how I'm hating on holidays but then after 1 month back at school, I can't wait for them to arrive. But I guess this particular holiday is pretty long, so that's why I'm ranting. 

Yay again for watching Requiem For A Dream! :)

I favor Carlin over his Hicks primarily because i just think Carlin's humor is more diverse and funny. And the fact the guy had lasted so long in the business and was always adapting and pushing at the new boundaries takes a level of awareness that you gotta respect. 

That's not to say i don't like Bill Hicks, but if i were to pick one it would be Carlin. 

Hi, going fine, yourself? Nah I don't, I do have The Watchmen graphic novel however but AI haven't read much, I don't read all that much at all but I am working my way through Game Of Thrones (i've seen the tv series already), sorry I took so long to respond, I don't check my wall that much. btw if you haven't seen Perfect Sense I recomend it.

How was your Easter? Did you watch some good movies?

Hey man. My Easter has been alright. I've been doing lots of revision but still watching movies in between. Hanna was good but I thought the second half of the film could have been better. The first half was really good, introducing the characters and showing Hanna as this kickass girl, smart yet ruthless. But the second half wasn't as good. I didn't like Cate Blanchett and I thought she was pretty annoying. Also, how did Hanna know how to use the Internet but didn't know what a TV was or electricity for that matter? I did enjoy the film for those action scenes, Saoirse Ronan and the score. 

     Cronos didn't do it for me. I was expecting a heart pounding horror film and from the back of my DVD sleeve, it looked like a chilling movie from the creepy images. I was wrong. The film was pretty slow moving and it wasn't frightening at all. The story was certainly there and I liked the characters, but the film wasn't what I was expecting. Overall,  it was just boring for me. 

                 A few films I really enjoyed during the Easter holidays were: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, LA Confidential, Requiem For A Dream, The Lives of Others and Boyz n Tha Hood. 

My half-term has been alright. Been catching up on sleep and the films I still have hanging around. A few really good stand out films I saw were Funny Games, the Evil Dead and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Funny Games was a really fucked up and twisted film. I don't really know how to explain how the film goes so I'll tell you sometime later. I really enjoyed the Evil Dead as well. Really effective horror which actually made me scared. 

          My brother saw the Women in Black yesterday. He said it was O.K but could have been done better. What kind of martial arts films are you gonna get? Bruce Lee films? Lol,  I don't really know that much about martial arts films. The only one I've seen is Crouching Tiger from memory. 

I think the top sets do their Science exams in January, I don't know if that applies to all the other sets though. 

        Is Skyrim good then? I've been playing GTA on and off. All I really do is kill people and then run away from the police. I got everything I wanted except for the Almodovar boxset. Apparently it's out of stock. I did watch Volver though. It's alright. A bit slow and the story could have been explained better. Didn't really do it for me. I got my Hal 9000 t-shirt as well. Looks pretty cool. 

Yeah, Attack the Block was pretty good. 3 things about it: I liked the guy who played Brewie, he was pretty funny. 'I'll murk you blood!' is now a popular saying of mine. And I also loved how the aliens looked as well. 

I found it amazing how they managed to convey such destruction/chaos and at the same time, make it look beautiful. A good anime. I've seen 5 so far now. 

         How did your Christmas go? I went to HMV today and bought: La Haine, The Seventh Seal and Attack the Block. I've really wanted to see La Haine and the Seventh Seal. I bought Attack the Block because you said it was a surprisingly good film and also, because it's had pretty good reception as well. That's the only film I've bought this Christmas which is not foreign. All the others are from the World Cinema section in HMV.  

I thought Akira was visually outstanding. All the scenes featuring explosions and the final 20 minutes were amazing. Neo-Tokyo looked pretty cool. You could definitely tell why people said that this film changed the way anime looks and also, to some extent, filmmaking. 

             I enjoyed the story. It went pretty deep into themes like the creation of the Universe. It obviously has the underlying theme of Hiroshima/Nagasaki. This was a definitely a change to all the Studio Ghibli films I had been watching! There was death and destruction everywhere. A pretty violent anime film with really great visual scenes. I also really liked the soundtrack. 

Merry Christmas!

Yep, you should definitely get round to watching it. I've got it on DVD if you wanna borrow it. I also really need to catch up on the 2011 films. I haven't seen as many as I would have liked to have seen. But I guess that's just me, I don't usually watch new releases until a year or so after. Anyway, are you just getting Skyrim and the Tropico 4 game for Christmas? Are you gonna get any films? 

This is kinda random but have you seen Memento? I saw it ages ago but thought of it just now. It's now up there on my list of favourites. You gotta see it man. I think that it is probably Nolan's best film. A very clever film that doesn't confuse you but leads you through it instead. It makes for a very different viewing experience. I know that kinda sounds like I'm advertising the film but trust me, it's sheer genius. There was even one scene in the movie which scared the shit out of me. Not in a horror kind of way but more, shock and disbelief. 

It looks awesome! I'm glad he's returning to sci-fi movies again. It did kinda look like another Alien movie or something similar but still, the trailer looked epic! 

Haha, I completely forgot about A Serbian Film. It's up there on my list of films that go past the boundaries. I saw it in HMV for £7. It had its own sleeve as well. 

           Skyrim sounds/looks like a pretty good game. I thought you were gonna get a basketball game or something? 

              I've got my eyes on a couple of DVDs: Akira, Rashomon, The Three Colours trilogy, Oldboy and an Almodavor boxset. I've also ordered a Hal 9000 T-shirt. I'm gonna get a Skynet zip up hoodie once the sizes come into stock. That's about it really.  

                Yeah, I've seen both trailers. I liked them both and yes, as you've said, can't wait for them next year. 

Yeah, I watched a ton of movies lately. Some really good ones such as Let the Right One In, About Schmidt, Infernal Affairs, A Tale of Two Sisters and the Bicycle Thieves. Also, I've finally completed the 'Dollars Trilogy', watched some anime films and some foreign films. 

           I saw Sympathy for Mr Vengeance last night. A really violent film about revenge. Not as good as I was expecting but it was alright. Asian cinema is so violent and sadistic. I mean, I watched a horror film called Audition, and the torture scene at the end is so hard to watch. Gruesome.

       I also found out that K- horror films are pretty scary. I usually don't get scared by horror films but after watching A Tale of Two Sisters, I couldn't sleep. Nothing has scared me that much since the Blair Witch Project. 

Anyway, I've got A Prophet and Seven Samurai, so I'm gonna watch them later. 

       Merry Christmas!            

Viggo embodied the persona of a Russian gangster so well in that film. Looked the part as well. I didn't know Christian Bale learned martial arts to prepare for his Batman role. Sounds pretty awesome and he seems extremely dedicated to whatever role he's playing. Another perfect example of this in action is in the Machinist.  He even put his body on the line to get into the mindset of that role. You don't get those types of actors nowadays. Quite sad actually. 

Yeah, you could argue that Gone Baby Gone is more of a drama rather than a thriller, the film  was probably more about each individual person and their relationship with each other. It's quite a sad film in my opinion. 

         Zodiac is probably more of a mystery film because they never worked out who actually did all the murders in real life. 

            I watched Eastern Promises yesterday. Great film with superb acting from Viggo Mortensen. I also love how David Cronenberg puts emphasis on the blood during the violent scenes. Incredibly graphic especially the sauna scene....in more ways than one! It's the only Russian Mafia film I've seen. I'd like to see some more after watching this. 

I'm guessing you've seen One Hour Photo? How did you find it? 

      On an entirely different note, for my DofE, I write film reviews for the skill section of it and Mr. Hall assessed them today, and surprisingly he has a really good taste in film (probably because he's a drama teacher!) but his favourite films are things like 3:10 to Yuma, There Will Be Blood etc. He also likes REC and Ringu which I find pretty awesome.

I have total respect for that man after our chat on film.

     I watched Zodiac and Gone Baby Gone yesterday. Films of the same genre but dealing with entirely different things. They were both good in their own ways but they did suffer from their respective run time. Zodiac didn't really seem to be going anywhere after a while and sort of dragged and, Gone Baby Gone could have ended half way through the film. But there was some great acting in both films and some pretty good twists, as you'd expect in a thriller.