Source: motionographer.com

Many would agree with me when I say that modern cinema has become too dumbed down and although I admit to enjoying many of todays films their shallow character profiles, heavy saturation of action, violence and sex has simply taken over from complex intertwined story lines and memorable characters to produce an item which requires no mental exercise what so ever to watch.

Atonement is a film that I would not have otherwise watched if it hadn’t been something I had been invited along to, the trailer interested me enough, however not as much as say those for Hitman and The Brave One. This could be because I react more to the simple artifacts within those trailers rather than the more complex ones conveyed within Atonement. The film itself is is based around the life of Briony Tallis a fledgling writer and the lives of others whom are intertwined with hers. Events are set in motion when as a child she accuses her older sisters lover of a crime he did not commit.

The majority of the film is based in the 1930s however as events unravel the viewer is transported through the second world war following Robbie Turner as he attempts to make it back to England during the British retreat and to the modern day showing Briony Tallis as and old woman who during a television interview explains the truth behind several twists in the film and how she still could not forgive herself for the damage she did as a child having seen “something she did not understand but believed that she did” thus changing the course of three lives forever. It is during the ending of the film that Briony achieves atonement and its the journey towards this event which the film is based around.

In contrast to other films currently in the Cinema, Atonement contains a great many levels of meaning which has been incredibly conveyed by director Joe Wright. The characters feel real, the settings are beautifully recreated giving a sense of authenticity to the story and you as a consumer create a connection allowing for a deeper response rather than laughing at a bunch of CGI flickering lights. It is this connection which to me signals a perfectly constructed film and in the end of Atonement there was a feeling of sadness in the cinema as people genuinely felt sad as if they personally knew those involved.

This film isn’t for everyone I admit that we where possibly the youngest in the cinema and being twenty one years of age that is saying something. You require a much longer attention span than most people are used to exerting while visiting the cinema as there are long stretches between provoking dialogue, however if you do enjoy having your mind exercised while watching a deep thought provoking and emotional film then I recommend that you go and watch it now and if not well it does show Keira Knightley naked.

As I’m now watching The Last Unicorn, one of the characters is foxed by the famous Lewis Carroll riddle from Alice in Wonderland, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

The answer Lewis Carroll gave was that; “they both produce a few notes, all very flat, and are almost never turned the wrong way front.”

I had to do a search for this and when I came across it I was a little stumped… fortunately, the same site gave one person’s explanation:

“they both produce a few notes” – ravens don’t have much variety in their songs and people use desks to write (paper) notes as well.
“all very flat” – what could be flatter than a piece of paper? And ravens’ songs are apparently rather flat-sounding.
“and are almost never turned the wrong way front” – a desk is useless if it’s faced the wrong way, because you can’t sit there. “raven” spelt backwards is “nevar”, and thus “raven” is almost “never” turned the wrong way front.

I had come across this last bit before during a brief study of the author himself in an English Language class, which is why I wanted to look it up, since I couldn’t remember the exact answer. However, it is further said that there is no real answer for the question, but many ideas have been created by those people who think too hard, such as “Poe wrote on both” and “One is a rest for pens, the other is a pest for wrens” – both of which I’m more likely to remember than the one I was first told…

So, now you know and can confuse your friends by actually giving an answer from Mr Carroll himself, or even from the many enthusiasts who think about riddles way too hard. I find his Alice books and the movies that have been spawned from them very amusing… infact, I wish I could download them now…

Directed by Edgar Wright and co-edited with Simon Pegg, Hot Fuzz mixes the distinct comedic element previously seen in Shaun of the Dead with another epic story line. The film plays on the idea of big fish little pond when Sergeant Nicholas Angel as played by Simon Pegg is transferred to a small town by his Jealous colleagues who didn’t like him being the “sheriff of London” and paired him up with the incompetent PC Danny Butterman played by Nick Frost. The storyline contains more than a few twists that keep you guessing until all is revealed and what made this an even better movie than most is that there are quite a few intricate details in the film such as Shaun of the Dead being in the bargain bin of a local supermarket and such comedic greats as Bill Bailey and Jimmy Carr featuring as characters in the film which does a good job at almost topping Shaun of the Dead!

If you liked Shaun of the Dead then you will love Hot Fuzz!

The new Apple iPhone was announced yesterday at the keynote presentation at MacWorld 2007, ending much speculation and putting an end to many many rumours that had been circulated throughout the internet! Want to read more? Here are a couple sites I've found useful for reading up on this long awaited new, excluding the Apple site itself (all sites will open in a new window)

Engadget
Gizmodo

I might be bothered to find other sites to put up here another time, but those two do quite well between themselves I think…

Feel free to just google "Apple iPhone Macworld 2007" and you get 4,990,000 results… not too bad really!

Personally I think it's beautiful… I might have to marry one. Only a few complaints so far. Firstly, the US is complaining about their choice of service provider/network. Secondly, it's not out over there til June. Thirdly, we won't get it here in the UK until around christmas… so my father will have to wait another year to replace his poor ol' Nokia

Joey came to me a few days ago and asked if I could help out with one of his film projects for his comedy profile. All I can say is that this guy is a fucking leg-end when it comes to comedy and I was more than happy to lend a hand. We went off to Birmingham with Camilla for a day of filming for his latest video and then off to bowling to finish it all off. After that we spent a few days together editing at mine ready for a myspace launch. I am very impressed with what we have produced, and you would think that after waching it for the hunderedth time I would be bored of it, but i’m not!

I miss her…

Infact, coincidentally I watched "Over the Hedge" last night with my boyfriend. Enjoyed the film very much, but one thing that really got me smiling was the way that one of the main characters, the 'bad influence' racoon "RJ" pointed out how it would be easy for them to get food off of the humans; "They got food with them. We eat to live – these guys live to eat!". This made me smile even more as he went on to show all the devices and everyday things we have to "summon" food or aid us to keep eating! It's not wonder animals create such havoc trying to get to our scraps… I find it an interesting kind of humour when a script writer can poke fun at humans, and is partly why I enjoy films that "star" animals… ok, so it's not necessarily right about real animals, but it does make you think "Ok, it sounds stupid when you put it THAT way!". Listen to the cute fuzzy animals – People are stupid!

Uh, but… yeah. The point I was making is that it would be SO hard for a cibophobic person to escape… there's the point I just made, along with the fact that we need food, of course…

So, now you have an update. Sorry it's taken my over a month, I've been on holiday and stuff. Or just lazy too, but Mr Twelve managed to kep you updated for a while. I believe he's doing socialising things recently, so maybe this will be a nice welcome when he gets back