Movie Review 5 - The Devil Inside

Similar to the last movie review, I watched a horror film but this time it was called 'The Devil Inside'. This film is about a girl called Isabella Rossi, who tries to find out what has happened to her mother after she was sent away from her daughter for killing three people in what looked like an attempted exorcism which had not been deemed safe or the correct treatment by the Vatican. The film follows Isabella's journey to Italy to document the teaching of exorcisms and a reunion with her mother but after coming into contact with a pair of trainee exorcists, she finds out much more than she would from just sitting in a classroom.

I was slightly apprehensive about watching this film at first as even though I am a fan of horror films, I had found out that the first screening of this film had been done in an old church at midnight with no light. The reviews from those who experienced this had stated that they were slightly unnerved after they had watched it and they felt even more worried once they had found out that the case of Isabella Rossi's mother is a real life case which is still to be resolved.

The film is shot almost all through the eyes of the camera man who accompanies Isabella on her journey and this makes it look as though it is a footage film. These films are not films i tend to watch very often but I wanted to try something new and to be honest, I like the way the used the camera man's point of view and the way they made it seem like a documentary. The film was very enjoyable and I would recommend it as long as the viewer isn't too squeamish as there is a lot of unnatural body movements and some aspects could make certain people feel sick. The trailer for 'The Devil Inside' can be seen below this text:

Film Review 4 - The Quiet Ones

Recently I watched a film called 'The Quiet Ones'. This is a horror film about supernatural events and in particular, the case of a university professor who specialises in the cases of the supernatural, and a small group of students who have been given the task of documenting the issue of a girl who is believed by some to be possessed while others have an opinion that she is just mentally insane. Their task is to try and prove she is possessed by documenting her movements and holding spiritual gatherings to see what or who is possessing her.

The film is shot from two different perspectives. The first is that it is filmed through the eyes of the audience, like most films. The second is that it is filmed in some areas through the eyes of some of the characters, especially the main student, Brian. He is the camera man who has been trusted to document the whole experience and the angles that the film is shot from at certain points is through the camera he uses. This gives a more genuine feel to things and also gives the audience more of a feeling that they are there alongside those in the film. Normally I am not a fan of films that are shot in this way but because there was a good mix of camera angles and shots, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought. The trailer can be seen below this text:

Music Video Review

When looking for more song ideas for my production I stumbled across an artist called Sam Hunt. I liked some of his songs and ended up looking through his YouTube account to see what sort of music videos he produces.

I liked the video for his song 'Take Your Time' and decided to consider using this for my production as I thought some of the lyrics were very relevant to the concept of my idea despite the idea behind his video coming from a whole different perspective of domestic violence. The video for this will be shown at the bottom left of this review.

The music video that caught my eye was the video to 'Leave the Night on' as it is a completely different idea to anything I have seen before. The song is relatively upbeat and has the theme of a party to it and this is different to what I usually listen to. The video is about Sam Hunt being a taxi driver and he is driving lots of different people to parties all across town. The video montages together all of the people in the back of the taxi as though the taxi itself is a party and it also has Sam Hunt performing the song by singing whilst he is driving. I thought the video was very eye catching as it is different and it looks relatively detailed considering the fact it is the first official music video he produced. The video can be seen to the bottom right after this text:

Film Review 3 - American Sniper

The Main Poster for American Sniper

The recently released film American Sniper has been a huge hit in America and has smashed the box office by receiving millions of views and becoming a huge success. A couple of weeks ago I decided to go and watch it and from my own experience of the film, I can see why it was such a big hit in America. The film stars Bradley Cooper who has also starred in another film in which I have reviewed in a previous post (The Place Beyond the Pines). He plays the American Soldier Chris Kyle as the film follows the life f the US Navy Seal and how he became the most lethal and feared sniper in American history. It also follows his life at home and how he dealt with the aftermath of the war in Iraq. It also shows how his family were affected by his time serving in Iraq and how his own experience nearly breaks his family apart.

As I have stated earlier on, the film was very widely credited in America and it made a substantial amount of money through the box office. It also received various nominations for awards including Best Picture and Best Male Actor at the Oscars (two of the most prestigious awards). It was also however subject to much controversy not just from some areas of America but from other countries as well such as the UK. This is because a lot of film reviewers and journalists spoke about how they thought the film "Glorified War" and how it does not balance a fair argument between the two sides in the conflict.

Despite this I thought the film was a triumph and I thought that it showed quite a lot of truth into what happens in the battlefields of wars. I though the acting was brilliant throughout the entire film and Bradley Cooper managed to take on the role very well as I thought it was very different to some of the other roles he has played in films such as The Hangover and The Place Beyond the Pines. The trailer for American Sniper can be seen below:

Film Review 2 - Forrest Gump

In 1995, Forrest Gump won Academy Awards for
Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture

Over the last few weeks I have watched more than my fair share of films and television programmes but by far my most favourite film I watched was Forrest Gump. I watched this film three or four times and I've watched numerous times before that. It's about the life of a man called Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) and it just illustrates the extraordinary events that happened in his life and how even though they were mostly bad experiences or upsetting, he still carried on going through them. Forrest Gump is considered to be very incapable of using his brain to its full capacity and this is shown through the way he handles certain situations in the film such as the public speech after the Vietnam War.

I like the whole storyline as it illustrates how Forrest is trying to find himself and he is trying to ensure that he lives a normal life despite the fact he is caught up in practically every single major event that happened in and involving America at that time. It is very different to a lot of films as there is no telling what is really going to happen as the film goes on because the scenario's that Forrest finds himself in change very rapidly which means that it is difficult to anticipate anything that could happen five minutes from the point you are watching.

I also like the way in which the producers and director do not use this film to portray Forrest or any of the events as biased either for or against. They don't dwell on the situations even if they are severe such as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. This makes the viewer have an open mind when watching this film and considering it is a very different type of film to most, this is the best way to go about watching it. Below is the trailer for Forrest Gump.

Film Review 1 - The Place Beyond The Pines

Recently I was looking through films and came across an article which listed the best films that were never nominated for an Oscar Award, based on the opinion of the article writer. One film that caught my eye was "The Place Beyond The Pines" as it was one of the most recent films on the list and I can remember watching the trailer (see above) previously and wanted to watch it but never got round to doing so. Therefore, I decided to watch it and thought I could write a review as part of my media course. The review is found below:

I found the film to be very entertaining and the entire storyline was so unique that I don't think I have ever seen a film like it before. The cast is very high quality talent and I liked the fact that Bradley Cooper does not get introduced right at the start, but plays a vital part in the storyline for the second half of the film. At the same time, both Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes both start off as key parts to the story but both have less of an influence after Bradley Cooper's Introduction. The camera work was very well produced in my opinion and I particularly liked the first scene where Ryan Gosling is walking through the fair ground (Right). The camera just follows him and the sounds of all the fairground rides and people around don't draw your attention away from him. It also gives a sense of mystery to where he is going.

As I stated before, the camera work is very good and the scenery also compliments this with how well it compliments the mood. There are a couple of shots both still and video that are very simple to do but have a great effect on how the mood of the film is reflected. I have placed two of these shots in the space below: