The Hunger Games

The school day was mediocre, single easy lesson and an outside speaker talking to us about university courses and living conditions. For about and hour and a half Mark booked the school hall so we could do some test filming for his new short film but in reality we accomplished nothing. This was ok though as we went down to Rio's, the burger joint where I ordered an 8oz burger because I was very hungry and it was incredible.

After the late lunch we went off to see The Hunger Game. None of us had read the books or had any real knowledge of the source material, although half of us had seen Battle Royale. The first 10 minutes were very uneasy on the eyes due to multiple close-ups with handheld camerawork, after that though we were treated to the wonderfully realised world of the rich people which was very impressive. The ending left a little to be desired as it came across as a bit to... American, and the camerawork during the fight scenes was really bad, you just couldn't tell what was happening. If the premise alone interests you then you should watch Battle Royale instead as it greatly benefits from being able to see onscreen violence, where The Hunger Games dumbed down for a wider audience.

What to pick...

Most of today was me in a mad rush to finish my film essay, even though my History teacher's were absent from both of my lessons so I had more time to work on it it still felt a bit awkward. I have been going through most of the week without coffee as my reserves of the instant stuff had depleted, but finally I have been on full throttle again after brewing up an amazing cup that was just perfect as I huddled up in bed with my 3DS. The rest of the day was spent debating with Mark and the others about which two of our films to show in our local school's competition, the definite one is Sunny Side Up as we want to see a genuine audience reaction to the film. We cannot decide on our plus one however, I personally want to show As Time Goes By which I consider to be our best film, but Mark want to show All Guns Blazing which although good, I don't think it will win us any awards...

Mark also came over today declaring that he would really like to see a spaghetti western, so I immediately put on A Fistful of Dollars. Despite his groans about the dubbing I think he enjoyed what he saw, we only had enough time for the first 35 minutes so he took it home with him so he could get into the greatness of the Dollars Trilogy.

Beauty school drop-out

It certainly was not a very Ferris Bueller day off for me because I had a shed-load of homework and coursework to do instead, managed to get most of it done however so that is pretty sweet, means I can kick back and relax all I want after Thursday's over. Louis' school put on a performance of Grease as their annual production thing and he was very funny, he easily had the best character and made the best of his role which made for a very nice viewing experience.

On a sad note, I found out that Edd Gould, a British animator well know for his Eddsworld series which Louis and I have been good fans of for a while has died of cancer at age 23. This news came to me as a bit of a shock, I would go as far to call him a minor influence behind Edmund and Darrel and it's a shame we probably won't see anymore of his excellent flash animations.

Here is a link to his youtube channel where you can see a couple of his videos:
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/eddsworld

If....

Found out our film teacher wasn't in today, first thing Mark and I did was contact her via email to find out if we would have to come in tomorrow as its our only lesson then. A few hours later we had big smiles on our faces as we could sleep in tomorrow if we wanted! I also spent most of this evening sorting out our road trip to Leeds as we have had our egg film shortlisted for one of our competitions! So far we have agreed to drive down and stay the night in a travel lodge and go back in the next day as Chris will be exhausted from the drive down there.

I also watched my second video tape: If.... which was Malcom Mcdowell's acting debut. It's pretty similar in tone to A Clockwork Orange, but it is almost more surreal because of the odd moments that you aren't really sure whether they are happening or not. That said, I did very much enjoy the film as most of the characters are some satirical take on someone else and  do like the setting of the boarding school. The film's tag line 'A hand-grenade of a film' is a bit of an exaggeration, but probably apt for its time.

Meh Monday

Monday today was alright, just did my school work, then I went home to do some more work. I did write a really awesome Film essay on Etre et Avoir,  really pleased with it. Tomorrow I already know I will be very busy so I just gotta mentally prepare myself and get on with it I suppose.

Dang internet

Sorry, again for the lack of a blog yesterday as my computer had inherited a mild virus that cause me to not be able to get Internet access. The problem has now been sorted however and we should certainly not encounter any other difficulties in the future.

I feel somewhat cheated by the daylight saving hours, this year especially as my body clock really hasn't adjusted to the change in time at all, I'm just not used to seeing the sun during the evenings, it's so weird. I did take a mild trip down technological memory lane as I picked up some video tapes yesterday and dug out the player to watch a film on it today, that nostalgic feeling of putting gin a VHS tape made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Papillon was the film and it was pretty good but it did look a tad dated although that may have the quality of the tape. It really must have been the Shawshank of its time though as its an epic about a prison break, it did start to drag a little bit towards the end, but watching Dustin Hoffman telling off a pig made up for it.

That'll do pig

Again, another easy school day when it comes to Friday. Mark and I came back home to edit my review and watch a film after a few others arrived. Thankfully Lucy bought her copy of Babe around, a film I haven't seen for many, many years as our VHS copy was lost; my love for the film hadn't depleted in the slightest. Best part was that Mark hadn't seen it before and convinced himself prior to watching it that he would hate it, by the conclusion he was cheering on that brave pig.

In the evening we all went down to another school talent competition thing which was hit and miss. The best act involved a live rendition of the popular Duck Song, and the absolute worst came right at the end as the staff members took it upon themselves to make a 10 minute long Sherlock Holmes parody that was boring as hell and full of really inappropriate sexual innuendos. After that we went down to the local burger joint Rio's and some had a late dinner while I had a Yazoo while we played rummy in Chris' car. In other words, I think I had a pretty sweet evening and another awesome Friday.

Spoon

Main highlight of the day was me and some others playing a large game of spoon in our final free period of the day, except we didn't have any spoons but we decided that pens shall make do. Can't wait until Friday tomorrow, just very eager to have a Film Friday to send me off into the Weekend.

Mum is a bit ill

After I came home from my one lesson I found Mum in bed looking very sorry for herself as she managed to catch Louis' cold that was borderline flu. Quietly she asked for the thermometer so she could check her temperature again as she had been coming down with a fever so I passed it to her with an oven glove on, I didn't want to take any chances of the infection spreading.

I watched Crimes and Misdemeanours, a film that appeared to be 2 separate stories but they somehow complimented each other very nicely, I especially liked the final moments when you just nod to yourself as you know you watched something good. I also watched The Man Who Wasn't There, another Coen Brothers which was very good. It is certainly one of their underrated ones as no-one really talks about it but I found it really enjoyable, Thornton was great and the cinematography was great; again I found myself nodding my head.

Suffered from some difficulties

First of all, I apologise for not blogging yesterday as my computer was just not picking up any Internet no reason whatsoever, it was upon closer inspection this afternoon that I discovered that the wireless antenna had managed to unscrew itself so it's fixed now! I have also been suffering from indigestion this evening, I rarely get it but when I do it's generally pretty bad. Gave myself some Andrews and I'm now burping myself to death. I played some of my PC games on Louis' computer the other day like GTA4 and La Noire. They ran like greased butter so I'm currently thinking of saving up for a new computer like his, gives me something to aim for and to look forward to!

Happy Mother's day 2012!

Standard Mother's Day at our house. Came in Louis' room at about 9:30 told him it was Mother's Day, he grunted and said 'Guess I should make a card...' With folded bit of A4 and a Biro we had a pretty nifty card but we still haven't given Mum a good present...

Work was ok, not very busy again surprisingly but that meant an easy day for me. I was temporarily left to myself for an hour and a half to do the washing up alone and I tell ya, that does weird things to a man. I was overcome by an overwhelming sense that life sucks and that all I was good for was washing up cappuccino mugs and chip bowls, its kinda creepy when I turn into a Nihilist... I snapped out of it later though by the odd thought that I might have a good day at school tomorrow, sounds a bit crazy now but I am looking forward to tomorrow!

Just another weekend with nothing to do

Spent most of today looking after Louis after he passed out in school yesterday, he's just generally been feeling a bit weak on account of his cold and has been almost bedridden for most of the day. Otherwise I was just starring into space today, looking for something to do. All the President's Men was a pretty good film that was very well made but I think it just went over my head, and Once Upon A Time in the West was really impressive, possibly the best opening to a film I've seen in a long time. I'm working tomorrow but I hope I'm not too busy because there isn't going to be many staff members in the kitchen tomorrow, have a good Mother's Day!

DoE revisit

I went on a small run with Dan and Mark this afternoon and did the recording for my review of Nosferatu, I think it went alright. I tend to have a bit of difficulty putting life into words I read off the page and as a result it tends to sound a little bit monotone at times, I haven't check back the footage yet though so I hope its ok. Went back to our Duke of Edinburgh meeting as well to discuss where we should do our gold expedition, although nothing is 100% certain yet we have expressed an interest to do it in Switzerland as we really want to see the Alps.

Old timey

Yesterday afternoon we were asked by our film teacher to come and help some AS student edit their work as they have little experience on Final Cut Pro. Mark and I went along to their lesson while I listened to Mark teach some girls how to edit a music video, it was rather embarrassing because I had no real reason to be there so I just looked like an uneducated Muppet; at least I may have provided Mark with moral support? Coming back home I was planning on topping up my phone by £10, a few inches away from the cash-point I get a text from Vodafone: 'Just for you, get £5 credit on us if your next top-up exceeds £20' You crafty so-and-so's Vodafone, well played indeed.

Came home to watch Jamie play Modern Warfare 2 as I tried on my new pair of bracers after I lost the old pair, I just feel vintage and awesome in bracers, so much so that I actually bought L.A. Noire since it was so cheap, it was like I wanted to look like everyone else in that game. Easily the biggest disappointment of today was me and Louis' friends trying to organise an online game of Civ 5 which went disastrously wrong. Every time we tried to set up a game someone couldn't join and when we were finally up and running the host's computer then crashed forcing us all to quit the round, factor in some of the more immature friends making consistent messages during play in which they replaced a single word from any movie title with the word 'butthole;' truly it was comedy at it absolute worst.

Damn you, Civilisation 5

I thought I would check out a little bit of Civilisation 5 this afternoon, again the Sid Meier's curse took hold and I spent far too long on it. It gets ridiculously addictive when your units are levelling up and you consider going to war with a neighbouring nation. Otherwise, today was pretty standard, we did have an unplanned fire drill during my English lesson. Beforehand we were having a class discussion and just as it was coming up to our go the bell went off, of course the teacher just said 'Why now?! We were on a roll!'

Civ on sale

Despite my preconceptions of Monday, today turned out to be pretty good. Nice and easy lessons, History the class had a bit of banter as we got on with independent work and I found out I got an A in one of my coursework pieces which I was not expecting. I also nabbed Civilisation 5 while it was on sale, haven't had much of a chance to play it yet as Louis is organizing a big game soon, I'll probably be crap but he said we could join forces so that will be sweet.

Another runaway success with me was Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans which was excellent, possibly my favourite non Chaplin/Keaton film. The beginning was a little bit slow paced but it set the scene well with a simple premise, by the second act of the film I was hooked. Just watching the character's love for each other re-ignite was a joy and it even made me chuckle out loud in a couple of scenes especially the one that involved a very drunk pig.

Good day at work

I decided to be the bigger person this morning and no use up the last 200ml of milk on my cereal for the sake of Mum's morning cuppa, this did mean that my choice for breakfast was quite limited so went for the continental with a croissant and banana, didn't have time for the yogurt. Because the weather was so pleasant today it meant that we had a relatively quiet day but just enough to keep consistently busy but never stressed, the perfect day. By 5 we were completely dead and had no customers so we could get ready for closing early, this involved cranking up HEART radio and many others shamelessly dancing around with brooms in hand to all the best (and worst) of 2012's pop music. I got home in time and was treated so a chicken casserole and I helped myself to a small glass of port in preparation for the new week. Have a nice Monday, because you know what?

Lethargic me

I really settled in for a humble day where I could do what I wanted, problem was, everything that I did felt like I was just killing time, I did nothing with purpose and because of that it feels like I wasted a day. I did get around to seeing The Full Monty for the first time, which I really enjoyed and I re-watched No Country for Old Men which just seems to get better with repeated viewings, I pick up on all the little things that make it great and hopefully a film that will stand the test of time. Overall, I think I need to do something to improve my lifestyle, I have been feeling awfully tired for no reason lately and feeling less motivated to do anything than ever.

Wearing the almighty coat

I wore my new great coat into school today and I felt like a true boss, the thing comes down to my lower leg and I do feel a bit of wind resistance in my walk, I feel heavier and professional in something. Ben Chen and I went into town in the hopes of securing him a post-Birthday pint with a few others, nobody else turned up for various fair reasons so we went to Tesco and I bought him a few bottles of beer to make up for it. Film Friday film was going to be Babe but we later changed it the The Emperor's New Groove over popular demand, which was a shame because I really wanted to nostalgia all over Babe again, it has been many years since our video tape copy went missing so I have felt deprived of pigs for several years now, maybe next week I suppose.

Public Speaking

I got my results from my re-sits I did about a month and half ago and I am please with what I got. I advanced by two grades in English Language, putting me in at a B and secured a stronger A in my History paper. This evening I went to support Louis at his national rotary public speaking evening where he competed against 3 other teams at speech delivery. Most of the groups comprised of private school girls who had hilariously pretentious and 'highly moral' arguments, and very regretfully, Louis' team lost to one of those groups; rough audience consensus was that he should have won.

Looking good?

Got Mark to watch The Night of the Hunter with me, one of my favourite horror films, he said he enjoyed it and I was reminded just how evil the preacher was, quite possibly the film I will review next. Otherwise today was pretty good and I found out that I look good in grey shirts.

What I would consider a hamper on an otherwise good day was my viewing experience of Matha Marcy May Marlene. First of all Louis was making a scene by pestering us for money to buy some jelly babies, admittedly that was kinda funny. However, one thing that was pretty bad was the guy behind us kept sighing very loudly in disapproval whenever there was an especially bleak moment, which there were plenty of. I know it was intentionally trying to be non descriptive but because I was aware of that I felt they tried too hard to leave too much unspoken, this didn't cause a debate winthin me but just frustration. If you liked Winter's Bone then you will probably like this and I recommend you go and see it simply because you probably havn't seen a film like this, if you like it then good for you, if you don't like it's style then at least you can say you gave it a try. Personally, I wasn't a fan of this one. 

Back to year 1

Today we headed off in the direction of a nearby primary school to study the spoken language of little children, this typically involved us sitting down and observing class time as the teacher spoke to the class and in other instances we were engaging in small activities. In one class I was asked to eat of of the 'pizza and biscuits' they made for me, I was reminded of the bitter saltiness of Playdough as I took a bite. 

I was feeling a little bit glum and pessimistic this evening but that didn't stop me from watching the latest Woody Allen film: Midnight in Paris. Oh man, everybody knows when they have seen a good movie when they cannot immediately explain why they liked it, I just came away from it with a smile on my face knowing that it just did everything the film needed to do. It is most easily comparable with Manhattan as it is a film about being in love with a location, and, also in this film, a time period which is something everyone can relate to positively. The characters are quite entertaining and the dialogue speaks of something more meaningful than other modern American films. In two words: wonderfully charming.

Where is my appetite?

We were very busy at work today, probably on account of the bizarre weather we were having, first torrential rain, then snow, then sunshine. Parents obviously wanted to have their children playing in a nice, heated leisure centre. Again I return home absolutely shattered and without much of an appetite, I heated up my dinner in the microwave again thinking I couldn't possible get through all of it, then a jacket potato is put in front of me, took a bit out of it as if it were an apple and just couldn't be bothered.

Special Birthday shout-out to possibly our biggest fan, Lucy McCarthy. She has been a long time friend of ours for many years who is so friendly and bubbly that she's always a joy to be around. Happy Birthday Lucy!

Attempts at productivity

I wrote a script for a video review of Nosferatu today, we are thinking of making this a regular thing on our channel, having some short (3 minute) reviews of older movies to hopefully raise some much needed attention to the classics and find out if they are still worth a watch today. Spent a significant amount of time giving the old room a tidy up, discs and cartridges are finally back in their respective boxes and that one yogurt pot time forgot has now been disposed of; once again I am master of my domain, that is until Jamie comes over again, that's when most of the havoc takes place.

Quiz nite!

I had a casual swagger going on when I got out of bed today, woke up before the alarm so I smugly shut it off the instant it came on. The bi-annual PTA quiz night occurred this evening, again we excelled at the film round but absolutely bombed in the sport round. Bit miffed again though as Louis walked out with 2 Easter Eggs while I ripped up my raffle tickets; we lost yet again but we gave it our best shot.

M

I realised that it was a really nice day when I came home from school so I did something I haven't done in ages, sit outside and read a book. It was quite refreshing and relaxing sitting there with my chickens and sipping coffee, then it got a bit nippy so I went inside. We were also in for a unexpected disaster in the kitchen as one of the cupboard shelves decided it had enough and collapsed, smashing Mum's favourite Pyrex bowl for serving apple crumble. There was glass absolutely everywhere, in some places it had practically been reduced to silver dust and I had to spend a good part of 10 minutes sweeping up the stuff.

Since we have been watching Metropolis in Film I found it appropriate to watch Fritz Lang's supposed masterpiece: M. It was quite possibly one of the hardest movies I have ever had to sit through, it moved at an incredibly slow pace and none of the conversations were particularly interesting. Finally, it did get good in the final Kangaroo Court scene is the best moment of the film but every other moment is just so contrived. I feel kinda bad not liking it very much as I thought I would really enjoy it, can't win them all I guess.