American Psycho.

 Psycho is about Patrick Batemen, a business man who fights to control his psychopathic alter ego. However he is not any ordinary psychopath. He is has completely lost the feeling of being a human person and has desensitised himself from the atrocities he is committing and puts a social 'mask' on so he seems like a normal upstanding member of society.  We are narrated by Patrick himself (Christian Bale) for portions of the film where he explains about his mask of sanity slipping as his nightly bloodlust starts to spill into his days.

Another interesting part of this film is the fascination of the business cards. Each of the men in the company has their own personalised business cards. Interestingly they all come out of the same silver carry case with a very crisp and sharp snap. This scene is incredibly well filmed because you start to want some really sexy business cards as well. Each individual with a card each has theirs slightly differently. Some have an 'egg shell' white finish or 'helvetica bold' type face, but all of the cards look almost identical. This is where i started to notice that all their hair cuts are the same.

After looking at the above buisness card Patrick starts to get really angry because someone has a better buisness card than him, or has a better typeface than him. This is where Bale really captures the psycho by getting really angry and obsessed over a trivial issue. You keep thinking he'll snap in a public place and go on a rampage but the beauty of this film is that it divides yet blends the two sides of his life that he leaves.

Bale really makes this character a believable nutcase but at the same time he could be any other normal businessman on a lunch date with some friends. I think the point the film tries to make here is that anyone could be a closet serial murdered. Anyone you see on the street may appear to be normal, have a normal life, family, house, 4 door car etc. but underneath it all lies an evil murdered. Society casts a veil over our eyes with social norms and etiquette which stop people openly acting insane. It is suggesting that this veil isnt real, this ruse isnt actually how people really feel. 

Buisness Man/Psychopathic Murderer.

One of the best parts of this film is how he gets his victims. So meticulously planned and thought out because hes a creature of habit and obsession he does the same thing every time  He brings them back to his place and puts on some 'Hewy Lewis' or 'Genesis' and starts talking in long and intricate depth about the sounds and textures the album conveys as well as their talent as a group etc. Now all the while he is busy preparing himself. The most unnerving thing about it is his smile while he does it, showing a complete lack of remorse or value of human life.

 Another fantastic film role perfect from Christian Bale and directed by Mary Harron, who ive never heard of but her directing capabilities must be excellent if she can pull of a film like this so well. Really well shot, and cast. The art direction was fantastic in the sense that the world he lives in normally is so horribly mundane but when hes a psycho its far more interesting.

9/10

Hot Shots.

A film i have been meaning to watch for a long time but only until i put it on did i realise, that it was a parody of Top Gun. Top Gun is one of my favourite films and i could only see, a parody involving Charlie Sheen, as a good thing.

What I found was that the humour of this film was very similar to that of the naked gun, such as parallel parking a fight jet or trying to light a match off a taking off plane. This humour worked really well in The Naked Gun and Airplane and I found the exact same with this film. Eccentric slapstick comedy to the point of it almost being a cartoon. For example when an angry officer is bollocking a private and they get so up in their face their leaning back, well Hot Shots exaggerates this by having the private lean to an impossible angle and spring back up with that familiar 'boing!' 

Too lean for comfort.

Choreographed dancing with the landing paddle thingies. 

The inclusion of a lot of satirical support characters really helps fill out the film. With actors such as Jon Cryer who would later be on two and a half men with Charlie Sheen, plays the role of pilot with an eyesight problem which will inevitably be funny.

Even though its a parody the film still holds together really well and having actors like Sheen and Cryer  help people see it as a film not just a piss take. 

Admiral Thomas 'Tug' Benson is also an incredible character very similar to Leslie Nelson as Lt. Frank Drebin in the Naked gun. He is almost oblivious to the job he is doing, how much skill it requires and lacks total rational thought. This is a fantastic design for a character when asking the first mate to go swing the aircraft carrier round to go and get his hat. Or when being greeted by an officer only replies with ''Thomas Benson? Thats my name too.''

The admiral really does make this film in my opinion just with the amount of excellent one liners and hi mannerisms really make him the best character in this film.

Benson thinking the painting is a window. 

Hot Shots keeps the idea behind Top Gun but adds in a lot of animation techniques, such as exaggeration. One of the best examples of this is when Topper (Sheen) gets electrocuted. We see this happen through a window and all we see is his skeleton flashing and then crumple into a pile. He then opens the door with all his hair sticking up and smoke coming from his head. This i thought was excellent because it shows that you can blend primarily cartoon techniques with real film.

I think this is a really well made film with some quality actors and so much so it could be a film in its own right.

8/10

How I met Your Mother.

Now i know this isn't a film as well but I'm so completely enthralled by this programme and all of its characters and their lives and stories, the list is endless, but the show isn't, but as it isn't over yet and im still not completely up to date i thought id do a post about how incredible this show is. In a very similar model to 'Friends' the series is based around 5 friends living their lives in New York city and through relationship dramas and everyday problems. It is the best and only real response to friends that there has been and gives us a chance to relive a great show in a completely different way.




With 173 episodes to date there isn't enough time to talk about them all but each and every episode is as brilliantly written (and hilarious) as the last. The thing that makes this show so captivating is how much history and depth each of the characters has. Each have their own fears, likes, hates etc, now this may be indicative of many TV shows but none in as much detail as HIMYM, besides Friends. The chronology of the series is also very important as all the episodes are in the past as being told by Ted in the future, talking to his kids. This is what makes the show different from friends (and in some ways better) because it invites more opportunities to change the story in erratic ways, because the story is being told the narrator can change it at anytime if he wants it to and doesn't have to stick to the timeline of the episode. This offers innumerable and exciting tangents and side stories which give us insights into the characters past and future. This is what makes the characters so rich and what makes you love them as much as everyone does.

Im  not going to do a massive post now as its not over yet but my point is that, depending on how it ends, How I met your Mother may end up being more tense and as emotional. But Friends has set the bar very very high.

Looper.

A film i've watched very recently is Looper. A film where the plot describes time travel having not been invented yet. But 30 years from now it will be. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a Looper who's job it is to kill people who the mob have sent back to him. The Looper then disposes of the body and as the person has been sent back in time its like they never existed.

I love this shot. Distracted from the last person you want to take your eyes off.

I really like the concept this film is based around as it has clearly had a lot of thought and time put into it. Its a first real look at how time travel is incredibly inconceivable. If time travel could be invented the chances are that it would appear in the present day as its invented relatively soon.

Since the targets have bags over their heads it means their identity is unknown, so when the Mob decides to 'close the loop' they send back the Looper (30 years older) to the Looper in the present day. The target is sent back, is killed, and gives the Looper a massive payout so he can live the next 30 years in luxury, knowing that one day the mob will come back to close the loop.

When Willis slowly moves his head up Levitt's facial expression is just perfect as anyone would be
pretty shocked if they saw their future self with you about to kill them.

This is where we are introduced to Bruce Willis. He plays Joe 30 years from now and instead of being sent back with a bag he comes back without and Joe sees the face of his future self.

This film despite mainly being about assassination of people who don't technically exists, the film also touches on the future itself. The mention the evolution of people finding out they have telekinetic powers. These powers are not all they appear though as they range from floating a coin in your hand or moving a pencil. Its interesting to see the vision of the future being portrayed here as they are optimistic about what we could potentially do but what we can do is pretty rubbish. The film has this dark depressing side to it because there is no guarantee that the future holds more opportunities than today, or that it is easier, there will always be the rich and always the poor and the divide between the two will only get bigger as time moves on as this movie suggests.

I would have liked to have seen more of the future in the film but keeping it shrouded in mystery is one of the great things about this film, They also mention a man called the Rainmaker who is inherently evil and is a massive cause of pain and misery. I would have liked to have seen this guy but him not having a face in this film makes him all the more scary as your imagination conjures up far worse ideas than a film could ever show you.


This is another of my favourite scenes from the film. The chopping of the wood makes a great sound which perfectly punctuates the conversation they're having. I also think this has something to say about Blunt's character that she's dangerous and unpredictable when she's trying to protect her son. The scenery in the film is also incredible, long endless fields, huge deep blue skies and a piercing sunlight. This might be an indication of how the future can still look exactly the same in some places unaffected by the poison of technology. Not my view just what i take from the film.


overall i think this film was a stunning success, quality acting all the way through, credit to the support cast, and the lead roles are also astounding. Levitt will be a legend in the business. Willis wasnt as 'punch in the face' this time but i imagine thats because Levitt's character is more important, kinda. But i give it an


9/10