Death is not dying
May 21st 2009
Instead of watching The Apprentice tonight or every soap that the TV throws at you, why not watch this instead. You won’t regret it…
http://deathisnotdying.com/eventvideo/
Don’t think about it, just do it!
Archive for May, 2009
The Happening (2008)
May 9th 2009
Where critics in the past have lambasted M. Night Shyamalan films I have stood against him and liked his films: The Village may have had a predictable twist but I still found it gripping and entertaining. Lady in the Water might have been a very strange and silly film but I remained gripped and terrified at times.
Now comes The Happening and the critics have been at him again. However, for the first time I have to agree with them. This was awful!
The basic plot is that people in North East America start killing themselves and a small band of survivors (centered around Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) try and escape what is happening. At first it is thought to be a terrorist attack or maybe a government experiment gone wrong but the truth is far less scary!
There are a number of problems with this film:
1) I have never witnessed such wooden acting in a mainstream film before. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel can act because I have seen them in other things however you wouldn’t believe that if you saw this film. The delivery of some of the lines is laughable. I found myself cringing in some of the more “emotional” moments.
2) The “enemy” of the film had no threat whatsoever. Whenever people were attacked there was no sense of threat or danger. It just happened. The only real threat in the film was a crazy lady we meet nearer the end of the movie but that threat was over and finished with in no time at all.
3) You weren’t given time to care for the characters. Apparently there is some marriage problems between Mark and Zooey (I can’t remember their character names as I didn’t care enough about them to notice) however it is handled so badly by the director that I was never sure what was going on. An illicit dessert between Zooey and a man called Joey which happened before the film starts is the cause of some marital issues I think but it was all so unbelievable I didn’t care.
4) The director has forgotten how to direct! M. Night Shymalan films are normally full of fantastic camera shots however they are noteably absent from this. The closest he gets to his normal style is a couple of close up shots of faces where some incredibly bad acting is going on (Zooey, you are guilty of this on a numbeer of tearful occasions).
The only thing that stops this film from getting a lower score was that while it failed to engage with me it was very short and didn’t annoy me while I was watching it. Come on M. Night Shyamalan. You can do better than this!
[3/10]
Pyford
May 9th 2009
I had the opportunity to visit my parents on the bank holiday weekend and I managed to convince them to come out for a walk on the Sunday afternoon. It was helped by the promise of a pub half way along but in the end they really enjoyed themselves.
We visited a village called Pyrford near Guildford, where our walk took us through the village, over some fields, over a golf course and along the Wey Canal. It was a beautiful day too and was well worth it. My parents even seemed keen to go on more walks next time I visit.
United Churches Cricket Cup – 2009 Champions!
May 8th 2009
