Actor turned Director to star in a tag- team Warner Bro's film in 2015!

Yes the rumours are true, Ben Affleck (director of Argo) has been confirmed as the new Batman for the collaborative Batman/Superman film due to be released in 2015.  There has been some bad reactions to this due to the fact that Batman was just completed with the fantastic trilogy written by David S Goyer and directed by legend Christopher Nolan.

There are doubts that the new tag team film will not live up to the trilogy that Christopher Nolan has just completed. The trilogy itself rebuilt Batman as a franchises credibility and to find out that it may be torn to pieces is not going to go down well in the comic/film community.


Whatever the outcome will be... I'm sure Mr Affleck will try and give Batman the justice the character deserves....



Any thoughts go to twitter and tweet me @Film_Buff22

Nolan to make 2 sequels of Momento

according to Empire Mag Christopher Nolan (BatmanTrilogy,The Prestige)has confirmed  that  he will be making two more sequels of the most confusing film in history Momento. 

I'm looking forward to the latest sequels ... 

Highlander trailer (1986 original feature)

Highlander to Be Re-Booted

 A couple of posts ago I discussed the Re-boot or in simple terms the remake, well thanks to my lovely friends of Google+ I have found out that Hollywood might be re-booting Highlander.

Part of me is jumping for joy but another part of me is more scared about this re-boot as Highlander is a classic in so many ways and is a vintage 1980's film. the worry for me is not to do with the Narrative or the actors who will play the main characters.

My concern is falling onto the soundtrack as it is very dear to my heart, as everyone knows the soundtrack is the Kind Of Magic album by Queen. As a Queen fan I would want the new producers to keep the original soundtrack that was wrote for the film also the musical scores in the original film is also along the same lines and is in keeping with Queen's music. The fear that may happen is that they completely re-make the film and make it for the new generation, which means stripping everything back and then making an entire movie from the beginning with only the plot to go off.

This is the rumour floating around and is not yet confirmed.... so stay tuned for more info, in the meantime Don't lose your head!

Top of The Pops... UK Box Office Top 10 This Week

(BBC 1990's logo for TV programme)

This weeks top ten is a mix of Summer Smashes and films to entertain the little ones before they return to school. 

At number 10: 

The Minions of Despicable Me 2 are still in the Top 10 after 8 weeks in the UK Box Office Charts. 

Following on from the hit movie, Despicable Me 2 see's more chaos and laughter all round provided by the main stars those naughty Minions. Egor is no longer a Super Villain but instead is now a hero and a proud adopted father. Grossing a total of  £41.5 million the brits still love it after 8 weeks in Cinemas. 

Number 9:

Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters might have only been in cinemas for only 2 weeks but is having a slow start in the Box Office Charts. The adaptation of the famous series of books written by Rick Riordan tells the story of a twelve year old Dyslexia boy who has extraordinary powers. The films opening weekend stats were £834K  with a total so far of £4.25 million so far.

Number 8: 

The Smurfs 2 has only been in cinemas for 3 weeks but something again seems wired about the number of Cinema Goers wanting to see this film. Following on from the first films success and with the lovely Katy Perry staring as Smurfette it is surprising that not many people have flocked to see the Smurfs back in action with an evil twist. It's opening weekend at the UK Box Office saw the film make £839K with a grand total of £8.54 million so far. It seems kids films are not to everyones taste. 

Number 7: 

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. 

He's back, yes everyones favourite DJ has decided to make his own action film!!! With all you need for the perfect hostage situation in a radio station you need the number 1 DJ. With barrels of laughs from the start, Steve Cogan's alter ego might just dominate the charts in further weeks to come at the Box Office. Only been on our screens and in the chart for 2 weeks Partridge has already made on his opening weekend £853K and within these 2 weeks has made a total of..... £4.18 million so far!!! Congratulations!!!!  

Number 6:

The first of two Disney Pixar films to be on the chart we head back to University with those cuddly Monsters that are Mike and Sully. Things weren't always perfect in Mike and Sully's relationship as we all find out with the best buddies actually hating eachother. Again something for the kids and Big Kids alike. With 6 weeks in the Box Office it's already has a gross total of £25.8 million with it's opening weekend earning the monsters £893K. Not bad!!!


Number 5:

















We're half way through our top 10 now so lets see who has placed half way...
It's the spine chilling scary real life story film that has had audiences sleeping with the lights on for over 3 weeks now. Yes this new Horror film is based on events in a house that is haunted. Forget Paranormal Activity for a second and make sure you have a pillow to hide behind before seeing this film before you spill your popcorn everywhere! It's opening weekend saw The Conjuring gain £973K at the Box Office as Brits scared themselves silly! And it's total so far is a spine tingling £8.04 million.

Number 4:
















Grown Ups 2 might be still 2 weeks into the charts but with adults becoming more badly behaved and with crazy pranks and jokes from the start us brits have been lapping up Adam Sandler's new film.
On it's opening weekend it made £1.12 million as us Brits flocked to our local cinemas in our thousands it seems and at the moment has earned £4.47 million so far!


SO BEGIN YOU'RE DRUM ROLES PLEASE OR PUT ON LED ZEPLIN WHOLE LOTTA LOVE WE'RE HEADING INTO OUR TOP 3!!!

To recap we've already seen Monsters, Minions, Alan Partridge, Scary happenings, sea monsters and Smurfs but now it's time to see the three most popular films from this week!

Number 3:














2 Guns staring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg is hitting our screens with punchy, blowing up action! With this film earning itself the third position this week in our charts there is no question why with a plot summery that will make every man's dreams come true. Guns and explosions galore along with Drug Cartels thrown in. It's opening weekend saw it earn £1.42 Million and so far at only 1 week in the charts has earned the film a total so far of £1.42 million!!! Not a bad start!



Number 2:

Following on from the success of Cars the hit Disney Pixar film, they have decided to release Planes.
Planes is along the same narrative lines of Cars and consists of Racing but who cares as people have been flocking to see the new offering from the powerhouse that is Pixar!! It's opening weekend saw the film rank at the number 2 spot but also saw it earn £1.74 Million and gross that so far only being 1 week in the charts i'm sure we won't see this film move from the top 3 for a while... until the kids go back to school that is.

So who's our Number 1????


Number 1:












Get your party poppers and stand on your feet and applause for our new number 1 spot holder and grab your masks as Kick Ass 2 is now our Number 1 !!!

See Dave and Mindy come back into action saving the world and kicking ass at the same time with some new faces. No longer are Kick Ass and Hit Girl on their own as they now to go to war with the ultimate super villain Motherf*@!$r (formally known as Red Mist) as they go into an epic battle.
With only 1 week at the box office it's already earned £2.48 million so far. Awesome!

So Thats it for this week!!!

With One Direction releasing their first film Kick Ass might have to fight his way back to the top of the UK Box Office!

All Stats taken from :
www.imdb.com

Popstar turned into Film Star - When Music Collides with Film

The title maybe confusing but with the release of the new 1D3D film today teenie boppers around the world are giggling in excitement to see their favourite band on the big screen. Now One Direction  aren't the first music stars to buck the Movie Trend. From the Beatles to even Sir Mick Jagger have all taken to the screens for one reason or another.

But when does it become OK for a band or a music star to walk away from the stage and head to the screen instead??


In the past we have seen some of the biggest names in the pop world go in front of the camera to make big scale films to either give us a glimpse into their world, these include not just One Direction but also Katy Perry that earned her over $7million on her opening weekend at the box office and has grossed over $25 million so far.
 Katy also stars as Smurfette in of course The Smurfs seeing her acting career sore off the back of her documentary. This lovely lady is here to stay in film.

Also in the documentary category is the guy who is the marmite of the world of pop... you either love him or hate him either way you can't seen to get away from him... of course i'm talking about Justin Bieber, yes the guy who sang that annoying song with the repeated words of Baby and Oh... you know the one back in 2011 decided to release his debut film, following him around on his world tour Never Say Never earned the Teen over £820,592 in the Uk Box Office on his opening weekend which is just a drop in the ocean on his gross that totals so far at over $73 million in the US.


Moving on from documentaries, we're into the fiction territory excluding This Is Spinal Tap (which is awesome!) namely bands have bucked this trend starting with one of the biggest selling bands in the 1990's and who had us all chanting Girl Power. You might have guessed already and yes it is the Spice Girls. Yes Sporty, Scary, Posh, Baby and Ginger Spice released their first and last i'm sorry to admit film Spice World: The Movie. With cameos from Meatloaf and other music stars this film grossed over $29 million and earned on their opening weekend over $10 million at the Box Office. Not to bad for girl power. Spice World is kinda like This is Spinal Tap with the Moc-Documentary style.

Moving onto another Brit bands actually most of the fiction section about the brit bands, do you remember S Club 7? Back in 2003 (I was 11) they released seeing double their first feature film about them being cloned... yes I know but then this film was a success i think?
Looking at the stats from the box office it only earned the band £338,383 in it's opening weekend and has grossed just over £2million.

Another Brit band haven't just done a film once they did it twice, yes now please please please (clue to who they are!) be kind as I love this band as much as I love Movies!!! Mcfly starred in their first feature film back in 2006 with no other than Chris Pine (aka Captain Kirk from Star Trek) and Lindsey Lohan (Mean Girls, Herbie) with rumours spreading around after the first release that the drummer of the band got it on with Lohan whilst on set Just my Luck didn't do very well. It was supposed to be the next Pretty Women or somewhat like it.. but although the band had only a small role the film only made $5 million in it's opening weekend at the US box office and only a very tiny £579,306 on it's opening weekend at the UK box office (OUCH!) but it has grossed over $17 million in the US!!! Not so good for the British band that write songs for One Direction! Skip forward to 2010... the band have spent millions on a new super site which is revolutionary (they no longer use it!) and to celebrate their return to the charts release their second film, this time a 30 minute short with a fantasy theme No Where Left To Run see's a more mature Mcfly rather than the fresh and baby faced (excluding Dougie the bassist) Mcfly with themes of a sexual nature, moderate violence and Fantasy Themes which earned the film a certificate of 15 by the BBFC. Nowhere Left to Run isn't the best film really made on a lowish budget (It can't be found on IMDB.com) you can tell by the CGI and only to be released on DVD the film is a series of music videos following the narrative of one of the band members (remember the drummer) Harry being a vampire and all hell breaks lose... worth a watch if you're interested? It's ok but i wouldn't call it a masterpiece!

The question is that whatever bands may do is it really worth making a film???

The Reboot

It is good to have a reboot of classic films?

 In recent years we have seen some of the biggest films from the 1970's and 1980's being rebooted for a younger audience with more technology to play with, it's a directors dream now to make a film that in it's time wasn't the best due to either it's lack of narrative or due to the actual CGI on offer at the time and lets face facts there wasn't much to play with back in the day is it a good idea to make a new version once you have all the tools to do so???  

Take yourselves back to 1987, Bon Jovi was still rocking out at the top of the charts and Robocop was just released in Cinemas. 

New suited and Booted Robocop! 

1987 Robocop!

Fast forward to 2013, Robocop is in production once more, set to be released in 2014 the film is still the same but just having a major face lift. With Joel Kinnaman taking the lead as Robocop himself, with other famous faces joining him such as Samuel L Jackson and Gary Oldman in this seemingly awesome remake!  Turning back time just a bit 2012 saw some remakes hit our screens again, with Total Recall and Dredd hitting the screens with a bang. 

Arnie in the 1990 version!

Total Recall 1 was good but it wasn't the best, with the cheesiest CGI i've seen for years (Eye balls popping out of head cringe moment) it put other Arnie films to shame ( I am talking about The Terminator) so when they announced a whole new Total Recall part of me kinda died, thinking it would be just the same but rebooted. But Boy was I wrong. Total Recall on the surface is a brilliant concept, narrative wise it has everything you need, suspense, drama and complete and utter confusion most of the time, but what the original one lacked was the over complexity of the narrative. By sending Quad to Mars? To this day that still confuses me, i know in the film we (humans) had people/mutants up there for some reason?? 

Farrel as Quad in Recall!

Anyway the new one kept it simple, still set in the future this time it was more about what the world would look like if a nuclear bomb had exploded and only Britain(whoo) and Australia had survived. So what happens Britain becomes a rich state and Australia i'm afraid becomes the poor state that works for the rich state.  So you should know how the plot follows on from there, Recall is a place where you can simulate and live out your fantasies so long as you have never experienced them before. So when Quad goes to recall wanting to be a spy for an hour or two it all ends in tears as it turns out he is one and that everything in his life is a lie down to his wife who is also a spy and thats when it all kicks off. 

 With action scenes with things blowing up left right and centre, his wife will NOT DIE!!!! And I mean she won't ... she's a machine no matter how hard you fight her she always gets back up. This rebook is one to watch. 

Moving on... again set in the future and also a Graphic Novel Dredd had fans at the edge of their seats waiting just for a release date for the new and better film. Go back to 1995, The Lion King was out, girls and boys were not as yet chanting Girl Power and we still had only 5 channel TV in the UK for most people. The first Dredd was AWFUL!!!!! Honestly it is not worth watching!!!! IT WAS RUBBISH!!! The only thing to survive from the first film was the Helmet that Dredd wears. 

Mega city one

So when we heard that a new and more true to the graphic novel Dredd was coming out we could not wait!!!! The new Dredd was perfect down to way Mega City One looked, the story goes that after again Nuclear Fall out the only nation to have survived happened to be America, but only a certain section of America. I think Mega-City One spans from the east to the western sea board of America... I'm not sure... haven't read the novel for a while. Dredd had everything down to the gore and a very scary looking Lena Headly! Worth also watching in 3D!  

New reboots coming to the screen include Spiderman as the trilogy that ended in 2007 has been rebooted and rebranded as The Amazing Spiderman with it's narrative falling back to the original Marvel Comic Book narrative. The second film is out this autumn so that is something to look forward to. 

Other famous Comic Reboots come in the shape of Batman and Superman as well. 

Whatever we think of the reboot sometimes they are a good thing!  

Comic Books Taking Over The Big Screen

Whether it is Dredd or Captain America we all love a good Comic Book Film!

From the giants of the comic world  Marvel and DC, the humble comic has become a multi- million dollar industry over the years. With continuous films being released onto the big screen inviting us into a world full of superhero's and evil villains.

The other side of this world is a darker and more dangerous one with the Graphic Novel being turned into dark and gritty films with lots and lots of gore. Whether it be The Watchmen, Dredd, Sin City or V for Vendetta (a personal favourite of mine) there is a lot to choose from. There has been popular culture links to these films for years with protesters using the V mask as a way to make a stand against capitalism to of course the shocking and sad news of a guy shooting up a cinema dressed as a character from Batman.
Whether you love them or Loath them... Comic Book Films are here to stay with some big releases coming soon this autumn.

First of which is The Amazing Spiderman 2 (The Avenger not to feature in the 2012 blockbuster), a lot has changed since the first trilogy was made in 2003... no longer is  there a cheesy plot line but Spiderman has taken inspiration from it's comic book Hero counterparts such as Batman with the latest trilogy of Batman(not SPIDERMAN!) being directed by Christopher Nolan took Batman into the more gritty, darker side which the first of many Spiderman films has taken on that darkness with Rhys Iffans being the best baddy I have seen in years apart from the late and great Heath Ledger. So if you like a kid that has a split life... being a geek by day and a HUNK in a latex suit at night this might be the film for you. Expect more super villains with wired and wonderful powers that are set to cause chaos with only Spiderman himself to save the day.

Keeping with The Avengers two of the ultimate team are back flying (you'll get the pun in a minute) into action to save not only earth but also a far far away planet.
Thor and Captain America are doing their things on their own after leaving the team in the Avenger's Movie! Everyone loves the Avengers with Iron Man 3 pulling in audiences from around the world to see him in his last multi million dollar film... but Iron Man fans don't cry with rumours flying around of a second Avenger's film to grace our screens once more. But in the mean time we meet Thor back on Oden and see him once more trying to keep an eye on his brother Loki and he is reunited with his love played by Natalie Portman. As for Captain America is The Red Skull going to grace our screens once more??

X-Men also makes a return to the big screen with no Hugh Jackman this time (BOO!!!!) for the follow up to the 2011 X-men First Class. The plot line takes place in the future and also the past with locations spanning the length and breath of the world itself, this is set to be the 'Biggest' X- Men movie yet.


As for the future of the Comic Book films well it's written in the stars or on the page no doubt..

10 Years Of Harry Potter 2001- 2011

We all remember when the first Harry Potter book came out , the excitement of new fiction for children and adults who loved the world of magic. It was no surprise at the turn of the new century talks were flying around about the books being made into a series of films that turned out to be the best move Wanner Bros ever made.

The Trio- Harry, Hermione and Ron! 

Harry Potter is a world wide franchise with fans across the world still reliving their favourite moments from the past 10 years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Not only with new talent springing into the lead roles of the trio of 'Misfits' that are Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson) and of course the main man himself Mr Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) as well as an all star cast of names including Dame Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes and Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore.

So what is so powerful about a boy who happens to be a wizard???

A very scary Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort! 

Well lets take a trip down memory lane.... Baby Harry Potter fought off the evil dark lord Voldemort and became an orphan. Professor Dumbledore leaves him with his wicked and also very human (Muggles)  Aunt and Uncle  who treat him as a slave locking him in the cupboard under the stairs. Harry doesn't realise he has magical powers until he goes to London Zoo and begins talking to a snake before locking his cousin in the enclosure after freeing said snake. Which to the Aunt and Uncles Horror and most of the zoo. Harry then starts to receive letters saying that he has been accepted at Hogwarts and from the age of 11 to 17 he will be taught everything he needs to know about magic... from defending himself to flying a broomstick.  It all sounds so simple.... but along the way Voldemort (or snake face to me- see the last part of the Goblet of Fire, Order of The Phoenix, Half Blood Prince and of course Deathly Hallows parts1&2) there will always be a spanner in the works, lets face it he is one of the most well known villains in the movie world now along with the fact that he is also a Teenager all this thrown in these movies have captivated audiences around the world for a decade.

1st Year Harry with beloved Owl Hedwig!

So Harry Potter was the first... then came Twilight and now The Hunger Games just to name a few teenage books that have smashed into the box office. But unlike the other two films just mentioned as The Hunger Games is still continuing on the big screen.. Twilight is not re-played on TV every summer holiday with the violent films (4 and up) being broadcast later due to fantasy violence which earned it a certificate 12A (First brought in for Batman by the BBFC) and a PG-13 in the USA.

Ralph, Helena, Michael and Daniel on set for Harry Potter 5

Harry Potter has also put Britain back on the map, with most of the film if not all being filmed in the UK rather than abroad... once the films finally finished in 2011, The studio was reopened just outside of Glamorous Watford North London so that everybody could see all the props and effects that went into making these films and also to fly on a broomstick which is amazing. I haven't been yet ... when I do i'll post a picture. As well as having a studio tour , Orlando in Florida at Universal Studios has a full section dedicated to the world of Harry Potter including a life size model of Hogwarts and Hogsmead where you have the chance to have a cool glass of butter bear, buy a wand and whatever else takes your fancy whilst there. With all this as well as millions of copies of the books still being sold and read... I can for see that in 30 maybe 40 years time Harry Potter will be remade as films again as they are timeless... I can also see the books becoming apart of the English Lessons in the UK as they are brilliant to read.


Whatever you may think of the Boy Who Lived .... Harry Potter is here to stay!

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Swedish or USA version?

When the rumours spread that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was going to be made by an american film company there was excitement but also some worries around whether the Americans would kill the original films as well as the book.

So when they announced that the lush Daniel Craig was going to play controversial journalist Mikeal Blomkvist in the US version of the film I got a little bit over excited as I love Daniel Craig as the Super Spy James Bond!!! And knew he would give a gritty and edgy performance in the film.

The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo or it's swedish name 'Man Som Hatar Kvinnor'  released in 2009 staring Prometheus's Noomi Rapace as Lisabeth Salander  the  main character in the film and books which in book 1 and in the first film of 3, follows the story of a young women who has been missing or presumed dead for over forty years. A discredited Journalist with the aid of Salander search for the young women and how she disappeared over forty years ago. 
The swedish films all follow the same narrative of the trilogy of books:
                                       The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 
                                       The Girl Who Played With Fire 
                                       The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest 

Also known as Millennium 1,2 &3 (Millennium being the small magazine that Blomkvist runs with his long term Lover in Stockholm Sweden) the books have sold millions of copies world wide and are a brilliant read. 

Lisabeth Salander - AKA Rooney Mara

The swedish films are brilliant, although it is dubbed into English I still watch it with subtitles as not to spoil the actual film... I sometimes think with foreign films the best way to watch them is to watch them with the native language and not dubbed. With this film and having read the book I knew that the actual atheistic of  the film would be dark to co-inside with the narrative as it is a real thriller and a spine tingling one at that. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo deals with themes of sexual violence against women throughout and rape is one of the strongest themes as well as corruption in high powered business which in some ways is a sub plot as well as the lead female character's personality and metal health status. As you get to know Lisabeth you do question what may be wrong with her although Larson did actually hint that Lisabeth maybe Aspergers. Murder is also a key theme as well as  Religion which runs throughout the story. Not to give it away it has a great ending.. and I really don't want to spoil that!!! 

The Original 2009 screen adaptation of the book by Swedish Film Makers.

The Swedish films from what I have seen as I've only watched the first film due to the fact that I am still reading the books( I'm actually on the third and final book at the moment) are actually narrative wise true to the narrative of the books and do not divert from it. That was one of the problems I had with the American film is that they changed the ending which as a fan of the book I hated!!! 

The comparison between the two is actually quite substantial as you can tell that a american film company has remade or adapted the original film to cater to a US and UK audience. With a certificate of 18 in the UK or R in the USA the film still has that darkness to it in-keeping with the feel of the original swedish film and more importantly the book, but the opening sequences are different. In the Swedish film the opening sequence is of Blomkvist coming out of the court room after being sentenced to three months in prison from Slander and Libel charges against a successful but corrupted business owner whereas in the US version it focuses more on the main narrative arch of the missing women and the flowers sent to the old man who hires Blomkvist and Salander in the end to search for the missing women. The difference is that the main narrative arch is already presented to the audience before the introduction of the main two characters that we are going to follow throughout the film. Blomkvist is important to the film as much as Salander is in the sense that without these two characters and the dynamics they create the film let alone the story would not work... in a way these two are unlikely to work together but yet create a perfect balance on the page as well as the screen.  

The 2011 remake staring Daniel Craig

The changes in the scripts and narrative are subtle to notice between both versions, I do like the US version of the film, but it doesn't seem true to the book unlike the swedish version. I think there is some pride and care into how the Swedish made this film and out of respect for the author. The most annoying thing the US version did was to change the ending, I was really annoyed to why they did that, maybe it was to make it less complicated although the plot did unravel well and everything else was covered it was still in my opinion a lazy way to tie up the end of the film. In the book it is completely different and is more complicated but thats the beauty of it... it creates tension and to someone who has never read the book or watched the swedish version it is like the worst way to end the story as the tension builds and builds to a in my view deflating ending where you wonder what was the point in some ways to watching the whole film. It is just laziness to cut it short, I don't know if it was for running time reasons or whatever but a few more minutes to even jump in time in a script which you can do as I do it and most people in the industry do to tie it up with the ending it deserves! 

I can't really complain about the acting as both films have brilliant actors so I can't moan... really for me it was the narrative and respecting it. 

But see what you guys think... I do recommend to read the books first and then get the swedish films and then get the american one and see what you make of it. 

Challenge Failed

As you know from the previous post that I was going to attempt to watch a film in Belgium that was in French with Dutch subtitles ... well I hate to say this but I failed.

i'm sorry but from the clip I saw it looked like a drama based around a carer and a disabled guy, other than that I can't tell you what the narrative was and even if I tried to follow it I might not have followed as my dutch is no existent so instead of letting you guys down what I will do is come back with some awesome posts on films that i've watched.


Stay tuned there might be a review or a comparison on the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Films as I have got all the Swedish Films and the US version staring Daniel Craig. I did manage to finish the second book and are currently on the third ... I won't watch the films until I've read the book... I did this with Harry Potter... the exceptions where The Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games.





That'll be coming up soon until then it's goodbye from me....

The Foreign Film Challenge

Ok so in matter of hours i'll be on my way to Belgium... yes my second European trip... but my friend who I am visiting said that we're going to watch a french film which will be interesting as my french is rubbish for a start and the subtitles will be in Dutch as she lives in the northern part of Belgium which is Flemish! 

Sooooo long story cut short .... basically I will try to understand a film with no help from subtitles but instead use my powers that i was bestowed years ago at college to read into the actual film itself and work out what is going on and try to make a blog post on the film. I cannot say how good my post will be as I will not understand what is going on but this is my challenge! 

So stay tuned for a either a great blog post or a really confusing one ...   

Films that Define a Decade...

In the 1980's some films are still the number one things you think about connected to the this decade apart from bad hair, fashion sense and shoulder pads. Yes we all love The Goonies (1985), Back to the Future (1985-1990) and The Karate Kid (1984) but being a child of the 1990's what films defined our era. Maybe it's the fact that I am now the tender age of 21 and life seems to have flown past me but looking back at the films I watched as a child there are some that stand out from the rest. Some followed in the 00's but what films did I love in the 1990's?

Well most of the films I watched in the 1990's were Disney but apart from the classics from the 1940's and 1950's Disney decided that they were looking ahead to the future and brought out some of my childhood favourites. Apart from Disney there were some little gems that I loved to watch that made me giggle throughout my childhood... I was born in 1992 so Three Men and a Baby I had to watch when I got a little older but some stood out.

Babe (1995)

The Lovely tail about a pig that is brought up to think it is a sheep dog... loving his owner Farmer Hoggett together they save the farm from being repossessed by winning a sheep dog trial competition. It wasn't the actual story line that I loved... if you have ever watched this film it has to be the mice... yes the mice that sing throughout the film I love it. Great and strange family film.







Black Beauty (1994)

This heart wrenching tail of a horse is just lovely to watch and also slightly like Bambi in some ways as his mother dies and his friend later on in the film Ginger dies and gets sold to be turned into glue ... sinister themes run through children's films I seem to notice!!!

Black Beauty for me was the film that really sparked my love for horses, and also makes me ball my eyes out. It to me is one of the most iconic films of the 1990's for families anyway.





The Borrowers (1997)

 Based on a book this adaption from 1997 sports and all star cast including Jim Broadbent, Celia Emerie, John Goodman and if you look closely a very young and fresh faced Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter). It's about people named the Borrowers who live in people's house and borrow things like household items off them, but here's the catch they are tiny. This story follows the Clock family who live in a house up until the home owners move. John Goodman is the baddy and is set to kill them.. with funny happenings it is one of my film highlights of the 1990's!


Some of my favourite films however have to do with popular culture and the cartoons I watched as a Kid starting with:

Spice World(1997)  

Yes i can hear the groans and face palms but every girl from the 1990's loved The Spice Girls so when in 1997 before we had to say our final goodbyes to the girls in 1998 we got the first and only Spice Girls film Spice World which just was their lives in a extra ordinary way with aliens and well crazy management that had stresses quite alot of the time!

Starring Richard E Grant as the neurotic and controlling manager and an appearance from the legend Meat Loaf as no one other than their tour bus driver (Meat didn't have a lot of work in the 1990's) and a young Joules Holland Spice World had girls and some boys around the world dancing in the cinema singing all their favourites Wannabe, Say You'll Be There and Spice Up Your Life!

This film open the flood gates though for bands to make mega bucks off the back of their musical success who can forget S Club 7's numerous TV Programmes that I watched as a child plus their movie in 2002? Other bands such as the british band Mcfly(They are my favourite band don't discriminate) have feature in the 2006 flop teen comedy Just My Luck where the Drummer did get lucky with Miss Lindsay Lohan off set! And now of course the little teenie boppers One Direction (ewww) have now got their own 3D movie due out later this year... and I happened to read about that in Total Film of all places.

Pokemon The First Movie (1999)

Who can forget POKEMON!!!!!! Many children's first introduction to the lovely and colourful world of anime before Studio Ghibli came along and saved us all with the Oscar winning Spirited Away, Pokemon in itself is the most iconic Television show behind The Teletubbies (eh oh) from the 1990's!

I loved Pokemon and when Ash dies in the film I cried!!!!!

POKEMON IS AWESOME OK!!!!








And last by no means least ... we got a treat ... a cartoon that I watched and loved about a group of babies called THE RUGRATS got their own feature length film that I still to this day love!!!! Yes we follow Tommy, Chucky, Phil and Lil and of course Angelica on their adventures and say hello to the new addition to the Pickles family Dill... awwwwww!!!!