Despicable Me (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, 2010)

Despicable Me is one of the cutest (and definitely bearable) family films I’ve ever seen. In fact, I think I like it more than my family do, and I genuinely laugh at what is quite clearly humour aimed at children.

The first film follows an evil supervillain, Gru, as he gets into an evilness competition with Vector, nerd-turned-supervillain. When Vector steals the pyramid of Giza, Gru decides the best thing to do is to steal the moon. He first has to get into Vector’s incredibly well protected house, but when he discovers that Vector has a soft spot for Coconutties, he adopts three of the girls selling these cookies to help him. However, he starts to genuinely like the girls, and considers calling off his moon-stealing-escapades to go to the girls’ dance recital. Agnes, the youngest girl with a small obsession with unicorns, is unbelievably cute. Of course, with this being a family film, there is a happy ending. Gru realises the error of his ways and begins to truly love the girls, becoming a happy family by the end of the film, and even fixing his relationship with his mother.

I think what makes Despicable Me so loved is almost undoubtedly the minions. Yes, it’s a half-decent storyline, yes, the youngest of the girls is adorable, but really, without the minions, the film wouldn’t have been half as successful…

Minions, small little yellow helpers, are the kind of pet everyone wants. They’re always willing to help, even if it does take them a while to put down their beloved bananas and get to it. They speak in a funny mixture of French, English, Spanish, Indian, Italian and gobbledegook (called ‘Minionese’)… so although most of what they say just sounds like obscure ramblings, there are certain words which can be picked out. Most words are food references, such as ‘potato’ and ‘poulet tiki masala’. The minions are actually voiced by the directors, Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, who:

“mix up all these ridiculous sounding words just because they sound good, not because they necessarily mean something” (Pierre Coffin)

Minions have become a hit worldwide, becoming incorporated into all kinds of things; some the best I’ve seen are nails painted as minions, and the other day I saw a little girl wearing a cute minion hat! The cake pictured was actually made by my mother for my seventeenth birthday, which looked and tasted amazing (after we were ready to cut into such a work of art).

There are thousands of minion toys and games, and of course the spin-off film, Minions, which is being released in 2015. Minion Rush, too, is the smart phone game based on Temple Run but featuring minions. Minions are also part of ‘Chiquita’ bananas’ advertising campaign, because minions love bananas!

The characters are voiced by Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, and my favourite actress of all time, Julie Andrews. I hadn’t realised how many of the voices I actually knew until I looked it up on Wikipedia.

I went to see Despicable Me 2 twice in the cinema, which is really something for me as I very rarely class a film as being important enough to spend ten pounds on. The second time, there was a power cut only five minutes into the film, but since I’d already watched it, I wasn’t that bothered. I’d already eaten all my popcorn anyway. Despicable Me 2 introduces Lucy Wilde, who eventually becomes the children’s mother when Gru falls in love with her… Yet again, the perfect happy family ending.

Zombieland (Ruben Fleischer, 2009)

Zombieland is certainly not the kind of film which would be my first choice. When my boyfriend suggested it, I rolled my eyes and told myself I’d just sit through it in the hope that he’d watch My Fair Lady with me at some point.

However, I was pleasantly surprised.

It had three of my favourite actors in it – Jesse Eisenberg (who’s adorable), Woody Harrelson (who’s so badass), and Emma Stone (who’s just great). It also featured one of my least favourite actresses, Abigail Breislin, but I forced myself to look past her obnoxious ways and focus on the zombies…
Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breislin, Bill Murray and Amber Heard won an award for best ensemble, and actually, I do think they deserved it. There was good chemistry between the four main characters, and Bill Murray’s cameo was a nice touch.

I liked the recurring theme of the ‘Rules To Survive Zombieland’, and the way they came up on the screen to remind you about it (apparently in 3D, although since I don’t have a 3D television, I just thought it was a nice font)… They kind of pushed the film on, as well as obviously preparing us all for any oncoming zombie attacks, which I’m sure will come in useful one day.

I tend to think that zombie films are ‘old’ and that it’s ‘all been done before’, but I actually found Zombieland enjoyable, and even the happy ending didn’t bug me because it seemed appropriate. It was sweet, funny, scary when it needed to be, and I actually found myself connecting with the characters for once.

Original Drama Shorts

I found some short fifteen-minute videos on BBC iPlayer, and with fifteen minutes to kill at the time, they were ideal. Called ‘original drama shorts’, the three I’ve watched focused on totally different things – the first, a surprisingly uplifting story (told entirely in rhyme) about Flea, a young girl with an abusive stepfather. She is shown to be buying drugs regularly but has a plan up her sleeve, which leaves a good feeling at the end of the programme.

The second is a cute love story called My Jihad, about a jobless Muslim man who cannot find a possible wife because the fact he still lives with his parents makes him an unsuitable husband. However, when he meets Fahmida by chance, he finds a perfect match.

The third, however, made very little sense to me. It was called ‘Tag’, filmed in the style of a spaghetti western, but set in a school, and featured two teachers playing a rather vicious game of tag.

While the first two dramas were great, the third was supposed to be ‘funny’, I think, but I didn’t really understand it… I can’t knock the others though, particularly My Jihad, which was really cute, and also featured two of my favourite Muslim actresses.

I like short dramas, mainly because I have an incredibly short attention span! I like the fact so much information can be conveyed, and an entire story told, in just fifteen minutes. These dramas in particular told stories which aren’t often told, which are exactly the kind of things I’d like to make one day.

Gertie the Dinosaur (Winsor McCay, 1914)

I’ve finally reached my 100th blog post (!) and I spent a while deciding what I should do a post about. Eventually I decided on a 100-year-old film, which gave me a choice of several Charlie Chaplin films, or Gertie the Dinosaur, which intrigued me.

It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur, and indeed one of the earliest animated films ever, which makes it fascinating to watch. I found it really interesting to watch it, thinking about more modern films I’d seen, such as Gravity, which is a perfect demonstration of how far films have progressed in just 100 years.

However, despite its age, it was still a surprisingly good short film – I both laughed and cried in the space of fifteen minutes, which is impressive, particularly for a silent, flickering film and animation. In all honesty, I cried when Gertie cried – it’s amazing how quickly you can get attached to a 100 year old animated dinosaur!

In fact, I’d say it’s definitely worth a watch. Gertie is incredibly cute, and I laughed a couple of times. It’s also worth a watch from a media studies point of view – it really highlights how far technology has advanced, and its amazing to think that our two minute film opening is so much better than a film which, in 1914, was considered truly amazing!

Lola Rennt (Tom Tykwer, 1998)

Lola Rennt (or ‘Run Lola Run’) is the film I’m talking about in my German speaking presentation. I chose the topic of media to combine two subjects together and to allow me to talk about something I felt I understood!
Of course, I had to watch the film in order to talk about it, and luckily, it was quite good. Starring Franka Potente (who also starred in the Bourne films) as Lola, and Moritz Bleibtreu as Manni. During shooting, Franka Potente could not wash her hair for seven weeks because the red hair color was very sensitive to water and would have got lighter with every wash!

The film is set in Berlin and follows twenty minutes, which is shown three times with different outcomes. When Lola’s boyfriend, Manni, leaves 100,000 Deutschmarks on a train, he rings her in a panic and gives her twenty minutes to come up with the same amount of money. He threatens to rob a nearby shop if she can’t come up with the money, clearly out of fear, and Lola runs frantically around Berlin trying to find 100,000 DM. Each run contains various flash-forward sequences, showing how the lives of the people that Lola bumps into develop after the encounter. In each run, those people are affected in different ways.

It was directed (and written) by Tom Tykwer, who also directed Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer. That was easily one of the most bizarre films I’d ever seen, and this one was similarly odd. It swapped between odd cartoon sequences and Lola’s story, with many references to Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’, because Tykwer is a huge fan.

Lola Rennt was nominated for 41 awards, and won 26.

Blood Brothers

Over the weekend, I went to the theatre to watch Blood Brothers, a play/musical which I knew very little about. I was told I wasn’t allowed to look it up before I went, so I had no idea what to expect. The play was nothing like I’d imagined – luckily, in a good way. I didn’t even realise it was a musical, which was a pleasant surprise, because I love musicals!

Blood Brothers begins with a poor mother living ‘on the dole’, but getting a job which means she can afford to give her already large family the things she feels they deserve. However, this is shattered when she realises she’s expecting twins. Her employer, a rich woman who cannot have children, seems to offer the ideal solution – she will pretend to be pregnant and then take one of the twins when they’re born. She makes the mother swear on the Bible and plays on the mother’s superstitious beliefs by telling her that if the children find out they are twins, they will both immediately die.

The play then follows the twins, Mickey (the one kept) and Eddie (the one given away), as they grow up, exploring the ideas of nature vs nurture, and showing what happens when they meet and become best friends and ‘blood brothers’. The play also shows the harsh realities of class and status within society; while Eddie goes on to Oxford, Mickey remains unemployed for a long time until he resorts to crime. While in prison, Mickey develops depression, and he and Eddie become wrapped up in a love triangle involving Linda, Mickey’s childhood sweetheart. Mickey starts to think there is something going on between Linda and Eddie, and driven to desperation through unemployment, a difficult life situation, heartbreak and depression, he threatens to kill Eddie. The police and the twins’ maternal mother turns up and begs him not to, letting slip that they are related. The shock makes Mickey’s finger slip on the trigger, and the police shoot him as a reaction, proving Eddie’s adopted mother’s false superstition to be true.

Everyone I could see was in floods of tears by the end of it… I wasn’t, but it didn’t help that my mother kept making ‘funny’ comments next to me! The songs were all incredibly catchy, and I caught several people singing along as we left the theatre. I love the involvement in theatre, and it lifts my mood so much when the lights dim and the audience hush and the room is full of anticipation.

The production we saw starred:
Maureen Nolan as Mrs Johnstone, the mother
Kristofer Harding as the Narrator (who was brilliantly cold and a bit creepy)
Mark Hutchinson as Eddie
Tracy Spencer as Mrs Lyons
Danielle Corlass as Linda
and Perry O’Dea as Mickey (which took me a while to find out, because he was the understudy – however, I couldn’t imagine it with anyone else, he was amazing!)

Oscar Winner Predictions

So my boyfriend and I decided to predict the Oscars… More or less all of our answers were the same, so eventually we had to compromise on some so we had a clear winner by the end of it (whoever gets the most right wins chocolate).
We’re both massive Gravity fans, so neither of us were willing to change our answers for Best Picture or Best Director.
We also took a sweepstake at school, but looking again at the nominations, I’ve decided I’m not happy with the answers I gave for that, swapping Judi Dench for Cate Blanchett.

I’m actually really looking forward to the Oscars tonight, particularly because they’re being hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, who is just brilliant.

Best Picture:
Lauren: Gravity
Sam: Gravity
Winner: 12 Years a Slave

Best Director:
Lauren: Alfonso Cuarón
Sam: Alfonso Cuarón
Winner: Alfonso Cuarón

Best Lead Actor:
Lauren: Leonardo DiCaprio (he deserves one by now!)
Sam: Leonardo DiCaprio
Winner: Matthew McConaughey

Best Lead Actress:
Lauren: Cate Blanchett
Sam: Sandra Bullock
Winner: Cate Blanchett

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Lauren: Jared Leto
Sam: Barkhad Abdi
Winner: Jared Leto

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Lauren: Jennifer Lawrence
Sam: Julia Roberts
Winner: Lupita Nyong’o

Best Animated Feature Film:
Lauren: Frozen
Sam: Despicable Me 2
Winner: Frozen

Achievement in Cinematography:
Lauren: Emmanuel Lubezki
Sam: Emmanuel Lubezki
Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki

Achievement in Costume Design:
Lauren: The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
Sam: The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
Winner: The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)

Achievement for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score):
Lauren: Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)
Sam: Gravity (Steven Price)
Winner: Gravity (Steven Price)

Achievement for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song):
Lauren: Frozen (Let It Go)
Sam: Despicable Me 2 (Happy)
Winner: Frozen (Let It Go)

Achievement in Visual Effects:
Lauren: Gravity
Sam: Star Trek Into Darkness
Winner: Gravity

(This Oscars selfie made history by becoming the most retweeted photograph ever;
by the end of the ceremony the figure stood at 2,070,132)

13 Going On 30 (Gary Winick, 2004)

Although I’m not really one for chick-flicks, I actually quite enjoyed 13 Going On 30; possibly because I properly laughed in some places; possibly because I could relate to wanting to go both forwards and backwards in time; or possibly because the characters were just so loveable I actually wanted them to get together for once and didn’t mind the predictable ending.

I first watched it when I was a bit younger, around thirteen, but when I found it on a list of the most underrated films of the ‘noughties’ (2000s), I decided to watch it again. Just like a romantic comedy type film should do, it cheered me up and left in a good mood, so full marks and ticks in all the boxes for conforming to a genre. It usually bugs me when a film isn’t ‘different’ or exciting, but to be fair, it wasn’t promising anything except a chick-flick style storyline. Having said that, the storyline itself wasn’t too bad – the idea of being a 13-year-old wishing to be a 30-year-old is something most people can relate to, and despite having never been 30 myself, I’m sure there are many people out there wishing for the simplicity of a 13-year-old existence again!

Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)

I know it’s breaking all the rules… but I really wanted to do a blog post on Fight Club…

Despite its popularity, Fight Club is a film which has never appealed to me. The only reason I decided to watch it at all is because I’ve only ever heard positive things about it, and because it’s my friend’s favourite film – she’s always pushing me to watch it, and I’m so glad she did!

Even though it’s quite famous, I managed to avoid finding out too much about it, luckily. Knowing the twist in the storyline would have totally ruined it, because I didn’t see it coming at all. It’s left me thinking all week, and it keeps coming back to me; it’s so brilliantly written and wonderfully filmed.

The film begins with a depressed young man (who is credited only as Narrator, played by Edward Norton), who hates his work, feels alone and alienated, and suffers from insomnia. He starts going to support groups for patients with terminal diseases in order to have people to talk to, and to feel slightly better about his own situation, while at the same time attempting to cheer himself up by creating the perfect apartment (and to be fair, he does have some pretty cool furniture).

Yet when he meets Tyler Durden one day (played by the rather wonderful Brad Pitt), his apartment is also coincidentally destroyed.Tyler believes ‘Narrator’ could learn a lot through pain, misfortune, and chaos, and challenges him to a fight, before allowing him to move in with him. As more men join in, a ‘fight club’ is created, quickly becoming an underground sensation. Tyler establishes some rules, with the famous lines: ‘First rule: Don’t talk about fight club. Second rule: Don’t talk about fight club’.

However, Tyler soon stops treating ‘Narrator’ as an equal, or as a partner within Fight Club, creating Project Mayhem and becoming involved with Marla, who ‘Narrator’ met at the support groups. After this, everything spirals out of control, but I don’t want to write any more – I know that if someone had ruined Fight Club for me, I would have been so irritated, so I refuse to give away the ending. Just take it from me; it’s an amazing film.

Tyler Durden is undoubtedly one of my favourite characters of all time. He’s the kind of addictive personality you don’t want to like, but do, purely because of his charisma and influence. Brad Pitt was also the perfect person to play this part, just as Edward Norton portrays ‘Narrator’ brilliantly.

“We decided early on that I would start to starve myself as the film went on, while [Brad Pitt] would lift and go to tanning beds; he would become more and more idealized as I wasted away.”

– Edward Norton

The Butterfly Effect (Eric Bress and J Mackye Gruber, 2004)

The title ‘The Butterfly Effect’ refers to an example of chaos theory, and the idea that every single little thing we do can shape our future drastically – for example, does the small flap of a butterfly’s wings create a tidal wave somewhere in the world, eventually? What would happen if we could go back and do things differently? How different would the outcome be? Personally, I love the idea that every tiny decision that we make, without even thinking, can have such an impact on us; I often pass a lot of time thinking ‘what if?’, and for this reason, the film had a big effect on me, leaving me unable to sleep because I was so wrapped up in these hypothetical situations!

The film follows Evan (played predominantly by Ashton Kutcher, but also played by Logan Lerman and John Amedori as his younger self). As a child, he has black outs whenever he’s put in a stressful or uncomfortable situation, which include being forced to take part in child pornography by the abusive father (Eric Stolz) of his childhood sweetheart, Kayleigh (Amy Smart); being strangled by his institutionalised father who is then killed in front him; seeing his dog burned alive by Tommy (Kayleigh’s brother); and killing a woman and her baby while playing with dynamite with his friends. He is advised by his psychologist to keep journals, and when he rediscovers these, years later, he also uncovers the ability to travel back in time and is able to relive these traumatic parts of his past.

However, every time he goes back in time to change something (always with good intentions), he comes back to the present day a changed man – at one point, he finds himself crying over Kayleigh’s grave, after she kills herself; one time, he is an amputee; another, he’s an inmate, imprisoned for murdering Tommy. The people around him are also affected; Kayleigh ranges from being the most popular girl in a sorority to being a prostitute. All he really wants is for him and Kayleigh to be happy and together, but something always seems to go wrong. On top of this, years’ worth of new memories causes him severe brain damage, and eventually he realises that everyone’s suffering, in every scenario, is ultimately caused by him in some way.

There are four potential endings to this film; one is a rather cliched ending where he walks past Kayleigh on the street, she stops and looks at him for a while as though she knows him, then shrugs it off and walks on.
The generic ‘happy’ ending is where they cross paths on the street, and Evan introduces himself to Kayleigh, asking her out for coffee.
A more open-ended alternative is similar to the one where Evan and Kayleigh pass each other on the sidewalk and keep walking, except this time Evan, after hesitating, turns and follows Kayleigh, leaving it ambiguous.
The last possible ending is where he travels back to his own birth and strangles himself with his own umbilical cord so he was never born. Considering how wonderfully complicated the film is, I prefer this ending, as the others seem a bit of a let down.

The acting in this film is incredible; Ashton Kutcher portrays pretty much every ‘side’ to a personality possible; and I love the way the film is shot, because each new scenario seems to represent a different genre, showing how versatile the actors are. The different genres means there’s definitely something for everyone in this film, yet it’s still quite easy to follow despite how complicated it is; I would quite happily recommend it to everyone, with hesitation.

This is a song by one of my favourite bands, set to clips from The Butterfly Effect; this is actually one of the reasons I watched it in the first place.