Philhelm Scream

Source Shaun of the Dead (2004) is somehow one of my favourite ever comedies, as well as making it on to  my list of favourite ever horror films .  Hot Fuzz (2007) is brilliantly funny too (always thought it would make a great cinema double bill with Bigelow's Point Break, the 1991 thriller from which it took a lot of inspiration), but I don’t remember reacting to The World’s End (2013) in anyway near the same way.  While the first two in Wright’s ‘Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy’ heavily referenced films I knew very well to comedic effect, I remember thinking that I would find The World’s End funnier when I’m older… so its terrifying to think that soon may be the time to give that another go.  I'm a huge fan of Edgar Wright’s snappy style and cuts, and there’s actually a great analysis of his visual comedy which I recommend checking out here .  After he backed out of doing Marvel's Ant-Man in 2015, the release of Baby Driver crept up on me a bit this year. ...

Source A documentary’s place is often on the small screen where it has the time to carry out it’s investigation in full across a few episodes. Making a Murderer was a great example of that – there wasn’t anything visually grand about the series that was missed having it on my small screen, and it’s run time allowed it to delve deep in to the detail, rather than cramming it all in to 2 hours.   Despite the tendency to find them more on TV, there is a growing trend in documentaries made for the big screen now. What was once an ignored platform is finding an ever growing audience. That’s reflected in my admittedly blinkered list of all time faves, seeing as only one was made outside of the last 10 years. Attention for film docs is getting bigger and bigger, and some of my favourite experiences in a cinema have been sitting through some of the films below. It isn’t often that audiences will challenge what’s being presented to them when it’s got that ‘documentary’ label, but t...

Source You may have heard this already, but Wonder Woman is a bit good.  I've grown pretty tired of the superhero formula and constant revolving door of money machine films in similar packaging, but was really impressed with the freshness of Deadpool (2016) and in particular, Logan   (2017) .   One of my favourite YouTube subscriptions , Nerdwriter , analysed this evolution of the superhero genre in his most recent video and put it much better than I ever could - suddenly, it's an interesting time to be making a superhero movie again. Source Saying that, until the positive reviews began to stream in I was approaching the release of Wonder Woman with a fair bit of trepidation.   DC film have obviously been really disappointing, drab affairs of late.  Although I caught Man of Steel (2013) and Suicide Squad (2016), I'll admit that it's negative reception put me off sitting through over 3 hours of Batman vs Superman.  It's a shame as although Man o...

Source As with Quantum of Solace (2008) and The Great Gatsby (2013), Prometheus (2012) is one of those films where I often try to convince myself that I was wrong, and that actually, surely it can’t be as bad as I remember.  Maybe it’s actually pretty good?   Yeah, I’m sure it was actually great – I’ll put it on now.   I might even get as far as lying to myself during the movie, wanting it to be good… right until a biologist thinks it’s a good idea to start toying with a scary space snake, and a geologist suddenly turns in to a zombie after having his face melted off.  Despite it’s entertaining scares and great visuals, it’s around that point where I begin to accept that this was in fact a let-down of a movie.  Aliens (1986) is a superb thrill ride of a war film, but Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is one of my favourite films of all time .  I love how much of a slow burner it is, cranking up the horror and dread very gradually.    One of Prometh...

Source The other week I was walking in to Manchester Central Library for lunch and a spot of people watching when a leaflet caught my eye. On the front was a picture of Tippi Hedren running away from a flock of birds, and it was advertising a 4 week lecture course on Alfred Hitchcock at the library in conjuncture with Home cinema. As well as the four lectures, the cinema was to put on a screening of Hitchcock’s last great film, The Birds (1963). Hitchcock films have caught my imagination since I was a kid. I vividly remember my Mum describing me the plot of Dial M For Murder (1954), and telling me of this fat, funny director, whose films always had a blonde woman in, and you had to spot him in his own films. When I was a little older I was freaked out by an awful waxwork of Janet Leigh screaming in her shower at Blackpool’s Madame Tussauds. Then there was the Universal Studios tour in LA that took in Psycho’s (1960) Bates Motel, and a 3D screening of his ‘best bits’ at the sa...

Source Been pretty lax with Philhelm Scream recently, but I'm looking to put that right this week.  I recently started a four week course on Alfred Hitchcock that included a screening of one of my favourites: The Birds (1963) at Home, Manchester.  I'm hoping to write something about both when I can, but for the time being Charlotte and I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 the other day.  Appreciate this has been out for a while now, but as the original was one of the few Marvel films to really catch my imagination I'm still keen to pen a few words on it's follow up even though many will have seen this already.  I've never really succumbed to Marvel Studios' takeover of the cinematic galaxy.  I've really enjoyed all of the Spiderman films (apart from no. 3... what the hell?), and Deadpool blew me away (the fact it laughed in the face of other Marvel franchises helped), but James Gunn's under the radar success story, Guardians of the Galaxy (2...

Source A few weeks ago Charlotte surprised me with a birthday trip to Berlin for three days.  As he wasn't touring to Manchester, and seeing as flying to Berlin would cost the same as a train to London, the idea was to catch a Joshua Radin gig while we were there.  We have friends living in Berlin that were kind enough to put us up, and we had a brilliant break away from the norm.   Charlotte’s blog covers the break we had in all its foody glory , but there were a few bits where we went that had a certain filmy flavour too. If you’re not aware of Joshua Radin, you have probably heard some of his acoustic folk over the top of that sad bit at the end of every Scrubs episode .   I’ve been a big fan for years now, but it was a weird experience seeing him in another country.  The venue looked like a converted theatre or cinema, and that added to the chilled atmosphere.  The day after we went to Berlin’s Film Museum in Potsdamer Platz .  If you have ne...