And I’m okay with it.

It was shock revelation after shock revelation for me upon arriving back at school this September. Being a big film fan, I was keen to chat over the summer’s releases with friends, as you do. Everyone thought Inception was brilliant, The A Team was rubbish and The Expendables was hilariously gory. No surprises there… but it was my second favourite film of the summer that caused all the controversy at my school.

The first shock came that half of my friends hadn’t seen Toy Story 3, despite us all being 16, the target age for the films as a trilogy – we were babies for the first one, and many of us grew up with Woody and Buzz. We were 5 or 6 as the second one hit the cinema, ripe for being blown away by new characters like Zurg and Jessie. And as the last one comes to give its golden generation a last goodbye, it’s greeted by this, the most often heard analysis; ‘Of course I didn’t see Toy Story 3. That’s gay.’ Sigh. The second shock revelation was this – lots of people I know who did watch it said they weren’t moved by either the – avoiding spoilers here – sad scene towards the end when it looks like they’re all toast, or the even sadder scene at the very end. Sure, it was quite a while between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, but at what point during those 11 years did everyone my age die inside? Maybe they did leave it a bit long to get us while we were still little, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an epic worth shedding a tear over. There’s no excuse for it either – in fact the only thing that saved me from completely freaking out was talking to a new guy at my school – a hard as nails rugby player who was also happy to admit he was close to welling up as Andy said farewell to the gang (woops).

So, I’ve lost faith in my generation.  So when Shrek 14 comes out I wanna see some 40 year olds crying, or I’ll get really cross…

Last Saturday I was faced with a decision – do I a) Go and see Kick-Ass, the much anticipated, 5 stars across-the-board super-hero romp about teenagers doing this that and the other…. why explain a film most of the planet has already seen? Or b) Go see Shutter Island, the bottom-of-the-listings, quietly received thriller about a cop who visits a mental asylum on the case  of a missing and (ooooh) highly dangerous patient.

So, option a), right? Everyone’s saying it’s amazing, a perfectly paced action-comedy. But, I was with my Dad, who I assumed would have little time for a film titled ‘Kick-Ass’. So, against my will, I went to see Shutter Island.

Best. Decision. Ever. Shutter Island kicked ass, to use an appropriate phrase. From the first scene, there’s something dark hanging over the affair, and as the plot unfolds on this most creepy of islands, the film gets only more enthralling. Note, I’m giving nothing away with regard to the plot, because, frankly, the script, adapted from Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name is just so damn good, I’d feel terrible to spoil it for anyone. Terrible. Anyway, not only does Scorsese capture the tone of the book perfectly (which I bought immediately afterwards) and DiCaprio put in a subtle and intense performance, but the soundtrack, the setting, and the rest of the cast (including Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo) are spot on as well, and all is even better appreciated after the huge twist at the end (I bet you don’t see it coming).

So, there’s a five star review, fine. But why is it better than Kick-Ass? Hundreds of other, more experienced writers have said that it’s a sublime film and, indeed, I found myself in agreement when I went to see it two weeks later. So why was I so glad to have seen Shutter Island first?

Watching Matthew Vaughn’s bloody and bonkers super-adventure was fun, granted, and it hit fun right on the head, arguably, it was fun – perfected. But have you ever gone to the cinema and wanted more than just fun? On that Saturday, I’d just broken up from school, I was up for a proper movie and I wanted a cinema experience that was rewarding. And as good as Kick-Ass was it wasn’t rewarding, it was just fast-paced and funny. Shutter-Island however, not only delivered the goods, but, by way of a rather philosophical final line (To live as a murderer, or to die as a good man?), and a proper, cinematic, ‘gasp’-ending, left me leaving the cinema thinking, questioning, and above all wanting to see it again. I wanted more. So, I bought the book, and by pure coincidence, ended up seeing the film a few weeks later, in French. Just as rewarding, by the way.

So, don’t just go and see Shutter Island, go see it twice. Every nuance, subtle line and event gets so much more meaning, makes so much more sense. To quote my Dad’s giant understatement, ‘It was rather good’.

And I feel bad for making Matthew Vaughn’s action-adventure look bad, I do, so, by all means, if you want just fun, go and see Kick-Ass. But if you’re like me and you want that little bit more out of your cinema experience, see Shutter Island, because there’s more to cinema than kicking ass.

In the 60′s, 70′s and early 80′s there was a surge in the film industry. Any person with a script and a camera had their shot at glory. As a result of this not every movie was top notch. Hence the rise of b movies. These were usually sleeze filled, gore fuelled tales of rabid zombies and man-eating women. Not to mention the sex and nudity added in to attract a larger audience.

”Classic” films like ‘I Drink Your Blood’ and ‘Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’ are making come backs. The satanic ritual in ‘I Drink Your Blood’ has been coppied in many new movies, including blockbusters like ‘Jenifer’s Body’ . The b movie tribute star, Quintin Tarantino, is filminga remake of Pussycat to place ontop of his b movie mantle piece along with ‘Grindhouse’, ‘Jackie Brown’ and his Kill Bill series. New films like ‘Bitch Slap’ are reviving the old genre and even restoring it too its former glory.

Sleeze is back. Embrace and enjoy it.

 And the 2009 release “Bitch Slap”:

After The Blair Witch Project most people thought that hand held documentary style films were old news. In the spirit of what people thought, all films adopting the “self-made” style were only shown on a limited release and eventually the whole genre died out. Until now…

When the trailers for Paranormal Activity were first shown, it only included a few seconds of the actual film. The body of the footage was from a hidden camera in one of the sneak preview cinemas showing the audience reactions. This by itself was enough to instil fear into most viewers, but then the plot summaries were released.

Micah and his fiancé move into a quiet suburb after taking their relationship to the next level. Unbeknownst to Micah his fiancé has brought a demonic presence into the house. The movie is made up out of the film clips that Micah records while trying to capture the demon at work. As the movie progresses the clips start to become more and more intense ultimately leading to a shocking finale.

Without a soundtrack or any CGI, the film was completed on a $15,000 budget and is a fine achievement for rookie director Oren Peli and worth every second of your time. As we look back at this film with retrospect, we will all realise that this could be one of the classic horror films of all time.