Fight Club Infographic

An infographic on Fight Club that I had to create for an assessment.

Still alive

2012 Run down of some of the films I want to watch:

Shame
Coriolanus
War Horse
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Hobbit
The Avengers
Carnage
Life of Pi
The Dark Knight Rises
The Amazing Spiderman
Prometheus
Men In Black III

Far too long

Ok it has been far too long since I've tippled into this. What is that? 6 months you say.

Well to say that I have been busy may be an exaggeration. It's more like a crippling sense of laziness than anything else but as the 2nd academic year draws to an end (I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO DISSERTATION YEAR AT ALL) here I am yet again syphoning some boredom and procrastination into this lovely nest pot.

ONTO THE POST

These next few weeks are going to be a hella busy due to a multitude of factors.

1. DEADLINES
2. Being a part of the Qi audience (BAHHHHHHHH1HBVSDDSFBhvbdsjhv!... cough)
3. Exploring London's graveyards and parks
4. Volunteering at Future Cinema
5. A lot of theatre trips
6. Misc.

So one of the films that I have watched recently are The Avengers Assemble. Seriously, what a movie! Joss Whedon you have done a magnificient job! There are some little tidbits that I will pick later but still this film is one to watch. It's funny, captivating and just plain entertaining. There had been so many doubts in Whedon's capabilities of manning a cinematic feature but he has done so beautifully. There are some shots that just oozes Whedon such as his zoom and refocus style with the camera a la Firefly (may it rest in peace). The dialogue was quick and witty and Hello there Tony Stark!

Now I didn't see Captain America: The First Avenger and my god was his character one of my least favourite in the franchise but there are moments in the film when Chris Evans' acting really shined through. Here he was, a genetically morphed man of the 1940s, frozen and then blasted into the future by some 70 years and no one seems to give a toss about him. He's more Steve Rogers than Captain America emotionally. At times it just seems that he was fumbling around in the scene touching this and that hoping for some result.

And then there's Black Widow. Oh Black Widow you are a confusing character. Scarlett Johansson what were you thinking. Or rather what was the director thinking. There were so many changes in this little lady it was hard for me not to think that maybe they left some of the deleted scenes in the film by mistake. And before you go 'What a misogynistic bitch! She's a strong woman in this cock-fest of a film yada yada yada...' but seriously watch the film. If you don't get what I'm seeing then I don't care if I stand here on my own. Don't get me wrong there are some scenes in the film where Natasha Romanoff for a time being is a femme fatale of the highest degree but most of the time it was just stale. Stale like 1400 year old bread.

Speaking of stale, hello there Loki. Tom Hiddleston. I am a fan of your work, still am in fact but there is just something about Loki that just will not budge. Sure he was lied to ALL HIS LIFE, I certainly am not denying that. But Loki just felt like a manufactured villain bent on conquering the Earth (although in it's state right now I don't know why) because he had failed in taking over Asgard. Loki is the god of mischief. In the Avengers the mischief comes in burst and twists there is no underlying threat. No shadow encroaching the team. No slow burn. But I may be touching on personal preferences to films so I'll drop this for now.

On the more technical side I don't think that an advanced mystical force with advanced technology will tether themselves to their flying vehicles simply with a chain. Just saying...

The Hulk really did steal the show with a tonne of humour and some splendid Mo-Cap and it seems that 'The Other Guy' as Bruce Banner affectionately calls the green giant outshone Mark Rufallo's performance. I have an Achilles heel when it comes to Iron Man. He's my favourite Marvel Comics character ever. And Whedon's script alongside Zak Penn really does give this snarky egotistical millionaire just the right amount of asshole.

So yes The Avengers Assemble is one hell of a film. Go watch it! Just do... seriously just watch it. It's how comic book films are supposed to be. Think of it as Loose Women but with aliens, villains, astral plains, and with a lot of explosions.

I've lost it...

I'm having a little breather.

Just a little over 150 words left on a Political Journalism assessment. A press conference with the oh so fictitious Sir Hufton Tufton-Bufton. Slightly fried my brain trying to read all through my notes. Stupid EU referendum.

'Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n.'
-John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I.

Paradise Lost is being made into a movie... again. Directed by Alex Proyas of I, Robot and The Crow. Starring Bradley Cooper (Limitless), Camilla Belle (10,000 BC), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Eleven). Can you imagine the visual orgasms this movie has the potential of? With all the new film technology bursting and erupting into the scene I can't wait what the end result will look like. This movie will be captured using Motion Capture. Rightly s NO 3D PLEASE. I swear if they announce that Paradise Lost will be in 'shocking 3D' I might vomit. I really will. For me 3D needs to stay in Disneyland Parks and the like.

And Lucifer, played by Bradley Cooper, please be a bottomless pit of character development. I want to feel the anger, ruthlessness, vulnerability. I want to see acting and not just flash, bangs and CGI wings and heaven. Please Alex Proyas. I was doubtful of this production but now... now I don't want this to be a flop.

Chaining A Wandering Mind

Procrastination is an infectious disease.

My goal for today was to wake up early (early-ish) and begin a full day of researching. The deadline is for this Tuesday and I still haven't started ANYTHING. The internet is a curse and a gift all wrapped in one. Like a candy-coated pill. With so many links and such information of course my mind was going to wander.

Recently a new friend of mine nudged me to watch Sherlock Holmes BBC. (Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman [Loved him in HGTTG]) I've been re-watching the episodes. What he didn't know of course was my latent obsession with the good ol' Baker Street sociopath. It wouldn't help of course that I have been patiently fucking waiting for the next installment for the movie version starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and STEPHEN fucking FRY! (I'm a fan. End of.) Surely my excitement will take a physical form, fill this whole flat and slowly suffocate any organic aerobic functioning matter in the surrounding area.

And what stemmed from watching Sherlock Holmes? None other than a spark in my interest in Psychology. I wasted hours pouring over online texts on psychoanalysis, sociopaths, psychopaths, you name it. It's times like these that I wonder why I chose a media based degree. Surely I should have picked something that I spend most of my time obsessing over. Etymology, Anthropology, Psychology, Cosmology, Astrology. A lot of g's. Then I argue that that if I was studying my time wasting interests then it would suck all the colour out of it. Like painting an unchanging scene. Over and over and over...

It has been a reoccurring theme lately. I spend quite a lot of time wondering if I'm wasting my time with this degree. I sit and wonder. What will be the outcome? Will there be one at all? Maybe.

And here I am. 18 and already wishing to start it all over again.

Could This Be?

Finally we have lift-off! Internet now resides in my home. But I have to say, after a month without home-centered internet I was not as affected that I thought I would be. What with my Korean drama ''problem'', my YouTube surfing and other stumbleupon related business I thought I would hit internet withdrawal with a BAM to the psychosis... Now I'm not saying that this is a huge feat here. Again this is my mental storage dump. So on to the dumping!

Sitting on my bed with my laptop propped on an old Yamaha PSR-175 keyboard. Sipping a delicious concoction of brownie hot chocolate out of Jack Skellington's cranium. Some little quirks of my household. Without fail me and my flatmates will dirty all of our mugs in one day. One flatmate is a tea fiend (2 teabags + 5-6 spoons of sugar per tea. Not exaggerating here). The other likes her caffeine, hot chocolate and tea (of course). And me? I've been guzzling green tea, ginger and honey tea. When you enter our flat it will either small of rose incense, my lavender candle or curry. If you smell curry I'm probably not home. Mushrooms do not last at all in this house. The one window in the living room faces a brick wall. On the one window in the living room quotes from 'Fight Club', 'Absolutely Fabulous' and 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' are scribbled beside a gigantic doodle of a cat wearing a witch's hat and holding a ridiculously proportioned broom in one paw.

Movies I have watched lately include the oh-so-very mind fuck of Shutter Island directed by Michael Scorsese. DiCaprio sure likes to play in mind-playing movies. In this case he plays U.S. Marshal Edward ''Teddy'' Daniels who alongside his partner Chuck (Mark Rufallo) investigates a missing prisoner/patient from a mental institution for the criminally insane. 1954. The movie - like most movies these days - dragged on for a long time before climbing the highest peak of the roller coaster. (The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder). Scorsese likes to play with your perception. Little tricks, anagrams and omitted details that you would never really notice in the first two times watching the movie and on an empty bladder. One mind tease in particular. During the patient interrogation scene a woman fakes drinking water. She mimes drinking water out of her cupped hand. Walking nightmares, corrupted memories of Teddy's days of World War II. And of course that means that there are Nazi flashbacks. Visually chilling scenes of snow falling on iced bodies of men, women, parents, children. Mahler playing in the background.

I have to say though, does anyone notice how Ben Kingsley's accent changes from German to English? Or am I on a Shutter Island of my own?

Weather: Er... cold? It's midnight weather.
Disposition: Craving some Taeyang ambience

Shutter Island is an anagram of both "Truths and Lies" and "Truths / Denials".

Crazy Spacey

Kevin Spacey freaks me out. I can't deny it. It's his leering voice. His staring eyes. He's the ultimate villain character for me. Is this where the blurring between actor and character begins? If an actor plays the hero consecutively if you met him in real life will you think him any less than a hero? A shining beacon of bravery and unwavering goodness. And if they play the enemy over and over will you think them an asshole? Is this where some people cannot separate the actor from the 15ft tall alien character stretched on the movie screen? I know for a fact that my flatmate can't really take Leonardo DiCaprio seriously in any role post-2000. Which corresponds to Leo's transformation into adulthood. So the real reason she doesn't like Leo in any other role is because his pretty face in Romeo + Juliet and The Beach changed. Inevitably.

Back to Kevin.

In 1995 when Se7en was released Spacey insisted that his name should be unlisted in the beginning credits. And rightly so. The suspense for me was unsettling and when I heard his voice over the phone I couldn't help feel a shiver. He's the ultimate villain for me. How could he ever play the hero? It's just the way he lilts his words. Then again in American Beauty. OK. In this movie he bungee-jumps between pathetic loser father to sociopath to pedophile to complete zen master. The voice over of the movie is of course Kevin 'Creepy Voice' Spacey himself.  Shiver. Shiver. Shiver.

Am I alone here? Is Kevin Spacey creepy off screen and more so on screen?

For me the answer is yes, yes, yes holy fracking yes. 

Kevin Spacey. Creepy Mofo Extraordinaire.

Weather: WHY IS LONDON SO FUCKING BOILING???
Disposition: Debating if I should start sucking on ice cubes for sustenance...