Thursday 20 September 2012

This is England (2006) Review for Media Class!

Shane Meadows' autobiographical film centres on young skinheads in 1983 England.
Shaun Fields, a young 12 year old skinhead, looks like he could barely hurt a fly with those hands. An older skinhead 'Combo' (Stephen Graham) jokes that he looks as if 'he came out of a box' comparing him to an Action Man doll, telling us about his apparent undersized character. After hooking up with a bunch of borderline criminal skinheads including 'Combo', in the long hot summer of 1983, he gets dragged into racist views of the National Front.  Shaun's loss of naivety is central to the subculture that is adopted by the white nationalists of '83 in this raw British drama. Shane Meadows creates an image of a young boy who needs identity and links it to something patriotic and racially conscious. 

Watch the trailer here if you haven't seen it already...

Saturday 1 September 2012

Dredd 3D, the gritty reboot...

Karl Urban plays 'Dredd' the famed and feared Judge.
At a first glance at the trailer of the movie, I thought as if it were a film about action dolls coming to life. Frankly, it looked cheesy, dull and a little bit depressing. No offence to Karl Urban but he looks as if he's constipated under his helmet. I mean, what look was the director trying to pull? a skinnier version of Magneto? It doesn't sound like your typical film-festival-feature either, mind you it didn't fail to entertain the masses at San Diego comic-con - one positive we can take from the poorly reviewed film, receiving just 1 star on Rotten Tomatoes . However, you should never judge a book by its cover! See what I did there? Never mind... Here's the trailer!