This is a song review, so it is going to be shorter than other reviews and I won`t do nearly as many of these as film reviews.
This is my first time trying to review a song, so stick with me here. My current favorite band is probably Irish band U2. The song I am going to be talking about today is from their third album, War. Today`s song is Sunday Bloody Sunday.
The song starts out with a loud almost militaristic drum beat. The guitar then comes in with quite a nice little riff, just breaking apart three chords. The lyrics then come in, starting out with the line “I can`t believe the news today, I can`t close my eyes and make it go away.” Soon the song starts the main progression. It has the same marching style drum beat with a loud, almost angry guitar chord progression going from B minor to D, then to G. This progression is done with power chords as opposed to open chords which gives it a thicker, more distorted sound.
The lyrics are very good, in my opinion, with lines like “The trench is dug within our hearts, and mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart.” There is a small guitar solo, which is well done and not over the top like some music from the 1980`s.
The song is named after and about the event Bloody Sunday, which happened in 1972 in Derry, Ireland. British soldiers shot down Irish civilians protesting. During these protests, the protestors were attacking the soldiers with gasoline bombs and any blunt object they could find. It was an awful thing for the soldiers to do, and it was a huge event that is known about all over the world. The words of the song are good at depicting a war zone, with tragedy all around, but the song is loud and angry. It is an amazing rock song and one of my favorite songs right now.
Now, these song reviews are going to be much shorter than my film and novel reviews, but I will try to make them helpful and interesting.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Night of the Demons (2009)
This film was released in 2009 and is a remake of a 1988 film. I have not seen the original film, but it was well received and it had two sequels, and this remake. Now, this is a horror remake and these films usually get pretty bad reviews, and this film is no exception. I`ve read reviews saying that this is not nearly as good as the original. But because I haven`t seen the original, I can`t compare so I`m going to review this as its own entity.
This film tells the story of Maddi, Lily, and Suzanne are getting prepared to go to a Halloween party held by Angela at a mansion. The mansion is famous because years ago many people were brutally killed there, the only survivor being the maid who had locked herself in a room and writing spells all over the walls. Maddi`s ex boyfriend Colin shows up at the party selling heroin because his boss is demanding more money. Eventually the police arrive and shut the party down, but Angela, Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Colin, Dex (Lily`s ex boyfriend), and Jason stay behind. They find a room in the basement with skeletons and Angela is bitten by one. Angela becomes sick and soon becomes a demon, she seduces other people soon enough they become demons one by one.
Apparently the reason why the demons possess everyone in the house is because they were kicked out of hell, and to get into our world they need to posses seven people on Halloween night. The fact that they were kicked out of hell might tell you what they are like, they are pretty evil demons.
Again, I haven`t seen the original so I can`t compare these two films, but I liked this movie. I barely knew anything about this going into it but on a whim I decided to watch it and it was a pretty fun horror film. It was quite gory, quite violent, and also quite sexual. One of the ways the demons can posses someone is through sex. I don`t know if that was part of the original but it was kind of interesting in this. This film sort of had a loud, punk, abrasive feeling to it, it worked quite well and made the film fun to watch. It was a pretty good film, with some small flaws, but not much to complain about. Check It out if you`re into this kind of film.
This film tells the story of Maddi, Lily, and Suzanne are getting prepared to go to a Halloween party held by Angela at a mansion. The mansion is famous because years ago many people were brutally killed there, the only survivor being the maid who had locked herself in a room and writing spells all over the walls. Maddi`s ex boyfriend Colin shows up at the party selling heroin because his boss is demanding more money. Eventually the police arrive and shut the party down, but Angela, Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Colin, Dex (Lily`s ex boyfriend), and Jason stay behind. They find a room in the basement with skeletons and Angela is bitten by one. Angela becomes sick and soon becomes a demon, she seduces other people soon enough they become demons one by one.
Apparently the reason why the demons possess everyone in the house is because they were kicked out of hell, and to get into our world they need to posses seven people on Halloween night. The fact that they were kicked out of hell might tell you what they are like, they are pretty evil demons.
Again, I haven`t seen the original so I can`t compare these two films, but I liked this movie. I barely knew anything about this going into it but on a whim I decided to watch it and it was a pretty fun horror film. It was quite gory, quite violent, and also quite sexual. One of the ways the demons can posses someone is through sex. I don`t know if that was part of the original but it was kind of interesting in this. This film sort of had a loud, punk, abrasive feeling to it, it worked quite well and made the film fun to watch. It was a pretty good film, with some small flaws, but not much to complain about. Check It out if you`re into this kind of film.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Let the Right One In
This is a very famous Swedish film, released in 2008 and based off of a 2004 novel with the same name: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in).
Let the Right One In is a romantic horror film, a very interesting mix of genres. Before I really start the review let me just say one thing: Twilight has nothing on this story.
Directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2008, this immeditialy was celebrated by critics and average veiwers. It was remade into an American version in 2010, though the name changed to simply Let Me In. It was directed by Matt Reeves and starred Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz, who is probably my favorite up and coming actresses. She has starred in films such as Kick Ass, and Hugo. She is very young, she was born in 1997 making her 15 years old.
For this section of my review, I`m only to give away the very basic plot.
A 12 year old boy named Oskar is living in a suburb of Stockholme, and he is being badly bullied at school. A girl who claims to be his age, named Eli, moves in next door to him with an older man. We soon find out that she is a vampire and the older man is getting blood for her, but Oskar is not aware of this. Eli and Oskar meet and see each other often, but only at night. They start becoming friendly and eventually they fall in love, but it is a very strange love.
This film has a very interesting premise, its a romantic horror film involving a love story between a bullied boy and vampire. Now this films` two main characters were children, and cery rarely do you see children who can act well. These kids can act. They were 11-12 during filming this film and they were very good, the girl especially. She was played by Lina Leandersson and Oskar was played by Kare Hedebrant, who has done one film since this.
Oskar`s character was quite awkward at times, he was badly bullied and eventually he fought back after Eli gave him some advice to hit back harder. The vampires in Twilight sparkle, Eli jumps on them and rips into their throats and drinks their blood, Eli is a true vampire. We also see what happens when a vampire comes into a place of dwelling without being asked, and its quite gruesome. Once you get past the horror, and there is some and its done quite well, the romantic side of this story is very good. Its unconventional to say the least, and at times quite racy becasue it is dealing with children and at times it portrays some very racy scenes, but the fact that they are children is what makes it racy. You see Eli go from being quite secluded when it comes to Oskar to her actually liking him very much and open about it. You also see Oskar open up a bit with Eli, at the start he was very quiet and secluded but he becomes more friendly and loving towards her. In a very fun and violent climax Eli saves Oskar from some bullies and they catch a train together.
I would recommend watching this without the English dub over it because it is not quite accurate and it is distracting, watch the Swedish version with English subtitles.
This film was actually quite beautiful. To the average veiwer it might seem a bit slow, but if you stick with it, it won`t dissapoint. A very good film. Maybe I should learn Swedish.
Låt den rätte komma in
Let the Right One In is a romantic horror film, a very interesting mix of genres. Before I really start the review let me just say one thing: Twilight has nothing on this story.
Directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2008, this immeditialy was celebrated by critics and average veiwers. It was remade into an American version in 2010, though the name changed to simply Let Me In. It was directed by Matt Reeves and starred Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz, who is probably my favorite up and coming actresses. She has starred in films such as Kick Ass, and Hugo. She is very young, she was born in 1997 making her 15 years old.
For this section of my review, I`m only to give away the very basic plot.
A 12 year old boy named Oskar is living in a suburb of Stockholme, and he is being badly bullied at school. A girl who claims to be his age, named Eli, moves in next door to him with an older man. We soon find out that she is a vampire and the older man is getting blood for her, but Oskar is not aware of this. Eli and Oskar meet and see each other often, but only at night. They start becoming friendly and eventually they fall in love, but it is a very strange love.
This film has a very interesting premise, its a romantic horror film involving a love story between a bullied boy and vampire. Now this films` two main characters were children, and cery rarely do you see children who can act well. These kids can act. They were 11-12 during filming this film and they were very good, the girl especially. She was played by Lina Leandersson and Oskar was played by Kare Hedebrant, who has done one film since this.
Oskar`s character was quite awkward at times, he was badly bullied and eventually he fought back after Eli gave him some advice to hit back harder. The vampires in Twilight sparkle, Eli jumps on them and rips into their throats and drinks their blood, Eli is a true vampire. We also see what happens when a vampire comes into a place of dwelling without being asked, and its quite gruesome. Once you get past the horror, and there is some and its done quite well, the romantic side of this story is very good. Its unconventional to say the least, and at times quite racy becasue it is dealing with children and at times it portrays some very racy scenes, but the fact that they are children is what makes it racy. You see Eli go from being quite secluded when it comes to Oskar to her actually liking him very much and open about it. You also see Oskar open up a bit with Eli, at the start he was very quiet and secluded but he becomes more friendly and loving towards her. In a very fun and violent climax Eli saves Oskar from some bullies and they catch a train together.
I would recommend watching this without the English dub over it because it is not quite accurate and it is distracting, watch the Swedish version with English subtitles.
This film was actually quite beautiful. To the average veiwer it might seem a bit slow, but if you stick with it, it won`t dissapoint. A very good film. Maybe I should learn Swedish.
Låt den rätte komma in
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