Songs I Like: Waiting On The World To Change January 7, 2009

If you asked me to name my favourite band/musician I would really struggle, but John Mayer would definitely be up there as a possible choice. Very rarely do I enjoy a whole album by somebody, but I love all three that I own of his. His lyrics are strong but light hearted and the music is very easy to listen to. 

This song is the opening track on his latest album and the message is a strong anti-war one. It was written in 2006 but it seems to have a renewed relevance with Obama’s election. So, here it is people – enjoy. Tell me what you think!

 

Twilight January 5, 2009

The publicity for this movie has been Potter-esque, and it may suprise you that the film only just came out over here, despite the posters apperaring what feels like 6 months ago. 

It’s hard to not suggest any Buffy rip-off when the storyline is described as ‘girl falls in love with a vampire’, but actually it does well to keep away from the familiarity of ‘nice vampire/evil vampire’. Edward is no Angel – he admits to wanting to have Bella’s blood the moment he saw her. Instead though, him and his family call themselves ‘vegetarians’, choosing to only eat animals instead. This provides tension whenever they are with Bella, knowing that their instinct would be to attack her. Another difference is what vampires are in this movie. No more ’sunlight burns them’, instead we find out that sunlight makes their skin sparkle, immediately revealing them as ‘unhuman’, and each individual has different abilities. This was a very good way of making it more than a generic vampire film.

The two leads are very good and the chemistry is very believable. However, there were a few things that I hope get sorted out for the second film. Firstly, the script feels clunky. At times it doesn’t seem to make sense and feels like large chunks have been missed out. Secondly, the tense action at the end is very short, mainly due to the first half of the movie being over full of long stares and silences between the two leads. We understand they love each other, we don’t need 5 minutes of close ups to convince us! 

However, I was pleasantly suprised by this film and really did enjoy it. I find myself looking forward to the sequel and it may find itself in my DVD collection.

Yes Man January 2, 2009

Danny Wallace’s book ‘Yes Man’ changed my life – ask me about it one day. 

However, since the movie is only based on the premise (a man has to say yes to everything), not on the story of the book, this meant that I did not go with any expectations based on my love of the films inspiration. 

Three things I immediately noticed about this movie:

1. Jim Carrey is finally looking his age – especially since everyone else in this movie looks about 25
2. There is a lot of swearing in this film, which is a shame because it stops it being the family movie it should have been
3. Murray from Flight of the Conchords will always be Murray from Flight of the Conchords, whatever else he may be in.

Anyway, the movie is a bit like Liar Liar in the way that ‘Jim Carrey gets in funny situations because he has to do something (tell the truth/say yes)’. Sometimes Carrey’s comedy seems to over-dominate the story (such as the very over long drunk bar fight scene) but there are too many belly laugh moments to complain really. The romance part works (although I love Zooey Deschanel so I’m a it bias) and it’s fun to see how all the things he says yes to work out for good. It’s one of the funnier comedies I’ve seen in the cinema for a while and made me feel good.

I must warn you before seeing this movie though… you will have a weird feeling of spontaneity afterwards. Make sure you don’t do anything too rash. Thankfully, all I did was buy a spatular and go into a random antique book shop.