LOST Season 4 - Anyone else confused?

If you were expecting answers from season 4 of the hit J.J. Abrams show LOST then you might have been setting yourself up to be disappointed! I’ve watched every single episode of the show so far and I stupidly thought that this new series was going to bring some form of clarity… well I’m on episode 4 and I don’t know about you but so far I’m more confused than ever!!

If you haven’t watched any of season 4 yet and don’t want to read spoilers then I would advise you stop reading, but for those curious types and those of you that have been keeping up with the show then read on and maybe you can help me make a little bit of sense from a lot of unanswered questions…

So, season 4 opens with the promise of rescue for the losties, but Ben and Locke aren’t as trusting as some of the islanders and decide they would rather remain on the island. Forming their own camp and heading to the Barracks the island is now divided. Ben claims to have a man on board the ‘rescue’ ship, but is he telling the truth or is this just another power play to keep people scared and on side? We also regularly make jumps now from life on the island, to life for the so proclaimed ‘Oceanic 6′ the only survivors of the plane crash. Now this is part of what gets me confused, why haven’t Jack and the gang of survivors started a new search for their friends left on the island? Maybe they have stated that they don’t want to be found or something? But either way it seems odd right?

Episode 4 was a great one in my opinion, the ongoing relationship between Sawyer and Kate still has me hooked (Yes, I admit partially because like most females who watch, I have a thing for Sawyer) but the intensity of their on off relationship is something I find really intriguing. What was all the talk of pregnancy in this episode though? Is Kate pregnant with Sawyer’s baby? Up until the final scene of Episode 4 I thought yes, but then I was completely sidetracked… what’s Kate doing with Aaron?! Did something happen to Claire perhaps or did she ask Kate to take him? … So many questions and very little in the way of answers being revealed yet I just can’t help but keep watching! Damn you JJ Abrams, damn you.

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Sweeny Todd Movie Review and Analysis

I may have mentioned a few hundred times or that I’m slightly obsessed with musicals. Well, I finally got round to watching Sweeny Todd the other night and it completely blew me away! I had no idea that it was going to be a full musical, I thought there might be a few songs dotted about here and there and the rest would be dialogue but in reality it was full of music and quality music at that!

As ever Johnny Depp stole the show as Sweeny Todd/Benjamin Barker a man who has resorted to desperate measures for revenge after losing his wife and daughter to the town Judge (Played by Alan Rickman). After setting up his barber shop above Mrs Lovett’s (Helena Bonham Carter) pie shop he soon realises Read more

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Foreign DVD Review - Ils (UK title Them) 2006

Ils as it is originally called is probably better known in the UK as ‘Them‘ a foreign horror movie spoken in French and partially Romanian.Major Spoilers ahead …

This is fantastic little film that has not received the exposure it truly deserved in my opinion. Starring Michaël Cohen as Lucas and Olivia Bonamy as Clémentine it is based on a true story of a couple who become victims in their own home, at the hands of an unknown outside force.

Lucas and Clementine live in a huge old house in the middle of Romania but are blissfully unaware that when they come home from work that night a horrible murder has occurred just down the road from where they live. They go about their usual business, and we have lots of brilliant shots of the couple running around the house giving us a real feel for its vast amount of space which you just know is going to play a part in the movie later down the line.

During that night is when the real action begins; Clementine wakes after hearing a strange noise coming from outside, a kind of loud eerie creaking which soon becomes the attacker’s trademark sound. She wakes Lucas and the two go downstairs to check things out. They notice that their car has been moved and as they venture outside it is driven away but we can’t see who is behind the wheel. They go back inside to phone the police who are less than helpful (as usual) and before they know what has happened the house is plunged into darkness. Clementine and Lucas rush to the top of the house where there are more locks on the doors and try to keep themselves safe, but it is soon apparent that there is more than just one attacker and they will stop at nothing to get their hands on the terrified couple.

Our first glance of the attackers shows that they appear to be wearing hoodies, and after a very tense scene involving Clementine in the attic, she and Lucas realise that their only chance of escape is to get outside and try to run for safety. With Lucas injured it’s not quite as easy as it sounds and they are chased through woodland and over fences until the final scene which is a brilliant realisation that their attackers are nothing more than teenagers and young children (albeit very dangerous, murderous ones) the eerie noise they are hearing is the sound of one of their toys and the final shot shows the children getting on board a bus and the writing comes up on screen telling us that when the children were finally caught, the reason they gave for the murders and attacks they had committed was simply “Because they did not want to play with us” chilling and an all to realistic example of the way our society could head if we’re not careful!

The whole film had this utterly realistic feel to it and plays on a fear which everyone and anyone can relate to: An intruder in your own home. It’s the scariest thing I can imagine, and the lack of control and helplessness that the main characters felt was portrayed brilliantly and with every emotion you would expect. I loved the fact that ‘Ils’ doesn’t rely on blood, gore or even that much violence to scare you, it’s scary because of the cinematography and the fact that it plays on a real fear that it truly works. At 77 minutes running time, it’s by no means long but it never once drops the pace, tension or drama that makes it so good.

I actually forgot about 10 mins into the movie that it was a foreign film, and although you are reading subtitles it never once feels like a chore. I highly recommend you see this movie for yourself to experience what I mean, and if you have seen it feel free to leave your comments here and let us know what you thought!

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The People Under The Stairs Classic Wes Craven Movie

I’ve always been a fan of Wes Craven, and come to think of it ‘The people under the stairs’ was probably the first film of his that I ever saw. A cross between comedy and horror it’s the kind of movie that reminds me of films such as The Goonies but with a much darker twist.

The story has a disturbing underlying tone of incest and sadomasochism which although isn’t fully explored we are always aware of its presence as viewers and it is often touched upon in places but never fully explored. This in itself is a large part of what makes the film work as we don’t NEED to see any of this to understand how completely messed up the main characters are. Read more

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Eli Roth Hostel Part II Review

I watched the first Hostel film and was impressed so was quite looking forward to seeing part 2. As is usually the case though I shouldn’t have built up my hopes too much as this film really isn’t a patch on the original in my opinion.

We pretty much leap straight into the story upon watching the film, taking up where Hostel left off. The last survivor from the first movie winds up in a hospital and is trying to tell the police what happened to him, before he can get to the heart of his story it becomes apparent that these doctors are actually part of the organization and bear the elite hunting tattoo’s which are required for entry. After this turns out just to be a dream sequence we’ve just witnessed we quickly move on to the deeper part of this sequels story. This time around it’s not a group of guys who get lured to the Hostel it’s a group of American girls. Now it just so happens that American girls are one of the highest priced targets and are furiously bidded on by the rich, sick and twisted people who pay obscene amounts of money to torture and kill victims in an old abandoned factory. We watch as bidding for the girls escalates and is eventually won by several business men (and women) from around the world.

As with the first movie, one by one the girls are kidnapped from the Hostel and taken to the abandoned factory to face their death in a number of sick and disturbing ways. These include everything from being hacked up, to chainsaws and a girl bound and hung upside down so that a deranged woman can bathe in her blood. Yuck.

Desperate Housewives stars Roger Bart and Richard Burgi (George and Karl on DH) star as two of the businessmen who hand over their cash to the exclusive club in return for the chance to torture and kill a woman each. During the process there is a really sick scene involving Roger Bart and an incident to a VERY sensitive part of his body (yes guys THAT part) if you watch the uncut version it’s very gross and very graphic!

That is just one in a number of gruesome scenes which in my opinion just seem to be trying to milk the violence and gore for all they are worth. Now that we know how the Hostel works and the ins and outs of everything it has lost an aspect of its scariness and becomes a little, dare I say tedious?! I read in an interview with Eli Roth recently that he actually had no intention of making a follow up to Hostel so maybe that’s why it didn’t turn out anywhere near as good as I would have liked. One of my main problems with the film was with the characters themselves, they were so underdeveloped that you really didn’t care who lived or who died. There actually wasn’t one character that I was rooting for to make it out alive; I just didn’t care at all.

Shocking and downright disgusting as the violence was, it just wasn’t SCARY so came across as kind of pointless and uncalled for! However, the main thing that let Hostel 2 down was its ending. It was awful, and I mean awful. I understand that the message we were supposed to ‘get’ was that the only way the main character was ever going to stand a chance of getting out alive was by appealing to the one thing that these people understand; Money. But how boring is that for an ending?! Wow, she buys her way out … scary! The final scene was pretty much just as bad, the only good point was when the kids played football with the woman’s head (that was only good because it was SO bad if you catch my drift) yet it appealed to my warped sense of humour.

Sadly at the end of the day Hostel 2 showed promise, but bad scripting and under developed characters meant that it was just a big letdown that left me wishing I had never seen it!

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Skins Series 2 Coming to TV – Watch episode 1 Free on Myspace

I never managed to get into ‘Skins’ when it first aired on Channel 4 a while back, but after having several friends recommend it to me and nag me to watch it I finally caught up with the series online on C4’s 4OD service (You sign up and can watch the complete series for free either by download or streaming it). Read more

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P2 Review - Horror Movie Starring Rachel Nichols and Wes Bentley

I watched this movie over the weekend, along with a string of other horror films I had stacked up on my desk. For some reason I seem to be watching horrors non stop right now both for work and in my spare time but that’s fine with me as they are definitely one of my favourite genres of film. Read more

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Britney Spears Finally Hospitalized

Its been a long time coming but finally Britney is in hospital where she belongs. After a string of bizarre events and crazy behaviour the star has been committed to UCLA Medical Centre’s psych ward. Britney’s parents Jamie & Lynne Spears went to court a few days ago and managed to get legal control of their daughter’s treatment, I believe that this also entitles them to take control of her finances which may be a good thing given the state she’s in at the moment!Osama Lutfi one of the many weirdo’s who have been hanging around with Spears has now has a restraining order slapped on his ass after Jamie and Lynne took legal action against him preventing him getting anywhere near Britney. This surely must also be a good thing mustn’t it? She hasn’t exactly been the best judge of character recently and it seems like all of the people she ‘picks’ to hang out with are trying to manipulate and prey on her fragile state of mind. Read more

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