Manchester Evening Gazette

*Bloggers note: I'm not entirely sure why but the time for my posts is actually 8 hours behind the actual time they were posted. I've checked my settings and can't find a way to change this. For instance my Infographic reflection says it was posted at 04:53 when it was actually posted at 12:53. I know this may probably not matter but just thought I'd mention it. *Bloggers note: You may realise that I've only done 5 posts (of reviews and such) instead of 6, but the word count for those posts is already at 4600 and something and I know the limit is intended to be 5000 - I could not do an effective review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (as I had intended) in less than 400 words. Plus I'm not editing my review of 2001 because I worked really hard on that. Personally Unit X was a bit of a mixed bag. Going to the cinemas every week was great, even if some of the films weren't (looking at you Need For Speed ) but on the whole there was very little to d...

Initially I begrudged the infographic project, given that I do this course to make and study films, in terms of helping me further my goals this task seemed like a bit of a waste of time. Additionally the piktochart program is unnecessarily 'fumbly' there is a specific way to do everything, - it almost takes a 'my way or the highway' level of difficulty.  However once I'd learned how to use piktochart and had chosen the topic of my infographic it did come enjoyable. In the groups we were assigned to, Me, Marc Sumner, Jord Sterck and Joseph Stanley we decided that since we had to make 4 infographics and that there were four of us we would take one each, based around ideas of our own choice and then report back regularly to the group to show how progress, where we would then give each other advice or comments. This allowed the four of us to make infographics about the topics we were invested in - instead of having to make 4 that we all agreed upon.  While we di...

So I take it that I'm just meant try and summarise my weekly media output and see if there is any patterns that have emerged. Well first up what was most obvious to me was my routine of checking my phone and then checking my computer and my 5 shall we call them 'update' sites, these sites are: -Facebook -Empire Online -ComicBookResources -(My) Hotmail -Moodle I call these 5 my updates sites as thats what I use all of them for, Facebook is for my friends (and as of recently the unit X project - the facebook page for that has been really useful), Empire for movie news, CBR for comics, TV and other media, Hotmail for things like job interviews, bank statements and phone bills and Moodle for university. These sites (maybe not Empire and CBR) do help me organise my life, so I know what I'm doing and where I'm supposed to be. In fact while I was at home over Easter since my Dad has no internet (he's moving house) I didn't check my hotmail account and as a ...

Details Director Jonathan Glazer  Starring Scarlett Johansson Writer Walter Campbell Jonathan Glazer Length 108 minutes Plot A young in Scotland drives around picking up men in a white van and then luring them to slaughter. She is monitored by a man on motorbike. -Spoilers Follow- Now I imagine the feelings I have toward Jonathan Glazer's latest effort are quite like most peoples original thoughts on Kubrick's 2001 and we all know how that turned out. However I really don't think peoples impressions of this movie will improve with time. I think we've already grasped it. And 'it' is that Under the Skin is sometimes thought provoking and sometimes beautiful but it's also only sometimes entertaining and never enthralling. First up lets talk ScarJo's performance, although there is never a lot of dialogue what Johansson shows us here is interesting, that she can be strangely enigmatic and charming as this unearthly child and can snap roun...

If the picture is too small check out the link for the original here  <<<< Infographic | Piktochart Infographic Editor >>>>>

To  be entirely honest the only reason I'm doing this review of Scrabble is because I didn't want all of my posts to be about films. So yeah in a way this is filler. But hopefully filler that's at least mildly interesting. For Christmas 2012 my Dad bought me Connect4. Well he bought me the £3 copycat from Wilko the cheapskate. Then a year later he gave me Scrabble. And it was the best gift any of us got. It got to that point where (only 2 weeks after getting it) my Dad's girlfriend had it on her phone, him and her were both playing it at work and my Grandma now breezed through the dictionary looking for interesting words. We were all hooked. Then of course I came back to uni and took Scrabble with me. There were tears, but not because I was going. Since I had Scrabble with me I got my girlfriend to play too (yes I know what women want). She became hooked as well and some weeks later she told me she had it on her phone, and then wickedly remarked that it was to wi...

* Bloggers note: This post is about my media consumption in the week commencing Monday March 31st to Sunday 6th April. I've had the post in draft for quite some time but just hadn't posted it. *Bloggers note: I'm not sure how accurate to the minute this diary has to be so I'm just going to go for rough estimates   for what time I woke up and for how long I watched a show etc. MONDAY -Wake up (around half 10 on average) -check phone for any messages, missed calls - turn on laptop and immediately check:  -Facebook                         for any notifications/messages/updates mainly from friends or FMS  -Empire Online                  for latest movie news  -ComicBookResources   for latest comic book news  -Hotmail                             for any mess...

Details Director Stanley Kubrick Starring Keir Dullea Gary Lockwood William Sylvester Douglas Rain Writer Stanley Kubrick Arthur C. Clarke Length 161 minutes Plot A mysterious black monolith activates during the dawn of man. Millions of years later a near identical one is discovered on the Moon which begins emitting a signal to Jupiter. A team is sent to investigate but the spaceships A.I has other plans. -Spoilers Follow- There's no denying that people consider Stanley Kubrick a genius. In a feature by Empire magazine of filmmakers and their favourites Christopher Nolan called it a ' mind blowing experience... It just has that sensory stimulation of pure cinema that speaks to people of all ages.'   The influence 2001 has had on filmmaking (and popular culture in general) is massive, the opening of Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin is verbatim to its own, the robot drones in 2013's Oblivion look like HAL's cousins, while Matt Groening's ...

Details Director Nicholas Stoller Starring Seth Rogen Zac Efron Rose Bryne Dave Franco Writer Andrew J. Cohen Brendan O'Brien Length 97 minutes Plot Young couple Mac and Kelly (Rogen and Bryne) are settling into life as homeowners with their new baby when a frat house, led by Teddy (Efron) moves in next door. A prank war ensues. -Spoilers Follow- So I'm writing this whilst taking a break from my review of  2001: A Space Odyssey  which has been gestating for a couple of weeks now, I figured it was time to let it breathe for a moment and then come back it with a fresher mind. Which leads me to discussing Bad Neighbours.  Now I expected this film to be a lot worse. Zac Efron is nowhere near my list of essentials on a movie I want to see and Rogen's output is a mixed bag at best. For every 50/50 there is The Green Hornet. Fortunately I caught their interview (with Matt LeBlanc who was promoting Episodes )   on The Graham Norton Show and their share...