What could have been a good story about different cultures is undone by the second use in this series of a witness/suspect assuming racism from an officer when none is present. If you are going to use a line like this then you need to actually have shown some reason for the audience to believe the claims.
Reviews
4 Reviews
The Football Factory
(2004)
Realistic view of a scary world.
3 December 2004
The hooligan culture is and never was a class thing, people from all walks of life participated, from local council flat drug users to people with well paid office and professional jobs to ex-army types on a very nice pension. This film shows that in true fashion.
Whilst I never took part in any of that crap I have met, seen and known many who have in my time, most are fairly normal people away from all that, in fact I knew one guy for over a year before I found out that after standing on the terraces with the rest of us on a Saturday afternoon he used to go and get pissed, filled up with E's and go on a rampage with his other mates in other nearby towns looking for Cardiff City supporters.
This film is a fairly accurate reflection on the type and mix of people who became hooligans in the first place, especially poignant is the guy who got away from it all, made something half decent of himself and puts it down to simply growing up. Most of the people I have seen in the past are like that, the ones who aren't tend to be those who were put away before they got to that maturing stage, and I'm not talking about end of puberty maturing I'm talking about the day you wake up and think to yourself is this really going to be the rest of my life kind of maturing.
Full marks to all involved for not taking the easy way out and producing a sack full of morally correct/incorrect bullcrap and instead giving a realistic insight into a very scary world.
Yes the film does not really flow or have a connected plot line, but then it isn't meant to, it is meant to be a film about real life, real life does not have a set up stage, middle bit and happy conclusion. In fact this film could probably loop around for another few years of Tommy's life before he either ends up in jail or shakes himself out into the happy ending scenario that I'm sure many were expecting all along.
The film is at times brutal, unsubtle and the language is extremely tasteless, however these are all thing you would have seen in that reality and it is to the credit of the makers and actors that this did not bog the film down at all. Every scene had a purpose no matter how obscure it may have seen at the first watching.
At every scene from about 10 minutes in I felt emotionally involved in a way that not many films manage to do to me, I actually had empathy for these people if not sympathy, I could se how they could get pleasure from the things that they do even if they turn my own stomach to think of anyone I really care about being involved in them.
Even today in what is a golden age of film making (and don't let any stuck up critic tell you it is not) very few films really make you feel connected to the characters in this way, films like Trainspotting, Twin Town, Human Traffic and now Football Factory are a very unusual thing and seem to be specific to the British film industry right at the moment. Maybe it's just I am personally more able to relate to them having grown up around such cultures, I don't know, I just know that I am glad I bought this film and would recommend anyone watch it if only for a better understanding of the culture at that time, something I am proud to say we have made huge strides to eradicate in this country.
Whilst I never took part in any of that crap I have met, seen and known many who have in my time, most are fairly normal people away from all that, in fact I knew one guy for over a year before I found out that after standing on the terraces with the rest of us on a Saturday afternoon he used to go and get pissed, filled up with E's and go on a rampage with his other mates in other nearby towns looking for Cardiff City supporters.
This film is a fairly accurate reflection on the type and mix of people who became hooligans in the first place, especially poignant is the guy who got away from it all, made something half decent of himself and puts it down to simply growing up. Most of the people I have seen in the past are like that, the ones who aren't tend to be those who were put away before they got to that maturing stage, and I'm not talking about end of puberty maturing I'm talking about the day you wake up and think to yourself is this really going to be the rest of my life kind of maturing.
Full marks to all involved for not taking the easy way out and producing a sack full of morally correct/incorrect bullcrap and instead giving a realistic insight into a very scary world.
Yes the film does not really flow or have a connected plot line, but then it isn't meant to, it is meant to be a film about real life, real life does not have a set up stage, middle bit and happy conclusion. In fact this film could probably loop around for another few years of Tommy's life before he either ends up in jail or shakes himself out into the happy ending scenario that I'm sure many were expecting all along.
The film is at times brutal, unsubtle and the language is extremely tasteless, however these are all thing you would have seen in that reality and it is to the credit of the makers and actors that this did not bog the film down at all. Every scene had a purpose no matter how obscure it may have seen at the first watching.
At every scene from about 10 minutes in I felt emotionally involved in a way that not many films manage to do to me, I actually had empathy for these people if not sympathy, I could se how they could get pleasure from the things that they do even if they turn my own stomach to think of anyone I really care about being involved in them.
Even today in what is a golden age of film making (and don't let any stuck up critic tell you it is not) very few films really make you feel connected to the characters in this way, films like Trainspotting, Twin Town, Human Traffic and now Football Factory are a very unusual thing and seem to be specific to the British film industry right at the moment. Maybe it's just I am personally more able to relate to them having grown up around such cultures, I don't know, I just know that I am glad I bought this film and would recommend anyone watch it if only for a better understanding of the culture at that time, something I am proud to say we have made huge strides to eradicate in this country.
Scary Movie 2
(2001)
Not a bad movie for some mates, a curry and lots of beer.
23 March 2002
All the people here who have laid into this movie are just missing the point. The point of the movie being that there isnt one other than to make people laugh. Who cares if something is original ? How many jokes are these days anyway ? IS IF FUNNY. It's a laugh and that is what it was intended to be.
OK its not a classic, its not the best comedy, its not the best parady, its not good acting and its not good plot but then it was never meant to be !
The bad acting and lack of plot are meant to be like that. For god's sake go and watch a proper stand up comic in action, they can be hilarious in the same way that this film tries to be. Lighten up, get out of your "smart" and condascending minds and let yourself loose with some mates and beers and watch this film for what it is.
Soem films are meant to be serious classics with great plots and great acting and important messages. This is not one of them so stop judging it as it is. This film made money becasue it was funny and nothing else. That in itself is original these days.
This film is the best of its kind since the original scary movie which in turn was the best of it's kind since Spaceballs. Just watch it and let yourself laugh at the jokes, at the plot, at the acting and at how something with so many bad parts can actually put a smile on someones face, after all isnt that the most important thing ?
OK its not a classic, its not the best comedy, its not the best parady, its not good acting and its not good plot but then it was never meant to be !
The bad acting and lack of plot are meant to be like that. For god's sake go and watch a proper stand up comic in action, they can be hilarious in the same way that this film tries to be. Lighten up, get out of your "smart" and condascending minds and let yourself loose with some mates and beers and watch this film for what it is.
Soem films are meant to be serious classics with great plots and great acting and important messages. This is not one of them so stop judging it as it is. This film made money becasue it was funny and nothing else. That in itself is original these days.
This film is the best of its kind since the original scary movie which in turn was the best of it's kind since Spaceballs. Just watch it and let yourself laugh at the jokes, at the plot, at the acting and at how something with so many bad parts can actually put a smile on someones face, after all isnt that the most important thing ?
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968)
A Balanced View
15 December 2001
I saw this movie for the first time last week on DVD and I can see both points of view on this.
The story really is patchy and certainly doesnt make sense at times. Also I found that it did not satisfy my desire for an ending to the story. However that may be a part of what the film is meant to be.
Unlike most I loved the ape sequence all apart from the monolith. Never was it explained how it got there or why or even what impact it had, I thought when I saw it that it would empower the chimps somehow but then it seemed they evolved themselves.
The cut from bone to space ship was daring at the time, not particuarly well done but it does provoke thought. The musical sequence from there is what the movie is known for and is good to watch once although i'm not sure about more than that. It must be remembered that at the time it would have facinated viewers with ideas they had never seen before and that is how it should be judged.
The story starts off well, setting up a plot of finding a monolith and sending an investigation crew to Jupiter. This is where it feels like I started watching a different movie, one inside of the main movie. The idea of HAL and him going mad was well done but not explained at all in 2001 (more on that later). Apart from HAL none of the charachters were personable enough to gain any empathy with them, which detracts a little from me and the movie tends to plod along from there.
Then bowman finds the larger monolith and the movie turns. The stargate sequence (not sure what to call it) is visually stunning even by todays standards and the realisation half way through of a birth is good even though I had a clue from the DVD chapter title. It did however last too long for my liking and I didnt like the changing ages much at all.
Then the movie ends, I feel a little empty, stunned by those effects being from '68 and not '98 but empty. I didn't understand.
Until I bought 2010 which despite not being directed by Kubrick is the actual sequal. It explains HAL's madness, it uses the changing ages of bowman and expands on the Birth and "full of stars" idea and has a nice message at the end, especiually in the middle of the cold war.
Really Kubrick used the book as a template to try something different, some of it worked, some didnt, the story was nearly forgotten in the artistic element.
As a stand alone movie in the current day it is OK, not good, not bad and very confusing. However in the context of 1968 with the amazing effects, music to chill your spine and remembering that no-one had ever tried anything like this before it is a historical classic, not a story classic but a piece of cinematographical history. Without 2001 there would have been no Star Wars, no Close Encounters, no E.T., no Star Trek and quite possibly science fiction would be very very different.
The ideas from 2001 have formed the basis of both Sci-Fi and computer enhanced special effects, changing both forever and despite the film not in itself being quite right it is probably the most influencial piece of cinematography since Citizen Kane and the next movie to stir even half as much technical interest did not arrive until the Matrix just a few years ago, thats how far ahead of it's time it was.
As a closing note I would reccommend to anyone interested in cinema history to get this on DVD, and anyone interested in understanding it get 2010 as well and if possible read bothy books, the ideas may be dated by todays standards, brith of a new star and all but at the time they were revolutionary and it would be unfair of us to judge it in any other way.
The story really is patchy and certainly doesnt make sense at times. Also I found that it did not satisfy my desire for an ending to the story. However that may be a part of what the film is meant to be.
Unlike most I loved the ape sequence all apart from the monolith. Never was it explained how it got there or why or even what impact it had, I thought when I saw it that it would empower the chimps somehow but then it seemed they evolved themselves.
The cut from bone to space ship was daring at the time, not particuarly well done but it does provoke thought. The musical sequence from there is what the movie is known for and is good to watch once although i'm not sure about more than that. It must be remembered that at the time it would have facinated viewers with ideas they had never seen before and that is how it should be judged.
The story starts off well, setting up a plot of finding a monolith and sending an investigation crew to Jupiter. This is where it feels like I started watching a different movie, one inside of the main movie. The idea of HAL and him going mad was well done but not explained at all in 2001 (more on that later). Apart from HAL none of the charachters were personable enough to gain any empathy with them, which detracts a little from me and the movie tends to plod along from there.
Then bowman finds the larger monolith and the movie turns. The stargate sequence (not sure what to call it) is visually stunning even by todays standards and the realisation half way through of a birth is good even though I had a clue from the DVD chapter title. It did however last too long for my liking and I didnt like the changing ages much at all.
Then the movie ends, I feel a little empty, stunned by those effects being from '68 and not '98 but empty. I didn't understand.
Until I bought 2010 which despite not being directed by Kubrick is the actual sequal. It explains HAL's madness, it uses the changing ages of bowman and expands on the Birth and "full of stars" idea and has a nice message at the end, especiually in the middle of the cold war.
Really Kubrick used the book as a template to try something different, some of it worked, some didnt, the story was nearly forgotten in the artistic element.
As a stand alone movie in the current day it is OK, not good, not bad and very confusing. However in the context of 1968 with the amazing effects, music to chill your spine and remembering that no-one had ever tried anything like this before it is a historical classic, not a story classic but a piece of cinematographical history. Without 2001 there would have been no Star Wars, no Close Encounters, no E.T., no Star Trek and quite possibly science fiction would be very very different.
The ideas from 2001 have formed the basis of both Sci-Fi and computer enhanced special effects, changing both forever and despite the film not in itself being quite right it is probably the most influencial piece of cinematography since Citizen Kane and the next movie to stir even half as much technical interest did not arrive until the Matrix just a few years ago, thats how far ahead of it's time it was.
As a closing note I would reccommend to anyone interested in cinema history to get this on DVD, and anyone interested in understanding it get 2010 as well and if possible read bothy books, the ideas may be dated by todays standards, brith of a new star and all but at the time they were revolutionary and it would be unfair of us to judge it in any other way.
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