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A cartoon based around the band Major Lazer, the show follows Major Lazer a Caribbean man with a lazer gun for an arm, it follows the explopits of  himself and penny and school girl. The show mostly revolves around drugs and supernatural happenings, using these events as an excuse for psychedelic visuals  and some pretty crazy animations. It sort of fits together like a series of animated music videos and is a bit bazaar.

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Louis Therouxs latest venture into feature length documentary is equal parts illuminating and satirical. A conscious decision from the director and Mr Theroux to make the film more comedic was made early on in production. Instead of painting Scientology as a threat to our existence, as films on this subject often do, they decided to highlight how ridiculous these people are whilst also making almost a character study of a previous member. Showing both the dark and stupid sides of Scientology this film could only have been pulled of by Louis Theroux and breathed new life into the subject which has become stale of late.  

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Birdman a film about a man trying to rebuild his career and reputation, a striking critique on modern cinema and a masterpiece of film making. It is common knowledge now that birdman was filmed as if it was in one take to ,not only, mirror the play that the main character is making but also to show an unbroken view of a mans life, we do not get to look away from our own lives we are always there never able to look away, that is what we where forced to experience in this film, a mans fall from grace or his ascent into heaven, which ever you choose. They chose to frame most sections as close ups, making it almost a dance of camera and actor, this gives the viewer a closeness to each of the characters you dont get in most films. The casting of this film was incredibly deliberate, Inarritu went on record saying that if he couldnt get Michael Keaton for the film then he wouldnt make it. Why was that? I think it was because of  his role in the old Batman films, i also think this is why Edward Norton and Emma Stone where chosen for there roles, this is due to the subplot and subtext of the whole film, it is a  piercing indictment of the superhero genre that has emerged over the last few years.    

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Pitch Black the first of the Riddick franchise and also the first i have watched, it is a series that people have spoken to me about for years so i had reasonably high hopes, obviously not for a genre defining film but a fun action film. I was surprised to find that this film so relatively low on the action and Riddick front, the first section only has Riddick appear and disappear from scenes like a goggle wearing Vin Diesel shaped ghost. The most notable part pf the first section of the film is the colour, the director opted for an almost over saturated look where everything looks incredibly washed out  due the fictional planets two suns and the obviously increase in brightness this would bring. This striking visual style, however, strikes out not adding anything to the film and instead making it a complete eyesore which doesnt help  the uninspired production which looks a little like Star Wars had a Baby which then took a mixture of acid and steroids. “Oh well” i said to myself aslong as there is good action it makeup for what i had endured already, in short it didnt every sequence tried to be tense but failed maybe due to how campy it was, however after about half an hour the horrible lighting went away and was replaced with utter darkness which was an incredible improvement. in conclusion it was a action thriller that failed to add any action and failed to thrill me, job not well done.  

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Sweeny Todd based on the musical of the same name is a film about a barber who kills people and turns them into pies (a surprising minor plot point in the film) whilst exacting his revenge on the man than sent him to prison, stole his wife who the allegedly kills herself and kidnapped his daughter. This is quite an interesting premise for a film and could lead to very tense and interesting sequences add in the beautifully written sound track and surely youve got yourself a winner, well sadly (in my most humble of opinions) this isnt quite true. You might be sitting there shouting “BLASPHEMY” as how could the wonderful artistic director Tim Burton do any wrong. Has he not proved himself with such masterpieces as Beetlejuice?  My answer would be yes he has proved himself, Beetlejuice is a fine film, wonderfully realised and beautifully artistic, however I’m not talking Beetlejuice or The Nightmare Before Christmas or Edward Scissor Hands, or infact any of his good films, I’m talking about Sweeny Todd, which if you hadnt already guessed i dont think is good. You might be screaming “HEATHEN” for how could i hate a film with such a good sound track, my answer would be that i actually quite like the soundtrack, it has some wonderful musical numbers and some quiet clever use of score. “But how can you not like this film if you like the soundtrack” I hear you cry, well you see, my sweet naive munchkins, the films makers had nothing to do with the musical numbers as they already existed, it would be like praising a supermarket for its bread selection, both might be quite fantastic but neither had any input in its making. The exasperated signs of fans (of Sweeny Todd/Tim Burton) all over the world are ringing in my ears, they all say “Well then what is it that you don’t like about it.”. “HA” I scream (perhaps a little louder than i meant to) but where do i start, actually i know exactly where, the visuals. A lot of the draw of Tim Burtons films is often in the visuals and Sweeny Todd is no exception, it attempts a dark and gritty view of Industrial London the visuals are dark grey and brown which reflects the dark nature of our main character, however it looks shit. The visuals end up looking muddy to the point of things blending together, the backgrounds all blend into one, even characters disappear into the grey nothingness of the scenery, the only respite from the void is the red from the gratuitous violence, literally, splashed throughout the film. I understand that this is mostly opinionated, however i fail to see how this visual “style” succeeds at all. 

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https://youtu.be/yRI2Izu8Od0 fateful findings https://youtu.be/IzEPI_rpHt8 the rover

https://youtu.be/S7t4r2G2XCE her

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Batman is an interesting film to watch now after the popularisation of comic book movies as it genuinely captures the campy nature of older comic books whilst also combining Tim Burtons unmistakable style and the iconic soundtrack. The film almost feels like it is split in two parts right in the middle with two almost complete arcs one after another the first as more of a crime story and the second being flamboyant and far-fetched.

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Bee Movie took me by surprise, the film making in itself is not amazingly special and the animation isn't bad but is also starting to show its age however it is genuinely funny and well written with Jerry Seinfeld's signature dry whit shining through. Also the story doesn't follow the formulaic structure of most big budget animated films which genuinely took me by surprise.

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The Rover is a classic revenge story focusing on a man who's car is stollen and the brother of the man that stole it, they are both trying to find the brother, one to find the car and the other to find the man who left him for dead. The Rover is set in an unspecific post apocalypse in Australia in the same vein as Mad Max but far more grounded. The Rover is a thriller drowned in tention and small bursts of intense action and violence however in between these scenes there are long drawn out scenes of traveling and not much convosation, these could've been awkward but due to its presentation it makes each scene seem like an extension of the world they find themselves in. Every shot lingers a little too long which makes the film feel much longer than it actually is drawing out the time and helping to put the viewers in the characters shoes. This film presents a world where days and weeks and hours crawl by and the film makers managed to convey this through visuals alone.

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Submarine, Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut and based on Joe Dunthorn’s novel of the same name, follows a young man through his first relationship and all of the melodrama that it comes with. The film has an almost Wes Anderson vibe in the way it is shot with an focus on symmetry (which reflects the almost obsessive compulsive nature of the main character) and colour. The colour palette in this film is based around the films themes and each colour is used to represent each part of the film. At the begining of the film red is prominent as it shows the passion for his new relationship, the middle focuses on yellow as his mother (one of the main sources of disruption in his life) and the end focuses on blue where his true nature is shown, these scenes show his real insecurity and how difficult he finds social situations

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Black Dynamite, a satire of 80′s cinema made a to look purposely as one of its seemingly infinite jokes. The filming mimics the time with filters to make it look older than it is, also the transitions and framing used are reminiscent of older films. Black Dynamite also goes through several changes in style during the film, at the beginning it is presented like an old cop drama with outrageous mystery at every turn and from  there it changes several times, even presenting itself like a kung fu  movie for a couple of scenes. Every scene in Black Dynamite is used as an excuse for a joke, if its “bad” audio editing or bad continuity or even just good writing.