Troll Hunter

This was absolutely brilliant. It's not often that you see a little subtitled Norwegian film get a world wide release. A group of film students start making a documentary about some recent bear attacks but it turns out there's more too it than that and the government are hiding secrets deep in the Norwegian woods and mountains. It's a "found footage" style film with the footage taken by the students shown as is. It's one of the best examples of this style I've ever seen. Thanks to the likes of Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity this style is mostly associated with horror. Troll Hunter gets lumped in to the horror genre as well but it really doesn't deserve it. Other than some mild suspense and a couple minor jumps it's really not that kind of film. It makes you believe that troll could be real.

Catching Fire

There was one thing which was obvious from the start of the second Hunger Games book. Even though it's not supposed to happen, victors are supposed to be set for life, but you just know that Katniss is going to end up in the Games for a second time. This does indeed turn out to be true but it didn't happen in the way I first expected. Still there are lots of other interesting things to take place before that happens as we learn more about the world outside the Games and Katniss' home district. We get a lot more of the politics in this one and of the unrest in the general population. There's new characters and new locations and it's all good. I won't talk about the plot as that would spoil too much but I enjoyed this book just as much as the first and I'm already reading the third installment.

The Hunger Games

It seems the Hunger Games has been gaining a lot of popularity lately, at least in the Internet circles I'm a part of anyway. I've never know very much about it but it always sounded quite interesting. Now it's "Soon to be a major motion picture" so I decided it was time for me to catch and see what this was all about instead of waiting until years later like I did with Harry Potter.

The Hunger Games is a trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins. They're young adult science fiction set a in future North America, although it's not called that anymore. Once a year as a method of keeping the people under control 24 children (between 12-18) are thrown in to a battle to the death, broadcast live on TV. This is similar to another film/novel Battle Royale from Japan. Battle Royale came first in 1999, The Hunger Games was first published in 2008. I've only seen the film Battle Royale not read the book so any comparisons I make are to the film. The thing is though, aside from the children battling to the death aspect they are quite different. The worlds in which they're set are very different or so I thought. It seems there is a large part of the Internet that disagrees with me and calls it a complete rip-off. I only found that part of the web while researching for this post though. There are plenty of people who liked the books and didn't mind and similarities, myself included. At least compared to the Battle Royale film there is one thing The Hunger Games does much better and that is it gives you a much better idea of the outside world, how it works and the reason for the games. Battle Royale takes place almost entirely in the arena but only about a third of the Hunger Games does. There's a lot more of the modern Big Brother aspect to the Hunger Games as well with more emphasis on the television broadcasts and interviews.

I found the book to be extremely compelling and got through it in only a couple of days and then went straight on to book two which I'll talk about tomorrow. Katniss is a great character and I can understand why it's become so popular. I wasn't really getting excited for the film before, but I am now. I also glad that I hadn't bothered watching the trailer before reading the books as well, although I had seen a couple of pictures, so there was nothing to taint my imagination.

Goodreads

At the end of last year I talked about the website iCheckMovies where you can make a list of the all films you have seen. There's a similar site, which I realize I'd heard about before but rediscovered today, where you can do the same for books. It's called Goodreads and today I created a profile for myself. I've read a lot less books than I've seen films and for the most part all of the books I've read I also own. That means that unlike iCheckMovies I'm much more certain that this is a complete list, at least since I was a teenager and not including anything I read for school or before. Only 103 books read (including graphic novels). If you'd like to see what you can find me here:
http://www.goodreads.com/slayster

Metal World

An interesting map showing the number of metal bands per capita from each country. What is it about the Scandinavians? (click for large version)

Hobo With A Shotgun

This film started life as a fake trailer in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse double bill. If fact most of those fake trailers were so loved that nearly all have now become full films. This film has been made to look like an old eighties exploitation film, with a synth score, old font styles, over saturated colours and over the top blood effects. It pulls it off perfectly. You could be excused for thinking this was a 20 year old film, not one made in 2011. Rutger Hauer is great as The Hobo as he becomes a vigilante with a shotgun in a town of crime lords and corrupt police. He's one of those actors who you know has been in a lot of things but other than Blade Runner I can't actually think of any. He becomes a character so well you don't associate the face with other roles. Brian Downey did a great job as the crime lord but his face I do recognise, he'll always be Stanley Tweedle from Lexx to me. Lots of over the top blood and action here but still with a heart and a message. I really enjoyed this.

Attack The Block

I've been meaning to see this film since it was first released but I missed it at the cinema. Even though I'd not seen it I decided to pick up the blu-ray anyway. New British science fiction always needs to be supported and of course some of the Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz team were involved in making it. Also written and directed by Joe Cornish who I've not actually heard a lot about in recent years but I was fan of The Adam & Joe Show back in the late nineties. The premise is simple, aliens invade a London council estate. The problem is there isn't much more to it than that either, youths fight aliens and swear a lot. It was fun but I was hoping for something more. The one saving grace was Jodie Whittaker's character who was well acted and seemed to be the only one with any common sense. Without her the film would have fallen completely flat.