The Killers: Battle Born!

Firstly let me say that I am a huge, diehard Killers fan and that the Killers have been my favourite band since I was about 8 and onwards, so chances are I will not be very objective.

I had huge hopes for this album and definitely was not disappointed after 4 years without a new album – besides Christmas singles. The first time I listened to Battle Born it completely blew me away. Upon first listening I enjoyed every song and some even brought a tear to my eye, after repeatedly listening I couldn’t choose one song which I disliked or would consider a least favourite and when asked what my favourite song of the album is I find it impossible to select one. I'll only talk about a selection of the songs, not that I don't adore them all

1 - Flesh and Bone – This is a rousing battle hymn if ever there is one to be heard! Brandon on synth and Dave on guitar are the driving force of the song but it is the lyrics that really five this song punch.

2 - Runaways – This holds a special place in my heart as it was the first new of the album to be released as a single. From Ronnie’s galloping percussion to the soaring outstanding vocals and reverberating guitar this track screams arena rock, this is one of the many songs on the album that need to be heard live to feel the full impact.

3 - The Way It Was – This is an amaaazing song and in classic Killers format, they tease you with the verse and suck you in with an epic chorus. I may have lied earlier saying I didn’t have a favourite track of this album because at the moment this is definitely it, especially after seeing is sang perfectly live, ever better than in digital form it’s a moment that’ll stick with me.

4 - Here With Me – The Killers aren’t known for their ballads but this certainly is a beautiful ballad. (In fact it makes me wonder if maybe everytime Brandon Flowers coughs or pees of something a piece of lyrical and musical art comes out)

5 -  A Matter Of Time – This track reminds me of The Killers Hot Fuss era, but with the heavier pace and the background vocals are very reminisant to Somebody Told Me with a hint of Sam’s Town, another great arena rocking song.

7 -  Miss Atomic Bomb – When I first heard this track I fell in love, the love for this song grew with each listen. Until you realize that it is the prequel to Mr Brightside then it becomes totally mind blowing. This is lyrically in my top 3 on the album and in true Killers fashion it tells a beautiful, sad story. It has hints of A Dustland Fairytale – One of my all time favourites.

11 - Be Still - One of the slower tracks of the album, but extremely beautiful lyricially with an hypnotising melody.

12 -Battle Born – The ending of the album (Not including deluxe – Although that is amazing) It opens with ascending keyboards and guitars, this song is most definitely an inspiration anthem. I love every last part of this song, the guitar, drums, bass but best of all is the vocals as Brandon reminds us all, that we are battle born.

Ed Sheeran live

Me and my best pal Lucy Hodgson went to see Ed Sheeran in Manchester at the O2 Apollo on Friday 2nd November, so I figured that I would just review this and talk a little about our experiance.

Before Ed Sheeran took the stage at 9pm to do a two hour setlist Passenger and Foy Vance were the support acts. First Passenger came on stage to preform a 40 minute setlist, i'd never heard of him but soon fell in love with his catchy lyrics and fun personality, quicking warming up the audience with great interactions. Almost a week on and i'm still humming the chours to the song ' I hate ' after only hearing it once.

Next up came Foy Vance with another 40 minute set, he was alot quieter than passenger and his style was different but still enjoyable, making the audience sing along and have a good time. 

We got rather close to the front of the crowd and had a good view as Ed Sheeran boomed onto stage with the fan favorite Give Me Love and the entire crowd shouted and sung along with Ed. Just beside me and Lucy stood a drunk foursom merily dancing and singing, they amused us alot until they moved towards the back. Also at this point there were a group of girls behind us complaining about something and me and Lucy tried to secretly get pictures of them and we heard them saying that they wanted to photobomb us, so all worked out and we got a terrible picture of one of the girls. Anyway the girls soon moved away, or maybe me and Lucy got closer - It felt like that.

Mr Sheeran had the crowd under his control, asking for silence in slow songs such as Small Bump and had the crowd screaming as loud as they could with songs like Lego House. There where the more intimate moments when he spoke to the crowd about nights out having everyone wrap their arms around eachother and sway singing the beautiful This Is. Thoughout the proformance he brought out each of the support acts and sang duets with them excellently.

When Ed came back on for the encore be belted out the extended edition of You Need Me Man I Don't Need You which had me to start thinking maybe this guy is a robot, seriously he rapped for almost ten minutes straight having the ocassional moment with the crowd getting them to sing along. Then onto The Parting Glass the crowd silent as he played acoustic with no microphone and finally played fan favorite A Team and the crowd chanted every lyric of the song with him.

This description really does not do the concert justice, me and Lucy had an excellent times and thought that Ed was brilliant live, even better live than he is on the records. I would most definatley go and see him again live. Everyone around was super friendly, the songs where grade A and the night was great.

All photos taken by Miss Lucaay Hodgson.

MAROON FOR PRESIDENT!!!!

PS - HE WON!

Fright Night: 2011

Set in a lovely suburban area of Las Vegas, the film introduces us to Charley Brewster, a nerdy but charismatic teenager who we find out has given up his relationship with his friend "Evil" Ed to be with the cooler kids, including his new girlfriend Amy. Then he meets Jerry Dandrige, a buff, sweet new neighbor that Charley's mother and Amy take a liking to. When Ed tries to warn Charley of Jerry's hidden, and gruesome, intentions, things take a turn for the worse. More people wind up missing, and it becomes evident to Charley that Jerry is a vampire. Nobody believes him before it's too late, and it's up to him and Hard Rock celebrity Peter Vincent to kill this sucker (Yes that's a pun ;)) once and for all.


The film has a fantastic cast of well-known actors. Anton Yelchin, as always, does a great job and fits the role of Charley perfectly. Toni Collette stands out as Charley's mother, and Imogen Poots is terrific as Amy. Unlike other horror blonds Amy was smart, and at times brave enough to try to take down Jerry herself. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is great for the role of "Evil" Ed, and he was born to play that role I couldn't imagine anyway else doing a better job. He gets some pretty funny lines and an enjoyable amount of screen time. David Tennant, known as being Britians male sweetheart after staring in Doctor Who was hilarious as celebrity vampire hunter Peter Vincent. I was pleasantly surprised.


I first watched this film over a year ago with my bestfriend and her mother one lazy afternoon and we all loved the film, re-visiting it now I found it to still be brilliant and would most definatley watch it again. The film was not very scary, more of a comedy horror than anything but an excellent film with interesting editing techniques and cinematography.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

What to review today? Well. I actually haven't watched any films or tv so i'm going to randomly review a place I visited whilst on vacation in Florida.

HARRY POTTER LAND! In Universals, Islands of Adventure theme park and to someone my age that's grown up side by side with the Harry Potter books and films, it's a big deal :P.
Although this hasn't been my first visit to Harry Potter land as I visited last July and was also around during the period in which it was built.

So let's review the rides.. Or the beverages.. Or just the place in general. Let's begin by saying, It was magical ;D.

Well the place itself is totally amazing, as you leave the Jurassic Park section of Islands of Adventure across a small wooden bridge you enter Hogsmeed. The pictures i've put on really do not do the place justice, it's like your stepping into the film world completely with the same shops and landmarks of the films.

Rides

The Dragon Challenge - Is an excellent white knuckle rollercoaster, with two battling coasters fire and ice.

The Hippogriff Flight - Is a much smaller coaster, one that is suitable for the whole family. Whilst on the coaster you see some well loved Harry Potter iconography - Buckbeak.

The Forbidden Journey - To get to this ride you must walk through the castle - Which in itself is an experiance not to be missed by a Harry Potter fan! You get to see moving pictures talking to eachother, The Fat Lady, Holograms of Dumbeldore, Harry, Ron and Hermione, you see plenty more Harry Potter iconography such as the house point hourglasses, the enterance to Dumbeldores office, The Sorting Hat and much much more.

Not only are there these lovely rides, but you also get the experiance of walking through Hogsmeed visiting shops such as Honeydukes, Fred and George's shop and stop to have a butterbeer in the Three Broom Sticks.. Or a pumpkin juice.. Or an actual beer.

This themepark has seriously been one of the best investments Universal has ever made because it must bring in so much money, especially from merchandise, I alone must have spent atleast 100 dollars in one visit buy purchasing a Slytherin Scarf, Chocolate Frogs, Badges and Berty Bots Every Flavoured Beans - But they're getting a paragraph for themselves.

So I gave my friend a box of Berty Bots Every Flavoured Beans and lets just say originally I thought 11 dollars was abit much for a box of jelly beans, I assumed it wouldn't actually have ridiculous flavours in that we soon found of when trying them with a group of friends. You've got the lovely flavours such as marshmellow, candyfloss, tutty fruity. Then you've got the magical flavours such as dirt, earthworth, rotten egg (Which I had the misfortune of trying first), soap, earwax, sausage and many many more. Let's just say that was an experiance just trying those.

Anyway. This post may be rather random and not very well put together as I am not with it today. There must be a billion spelling mistakes and what not. Lets just end it with saying Harry Potter World was amazing and is a must see place for an Harry Potter lovers.

Film Review: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is an end of the world drama/comedy that really makes you wonder about what you would do if you had only a few weeks to live. The film stars Steve Carell and Keira Knightly who I found to unexpectedly have excellent chemistry. The film begins with Dodge (Carell) sitting in his car and hearing that the mission to save mankind from an asteroid that is going to collide with Earth has failed and in three weeks the world is going to end. With this news Dodge's wife leaves him and Dodge considers what he will do with his final days of life. He soon meets Penny (Knightley) and they embark on an adventure that will hopefully lead Dodge to find a love from his past and for Penny to see her family before their time runs out.

Thought Dodge and Penny's journey we come across a variety of characters, so many different characters that are able to give the audience someone to relate to as they wonder how they may react in a situation inwhich we known the world is going to end.

I personally enjoyed this film alot, I did not expect to enjoy it as I assumed Keira Knightly wouldn't be able to pull of a comedic role as she is normally typecast into Periodic roles (Pride and Prejudice, The Duchess, Atonement) and Steve Carell was excellent in this comedic/dramatic role which I often find he does very well. But it turns out I thought this film was great, it had some hilarious moments of comedic relief and plenty of drama, with an ending that is unpredictable and may not be expected this is a film that will make you feel warm inside :)!

This film shows you that there can be good things to come out of a bad situation.

Film Review: Festen (1998)

When a Danish family unite for their fathers 60^th birthday, drama unfolds and family secrets are revealed. The film stars Ulrich Thomsen as Christian and Thomas Bo Larsen as his brother Michael. The film was made under the Dogme act and the director was not credited. Thomas Vinterberg wrote the screenplay for this film.

I feel that Festen tries too hard at being a serious family FILM and was completely over the top and mostly laughable and hilarious. Such as the scene in which Christian is repeatedly thrown out of the hotel after a speech in which he reveals one of his families secrets.

It's no secret to the people of my film studies class that I did not enjoy this film, maybe it's because i'm not used to these forgien new wave films and find them damn right odd.  

I shan't rate this film because I thought to poorly of it, let's just blame my growing up with big Hollywood blockbusters :)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Book review

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about a teenage boy named Charlie who addresses a series of letters to an anonymous friend. Charlie is a sincere and sensitive character who suffers from episodes of depression. His best friend commits suicide before he starts high school and Charlie is left alone. Whilst starting over at high school he is drawn to a crowd of friends who support his individuality and love of the arts. His story contains pieces that any reader can relate to at least slightly whilst growing up. The novel touches on the themes of drugs, sex, alcohol, abuse, sexuality, family, making friends and loss but the lack of focus helps to make the story seem so realist, true and relatable.

I loved that Charlie didn’t exaggerate, he told things how they were and this is what makes them seem so real. It shows the blunt pain and effects these can have. We see him and his friends struggling with their teenage life as each friend is dealing with something different. In his new circle of friends we have Patrick who is rather funny, he’s also gay and struggles with a boy who won’t let the world know he’s gay (The book is set in 91’ where gays where not necessarily openly accepted). Patrick has to go through heartbreak and betrayal and we see him go off the edge and fall into alcohol abuse. There’s Sam who is extremely intelligent, she sees the world very differently. She’s confident and will speak up, She’s inspiring but at the same time can be cold to Charlie. Then we have Charlie who as I’ve already said is sincere and sensitive and a truly good person which makes him difficult to dislike and extremely relatable to the target audience of the book. Together the three best friends were brilliant, they made a great trio and the sadness you feel when they leave each other is huge!

Overall I thought this book was brilliant, an excellent read and extremely relatable even if you’re not going through high school but have experienced school life. I thought that the intertextuality used was great with references to different music and books of the early 90’s. Stephen Chbomsky’s writing style was excellent and the letters makes the book feel even more personal to the reader. 

10/10!!

(I also believe there is a film adaptation either out now or out later this month!)

Film Review:Just Visiting (2001)

Just Visiting is the hilarious 2001 film in which a French knight, Tybalt and his loyal companion, Andre are mistakenly sent into the future by a clumsy wizard after a spell goes wrong after the death of Tybalt’s wife to be has been tragically poisoned.

The film was directed by French director Jean-Marie Poire, this being his first non-French Hollywood film and was distributed by Hollywood Pictures. The film was released April 8^th 2001 in America making a small $4,777,007 in its opening weekend. I personally enjoyed this film as it was hilarious and fun filled and thought it was interesting to see how the characters transported from the 12^th century reacted to the 21^st century lifestyle and brought with them their hilarious habits and ways of life from the past.

This is the type of film perfect for escapism and the type of film you will find yourself watching over and over and quoting constantly. Just Visiting is a remake of the French 1993 film Les Visiteurs and was remade in English years later and the story slightly adjusted the two leads Jeno Reno and Christian Clavier remained the same whereas the supporting cast was changed to a more well-known cast of Hollywood stars such as Tara Reid, Christina Applegate and Malcolm McDowell to drawn in an audience.

 My favourite scene is when Tybalt, Andre, Julia and Hunter go to an upscale restaurant and Andre must eat on the floor as he cannot eat at the same table as his ‘master’ – Tybalt. I think this scene is extremely funny when everyone in the restaurant is confused as to what is going on and Andre is shouting thank you for the scraps Tybalt gives to him and a little old lady. The camera work is very simple sticking to common codes and conventions of the comedy fantasy genre, I particularly like that when someone from the 21^st century or Tybalt is talking to Andre we generally see him from a high angle looking down to show his status but when he meets Angelique, his love interest in the film the angles become more steady and straight when she tells him he can be free and shouldn’t have to obey his Master. The film has been critiqued as being one of the worst time travel films (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQjaYbVlUUw) but I believe it is an excellent, hilarious, light hearted film that you can just watch and not have to think too hard, just sit back and enjoy.

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