"it's on random," - ed, shaun of the dead

as you've probably noticed, the template of my blog has changed a little bit. i figured it was time to hang up the old and usher in the new. apart from the template change, i've also added some links in the sidebar to other blogs that i'm working on.

a lot of my posts here are film reviews, so i thought i should start a blog soley for that purpose. whilst i will still be posting film reviews here, the link in the sidebar will take you to a blog that only contains film reviews that i've written. that way you can have a look at other films that i've either reviewed or reccommended without having to go through all the other shit that i write (such as this post).

i have also been working with a group of people on starting a comic firm which is yet to be officially named. the link in the sidbar provides you guys with the progess we're making by detailing what each meeting covers. we've only had two so far, but many more are on the way.

also, i've added a link to a friend's blog which is probably a lot more interesting than my own - so head there once you get tired of my ramblings. furthermore, there is a link to the Perry Bible Fellowship, which is home to an comic artist whose simple drawings always manage to make me laught. check it out aye?

there's also a link to my page at deviantart.com. it's basically a place where you can upload any kind of artwork and have people comment on it, so if you do venture that way, feel free to make any comments or suggestions.

oh btw, go and see shaun of the dead.

-LOki

SHAUN OF THE DEAD

5/5
stars simon pegg, kate ashfield, penelope wilton, nick frost

when my good friend vito recommended this film, i doubt he would've anticipated that it would become my favourite film of all time. in fact, i remember him saying "i don't know if you'll like it, but there are bits in it that are definitely you", or similar words to that effect. but as you can see by my 5/5, i loved this movie through and through.

by now, most of you would know the basic premise of the film: a romantic comedy - with zombies. the film follows shaun (pegg) in his ho-hum kind of life, living with his primary school mate ed (frost) and pete, both of whom hate each other. shaun is working in an electrical appliace store and ed is a now-and-then dope dealer, and both are regulars at the winchester pub. shaun's girlfriend of three years liz (ashfield) is tired of thier complacent lives and wants to do something more and unfortuantely for shaun, he doesn't know what she means. that is, of course, until the recently deceased come back to life to feed off of the living.

shaun is then forced to make a plan to save his friends (and friends of friends) and finally take charge of his life.

when i first heard of this film i thought it was just going to be a spoof of zombie films with a bit of comedy thrown into it. but then i realised it was a british film and not a hollywood one. if you remember what i wrote about romantic comedies, the hollywood ones seem to be formulaic and predictable. you can see the jokes and gags coming from a mile off, and the trials faced by the protagonists are easily overcome.

"shaun of the dead" however, is very different. like a lot of english comedy, it relies on making everyday situations funny, meaning that the jokes are inherent throughout the entire film. there aren't build-ups to jokes, they just happen. and when they do, they always hit the spot.

script-wise, the film is perfik. a lot of the dialogue throughout the film can be referenced back to preceding scenes, and also make links back to films that influenced the writers (simon pegg and edgar wright) while making their own movie. the characters are authentic and unique in their own right, and never having seen pegg in anything before, i can confidently say he is one of the best actors i have ever seen. supporting cast were also awesome, with a huge mention to lucy davis who plays dianne, liz's air-head best friend.

furthermore, the editing in this film is amazing. from fast cuts, dynamic camera zooms, to just conventional continuity, "shaun of the dead" displays them all with perfection.

a lot of people may think "pft, that's so stupid - a romantic comedy with zombies. it's just an attempt to be different." different it may be, but the writers didn't push aside the need for strongly developed characters or storytelling to make way for zombie scenes. in fact, even without the zombies the film could have been an awesome stand-alone romantic comedy. oh, before i forget, shaun actually decides to sort his life out BEFORE any zombies start emerging so even without the living dead, shaun knew he had to change and make a go at his life.

the film hits emtional highs and lows, and the closing scene is just plain awesome.

go see this film, it is bloody fantastic.

-LOki

"i do believe there's such a thing as fate - it just works in really fucked up ways sometimes" - denise fleming, can't hardly wait

you know, there are so many times where i've wanted to blog about how great things are in my life - but at the moment the only thing that's giving me any enjoyment is The Incredibles dvd.

it sucks though, that i've got this great group of people around me yet i feel somewhat empty. don't ask me why, because i wouldn't be able to tell you. even if i lied, i wouldn't have any peace of mind.

i think i'm at a time in my life where i think i need to be on my own. i kept telling myself that that was a stupid thing to do; i'm a pretty whimsical person, and this thought that i'm currently having is definitely a product of that. let the record show that in a couple of days (if not, even in a couple of hours), i'll have changed my mind - but the way i see it, if we never acted on impulse, then life would be pretty ordinary.

i said in my last post that i believed in fate, and, despite my shitty outlook at the moment, that still holds true. i know that in the very end of everything, i'll be able to look back and know that i've had a decent run at existence.

so don't get me wrong, i'm sure i'll come around soon enough. this is just me getting shit off my chest, not that there's anything really there, just some ramblings that i needed to voice.

furthermore, i'd like to extend a huge thank you to those who've always been there for me, and at the same time, i sincerely apologise for wasting your time.

-LOki

"tell me what you want!" - mr. perry, dead poet's society

it's been a while since i last blogged, which is kinda weird seeing as in that time between now and my last blog, i have seen quite a few films! but answering the request of jase's that i should blog about the 'world of monin', maybe i'll revert this time to something more personal.

to be honest though, i don't know what to write about. i think i do enough writing about things when i write fictional pieces that draw on events that happen in my life anyway - so in a lot of ways if i wrote that in a blog, i'd feel as though i'd just be repeating myself.

but what i can say is that in the past couple of weeks things have become clearer to me. i realised that sometimes what you want isn't necessarily the way things are, and no matter how much you want something to be a certain way, sometimes the world just tells you to get fucked.

and hey, that's fine. because sometimes when you get everything you want, you look back and think to yourself maybe you wanted all the wrong things. not only that, the things that you want aren't always what's best. so even when it seemed as though things were falling apart around me, and in times where i had to question my beliefs and values, i felt that deep down that they way things were happening were happening for the best.

this kind of reaffirms my belief that there is such a thing as fate, but as i mentioned earlier in a film review - fate does happen, but once you get there it's up to you to make it happen.

but also in the past couple of weeks, with the help of jase, i've been thinking about the simpler things in life. things that once were enough to make me happy. and those things were writing, drawing, and creativity in general - which can be culminatively called comic books. we've organised to meet semi-regularly to talk about possible comic concepts and storylines to follow by bringing all our ideas into a open forum kinda thing.

i don't know how far it'll go, but it'll be cool if we can get even one awesome comic to come out of it.

anyhoo, that's about it for now. i will endeavour to blog a little more often, and write more about my stellarly exciting life rather than film reviews. but until then...

-LOki