Matt and Jay’s Excellent Adventure

After last week’s action-packed Christmas review of Die Hard, I think it is time to reset our bearings and capture a more Christmas-y feel. The 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually, written and directed by Richard Curtis (Mr. Bean, Bridget Jones’s Diary), fits the bill.

This may seem like an odd combination and strange title, but it is actually the name of a trilogy of British movies (also known as the Cornetto Trilogy – a type of ice-cream in the UK). Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the films pay comedic homage to different genres. You may ask how the three movies connect together – they do not. All three movies have Pegg and Frost playing completely different characters. The only thing the three motion pictures have in common is that there is a lot of ice-cream and blood in them. One of the benefits of the no-connect trilogy is that you can watch them in any order. Today, I am going to review the second film, 2007's Hot Fuzz.

The modern-day fairy tale film seems to have become the typical Disney cookie-cutter movie. They usually follow similar formats: wicked witch captures young girl, princess needs to be rescued or male hero saves the day, yet very few pictures capture the eerie and often scary vibe of the original fairytales that these stories are based on. It is amazing how graphic and frightening the Grimm tales and other similar stories actually are.

It is unusual to find a film that is able to effectively change direction, speaking in the genre sense, without losing steam, confusing viewers, or ruining the flow of the movie. Yet, when properly done, these twists and turns can take you on a wild and entertaining ride to somewhere completely unexpected. This is what the 1986 motion picture Something Wild does effortlessly.

It is pretty rare that I do this, but I sat watching a newly released DVD called Stoker last night and decided to write a review immediately after finishing it, and for once, one of the films I have critiqued will be readily available to buy or rent.

One of my favourite film styles is the post apocalyptic genre. Depending on the time of production, these movies depict the fears of the day. For instance, in 1973 Soylent Green was made, which highlighted the possibility of overpopulation, lack of employment and most importantly, food shortages; (look for a review of this film at a later date). Quite differently, in the 2006 motion picture Children of Men, we see quite the opposite – a world that is dying as humans are no longer able to procreate.