Archive for films
Back of fag box film review – Let the right one in
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Snow falls in the darkness. Wind whistles through trees. A boy whispers. His ghostly image appears reflected in a window looking out over the courtyard of a bleak apartment complex in a Stockholm suburb. It’s the dead of night when the boy, Oskar, first sets eyes on his new neighbour, Eli.
The two 12 year olds eventually meet and become friends. Both of them feel like outcasts. Oskar is bullied at school whereas Eli is a 200 year old vampire stuck in a 12 year old body. They become good friends and find acceptance in each others company that they cannot find anywhere else.
Along the way, there is plenty of blood letting as you would expect from a film with a vampire. What you dont expect is everything else – you will just have to go see this absolute gem for yourself.
Rating 5 out of 5 stars
Coraline subway advertising
Posted by: | CommentsThe definition of creative advertising? Has to be this ad for Coraline.
“Shown in the tunnel between Metro Center and Gallery Place in the Washington DC subway system”
After doing a bit of searching, I found the website of he agency responsible for promoting the film in the United States. They have an incredibly detailed and fascinating account of their advertising strategy.
Part 1 of this strategy was to “activate influencers”. They came up with the idea to create 50 one of a kind, hand made “influencer boxes” which were sent to targetted bloggers. The boxes contained relics from the set and passwords to unlock behind the scenes footage.
Super Punch has photographs of the various boxes, and links to the bloggers that received them.
What is so brilliant about the boxes is that they were tailored to appeal to each blogger and their passion. The agency came up with 5 target influencing groups :
- Fans of Selick, Gaiman and anyone involved in the creation of the film (“Creators”)
- Fans of the craft of filmmaking and especially the type used in this film (“Craft”)
- Comics, animation and collectibles geeks (“Geeks”)
- Folks who we knew would be excited about the themes/aesthetics of the film (“Culture”)
- People in the video game world (“Gamers”)
Is this campaign the best example of marketing/pr engaging with bloggers? I don’t know, but it sure as hell impressed me.
Back of fag box film review – The Wrestler
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The opening titles of this film tell us everything we need to know about Randy “The Ram” Robinson. His best bits from the glory years as a professional wrestler are presented in a rolling montage of magazine and newspaper headlines, ticket stubs, fight posters and studio shots accompanied by the sound of roaring fans and fight commentators.
20 years on, The Ram is still doing some wrestling but he is a broken man unable to adjust to life outside the ring. Everything about this film feels real – almost like a fly on the wall documentary. Mickey Rourke gives a superbly gritty performance in this sometimes hard to watch film which may leave you feeling a little out of sorts for a while.
Rating : 5 stars
Back of fag box film review – Eden Lake
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Attractive young couple plan to spend a romatic weekend by a lake. An unpleasant encounter with a group of hooded teenagers shortly after their arrival eventually descends into a brutal and terrifying ordeal for the pair.
Eden Lake is a bit of an oddity. It falls somewhere between thriller and horror but doesn’t succeed in either category. It tries to say something about modern society by having the victims as a middle class, hard working couple pitted against ne’er do well, hooded chavvy youths whose parents aren’t much better.
This preys on people’s fears about an underclass who are so detached and disaffected that they have no respect for authority, property or human life. The portrayal of the teenagers just isn’t believable. They are about as threatening as a leaf of lettuce. Sure, there are a few jump in the seat moments and more than a few wince inducing bloody scenes but a good thriller/horror needs much more than that to succeeed. A disappointment.
1 out of 5 stars
Back of fag box film review – Burn after reading
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Supposed comedy caper following two witless Gym employees that find a cd with the memoirs of an ex CIA agent and decide to blackmail him for its return. If you want to look for the big Coen message in this, it’s basically that we are all dumb, witless, self absorbed idiots making our way through life and looking up or down at others we perceive to be more (or less) dumb, witless and self absorbed than ourselves.
Unfortunately, despite some great performances from a stellar cast, this is a film that just doesnt know what it wants to be and is outstanding for its use of the phrase What the Fuck?, which is how I felt after watching it…
2 Stars
