I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Category: Films

I love films although I never seem to get to see all the films I’d like to.

The Brothers Grimm

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As there was a total lack of anything decent to watch on TV tonight I decided to watch the brothers Grimm which I hadn’t seen in ages, and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

It reminds me of story telling festivals where you here tales that are adapted and altered and made funnier in a kind of up to date way. I think Gilliam’s a great story teller and this film was a little under-rated in my opinion.

Good to see it again. I think I’ll have to mine my collection for less watched gems again.

V for Vendetta

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It is a little tradition of mine to watch this film every 5th of November. It is an excellent film and every time I see it again I remember just how excellent it is.

Rise of the planet of the apes

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I went to see this firm this morning. I was somewhat apprehensive about what the film would be like as the last remake of planet of the apes was a disappointment.

But I needn’t have been worried as this was a great film. A real sci-fi film. A good story, just the right level of action and enough in the story for a sequel. If that wasn’t enough there were also a few choice references to the original films just for the fans.

I won’t spoil it for you, but it was well worth seeing.

True Grit (again)

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I was really disappointed watching True Grit on channel 4 the other day as it had been cut quite a lot, in fact one of my favourite lines was cut!

Anyway, I complained to Film 4 and the emailed me back apologising to me. Apparently they’d put the wrong version on and they’re going to show it again on Friday!

Excellent.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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I’ve been watching the trailers for this film for a while now and I’m really looking forward to seeing it. I like that they haven’t decided to just remake the original story to any degree at all like the last remake, and I think that the idea behind the story could prove really worth exploring.

I do hope that it isn’t a one off though. I hope it grows into a series just like the very original planet of the apes. We’ll see.

The Deathly Hallows Part 2

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If you plan to see the film then don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it for you.

I went to see it last week and really enjoyed it. Looking back on the Potter films, it has been an amazing series and has made huge amounts of money. I almost want to re-read the book, but I probably won’t.

In many ways it is the end of a big era. For some children there won’t have been a time when there wasn’t a new Potter film coming, and I wonder what that feels like.

On the whole I’ve enjoyed the entire story. I know some people have complained about it, the way it’s written and lots of other things, but I just think it was a good story and some fun films and that’s it.

I’m sure I’ll buy the DVD and be watching them all for years to come.

Star Trek The Motion Picture

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I hadn’t watched this for years and so when I did I was really shocked to hear the theme for Star Trek The Next Generation. I thought that there was something wrong or it had been added later or something.

I was completely wrong. Apparently the theme tune for The Motion Picture was used in The Next Generation because Gene Roddenberry liked the theme tune so much he wanted to use it again.

I never knew that!

A tale of two soundtracks

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I’ve been meaning to post this for a little while. I recently bought 2 soundtrack albums. The first was for Tron Legacy, and the second was for The Forbidden Planet.

I enjoyed both of these electronic soundtracks but in very different ways. If you know The Forbidden Planet you’ll know that the soundtrack is very experimental, especially for when the film was made. The music is scary and sparse and at times difficult to listen to, but even so, I really love it.

The Tron legacy soundtrack is polished and well produced and in some ways very forgettable, but again, I really enjoy it.

I like soundtrack albums, but rarely because I like the film. I think that often they work well as an art form on their own, and I think that the Forbidden Planet soundtrack works very well on it’s own, although I know lots of people would find it unlistenable.

It also interested me that these were two soundtracks to science fiction films over 50 years apart, and even so the older of the two sounded far more futuristic. I wondered what that meant for how we view the future and what it means for us and what it represents.

I can see myself listening to both of these more and more, but for very different reasons.

The Brave One

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I caught this film by chance the other day. It was one of those films that I’d been to see on DVD, but hadn’t got around to, so when it came on Film 4 I decided to watch it.

Jodie Foster is always good value in any film, but at the beginning I found this film quite pedestrian. It wasn’t that way all the way through though. I won’t spoil the film for you if you haven’t seen it, but it was really unexpected, and I was impressed with how it played out.

Worth seeing in my view.