Becca Caddy

Tweet review: Weekend watching in 140 characters

50/50: Touching & in places hilarious portrayal of a young man’s battle against cancer. Gorden-Levitt & Rogen have great chemistry. 4*

Blue Valentine: Beautiful & tragic love story. Gritty & moving performances from Williams & Gosling. A little slow for me at times though. 3*

Bridesmaids: I wanted to hate it but it was LOL funny all the way through. A little cheesy at times, but brilliant script & Wiig is my new hero. 4*

Contagion: Lots of familiar faces. Slightly different to every other apocalyptic illness movie out there. Less “all American” BS. 3*

Spot the difference: The Crow & The Joker

Brandon Lee’s Crow and Heath Ledger’s Joker look rather similar, don’t they?

The Dark Knight Rises viral campaign begins

Before the release of The Dark Knight a huge viral marketing campaign took place, which wasn’t just on a large scale but was pretty damn clever too. There were scavenger hunts, Joker recruitment drives, clues online and offline, Joker wannabes, cakes, masks, the list could really go on and on (check out the Dark Knight – Viral Marketing video look at the various elements of the campaign).

Despite the fact The Dark Knight Rises isn’t set to be released until July 2012, fans of the movies have been sat twiddling their thumbs waiting for a similar kind of campaign to begin.

Well, it looks like everything kicked off today as a load of CIA documents were ‘leaked’ to bloggers and the press referring to a Doctor Leonid Pavel.

Let the fun begin…

Unnecessary remake: American Psycho

I’m sick and tired of people whining about remakes. It doesn’t destroy the original to remake something. The original still exists.

But, I was really shocked to hear that American Psycho (one of my favourite books and movies) could soon be remade. So cue whining and Twitter rants aplenty.

Yes, that’s right, it’s only been 11 years since Bret Easton Ellis’ masterpiece was made into a film and already it’s being tipped for a remake. Then again that’s pretty slow for Hollywood who immediately pounced on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo within a year.

Variety reports that the reincarnation could be set in the modern day, which I think in many ways will take something away from the original story.

But the most important question is, will anyone be able to fill Patrick Bateman’s shoes as well as Christian Bale?

Where did all the crazy & messed up kid’s TV go?

Kid’s TV just isn’t as weird, messed up and scary as it used to be, is it?

Here are five of my favourite shows as a kid, before my parents got Sky TV and my brother and I became brainwashed by Nickelodeon.

After watching them all back on YouTube I’ve realised that it’s no surprise I’m such an odd little human being.

Eerie Indiana (1991 – 1992)

A boy called Marshall Teller moves to the strange town of Eerie in Indiana where all kinds of weird and wonderful things start happening.

Memory that stuck with me: A guy feeds something (maybe himself) into a cash machine.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9UJJb7tMyY&w=480&h=360]

The Storyteller (1988)

A TV series created by Jim Henson, with John Hurt as the storyteller. There were only nine episodes and each was a weird interpretation of an old folk tale.

Memory that stuck with me: Strange creatures that live in a pond and drown people with music and when the soldier plays cards with lots of little devils.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAyNkZ-ZQ0k&w=480&h=360]

Round the Twist (1989)

A family live in a haunted lighthouse and again, all kinds of weird and wonderful things start happening (yes, a pattern is beginning to emerge).

Memory that stuck with me: One (or lots) of the characters starting growing what they thought were fingernails all over their body and then they turned out to be scales as they were becoming mermaids/mermen. Oh, and the ridiculously catchy theme tune.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdwK_66VClg&w=480&h=360]

The Odyssey (1992 – 1994)

A boy called Jay has an accident and falls into a deep coma. Inside his coma he finds himself in some mental apocalyptic world run by children.

Memory that stuck with me: Some really scary scene in a corn field.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hmzFqC2nrs&w=480&h=360]

Goosebumps (1995 – 1998)

Arguably the most normal out of the lot, the Goosebumps TV shows were based on the popular books by R. L. Stine. All were scary stories written for kids but many were nowhere near as tame as some of the rubbish “scary films” of the modern day.

Memory that stuck with me: The episode with the shrunken heads.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB-SOpGl8Go&w=480&h=360]

Types of learners: Music or film?

Yes, it’s a stupid question. No, you’ll never have to decide.

But, it’s pretty fascinating listening to people’s answers. Of course there are those that give you a disgusted look, “film over music?! NO chance”, and those who look really tormented trying to decide.

Obviously I’d scrap music, quite easily in fact. However, what I find most interesting about the ridiculous music vs. film debate (because it is a bit ridiculous and it did turn into a debate), is that in many ways it harks back to what kind of learners we were all told we were back in our school days.

Now I hope I’m not the only one who was forced to take the “what kind of learner are you?” test at school every year, which put you in an auditory learner, visual learner or kinesthetic learner camp*. Of course the teachers didn’t pay very much attention to the results and used the little quiz as a slightly more academic alternative to getting the board games out, but all of my answers still ring so true all these years later.

The main one being I just don’t really connect with audio and never have. Anything that solely relies on me listening is guaranteed to switch off my concentration in less than a few minutes. Sure I do love music in my own special way, but I find the tracks I listen to the most and have the deepest connection with were used in a film or TV show that I loved and work together with the memory of what it looked like while the music just played in the background.

So there you go, in my eyes music is a nice to have (and arguably necessary for most movies to work, but let’s ignore that small point for now), but in a battle to the death film will always win in my eyes.

What about yours?

*See part of this online book about how to teach different types of learners for more information on each.

Mercury Retrogade makes us all insane

You may have heard people talking about it before, you may have heard people talking about it over the past few days, or it may just sound like some nonsense from Lord of the Rings to you. Either way, here’s a quick rundown about what Mercury Retrograde means:

Mercury Retrograde (or Mercury in Retrograde, it’s referred to in both ways) is basically when the planet Mercury slows down and appears to stop and move backwards, but it’s really an optical illusion.

This happens a few times a year and we’re in the middle of this process right now, which is set to continue till around 14th December 2011.

All of that doesn’t bother me, in fact I find it pretty fascinating that a planet just appears to stop (I love geeky space stuff). However, the thing that gets to me about Mercury Retrograde is the way many seemingly normal people take it so seriously and start blaming things on the process and randomly attributing completely unrelated events to it, “ahh things aren’t going right for me, must be because Mercury is in Retrograde.”

Nowhere can I find hard data for this, but many believe that during Mercury Retrograde things go wrong, particularly communications, so phone lines, the internet, even our mail and the way we communicate (see, it gets less and less believable) all becomes generally quite messed up.

Other popular beliefs about Mercury Retrograde are that it’s a time for us to relax and look at ourselves, what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Others recommend we’re super cautious and don’t go signing anything important or making big decisions round about now.

Now I’m very open minded about other people’s beliefs and this isn’t meant to be an attack on those who are really into astronomy. But, I’d hate to think people would put off making big decisions, not signing the contract on that lovely new house or messing up and not thinking any of it through just because it’s stuck in your head that it’s Mercury Retrograde.

I think that if someone’s aware that everything could well be going wrong about now they might subconsciously screw things up, feel a bit down and not get on with life properly just because they’ve bought into this idea, which (to someone on the outside anyway) seems like a sad waste.

So am I being too harsh on astrology, or should we all just see it as hocus pocus, look at the planets for what they are and nothing more?

Golden Age Thinking: Longing for a different era?

Over the weekend I finally watched Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011). After a day of mixed martial arts, cage fighting and some cowboys vs. aliens thrown in for good measure, a quirky, romantic and Parisian Woody Allen movie was the perfect final addition to a very eclectic film marathon.

The beautiful romantic comedy follows Gil (Owen Wilson) on his quest to find inspiration for his new novel around the streets of Paris. Now I promise this isn’t a big spoiler, but one of the main things discussed throughout the film is what Michael Sheen’s character, Paul, describes as “Golden Age Thinking”, a dreamy, nostalgic longing to be part of an era that existed long, long ago.

Paul’s pedantic yet hilarious character suggests this manner of Golden Age Thinking is a response to the terrifying and harsh reality of modern times, but is it instead just a natural, romantic longing that people have felt throughout every decade?

Whether it’s a certain style of clothing, type of architecture from a bygone age or just the carefree attitude we often associate with a particular decade, I think it’s an important part of who we are to look at the past with that hazy longing and nostalgic mindset that things were much more interesting “back in those days”, so that we can learn from them.

In many ways I don’t doubt that this fascination may stem from a desire to escape from the things we dislike about the modern day. However, as  long as you don’t become too obsessed with the fact you should have been a playwright in the 1920s or a member of Elizabeth I’s court, it’s probably extremely beneficial to have an intense appreciation for the past so you draw from a wide range of influences in the present.

Whether we look back in history for creative inspiration to learn from, different ways of thinking to adopt, interesting figures to act as muses or style choices to work into our daily attire, as long as we all accept the fact we’re well and truly rooted in 2011 there surely can’t be anything wrong with visiting the past from time to time.

So is Golden Age Thinking natural or just a dreamy denial of the present?

Tweet Review: Weekend watching in 140 characters

Cowboys & Aliens: Surprisingly entertaining action movie given the title. But the plot is a little dull, far fetched & cheesy at times. 3*

Warrior: Amazing performances from Hardy, Edgerton & Nolte. Lots of epic edge-of-your-seat fight scenes. Kicked The Fighter’s ass. 5*

Midnight in Paris: Beautifully shot scenes of Paris. Interesting exploration of romance & you’ll fall in love with Wilson & Cotillard. 4*

Lady Gaga’s pop culture shake-up

Throughout my awkward and impressionable early teens, the papers, TV screens and music charts were dominated by the saccarine sounds and sultry smiles of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Whether you consider them to be talented, timeless, vacuous or just manufactured, you can’t deny that their cheesy American brand of pop had a huge impact on popular culture back then, from our notions of style and beauty to good music and what it means to be a celebrity, in a way that’s akin to some of the greats.

With that in mind, I find it interesting that over the past few years modern day teens (and grown adults too, of course) have passionately adopted a role model who in many ways is so starkly different to the Spears and Aguileras of yesteryear, Lady Gaga.*

Sure her outfits are tiny, she regularly sports a blonde wig and does her fair share of on-stage gyrating, but she’s different in that her lyrics, style, ethos and dedicated following of ‘little monsters’ have combined to kick out the old notion of what it means to be a pop star and have replaced it with something very very different.

Ever since Lady Gaga appeared on the mainstream music scene back in 2008 with ‘Just Dance’ she hasn’t just been well received as a talented musician and performer, but her attitude, style, creative work and strong personal views have had a lasting impact on popular culture too. From forcing us to see fashion in a different light or highlighting important political issues. Everytime she performs or we see her in an interview we talk about how unusual she is, but it seems she’s made this crazy brand of weird very much the norm now, “oh she’s dressed in an animal carcass?” Why the hell not.

She obviously has her critics (I’m certainly not a devoted little monster all of the time) and many are right in that we can’t guarantee anything she does is genuinely “real”, from her creative visions and style choices to the issues she claims she feels strongly about. But at the end of the day it doesn’t seem to really matter.

Yes Lady Gaga’s quirky outfits and strange antics may be a little irritating and tiresome at times, but you could well argue that she’s forced important issues into the limelight, changed our notions of beauty and style and given us a refreshing, well needed new role model. At least for now that is, until the next weird, wonderful and unusual pop star comes along to shake everything up again…

*Of course it’s not as if everyone across the globe has gone from adoring Britney to Gaga overnight, there have been plenty of other influential artists who have shaken things up in some way or another. But arguably few public figures over the past decade or so have had such a cultural impact in the same way as these too women.

Image via Domain Barnyard’s Flickr.