I was watching Who Dares Wins the other day- a terrible Lewis Collins film ( The guy from The Professionals that didn’t become Judge John Deed) that exploited the Iranian Embassy Siege that was foiled by the S.A.S. But what made me angry more than the dance sequence that involved someone dressed up as a sexy nuclear bomb was the opening titles.
If you think about it opening titles are like the cover of books, they set the tone for the rest of the film. Personally I’m a sucker for the old screwball comedies of the 50′s and 60′s like Maurice Binders title sequence for ‘Two for the Road’ and David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng’s ‘Pink Panther’ Sequences -styles that have been revisited by Spielberg in ‘Catch Me if You Can’ and Pixars ‘The Incredibles’
So here are some great opening titles that don’t make me angry
Wish we could take the credit for this little fella, but he comes to you courtesy of my sister, who is something of a crochet genius (who knew?!).
make you smile, crochet Yoda will. hmmmMMM!
We’re putting in our orders as we speak for crochet Chewbaccas, crochet Boba Fetts, with one very special request for a life-size crochet Jabba the Hut (think that one might take more than a night to complete).
Unrelated to all-things-work this may be, but I simply have to share my latest obsession with the world.
That obsession is… INCEPTION
…and it seems I’m not alone.
For the uninitiated (and I assume that’s no-one, unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere for the last couple of months), Inception is the latest cinematic offering from Batman revisionist Christopher Nolan (also responsible for Memento and The Prestige)
The film took $60.4m in its opening weekend – proving it’s anything but a sleeper – and continues to sell-out shows 2 weeks later.
It’s also been consistently trending worldwide on Twitter since it opened (currently at position #4), with almost exclusively positive comments, a self-perpetuating hype machine – check out the thread here.
I could wax lyrical for literally hours about what I love about this movie, but instead I thought I’d distill it down into bitesize chunks. Without being too spoilerish, here’s my Top 10 of Things to Love about Inception:
1. The trailer, which gave away tantalisingly little about the film’s plot.
2. The thunderous, fog-horn score, all based around Edith Piaf’s Je Ne Regrette de Rien (which plays a key role in the film – learn more about it here).
3. The jaw-dropping visual effects (a lot of which were done in-camera) and stunning cinematography.
4. The production design – beautiful sets, uber-cool wardrobe.
5. Leonardo DiCaprio – nuff said.
6. The ‘Kick’!
7. Joseph Gorden-Levitt as supercool logistics man, Arthur (he’s grown up a lot since the Third Rock from the Sun days!).
8. Tom Hardy’s brilliant turn as Eames: “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger darling.”
9. The brilliantly inter-woven final climax of the movie, with the action seamlessly switching between several layers of narrative.
10. The ending – perfectly pitched to leave you thinking (and tweeting!) about the movie for days to come.
And in case you need any more convincing to take a trip to you local cinema this weekend, check out the trailer:
Every now again you come across something on the internet that is both simple and gloriously brilliant. So from time to time I have decided to post those Website Wonders to share with you all…
First up is an oldie but goldie called Sleeveface whose tagline is ‘one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion’
Credit: Travis Bursik / Mike Metzger
As a bit of ‘vinylphile’ (does that word actually exsist?) I can appreciate anything that still promotes those 12 inch bits of plastic and cardboard (Yes they do sound better!) and what Sleeveface does is apart from having a bit of laugh it also show us those covers are still great pieces of graphical art.
…Now where’s my copy of Ray Parker Jnr’s After Dark
Camembert? Baguette? Bibliotheque? Ou est la piscine?
We’re all for a bit of Francophilia here at Together, which is why we were very pleased to hear that one of our favourite Frenchmen is fronting the new Sky Sports campaign, which breaks today.
Eric Cantona’s bearded mush will be gracing TV ads, billboards and social media, with typically Cantona-esque statements such as ‘Compromise is not an option’.
Check out the Sky Sports Facebook page for a petite preview of the campaign, which launches on the social media platform today, with the TV and outdoor activity breaking from 19th July, or watch the TV ad:
The sickly syrup flavours, the poorly made machine (although it looks like it’s had a nice shiny makeover)… how we laughed at the funny fart noise it made when your drink was ready.
Great ad, but don’t be sucked into by the rose-tinted nostalgia kids, it was rubbish the first time around…
And what better way to start our cultural exploration of challenging and provocative cinema than a contemporary re-envisaging of a truly seminal work.
That’s right, we went to see Predators.
The overall feeling was that is was hugely entertaining and a little bit poo at the same time. The perfect rollercoaster of emotions, we think you’ll agree.
Personal highlights include…
… the look on Academy Award winning actor Adrian Brody’s face as he tries to figure out how it’s all come to this.
… an entirely unexpected and utterly ludicrous cameo from a man who should really know a lot better.
… the kind of general carnage and silliness that would have made Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers proud.
It’s all a far cry from Michael J Fox and the hover boards of Back to the Future.
Children of Men is set 20 years in the future, but as many of the reviews I’ve read say, it’s more a stark portrayal of what’s happening under our noses, right now. I like the way that the film resists the temptation of becoming too futuristic, instead, it merges a run-down, decaying portrait of London with glimpses of current technology.
Technology such as animated adverts, which of course, are already in use, but in Children of Men, they’re being used on the side of buses.
The thing that really stands out, is that whilst technology has moved on in the film, it’s been accompanied by the breakdown of society, reflected by the fact that Britain is effectively a police state. The harrowing images of bombs exploding, refugee camps, run down buildings etc make the glossy, fast moving adverts look pretty meaningless and incongruous in a world where humanity is literally facing extinction (women are now infertile and the film opens with the death of the world’s youngest person – 18 year old ‘Baby Diego’.)
I guess it’s nothing new of course, George Orwell and HG Wells have both made a similar point, but it’s always good when a film makes you stop and think, and reminds us that technology, no matter how futuristic, means nothing without humanity, and could just as easily be the world’s undoing, or the world’s saviour.
Vogue Italia have released a 15 picture promotional pictorial named “State of Emergency”. Most of the 15 images are a typically oh-so-shocking tableaux of beautiful women being arrested and abused by male police. Of course the images are appealing, the women are beautiful, they look great while being strip searched and getting their throats stamped on. But, like so much advertising, it leaves somewhat of a bitter taste in my mouth. Presumably, this shoot is aimed at women…but, like so much women’s advertising, it is framed within the male gaze.
I mean, it’s bad enough that the advertising of many products aimed at men objectify and stereotype women, I don’t think there is much we can do about that. But why do products that advertise to women have to do the same thing? It makes me sad to think that what now appeals to women about an image for themselves is essentially something that is aimed at men.
Recently I read an article named When Sex isn’t Sexy by all female marketing agency 3iying. They talk about the teen market and how “girls cringe at overtly sexual ads, yet paradoxically, marketing campaigns targeted at teen girls are sex-obsessed.” I was really impressed with the ethos of this agency and it gave me hope that perhaps the next generation of girls (the girls in the agency are all between 15 and 25) will find new ways to appeal to women on our own level. But until then, I am afraid the male view of sex still sells.
Edit: And yet I would still rather look at these images than, for example, Dove’s innovative Campaign for Real Beauty…I am just as indoctrinated as everyone else and I don’t like it one bit!
Edit 2: Actually, the Campaign for Real Beauty site is pretty interesting too, especially the nicely done presentations and image gallery. And infinitely more fulfilling/less depressing once you get into it! I might even blog about it tomorrow…
Edit 3: Actually I won’t because I have the day off. Hee!
The Fizz is Back
