Les Miserables

On Wednesday I fulfilled one of my life long wishes of going to see Les Miserables the musical on the West End! I am still buzzing from it, I've been a huge huge huge fan of Les Mis ever since the film came out (I'm a newbie fan) and it all sort of snowballed and culminated in great front row circle seats to watch probably the greatest story (musical or otherwise) as a lovely birthday treat!

My Les Mis fascination started in January when I was at a loose end on a week off from work, I was walked back to my bus stop through The Brewery in Cheltenham and on a whim decided to check out the film times and saw that there was a showing of Les Mis about to start. I'd been curious because of the rave reviews Anne Hathaway was getting (I'm a total nut for Hathaway) and though I had never even read up the story of Les Mis I bought my ticket and watched it solo! I don't know if the fact that I was alone and surrounded by literally weeping grannies had anything to do with it but the film completely knocked me for six. I went and saw it three more times at the cinema before it finished its run, I listened to the soundtrack and the original West End recording constantly, I bought the book (and promtly gave up on reading the book, which fans affectionaly call 'The Brick' due to it being the size of an actual brick)!

Though my obsession quietened down after a few months, its never really left me. I knew all I wanted for my birthday was to see it in the flesh and I could not have been more happy with what we got. I love both the film and the stage show for completely different reasons but my GOD the stage show is fantastic, I wouldn't want to spoil anything but jesus those performers are so talented and the way they set up backdrops and scenes is mind-boggling. So much creativity, you can easily see why its the longest running show in history.

If you think you don't like musicals I urge you to give it a go. Go with someone who does and let their passion spread to you, I think I've been turned on to musicals now, I really want to see Wicked and Matilda!

Mad Love for Mad Fat Diary

OMG, get with the times Robyn! Yes, I am completely behind on the My Mad Fat Diary bandwagon, and there is no excuse! Have you been watching? Its basically the most heartwrenching, heartwarming telly I've seen in bloody ages, its up there with This Is England as just fantastic viewing. Please tell me you've watched it because its all I can think about!?

If you're not up to speed, MMFD is a six part series that ran on E4 at the beginning of the year. Set in 1996, it follows Rae, a fat and slightly mental sixteen year old trying to get through life as best she can. It also has a whole host of other lovely characters and gosh, I could go into a lot of detail but if you haven't seen it its probably best to go in blind! (p.s. the boys are FIT.)

This show knocked me for six, its like someone peeped inside my head, took my teenage years and splashed them all across the screen. I think that's the beauty of it, no matter who you are we have all felt like Rae at some point. Not to mention how fat-positive it is, with well rounded female characters (with flaws!) and an accurate, sensitive portrayal of mental illness. It ticks nearly every box on the 'perfect telly' chart (my own personal chart fyi) and the last episode had me a sobbing wreck with how much it affected me.

 

Not only does it have all that, but it also has one of the best, well chosen soundtracks EVER! I mean, its not hard is it, to pick good songs in the midst of britpop, but it doesn't go for the obvious choices, there's Blur album tracks, THERE IS MY FAVOURITE STONE ROSES SONG. It seemed like once an episode I would go "HOW DO THEY KNOW I LOVE THIS ONE?" to "I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THAT SONG!" within minutes of each other. I can't deny I am not loving with britpop resurrection we are going through at the moment, what with the Stone Roses films coming out left, right and centre and all that.

Please please give this a chance! Its on 4OD, on amazon and coming back for a second series sometime this year!  It is WELL WORTH your time. CAPSLOCK.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

When I moved to London at the end of May we hadn't even sorted out the internet or anything. I was faced with two weeks of alone time (my boyfriend works full time!) with no contact with the outside world, and I wasn't really feeling it at all. After the first couple of days of watching daytime telly I realised I was missing a perfectly good opportunity to do some gaming. Michael's PS3 was sitting unused, and this one game was calling to me above all the others.

Ni No Kuni is a Japanese RPG, you control a little boy called Oliver and his Welsh fairy companion Mr Drippy. It's pretty standard JRPG fare, with spells and monsters and lessons about friendship. What sets this game above the rest is the fact that the animation was done by Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro) in their first foray into gaming. As you can imagine, the hook here is that the game is absolutely stunning. Stunning doesn't even do this game justice, I actually cannot think of another game that looks as brilliant as this one. From the first to the last seconds I never stopped marveling at the effort and love that has gone into this game design. 

Games these days are all about realism. I hate the cold, dead eyes of 'realistic' looking characters, I hate looking at war torn battlefields in shades of brown and grey, I don't care how accurate your blood spatter is, just give me a game that I can drink in. I like to get invested in games, I'll rack up hours and hours of game play, and I want to do that in a pleasant environment. Ni No Kuni is basically a breath of fresh air, providing rich fantasy landscapes and an astounding attention to detail. The art direction is interesting, as everything is hand drawn, some things like backgrounds are lovingly shaded whereas the characters and enemies are more cell-shaded. It helps the characters stick out so they don't get lost in the business of the world. God, it's just really bloody lovely, okay?!

The story isn't half bad either. If you took a big bowl and you poured in Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X and Pokemon, stirred it and put it in the oven for twenty minutes, you'd probably end up with something a bit like this. The vast amount of stuff you can do is a little intimidating to start with (the actual story is at least thirty hours of gameplay) but soon you'll be sucked in to it.  The game mechanics took me a little while to get used to (note: I am probably the world's worst gamer), especially switching stuff between battles, but at any time you can flick to easy mode until you get the grasp of something. It's those kind of touches that really make me think the creators were first a foremost going for a game that anyone can play.

Also, its pretty awesome to have a game where you don't kill anything. Sometimes you want to bash zombie brains in, sometimes you just want to send your enemies on a little time out. This is kid-friendly but doesn't feel childish. What I like is that the same stuff that you would laugh at playing it, a little kid would too. Maybe for different reasons, but it's more of a Pixar feel rather than a Dreamworks style rude joke that'll go over kids heads.

Ni No Kuni is currently on amazon for £25 which is a steal in my eyes considering my gameplay has reached 80+ hours and I've still got loads and loads of stuff to do! If you fancy some good fun, try it out!

Nail Review: Models Own Indian Ocean

I saw this polish the other day and was INSTANTLY SMITTEN. In the bottle it looks very blue with flecks of pink and silver glitter but as with ALL GLITTER POLISH what was in the bottle wasn't what it looked like on my nails.

So Indian Ocean is part of the Beetlejuice range from Models Own, which has a huge range of AMAZING polishes that are meant to reflect the way beetles look or some shit, I dunno, all I know is they are totally bad ass but it doesn't really stop the fact that Models Own don't make very good polish over all. It took four coats to get a nice coverage that was anything like on the bottle, and even then it was still a silver with hardly any blue. HOWEVER. The colour is amazing once you get it thick enough. Oh gosh, I could stare at it for hours! As well as that, it looks incredible as a top coat over other colours. I tried it with my U Rok nail polish (on my fourth fingers) and it is super nice, giving good coverage but still letting the other colour show through. I would definitely recommend this polish but be prepared to be disappointed if you want anything like that it looks like on the bottle!

FotD: A Foray into Lip Stain!

I was in Boots the other day and on a whim I picked up 17 Berry Crush Lip Stain and decided to give it a whirl. I'm totally out of love with lipstick at the moment because even with a lip pencil nothing stays on my lips or it ends up bleeding out. I thought a lip stain would solve all my problems, so I bought the 'Smoking Hot' version and tested it out!

 I have to say I wasn't that impressed. I like the idea of a lip stain but maybe I just bought a shitty product? When I was using the pen it felt like a felt tip that was running out, it didn't apply evenly and sometimes didn't come out at all! The only thing I could think of that was going wrong was that gravity wasn't allowing the 'ink' to come out since I was holding it upsidedown. Also, this stain comes with a lip balm on the other end. I used the lip balm about 15 minutes before applying the stain so maybe using it and putting the stain on top affected its performance? I will have to try it again without. The good news though is that the colour is very nice (here I have put just a plain red lipstick over the top with is why it's also a little glossy) and it stays on for FLIPPIN AGES. I went out to pub quiz, brushed my teeth and used a make up wipe at my lips were still stained slightly the next day. Very impressive! I would definitely buy a lip stain again but I think I would find another brand to try.

I've also added to my sunglasses collection (I think I have about twenty pairs now!) with these amazing ones from Primark. I just wish I had an excuse to wear them now! COME OUT SUN.

Review: Primark £1 Lipstick!

So I started work last Friday and the thing is I don't have any work clothes, so after work each day if I'm really struggling trying to put an outfit together for the next day, I pop into Primark (it's right next door to my work) and try and buy something smart. Today when I was paying (for a dress for a fiver!) I spotted that Primark were selling lippy for a quid. ONE POUND. you can't really go wrong, either its terrible and you haven't wasted any money, or its good and you feel good about it. So I bought two of them because I don't have any pink lipstick, and I got a candy pink and a bright pink. I thought I'd do a little review since I'm sure a lot of people are reluctant to try Primark cosmetics! Having said that, I really doubt Primark has an animal testing policy, and if they do I am too tired to go digging through their website so you might want to check that out before you buy!

These pictures are slightly terrifying. Okay, so the lipstick is you know, okay. I wouldn't buy it again, but it'll tide me over until I can afford something better. They don't apply very easily and they smell a lot like plasticine, but the colour is vibrant. In these pictures I am wearing both the shades of pink as I tend to mix my lipsticks up. They're quite matte but they are not very smooth going on, you really have to drag them over your lips to get a good application. 

Perhaps I would recommend this, especially if you don't know if a colour is going to suit you! Theya re great for experimenting and would probably work well as a base coat for a erm, better lipstick. Hope that helps!

New Favourite Nails: MUA Love Hearts 'U Rok'!

OMG I am soooo in love with this MUA Love Heart polish! At £2 you BASICALLY can't go wrong, I keep staring at my nails lovingly. This colour is 'U Rok' (which isn't even a little bit grammatically correct) and its sort of a parma violets colour, like a blueish purple. It's hard to explain, but so nice! It's very glossy and lovely and only needed two coats. I've had it on all week and its only chipped a little bit at the tips. WELL WORTH IT MATE.

Things have been quiet over here recently, I've started a new job for a little while which is ind of wiping me out! Not to mention the constant rain is driving me insane. I don't think I've opened my curtains for days! Don't want to even look at it!

L'Oreal Paris Intense Lipstick FotD!

My mum got a free sample of L'Oreal Paris 'Made For Me' Intense lipstick, and since it was a bright red she gave it to me instead! Score! The shade is 286, also known as Light Brunette I think and from what I gather, the actual product comes with a matching nail polish which is awesome!  I couldn't wait to try it out, so now I'm strutting around with red lips and it's not even lunch time. Is that indecent? I think it's probably awesome.

So this lipstick claims to be filled with omega 3's and all that jazz to make your lips smooth and I reckon my lips so feel smoother and perhaps even moistened, but I don't really like that feeling in a lipstick? I like it to feel invisible rather than lip-glossy if that makes sense. But it definitely does what it claims to!

The colour is absolutely gorgeous, with flecks of glitter that are quite subtle. It glides on very smoothly and is lighter than it looks in the tube. I wore this with a plain red liner underneath but it did still slip around a bit and bled out which is super annoying as I am completely paranoid about my lips bleeding out. If you were going to buy this I would suggest going easy on it perhaps as a shimmery top coat to a stained lip as I wouldn't trust it to stay on all day!

P.S. I'm completely in love with this Bobbi Brown mascara! It stays on forever and separates the lashes so easily.

Review: PS Vita and Touch My Katamari

Videogames are a huge part of my life. From my early beginnings of mashing buttons frantically on the SNES to the heady heights of frantically mashing buttons on the PS3, I've always enjoyed marathon sessions behind a console. I suppose I could be labelled a casual gamer, in that I am not down for boring first person shooters or pooping my pants playing survival horror. I much prefer my games to have bright colours, awesome music and a cartoony style. Some of my favourite franchises are Kingdom Hearts, Harvest Moon, Little Big Planet and of course, Katamari Damacy. My boyfriend is a huge videogame nerd, as in he works in the industry and everything, so when he messaged me a couple of weeks ago to tell me he'd bought a PS Vita and the new Katamari game, I practically tossed my cookies from excitement!

(visual representation of my mental state at that moment)

 Lemme give you the run-down on Katamari if you've never played it before. So the world is the world we know now, except stuff like bearcows and pegicorns and stuff exist, and all of the land is ruled over by a royal family, the head of who is The King Of All Cosmos. You are his son, the Prince, who is hard worked and generally under-appreciated by his family. But you don't mind, you're kinda chill about the whole thing. In fact, you're a mute, it seems. So every game has some situation that leads to the Prince having to build katamaris for the King to turn into stars. A katamari is a sticky ball that you use to roll up objects on Earth, ranging from tiny ants to skyscrapers, to whole continents to planets and even the whole universe! The bigger your katamari gets, the more outrageous things you can pick up. You are then sent back to the king who assesses your efforts (he is not easily pleased) and the game carries on like this until it's finished.

The beauty of Katamari Damacy comes from its simple concept. I cannot tell you why it is so satisfying to roll up screaming people running away from your ball of doom, but it just IS. The creators know this and so the game hasn't changed much since it was first released. The graphics are still awesome with a chalky sort of colour that makes it soothing on the eyes, and a lot of focus goes into the music, where a whole song is recorded for each level (here is my favourite song).

 Touch My Katamari was one of the games launched with the PS Vita and was the game I was most excited about playing. I love the PS3 game Katamari Forever, so I was super stoked to try this one out. Firstly, it's a great game. Nothing much has changed, you are given the option to still the same controls as usual and you still have the jumping feature which I always found useful. 

There are some slight alterations thought. You can make you katamari stretch into a sausage shape or a erm, tall sausage shape to help you collect lots of things at once by using the touch pad. You don't  HAVE to use this, but I found it pretty neat. However, more down to the design of the Vita itself, it can be hard to stretch into the shape, especially with the time limits, and sometimes because there is a second touch screen on the back of the console it does it when you don't want it too!

Another flaw that was annoying was that some items in the distance didn't show up until you were super close to them, which is annoying when you're trying to plan your best route to roll up small things first. I think my biggest problem with this game was that it was incredibly short. Perhaps I was spoiled by Katamari Forever, but I expected more than the number of levels I was given, and within a weekend I had completed the game on normal and eternal modes. Of course, there is limited space on such a small bit of machinery, but Katamari is such an addiction that I was craving more by the time I had finished. Luckily, the replay value of this game is enormous and I still have to complete the games on drive mode, collect all of the 'curios' and presents. You can "buy" new levels with "fan damacys" but they are hard to come by and seemingly appear at random so it is slow-going!

Overall, the game is as charming and fun as ever and I will probably be buying new Katamari games until the day I die. The dialogue in this game is probably the funniest out of all of them, the King is priceless! It is worth the money just for that, the songs and the awesome graphics alone and even though it is a short game I can see myself replaying it over and over again! If you are put off by it looking like a kid's game I can assure you it is not, and that you will have the most fun ever playing it!!

And now I shall write a little about the Vita. I didn't get to have a proper nose around it seeing as I was only with my bf for the weekend, but I'll tell you what I did and didn't like about it anyway. Okay so firstly, from what I can gather, the Vita hasn't performed well at all in the sales, but I think this might be because there hasn't been much buzz about it? I don't think I've seen even one advert for it anywhere. I feel a bit sorry for it because it's like, a billion times better than the PSP. I'll let you in on a secret, I'm kinda a Nintendo girl. My boyfriend is a PlayStation man through and through, but I don't think I'll ever stop lovin' Nintendo. What I like most about Nintendo consoles is that they just seem so solid. I feel like I could throw my GameCube down a flight of stairs and it would still work. I've still got my N64 up and running as we speak and my DS has survived moving house three times. 

 

The Vita makes me nervous. It feels so delicate and technical, it has sticking out analogue sticks for christsakes, and I'm always positive I'm going to break it whenever I touch it. Unlike the DS, it doesn't protect itself by folding the screens away, it just sits there open to the elements in your bag or whatever, with a kind of flimsy leather case. The Vita is also expensive, retailing at around £200 with expensive games, which is quite steep.

Saying this though, the Vita has some great changes from the PSP which made me fall a little in love with it. For one, Sony have finally, grudgingly, stopped using mini discs. The amount of noise those discs used to make was phenomenal, but now that they've switched to cartridges there's nothing but sweet, sweet silence and much faster loading and saving times. The introduction to touch pads is neat, but I feel like the extra one on the back is unnecessary and annoying, why would you want a touch pad where your hands rest when you're holding it?!  The wi-fi is much, much better than Nintendo, and I know Nintendo have this whole "consoles are for gaming only" thing going on, but being able to access the internet and watch films and stuff (I believe Netflix is coming to the Vita) is a huge convenience, especially when the screen is so lovely and clear.

Overall, I don't think I'm ready to switch to Vita and toss out my DS, but for serious gamers and tech-heads the Vita is a great "piece of kit" (that's what techincal people say, isn't it?)

Let's take a second to talk about...

When I was little the one thing I hated above anything else was having my hair washed and brushed. I still hate it. I put off washing my hair for as long as possible and some days I don't brush at all! My hair is very thick and gets knotted very easily, dragging a brush through it was an ordeal every morning and it it took a buttload of time to brush after washing. I was going through Amazon one day when I was something that caught me eye. It was a hairbrush, but it was nearly ten quid! Scoffing, I checked it out thinking that I never would spend a tenner on a bloody hairbrush, but I am now the proud owner of a sparkly, purple Tangle Teezer.

Tangle Teezer promises to brush your hair, wet or dry, and not pull or cause breakage. It's a heavy promise to make but BY JOVE, IT BLADDY WORKS. Okay, so it doesn't stop pulling your tangles COMPLETELY, but it doesn't hurt! When I first used it I wasn't even convinced it was going all the way trhough my hair because it wasn't coming across all the knots a usual brush does, but its just because it has a clever way of untangling them. I would recommend this brush just for that alone, but it actually seems to have done a lot more for my hair. For instance, I used to have a really bad shedding problem. My hair fell out all the time, it covered the carpet in my room, it got in my food and on all my clothes and it especially came out in clumps in the shower. Since using the TT I've noticed that a lot of my hair stays where it should do, or perhaps any lose hairs all get caught by the bristles. My hair also just feels better, less fly-away and softer. I don't know if that's a promise from the TT, but that's what it's done for me! (Also I reckon it would make a great pet brush.)

The only draw back is the design. Countless times its gone flinging out of my hand and under the bed because it's shaped like a bit of soap and doesn't have a handle. WEIRD. I don't know why they did that, but I looked and I think you can get them with handles now. They are expensive, but it is well worth it! I've seen a lot of other lbog posts about the TT recently too so it's definitely not just me who loves it!

Nail Review: Liberty of London x Hello Kitty

I don't know if I'm going mad or what but I can't find a single thing about the Liberty of London x Hello Kitty nail polish collaboration, and I know it exists because I'VE GOT IT IN MY BLADDY HAND. Its a trio of polishes all in the Liberty colours that comes in a really cute tin. I got it for Christmas around the same time I also got the eyeshadow pallet so I don't even know if its still being sold, but I got it from Boots anyway. They look like this:

I've gotta be honest, it's a really weird mixture of colours that I wouldn't wear together, but for the purpose of this review I've put all the colours together since I assume that's what you're meant to do, otherwise why would they come together? So there's a greeny blue one which I have been describing as "navy green", a dark pink and a berry red colour. The pots are small and hard to open, as these bite marks on the lids will testify to:

And here are all the colours on my nails, as helped to be shown off by Totoro:

Okay so, firstly I found them quite runny and for someone as rubbish as me at applying nail polish it was a bit nerve-wracking, in fact my fingers looked a mess afterwards. But it does dry very quickly! I've only done one coat as I'm taking it off again, but the green is a nice, deep colour whilst the red could do with another coat. The biggest surprise was the pink polish, WHICH DRIED MATTE. You sneaky thing. It's my favourite one and it looks bloody lovely, but it's quite thin so you definitely need another coat. The matte is really nice though and I would say if you can get it by itself then get it because it feels lovely and looks great. Overall, I'm glad I didn't buy this for myself. If you're a fan of Hello Kitty then you might want to get it because they are cute bottles! Also the tin is the perfect size for storing all my ticket stubbs.

My Dust'n Off The Ol' Guitar Package!

This morning it was so cold that I slept inside a sleeping bag inside my duvet for the first time since living in a student house. It's not even snowing here, just everything is covered in frost. The trees are white with frost! It's really eerie because it's so foggy too, it's almost like someone's just erased all the colour from the outside. My morning perked up considerably though when I heard the letterbox go and something heavy dropped onto the floor. I'm was expecting three things in the post, but this is what I wanted badly! I think it was a good omen last night that I fell asleep listening to The Early November, as it was my Dust'n Off The Ol' Guitar CD and t-shirt! Regular readers to my blog will have seen me mention this before, it's a CD from I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business aka Ace Enders and it's amazing. I got the digital copy ages ago but it's so nice to have the physical copy finally in my hands! I like to listen to CDs whilst I scramble eggs in my kitchen in the morning, and I'm so glad to finally add Dust'n to the mix! For anyone interested, I've photo'd what it looks like in case your were curious..
Firstly, here's what the album looks like. Pretty sweet, huh? It's signed by Ace which is really cute, I've never had anything signed before. The inside has got a college of really nice photos, including an adorable one of Ace, his wife Jen and their little baby Artie. Jen's blog can be found here and is a great insight into how to live with a musician. It's also got a nice, personal thank you note. The back has got some more cute photography including a screenshot of the album I guess whilst it was being made. The whole thing feels very personal and special and I'm glad I can have a small part in helping Ace make more albums or tours.
I also got a t-shirt! It's got screen printed cowboys sitting round a fire with I Can Make A Mess written on it. I got mine in a girl's large and it's pretty tight, but really soft. I'm kind of envious that Americans seem to have really nice, thin and soft t-shirts where as band t-shirts in the UK are definitely not this advanced yet!

You can buy Dust'n Off The Ol' Guitar however you want here, and keep a look out for Ace's Christmas tracks that he's recording! They have a deal on at the moment that you can buy a digital bundle of The World We Know, Dust'n and the Christmas songs for fifteen bucks. If you live in the UK that's a steal! Think about it. :)

Top 10 Films Of 2010 (Part II)!

Oops! My "tomorrow" turned into a whole weekend of procrastinating and I never even left my bed let alone got any blogging done! Part II is a little late but it's better than never. Counting down from five to one, here are my favourite films of 2010...

5. Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio plays migrane plagued detective in this Martin Scorcese film noir. Set in a mental asylum for the criminally insane, on a secluded island, during a storm. Atmospheric only slightly describes this gorgeous film!

I'm so glad it's now acceptable to say that Leo is a fantastic actor (possibly the greatest of his generation)! Like, before he started teaming up with Scorcese, everyone knew he was good but it was sort of embarrassing to admit because he was in Titanic and Romeo + Juliet (amazing films btw) and they were "chick flicks" and everything. Of course, I always knew Leo was amazing as evidenced by my obsession with him when I was twelve years old. I had a giant poster of his face above my pillow! Anyway, he's able to showcase his talents along with a great supporting cast as he unearths the mysteries of the creepy old mental hospital. Some parts are shit-your-pants-scary, it's hard not to become completely engrossed in this film.

4. Cemetary Junction
This Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant film moves away from comedy in favour of drama, telling the story of a group of teenagers from Reading in the 1970s.

Ricky Gervais is no stranger to drama. Some of the most memorable and touching parts of The Office and Extras were the parts that made you cry. Dawn and Tim finally getting together. Ricky's speech whilst in Celebrity Big Brother on Extras. This film does a lot of that, laying it on thick with the nostalgia and emotion. And it totally works. I found myself emotionally invested in the characters (who are mostly far too good looking to have come from Reading (I joke, I joke!)) who have to deal with sexism and having no money and the thought of having to work in a factory for the rest of your life because your parents don't have the money to send you to university. With the increase of tuition fees in the UK, some of these problems are what kids these days are also worrying about. The set pieces, hair styles, clothes, everything is right with this film. Please watch it if you get the chance!

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part I)
The seventh installment of the films sees Dumbledore dead, Voldemort alive and the whole wizarding world thrown into chaos. No one is safe, but who will make it out alive?

If you haven't seen this yet I would urge you to do so immediately! To reiterate a cliche, these films have got darker and better with each one. I love ALL the Harry Potter films, I love the books (a little too much) and everything and anything else to do with Harry Potter (except the fan fiction), so I may be a little biased but this film left my mouth hanging open for the entire two and a half hours. It's like it suddenly hit me that every great actor from British film for the past 50 years was assembled for these films, and I felt so proud to be British and have such an amazing showcase of talent being seen around the world. The trio's acting gets a special mention for being really good, as does the special effects which really are magical. I can't believe there's a six month wait 'til the next one! At the same time, I'm sort of dreading it because that will be the end then, wont it? No more Harry Potter. Nothing. Best not to think about it!

2. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Not to be mixed up with the Harvey Keitel film of the same name, this Werner Herzog directed film deals with a good cop gone bad, his battle with addiction and the tangled web he weaves.

Like in A Clockwork Orange, Bad Lieutenant has you rooting for the bad guy from the start. Nicholas Cage is actually amazing in this film. It's not often you can say that sentence (even if he is one of my favourite actors) but this film really warrants it. Nic seems completely at home playing a borderline psychotic cop who's having a bad time.

It's a travesty that this film wasn't on a nationwide release. I had to watch it at an independant cinema when this should have taken over the cinemas this summer. It came out at a perfect time, when the sticky heat of New Orleans was mirrored by the heatwave in the UK. It only helped to immerse you. Not only is this film totally badass, but it's also REALLY funny. Like, belly laughing funny.

1. Four Lions
Chris Morris tackles the controversial subject of inept terrorists and their plan to blow up London in this deeply funny and surprisingly emotional film about friendship, marriage and er, bombing stuff.

If you didn't see this at the cinema you missed out. Clearly anything with Brasseye creator's Chris Morris and Screen Burn's Charlie Brooker attatched was going to be worth a viewing, even if it was just for the moral outrage. But Four Lions was more than something to get uppity about, it actually revealed the more human side to a culture so shrouded in rumours and misconceptions. A man reading his son a bedtime story, comforting his wife, having a water fight. Rather than demonise Islamic terrorists this film made you sympathetic towards them, which is what I think most people found deeply uncomfortable about this film.

Of course, it's also funny. It's funny in a way you've never seen funny before. It's probably one of the most important films to have come out since teror-phobia gripped the Western world. If one film can stand up and tell everyone to please chill the fuck out, it deserves all the respect it has gotten. That's why it's my number one film of 2010!

Honorable mentions go to: Despicable Me (amazing but not as much as Toy Story), Inception (couldn't put two Leo films so chose my favourite), Machete (isn't showing in a cinema near me but I know it'll be amazing), Kick-Ass, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World!

Top 6 Albums Of 2010!

Man, I get so excited for the end of the year because it caters to my need to list EVERYTHING in my favourite order. I love 'Top Films of 2010' lists and the more obscure '10 Video Game Disappointments of 2010", I love how BBC3 have 'Most Annoying People of 2010' programs...It's a total addiction! With this in mind, here is my first in a regular installment for December, my 'Tops of 2010' lists! This one is albums. I chose six because I couldn't narrow it down to five! Obviously I listen to mostly one style of music above others, so this isn't a very balanced list, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

6. I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business - Dust'n Off The Ol' Guitar

Ace Enders has had a great year this year, he released the great The World We Know, showing that he is only improving as a musician and lyricist, but it's his reworkings of old classic songs from his career that really caught my eye.

What I like about this album is the amount of input fans had in it. They asked Ace for it, they requested the songs and within months it was up and ready. How many guys do you know that would do that for their fans?

Of course, not to mention the songs on here are really, really good. This wasn't just some cop-out record to make money. You can tell Ace really tried to make every song special and new. It totally works as an acoustic album, it's calming and showcases Ace's great voice better than any other record. Hearing the songs in a new way (especially the classic Want To Hear You Sad) breathes a new life into them and brings back the magic of when you first them. My favourite off the record is now Baby Blue, but there isn't a weak song on the album. You can buy the record here. I always recommend buying a physical copy, but that's just my general geekiness for album sleeves and CD art shining through!

5. Alkaline Trio - This Addiction

Alkaline Trio have been consistently bringing out amazing records for years and years whilst also managing to visit the UK to play shows what seems like yearly! A very impressive feat that shows how hard working these guys are. This Addiction is their seventh studio album and mirrors more of the old style that Trio were making in the early days.

Some people will say that Trio lost their touch, and that their previous album (Agony and Irony) strayed too far from a formula that works for them. This is bullshit, Agony and Irony had a bunch of great songs on (example), but This Addiction blows it out of the water- that's how good it is!
The (what I assume) Misfit's tribute song Dine Dine My Darling is probably the highlight of the album by being a quick, funny play on words song that is Trio's trademark. The rest of the album follows suit and is just a brilliant rock album! You can buy it here. (Note: I always link to the artist or record company website because in my head I think more money will go to the artist, most if not all of these albums are probably on Amazon or Play.)

4. Foxy Shazam - Self Titled

Okay, I've written about Foxy on here before so hopefully people are familiar with their distinctive style of madness! This is the band's third studio album, with added trumpet player and all the old favourite members. To be honest, it's worth buying this album for the artwork alone! It makes me smile so much!

It's hard to explain Foxy to people who have never listened to them. I would say go watch a live video and then come back, to get a sense of the theatrics and chaos that is supreme both on and off this album.

From the start where Eric invites his "dogs" to help him sing a song, to the touching tributes to his family on Connect and Oh Lord the one thing this album is saturated in is emotion. It's infectious, it makes you want to dance and swing your arms and pull muscles. The album does strange things to whoever listens to it and will leaveyour mind blown. Buy the album here!

3. Free Energy - Stuck On Nothing

Another band to feature heavily on this blog, this album ruled my summer! And when I talk about this album I wont bang on about how James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem produced the album because frankly it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Free Energy are somehow fresh, just by sounding old. Doesn't make much sense, does it? But you only have to see the great year the band have had to agree that their psychedellic twinged pop has captured the hearts of a lot of music fans.

The band are currently completing a tour with Foxy Shazam and are set to support Weezer on the upcoming Pinkerton anniversary tour. They've supported Motion City Soundtrack and played at Reading Festival. This is a band you should be taking seriously.

The lyrics are about love and partying and being with your friends and enjoying life, the songs are in managable 3 minute slices though it's not hard to get completely lost in the album and realise you've listened to it five times in a row. The songs run into each other effortlessly, almost like it's a concept album dedicated to a much better time. Evan's vocals are like syrup! Pick up Stuck On Nothing here.

2. Hellogoodbye - Would It Kill You?

What can I say about Hellogoodbye that I haven't already said in my previous reviews?

I was going mental waiting for this album to come out, it was torture. I knew it was going to be fantastic, but it was never quite in reach. It was worth the wait by being my second favourite album of this year. It doesn't just appeal to me, everyone I've shown a few songs to has loved it. It's come just at the right time, when other kind of "kooky" bands have had major success, like Vampire Weekend and MGMT. I'm not comparing this record to them, but the desire to do something that makes the band happy is similar.

The gamble to completely change their sound has paid off, as this record is completely mature and lovely and full of hidden notes and instruments. I cannot recommend this album enough, it does funny things to my insides. Buy it here!

1. Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life

The Mark Hoppus produced album takes my top spot! My Dinosaur Life came out all the way back in Janurary and has been my favourite album all year. In this year I have seen MCS three times, sang along to the songs and fallen a little bit in love with Justin Pierre. I've first pumped and followed their blogs, twitters and tumblrs. I've pretty much lived and breathed this band in 2010.

This is their fourth offering, staying true to the formula that'sgiven people so much pleasure over the years. That's something I really like about MCS, they haven't changed at all. The sound may have become more refined, but they never strayed far from what works for them. I love the synths and Justin's vocals, I love the pop culture references just as much as I did when I heard their debut album. This is one band that could never be accused of selling out.

Every single track on this album could be a hit, and they've made some killer videos to go along with it. My favourite is Disappear, which reminds me of Where The Wild Things Are. The lyrics are so honest, for example on Delirium which deals with Justin's problems with anxiety. Without this album, I would have been lost this year! It's literally made up about a quarter of my music plays (thanks Last.fm!). You can buy My Dinosaur Life here!

What were your favourite albums of 2010?

Hellogoodbye - Would It Kill You: Review!

So I got my digital copy of the new Hellogoodbye record in my inbox this week after what seems like MONTHS of anticipation! As I said before, I ordered the wallet bundle but living in the UK, having a digital copy to listen to straight away is a god send!

I've been listening to it basically non-stop for three days now and I have to say, it's a perfect record. For fans (or not fans!) of Hellogoodbye, forget everything you remember from Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! because with a new line up (including past Early November member Joseph Marro) they have completely changed their sound. They've matured from the synth pop into something more folky. It's energetic and fun and sometimes frantic. River's voice goes perfectly with the style of the music and I think really, it just sounds happy. It's a content record, it's like the happiness the band feels touches you through the music.

I loved old Hellogoodbye, but as I've grown so has their sound. There's a lot of appearances by ukuleles and xylophones, it sounds innocent and pure. The only fault I could find with this album is that it's so short! At just under 40 minutes with 11 tracks, I wanted it to last forever!

I would totally recommend this for everyone. Buy it for yourself, buy it for your hipster brother, buy it for your mum for Christmas! The lists are endless, just go out their and support this amazing band. My favourite tracks include Finding Something To Do (ba da da da da!) and the old favourite The Thoughts That Give Me The Creeps. Betrayed By Bones is fantastic too, with a big band feel that for some reason reminds me of Dead Man's Bones! I don't think there's a weak track on this album, I don't think I can praise it highly enough! I do tend to get over-excited about stuff I like, but I really really mean it this time! You can buy the album here (or anywhere!) and here's a video of Finding Something To Do...
And as a final note I'd like to say again that I'm not sponsored to say anything on this blog, I don't get given any free stuff! This is all my own opinions.

Deadgirl: A Review

Following on from yesterday's horror review, here's something completely different! This is a little film from 2008 called Deadgirl. I picked up Deadgirl in a record shop for £2, where I was swayed by the DVD box boasting of the producers of Heathers (one of my favourite films of all time) being involved! I'll be honest, for £2 I wasn't expecting much and what I got was a rather disturbing but beautifully filmed film, with more in common with the airy feel of The Virgin Suicides than any usual high school horror film.

The premise is generic to start out with. Two highschool guys with family problems and little to no popularity decide to ditch school and get fucked up in an abandoned mental hospital. Think you can tell what's coming? Forget it. Though this film starts like teen slasher, the beginning is really all they have in common. Things do take a turn for the worse inside the hospital, but in a completely different way. In fact, the thing that is meant to kill them is restrained. It cannot hurt them, and there lies the focus of the film. The whole film is about morals, battling with your emotions, witnessing a crime and doing nothing about it. What would you do in that situation? When is a good time to confess when things start escalating in a deadly way?

The lead guy in this, Shiloh Fernandez, was on the short list to play Edward Cullen in Twilight. You can tell why. He's intriguing to look at, he's broody but he could never be a teen heartthrob. Whereas Robert Pattinson is safe, there's a danger behind Fernandez's eyes. It seeps through into the film, doubting your trust in him even though he's the main character. The rest of the cast are fantastic as well, with good performances making everyone seem believable. The Deadgirl especially, is really freaky!

What I like about this film is no one is a wholly good or bad character. I guess the point they were trying to make is that everyone has a little bad in them, everyone has a price you could pay them to sin. It's pretty deep stuff, and I think this film could have become a massive cult hit. I think what's stopping it reaching that status is the ending, which is unclear and ambiguous, with not enough resolution. Sometimes it feels a little silly, and sometimes it feels like its taking itself too seriously. All in all it's an enjoyable two hours, and for £2 it's a bargain! It is gory, and disturbing, but if you think you can handle it, I totally recommend this! I got my copy from Rise but it's also available from all the usual places!