Apollo 18 (2011)

I went to see the "Documentary" about why we did not go back to the Moon after Apollo 17. Yeah I like the fact that they push the fact that it is reality but really it gets boring when they continue pushing it as reality all the way to the end of advertising and the film, so sorry for spoilers if you thought that a revelation like this would be released on the big screen rather than as front page breaking news. It surprises me that people fall in to the trap of thinking that "Real" stories will be released on the big screen, it is fun marketing but really goes to far for me. This film does it in the standard way with teaser trailers and the "true story" about where the footage comes from and I am happy enough with this as a concept but it is depressing how stupid some people can be when NASA have to issue and announcement that Apollo 18 is not a documentary.

Anyway the story is a found footage story based upon 84 hours of material uploaded to the internet and then edited into the film in front of you. The story is around the 3 astronauts of the top secret Apollo 18 mission to the Moon to put down sensors and gather more samples and it is what they found on the Moon. Now it is hand held and fixed camera footage and it gets old quite quickly for a short film and the fact that the claim to have so much footage there are longs spells of not a lot happening. It preys on the claustrophobic nature of the capsule, and the fact that there is nowhere for them to go and getting home is difficult. I think that they do a fantastic job with the characters, making you care for them and feeling empathy when they feel the pressure and tension of the situation they find themselves in.

This is a very clever film, it takes an idea and pushes it as far as it can. The actors and way that the footage is put together is actually almost believable they make you think that in reality this is actually a possibility. I enjoyed it I rate this a good 3 stars and it is well worth a watch.

Jason X (2001)

Now we are getting to the point where the series has gone to the outer limits of weirdness and it works so well because the makers know this and really push the boundaries of the series. This is a comedy with horror elements but the main focus of the film is definitely comedy and there are one liners thrown out with abandon.

The performances from Jason and the 'victims' are all very good and to watch this and give a spoilerific review would simply be to go through all the jokes and repeat the one liners. It is funny and given the right atmosphere then there would be raucous out loud laughing.

This is 4 stars of Space bound horror comedy for me, there is an excellent cameo at the start from David Cronnenberg who comes from nowhere and there are some excellent jokes in this film. If you watch 2 Friday films, watch the first one and this one.

Attack the Block (2011)

Went to see this at the cinema and had quite high expectations of the film, based on the British core running through it. I think my expectations were to high for the film, there is nothing really wrong with the film but from the first time you meet the main characters you struggle to like them for anything they do and the attitude they have. This seems to be the main flaw in the film is that they do not seem to know what they want to portray. They have the Teenage gang running the block and then they are supposed to be the heroes of the film. They try comedy but it does play along side the fear in the neighbourhood and the realism of inner city London that they try to portray.

Joe Cornish as a director does a really good job apart from struggling to decide in what direction to take the film, I think he should have gone more comedy than using the fear elements of Harry Brown that he tried to feature, I think that if it was more like Shaun of the Dead then there would have been a bit more to it. The acting was excellent and the language used was about right for the area they were trying to achieve and in many ways they captured people's fears of teenagers but did not do anything to really change my perception of teenagers.

I am going to say 3 stars and if you are interested then it will be worth seeing for you, if you have no interest in seeing it then you really will probably not get anything from it.