Unlimited October

October

Number	Name of Film	Rating	Date Watched	Directed by;	Price
1	Made in Dagenham	R	17/10/2010	Nigel Cole	£6.60
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5	---	---	---	---	---

Okay.  I haven't seen any movies in a while.


Due to various issues with Cineworld and their direct debit collection, I ended up paying for the entire year, after which my card will be cancelled (I may or may not reconsider this).  They also gave me a month free.

So, as things stand at the moment, I've paid £148.50 for my card, instead of £162.  I've seen £71.40 worth of movies with it.


I'm down £77.10, but my card is good till January fifth, and I take the final exam of my course tomorrow (so a ton of free time after that).  Let's see how fast we can make that gap shrink.

10 Things I Hate About You

A reprint of an old review. I wrote it before Ledger's death, so it's quite weird re-reading it.

This film is hilarious. Loosely based on Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", 10 Things I Hate About You tells the story of two sisters, Bianca and Kat. Their overbearing father, who works in a maternity ward, and therefore has an immense fear of getting pregnant does not allow them to date. This does not bother Kat, who tends to keep herself aloof from her peers. It does, however, bother Bianca. After much pleading, her father changes the rules; Bianca can date when Kat does. This opens the doors for Bianca's many admirers, one of whom comes up with the plan of paying someone (Patrick Verona) to date Kat.

At times, this film almost comes across as a parody of itself. It's not believable, in the sense that you can see it actually happening - it's a little too out there, for that. However, the acting is good (with an extraordinarily young Heath Ledger, and an equally youthful Julia Stiles), and the characters are endearing. There are so many great lines in the film, i had trouble choosing just one for the title of this review. The music is amazing (the first CD I ever bought was the soundtrack to this film), and although the film does come across as slightly dated, it has some of the more classic moments of romantic teen comedy (ie, Patrick serenading Kat in front of their classmates, a scene which was parodied in 'Not Another Teen Movie'). To be quite honest, the film's worth seeing just for the guidance counsellor and her trashy novel.

In summary, this film is a must for anyone who likes romantic comedy. Or Heath Ledger, the little cutie.

Unlimited July

July

Number	Name of Film	Rating	Date Watched	Directed by;	Price
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5	---	---	---	---	---

...yep, I didn't see anything throughout June. I've been busy. We'll see how it goes to the end of the year.

Peckham Finishing School for Girls

Peckham Finishing School for Girls is a three-episode show for BBC3, in which four home counties "posh girls" are dropped into Peckham. They are mentored by four Peckham girls, and given the odd job or task to do, while, hopefully, seeing the other side of things. All three episodes are currently up on the BBC's iPlayer. There's also a rather good overview of the general idea of the series in the Metro.

There are clashes from the start. One girl compares her routine of getting up at 5am, ice-skating and modelling to that of being a cleaner. They all, when given £30 to spend on Peckham clothing, decide to waste the money and arse about, something that greatly angers the Peckham girls who rarely get new things. One of them, on hearing about a Peckham girl's experiences in care, starts crying. I paraphrase; "Oh-em-gee, your experiences have upset ME so much, everyone crowd around and comfort ME, because it's just so hard for ME hearing about how tough your life is!".

And so on.

I love train wreck TV. I also rather like Serena, although she's not really getting as much screen time as that irritating Cat.

BBC3

BBC3 seems to be trying a lot of new comedy-drama shows recently. Stanley Park's currently on. Quick review; painfully self-referential, and incredibly clumsy in execution. It plays like a dreadful parody of Sex and the City crossed with Two Pints crossed with Hollyoaks.

I did rather like Peckham Finishing School for Girls, but more on that once I've been responsible and finished studying.

Unlimited May

May

Number	Name of Film	Rating	Date Watched	Directed by;	Price
1	Ironman 2	12A	5/5/2010	Jan Favreau	£4.30
2	A Nightmare on Elm Street	18	16/5/2010	Samuel Bayer	£4.30
3	Furry Vengeance	PG	17/5/2010	Roger Kumble	£4.30
4	A Nightmare on Elm Street	18	24/5/2010	Samuel Bayer	£4.30

Why yes, I did see Nightmare on Elm Street twice. I had my reasons.

The Bechdel-Wallace Test

The Bechdel-Wallace test is - you know what? I'm just going to quote from TV Tropes here;

The Bechdel Test or the Bechdel-Wallace Test is a sort of litmus test for female presence in movies and TV. In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria:

1. it includes at least two women,
   
2. who have at least one conversation alone
   
3. about something other than a man or men.

Now, by limiting yourself to shows/movies that pass the test, you'd be cutting out a lot of otherwise-worthy entertainment; indeed, a fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for including no women (e.g. ones set in a men's prison or on a military submarine or with no conversations at all or with only one character). You may even be cutting out a lot of works that have a feminist tone. But that's the point: too little fiction created today, particularly in TV and movies, has independent female characters. Things have improved since the test was first formulated (the strip in which it was originally suggested was written in 1985), but Hollywood still needs to be prodded to put in someone other than The Chick.

The Bechdel test, or Bechdel-Wallace was first suggested in the webcomic Dykes to Watch Out For, and you can see the specific strip here.

After reading that page, a question began to torment me. Just how many of my movies (as in, the ones I own on DVD) pass?

Well, let's see. Below is a list of the movies I own - in alphabetical order, because that's how I role - with comments as to how well they do on the Bechdel-Wallace test. What I'm going to do is, watch all of these films over again, in alphabetical order, and add in comments as I do (I have a lot of knitting/rugmaking/studying to get done, and movies help a lot). Fail will be a sharp red colour, while a pass will be green.  When the film only just scrapes through, it will be a lilac-y blue shade.  I generally include conversations about children as being "about men", but I'll normally note when I've done this.  If you disagree, comment, and we can discuss it.

I did not realise that I owned this many films. This isn't even including TV series'.

Title	Comments	Pass/Fail
10 Things I Hate About You	Passes within the first ten minutes, when Kat and the guidance counsellor talk about Kat's attitude.  If that's not enough, Bianca and her friend manage a talk about being "whelmed" before Joey interrupts. Later, Kat and Bianca have a talk about their respective attitudes and their mother.
17 Again	Failed miserably. No, wait! I just remembered that little conversation at the beginning, with the girls congratulating Wendy on her promotion! Half-pass, since they weren't main characters and Mike was standing just behind them.
America's Sweethearts	I was only half paying attention, but I'm pretty sure this failed, unless you want to count Kiki haranguing the waitress about butter (she doesn't reply, so it's not really conversation).
American Pie	Well, Vicky and her friend do talk about orgasms, but they're also talking about Kevin, so I'm going to call it a fail.
American Pie 2	---	---
American Pie 3	---	---
American Beauty	---	---
Anastasia	---	---
Another Cinderella Story	---	---
Battle Royale	---	---
Battle Royale II: Requim	---	---
Before Sunrise	---	---
Big Daddy	---	---
Bridge to Terabithia	---	---
Bruce Almighty	---	---
The Butcher's Wife	---	---
Children of Men	---	---
Cruel Intentions	---	---
The Dark Crystal	---	---
Definitely, Maybe	---	---
The Devil Wears Prada	---	---
The Doll Master	---	---
Drop Dead Gorgeous	---	---
East is East	---	---
Enchanted	---	---
Evan Almighty	---	---
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children	---	---
The Ghost	---	---
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time	---	---
The Handmaid's Tale	---	---
Happy-Go-Lucky	---	---
Hard Candy	Hailey calls her friend to discuss plans for after her "date".  Although she does mention Jeff in that conversation, it may just scrape through.
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not	---	---
Heathers	---	---
Howl's Moving Castle	---	---
Into the Mirror	---	---
Juno	---	---
The Lake House	---	---
Legally Blonde	---	---
Life or Something Like It	---	---
Love Me If You Dare	---	---
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium	---	---
Mean Girls	---	---
Memoirs of a Geisha	---	---
Minority Report	---	---
The Mummy	---	---
The Mummy Returns	---	---
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	---	---
Mona Lisa Smile	---	---
Not Another Teen Movie	---	---
The Orphanage	---	---
The Other Boleyn Girl	---	---
The Others	---	---
The Parent Trap	---	---
Persepolis	---	---
Priscilla	---	---
Saved!	---	---
The Shawshank Redemption	Instant fail - there aren't two female characters.
Shrek	---	---
Shrek 2	---	---
Shrek the Third	---	---
Sister Act	---	---
Sky High	---	---
Sliding Doors	---	---
Slumdog Millionaire	---	---
South Park	---	---
Son of Rambow	---	---
Strings	---	---
The Swan Princess	---	---
The Truman Show	---	---
A Very Long Engagement	---	---
Where the Heart Is	Passes when Sister and Novalee talk outside the Walmart.