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Movies Reviews

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

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Movies Reviews

Review: The Social Network

The Social Network

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Movies Reviews

Review: The Town

The Town

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Movies Reviews

Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire

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Movies Reviews

Review: Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3

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Movies Reviews

Review: Inception

Inception

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Movies Reviews

Review: Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2

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Movies Reviews

Review: Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass

Mark Millar’s comic book attracted some interest but the story was not controversial until it became adapted for the big screen. The idea of a 12 year old girl calling gangsters cunts and then slaughtering them was considered by many people who hadn’t even seen the film to be beyond the pale.

But that is kind of the point. It firmly establishes early on that this is set in the real world where the bad guys can win and innocent people can be killed or gravely injured, but then it throws at the viewers the traditional tropes of the superhero action movie. It messes with how the viewer is supposed to watch and enjoy the film, it dares people to enjoy stuff that they see as immoral.

You are supposed to be unnerved by the violence performed by Hit Girl and see Big Daddy as being as monstrous as the mob boss Frank D’Amico.

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Movies Reviews

Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The original Swedish title Män som hatar kvinnor translates to Men Who Hate Women, which is I think is a little literal. I prefer the enigmatic English title, but I think that this is typical of what I believe is a fundamental difference between Swedes and Brits.

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Movies Reviews

Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a fascinating documentary about filmmaker Thierry Guetta who in his failed attempt to make a documentary of Banksy became himself a street/pop artist and subject of this documentary film made by Banksy.

Thierry Guetta is a fascinating character who through his cousin became an unofficial documentarist of the street art world. It was all based on a lie though as he was never really making a documentary as all the footage just got stored away never to see the light of day until Banksy got his hands on it.

Having failed to make a coherent film out of his footage Guetta hands the task over to Banksy who casually suggests to him that he should try his hand at being an artist. Banksy later comes to regret having done so when he realises to what extreme Guetta has taken the comment as Guetta launches his career as Mr. Brainwash.

However I think that all is not as it seems and that the film has been produced by Banksy in order to quell the criticism that he has sold out. Once we get into the part of the film that chronicles Guetta’s insane art exhibition as Mr. Brainwash it becomes an attack on the art scene and the bogus nature of the people that buy into it.

There is literally no originality to any of Mr Brainwash’s work it is a mess of extremely derivative work that lacks a connecting theme other than it is derived from the work of artists that Guetta admires such as Warhol, Banksy and Shepard Fairey. He is however extremely successful as the show attracts huge crowds and he sells hundreds of thousands of dollars ‘worth’ of work.

Critics praise his work as being commentary on the work of other artists, but I believe that it isn’t and that the fact that it is entirely lacking in substance is deliberate. I think that both his name and his work are a joke/scam being pulled on the art world and are a fabrication created by Banksy. That they will buy any old shit if there is the smallest connection to the name of Banksy

However now the illusion has become reality in a world where anything can be called a work of art if it is produced by and called such by a person that a number of people believe to be an artist.