Groundhog Day (1993)

I had sky movies comedy on today watching some terrible comedy that I can't be bothered to mention when this came across my screen. Now I admittedly this is the first time I had seen this film and I had no idea what the plot surrounded and had nothing to go by other than the title... Groundhog Day and to be honest being British I have literally no idea what Groundhog day in the US entails anyway... well.. now I do. So I know that a lot of you reading this will have seen this film at some point but to the minority that I was a part of before today that haven't... WATCH IT.

Let me try to sum up the storyline for you; now with me having no idea of what the plot was before watching it made the twist so much better. The twist that won't be a twist anymore because you've read this or even looked at the poster(sort of gives it away) is that Bill Murray playing a disgruntled news reporter that becomes trapped in the same day over, over, over, over, over (over doesn't even look like a real word anymore) and over again. That day, of course, is Groundhog Day; a day in which from what I could tell some Americans talk to a rodent to find out if there will be more days of winter or something. As you can tell I've done my research, if you'd like to insult my ignorance and educate me as to what groundhog day actually is then don't hesitate to comment.

Anyway back to the matter at hand regardless of what Groundhog Day stands for, this repeated day at first drives Murray crazy until he realizes after about the third day that it is useless trying to fight what it happening, so he uses it to his advantage. Murray basically does everything I would do in this situation, there are no consequences to his actions, so his actions become increasingly reckless. Murray tries to sleep with most of the women he comes in contact with as well as drinking heavily, punching an annoying asshole, getting into a high speed pursuit with the police, robbing a bank van and oh repeatedly killing himself;with no success Murray concludes that he is a God......

Ill not spoil the ending for you but it is a very good film, its gripping till the end, exciting, funny and exactly what the rest of us would do when faced with repeating a rather unspectacular day over and over.

5 Things you need to know about Groundhog Day

1. One of Bill Murray's strongest performances ever.
2. Murray's character Phil is trapped in the same day for just under 34 years! according to the website Wolf Gnards, a site obsessed with film.
3. A family of groundhogs were actually raised for the production.
4. Writer Danny Rubin said that one of his inspirations whilst creating this story was the book "Interview with the Vampire" which made Rubin consider what it would be like to be immortal, to live forever.
5. There were various actors such as Tom Hanks and John Travolta considered for the lead role of Phil but these actors where decided against as they where considered "too nice" in comparison to Murray.

Fancy it?

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Starred Up (2013)

After seeing rave 5 star reviews of this film flying about I thought I'd give this a watch and see if it lives up to the large hype that followed it. oh and it also took away 3 awards at the British Independent Film Awards 2013 including best director and best screenplay.

Now, I've always been a fan of Jack O'Connell ever since I first saw him on Skins playing the role of 'James Cook', I thought he was brilliant, he brought a real fire and realism to the role that made the character 'James Cook' just so entertaining to watch but this isn't Jack O'Connell's biography so lets get to 'Starred Up'. O'Connell plays a youth offender(Eric Love) that has been prematurely moved to an adult prison due to the extent of his crimes (which are never disclosed in any detail). O'Connell plays these roles with such ease and realism that the performance is always exceptional but it does raise the question, is Jack O'Connell a one trick pony actor? Like Statham, Danny Dyer, Vinnie Jones, actors that can only play that stereotypical cockney hard man? Possibly, but that doesn't mean to say that he can't be successful in his own right playing these roles.

The film itself is pretty  good; now I'm not going to provide you with a full synopsis here (if that's what your into stop wasting your time and just visit IMDB) but the story is based around O'Connell's character Eric Love meeting his dad in prison and basically realizing how much of a cock his dad really, Love goes through a process within the prison of maturing by joining a group ran by a therapist. Now this group isn't necessarily a therapy sessions, a select few of the inmates attend and chat about any old shit; needless to say tensions rise on various occasions with chat surrounding racial issues and a lot of digs at each others mums... it certainly makes entertaining and interesting viewing. Initially Love is aggressive towards all authority and attacks police after knocking out a fellow inmate. This creates a very Bronson like scene in which Love greases up his body and beckons the police officers to enter his cell and takes most of them down and holds one hostage. This then leads on to Love biting one of the officers cocks but ill not spoil that scene for you. The group then protect Love and are a major part of his maturing process. With Love's father opposing this group and what its doing to his son this creates tension and anger between the two, proving a violent, gritty and entertaining film.

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