A Movie a Day: Shoot 'Em Up

Sunday 17 January - SHOOT 'EM UP (2007)
Watched this Clive Owen action-comedy film with and at the recommendation of my friend Walker. We were both surprised it was so gruesome but then again it's deliberately over-the-top: much of its humor revolved around the absurdity of its gore. It was virtually a parody of the action genre.

The title says it all really; it was simply a hard, fast action movie, with a few jokes thrown in. It had a fairly grungy style, set in an American slum, but what it lacked in attractiveness was made up for in excellent, creative action sequences and a production values to match. 6.5/10

A Movie a Day: Equilibrium

Monday 11 January - EQUILIBRIUM (2002)
All I ever heard about this movie was that my friend Max mentioned it in passing about two years ago, so my only expectations were that it would be a sci-fi with a heavily psychological story.

I was very happy when Christian Bale, one of my favourite actors, appeared early on as the star of the movie. Another thing I noticed early was the uncanny similarity to George Orwell's 1984, which I studied in year 12 English last year (props go to MK haha). Equilibrium is about life in the post-World War 3 world of Libria, where human emotion is seen as the cause of conflict and thus is suppressed by the government through mandatory drugs. Bale plays John Prestion, a government agent whose job is to find and destroy emotionally stimulating material (eg. art). However, John begins experiencing emotion in the first time and he begins making dangerous steps outside his methodical lifestyle. I found it to be a thoroughly entertaining and thrilling film; my only problem would be its absurd likeness to 1984. 8/10