THE 4TH ROLLIE AWARDS

THE 4TH ROLLIE FILM AWARDS/200TH FILM NIGHT

Last Friday it was time for the event of the season - the Rollie film awards. As always, we marked the milestone of reaching 200 films by celebrating. This time, we celebrated by having a day of baking fudge and cookies for the awards ceremony before exchanging Christmas presents, having an evening meal and watching the 200th and 201st films.

These films were:

200. The Green Mile (1999)

201. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

All the award nominees and winners can be found here. It was extremely hard to pick winners from each category as we have watched such a diverse range of brilliant (and bad) films. We both agreed that film numbers 150-199 have been the best set of films we have watched to date (beating films 50-99). The winner of best film was 'The Hunt', the first film not made in the USA to win the award (Denmark). Other nominees were Memento, Catching Fire and The Help. However we even struggled to narrow the films down to four nominees, with other films such as About Time, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Walkabout, The Place Beyond the Pines, American History X and Gravity all suggested as nominees. 

The two films we watched were brilliant, especially The Green Mile. I would safely assume that at the minute it will definitely be up for Best Film at the next awards. We both cried. A lot. The Grapes of Wrath was also very enjoyable however I feel that it has become slightly overrated over the years and that the novel would be a lot better. Hoever, Fonda was brilliant in his role as Tom Joad.

Here's to the next 50 films! 

Ollie

Coming Soon to Rollie Films

After hitting the big 200 the other day, we have entered another era of films, our fifth collection of films, numbers 200-250.

So, after Christmas has gone and all the Christmas films have been watched, whats next for our film nights? Here are a few titles that I would bet on seeing in the near future.

Ginger and Rosa (2012)
A film me and Rosie were both sorry to miss at Film Club a month or so ago because neither of us had the money to go (help us we're so poor).

Grave Encounters 2 (2012)
Rosie shat her pants at the original and the sequel looks fun too.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)
A film we had planned to watch along with Chocolat and Casino Royale as the final films to watch at our old house but then never got round to. It has since been debated as being either the 150th/151st film or 200th/201st film. I am excited to finally see this supposed classic, which sounds like it appeals especially to film enthusiasts.

Halloween/Halloween II Remakes (2007/2009)
The viewings of Halloween VIII and Halloween III (can't be bothered to explain again why we saw number 3 last) completed our watching of the original Halloween series. We are definitely going to be watching our beloved Michael Myers in the 2 remakes by Rob Zombie.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
A film we taped months and months ago along with films such as 'Silent Souls' and 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'. This one is like many, one we just haven't got round to yet.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
A film I have already seen as I am studying the play, written by Edward Albee, for my Literature course. I was so impressed with this film and I am definitely going to be showing Rosie it soon.

Lolita (1962)
As above, another coursework text, however I have not seen Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the classic novel. Charming subject matter (sarcasm).

...and many more I'm sure!

Ps. A blog post on the 200th Film Awards is coming, don't worry (I bet you were)
xxxx

Christmas Special 2013

Hello there!

Today saw Rosie and I host our annual Christmas film special. Obviously, we will watch many more Christmas films over the festive period but today was THE special. Last years special saw us watch The Snowman, Christmas with the Kranks, Four Christmases and Christmas Vacation (The Muppets Christmas Carol, The Polar Express and The Holiday were also watched over the Christmas period) and this years batch of films didn't disappoint at all! 

The films we watched were:

- A Christmas Story (1983)

- Holiday Inn (1942)

- The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

A Christmas Story was an adorable comedy that really got me in a Christmas mood. I felt it captured a typical family Christmas and we both said lots of times that certain parts of the film happened at Christmastime in our households. Very memorable and funny without trying too hard, this is a film I would definitely recommend for a Christmas viewing. At times, it reminded me of a much funnier and classier, and basically better National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

8/10

Surprisingly my favourite film out of the three, this classic musical is a film I have unintentionally seemed to have avoided over the years. Before viewing, I thought it was going to be another slightly boring and drawn out '40s musical. However, it is surprisingly engaging, and the songs are extremely catchy. A heartwarming ending and an interesting concept of the Holiday Inn make this a film I will definitely watch again in Christmases to come. And what's Christmas without a good sing along?

8/10

The Nightmare Before Christmas was the only one of the three that I had seen already. As ever I really enjoyed it. I love the quirkiness, characters, songs and how it still conveys a lovely Christmas message whilst straying away from the conventional Christmas movie as is ever the case when Tim Burton is involved. Ps living in Christmas Town is my dream.

7/10

Overall I really enjoyed all three films and they were a better crop than last years, some of which were a bit trashy (cough Four Christmases). We have other Christmas films lined up to be watched, including Love Actually and It's A Wonderful Life. So we have lots to look forward to!

May all your Christmases be white x

Hello:)

Hello. Just a quick post to let you know that we're alive and well! And to give you an update on whats going on!

Firstly, we have now got another set of 100 films under our belts! Yep, tonight we watched our 199th film, (Arthur Christmas, 2011) and this can only mean one thing... another awards ceremony is just around the corner! The 4th Rollie Awards will be hosted at the end of the week, including film classics The Green Mile and The Grapes of Wrath, so watch out for a mega blog post about that!

This will be followed by our 2013 Christmas Special - as I mentioned above, we have already started watching Christmas films and we shall do so throuhgout the rest of December. However Saturday will be our official Christmas special. Last year we watched The Snowman, Christmas with the Kranks, Four Christmases and Christmas Vacation. I'm sure there will be a blogpost about our festive extravaganza by the end of the week too!

27 films later - it is still happening (just!). We have both been very busy however Christmas is the perfect opportunity to curl up and watch some films! I personally have my next one lined up, letter G, and I am planning to watch it at some point this week when I'm not busy.

Ollie

Music Movies

Over the past year I have watched three music based motion pictures including Mumford and Son's The Road to Red Rocks, Big Easy Express, and Coldplay Live 2012. I'm not even sure if these class as 'films' as such, but I thought I would talk a bit about them today as I wanted to do something a little different than a normal film review or posting.

Big Easy Express won a Grammy last year for Best Long Form Music Video and I think it is very well deserved. This film, consisting of bands Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show, documents their train journey from San Francisco to New Orleans. It is packed full of folk and blues music as well as the musicians in their more relaxed form simply 'jamming' together on the many carriages of the old train. The film is shot beautifully, with a 'ruff around the edges' sort of feel and a look into the calming landscapes which they travel through. Big Easy Express stays true to the musicians and their unique performances captured along the way.

Coldplay Live 2012 was a lot more personal than the others, in the fact that it showed much more of the band behind the scenes and the interviews where a lot richer. However that does not take away from the fact that it used some god awful animation overlays through the WHOLE film.While the band were singing, neon coloured drawings fluctuated the screen taking away from the 'realness' of the live music. It was used to try and enhance the audiences experience but instead just made it look cheap and took away the attention to the music. If you watch it you will see exactly what I mean. 

It was nice that Coldplay captured little snippets from their shows and made a film out of them, and it was nice to turn it up really loud and dance around the living room to Paradise, however the annoying gimmicks over-shone their performance for me.

  

Ollie and I are the biggest fans of Mumford and Sons you could find, literally, and having seen them live twice this film is by far my favourite and the only one out of the three I have watched more than once (probably around 15 times). It is basically just a gig film, with little backstage interaction from the band which is a shame, but again it is beautifully shot, with breaks between songs showing what the band have been up to and the gigs they've hosted over the summer in the USA. It captures their journey to playing at the iconic venue of Red Rocks perfectly and gives Mumford fans, and folk rock fans alike another reason to jump around listening to banjos at full blast.  

Rosie