Went to see Gran Torino the other day. What can I say? An absolutely phenominal film. Clint Eastwood at his best more so as a director than actor and his performance is also fantastic. The great thing is no matter how many films he plays in, the man has just got great on screen persona. The characters he plays in every film are similar but somehow he just pulls it off so well. Best thing about this film is the amount of issues that it brings up about modern america. Religion, racism, prejudice, creed, it's all there. Truly my favourite film of the year and in my opinion one of Eastwood's finest pieces of work. Been watching a lot of My Name Is Earl recently. Do really like this program, pretty well shot and I think this is a great example of just how far you can stretch a good idea. The story is so simple but can keep going forever. Definite viewing for days were you night be hungover.

Watched Gone Baby Gone which I really enjoyed. Plot was excellent as was Casey Affleck's performance. I was sceptical about this one so I was pleasantly surprised. Kept me guessing throughout the story and the outcome is a good payoff. Have been watching a few good ads online recently as I'm still interested in shooting ads when/if I graduate. Honda Cog one is still one of my favourites. The banned Xbox baby advert is also good and so are some of the ads shot by David Fincher, the roller blade one for coca-cola in particular. If anybody is interested in this branch then I really urge you to check out some of his advertising work, and look into other directors and DOPs you like to see if they have shot some commercials. Often directors pioneer or experiment with visual ideas or particular shooting styles and techniques in advertising before they apply it in a film so they are comfortable with the technological demands. As as a side note, webpages/blogs from good Directors/DOPs are really worth a read.
Also saw Taken with Liam Neeson. Fairly entertaining but I'd seen the story, plot and characters in loads of other films so I was quite bored throughout. Surprising coz I usually quite like these sort of films. Work to do. Bye Bye