Proper Third Year

It has begun!

Yep, first week back at university, acting all responsible, worrying about final scripts, sniding at first years... ah yes... this is the life. Truth be told it's pretty much the same as the last two years, although this is an intense Mike year, much like the first year, whereas we barely saw him in the second. This year all our classes are Mike and Sara. Which is good. No Marc though, so bad. Can't have everything, I guess.

Still, what with the Anatomy of Disgust in one class and Charlie Chaplin in another, the main thing we have to worry about is our Final Script module, which is pretty much the culmination of our entire university experiance, as Mike keeps telling us. 120 pages of script will be handed in. As I've said, I've already completed my first draft of this during the holidays and am now starting on the second. Only just starting.

Things that 'Servant's of God' needs:
- At least one female character
- Less walking
- More fighting
- Possibly a shorter title
- More priestly-politics

At least, that's what it seems to be to me. I'll try and see how that goes, but it may or may not make a difference. It could still be slow and dry.

In other news my new regime is slacking badly, I've been all downcast and constantly tired because of it and I've been trying to convince myself to scale back on it. I think one of the problems I've had is that I tried to do a bit too much too fast, so I've scaled back my requirements for the next month by a little, see if I feel any better about it.

THE TOWN.

Now I'm always apprehensive whenever I see the name 'Affleck' on the poster for a movie that isn't directly preceeded by 'Casey'. As far as I'm concerned, Casey got all the acting talent in that family, but it does appear that his older brother does have a thing for being on the other side of the camera.

Now, I haven't seen Gone Baby Gone, but it's on my list and it's recieved brilliant reviews from all the people I know that have seen it. This film, The Town, is Ben's second outing as director and he chose to star in it as well, which isn't always a great choice, but seems to have worked out well enough here.

Basically, the story is of a group of dedicated Bank Robbers that commit one crime too many. They're the best at what they do in their little area of Boston, Charlestown, which is built up at the beginning of the movie to be a difficult area big on crime and character. The main problem of the film is right there, in that goal. The movie wants to put forwards that The Town itself is one of the characters in this story, but it doesn't quite pull it off. The town is left in the background, without any real attempt to connect with it. A few establishing shots, a few seconds lingering on people standing on street corners would have done the trick, but these were not included. Shame.

As for the story, it's split into two. There's the romance angle between Affleck's bank robber and Rebecca Hall's bank manager, who are involved from the start... then there's the violence angle for the entire group of Bank Robbers and their underworld connections and FBI rivals. Now, both of these stories are good stories, they're well done, not too complicated and they get across the emotions of the piece... but having one story is better than having two and this film didn't quite seamlessly fit the two together. This is two stories where it should be one. I don't blame them for trying, however, I honestly don't know which scenes or sequences I'd cut out if I were it's editor.

In terms of cast, Affleck and Hall are both fine, I don't think they stand out too much, but they do what they set out to do. The supporting cast are a different kettle of fish, they're pretty damn brilliant. Chris Cooper as Affleck's bitter father, John Hamm's obsessed FBI agent, even Blake Lively puts in a good show as the junkie Krista (shows hope for Green Lantern). However, the jewels in the crown are of course Pete Postlethwaite's 'The Florist' and Jeremy Renner's Jimmy. These two guys are why you go to see this film, no two ways about it.

So yeah, I did like this movie, but I don't think it quite achieved it's own goals, quite lived up to it's own expectations. It does mean that I'll be watching for Affleck's next film, to see if he's learned. Because if he has, he's looking to be an AWEsome director in the future. And that scares me.

Next time: CYRUS.