At just three years of age, Corey Feldman took his first steps in front of a television camera.  Little did the fresh-faced toddler know that this McDonalds commercial would be the beginning of a relationship with fame that would come to define his entire adult life.  This year he celebrated his 39th birthday and while he may not have changed much in terms of looks, his time spent in the spotlight has sent him on a rollercoaster ride of dizzying heights and turbulent times.  During the 1980’s Feldman’s career sky rocketed – after brief appearances on TV’s top shows such as Mork and Mindy and Cheers, he went on to star in a string of hit movies including Gremlins (1983), The Goonies (1985) and Stand By Me (1986). Working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood – Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner and the late River Phoenix just to name a few, he quickly became the face of 80’s movie culture and helped define a generation on screen.  However it wasn’t until his pairing with fellow teen star Corey Haim in 1987’s Vamp flick The Lost Boys that he became an all-American teen superstar.  Quickly labelled The Two Coreys, the duo starred in a string of hits including Licence to drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989) before the pressures of success began to take their toll.    What followed was a period of excess and indulgence, forcing the brightest stars of the eighties to hold on tight and ride out the chaotic experiences that came hand in hand with sudden success. That was over a decade ago and since then many things have changed to say the least, one thing however has remained consistent – the lasting appeal he has held in the hearts and minds of all those who grew up idolising the escapism movies of the 80’s.

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Essentially every movie is a love story.  Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they live happily ever after – you know the score.  It’s what we’ve come to expect and chances are we’d be pretty peeved if it didn’t go down that way.

If for some reason everything didn’t go according to plan and the couple who were so clearly destined to spend the rest of their lives together didn’t walk off into the sunset in each other’s arms.  That might be why when a film does decide to delve into the unexplored aspects of relationships and modern romance, it’s often met with mixed opinions, leaving audiences unsure how to digest it.  Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s ninth directorial gig does just that, and in doing so he cements his status as a filmmaker unafraid to go against the grain, showing the reality of relationships, that who you believe to be the ‘one’ may not always be the ‘one’ for you and why, in the end, that might not always be such a bad thing.  It’s also one of the most enduring romantic comedies to hit cinemas, packed with smart, often hilarious moments which feel as fresh today as they did thirty years ago. Read More

Good Vampire movies have become a rarity these days. We live in a world where audiences would rather see the likes of Edward Cullen and True Blood, demoting the status of neck-biters to nothing more than pin-ups for the bedroom walls of teen girls. But don’t give up all hope for these once icons of horror, Daybreakers – the post apocalyptic twist on the Vampire genre is here to remind us all why we were afraid of the dark. Read More

University of Huddersfield, Graphic Design (BA Hons) graduate Jonathan Lindley produced a stop-frame animation for American singer, songwriter The Tallest Man On Earth in association with Montreal-based charity Yellow Bird Project. The animation consists of over 2500 photographs and took over 10 (long) weeks to complete. The self-initiated project was Johnny’s Final Year Major Project.

Introducing ‘a movie a week‘ to Sticks & Stones, each week I’ll post a review of a movie worth checking out for all those who are looking for something cool and interesting to watch.  You know what they say: A movie a week keeps the doctor …erm.. well you get the picture.  First up, a dark comedy from possibly the best writer/director team working today – The Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man.

Life is tough for high school teacher Larry Gopnik – He’s trying his best to be a righteous man, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult.  His wife is having an affair with his ‘so-called’ friend, a student determined to get a better grade is blackmailing him and his layabout brother has taken up permanent residency on his couch.  In the classroom Larry specialises in solving physics and maths problems, but real life problems are a different story all together, and Larry Gopnik has plenty of those. As Larry’s problems get increasingly worse (trapped in a loveless, marital lingo he gets kicked out of his own home and is forced to live at the Jolly Rodger Motel) Larry decides to take refuge in the only thing in his life he has left, his faith.  But much to his dismay, not even the three Rabbis Larry visits can provide much help. The latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen, the filmmaking duo whose produce is always eagerly awaited doesn’t disappoint fans of their dark, dry humour.  Shying away from the big name distractions that so heavily populated their last release Burn After Reading, A Serious Man is a quiet tale of one mans attempt at doing the right thing against all odds.  A fable or morality tale, which by the end of its one hour forty minute running time, feels more like an elongated short than feature film. Read More

Over the past few months the Doritos King of Adverts competition has united animators, directors and film makers the world over with the prize of 200k up for grabs the quality of some of the entires are simply unreal. With everything from disgruntled launderette owners, explosions, mexican businessmen, matrix style bullet time effects, one man bands and alien invaders loitering over the london skyline .

It turns outs that our friend Craig Young is the man behind the ‘Attack on Westminster’ advert which is currently in the top 3 and in running to win it. I’m not even going to try and hide it so I urge you all to go ahead and vote for Craig’s advert right here. You can vote once a day and each vote is worth an extra £1 on top of the 100k prize money if he wins. If you need more convincing bob your way over the the facebook group and watch the hilarious video blog 1 and blog 2. Budget jokes aside he actually spent more time and money on the two blogs that the whole production of the advert. Do a vote!

Blood, guts, and some dodgy British accents… you’ll find all these and much more in The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, the underrated schlock horror from Spanish filmmaker Jorge Grau.Made just six years after Night of the Living Dead hit cinemas and considered by many as a genre classic, Romero may have stolen Grau’s thunder when it comes to walking corpse tales but rest assured, this zombie film has just as much bite as its overseas counterparts.

George, a humourless cockney lad has his journey to Windermere cut short when he’s forced to escort Edna, a young flame haired trouble magnet to visit her addict sister Katie deep in the countryside.  Meanwhile, local scientists testing out a new form of radiation designed to kill every farmer’s worst enemy, insects, are oblivious to the fact their state of the art equipment is having some unwanted side effects…

That’s right; it’s only gone and woken the dead! Bloody scientists… Continue Reading

On 13th May Danny Perez’s ‘Oddsac‘ a visual album with Animal Collective is having it’s London Screening. The premiere UK screening is having three showings (that are all still available!) followed nicely by a Q&A with the Director and all the members of the band. For any AC fan this surly an opportunity to get a real insight into there thinking… while at the same time having you mind totally warped by 53 minutes of trippy visuals. Buy tickets for the event here.

Angel-A is entirely shot in striking black and white with Paris as its backdrop. Directed by Luc Besson the story follows two brilliant central performances from Jamal Debbouze as André and Rie Rasmussen as Angela this is a Romeo and Juliet love story with a central theme about loving life that is better than Prozac. With some nifty little camera tricks and a quirky script it takes you on a journey of all the major landmarks of Paris from the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Sacré Cœur and plenty of seemingly deserted streets. Like a hybrid of Amelie, Wings of Desire and It’s a Wonderful Life it is so moving in places I was nearly reduced to tears. Every second that Angela is on screen she is so beautiful and captivating that I practically saw her in colour and with André making up the odd couple they are a pleasure to watch. Stylish without being over-sentimental Angel-a is an age-old love story but told in a new and interesting way.

You well may recognize Mark Beaumont from his 2008 world record-breaking cycle around the world. Well he’s back with a new mission, to ride the length all the America’s. Mark’s epic journey has taken him from Alaska, USA to Ushuaia, in southern Argentina; cycling the length of the Rockies and Andes, 13,000 miles through 12 countries and along the way he also reached the summits of two of the highest mountains in North and South America. Thankfully Mark’s nine-month self-filmed intimate adventure is now being streamed over on BBC iPlayer (until April 14th). Fighting through mile upon mile of harsh weather conditions, having his bike literally falling apart underneath him under the tremendous stress or avoiding drug gangs in Mexico each of these hour long episodes in the three part series are truly a joy to watch.

Ep01: North America / Ep02: Central America / Ep03: South America