Friday Music: Songs from the Movies

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Emma

As a teenager I had a pretty impressive CD collection of movie and TV soundtracks. To this day, I still love watching the Top 100 Movie Songs on VH1 and MTV. Hearing a song like “Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits on the radio takes me back to my teen years when my friends and I would watch Empire Records, drink Bacardi Breezers (the orange flavour) and crash at a friend’s house whose backyard happened to look out onto a spooky graveyard. A pretty good setting for a girl who loved watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Music can elevate a mediocre film to something good. Take Fifty Shades of Grey for example. Thanks to Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You do” and Beyonce’s slow version of “Crazy in Love”, this film was a lot more enjoyable to watch.

For tonight, I’ve chosen a few songs from films I always enjoy listening to. The list is pretty random; these were the first to pop into my head when I thought of doing this post.

“Even Angels Fall” by Jessica Riddle from 10 Things I Hate About You.

“Stay (I Missed You)” by Lisa Loeb from Reality Bites. I could have picked so many songs from this film: “My Sharona”, “Locked Out,” “I’m Nuthin'”…, but this one is my favourite. I loved this song long before I’d ever seen Reality Bites.

“Promentory” – from The Last of the Mohicans. Epic film. Half the characters die while this song is played. It’s a tragic scene set to beautiful music. I always get the goosebumps when watching this part. Here’s that scene.

“Good Enough” by Cyndi Lauper – from The Goonies.

“Higher Love” by Steve Winwood – from Big Business.

“Man in Motion” by John Parr – from St. Elmo’s Fire.

Others I love: “Twist and Shout” – from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Take My Breath Away” from TopGun, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop us Now” from Mannequin, “It Must Have Been Love” from Pretty Woman, “Eyes on Fire” from Twilight, “Hungry Eyes” from Dirty Dancing, “Show me Heaven” from Days of Thunder, and the list goes on and on and on.

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I could keep writing , but those were the first that came to mind. Are you a fan of any of these? Have you seen these films?

What are some of your favourite songs from the movies?

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Posted in Songs that can change your life (or at the very least your day) | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Film Review: As Above, So Below – Best Horror I’ve Seen in a While

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Emma

The ingredients of this film are delicious. An archaeologist searching for the philosopher’s stone, a trek underground into the catacombs of Paris, the documentary feel thanks to the “found footage” filming method, and a cast of characters I was rooting for – unusual for me when it comes to horror movies.

asaboveThe scares take a while to come along but the journey is worth it. We start with Scarlett (Perdita Weeks) in Iran, chasing down a lead from her dead father into a system of caves about to be blown up. She knocks through a wall and finds a statue probably unseen by human eyes for thousands of years, photographs the inscriptions and manages, in the nick of time, to escape with her life.

The drawings lead her to Paris where she tracks down her old pal George (Ben Feldman) who’s handy when it comes to translating ancient languages. With his help, Scarlett is certain the philosopher’s stone is hidden in a secret part of the catacombs no one has set foot in in hundreds of years.

As Above, So Below is mix of Indiana Jones, The Descent, The DaVinci Code and found footage films of the horror variety, not a bad combination. Like The Descent, this film effectively captures the claustrophobia of the tight caverns and the suffocating atmosphere that comes from being deep underground. When one of the crew actually gets stuck attempting to crawl through a narrow space, I watched with my stomach clenched, feeling his panic as if it was my own.

As the horror elements kick in, and Scarlett and her fellow explorers run into one hellish thing after another, I couldn’t help but think of a haunted house of horrors you’d find in a carnival. I was right there with them, huddled against the wall, afraid to look around the next corner. The references to Dante’s Inferno gave me chills. As Above, So Below got me Googling “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” For the most part, this was a decent film. Some of the scary stuff at the end was unnecessary and felt forced, but didn’t take away from the creepy setting and the overall ominous atmosphere.

One major plus: The film crew actually got permission to shoot in the catacombs. It’s not a set.

I had a quick look on YouTube at the trailer, thinking I’d post it here, but nope. Please, please do not watch the trailer. It shows the whole story. Arg. This modern thing of trailers revealing every twist and turn is a pet peeve of mine. Does anyone remember the days when a trailer was about 10 seconds long, simply an intriguing teaser? Okay, I’m taking a deep breath now before the vein in my head pops. Here’s a short clip instead.

Overall, As Above, So Below is very enjoyable. Hopefully I’ve persuaded some of you to check it out?  

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