I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane?

Date: Friday 16th November

Film: American Psycho (2000)

Director: Mary Harron

Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux and Reese Witherspoon

Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Rating: 7/10

Like any sensible person, when I find myself waking up 2 hours before my alarm I always think 'no, don't go back to sleep. Watch this film about serial killers instead.' and that's how I found myself watching American Psycho at 6am on a Friday.

Not a film I've seen before, as I've mentioned before I'm not a fan of films that involve a lot of killing. But, having recently developed a soft spot for Christian Bale and working hard on being less of a wuss, this film found it's way onto my LoveFilm list. 

Having read a few Bret Easton Ellis novels and with a basic knowledge of the plot, I knew what I was getting into; drugs, excess, anger, sex and pretty rich people; American Psycho had it all, with some murder on the side. 

With a strong supporting cast and an intense lead, American Psycho was watchable. Not the horrendous murder spree I was expecting, all in all a good film.

Challenge day: 54

Challenge time: 2 days 10 hours 25 minutes

Challenge film total: 32

Every now and then a trigger has to be pulled.

Date: Sunday 4th November
Film: Skyfall (2012)
Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Naomie Harris
Running Time: 2 hours, 23 minutes
Rating 9.5/10

It's time to let you in on a little secret. Although I consider myself a bit of a cinephile, before Sunday I had never seen a Bond film. It's something I've considered rectifying many times over the years, but my view was that I couldn't just jump in willy-nilly and if I was going to watch them, then I would have to watch them all and watch them in order.

That, however, takes time. It also relies heavily on knowing people who own the films and are willing to lend them to me. The combination of my new Daniel Craig crush and the trailer and hype surrounding Skyfall meant that this plan was put by the wayside for a later date.

As my first Bond film, I had certain expectations, based on what I had seen, read and heard about the franchise to date. I was expecting it to be a little corny; this overly sexed man acting as a spy in some slightly over the top scenarios, although this didn't quite marry with my view of Daniel Craig.

Was Skyfall like this? No, not at all. There were some tongue in cheek moments and one liners that made most of the cinema chuckle, but mainly this came across as a serious spy film. A film that seemed wholly believable, that married more, in my mind, with the Bourne films than it did with my preconceived ideas about Bond.

I've seen and heard a lot of talk about this being the best Bond film. Is this something I agree with? I'm not sure. I can tell you this though, it's the best Bond film I've ever seen.

Challenge Day: 42
Challenge Time: 2 days, 1 hour, 20 minutes
Challenge Film Total: 28

If I'm going to make a fake movie, it's going to be a fake hit.

Date: Monday 29th October
Film: Argo (2012)
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin
Running Time: 2 hours
Rating 9/10

Another day, another advanced screening (thanks Sky). This time around, much hyped political thriller, and (so they say) Oscar front runner Argo. Based during the Iran hostage crisis, Argo tells the true story of six American Embassy employees who escaped Iran under the guise of filming a sci-fi movie.

Argo has had a lot of hype, hype that, I feel, is definitely well deserved. With the help of a great ensemble cast, Ben Affleck leads this movie through a lot of tense moments. The protests in Iran are well filmed and realistic, the tension between the characters is played brilliantly, there are some great one-liners and the film draws you in to both the characters and the escape drama.

Ben Affleck has proved with Argo that there are two things that he is very good at; directing; as seen before with The Town and Gone Baby Gone, and growing a very handsome beard (although the early 80s haircut was pretty terrible).

With a good mix of drama and conversation, Argo is a film I would recommend to most. Although, I warn you, you may spend a lot of time thinking 'where do I know that face from?'.

Challenge Day: 36
Challenge Time: 1 day, 21 hours, 32 minutes
Challenge Film Total: 25

People aren't always what they appear to be. Don't forget that!

Date: Thursday 18th October
Film: Wild Things (1998)
Director: John McNaughton
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards and Matt Dillon
Running Time : 1 hour 48 minutes
Rating: 3/10

If you were one of the people who told me I would enjoy this film, I would like you to take a long hard look at yourself. What a pile of tripe. Even the wonderful K.Bake couldn't save this.

There was one redeeming factor, one thing that earned this film every point of it's three point rating.

My old man crush.

The ever fabulous Mr. Bill Murray.

Challenge day: 25
Challenge time : 01 days, 03 hours, 24 minutes.
Challenge film total: 14

This time travel crap, just fries your brain like a egg...

Date: Wednesday 10th October
Film: Looper (2012)
Director: Rian Johnson
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels
Running Time : 1 hour 58 minutes
Rating: 9.5/10

Wednesday night, off to the cinema for a new film that I've been waiting forever to see. Worth the wait? Yes. Definitely.

The story has the potential to be really confusing - in 2044 Joe works as a looper. In 2074 the mob send people back in time and Joe is responsible for killing them, no matter who they are. When the mob wants to retire the looper, they send their future self back for them to kill. Except Old Joe comes back, and escapes before Joe can kill him. Setting off a chain of events that can potentially change the future and the present.

Rian Johnson has written the film in a way that explains the more complicated parts of the plot in an understanding way without talking down to the audience. Joseph Gordon-Leviit excels (as usual - has this boy ever made a bad film?), particularly in his mimicry of Bruce Willis, whilst the prosthetics help him with the look, he enhances his act by recreating the mannerisms, the mouth movements and the tone of voice that Bruce Willis is well known for.

Kudos to Emily Blunt for a brilliant Midwest accent, to Paul Dano for a scene stealing performance and to Pierce Gagnon for successfully creeping me out.

I can see why Rian Johnson is getting comparisons to Christopher Nolan, in the same way that Inception was a fresh take on something we've seen done many ways before, Looper is a brilliant take on the well trod time travel film.

Go see it.

Challenge day: 17
Challenge time : 01 days, 00 hours, 02 minutes.
Challenge film total: 12

The most non-sensical double bill in cinematic history (perhaps)

Date: Wednesday 26th September

This week saw the temporary (curse those holidays) move of Sunday Night Film Club to a Wednesday. Not necessarily the best of ideas - there's only so many films you can fit in after work and CW and I found ourselves creating a double bill that made absolutely no sense. The only thing these two films had in common was that they were both new to my collection.

First up we had...

Film: This Means War (2012)
Director: McG
Starring: Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon
Running Time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Rating: 7/10

A film that was picked for two reasons;

1) CW's love for this man...

2) My belief that Captain Kirk is one of the top 5 most handsome men on cinema screens, ever.

(So, really, only one reason. We are two slightly shallow ladies who like to watch pretty boys act).

The premise of the film is simple enough  - two undercover CIA agents (and best friends) meet and fall for the same girl and it all gets a little competitive. In typical McG style, there's a lot of action going on as they use their professional skills to watch, and at times sabotage, each other.

This is light hearted, action, rom-com, fluff. It's harmless, it's watchable, it's enjoyable. It's never going to win any awards but it will keep you entertained for 97 minutes - which is all anyone really wants in a film, right? Plus, Chelsea Handler pops up more than once, and she's pretty awesome.

There is, however, one minor flaw with This Means War - Tom Hardy really struggles to pick an accent. He swings from frightfully British to Cockney geezer and back again in the course of one sentence. It can be a little distracting.

After enjoying the acting talents on display in This Means War, and the best parts of two bottles of wine, CW and I decide that we'd had enough of the light hearted action and we were in the perfect position to watch something that required all our attention, a little bit of thinking and, at times, a strong stomach for sexual abuse. The perfect follow up to This Means War had to be...

Film: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Director: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård and Robin Wright
Running Time: 2 hours 38 minutes
Rating: 8/10

I went into this as blind as possible. I haven't read the book, I haven't seen the original Swedish film, I didn't know all that much about the plot. I think this might have been a slight advantage, as I had no other reference points to compare the film to (although this still doesn't mean I understand people that enjoyed The Time Traveller's Wife)

The basic premise of the film is a journalist (Daniel Craig) is investigating the 40 year old disappearance of a young lady on behalf of her Uncle (Christopher Plummer). He's assisted along the way by a computer hacker (Rooney Mara) who is also dealing with some emotional issues from her past.

The film deals with some pretty heavy subject matter - including a couple of rape scenes that aren't the easiest things to watch. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo isn't a film that you can dip in and out of, as with most thrillers (and David Fincher films) all your attention is required and some of the less relevant plot points and mentions might come in handy as the film progresses.

I don't know if enjoyed is the right word to use here, but I didn't dislike watching this film. The acting was solid, the plot made sense and all in all this is a really great thriller.

I think I know what books I'll be picking up for next week's holiday.

Challenge day: 3
Challenge time: 5 hours 56 minutes
Film count: 3