The boy next door (2015)

This is one of the most unsatisfying films I have seen in a long time. Usually my judgement of what films looks watch-able is right, the film that comes close to this is Transcendence which I saw last year, but I didn't choose to see this, my mother did, probably because Jennifer Lopez was in it, ah the sweet sell of celebrity endorsement. Jennifer, plays mother Claire, who generically is on a break from her husband after he cheated on her. Coincidently, Claire gets a new neighbour, nineteen year old Noah who seems genuinely caring at first. Claire is a school teacher, and after a brief romantic encounter with Noah, he forges an email from her to the principal asking to enrol him in her class. Son Kevin obviously becomes good friends with Noah thus playing into Noah's manipulative plans.

Things I liked:

Ryan Guzman (Noah) actually played the role of a stalker very well, his pure rage and convincing anger and posture was great, however unfortunately the plot let him down, not his fault though.

Some nice camera shots and settings. Especially the scene where Noah kidnaps a character in her own home, the camera focuses on him and excruciatingly  slowly, it tracks backwards until we are shown who he is talking to, the character in focus tied up in a chair. 

Things I disliked:

Weak characters: Apart from Noah, the rest of the characters were not developed enough for my liking, it was rushed.

Weak story-lines: It relied too heavily on cliché and generic thriller moments, oh I'm just going to sneak into your house while your on your way home, oh the tempo goes up, oh its a race against time, oh build up again, oh I just turned around and shockingly it wasn't you, but moments later when the tempo dies down, you appear again... thrilling.

Absolutely shocking ending: I was actually taken a back, the ending was appalling, and sorry spoiler alert Noah is killed at the end, but then it finishes, literally he dies, they go off in an ambulance and it bloody ends, its not only unsatisfying, it's so lazy, and I feel quite cheated after paying to see a movie which doesn't offer anything at the end, I have paid an extortionate fee to see some generic thriller moments, with a cliché ending, only to find out there's nothing more to it.  

The deaths in the film were not tied up, oh just kill a character and leave her there, this is what I mean about laziness, you get no feedback from Claire's family about what Noah did, what happened after the event, what happened to the principal, what happened to Noah's granddad he was looking after, what happened to the evidence in Noah's creepy stalker basement? No question from the police, or the school.

Although I like Jenny, and I have seen her in a few of her films, I didn't like the character. Yes at the right moment she played the terrified woman great, she was shocked at the right times and was acceptable, but other times it was a bit bland, I think she was trying to hard but just came off as generic, I wanted to see more emotive projections, but I suppose she can't wholly be blamed for the terrible script. Her character's son too, he over played it too with the 'tantrums' and if you were so close to your mother, wouldn't you be more clued up. He wasn't consistent with the hating his dad either, but hey, crap script.

The connection between Noah and Claire was confusing, first she's peaking through the blinds looking at him, then sleeping with him and then he's full on stalking her straight away, it just doesn't set well, it's not believable. 

Overall, I am very disappointed, not wonder it scored a 4.3 on IMDB, I would give it a 4 out of 10 too.

The first two months of 2015.

I'm going to try and document my year, starting with the first two months of 2015. I like the idea of documenting my well exciting life (haha). So at the start of January, I volunteered at a charity shop located in Summertown,Oxford. This charity shop was a vintage branch of the Blue Cross Animal charity, and I thought well that's pretty perfect since I have always been very fond of most animals, expect insects, obviously, spider phobia duh. Anyway, I had a great month there, and met some nice people who I worked with briefly. I had a range of responsibilities, from cleaning to till work, sorting and pricing and even steaming the clothes. that was a killer on the arms. I was surprised that I fitted in so well, after my 5 days work experience in Oxfam back when it had been compulsory to have a short work placement, probably 2011 or something, I seemed to remember how charity shops in general functioned, and I even remembered how to use the pricing gun.

February brought back the start of University. New semester, four new modules.
Creating and editing text for publication.
Creative Writing.
Understanding Culture.
Understanding Communication.

So far its been good, although its just been the end of the second week out of eleven, plenty more time for it to all go to poop. It was nice seeing my friends again, although we are only in one module all together,

This is not all in order of occurrence (note to self).

My favourite shop Evolution closed, I love it because it was full of great little items, stuff for a desk, just little knick knacks which I have a weakness for. I managed to grab a large clock, which was Paris themed, after my holiday there last year, and some little drawers to keep bits in.

Went to Blenheim Palace with my friend, walked around the grounds and took quite a few good pictures, including this one taken by Mphotostory.

I also received audience tickets for Britain's Got talents audition in London, located at the Dominion Theatre, so I took two university friends with me. It was an evening showing, I had been to the auditions last year as well, for an afternoon showing, which had better content to be honest; But it was a nice day, walked up and down Oxford Street countless times, ate at Pizza Hut and lined up outside the Theatre. The show started around 9pm until around 11.30, so it was a late night for me, getting home around 2am, but still it was nice to see the production side to it again. And we got good seats this time too.  There is probably more, but this can be updated.