Breaking Bad (mini review) | controlling your inner Heisenberg

So I recently finished the last s (eason) eries of Breaking Bad and thought I'd just quickly share my thoughts before I forget all about my blog and stop making reviews again....

Basically everything everybody has ever said about the show is true. No, really.
It is a masterpiece, it is genre- pushing, it is excellently written and acted, etc..

Honestly, I wasn't too fussed about finishing the series as series four (the last I have on dvd) was probably the weakest one, and I wasn't terribly excited to conclude the show.

So I left it for about a year.

Then we got Netflix and I saw it on there one day and thought why not, and I couldn't stop watching once I'd started.
Series five must be the best since the first and really racks up the intensity of each episode and whatever insanity is going on in each.
By this point our not- so- beloved main character Walter White has completely given in to his monstrous alter ego 'Heisenberg' and is just plain evil now; he kills without remorse, he acts only to save himself, and doesn't really care about anything any more.
The difference in attitudes between series one and series five Walt is as stark as my own when I went in and back out of the cinema when I watched Suicide Squad.

But enough of that dead horse..

We may have in Walter White and Jessie Pinkman, two of the best characterisations in television history (maybe even Skylar, for that matter). Seriously, the level of depth with which we go into both character's psyches and how frequently we see how relatable both are is perhaps my favourite part of the show.
Witnessing Walter trying to hold back his inner Heisenberg from busting out of him and eventually giving in, is an amazingly profound journey full of terribly necessary and horribly unnecessary decisions, that none of us could ever know the right answer for.

[Yeah ok, this went on a little too long for a 'mini review', but it's smaller than most of mine so I guess it still fits the margin.
Basically, go watch Breaking Bad if you haven't, or maybe give it a re- watch to catch some additional foreshadowing or a line of snappy dialogue you didn't remember before.]

Overall Breaking Bad gets a monstrous 10/10.

Baby Driver | refining a style

So many people kept going on about how Edgar Wright's latest film is his most refined in terms of style and substance.
My dad and I weren't entirely won over by this praise as we'd seen the somewhat uninteresting trailers and thought it may not be the return to form everyone expected after the lacklustre offering of The World's End (only my opinion, apparently).

We were hoping, and maybe even expecting to be proven wrong.
                                                                                                     
                                                                                                        We were.

Baby Driver shows that being original, witty, clever, colourful and funny can pay off in a big way in modern cinema.

Not only has Edgar refined his already excellent style, but he has added new additions to it that I just know he will implement in future projects. The level of detail in the back and foreground really is something to be admired, as Mr. Wright's ability to reward those who pay attention has been pushed to breaking point in this one.
The use of showing the audience important information is something Edgar has always excelled at, and he has definitely served us up something tastier than before with the use of framing and veering in and out of focus explains more to us than any dialogue could.

The direction is as fast as Baby's driving, if not more so, and the timing of gunshots, walking, clapping, talking, tapping, eating, drinking, alarms, cocking, quipping and movements to the stellar soundtrack is just clever icing on the adrenaline cake.
We've seen E.W. use this in his direction quite a few times before, but never has it been implemented in this exhilarating and calculatingly perfect way before.
Never once did I see the sound design miss a beat and it flowed incredibly well with the crazy pacing and insane visuals.

So yeah, this is one to check out if you like action and/or cars.

I had problems with trying to think up a rating for this film, to be honest.
I had barely any issues with it, but I wouldn't exactly call it flawless.
I think for now I'm gonna give it a 9/10 but this could change on my second watch.

So yeah, Baby Driver gets a stylish 9/10.