Car movies throughout the decades

In the second half of the twentieth century, the film industry had done so much progress, and films have become more than just a sign of technological expertise. They became part of the people’s entertainment as many began watching films in cinemas, or even at home on television sets. The car featured in many of them:
Thunder Road 1958: In this drama-crime movie, the protagonist drives a 1951 Ford and a 1957 ford coupe with a custom tank designed for moonshine – a word for high-proof but illegally produced distilled spirit. The film often shows scenes of the car driving on a highway and stunts occur as well. One may say that it is one of the first movies in which a car has got a starring role.
Viva Las Vegas 1964: In this romantic musical movie showcasing Elvis Presley, Lucky Jackson has to earn money to give his race, an Elva, car a new motor engine in order to be able to participate in the Grand Prix Race. Although the story develops into a love story too, one may say that the success of winning the race was equally important as the winning of his girl’s heart.
Smokey and the Bandit 1977: This movie featuring Burt Reynolds contains one classic scene showing a high speed chase between Bandit, the police and other characters. Thanks to good trucker friends made on the way, Bandit can escape the police.
One may extend the list but this extract already shows that many directors have used the speedy cars to also show a speedy camera movement and new tricks and special effects.

Cars: a means of showing style

Of course, cars in movies were not only used to make the productions speedier, but also to underline the style of the protagonists. Limousines for rich people, sports cars for horny guys, and so on. Whether films mirror life or life tries to mirror films is a much debated question but no matter what, cars are also a style factor in real life. And they are used as such on purpose. Many business companies have understood that style can also enhance their image and leave a good impression with business partners and customers. Booking Blacklane limousines via the website http://www.blacklane.com/en has therefore become a common way to get colleagues to their destinations for business meetings in other countries and to guarantee comfortable traveling.
Limousines have also been part of films for similar reasons, for example in the 2006 production “The Devil wears Prada” in which the devilish Miranda Priestly is shown arriving at her fashion magazine office in a limousine a couple of times. It shows very well how a comfortable transport service lets business people lay back after work directly diving into their privacy in the car no matter what’s going on outside.

Picture: © Alfred Heiler  / pixelio.de

Getting around in a relaxed way

Especially for people coming from smaller places, London can seem rather stressful and way too big. For that reason, buying a map is the least thing to be done before arriving. To have a good start at the arrival, it is a helpful option to book a limousine service via http://www.blacklane.com/en to get to the hostel or hotel first, to get rid of one’s luggage before exploring the city and hunting the celebrities. It also gives every tourist a feeling of luxury and thus makes one feel as glamorous as the stars. The driver may also give some hints at where to go for sightseeing.
As this year’s BAFTA award show is already over, it may motivate to describe the best moments of this year’s show.

See and being seen

Of course, these award shows are, first and foremost, something for the visual sense. Many female actors appear in sophisticated, well-designed dresses. This year, Jennifer Lawrence caught everybody’s eyes with her white shoulder-free dress blinking with little glossy dots. And actors like Christopher Waltz, Kevin Spacey or Ben Affleck showed up each in a three piece smoking. It is definitely a good feeling to be in the same city with all these movie giants and to feel the hype so closely.
Also, many local cinemas and theatres will have special programmes running during the BAFTAs in order to encourage the common people who are unable to attend the real event in the Royal Opera House to participate and have fun. In that way, everybody can feel like a celebrity.
On top of that, such an event can guide one’s attention to all the movies of the bygone year which one has missed to see. Being reminded of such success movies as Ben Affleck’s “Argo” winning many of the important BAFTA categories, motivates to buy some new DVDs to be enjoyed back home to catch up with the latest film trends.

Maybe that is a motivation for visiting London next year in February. And ultimately, being taken to the airport in the limousine again, one will get home with a feeling of recreation and exclusiveness at the same time.

Picture: © Susanne Gottschalk  / pixelio.de

The film tells the story of a seventeen-year-old Chinese boy called Guei who moves from the countryside to Beijing where he is hired by a courier company. The company provides its workers with brand new bicycles that they have to pay off within the first few months. A few days before Guei pays his final rate he is robbed of his precious bicycle.

He therefore loses his job but the company's manager assures him that he might get it back if he only finds his bicycle. He eventually recognizes the stolen good thanks to a labeling he has carved into the frame. It is revealed that the bicycle was stolen by a high school boy by the name of Jian who claims to have bought it on a market for trendy road bikes. After a big argument the two boys decide on sharing the bike on alternate days. In the end however the bike is destroyed by a gang of boys who want to take revenge on Jian for having put up a fight with their leader. The closing scene shows Guei carrying away his battered bike.

The director uses the bicycle as a symbol for social injustice in China and as a means to criticize the highly complicated Chinese jurisdiction. The ban on the film was eventually lifted in 2004 after a few modifications including one on the title.

The film reached great critical acclaim and was praised for its presentation of modern China.

Therefore, the UK film critic offers ambitious texts helping you to find the needle in the haystack of international film releases. Our site contains articles, links, retrospectives and reviews of cinema releases. Not only will you find articles about the most recent films but also reviews of old established film classics and retrospectives: 12 angry men, Citizen Cane or Casablanca are only a handful of those classic films that will be under the uk critic review.

After all, our site will offer you a full review of both major film releases and independent productions. We will report on the most popular film festivals and award ceremonies such as the Oscars or the Golden Globes. As a conclusion, we asses the slogan of the uk critic: some voices say that it is impossible to judge a great film but we surely think it is possible.

Note: Our site is still in progress! New Posts will be updated monthly until one of us lost his job!

Your UKcritic-Team

Two movies were contenders for being the third worst movie ever but this one narrowly beat Mariah Carrey’s ‘Glitter’. Notorious for being racially insensitive and beyond crude, ‘Norbit’ is an Eddie Murphy film which sees Murphy playing a hen-pecked husband of a monstrous and abusive wife (also played by Murphy). This film has been seen as generally offensive to anyone unfortunate enough to watch it.

The second worst movie is again another attempt at humor that just didn’t make the grade. An offering from Mike Myers that is “downright anti-funny” (New York Times). When he can’t be funny, Myers immediately resorts to the rude, lewd and crude and even gets that wrong -this film is unoriginal, racist and sexist all at the same time.

It may seem hard to beat these two but even so, there is a winner for the Worst Movie Ever award and that goes to…’Battlefield Earth’. There is only one reason that scientologist John Travolta ever agreed to make this and that was because it was based on a book written by Scientology founder Ron L. Hubbard. In it he is a 9ft, dreadlocked alien with a rather thick side-kick (Forest Whittaker) who are intent on invading the earth. The costumes alone should have warned him off.