Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising was produced in 2009 and filmed entirely in Scotland.

Glasgow Film Office has supported and invested in this production.

Valhalla Rising tells about the One Eye warrior with a supernatural strength. He was a prisoner of the chief Barde for many years. However one day he and his little friend Are run away and get onto a Vikings’ ship. The One Eye finds out than his real destination.

Valhalla Rising was directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. 

I read that Nicolas prefers natural and realistic cinema, and this is exactly what we see while watching Valhalla Rising. Refn has transferred killing into art. While watching this film we see natural and impressive killing scenes, marvelous landscapes and well-matched actors. Moreover the make ups are really good, thus the actors look like real Vikings. 


I added some videos at the top of the page showing scenes from Valhalla Rising film.


Please enjoy :)

Doomsday

Doomsday is a Sci-Fi movie, partly filmed in Scotland and Glasgow. It tells about “The Reaper Virus” which attacks Scotland. British government tries to stop the plague by separating Scotland and England by a wall. However after 30 years the virus attacks areas beyond the wall. The government sends Special Forces to Scotland. They must find a vaccine which treats the doomsday virus.

I'v seen this movie and in my opinion it is quite interesting, however many movies have already used the idea of virus and they are all telling the same story; [for example “Virus” (Dir: John Bruno, 1999) or “Outbreak” (Dir: Wolfgang Petersen, 1995).] Firstly the film gives a lot of entertainment and fun. Secondly it has really good music.

However the script has many defects and characters’ behavior is sometimes ‘strange’ and pointless. The biggest part of the movie is concentrated around action, looking for food and fighting with each other, thus the actors have little room to maneuver and cannot show their talents. Moreover people who survived the plague look really unusual. They are wearing strange clothes, colors, make-ups and hats. I do not understand why? 

I am not sure if I would recommend this film... It's a quite good action movie, created from several different movies with the same theme. On the other hand it's a bit underdeveloped, sometimes even funny.

NEDS

NEDS (non educated deliquents) is a coming-of-age drama, directed by Peter Mullan, produced in 2011.

Firstly think what does the NEDS term mean…

I found the information that this term appeared for the first time in Scotland around 1960s. It applies to working class youths, who wear casual sport clothes. It is also often connected with hooliganism and criminality. Ned culture is associated with violence, alcohol and drugs.

While reading NEDS terminology, we may immediately get known what the film is going to be about.

In fact it tells about young people and gangs. However when we watch it we don’t see only violence, alcohol and drugs. Film makers present us dramatic story of a young boy, his dreams and believes. We see how the reputation, individuality and sensitivity are being killed by not good teaching system.

Neds film is set in Glasgow in 1970s. Main character – John McGill is a young boy, good student, who wants to go to university, have a good job and perspectives. However when he goes to a secondary school he’s put down a grade because of his brother's reputation. Moreover he’s got an alcoholic father who doesn’t help him at all.

John gives up, and joins a gang.

Starring: 

Connor McCarron as John McGill

Marianna Palka as Beth 

Steven Robertson as Mr Bonetti 

Joe Cassidy as Janitor 

Linda Cuthbert as Mrs Matheson 

Hope Springs

Hope Springs is an 8 part drama produced by Shed Productions for BBC. It was filmed in Glasgow for a couple of days. Few scenes were filmed in the BBC drama studio.

Hope Springs tells about British artist Colin Ware, who discovers that his love and woman of his life Vera, is cheating on him, and wants to get married with other man. Colin has depression. He moves to Hope, small town in New England and meets beautiful Mandy; Colin becomes happy again. Everything is getting better, until the day Amanda moves to Hope. 

The film is quite interesting, I’ve seen it several times. Film makers show beautiful landscapes and places in England. Music used in film gives special mood. However in my opinion it is a standard romantic comedy, not surprising and easy to predict what is going to happen. 

Starring: 

Colin Firth as Colin Ware 

Minnie Driver as Vera 

Heather Graham as Mandy 

Lip Service

Lip Service is a film about twenty-year-old lesbians, and was entirely filmed in Glasgow in 2009. It has 6 episodes and started on BBC3 in October 2010.
Lip Service is directed by John McKay and Harry Bradbeer.
Each episode has around 600 000 viewers.


The movie starring 

Laura Fraser as Cat MacKenzie 

Ruta Gedmintas as Frankie Alan 

Fiona Button as Tess Roberts 

Emun Elliot as Jay Bryan Adams 

Roxanne McKee as Lou Foster 

Heather Peace as Sam Murray 

Natasha O'Keeffe as Sadie Anderson 

I didn't see this film however in my opinion it is a good production which pushes the boundaries  and shows the world full of secrets, acceptance, humor and love.