Welcome to the punch and Headhunters analysis

Welcome to the punch and Head hunters are two very different films from each other, going as far as originating from two different countries, but equally having some similar elements of thriller and to a degree, action. Welcome to the punch is a film released in 2013 as a 'British action thriller'. The film focuses on the themes of crime, deceit, corruption, solitude, and most importantly revenge. The film focuses on a Police officer who three years prior to the main events of the film, almost manages to capture an infamous criminal, but fails and is shot in the leg, this event causes him hatred for the criminal, and has been seemingly traumatized by it, and further more is now looked down on by those he works with. As he works to capture him once again, the story follows his world is turned around, and finds himself working with the very person he tried to find in hopes of stopping his corrupted boss, which he has just discovered, this is where the thriller element is seen, as the normal situation for a police officer that is normal for him, is turned around on its head and into something that they would almost never find themselves in. The action element of the film is much more prominently seen than the thriller aspect however. As the thriller element only truly comes in half way in, with only elements of it appearing in the beginning. Head hunters is a Norwegian film from 2011. This is also an action thriller, but does it in a slightly different way. The main film's story is about a man who lives a very successful life as his job as a Head hunter with his wife, but also steals paintings to create even more money for him and his wife. We learn soon that his reasons behind this are because he fears that she will leave him, and uses the money to buy her gifts. The main character soon meets a man who wishes to get the job position he is currently offering, but after he does not receive this, he attempts to kill the main character, this results in him having to flee from his home after his best friend is killed after a shootout between them, the main character now has to go to cash in on the painting himself, and is soon pursued and is eventually forced in a hospital, where after multiple attempts at his life, is forced to change his appearance in hopes of returning home and getting back at the killer. This is where the Thriller element is apparent, as from the beginning, a life of stealing paintings is an abnormal one for most people indeed, and it only continues to escalate as he runs for his life simply because he didn't give a job position, and because of this the action elements of the film seem very connected to the Thriller, rather than the thriller situation being separate from the action scenes. The main theme of this film is insecurity, as this is the main drive and reason for his motives, and without this insecurity factor of how he looks, and his height, causing him to fear losing his wife. Without this drive of his, the film would not exist, and the film also concludes the film by letting the audience know that he has overcome this insecurity with the line "I am Roger brown, I am 163 meters tall, and that is just enough" Representation in these films do not play too much of a role as other films, and are harder to distinguish. In particular for Welcome to the punch, due to a total of one female character. This female character plays a fairly prominent role in the first half of the film, though very little typical stereotypes are seen of this woman that are normally seen in the Media when it is catered to the male audience. There are very few examples of other representation of other characters in Welcome to the punch, because the vast majority of them are white males. With little cultural diversity. In Head hunters, we see more obvious stereotypes of women, there are only three women in the film, but all three are sexualized in some way. The first woman who is Brown's wife, is seen naked in the shower, the second one we see during when Brown is having an affair with his wife, in the midst of sex. And the third one is seen naked shooting blanks at the friend of the main character. So it is somewhat clear that the film is catering to a specific audience of males who would be attracted to that. Though aside from the sexualized imagery, it is very low key and out of the way as far as it goes, and is mostly ignored in the second half of the film. Despite the films being fairly different at face value, they share mainly similarities down to their genre and themes, despite having two very different origins.

Four men arrested after 23-year-old killed in Bolton

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/13/four-men-arrested-after-23-year-old-murdered-in-bolton This article is about a very recent event of a man being seemingly murdered with a stab wound, causing his later death at the hospital, and the investigation revolving around his death resulting in four similar aged men being captured on suspicion that they had something to do with the incident. The title makes an absolute statement about what happened, claiming they were arrested after the murder of the 23 year old man, perhaps to make it seem more shocking and interesting, they also add his age to make it a more surprising event to people, as it is always sadder if they are of young age. What I find interesting about this article is the speed of which this article was made, with very little information, as you can see this article is very short, with only few pieces of information, which makes me wonder why they would make an article about this at all unless they just wanted some story to put up. The article even claims that all four men were arrested on suspicion, and with nothing else to back it, containing no sources or reasons behind this, making it clear to me that it was perhaps to soon to do a story on this.

Airstrikes kill 32 Isis fighters in Raqqa, activists say

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/06/airstrikes-kill-32-isis-fighters-in-raqqa-activists-say This article is mainly about the casualties that have happened because of the repeated Airstrikes by both Britain, US, and Russia, the article seems to focus on the amount of people who died and who they were, but are also focusing on who was responsible, this lines with the Guardian's left wing view, which would perhaps focus on the individual people affected, and who caused it. This article has context and importance with the constant saga of ISIS and how western countries are attempting to root them out. The guardian also brings focus on what Activists have pointed out that in particular, the US, are doing wrong by performing these airstrikes, not cooperating with Syria. The article ends with giving the presumed amount of Civilian deaths, which is a figure most people would be looking for in the article, so they read the whole thing, and it was also at the end to probably keep that figure in their minds. I think that this article is interesting because it instead does not focus on the ISIS attacking us or other nearby countries, but instead is about us attacking them, and it brings up some ethical issues and problems with what we are doing, which not many articles would normally focus on because it wouldn't interest some people.

UK retailers hope Cyber Monday pays off after flat-footed Black Frid

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/30/uk-retailers-cyber-monday-flat-black-friday-internet-shopping-online-sales

This article is about how focus on retailers has shifted onto cyber Monday being a success rather than Black Friday, I think that this is an interesting shift of focus, as the UK has been influenced to do sales on Black Friday despite stemming from America, but it obviously has not been successful I. The uk. Because the guardian is a uk newspaper, it would obviously do a story on a uk centred retail story.


This story shows the shift importance of online shopping taking over traditional shopping.


I also think this story is interesting because it shows the UK's tendency to borrow from American tradition, as Cyber Monday is something spawned from America, from black Friday, I think it's strange to see that the UK follows this trend, albeit to a lesser extent.

Brussels faces week on lockdown as hunt for terrorist cell intensifies

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/brussels-faces-week-on-lockdown-as-hunt-for-terror-cell-intensifies

This article is about the Belgium capital Brussels under week long lock down as a means to hunt for terrorist extremists, this is mostly connected to the Paris attack last week, and it makes many ties to that to make this especially relevant, in particular it mentions the current situation of one of the attacker's and his whereabouts as he's attempting to run away, it mentions how in particular it's believed that the lock down on Brussel and other de facto capitals is because that current raids have not yet found him yet, this piece of information is obviously shocking to others and to me, as it shows the lengths of which they are going to capture this single person.

I believe this article is particularly shocking, as the long duration of lock downs, is causing Schools, work places, and other elements of every lives, to be disrupted because of it. This is exactly the thing that Terrorists like ISIS would want, for the world to be shaped by their actions and people's ways of living to be halted by them, and I think it's kind of disheartening to see that in this sense we have lost to them by almost meeting what they want. Although I am aware that this is a necessary evil to make sure that such an incident does not happen again.

The Guardian is a most relevant news paper because it's a British news paper, meaning that it's relevant to report on what's happening in Europe and surrounding countries.

Christmas advertisements

#1 PayPal Christmas advertisement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vrAOu37CUY


This advertisement's audience are the adults who own children. Even if the first person account from children, it intends to show to the degree of convenience PayPal would give to getting presents so much so that it changes how Christmas works for their children. The advertisement doesn't care about the impact it would have on children, as it clearly lacks the more innocent and magical aspect of Christmas, being Santa giving the presents to children, and only focuses on the main task that parents have to face at this time


#2 Sainsbury's 2014 advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM
This advertisement's audience is much less specific than the previous advert, and instead it focuses more on a general group of people who are aware of one Christmas during WWI where both sides joined together and played football. The advertisement uses this to emotionally impact the person who is watching it, connecting to such a tragic event such as WWI, and their temporary peace, which as a result would make them probably remember this advert, which is loosely connected to Sainsbury, it uses the exchange of food the two main characters have to solidify this, and perhaps give the idea in a viewer's head that the same thing can happen if they buy food and give it to other people


#3 Coca-Cola's Christmas advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gMjPezr8TY&feature=player_embedded
Coca cola's advert aims to connect Coca-Cola with Christmas in this advert, they do this by making a Coca-Cola truck suddenly make a town all Christmassy, and people come to see the Coca-Cola truck going by as if it was Santa himself, they even use that child like innocent wonder where one kid goes to see it by himself, and looks at the truck in the centre of the road. The audience is probably children, because there are mainly children excited about seeing a stupid Coca-Cola truck, and they want the children to want to drink it on Christmas.


#4 Toys R Us1986 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2LTSLX6a7Y&feature=player_embedded
This old advert immediately connects itself to the Toys R Us brand with an at the time familiar song they had put in their adverts, the advert manages to advertise itself towards adults as well as children  to remind them when they were once a child and would probably think the things Toys R Us are selling would be good for their kid too. The song itself manages to advertise itself in a way that it connects it's brand to these people through the whole of their lives and even when they grow up.


#5 iPhone advertisement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtXDPknaQs
This advertisement connects iPhones and Christmas instantly with Santa using it, they may be trying to show how everyone uses an iPhone, even Santa, and they use this to show off a part of the iPhone they were especially at the time, proud of. The audience is obviously people who do not have iPhones, but it's exact age audience is undefined, perhaps it is aiming more for the older audience.  as at the end it jokes about how Santa would have billions of 'appointments' to attend to on Christmas if he was real.

Bowl

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