Payday Loans- an infection that is plaguing our society

You only have to watch daytime television to come across the endless number of payday loan or short term loans that are advertised to people. Most will have people (who are really actors) speaking to the camera in a nice movie smile, telling you how much they loaned and what they spent it on...new beauty therapy course, new car repairs, new boiler. Blah blah blah. You get the message.

Payday loans are fundamentally taking advantage of the tough economic times, knowing that there are always those that don't have enough to get them through the month, or if there is something that suddenly needs fixing. You only have to see the rapid growth in their numbers, and as I eluded to earlier, the amount of times that they are advertised. It's such a shame that they have become so normalized in recent years. It's not uncommon to see Wonga (without doubt the most renown of the payday loan company's) billboards on buses or on the TV, they now even disgracefully sponsor Newcastle United Football Club. 

The most tragic thing about the business of payday loans is the extortionate interest, and that's not forgetting the roll over interest which is added on if you miss a payment. With 1.8 billion loaned out on payday loans in 2012, there are no doubt many struggling people who have run up debt upon debt, possibly leading to bailiffs and debt collectors.

It's a surprise that it has taken so long for this to get the attention that it deserves. In part its due to Member of Parliament Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) who has been very vocal on the issues, and she should be applauded for her 'End legal loan sharks' campaign. 

The only way we can stop people from falling into the traps of payday loans, is by alerting people to its dangers, informing them that there is a more helpful solution to their problems. Payday loans in many cases will only make their situation even worst, especially for those in dire straights.

In terms of a longer solution I would like to see, as has already been suggested by some, is a permanent end to rollover interest rates, the end of advertisement on the television, not allowing every other shop on the high street being some form of pawnbroker or Money shop.

But we also need to introduce education about debt and finance into the classroom, from my own experience, and from what I am aware it is not part of the curriculum. Education on money matters if done correctly could be invaluable to children, its best to start early and let them learn the early way, rather than let them learn the hard way.

     

Breaking Dawn Part 2 review, and series overview

Despite the fact that they are often badly written, badly acted, predictable and rather full of benign characters, I am actually quite the fan of the Twilight series (I've not read the books), although I will be very soon. The second part follows on from the end of the first part of Breaking Dawn where Bella gives birth and then turns into a Vampire.

For the first time in the entire series I actually came out of the cinema and didn't fee like I had enjoyed myself. One of the biggest problems with this film compared with the others is that all of its plot narratives and ideas make it hard to take it seriously. For the first time it felt like I was watching a TV movie based on a soap opera. One of the most notable differences from the first Twilight film with the finale is how disjointed and overblown it became. With the introduction of many more characters and the expansion of each films production budget, the series forgot about the characters and became overblown with too many non sentical plot narratives. This was exclusively evident in the final two parts.

Twilight is not the only movie series to suffer this fate, in fact most do.

The first half of the film is the worst in the entire series,  without spoiling too much Bella is united with her daughter Renesmee, and has to deal with the consequences of now being a vampire. We are shown her struggle with not being able to hunt humans despite the fact that it is now in her nature, this is portrayed quite well. But what isn't shown so well is the power of the vampires themselves, in the first three films they're shown to be extra strong and run as fast as the speed of light. In the early films this worked because there was still a mystique about the vampire race, despite being incredibly beautiful looking they genuinely seemed menacing and intriguing. Their powers were used for a reason, in Breaking Dawn we see it so much that it gets kinda boring, on a couple of occasions its even used as humour.

Another thing I miss about the early films is the love triangle, without it the fourth lacks any chemistry between Bella, Edward and Jacob. I also missed the appearance of any of her high school friends such as Jessica. Instead we have a new bunch of vampires with different super powers, who have about as much character as cardboard box. These new vampires are introduced to aid the Cullen family to fight the Volturi, who are angry at the illegitimate birth of Bella and Edward's daughter.

But what killed the film for me was the unexpected ending. The audience just as bewildered as me actually laughed. We were all given a nasty surprise.

Verdict- a decent and watchable film, will split fans and non-fans will find nothing new. 3/5                    

Silent Hill: Revelations 3D- Review

Its been six years since the first Silent Hill hit our screens, so you could say its been quite a while for the second to arrive. The first one was itself rather decent in my opinion, it was far from a perfect film and at times rather boring. However it managed to translate the atmosphere of the games onto screen rather successfully.

Going into seeing this film I had very low expectations, the reviews it has received from the mainstream media have been diabolical. But to my surprise it was actually better than I expected and at times enjoyable. That said the film is still no better than mediocre, but with a little more attention the film had the potential to be better.

Revelations follows on from the first film in that Harry (Sean Bean) returns from the first film, his daughter Heather (Adelaide Clemens) the films lead continuously move from house to house to house. The film starts on her first day at a new school where she meets up with another new student Vincent (Kit Harrington). Its on her first day of school that she realises that she is being watched by Private detective Douglas Cartland.

But the film really kicks off when she arrives home to find her father has disappeared and written on the walls are the words 'Come to Silent Hill'. 

The surprisingly good thing about this film is that its a rare video game adaptation that is actually quite true to its source material, many of the locations will make fans of the series nostalgic. That aside everything in the film seems to just plod along, the narrative seems to have no purpose and things just seem to happen for no plausible reason. Locations are visited and then left far too quickly. One scene involving a spider creature made up of mannequins is one example, what could have been a very scary scene ends far too quickly. 

The dialogue at times is worst than that of a B movie and cringe worthy, the 3D is good (the falling ash is particularly impressive) but very very sparse and hardly worth the extra money to pay for the ticket. Carrie Anne Moss gets no more than five minutes of screen time in her role as Claudia Wolf. And those who have not seen the first film will struggle to make any sense of this one. 

However Adelaide Clemens is impressive as Heather, and she surely has a good career in front of her. But that aside the film will split opinion of fans of the video games, the ending will certainly leave others a little aghast. But its the plot of the film which is its Achilles, implausible narratives are never explained thoroughly enough to care.

Just about watchable - 2.5/5