Posted on May 31, 2009 by Darren
Probably the only “feel-good film of the year” to involve excrement-covered urchins, the blindng of beggars and brutal police interrogation methods within the first half-hour of screentime. I have to admit I love the marketing for the film, which has pitched it as a movie that will leve you feeling as though you just spent two hours basking in sunshine. I’d suggest the experience is somewhat different. That’s not to say I didn’t greatly enjoy the film – it was one of the best of the year – just a warning to viewers not to expect sunshine and lollipops for most of the film’s runtime. So, how does the official Best Picture of 2008 stack up?
Jamal noticed he was getting a lot more attention after he went on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: anil kapoor, best picture oscar, danny boyle, dev patel, non-review review, Oscars, review, slumdog millionaire | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 31, 2009 by Darren
I checked out Coraline in 3D on Friday night there in Cineworld. While I have my own thoughts on the format that I will talk about next week, I have to say that the film is – in one word – magical. The better half completely agreed with me here. I think it may be the best stop-motion production that I have ever seen – and this is from a guy who counts The Nightmare Before Christmas as must-watch seasonal entertainment. It really was one of the cinematic highlights of the year.
Cute as a button...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 3d, coraline, henry sellick, neil gaiman, non-review review, review, sandman, stop-motion | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 30, 2009 by Darren
Network 2 reaired the whole Terminator trilogy to celebrate Salvation‘s release on Friday. My luck being my luck, I caught the tail end of the franchise, the weak link if you will. As I write this, I face the question that I face when I review any given sequel or part of a franchise: should I judge it independently or alongside its predecessors (and – if I’m a latecomer to the party – its successors)? If I adopt the former approach, is Terminator 3 a reasonably solid sci-fi/action movie? If I look at it as the third installment in the franchise, is it fit to be considered alongside two of the greatest action movies ever made?
Spot the one non-classically trained actor in this shot...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger, claire danes, nick stahl, non-review review, review, roger ebert, sequel, terminator, terminator 3, terminator:salvation, terrminator 3: rise of the machines | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 29, 2009 by Darren
Whatever happened to originality? This is the first weekend since Wolverine kicked off the blockbuster movie season a month ago that there isn’t a sequel, prequel or reboot opening at the multiplexes in America. Despite the fact that Pixar’s Up and Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell are reviewing very strongly, most box office folk seem to think that this will be a relatively quiet weekend at the old box office, which is a shame really when we’ve got two of the best reviewed movies of the year going head-to-head. Still, what happened to Hollywood’s originality?
Brideshead Revisited, Revisited
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 9, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, drag me to hell, Flight of The Navigator, Godfather II, harry potter, hollywood, Movies, Nine, prequels, Pride & Prejudice, Race to Witch Mountain, reboot, remake, sequels, spinoff, terminator: salvation, The Dark Knight, The Neverending Story, The Wolf Man, up, wolverine | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 29, 2009 by Darren
In the knowledge that Terminator: Salvation has ‘only’ taken in $71m at the US Box Office, having cost over $200m to make and market, prognosticators are rushing to pronounce the Terminator franchise as dead. The facts don’t look good – so far it has earned less than the previous franchise killer (the disappointing-in-so-many-ways Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), it is reviewing badly, and it got its ass handed to it by a Ben Stiller family comedy. This is surely bad news for Warner Brothers, the studio that produced the other $200m ‘dud’ of the year, Watchmen – but does it really signal the end for everyone’s favourite time-traveling robotic assassin?
No bones (or metallic endoskeleton) about it...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: box office, Gran Torino, harry potter, Movies, Night at the Museum 2, Night the Museum, Sarah Connor Chronicles, summer, terminator, terminator 2, terminator 3, terminator: salvation, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Warner Brothers, watchmen | Leave a comment »
Posted on May 28, 2009 by Darren
How do Pixar continue to do it? Of the ten films they have produced so far, nearly all are considered animated classics (though I remain skeptical of A Bug’s Life). Somehow the company seems to have found a way to not only compress the whole spectrum of human emotion (though it has been suggested that they do better with loss and depression than triumph and love), and distill these precious elements into a technically marvelous computer-animated form. With Up seemingly continuing the trend, how can they continue to do it?
Carl knew it wouldn't all be plane sailing...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: animation, cgi, disney, finding nemo, pixar, the incredibles, up | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 27, 2009 by Darren
This weekend sees the release of the only two original (i.e. not a sequel, prequel or spin-off) major releases this May. For the kids – both young and old – we have the newest Pixar film, which is steadily becoming one of the highlights of the movie year. The other film – while firmly awaited by horror aficionados – has snuck up on the rest of us, generating great buzz from preview screenings. Drag Me To Hell is apparently the best horror film in quite some time, and one I am now hotly anticipating, but it got me thinking – whatever happened to the horror genre?
Bruce Campbell just isn't trying any more
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 28 weeks later, alien, bruce campbell, danny boyle, don't look now, drag me to hell, evil dead, films, george romero, gore, horror, Movies, nicholas roeg, sam raimi, stephen king, the mist, the omen, the shining | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 27, 2009 by Darren
While waiting for the 24 finale last night, my brother and I checked out what we had on DVD. We caught The Incredible Hulk, one of the blockbusters that seems to have unfairly become lost in the mix last year. It didn’t fail as spectacularly as Speed Racer, nor did it soar as high as Iron Man or The Dark Knight. Not expecting much, we found ourselves quite enjoying it.
It's not easy being green...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bruce banner, comic book movie, edward norton, hulk, marvel, non-review review, review, the incredible hulk, tim roth, william hurt | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 27, 2009 by Darren
So, after a technical malfunction last night left us all watching The Mist, we caught a repeat of the 24 season finale last night. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it, as I quite enjoyed the whole day. It’s the first full season my brother has sat through, and my aunt and uncle seemed quite impressed with it too. I’m not sure how the whole season will rank up there in the pantheon of 24 seasons, but it was at least very watchable.
Jack Bauer helped U2 find what they were looking for.
Continue reading →
Filed under: Television | Tagged: 24, day 7, jack bauer, jon voight, jonas hodges, keifer sutherland, president taylor, season 7, Television, terry jones | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 26, 2009 by Darren
How does Stephen King do it? He manages to churn out an astonishingly prolific back catalogue, but maintains a reasonably high quality. As with all authors, he soars above and he dips below, but – taken on average – he is a very strong writer than manages to churn out up to four books a year. How does the man do it?
It's good to be the King...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: books, danse macabre, dark tower, fiction, film adaptations, horror, it, literature, pop culture, stephen king, the green mile, the shawshank redemption, the shining | 3 Comments »
the m0vie blog 