Posted on October 19, 2009 by Darren
I don’t have a twitter account. Until earlier this year, I didn’t have a blog. I’m not a slow technological adapter, but I don’t pretend that I am the fastest either. I don’t do facebook, linkedin or bebo, among others. Apparently I am way behind the times. Anyway, it’s always fun to watch the sociological impact of these new multimedia methods of keeping in touch and how they find themselves harnessed (whether intentionally or not) to the service or detriment of established traditional media. Paranormal Activity is the latest movie to benefit the Twitter Effect.
Is it a phantom effect?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, inglourious basterds, Movies, new media, paranormal activity, snakes on a plane, The Dark Knight, the twitter effect, tweeting, twitter, viral campaigns | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 19, 2009 by Darren
I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time – ever since snuggling in to watch the eighties sci-fi spectacular Enemy Mine only to discover that it was an experience which managed to flawlessly recreate the experience of being repeatedly hammered on the head by a blunt metallic object of some sort. The fact that the movie actually forced me to give up on it is a rare experience – I can normally grit my teeth and bare it. In a world that features so, so many terrible, terrible films, how come I don’t switch off more?
Yes, even he couldn't get me to switch off...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bad movies, film, film reviewing, Movies, switching off, terrible films | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 18, 2009 by Darren
It’s probably hard writing the same comic with the same artist for the bones of a decade. Setting things up years in advance only to have them pay off down the line, trying to put a new slant on an existing mythology while updating it for a new audience. This middle section of the Bendis/Bagley run on Ultimate Spider-Man isn’t necessarily bad per se, but it lacks the energy and reckless fun which defined the start of the run and the sense of resolution that approached at the end of the run. It just is.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Your spidey-sense should be tingling...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: bagley, bendis, brian michael bendis, carnage, cats & kings, comic books, hollywood, irresponsible, mark bagley, marvel comics, sam raimi, sinister six, spider man, spider-man 2, spiderman, spiderman 2, superstars, ultimate carnage, ultimate marvel, ultimate six, ultimate spider man, ultimate spiderman, ultimate universe | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 17, 2009 by Darren
It has been a while since I’ve worn my ‘theatre reviewer’ hat, but I’m blowing the cobwebs off on this one. My girlfriend is a huge fan of the Corn Exchange theatre group and we decided to give their new work, playing as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival, a go. I’ve had very mixed luck when it comes to seeing performances in the project theatre, and while I was quite impressed with the technical aspects of the play – I couldn’t help feeling that something was missing.
Not quite a stroke of genius...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: corn exchange, dublin, dublin theatre festival, freefall, play, project arts centre, stroke, templebar, the corn exchange, Theatre, theatre festival, Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 17, 2009 by Darren
There’s a reason you don’t hear a lot of people talk about this particular addition to Mark Millar’s bibliography. Very simply, it’s not very good. It’s as if Mark Millar has taken the usual explosive energy that underpins his work and turning it up so high that all we can discern is just a screeching noise. It doesn’t help that the book manages to turn just about every strength he demonstrated during The Ultimates into a weakness.
Because it wouldn't be an X-Men book without Wolverine on the cover...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: a different world is possible, andy kubert, comic books, Comics, hellfire and brimstone, magneto, mark millar, return of the king, return to weapon x, review, the tomorrow people, ultimate comics, ultimate marvel, ultimate universe, ultimate war, ultimate x-men, world tour, x-men, you always remember your first love | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 16, 2009 by Darren
Five years in and the Ultimate Universe is starting to look a little cluttered. In fairness, it was a little bit inevitable, with so many classic storylines to play out and so many classic characters to reimagine in a relatively short space of time. Bendis tries to keep the toys from cluttering up the pram through various means, and none of these new characters seem forced (though some do feel gratuitous). I suppose that if the Ultimate line is supposed to offer a mirror to the mainstream history of Marvel, it’s only natural it should become cluttered. Still, like playing with your favourite toys, it’s only natural to make a bit of a mess…
No claws for alarm...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: brian michael bendis, clone saga, Comics, Deadpool, graphic novels, hobgoblin, Knights, mark bagley, marvel, marvel comics, Morbius, review, Silver Sable, spider man, spiderman, The Talk, ultimate clone saga, ultimate comics, Ultimate Deadpool, ultimate hobgoblin, ultimate marvel, Ultimate Morbius, Ultimate Silver Sable, ultimate spider man, ultimate spiderman, ultimate universe | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 16, 2009 by Darren
Is it possible for an actor to age gracefully? The Guardian has been very fruitful in providing food for thought this week and the article that grabbed my attention today is a discussion of Heath Ledger’s potential had his life not been cut so tragically short. I don’t intend to dwell on what could have, should have or would have been, but the article does raise some interesting assertions about the ageing of great actors:
If you want to propose Pacino, De Niro and Nicholson as the outstanding figures of the 70s and 80s, who can be resigned about what has happened to them? They have become pastiches of what they once were.
So, is that what really awaits our truly great actors at the end of their careers?
Grumpy - but cool - old men...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actors, actresses, ageing, ageing actors, ageism, clash of the titans, edwards asner, films, growing old, heath ledger, hollywood, Movies, oaps, the guardian, up | 29 Comments »
Posted on October 15, 2009 by Darren
Product placement. Sponsorship. Payola. Image branding. Advertising. Astroturfing. The use of media – old and new – to sell products to people – whether they know you’re selling it to them or not. It has always been a bit of a thorny issue – with laws popping up against the legendary, but ultimately unproven, “subliminal advertising” – the flashing of words and images between the stills of a movie so fast that the audience couldn’t actually see them (though some would claim that these images made a subconscious impression, it has been difficult to consistently reproduce – but it was still banned). The last few decades in particular have seen a flurry of rules and regulations attempting to regulate what you can sell to who and how. But is advertising that easy to regulate?
"The Mac - for the insufferable genius in all of us..."
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Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: advertising ftc, advertising subliminal, astroturf, astroturfing, bloggers, blogging, federal trade commission, journalism, new media, old media, payola, placement, print media, product placement, regulations, subliminal advertising, subliminal messaging | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 15, 2009 by Darren
This was an interesting piece of news last week – a large number of us lie about the films we’ve seen, as demonstrated by a survey in the UK. Basically, a large number of us pretend to have seen movies which we haven’t in order to avoid appearing ‘uncultured’. There was a fair bit of focus on the fact that the most lied about film is The Godfather, but it seems to have gone unnoticed that the second most lied about film is Dirty Dancing. Even keeping Patrick Swayze’s recent death in mind (which probably happened after the survey was complete), why would you lie about Dirty Dancing? It takes a stuck-up film snob to judge you for not watching The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption, two indisputable classics, but who in their right mind would complain that you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Dirty Dancing?
The time of your life, indeed...
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: dirty dancing, film, lying, Movies, the godfather, the shawshank redemption | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 14, 2009 by Darren
Yes, you read the title right. Is Anton Chigurh, the sociopathic hitman from No Country For Old Men who kills his victims an instrument used to cull cattle, an instrument of divine will? I stumbled across an interesting argument on-line which proposed that McCarthy (who is – apparently – staunchly conservative) wrote the character as an angel who was sent down to purge all those connected in anyway with the money from the drug trade – bringing on the old-school biblical wrath which you don’t see too often these days. Talk about executing your purpose with zeal.
Everytime Chigurh kills somebody, an angel gets its wings. It's pretty crowded up there, too.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: anton chigurh, bible, chigurh, christianity, cormac mccarthy, drugs, god, interpretations, javier bardem, Movies, no country for old men, subtext, themes, wraith, yahweh | 7 Comments »
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