the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Toy Story (3D)

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Darren

I caught a screening of Toy Story 3D in Cineworld last night. It was amazing. Not for the new 3D effects – which were, admittedly graceful and understated rather than garish and intrusive – but just for the joy of seeing two old friends back on the big screen, where they belong. The rerelease of the movie has garnered a lot of discussion about what the best Pixar film is, with many suggesting that this original film may take the crown. While Toy Story isn’t the best of that studio’s filmography, it remains a highlight. To infinity and beyond, indeed!

Toyz in da Hood...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: buzz lightyear, films disney, Movies, non-review review, pixar, rerelease, review, tim allen, tom hanks, toy story, toy story 3d, woody | 1 Comment »

To Read or Not To Read?

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Darren

Every year hundreds of books are adapted into movies. The adaptation process is (if Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman are to be believed) hell for the writer – but it’s also somewhat of a complex question for the film reviewer. Unlike the few films these days that have started their life as a script and have never before been offered to the public, the ideas, themes, characters and contents of the work now being produced as a blockbuster have all been let loose years ago. If reviewers should aspire to be educated in what they review, should they read the books before they see the films in order to properly judge them, or should the film itself stand on its own two feet to be judged as a success or failure on its own merits? On a more superficial level, is a reviewer better able to access what the audience expects from the film if they’ve read the book or should they act on the presumption that few moviegoers read the original work? Should they even care – is an attitude towards literary adaptations necessary for consistency in a film reviewer?

Book him, Leo...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adaptations, books, books to screen, cinema, films, revolutionary road, Shutter Island, watchmen | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Paul Blart – Mall Cop

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Darren

I didn’t know that you were allowed like comedic protagonists anymore. I thought they were all meant to be immature, or pathetic, or passive-aggressive, or petty, or emotionally damaged. The last honest-to-goodness sympathetic lead character I remember in a large comedy was Steve Carrell’s wonderful turn in the 40 Year Old Virgin, years ago now. Here we have another small-screen comedian trying to find room for himself on the big screen, in a relatively light and simplistic comedy about mall security. It’s like a family version of Observe and Report. Except not. Not at all.

Don't worry, he's trained for this... Probably...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, kevin james, mall cop, Movie, non-review review, paul blart, paul blart: mall cop, review, spoof | Leave a comment »

House: Season 5

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Darren

It’s a strange world. It’s startling that last year’s writers’ strike produced one the most stunning years of television that I can recall. In particular the fourth seasons of both House and Lost managed to inject a new sense of life into premises that had been wearing more than a little thin. Both series finales were fantastic, and promised wonderful things for the coming year. And both series subsequently failed to live up to the promise offered by those finales. In fairness, Lost was pretty awesome this year, just not with the same concentration of awesome which defined its earlier season. House, on the other hand, faltered coming out of the date by giving us a whole myriad of poorly-handled interesting storylines and just blain terrible subplots. Just when it looked like it was going to limp past the finish line, the last handful of episodes managed to turn it around, but I’m still not sure what to make of the season as a whole.

The show had its problems this year, let's see if we can make a diagnosis...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: cuddy, drama, gregory house, house, house m.d., house md, house: season 5, hugh laurie, kal penn, laurence kutner, lisa edelstein, robert sean leonard, Television, wilson | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: I Love You, Man

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Darren

There’s a lot of potantial here. Guys and their friends typically relate differently than girls and their friends. And nothing interferes with a wedding quite like a guy and his best friend – even if both the marriage and the relationship with the best friend are a great idea. The problem is that I Love You, Man doesn’t go anywhere with its interesting notion and it insists upon tackling the question of how the sexes relate in the most immature way possible. This is the bromantic equivalent of Sleepless in Seattle rather than Chasing Amy or (500) Days of Summer.

A scooter made for two...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bro-mance, bromance, comedy, i love you man, j.k. simmons, jason segel, john hamberg, non-review review, paul rudd, rashida jones, review, romance | Leave a comment »

Batman and the Mad Monk

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Darren

With all the Silver Age love that Grant Morrison is giving Batman and Geoff Johns is showing Hal Jordan, it’s nice to see a little reflection back towards the Golden Age, which is generally forgotten (it helps that many of the comic book heroes that we have today only really emerged during that Silver Age, and that the writers would have grown up during it). Here we have a contemporary retelling of one of the early Batman stories, as reimagined by Matt Wagner in a follow-up to another Golden Age adaptation, Batman and the Monster Men. It’s a lovely little fun story that stands tall among the many, many early adventures in Batman’s career.

Who let the dogs out?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, batman and the mad monk, comic books, dark moon rising, dc comics, gotham, james gordon, matt wagner, review, the monk | Leave a comment »

Battlestar Galactica – The Miniseries

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Darren

I recently picked up Battlestar Galactica on bluray, the complete series boxset, including every episode and special. I’d wandered in and out of the series over the years (mainly due to the fact that I was at college during its run) and when this package was released I decided that it might well be worth my time to pick up the whole kit and kaboodle on watch it through from beginning to end. So, for the first time, I watched the 2003 miniseries which had served as launching pad for the series. While I’m not entirely happy with the bluray itself, I am very satisfied with the programme.

Guess who’s coming to dinner?

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: adama, battlestar, battlestar galactica, Battlestar Galactica miniseries, Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries, bluray, BSG, cylons, review | 15 Comments »

Batman: Gothic (Review)

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Darren

Legends of the Dark Knight was an interesting concept – tell self-contained stories using different creative teams set at various points during Batman’s crime-fighting career. As such, those stories would make the title easy to pick up, without tying it excessively to continuity. It’s a simple and an interesting premise, and it did produce all manner of intriguing Batman stories. Grant Morrison’s Gothicis perhaps one of the most intriguing of those stories, taking the character well outside what readers might have expected.

It’s all upside down…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: batman, batman: gothic, Bruce, comic, dark knight, dark knight returns, dc comics, frank miller, gotham city, gothic, gothic horror, grant morrison, Grantmorrison, horror, klaus janson, legends of the dark knight, morrison, mr. whisper, review, the legends of the dark knight | 3 Comments »

Absolute Batman: The Dark Knight (Returns) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Darren

The Absolute Edition also collects The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Miller’s belated sequel is worthy of discussion on its own terms, and I plan to revisit it at some point. For the moment, however, here is the review of the original Dark Knight Returns.

It’s really quite difficult to discuss The Dark Knight Returns today. Part of the reason is because of the massive influence that Frank Miller’s Batman epilogue had on the medium, and part of it is because Miller himself has done a fairly efficient job at deconstructing his own definitive Batman work in stories like The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. It’s impossible to approach Miller’s work here entirely divorced from either reality, and the result is a rather strange and dramatic legacy for one of the most iconic Batman stories ever told. It remains fairly essential reading for anybody even remotely interested in the Caped Crusader, the superhero genre or even the medium as a whole. It’s a classic, albeit one that is sometimes quite difficult to pin down.

Lightning strikes…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: absolute dark knight, absolute edition, alan moore, All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder, arts, batman, bruce wayne, Christopher Nolan, comic books, dark knight returns, dark knight strikes again, dc comics, dkr, dksa, frank miller, gotham, graphic novel, neil gaiman, review, the absolute dark knight, The Dark Knight, the dark knight returns, the dark knight strikes again, watchmen | 7 Comments »

Toy Story 3D x 2

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Darren

Hey, Disney, wassup? Seriously. I know I live in Ireland and that ripping off people is the norm, but c’mon? Everywhere else seems to be receiving Toy Story 3D as a double feature including Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in a four-hour epic? Instead, I have to fork out €10 twice to see two movies I’ve already seen and I can’t even make a decent weekend afternoon of it. We’re getting the first Toy Story rendered in 3D today, but we have to wait until Christmas for the second one.