Posted on November 5, 2009 by Darren
They say that Christmas gets earlier every year. I’m probably too young to remember this correctly (maybe it’s an aspirational dream I’m confusing with memory), but back in the day they used to wait until after Halloween to start selling Christmas stuff. Now I hear Argos Christmas catalog advertisements and visit the Christmas section in Marks & Sparks in early October. But, seriously, the releasing of A Christmas Carol in early November takes the biscuit.
Isn't it magical?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: a christmas carol, christmas, christmas advertising, christmas movies, disney's a christmas carol, films, halloween, holiday, Movies, seasons | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 5, 2009 by Darren
Now we’re getting into it. It seems that Robinson has got all the setup necessary to move the story forward out of the way (or at least the bulk of it) and that Tony Harris has finally found his feet on the series. This collection moves a lot more fluidly than the last one – partially due to the fact that it closes as many threads as it opens, but also because Robinson is no free of having to establish the series’ premise and can now focus on the stories that he wants to tell (almost, we’ll come to the exceptions). Those stories are – by and large – reflective studies of what is known as “The Golden Age” of comic books: the 1930s and 1940s. What happened to the world between then and now? What happened to the heroes? Was it ever really the kinder gentler place we recall?
And it's our first Chrismas-themed image... Earlier every year...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, comic books, Comics, Comics Code Authority, crossovers, dc comics, Eisner Award, jack knight, james robinson, review, sandman, Silver Age of Comic Books, starman, starman omnibus, ted knight, the shade, tony harris, underworld unleashed, wesley dodds, zero hour | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 3, 2009 by Darren
My dad happened to rent out Public Enemies on bluray over the weekend. I was somewhat disappointed when I went to see it in the cinema – and a large portion of my disappointment arose from Michael Mann’s filming style; he filmed in digital rather than on film and used handheld cameras. The effect was somewhat disconcerting in a 1930s period piece, looking almost like my dad had shot it on his handheld camcorder. It appears that a smaller screen (a High Definition TV) works wonders in remedying these technical faults.
Would it look even better on my iPod?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: high definition, home media, public enemies | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 3, 2009 by Darren
All of this has happened before… and will happen again.
With that line articulated by the Cylon Leoben Conroy in the episode Flesh and Bone, the producers and writers lay their cards on the table. Time is cyclical. Maybe for the grand design of human history, but most definitely for storytelling. Battlestar Galactica is possibly the most wonderfully dense and layoured piece of popular culture which I have had the joy of savouring since first cracking open Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. It’s magical, it’s mystical, and it’s wonderful. How Ronald D. Moore turned a kitsch footnote in television science fiction history into this, I will never know. I am just thankful.
Time's Arrow is cyclical...
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Filed under: Television | Tagged: 33, adama, all this has happened before, baltar, battlestar galactic season 1, battlestar galactica, bluray, cyclic, cylons, faith, god, kobol's last gleaming, litmus, religion, review, six, the hand of god, war on terror, you can't go home again | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 3, 2009 by Darren
I took my aunt to the cinema this weekend and she waited until we had left the screening to tell me that she wanted to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox, so we had gone to see a very false compromise – the “highest grossing concert film of all time”, the Michael Jackson flick This Is It. It was significantly better than our last attempt to go to the cinema – the truly dire Love Happens – but that’s a mixed sentiment at best, isn’t it?
Is This It?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: concert, michael jackosn, non-review review, review, this is it | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 1, 2009 by Darren
I’m not quite sure what to make of the collection. I know it’s the first of six volumes which will include the entire 80-issue run of James Robinson’s reimagining the concept (plus extras) and I know that it’s the opening chapter of a much more expansive story. And I know that – as a story – it is structured in a much more dynamic and interesting way than most other superhero adventures. But I’m not feeling it. At least not yet.
No hero here(o)...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: comic books, david mckean, dc comics, dc universe, golden age, grant morrison, graphic novel, jack knight, james robinson, omnibus, Opal City, review, sins of the child, starman, starman omnibus, ted knight, tony harris | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 31, 2009 by Darren
It’s been a busy October – perhaps too busy. I’ll be taking a step abck from blogging a bit in november (a few posts a week, certainly not anywhere near two-a-day), just with reather hectic stuff going on in the world around me.
Anyway, it was a quite a fun month – who doesn’t like Halloween? We had our own runup to Halloween with Screen Scare Week, which was a selection of random scary movie related articles, which were fun and are well worth a look.
Outside of that we looked at a variety of movie related phenomena, from the protest by the director of The Godfather III that cinema was being ruined by continuing failed attempts to replicate past successes and I wondered what it takes to force someone to turn off a movie.
I wondered if Anton Chigurh (yes, the guy from No Country for Old Men) was in fact an angel (it’s not as crazy as it sounds). And Up got me thinking about how Hollywood treats its elderly.
I wondered about the “twitter effect”, whether I should read the novels upon which films are based before reviewing them and I vented a bit on my dislike of reality television. I also wrote a bit about the new blogger guidelines stateside.
It was a fairly solid month around here.
Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: Months in Review, october | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 30, 2009 by Darren
There’s been a lot of buzz generated about the new “shared universe” that Marvel is generating on-screen in the run up to The Avengers, being released in 2012. It has generated fantastic buzz and discussion given there are only really two scenes that have been screened suggesting how the the format might work: the presence of Samuel L. Jackson at the end of Iron Man, welcoming Tony Stark into a wider “universe” and the one-scene appearance of Robert Downey Jnr. at the end of The Incredible Hulk. Undoubtedly next year’s Iron Man 2 will feature even more treats (as will Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger), but it’s interesting to see the fuss that two tiny scenes have generated. I really do think that Marvel are on to box office gold here, and I also think it’s an interesting (and honest) attempt to transfer the medium of comics to film. However, these are all playing into one giant box office buster. Might it be worth taking the same concept and applying it to some of Marvel’s smaller screen franchises?
Fighting over top billing...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: captain america, crossover, crossovers, daredevil, film, films, iron man, marvel, marvel comics, Movies, punisher, the avengers, the punisher, thor | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 30, 2009 by Darren
If there was one horror movie that was the centre of much focus and discussion this autumn, it was probably Paranormal Activity. If there was another one, it was Jennifer’s Body. Written by the Oscar-nominated writer of Juno and starring ‘it’ girl of the moment Megan Fox, the movie sparked a whole host of interesting debates from its initial conception through to its underwhelming box office debut. The centre concept was an intriguing gender reversal on the traditional slasher movie dynamic: a college girl randomly murders promiscuous boys. That, and the fact that she is a demon. So, is the movie a feminist slasher flick, and does that go someway towards explaining its somewhat poor box office figures?
Do you want to see more of Jennifer's Body?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: diablo cody, feminist, femism, horror, jennifers body, megan fox, Movies, screen scare week, slasher | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 29, 2009 by Darren
There is an interesting article in The Guardian written by Samantha Morton, which lauds Nicole Kidman’s decision to announce that Hollywood treats women as sex objects and Matt Damon’s announcement that he won’t do excessively violent films. They are both valid points for discussion, but I’m never quite sure what to make of it when an artist makes a public anouncement like that, clearly politicising their work. Anyone who neede Nicole Kidman to tell them that Hollywood treats women as objects obviously hasn’t been paying attention to any film released ever, and I doubt anyone will be particularly surprised to here Matt Damon won’t turn up as a lead in Saw. That’s not to diminish their observation, but part of me is always uncomfortable abou the increasing politicalisation of actors and celebrities in our culture.
Not kidding around...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actors, discussion, film, Movies, nicole kidman, role models, samantha morton, sex objects, sexism, the guardian, violence, Why Nicole Kidman was brave to speak out | Leave a comment »
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