Posted on January 31, 2010 by Darren
What a month it’s been. This is our monthly post where we round up the best of your coverage/opinion/randomness for you to sample.
We’ve had the inevitable Oscar build-up (the announcements are on Tuesday!) leading us to wonder if Inglourious Basterds has a shot at a nomination or even a win and whether a nomination or win Avatar could honestly be considered a sign that AMPAS has moved back in step with the masses (and if you could make an impartial argument that it deserves the win).
Spider-Man is getting a reboot – and we’re not really too excited about the idea – and we took a look at the Vatican and its history with cinema, what with its recent reengagement with popular culture.
We got some kudos this month, being listed on Total Film’s Top 600 Movie Blogs (woot! cracked that ceiling!) and picking up a Kreativ Blog Award. Nominations for the Irish Blog Awards are now open if you feel like throwing our name in the ring for anything (best newcomer or pop culture, maybe?)
Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: january in review, month in review | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 29, 2010 by Darren
I rarely take the opportunity to get in on some solid internet meme action right here, so please indulge me. With the sixth and final (‘thank god,’ says most of the audience) season of Lost hitting the airwaves on this side of the Atlantic soon, it seems some fan has thought of a nifty and interactive way of charting the various connections between the castaways, whose lives interact in ridiculously unlikely ways before they end up the island. Anyway, it’s an application where you highlight a main character’s name and it’ll connect them to others through numerous smaller secondary characters. Give it a go here, or click the image below.
Not to mention there’s a little Nathan Fillon love going on there, which I think we can all get behind.
Filed under: Television | Tagged: application, internet meme, lost, map, meme, nathan fillon, nerd, Television | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 29, 2010 by Darren
Every once in a while a creator lands a run on a mainstream comic which suits them to a ‘t’. There’s Alan Moore’s tenure on Swamp Thing and Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, for example. Sure, both writers did great work with other characters on a stand-alone basis (notably Superman and Batman respectively), but these were generally individual arcs rather than directing three or four years of the characters’ stories. Having read New X-Men, I can confirm that Grant Morrison has found his own such series.
Is there beauty in the beast?
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: assault on weapon plus, comic book, Comics, e is for extinction, frank quitely, grant morrison, here comes tomorrow, magneto, marvel omnibus, new x-men, new x-men omnibus, planet x, review, sublime, x-men, xorn | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 28, 2010 by Darren
The title is misleading. It isn’t actually complicated. I’d demand my money back for such a misleading title, but the movie staisfies my basic need for naked Alec Baldwin. Because everyone needs more naked Alec Baldwin. You just don’t know it yet. All joking aside, the movie works as what it is: another attempt by Meryl Streep to demonstrate that women over fifty can be just as emotionally immature and as haplessly self-centred as any romantic lead in her twenties or thirties. Who says Hollywood is ageist? Romantic comedy can be equally demeaning no matter what your age.
One of these just scored way out of their league...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: affair, alec baldwin, cheating, comedy, complicated, its complicated, meryl streep, Movie, nancy meyer, non-review review, review, romantic comedy, steve martin | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 28, 2010 by Darren
I’ll admit that I’ve never really understood why Hollywood is so preoccupied with showing the rest of the world how show business works. It was announced today that the book I’m Dying Up Here will be getting the film treatment. That particular bestseller offers a behind-the-scenes look at the early days of the New York stand-up comedy scene, culminating in the famous strike over pay. The characters on screen will be any number of world-famous comedians, from Tim Allen to Robin Williams. Part of me wonders if the recession is a suitable time for this sort of Hollywood introspection.
You may be dying up here, but the celebrity-based bio-pic is alive and well...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: biographies, biopics, celebrities, comedians, films, funny people, i'm dying up here, Movies, ray, recession, showbiz, strike | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 27, 2010 by Darren
This is the kind of Hollywood dickishness that you can’t imagine really taking place, but it seems that it is. Apparently a turf war between the Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises has brought out the inner childish jerk in everyone, and left director Kevin Greutert stuck in the middle. For a series which is devoted to torture porn, it seems that life is imitating art.
Apparently Lionsgate have been taking lessons from Jigsaw...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, kevin greutert, lionsgate, Movies, news, paramount, paranormal activity, paranormal activity 2, saw, saw vii | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 27, 2010 by Darren
I was impressed by the original Captain America by Ed Brubaker Omnibus, but I wasn’t as blown away by his run as almost everyone else seems to have been. A lot of my problems were outside Brubaker’s control – the big Civil War event in the Marvel Universe loomed large over the climax of his run – and, in fairness to him, he worked around it as well as he could have been expected to. His on-going run is continued in a second (albeit smaller) omnibus, succinctly entitled The Death of Captain America Omnibus, which does exactly what it says on the tin, following the events which immediately followed the climax of the last omnibus (even going so far as to reprint the last issue in that volume as the first one in this volume). It’s just over half the size of the early collection – even factoring in the reprint – but I’ll concede that I actually enjoyed it a lot more. Maybe it was the sense that Brubaker was delivering a pay-off to all the threads opened in the first part of his run, or that he was solidly unfettered by editorial mandate this time around, or even that the storyline was considerably more streamlined and focused – no matter what the reason, the vast majority of my (already admittedly small) qualms about the first collection are dealt with here.
That's gonna be a pain to clean...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Bucky, captain america, ed brubaker, marvel, marvel comics, Red Skull, retrospective, review, Steve Epting, the death of captain america, the death of captain america omnibus | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 26, 2010 by Darren
Last week, I posted about the inevitable post-Oscar analysis we would see if James Cameron took home the Oscar for Avatar. I bemoaned the possibility that this would be sold as the moment the Academy re-engaged with mainstream culture, observing that they would only give it to him because he was James Cameron, not because of the box office numbers or the fact the film had resonated with the public. Those who read this blog with any regularity will know that I’m not the biggest fan of the film, I have several huge problems with it, but I feel the need to clarify my position on Avatar. I don’t think that it doesn’t deserve to win – and yes, that’s a double negative. I wouldn’t feel robbed if James Cameron got another little gold statuette. I can even concede that Avatar might have earned it.
James Cameron is probably going to need a bigger Oscar cabinet...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, best picture, best picture oscar, james cameron, Oscars, oscars 2010 | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 26, 2010 by Darren
When people hear the name M. Night Shyamalan, a lot of different films pop into their heads. Everyone knows The Sixth Sense – most know Signs. He’s ridiculed for The Village and The Happening. The Lady in the Water slips under the radar, but that might be a good thing. What tends to get forgotten in the midst of all this is Unbreakable, which is probably the best movie that Shyamalan has directed. He’s known as something of a one-trick pony, relying on twist endings that throw his audience for a loop and – though Unbreakable contains its own novel twist in the tale – this is the one film on his filmography that doesn’t depend on that reveal. It’s a movie that stands up to the scrutiny of a second viewing answering questions and actually seeming painstakingly obvious in retrospect. It’s so good that it barely missed my list of the top 50 movies of the decade.
Holding out for a hero...
Note: As alluded above, the ending of this movie is a key part of discussion about it. Rather than splitting this post in half, I’m going to discuss it below. Don’t worry, I’ll give you a head’s up. I would make one recommendation though: don’t spoil the movie for yourself. It works better whent he audience doesn’t know quite what they are expecting. You could make the case about most movies, but I think that this movie in particular deserves to be seen sight unseen with an open mind.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bruce willis, M. Night Shyamalan, Movie, non-review review, review, samuel l. jackson, twist, unbreakable | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 25, 2010 by Darren
It’s been two weeks since Sam Raimi and Sony parted ways over the now not-to-be Spider-Man 4 and the prospect of a reboot was first mooted by the studio. In that time we’ve had the opportunity to fully consider the facts and little bits of news have been dribbling out. I was initially dismissive of the reboot, albeit in a sort of half-hearted ‘what can I honestly do?’ sort of way. How have the various revelations about the new film – including the announcement of Marc Webb as the director of the project – affected my opinion of this potential 2012 tentpole?
My own spider sense is tingling...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, blockbuster, budget, Comics, kraven, kraven the hunter, marc webb, marvel, Movie, sam raimi, spider man, spider-man 4, spider-man reboot, tentpole | Leave a comment »
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