Posted on March 3, 2010 by Darren
You know the kind of movie The Deal is. It’s about an over-the-hill writer who decides to screw with the Hollywood system and play it against itself, while seducing a beautiful woman and generally just being a cad. In short, it’s a movie writer’s fantasy. That’s by no means a bad thing, to be honest – when done right, you get the dark comedy Robert Altman’s The Player, a story of a writer’s revenge on a corrupt studio executive; unfortunately, when you do it wrong, you end up with a self-indulgent mess like The Deal.
Deal or no deal?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cinema, elliott gould, films, hollywood, ll cool j, meg ryan, Movie, non-review review, review, the deal, william h. macy | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 2, 2010 by Darren
Far be it for us to gloat over the misfortune of a major industry publication, but this story of Oscar ‘payola’ caught my eye. Basically Variety has been accused of pulping a bad review for a film which provided the magazine with $400,000 worth of advertising revenue. The film is Iron Cross – don’t worry that you haven’t heard of the would-be Oscar contender. It’s only really claim to awards prestige is that it offered the last performance of Roy Schneider. However, that $400,000 has gone along way – a lot of film nerds now know all about the film, which wasn’t on the radar last week.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: $400000, advertising, bribery, film, google cache, iron cross, Movies, Oscars, payola, review, scandal, variety | 4 Comments »
Posted on March 2, 2010 by Darren
I think there’s a case to be made for The Rock as a pop culture masterpiece. And, no, I’m not being sarcastic or bitchy – I genuinely believe that. It’s tough to look back no in the era of huge summer blockbusters, but the movie really codified what we should expect from a modern summer tentpole. I remember the gasps of shock when the Criterion – the gold standard of DVD releases – announced that they would be including Armageddon as part of the Criterion Collection, in what was clearly meant to be a nod to the mainstream action movies. Being honest, they should have picked The Rock.
Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action movies, armageddon, cliche, ed harris, film, michael bay, Movies, nicolas cage, non-review review, review, the rock | 4 Comments »
Posted on March 1, 2010 by Darren
I saw this piece over at The Cinematical and it got me thinking. The article basically looks at how open-minded viewers can and should be:
Too often, moviegoers seem to clump into camps: I only watch romantic comedies; I stick with horror; I gotta have my action fix; I won’t watch anything made after 1950; I won’t watch anything in black and white; I won’t watch anything with subtitles. To some extent, we’re pushed that way by modern media, as niche marketing gets more and more specific. Go to Netflix or Amazon, search for A Room with a View, and suggestions for other similar, period dramas may pop up as recommended choices for you, as determined by computer algorithms. The computer won’t recommend The Crazies.
Are we too close-minded about films?
Ah, the classic "vampire/cop" movie genre...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cinematical, films, genre, genre theory, Movies | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 1, 2010 by Darren
I imagine Lewis Carroll’s iconic fantasy story poses quite the problem for anybody looking to bring it to the screen. Both Alice in Wonderland and Alice’s Adventures Through The Looking Glass essentially consist of a collection of vignettes, very loosely linked to each other. One minute you’re translating The Jabberwockey and the next you’re hearing the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter. I can’t imagine it would be particularly easy to produce a film following that sort of almost random structure. Perhaps that’s why Tim Burton’s wonderfully visual fantasy seems to draw perhaps more heavily from The Lord of the Rings than its own source material, which is a shame, as the director fantastically brings the magic of Wonderland to life. If only there were more of it.
Down the rabbit hole...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 3d, alice in wonderland, anne hathaway, disney, fantasy, films, helena bonham carter, johnny depp, lord of the rings, Movies, non-review review, review, the lord of the rings, tim burton | 3 Comments »
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