June | 2010 | the m0vie blog

June in Review

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Darren

It’s been a hectic June. A fun June, but a hectic one. For those new to the site, this is just a brief index of (what I thought) were the cream of the crop of my thoughts for the month, so I can come back in a few years and laugh my ass at off at my stupid ideas.

The decision of Christopher Nolan not to recast the Joker in Batman 3 led us to ask what “trust” in a director really means – and whether the loss of del Toro would really affect The Hobbit in a good way or a bad way (which was part of a cross-blog event with the rather awesome Andrew – his counter-proposal is here).

Aside from the (arguably objectively) awesome Toy Story 3, we found conclusive proof that Pixar are legendary.

Hollywood’s continued fascination with sequels got to me – but I worried they might simply be replaced with a wave of side-character-centric spin-offs. Of course, there’s no promise that, in the future, these movies will be screened for critics. And Anomalous Materials’ quest to find the greatest comedy of all time led me to wonder if comedies age worse than other films.

Oh, and my brother wrote his first ever review (and first ever guest-article on this site) for Get Him to the Greek.

Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: june, june in review, month in review | Leave a comment »

Absolute Justice

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Darren

They’ve lost their power. And I’m not talking about magic genie-rings or batarangs. I’m speaking about their real power. You don’t need them anymore.

– Lex Luthor discusses superheroes

Are superheroes redundant? In many ways, they’ve formed the basis of an American mythology in the twentieth century – many fo the classical superheroes represent a pantheon of gods not unlike the Greek or the Roman conception of the same. This is particularly true of DC’s panel of major superheroes, who may as well sit atop Olympus looking down on humanity. However, the past few decades haven’t necessarily been kind to the notion of the superhero – increasingly deconstructed and darkened and shaded and compromised beyond any similarity to their original status – and you’d be forgiven for wondering whether the genre has passed its sell-by date. This is the question at the core of Justice, the twelve-part maxi-series by Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger.

A league of their own?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: absolute justice, alex ross, comic book history, comic books, dark age, dc absolute edition, dc comics, graphic novel, jim kreuger, justice, justice league, kingdom come, nostalgia, silver age | 2 Comments »

The Best of All Possible Worlds? The Legacy of the Borg…

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Darren

Earlier today I posted a retrospective of The Best of Both Worlds, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary this month. I discussed how it managed to basically rewrite the Star Trek rulebook, introducing the franchise’s most iconic villains since the sixties. However, I’ve always found the Borg, those utterly terrifying cybernet hive-minded creatures, fascinating for another reason: they are a text book example of how a long-running franchise can take a viable and fascinating antagonist and then run them into the ground.

Why Borg?

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: borg, borg queen, star trek, star trek: first contact, star trek: the next generation, star trek: voyager, the borg, tthe collective, villain decay | Leave a comment »

The Best of Both Worlds: A Retrospective

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Darren

I am Locutus – of Borg. Resistance – is futile. Your life, as it has been – is over. From this time forward, you will service – us.

– Locutus introduces himself

I only found out last week that The Best of Both Worlds is twenty years old this June. For those unfamiliar with the title, it’s the two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which represented both the franchise’s first real cliffhanger (there was a two-part episode of the original series, but that was simply to incorporate a framing device around the original unaired pilot, The Cage – which featured an (almost) completely different cast) and the first real showcase of perhaps the franchise’s most iconic antagonists, the Borg. It’s also a damn good two hours of television.

Picard could always spot a square...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: best of both worlds, borg, jean-luc picard, patrick stewart, picard, retrospective, star trek, star trek: the next generation, sttng, Television, the best of both worlds, the borg, the next generation, tng | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Lovely Bones

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Darren

There are somethings you can’t put a positive spin on. The rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old girl is one of those things.

A little too lovely...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: films, heaven, mark wahlberg, Movies, non-review review, peter jackson, rachel weisz, review, saoirse ronan, stanley tucci, susan sarandon, susie salmon, suzie salmon, the lovely bones | 9 Comments »

In Good Humour: The Calamatous Case of the Comedy Classics…

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Darren

The wonderful lads over at Anomalous Materials are running a tournament over the summer to find the best comedy of all time. Think of it as a world cup, for film nerds. However, the competition – like our quad-annual footie fest – has had its share of upsets. Most notable in an early round where Galaxy Quest triumphed over Some Like it Hot or the trumping of Arsenic and Old Lace by A Fish Called Wanda another day (the same day The General went home empty handed, losing to Mrs. Doubtfire) or Bringing Up Baby getting trounced by Little Miss Sunshine. There are more borderline cases, with The Apartment beating The Circus or The Great Dictator losing to The Graduate. However, the only victory for a “classic” classic film I could find was that of City Lights over A Christmas Story. This sparked a bit of discussion between those taking part (which is, in fairness, the rather wonderful thing about events like this), but it got us wondering: Is comedy a fickle mistress? Has what the audience expected from a comedy changed dramatically with the times? Are what many consider to be “classics” of the genre subject to this winds of change and popular taste?

Modern Times are tough for Charlie...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Anomalous Materials, best comedy of all time, black and white, buster keaton, charlie chaplin, classic, classic comedy, comedy, forgotten, humour, jokes, modern, modern classic, modern comedy, Movies, popular opinion, sense of humour, silent film, taste, zeitgeist | 12 Comments »

Trailer Park

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Darren

I was delighted over the weekend to be asked to take part in a joint blog post with the rather wonderful Frank over at the Pompous Film Snob, outlining my favourite trailer and why. The article’s well worth a look and features some fantastic contributions. There’s a lovely selection right there. Anyway, he got me in the trailer frame of mind and I thought I’d maybe just post some of my favourite trailers for non-movie-things here, as a kind of a spin-off.

This post is rated "A" for awesome...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: film, Movies, parodies, Television, trailers, video games | 4 Comments »

A Matter of Time – Doctor Who: Season 5

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Darren

Sorry… Sorry! Dropped it!

Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe. But bad news everyone… cause guess who! Listenw you lot, cause you’re all whizzing about – it’s really could distracting. Could you all just stay still for a minute? Because I. am. talking!

Now, question of the hour: who’s got the Pandorica? Answer: I do. Next question: who’s coming to take it from me?

C’mon!

Look at me: no plan, no backup, no weapons worth a damn – oh, and something else I don’t have? Anything to lose! So if you’re sitting up there in all your silly little spaceships with your silly little guns and you’ve got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who’s standing in your way; remember every black day I ever stopped you; and then – and then! – do the smart thing: let somebody else try first.

– The Doctor, The Pandorica Opens

Well, the first season of Stephen Moffat’s run of Doctor Who is over. And what a ride it was. On one hand, you had budget cuts at the BBC, putting an even great financial strain on the show’s transition to high definition, the first wholsecale chance of the entire cast between seasons since the show’s transition to colour in 1970 (and, fittingly, this was the show’s transition to high definition), and you had the World Cup skewing ratings towards the backend of the season. On the other hand, you had the writer of some of the show’s best episodes directing the entire run behind the scenes, the exploration of the time travelling nature of the central protagonist, and a blatant admission that the show is more a fairytale than a science fiction epic. And along the way, there was barely enough time to catch your breath.

No time to lose...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: amy, amy pond, amy's choice, arthur darvill, autons, bbc, cold blood, daleks, doctor, doctor who, drama, family, flesh and stone, foreshadowing, matt smith, paradox, rory, rory williams, script, stephen moffat, tardis, Television, the beast below, the big bang, the doctor, the eleventh hour, the hungry earth, the lodger, the pandorica opens, the vampires of venice, the weeping angels, time, time of angels, time travel, victory of the daleks, vincent and the doctor | 9 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Get Him to the Greek

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Darren

I quite enjoyed Get Him to the Greek. It wasn’t quite as wonderfully put together as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it’s a pleasant little comedy that treads familiar ground, but in a witty and confident manner. The movie isn’t exactly a laugh-a-minute, it is one of the better major releases so far this summer.

Aldous is about to have his world rocked...

Note: My brother and correspondent, Ciaran, reviewed the film earlier in the week. My thoughts aren’t too different than his – save a few details here or there (I maybe liked it a tiny bit more). It’s well worth a read.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: aldous snow, colm meaney, comedy, films, forgetting sarah marshall, get him to the greek, jonah hill, music, non-review review, p. diddy, puff daddy, review, russell brand, sean combs | 4 Comments »

In This Day and Age? The IMDb/DoB Fiasco…

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Darren

Sometimes I’m amazed at how Hollywood works. Sometimes I’m disappointed. This time, I’m both. Part of me enjoys the stories tear open the seedy underbelly of how Hollywood really operates and reveals the sort of corruption that would make a hard-drinking monologuing private detective blush. Paying Variety to make a negative review disappear, for example. Now it appears that actors are fighting the geeky paradise of the Internet Movie Database in order to get their dates of birth removed from the pages.