November | 2011 | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Paranormal Activity 2

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Darren

Paranormal Activity 2 feels like a massive disappointment. While the original film left me tossing and turning in my bed, I can’t help but feel like I’ll have forgotten this by the time I rest my head against the pillow this evening. It almost feels like the on-screen hauntings were conducted by two very different poltergeists (or demons). If the original film was the work of a stone-cold profession with the world record in terror, just flexing his creative muscles, it almost feels like this film was the work of the office intern, clumsily trying to emulate what came before, but never really succeeding.

Watered down?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: al pacino, Christopher B. Landon, james bond, Katie Featherston, non-review review, Oren Peli, paranormal activity, paranormal activity 2, review, Sprague Grayden | 6 Comments »

Warren Ellis’ Run on Ultimate Fantastic Four – Vol. 1-2 (Hardcover) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Darren

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.

I have to admit that I’m quite surprised to see Warren Ellis writing for a year on Ultimate Fantastic Four. You could make the case for Ellis – an avowed technophile – as perhaps the perfect author for a high-concept series like the Fantastic Four. It was Mark Waid who dubbed the family “Imaginauts” – explorers of the imagination, rather than superheroes or guys in costumes. In a way, given how skilfully Ellis handled Tony Stark’s technological transformation in Extremis, you might not have been unreasonable in expecting he’d prove a deft hand with Marvel’s first family. However, reading the twelve issues he wrote for the title, it’s hard to get a sense that Ellis was ever really giving it his all – although he does play around a bit, it never feels like he’s genuinely pushing things to the limit and playing with all the associated toys. In fact, quite a lot of his run feels like it’s playing it safe.

See, the Thing is...

Note: Ellis’ run on the title picks up after the initial six issues written by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar, and so is split over the second half of the first hardcover and the first half of the second. The second hardcover is rounded off by a two-part Think Tank story from Mike Carey (who would take over as regular writer after Mark Millar) and an annual written by Millar. So this review/retrospective just covers the issues written by Ellis.

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: brian michael bendis, Bryan Hitch, comic books, doctor doom, Ellis, fantastic four, iron man, mark millar, mark waid, marvel comics, N-Space, reed richards, science fiction, tony stark, Ultimate Fantastic Four, warren ellis | Leave a comment »

The Silicon Chip Inside Her Head Gets Switched to Overload: On-Screen Mania and Off-Screen Motives….

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Darren

And daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reasons
‘Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be show-ow-ow-ow-own?

– I Don’t Like Mondays, The Boom Town Rats

I have to admit, I have a soft spot in my heart for cheesy horror films. Not necessarily all of them, as there’s a lot of dross out there, but I have to admit that there’s nothing like a well-constructed scary movies. I was watching Scream again, this time with my gran in preparation for Halloween, and I enjoyed it yet again – I think it’s a fascinatingly clever look at the slasher genre, and a movie which is as relevent today as it was when it was released, untouched and unspoilt by the wave of inferior imitations that we’ve seen in the years since. There’s a line towards the climax of the film which got me thinking about these sorts of films, and how they’re scary. Asked to provide a motive, the killer responds, “Did we ever find out why Hannibal Lector liked to eat people? Don’t think so! See, it’s a lot scarier when there’s no motive.” Is the unknowable that much scarier?

Psyche!

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bruce wayne, Christopher Nolan, films, halloween, hannibal, hannibal lecter, horror, Jamie Lee Curtis, Movies, ridley scott, scary, tim burton, unknowable, Unknown | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Thing (1982)

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Darren

John Carpenter’s The Thing is almost the perfect late-night Halloween viewing experience. It’s one of those movies that is gloriously trashy entertainment, with any number of visceral thrills, but also more deeply unnerving. Updating the 1951 The Thing From Another World, and arguably remaining truer to the original story, Who Goes There?, John Carpenter’s adaptation perfectly captures the unnerving paranoia of a world where there’s no promise that anybody is exactly what they claim to be. In space, nobody can hear you scream, but your odds aren’t too much better in the white Antarctic tundra.