March | 2012 | the m0vie blog

A Month on the BBC Global iPlayer

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Darren

The kind folks over at the BBC were nice enough to give me access to the iPlayer for a month in order to review it. So I’ve spent to past month watching various BBC productions on my iPhone in a variety of circumstances. I’ve streamed them at home, I’ve downloaded and watched them on the bus; I’ve used the iPhone’s speakers and I’ve listened with my headphones; I’ve tried old and new and various types of programmes and shows. I have to admit to being quite impressed with the product, even if I do have some slight reservations.

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Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: bbc, BBC iPlayer, Damian Lewis, Dennis Potter, Handhelds, iphone, iPlayer, Kinect, Michael Palin, Microsoft, monty python, Smartphones, Stephen Poliakoff | Leave a comment »

ParaNorman Trailer

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Darren

Universal just sent on the trailer for ParaNorman, and it’s well worth a look. I’ve been a fan of stop-motion for quite a while, with Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists being one of my favourite films of the year so far. However, the trailer evokes the wonderful work of director Henry Selick, who directed both The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, both superb pieces of work. The film is directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell. While Fell has a history working as a director of family films, Butler served as artistic director on both Coraline and Corpse Bride, and wrote the script here. The cast is phenomenal, featuring John Goodman, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. I am looking forward to this. Between this, Frankenweenie and Pirates!, it looks like a great year to be a stop motion fan.

Anyway, give the trailer a look below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: coraline, Corpse Bride, henry selick, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Nightmare Before Christmas, ParaNorman, Sam Fell, stop-motion | Leave a comment »

The Thick of It – Series III (Review)

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Darren

The wonderful folks at the BBC have given me access to their BBC Global iPlayer for a month to give the service a go and trawl through the archives. I’ll have some thoughts on the service at the end of the month, but I thought I’d also take the opportunity to enjoy some of the fantastic content.

No one forgot their first carpeting from Tucker – it was like a red hot poker.

– the BBC’s career retrospective on Malcolm Tucker

The first two seasons of The Thick of It proved to be quite the success for BBC4. Critics were raving about, the politicians it sought to ridicule were loving it. Creator Armando Iannucci even got to produce a movie with HBO using characters from the series (In The Loop) and plans were underway for a US adaptation. (In fairness, the adaptation was killed very quickly, which might be for the best given Iannucci’s opinion of it, but he’s currently working on Veep for HBO with Julie Louis Dreyfus.) So it seems fitting that the series came back to television in a big way. Fresh off two specials, with a new minister and a new slot on BBC2, the show was commissioned for eight glorious episodes. And it was great. The decision to re-focus the series on Malcolm Tucker, the Prime Minister’s advisor who thinks of himself”as a thin, white Mugabe.”

It's Party (Conference) time...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Armando Iannucci, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Chris Langham, Conservative, Gordon Brown, hbo, in the loop, Malcolm, Malcolm Tucker, peter capaldi, Prime Minister, Spin (public relations), Thick of It, Tucker | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Titanic (3D)

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Darren

James Cameron’s Titanic is still a breath-taking production, even sixteen years after the fact. Sure, its huge budget and even bigger box office returns, coupled with its enormous pop culture impact, have all combined to make it a bit of a target for movie critics in the years following its initial release. To be honest, while I wouldn’t rank it as anywhere near Cameron’s finest accomplishment, I’ve always admired it for what it was: a romantic historical epic, perhaps the most recent film like that which Hollywood has produced. Even a decade and a half later, Titanic remains one hell of spectacle and a well-constructed piece of cinema, with Cameron displaying a mastery of form and an innate skill for story-telling. Couple with the best post-conversion 3D that I have ever seen, there’s no reason for anybody with a genuine interest in the film to stay away from the big re-release.

Her heart will... go on, finish it...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: American Civil War, Brock, Cameron, film, george lucas, hollywood, jack, james cameron, kate winslet, Leonardo diCaprio, London, Movie, non-review review, Phantom Menace, review, rose, Royal Albert Hall, Sherlock, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, titanic, United States | 4 Comments »

Hey Zeus, Meet Jesus: Wrath of the Titans & Judeo-Christian Archetypes…

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

Somewhere, an expert on Ancient Greek mythology is crying. Probably a lot of experts on Ancient Greek culture. As enjoyable as Wrath of the Titans might be in offering charming (if a little shallow) spectacle, it doesn’t necessarily offer the most faithful depiction of Ancient Greek deities. It isn’t the only film to get things drastically wrong – Disney’s Hercules comes to mind. Presenting these mythical characters and creatures for modern audiences and sensibilities, the archetypes are skewed and twisted to conform to religious associations which most audience members might find familiar. In particular, these sorts of films often adopt a decidedly Judeo-Christian view of Ancient Greek gods. However, watching Wrath of the Titans, I couldn’t help but feel that the film was not only acutely aware of that narrative shortcut, but perhaps even cleverly exploiting it – developing the character arc of these ancient gods and transitioning them into the archetypes that we know and recognise.

Oh my gods...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Ancient Greece, clash of the titans, Clash of the Titans (2010 film), greek, greek mythology, hades, Jonathan Liebesman, liam neeson, Perseus, ralph fiennes, Sam Worthington, Titans, Wrath of the Titans, zeus | 17 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Wrath of the Titans

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

Wrath of the Titans is effective spectacle, and certainly nothing less. It offers a large-scale canvas for director Jonathan Liebesman to offer us large-scale set pieces involving lots of mythical monsters, tonnes of fire and some decent action sequences. I’m one of the few people who enjoyed Clash of the Titans for what it was, and Wrath of the Titans isn’t an especially different beast. It offers the same level and quality of sound and fury helping distract from some storytelling problems. There are, of course, differences between the two films, both nothing especially drastic. While I wasn’t always engaged with the film, I did enjoy for what it was.

Giving the old man some stick...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: clash of the titans, film, Jonathan Liebesman, liam neeson, Movie, non-review review, Perseus, ralph fiennes, review, Sam Worthington, Toby Kebbell, Wrath of the Titans | Leave a comment »

Done in 60 Seconds: An Interview with Andrew Norton

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

We might not be the best team in the world at soccer, we might not be the favourites to take home a record-shattering amount of gold medals in London, but the Irish have always had a bit of a cultural charm. This year, we were lucky enough to be represented at the final of the Jameson Empire Done in 60 Seconds competition, with Andrew Norton’s condensed spoof of the iconic District 9 landing a place among 29 international contenders on a shortlist including entries from Kazakhstan, Russia, Latvia, Israel, Sweden and the Ukraine, among others. I had the pleasure of chatting very briefly about putting the sixty-second clip together, breaking into short-film making and the perils of looking like a security guard on the red carpet.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012 Summer Olympics, 60 Seconds, Celtic, danny devito, Empire Award, Gold medal, Grafton Street, irish, israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, London, ron howard, Short film, sport, Sweden, tim burton, Ukraine, youtube | Leave a comment »

The Thick of It: Rise of the Nutters (Review)

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

Are you f***ing kidding me? I mean, you’ve just watched me break my not-inconsiderable balls trying to get you the second spot on Newsnight. And succeeding! I can’t back down! No, no, you’re on, pal, right? And it better not be too boring, and it better not be too interesting either, ok? And it better not cost too much. It can’t be an old thing, obviously, and don’t make it too new. And whatever you do, please try not to embarrass yourself, right?

– Malcolm tells Swain his media strategy

I love the BBC’s Christmas specials. I mean, I know that other networks do Christmas-themed episodes of their shows, but the BBC does tend to go the extra mile. We get the opportunity to spend some time with a series that is on hiatus or even to provide an epilogue to a series that has ended. It generally affords considerably more leeway to a series to tell a different kind of story than they normally would. Here, in the hour-long Christmas special, Armando Iannucci’s political comedy gets a chance to drift its attention away from the fictional surroundings of the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship to explore the resignation of the sitting Prime Minister. Mirroring Tony Blair’s decision to step down at the same time, it lends the series a somewhat especially timely feeling, as well as allowing more focus to fall on the show’s main attraction, the brilliantly cynical and manipulative political advisor Malcolm Tucker, brought to life by Peter Capaldi.

Bully to that...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Armando Iannucci, bbc, BBC iPlayer, Chris Langham, christmas, Christmas by medium, Citizenship, City council, Conservative, LOVE Park, Mayor, Michael Nutter, Newsnight, Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, peter capaldi, Philadelphia, Prime Minister, South Philadelphia, The Thick of It, tony blair | Leave a comment »

The Thick of It – Series II (Review)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Darren

My expert would totally disprove that.

Who is your expert?

I don’t know, but I can get one by this afternoon. The thing is, you’ve been listening to the wrong expert. You need to listen to the right expert. And you need to know what an expert is going to advise you before he advises you.

– Malcolm explains how advisers work to Hugh

In its sophomoric three-episode season, The Thick of It remains a shrewdly-observed and immensely funny political satire. It’s a very British send-up of the sort of idealism inherent in drama like The West Wing, a show where everything is so murky and uncertain that the script is highly improvised and even the camera wobbles. While it’s still as funny as it was in its first season, though, I have to confess that the second season didn’t quite grab in the same way. The first season represents one of the most cynical explorations of mainstream politics that I have ever seen, but it actually seems relatively optimistic when measured against this much more scornful second cluster of episodes.

The series that coined the phrase “Malchiavelli”…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Abnett, art, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Chris Langham, Government of the United Kingdom, Harvey Weinstein, kenneth branagh, Malcolm, Malcolm Tucker, Minister, Television, The Thick of It, the west wing, Thick of It, West Wing | 2 Comments »

Garth Ennis’ Run on Punisher MAX – Hardcover, Vol. V (Review)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, this month we’re going to take a look at Northern Irish writer Garth Ennis’ run on that iconic Marvel anti-hero, The Punisher. Check back every Friday and Wednesday for a review of a particular section.

And so we’re here. We’ve reached the end of Garth Ennis’ Punisher MAX run, and one of the last things the author wrote for the character (he’d go on to write the Punisher: WarZone miniseries to tie into the film of the same name). It’s frequently regarded as perhaps the definitive run on the character, one held up as an example of what the Marvel MAX imprint is capable of. So, it’s been a long, sixty-issue journey to this point. And, I have to confess, I wasn’t entirely blown away by the run, or the conclusion to it.