March | 2012 | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Scream 4 (Scre4m)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Darren

Alright, Kirby, then it’s time for your last chance. Name the remake of the groundbreaking horror movie in which the vill…

Halloween, uh, Texas Chainsaw, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, Amityville Horror, uh, Last House on the Left, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine, When A Stranger Calls, Prom Night, Black Christmas, House of Wax, The Fog, Piranha. It’s one of those, right? Right?

(beat)

I got it right. I was &@#!ing right.

– Ghostface and Kirby redefine the frame of reference

In many ways, Scream 4 feels like a fitting end to the Scream franchise. In fact, it feels like it has come something of a full circle from the first film, which was envisaged as something of an obituary for the dying slasher genre. In the years since, prompted in a large part by the success of the original Scream, the genre has been resurrected. Watching the grind of horror films released, it seems that Hollywood has been churning out nothing but empty roman-numeral-denoted sequels and hallow remakes, with very little thought or creativity. Scream 4 feels a like a reflection on the “success” that the first film wrought, and actually feelings like a fitting closing act.

It's going viral...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: criticism, deconstruction, Emma Roberts, feminism, feminism in movies, films, gender roles, Ghostface, horror, irony, Jill Roberts, John Carpenter, Kevin Williamson, metafiction, Movie, non-review review, review, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Sidney Prescott, slashers, wes craven | 7 Comments »

Gideon’s Daughter (Review)

Posted on March 27, 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.

Stephen Poliakoff’s companion piece to Friends and Crocodiles, airing just a month after that original drama film, Gideon’s Daughter feels like it owes a lot to a bunch of fascinating central performances. While Robert Lindsay provides the only on-screen evidence of a link between the two projects, reprising his role as an embittered old writer here, Poliakoff’s two stories are thematically linked, as the author focuses a lot of his frustrations on meaningless celebrity culture. This time, however, he sets the stories in the late nineties, allowing him to explore what he undoubtedly sees as the vulgarity of the millennium celebrations and to subtly examine the national outpouring of grief offer the loss of Princess Diana, while telling a rather simple story of a father and his daughter.

All tied up...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Arts and Entertainment, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, bill nighy, britain, Diana Princess of Wales, Emily Blunt, Gideon, ITunes, kenneth branagh, Mark Thompson, Nighy, novel, Poliakoff, Robert Lindsay, Stephen Poliakoff | Leave a comment »

Win! Battleship Goodie Bags!

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Darren

The nice folks over at Universal Pictures Ireland have given us three goodie bags to give away for their upcoming blockbuster release Battleship. Each goodie bag contains:

A pair of tickets for the Battleship food and drinks after-work party followed by the Dublin screening of the film on April 11th.
A Battleship T-Shirt.
A pair of sunglasses as seen on the film.
Two caps.
A Waterproof case.

To be in with a chance to win one of these impressive packs, please answer the question below and submit the form. There’ll be more news and giveaways from Universal Pictures Ireland‘s Facebook page, so check it out for details. In case you need any hints, here’s the trailer for the film:

This competition is now closed. Winners shall be notified shortly.

Terms and conditions apply. Prize is non-transferable. Entrant must be based in the Republic of Ireland and available to attend the preview screening on 11th April 2012. The contact information provided above will be used to contact the eventual winners and for no other purposes.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: battleship, Brooklyn Decker, dublin, Facebook features, peter berg, Republic of Ireland, Taylor Kitsch, universal studios | Leave a comment »

Friends & Crocodiles (Review)

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Darren

Stephen Poliakoff is regarded as one of the best British film, theatre and television writers working today. In 2006, the writer and director produced two television movies linked by character and by theme. While Gideon’s Daughter is perhaps the more successful of the two, Friends & Crocodilesremains an interesting – if not consistently satisfying – viewing experience. While it doesn’t have as strong a cast as its companion piece, I think it covers more interesting ground, and feels a tad more ambitious, even if it does succumb to the same awkwardness in places.

Dealing with his inner Damians...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Barack Obama, bbc, BBC iPlayer, books, Chih-Yuan Chen, Crocodile, Crocs, Cuba, Damian Lewis, David Cameron, E-book, Great Britain, Great Gatsby, Guji Guji, Helen McCrory, Michelle Obama, Paul, Poliakoff, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Shopping, Stephen Poliakoff, The Selfish Crocodile, Venture capital, white house | Leave a comment »

The Thick of It – Series I (Review)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Darren

The British sure know their political comedy. The Thick of It is something like a spiritual successor to the cult British political comedies Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, from the mind of creator Armando Iannucci. Iannucci is perhaps best known for his work with Steve Coogan on the character of Alan Partridge, and there’s a lot of the same awkward comedy here. Perhaps it’s best to describe The Think of It as the ideological opposite of The West Wing, a bucket of cold British water chucked over America political idealism. It’s crass, profane, cynical, sly and absolutely brilliant.

Thick and thin...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Alan Partridge, Armando Iannucci, bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Chris Langham, Department of Social Affairs, iraq war, kenneth branagh, Mark Thompson, peter capaldi, Prime Minister, Sidetracked, steve coogan, Television, The Thick of It, the west wing, Thick of It, Tucker, Wallander, Yes Minister | Leave a comment »

Improbable Frequency at the Gaiety Theatre

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Darren

Produced by Rough Magic, Arthur Riordan returns his celebrated musical to the Irish stage. An artistic collaboration between the writer and musicians Bell Helicopter, Improbable Frequency is a delightful little farce set during “the Emergency.” The wonderfully madcap little espionage music metaphysical meditation premiered over half-a-decade ago, and has toured the world. I think it certainly deserves to be measured as one of our most distinctly and cleverly Irish of theatrical exports. It’s insane, it’s over-the-top, it’s hard-to-pin-down and it’s also more than a little bit brilliant.

Schrodinger's a cool cat...

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: Arthur Riordan, Aviation, Bell Helicopter, Brian O'Nolan, business, General Electric, Helicopter, Improbable Frequency, Ireland, irish, Irish Free State, Irish language, John Betjeman, Riordan, Textron, Transportation and Logistics, Very Important Person | Leave a comment »

Moses Jones (Review)

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Darren

The thing about Moses Jones is that it, quite simply, blaxploitation. I don’t mean that’s a comedy or a wry deconstruction, the BBC equivalent of Black Dynamite or Undercover Brother. It’s a modern example of blaxploitation rather than a post-modern examination. It offers serious issue-based drama, playing its subject matter with complete seriousness and utter respect. For most of its runtime, it actually works quite well as an attempt to pull the conventions of blaxploitation narratives into the twenty-first century and transport them from the mean American streets to inner-city London. While the ending falls apart under its own weight, and a desire to wrap up absolutely everything in a neat little bow, there’s quite a bit to like about this BBC detective show.

Holy Moses...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc, bbc global iplayer, BBC iPlayer, Black Dynamite, egypt, god, Indira Varma, israel, Israelite, Joe Penhall, London, Lord, Moses, Moses Jones, Shaun Parkes, Shepherd | Leave a comment »

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

Posted on March 23, 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.

I don’t know. It seems like, at times, I run hot and cold to Garth Ennis’ Punisher MAX run. It’s frequently cited as one of the great runs of modern comics, and there are moments when – if I squint – I can see hints of that masterpiece everybody is taking at. At other times, it seems I’m wandering in the desert, staring at a perfectly functional comic book, trying to figure out what everybody is making such a big fuss about. This penultimate collection of Ennis’ run contains two great examples of this. On one hand, the collection opens with the incredibly pedestrian Man of Stone, while it closes with the smarter-than-it-appears Widowmaker. Neither story is a masterpiece, but the latter has a lot more insight than I’ve come to expect from the series, while the former takes an interesting premise and does nothing with it.

The Punisherette?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: comic book review, comic books, Comics, ennis, Frank Castle, Garth Ennis, history, marvel max, max, Northern Ireland, punisher, punisher max, PunisherMAX, Russia, Twentieth Century, Widowmaker | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Wild Bill

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Darren

Wild Bill is the charming directorial debut from veteran character actor Dexter Fletcher. The established actor, who has worked on projects as diverse as Band of Brothers, Press Gang and The Three Musketeers, also wrote the screenplay for this slightly quirky British domestic drama, which sees an absentee father fostering an emotional connection with his abandoned kids. It’s a fairly conventional plot, and Fletcher doesn’t cram too many surprises in there, but the movie is wry enough and has a thinly-cynical exterior that makes the pill easy enough to follow. It’s not quite a masterpiece, but it’s engaging and diverting enough to leave a pleasant impression.

Wild at heart...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: andy serkis, bill, Charlie Creed-Miles, Computer-generated imagery, Danny King, Dexter Fletcher, film, Foster care, Jason Flemyng, Leo Gregory, Liz White, Marc Warren, Movies, non-review review, Press Gang, review, rise of the planet of the apes, Sean Pertwee, Wild Bill, Will Poulter | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Casino

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Darren

You didn’t see the scam? You didn’t see what was goin’ on?

Well, there’s no way to determine that, Sam.

Yes, there is. An infallible way! They won!

Sam explains how Las Vegas works to Ward

If you ask a bunch of people to name their favourite Scorsese film, you’ll get a bunch of different answers. Some will go for his iconic gangster tale, Goodfellas. Others will go for the superb drama of Raging Bull. Some might even opt for the unforgettable Taxi Driver. I, on the other hand, am probably the only guy in the room who is going to opt for Casino. Conventional wisdom would argue that Casino is merely a bloated and over-loaded attempt to re-tread ground Scorsese already covered in Goodfellas, but I can’t bring myself to agree with that. While Goodfellas feels like a personal tale of greed and corruption, and the implosion that inevitably followed, there’s something grander to Casino. Offering the social history of Las Vegas, the rise and fall of the mob’s empire, it feels like large-scale tragedy. There’s just such an impressively epic scale to Scorsese’s film that I can’t help but admire it.