May | 2012 | the m0vie blog

On Second Thought: Alien (Director’s Cut)

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the release of Prometheus this week, we’ll be taking a look at the other movies in the Alien franchise.

Alien: The Director’s Cut is a curious beast. It’s more of an alternate cut than a director’s cut of Ridley Scott’s iconic Alien. It actually runs a few seconds shorter than the original theatrical cut of the film, although it contains more than five minutes of different footage. While five minutes of footage can have a significant impact on the final cut of a film, I’d be hard-pressed to argue that they add considerable depth to Scott’s science-fiction masterpiece. Aliens: The Special Edition re-inserted scenes that expanded and developed the themes of Cameron’s sequel, while Alien³: The Assembly Cut offers a glimpse of a movie far different from the one released. In contrast, Alien: The Director’s Cut… doesn’t really do much of anything. It’s just an alternative to the theatrical edition.

Ship shape?

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: alien, blade runner, Dallas, directors cut, Ellen Ripley, james cameron, List of Alien characters, Prometheus, Ridley, ridley scott, Ripley, Scott, sigourney weaver | 15 Comments »

Chris Claremont & Frank Miller’s Wolverine (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Darren

With our month looking at Avengers comics officially over, we thought it might be fun to dig into that other iconic Marvel property, the X-Men. Join us for a month of X-Men related reviews and discussion.

It’s almost hard to believe that Wolverine only earned his first solo miniseries in 1982. The character had first appeared as a foe in The Incredible Hulk in 1974, and was coopted in the X-Men with Len Wein’s Giant-Sized X-Men #1 a year later. During Chris Claremont’s celebrated Uncanny X-Men run, Wolverine emerged a hugely popular character. In fact, I think you could make the argument that Wolverine and Storm were the central protagonists of Claremont’s epic X-Men run. Still, given how ubiquitous the character has become in recent years, it’s impressive that it took so long for him to get a solo adventure. The four-part Wolverine miniseries, written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Frank Miller, is generally regarded as one of the best miniseries that Marvel ever produced, and I think that it provided a lot of the momentum and characterisation that would sustain the character over three more decades of solo appearances.

Get some…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: 20th Century Fox, alan moore, chris claremont, Claremont, Clint Eastwood, dark knight returns, frank miller, HughJackman, James Mangold, japan, Len Wein, wolverine, x-men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine | 4 Comments »

Photos from the Jameson Cult Film Snatch (Cork) Screening…

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Darren

Hi,

Just a quick one to start the week. The guys over at the Jameson Cult Film Club sent on some photos from their Cork screening of Snatch last week. I wasn’t able to attend, but I hear it was a good night for all involved. Anyway, I thought I’d share the pictures, and remind any film fans reading that the tickets are given away free to members who join via their website, here. Anyway, I hope everybody who went along enjoyed it, and congratulations to the team on taking the show on the road.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, Cork, Cork GAA, cult film, dublin, jameson, jameson cult film club, Movie, Snatch | Leave a comment »

The Sky is Falling: Skyfall & The Return of a Distinctly British Bond…

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Darren

Country?

England.

– first lines of the trailer

I actually really liked the first trailer for Skyfall, released on-line last week. There were a lot of reasons for that: the fact it looks more stately than Quantum of Solace; the abundance of shots of Bond in a tux; the promise of incredible action paired with genuine character development. However, the most appealing facet of the trailer was the suggestion that this was a Bond who wasn’t ashamed to be British. Bond is a British icon, arguably a relic left over from the last days of the British Empire, but it seems like the past few films have been increasingly uncomfortable with that.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bond, British Empire, daniel craig, Die Another Day, england, Felix Leiter, james bond, James Bond in film, judi dench, quantum of solace, sam mendes, Skyfall | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Falling Down

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Darren

Falling Down is something of a cult classic. It, along with Phone Booth, stands as proof that Joel Schumacher is actually a rather wonderful director, as much as his failures might occasional overshadow his accomplishments. Filmed in the midst of the Los Angeles riots, Falling Down manages to speak to a lot of the anger of urban living, as William “D-Fens” Foster takes out his frustration on an urban environment that has gone completely mad. Almost twenty years after it was originally released, Falling Down is still a potent little film.

The best D-FENS…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Athens, batman, batman forever, Falling Down, fascism, film, Foster, Foster care, Gang, Golden Dawn, Health, Home Office, Jacob Black, joel schumacher, los angeles, Movie, Nazism, Neo-Nazism, non-review review, politics, Prevention, r eview, Reports and Surveys, review, Road rage, Schumacher, Seattle, United States, Violence and Abuse | 8 Comments »

X-Men: Age of X (Review)

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Darren

Age of X is a weird little story. On the surface, it appears like an homage to the classic Age of Apocalypse storyline, an alternate universe yarn that swept through the X-Men titles back in the nineties. It odes, after all, portray a universe very different to the one that we recognise, and the one that we’re familiar with. However, on inspection, it seems like writer Mike Carey might have been attempting something just a bit bolder, a critical examination of the X-Men books, and how far they’ve moved since the nineties – an attempt to determine if the editorial policy that has reshaped their fictional world – is truly for the best.

X-over time…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Age of X, Carey, comic books, cyclops, fortress x, Jim McCann, magneto, marvel, marvel comics, meta-fiction, Mike Carey, no more mutants, review, Rogue, utopia, x-men, X-Men: Legacy | 5 Comments »

Going Straight: Comedic Actors in Dramatic Roles…

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Darren

New pictures from I, Alex Cross were introduced over the weekend. If you aren’t familiar with it, don’t worry – it’s an upcoming adaptation of an Alex Cross novel, the same series that gave us Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. While Along Came Spider wasn’t anything special, Kiss the Girls was a fairly decent nineties serial killer film, if not quite on the level of it obvious influences in The Silence of the Lambs and se7en. There were two surprises in these shots. The first was how incredibly freaky Matthew Fox looked – he looks pretty damn scary, so respect to Fox for pulling off that transformation. The second surprise was just how convincing Tyler Perry looked in the lead role. Perry is the latest in a long line of comedic actors looking to expand their range, and I can’t help but wonder why so many comedic performers tend to branch out so far.

Not a man you want to Cross…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: al pacino, Alex Cross, Along Came a Spider, Doubtfire, i alex cross, Idris Elba, jim carrey, Kiss the Girls, Madea, Matthew Fox, Morgan Freeman, Perry, robert deniro, serial killer, silence of the lambs, truman show, tyler perry | 9 Comments »

X-Men: The Age of Apocalypse Omnibus (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Darren

The nineties represent a contentious time for fans of the X-Men franchise. The decade saw comic books explode into a huge market, with ridiculous sales and publicity, and the entire X-Men franchise rode that wave perfectly. Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s adjectiveless X-Men #1 remains the biggest-selling comic book of all time, after all, and the franchise quickly secured itself as Marvel’s premiere comic book franchise. On the other hand, the line had been thrown into disarray by the departure of long-term steward Chris Claremont and its era-defining artist Jim Lee. The family of titles had struggled to find a footing through some uneven crossovers and events like X-Cutioner’s Song and Fatal Attractions. However, I think the decade produced one gem that can be considered as a true classic, along with the best of Claremont’s tenure and the work of Grant Morrison. The Age of Apocalypse might seem an odd choice to identify as one of the highlights of the X-Men saga, but I think it deserves very serious consideration.

Apocalypse now…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, apocalypse, chris claremont, David Lapham, grant morrison, marvel, marvel comics, psychology, Rick Remender, Social Sciences, time travel, walt simonson, x-force, x-men | 4 Comments »

More Than You Embargoed For: Thoughts on Review Embargoes…

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Darren

I know I’m a bit late on this one, but I’ve been thinking a bit about movie review embargoes of late. For those unaware, embargoes are those restrictions on when a reviewer can publish a review. They’re normally enforced by studios, limiting the publication of reviews to within a one week window of the movie’s release. I’ve had the fortune over the past few months to be invited to screenings of The Avengers and Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists long before the window, and have held my review until it’s okay to publish. Still, I can’t help but feel a little uneasy at the prospect.

Nothing to get too Fury-ous about…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 21 Jump Street, Albert Nobbs, art, avengers, David Denby, embargo, film, film criticism, Film festival, hollywood, jameson dublin international film festival, Level playing field, Movie, New York Times, review, review embargo, screenwriter, United States | 2 Comments »

Win! Moonrise Kingdom T-Shirts!

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Darren

The lovely folks over at Universal Pictures Ireland have give us ten T-shirts to give away from the latest Wes Anderson release, Moonrise Kingdom. It premiered at Cannes last week, and it opens here on Friday. To be in with a chance to win, answer the question below.