October | 2012 | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Rust and Bone

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Darren

Rust and Bone feels a bit… lazy, for lack of a better word. It feels like the product of a writer and director with a huge amount of talent, but no real ambition or enthusiasm. The film features two superb leading performances from Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, but they’re trapped in a film that never seems too bothered. Writer and director Jacques Audiard mistakes trite melodrama for brutal honest, and seems to give up on the film in the third act. It’s a shame, because there’s some solid stuff here, but the whole is much less impressive than the sum of its parts.

The killer (whale) inside (the aquarium)…

Note: This review contains spoilers for the third act of the film. I’ve tried not to give away specific plot points, and to talk in the most general of terms, but I do discuss the ending. Consider yourself warned.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alain, Bone, Dark Knight Rises, film, Jacques Audiard, marion cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Movie, non-review review, review, Rust, rust and bone, steve mcqueen | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Wolf Man (1941)

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Darren

Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night,

May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.

Although hampered by perhaps the weakest leading performance of the “great” Universal horror films, I maintain that The Wolf Man has the strongest script of any of the classic Universal monster movies. Although, like so many other horror films produced by the studio, it went through any number of re-writes and executive meddling before reaching the screen, I think Curt Siodmak’s script deserves a great deal of credit for doing several very import things. On one level, it presented one grand unifying story archetype for werewolf tales, to the point where it is almost that subgenre’s Dracula. However, it also plays as a fascinating and compelling psychological drama, with an element of humanity and complexity that shines through Jack Pierce’s phenomenal make-up work.

Lon Chaney as the wolf man. Or me, early on a Sunday morning…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Back to Blood, Béla Lugosi, Book of Werewolves, Bride of the Gorilla, Curt Siodmak, film, John, Larry, Larry Talbot, miami, Movie, New York Times, non-review review, review, Sabine Baring-Gould, Siodmak, Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast, Talbot, Tom Wolfe, Universal Monster, Warren William, Wolf Man | 1 Comment »

A View to a Bond Baddie: Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate James Bond’s 50th birthday on screen, we’re going to take a look at the character and his films. We’ve already reviewed all the classic movies, so we’ll be looking at his iconic baddies, and even at the character himself.

Blofeld is unique among the Bond villains for his capacity to keep turning up. He’s appeared in more on-screen adventures than any other Bond baddie, and he survives in the popular imagination, with a lot of gossip about the next Bond film likely to debate whether or not they’re bringing Blofeld back. The character has endured in the public imagination as the Bond baddie, and he’s perhaps best immortalised as Micheal Myers’ Doctor Evil from the Austin Powers movies. However, watching his appearances again, I’m actually struck by how little consistency there is in the portrayal of his character, and I can’t help but wonder if the reason he endures is because of his versatility as an adversary.

Bond movies have a remarkable adaptability. They can be serious, campy, ridiculous, sombre, mature and juvenile, often all at the same time. As far as Bond villains go, Blofeld’s really the only villain who can compete with that.

He looks like the cat who got the canary…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, casino royale, Charles Gray, ernst stavro blofeld, james bond, James Bond in film, lex luthor, Movies, on her majesty's secret service, Piz Gloria, Roger Moore, Russia, spectre, telly savalas | 1 Comment »

The Six Faces of 007: Daniel Craig

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate James Bond’s 50th birthday on screen (and the release of Skyfall), we’re going to take a look at the character and his films. We’ve already reviewed all the classic movies, so we’ll be looking at his iconic baddies, and even at the character himself.

The Daniel Craig iteration of James Bond is the first time that a change of actor has been explicitly confirmed as a new character, rather than a continuation of the same character. (Unless you count Lazenby’s ad-libbed “this never happened to the other fella” bit.) Going back to the first of Fleming’s novels for his first film, Casino Royale, there was a conscious effort to bring the character back to basics, but also an effort to humanise him considerably. The result has been somewhat contentious, but I think Craig has managed to put his own stamp on the role and to define it in his own terms that are respectful to his five predecessors, but also define the character as his own.

All-time high?

Note: As a look at Daniel Craig’s take on the iconic character, this article contains spoilers for Skyfall. Consider yourself warned.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bond, casino royale, Craig, daniel craig, George Lazenby, ian fleming, Jame Bond, james bond, m, pierce brosnan, quantum of solace, Roger Moore, sean connery | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Darren

The monster demands a mate!

I always feel a little strange that I don’t completely love Bride of Frankenstein. James Whale’s Universal Monster movies are all among the very finest in the subgenre, and each of the three collected in this blu ray boxset are well worth the price of admission. And I really like Bride of Frankenstein. It’s great fun. It has a tremendous energy and surreal “buzz” around it that makes the movie fly by, no matter how many times you’ve seen it.

Whale has, as with Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, managed to draw together a fantastic cast, some amazing production design, a willingness to acknowledge the hokey nature of the material and the highest technical skill in pretty much every aspect of the finished project. And yet, despite that, Bride of Frankenstein never really feels like a single unified film. Rather, it’s a bit like the eponymous monster, strange bits and pieces from all manner of sources brought together and stitched up in a way that is far more aesthetically pleasing than its direct predecessor. I just find, personally, that with Bride of Frankenstein, the sum of the parts is actually much greater than the whole.

Scream queen…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Baroness, Boris Karloff, Bride, bride of frankenstein, Colin Clive, frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster, Franz Waxman, god, Invisible Man, James Whale, Karloff, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, maryshelley, Shelley, Una O'Connor, Universal Monster | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Invisible Man (1933)

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Darren

We’ll begin with a reign of terror. A few murders here and there. Murders of great men, murders of little men, just to show we make no distinction. We might even wreck a train or two. Just these fingers around a signalman’s throat, that’s all.

The Invisible Man is a classic, sandwiched between James Whale’s celebrated monster movies – Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. The movie was renowned at the time for its special effects, which still hold up remarkably well on the snazzy new blu ray issued by Universal Pictures. However, the film itself is still fantastic on its own terms, featuring a great leading performance from Claude Rains, a witty script and some fantastic direction from Whale. I think it’s also quite wonderfully telling that The Invisible Man manages to feature the story of simultaneously the most human and the most inhuman of these Universal Monster Movies.

The freak who came in from the cold…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: batman, Claude Rain, comedy, Doctor Septimus Pretorius, Experiment, film, frankenstein, George Carlin, god, Griffin, h.g. wells, india, Invisible Man, jack, James Whale, John J. Mescall, John P. Fulton, joker, Kemp, Movie, murder, non-review review, Recreation, review, Shopping, Una O'Connor, United States, universal monsters, Victor Frankenstein | 2 Comments »

American Vampire, Vol. 4 (Review)

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Darren

This October, to get us in the mood for Halloween, we’re taking a look at some awesome monster comics. Check back in every Monday this month for a review of Scott Snyder’s American Vampire Saga.

American Vampireis a wonderful vehicle for Scott Snyder to explore his obvious fascination with the social history of the United States. In this fourth volume of the series, Snyder brings the action into the fifties. The fifties time that seemed to be rife with great social change coming out of the Second World War. However, despite those origins, they would ultimately just serve as a prelude to the more dramatic social developments during the sixties. This collection of issues allows Snyder to hint on a number of familiar themes that fit quite well with the setting, including the conflict between old and new – something that has been at the heart of the series since the very beginning.

Grabbing the snake by the… whatever it is you grab snakes by…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: American Vampire, Death Race, elvis presley, Marv Wolfman, People, Protagonist, rafael albuquerque, Rock and roll, Scott Snyder, Severed, Skinner Sweet, Snyder, sweet, Tomb of Dracula, Travis, United States, vampire, Vampire Diaries | Leave a comment »

What Bond Learned From Batman: The Dark Knight & Skyfall…

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Darren

I really liked Skyfall. I think it’s the best “Bondy” Bond movie in quite a while. It has a fantastic cast, beautiful cinematography, a solid script and a very human heart. However, it also owes a very conscious debt to director Christopher Nolan. In particular, it seems to have learned a great deal from the director’s recently completed Batman trilogy. There are certainly worse role models for a big blockbuster to have, and Mendes has been quick to acknowledge the influence that Nolan’s films had on his work here. That strange synthesis works surprisingly well, perhaps a testament to just how much the two franchises have in common.

The long dark knight of his soul?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman, Bondy, Christopher Nolan, ChristopherNolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, green lantern, James Bond in film, joker, Mendes, nolan, Skyfall | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Room 237

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Darren

Room 237 is an ode to cinema. Not just Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, mind you, despite the fact that fact that Kubrick’s horror film is the focus of the film’s talking heads (or disembodied voices) discussion. No, Room 237 is a celebratory tribute to every discussion and dissection of popular film, no matter how plausible or implausible, no matter whether conducted in print, on-line or in the pub with friends. Director Rodney Ascher’s documentary is as interested in the personal lives of its subjects – where they came from, with regards to the film – as it is with their views on the film itself.

In case you can’t tell, I was very taken with it.

Cut it there, Jack!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 2001: A Space Odyssey (film), Barry Lyndon, blade runner, documentary, film, holocaust, kubrick, Movie, Native American, Native Americans in the United States, non-review review, Pope John Paul II, review, Rodney Ascher, room 237, shining, stanley kubrick | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Stitches

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Darren

Stitches is an interesting little Irish film. Featuring an interesting set up to parody the conventions of the supernatural slasher film, the movie finds itself falling prey to them just a little bit too often. Irish writer and director Conor McMahon creates a credible gory teenage bloodbath, but doesn’t really find a narrative hook to engage the audience. Never entirely sure how ironic it is trying to be, Stitches is a solid effort, albeit one far from greatness.