July | 2013 | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Conjuring

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Darren

The Conjuring feels like a culmination of the nostalgia trip that we’ve seen with recent horrors like Insidious or Sinister, a conscious attempt to move away from the gore-laiden or found-footage-heavy approach to contemporary horror. Indeed, The Conjuring owes a fairly sizeable debt to director James Wan’s previous horror effort, Sinister. Not only does the film inherit leading man Patrick Wilson, it also follows roughly the same structure, right down to “paranormal investigators explore the house in a briefly humourous interlude.”

However, The Conjuring flows a lot easier than Insidious and is spared the third-act problems that plagued Sinister. The film is stronger for the honesty of its nostalgia. Even the title card is rendered in a font that looks like it could have been used for a forgotten seventies possession horror. The Conjuring doesn’t really push the boat out, and there’s nothing that will startle hardcore horror veterans, but there’s a very clear skill in its construction, an honesty to its affection and a sincerity to its charm that helps the film rise above so many contemporary horrors.

They ain’t afraid of no ghosts…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Amityville Horror, Conjuring, Ed & Lorraine Warren, Ed and Lorraine Warren, Horror film, James Wan, Lili Taylor, patrick wilson, Ron Livingston, Vera Farmiga | 4 Comments »

Avengers vs. X-Men – Consequences (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Wolverine this month, we’re taking a look at some new and classic X-Men and Wolverine comics. I’m also writing a series of reviews of the classic X-Men television show at comicbuzz every weekday, so feel free to check those out.

Avengers vs. X-Men: Consequences feels like it really should be a light event cash-in, designed to generate some quick sales off the popularity of the latest gigantic crossover story arc. However, writer Kieron Gillen takes advantage of the five-issue miniseries’ location – situated between Avengers vs. X-Men and Marvel’s high-profile Marvel NOW relaunch – to turn the comic into something of a transition. It represents a clear shift from Kieron Gillen’s run on Uncanny X-Men to the relaunch of the book (and the spin-off All-New X-Men) by writer Brian Michael Bendis.

Oddly enough, thanks to Gillen’s skill, Consequences plays out as a character-centric storyline, capping off Gillen’s work on the mutant hero Cyclops and positioning him for his role future role in the shared Marvel universe.

Cyke out!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Avenger, brian michael bendis, captain america, chris claremont, Cyclop, Gillen, Hope Summers, joss whedon, Kieron Gillen, marvel, marvel comics, marvel universe, Scott Summer, United States, wolverine | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Canyons

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Darren

The Canyons struggles to surmount the weight of productions stories bearing down on it. Paul Schrader’s latest film was famously the subject of a 7,000-word article in the New York Times documenting the trials and tribulations behind the scenes. In a way, these troubles made the film somewhat larger-than-life, turning it into one giant attempt at career resurrection for director Paul Schrader and lead actor Lindsay Lohan.

Given the film’s much publicised sexual content (and the decision to cast pornography actor James Deen in the lead role), there’s a sense that this could be Lohan’s Last Tango in Paris, a bold and blistering performance from a once-respected talent eclipsed by years of behind-the-scenes gossip and idle chatter. Ironically, it’s none of the established talent that impresses with The Canyons. Bret Easton Ellis’ story feels like a shallow pastiche of Ellis-ian touches, while Schrader’s direction is intrusive and overwhelming. Lohan shows flickers of honesty and risk-taking, but is lost in the shuffle and the hum-drum plotting.

In contrast, it’s relative newcomer (as much a man with a filmography containing over 1,000 titles can be a newcomer) James Deen who makes the strongest impression as a surprisingly efficient Ellis-ian protagonist.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Bret Easton Ellis, Canyons, Canyons Resort, Christian, Ellis, film, James Deen, Lindsay Lohan, Lohan, los angeles, marlon brando, Movie, Movies, New York Times, non-review review, paul schrader, review | 2 Comments »

X-Men: Operation Zero Tolerance (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Wolverine this month, we’re taking a look at some classic and modern X-Men and Wolverine comics. I’m also writing a series of reviews of the classic X-Men television show at comicbuzz every weekday, so feel free to check those out.

Operation Zero Tolerance is very much an artefact of the nineties. It’s a big bombastic X-Men romp, one that manages to hit on a lot of the key themes and ideas of the franchise (making them resonate with the public mood), while still seeming loud and simply and incredibly hollow. After all, it’s a comic about the prejudice facing a minority in the nineties, with repeated references to the Holocaust. “Zero tolerance?” Senator Robert Kelly asks towards the end of the event. “Isn’t that what the Nazis had for the Jews in the last World War?” The villain, Bastion, is presented as a “wannabe Hitler.”

Operation Zero Tolerance is, in a word, blunt. With so many of the high-profile comics of the nineties, from both Marvel and DC, “subtlety” is an alien concept. This is an X-Men comic where racial intolerance and prejudice are expressed through nothing short of attempted genocide. On the one hand, it’s very clearly the mutant prejudice idea pushed to its logical extreme. On the other hand, the notion of the United States government even passively condoning an attempted genocide feels like it robs the franchise of the social relevance which had made it so compelling and intriguing.

Still, the event’s impact is quite obvious. It’s hard not to see Operation Zero Tolerance as the driving influence on the entire X-Men franchise from House of M through to Second Coming.

Chances of survival are Slim…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Age of Apocalypse, Bastion, Business and Economy, cable, cyclops, Driving under the influence, Georgia, history, house of m, Independence Day (United States), J. Jonah Jameson, Law enforcement officer, marvel, Marvel Comic, marvel comics, Operation Zero Tolerance, Robert Kelly, x-men | 7 Comments »

Jason Aaron’s Run on Wolverine & The X-Men – #1-8, 17 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Wolverine later in the month, we’re taking a look at some classic X-Men and Wolverine comics every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here. I’m also writing a series of reviews of the classic X-Men television show at comicbuzz every weekday, so feel free to check those out.

Superhero comic books have had a somewhat rocky relationship with the concept of “growing up” since the mid-eighties. Books like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen proved that it was possible to craft mature tales with incredible depth using these icons. However, it seemed like the industry learnt all the wrong lessons from the success of Frank Miller and Alan Moore. For the past couple of decades, it seems like the ideal for superhero comics is grim and nihilistic nonsense, that “maturity” is measured in blood and bodycount.

There was a sense that the comic book industry was afraid of being seen as childish or unsophisticated, which created an ironic situation where the industry’s immaturity was on show in its fixation with adult material. “When I was ten,” C.S. Lewis once mused, “I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men feels like it subscribes to this philosophy. It’s an incredibly silly and goofy piece of work, revelling in the clichés of the superhero genre, but it’s also a surprisingly sincere and intelligent one.

It’s a bit of a gamble…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Aaron, art, chris claremont, Classic X-Men, Comics, Friday, grant morrison, joss whedon, Mike Allred, Monday Wednesday, Peter Milligan, Quentin Quire, wolverine, x-men | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Alan Partridge – Alpha Papa

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Darren

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa successfully brings the BBC icon to the big screen. He’s come a long way from a sports desk persona on a BBC4 parody radio show, and modern British comedy owes a lot to Coogan’s creation. Partridge has been around for over twenty years at this point, in many ways becoming more recognisable than Steve Coogan himself. It’s surprising that it’s taken this long to shepherd Partridge to the big screen.

Partridge is the king of what might be termed “cringe comedy”, and is a clear forbearer of Ricky Gervais’ David Brent. As such, it’s possible to feel that Partridge is a little dated. Certainly, there are times when Alpha Papa plays out like it could be an extended holiday special featuring North Norfolk’s most famous radio DJ. To be fair, that’s not a bad thing. Coogan is on fine form here, the comedy is broad and the wit is quick enough that there’s never a dull moment.

It’s a giant-sized helping of the comedy character, one which stays true to his roots even if it does occasionally feel like it over-simplifies him a bit.

On the air, and on the line…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alan Partridge, Alpha Papa, bbc, Coogan, David Brent, Disc jockey, film, Movie, non-review review, Norfolk, North Norfolk, Norwich, Partridge, review, ricky gervais, steve coogan | 2 Comments »

Watch! Keanu Reeve’s 47 Ronin Trailer!

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Darren

Universal Pictures Ireland just sent over the trailer for Keanu Reeve’s 47 Ronin. The film is a heavy fictionalised version of the tail of the forty-seven masterless samurai who avenged the death of their master Asano Naganori in the early part of the 18th century. I’ll admit that I’m rather lukewarm on the decision to cast Keanu Reeves as an original (half-Japanese half-English) character to headline the film, but the story which inspired the film is intriguing.

In Japan, the story is so influential that it has even spawned its own subgenre of fictionalised accounts of the event, Chūshingura, spanning various media. It’s easy to see the appeal of the tale, and it’s great that the story is getting this sort of high-profile release and adaptation from a major studio, even if some of the concessions to the mainstream seem a little unfortunate and potentially troublesome.

I’ll keep an open mind until the film’s release in December, as it’s impossible to gauge the execution until we actually see it. From the trailer below, it seems a little heavy on the oriental exoticism, but does look visually lavish. Barring the occasionally awkward piece of CGI, it’s certainly eye-catching and vivid. The colours are striking and some of the compositions look like they could be beautiful. Anyway, check it out below and make up your own mind.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 47 Ronin, Asano Naganori, Chūshingura, Hiroyuki Sanada, Keanu Reeve, Rinko Kikuchi, ronin, universal studios | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: RED 2

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Darren

Red 2 is a stronger film than Red, although it’s still not quite a wholly satisfying cinematic experience. There’s a certain charm to watching all these veteran stars reuniting on the screen together, with a considerably lighter touch than The Expendables. What’s interesting about Red 2 isn’t a dearth of good ideas or interesting hooks in the set-up of this sequel, it’s just a littler rushed, a little unfocused, a little disjointed. However, Red 2 generally moves so fast that these problems never quite reach critical mass. The result is more-than-occasionally great fun, but also just a little too light for its own good.

Growing old disgracefully…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: anthony hopkins, brian cox, bruce willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, expendables, film, hannibal lecter, helen mirren, john malkovich, Karl Urban, London, Mary Louise Parker, Moscow, Moses, Movie, non-review review, RED, review | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The World’s End

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Darren

The World’s End feels curiously nostalgic. Not just in the way that lead character Gary King tries to recapture his old youth by roping four childhood friends into revisiting their old home town to complete a pub crawl they started upon leaving school, nor in the way the sound track includes such hits of yesteryear as Loaded by Primal Scream and Kylie Minogue’s Step Back in Time, and not even in the fact that the school reunion includes a trip to a literal school disco.

Instead, it feels like a belated criticism of a recent chapter in British history, a reflection on the era of “the special relationship”, and mournful retrospective on what might be perceived as the erosion of British culture by the relentless assault of American influence. The World’s End is an invasion story, but it’s a conscious reversal of the second wave “Britpop” invasion of the nineties (an era the movie evokes nostalgically). This isn’t a hostile occupation. It is, to quote one of the characters, “peaceful indoctrination.”

They’ve got him Pegged…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Eddie Marsan, edgar wright, film, Gary, Hot Fuzz, Kylie Minogue, Movie, nick frost, non-review review, Paddy Considine, pierce brosnan, review, russell t. davies, shaun of the dead, Simon Pegg, Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, tony blair, worlds end | 8 Comments »

Roy Thomas & Werner Roth’s X-Men – X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1-2 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Darren

The X-Men were not, to put it frankly, a comic book franchise that hit the ground running. Despite the considerable talent involved in their first nineteen issues, the comic struggled to find its own niche, unsure of just how far it dared to venture from the standard superhero template, and how confined it was by the whole “mutant superhero” bit. Writer Roy Thomas was tapped to take over the book when Stan Lee left.

Thomas is one of the underrated Silver Age writers. His work on The Avengers, spanning more than a half-a-decade, is arguably more influential and definitive than Lee’s original run on the title. He is responsible for The Kree-Skrull War, which remains one of the stronger early Avengers stories. He would work on X-Men twice before the book was finally cancelled. His second run, with Neal Adams pencilling, is arguably a lot stronger than his work here, which feels a little muddled and unfocused.

To be fair to Thomas, it’s quite clear that he recognised that the X-Men needed a shake-up and to find their own voice distinct from the initial run written by Lee and Kirby. Unfortunately, Thomas doesn’t seem entirely sure of what that voice is.