Darren

The Once Terrifying Hannibal Lecter: Upping the Ante on the Anti-Hero…

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Darren

I have the pleasure of catching a rather wonderful screening of The Silence of the Lambs last week. It was a fantastic evening, not least because I got a chance to finally see the film on the big screen for the first time. However, it occurred to me on watching it that Hannibal Lecter was much more compelling as a character here than he would eventually become. With the (very debatable) exception of Brett Ratner’s Red Dragon, Lecter’s subsequent film appearances feel like they are missing some vital component. I like Hannibal more than most, but I think the character suffers when promoted to lead. The less said about Hannibal Rising, the better. I am more than a little wary about the upcoming television show, even if it does star Mads Mikkelsen. What happened? When did Lecter become so toothless?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: anthony hopkins, Caroline Dhavernas, Crawford, Federal Bureau of Investigation, hannibal, hannibal lecter, Hugh Dancy, Jack Crawford, Lecter, Mads Mikkelsen, NBC, red dragon, Silence of the Lamb | Leave a comment »

Ultimate Spider-Man – Vol. 12 (Hardcover) (Review)

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Darren

You know, Jeph Loeb actually managed to make quite the impression on Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics. While his Ultimatum was intended to serve as a “shot in the arm” to a comic book line with waning sales and interest, it’s telling that Marvel organised another event almost directly afterwards, with The Death of Spider-Man serving to reorganise that fictional universe once again. This collection, the twelfth in the Ultimate Spider-Man line, sees author Brian Michael Bendis guiding the book between Ultimatum and The Death of Spider-Man. (Indeed, the next book in the set is the Death of Spider-Man omnibus collection.)

As such, it’s not too surprising that these fourteen issues feel a bit disjointed and uneven, as Bendis deals with the aftermath of one radical status quo change while gearing up for another. That said, I still think that Ultimate Spider-Man represents the single most consistent run on the title, and Bendis still manages to keep things interesting, even if this collection doesn’t quite compile the author’s strongest run of issues.

Spider-Men…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: avengers, Avengers Mansion, bendis, brian michael bendis, Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson, jeph loeb, kingpin, Kingpin (comics), mark millar, marvel comics, mysterio, New York City, Sara Pichelli, spider man, ultimate comics spider-man, ultimate marvel, ultimate spider man, United States | Leave a comment »

Have a Look at Jill Thompson’s Sandman Movie Concept Art!

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Darren

We’re big fans of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman here at the m0vie blog. It’s genuinely one of the masterpieces of the medium, and the perfect book to recommend to somebody who wants to see the very best work in the medium. There has been talk of adapting the story for film before, and I remember having nightmares about the damage that could have been done to it by an industry that hears “comic book” and thinks “superhero.” At one point Gaiman apparently read “not only the worst Sandman script I’ve ever seen, but quite easily the worst script I’ve ever read” attached to the project.

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: art, comic book, concept art, coraline, Gaiman, henry selick, JillThompson, neil gaiman, sandman, twitter, Warner Bros | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Shadow Dancer

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Darren

Shadow Dancer is a taut, intelligent, sophisticated thriller. In a way, James Marsh’s film is more notable for what it doesn’t say, than what it does. Long passages of the film go by in relative silent, with the an economy of language to communicate information to the audience. It’s quite heartening how much faith Marsh seems to have in his viewers, that the film never feels the need to burden itself with awkward exposition, instead trusting the actors and the surroundings to tell the story. You won’t find a thriller this year that thinks more highly of its audience.

“Have you seen ‘The Informant!’…? Good, because this is going to be a lot less light-hearted.”

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrea Riseborough, arts, Belfast, Clive Owen, Colette, Downing Street Declaration, film, James Marsh, John Major, ken loach, Marsh, Movie, non-review review, Northern Ireland, review, Shadow Dancer, Tom Bradby, Troubles, Wind That Shakes The Barley | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Gattaca

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Darren

I genuinely think that Gattaca is an unsung modern science-fiction classic. Andrew Niccol also wrote the screenplay for The Truman Show at the same time, another science-fiction masterpiece of the nineties, and another film way ahead of its time. I wonder if The Truman Show eclipsed Niccol’s work on Gattaca. It’s certainly a far more conventional science-fiction feature film, with a decidedly retro-futuristic aesthetic to it, and a slightly more earnest approach to its central themes. Still, I think that Gattacais a film that has held up remarkably well since its release and deserves a great deal more praise and attention than it really gets.

A face in a crowd…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Niccol, ethan hawke, films, gattaca, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, Genetics, Jerome, Josef, jude law, Movie, Movies, non-review review, review, sci-fi, science fiction, uma thurman | 4 Comments »

Tony Scott, R.I.P.

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Darren

One of the downsides to running a blog the way that I run a blog is that I don’t always have the opportunity to respond to news as it breaks. As such, in writing about the passing of director Tony Scott, pretty much everything that I would say has been said by the time I can publish this, and far more eloquently than I could ever hope to say it. Obviously, I never knew Tony Scott personally, so I won’t comment on the man himself – although the tributes from those who did know him are deeply moving. I knew Tony Scott as countless film fans knew the director, through his work. And that work meant a lot to me.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Beverly Hills Cop II, brad pitt, Crimson Tide, denzel washington, michael bay, quentin tarantino, ridley scott, San Pedro Los Angeles, Scott, tony scott, top gun, true romance | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: When the Lights Went Out

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Darren

At its best, When the Lights Went Out feels like a cinematic throwback, almost like The Woman in Black. While The Woman in Black harked back to a period of classic British horror, the height of Hammer’s gothic schtick, When the Lights Went Out feels like an affectionate homage to the urban haunting movies of the seventies, like The Amityville Horror with a Yorkshire accent. Although the final third comes off the rails in a fairly massive way, there’s enough charm and nostalgia to keep When the Lights Went Out entertaining for most of its runtime. It’s not just the setting and the aesthetic that hark back to the seventies, but also the tone and the mood.

I hope she’s not left hanging…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Amityville Horror, Amityville New York, arts, Colin Wilson, daniel radcliffe, film, Hammer Film Productions, horror, Lutz, Movie, non-review review, pat holden, review, stephen king, when the lights went out, Woman in Black | 2 Comments »

J. Michael Straczynski’s (and John Romita Jr.’s) Run on the Amazing Spider-Man – The Best of Spider-Man, Vol. 3-4 (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Darren

I honestly believe that had J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man run ended with his collaborator John Romita Jr., his time on Marvel’s iconic web-crawler would have gone down as one of the great runs. Sure, it is flawed – sometimes significantly so. However, if you divorce it from Sins Past and the mess of crisis crossover tie-in issues and awkward continuity reboots that followed, Straczynski’s early run was bold, exciting and entertaining enough to get away with doing something relatively new to Peter Parker. Given that the run includes the five hundredth issue headlined by the hero, that’s quite an accomplishment in-and-of itself. It’s not perfect, and I don’t think it’s as strong as many of the runs happening simultaneously at Marvel, but it is an intriguing direction for the pop culture icon.

How many iconic villains do you spy dere?

Note: The fourth hardcover also includes the start of Mike Deodato’s run. I am going to cover those issues separately. This review or retrospective is going to be concerned with the second half of the collaboration between John Romita and J. Michael Straczynski, culminating in The Amazing Spider-Man #508.

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, arts, brian michael bendis, Doctor Octopus, green goblin, Gwen Stacy, hulk, J. Michael Straczynski, john romita, loki, Marvel Comic, marvel universe, Mary Jane Watson, Mary-Jane, Peter, spider man, stan lee, straczynski, thor, ultimate marvel, West Africa | Leave a comment »

Jack L: The 27 Club at the National Concert Hall (Review)

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Darren

Jack L remains one of the best live actions touring in Ireland today. The performer has a rare energy and a natural theatricality that lend him a magnetic on-stage presence. It’s always a blast to hear the artist put his own slant on songs by other artists. (Despite having a rather wonderful portfolio of his own songs to draw on, Jack L is also the second-best performer of Bertolt Brecht that I have ever heard. Only David Bowie offers a better version of The Alabama Song, which was on offer tonight.) The artist is wonderful to watch in almost any environment, but always seems especially exuberant when returning to the National Concert Hall.

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Filed under: Theatre | Leave a comment »

Superhero Movie Fatigue? I Tire of This Argument…

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Darren

It’s becoming a frequent complaint that there are “too many” superhero films. When Green Lantern crashed and burned last year, there were a rake of articles lauding it as “superhero fatigue.” Even before this summer kicked off, people were asking if “fatigue” had kicked in. Ignoring for a moment that The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises are the two most successful films of the year, I’ve never quite understood that argument. There were, after all, three (or four, if you count the dire Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) superhero-themed blockbusters this year. Do audiences get “period drama fatigue” if more than four high-profile period dramas are released in a year? Are there widespread cases of “cop movie fatigue” if more than half-a-dozen movies feature a law enforcement official in a lead role? Is there a cap on the number of films that Ryan Gosling can produce, lest he inspire an epidemic of “Ryan Gosling fatigue”?