Darren

Non-Review Review: Ted

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Darren

Ted is an impressive directorial debut from Seth McFarlane, the creator and star of Family Guy. Those familiar with McFarlane’s work will know what to expect from Ted. It’s loud, it’s crude, it’s full of retro pop culture references, but it’s also constructed with almost surreal innocence and earnestness. McFarlane can be brutal at times, and he does make a few cheap shots here or there over the course of Ted. (Take that, Justin Beiber! Take that, Brandon Routh!) However, for the most part, the film actually does a remarkable job of balancing its crass in-your-face offensiveness with a weird emotional warmth. At it’s heart, Ted is still the story of a boy and his teddy bear. It just so happens to be a really messed up teddy bear.

Bear with me…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adam sandler, brandon routh, family guy, film, John, Lori, mark wahlberg, McFarlane, mila kunis, non-review review, Peter Griffin, popular culture, review, Seth MacFarlane, Seth McFarlane, TED, Teddy bear, will ferrell | 2 Comments »

Win! Tickets to a Jameson Cult Film Club Screening of The Silence of the Lambs!

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Darren

“Well, Clarice – have the lambs stopped screaming?”

The Jameson Cult Film Club is back in Dublin for its biggest and most electrifying double screening to date!

We’ve teamed up with the Jameson Cult Film Club to offer two lucky readers a pair of tickets each to the exclusive screening of the horror thriller, The Silence of the Lambs at a secret Dublin location Wednesday August 15^th.

For the uninitiated, Jameson Cult Film Club is all about watching your favourite cult films at spectacular screenings, staged to transport the audience right into the world of the film. These free events are not just your typical screening, as characters from the movie, live theatre and special effects timed perfectly with on-screen action help to create an electric atmosphere throughout the screening.

To give you a bit of a feel, here’s a video sampling some previous highlights:

If you would like to join Clarice Starling, Dr Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill at this exclusive Jameson Cult Film Club screening in the “Baltimore State Forensic Hospital” on August 15^th all you have to do is answer the question and fill out the form below.

Note: Entrants must be over 18 years of age and able to attend the screening on August 15th 2012.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Clarice, Clarice Starling, cult film, dublin, hannibal, hannibal lecter, jameson cult film club, silence of the lambs | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Magic Mike

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Darren

Magic Mike has a lightness of touch that’s been missing from a lot of Steven Soderbergh’s recent work. It’s nowhere near as ambitious as Contagion was, but that isn’t necessary a bad thing from the perspective of the film about male stripper living a rock and roll lifestyle. While Magic Mike won’t get any marks for originality, it does manage to feature two impressive performances and has a refreshing sense of “fun”about it. It a solidly entertaining and diverting piece of entertainment, executed with considerable skill that helps distract from its relatively conventional nature.

It’s getting hot in here…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 21 Jump Street, Alex Pettyfer, Channing Tatum, Cody Horn, Contagion, Dallas, film, Magic Mike, Male stripper, Matthew McConaughey, Mike, Movie, non-review review, review, Steven Soderbergh | 2 Comments »

The Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie & Todd McFarlane Omnibus (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Darren

The Amazing Spider-Man by David Michelinie & Todd McFarlane Omnibus is a fun comic book collection. Todd McFarlane was one of the rising stars at Marvel in the late eighties, and it’s no exaggeration to suggest that his work on The Amazing Spider-Man (along with Jim Lee’s work on Uncanny X-Men) had a massive influence on how the company would develop during the nineties. McFarlane’s artwork still looks absolutely superb, but it’s easy to forget that McFarlane worked for an extended period with author David Michelinie, crafting stories for the iconic web-crawler. While the stories and characterisation might not have been as strongly influential as McFarlane’s artwork, they still remain impressive until today. This might not be the finest or most important collection of Spider-Man adventures ever collected, but it reads incredibly fluidly and has a great sense of fun behind it.

Itsy-bitsy Spider...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, David Michelinie, Erik Larsen, General Strike 1926, history, image comics, jim lee, justin hammer, marvel, Mary Jane Watson, Mary-Jane, McFarlane, Miners' Strike 1984-5, Peter, peter parker, Red Skull, Seth MacFarlane, spider man, Strike action, Todd McFarlane, Venus Butterfly, Working Class | Leave a comment »

Animated Dark Knight Returns Trailer

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Darren

This seems an appropriate note on which to close out a month of Batman coverage to celebrate The Dark Knight Rises.

Warner Brothers’ superb animated department are doing an animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, one of the truly iconic Batman stories. Really, it’s great. And they’ve assembled a pretty neat cast, including Peter Weller (Robocop) as the Dark Knight himself. They are, unfortunately, splitting the movie into two seventy-minute chunks (rather than one one-hundred-and-twenty-minute film), but it looks like they’ve done a good job capturing the look and feel.

The Batman themed adaptations have (generally) been the strongest entries in the series, so I’m cautiously optimistic.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, dark knight returns, Dark Knight Rises, FrankMiller, Peter Weller, RoboCop, Warner Bros | 2 Comments »

New Skyfall Trailer

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Darren

Sony have released the latest trailer for the new Bond film Skyfall. I will say that I am very much looking forward to it, and leave at that.

Also, I didn’t think Javier Bardem could appear scarier than he did in No Country for Old Men. I was wrong.

And here’s a slightly different international version of the trailer.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: daniel craig, james bond, James Bond in film, javier bardem, judi dench, sam mendes, Skyfall, sony | 4 Comments »

Whatever Will Happen to the Caped Crusader? Thoughts on Batman After Nolan…

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises, July is “Batman month” here at the m0vie blog. Check back daily for comics, movies and television reviews and discussion of the Caped Crusader.

So, what now?

Christopher Nolan has rounded out his Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises, tying up and resolving the arc he set up for Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins almost a decade ago. It has been a long and rewarding journey. I certainly think that Nolan’s accomplishments here deserve to be compared to other truly exceptional pop culture trilogies like The Lord of the Rings or even Star Wars. He told a complete story for the character, from the beginning through to the end. So, a week after he released the final part of his trilogy, people are wondering: what now? How do you follow a series of Batman movies like that? What next for the Dark Knight and Warner Brothers?

Speaking for myself, I can only hope that it’s something completely different.

Out of Nolan’s land…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adam west, batman, batman begins, Christopher Nolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rise, Dark Knight Rises, DarkKnight Rises, gary oldman, justice league, lord of the rings, nolan, star wars, tim burton, Warner Bros | 12 Comments »

Batman: Earth One (Review)

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Darren

I think it’s fair to say that I approached Batman: Earth One with a reasonable amount of skepticism. After all, Batman already has two almost perfect origins. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins is really the perfect introduction to the character and his world, but Frank Miller’s Year One is also still a hugely iconic piece of work on the character. Miller’s Batman origin has, for example, withstood multiple re-examinations of Superman’s origin. (John Byrne’s Man of Steel, Mark Waid’s Birthright, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Superman: Secret Origin and Grant Morrison’s Action Comics among others.) So Batman: Earth One, a modernised “reimagining”of Batman’s origin story, does feel a tad unnecessary. However, despite the sense that it’s not really needed, it’s actually a fairly interesting take on the mythology judged on its own merits.

Yes, father… he shall become a bat…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alfred, Arkham, batman, batman begins, Batman: Earth One, Bruce, ChristopherNolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, DarkKnight Rises, gary frank, geoff johns, gotham city, Lucius Fox, nolan, superman: secret origin, Wayne | Leave a comment »

Film Adaptation of the Play “Kursk” Streaming at the Space From Tomorrow…

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Darren

Every once in a while, somebody passes on a bit of information to the site that I think is worth sharing, just because it’s kinda a little bit cool and a little bit fascinating. In May, the British Arts Council and the BBC launched The Space, an on-line hub for the arts – available to stream on-line for free. It’s an absolutely fantastic way of sharing the arts with people who honestly wouldn’t get a chance to see them otherwise. (Especially at the moment, when the economy is the way that it is.) Starting tomorrow, The Space will be streaming a film adaptation of a play Kursk, based around the infamous Russian submarine disaster.

Image: Kursk Photographer: Keither Pattison

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: Anthony, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cleopatra, Evening Standard Award, Krymsk, Kursk, London, may, Russia, Russian language, space, Sydney Opera House, United States, Vladimir Putin, William Shakespeare, Young Vic | Leave a comment »

Win! Bourne Legacy T-Shirts!

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Darren

Courtesy of our friends at Universal Pictures Ireland, we have five T-shirts to give away to celebrate the release of The Bourne Legacy on 13th August 2012. The film is the fourth in the “Bourne” series, and sees Jeremy Renner starring as another Treadstone agent dealing with the consequences of Jason Bourne’s activity. It’s being directed by Tony Gilroy, who directed Michael Clayton and wrote all three Bourne films, and it has one heck of a cast assembled. It looks to be a very interesting take on the story – rather than trying to carry on or continue the story from the first three, it looks like The Bourne Legacy takes place “around” those films, its own narrative that overlaps and intercepts at points.

Thanks to Universal Pictures Ireland, we have five T-shirts to give away for the film. To enter the competition, just fill in the form below.

Click to enlarge…

Note: All entrants must be based in the Republic of Ireland. You must provide a valid address and phone number so that you can be contacted if you win. Your details will not be used for any other purpose.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bourne, Bourne Legacy, jason bourne, jeremy renner, matt damon, Michael Clayton, Republic of Ireland, Tony Gilroy, universal studios | Leave a comment »