Darren

Non-Review Review: Fast Five

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Darren

Fast Five reminds me a lot of the kinds of cars that its leads drive. Now, please excuse me if the metaphor is a bit clunky. I know nothing of cars. However, whenever we cut to inside one of these enhanced driving machines, it’s clear that virtually every unnecessary component has been stripped out in order to make room for more relevant pieces of equipment. The passenger seat, for example, has been removed and replaced with some canisters I can only assume allow the car to go faster. In many ways, Fast Five feels a bit like that. I knows exactly the film that it wants to be, and it knows exactly what it needs to be that sort of film. Anything else – whether wit, sophistication or character development – is all just dead weight between fast one-liners, impressive action sequences and effective stunt work. And, I am not ashamed to admit, I actually quite enjoyed it on its own terms.

Let’s Rock ‘n’ Roll…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: characters, Chris Morgan, david tennant, Dominic Toretto, Dwayne Johnson, fast & furious, Fast Five, film, Internet Movie Database, Justin Lin, List of The Fast and the Furious characters, men, Morgan, Movie, movie trailers, non-review review, Paul Walker, People, review, tommy lee jones, Vin Diesel, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Movies | 6 Comments »

New Pitch Perfect Trailer…

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Darren

Universal just sent over the trailer for Pitch Perfect, the upcoming comedy starring Anna Kendrick. That alone makes it well worth a look, but I have to admit I am intrigued by the idea of a comedy set in the world accapella. I am not even being sarcastic – I adore that sort of music. I am not even kidding or being ironic. Check out Mike Tompkins’s work. Anyhaw, Pitch perfect is opening in October and is from director Jason Moore, who gave us the awesome Avenue Q. Anyway, here’s the trailer.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Anna Camp, Anna Kendrick, arts, Brittany Snow, comedy, Glee, Jason Moore, Rebel Wilson | 5 Comments »

Win! Storage 24 Goodies!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Darren

Storage 24, the latest British horror film, is opening this Friday the 29th June. Directed by Johannes Roberts and starring Noel Clarke (Kidulthood, Adulthood and Doctor Who) along with Colin O’Donoghue (The Rite), the film takes place a twenty-four-hour storage facility that receives an unexpected guest. To celebrate the release of the film, the fine folks over at Universal Pictures Ireland have given us five prize packs to give away. Each one includes:

Backpack x 1
T-Shirt x 1
Security USB x1

Click the picture below to enlarge and to enter fill out the form below. Here’s the trailer:

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Adulthood, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Colin O'Donoghue, Contact geometry, doctor who, Johannes Roberts, Kidulthood, London, Noel Clarke, Republic of Ireland, universal studios | Leave a comment »

Game of Thrones: Season 2 (Review)

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Darren

I’ve always found that it’s the second season that makes or breaks or a television show. After all, the first season of a new television series has an air of novelty around it that can mask any faults, and it’s interesting to watch both cast and crew settle into new roles. The world and characters are to be defined, everything is possible, the potential is truly limitless. It is only in the second season where you really see the show crystalise into the form it will most likely remain for the rest of its run. You get to see the television show “settle” into its particular groove or comfort zone, once the initial novelty or excitement has worn off. Arguably Games of Thrones faces an even bigger challenge. After all, the climax of the first season saw the death of the show’s one true marquee name, Sean Bean.

So, it is a massive relief that, in its sophomoric year, Game of Thrones remains one of the best constructed and most compelling dramas on television.

Burn, babies, burn!

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: A Song of Ice and Fire, catholic church, Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, Davos, Game of Thrones, Hound, Major houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, Middle Ages, Ned Stark, Northerners, sean bean, Supernatural, World of A Song of Ice and Fire | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Fright Night (1985)

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Darren

I have a soft spot for the original Fight Night. It feels like an affectionate slice of pulp nostalgia, harking back to a simpler time in cinematic horror. It rejects the growth and expansion of the slasher subgenre to focus on the original celluloid monster. As a result, Fright Night offers a conventional vampire story, told in a decidedly unconventional manner. While it is occasionally just a little bit too cheesy and too dated for its own good, it’s hard not to enjoy the conscious callbacks to an older time.

Don’t cross him…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brad Fiedel, Bram Stoker, Charlie, Chris Sarandon, colin farrell, Evil Ed, Fright Night, Horror film, Imogen Poots, Internet Movie Database, Jerry, Jerry Seinfeld (character), Peter Vincent, Stage Fright, stephen king, Tom Holland | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Take Me Home Tonight

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Darren

There’s something strangely charming about Take Me Home Tonight. I say “strangely” because I’m not blind to the movie’s many awkward flaws. I can spot the predictable plotting, the douchebag entitled protagonists and the shallow “high school crush” romance. None of these are any less conventional than the plot’s attempt to conceal saccharine romanticism with cheap lowbrow humour. I can see those problems with the film, but for some reason I think it works well in spite of them. I think the strongest aspect of Take Me Home Tonight is not the eighties setting (though that helps), but the sense that Topher Grace may have finally found his niche.

We can dance if we want to…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: art, Art of War, arts, Book of Five Rings, Chinese, Dan Fogler, Eddie Brock, film, literature, Michael Biehn, Movie, non-review review, review, Sun Tzu, SunTzu, Take Me Home Tonight, Teresa Palmer, tobey maguire, topher grace, United State, United States, Washington D.C., World Literature | Leave a comment »

Chernobyl Causes: At What Point Exploitation?

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Darren

This week sees the release of The Chernobyl Diaries, a horror film from producer Oren Peli, the filmamker who gave us the superb Paranormal Activity. However, I can’t help wonder if it is a little “too soon”for a horror based around the nuclear disaster that occurred in the Ukraine in 1986. It has been over a quarter of the century since disaster occurred, and yet I’d be lying if there wasn’t a faint sense of exploitation around the film, which sees a bunch of kids (American, naturally) touring the site of the catastrophe and uncovering all manner of unpleasantness. Still, it isn’t the only exploitation horror ever made, and I can’t help but wonder when a subject is or isn’t fair game.

Real-life horror…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Chernobyl, Chernobyl disaster, ChernobylDiaries, Horror film, jack the ripper, michael bay, Nuclear reactor, Oren Peli, paranormal activity, Prypiat, Shane Van Dyke, Ukraine, United States | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Apartment

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Darren

The Apartment is a classic romantic comedy, and deservedly so. Reuniting director Billy Wilder with actor Jack Lemmon, it’s a wonderfully dysfunctional look at life in the big city, and the compromises the people find themselves forced into. While I think the movie probably works better as a romantic drama than as a comedy – with some outstanding moments of bleakness, including a serious suicide attempt and another false alarm towards the end – Wilder and Lemmon do an exceptional job keeping the movie just light enough that the darker elements don’t overwhelm the film. It is a piece of cinematic history, and one that holds up as well today as it ever did.

The neighbours were wondering about the racket…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Apartment, Billy Wilder, film, Glengarry Glen Ross, Greyhound Lines, Jack Lemmon, Karachi, kevin spacey, Lemmon, Metro Areas, Mississippi, Movie, Natchez Mississippi, new york, New York City, non-review review, Pakistan, review, Shirley MacLaine, Social Security number, the apartment, the apartment (1960), Times Square, United States | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Coriolanus

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Darren

I’m a big fan of Shakespeare adaptations, if done right. The proper cast and crew can serve to make the Bard easily accessible to modern audiences, allowing people unfamiliar with the tragedy in question to follow along with the work remarkably easily. Ralph Fiennes has assembled such a cast and crew for his directorial debut, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. Although not universally regarded as one of the truly great Shakespearean tragedies, it does have the epic scale and grand drama of some of the writer’s best work. T.S. Elliot would consider it to be, along with Anthony and Cleopatra, to be Shakespeare’s finest tragic play. I think that Fiennes adaptation makes a plausible argument for a long overdue reappraisal of the work. At the very least, it does an excellent job bringing it to a modern audience.

Roman around…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aufidius, brian cox, Butler, Consul, Coriolanus, Fiennes, gerard butler, James Nesbitt, Jon Snow, ralph fiennes, rome, Senate, shakespeare, Television, Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Redgrave, Volumnia, William Shakespeare | 2 Comments »

David Lynch’s Rock of Ages (Trailer)

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Darren

Occasionally I stumble across something in the wilds of the internet that I just have to share. Here is a rather interesting fan made trailer examining something all of us have wondered about: what if Rock of Ages were directed by David Lynch? Okay, maybe not all of us. But some of us. Probably. Anyway, it’s a work of bizarre brilliance, so check it out. I especially like the liberal application of Roy Orbison.