Non-Review Reviews | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Thing (1982)

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Darren

John Carpenter’s The Thing is almost the perfect late-night Halloween viewing experience. It’s one of those movies that is gloriously trashy entertainment, with any number of visceral thrills, but also more deeply unnerving. Updating the 1951 The Thing From Another World, and arguably remaining truer to the original story, Who Goes There?, John Carpenter’s adaptation perfectly captures the unnerving paranoia of a world where there’s no promise that anybody is exactly what they claim to be. In space, nobody can hear you scream, but your odds aren’t too much better in the white Antarctic tundra.

What sort of Thing could do that?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alien (film), Carpenter, film, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Movie, non-review review, review, ridley scott, the thing, The Thing (1982), Thing, Thing From Another World, William F. Nolan | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Despicable Me

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Darren

I think that, as a general trend, the quality of computer-animated films has increased significantly over the past number of years. I think there are a variety of reasons for this – the most obvious being that it seems to be easier to do, and so more companies are trying; but also because there’s an increasing body of work that offers hints on what to do and how to do it. While Pixar remain the undisputed champions of computer-generated animation, I think we’ve seen an increasing number of high-quality releases from all studios in the past few years. Despicable Mesees a new studio throwing their hat into the ring and it makes for an impressive debut. While there’s still room for improvement, Despicable Me is fast and fun, and remarkably uncynical for a children’s movie about super-villains.

Aiming for the moon...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: despicable me, film, Illumination Entertainment, IPod, jason segel, Megamind, Movie, non-review review, Pierre Coffin, review, Shark Tale, Steve Carell | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The American

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Darren

The American is a slow-moving introspective film. Director Anton Corbijn seems to be trying to evoke Sergio Leone, with the story of an American hired gun lying low in a small Italian village. Slow-moving and subtle, The American feels quite meditative for most of its runtime, although it does occasionally seem almost comatose. Still, George Clooney makes for a convincing leading man, adding a great deal of depth to an archetype we’ve seen countless times before. While it’s a little too slow for its own good, it’s never less than beautiful and often fascinating.

Beautifully shot...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Anton Corbijn, Coldplay, Corbijn, david fincher, george clooney, Ian Curtis, jack, Las Ventas, Music video, non-review review, review, sergio leone, Spaghetti Western, United States, Vevo, youtube | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Ides of March

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Darren

It’s very hard to make a movie about politics without feeling a little bit forced – as if you’re shoehorning in a particular viewpoint or an ideology, setting up strawmen for the movie to bulldoze over on the way to the final scene. It’s to director (and actor) George Clooney’s credit that The Ides of March manages to avoid seeming too preachy or too staged, instead opting to comment on the nature of political integrity, rather than accusing specific ideologies of having it or lacking it. Set within a Democratic Presidential Primary, the movie shrewdly avoids focusing on an ideological or political gap, instead contemplating the harsh realities of any political maneuvering.

Are the gloves coming off?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bill clinton, Clooney, film, george clooney, Ides of March, Morris, Movie, non-review review, Ohio, politics, review, Ryan Gosling, The ides of March, United States | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Adventures of Tintin – The Secret of the Unicorn

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Darren

It’s Indiana Jones, but for kids! It’s fascinating that the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson should produce something that feels much more like the earlier Indiana Jones films than Spielberg’s most recent collaboration with George Lucas. Adapting Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin was always going to be a challenging proposition, and it’s to the credit of everybody involved that it turned out so well. While it’s not quite perfect, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is undoubtedly Spielberg’s most entertaining family film since Jurassic Park.

Franchise launcher?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, andy serkis, Captain Archibald Haddock, captain archibold haddock, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, daniel craig, Hergé, peter jackson, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the secret of the unicorn, tintin, tintin and red rackham's treasure, tintin and the secret of the unicorn | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Casino Jack

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Darren

Casino Jack boasts a superb performance from Kevin Spacey in the lead role of Jack Abramoff. Unfortunately, that’s about it. I don’t mean that Casino Jack is a bad film, by any means, it’s just a purely functional one. It manages to take a bunch of interesting elements – a timely political plot, a bunch of fascinating supporting performances, a compelling lead character – and do absolutely nothing with any of them. Despite the rather wonderful potential to tell a parable for our time, the script is formulaic and bland, with nothing by the way of insight.

Jacked up...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Abramoff, barry pepper, casino jack, ENRON, god, Ides of March, Jack Abramoff, Jon Lovitz, kevin spacey, lobbying, non-review review, politics, review, United States | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Music by Prudence

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Darren

The first annual International Disability Film Festival is being hosted from the 20th through to the 23rd October, organised by Arts & Disability Ireland, in Dublin and Galway. I was honoured to be invited to the gala screening of the Oscar-winning HBO documentary Music by Prudence. You can read more information on the festival here.

Music by Prudence is an absolutely fascinating documentary from director Roger Ross Williams, looking at the band Liyana, fronted by Prudence Mabhena. The thirty-three minute documentary does a wonderfully effective job giving us a snapshot into the Zimbabwean band, composed of faculty and students from the King George VI Centre and School for Children with Physical Disabilities. The runtime is remarkably short, but Williams compensates by giving us a whirlwind introduction to the band’s lead singer, who has enough charm and wit to carry a far longer documentary. The band themselves provide a beautiful soundtrack, and there’s talk of them releasing two albums off the back of the film’s success.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Disability, Elinor Burkett, Film festival, George VI of the United Kingdom, hbo, Liyana, Music by Prudence, non-review review, Prudence, Prudence Mabhena, review, Roger Ross Williams, Zimbabwe | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Illusionist (2010)

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Darren

It’s hard to fault The Illusionist on a technical level. The film is truly beautiful, not only capturing the beauty of its surroundings in wonderful animation, but also produced with a magical sense of artistry and genuine romanticism. Although one can readily spot the hints of CGI used to help realise director Sylvain Chomet’s vision, the animation feels remarkably and endearingly old-fashioned. The limited use of dialogue throughout adds a strange and ethereal (almost fairy tale) quality to the whole thing. Still, there’s something that feels a bit strange about the whole thing, as if the story – although trying to distract us with flair and bright colours and a clever wit – is a truly depressing saga. Some might suggest that it is “bittersweet”, but I couldn’t help but find the outer “sweetness”nothing but a superficial attempt to distract from a truly bitter core.

It's a kind of magic...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: animation, arts, Edinburgh, Jacque Tati, magic, paris, Scotland, Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist, The Illusionist (2010) | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Lion King

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Darren

You said you’d always be there for me! … But you’re not.

– Simba rages at the heavens

The Lion King is my favourite Disney film. I don’t know if I could argue that it’s objectively the best or anything like that, as I imagine that there are a lot of external factors that contribute to making a person’s favourite Disney films – most of which are matters of timing, with the film appearing at “just the right time”, to borrow a cliché. I was seven years old when the film was first released, but I don’t believe that I saw it in the cinema (hence my trip to the cinema to see it on re-release), so perhaps I was eight or nine when I first caught Disney’s adaptation of Hamlet. It’s a dodgy proposition revisiting something you loved as a child, as there’s a risk that the finished product won’t quite live up to your memories of it – perhaps because you say it differently through younger eyes, or because time has marched on, or because you’ve become too cynical. So, I was taking a considerable risk as the theatre went dark, wondering if perhaps I had made a mistake.

I hadn’t. Sometimes some things areas good as you remember them.

"The fault, dear Simba, lies not in our stars... but in ourselves..."

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: disney, Disney Renaissance, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Matthew Broderick, non-review review, review, simba, the lion king, The Lion King 3D, Walt Disney Company | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Get Carter

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Darren

Get Carter still makes a very unsettling viewing experience, one that feels no more comfortable for the fact that it has been forty years since the film was originally released. The fact that the film’s grim and perverted vision of modern Britain has been imitated countless times doesn’t diminish its impact. On one level, Get Carter is a very British exploitation film, but it’s also a fairly powerful look at the urban underworld festering in surroundings far too familiar.