Posted on August 6, 2010 by Darren
Interesting. It seems that Futurama has somehow (presumably unconsciously) incorporated one of the central features from its key sources, the Star Trek franchise. It’s frequently asserted by fans of that series that the television show spawned a rather inconsistent movies series. Some, such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, could stand tall and be measured along the best movies that science-fiction could offer; while others, notable Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (in which Kirk kills God in a story pitched and directed by William Shatner), were actually terrible. The consensus emerged that the even numbered sequels were great and the odd numbered movies were terrible. This is just a run of thumb, and it’s possible it has been reversed (the tenth movie, Star Trek: Nemesis, was pretty disappointing; the eleventh, Star Trek, was a blast of fresh air) or even completely deconstructed. While none of the four Futurama movies are “terrible” or even “bad”, the distinction between the “okay” and the “great” seems to fall on similar lines. The first and third, Bender’s Big Score and Bender’s Game, weren’t great, while the second and fourth, The Beast With A Billion Backs and Into the Wild Green Yonder, perfectly capture all that was great about the show.
Here we go-go again...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: films, finale, futurama, futurama: into the wild green yonder, into the wild green yonder, matt groening, Movies, non-review review, review, Television | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 5, 2010 by Darren
You could make the arguement that the first two Futurama movies – Bender’s Big Score and The Beast With A Billion Backs – cast their nets particularly widely in charting the universe the show had been cultivating for four years before it went off the air, perhaps drawing in more threads than it was fair to assume that an hour-and-a-half movie could handle. So Bender’s Game might seem a relief in that regard. It’s a relatively tightly-focused tale, involving a small subset of the show’s many, many characters. However, in doing so, it never really seems to justify why it’s a bigger and longer tale. Indeed, it could just as easily have been two shorter ones.
A Knight to Remember...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bender's game, dungeons & dragons, dungeons and dragons, film, futurama, futurama: bender's game, Movies, non-review review, review, Television | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 3, 2010 by Darren
I wasn’t overly impressed with the first of the Futurama movies, Bender’s Big Score. It was grand, and a wonderful emotional kick made it worth watching, but it felt very insular and a little too random in its execution – built around in-jokes and clever ideas discarded after five minutes or so. Somewhat paradoxically, it felt more like a “final” episode than the “first” of anything, let alone a welcome to this new format for the show. So I was more than a bit relieved to discover that The Beast With A Billion Backs was a far more consistent viewing experience, but also one which felt a lot more like a regular episode of the show, just stretched to two hours. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
... And Zoidberg, too!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comedy, futurama, matt groening, science fiction, the beast with a billion backs, the beast with two backs | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 2, 2010 by Darren
If only all cancelled shows had the same good fortune as Futurama. After being taken off the air, the show was shopped around a bit, before coming back as a series of four two-hour movies (which could, conveniently for the network, could be split into sixteen episodes – four episodes per movie). The first of the movie’s – Bender’s Big Score – seems an interesting choice to open the specials. Rather than being framed as a re-introduction to the series, designed to attract new fans and effectively act as a second pilot for the show, instead it’s clearly intended as something of a valentine to existing fans.
It's good to be back...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bender's big score, films, Fox, futurama, futurama: bender's big score, Movies, Television | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 30, 2010 by Darren
Tell me your heart doesn’t skip a beat when you hear the familiar brass of John Williams’ iconic score. Or that you can resist a smile as a small child introduces the movie by opening a comic book and reading aloud. Or that the opening shot of the crystal canyons of Krypton doesn’t make your spine tingle just a bit. Richard Donner’s Superman is perhaps correctly regarded as the father of the whole superhero genre, and deservedly so, but it’s also a stunningly well put together film in its own right. You could argue that this film predates the whole “superhero” genre in Hollywood, and – as such- more deserves classification as a “fantasy” film. And it can certainly stand with the very best of them.
Don't worry, he's trained for this sort of emergency...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, batman begins, christopher reeves, film, films, gene hackman, John Williams, jor-el, lex luthor, marlon brando, Movie, non-review review, review, richard donner, Smallville, superheroes, superman, superman ii: the richard donner cut, Warner Brothers | 13 Comments »
Posted on July 29, 2010 by Darren
The problem with Congo is simply that it’s not entirely certain whether it wants to be taken seriously (even a little bit) or simply wants to veer off into a camp B-movie-style “killer apes” flick. Unfortunately, it never rally picks a definitive approach, and fluctuates between the two – making it difficult to take seriously during its action scenes and yet hard to accept the camp humour when it’s offered. It’s not a terrible film, but it’s a hevily-flawed one. I can’t help but get the impression that the movie might have been better accepted had it gone for a more fitting title like “Attack of the Killer Apes of King Solomon’s Mines!”
Not everything is better with monkeys...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adventure, camp, congo, dylan walsh, ernie hudon, gorillas, joe pantoliano, killer ape, laura linney, michael crichton, monkeys, tim curry | 5 Comments »
Posted on July 27, 2010 by Darren
Don’t get me wrong, I’m brimming with excitement for the impending release of Tron Legacy – it’s one of my most anticipated films of the year, after all. And the trailers look pretty damn spiffing, if I do say so myself (and I do). However, I can’t help but wonder what the book office appeal of the film is? I mean, it looks absolutely stunning, like a huge amount of work has been done on it (the effects look pretty incredible) – but I’m wondering where Disney’s renewed fascination with the Tron franchise came about.
Will the crowd go Wild(e)?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: disney, films, Movies, sequel, tron, tron: legacy | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 27, 2010 by Darren
I think Pixar’s The Incredibles must stand as one of their best productions – alongside Finding Nemo, perhaps. It’s certainly one of their more conventional entries in the Pixar stable, in that it’s offered in the blockbuster format of the decade (superhero adventure), but – like the very best of their work – it’s so much more. A whole host of Pixar’s films – Toy Story and Finding Nemo chief among them – deal with the notion of paternal abandonment (though perhaps more fond of addressing the story of parents abandoned by kids, rather than kids abandoned by adults), but The Incredibles is perhaps the one which best deals with the challenges that managing a ‘functioning’ family.
That's one incredible family...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: craig t. nelson, disney, films, holly hunter, incredibles, jason lee, Movies, non-review review, pixar, review, samuel l. jackson, superheroes, the incredibles, watchmen | Leave a comment »
Posted on July 26, 2010 by Darren
I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something with A Serious Man. I mean, I get it, it’s all pointless and we’re meant to be as unable to make sense of it all as the dentist who finds words on his goy‘s teeth or Larry Gopnik himself, but there’s something ultimately uncomfortable about the film’s reflexiveness. After all, the story filters tales through tales through tales, with a rabbi sharing a pointless story with Larry as he waits there for the rabbi to instill it with meaning, but can’t. The movie’s central thesis is that – assuming he exists – God is a sadistic and horrible creature for the way he arranges the world without meaning and seemingly to punish a man “trying to be a serious man”. Of course, whether or not God exists is a question for each individual to come to themselves, but the film draws attention to its nature as a narrative rather than a documentary – first through a random introductory film and then through a-story-within-a-story – which makes it clear that while the real world may or may not have an omnipotent creator, Larry’s world does. And you can’t help but feel, at the end of it, that the Coens are really just dicks.
Is it wrong that I was a little board?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a serious man, ethan coen, films, joel coen, Movies, non-review review, review, the coen brothers | 11 Comments »
Posted on July 22, 2010 by Darren
I figured, what with Inception coming out and all, it was the perfect time in introduce my better half to the rather impressive (and amazingly consistent – indeed, only one of his films did not make my “top 50 films of the decade”) director Christopher Nolan. I discover that she had yet to see Memento, Nolan’s first major American release. We immediately decided to rectify the situation.
Picture perfect...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: amnesia, carrie-anne moss, Christopher Nolan, classic, film, guy pierce, joe pantoliano, leonard shelby, memento, memory, modern noir, Movie, noir, non-review review, review, short term memory | 7 Comments »
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