Non-Review Reviews | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Hitchcock

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Darren

As a bit of a film fan (and a bit of a Hitchcock fan), Hitchcock had me interested. After all, Hitchcock’s Psycho is arguably among the most important films ever made, both creating an entire subgenre (“the slasher”) and imbuing it with artistic credibility at the same time. The production of Psycho was not only a huge gambit for Hitchcock, but it was also an incredibly difficult task for the auteur to accomplish. Hitchcock was sixty when Psycho was eventually released. It’s easy to imagine a director at that age resting on his laurels, and Hitchcock really works when it explores the drives of the talented film maker, willing to look at the implications of those drives and how the same things that made him one of the world’s greatest directors may also have made him a less-than-nice person.

Hitchcock occasionally gets a bit too cluttered with domestic drama, but it features two strong performances and a fascinating true story. It might not be as exceptional as it could have been, but it’s still a damn fine exploration of movie history.

Alma matters?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, Alma Reville, anthony hopkins, Birds, Ed Gein, helen mirren, hitchcock, Movies, Psycho, Robert Bloch, scarlett johansson, Tippi Hedren | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Impossible

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Darren

The Impossible looks and sounds fantastic. It is very well put together by J.A. Bayona. Cleverly opting to use practical effects wherever possible, and shooting on a gigantic water tank, Bayona provides a visceral experience worthy of any blockbuster disaster movie. Indeed, were The Impossible based on fictitious events, it might be enough to make it a powerful and emotional film. Unfortunately, as the film is so desperate to let you know (placing “true story” captions at the beginning and the end of the movie), The Impossible is based on the true story of a tsunami that caused untold damage to Thailand displacing up to 60,000 residents.

Without spoiling anything, The Impossible ends with the shot of a plane crossing the ocean, a voyage home. There’s no real sense of any of the lasting consequences of the truly horrific disaster that befell the countries in the Indian Ocean.

It’s a washout…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Bayona, christmas, ewan mcgregor, film, Impossible, Indian Ocean, JA Bayona, Juan Antonio Bayona, Movie, Naomi Watts, non-review review, review, Thailand, Tom Holland | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Die Hard

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Darren

I know it’s a bit cliché at this point, but Die Hard really is my family’s ultimate Christmas movie. The season hasn’t truly started (or, if we’re delayed, truly ended) until all of us have sat down on the couch and indulged in the seasonal spectacular. Even if you don’t quite buy into the “Die Hard as Christmas movie” argument, it’s still impressive how tall John McTiernan’s action movie stands when compared to the bulk of eighties action films. Like Nakatomi Plaza itself, it towers over the competition – and it’s not because it does anything especially or novel or innovative in a genre that has always been fairly conservative. Instead, I’d argue, Die Hard succeeds because it executes all the conventional action movie beats exceedingly well, and because it doesn’t treat any of its plot points as necessary items on a check list.

Jump-starting Bruce Willis’ action career…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Action film, bruce willis, christmas, Christmas by medium, die hard, Fox Plaza (Los Angeles), john mcclane, John McTiernan, los angeles, Los Angeles Police Department, McClane, sylvester stallone | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Flight

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Darren

Flight has a lot to recommend it. It has an interesting subject, a fantastic central performance and wonderful supporting cast. As a result, it’s a shame that the movie makes such a mess of all these things. Flight is never less than interesting and Washington is always watchable, but it isn’t quite as compelling as a two-hour drama film needs to be. Director Robert Zemeckis struggles a bit with the tone of the piece, and Flight seems to be a bit all over the place, making it quite difficult to enjoy and hard to engage with.

Things are looking up…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Accidents, Aviation, bruce greenwood, denzel washington, don cheadle, Flight International, Icelandair, jfk, john goodman, Kelly Reilly, Movies, Passenger, robert zemeckis, Ron Marsico, Tamara Tunie, Transportation, Washington, Whitaker | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Quartet

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Darren

Quartet is an entertaining light comedy, and a solid directorial début from Dustin Hoffman. The film itself isn’t too surprising or demanding, but – as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel demonstrated earlier in the year – there is something to be said for putting a bunch of older actors together in a room and letting them remind you what they can do. Quartet is a fairly standard “life doesn’t end at retirment” film, and one that makes smart use of a talented ensemble cast. Indeed, as the credits roll, we’re reminded of just how talented as Hoffman introduces us to each of the performers – many of whom have long and impressive careers in theatre or music.

There’s nothing here that will surprise anybody, but it is occasionally nice to be reminded just how superb some of the older generation of actors can be.

… in with the old…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Billy Connolly, dustinhoffman, film, Hoffman, Maggie Smith, michael gambon, Movie, non-review review, Pauline Collins, Quartet, r eview, review, Tom Courtenay, Tom Courtney | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Jack Reacher

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Darren

Much like its eponymous leading man, Jack Reacher is efficient. That’s probably the best thing that can be said about this adaptation of Lee Child’s One Shot. Coming in at two hours, the movie manages to keep everything relatively under control. Any fuzzy logic is masked by the smart decision to keep things moving at a quick enough pace, distracting from the fact we’ve seen it all before, or that the characters seem especially paper-thin. At times, Jack Reacher suffers from being a little too shallow, a little too safe, a little too predictable. While Christopher McQuarrie can be an excellent writer, he seems to be only developing as a director. He handles movement reasonably well, but the direction amps up the melodrama to almost unbearable levels at certain points in the film.

It’s not terrible, and it’s certainly not an out-and-out failure, but I’d struggle to argue that it’s a successful franchise launch. For most of its runtime, Jack Reacher succeeds at merely being inoffensive and trying not to weigh too heavily on our patience. It’s not the most convincing of victories, but it could have been a lot worse.

Gearing up for a franchise…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: christopher mcquarrie, film, Fuzzy logic, jack bauer, Jack Reacher, kiefer sutherland, Lee Child, London, Movie, non-review review, One Shot, Reacher, review, robert duvall, Rosamund Pike, tom cruise, United States, Werner Herzog | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Django Unchained

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Darren

“They’ll call you the quickest gun in the South,” bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz remarks to the freed slave Django Freeman. The cliché would suggest that he meant to say “West”, but Django Unchained has its mind firmly on the Southern United States. Producing the film, writer-director Quentin Tarantino argued that he wanted to produce a “Southern” rather than a “Western”, and he has done an admirable job. However, what’s really remarkable about Django Unchained is the way that it balances Tarantino’s trademark grindhouse aesthetic with considerable mature nuance. Django Unchained is the story about two bounty hunters tracking down wanted men dead or alive, but it that doesn’t mean that it is afraid to tackle more substantive and challenging aspects of American history.

If you’d asked me whether I thought that Tarantino could produce a powerful and insightful exploration of slavery in the Deep South before I saw Inglourious Basterds, I would have hesitated before answering. Django Unchained is smart, sophisticated and thoughtful, but never pretentious, never pandering, never dull. In a rather unlikely way, it is the most mature film Tarantino has ever produced.

An ice cold killer…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Candie, christoph waltz, Django, django unchained, film, German language, inglourious basterds, jamie foxx, Leonardo diCaprio, Movie, non-review review, quentin tarantino, review, samuel l. jackson, Schultz, Southern United States, Stephen, tarantino, United States | 10 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Life of Pi

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Darren

Life of Pi is visually stunning. It is an amazing accomplishment. I’ll be the first to admit that I am skeptical of 3D, but in the hands of the right director – Martin Scorsese, James Cameron and, now, Ang Lee – it is a fascinating storytelling tool. The computer-generated imagery is magical, as are the compositions and scene transitions. There’s no doubt that Ang Lee is a superb craftsman. Indeed, the visual majesty of the film is enough to make you dismiss some of the lighter narrative elements, accepting some of the incongruities as expressions of “magical realism” or simply a function of allegorical storytelling. It’s not the densest, or the most insightful, story you will see, but it’s well-told.

Unfortunately, then you reach the end, and Life of Pi tries to get considerably smarter than it actually is. It pulls a clumsy narrative trick that leaves the audience feeling a bit disoriented and more than a little manipulated. Life of Pi finds itself torn between trying to be a beautiful allegorical story of survival and a deeper commentary on the stories that we tell. Forcing one undermines the other. While Life of Pi might convince you that a boy and a tiger can share a lifeboat, the two competing aspects of Life of Pi sink the story.

Not quite a glowing recommendation…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ang lee, Bengal tiger, Computer-generated imagery, film, james cameron, Life of Pi, martin scorsese, Math, Movie, non-review review, Pacific Ocean, Recreations, review, Richard Parker, Yann Martel | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Darren

I always feel a little embarrassed to admit that I prefer The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings. Don’t worry, I know that by any objective measure of craft The Lord of the Rings is a far more impressive literary accomplishment, but I never really connected with the characters at the heart of that sprawling epic in the way that I empathised with Bilbo Baggins. As such, it’s a massive relief to me that Peter Jackson turns in an endearing and enjoyable, if padded and indulgent, first instalment in his Hobbit trilogy. The technical advances and the somewhat cynical structuring of the film tend to garner a great deal of discussion and debate, but the heart of Tolkien’s introduction to Middle Earth is still here. The only problem is that absolutely everything else is as well.

And that’s just the script to Part I…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, film, Gandalf, Hobbit, ian mckellen, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jackson, lord of the rings, Martin Freeman, Middle-earth, Movie, non-review review, peter jackson, review, Sylvester McCoy | 8 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Oranges

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Darren

There’s an interesting film in here, somewhere. The Oranges teases the possibility of brutally exposing the seedy underside of suburban life, as we follow an affair between a married man and his best friend’s daughter, but The Oranges is far too shallow to land anything resembling a killing stroke. The adult cast is composed of talented veterans, but the script doesn’t give them much to do – instead The Oranges treats their children as the focal point, misjudging the talent of young actresses Leighton Meester and Alia Shawkat. It all feels too light, too cosy, and too willing to pick the low-hanging fruit to really create an interesting study of life in the ‘burbs.