Posted on September 8, 2012 by Darren
All the world is a stage, literally for Joe Wright’s adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic novel. Anna Karenina is visually stunning, and perfectly put together, doing a workman-like job of condensing Tolstoy’s 800-page doorstopper into a film running justover two hours. The wonderfully inventive idea of staging the film entirely in a theatre – from the foyer to the rafters to the stage itself – gives Wright the opportunity to showcase his talent as one of the finest working directors today. Tom Stoppard’s scripts is dripping with wit and does an excellent job providing digestible chunks of Tolstoy’s epic and a fair few pithy one-liners. Unfortunately, this is countered by the fact that the film never feels like it’s quite enough, and in particular the fact that its central figure feels like a shadow cast against a back wall rather than a three-dimensional character.
Save the last dance…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Anna Karenina, arts, atonement, Domhnall Gleeson, film, Joe Wright, jude law, Keira Knightley, Leo Tolstoy, Matthew Macfadyen, Movie, non-review review, review, Tolstoy, tom stoppard, Wright | 6 Comments »
Posted on September 6, 2012 by Darren
Hope Springs is a fairly unambitious romantic comedy that is very clearly chasing the silver dollar. Featuring two veteran performers playing a couple struggling through a mid-life crisis, Hope Springs feels like an attempt to demonstrate that the careers of romantic leads don’t necessarily end at forty. It is, on that level, quite pleasing to watch – there’s a proud sense that David Frankel is refusing to leave hum-drum romantic comedy to young actors who seem barely out of puberty. However, the problem is inherent in the premise. Hope Springsproves that romantic comedies aren’t exclusive to younger casts, but it also demonstrates tat very few of the familiar quirks, conceits and plot devices are that much more endearing when delivered by actors old enough to remember a world before mobile telephones.
Well, they’ve made their bed…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: EconoLodge, film, Hope Springs, katherine heigl, Marriage, meryl streep, Movie, non-review review, Relationships, review, romance, Romantic comedy film, Steve Carell, tommy lee jones | 7 Comments »
Posted on August 31, 2012 by Darren
There’s a strong argument to be made that Team America: World Police is perhaps the best comedy made in the past decade. It’s certainly the most politically astute, and certainly one of the more thoughtful commentaries on American foreign policy to emerge in the wake of 9/11. Like a lot of the work of Stone and Parker, it’s tone is incredibly juvenile and even puerile, with the pair never meeting a bad-taste gag that they don’t love. However, this decidedly low-brow sense of humour is coupled with a more sophisticated and sharp political wit that allows the movie to be topical without seeming preachy, observant without being heavy-handed, and veryfunny without ever being too earnest. That’s a winning combination.
Patriot Games…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alec baldwin, America World Police, Arc, Arc de Triomphe, Coca-Cola, Croissant, Detroit, Eiffel Tower, film, Frère Jacques, Gerry Anderson, hollywood, Movie, Musée du Louvre, non-review review, paris, review, team america, team america: world police, United States, University of Nebraska, University of Nebraska system, World Police | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 30, 2012 by Darren
I think that Thunderbolt & Lightfoot might be my favourite Michael Cimino film. Don’t get me wrong, of course. I acknowledge and appreciate the director’s work on The Deer Hunter, but it’s not a film I return to on a regular basis. It’s a thoughtful and powerful commentary on the Vietnam War, but it isn’t among my favourite explorations of that particular conflict. On the other hand, while it still has its own serious flaws, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot has a much lighter touch. It’s a film that offers a great deal of depth beneath a relatively accessible surface layer, serving as an exploration of seventies America, but one with significant hidden depths. However, despite his sophisticated work here, Cimino’s directorial début is not inaccessible and works quite well as a hybrid of the “road” and the “heist”movie genres, albeit with a great deal happening beneath the surface.
The road to nowhere?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bridge, clinteastwood, Deer Hunter, eastwood, HTC Corporation, HTC ThunderBolt, jeff bridges, Korea, Lightfoot, Michael Cimino, Technology, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, United States, Vietnam War | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 29, 2012 by Darren
Len Wiseman’s Total Recall is a total mess. While the film features some superb production design and some passable action sequences, with an obvious affection for the design of contemporary science-fiction classics, the direction is muddled,the pacing is awkward and the script is constantly tripping over itself. At one point it’s suggested that the lead might have had has memory scrambled during a muddled recall session, the result of procedure started and yet not quite finished. In many ways, that feels a lot like what happens here – a choppy, uneven and unsatisfying movie that is a result of a muddled production and post-production process. “We can remember it for you,” an advertisement for the Rekall service boasts, homaging the classic short story that inspired the film. Unfortunately, they omitted “wholesale”, which is about the only price I could recommend this at.
Where’s your head at?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger, arts, Bryan Cranston, colin farrell, david fincher, Departed, film, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, jessica biel, kate beckinsale, Len Wiseman, Movie, non-review review, Paul Verhoeven, Post-production, review, science fiction, Sharon Stone, total recall, Wiseman | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 28, 2012 by Darren
Lawless is, like director John Hillcoat’s other films, the story of people shaped (or mirrored) by their harsh and unforgiving surroundings. A prohibition crime thriller, Lawless feels more like the story of local people fighting fiercely to resist the taming influence of more “civilised” outsiders who believe themselves inherently superior to the “dumb hicks” who have made this terrain livable. “It is not the violence that sets men apart, it’s the distance they’re willing to go,” Forrest Bondurant tells his brother at one point in the film, and Lawless seems to respect its lead characters for refusing to feign civility and to at least acknowledge the innate violence of their existence. It’s thoughtful, powerful stuff. Not without its flaws, it’s still an interesting exploration of man’s capacity for violence.
Sadly, though undoubtedly quite sage, this Forrest never once suggests that “life is like a box of chocolates…”
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bondurant, Chicago, Crime fiction, film, Franklin County, Franklin County Virginia, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, john hillcoat, Lawless, Matt Bondurant, Movie, Nick Cave, non-review review, r eview, shia labeouf, tom hardy, Wettest County in the World | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 28, 2012 by Darren
Virtuosity is a hybrid monster, a veritable Frankenstein’s monster stitched together from various ideas and concepts you’ve seen done elsewhere and better. In a way, it feels like the logical combination of Hollywood’s fascination with two nineties genres that the studios never really understood. One part cybernetic internet-era technological thriller to one part serial killer movie, Virtuosity feels like a volatile cocktail that needs to be handled with care. If there is a way to work this curious blend of genres, it’s with a very delicate and nuanced. Unfortunately, neither Eric Bernt’s script nor Brett Leonard’s direction can really make anything of what should at least be a pulpy premise. Russell Crowe does do an excellent job as the cybernetic serial killer, though.
Crowe’s agent should screen his scripts better…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brett Leonard, Caesars Palace, Charles Manson, classical music, denzel washington, Eric Bernt, history, hollywood, Janitor, Ludwig van Beethoven, murder, Piano, russell crowe, serial killer, Sid, SID 6.7, The Great Kat, Virtuosity | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 27, 2012 by Darren
Shanghai Knights is grand. It’s inoffensive, it’s entertaining, it efficiently accomplishes a lot of what it sets out to do. It’s not exceptional, it’s not innovative, and it won’t stay with you too long after watching it, but it isn’t entirely without its charm. It’s Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan doing the sort of thing that they’ve become quite comfortable at doing. Neither performer, nor the film itself, is ever that far outside their comfort zone, but it’s never embarrassing or awkward.
Clockin’ in…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aidan Gillen, China, film, Movie, non-review review, Owen Wilson, review, Shadow Dancer, Shanghai, shanghai knights, shanghai noon, Shopping, Stagecoach, Troubles | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 23, 2012 by Darren
I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Hannibal. I think the key to enjoying and appreciating Ridley Scott’s 2001 serial-killer film is to realise that it’s a fundamentally different animal to The Silence of the Lambs, to the point where it isn’t really a sequel – despite featuring many of the same characters and considerably fewer of the same actors. Those expecting a faithful follow-up or conclusion will be disappointed, as will those who fell in love with Jonathan Demme’s delightfully understated The Silence of the Lambs. Even the title character here seems to lack the complexity he demonstrated in that earlier instalment, instead acting like the villain of a slasher film cast in the unlikely role of an anti-hero.
Still, despite these flaws, Hannibal is quite entertaining (if far too uneven and unsatisfying) on its own terms.
She looks good enough to eat…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Belvedere, Bolton, Bryan Fuller, Clarice Starling, Federal Bureau of Investigation, film, Florence, god, hannibal, hannibal lecter, Jesus, laurence fishburne, Lecter, Movie, NBC, non-review review, review, Starling | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 21, 2012 by Darren
Shadow Dancer is a taut, intelligent, sophisticated thriller. In a way, James Marsh’s film is more notable for what it doesn’t say, than what it does. Long passages of the film go by in relative silent, with the an economy of language to communicate information to the audience. It’s quite heartening how much faith Marsh seems to have in his viewers, that the film never feels the need to burden itself with awkward exposition, instead trusting the actors and the surroundings to tell the story. You won’t find a thriller this year that thinks more highly of its audience.
“Have you seen ‘The Informant!’…? Good, because this is going to be a lot less light-hearted.”
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrea Riseborough, arts, Belfast, Clive Owen, Colette, Downing Street Declaration, film, James Marsh, John Major, ken loach, Marsh, Movie, non-review review, Northern Ireland, review, Shadow Dancer, Tom Bradby, Troubles, Wind That Shakes The Barley | 4 Comments »
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