Movies | the m0vie blog

My Best of 2011: Rise of the Planet of the Apes & Hailing Caesar…

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Darren

It’s that time of the year. To celebrate 2011, and the countdown to 2012, I’m going to count down my own twelve favourite films of the year, one a day until New Year’s Eve. I’m also going to talk a bit about how or why I chose them, and perhaps what makes this list “my” best of 2011, rather than any list claiming to be objective.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is number seven. Check out my original review here.

If you had told me last year that one of the best summer blockbusters would be a prequel to The Planet of the Apes, I would have laughed at you. Hell, I’m still chuckling a bit now, trying to get over how such a strange concept on paper managed to work so well. After all, a movie about a bunch of damn dirty CGI apes taking their share of the planet from us humans, led by a chimpanzee on Alzheimer’s medication, sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. And yet, for some reason, it works incredibly well. I’ll concede that the plot is a bit ropey, and the human characters are quite underdeveloped, but I think Rise of the Planet of the Apes managed to grab its audience so well purely because it creates a fascinating and compelling three-dimensional lead character who we completely understand to and relate to.

Did I mention that the lead character is a CGI ape?

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: andy serkis, best of 2011, Caesar, Caesar (monkey), Christopher Nolan, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, david fincher, James Franco, Julius Caesar, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, planet of the apes, rise of the planet of the apes, Special effect | Leave a comment »

My Best of 2011: True Grit & The Art of Modesty…

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Darren

True Grit is number eight. Check out my original review here.

Collective consensus is a funny thing. It pops up quite quickly and quietly, in the strangest sorts of places and the strangest sort of way. The Coen Brothers are respected filmmakers, to say the least. Even when a project of their doesn’t quite come off as smoothly as one might expect, it’s still compelling viewing. However, as with any other directors, there are greater films and there are lesser films. And there are those that sit in the middle. True Grit, for most critics, seems to sit firmly in the middle.

But not for me.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Academy Award, best of 2011, Big Lebowski, Coen, coen brothers, Hailee Steinfeld, jeff bridges, matt damon, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, true grit | 3 Comments »

Potter Might Have a Point: Perhaps It’s Not Such a Wonderful Life After All…

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Darren

I don’t have your money here! It’s in….Bill’s house…And…Fred’s house!

What the hell are you doing with my money in your house Fred?

– The PTA Disbands, The Simpsons

I finally saw Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. The Helix over at DCU was screening a variety of modern and classic films in a cinema setting, and they chose the Jimmy Stewart classic as their Christmas movie. And quite right, too. However, watching the film, I couldn’t help but get the sense that things weren’t quite as simplistic as the movie made them out to be and that, while George Bailey might be one heck of a nice guy, there’s absolutely no way I’d trust him to handle my finances. While the town’s old miser, Potter, might as well have a moustache to twirl, I can’t help but think that maybe he might have a point or two about George Bailey, something the movie never really addresses.

The deficit is thiiiiiiiis big...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: christmas, films, Frank Capra, George, George Bailey, Helix, It's a Wonderful Life, James Stewart, Movies, Potter, recession, world war ii | 1 Comment »

My Best of 2011: The Adjustment Bureau & True Romance

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Darren

The Adjustment Bureau is number nine. Check out my original review here.

I think this is probably the first truly surprising choice of my own personal countdown. After all, the film debuted to generally positive reviews, but hardly the most exceptional critical feedback. It wasn’t loved and it wasn’t hated, but it was fairly quickly forgotten. I suspect that I will be one of very few people to include the title in my end-of-year best-of list. Still, I loved The Adjustment Bureau. And I think that’s strangely appropriate, because I’d argue that The Adjustment Bureau is perhaps the purest cinematic love story that we’ve seen in quite some time.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Adjustment Bureau, best films of 2011, best of 2011, Damon, David Norris, Days of Summer, Emily Blunt, kevin smith, matt damon, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, New Year, The Adjustment Bureau | 1 Comment »

Does Anybody Actually Take the Oscars Seriously These Days?

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Darren

And people complain that Christmas starts too early! It’s still 2011 and we’re already in the heart of what might be termed “Oscar season”, the spiritual counterpart to the equally expansive “blockbuster season.” Both have very different measures of success. Success in blockbuster season is measured in the words “record-breaking” and “box office” along with various other aggressive adjectives like “smashing”, “breaking”, “crushing” or “dominating.” The winners get their choices of big budgets and high-profile roles and franchises, or the opportunity to risk it all and play again during Oscar season. The rewards at the end of Oscar season are a little gold statue and something like “artistic credibility”, along with the right to stick “Oscar-winner” in front of your name. I’d swear Meryl Streep’s mail is addressed to “Oscar-winner Meryl Streep.”

I might Doubt their credibility...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academy, Academy Award, Christopher Nolan, eddie murphy, gary oldman, Hurt Locker, meryl streep, oscar, People's Choice Awards | 2 Comments »

My Best of 2011: Super 8 & Understanding as a Child…

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Darren

Super 8 is number ten. Check out my original review here.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

– Corinthians 13:11

It seems easy to lambast modern mainstream cinema as devoid of originality or of new ideas. It seems that every other film is a sequel or a prequel or a remake of another film, with Hollywood seemingly eager to cannibalise itself. I’ll concede that there are more franchises than before, but I also think that indie and original cinema is thriving in its own environment. I’d make the case that there’s room for all sorts of film, and that originality and quality don’t necessarily equate. Still, I doubt that will appease too many of the people who are sick of “the same old nonsense”, and I imagine that those people will cynically pick apart Super 8 as exactly the sort of copycat movie that demonstrates everything that’s wrong with modern cinema.

Naturally, I take a different approach, even if I can concede it’s hardly the most original of films. Then again, I’d make the case that this is precisely the appeal.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Abrams, best films of 2011, best of 2011, cinema, films, J. J. Abrams, Joe Lamb, jurassic park, Movies, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, spielberg, steven spielberg, super 8, Super 8 mm film | Leave a comment »

My Best of 2011: The Guard & Loving Irish Film…

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Darren

The Guard is number eleven. Check out my original review here.

I imagine anybody who lives a country about the same size of Ireland has that same essential insecurity about their national cinema. Unless you live in a major market, it seems that home-produced films are generally relegated to the less mainstream cinemas and subject to less promotion or publicity, unless they happen to star one (or more) of your home-grown talents who happens to have been successful overseas. And, as you discuss or review your own cinema, you start to question yourself: are you harder or softer on a particular film because it came from your country? or should you be harder or softer on those films? Do you hold the films produced by your own country to a higher or a lower standard than those produced in major markets? When I recommend a film produced in Ireland, I catch myself, asking “if this weren’t produced here, would it be notable?”

I think there are far more films that are notable than most might imagine, and I also think The Guard is almost definitely one of them. It’s a distinctly Irish film, but one that doesn’t exclude the outsiders looking in.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: best films of 2011, best of 2011, irish film, Movies, my favourite films of 2011, the guard | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Goon

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Darren

Goon is a movie that works surprisingly well. It’s hilarious, brutal, and yet surprisingly sweet. It’s the quintessential sports movie, featuring a plucky young protagonist trying to find his place in the world, while developing his one sporting talent, but it never feels as coy or manipulative as other movies of that type. A large portion of the credit for that charm has to go to Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg for their witty and incredibly quotable script, but I think that most of the movie’s success rests on Seann William Scott as Doug Glatt, the eponymous goon.

He's a blood mess...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alison Pill, Doug, Doug Glatt, Eugene Levy, Evan Goldberg, film, Goon, Jay Baruchel, liev schreiber, Michael Dowse, Movie, non-review review, review, Seann William Scott | 1 Comment »

My Best of 2011: Rango & Justifying Personal Choices…

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Darren

Rango is number twelve. Check out my original review here.

It’s December, so that means it’s list time. Critics and pundits will be ranking their “top ten” of everything, and I suppose that I should defer to tradition and offer my own opinion on the “top ten” films of the year. I don’t want to make just another list, though, lost in a sea of opinions of individuals far my experienced and qualified than myself to advise you on the current state of cinema. So I decided that I’d list my own personal choices, by talk about why I chose them and bit and why they appealed to me. I have, after all, already reviewed them all, so I’m not going to try to convince you of their quality (or even my opinion of their quality). Instead, I’m going to talk a bit about why they appealed to me. My list will undoubtedly look very different to yours and – I suspect – to the vast majority of opinions, but the fun in making lists like this lies in defending, debating and justifying your choices.

So, let’s talk about the bottom entry on the list, and the one I feel will be toughest to justify: Rango.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: best films of 2011, best of 2011, cinema, cinephile, films, Movies, my favourite films of 2011, Rango, review | Leave a comment »

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer…

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Darren

It’s officially on-line. The trailer of The Dark Knight Rises has, after a weekend of bootlegging, been officially released. It looks impressive, and gives us our first sense of anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. If the theme is to reflect the recession (as much as The Dark Knight could have been said to reflect the war on terror), I imagine Selina will be quite important to the story. We’ve seen a lot of Bane, and there’s relatively little of him here. And, is that a bearded younger Bruce (back in his League of Shadows days) being told that the chant means “rise?” But enough crazy theories for now. I’ll have more of them later in the week.

In the mean time, enjoy. For more analysis, click here.