I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no more f%$#ing Abba!
The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert is one of those wonderfully fun and upbeat little movies that often can’t help but draw a smile from even the most cynical of viewers. Despite a somewhat bitchy and frothy exterior, the film is a charming little road movie about a quirky little pseudo-family unit making their way through the heartland of Australia.
Well, the reviews for SuckerPunchare in, and they are… less than encouraging. I could have great fun going through them looking for pithy put-downs, but let’s just agree that it looks pretty bad. The film was a critical and commercial flop, generally agreed to be the handiwork of a director who was allowed to run completely wild with Warner Brothers footing the bill. As inevitably happens after a disaster like this, people are wondering about the director’s next film – it would be a hot topic even if it wasn’t relaunching Superman, but the amount of weight that Warner Brothers is putting on Superman makes it a downright explosive little issue. So, do I believe that Snyder can do it?
I think Robocop might be on the shortlist of most influential B-movies ever made. Certainly, coming out of the eighties, I think that Robocop defined what an audience expected from an incorporated future – the notion that big business would eventually replace local government in the lives of citizens. It’s not a novel theme, it’s one that science-fiction has been throwing out for decades, but I think that Robocop almost redefined that argument. It’s hard not to detect the influence of the film in a lot of movies that followed, so effortless and all-consuming was the “not too distant future” presented by Verhoeven.
News broke during the week that Warner Brothers are planning a new Justice League movie, apparently for 2013. Reportedly Ryan Reynolds has not been approached to play the Green Lantern in the film, and – based on comments from both film makers – it’s unlikely that Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot or The Dark Knight Rises will play into the film in any meaningful way. One might consider that something of a marketing faux pas, as that would represent a fairly intense lead-in into the movie (as opposed to the four-odd years Marvel has been teasing The Avengers). Indeed, it has been suggested that the proposed Justice League movie might stand entirely on its own two feet, completely distinct from the superhero movies that Warners are churning out. If this sounds familiar, it’s because this was exactly the plan with the company’s last aborted attempt at a Justice League film.
Eclipse just sent along the trailer for their upcoming Irish film Snap. It’s generated some good buzz (nationally and internationally) and should be well worth a look. It’s out in cinemas Friday.
In the real world, when you kill people, they die. For real!
– this movie is brought to you by the letter “o” for “open source” (and “obvious”)
You know, I think Microsoft’s PR department deserves a huge round of applause. Sure, they are still pretty universally regarded as a big evil corporation intent on global domination – using controversial business practices in order to stay on top of the computer software food chain. So there’s a lot of hate still out there. And yet, ten years on, it’s remarkable how far we’ve come since AntiTrust was released. There is a lot of hate on show here.
I am very excited about Warner Brothers’ upcoming Green Lantern, despite some of the difficulties with the first trailer. This second batch of footage has significantly restored my faith, even if it doesn’t address all my concerns from the last footage (bad dialogue and a god-awful comic relief character). At least the CGI looks better, even if there’s still work to do on the costume. Here’s hoping they can pull it together before the release date in June.
If you’re looking for an introduction to the character, why not have a look at our handy introduction.
I like the tone of it much better. It’s less “generic superhero” (which was a dumb approach in a market over-saturated with superhero films) and more “epic space opera”, which I hope might set it apart from the competition. I always though that the “space opera” angle would be the right one to push with the character, as it has a wonderful Star Wars vibe to it.
A special thanks to the guys over at movies.ie for sneaking us into an advanced preview screening. My brother Ciaran stepped in to review the film for me at short notice, so thanks to him as well.
“Don’t write checks with your mouth, that you can’t cash with your ass.”
I feel this quote sums up the movie quite well… pointless.
Spider-Man III has a lot of problems. I’ll get to a couple of them in a moment. However, the single biggest issue with the movie seems to be that nobody seems especially interested in making it. It’s a feeling that it’s hard to back up with substantive evidence, but there’s just this general sensation that the film wasn’t the product of the same love and enthusiasm that made the first two films so refreshing. It almost seems like the movie was made out of a sense of obligation, rather than because anyone wanted to be there. It seems that they didn’t really care.
I know I’m late to the party on these, but they are still cool enough to share. Especially with Source Codeout this weekend. Basically, these are the posters designed by Ollie Moss for Duncan Jones’ two films at South by Southwest. Appropriately enough for a festival named in honour of Hitchcock, there’s a definite vibe to these posters which reminds me of the great man. Not that the films don’t remind me of him either. Anyway, check them out below.
