Posted on November 26, 2009 by Darren
What we’ve got here is a solid, old-fashioned ghost story with more restraint and grace than any number of Hollywood shockers. A slow, moody and intense look at the collapsing marital relationship between Claire and Norman Spencer after their daughter goes to college, it takes its time getting were it’s going, but manages to seem a classy flick.
I was also shivering a bit after watching the movie...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: film, ghosts, harrison ford, hitchcock, horror, michelle pfeiffer, Movie, non-review review, review, robert zemickis, what lies beneath | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 25, 2009 by Darren
What an odd film. It’s bright and colourful and simplistic and airs on Sky Family and full of Robin Williams flailing around in a way that is sure to impress small children. On the other hand, it features a lot of curse words, some rather disturbing violence and fairly explicit sexual references (including a father-son-nurse romantic triangle, escalated by a pity shag). It’s arguably too plain and niave to draw in an adult audience (with Barry Levinson of all people pioneering the MTV school of film-making for audiences with ADHD) and yet too adult and sophisticated for children. Who is going to want to play with these toys?
Oh, ball(s)...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: barry levinson, film, joan cusack, ll cool j, merchandising, michael gambon, Movies, non-review review, review, robin williams, toy factory, toys | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 21, 2009 by Darren
Hmm… A little part of me is so surprised that everybody is taking this whole ‘retirement’ thing with Robert Downey Jnr. so seriously. Yes, he talked about quitting while he’s ahead – an act that many former stars would have done well to consider – and seems to long for a bit of quite time:
I’ve never had it this good — this is my day in the sun — and I certainly don’t want to look a gift horse in the molars. But [my wife] Susan and I want to begin to be in our lives as much as we are in our jobs. I’d love just to sit here and say, ‘What movie’s playing tonight?’ I’d love to finish the new book about D-day I’m reading. I love painting, I love music.
I’m far too cynical to be driven to a state of panic about the loss of one of the finest talents to re-emerge over the past two or three years. Experience has taught us that there’s quite a distance between ‘retiring’ and ‘retired’ in Hollywood.
No need to feel down about Downey...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actors, retire, retirement, retiring, robert downey, robert downey jnr., viggo mortensen | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 19, 2009 by Darren
It began simply enough. “You like Batman better than Superman,” my girlfriend asserted over dinner a few weeks ago. I couldn’t dipute the claim, but mounted a fairly swift defense of the character as “misunderstood”. That prompted an incredulous response which suggested that I “like Batman better because he’s darker”. That’s an interesting assertion. I don’t believe it’s true – certainly not in my case at any rate. I think the public’s perception of Batman as a more enduring, more fascinating and all round ‘cooler’ pop culture icon that the Man of Steel stems from a whole host of factors, that can’t be succinctly summed up with an observation that one is dark and gritty and the other is light and fluffy. So, why are we fonder of the Caped Crusader that the big blue boy scout?
Notice how Superman is trying to look half as badass as Batman...
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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: batman, batman vs. superman, dark, darker and edgier, dc comics, fear, hope, light, opposites, superman | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 17, 2009 by Darren
I adore Batman Returns. It tends to be a rather polarising film, and certainly a polarising Batman adaptation. It was famously too dark and too weird for mainstream audiences, with too much creepy and freaky stuff serving to distress the parents of children who gobbled up Batman-themed Happy Meals. I think it holds up the best of the four Burton and Schumacher Batman films, because it finds a way to balance Burton’s unique approach and style with that of the Caped Crusader. While Burton’s Batman occasionally struggled to balance the director’s vision with a relatively conventional plot (to the point where Vicki Vale stuck out like a sore thumb, and the movie wasn’t the most coherently plotted of films), here there’s a much greater sense of balance at play, and a feeling that Burton isn’t compromising, and yet is working with the characters.
Shine a light…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: batman, batman returns, Bruce, bruce wayne, burton, catwoman, christmas, christopher walken, danny devito, michael keaton, michelle pfeiffer, non-review review, Penguin, review, the penguin, tim burton | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 15, 2009 by Darren
Wes Craven is a very odd man. On one hand, you have the luminary who gave us the breathtakingly original slants on the horror movie which we saw in A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Nightmare and the Scream franchise, along with his talent as a straight-forward thriller director in Red Eye. On the other hand you have the king of schlock, the man behind pointless gore fests like the original Last House on the Left or The Hills Have Eyes or even Dracula 2000. And, on a third severed hand you’d probably find lying around his trailer somewhere, you have the Wes Craven who wholeheartedly approves and supports schlokier remakes of his schlokiest films. Like this, the remake of Last House on the Left.
The only thing to fear is the quality of the movie itself...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brutalisation, feminism, film, horror, last house on the left, Movie, non-review review, remake, review, slasher, the last house on the left, victimisation, wes craven | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 14, 2009 by Darren
Do you remember when Robert Zemeckis used to make accessible films starring actual human beings? Films that were no less magical because filming was constrained by reality rather than computer generated imagery. Well, apparently that Zemeckis is long gone at this stage, as he’s announced that he’s going to be following up A Christmas Carol with The Nutcracker, a similar CGI adaptation.
So many inappropriate jokes, so little time...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: a christmas carol, animation, cgi, films, live action, Movies, robert zemeckis, the nutcracker, toy story | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 13, 2009 by Darren
In my defense, I haven’t seen the original 2002 movie The Gathering Storm, to which this movie serves as a sequel – but I think the movie (as a historical piece) stands very well on its own two feet. Besides, aside from the producers (the brothers Scott, obviously attempting to follow Spielberg into the World War II market) and writer (Hugh Whitemore), the series has little in common with its illustrious predecessor. The director is new. The roles have been recast. If it weren’t for the linking theme of the word ‘Storm’ in the title and the fact that this movie picks up where the other left off (at least chronologically), there would be nothing to really tie it down. So, with the confession that I have not seen the original made-for-TV movie, what did I think of Into The Storm?
Cry Havok! And let slip the insurance-selling dogs of war!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews, Television | Tagged: brendan gleeson, churchill, drama, hbo, into the storm, made-for-television, Movie, non-review review, review, Television, winston churchill | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 12, 2009 by Darren
I remember laughing when Roger Ebert made a shortlist of toys and games just waiting to be adapted into big screen properties after the success of Transformers 2. How far we’ve come in so little time. When Peter Berg (director of The Kingdom and Hancock) was announced as the director of the forthcoming Battleship film, we didn’t know quite what to expect (apart from that it would likely feature Jason Bateman). That’s only natural, since the boardgame it is based upon is fairly straight-forward. Well, since the news broke that it’s going to be set IN SPACE, I’ve been wondering why that news surprises me as much as it did.
I think Peter Berg just sunk my battleship...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adaptations, battleship, battleship movie, boardgames, hollywood, movie adaptations, peter berg, resident evil, super mario brothers, transformers, video game movies | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 12, 2009 by Darren
Hmm… A perfectly adequate action movie. Nothing more, nothing less. Certainly not a top-of-the-line model.
Hardly an original model...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: angelina jolie, cars, film, gone in 60 seconds, gone in sixty seconds, Movies, nicholas cage, non-review review, review, robert duvall, stealing cars | 1 Comment »
