the m0vie blog

283. The Hangover – Andrew’s Stag 2022 (#—)

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, to mark Andrew’s wedding, Todd Phillips’ The Hangover.

A bachelors’ party in Las Vegas goes horribly awry when the three groomsmen wake up in their lavish suite only discover that they have misplaced the groom. With only hours to go until the wedding, the trio find themselves racing against time to remember one unforgettable night. However, the more that they discover, the higher the stakes become.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: bradley cooper, comedy, commentary, funny, hungover, las vegas, live, podcast, stag, The 250, the hangover, Todd Phillips, wedding, Zach Galifianakis | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On a Grand, Unified Theory of Chris Chibnall’s “Doctor Who”…

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist on Friday. With the broadcast of Legend of the Sea Devils last weekend, marking the second-to-last episode of the Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back over Chibnall’s tenure.

Chibnall’s tenure on Doctor Who is interesting, in large part because it feels so aesthetically and philosophically distinct from the thirty years before it. It marks a clear departure from the version of the show overseen by script editor Andrew Cartmel and by showrunners Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat. Central to this is a very strong belief in the status quo, in the idea that things are simply the way that they are, and that change is largely impossible and not worth the effort. It’s a startlingly cynical worldview, but it’s one that permeates Chibnall’s Doctor Who.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Chris Chibnall, Conservative, doctor who, jodie whittaker, Police officer, production, status quo | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On the Visual Storytelling of “Better Call Saul”…

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will be completely separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

With the broadcast of the new season of Better Call Saul, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the show’s visual storytelling – the way in which it uses images to communicate plot, character and theme.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: better call saul, Breaking Bad, in the frame, omar ahmed, Television, the escapist, vince gilligan | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Make It So – Season 2, Episode 8 (“Mercy”)

Posted on April 25, 2022 by Darren

I am recapping Star Trek: Picard for The Escapist, and so was thrilled to join the wonderful Kurt North on Make It So: A Star Trek Universe Podcast to discuss the eighth episode of the second season, Mercy.

I have somewhat complicated feelings about Picard. There are parts of it that I love, and parts of it that I am a bit more skeptical about. One of the joys of coming into the podcast to discuss the episode was getting the chance to talk about the season as a whole, given how its various arcs were set up and how they paid off. It seems particularly opportune, given that Mercy is a somewhat stronger episode than those surrounding it.

Anyway, it was a huge honour to be invited on, and I hope you enjoy. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Star Trek | Tagged: make it so, metaphor, nostalgia, patrick stewart, plotting, star trek, star trek: picard, the voyage home, time travel, we made this | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Moon Knight” and the Archeology of the Self…

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist this evening. We’re doing a series of recaps and reviews of Moon Knight, which is streaming weekly on Disney+. The fourth episode of the show released this week, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the series.

Last week, I discussed how the show’s homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark fell flat because it was too sterile and sexless, unwilling to let Oscar Isaac be Oscar Isaac. In contrast, this week there’s a sense in which the show’s archeology metaphor makes a great deal of sense. It’s a metaphor for Steven and Marc’s journey, constantly unearthing details of their selves and their identities, digging into mysteries and trying to reverse engineer logic or reason from the afterimage to which they wake. It’s a clever piece of thematic storytelling, getting into how characters are defined by their past, whether they know it or not.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: archeology, metaphor, moon knight, recap, symbolism, the escapist, the tomb | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 8, Episode 2 (“Without”)

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Darren

The X-Cast is covering the eighth season of The X-Files. This is one of my favourite seasons of television ever, in large part because it’s a season that manages to build a convincing narrative and character arc around a very challenging production reality, and in doing so forced the show itself to evolve and change. I’m thrilled to join Sarah L. Blair for a discussion of the second half of the season premiere.

Without is a very meditative piece of television, which is a bold and interesting choice for the second half of a season premiere. It is essentially an episode about absences, about the lack of resolution or even meaningful linear progress. It’s an episode that is about confronting the reality that The X-Files no longer has one of its two leading characters available to it. What does that version of The X-Files look like? Without is essentially a story about wandering through the desert.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: Arc, doggett, Fox, mulder, Robert Patrick, sarah blair, scully, season, the x-cast, the x-files, without | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Northman”, and the Desire to Make Movies Weird Again…

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of The Northman in the United Kingdom this week and in the United States next week, it seemed like an opportunity to take a look at the welcome return of weird to the blockbuster arena.

Modern blockbusters are frustratingly generic. As budgets have ballooned and intellectual property has trumped high concepts, studios have grown increasingly conservative with their larger projects. This is part of what makes The Northman so interesting. It’s great to see a director like Robert Eggers receive a reasonable budget and a sizable platform in order to make a movie that speaks very specifically to his own aesthetic. It’s refreshing to see a movie this expensive that is this committed to its aesthetic.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: auteurism, blockbusters, budgets, Darren Aronofsky, Movies, robert eggers, spectacle, the northman | Leave a comment »

Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils (Review)

Posted on April 18, 2022 by Darren

“Sea Devil!”

“Land Parasite!”

Well, to be fair, Legend of the Sea Devils is at least a worthy sequel to Warriors of the Deep.

The Sea Devil you know.

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Chris Chibnall, doctor who, jodie whittaker, memory, nostalgia, Sea Devils, The Sea Devils, yasmin khan, yaz | 17 Comments »

New Escapist Video! “The Northman is a Breathtaking Blockbuster”

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of The Northman, which is in theatres in the U.K. and Ireland now and in the United States next week.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist, films, Movies, robert eggers, the escapist, the northman, Valhalla | Leave a comment »

282. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (#67)

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Jason Coyle and Aoife Martin, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

The unthinkable has happened. At the height of the Cold War, American bombers have been ordered to enter Russian airspace and deploy their ordinance at the order of General Jack D. Ripper. The President of the United States scrambles to stop the crisis from escalating further, but the situation becomes even bleaker when it is revealed that the Russians have just deployed a failsafe that could wipe out all life on Earth in case of a potential American attack. Powers on both sides of the Iron Curtain find themselves racing against time, with the fate of the world in their hands.

At time of recording, it was ranked 67th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.