the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Three Colours Blue

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Darren

This week we’re taking a look at Krzysztof Kieślowski’s celebrated “Three Colours” Trilogy. We’ll be publishing reviews on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so check back and sound off.

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours Trilogy is generally regarded as one of the landmarks of European cinema, one of the great cinematic accomplishments of the past few decades. I find it hard to disagree. A cynical and bittersweet (and, occasionally, just bitter) look at the ideals of the French Revolution (liberty, equality and fraternity) filtered through the three colours of the French flag, Kieślowski’s three films are powerful studies of human nature, exploring the way that we react and interact in this strange and surreal world that we share with everybody else.

Deep...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bungee jumping, business, Cinema of Europe, Color, david cronenberg, david lynch, Derek Malcolm, french cinema, French Revolution, home, Julie, Kieślowski, Krzysztof Kieślowski, non-review review, Paper, review, The Three Colors Trilogy, Three Colors: White, three colours blue, three colours trilogy, Trois couleurs bleu | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Speed

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Darren

Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do?

– Howard tells you everything you need to know

Speed is the quintessential nineties action movie. If you want to look at a movie that typifies what a nineties action film looked like, but does so with an incredible amount of skill (and a reasonable portion of wit), it’s hard to recommend a more obvious choice. It’s a movie that falls apart if you think about it too hard, but director Jan de Bont does an absolutely amazing job making sure that we’re never really looking beyond the next ridiculous plot twist or tension action set piece. More than earning its name, Speed is a movie that runs on enough raw adrenaline that it becomes as easy to overlook the movie’s flaws as it is to it seems to be ride a bus across a fifty-foot gap in a half-constructed bridge. And de Bont manages to make that look really easy.

Can I phone a friend on this "pop quiz"?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action films, dennis hopper, Filmmaking, gary oldman, Graham Yost, Howard Payne, jack, Keanu Reeves, metafiction, Movie, non-review review, review, sandra bullock, Speed, Speed (film), United States | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Happy Feet II

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Darren

Happy Feet II is perfectly functional kids entertainment. It has enough set pieces to keep the audience ticking over, lovely animation and a timely environmental message underneath the fuzz. It is a little bit too inconsistent to hold the attention of older audience members, as the plot struggles to find a focus, with the movie often seeming like a stew brewed from a variety of different ideas. The result is often satisfying enough in small chunks, but it doesn’t impress enough overall to make a lasting impression. Although a younger, perhaps more idealistic, viewer at the screening did describe it as “the bestest experience in united history.”

The pitter-patter of little Happy Feet...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bill, brad pitt, Happy Feet, happy feet 2, happy feet two, i taut i taw a puddy cat, krill, looney tunes, matt damon, Mel Blanc, non-review review, penguisn, review, robin williams, sylvester, tweety, United States | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: A Christmas Carol (2009)

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Darren

I’m yet to be sold on the Robert Zemeckis school of “motion capture.” Don’t worry, I don’t hold a prejudice. I’m just waiting to be convinced, and I worry that Zemeckis – for all his championing of the technology – might not be the one to do it. For, as impressive as the technical merits of his technique might be, I think that Zemeckis has yet to find a story that truly needs to be told in that format, or at least a story that resonates in that format. Much as Pixar have somewhat validated computer-generated animation (a school of filmmaking that met with a ridiculous amount of cynicism in its early years), I think the key to proving the worth of this sort of approach lies in finding a story that connects with audiences, while demonstrating the strengths of the tool being used to tell it.

While it’s an enjoyable enough holiday film, A Christmas Carol simply is not that film.

Totally Scrooged...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a christmas carol, Bob Hoskins, Charles Dickens, christmas, Christmas Carol, colin firth, films, gary oldman, jim carrey, Movies, Muppet Christmas Carol, non-review review, pixar, review, robert zemeckis | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Jackie Brown

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Darren

I think Jackie Brown suffers in comparison to the rest of Quentin Tarantino’s distinguished filmography. While Grindhouse: Deathproof divides film fanatics along “love it” or “hate it” lines, it seems the general critical consensus on Jackie Brown is that it’s simply “quite good.” I like the film, even if I don’t rank it as highly as most of his other work, and I wonder if the movie feels so strange because it’s probably the most “conventional”film that Tarantino has directed. While the dialogue and the character interactions help immediately identify the film as the product of Tarantino, it’s an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, and it feels like a reasonably conventional little crime thriller.

That's her name...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aimee Graham, Bridget Fonda, Chris Tucker, film, Jackie, Jackie Brown, Movie, non-review review, Ordell, Pam Grier, quentin tarantino, review, robert deniro, Robert Forster, samuel l. jackson, tarantino | 3 Comments »

Collecting Myself: The Irresistible Urge of the “Impulse Buy” DVDs…

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Darren

I admit that I may have something approaching a problem.

I’m a nerd – a movie nerd. So, at this time of year, as Christmas approaches, I find myself tempted by all the bright lights and shiny sales stickers I can find on DVDs and blu rays – as the shops start marking them down in a serious attempt to shift some merchandise in the lead-up to one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Last night, I went to HMV, intending to pick up the newly released Three Colours trilogy on blu ray. It’s a masterpiece of European cinema, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it once again. However, despite the fact that they didn’t have the trilogy, I somehow managed to leave with five blu rays in my bag.

They were having a sale, you see. And I realise that sounds like the lamest rationalisation ever.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, batman forever, Blu-ray Disc, Collecting, Criterion Collection, DVD, HMV, HMV Group, james bond, Recreation, Video on demand | 2 Comments »

Mike Carey’s Run on Ultimate Fantastic Four – Vol. 4-6 (Hardcover) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Darren

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.

Ultimate Fantastic Four was never really the crown jewel of the Ultimate line. It wasn’t ever as consistent as Brian Michael Bendis’ 100+ issues on Ultimate Spider-Man, nor as zeitgeist-y as Ultimate X-Men (which had the success of the X-Men trilogy to back it up at least). Instead, like Fox’s Fantastic Four movies, Ultimate Fantastic Four was just… well, just kinda there, really. To be fair, I dug Mark Millar’s twelve-issue run on the title. Hell, I even enjoyed elements of the opening arc by Millar and Bendis, and the year-long run by Warren Ellis that followed. However, Mike Carey’s run is somewhat disappointing. This was the run which essentially saw the series through to the big Ultimatum event, and perhaps it justified the decision to clean the slate when it came to Marvel’s Ultimate line. Because, whatever Carey’s run was, it certainly wasn’t consistently fantastic.

That surfer dude looks spaced...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: brian michael bendis, Comics, cosmic marvel, Devil, four cubed, ghosts, god war, mark millar, marvel comics, Mike Carey, psycho man, robert kirkman, thanos, the silver searcher, the silver surfer, ultimate comics spider-man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Galactus Trilogy, ultimate marvel, ultimate spider man, ultimate universe, ultimate x-men | Leave a comment »

Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Darren

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.

John Byrne’s Fantastic Four run is pretty major as Marvel comic book runs go. It’s generally regarded to be one of the better comic book runs of the eighties, alongside Frank Miller’s Daredevil and Walt Simonson’s Thor, but it’s also widely regarded as the best run on Marvel’s flagship family since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby finished their record-setting run establishing both the series and the shared Marvel Universe. (The length of the run has since been surpassed, appropriately enough, by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man.) This was my first time reading the run, which has received the massive omnibus treatment from Marvel. I have to admit, while not quite blown away by it, I was remarkably impressed by the love and craftsmanship that Byrne poured into the run. I wouldn’t class it as iconic or genre-defining, but it’s a remarkably solid examination of the franchise that launched the Marvel Universe.

Fantastic!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: brian michael bendis, chris claremont, Comics, fantastic four, fantastic four by john byrne omnibus, galactus, hardcover, jack kirby, Jean Grey, John Byrne, Johnny, Latveria, Marv Wolfman, marvel, marvel comics, marvel omnibus, marvel universe, Spectacular Spider-Man, Sphinx, stan lee, Sue, Thing | 11 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Machete

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Darren

I really liked Machete. It sounds strange from somebody who was relatively unimpressed with Robert Rodriguez’s contribution to Grindhouse, the lackluster b-movie throwback Planet Terror. I think that Machete works because it’s considerably more obvious in its humour, while still walking through a fairly conventional “exploitation” plot. Although the storyline and characters could easily have come from some dingy shot-on-video-camera b-movie, Rodriguez seems somewhat clearer in his parody here, as if he’s making an intentionally hilarious film, rather than merely trying to create the sense of an unintentionally hilarious film. I think it really works, because it’s everything a film like this should be: it’s gleefully silly, ridiculously violent, hilariously “relevent”, and presented in an insanely over-the-top manner.

Machete don't fold...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Danny Trejo, exploitation film, film, grindhouse, Jeff Fahey, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, machete, Marshalls, Mexico, mexploitation, Michelle Rodriguez, Movie, non-review review, review, robert deniro, robert rodriguez, Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, steven segal, United States | 8 Comments »

The Doctor Is In? Is Doctor Who “Too British” For American Audiences?

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Darren

Well, it’s been about a week since the news broke that David Yates would be directing the new Doctor Who movie, being produced by the BBC, aimed at American audiences. Perhaps Steven Moffat’s rumoured commentary was perfectly apt: it seems that neither the director nor the studio have any idea what exactly they are planning, and the announcement might have been more than a little preemptive. There’s a lot of chatter out there about what this means for the television show, which is rumoured to be running severely over-budget and under pressure from the BBC executives. Because, you know, it’s not like the show makes enough to justify its costs.

I don’t know if this means potential cancellation or a reboot after the fiftieth anniversary, or even if the show and the movie will run alongside in two distinct continuities (and people said Moffat’s “timey-wimey” plots were too complicated!). Being entirely honest, I’m not sure if Yates knows either. However, something does fascinate me about this. Bringing Yates on-board represents a vote of confidence, suggesting that Doctor Who could be somewhere in the region of “Harry Potter” success stateside.

I can’t help but wonder if Doctor Who is simply “too British” for mainstream American audiences, and if launching a movie franchise to appeal to the demographics will be able to keep the core of the character and the show, while courting North American movie-goers.