the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Adventures of Tintin – The Secret of the Unicorn

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Darren

It’s Indiana Jones, but for kids! It’s fascinating that the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson should produce something that feels much more like the earlier Indiana Jones films than Spielberg’s most recent collaboration with George Lucas. Adapting Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin was always going to be a challenging proposition, and it’s to the credit of everybody involved that it turned out so well. While it’s not quite perfect, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is undoubtedly Spielberg’s most entertaining family film since Jurassic Park.

Franchise launcher?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, andy serkis, Captain Archibald Haddock, captain archibold haddock, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, daniel craig, Hergé, peter jackson, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the secret of the unicorn, tintin, tintin and red rackham's treasure, tintin and the secret of the unicorn | 7 Comments »

Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros (Review)

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Darren

In the lead-up to the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I’m going to be taking a look at Hergé’s celebrated comic book character, from his humble beginnings through to the incomplete post-modern finale. I hope you enjoy the ride.

So, here we are. Hergé’s last completed Tintin story. The month flew by reading and (in most cases) re-reading the stories that I grew up with. It’s interesting to return to the stories you read as a child, discovering new depth and complexity in what had previously been entertaining little diversions. Since The Red Sea Sharks, Hergé seems to have been toying with the popular franchise he has created, playing with and subverting a formula established over twenty-odd adventures. The Castafiore Emerald reads almost like a deconstruction of a typical Tintin adventure, with the a variety of threads that refuse to add up to a mystery. Flight 714 was almost a parody, relying on contrivance to the point of ridiculousness. And so, with his last complete story, Tintin and the Picaros reads as a criticism of the hero himself, poor and innocent Tintin, who proves to be quite an impotent little character.

Fly-on-the-wall look at San Theodoros?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Alcazar, Captain Haddock, Haddock, Hergé, red sea sharks, the adventures of tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros, tintin, Tintin and the Picaros, Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Flight 714 (Review)

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Darren

Flight 714 is an interesting Tintin book, if only because it’s the most conventional Tintin story we’ve had in quite some time, while also being one of the oddest books in the franchise. There have been comparisons made between Hergé’s penultimate completed entry in The Adventures of Tintin and the television show Lost, which should give you some inkling of just how strange things get during this particular trip. And, given Tintin’s been to the surface of the moon, things get quite strange.

Don't sweat the landing...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Flight 714, Hergé, Shooting Star, snowy, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Flight 714, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, Tintin and Flight 714, Tintin: Flight 714 | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Casino Jack

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Darren

Casino Jack boasts a superb performance from Kevin Spacey in the lead role of Jack Abramoff. Unfortunately, that’s about it. I don’t mean that Casino Jack is a bad film, by any means, it’s just a purely functional one. It manages to take a bunch of interesting elements – a timely political plot, a bunch of fascinating supporting performances, a compelling lead character – and do absolutely nothing with any of them. Despite the rather wonderful potential to tell a parable for our time, the script is formulaic and bland, with nothing by the way of insight.

Jacked up...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Abramoff, barry pepper, casino jack, ENRON, god, Ides of March, Jack Abramoff, Jon Lovitz, kevin spacey, lobbying, non-review review, politics, review, United States | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald (Review)

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Darren

The Castafiore Emerald is famous as an example of Hergé playing with the reader’s expectations of a Tintin book. It’s essentially an exercise in creating suspense out of nothing, with the mystery of the eponymous jewel ultimately turning out to be a rather mundane affair, and instead allowing for all sorts of hilariously mundane hijinks to befall Hergé’s cast with relatively little point to it all. Then, after all, this is fiction, as Tintin seems coyly aware of on the cover, staring our at us with his finger on his lips, smiling like he knows something none of his castmates do. If you can embrace the central pointlessness of it all, and enjoy it as a collection of wryly observed scenes, The Castafiore Emerald is another rewarding addition to a series growing gradually more experimental.

That engagement's news to Haddock!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Hergé, Jamie Bell, Nestor, peter jackson, Simon Pegg, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald, The Castafiore Emerald, Tintin and The Castafiore Emerald | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Music by Prudence

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Darren

The first annual International Disability Film Festival is being hosted from the 20th through to the 23rd October, organised by Arts & Disability Ireland, in Dublin and Galway. I was honoured to be invited to the gala screening of the Oscar-winning HBO documentary Music by Prudence. You can read more information on the festival here.

Music by Prudence is an absolutely fascinating documentary from director Roger Ross Williams, looking at the band Liyana, fronted by Prudence Mabhena. The thirty-three minute documentary does a wonderfully effective job giving us a snapshot into the Zimbabwean band, composed of faculty and students from the King George VI Centre and School for Children with Physical Disabilities. The runtime is remarkably short, but Williams compensates by giving us a whirlwind introduction to the band’s lead singer, who has enough charm and wit to carry a far longer documentary. The band themselves provide a beautiful soundtrack, and there’s talk of them releasing two albums off the back of the film’s success.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Disability, Elinor Burkett, Film festival, George VI of the United Kingdom, hbo, Liyana, Music by Prudence, non-review review, Prudence, Prudence Mabhena, review, Roger Ross Williams, Zimbabwe | Leave a comment »

Tintin in Tibet (Review)

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Darren

Tintin in Tibet is a highly regarded book. In fact, it’s arguably the most highly regarded book in the entire Adventures of Tintin collection, and it’s easy to see why. While I could recall the events of some of the stories I’d read as a child almost word-for-word, and while I harbour a deep affection for particular adventures in the series, I don’t think I was looking forward to revisiting any of the classic Tintin stories nearly as much as I was anticipating flicking through Tintin in Tibet. I remember the book filling me with a tremendous sense of optimism and hope as a child, a story of faith and hope against impossible odds, deeply moving because of its relative intimacy.

I was not disappointed.

Whiteout...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue lotus, Captain Haddock, Hergé, himalayas, snowy, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet, Tibet, tintin, Tintin in Tibet | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Illusionist (2010)

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Darren

It’s hard to fault The Illusionist on a technical level. The film is truly beautiful, not only capturing the beauty of its surroundings in wonderful animation, but also produced with a magical sense of artistry and genuine romanticism. Although one can readily spot the hints of CGI used to help realise director Sylvain Chomet’s vision, the animation feels remarkably and endearingly old-fashioned. The limited use of dialogue throughout adds a strange and ethereal (almost fairy tale) quality to the whole thing. Still, there’s something that feels a bit strange about the whole thing, as if the story – although trying to distract us with flair and bright colours and a clever wit – is a truly depressing saga. Some might suggest that it is “bittersweet”, but I couldn’t help but find the outer “sweetness”nothing but a superficial attempt to distract from a truly bitter core.

It's a kind of magic...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: animation, arts, Edinburgh, Jacque Tati, magic, paris, Scotland, Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist, The Illusionist (2010) | 2 Comments »

Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks (Review)

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Darren

The Red Sea Sharks is, I suppose, a fine adventure tale, even if it’s not an entry in Hergé’s canon that I’m particularly fond of. The nineteenth instalment in the series, the author uses the opportunity to tie a whole slew of open story threads together and anchor the long-term continuity of the series, but he also decides to deal with the issue of modern slavery – a controversial and topical issue, to be sure. However, while I have no doubt the author’s intentions were true, the story reads more than a little awkwardly in dealing with the topic.

Calculus gets his skates on...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: adventures of tintin: red sea sharks, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Flight 714, Hergé, List of The Adventures of Tintin characters, red sea sharks, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the red sea sharks, the red sea sharks, tintin and the red sea sharks, Tintin in the Congo, tintin: the red sea sharks | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Lion King

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Darren

You said you’d always be there for me! … But you’re not.

– Simba rages at the heavens

The Lion King is my favourite Disney film. I don’t know if I could argue that it’s objectively the best or anything like that, as I imagine that there are a lot of external factors that contribute to making a person’s favourite Disney films – most of which are matters of timing, with the film appearing at “just the right time”, to borrow a cliché. I was seven years old when the film was first released, but I don’t believe that I saw it in the cinema (hence my trip to the cinema to see it on re-release), so perhaps I was eight or nine when I first caught Disney’s adaptation of Hamlet. It’s a dodgy proposition revisiting something you loved as a child, as there’s a risk that the finished product won’t quite live up to your memories of it – perhaps because you say it differently through younger eyes, or because time has marched on, or because you’ve become too cynical. So, I was taking a considerable risk as the theatre went dark, wondering if perhaps I had made a mistake.

I hadn’t. Sometimes some things areas good as you remember them.