the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Too Big To Fail

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Darren

I’ll admit to being quite impressed with the work HBO have done of late. I’m not so much talking about their production of some of the finest drama on television, but instead talking about the fantastic job they’ve done in bringing original drama to life inside the format of television movies. There was a time that television movies were mocked and frowned upon, something of a guilty pleasure rather than an artform to take seriously, but HBO has done a rather sterling job of late, producing films like The Special Relationship, which I thought might have supported even a small-scale theatrical run. Too Big To Fail is just as good, if not slightly better – focusing on the United States financial collapse of 2008, it brings together an all-star cast under a fantastic director to offer a movie that is far more interesting and compelling than any drama based on number crunching really ought to be.

Bringing the Hurt...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Curtis Hanson, hbo, Henry Paulson, Lehman Brothers, Lehmann Brothers, non-review review, paul giamatti, review, Too big to fail, United States | Leave a comment »

Doctor Who: Closing Time (Review)

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Darren

Look! They gave me a badge with my name on it, in case I forget it… Which is very thoughtful, because that does happen.

– The Doctor shows off his name badge

I have to admit, I liked Closing Time. It wasn’t quite as good as The Lodger, but it was an entertaining diversion at the end of what has been a pretty gloomy run of episodes for Doctor Who. And based on the previews for The Wedding of River Song, it isn’t going to get any lighter next week. I do have to admit, I kinda like the idea of Craig as an almost “stationary” companion – one whose life is constantly interrupted by the return of the Doctor to his relatively quiet existence, something that works quite well in contrast to the relationship between Amy and the Doctor.

It's all under (remote) control...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: amy pond, bbc, Closing time, Craig, cybermen, doctor, DoctorWho, Lodger, matt smith, Pandorica Opens, rory williams, russell t. davies, Shopping, steven moffat, Television, Time Lord | 6 Comments »

The Absolute Authority, Vol. 2 (Review)

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Darren

With Wildstorm being officially folded into the relaunched DCU (the “DCnU”), I thought I might take a look at some of the more successful and popular Wildstorm titles that the company produced. In particular, The Authority, the superhero saga that spun out of Stormwatch – a series that is getting its own post-relaunch book written by Paul Cornell, easily one of my more anticipated titles.

In many ways, it was The Authority that established Mark Millar and Frank Quitely as talents to watch in their own rights, rather than through their associations with Grant Morrison. As a concept, the series was launched by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, but the duo picked their own replacements. I have to say, I think they chose rather wisely, even if the series has lost a rather considerable amount of its bite nearly a decade after its initial publication. That said, it’s still a highly entertaining superhero book, and one which had more than its fair share of influence on the mainstream titles over the last ten or so years.

There's a new Authority in town...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: All Star Superman, Bryan Hitch, censored, censorship in comic books, comic book review, comic book superheroes, comic books, controversy, dc universe, deconstruction, frank quitely, Garth-Morrison, jack kirby, jeph loeb, mark millar, midnighter, midnighter (comic books), midnighter (comics), Paul Cornell, politics, review, sencorship, superheroes, the authority, the authority (comic book), the authority (comics), warren ellis, wildstorm, world war ii | Leave a comment »

the m0vie blog goes on holiday!

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Darren

Hi guys,

Just a note that I’m taking the next week off. Things have been a bit hectic of late with me (with work and other commitments, including this blog and other things), so I’m looking forward to a week of doing nothing. I’ll be taking the time to get up-to-date on the comments, do a bit of forward planning (have we got some stuff planned for this year, the next one and the one after that!) and just chillaxing a bit. There may be a post or two in the meantime, but regular service will resume on the 26th September.

In the meantime, take a look at the blogroll – there’s, as ever, some great stuff on there – or browse the archives. Have a good one!

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Tree of Life

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Darren

Terence Malick’s Tree of Life stems from the beginning of the universe to “the end of time.”It’s hard to imagine any film with a similar scope, let alone one focused on the troublesome relationship between a nuclear family in the mid-to-late-twentieth century. The easiest way to summarise Malick’s epic yet intimate drama is describe it as a profound meditation on the history of the cosmos, reflected through a child’s coming-of-age tale. Confused? I don’t blame you. I’m slightly confused and I just watched the damn thing.

A beautiful sequence of images...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bbc, Book of Job, christianity, Father, film, Filmmaking, god, Koyaanisqatsi, Movies, non-review review, Old Testament, Religion and Spirituality, review, Terrence Malick, theology, Tree of Life | 5 Comments »

Doctor Who: The God Complex (Review)

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Darren

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the longest-running science-fiction show in the world, I’ll be taking weekly looks at some of my own personal favourite stories and arcs, from the old and new series, with a view to encapsulating the sublime, the clever and the fiendishly odd of the BBC’s Doctor Who.

The God Complex originally aired in 2011.

It’s time we saw each other as we really are.

– The Doctor

It really is like the McCoy era all over again, isn’t it? The Impossible Astronaut gave us a scheming and manipulative Doctor. Night Terrors felt like it was drawn from the same cloth as Survival, with the faintest trace of Paradise Towers. Here, we get to revisit the ideas at the heart of The Curse of Fenric. Moffat’s second season has really been about the writer defining his own way of making Doctor Who, following a debut season that followed the same structure as the four years overseen by Russell T. Davies.

Here, Moffat is deconstructing the myth of the Doctor, in a way that draws on and contrasts with Davies’ “the Lonely God”, without going to the excess of “the Time Lord Victorious.” Indeed, with the whole dynamic between the Doctor and Amy drawing on one careless miscalculation the character made, changing a young girl’s life forever, one can’t help but wonder if there was more than a hint of truth in what the Doctor confessed to Amy to break her faith in him. “I took you with me because I was vain,” he tells her, “because I wanted to be adored.”

More than ever, it seems there’s a bit of truth in the Doctor’s admission that, “I’m not a hero.” Russell T. Davies has the Doctor follow a similar trajectory, albeit on a larger scale – episodes like Midnight and The Waters of Mars represented massive failings on the part of the Doctor. Moffat draws on the same sort of idea, but renders the Doctor’s failures much more intimate. It isn’t so much that the Eleventh Doctor fails to save the world or defeat the monster, it’s that he fails the people close to him so frequently and thoroughly.

You can check out any time you like, but you may never leave…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: amy, Amy's Choice (Doctor Who), bbc, doctor, Doctor (Doctor Who), doctor who, Doctor's Wife, DoctorWho, matt smith, Moffat, Paradise Towers, review, rory, russell t. davies, Sarah Jane Smith, tardis, Television, The God Complex, the God Complex (Doctor Who), Vampires of Venice | 5 Comments »

Man of Valour at the Absolut Dublin Fringe (Review)

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Darren

If you see one show at the Dublin Fringe, see Man of Valour. If you see two shows, see Man of Valour twice. If you see three shows… well, maybe you should see something else the third time, for variety’s sake. Man of Valour is easily one of the most energetic and exciting pieces of theatre I’ve seen all year, with superb direction and a fantastically impressive leading man, it really feels like the lovechild of a one-man show with a big-budget action movie.

A man-ic performance...

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: absolut dublin fringe, absolut fringe, arts, dublin, Paul Reid, Performing Arts, samuel beckett theatre, the corn exhange, Theatre | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Run Lola Run

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Darren

I really do have a great deal of affection for Run Lola Run, as a highly energetic and stylishly executed piece of cinema. It’s hard to think of a movie that can match the sheer intensity of the assault that the opening few moments make upon your senses, as the images flash across the screen, the heavy dance soundtrack kicks to life, and the camera dances and cuts like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a shame that the movie can’t really maintain that wonderful pace for the rest of its runtime, but perhaps it’s too much to ask for an eighty-minute sprint.

Betting it all on red...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, film, Filmmaking, games, Movie, Movies, non-review review, review, Run Lola Run, Sepp Herberger, Tom Tykwer | 2 Comments »

Spoilers… And Movies Beyond Spoiling…

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Darren

Last week, Total Film included a selection of heavily stylised posters for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. They do look quite fabulous and are well worth a look, but it has been pointed out that one of them does spoil the film by identifying the mole. This got me thinking – the information is already out there, both in le Carré’s original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the BBC’s adaptation, so at what point does the identity of the “mole right at the top of the Circus”cease to be a spoiler and become fair game? More than that, with the identity having been in the public sphere for decades, is it possible that the revelation could ruin the movie for anyone?

Everything's under Control...

Note: I do not actually reveal the identity of the mole here, so feel free to read ahead without impeding your viewing experience.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Alec Guinness, film, gary oldman, George Smiley, John le Carré, Mole (espionage), Sixth Sense, the usual suspects, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Total Film | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Extract

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Darren

I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of Extract. Ironically for a movie about a factor producing flavour additives, the movie seems lack a flavour of its own. Is Mike Judge’s effort a quirky and eccentric anything-goes laugh-out-loud fest, or is it a more conventional cookie-cutter comedy? The film seems to fluctuate between the two extremes, at times playing incredible safe and yet occasionally swinging for the fences, adding to a vaguely disjointed feeling to the whole thing.