the m0vie blog

Four Minutes of Green Lantern from WonderCon..

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Darren

Now we’re talking.

I am very excited about Warner Brothers’ upcoming Green Lantern, despite some of the difficulties with the first trailer. This second batch of footage has significantly restored my faith, even if it doesn’t address all my concerns from the last footage (bad dialogue and a god-awful comic relief character). At least the CGI looks better, even if there’s still work to do on the costume. Here’s hoping they can pull it together before the release date in June.

If you’re looking for an introduction to the character, why not have a look at our handy introduction.

I like the tone of it much better. It’s less “generic superhero” (which was a dumb approach in a market over-saturated with superhero films) and more “epic space opera”, which I hope might set it apart from the competition. I always though that the “space opera” angle would be the right one to push with the character, as it has a wonderful Star Wars vibe to it.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cgi, Computer-generated imagery, green lantern, Green Lantern: First Flight, hal jordan, ryan reynolds, Warner Bros, WonderCon | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Suckerpunch

Posted on April 2, 2011 by cimooney

A special thanks to the guys over at movies.ie for sneaking us into an advanced preview screening. My brother Ciaran stepped in to review the film for me at short notice, so thanks to him as well.

“Don’t write checks with your mouth, that you can’t cash with your ass.”

I feel this quote sums up the movie quite well… pointless.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Babydoll, Emily Browning, film, Jena Malone, Movie, non-review review, punisher war zone, review, Sucker Punch, Vanessa Hudgens, zack snyder | 9 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Spider-Man III

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

Spider-Man III has a lot of problems. I’ll get to a couple of them in a moment. However, the single biggest issue with the movie seems to be that nobody seems especially interested in making it. It’s a feeling that it’s hard to back up with substantive evidence, but there’s just this general sensation that the film wasn’t the product of the same love and enthusiasm that made the first two films so refreshing. It almost seems like the movie was made out of a sense of obligation, rather than because anyone wanted to be there. It seems that they didn’t really care.

Back in black?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Avi Arad, brian michael bendis, Christopher Young, danny elfman, films, flint marko, green goblin, harry osborn, hollywood, Movies, peter parker, sam raimi, sandman, spider man, spider-man 3, spider-man iii, stan lee, symbiote, venom | 7 Comments »

Moon and Source Code Posters from South by Southwest…

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Darren

I know I’m late to the party on these, but they are still cool enough to share. Especially with Source Code out this weekend. Basically, these are the posters designed by Ollie Moss for Duncan Jones’ two films at South by Southwest. Appropriately enough for a festival named in honour of Hitchcock, there’s a definite vibe to these posters which reminds me of the great man. Not that the films don’t remind me of him either. Anyway, check them out below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: duncan jones, Jake Gyllenhaal, moon, Movie, Olly Moss, poster, source code, South by Southwest | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Evil Dead III – The Army of Darkness

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

It’s interesting how concrete the shift in genre is between the original Evil Dead and the final part of the trilogy. It’s grown from a bona fides video nasty into a dark age comedy I actually wouldn’t have too much trouble watching with my family. I think I’m significantly fonder of the third instalment in the series than most other reviewers are, but it’s a film which is solidly and consistently fun – pure, random, non-sensical fun.

"This... is my BOOMSTICK!"

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Army of Darkness, Ash Williams, bruce campbell, Dark Ages, evil dead, evil dead 3, Movie, non-review review, review, sam raimi, spider man, the evil dead, The Three Stooges | 1 Comment »

March (2011) In Review

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Darren

That was a fun month.

I’m still, to be honest, entirely speechless. I picked up the Best Pop Culture Award at the Irish Blog Awards earlier this month, and I’m still delighted and humbled and honoured and all those things. I know I don’t blog to win awards, but I really feel motivated to try even harder to justify the huge vote of confidence that it represents.

Other than that, there was tonnes of stuff. I’m currently blogging along with Things That Don’t Suck‘s “Raimi-fest”, which is a blast. Always a joy to be asked to take part. March also had some fairly decent films – with two brilliant films in Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau, along with a slew of quite good films to go along with it. So that was pretty fantastic. Although maybe I’m just a big softie.

I got to ramble (at length) about the upcoming Superman film, and revisit Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (and just why he was so damn suited to it). I had my first honest-to-goodness interview, with the wonderful Grace Dyas.

I defended big budget blockbusters, wondered who killed The Mountains of Madness and got to discuss why this year’s Academy Awards felt like a great big group hug.

It was a fun month. Hopefully the trend will continue!

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Adjustment Bureau, arts, Belfast, irish blog awards, Movie, popular culture, sam raimi, source code, spider man, spider-man 3 | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Limitless

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Darren

Limitless has an epiphany about half-way through its runtime. We follow our lead, Eddie, as he discovers a miracle drug which manages to somehow make you a genius (he boasts he has “a four-digit IQ”). However, he is stunned to discover that coming off the drug isn’t exactly pretty. Those who haven’t given up have all died. He meets a survivor in a small café, where she recounts how wonderful the experience of using the drug was, but how hallow life seemed afterwards. Having tasted that sort of greatness, she relates how the world seemed boring afterwards, she couldn’t focus and nothing could hold her attention for more than ten minutes. She seems to have been speaking on behalf of the film.

It's all falling into place...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arrogance, bradley cooper, films, hubris, Illegal drug trade, lazy, Limitless, limitless (film), miracle drug, Movies, Neil Burger, Nico Muhly, non-review review, Paul Leonard-Morgan, potential, pride, review, robert deniro, Time in New Zealand | Leave a comment »

Holding Out For an Anti-Hero: The Rise of the Morally Ambiguous Protagonist…

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Darren

Sure, comedies have a long history of featuring genuinely unlikable characters as leads, but I think the last number of years have seen an explosion in the number of morally ambiguous (and sometimes downright villainous) protagonists, both on the big and small screens. Of course, the entire film noir movement was based upon the idea of a compromised hero, in recent times we’ve found ourselves increasingly cheering for the bad guy.

A serial charmer...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: arts, Boardwalk Empire, Charles Bronson, Deadwood, hbo, jack bauer, Magnum P.I, miami vice, Movies, Shield, Showtime, the sopranos, villain | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Evil Dead II – Dead by Dawn

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

I don’t think there’s ever been a movie quite like Evil Dead II. Although you could argue that Raimi’s unique stylings are evident in the original Evil Dead, they don’t really come into their own in quite the same way that they would for the sequel. Although the movie is obviously indebted to any number of sources, the film has a crazy energy all of its own. It rockets along at such speed that the audience is caught a little off guard. It’s refreshing and more than a little zesty, which are certainly among the film’s charms.

Has Ash crossed the wrong monsters?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Ash Williams, bruce campbell, comedy, evil dead, Evil Dead II, films, horror, Horror film, looney tunes, Movies, Necronomicon, non-review review, review, sam raimi, slapstick comedy, spider man | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: All-Star Superman

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Darren

March is Superman month here at the m0vie blog, what with the release of the animated adaptation of Grant Morrison’s superb All-Star Superman. We’ll be reviewing a Superman-related book/story arc every Wednesday this month, so check on back – and we might have a surprise or two along the way.

From the outset, it’s immediately clear that All-Star Superman is immensely faithful to the twelve-issue miniseries that inspired it. There are a few key deviations from Morrison’s core text – some of which were made simply to save time or money, but others which are interesting of themselves. Still, this is pretty much as direct an adaptation as we are ever likely to receive – right down to the eight-word introduction (intercut here with the opening action sequence), the power of the origin distilled down to its core attributes. So the movie, based on perhaps the finest Superman story ever told, obviously has a lot of power drawn from its roots – but one has to wonder what the real point of making an animated feature of it ever was.