the m0vie blog

White and Wrong: Contrarian (Anti-Popularist) Film Critics

Posted on September 1, 2009 by Darren

I was away in Florida when the whole Armond White thing broke last month. For those out of the loop, users of film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes decided that they’d had enough of White’s contrary approach to film reviews after he ‘ruined’ the perfect Tomatometer for District 9 – and generated quite the reaction on the site. With District 9 being released in the UK and Ireland this week, it seems almost the perfect time to revisit the discussion, with the benefit of hindsight. Plus, film criticism is one of those topics that I take a great deal of recreational interest in.

Somehow I doubt we'll ever see eye-to-eye...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: armond white, cinema, criticism, critics, district 9, film critics, Movies, popularism, roger ebert, rotten tomatoes, taste, tomatometer | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: X-Men II

Posted on September 1, 2009 by Darren

I wrote in my review of the original X-Men that the first film in the saga still holds up quite well, even after a decade of superhero movies built off the back of it. It is by no means as spectacular as some of those that followed, nor is it as bad as some of those that followed. X-Men II is something similar. It wasn’t quite as revolutionary, but it did jumpstart another style of summer blockbuster, arguably a subgenre of the type sparked by the original film: the bigger and better superhero sequel.

No need to get your claws out...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brian cox, comic books, films, god loves man kills, ian mckellen, kurt wagner, magneto, marvel, Movies, nightcrawler, non-review review, review, william stryker, wolverine, x-men, x-men 2, x-men united, x2: x-men united | Leave a comment »

August in Review

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Darren

It’s the end of August, so this is just a round up of some of the more interesting stuff that popped through my head during the course of the month – hopefully it’ll make things easier for anyone navigating the blog’s archives.
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Filed under: Months in Review | Leave a comment »

District 9 – The Sci-Fi/Comedy

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Darren

Okay, I still have nothing but kind words for the Irish Film Classification Office, but I noticed their information piece on District 9 this morning and found it hilarious. Either we’re getting a very different cut than the rest of the world or someone at the office was not really paying attention when they were watching the film:

Spoof sci-fi comedy.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: censor, district 9, ifco, irish censor, irish film censor, irish film classifaction office, john kelleher, movie plots, movie summaries | Leave a comment »

What a Basterdly Ending…

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Darren

Alright, since the entire point of this post is spoilers, consider yourselves duly warned. I don’t like spoiling films, but I also really think that there is a lot of discussion to be had about the end of Inglourious Basterds. Only read on if you have seen the film, or know you won’t. Because there’s no going back. Seriously. It’s something you should really see for yourself before you make up your mind on it. Anyway, those disclaimers out of the way, here we go…

Shoshanna's got an axe to grind...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cinema, climax, ending, films, history, hitler, inglorious bastards, inglourious basterds, Movies, nazis, quentin tarantino, spoilers, subtext, tarantino, themes | 1 Comment »

48 Hours at the Fringe – An Edinburgh Diary

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Darren

Hey, I had the good fortune to jet off to the Edinburgh Fringe over the weekend. It was my first time to the festival – but not to the city (which is as beautiful as ever and seems particularly alive when populated with strange and wacky students and artistes from all over the world). I arrived after the travel-trip from hell on the Friday night and flew back last night, so I had just two days to spend at the world’s most renowned theatre/comedy festival. I am glad to report that not only have I returned with my sanity intact, but I actually had a pretty good run at the festival.

Best. Holiday. Photo. Ever.

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: After Dark, Cambridge Union Amatuer Dramatic Club, CUADC, doctor fautus, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Ernest and the Pale Moon, faustus, Foil Arms and Hog, Fringe, Fringe Festival, How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, Les Enfants Terribles, Les Enfants Terribles Theatre Company, the fringe, the Wind in the Willows, Wind in the Willows | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Inglourious Basterds

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Darren

I went to see Inglourious Basterds with my brother last night at the cinema in Swords. I’m not sure what either of us was expecting – I’d read enough reviews and opinion articles and am well-versed in the knowledge that trailers always lie to know that it wouldn’t be a straight-up Nazi-killing flick. In fairness to the misdirecting marketing campaign though, I’m not sure how you could advertise what Tarantino has produced here. What we’ve got is a film possibly unlike any other you’ve ever really seen. I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it, which is certainly a big indicator in the film’s favour.

Tarantino, you magnificent basterd, you...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brad pitt, christoph waltz, films, inglorious bastards, inglourious, inglourious basterds, Movies, nazis, non-review review, once upon a time in nazi-occupied france, quentin tarantino, review, tarantino, weinstein | 6 Comments »

Absolute Sandman: Volume IV

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Darren

It’s over. Wow. It has been a long haul, but an impressive and richly rewarding one. Having read the entire collection again over the space of about a month, I have even more appreciation for the wonder of Neil Gaiman’s writing. The volume is pretty much perfect, featuring (in my opinion) the most consistently brilliant artwork of the four volumes and a fitting conclusion to a saga that has run for 1,500 pages already. It’s hard enough to write a fitting conclusion to a two-hour movie or a novella. How does Gaiman manage to tie up everything so ridiculously well?

An empty throne? Foreshadowing, you say?

Warning: This review contains spoilers (as any review of the collection will). They’re minor, they’ve been foreshadowed throughout the collection and pretty much made explicit at the climax of the Volume 3. Still, consider yourself appropriately warned.

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: absolute death, absolute sandman, absolute sandman: volume 4, absolute sandman: volume iv, arts, comic books, dc comics, dream, dreams, Endless, exiles, graphic novels, loki, morpheus, mythology, neil gaiman, Online Writing, Rose Walker, sandman, shakespeare, stories, the absolute sandman, the kindly ones, the sandman, the tempest, the wake | 3 Comments »

The Not-So-Merry Old Land of Oz

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Darren

Not cool. Seriously not cool.

It’s one thing to mess with my childhood by making a Smurfs movie or remaking Flight of the Navigator or Neverending Story, but it’s another thing to screw with my gran’s childhood. Well, at least it’s not a remake – it’s a long-distance sequel. Yes, Dakota Fanning has been cast as the lead in a sequel to The Wizard of Oz. And not only that, she’s going to be hip and cool while Oz itself is going to be darker and edgier – like every good Hollywood property. I’m cringing inside already.

One crossover I don't want to see...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: baum, classic, dakota fanning, dorothy, frank baum, hollywood, oz, remake, remakes, return to oz, smurfs, somewhere over the rainbow, the flight of the navigator, The Neverending Story, the wicked witch, the wiz, the wizard of oz, wicked, zardoz | 2 Comments »

Gotta Get a Gilliam…

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Darren

Apparently Terry Gilliam wants to work at Pixar. How incredibly awesome would that be? Even the concept is intriguing. I’m not as head-over-heels in love with Gilliam as most film fans seem to be (his output tends to fluctuate wildly in quality), but Brazil is quite possibly my favourite science fiction film ever. And I love science fiction. Anyway, I would have thought a major studio that is a subsidiary of possibly the largest and most influential entertainment conglomerate in the world would be the last place an auteur like Gilliam would be found.

Evidently, I was wrong.