the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On the Promise and Peril of “Dune: Part One”…

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. Last week, footage from the upcoming Dune adaptation was filmed for critics and press to build attention. One of the more interesting revelations from these screenings was that the movie apparently comes with subtitle Dune: Part One.

On one level, this is not really a surprise. It was been reported for years now that the upcoming adaptation would only cover a certain amount of the source novel. However, there is a certain boldness to including a “part one” subtitle on the cinematic release. In one sense, it harks back to the trend in the 2010s of splitting popular books into multi-part adaptations. However, it also suggests the blurring of boundaries between media, implying that this is really the first part of a two-part miniseries, where the production of a second part is contingent upon the commercial performance of the first.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: dune, dune: part one, films, harry potter, in the frame, Movies, the escapist, twilight | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 7, Episode 2 (“Amor Fati X-tra: The Last Temptation of Mulder”)

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Darren

With The X-Cast moving on to coverage of the seventh season of The X-Files, I was thrilled to join Kurt North and Marlene Stemme to discuss the seventh season premiere – The Sixth Extinction and The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati – in the context of Martin Scorsese’ The Last Temptation of Christ.

Scorsese’s biblical epic was one of the most controversial major studio releases of the late eighties, attracting death threats and protests for its portrayal of Jesus Christ. It formed the basis for Mulder’s journey in The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, with the two-parter directly lifting several scenes from the film. It’s interesting to interrogate, in large part because – despite the influence of seventies cinema on The X-Files – it feels like the show’s only real point of intersection with one of the most influential filmmakers of the seventies.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: amor fati, david duchovny, doubt, Fox Mulder, Joseph Campbell, kurt north, marlene stemme, mulder, the last temptation of christ, the x-cast, the x-files, x-cast | Leave a comment »

244. Swept Away (-#100)

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Jenn Gannon, The Bottom 100 is a subset of The 250. It is a journey through the worst 100 movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Guy Ritchie’s Swept Away.

Amber Leighton is a spoiled socialite who insists on turning a Mediterranean holiday into a nightmare for everybody she encounters. This includes deckhand Giuseppe Esposito, a working class man with a very different view of the world. Circumstances conspire to maroon Amber and Guiseppe alone together on a remote tropic island, forcing them to renegotiate their relationship.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 100th worst movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: bmw films, box office bomb, celebrity, drowned world, film, guy ritchie, jenn gannon, larry king, madonna, Misogyny, music, swept way, The 250, The Bottom 100, what it feels like for a girl | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Eternal Battle Between Good and Evil in “Masters of the Universe”…

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Masters of the Universe: Revelation on Netflix this weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at the larger franchise.

The He-Man franchise originated as a toy line from Mattel, obviously taking its cues from a host of contemporary pop culture like Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars. However, the franchise’s origins as a toy rather than a book or a feature film led to an interesting tensions. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is a classic epic fantasy about the battle between good and evil, but it is a story without a predetermined origin or ending. Good may win individual battles against evil, but it will never triumph completely. As a result, He-Man presents the struggle of good against evil as eternal and unwinnable, but worth fighting.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Conan the Barbarian, evil, good, he-man, he-man and the masters of the universe, in the frame, Joseph Campbell, masters of the universe, masters of the universe: revelation, skeletor, star wars, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Black Widow” and the MCU’s Humour Problem…

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Black Widow last weekend, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at one of the film’s biggest issues and one of the biggest issues with the MCU in general: the question of tone.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is funny. It has always been funny. This is part of what distinguished it from a lot of its comic book movie contemporaries when it was released. However, as the universe has progressed and evolved, the “house style” has tended towards ironic and self-aware punchlines. Sometimes this approach works beautifully; many of the best Marvel Studios films are also the funniest. However, it can also serve as a distraction that lowers the dramatic stakes and undermines key character beats.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: black widow, comic books, dramatic, escapist magazine, humour, in the frame, jokes, Marvel Cinematic Universe, punchlines, stakes, the escapist, video | Leave a comment »

243. Dabangg 3 – This Just In (-#86)

Posted on July 17, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The Bottom 100 is a subset of The 250. It is a journey through the worst 100 movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Prabhu Deva’s Dabangg 3.

Veteran police officer Chulbul Pandey is living a seemingly idealistic existence, when a simple people trafficking case brings back a ghost from his own past. Confronting an old enemy and painful memories, Chulbul Pandey finally learns what it means to be truly fearless.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 86th worst movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: bollywood, bottom 100, dabangg 3, dowry, india, item number, item numbers, love matters, masala films, masculinity, salman khan, The 250, violence | 4 Comments »

New Escapist Video! “Space Jam: A New Legacy – Review”

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a three-minute film review of Space Jam: A New Legacy, which is releasing theatrically and on HBO Max this weekend.

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a new legacy, HBO Max, review, space jam, space jam: a new legacy, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Loki” Betrayed Itself…

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With Loki wrapping up its first season this week, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the show. In particular, how the season finale betrayed the show’s core themes and characters.

Loki is a story about many things, but it is primarily about power. It is about whether individuals have the power to determine the paths of their own lives. It is about who has the power to determine what stories get told and what they do with that power. It is also about how power intrinsically acts in its own best interests. There’s a lot of really interesting and biting stuff in Loki, which makes it slightly frustrating when the final makes a conscious choice to rob its characters of their agency, to reveal that this story doesn’t belong to them, and to argue that power must be centralised. In the end, Loki betrayed itself.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: escapist, escapist magazine, in the frame, loki, marvel, Marvel Studios, mcu, power | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Fear Street Part Three – 1666

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Darren

If Fear Street Part One – 1994 and Fear Street Part Two – 1978 didn’t make it clear enough, Fear Street Part Three – 1666 confirms that the trilogy is more of a miniseries than a set of films.

To be fair, this was quite clear from the outset. The films feature a large branching cast, with many actors carrying over from one installment to another. The continuity between the individual films is so tight that the two later installments each open with an extended “previously on…” segment. Fear Street Part Three – 1666 carries this idea to its logical conclusion, effectively functioning as a two-part season finale. It opens with an hour set in the past and then jumps forward for a forty-minute coda designed to close the book (if not literally) on the events from Fear Street Part One – 1994.

A sight for sore (or missing) eyes…

There’s not necessarily anything wrong with this. After all, there’s arguably not a huge difference between the structure of these three films and something like the Red Riding trilogy. More to the point, it demonstrates how porous the gap between various media has become. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, the highest grossing movie of 2020, is really just a six-episode bridging arc between two seasons of the manga. Hamilton is both one of the best movies of all-time according to the Internet Movie Database and an Emmy nominee. Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe is arguably as much television as cinema.

As such, it’s hard to judge Fear Street Part Three – 1666 entirely on its own merits.

Tying it all up.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: fear street, fear street 1666, fear street part two, film, horror, Movie, netflix, non-review review, review, slasher | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “A Marvelous Escape” – Loki – “For All Time. Always.”

Posted on July 15, 2021 by Darren

With a slew of Marvel Studios productions coming to Disney+ over the next six months, The Escapist has launched a weekly show discussing these series

This week, I join KC Nwosu and Amy Campbell to talk about the sixth and final episode of Loki, streaming on Disney+.