arts | the m0vie blog

Meme of the Moment: Desert Island CD’s

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Darren

This blog post is part of “Desert Island CD’s”, a blogging event being hosted by those gents over at Anomalous Material as a sort of a spiritual successor to last year’s “Desert Island DVD’s”. Check out the link above for everybody else’s list.

Movie soundtracks are a strange beast. They say that memory is most strongly associated with the sense of smell, but – since I guess we can’t smell movies outside of Hans Laube’s somewhat misguided “Smell-O-Vision” – I am never less than amazed at the capacity of a piece of music to take me back to a film. Whether it’s a piece of an orchestra score, a pop song featured in the background, an original composition for the film or even a piece linked to a particular trailer, film music has a strong tie to my memory. To show you that I am not kidding, thanks to the following truly corny international trailer, I can’t hear The Sun Always Shines on TV without thinking of Slumdog Millionaire. You may think I’m bluffing, but skip to about a minute into it.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, clubbed to death, Compact Disc, desert island, Ennio Morricone, god moving over the face of the water, Hello Zepp, moby, Movies, music, pearl harbour sucked, scores, slumdog millionaire, soundtracks, take my breath away, team america, top gun | 20 Comments »

The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 6 (The Grand Guignol) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on March 16, 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. Earlier today we reviewed the New Krypton crossover, which was largely driven by author James Robinson, so we thought we’d end the day by taking a look at the final collection of Robinson’s work on Starman.

This volume represents perhaps my favourite stories that James and the wonderful group of artists he worked with created because it has something that nearly every on-going superhero series doesn’t have – a definitive ending – and a whole satisfying one at that.

– Geoff Johns’ introduction

We’ve come a long way, baby. 80 issues, six hardcover collections, countless extras (including supplements, specials and miniseries). A collection of diaries written by James Robinson documenting his time writing the saga, collected in the back of each collection. Starman has been collected nearly perfectly, and the sixth volume is no exception. It’s still something of a mixed blessing, because – no matter how much I appreciate the sense of closure – I’m still sad to see the series end.

Birds of a feather...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, blackest night, dc comics, geoff johns, guginol, jack knight, james robinson, lee s, starman, the grang guginol, Thom Kallor | Leave a comment »

Superman – New Krypton (Vol. I-IV), Last Stand of New Krypton (Vol. I & II) & War of the Supermen (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Darren

In fairness, it was too great an idea to ever ignore. At some point in the character’s publishing history, it was inevitable that Superman would be reunited with his people – the long dead planet Krypton. This storytelling opportunity forms the basis of the whole New Krypton saga, which crossed through the Superman line of comic books for well over a year. Unfortunately, despite having a rather wonderful core idea, it’s a ll a bit of a waste.

Up in the sky...

Note: This review contains what might be considered spoilers. But the title of the second sets of books in the header kinda give the game away.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adam Strange, arts, brainiac, clark kent, comic book, Comics, dc comics, geoff johns, grant morrison, james robinson, Jimmy Olsen, kandor, krypton, Kryptonian, last stand of new krypton, Legion of Super-Heroes, legion of superheroes, man of steel, new krypton, paul dini, review, sterling gates, supergirl, superman, war of the supermen, world of new krypton, zod | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Matrix Reloaded

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Darren

Today I’m taking a look at the Matrix trilogy. All three films, all watched and reviewed in one day. Join us for the fun! All three reviews will be going on-line today.

No, what happened happened and couldn’t have happened any other way.

How do you know?

We are still alive.

– Morpheus and Neo have one of the least obtuse conversations in the film

The reaction to the second and third films in The Matrix series has always somewhat surprised me. I don’t mean that I can’t see the criticism typically levelled at the films – I can see it and I agree with most of it. I mean that most viewers regard the second film as stronger than the third, while I always considered it the other way around. Rewatching all three films in one day just cemented that opinion – but I’m still curious about why cinema fans tend to favour the middle instalment over the last. Neither is as efficient or effective as the first film, but while I appreciate the sense of closure (and action) of the third film, I find myself regarding a significant portion of the second film as just idle padding – the franchise positioning itself for a final film, which would then go on to ignore a lot of what was suggested here.

Blade of glory?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: agent smith, arts, coen brothers, destiny, determinism, fauxlosophy, film, films, free will, hugo weaving, Matrix, morpheus, Movies, Neo, non-review review, philosophy, review, star wars, the matrix reloaded, the matrix trilogy, the wachowski brothers | 2 Comments »

Three is the Magic Number: Why Do We Like Trilogies?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Darren

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing all three films in the Matrix trilogy. I sat down yesterday, watched all three back-to-back and wrote reviews of them. As I did, I found myself thinking about how nice the concept of a “trilogy” is. It’s even a nice word – it sounds much better to say “the [insert film name here] trilogy” than it does to say “the [insert film name here] tetralogy” (or, to quote the Alien films, “quadrilogy”) or even the more generic “[insert film name here] series.” So what is it about sets of three movies that we like so much?

Looking for a stellar trilogy...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3, arts, batman begins, Batman franchise media, Christopher Nolan, dark knight, film trilogies, Movie, movie trilogies, number three, sergio leone, superman, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, three, trilogy | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Short Cuts

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Darren

Short Cuts is perhaps “the” big defining ensemble drama. Even those who haven’t seen it are familiar with Robert Altman’s epic three-hour twenty-two-character crisscrossing drama about life modern Los Angeles. It’s bold, ambitious and challenging. Personally, I prefer Altman’s skewering the studio system in The Player, there’s no denying that this big drama has its charms.

Altman casts a long shadow...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Bruce Davison, ensemble, ensemble drama, facebook, film, Jack Lemmon, Lily Tomlin, los angeles, Movie, non-review review, Player, Raymond Carver, review, robert altman, short cuts, short cuts (film), stories, tim robbins | 4 Comments »

Kevin Smith’s Superman Lives! Script

Posted on March 6, 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. I figured that, today, I’d take a look at Superman-related movies.

But Superman was one that I was kind of intrigued by, because of my love for comic books and because I read the script they were working from at that time and hated it. Batman is about angst; Superman is about hope. That was the thing that bothered me about Greg Poirier’s draft: they were trying to give Superman angst. They had Clark Kent going to a psychiatrist at one point. Superman’s angst is not that he doesn’t want to be Superman. If he has any, it’s that he can’t do it all; he can’t do enough and save everyone. It’s not enough to make him want to quit being Superman; it’s enough to make the guy stay up at night so he’s out doing shit constantly.

– Kevin Smith on the script he was handed

I figured, with all this talk about Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, I might as well take a look at some of the other productions that have brought the Man of Steel to the big screen in recent years. Superman never had quite the box office traction of Batman, and so never really went through that many big-screen iterations – while there’s a notable change in aesthetic between the Batman films of Burton, Schumacher and Nolan, Superman’s movies have been fairly consistent. I took a look at Superman Returns earlier today, but I thought I might take a look at Kevin Smith’s unproduced script for an earlier iteration of that particular film, Superman Lives!

Now, before you read my thoughts on the script, you should really watch the below clip, where Kevin Smith talks about writing Superman, and the various difficulties and demands that he faced.

Note: You can check out the script yourself, here.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, clark kent, Jon Peters, kevin smith, lex luthor, review, script, script review, sean penn, superman, superman lives, superman reborn, Warner Brothers, zack snyder | 4 Comments »

In Defense of Blockbusters: Are We Unduly Harsh on Big Budget Hollywood Movies?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Darren

I was just remarking how much I love cinema – how much I am predisposed to like a film – and I got thinking, why are we so harsh on big budget Hollywood films? Don’t get me wrong, the studio system produces its fair share of crap, but it seems to be the target of choice for any person looking to decry the death of modern culture. We’re assured, virtually everywhere, that the blockbuster is meant to be a cheap, disposable form of entertainment – and that it’s simply a “guilty pleasure”, if at all. I’ve noticed this trend quite a bit of late, as this is the time of the year that movie geeks look ahead to the summer season and realise… seemingly to their horror (though it can’t possibly be to their surprise)… that the summer is filled with big-budget mainstream blockbusters from wall-to-wall. Ignoring the fact that Hollywood’s annual cycle is highly predictable these days (save only the emerge of what I like to call “quirky March” in recent years), why is the arrival of the summer fare universally treated as a bad thing?

Swimming with sharks...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, blockbuster, Blockbuster Inc., blockbuster movies, blockbusters, film, hollywood, jameson dublin international film festival, King's Speech, Movie | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Lo Que Más Quiero (What I Love The Most)

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

The movie that will quite possibly be forever known as “the longest 70 minutes of my life.”

This is actually one of the more interesting shots of the film...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Argentina, arts, film, Film-out, Filmmaking, jameson dublin international film festival, Lo Que Más Quiero, Movie, Prelude (music), revie, Vancouver, w non-review review, What I Love The Most, zack snyder | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Preludio

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Preludio was an interesting second feature for Mexican director Eduardo Lucatero. After his debut with Corazón Marchito in 2007 – a relatively large-scale production for Mexican cinema – it seems strange for the director to move back to a film so minimalist. Preludio is a movie with one scene, two leads, five other actors (and not all of them are speaking roles), one set and one take. It sound like it has the making of an art house disaster, and yet the director manages to make it work.