Posted on February 9, 2011 by Darren
Truth be told, I’m a little behind this week. I took a trip down to Sligo at the weekend and I’m preparing for a film noir blogothon next week (stay tuned). So posting this week may be a little… scattershot. Anyway, in a nice way to tie into those wonderful BAFTA poster redesigns from last year, this year we have – courtesy of theshiznit.co.uk – a simple question: what if this year’s Best Picture nominees told the truth, up front? Instead of vague names like Winter’s Bone or Inception or The Fighter… well, that last one’s pretty spot on… but what if the movies just told you everything you needed to know, on the poster? They might look like this…
(click to enlarge)
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, comedy, Film noir, films, funny, homouir, Movies, Oscars, parody, poster, sligo, Winter's Bone | 8 Comments »
Posted on January 8, 2011 by Darren
This post is part of James Bond January, being organised by the wonderful Paragraph Films. I will have reviews of all twenty-two official Bond films going on-line over the next month, and a treat or two every once in a while.
It’s a little sad to think that Austin Powers is the last true comedic character that Mike Myers brought to the screen, and he was created nearly fifteen years ago. Yes, I have seen The Love Guru.
Powers to the People!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: austin powers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, comedy, Dr. Evil, ernst stavro blofeld, james bond, Love Guru, Mike Myers, Movies, non-review review, review, Roger Moore, sean connery, spoof | 4 Comments »
Posted on December 24, 2010 by Darren
A long time ago, yet somehow in the future…
The wonderful thing about myths is that they essentially repeat. All the great and epic stories have been told time and time again, from the first cavemen passing the time by a late night fire through to the matinée screening of the latest big budget blockbuster. Each generation creates their own variation of the myth, putting their own spin on it – some parts are given more emphasis in this iteration, while we shy away from others. In writing Star Wars, George Lucas acknowledged his debt to Joseph Campbell, the author who proposed a “monomyth” – the idea that there is one single overarching story which has been told tim and time again. I reckon that it’s this timelessness is the root of the film’s success, and what makes it such a ripe target for Family Guy.
Click to enlarge...
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Filed under: Television | Tagged: blue harvest, comedy, family guy, family guy: blue harvest, george lucas, homage, It's a Trap!, John Williams, Joseph Campbell, Judd Nelson, reference, Seth MacFarlane, star wars, Television | 2 Comments »
Posted on December 3, 2010 by Darren
Meet the Parents is a pleasant little film which works so well because it takes an awkward social experience that most of us have lived through – in this case meeting a partner’s parents – and turns it into a comedy of errors. It’s this smart little premise and the way that it plays off a familiar situation (with judicious application of the philosophy that “anything that can go wrong will“) that makes it so appealing – and perhaps explains the weaknesses of the movie’s sequel. Still, the original is an effective and charming comedy of manners which executes its premise well and, despite some difficulty balancing everything, manages to consistently entertain throughout.
DeNirest and Dearest...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: awkward, ben stiller, Blythe Danner, comedy, comedy of manners, dustin hoffman, Jay Roach, Little Fockers, Meet the Parents, non-review review, Owen Wilson, review, robert deniro, social comedy | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 30, 2010 by Darren
There’s a sense of life experience in Clerks – the undeniable feeling that the people involved in the production have actually been in situations similar to those being portrayed here and are writing from experience. The directorial debut from Kevin Smith, the film has a very weird feeling to it. It is as if the script (the words and the setting) are very casual and natural, but the performers are undoubtedly conscious of the camera. It creates a weird dichotomy between the very colloquial script and the relatively stiff performances. That said, there’s a charm to the film, which never really pretends to be anything more than what it actually is, and sort of cheeky rebellion which makes it endearing.
Dante's (profane) comedy...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brian o'halloran, clerks, comedy, dante hicks, film, indie, jeff anderson, kevin smith, Movies, non-review review, profane, randall, review, view askew, view askew trilogy | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 15, 2010 by Darren
The film is a slapstick comedy with a hero who is a nice guy. I thought that wasn’t allowed anymore. He’s a single dad, bringing up his daughter with the help of his mom. He takes his job seriously. He may be chubby, but he’s brave and optimistic.
– Roger Ebert on Paul Blart: Mall Cop
I watched MacGruber over the weekend. It was okay – it wasn’t fantastic, and it wasn’t one of the best examples of anything, but if you wanted a shedload of juvenile humour, well… it was right up your street. However, watching the film did get me thinking about just how much of a jerk the title character was. How much of a horrible person can a comedy protagonist be? When did it become the norm for these sorts of characters to be presented with completely irredeemable traits?
Sometimes it's an up-hill struggle to empathise with a protagonist...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 40 Year Old Virgin, adam sandler, arts, audience connection, audience empathy, audience sympathy, Baldrick, Billy Madison, comedy, happy gilmore, jim carrey, Liar Liar, macgruber, Movie, roger ebert, Rowan Atkinson, Saturday Night Live, unsympathetic comedy protagonist, unsympathetic protagonist | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 15, 2010 by Darren
MacGruber features a villain whose surname is “Cunth”. That is the litmus test to see whether the movie will appeal to you.
Has MacGruber got a wire loose?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comedy, film, Kristen Wiig, macgruber, macgyver, Movie, non-review review, review, Richard Dean Anderson, Ryan Phillippe, Saturday Night Live, val kilmer, Wayne's World, Will Forte | 5 Comments »
Posted on October 4, 2010 by Darren
Have you ever watched Lethal Weapon and wondered what the cops in that precinct who aren’t Riggs and Murtagh get up to? Or watched Die Hard and wondered what John McClane’s deskmate might have been like? Well then, The Other Guys is the movie for you.
Top of the cops?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Al Gore, comedy, Damon Wayans, Departed, financial crisis, Financial crisis of 2007–2010, mark wahlberg, Movie, non-review review, Other Guys, review, samuel l. jackson, steve coogan, the other guys, will ferrell | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 9, 2010 by Darren
Funny People is the very definition of “self-indulgent”. It’s a series of comedians from both the big leagues – movie stars – and the smaller circles – the improv stand-up circuit – reflecting on how difficult life is for an entertainer. Be it the generalisation that showbiz types are all cynical and disconnected to the point of being anhedonic, or the observation that fame and success typically come with a high personal cost. Of course, coming from director Judd Atapow – who carved out his earlier career with comedies centred on everyman (okay, maybe “slacker”) types like Knocked-Up or The Forty-Year-Old Virgin – a film about the types of circles that he moved in was a risky venture, one which would definitely represent a move away from the “common man” appeal of his earlier films. And at least those films had the gift of brevity.
My girlfriend would like you all to know that apparently I wear shirts like this...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: actor, adam sandler, big daddy, comedy, eric bana, funny people, George Simmons, happy gilmore, judd atapow, non-review review, review, seth rogan, the 40-year-old virgin, the forty-year-old virgin | 6 Comments »
Posted on August 26, 2010 by Darren
It’s very difficult to offer a movie that takes a cynical “Hollywood type” back to their roots. There are many reasons. The most obvious is that the type of person making the movie is a cynical Hollywood type and there’s something of an irony about making a film about the roots they’ve lost contact with – oftentimes it is more difficult to offer a grounded version of reality than it is to depict an alien invasion or a thoroughly ridiculous premise. Grown Ups is the second film this year which sees Adam Sandler playing a character attempting to reconnect with the common man – perhaps a timely theme in light of the recession, when the glitz and glamour of Hollywood stand in even starker contrast to the day-to-day lives of regular folks. However, if I didn’t know better, I’d think Sandler (whose production company produced the film and who co-wrote the script) is having something of a midlife crisis.
Not exactly a deep pool of talent...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adam sandler, big daddy, Chris Rock, comedy, David Spade, films, grown ups, happy madison, hicks, hollywood, kevin james, Movies, non-review review, review, Rob Schneider, roots, salma hayek, steve buscemi | 4 Comments »
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