criticism | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Scream 4 (Scre4m)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Darren

Alright, Kirby, then it’s time for your last chance. Name the remake of the groundbreaking horror movie in which the vill…

Halloween, uh, Texas Chainsaw, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, Amityville Horror, uh, Last House on the Left, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine, When A Stranger Calls, Prom Night, Black Christmas, House of Wax, The Fog, Piranha. It’s one of those, right? Right?

(beat)

I got it right. I was &@#!ing right.

– Ghostface and Kirby redefine the frame of reference

In many ways, Scream 4 feels like a fitting end to the Scream franchise. In fact, it feels like it has come something of a full circle from the first film, which was envisaged as something of an obituary for the dying slasher genre. In the years since, prompted in a large part by the success of the original Scream, the genre has been resurrected. Watching the grind of horror films released, it seems that Hollywood has been churning out nothing but empty roman-numeral-denoted sequels and hallow remakes, with very little thought or creativity. Scream 4 feels a like a reflection on the “success” that the first film wrought, and actually feelings like a fitting closing act.

It's going viral...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: criticism, deconstruction, Emma Roberts, feminism, feminism in movies, films, gender roles, Ghostface, horror, irony, Jill Roberts, John Carpenter, Kevin Williamson, metafiction, Movie, non-review review, review, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Sidney Prescott, slashers, wes craven | 7 Comments »

Grand Larson-y: Nick Swardson and Being Critical of Comedies…

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Darren

This type of thing happens every once in a while, to the point where it’s almost not really news at all. Kevin Smith took to twitter to lambast critics of his (admittedly) disappointing Cop Out, and studios have a habit of releasing potentially divisive films around critics (look at how they sold G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra). Nick Swardson, who has only come to my attention of late with a solid supporting role in the perfectly adequate but unexceptional 30 Minutes or Less, has taken to lashing out at the critics who didn’t respond especially favourably to Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star. He suggests:

I knew the critics were going to bury us. It was a softball. They were waiting, waiting to hate that movie. It’s kind of funny that they get their rocks off on reviews like that. They review The King’s Speech, then they review Bucky Larson.

…

It’s a lot of work and a lot of reviewers aren’t going into that movie to like it. They don’t want to like it. None of those reviewers was psyched to see Bucky Larson and laugh. They go in with the mentality, fuck these guys for making another movie. They go in there to kind of headhunt. It makes me laugh because it’s just so embarrassing. It makes them look like such morons. You can’t review Avatar then review Bucky Larson. Comedy is so subjective, you know what I mean? To sit there and technically pick it apart is so stupid. We’ve never made movies for critics, so we could give a f***.

There’s obviously more than a hint of bitterness (the last line is very much “well, we don’t care what they think!”), but does Swardson have a point about the difficulty of reviewing comedies?

Bucky bites back...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adam sandler, Born to Be a Star, Bucky Larson, comedies, cop out, criticism, film, films, kevin smith, King's Speech, Movies, Nick Swardson, review, reviews, rotten tomatoes, subjectivity, Swardson | 4 Comments »

Best Indecision Ever! Movie Reviewers & Fear of Absolutes…

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Darren

I had the pleasure of catching Midnight in Paris at the weekend, and I liked it. I really liked it. I confessed in my review that I thought it was Woody Allen’s best film of the past decade, and – as I left the cinema – I found myself wondering if perhaps it was the best of Allen’s films that I’ve seen. I’ll freely concede that I have yet to work my way through the director’s extensive filmography, but I have been a lot of his more famous and celebrated films like Annie Hall or Manhattan. Still, I feel reluctant to say that, which is admittedly quite strange. I am a movie reviewer (or, if you’ll allow me a hint of pretension, a “critic”) why am I so scared of superlatives?

Simply the best?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Allen, Annie Hall, best, brazil, criticism, film, Manhattan, Midnight in Paris, paris, praise, review, reviews, Woody Allen | 4 Comments »

Critics Just Wanna Have Fun: Why I Dislike the “They Don’t Get It” Argument…

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Darren

I like to think I am open minded. Just a few weeks ago, I published an article defending big budget blockbusters from their detractors. However, I find myself growing frequently frustrated when it comes to fans using the old “critics don’t like fun” argument to defend a given movie from any sort of meaningful debate and criticism. It happens a few times a year, most spectacularly with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen back in 2009, but also this year with Sucker Punch. The film has received a critical lambasting, but fans are always quick to rush to the internet to critique the critics, claiming things like “they don’t get it” and “they don’t understand” or nonsense like that.

And, you know what? That’s just plain wrong.

Movie for suckers?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Abbie Cornish, armond white, criticism, critics, dark knight, discussion, films, get it, it, Jena Malone, King's Speech, Last Airbender, Movies, reviewers, Shutter Island, Sucker Punch, they just don't get it, watchmen, zack snyder | 14 Comments »

Critical Predisposition: What Preconceptions Do You Bring Into Movies?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Darren

Over the last week, I had the pleasure to visit the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. I saw a lot of films as part of that, and the reviews have been popping up all week. Anyway, they give out an audience award, which gave me occasion to actually score films. Regular readers here know that I am loath to try to objectively rank cinema, as it’s a very subjective medium and I have difficulty reconciling relative grades, but I went along with it. Anyway, they use a four-point scale and, long story short, I found myself using a lot of “3” grades, which is the second-highest rank. This kinda got me thinking: Am I a little too generous to films I really shouldn’t be? How do I approach the cinema? Do I look for things to love? Do I have a pre-disposed bias? Do I want to love films, even if they aren’t especially great?

Me, aged about eight...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Action film, Adjustment Bureau, avatar, bias, cinema, criticism, cynicism, demolition man, film, film critics, godfather, jameson dublin international film festival, Movie, Movies, optimism, outlook, watchmen | 4 Comments »

Is Film Criticism Ever Objective? Can Disliking a Film Ever Be Wrong?

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Darren

Toy Story 3 seems to be pretty much universally loved. I say ‘pretty much’, because there are currently two negative reviews on-line about it. To put that in context, that’s two negative reviews out of nearly one-hundred-and-fifty on Rotten Tomatoes. As always happens with this sort of thing – reviewers expressing a ridiculously unpopular opinions – this has prompted a bit of a reaction on-line:

They rail against anyone who likes it, happily sitting alone on their bitter, hate-filled island. An island of wrong. Hundreds of film critics have proclaimed their love for Toy Story over the course of three movies and the two baldies who hate it can’t really tell us why. Most of the time film is subjective. This time it’s not.

So, is film criticism ever objective? Can an opinion ever be wrong?

Can you believe the Buzz about this film?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: armond wright, criticism, films, movie criticism, Movies, opinions, reviews, rotten tomatoes, toy story, toy story 3, toy story trilogy, wrong | 18 Comments »

Silent Bob Strikes Back: Kevin Smith & The Perils of Twitter

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Darren

I like Kevin Smith. I appreciate he’s been through a lot. He is a legend for taking a huge paycut to get Cop Out made the way that it should have been made, regardless of what you think of the result. That’s dedication to his art, no matter how you cut it and there’s not enough of that these days. He was also perfectly right in his recent airplane trouble and I can appreciate that Hollywood has repeatedly (and thoroughly) screwed him over time and again. He’s never had the mainstream success that his breakout talent deserved, and I’m fairly certain that most of that isn’t in any way his own fault. But he really needs to learn when to disengage.

Just keep those mikes pointed AWAY from Smith and it'll be okay...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cop out, criticism, critics, fims, kevin smith, Movies, rant, tweet, twitter | Leave a comment »

Avatar Backlash Backlash – Is “It Looks Beautiful” Ever Good Enough?

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Darren

I’ll be honest. I didn’t like Avatar. Part of the movie made me uncomfortable. The implications of the whole “white man leads a bunch of noble savages to a victory they couldn’t have acheived without him” bit are worrying when place in the context of a metaphor for the genocide of the Native Americans. But, beyond that, it just isn’t a very good film. The dialogue is terrible. The characters don’t seem half as real as James Cameron’s wonderfully brought-to-life planet Pandora. On the other hand, I will concede that the visuals are stunning. They are breathtaking. What really amazes me, though, is the tone of backlash that most negative reviews seem to be generating, which can be effectively summed up with: just shut up and look at the pretty picture – who cares about plot and characters?

King of the new world...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, avatar backlash, avatar reviews, criticism, critics, film, Movies, special effects, story | 1 Comment »

Are Bloggers Critics?

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Darren

Is any profession less secure than film criticism? Really. I mean, I was depressed about the box office success of Transformers 2 as well and was disappointed no one heeded you, but I didn’t begin to doubt my very profession. Similarly I was upset that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was marketed around film critics, but I didn’t become openly petty about you guys not seeing the film for free. This time, it’s the fact that critics are being grouped with bloggers that has prompted a rather severe reaction from some quarters. Is there any point to be made?

The film critic on new media...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: awards daily, bloggers, blogging, criticism, critics, film criticism, films, hollywood elsewhere, indieWire, jeffrey wells, Movies, roger ebert, sasha stone, tiff, toronto international film festival | 34 Comments »

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.