family | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Family

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Darren

I can’t tell you what The Family is. Not because of omerta or anything as cliché as that, but because it seems like The Family itself doesn’t know. I can describe what happens in the film, taking you through the events as they unfold on screen. I can describe the set-up. I can talk about its obvious influences. But I can’t tell you what exactly Luc Besson’s latest film actually is, because it seems like Besson himself can’t make up his mind.

Is it an action film with a quirky and unconventional set-up? Is it a gangster comedy about a former crook trying to go straight? Is it a fish-out-of-water comedy of manners about Americans arriving in northern France? Is it a pitch black comedy about a self-justifying sociopath attempting to carve out his own place in the world? Is it a high-stakes thriller about a family putting their lives on the line? Is it a weird coming-of-age drama? The Family is all of these things at various points, but it never commits to any of them.

Instead, it uses these elements to just keep circling until the running time is over.

Family values…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Besson, Dianna Agron, EuropaCorp, family, film, france, Gangster, luc besson, michelle pfeiffer, Movie, Robert De Niro, robert deniro, Soprano, United States | 2 Comments »

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Home Soil (Review)

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Darren

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also next year’s release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I’m taking a look at the recent blu ray release of the first season, episode-by-episode. Check back daily for the latest review.

I’ve been complaining pretty consistently throughout this rocky first year of Star Trek: The Next Generation that the show is trying too hard to be a carbon copy of the classic Star Trek, rather than trying to define its own distinct identity. By that logic, I concede that I should detest Home Soil. Much like the less-than-classic The Naked Now, it is pretty much an attempt to update an episode from the original show.

In this case, the story of a bunch of terraformers provoking an unconventional native lifeform recalls The Devil in the Dark, one of the best-loved episodes of Star Trek‘s pretty stellar first year. While Home Soil doesn’t quite measure up to its rather wonderful progenitor, it does manage to put its own slant on the story, to the point where Home Soil doesn’t feel like a recycled Star Trek script; rather, it feels like a story told from the perspective of The Next Generation.

Spark of life…

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Filed under: The Next Generation | Tagged: Brent Spiner, Data, Devil in the Dark, family, Federation, james t. kirk, jean-luc picard, Kim, Next Generation, picard, Recreation, Savage Curtain, Siri, Squire of Gothos, star trek, Star Trek Next Generation, star trek: the original series, Starfleet, Trekkie, Where No Man Has Gone Before, William Riker | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Devil

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Darren

Devil actually has a pretty interesting B-movie premise, evoking the sort of cheesy thrill of an eighties horror. Six strangers are trapped inside an elevator… and one of them might be Satan. It’s a fairly straight-forward idea, albeit one that the script and direction needlessly complicate and convolute as they attempt to fill up the seventy-seven minutes. In many ways, Devil feels like something of a classic horror throwback, a simple high concept that relies on occasionally overstated jump scares rather than gratuitous gore or carnage. It’s not necessarily the best representation of the genre, but – if you can suspend your disbelief and live with the overwrought corniness – it’s an affectionate old-fashioned homage.

And things were just looking up…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Army of Two, arts, bible, Bravo, Chris Messina, christianity, Devil, Electronic Arts, family, film, Frostbite (game engine), god, Hell, hollywood, Logan Marshall-Green, Mexican Drug War, Mother, Movie, non-review review, parents, Ramadan, review, Satan, Security Guard, Visceral Games, Xbox 360 | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: We Bought a Zoo

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Darren

The biggest problem facing We Bought a Zoo is that it can’t ever decide how serious a family drama it wants to be. It follows a family recovering from the loss of their mother by purchasing a zoo and attempting to renovate it, and it never finds a healthy balance between the shamelessly upbeat montage-set-to-classic-pop “live your crazy dreams!” feel-good fun and the heavier subject of a family finding piece. The result is a movie that often feels a little toosweet and a little too earnest at the same time, and never manages to mix the two tones with a great deal of success.

Not quite out of the park...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Cameron Crowe, Crowe, drama, Elle Fanning, family, film, films, Jónsi, Jerry Maguire, matt damon, Movies, non-review review, review, scarlett johansson, Thomas Haden Church, We Bought a Zoo, Zoology | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Kids Are All Right

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Darren

The Kids Are All Right is a charming and engaging little dramedy with a wonderful cast. It manages the wonderful feat of making an on-screen family seem “real” – there are any number of sequences in this which viewers will spot from years of family interactions. It’s an interesting study of how a strange “interloper” can have a surprisingly destablising effect on a family unit – how it all it takes is this one catalyst to bring all this unsung tension to the surface. But it’s never heavy or self-important. Sure, the ending is more than a little awkward, but the movie’s smart and funny enough to keep you engaged with it to the final reel.

And that’s saying nothing of the cracking David Bowie soundtrack? It has Won on it!

Paul gets a crisp reception...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alice in wonderland, family, film, Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko, mark ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Movies, non-review review, review, Sperm donation, the kids are all right | 4 Comments »

A Matter of Time – Doctor Who: Season 5

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Darren

Sorry… Sorry! Dropped it!

Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica, takes the universe. But bad news everyone… cause guess who! Listenw you lot, cause you’re all whizzing about – it’s really could distracting. Could you all just stay still for a minute? Because I. am. talking!

Now, question of the hour: who’s got the Pandorica? Answer: I do. Next question: who’s coming to take it from me?

C’mon!

Look at me: no plan, no backup, no weapons worth a damn – oh, and something else I don’t have? Anything to lose! So if you’re sitting up there in all your silly little spaceships with your silly little guns and you’ve got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who’s standing in your way; remember every black day I ever stopped you; and then – and then! – do the smart thing: let somebody else try first.

– The Doctor, The Pandorica Opens

Well, the first season of Stephen Moffat’s run of Doctor Who is over. And what a ride it was. On one hand, you had budget cuts at the BBC, putting an even great financial strain on the show’s transition to high definition, the first wholsecale chance of the entire cast between seasons since the show’s transition to colour in 1970 (and, fittingly, this was the show’s transition to high definition), and you had the World Cup skewing ratings towards the backend of the season. On the other hand, you had the writer of some of the show’s best episodes directing the entire run behind the scenes, the exploration of the time travelling nature of the central protagonist, and a blatant admission that the show is more a fairytale than a science fiction epic. And along the way, there was barely enough time to catch your breath.