Posted on September 16, 2011 by Darren
I really do have a great deal of affection for Run Lola Run, as a highly energetic and stylishly executed piece of cinema. It’s hard to think of a movie that can match the sheer intensity of the assault that the opening few moments make upon your senses, as the images flash across the screen, the heavy dance soundtrack kicks to life, and the camera dances and cuts like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a shame that the movie can’t really maintain that wonderful pace for the rest of its runtime, but perhaps it’s too much to ask for an eighty-minute sprint.
Betting it all on red...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, film, Filmmaking, games, Movie, Movies, non-review review, review, Run Lola Run, Sepp Herberger, Tom Tykwer | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 15, 2011 by Darren
Last week, Total Film included a selection of heavily stylised posters for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. They do look quite fabulous and are well worth a look, but it has been pointed out that one of them does spoil the film by identifying the mole. This got me thinking – the information is already out there, both in le Carré’s original Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the BBC’s adaptation, so at what point does the identity of the “mole right at the top of the Circus”cease to be a spoiler and become fair game? More than that, with the identity having been in the public sphere for decades, is it possible that the revelation could ruin the movie for anyone?
Everything's under Control...
Note: I do not actually reveal the identity of the mole here, so feel free to read ahead without impeding your viewing experience.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Alec Guinness, film, gary oldman, George Smiley, John le Carré, Mole (espionage), Sixth Sense, the usual suspects, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Total Film | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 15, 2011 by Darren
I’m honestly not quite sure what to make of Extract. Ironically for a movie about a factor producing flavour additives, the movie seems lack a flavour of its own. Is Mike Judge’s effort a quirky and eccentric anything-goes laugh-out-loud fest, or is it a more conventional cookie-cutter comedy? The film seems to fluctuate between the two extremes, at times playing incredible safe and yet occasionally swinging for the fences, adding to a vaguely disjointed feeling to the whole thing.
Meeting of the bored...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ben affleck, Clifton Collins Jr, DavidKoechner, Extract, film, j.k. simmons, jason bateman, Kristen Wiig, Mike Judge, mila kunis, Movie, non-review review, review | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 13, 2011 by Darren
I’ve always been fascinated by mysteries in fiction. That said, I will concede I’ve never really been particularly good at picking up on the hints within the work itself designed to point towards a particular perpetrator. I haven’t necessarily got the skills to pick up on what tiny little detail mentioned in dialogue or the tiniest little action that supports a particular conclusion – it’s just not how my mind works. Instead, perhaps as a direct result of watching far too many movies, I find it more relevent to look at factors outside the fictional world where the mystery is set in order to reach a conclusion – I’m more likely to identify the culprit by reference to the film itself than the clues on hand.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Character (arts), Crime fiction, csi, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, fiction, film, mysteries, mystery | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 13, 2011 by Darren
Buried is a great high-concept thriller, with one hell of a hook and a fascinating premise. Basically the story of kidnap victim Paul Conroy, who is kidnapped by “insurgents” (or “criminals” or “terrorists”, depending on who you ask) and buried alive in Iraq. With only a limited source of light, and even less time, the truck driver is given mere hours to come up with a ridiculously large ransom or he’ll be left in the ground to rot forever.
It's a dirty job...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: buried, colin farrell, film, iraq, monty python, Movie, non-review review, Paul Conroy, review, ryan reynolds, Truck driver | 6 Comments »
Posted on September 8, 2011 by Darren
When it first became clear that we were in for a long recession, there was a lot of fear about what that would mean for cinema. With less money to go around, and the ever-present fear of financial disappoint, a lot of people speculated that it would lead to a serious downturn in the production and distribution of “indie” movies by the major studios, a concern validated by the closing of various speciality divisions within major studios. While it has undoubtedly gotten significantly harder to produce and sell independent film, one look at last year’s Best Picture nominees suggest that these little gems are doing relatively okay – with films as provocative as Black Swan, as alternative as The Kids Are All Right and as gritty as Winter’s Bone all making the cut. Still, if the indie apocalypse that was foretold hasn’t come to pass, I do have to wonder what the cinematic cost of the current economic climate might be.
Hollywood's taken the occasional slap on the wrist over the past few years...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blockbusters, ComCast, film, Gore Verbinski, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Jerry Bruckheimer, johnny depp, Kids Are All Right, Lone Ranger, movie costs, recession | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 7, 2011 by Darren
I’m going to be honest. I like B-movies. I have a soft-spot for a nice cheesy bit of entertainment that doesn’t demand to be taken seriously, and I can forgive a movie some bad acting or dodgy special effects, if the core ingredients are at least marginally interesting. Hell, I actually honestly enjoyed Event Horizon, something not too many other people will confess to. However, watching Supernova, a surprisingly lame rip-off that comes from a handful of directors (including Francis Ford Coppola), I found myself struggling to find anything to remotely enjoy. Instead, I spent most of its relatively short runtime counting down the seconds until it was over.
Guess which one of these gives the least mechanical performance...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, film, francis ford coppola, James Spader, Movie, non-review review, Peter Facinelli, review, Special effect, Supernova, Tom & Jerry, White dwarf | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 2, 2011 by Darren
Total Recall, to quote the lead character, whoever or whatever he may actually be, might just be “the best mind%&@! yet.”
"Dammit Cohagen, give these people some air!"
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger, film, Len Wiseman, mars, michael ironside, Movie, non-review review, Paul Verhoeven, Philip K. Dick, review, ridley scott, Ronny Cox, Sharon Stone, total recall | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 1, 2011 by Darren
We’ve been digital now for about five years. I have to admit, as much as I might have admired the scavenger sensibility that standard ten-channel Irish television might have taught me, I find it hard to imagine what it must have been like. It’s like the way I can’t imagine a world without easy-to-carry mobile phones, even though I lived in it for quite a while, or I can’t remember what the world was like without access to the information super-highway (though I do remember when we used to use dial-up internet… oh the pain). Digital television is a wonderful invention, and one that I truly treasure. It’s been heard so often that it’s become something of a truism to remark that we get 999 channels, but there’s never anything to watch… but I think that people who feel like that simply aren’t trying hard enough.
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Filed under: Television | Tagged: art, digital, digital television, DVD, film, films, information age, Jay Switzer, Koyaanisqatsi, List of movie television channels, Movie, short cuts, sky | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 31, 2011 by Darren
A special thanks to the guys over at movies.ie for sneaking us into an advanced preview screening.
Being charitable, Kill List is a complete mess of a film. It has a decent concept, and a solid middle section. However, these are surrounded by an incredibly boring opening half-hour and a monumentally stupid and non-sensical ending. It’s a shame, because one gets the sense that there’s a very clever, very entertaining movie to be found if one can dig deep enough, but it’s very hard to like a film that is so decidedly uneven and feels like an especially random video nasty.
Not exactly light subject matter...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Ben Wheatley, Contract killing, film, Hit List (film), Hit List (John Keller Mysteries), Hitman, Kill list, Michael Smiley, Movie, non-review review, review, United States | 3 Comments »
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