film | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Green Mile

Posted on August 9, 2010 by Darren

I never really responded to The Shawshank Redemption. I’ll go into why exactly if I ever get around to writing a review of it, but perhaps the fact that I never really embraced the film as strongly as most film fans (or even just, y’know, people) is the reason that I am somewhat fonder of The Green Mile than most. The Green Mile is admittedly as guilty as Frank Darabont’s early Stephen King adaptation set in a prison when it comes to emotional manipulation of its audience (look at us humanise the prison guards by having the three of them tackle a mouse in a borderline comedic fashion!), but I find it a lot more honest about its inherent darkness than that tale of redemption in Shawshank.

No, it's not a halo, but it's pretty close...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: barry pepper, david morse, doug hutchinson, film, frank darabont, green mile, james cromwell, michael clarke duncan, Movie, non-review review, review, sam rockwell, stephen king, the green mile, the shawshank redemption, tom hanks | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Futurama – Bender’s Game

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Darren

You could make the arguement that the first two Futurama movies – Bender’s Big Score and The Beast With A Billion Backs – cast their nets particularly widely in charting the universe the show had been cultivating for four years before it went off the air, perhaps drawing in more threads than it was fair to assume that an hour-and-a-half movie could handle. So Bender’s Game might seem a relief in that regard. It’s a relatively tightly-focused tale, involving a small subset of the show’s many, many characters. However, in doing so, it never really seems to justify why it’s a bigger and longer tale. Indeed, it could just as easily have been two shorter ones.

A Knight to Remember...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: bender's game, dungeons & dragons, dungeons and dragons, film, futurama, futurama: bender's game, Movies, non-review review, review, Television | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Superman

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Darren

Tell me your heart doesn’t skip a beat when you hear the familiar brass of John Williams’ iconic score. Or that you can resist a smile as a small child introduces the movie by opening a comic book and reading aloud. Or that the opening shot of the crystal canyons of Krypton doesn’t make your spine tingle just a bit. Richard Donner’s Superman is perhaps correctly regarded as the father of the whole superhero genre, and deservedly so, but it’s also a stunningly well put together film in its own right. You could argue that this film predates the whole “superhero” genre in Hollywood, and – as such- more deserves classification as a “fantasy” film. And it can certainly stand with the very best of them.

Don't worry, he's trained for this sort of emergency...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, batman begins, christopher reeves, film, films, gene hackman, John Williams, jor-el, lex luthor, marlon brando, Movie, non-review review, review, richard donner, Smallville, superheroes, superman, superman ii: the richard donner cut, Warner Brothers | 13 Comments »

Anatomy of a Backlash: Intercepting Inception Criticisms…

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Darren

It’s always interesting to watch the reaction to a highly anticipated blockbuster. Sure, most of the time it hits like a drop in the ocean: there’s a moment of anticipation as it travels through the air and a slight reverberation as it joins the rather sizeable pool of existing movies, quickly forgotten or accepted. However, sometimes – if the movie is big enough – you get a slightly more complex reaction. That second before it hits the water becomes longer, the audience holds its breath even tighter and then, when it hits… there are reactions. The first wave, usually one of acceptance – the geekery, the exotic embrace, the types of reviews that push a Rotten Tomatoes score up to 100% before it even gets a wide release. Then there’s the second wave, as a few high-profile commentators dare to speak out against the film – usually reviewers from prestigious publications, usually as release day dawns. There’s a third movement, perhaps in direct response to the above – the rapid fanboy passion, one determined to lock down any criticism, sometimes aggressive, just sometimes caught up in the moment. And, if the film is really big, there’s a fourth wave, the public backlash against the film itself. It’s interesting to watch a movie cycle through these four basic events, like Inception certainly has of late. There are ripples across the internet, and waves of discussion and engagement, which is always great to see. However, it’s somewhat less exciting to witness how bitter criticisms and arguments can become.

It's all a bit topsy-turvy...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Christopher Nolan, debate and discussion, film, film criticism, films, Inception, movie criticism, Movies | 6 Comments »

A Sight for Thor Eyes: Thoughts on the Set Design of Thor…

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Darren

The first on-set photographs of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor have arrived on-line. And a lot of people are, understandably, turned off. I’ll be honest, I can see where they’re coming from: it’s camp and kitsch in a way that would allow it to serve as a backdrop for an Abba music video – and that ain’t the demographic we’re going for here. Anthony Hopkins looks like he has fashioned his eyepatch out of Ferraro Roche wrappers. However I, ever the contrarian in small and insignificant ways, love it. Let’s call it the Donner factor. Because that’s much more sophisticated than “the Superman factor”.

I think that style is quite super...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: film, keneth branagh, kenneth branagh, marvel comics, Movies, odin, richard donner, set design, stylistic, superman, thor | 8 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Memento

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Darren

I figured, what with Inception coming out and all, it was the perfect time in introduce my better half to the rather impressive (and amazingly consistent – indeed, only one of his films did not make my “top 50 films of the decade”) director Christopher Nolan. I discover that she had yet to see Memento, Nolan’s first major American release. We immediately decided to rectify the situation.

Picture perfect...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: amnesia, carrie-anne moss, Christopher Nolan, classic, film, guy pierce, joe pantoliano, leonard shelby, memento, memory, modern noir, Movie, noir, non-review review, review, short term memory | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Toy Story 3

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Darren

At this stage of my life, I’ve figured out that Pixar are like an old friend you see but once a year. You almost take them for granted until you meet up with them – and they’re filled with amazing stories of adventure, fun and whimsy. Somehow they always have the most exciting tales and wonderful way of spinning their yarns, but they’re also strangely intimate – perhaps it’s because you feel almost like you’ve grown up with them. And then they make you cry. Possibly like a little girl. Who am I to judge, my eyes are still red. And you leave knowing that you’ll see them again around about the same time next year, to share more wonderful fantasies and stories – but you can never hear the same story twice.

Yes Ken Do...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: animation, buzz lightyear, classic, film, films, lotso, Movies, ned beatty, night & day, non-review review, pixar, review, tim allen, tom hanks, toy story, toy story 3, toy story trilogy, woody | 14 Comments »

At My Most Masochistic: Tarantino’s Bill

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Darren

This is part of the blogothon put together by the Pompous Film Snob, asking bloggers to select their favourite Tarantino character. It’s a pretty stellar list of bloggers tackling some iconic characters, so it’s well worth a look. Check them out, here. I’m a bit late in publishing this one.

Kill Bill is a remarkable film. It’s an impressive work – so impressive that it is split across two parts. What’s really impressive about it, though, is just how big a departure is represented from Tarantino’s body of work in the nineties. Tarantino made his reputation taking basic scenarios with which we’re all familiar, but putting a new twist on them – for example, Reservoir Dogs takes place in the aftermath of a botched robbery or True Romance followed a young couple a cross-country elopement, running from the criminals rather than the law or Pulp Fiction followed a variety of intersecting stories which spring out of a deal and betrayal between bad men (it’s all set in motion with Jules and Vincent recovering something stolen from Marsellus). Here, however, Tarantino is doing something different. Rather than providing a unique angle on an archetypal story, he’s instead playing out the story to its logical conclusion. Kill Bill, Vol. I is a most typical revenge ploy, albeit perfectly executed. However, Kill Bill, Vol. II takes that idea and picks it apart. The characters who serve as plot functions in the first half become real human beings in the second. Seen as Bill arguably has the most screentime across both films (apparent from the Bride) it’s fascinating to see what he begins as, and how he ends up.

Bill is just fluting around...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bill, character study, characters, film, kill bill, kill bill: the whole bloody affair, kill bill: vol. 1, kill bill: vol. 2, kill bill: volume one, kill bill: volume two, Movies, quentin tarantino, tarantino | 2 Comments »

Building a Better Batman: Is The Dark Knight a Deconstruction or a Reconstruction?

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Darren

This article is part of the really wonderful Christopher Nolan Blogathon, which is being run by Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck. It’s a week of Nolan-related madness in the run-up to the release of Inception this weekend. Pop on over you daily fix.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Christopher Nolan’s new film Inception is being released this week, and I’m pretty excited, I’m not going to lie to you. Anyway, I figured that the release of Nolan’s latest summer blockbuster justified a retrospective look back at his earlier summer success story, the rather wonderful The Dark Knight. In particular whether, whether the film, which stands as perhaps the most defining example of the superhero in cinema. However, is it a successful deconstruction of the genre, or an attempted reconstruction of the superhero on film?

Nolan certainly took Batman under his wing...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman, batman begins, Christopher Nolan, deconstruction, film, gotham, Movies, reconstruction, The Dark Knight, things that don't suck | 21 Comments »

A Despicable iPhone Gimmick…

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Darren

Animated film Despicable Me was released Stateside at the weekend and it had a rather wonderful gimmick. An iPhone app. It was basically an app which translated what the adorable little yellow minions were saying, so that they could be understood by the audience. I’m on the fence about the idea, but you have to give credit where credit is due – it’s an absolutely ingenious idea, and one I can see slowly catching on.