films | the m0vie blog

Emo Spider-Man & Going Against the Nerd: It Isn’t Easy Being Geek…

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Darren

The Amazing Spider-Man trailer debuted during the week and it was… kinda okay, I suppose. Nothing too shocking or gripping or incredible, and nothing to push it too high on a “must see” list that includes The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers as two massive hits for my superhero fix. However, I was surprised at the rather immediate response from relatively mainstream sources to “emo Spider-Man.” Even non-geeks seem to have picked up on the fact that Peter Parker in a hoodie hunched over a text book is not a good sign. Surely Spider-Man III taught us that “goth Spider-Man” is not a good idea?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Andrew Garfield, Batman in film, brian michael bendis, counter-culture, emo, films, geek chic, geek culture, high school, marc webb, Movies, punk rock, sam raimi, secondary school, spider man, stan lee, sub-culture, the amazing spider-man, the amazing spiderman | 15 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Darren

Truth be told, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has a lot of problems. It’s structurally the weakest of the films, existing as a bridge between what came before and what follows – but ultimately feels like treading water. One gets the sense that the ruthless editing that made Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire work so well was sorely missing here. It literally feels more like a collection of subplots rather than a movie in its own right. And then there’s the ending, which is ridiculously weak, but also somewhat undermines the threat the last film spent so long building up.

It's not a knock-out success...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: daniel radcliffe, Death Eater, Dumbledore's Army, films, games, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, HarryPotter, Hogwarts, Hogwarts staff, literature, Lord Voldemort, Magical creatures in Harry Potter, Ministry of Magic, Movies, non-review review, Online, review, Roleplaying, Rupert Grint | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Darren

“Everything’s going to change now, isn’t it?”

– Hermoine, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Truth be told, before I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was easily my favourite instalment of the series. It’s the perfect balance between the lighter start of the series and the much darker end of it, straddling the two distinct tones with ease, and managing to walk the line between it’s under-plotted predecessors and over-plotted successors. It’s still not quite perfect, but it genuinely feels like things are changing and world is lot more vast than the earlier films had led us to believe.

The series is finally firing on all cylinders...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alan rickman, Alfonso Cuarón, films, Half-Blood Prince, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, HarryPotter, Hogwarts, JK Rowling, Mike Newell, Movies, non-review review, Order of the Phoenix (organisation), review | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Cars 2

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Darren

Cars 2 is a Pixar film that runs on an engine, rather than on heart. Technically, it’s magnificent. It’s well put together, features a winning cast, a lot of quite wonderful jokes and absolutely stunning action movies. However, the movie fails to make even the most basic of emotional connections. We’re always watching a bunch of cool cars doing cool car stuff, but we never feel good or bad about it. Even when a handful of cars meet tragic ends over the course of the movie, we never feel bad about it – we don’t really care about them, so we’re never concerned at the dangers they face. It’s a shame, because it’s a stunningly beautiful piece of animation, it’s just missing that wonderful soul that Pixar seems to install with its movies as standard.

Lightning, cameras, action!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cars, Cars 2, films, finding nemo, Lightning McQueen, Mater, Michael Caine, Movies, non-review review, Paul Newman, pixar, review, Tow Mater | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Platoon

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Darren

I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I’m sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called “possession of my soul.” There are times since, I’ve felt like a child, born of those two fathers.

– ~~Oliver Stone~~ Charlie Taylor meditates on Vietnam

I honestly think that Platoon might be my favourite war film ever made. It’s almost certainly my favourite Vietnam film ever made, despite my considerable respect for Apocalypse Now. However, though Stone’s classic is steeped in allegory and metaphor (see the above quote), I think that it works better as a personal account of the conflict, rather than Coppola’s attempt to capture the surreal nature of the war on celluloid. Stone actually served a tour over there, and I think that there’s a lot of his own personal perspective poured into the film, which makes it feel like quite a raw and powerful piece of cinema.

War is dirty business...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Charles Taylor, films, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, military, Movies, non-review review, oliver stone, Platoon, review, tom berenger, vietnam, Vietnam War, willem dafoe | 4 Comments »

Harry Pottering On: Research & Reviews…

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Darren

This evening, I will be lucky enough to attend a screening of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part II, and have a chance to get my review on-line. However, I must concede that I am not a Harry Potter fanatic. I haven’t read the books. I’ve seen the films, enjoyed the majority for what they are, only found one to be an exercise in tedium, and have a genuine respect for what they’ve managed to accomplish in bringing to life a fairly iconic series of books in a manner that can please both the hardcore fans and the casual movie-goer. However, as I brace myself to attend the screening tonight, I wonder what a film critic owes their subject matter in terms of research. Do I owe the people who made the film, and – possibly – the fans that are going to see it, enough to dig into as much of the back ground as possible before the cinema lights go down?

Witch approach should I adopt?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, critics, Emma Watson, film, film criticism, film critics, film research, film reviews, films, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling, Movie, Movies, research, review, reviews | 2 Comments »

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Poster Has Arrived…

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Darren

… and it is awesome. It’s done in that rather minimalistic approach as the early Dark Knight posters.

And we get a teaser this week. I am really excited, and I hope it’s half as effective as the teasers for Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, both of which were perfect examples of trailers that spurred interest and intrigue without giving anything away.

Click to enlarge...

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bane, batman, batman begins, Batman in film, Christopher Nolan, dark knight, films, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film), Movies, Teaser trailer, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, the dark knight rises poster, the dark knight rises teaser, the dark knight rises teaser poster, Warner Bros | 6 Comments »

Ah Sure, It’s Grand: Random Thoughts on Critical Reception to Irish Films…

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Darren

It’s always a bit interesting when a major and well-received Irish film is released, if only because it typically involves a fairly large divorce between the critical and audience reception to these films. It has been suggested that film critics are too quick to shower Irish films with praise they don’t deserve, out of some misplaced sense of patriotism. As the Trinity Film Review succinctly sums up:

An overrated Irish film is not hard to find. Our tendency towards the inflated evaluation of domestic filmmaking is a self-perpetuating one, leaving audiences indifferent towards the hyperbole-gavaged, entry-level film geese trotted out by our native industry, and filmmakers and critics alike complacent in the immutable, self-congratulatory expository routine the utter nakedness of which nobody seems inclined to comment on.

I have to admit, I’ve seen this in effect quite a few times, and it really bugs me – if only because it makes it harder to spot when a realgem of a film comes along. I honestly don’t think that this sort of attitude helps anyone.

I'm not down with that...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Cinema of Ireland, Cultures and Groups, father ted, film, Film festival, films, in bruges, irish films, irish movies, irish times, Movie, Movies, overrated, Raidió Teilifís Éireann | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Mars Attacks!

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Darren

I have a genuine affection for Mars Attacks! It’s certainly not Tim Burton’s best work, but it’s also miles above some of his more disappointing output. It feels like an affectionate homage to Ed Wood, putting together the kind of movie that the old B-movie director would have approved of, except with the judgement to play it as a comedy rather than entirely straight (although Wood’s filmography is typically “so bad it’s good“, one could scarcely accuse the director of being in on the joke), and made with a more significant budget. Seen in that light, it’s hard to resist the movie’s (admittedly uneven) charms.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they say...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, cheesy, danny elfman, Ed Wood, film, films, hokey, hokey sci-fi, jack nicholson, Mars Attacks!, Martian, martians, Movie, Movies, non-review review, paul winfield, pulp, pulp fiction, pulp sci-fi, review, sci-fi, tim burton, Topps | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Larry Crowne

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Darren

Larry Crowne isn’t a terrible movie, but rather a frustrating one. Written by, directed by, and starring, Tom Hanks, the movie seems to want to be a romantic comedy skewered towards older and more mature viewers, which is a great idea – not only because so few movies cater to that demographic, but because the few comedies that do have been proven successes. The audience is there, and it’s a great idea to unite Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, the king and queen of the classy nineties rom-com in a film that might have a more considered and reflective edge over most other romantic comedies. Unfortunately, the movie is so ridiculously pedestrian that it’s hard to work up any excitement. If the movie, rather than the character, were doing the college courses in the film, it would get graded “must do better.”