Posted on May 8, 2010 by Darren
This is one of my entries on the latest cross-blogging event, tracking down some of the most overrated movies of all time. It’s being run by Mike over at You Talking to Me. I can’t spoil the list by giving you any of the other titles, but I did take a quick look at Spider-Man‘s legacy earlier in the week.
I love Toy Story. I love Toy Story II even more. I am anticipating Toy Story III with baited breath. I adore Pixar. The only two films they’ve produced that fall short of excellence (in my opinion) are Cars and A Bug’s Life and both are still above average as films go. So it may seem odd to critique the legacy of perhaps the first great computer animated film – but this is a strange world we live in. Think about it, though. Pixar have essentially killed conventional animated films – at least in this part of the world.
Computer-generated animation spreads its wings...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: animation, cgi, computer animation, conventional animation, disney, dreamworks, films, Movies, pixar, toy story, toy story 2, toy story 3 | 8 Comments »
Posted on May 6, 2010 by Darren
I’m sucker for things that go bump in the night. It’s a personal thing. Some people are inherently weirded out by the very idea of zombies or insects or serial killers, but it’s ghosts (or demons or “spiritual presences” or whatever euphemism you wish to use) in their purest forms which terrify me. It’s a matter of personal horror preference – I can (admittedly reluctantly) take copious amounts of gore and graphic violence and, while I may flinch, I’ll shrug it off. It may get me while I’m watching it and I may even look away like a big baby, but it doesn’t really bother me. Give me something just a bit more abstract and I’ll spend the night shivering. So Paranormal Activity was right up my street, then?
A new house can be hell on a relationship...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: films, horror, Movies, non-review review, paranormal activity, review | 9 Comments »
Posted on May 5, 2010 by Darren
This is one of my entries on the latest cross-blogging event, tracking down some of the most overrated movies of all time. It’s being run by Mike over at You Talking to Me. I can’t spoil the list by giving you any of the other titles, but I can tell you another entry will be appearing on this very blog before the week is out.
Let me pitch you a scene. It’s early 2002. There’s a whole rank of huge blockbusters looming. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Star Wars: Episode II; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Austin Powers in Goldmember; Men in Black II; Ice Age. And then there’s a strange one. Spider-Man, from that guy who made The Evil Dead. Really? Sure, Richard Donner’s Superman was great, but that was decades ago. Joel Schumacher had killed the Batman franchise only a few years back. That Bryan Singer fella had proved he wasn’t a one-hit wonder with X-Men, but it wasn’t exactly box office gold (only the eighth biggest film of 2000). Comic book movies were a strange proposition – transitioning the characters to the big screen just didn’t work naturally. Somethings aren’t meant to be adapted.
Has Spider-Man Blackened the Name of all Superhero Films?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blogging, comic book, comic book films, comic books, daredevil, films, Movie, Movies, spider man, spider-man 2, spider-man 3, spider-man ii, spider-man iii, superhero movies, superheroes | 10 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2010 by Darren
This post comes about from a bit of a debate that has emerged following the revelation of certain spoilers about Iron Man 2. Given that the movie is just out state side, I’m not going to spoil it for anyone stumbling across this page. I just find it an interesting abstract discussion: Are movie spoilers news? Or should web news outlets simply refuse on principle to publish these sorts of rumours?
Nick Fury has his eye on you...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: CHUD, films, iron man, iron man 2, Movies, secret endings, spoiler tags, spoiler warnings, spoilers | 6 Comments »
Posted on April 29, 2010 by Darren
This is the poster for Buried, the indie thriller which is based around the idea of Ryan Reynolds being buried alive. I love a good high concept thriller (think Phone Booth or Cellular, for example) – but I especially love a cool high concept poster.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: buried, films, Movies, poster, ryan reynolds | 10 Comments »
Posted on April 23, 2010 by Darren
Ah, mobile phones. Or cellular telephones to our overseas readers. How did we ever get by without them. Can you imagine a time when you were actually able to have a legitimate excuse for ignoring people trying to get into contact with you? When you were unreachable, save at home or at work? I reached my teenage years just as mobile phones became truly moble – I came of age as they became standard accessories for everyone. So I’ve never really lived in a world without them. So I’ve never really had a chance to stop and think about how they’ve influenced movie-making and the like. While they’ve undoubedly made it easier to write genres like dramas or romances where you no longer have to worry about characters sharing a geographic location to have a conversation, I think their biggest area of influence has been on horrors or thrillers, movies which took great pride in isolating individuals and having them face threats or challenges on their own. How has this changed?
Is there a life on the line?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cellular, cellular telephones, films, mobile phones, mobiles, Movies, phonebooth, phones, pulse | 7 Comments »
Posted on April 22, 2010 by Darren
It’s already happening. We’re already calling Kick-Ass a failure. Even though it managed to narrowly slide into first place at the US Box Office over the weekend, there are tonnes of pundits ready to dogpile on top of it and describe it as the most epic kind of failure. It seems to be a cyclical experience every time that a big geek film emerges, that has experienced a large amount of pre-release hype on the old interweb: Snakes on a Plane, Watchmen and Grindhouse among others. So how come Hollywood keeps pandering to a niche that never seems to show up?
Did Kick-Ass get its ass kicked? Should we call it Ass-Kick?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: box office, economics, failure, films, geeks, grindhouse, hobo with a shotgun, hollywood, home video, kick-ass, machete, Movies, nerds, snakes on a plane, studios, watchmen | 13 Comments »
Posted on April 20, 2010 by Darren
The Joneses is a sharply observed, perfectly timed, more than a little cynical examination of American suburbia. Trust me when I say that it’s hard not to leave the movie thinking of American Beauty, I mean that in the most flattering way possible. Yes, I bought what it is the Joneses were selling.
Sometimes you can choose your family...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: advertising, amber heard, american beauty, david duchovney, demi moore, films, gary cole, glenne headley, keeping up with the joneses, marketing, non-review review, review, selling, stealth marketing, suburbia, the joneses, the right hook | 7 Comments »
Posted on April 19, 2010 by Darren
Let me tell you something: My father was a very big man. And all his life he wore a black mustache. When it was no longer black, he used a small brush, such as ladies use for their eyes. Mascara.
– Robert
The Comfort of Strangers is… a strange film. I can appreciate what it’s doing (or rather what it is trying to do), but it never quite comes together. Perhaps it’s because the movie seems structured as too much of a thought exercise rather than a finished dramatic production. There’s food for thought here, but there’s really not too much else.
Never wander off with strangers... ESPECIALLY if they're Christopher Walken...
Note: I will be discussing the film’s ending, which is kinda important. But don’t worry, I’ll flag it beforehand. Plus, this film is nearly twenty years old, so I figure it’s fair game.
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: christopher walken, comfort of strangers, films, harold pinter, helen mirren, ian mcewan, Movies, natasha richardson, non-review review, paul schrader, review, rupert everett, the comfort of strangers, venice | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 17, 2010 by Darren
Cool. When I put together this bad boy last week, not everyone was quite on board, so I went back over it this weekend to add in those I missed. I think I got everyone (as of 6pm on Saturday), but please let me know if I didn’t by leaving a comment. Anyway, here’s the revised list, for those OCD people like myself who want an easy place to follow who took what. Enjoy!
Some more trivia (I like trivia!):
- Lotsa people cheating and bringing whole trilogies. Mostly The Lord of the Rings, although all three individual movies have been brought separately as well.
- Some more people bringing television shows, with The Wire, Arrested Development and The X-Files along for the ride.
- The original Star Wars trilogy has been rounded out.
- X-Men II is the only non-Batman superhero film on the list.
- The Dark Knight is still the most ‘desert-island-able’ film in blogdom.
- Red over at Anomolous Materials wanted to bring The Hobbit on preorder (I assume both movies), but I didn’t count it (in my defence, he’s taking all three Lord of the Rings).
Click the above for a larger image. Thanks again to Andy for all his hard work.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: desert island, desert island discs, desert island dvds, films, lists, Movies | 6 Comments »
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