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Why Not Every Superhero Has To Be “Dark and Edgy”…

News surfaced earlier in the week that reported Sony are reportedly less than pleased with how The Green Hornet is turning out. What are they unhappy about? Oh yes, the fact that the movie from Seth Rogan and Michael Gondry about a man who fights crime in an emerald business suit with a domino mask and a Japanese man-servant might not be delivered with the poe-faced gravitas that the very concept deserves. Apparently, it’s campy.

Wait, what?

Darker and edgier, what?

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Non-Review Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

It’s certainly an interesting concept: it’s the story of a love out of sync – of two individuals who live their lives at different speeds. Claire falls in love with a strange man she met in a meadow when she was growing up – only he hasn’t aged a day. That’s because he’s a time traveler. So, as you can imagine, that throws up more than the usual boundries to romance. In fairness, the movie seems aware of the myriad of possibilities suggested by its premise, but the truth is that it does little more than exploit them for melodrama. Cheap, heavy-handed melodrama.

Stuck in a movie I can't get out of...

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Desert Island Discs

The ever wonderful Andy over at Fandango Groovers has put together a rather excellent little project among film bloggers where we’re all essentially playing ‘desert island discs’. For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, it sees the person in question stranded on a desert island somewhere with only a handful of items – in this case films. Each person will then choose their own eight films that will presumably see them through the rest of their lives in something resembling tranquility. Of course, the kicker is if we arrive on the island and there’s no DVD player.   

The Losties were less than pleased when Darren phoned ahead with his movie choices...

Note: I’ve also compiled a list of movies and bloggers, so you can see if anyone else shared your picks.

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Non-Review Review: Demolition Man

I love Demolition Man. I know I shouldn’t, but I do.

Eye see you...

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Should Joss Whedon Direct the Avengers?

It appears that releasing news that Joss Whedon was in contention for the gig as director of The Avengers on April 1st was just horrible timing – it looks like this particular story might not be a festive-themed joke and might just be something thiat may be actually happening. However, since Marvel’s somewhat shrewd business strategy seems to consist of mentioning a name and dodging the internet backdraft long enough to determine how fans will react, we thought that a Joss Whedon helmed Avengers film might merit some discussion.

Will Joss Whedon assemble the Avengers?

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Non-Review Review: Perrier’s Bounty

Mark O’Rowe wrote a play that I had the pleasure of seeing last year called Terminus. The piece, featuring four characters narrating sensational events occurring in and around the city of Dublin in thick Northside accents and with distracting amounts of elloquence, obviously became something of a cult hit – so much so that it returned to the Abbey (our national theatre) earlier this year. I mention this purely because O’Rowe has very much fashioned the script for this Irish film from the same cloth as his theatrical success. The same elements which I enjoyed in Terminus I enjoyed in Perrier’s Bounty, and the same elements I didn’t enjoy were just magnified by the transition to film.

Parting shots?

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The Day That 2D Died…

I’m not going to bore you with another 3D post. In short, my opinion is thus: I’m not outright against it, but recognise it is a cynical money-making plow that has yet to really add anything to any movie (with the possible exception of Avatar). I just noticed something today which indicates we may have hit the tipping point. And it isn’t the news of an Oscar-baiting drama like Precious being rendered in 3D like I thought it might be. It’s the fact that Clash of the Titans is being advertised as “also in 2D”. It’s in small print in all the ads, but it seems to suggest that the standard movie-viewing experience has now become the smaller, optional one. Something for the cinema-completest rather than the default way of viewing the film. I remember not even last year when rendering a movie in 3D was a selling point of itself, a quirk. Now it appears that we should be treating it as standard for these films, with the 2D screenings being essentially sideshows and extras.

Some would rather stare at Medusa's face than watch the satndard 2D version...

I’m fairly sure that Avatar may have used the same “also available in 2D” line, but there’s a huge difference between Avatar and Clash of the Titans. It might not seem much (in fact, it likely seems very little), but this I think this may be the moment that the impact of 3D has truly sunk in for me, with 2D screenings now being a curiousity and an afterthought, with 3D the norm rather than a bonus.

“Concerned Parents’ Group”: The three most dreaded words in the English Language…

It looks like the moral guardians have been out in force. The New York Times yesterday featured an opinion piece focusing on the evils of red band trailers, just one of the more modern marketing gimmicks. Apparently – and brace yourself here – kids can lie about their age and watch these things. I am… shocked. Shocked and appalled. Next thing you know they’ll be lying to get their hands on booze. The second, and more predicable, piece of news that broke yesterday was parents groups campaigning against Kick-Ass. That’s sorta expected, seen as it features an eleven-year-old assassin. Surely we’d all been expecting some sort of objection to the pint-sized killer, but – and brace yourself again – she used “the c-word”. You’ll have to excuse me while I hyperventilate.

Kids these days are such c-words...

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Where’s Your Head At? Floating Head Syndrome & Movie Posters

Iron Man 2 has had a fairly spectacular pre-release buzz going on. It’s the sequel to a beloved film, it’s got an all-star cast and two spectacular trailers. So the movie poster should be made of awesome, right? Em, not really. The first question which occurred to me was “where is Sam Rockwell?” The second question that occurred to me was “where is everyone else’s body?” Yes, the poster had succumbed to the dreaded floating head syndrome.

Should Tony Stark be more worried that Mickey Rourke is trying to kill him or that the lower half of his body has phased out of existence?

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Iron Man 3 Before The Avengers?

A geek bombshell has landed. Apparently Iron Man 3 may be arriving in 2012. Not that it’s coming at us out of nowhere. Iron Man and Iron Man 2 were two years apart. There’s no reason to believe the same wouldn’t be true of Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3. Also, The Avengers was the only major Marvel film planned for 2012… well, before the Spider-Man reboot got moved back to 2012, but that’s a co-production with Sony. Marvel have strived to get a bit of momentum going – Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were released in 2008 as a double-act and Thor and Captain America will have the same partnership next year. The Avengers is big enough to open by itself, but it seemed likely that Marvel would have some other support feature designed to lead into it a month or two before release (in case audiences forgot about Captain America: The First Avenger in the year since its release). I like the idea of Iron Man3 in 2012.

Looks like Tony might not be taking any well-deserved time off...

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