Posted on November 12, 2009 by Darren
I remember laughing when Roger Ebert made a shortlist of toys and games just waiting to be adapted into big screen properties after the success of Transformers 2. How far we’ve come in so little time. When Peter Berg (director of The Kingdom and Hancock) was announced as the director of the forthcoming Battleship film, we didn’t know quite what to expect (apart from that it would likely feature Jason Bateman). That’s only natural, since the boardgame it is based upon is fairly straight-forward. Well, since the news broke that it’s going to be set IN SPACE, I’ve been wondering why that news surprises me as much as it did.
I think Peter Berg just sunk my battleship...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adaptations, battleship, battleship movie, boardgames, hollywood, movie adaptations, peter berg, resident evil, super mario brothers, transformers, video game movies | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 18, 2009 by Darren
It’s probably hard writing the same comic with the same artist for the bones of a decade. Setting things up years in advance only to have them pay off down the line, trying to put a new slant on an existing mythology while updating it for a new audience. This middle section of the Bendis/Bagley run on Ultimate Spider-Man isn’t necessarily bad per se, but it lacks the energy and reckless fun which defined the start of the run and the sense of resolution that approached at the end of the run. It just is.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Your spidey-sense should be tingling...
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: bagley, bendis, brian michael bendis, carnage, cats & kings, comic books, hollywood, irresponsible, mark bagley, marvel comics, sam raimi, sinister six, spider man, spider-man 2, spiderman, spiderman 2, superstars, ultimate carnage, ultimate marvel, ultimate six, ultimate spider man, ultimate spiderman, ultimate universe | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 16, 2009 by Darren
Is it possible for an actor to age gracefully? The Guardian has been very fruitful in providing food for thought this week and the article that grabbed my attention today is a discussion of Heath Ledger’s potential had his life not been cut so tragically short. I don’t intend to dwell on what could have, should have or would have been, but the article does raise some interesting assertions about the ageing of great actors:
If you want to propose Pacino, De Niro and Nicholson as the outstanding figures of the 70s and 80s, who can be resigned about what has happened to them? They have become pastiches of what they once were.
So, is that what really awaits our truly great actors at the end of their careers?
Grumpy - but cool - old men...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actors, actresses, ageing, ageing actors, ageism, clash of the titans, edwards asner, films, growing old, heath ledger, hollywood, Movies, oaps, the guardian, up | 29 Comments »
Posted on September 30, 2009 by Darren
I make no apologies, I love this movie. Though it might not always hit the perfect notes, it maintains Ben Stiller’s pitch-perfect ability to just throw tonnes of stuff at the wall and if even 30% of the jokes hit, you’re at least grinning for the film’s runtime. He also has a fantastic cast full of the talented and the one-note, all of whom are perfectly chosen for the roles that they play within Stiller’s war comedy. Sure, the film may lose focus a bit, and it has a fairly short attention span, but this means that Stiller isn’t afraid to pull away from a gag that isn’t working.
Jungle Fever
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: apocalypse now, ben stiller, comedy, films, hollywood, jack black, les gorssman, Movies, non-review review, review, robert downey, robert downey jnr., satire, tom cruise, tropic thunder | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 29, 2009 by Darren
I am going to just come out and say this. I like Tom Cruise as an actor. I think he’s hugely talented and vastly underrated. I think he suffers from a subset of the Sean Penn Syndrome that affects Christian Bale – his wacky personal life tends to overshadow his on-screen roles, which is a damn shame, given the talent that’s been hinted at repeatedly throughout his career.
A pleasant cruise...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actor, collateral, films, hollywood, Movies, publicity, rain man, tom cruise, tropic thunder | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 18, 2009 by Darren
Hollywood. It’s the place where dreams come true. Where normal things like traffic don’t bother heroes like Jack Bauer, credit ratings and mortgage payments don’t halt Carrie’s spending spree and Bruce Willis never has to fill out an insurance claim form. No wonder they used to call it Hollywoodland, like some sort of fairytale kingdom (in actuality it was to advertise a housing development). This magical quality (or, if you’re cynical, ‘disengagement’) means that Hollywood can take its time in reflecting the tastes of the common people and the issues that really affect them.
High-flying corporate executive...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: confessions of a shopaholic, context, credit crunch, economic climate, films, george clooney, hollywood, issues, jason reitman, Movies, optimism, recession, sex and the city, sex and the city 2, studios, up in the air | 2 Comments »
Posted on August 27, 2009 by Darren
Not cool. Seriously not cool.
It’s one thing to mess with my childhood by making a Smurfs movie or remaking Flight of the Navigator or Neverending Story, but it’s another thing to screw with my gran’s childhood. Well, at least it’s not a remake – it’s a long-distance sequel. Yes, Dakota Fanning has been cast as the lead in a sequel to The Wizard of Oz. And not only that, she’s going to be hip and cool while Oz itself is going to be darker and edgier – like every good Hollywood property. I’m cringing inside already.
One crossover I don't want to see...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: baum, classic, dakota fanning, dorothy, frank baum, hollywood, oz, remake, remakes, return to oz, smurfs, somewhere over the rainbow, the flight of the navigator, The Neverending Story, the wicked witch, the wiz, the wizard of oz, wicked, zardoz | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 26, 2009 by Darren
I really shouldn’t be too surprised at this, but here’s an excerpt from an interview with director Frank Darabont on looking for a study to produce his film version of Fahrenheit 451:
“I actually had a studio head read that script and say: ‘Wow, that’s the best and smartest script that I’ve read since running this studio but I can’t possibly greenlight it’ I asked why and he says ‘How am I going to get 13-year-olds to show up at the theater?’ And I said “Well, lets make a good movie and I bet that will take care of itself.”
– Frank Darabont
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blockbusters, dumb movies, Fahrenheit 451, frank darabont, hollywood, Movies, remakes, smart movies, studios | 4 Comments »
Posted on June 19, 2009 by Darren
Well, if Hollywood is going to aggressively continue its campaign of remakes in a 3D era, I suppose there are worse genres to resurrect than the old “Universal Monster Movie” horror sub-genre. We really should have seen this coming with the impending release of The Wolf Man later in the year, but there are confirmed remakes of The Bride of Frankenstein and The Creature from the Black Lagoon in the works. It seems that Hollywood is as keen to cannibalise its trashy glories as it is to remake its celluloid classics.
Something fishy's going on...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bride of frankenstein, creature from the black lagoon, dracula, films, frankenstein, hollywood, monster movies, Movies, remakes, The Wolf Man, universal monster movies, wolfman | 4 Comments »
Posted on June 16, 2009 by Darren
The advent of incredibly flexibly home media has had an amazing impact on the world of film, right down to how the damn things are made. With producers carefully putting together additional content (or “bonus features”) for the eventual release of the film on home video (if that phrase means anything these days), and the temptation to “retouch” old films to bring them to the standard of the current format of entertainment system, it’s little surprise that we’ve seen the upswing that we have in the market for “Director’s Cuts” and “Extended Editions”. I’m kinda wondering if we’re entering a phase where all movies should be viewed in the same light as George Lucas views his own: they’re works in progress, never finished.
Screenshot from the mythic "Deckard is Keyzer Soze" ending to Blade Runner
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blade runner, blade runner: the final cut, blu ray, directors cut, DVD, extended cut, george lucas, hollywood, Movies, star was, superman 2: the richard donner cut, watchmen, zach snyder | Leave a comment »
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