Posted on February 24, 2011 by Darren
They’re describing tomorrow’s election as one for the history books. The eyes of the world are on Ireland at the moment. However, my eyes are squarely on a dark horse candidate: Mickey Rourke. Bavaria Beer, the favoured beverage of many a young student, are running an Irish campaign based around the big screen icon – urging voters to put their faith in the Oscar-nominated lovable lug. I have to say, I actually think the campaign’s kinda cool. If only because I’ve always heard of advertising campaigns carried out by actors overseas, but it’s kinda cool to see one first hand in my own country. I realise that Rourke himself is probably unaware of the campaign, but it’s nice to know that the Irish election has garnered enough attention to attract this sort of wonderful parody.
All you Americans take note: you might have a surprise candidate in 2012. You can’t argue with the policies. Because Mickey might wrestle you if you do.
Note: I don’t actually drink myself, so don’t consider this an endorsement in any way shape or form. It’s just a reflection on an interesting advertising campaign.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bavaria beer, ge 11, ge 2011, general election 11, Ireland, Mickey Rourke | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 8, 2011 by Darren
I took a trip down to Sligo with the better half at the weekend there. I grew up in the city, but I haven’t found myself visiting too often. There’s something strange about returning to the town where you grew up. Everything seems smaller, even if there are far more shopping centres and recognisable brands around the place. It was good to go back and to see it all again. And my better half was so kind that she suggested that we go to the local cinema and catch a screening. And so we attended a showing of The Fighter at the Gaiety Cinema Sligo.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Blade II, cinema paradiso, Cultures and Groups, Enniskillen, film, Film director, Four Star Pizza, Ireland, james bond, Matrix Reloaded, Movie theater, Movies, sligo, sligo town, star wars, the gaiety, the gaiety cinema, the gaiety cinema sligo, tomorrow never dies | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 10, 2011 by Darren
I wrote a little while ago about how suspicious I am concerning “true stories” that make it to the big screen. Truth be told, life doesn’t exactly fit into the three act structure or one-hundred-and-twenty minutes of screen time – I understand that changes need to be made. Real life characters are often boiled down or reduced to mere collections of quirks, the hero faces a more streamlined obstacle than they did in real life and sometimes even ends up a far better person for it. However, I was sitting down watching The King’s Speech at the weekend and I couldn’t help wondering if we really needed for Albert’s elder brother David and his American fiancée Wallis to be portrayed as nothing more than scheming villains, just because we needed to root for Albert a little more.
The Simpsons?
Note: The ever-wonderful TV Tropes describe this as a “Historical Villain Upgrade” if you’re looking for more examples of what I am talking about…
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: alan rickman, Éamon de Valera, Easter Rising, Fianna Fáil, film, historical villain upgrade, history, Ireland, Irish Civil War, king george vi, liam neeson, List of political parties in the Republic of Ireland, michael collins, Movies, prince albert, prince david, United States, w.e. simpson, wallis simpson, we simpson | 7 Comments »
Posted on September 27, 2010 by Darren
I like Neil Jordan. He’s probably the greatest Irish director, and one of the few directors who can switch back and forth between big Hollywood productions like The Brave One and quirkier Irish films like Ondine, with neither feeling particularly strange or inappropriate for its particular genre. Ondine is Jordan’s attempt at a lowkey Irish fairytale, told in a small fishing village down in Cork – calling to mind the sort of stereotypical portrayal of country life in Ireland, filled with drunkards and gossiping locals, where everyone knows everyone else and a stranger is instantly remarked upon. It’s to Jordan’s credit that the film works as well as it does. The director manages to create a genuine sense of magic and whimsy which carries a large portion of the film. However, like most magic and slight of hand, if you look too closely you’re liable to figure out that nothing’s going on.
Does Neil Jordan's latest hold water?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brave One, colin farrell, Dervla Kirwan, Ireland, irish cinema, irish film, mermaid, Movie, neil jordan, non-review review, Ondine, review, selkie, Stephen Rea, Tiny Tim | 6 Comments »
Posted on September 23, 2010 by Darren
Today is Arthur’s Day. I find myself almost subconsciously putting “St.” in front of that, because only saints have days, right? Anyway, only in Ireland could we sell a day around a guy who invented “the black stuff”. I think Guinness should be proud of marketing the whole thing so well. Anyway, this being perhaps the second most Irish day of the year, I thought I’d reflect very briefly on being Irish. I recently praised the forward-thinking work of former Irish Film Censor John Kelleher in attempting to remove our nation’s reputation for frankly backwards censorship – not an easy task when you consider we’ve got our own blasphemy law. Anyway, Kelleher rebranded his office the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO), because he saw his role as classifying movies (rating them) as opposed to cutting or censoring them (“I don’t believe in censorship for adults”). It appears that it hasn’t taken too long for the office to return to its roots since his departure, the video nasty I Spit on Your Grave has been banned in Ireland by the office of the film censor.
I spit on your freedom of expression...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, censorship, film, I Spit on Your Grave, Ireland, Irish Film Classification Office, john kelleher, Movies | 8 Comments »
Posted on September 13, 2010 by Darren
I love a good film story. Not necessarily a story about the inner workings of Hollywood or who is starring in what, more a story about how the film industry is working, relating to regular folks, engaging with audiences and about how the experience of going to the cinema may or may not change. So things like complaints about popcorn or iPhone movie apps excite me as much as pondering the true meaning of Inception or discussing the ending of Shutter Island. So, a particular story grabbed my attention over the weekend. Apparently a woman in China is suing cinemas for wasting her time with pointless advertisements. It’s certainly a story which grabbed my attention:
Chen Xiaomei, a lawyer in Shaanxi Province, filed the lawsuit arguing that audiences were given no warning or indication on the ticket that ads before the film would run on for 20 minutes. That’s like almost an entire sitcom episode… of ads. Not only did this waste movie goers’ time, it also “violated their right to know and to choose.”
I can certainly sympathise.
Some of these ads can be quite (pop)corn-y...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: ads, advertisements, advertising, arts, audiences, Chen Xiaomei, China, cinema advertisements, cinemas, film, Film trailer, hollywood, Ireland, Movie, movie theatres, Television advertisement, trailer | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 17, 2010 by Darren
If it weren’t for Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World would be the most visually impressive film of year. Maybe it still is. This tale of adolescent irrelevence might have a bit of difficulty finding an audience, but it certainly deserves one – it’s a pure kaleidoscopic sugar rush of youthful exuberence and energy, all focused through a simple but effective emotional narrative. Indeed, perhaps its closest companion is (500) Days of Summer, the breakout romantic comedy of last year – except this time the emotional complexity is dialed down and the visual flair way up. And neither of those are bad things. In fact, as part of Edgar Wright’s latest film, they are actually quite genius.
Scott packs quite a (cup of) punch...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action, brandon routh, bryan lee o'malley, choreography, chris evans, edgar wright, ellen wong, films, graphic novel, Ireland, kieran culkin, Movies, non-review review, review, scott pilgrim, scott pilgrim vs. the world, universal pictures, universal pictures ireland, visuals | 4 Comments »
Posted on April 3, 2010 by Darren
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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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: brendan gleeson, Cillian Murphy, cinema, dublin, films, Ireland, irish, jim broadbent, mark o'rowe, Movies, non-review review, perrier's bounty, reviews, terminus | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 20, 2010 by Darren
Yes, we occasionally do high-brow stuff here as well. I had the great joy of taking the better half to a performance of Swan Lake by the Russian State Ballet at the Grand Canal Theatre last night. It’s the first show to perform at Dublin’s newest and largest theatre venue and it was a great opening for the 2,100-capacity location. I’m still more than a little skeptical about the venue’s longterm prospects – is Dublin large enough to sustain a theatre of that size? – but there’s no denying it is simply jaw-dropping.
Just Swanning Around...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: arts, ballet, dublin, grand canal dock, grand canal theatre, Ireland, national theatre, russian state ballet, swan lake, tchaikovsky, Theatre | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 15, 2009 by Darren
I try not to get too political over here, seen as how this is a pop culture blog. I did happen to notice, however, that the Irish government has decided to expand the Lisbon Treaty debacle into a franchise. We’ve had economists, armchair pundits and politicians weighing in on the matter, but why don’t we ask the people who really count: the film critics? I humbly submit my thoughts on the proposed Lisbon 2.
Maybe you can go too European with the posters...
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Filed under: Opinion | Tagged: brian cowen, farce, films, Ireland, lisbon, lisbon 2, lisbon referendum, lisbon treaty, Movies, politics, referendum, referendum campaign, sequel | Leave a comment »
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