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Non-Review Review: Hope Springs

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Darren

Hope Springs is a fairly unambitious romantic comedy that is very clearly chasing the silver dollar. Featuring two veteran performers playing a couple struggling through a mid-life crisis, Hope Springs feels like an attempt to demonstrate that the careers of romantic leads don’t necessarily end at forty. It is, on that level, quite pleasing to watch – there’s a proud sense that David Frankel is refusing to leave hum-drum romantic comedy to young actors who seem barely out of puberty. However, the problem is inherent in the premise. Hope Springsproves that romantic comedies aren’t exclusive to younger casts, but it also demonstrates tat very few of the familiar quirks, conceits and plot devices are that much more endearing when delivered by actors old enough to remember a world before mobile telephones.

Well, they’ve made their bed…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: EconoLodge, film, Hope Springs, katherine heigl, Marriage, meryl streep, Movie, non-review review, Relationships, review, romance, Romantic comedy film, Steve Carell, tommy lee jones | 7 Comments »

Superhero Movie Fatigue? I Tire of This Argument…

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Darren

It’s becoming a frequent complaint that there are “too many” superhero films. When Green Lantern crashed and burned last year, there were a rake of articles lauding it as “superhero fatigue.” Even before this summer kicked off, people were asking if “fatigue” had kicked in. Ignoring for a moment that The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises are the two most successful films of the year, I’ve never quite understood that argument. There were, after all, three (or four, if you count the dire Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) superhero-themed blockbusters this year. Do audiences get “period drama fatigue” if more than four high-profile period dramas are released in a year? Are there widespread cases of “cop movie fatigue” if more than half-a-dozen movies feature a law enforcement official in a lead role? Is there a cap on the number of films that Ryan Gosling can produce, lest he inspire an epidemic of “Ryan Gosling fatigue”?

Twilight of the superheroes?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, art, avengers, batman, Christopher Nolan, Dark Knight Rises, DarkKnight Rises, Fatigue (medical), Fritz Lang, green lantern, katherine heigl, Movie, richard donner, Ryan Gosling, superhero, Superhero film | 17 Comments »

Putting the “Man” in Romance: Deconstructing The “Gerard Butler” Romantic Comedies

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Darren

I had the misfortune of watching The Bounty Hunter last week. It was horrible, really. In fairness, I tend to have a problem with the conventional romantic comedy as it’s mass produced and shipped out to cinemas at least once a month like clockwork. A string of movies which are based on the principle that all men and women (whether they know it or not) want to settle down and get married, argue over stupid things about three quarters of the way through the film and get together again in time for the end credits. Not only are the morals of such films highly dubious, the delivery is generally just excruciating. However, something has changed within the genre in the past couple of years… and not necessarily for the better. I’ll let The Guardian sum up my position:

I realise it’s high time we refreshed the tired tics and tropes of the kissy-kissy no-boys-allowed modern women’s picture, I just didn’t think the solution would be to take the suppressed homoeroticism of the punchy-punchy male buddy flick then slather it over the vaguely virginal values associated with most Sandra Bullock and Amanda Bynes movies.

That about sums it up nicely, don’t you think?

The figure on the left indicates where good ideas come from... the figure on the right indicates where most romantic comedy ideas come from... by the way, he has his back to us...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Bounty Hunter, chauvinist, female, film, gerard butler, hollywood, jennifer aniston, Karen McCullah Lutz, katherine heigl, Kirsten Smith, male, man, Movies, Romantic comedy film, sexism, sexist, steretypes, the bounty hunter, the ugly truth, woman | 11 Comments »

Sight Unseen: Killers and the Future of Film Criticism…

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Darren

I remember it was only a few years ago that it was just really unapologetically bad movies with built-in audiences that refused (or simply couldn’t be bothered, knowing the inevitable trashing they’d receive) to be screened for critics. You know the films I’m talking about: horror remakes, horror sequels, horror in general. However, it seems that since G.I. Joe demonstrated that blockbusters can still bust blocks even without advanced critical presence. Perhaps it’s a side effect of the viral age we live in, but you don’t need a review in the Friday papers to put bums in seats. Anyway, apparently it looks like there’s more to come: Killers will not be screened for critics either.