liam neeson | the m0vie blog

February 2011 (JDIFF and For the Love of Film Noir) In Review…

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Darren

Hey, I’ve been shortlisted for two Irish Blog Awards, Best Pop Culture Blog and Best Arts and Culture Blog. I’m honoured and delighted to make the shortlist which is, as ever, populated with some of the best Irish talent around. Anyway, February was a busy month, what with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and the For The Love of Film Noir Blogathon going on. And I had my 1,000th post.

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Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: Adjustment Bureau, arts, february, february in review, film, Film festival, For the Love of Film Noir, For the Love of Film Noir blogathon, For the Love of Film Noir: The Film Preservation Blogathon, irish blog awards, jameson dublin international film festival, liam neeson, Movie | 2 Comments »

Oh Heck(le): When Is It Appropriate to Heckle?

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Darren

I attended the Irish premiere of Unknown last night as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. It was a fairly bland film, but what really stuck out to me of the night was a heckler during Grainne Humphreys’ introduction to the film. The guy was a bit of a dick, and it got me thinking – when is it appropriate to heckle?

What a muppet...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: audience participation, Berlin, Canada, Film festival, grainne humphreys, heckle, Heckler, jameson dublin international film festival, liam neeson, matt damon, Red carpet, Unknown, unknown (film) | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Unknown

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Unknown is not, despite what it may want you to believe, anything to do with Taken. I have a sense that audiences catching the film without that pre-existing expectation might enjoy it more than others, but I can’t help but feel the movie suffers by comparison to the earlier film in the “Liam Neeson as badass action hero” subgenre.

Taken for a ride?

Note: By its very nature, this review will involve the very slightest of spoilers. I will literally be discussing the first twenty or so minutes of the film, and I doubt it’s any more than you could discern from the trailers, but I figure it’s worth flagging with the spoiler-conscious out there.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action, Berlin, Diane Kruger, facebook, films, identity theft, james woods, jameson dublin international film festival, Jaume Collet-Serra, liam neeson, liamneeson, Movies, non-review review, paris, review, Seine, taken, taken (film), thriller, Unknown, unknown (film) | Leave a comment »

The Devil Eire Effect: Historical Films and Villains…

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 »

Non-Review Review: The A-Team

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Darren

The A-Team is the latest in a long line of attempts to adapt successful television series (preferably from years or decades past) to the big screen. It essentially suffers from the same weaknesses as other adaptations – it struggles with tone. Much as attempting to remake Miami Vice as a dry and overly self-important drug movie was a mistake, or making Starsky & Hutch as a full-blown comedy misunderstood the appeal of the original series, The A-Team feels too much like it’s working with a premise that it isn’t overly familiar with, trying to fit it into the blockbuster mold – it’s essentially trying to cram a round peg into a square hole. The film does have its charms, but it feels distinctly uncomfortable and more than a little uneven.

"'old on lad's, I've... oh, wait, wrong remake..."

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a-team, bradley cooper, Dwight Schultz, film, hannibal, liam neeson, Movies, non-review review, review, sharlto copley, star trek: the next generation, starsky & hutch, Television, the a-team | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Clash of the Titans

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Darren

It has been a couple of years since the last proper swords-and-sandals epic. It’s hard to look past the glossy stylised design of 300 and the discussions of racial politics which surrounded it. Troy and Alexander were hardly solid examples of the genre which had been at the height of its popularity more than half a century ago. Aside from Gladiator, it’s hard to point to another big screen classical action movie that manages to do what it says on the tin. Although it’s a long way from perfect, Clash of the Titans at least delivers the intriguing visuals and impressive action that one expects from the genre. I was pleasantly surprised.

A friendship in ruins...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Ancient Greece, clash of the titans, classics, film, Gemma Arterton, greece, greek mythology, hades, liam neeson, louis leterrier, Movie, non-review review, ralph fiennes, review, rome, Sam Worthington, swords and sandals, unleash the kraken, zeus | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Taken

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Darren

I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

– Bryan Mills

Let’s face it, if the above quote doesn’t appeal to you then you probably aren’t the audience for this action flick.

It's a little like that. Okay, it's a lot like that.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: action, films, liam neeson, Movie, non-review review, paris, racism, review, taken | 6 Comments »

V for… Version II?

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Darren

Wow, things are really heating up, remake-wise. In the past week we’ve had confirmation that Robert Rodriguez will be doing The Jetsons and that Liam Neeson will be Hannibal in the A-Team remake. Couple that with the upcoming remake of V that will soon be hitting our screens (giving Elizabeth Mitchell a welcome home after the Lost finale), and it got us thinking: are there any television shows that actually warrant a remake?