Movie | the m0vie blog

Cinematic Nostalgia: Old Films on the Big Screen…

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Darren

Jameson, the wonderful people behind the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and the Jameson Cult Film Club are planning on launching their own film blog this week. It’ll be well worth a look and, based on their passion for good cinema, it’s sure to be wonderful. Anyway, as part of the launch, I was delighted to be invited along to a screening of Chinatown with a few other Irish film bloggers. Hosted in a lovely little cinema, I have to admit that there was just something incredible about watching a classic film I had only ever seen on television projected on to a big screen like (I suppose) it had always been intended to be shown. Given how much any love affair with cinema draws on classics from eras long gone, I have to admit that I was genuinely blown away by the chance to see such a classic film on such a big screen.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3-D film, arts, Batman in film, cinema, Citizen Kane, classic films, film, jameson dublin international film festival, Matrix Reloaded, Movie, Movies, nostalgia, Tingler | 14 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Darren

Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban represents probably the best transition from printed page to big screen in the franchise, boasting the most confident and comfortable direction of the big screen series. Director Alfonso Coarón, perhaps best known for his work on Children of Men crafts perhaps the most magical of the Harry Potter adventures, effortlessly crafting a world that seems strangely familiar and yet curiously foreign, simultaneously bright and coloured, but populated with dark brooding shadows. Even after the series has ended, the third instalment remains perhaps the most stylish.

Enchanting...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, David Thewlis, Emma Watson, film, film review, gary oldman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, HarryPotter, Hogwarts, literature, Magic in Harry Potter, Magical objects in Harry Potter, Movie, non-review review, Order of the Phoenix (organisation), Places in Harry Potter, terry gilliam | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Darren

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets works much better as an episodic collection of scenes than a single story. It’s prone to fluctuate between rather brilliant moments and a few misfires here and there. It definitely feels extremely childish, as if the studio was attempting to construct a G-rated Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the John Williams soundtrack adding to the effect, the set design of the eponymous chamber looking like some forgotten archeological tomb, and even Julian Glover being afforded a small cameo (okay, he was in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but the point stands). It’s strange to look back at the second instalment, after all that has unfolded since, and look at how much more juvenile and simplistic it all seems in retrospect.

Malfoy drives stick...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alan rickman, Albus Dumbledore, arts, clear blue skies, Dumbledore's Army, fim, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ultimate Edition) [Blu-ray], Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hogwarts, John Williams, julian glover, kenneth branagh, Magical objects in Harry Potter, Movie, non-review review, Order of the Phoenix (organisation), raiders of the lost ark, review, Ron Weasley, Rupert Grint, Severus Snape | Leave a comment »

Harry Pottering On: Research & Reviews…

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Darren

This evening, I will be lucky enough to attend a screening of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part II, and have a chance to get my review on-line. However, I must concede that I am not a Harry Potter fanatic. I haven’t read the books. I’ve seen the films, enjoyed the majority for what they are, only found one to be an exercise in tedium, and have a genuine respect for what they’ve managed to accomplish in bringing to life a fairly iconic series of books in a manner that can please both the hardcore fans and the casual movie-goer. However, as I brace myself to attend the screening tonight, I wonder what a film critic owes their subject matter in terms of research. Do I owe the people who made the film, and – possibly – the fans that are going to see it, enough to dig into as much of the back ground as possible before the cinema lights go down?

Witch approach should I adopt?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, critics, Emma Watson, film, film criticism, film critics, film research, film reviews, films, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling, Movie, Movies, research, review, reviews | 2 Comments »

Ah Sure, It’s Grand: Random Thoughts on Critical Reception to Irish Films…

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Darren

It’s always a bit interesting when a major and well-received Irish film is released, if only because it typically involves a fairly large divorce between the critical and audience reception to these films. It has been suggested that film critics are too quick to shower Irish films with praise they don’t deserve, out of some misplaced sense of patriotism. As the Trinity Film Review succinctly sums up:

An overrated Irish film is not hard to find. Our tendency towards the inflated evaluation of domestic filmmaking is a self-perpetuating one, leaving audiences indifferent towards the hyperbole-gavaged, entry-level film geese trotted out by our native industry, and filmmakers and critics alike complacent in the immutable, self-congratulatory expository routine the utter nakedness of which nobody seems inclined to comment on.

I have to admit, I’ve seen this in effect quite a few times, and it really bugs me – if only because it makes it harder to spot when a realgem of a film comes along. I honestly don’t think that this sort of attitude helps anyone.

I'm not down with that...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Cinema of Ireland, Cultures and Groups, father ted, film, Film festival, films, in bruges, irish films, irish movies, irish times, Movie, Movies, overrated, Raidió Teilifís Éireann | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Mars Attacks!

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Darren

I have a genuine affection for Mars Attacks! It’s certainly not Tim Burton’s best work, but it’s also miles above some of his more disappointing output. It feels like an affectionate homage to Ed Wood, putting together the kind of movie that the old B-movie director would have approved of, except with the judgement to play it as a comedy rather than entirely straight (although Wood’s filmography is typically “so bad it’s good“, one could scarcely accuse the director of being in on the joke), and made with a more significant budget. Seen in that light, it’s hard to resist the movie’s (admittedly uneven) charms.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they say...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, cheesy, danny elfman, Ed Wood, film, films, hokey, hokey sci-fi, jack nicholson, Mars Attacks!, Martian, martians, Movie, Movies, non-review review, paul winfield, pulp, pulp fiction, pulp sci-fi, review, sci-fi, tim burton, Topps | 4 Comments »

Can a Good Film Be Too Long?

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Darren

Man, I watched Apocalypse Now Redux last weekend, and my butt is still a little bit numb. Clocking in at well over three hours, I couldn’t help but find my attention wandering, despite the fact that I was deeply interested in the story unfolding in front of me. Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, which I am very much looking forward to, hasn’t opened over here yet, but there are already rumours circulating at a cut of the movie over six hours long. As much as I want to see the film, and as much of the director’s vision as I might want to take in, I can’t help but feel that 360+ minutes might just be too long for a single sitting.

You could nearly grow a tree during the length of Malick's proposed six-hour cut...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, arts, Blu-ray Disc, brad pitt, butt numb, dark knight, david lynch, DVD, film, film length, film runtime, Filmmaking, films, length of a film, Movie, Movies, runtime, Terrence Malick, Tree of Life | 9 Comments »

For Freedom! The Politics of Transformers 3…

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Darren

This is part of the “Morality Bites” blogathon being hosted by the always awesome Ronan over at filmplicity and Julian at dirtywithclass. It is, as ever, a joy to be asked to take part.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to tackle politics (or any thorny issue) in cinema. Documentaries are the obvious exception, but very few people go into a major motion picture (or even an indie one) expecting a personal diatribe of the creator’s controversial political opinions construed as absolute fact. It’s often more interesting to hear a rant in spoken form rather than structured into three acts at well over an hour with awkward plotting and characterisation designed to outline a particular world view. Don’t get me wrong, many great film makers have used their films as clever points of interest on a particular topic, but those that succeed often do so through clever construction, honest analyse and a decent amount of subtlety. However, such an approach is far too rare in Hollywood, as I thought to myself emerging from Michael Bay’s Transformers 3. I’d made my piece with the fact I was attending a two-and-a-half hour toy commercial, but I didn’t expect it to be a two-and-a-half-hour toy commercial delivered as a declaration on American foreign policy.

Transformers: Politics in Disguise...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: film, michael bay, Middle East, Movie, Ronald Reagan, transformers 3, transformers: dark of the moon, United States | 14 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Next Three Days

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Darren

The Next Three Days is actually, when it gets down to it, quite a clever and inventive little prison break movie, with a strong central performance from Russell Crowe, with a smart script and a great supporting cast. However, the problem is that, for a prison break movie, the actual prison break only takes up a relatively small amount of the film. While it’s clear a great deal of care and research went into the production, and it feels like Paul Haggis is really showing his work, it throws the pacing off a bit, and feels almost like we’re watching the episodic adventures of a guy planning to break his wife out of prison.

This couple really needs a break...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brian Dennehy, DVD, elizabeth banks, escaping from prison, film, jailbreak, liam neeson, Movie, Movies, next 3 days, Next Three Days, non-review review, Olivia Wilde, paul haggis, prison break, review, russell crowe, the next 3 days, the next three days | 4 Comments »

On Second Thought: Apocalypse Now (Redux)

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Darren

I wrote in my review of the original version of the movie that the two-and-a-half-hour cut captured a great deal of the insanity that seems to have been a defining characteristic of the Vietnam War, with the movie feeling like a crazed surrealist trip into madness, a collection of abstract meditations on the American condition that felt compressed at over two hours. If that is the case, Apocalypse Now Redux captures another aspect of the conflict. It’s now less insane, but the instability and absurdity appear more systemic and endemic. It’s bloated, terrifying, harrowing and seemingly eternal.

Much like the war itself.