Movie | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Stitches

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, which was as much of a joy this year as it was last year. If not moreso.

Stitches is an interesting little Irish film. Featuring an interesting set up to parody the conventions of the supernatural slasher film, the movie finds itself falling prey to them just a little bit too often. Irish writer and director Conor McMahon creates a credible gory teenage bloodbath, but doesn’t really find a narrative hook to engage the audience. Never entirely sure how ironic it is trying to be, Stitches is a solid effort, albeit one far from greatness.

Not clowning around…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: art, arts, Cinema of Ireland, Clown, Conor McMahon, Cross-stitch, film, grabber, Horror film, irish, John Wayne Gacy, Movie, nightmare on elm street, non-review review, Performers, Performing Arts, Recreation, review, Ross Noble, Sewing, Slasher film, Stitch, Stitches, United States | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Hit & Run

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, which was as much of a joy this year as it was last year. If not moreso.

Hit & Run is just a mess. It is, like its protagonists, all over the map. It never seems to be entirely sure of what it wants to be. Is it a high-speed comedy, a road-trip adventure, or a romantic comedy about an unconventional couple? There are moments when the film seems to work, on the verge of coming together, but there are also moments where it misses the mark completely. The problem is that Dax Shepard is not quite as versatile as Dax Shepard seems to think that he is.

Tres Bell?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Beau Bridges, bradley cooper, Charles Bronson, comedy, David Koechner, Dax Shepard, film, Gay Lesbian and Bisexual, history, hit & run, hit and run, kristen bell, los angeles, Memorials, Michael Rosenbaum, Movie, movie fest, non-review review, Performing Arts, Recreation, review, Romantic comedy film, Shepard, Tom Arnold, United States, Zac Efron | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Now is Good

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Darren

Now is Good wallows in all the clichés that we’ve come to expect in these stories of young lives cut tragically short. There are long sequences without dialogue, scored to music designed to cue our emotions, inviting the audience to contemplate the profundity of everything going on. There’s care not to dwell on this as a bleak or depressing story with an inevitable downer ending. However, despite the awkward and trite direction, the script itself is surprisingly sturdy. While it seems to check off all the items on the list – not that set down by our protagonist, but the one codified by other recent stories of child mortality – it does have a hint of humanity that shines through from time to time. “Life is a series of moments,” the narration is prone to remind us, and there are some nice moments to be found in Now is Good, slotted between the plotting and structure dictated by the genre.

Their troubles are far afield…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adam, Anna Karenina, arts, Before I Die, books, British people, Child mortality, dakota fanning, Dustin O'Halloran, fiction, film, Millennium Development Goal, Mortality rate, Movie, non-review review, Ol Parker, Olivia Williams, Online Writing, Paddy Considine, Recreation, review, Shopping, Short Stories, Tessa, UNICEF, United Nations | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Premium Rush

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, which was as much of a joy this year as it was last year. If not moreso.

Although a tad over-written and a little awkward in places, Premium Rush is a diverting high concept chase thriller that actually manages to produce something just a little unique. Set within the high-octane world of New York couriers, it sees our lead character racing to make a 7pm deadline while dealing with a whole host of problems. Much like the title character, the movie is at its best when it’s moving – zig-zagging and free-wheeling at a decent enough pace that the flaws fade away. However, it runs into a bit of bother when it tries to slow things down a bit. Still, it’s an entertaining city thriller.

Wheeler dealers?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: david koepp, film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Koepp, Manhattan, Michael Shannon, Movie, new york, New York City, non-review review, Premium Rush, r eview, review, Wilee | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Looper

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, which was as much of a joy this year as it was last year. If not moreso.

Looper is a wonderful high-concept science-fiction film that makes a shrewd decision to avoid dwelling on temporal mechanics. A “time travel” movie, Looper is far more preoccupied with fascinating metaphysical questions about cycles of violence and cause-and-effect than it is with temporal paradoxes or the butterfly effect. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that it’s actually a lot easier to follow than director Rian Johnson’s earlier collaboration with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brick. It’s fast, it’s smart, and it’s very well put together. It’s a meticulously constructed and breathlessly engaging thriller, and one that never under-estimates its audience.

Little room for Levitt-y…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, bruce willis, Emily Blunt, film, Joe, Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Looper, Movie, non-review review, review, Rian Johnson, Science fiction film, time travel, Time travel in fiction | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Pitch Perfect

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Darren

This movie was seen as part of Movie Fest, which is as much of a joy this year as it was last year.

Pitch Perfect seems like a recipe for a disaster. It’s a college pseudo-coming-of-age comedy set in the competitive world of acapella, with a women’s group fighting to break “the acapella glass ceiling.” (We’re told – by a commentator described as “a misogynist at heart” – that “woman are about as good at being acapella singers as they are at being doctors.”) However, the film is a joy to watch, a light feel-good film with a wonderful charm and a bright wit about it, brought to life by a fantastic cast working off a wry script. It’s never too heavy, and it never insists upon itself, but it’s engaging and fun in a way that makes it hard to resist.

Anna-phonic sound…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: acapella, Anna Kendrick, Breakfast Club, Brittany Snow, elizabeth banks, film, Jason Moore, John Michael Higgins, Movie, music, musical, non-review review, Pitch Perfect, review, romance, universal | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Anna Karenina (2012)

Posted on September 8, 2012 by Darren

All the world is a stage, literally for Joe Wright’s adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic novel. Anna Karenina is visually stunning, and perfectly put together, doing a workman-like job of condensing Tolstoy’s 800-page doorstopper into a film running justover two hours. The wonderfully inventive idea of staging the film entirely in a theatre – from the foyer to the rafters to the stage itself – gives Wright the opportunity to showcase his talent as one of the finest working directors today. Tom Stoppard’s scripts is dripping with wit and does an excellent job providing digestible chunks of Tolstoy’s epic and a fair few pithy one-liners. Unfortunately, this is countered by the fact that the film never feels like it’s quite enough, and in particular the fact that its central figure feels like a shadow cast against a back wall rather than a three-dimensional character.

Save the last dance…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Anna Karenina, arts, atonement, Domhnall Gleeson, film, Joe Wright, jude law, Keira Knightley, Leo Tolstoy, Matthew Macfadyen, Movie, non-review review, review, Tolstoy, tom stoppard, Wright | 6 Comments »

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 »

Non-Review Review: Team America – World Police

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Darren

There’s a strong argument to be made that Team America: World Police is perhaps the best comedy made in the past decade. It’s certainly the most politically astute, and certainly one of the more thoughtful commentaries on American foreign policy to emerge in the wake of 9/11. Like a lot of the work of Stone and Parker, it’s tone is incredibly juvenile and even puerile, with the pair never meeting a bad-taste gag that they don’t love. However, this decidedly low-brow sense of humour is coupled with a more sophisticated and sharp political wit that allows the movie to be topical without seeming preachy, observant without being heavy-handed, and veryfunny without ever being too earnest. That’s a winning combination.

Patriot Games…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alec baldwin, America World Police, Arc, Arc de Triomphe, Coca-Cola, Croissant, Detroit, Eiffel Tower, film, Frère Jacques, Gerry Anderson, hollywood, Movie, Musée du Louvre, non-review review, paris, review, team america, team america: world police, United States, University of Nebraska, University of Nebraska system, World Police | 4 Comments »

Photos from the Jameson Cult Film Club Screening of Snatch in Galway…

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Darren

The nice folks at the Jameson Cult Film Club were kind enough to send on these photos from their recent screening of Snatch in Galway. I have to admit I’ve a bit of a sentimental attachment to their unique (and wonderful) take on Snatch, as it was the first screening I attended. It’s also a movie that lends itself quite well to the fourth-wall-breaking celebrations that the guys do so impeccably. Anyway, here’s some photos from the first screening the gang have held in Galway. And here’s to many more.

Anyway, if you live in Ireland, and you want a chance to attend these screenings, just sign up for membership. The screenings are absolutely free, always a great time, and a great way to appreciate some truly classic movie.