Movie | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: The Chronicles of Riddick

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Darren

There’s a good movie to be found somewhere inside The Chronicles of Riddick,I’m just not quite sure where. At the very least, you have to admire David Twohy’s ambition, staging a lofty large-scale science-fantasy with old-fashioned production design that we haven’t seen in years. Unfortunately, it’s a very tough type of subgenre to get right, and Twohy doesn’t necessarily come close. I can’t help but feel that Riddick himself is at the core of the problems with the would-be science-fiction epic, which gives any idea of just how deeply rooted those flaws must be.

Vin and gone...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Chronicles of Riddick, Colm Feore, David Twohy, film, Han Solo, Jordi Mollà, judi dench, Katee Sackhoff, Languages, Movie, non-review review, Pitch Black [Blu-ray], programming, review, Riddick, Thandie Newton, the chronicles of riddick, Vin Diesel | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (Band of Misfits)

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Darren

This review was embargoed until 14th March.

There’s a lot of charm to The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (or Band of Misfits, if you’re so inclined). Aardman Animation might be best known for their distinctive (and beautiful) claymation style, but the studio also has some very sharp writers providing great concepts, ideas and scripts for their madcap films. Pirates! is no different, taking a fairly conventional setting with a fairly conventional central moral, and just throwing absolutely everything against the wall. The result is a genuinely endearing and more-than-a-little madcap family adventure.

A cut above the rest?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aardman Animation, arts, Ashley Jensen, brendan gleeson, Charles Darwin, Clay animation, david tennant, film, Hugh Grant, Misfits, Movie, non-review review, Pirate Captain, pirates, review, Russell Tovey, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, Wallace & Gromit | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: John Carter

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Darren

I really enjoyed John Carter for what it was. In a way, the movie feels quite a bit like its lead character, a Confederate soldier yanked off Earth and dumped in another very strange setting. This movie feels like a seventies or eighties science-fiction epic, mercilessly plucked from the era of pulpy high-tech fantasy and transposed to a more cynical modern time. Whether or not you will enjoy John Carter will depend entirely on your taste for big-budget science-fiction epics. Those who favour a wry and self-aware approach to their wild interplanetary adventures will likely go home unsatisfied. However, those who can embrace an earnest and straight-faced adaptation of a science-fiction classic will find much to enjoy. You can guess which camp I fell into, even if I could acknowledge the movie’s significant shortcomings.

Warlord of Mars...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Stanton, Confederate States Army, david lynch, Earth, Edgar Rice Burrough, Edgar Rice Burroughs, film, george lucas, hollywood, james cameron, John Carter, john carter of mars, mark strong, Michael Giacchino, Movie, non-review review, Princess of Mars, r eview, science fiction, Taylor Kitsch, The Walt Disney Company | 11 Comments »

That Pivotal Second Viewing…

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Darren

As a film blogger, I tend to write reviews of films that I have never seen before. I occasionally take the opportunity to share my thoughts on classic films I have seen countless times, but most of my writing covers films I’ve only seen once. In some cases, that will be the first and only time that I see a movie. I have, for example, no desire to ever site through This Means War again. However, I occasionally find the second viewing of a film to be a much more enlightening and inspiring film, whether it crystalises my original opinion or perhaps even prompts a re-evaluation of my earlier thoughts. It’s interesting how different and distinct a film can appear each time you happen to watch it.

Twice the excitement...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, batman returns, burton, chris pine, Corpse Bride, Cultures and Groups, danny elfman, disney, Edward Scissorhands, film, Frankenweenie, Mars Attacks!, michael sheen, Movie, quentin tarantino, Reese Witherspoon, review, Sarah Palin, screenwriter, This Means War, tim burton, tom hardy, tron, tron: legacy | 14 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Reservoir Dogs

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Darren

I had the pleasure of attending the Jameson Cult Film Club screening of this film.

Reservoir Dogs is my favourite film amongst Quentin Tarantino’s accomplished filmography. It seems a strange choice, as most film fans would concede that it’s pretty great, but would readily point to Pulp Fiction as the definitive Tarantino film. However, I think that Reservoir Dogs has an elegant simplicity that elevates it, allowing Tarantino to demonstrate his unique skills in an environment where he isn’t too confined or too rigidly structured. In a way, it’s that wonderful structure that makes Pulp Fiction so exceptional, but Reservoir Dogs has a relatively modest scale that makes it a lot easier to appreciate Tarantino’s deft mastery of form.

Whiter than White?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Brown, Cuba Gooding, film, harvey keitel, harvye keitel, jasonreitman, madonna, Movie, mr blue, mr. blond, mr. blonde, mr. orange, mr. pink, mr. white, neo-noir, noir, Orange, pulp fiction, quentin tarantino, quentintarantino, Reservoir Dogs, revie, Robbery, steve buscemi, tarantino, w non-review review, White | 4 Comments »

Film Festival Fatigue & True Cinematic Love…

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Darren

I had the pleasure of attending the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival a few weeks back, and it was an intense pleasure. Two weeks of the celebration of the best of film, both new and old, national and international, big and small. However, as I caught thirty different film-related events over ten days, while still working regular hours, I couldn’t help but fight a sense of fatigue – getting up early to commute to Dublin for the festival and getting home at the strangest hours to write a few words and nod off for a few hours before beginning again. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I do wonder if that sort of thing could ever get so tiring that I might sired of writing about or watching movies? I wonder if I’ll ever suffer what might be described as “film fatigue.”

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, Baraka, Bel Ami, dublin, film, Film festival, Fort McCoy Wisconsin, france, jameson dublin international film festival, Movie, toronto, United States | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: 21 Jump Street

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Darren

The review was embargoed until the 5th March 2012.

The obvious point of comparison to Jonah Hill’s big-screen adaptation of 21 Jump Street is the Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson version of Starsky & Hutch. After all, both take classic cult television shows and recycle them for modern audiences, taking dramatic plot devices that seem hilarious and goofy in hindsight and playing them as straight comedy. There is, however, one very crucial difference between that adaptation of a seventies cop show and this adaptation of an eighties cop show: 21 Jump Street works. Mostly.

White knights...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 21 Jump Street, 21 Jump Street (film), 21 Jump Street (movie), arts, ben stiller, Channing Tatum, Darren, Dave Franco, film, johnny depp, jonah hill, Michael Bacall, Movie, Owen Wilson, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, review, starsky and hutch | 14 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Darren

While Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters might get a little bit too crazy and twisty in its final third, but it’s a brilliantly dark Norwegian thriller/comedy, headlined with considerable style by Aksel Hennie as corporate recruitment expert Roger Brown, a sleazy yuppie living well beyond his means to keep his wife in the style two which she has become accustomed. As the movie puts Brown through a sequence of painful and humiliating encounters, it is consistently entertaining, managing to walk the fine line between making sure we dislike Roger enough to be amused by his misfortune, but invested enough that we want to see the little (“1.68 metres”) bugger manage to escape the movie relatively intact.

Got milk?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Aksel Hennie, arts, Brown, film, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Harry Hole, jameson dublin international film festival, Jo Nesbø, Morten Tyldum, Movie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, non-review review, review, Roger, Roger Brown, Stieg Larsson, United States, Yellow Bird | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Project X

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Darren

Project X is a mess, but it’s a high-octane and energetic mess, with an incredible youthful exuberance and a desire to throw anything it can at the wall to see if it sticks. Though it starts out a bit slow, it accelerates pretty quickly, with the film managing to hold itself together as the party on-screen starts to fall apart. The best way to describe Project X might be to define it as Superbad‘s hyper-active, less focused, more crass, more direct and less sweet younger brother. It lacks the heart that defined that other recent coming-of-age teenage comedy, but it more than makes up for its relative shallowness with an enthusiasm that’s infectious and hard to resist.

Razing the roof...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: art, Arts and Entertainment, Australia, business, comedy, Disc jockey, Document review, film, House Party, Movie, Nima Nourizadeh, non-review review, Project X, Protagonist, review, Shopping, Superbad, Thomas Mann, Todd Phillips | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Courage (Wymyk)

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2012.

Courage is a fascinating little Polish film, with an interesting dramatic hook. Director Greg Zglinski offers a searing portrait of masculinity and impotence in the twenty-first century, where ever moment and action and decision seems to be documented for future use – our private failures of judgment ultimately become public spectacles, and in this era of globalisation and instant media connections, it’s impossible to escape the consequences of one bad split-second decision. While Zglinski’s film might overstay even its relatively short runtime, it does raise some interesting and challenging ideas about heroism in the twenty-first century.