Posted on September 26, 2012 by Darren
In case you hadn’t realised, Oscar season is in full swing. We’ve already had the Toronto International Film Festival. There’s already a front-runner in the form of The Master. The seemingly obligatory voting controversy has already been reported upon. Newspapers and on-line film websites are already launching their coverage of a race that won’t be over for another five months, despite the fact that many would argue the race probably already has a winner. And that discounts those websites already set up specifically for the race, which are (understandably) kicking into overdrive.
And I… find myself having difficulty mustering too much enthusiasm about it.
The show goes on…
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, Film Festivals, Joaquin Phoenix, John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Master, Movies, oscar, Oscar season, Scientology, toronto international film festival, United States | 9 Comments »
Posted on September 17, 2012 by Darren
Yimou Zhang’s House of Flying Daggers is a wonderful visual and auditory experience. It’s a sumptuous feast for the eyes and the ears, a truly beautiful piece of film that really needs to seen to be fully appreciated. While its plots and characters aren’t quite as rich as the wonderfully saturated surroundings, House of Flying Daggers remains a film that really seems to bask in light and colour, almost soaking in those elements, with each frame seeming like a stunning work of art.
Bamboozled?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Arts and Entertainment, Blade & Soul, cgi, China, crouching tiger hidden dragon, film, House of Flying Daggers, Movie, Movies, NCsoft, non-review review, Raise the Red Lantern, review, Shopping, Siu-Tung Ching, South Korea, Tang Dynasty, Yimou Zhang, Zhang, Zhang Ziyi, Zhao Xiaoding | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 11, 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.
ParaNorman is a charming little film, even if it’s not quite as good as Laika’s other recent stop-motion effort, Coraline. ParaNorman is a charming homage to a variety of classic horror films, clearly crafted with a great deal of affection and love by directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell. It suffers a bit from being a little bit too earnest in attempting to convey its heartfelt moral message, but it is still entertainingly well put-together, drawing solid voice work from a diverse cast and making the most of its horror movie premise.
Nothing out of the Norman here…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Chris Butler, coraline, film, henry selick, Jon Brion, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Laika, Movies, Nightmare Before Christmas, non-review review, Norman, ParaNorman, review, Sam Fell, stop-motion | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 30, 2012 by Darren
I have to confess, part of me is a little disappointed that we are slowly phasing out of blockbuster season and into the traditional Oscar season. Not because I prefer the films in one to the other, of course, but because it means that apparently my entire continent is going to drop off the radar for a few months. As the major studios in the United States scramble to get their best Oscar shots released in Los Angeles (and, often, the rest of the country) by the end of the year, it seems that they forget about the rest of the world. While the release of the summer blockbusters have gotten just a bit more synchronised, there’s still a sense that the release of the prestige pieces over here remains an afterthought.
Let’s deal with this fur once and fur all…
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, arts, Bourne Legacy, California, christmas, Counties, DarkKnight Rises, django unchained, Filmmaking, Joaquin Phoenix, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, los angeles, Major film studio, Movies, New Year, Oscar season, philip seymour hoffman, quentin tarantino, Travel and Tourism, United States | 11 Comments »
Posted on August 21, 2012 by Darren
I genuinely think that Gattaca is an unsung modern science-fiction classic. Andrew Niccol also wrote the screenplay for The Truman Show at the same time, another science-fiction masterpiece of the nineties, and another film way ahead of its time. I wonder if The Truman Show eclipsed Niccol’s work on Gattaca. It’s certainly a far more conventional science-fiction feature film, with a decidedly retro-futuristic aesthetic to it, and a slightly more earnest approach to its central themes. Still, I think that Gattacais a film that has held up remarkably well since its release and deserves a great deal more praise and attention than it really gets.
A face in a crowd…
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Niccol, ethan hawke, films, gattaca, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, Genetics, Jerome, Josef, jude law, Movie, Movies, non-review review, review, sci-fi, science fiction, uma thurman | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 16, 2012 by Darren
Would you ‘adam and eve it’, the Jameson Cult Film Club is coming to Galway, and we’ve teamed up with Jameson to offer tickets to one lucky geezer and three of his mates to the ultimate screening experience of Snatch in a secret location in Galway on August 23rd.
The Jameson Cult Film Club is all about watching your favourite cult films at spectacular screenings staged to transport the audience right into the world of the movie. These free events are not just your typical screening, it’s an experiential viewing experience with clever use of props, staging and live action to ensure the audience in the venue are transported right into the world of the movie! Characters from the movie, live theatre and special effects timed perfectly with on-screen action help to create an electric atmosphere and leave movie fans wanting more.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, competition, films, galway, jameson cult film club, jameson cult film galway, Movies, silence of the lambs, Snatch, snatch galway, win | Leave a comment »
Posted on August 8, 2012 by Darren
So, Sight & Sound has conducted their “top fifty films of all time” poll, held once a decade since 1952. With two polls, one for directors and one for critics, it’s certainly an interesting way to measure the pulse of the cinematic establishment. This year, for example, Citizen Kane was vanquished from the top spot, replace by the critics with Vertigo and by the directors with Tokyo Story. The publication of such a list is always a great spark for cinematic debate and discussion – with some commentators describing the lists as conservative or humourless and some directors using it as an opportunity to publish their own lists. Personally, I always find such list-making fun, if ultimately a little pointless.
Raising Kane…
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: best, best films, bfi, films, Movies, reviews, sight & sound, sight and sound, top 10, top 10 films, top 50 filmes ever, top 50 films, top 50 movies ever, top ten, top ten films | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 8, 2012 by Darren
Julius Caesar is a very ropey production. Produced by Commonwealth United Entertainment and American International Pictures, it doesn’t stand up as an enduring adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. While quite a few of the essential ingredients are lacking, Charlton Heston actually does a fairly good job as Marc Anthony – it’s just that he’s never quite as good as Marlon Brando had been in the role back in 1953. On the other hand, Jason Robards is woefully miscast as Brutus, transforming “noble Brutus” from the most honest man in Rome to the most sinister of assassins. The production values are fairly decent, but Julius Caesar perhaps provides evidence that these sorts of historical epics were already on the way out by the start of the 1970s.
Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend my your expensive set designers!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Antonius, Brutus, Caesar, film, Gregory Doran, Jason Robards, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, michael gough, Movies, non-review review, Paterson Joseph, review, simba, William Shakespeare | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 26, 2012 by Darren
To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises, July is “Batman month” here at the m0vie blog. Check back daily for comics, movies and television reviews and discussion of the Caped Crusader.
I think it’s fair to say that Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is quite an accomplishment. I think there’s a valid argument to be made that the series can be successfully measured against other classic film trilogies like the original Star Wars trilogy or even the more recent Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, I think it’s also notable just how much political discourse and discussion the trilogy has generated, particularly for its political content. It’s quite impressive that Nolan’s three films about a masked pulp hero have provoked such debate, and I’d certainly argue that The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are easily two of the most politically complex and fascinating blockbusters in quite some time.
A caped social crusader?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, bane, batman, caped crusader, Christopher Nolan, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, Dark Knight [Blu-ray], films, george w. bush, joker, Movies, politics, review, star wars | 6 Comments »
Posted on July 19, 2012 by Darren
To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight Rises, July is “Batman month” here at the m0vie blog. Check back daily for comics, movies and television reviews and discussion of the Caped Crusader.
Really?
Really?
I’ve honestly never understood the internet’s problem with divergent opinions. Why are people so deeply threatened by an opinion that differs from their own? Rotten Tomatoes had to shut down their commenting system after a bunch of rabid fanboys took to protesting negative reviews of The Dark Knight Rises. It’s not a new problem. It happened with the release of The Avengers as well. And The Dark Knight. It seems that internet comic book fans are extremely prone to this sort of violently obsessive behaviour. I say this as somebody familiar with comic books and somebody who really loved The Dark Knight Rises: Why?
Why is an opinion different from yours threatening to you?
The long Dark Knight of the soul…
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, Associated Press, avengers, bane, batman, Christopher Nolan, Christy Lemire, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, Hobbit, Marshall Fine, Movies, rotten tomatoes | 10 Comments »
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