Movies | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: A Christmas Carol (2009)

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Darren

I’m yet to be sold on the Robert Zemeckis school of “motion capture.” Don’t worry, I don’t hold a prejudice. I’m just waiting to be convinced, and I worry that Zemeckis – for all his championing of the technology – might not be the one to do it. For, as impressive as the technical merits of his technique might be, I think that Zemeckis has yet to find a story that truly needs to be told in that format, or at least a story that resonates in that format. Much as Pixar have somewhat validated computer-generated animation (a school of filmmaking that met with a ridiculous amount of cynicism in its early years), I think the key to proving the worth of this sort of approach lies in finding a story that connects with audiences, while demonstrating the strengths of the tool being used to tell it.

While it’s an enjoyable enough holiday film, A Christmas Carol simply is not that film.

Totally Scrooged...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a christmas carol, Bob Hoskins, Charles Dickens, christmas, Christmas Carol, colin firth, films, gary oldman, jim carrey, Movies, Muppet Christmas Carol, non-review review, pixar, review, robert zemeckis | 2 Comments »

Fresh Perspectives: Classic Directors and Not-so-Classic Films…

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Darren

I caught Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety at the weekend, and I have to admit, I liked it. I’d only heard the movie mentioned in passing from time to time, never discussed with the same reverence as Space Balls or Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, but never with the same bitterness as Dracula: Dead and Loving It. It never really made it on to any conscious “to see” list with any of the great works from iconic directors. However, I really enjoyed it. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t consider it a forgotten classic, or a misunderstood gem overlooked in Brooks’ impressive filmography. It has its flaws and problems, but I enjoyed it. In fact, while I wouldn’t consider on par with some of his stronger films, I dare say that I actually enjoyed it more than some of them, despite the fact I hadn’t heard that much about it. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if I enjoyed it more because I hadn’t heard that much about it.

High expectations can lead to monstrous results...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Annie Hall, arts, DVD, Mel Brooks, Movies, Social Network, the godfather, Woody Allen, Young Frankenstein | 33 Comments »

Who Spoils the Spoilers? On the Right Not to Be Spoiled…

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Darren

Apparently, spoilers are good for you. Well, that’s what one survey from August suggests:

UC San Diego psychology researchers Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt wanted to test if being spoiled hurt someone’s enjoyment of a story. So they took 30 test subjects and let them read 12 short stories by famous authors like John Updike, Roald Dahl, Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie and Raymond Carver. Some they just read straight, others they read with a paragraph beforehand that ruined the ending or major twist in the piece. In almost all of those cases, the reader liked the story more when they were spoiled.

Published way back in August, this generated quite a bit of on-line discussion, and a lot of people were quick to suggest that the logic held true for movies as well, and modern blockbusters at that. It seems like a ready-made defense for those posting a constant stream of spoilers for The Dark Knight Rises, or leaking plot twists for various popular television shows. However, I’m not necessarily convinced by this logic.

This survey is suspect…

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Agatha Christie, Anton Chekhov, film spoilers, francis ford coppola, John Updike, movie spoilers, Movies, Nicholas Christenfeld, Raymond Carver, roald dahl, Short story, spoilers, spoiling, University of California San Diego | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Shrink

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Darren

There’s a good movie to be found somewhere within Shrink. I’m just not sure exactly what it is. Ensemble dramas are a lot tougher to get right than they may initially seem: lining up a variety of interesting plot lines is only half the battle, as the movie has to balance these threads and ensure that all remain intriguing, while none dominate. Shrink doesn’t really do that. Using Kevin Spacey’s “self-medicating” Los Angeles psychologist as a jumping-off point, the film never really finds a compelling hook for us – and the performances aren’t strong enough to get us to invest in the characters colliding and intersecting like balls on a pool table.

Small problems...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: A Bug's Life, colin farrell, film, films, hollywood, kevin spacey, los angeles, Movies, non-review review, review, robin williams, Shrink | Leave a comment »

The Criterion Criteria: Why Are Criterion Blu Rays Region Coded?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Darren

The Criterion Collection is incredible – it really is the ideal back-catalogue for anybody who considers themselves a fan of good cinema well-presented. The company basically releases top-of-the-line DVD and blu ray collections of old and new films, each presented with the greatest of care, and with a wealth of special features, often including director’s cuts, in-depth documentaries, essays and other treasures. Hell, the company’s laser-disc division invented the notion of a “commentary”, producing one over their release of the classic King Kong. I am a fan, as I think that any cinephile is a fan. That said, I was shocked to read of a rather disturbing development: Criterionhave region-coded their blu ray releases. I understand the idea of region-coding, but this really seems like a strange case.

It's a monstrous injustice... (Godzilla, #594)

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Blu-ray Disc, blu-ray regions, Criterion Collection, DVD, dvd regions, film, Godzilla, home cinema, king kong, Man Who Fell To Earth, Movies, Region-coding, Regional lockout, terry gilliam, United States | 6 Comments »

The Silicon Chip Inside Her Head Gets Switched to Overload: On-Screen Mania and Off-Screen Motives….

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Darren

And daddy doesn’t understand it
He always said she was good as gold
And he can see no reasons
‘Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be show-ow-ow-ow-own?

– I Don’t Like Mondays, The Boom Town Rats

I have to admit, I have a soft spot in my heart for cheesy horror films. Not necessarily all of them, as there’s a lot of dross out there, but I have to admit that there’s nothing like a well-constructed scary movies. I was watching Scream again, this time with my gran in preparation for Halloween, and I enjoyed it yet again – I think it’s a fascinatingly clever look at the slasher genre, and a movie which is as relevent today as it was when it was released, untouched and unspoilt by the wave of inferior imitations that we’ve seen in the years since. There’s a line towards the climax of the film which got me thinking about these sorts of films, and how they’re scary. Asked to provide a motive, the killer responds, “Did we ever find out why Hannibal Lector liked to eat people? Don’t think so! See, it’s a lot scarier when there’s no motive.” Is the unknowable that much scarier?

Psyche!

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bruce wayne, Christopher Nolan, films, halloween, hannibal, hannibal lecter, horror, Jamie Lee Curtis, Movies, ridley scott, scary, tim burton, unknowable, Unknown | 2 Comments »

Vault-emort: Harry Potter and the Disney Vault: Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Darren

I’ve known about the “Disney Vault” ever since I started buying DVDs, well over a decade ago. It’s the reason why you can’t simply go into a movie shop and ask for a copy of every Disney movie, as the company regulates the titles coming in and out of release on various home entertainment platforms at any given moment, giving consumers only the smallest window of opportunity to pick up a given childhood classic before snatching it away for another six or seven years. While I have some serious problems with the practice, it’s a shrewd economic move, and I always wondered why Disney were the only studio to really do it.

Well, Warner Brothers recently announced that they’d be doing something similar, pulling the theatrical versions of the Harry Potter films from DVD and blu ray on the 29th December 2011. That leaves movie fans with only forty-eight days in which to pick up their copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. I suppose this sort of development was inevitable, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Will a lot of film fans feel a bit hallowed by the news?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Citizen Kane, disney, Disney Vault, DVD, economy, films, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Movies, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Patriot Games

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Darren

Truth be told, I think Patriot Games stands as one of the best American spy movies produced in the last thirty or so years. It helps that it has, for my money, one of the great leading actors in Harrison Ford, but I also think it works because it tries to explore something of how the American espionage services work, while functioning as a thriller in its own right. It’s easy to reduce the American intelligence agencies to mere window-dressing in a conventional action movie, or to heavily politicise the organisations as part of a political drama, but I think Patriot Games works best because it’s a spy movie that actually feels like it’s a thriller about the intelligence gathering community.

Family man or Company man?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: films, harrison ford, ira, Ireland, Jack Ryan, james bond, Movies, non-review review, Patriot Games, Phillip Noyce, review, Ryan, sinn féin, tom clancy, United States | 2 Comments »

Re-Release Me… Let Me Go… Hollywood and Re-Releases…

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Darren

So, yep. It’s a bad time for the US box office. The Lion King, a movie first released in 1994, managed to hold on to the number one spot at the top of the charts for two whole weeks, and ranking higher than any new release in its third week. If anything, the major movie studios have been very quick to jump on any trend that offers even the slightest hint of a money-making opportunity. It’s a trend one can easily see from the way that Hollywood pursues ideas. After Harry Potter was a breakout hit, every studio in town was looking for a young adult franchise to adapt to the big screen. After The Dark Knight, it became customary to plan for the superhero sequel before the original even hit theatres. It’s a trend even more obvious with technological gimmicks. After Christopher Nolan proved that you could make money in Imax, it seemed every other movie was being released in the format (even if it didn’t warrant it). Avatar led to a wave of 3D releases, which seemed to be growing old fast. So the success of a film originally released nearly two decades ago in the cinema, remastered in 3D, is pretty much assured to be the next big thing.

I'd be lion if I didn't admit I want to see it...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, cinema, disney, films, finding nemo, george lucas, james cameron, Lion King, Little Mermaid, monster, Movies, originality, re-release, release, rerelease, Star War, the lion king, The Lion King 3D | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Contagion

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Darren

It’s somewhat ironic that the biggest fault with Contagion is that it’s not nearly clinical enough. Soderbergh’s exploration of the impact of a mass pandemic actually works best when the director pulls back to give us a high-level overview of a society collapsing, the individual lives reduced – appropriately enough – to microscopic cells in a larger organism in what might be its death throes. It’s these sequences and shots that are brilliantly effective, demonstrating the systemic and group dynamics that enable and facilitate the spread of a deadly bird flu variant, while the more intimate moments feel awkward and shoehorned in, never afforded enough space to develop character or plot lines. Still, if you pull back and look at the big picture, Soderbergh’s latest effort is an engaging ambitious disaster movie.