Posted on May 5, 2010 by Darren
This is one of my entries on the latest cross-blogging event, tracking down some of the most overrated movies of all time. It’s being run by Mike over at You Talking to Me. I can’t spoil the list by giving you any of the other titles, but I can tell you another entry will be appearing on this very blog before the week is out.
Let me pitch you a scene. It’s early 2002. There’s a whole rank of huge blockbusters looming. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Star Wars: Episode II; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Austin Powers in Goldmember; Men in Black II; Ice Age. And then there’s a strange one. Spider-Man, from that guy who made The Evil Dead. Really? Sure, Richard Donner’s Superman was great, but that was decades ago. Joel Schumacher had killed the Batman franchise only a few years back. That Bryan Singer fella had proved he wasn’t a one-hit wonder with X-Men, but it wasn’t exactly box office gold (only the eighth biggest film of 2000). Comic book movies were a strange proposition – transitioning the characters to the big screen just didn’t work naturally. Somethings aren’t meant to be adapted.
Has Spider-Man Blackened the Name of all Superhero Films?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: blogging, comic book, comic book films, comic books, daredevil, films, Movie, Movies, spider man, spider-man 2, spider-man 3, spider-man ii, spider-man iii, superhero movies, superheroes | 10 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2010 by Darren
This post comes about from a bit of a debate that has emerged following the revelation of certain spoilers about Iron Man 2. Given that the movie is just out state side, I’m not going to spoil it for anyone stumbling across this page. I just find it an interesting abstract discussion: Are movie spoilers news? Or should web news outlets simply refuse on principle to publish these sorts of rumours?
Nick Fury has his eye on you...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: CHUD, films, iron man, iron man 2, Movies, secret endings, spoiler tags, spoiler warnings, spoilers | 6 Comments »
Posted on May 3, 2010 by Darren
Hey, I’ve been tagged by the always fantastic Aidan at Cut the Crap Movie Reviews to take part in a little movie-meme-related madness. This time it’s an interview-style questionaire. Can I phone a friend?
Over dramatic? Moi? Never!
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: me, meme, Movies, trivia | 12 Comments »
Posted on April 29, 2010 by Darren
This is the poster for Buried, the indie thriller which is based around the idea of Ryan Reynolds being buried alive. I love a good high concept thriller (think Phone Booth or Cellular, for example) – but I especially love a cool high concept poster.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: buried, films, Movies, poster, ryan reynolds | 10 Comments »
Posted on April 28, 2010 by Darren
I’ve been thinking a bit lately about how I write my “non-review reviews” and what I make of a given film and so on. In particular, I’ve been wondering if I should start offering some form of “grade” to my reviews, like some sort of overzealous teacher – “this film has Darren’s seal of approval!” The thing is, I’m not quite sure if I should.
Stars in my eyes...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: film, grades, Movie, Movies, points, ratings, reviewing, reviews, stars | 12 Comments »
Posted on April 26, 2010 by Darren
I hope you aren’t tired of comic book movies, because it seems like the past few summers have just been an attempt to whet our appetites for even more of the four-colour heroes. Marvel, ever keen to stay one step ahead of their “distinguished competitor”, have announced a scheme to allow the less well-known of their characters a day in the spotlight. DC is still struggling to get its iconic heroes to the screen, let alone put together a coherent shared universe, and Marvel is already scouring the depths of its published materials for new films. I have to admit, I’m kinda excited about the news.
Who's next?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: comic book films, comic books, dc, film, genre, marvel, Movies, subgenre, superheroes | 7 Comments »
Posted on April 23, 2010 by Darren
Ah, mobile phones. Or cellular telephones to our overseas readers. How did we ever get by without them. Can you imagine a time when you were actually able to have a legitimate excuse for ignoring people trying to get into contact with you? When you were unreachable, save at home or at work? I reached my teenage years just as mobile phones became truly moble – I came of age as they became standard accessories for everyone. So I’ve never really lived in a world without them. So I’ve never really had a chance to stop and think about how they’ve influenced movie-making and the like. While they’ve undoubedly made it easier to write genres like dramas or romances where you no longer have to worry about characters sharing a geographic location to have a conversation, I think their biggest area of influence has been on horrors or thrillers, movies which took great pride in isolating individuals and having them face threats or challenges on their own. How has this changed?
Is there a life on the line?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cellular, cellular telephones, films, mobile phones, mobiles, Movies, phonebooth, phones, pulse | 7 Comments »
Posted on April 23, 2010 by Darren
Papillon is a great film. I fall just short of declaring it a masterpiece, but it’s certainly a proud cinematic achievement (seriously, there’s some lovely stunt work going on here). Based on the true, kinda true heavily fictionalised story of Henri Charriere (his real name is never given here, except for a brief shot of his jail cell), the movie is pretty much an episodic collection of incidences from his time in captivity, having been wrongly convicted for killing a pimp. Naturally some of these individual segments work better than others, and some seem a little disjointed, but Steve McQueen really ties it all together. Which is really something since he’s starring opposite Dustin “Oscar gold” Hoffman.
Hail to McQueen...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: dustin hoffman, escape, film, Movies, non-review review, papillon, prison, review, steve mcqueen | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 22, 2010 by Darren
It’s already happening. We’re already calling Kick-Ass a failure. Even though it managed to narrowly slide into first place at the US Box Office over the weekend, there are tonnes of pundits ready to dogpile on top of it and describe it as the most epic kind of failure. It seems to be a cyclical experience every time that a big geek film emerges, that has experienced a large amount of pre-release hype on the old interweb: Snakes on a Plane, Watchmen and Grindhouse among others. So how come Hollywood keeps pandering to a niche that never seems to show up?
Did Kick-Ass get its ass kicked? Should we call it Ass-Kick?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: box office, economics, failure, films, geeks, grindhouse, hobo with a shotgun, hollywood, home video, kick-ass, machete, Movies, nerds, snakes on a plane, studios, watchmen | 13 Comments »
Posted on April 21, 2010 by Darren
Planet 51 is an enjoyable little animated film. It mostly skirts by on it’s rather interesting premise (what if an astronaut landed on an alien world exactly like fifties America?) and razor-sharp pop culture references (I wonder how many kids are going to get the references to E.T. let alone Alien or 2001: A Space Odyssey), but it’s ultimately let down by the fact that nobody involved seems to be trying too hard… or at all, really. The film relies on its intriguing premise to carry it, which it just about does, but it’s hard to feel that there isn’t so much more that could have been done.
I'm not sure if Chuck demonstrates to Planet 51 that there's intelligent life out there...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: aliens, animation, cgi, film, jessica biel, justin long, Movies, non-review review, planet 51, pop culture, review, the rock | 6 Comments »
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