Posted on February 26, 2010 by Darren
It’s turgid. I just know that there are a lot of people who will say it is the worst film of 2010. [The location] was the main reason I took it – so that I could come home at the weekends. It wasn’t because of the script, trust me. I was told it was going to be like The Quiet Man with a Vaughan Williams soundtrack, but in the end it turned out to have pop music all over it. … Was it a bad job? Yes, it was. But, you know, I had a nice time and I got paid.
– Matthew Goode on Leap Year
It’s rare to hear an actor being so candid about a film that met with… less than stellar reception. On one hand I admire the guy’s honesty in speaking out, but on the other I kinda wonder if he really has the right to label the movie as ‘turgid’ after starring in it and whether ‘I got paid’ is really a justification for inflicting that racist romantic comedy upon mankind.
Look on my works ye mighty and despair...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actors, amy adams, bad films, film, honesty, leap year, matthew goode, Movies, romantic comedy, turgid, watchmen | 7 Comments »
Posted on February 25, 2010 by Darren
Bruce Willis has started talking about Die Hard 5 (maybe that should be Die Hard 5.0, but I digress), and has suggested that the next logical step for John McClane is to save the world. Think about it. In Die Hard, he saved a building full of people – not bad, you might say. In Die Harder, he saved an entire airport and the planes in the sky – impressive, you might agree. In Die Hard With A Vengeance, he saved New York from a mad bomber – maybe a little outside of his pay grade, you’ll possible argue. In Die Hard 4.0 (or Live Free and Die Hard), McClane pretty much single-handedly (because nerdy sidekicks don’t count) saved the United States of America. The remark that McClane is porbably going to save the world – while probably a bit of a joke on Willis’ part – got me thinking: is the rule of escalating threat necessarily a good thing?
More sequels, less hair...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bruce willis, die hard, die hard 4.0, john mcclane, Movies, sequels, the first law of metafictional thermodynamics, the rule of escalating threat, threats | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 23, 2010 by Darren
I’m a romantic at heart. I really am. Underneath my cold, cynical exterior beats the heart of a poet. A bad poet, no doubt, but a poet nonetheless. Which is why I find it somewhat disingenuous when my mother or my aunt feel the need to attack me for not appreciating or understanding films like My Sister’s Keeper or The Ugly Truth. It’s easy to joke that “ha, I’m a dude and dudes don’t understand the romantic or emotional drama movies!” and so on, but I think that belies the problem. And the problem is that I don’t like too many romantic comedies because… well, they aren’t good movies (or, to qualify, I don’t believe they are good movies). Read on to hear my reasoning.
The only gold standard in the traditional romantic comedy is Matthew McConaughey's fake tan...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 27 dresses, film, Movies, romance, romantic comedies, the ugly truth, valentine's day | 8 Comments »
Posted on February 19, 2010 by Darren
If you are in anyway interested in cinema, you know Roger Ebert. You already know that Esquire have put together a profile piece on the man, and also he has written a continuation (I was going to say ‘response’, but that would imply hostility) on his own blog. Both are probably the most essential film-related reading of the week.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: esquire, film, film ciriticism, interview, Movies, roger ebert, roger ebert's last words, the last words of roger ebert | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 19, 2010 by Darren
This article begins with a massive disclaimer. I keep a pile of salt in my backyard because I need to take every planned project from Quentin Tarantino with a grain of salt. It build up after all the Kill Bill, Vol. 3 and Casino Royale rumours. Anyway, Tarantino has a new project planned – a Western. But, being the man he is, it certainly isn’t going to be your average gun-slinging morality tale:
I’d like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let’s shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it ‘A Southern.’
It’s certainly a novel take on the genre, right?
There are two kinds of people in the world: John Wayne people and Clint Eastwood people...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: film, inglourious basterds, Movies, quentin tarantino, southern, the underground railroad, western | 7 Comments »
Posted on February 17, 2010 by Darren
Lost returned to Sky One recently, for its sixth and final mind-bending season. In the fourth season it was flash-forwards, in the fifth season it was time travel and this year it looks like it’s alternate dimensions. In fact, this season opens with an alternate universe where the Oceanic 815 flight from Sydney never crashed. Yes, there exists a timeline where an Oceanic Airlines flight made it from one side of the world to another. I’m a big fan of linking seemingly disconnected threads from various strands of fiction together – like postulating that Fight Club is a sequel to Calvin & Hobbes – so I was quite impressed to learn that Oceanic Airlines have a long and varied history of aviation disasters across any number of movies and television shows.
Note that flying that low over London is incredibly dangerous... and perfectly in keeping with oceanic's standards of safety...
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Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: common threads, fiction, lost, metafiction, Movies, oceanic airlines, Television, trivia | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 17, 2010 by Darren
Something just occurred to me while I was working through my Family Guy DVDs over the weekend. I was just learning to hate the damn piracy advertisements – you know the ones, with the “You wouldn’t steal a… [insert noun here]” ones – and I wondered what the hell are these things doing on a DVD I paid good money for. I forked out money over the counter for these bad boys, why do I have to sit through these painful little snippets every damn time I put them in the player? You can’t even skip them on some DVDs! Seriously, what’s the point of having an anti-piracy advertisement on a legitimate DVD? “We know you won’t do it, but in case you were thinking about it…” or “we know you care enough about the industry to buy a legitimate copy, but here’s a lecture anyway…”? It’s like lecturing about truancy at a school meeting or handing out condoms to elderly couples. It’s redundant and it’s annoying. Surely money would be better spent advertising on the web or on television or outside in media where people you buy pirate media are likely to actually see it, rather than simply irritating those of us buying originals.
I’m sorry, that just really ticks me off.
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: dvds, Movies, original, piracy, pirates | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 16, 2010 by Darren
Hmm… I knew there wasn’t good news on the horizon when Disney announced they were steamrolling ahead with their plan to truncate the cinematic run of Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland adaptation. Obviously driven by the home entertainment market (and the fact that parents would be look for distractions for the kids as the summer holidays approach), they want to release the DVD 12 weeks after the movie premieres, rather than the standard 17 weeks. As you can imagine, this has ticked off the cinemas who make more money the later into a film’s release you see it, so it looks like we may have a boycott – in the UK at least. 95% of 3D screens may not be showing it. Including Cineworld, the largest cinema in Dublin.
Through the looking glass but not necessarily on the big screen...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, alice in wonderland, boycott, cinemas, cineworld, disney, DVD, film, home media, Movies, release, the future of cinema, tim burton | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 16, 2010 by Darren
News broke last week that Julia Roberts received $500,000 a minute for her screentime in this year’s romantic ensemble comedy Valentine’s Day. Yes, for six minutes of screentime, she got $3m (which really doesn’t seem that impressive without the zeroes – so $3,000,000). However, that wasn’t the most interesting part of the coverage of the movie – well, at least for me. A bit of commentary revealed how Hollywood can attract so many big names under one matinee sign (which is, undoubtedly, a key part of the movie’s success).
Here's to you, Mrs. Roberts(on)...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: budget, ensemble, film, garry marshall, jamie foxx, julia roberts, Movies, romantic comedy, valentine's day | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 13, 2010 by Darren
Who says sexism is dead? To look at the bulk of the romantic comedy genre, you wouldn’t know it. The subtext of any given mainstream big budget romantic comedy is that guys are stupid and unaware dinosaurs, while women are just the tiniest bit uptight and are neurotic in a mild and endearing manner. The Ugly Truth probably isn’t the worst offender – I felt much worse coming out of 27 Dresses, to be honest – but it is the most recent one I’ve seen.
It's a familiar dance...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: gender, gerard butler, Katherine Hiegl, Movies, non-review review, review, romance, romantic comedy, sexism, sexist, the ugly truth, valentine's day | Leave a comment »
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