Posted on February 1, 2010 by Darren
Hmm… Last year I wasn’t so sure about 3D being the future of movie-making that everyone was lauding it it to be. And, being honest, part of me is still on the fence. The two biggests revolutions in the distribution of popular cinema have been the advent of sound and the introduction of consistent and effective colour. Home media is probably third, but that’s probably not what the major studios want to hear as they attempt to milk every possible cent out of the big screen in this era of pirated movies and downloads and such. Avatar pretty much knocked the digital 3D thing out of the park and demonstrated that the concept had a life beyond kids flicks like Coraline and Monsters vs. Aliens (the only time I mention those two together, I promise) and horror flicks like My Bloody Valentine and The Final Destination. James Cameron has taken what Alfred Hitchock memorably derided as a seven-day fad and made it matinee fare. And, of course, Hollywood has noticed. Clash of the Titans, one of the early summer blockbusters this year, is being reworked into 3D before release – probably as a direct result of Avatar’s success. Still, if 3D is to be as huge a game changer as colour or sound was, it needs to become the norm for films produced – it needs to become dominant. So when we are we going to see 3D prestige pieces?
The way things are meant to 3D?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, avatar, cinema, clash of the titans, colour films, film, film making, future, future of cinema, home entertainment, innovations, Movies | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 28, 2010 by Darren
I’ll admit that I’ve never really understood why Hollywood is so preoccupied with showing the rest of the world how show business works. It was announced today that the book I’m Dying Up Here will be getting the film treatment. That particular bestseller offers a behind-the-scenes look at the early days of the New York stand-up comedy scene, culminating in the famous strike over pay. The characters on screen will be any number of world-famous comedians, from Tim Allen to Robin Williams. Part of me wonders if the recession is a suitable time for this sort of Hollywood introspection.
You may be dying up here, but the celebrity-based bio-pic is alive and well...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: biographies, biopics, celebrities, comedians, films, funny people, i'm dying up here, Movies, ray, recession, showbiz, strike | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 27, 2010 by Darren
This is the kind of Hollywood dickishness that you can’t imagine really taking place, but it seems that it is. Apparently a turf war between the Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises has brought out the inner childish jerk in everyone, and left director Kevin Greutert stuck in the middle. For a series which is devoted to torture porn, it seems that life is imitating art.
Apparently Lionsgate have been taking lessons from Jigsaw...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, kevin greutert, lionsgate, Movies, news, paramount, paranormal activity, paranormal activity 2, saw, saw vii | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 21, 2010 by Darren
Looks like Tim Burton is getting quite comfortable at Disney – apparently he plans to follow his 3D spectacular Alice in Wonderland with a reboot of the classic Sleeping Beauty. Don’t worry (or do worry, depending on your opinion of the director), he’s not going to be offering a straight-forward adaptation – that would be much too straightforward. Instead, Burton is going to rework the story from the perspective of the evil queen: Maleficent. It seems that revisiting classic stories from the villain’s perspective is Hollywood’s new business plan, and – being honest – I’m equally worried and excited about it. Which, at the very least, means it is in someway daring.
Evil or misunderstood? It is going be a Burton film after all...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: alice in wonderland, animation, childhood, children, deconstruction, disney, fairy tales, maleficent, Movies, myths, sleeping beauty, snow white, tim burton | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 13, 2010 by Darren
As anyone who visits the site will know, Inglourious Basterds was my film of last year. I just dug it – the post-modern aspects of it, the juxtaposition of Tarantino’s style with the historic backdrop, the ending. And I’m more than delighted to think that Christophe Waltz will earn an Oscar statuette for his work, making it three years on the trot of amazing Supporting Actor turns. But will the film itself score one of the big nominations? Of that, I’m not quite so sure.
That's one way of convincing Academy members...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 81st academy awards, academy, AMPAS, best picture, best picture 2010, best picture race, inglourious basterds, Movies, oscar nominations, oscar nominees, oscar race, Oscars, oscars 2010, quentin tarantino, weinstein company | 4 Comments »
Posted on January 11, 2010 by Darren
… but don’t worry, we’ll be getting a brand spanking new reboot in 2012.
Maybe they will even call it Brand New Franchise. As the word has spread like wildfire, apparently it’s all over. There will be no Spider-Man 4. All my villain-listing and Vulture-defending were in vain, as were my nervous anticipations of seeing John Malkovich with wings or the faint aspiration of seeing three solid Spider-Man films produced (it’s like a do-over for the last one). Sony have reached in panic for their giant reset button and announced that they will have a reboot in cinemas in just over two years. They have a writer, but no script, no cast and no director. That’s going to be a superheroic effort.
Spider-Man finds himself being strangled by Sony...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, Movies, news, reboot, sam raimi, sony, spider man, spider-man 4, tobey maguire | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 9, 2010 by Darren
There’s been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on the next Bond film, provisionally titled as Bond 23. This week has been a bonaza of news about the project, which has been slowly taking shape through dribs and drabs of information. On one hand, we had the official confirmation of what everybody really knew (but it’s nice to know for sure): the movie won’t get made until someone buys MGM or the rights. The other tidbit was much more interesting. Bond has a director: Sam Mendes. I think it’s a great idea.
Things at MGM are so bad that Bond can't even afford dry-cleaning...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bond, bond 23, daniel craig, film, james bond, mgm, Movies, news, peter morgan, sam mendes | Leave a comment »
Posted on December 31, 2009 by Darren
We’ve known this was coming for a while. From the moment I ran through the Irish Times’ Top 20 Films of the Decade through to my own Top 50 Films of the Decade (why stop at 20?) and even on my Top 10 TV Shows of the Decade. It seems only fair and natural to offer a top ten countdown of my favourite movies from the past twelve months. I make no apologies for how populist or anti-populist the list may seem, and I hope that it doesn’t offend anyone – I’m just a nerd on the interweb afterall. If you think I missed something, or overpraised something, just let me know in the comments below. Cheers. Now enjoy.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: coralive, doubt, films, frost nixon, frost/nixon, inglorious bastards, inglorious basterds, inglourious basterds, moon, Movies, star trek, the good the bad and the weird, the good the band and the weird, the hangover, the top ten films of the decade, the top ten movies of the year, top ten of the year, up, year in review | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 23, 2009 by Darren
I’ll be honest. I didn’t like Avatar. Part of the movie made me uncomfortable. The implications of the whole “white man leads a bunch of noble savages to a victory they couldn’t have acheived without him” bit are worrying when place in the context of a metaphor for the genocide of the Native Americans. But, beyond that, it just isn’t a very good film. The dialogue is terrible. The characters don’t seem half as real as James Cameron’s wonderfully brought-to-life planet Pandora. On the other hand, I will concede that the visuals are stunning. They are breathtaking. What really amazes me, though, is the tone of backlash that most negative reviews seem to be generating, which can be effectively summed up with: just shut up and look at the pretty picture – who cares about plot and characters?
King of the new world...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, avatar backlash, avatar reviews, criticism, critics, film, Movies, special effects, story | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 18, 2009 by Darren
It seems to happen at least once a decade: the critic consensus emerging immediately after the release of a film turns out to be wrong, swayed by the tides of retrospect and history. Initial reviews of The Shining criticised it for being slow – today we regard its pace as being one of its many virtues. It wasn’t greeted with triumphant applause, but a resounding ‘meh’. Blade Runner was dismissed as a wannabe sci-fi epic, now we consider it to be one of the high watermarks of the genre – a masterpiece. The Wizard of Oz equally divided critics between those who considered the movie to be a game changer, and those who thought it was just light and fluffy entertainment. You could make the case that Fight Club debuted to a hugely divided critical opinion, but that belies that fact that the acknowledgement of the movie as a modern classic is grudging at best. So is there a film from the last ten years that is likely to feature a similar historical revision, considered a retrospective masterpiece?
Harrison Ford knew how to "persuade" critics...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: after the fact, blade runner, critical reaction, cult, cult movies, films, in hindsight, Movies, retrospect, the shining | Leave a comment »
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