Posted on October 26, 2009 by Darren
Kill Bill is an epic, but personal, work for Quentin Tarantino. It’s his Gangs of New York – a movie he’s clearly wanted to make in his own way for a very long time. It’s a tour through the cinematic locales which inform his filmmaking – though he uses Tokyo and Texas, and other names of real life locations, the film isn’t set in anywhere that really exists, or ever could exist, outside his own imagination. Kill Bill is a darkly violent and ultimately juvenile film, but one that was clearly well-loved and properly nurtured. It never ceases to impress, even while it makes you flinch.
Not quite mellow yellow...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: david carradine, films, kill bill, kill bill: vol. 1, kill bill: volume 1, Movies, non-review review, post-modern, quentin tarantino, revenge, review, the bride, uma thurman | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 22, 2009 by Darren
Everyone loves a good, juicy rumour and this is about as juicy as it gets. Apparently George Lucas is working on a new trilogy of Star Wars films in order to capitalise on the 3D film-making craze – apparently remastering the originals isn’t all he had in mind. This sounds like something resembling a mixed blessing to anybody with particularly strong feelings about the original trilogy, but there is one grain of hope: apparently Lucas won’t be directing.
Maybe by the time he makes them, technology will be able to generate good performances from bad actors...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, films, george lucas, Movies, prequel trilogy, rumours, sci-fi, science fiction, sequel trilogy, speculation, star wars, star wars trilogy | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 20, 2009 by Darren
I love Sky Anytime. It gives me the opportunity to watch stuff I would normally miss at a time that suits me. This weekend, for example, I sat down for Saturday lunch and decided to see what was available to watch. I found Ghost Town, a movie which never really became large enough to warrant a cinema trip and my family’s Gervais-aversion ruled out a rent. So, I switched it on and I was reasonably impressed with this modern spoof on the ghost story subgenre. There’s nothing too strange or startling or new here, but it’s a solidly entertaining comedy and a more than pleasant diversion.
Dead people see him...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: comedy, david koepp, film, films, ghost town, ghosts, greg kinnear, Movies, ricky gervais | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 20, 2009 by Darren
Tell us something we don’t know. Okay, I’m being mean, but Francis Ford Coppola, once so optimistic about the future of the medium of cinema, has become jaded and cynical about the studio system:
The cinema as we know it is falling apart. It’s a period of incredible change. We used to think of six, seven big film companies. Every one of them is under great stress now. Probably two or three will go out of business and the others will just make certain kind of films like Harry Potter — basically trying to make Star Wars over and over again, because it’s a business.
And, yes, this is from the man who made The Godfather III.
But does he have a point?
He gave us The Godfather III and Bram Stoker's Dracula and NOW he's worried about the death of cinema?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: adaptations, cinema, creativity, derivative, francis ford coppola, monomyth, Movies, originality, stories | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 19, 2009 by Darren
I don’t have a twitter account. Until earlier this year, I didn’t have a blog. I’m not a slow technological adapter, but I don’t pretend that I am the fastest either. I don’t do facebook, linkedin or bebo, among others. Apparently I am way behind the times. Anyway, it’s always fun to watch the sociological impact of these new multimedia methods of keeping in touch and how they find themselves harnessed (whether intentionally or not) to the service or detriment of established traditional media. Paranormal Activity is the latest movie to benefit the Twitter Effect.
Is it a phantom effect?
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, inglourious basterds, Movies, new media, paranormal activity, snakes on a plane, The Dark Knight, the twitter effect, tweeting, twitter, viral campaigns | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 19, 2009 by Darren
I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time – ever since snuggling in to watch the eighties sci-fi spectacular Enemy Mine only to discover that it was an experience which managed to flawlessly recreate the experience of being repeatedly hammered on the head by a blunt metallic object of some sort. The fact that the movie actually forced me to give up on it is a rare experience – I can normally grit my teeth and bare it. In a world that features so, so many terrible, terrible films, how come I don’t switch off more?
Yes, even he couldn't get me to switch off...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bad movies, film, film reviewing, Movies, switching off, terrible films | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 16, 2009 by Darren
Is it possible for an actor to age gracefully? The Guardian has been very fruitful in providing food for thought this week and the article that grabbed my attention today is a discussion of Heath Ledger’s potential had his life not been cut so tragically short. I don’t intend to dwell on what could have, should have or would have been, but the article does raise some interesting assertions about the ageing of great actors:
If you want to propose Pacino, De Niro and Nicholson as the outstanding figures of the 70s and 80s, who can be resigned about what has happened to them? They have become pastiches of what they once were.
So, is that what really awaits our truly great actors at the end of their careers?
Grumpy - but cool - old men...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actors, actresses, ageing, ageing actors, ageism, clash of the titans, edwards asner, films, growing old, heath ledger, hollywood, Movies, oaps, the guardian, up | 29 Comments »
Posted on October 15, 2009 by Darren
This was an interesting piece of news last week – a large number of us lie about the films we’ve seen, as demonstrated by a survey in the UK. Basically, a large number of us pretend to have seen movies which we haven’t in order to avoid appearing ‘uncultured’. There was a fair bit of focus on the fact that the most lied about film is The Godfather, but it seems to have gone unnoticed that the second most lied about film is Dirty Dancing. Even keeping Patrick Swayze’s recent death in mind (which probably happened after the survey was complete), why would you lie about Dirty Dancing? It takes a stuck-up film snob to judge you for not watching The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption, two indisputable classics, but who in their right mind would complain that you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Dirty Dancing?
The time of your life, indeed...
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: dirty dancing, film, lying, Movies, the godfather, the shawshank redemption | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 14, 2009 by Darren
Yes, you read the title right. Is Anton Chigurh, the sociopathic hitman from No Country For Old Men who kills his victims an instrument used to cull cattle, an instrument of divine will? I stumbled across an interesting argument on-line which proposed that McCarthy (who is – apparently – staunchly conservative) wrote the character as an angel who was sent down to purge all those connected in anyway with the money from the drug trade – bringing on the old-school biblical wrath which you don’t see too often these days. Talk about executing your purpose with zeal.
Everytime Chigurh kills somebody, an angel gets its wings. It's pretty crowded up there, too.
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: anton chigurh, bible, chigurh, christianity, cormac mccarthy, drugs, god, interpretations, javier bardem, Movies, no country for old men, subtext, themes, wraith, yahweh | 7 Comments »
Posted on October 13, 2009 by Darren
Halloween is coming up soon and we plan to celebrate it in style here at the m0vie blog. We’ll be looking at all manner of scary archetypes and horror conventions as that day approaches. Evidently, I’m already in the right frame of mind. I just found out that the original A Nightmare on Elm Street is based (very loosely, I must admit) on a true story. I’m not kidding, it’s actually quite freaky.
One, two... Freddy's coming for you...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: a nightmare on elm street, film, freddy krueger, hmong, Movies, mysterious deaths, nightmare on elm street, sudden unexplained death syndrome, true story, wes craven | 43 Comments »
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