Posted on October 12, 2009 by Darren
It’s a funny world. But it has always been a funny world and it’s arrogant to presume that the world waited until we got here to go and get itself in a mess. Sure, some of us carry the fire off into that night, but it’s a very cold and very dark night and all we have is faith that there is an even greater fire out there waiting for us. No Country For Old Men is a stunning film – an odd fusion of the Coen Brothers with Cormac McCarthy which manages to say a hell-of-a-lot without weighing itself down with too much exposition or dialogue. It’s a great film which realy stands out even amongst the Coens’ already-impressive filmography.
Yes, it's a silencer. On a shotgun.
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adaptation, anton chigurh, best picture, best picture oscar, book, coen brothers, cormac mccarthy, drama, film, javier bardem, josh brolin, Movie, Movies, no country for old men, non-review review, review, the coen brothers, thriller, tommy lee jones, western, woody harrelson | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 7, 2009 by Darren
So last week we had the box office dominance of Zombieland, a post-apocalyptic comedy. Over the weekend we had the simultaneous broadcast across US network television of five minutes of Emmerich’s newest disaster flick 2012. We also may have the first post-apocalyptic Oscar-nominee in The Road this year. And that’s just in the last three months of the year. Looking back over the last decade alone there have been a million-and-one end-of-the-world thrillers, chillers, comedies and dramas. That’s a lot of apocalypse for a relatively small planet. So, what gives? is there a greater reason for the zeitgeist’s fascination with the end of the world?
Darth Vader offers an example of what the end of the world might just look like...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, apocalypse, doomsday, dr. strangelove, film, film genres, i am legend, Movies, post-apocalyptic, teotwawki, the day after tomorrow, the end of the world, the road, waterworld, zombie apocalypse, zombieland, zombies | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 6, 2009 by Darren
I caught a screening of Toy Story 3D in Cineworld last night. It was amazing. Not for the new 3D effects – which were, admittedly graceful and understated rather than garish and intrusive – but just for the joy of seeing two old friends back on the big screen, where they belong. The rerelease of the movie has garnered a lot of discussion about what the best Pixar film is, with many suggesting that this original film may take the crown. While Toy Story isn’t the best of that studio’s filmography, it remains a highlight. To infinity and beyond, indeed!
Toyz in da Hood...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: buzz lightyear, films disney, Movies, non-review review, pixar, rerelease, review, tim allen, tom hanks, toy story, toy story 3d, woody | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 2, 2009 by Darren
Hey, Disney, wassup? Seriously. I know I live in Ireland and that ripping off people is the norm, but c’mon? Everywhere else seems to be receiving Toy Story 3D as a double feature including Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in a four-hour epic? Instead, I have to fork out €10 twice to see two movies I’ve already seen and I can’t even make a decent weekend afternoon of it. We’re getting the first Toy Story rendered in 3D today, but we have to wait until Christmas for the second one.
Buzz isn't the only person the joke is on...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: back-to-back, double feature, films, Movies, pixar, toy story, toy story 2, toy story 3, toy story 3d | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 30, 2009 by Darren
I make no apologies, I love this movie. Though it might not always hit the perfect notes, it maintains Ben Stiller’s pitch-perfect ability to just throw tonnes of stuff at the wall and if even 30% of the jokes hit, you’re at least grinning for the film’s runtime. He also has a fantastic cast full of the talented and the one-note, all of whom are perfectly chosen for the roles that they play within Stiller’s war comedy. Sure, the film may lose focus a bit, and it has a fairly short attention span, but this means that Stiller isn’t afraid to pull away from a gag that isn’t working.
Jungle Fever
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: apocalypse now, ben stiller, comedy, films, hollywood, jack black, les gorssman, Movies, non-review review, review, robert downey, robert downey jnr., satire, tom cruise, tropic thunder | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 30, 2009 by Darren
I happened upon an interesting article which suggested that today’s blockbusters are far too long. It’s a notion which got me thinking – it’s easy to jump to those sort of conclusions based on the kind of summer we’ve had, but are movies really getting longer and is that a bad thing?
Even bigger and meaner than you could imagine...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: average runtime, cinema, film length, films, movie length, Movies, runtime, two hours | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 30, 2009 by Darren
I considered writing this little piece in a vacuum, leaving the issue the sparked it sitting like an elephant in the room – but there’s really no point avoiding it. I’ve been troubled watching Roman Polanski films ever since I read up and discovered why he had to direct The Ninth Gate from abroad. The knowledge that he had engaged in sexual acts with a thirteen year old girl has been very hard to disassociate from the man in viewing his filmography – oddly enough, it’s harder to disassociate than the grisly facts surrounding the brutal murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson family. I saw The Pianist and his rather lacklustre (Playboy financed) version of Macbeth before I found out about his flight to Europe and his seemingly eternal exile. I was unlucky enough to see Chinatown afterwards, and as great as the film was I couldn’t quite get over what Polanski had done. Am I being a little silly or is it really hard to view the work of film makers in a vacuum?
"Forget it, Jake, it's Polaski..."
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: behind the scenes, chinatown, external factors, films, in a vacuum, Movies, rape, roman polanski, statutory rape | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 29, 2009 by Darren
I am going to just come out and say this. I like Tom Cruise as an actor. I think he’s hugely talented and vastly underrated. I think he suffers from a subset of the Sean Penn Syndrome that affects Christian Bale – his wacky personal life tends to overshadow his on-screen roles, which is a damn shame, given the talent that’s been hinted at repeatedly throughout his career.
A pleasant cruise...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: actor, collateral, films, hollywood, Movies, publicity, rain man, tom cruise, tropic thunder | 4 Comments »
Posted on September 29, 2009 by Darren
Maybe there’s a reason I’ve got ghosts and ghouls on my mind despite the fact that Halloween is approaching and the first Nightmare on Elm Street trailer was just released. I happened to catch The Mummy playing on Sky movies on Sunday night and it was one of those rare films that the family just dropped everything and started watching, despite the fact we’ve seen it before. Ignoring the law of diminishing returns that affected the sequels, The Mummy is solid action-adventure-horror romp that stands equally well as a companion to Raiders of the Lost Ark as it does as a subconscious herald of the coming wave of remade creature features.
Oh, mummy!
Continue reading →
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brendan fraiser, egypt, film, monster movies, Movies, non-review review, rachel weisz, review, stephen sommers, the mummy, universal horror movies, universal monster movies | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 28, 2009 by Darren
Next month is October, which means Halloween, so I’ll be taking a closer look at the horror genre (both with reviews of movies and my own unique style of commentary), but the success of the new Paranormal Activity on a budget of less than $15,000 (and I thought District 9 was cheap) has got me wondering: why is it that low-key horrors are so scary?
There's been a lot of activity around Paranormal Activity this weekend...
Continue reading →
Filed under: Movies | Tagged: chillers, films, horror, horror movies, Movies, paranormal activity, scary movies, the blair witch project, thrillers | Leave a comment »
the m0vie blog 