non-review review | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Horrible Bosses

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Darren

“You can’t win a marathon without putting some bandaids on your nipples!” Dave Harkin, the “psycho” boss of Nick Hendricks, insists throughout the movie. It’s curious, because Horrible Bosses feels like a movie pacing itself for a marathon – and that’s not a bad thing at all. It’s consistently funny, with the humour spread evenly over most of the runtime. It’s hard to point to particularly brilliant sequences that had the audience in stitches, but instead the room was constantly giggling throughout. It’s a solidly entertaining comedy, which makes the most of a clever premise and superb cast, even if it does falter just a little bit as it reaches the finish line.

Spacey is boss...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Charlie Day, CharlieDay, colin farrell, film, Good Girl, Horrible Bosses, jason bateman, Jason Sudeikis, JasonSudeikis, jennifer aniston, kevin spacey, KevinSpacey, Movie, non-review review, review, Seth Gordon | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Darren

Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban represents probably the best transition from printed page to big screen in the franchise, boasting the most confident and comfortable direction of the big screen series. Director Alfonso Coarón, perhaps best known for his work on Children of Men crafts perhaps the most magical of the Harry Potter adventures, effortlessly crafting a world that seems strangely familiar and yet curiously foreign, simultaneously bright and coloured, but populated with dark brooding shadows. Even after the series has ended, the third instalment remains perhaps the most stylish.

Enchanting...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, David Thewlis, Emma Watson, film, film review, gary oldman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, HarryPotter, Hogwarts, literature, Magic in Harry Potter, Magical objects in Harry Potter, Movie, non-review review, Order of the Phoenix (organisation), Places in Harry Potter, terry gilliam | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Darren

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets works much better as an episodic collection of scenes than a single story. It’s prone to fluctuate between rather brilliant moments and a few misfires here and there. It definitely feels extremely childish, as if the studio was attempting to construct a G-rated Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the John Williams soundtrack adding to the effect, the set design of the eponymous chamber looking like some forgotten archeological tomb, and even Julian Glover being afforded a small cameo (okay, he was in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but the point stands). It’s strange to look back at the second instalment, after all that has unfolded since, and look at how much more juvenile and simplistic it all seems in retrospect.

Malfoy drives stick...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alan rickman, Albus Dumbledore, arts, clear blue skies, Dumbledore's Army, fim, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ultimate Edition) [Blu-ray], Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hogwarts, John Williams, julian glover, kenneth branagh, Magical objects in Harry Potter, Movie, non-review review, Order of the Phoenix (organisation), raiders of the lost ark, review, Ron Weasley, Rupert Grint, Severus Snape | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Cars 2

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Darren

Cars 2 is a Pixar film that runs on an engine, rather than on heart. Technically, it’s magnificent. It’s well put together, features a winning cast, a lot of quite wonderful jokes and absolutely stunning action movies. However, the movie fails to make even the most basic of emotional connections. We’re always watching a bunch of cool cars doing cool car stuff, but we never feel good or bad about it. Even when a handful of cars meet tragic ends over the course of the movie, we never feel bad about it – we don’t really care about them, so we’re never concerned at the dangers they face. It’s a shame, because it’s a stunningly beautiful piece of animation, it’s just missing that wonderful soul that Pixar seems to install with its movies as standard.

Lightning, cameras, action!

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cars, Cars 2, films, finding nemo, Lightning McQueen, Mater, Michael Caine, Movies, non-review review, Paul Newman, pixar, review, Tow Mater | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Platoon

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Darren

I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I’m sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called “possession of my soul.” There are times since, I’ve felt like a child, born of those two fathers.

– ~~Oliver Stone~~ Charlie Taylor meditates on Vietnam

I honestly think that Platoon might be my favourite war film ever made. It’s almost certainly my favourite Vietnam film ever made, despite my considerable respect for Apocalypse Now. However, though Stone’s classic is steeped in allegory and metaphor (see the above quote), I think that it works better as a personal account of the conflict, rather than Coppola’s attempt to capture the surreal nature of the war on celluloid. Stone actually served a tour over there, and I think that there’s a lot of his own personal perspective poured into the film, which makes it feel like quite a raw and powerful piece of cinema.

War is dirty business...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Charles Taylor, films, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, military, Movies, non-review review, oliver stone, Platoon, review, tom berenger, vietnam, Vietnam War, willem dafoe | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Fanboys

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Darren

Fanboys is a film that is borderline mediocre, but the tragedy is that it actually could have been really good. It’s quite strange, because the movie seems intent to straddle two audiences – aiming at once for both cult geek cred and mainstream appeal. Of course, the paradox of such an approach is that it frequently ends up alienating both core groups. The film is arguably too deeply entrenched in geek culture to ever find a large mainstream audience, but it’s also far too bland, safe and stereotypical for a geek audience. So it clearly hopes to please everyone, but winds up satisfying no one. Which is a shame, because it seems like it’s actually having a great deal of fun.

Indulge your Dark Side...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Avery Brooks, chris pine, Darth Maul, Epix, fanboys, fans, film, Geek, geekdom, geeks, Harry Knowles, Harvey Weinstein, james t. kirk, Movies, non-review review, Ray Park, review, Scott Bakula, star trek, William Shatner | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Darren

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II is probably the strongest entry in the film series, and offers a fitting code to the saga of the famous boy wizard. Sleaker, leaner and meaner than most of its predecessors, I can actually understand – artistically – why Warners opted to split the final book into two distinct chapters. In many ways, the previous instalment (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I) felt like another year with the Hogwarts crowd, while the finale here represents an epilogue to the entire series. Threads hinted at and developed since the first film are all tied up here, and – isolated from a lot of the soap opera of early episodes – the last in the series provides some stunning closure.

The wiz kid returns...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adaptation, alan rickman, daniel radcliffe, deathly hallows, Emma Watson, film, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 2, harry potter and the deathly hallows: part ii, Hogwarts, Maggie Smith, Movies, non-review review, ralph fiennes, review, Rupert Grint, sequel, the deathly hallows, Voldemort, wizards | 8 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Mars Attacks!

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Darren

I have a genuine affection for Mars Attacks! It’s certainly not Tim Burton’s best work, but it’s also miles above some of his more disappointing output. It feels like an affectionate homage to Ed Wood, putting together the kind of movie that the old B-movie director would have approved of, except with the judgement to play it as a comedy rather than entirely straight (although Wood’s filmography is typically “so bad it’s good“, one could scarcely accuse the director of being in on the joke), and made with a more significant budget. Seen in that light, it’s hard to resist the movie’s (admittedly uneven) charms.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they say...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, cheesy, danny elfman, Ed Wood, film, films, hokey, hokey sci-fi, jack nicholson, Mars Attacks!, Martian, martians, Movie, Movies, non-review review, paul winfield, pulp, pulp fiction, pulp sci-fi, review, sci-fi, tim burton, Topps | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Larry Crowne

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Darren

Larry Crowne isn’t a terrible movie, but rather a frustrating one. Written by, directed by, and starring, Tom Hanks, the movie seems to want to be a romantic comedy skewered towards older and more mature viewers, which is a great idea – not only because so few movies cater to that demographic, but because the few comedies that do have been proven successes. The audience is there, and it’s a great idea to unite Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, the king and queen of the classy nineties rom-com in a film that might have a more considered and reflective edge over most other romantic comedies. Unfortunately, the movie is so ridiculously pedestrian that it’s hard to work up any excitement. If the movie, rather than the character, were doing the college courses in the film, it would get graded “must do better.”

A scoot couple...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bryan Cranston, film, films, George Takei, julia roberts, Larry Crowne, Movies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos, non-review review, Pam Grier, review, romantic comedy, tom hanks | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Monsters vs. Aliens

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Darren

I do quite like Monsters vs. Aliens, even if it feels like it’s trying to do too many vastly different things are once. It’s too goofy and silly to be a genuinely emotional morality tale about appreciating those different than us, while also being too sentimental to work as a sort of a goofy hokey monster mash nostalgia trip. One gets the sense that it could have been a much better film had it opted for one approach rather than the other, instead of trying to straddle the middle ground between them. It’s a shame, because it has some genuinely impressive sequences and warm sense of respect and good humour for all those classic creature features, but it just ends up feeling too much like a standard cookie-cutter modern animated film.