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335. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (#135)

Posted on May 13, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Graham Day and Luke Dunne, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.

A shocking and unprovoked attack on the community of Knowhere leaves Rocket fighting for his life. His old friends, the Guardians of the Galaxy, embark on a mission to save his life. In doing so, they find themselves journeying back into a past that he has never discussed and heading into conflict with a mysterious figure known as the High Evolutionary.

At time of recording, it was ranked 135th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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New Escapist Column! On How “Mission: Impossible” Would Cause Fan Outrage Today…

Posted on May 31, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With Brian dePalma’s Mission: Impossible turning twenty-five years old this month, it seemed as good a time as any to take a look back the film that started the modern iteration of the franchise.

In hindsight, it is impossible to imagine Mission: Impossible getting made today. The movie’s big twist is the revelation that the one character carried over from the television show, a standard bearer for the larger franchise, has secretly betrayed everything that the audience took for granted. The twist was controversial at the time, with several members of the original cast and some fans objecting to the characterisation. However, in a franchise-driven age where any deviation from the template is a source of outrage, it’s impossible to imagine Mission: Impossible attempting anything so bold today.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

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New Escapist Video! On “Joker” and the Exhaustion of Outrage Culture…

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Darren

So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with the Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel.

With that in mind, here is last week’s episode, covering the anniversary of the outrage over the release of Joker, and how that demonstrates how cheap outrage has become.

 

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My 12 for ’18: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” & All This Anger, Man

Posted on December 27, 2018 by Darren

It’s that time of year. I’ll counting down my top twelve films of the year daily on the blog between now and New Year. I’ll also be discussing my top ten on the Scannain podcast. This is number five.

All this anger, man. Penelope said to me the other day: it just begets greater anger, you know? And it’s true.

Everybody is angry.

The modern era has been defined as an “age of anger.” Anger has been demonstrated to travel faster through social networks than other emotions like love or joy. Studies suggest that Americans are particularly angry, with almost seventy percent of the country angry over the direction of the nation. Anger and resentment are calculated to be among the largest factors in the election of Donald Trump, and the passing of the Brexit referendum.

Of course, not all anger is created equal. Some anger is justified, perhaps even by centuries of oppression and systemic violence. Some anger is useful, in that it motivates grassroots activism that works towards a constructive good. Indeed, there is an argument that short control releases of anger might actually be healthy in the long term, something of a venting mechanism to prevent things from escalating to the point of an explosion.

If anything is clear, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is not about that kind of anger. It is about the combustible, explosive kind.

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Non-Review Review: Outrage (Autoreiji)

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Darren

We’re currently blogging as part of the “For the Love of Film Noir” blogathon (hosted by Ferdy on Films and The Self-Styled Siren) to raise money to help restore the 1950’s film noir The Sound of Fury (aka Try and Get Me). It’s a good cause which’ll help preserve our rich cinematic heritage for the ages, and you can donate by clicking here. Over the course of the event, running from 14th through 21st February, I’m taking a look at the more modern films that have been inspired or shaped by noir. Today’s theme is “foreign noir” – a look at some of the neo-noir films from outside America.

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Outrage (also known as Autoreiji) is the latest film from actor/director/writer Kitano “Beat” Takeshi. He’s known to Western film fans perhaps best for his role in Battle Royale, but that significantly undersells his talent and his prolific career. He’s probably better known to wider audiences for his role as “Count Takeshi” on the gameshow Takeshi’s Castle (which became all the rage over here a few years ago). Outrage is essentially a Japanese crime thriller, and it follows the typical structure that one might expect from a conventional crime film – all the classic themes are there, from pride to arrogance to honour to betrayal – but what makes the film especially interesting is the way that it deals with the inherent paradox of the Japanese Yakuza.

Somebody's going to be dying their hair...

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