ralph fiennes | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Darren

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince represents a fairly significant improvement in quality from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It seems the movie franchise is finally getting a handle on this sort of serialised story-telling, as the movie serves more as a collection of sub-plots leading into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows than it does as a story in its own right. However, there’s a sense that the series is getting a bit better at balancing all the competing demands for screentime, and it even manages to explain the title mystery, albeit in a slightly off-hand manner (almost as an after-thought).

Storm clouds are gathering over Hogwarts...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: alan rickman, Albus Dumbledore, Death Eater, film, harry potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, HarryPotter, helena bonham carter, Hogwarts, jim broadbent, JK Rowling, Lord Voldemort, magic, michael gambon, Movies, non-review review, ralph fiennes, review, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton | 4 Comments »

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: Clash of the Titans

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Darren

It has been a couple of years since the last proper swords-and-sandals epic. It’s hard to look past the glossy stylised design of 300 and the discussions of racial politics which surrounded it. Troy and Alexander were hardly solid examples of the genre which had been at the height of its popularity more than half a century ago. Aside from Gladiator, it’s hard to point to another big screen classical action movie that manages to do what it says on the tin. Although it’s a long way from perfect, Clash of the Titans at least delivers the intriguing visuals and impressive action that one expects from the genre. I was pleasantly surprised.

A friendship in ruins...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Ancient Greece, clash of the titans, classics, film, Gemma Arterton, greece, greek mythology, hades, liam neeson, louis leterrier, Movie, non-review review, ralph fiennes, review, rome, Sam Worthington, swords and sandals, unleash the kraken, zeus | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Red Dragon

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Darren

I have a confession to make: I don’t much care for Manhunter. I know I love the work of Michael Mann, but the film just left me cold. Maybe it’s Brian Cox’s stale performance as Hannibal, or the final action sequence choreographed to Inna Gadda Vida, but I don’t react well to the film. I loved the original book – I’d argue that Harris’ Red Dragon surpasses even The Silence of the Lambs as the greatest forensic thriller ever written – and, I have to confess, I certainly quite enjoyed Red Dragon.

Guess whose back...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: anthony hopkins, brett ratner, edward norton, francis dolarhyde, Frankie Feason, hannibal, hannibal lecter, hannibal the cannibal, harvey keitel, Ken Leung, manhunter, Mary Louise Parker, non-review review, philip seymour hoffman, ralph fiennes, red dragon, review, silence of the lambs, sir anthony hopkins, the silence of the lambs, thomas harris, will graham | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Hurt Locker

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Darren

I’ve always said that great movies take the audience on a trip somewhere, so it’s really appropriate that The Hurt Locker brings viewers on a trip to hell. Or as close as it is possible to get to hell on earth. A place where flies roam the bodies of the still living in the desert heat or where even the cats walk with limps and scars or where the dead are stuffed with explosives to mount an attack upon any member of the living not callous enough to know better than to care. This is Iraq, where anything – and anyone – could turn out to be fatal and this is the story of those who survive there, those who die there and – against unlikely odds – those who thrive there.

Sadly, Guy Pierce's improvised retelling of "Moon", complete with homemade space suit, did little for troop morale...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: guy pierce, iraq, iraq war, jeremy renner, kathryn bigalow, Movie, non-review review, ralph fiennes, review, the hurt locker | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: In Bruges

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Darren

Possibly one of the best depictions of Irish humour that I’ve seen captured in celluloid, In Bruges is a fascinating little story of honour, loyalty, stupidity and a small little town in Belgium. The movie was a highlight in the very solid pantheon of 2008. Featuring a sharp script, a fantastic cast and some really lovely scenery, the movie stabnds as one of the best comedies I’ve seen in yonks. And a yonk is a long time.

Irish charm...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: belgium, brendan gleeson, bruges, colin farrell, comedy, film, in bruges, martin mcdonagh, non-review review, ralph fiennes, review | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Reader

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Darren

The first of the big Oscar nominees to be released on DVD/Blu Ray in Ireland, it’s little surprise that Dad came home with The Reader this weekend.

I like to think I’m an open-minded sort of guy. I can watch controversial films without blinking. I can even stomach the occassional political diatribe and acknowledge its well-crafted artistry (I enjoyed Lions for Lambs despite its hamfistedness). Yet The Reader just irks me. Perhaps it’s the way the film tries so hard to pass itself off as a ‘big idea’ film (and evidentally succeeded, securing a Best Picture nod). Perhaps it’s the way that it acts like it has got guts, asking tough questions when all it does is dance around them and undermine them with shameless Oscar-baiting (let’s look at german post-war guilt – but let’s make the subject of this examination an illiterate, uglied-up, pedophilic Kate Winslet).

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Filed under: Movies, Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: holocaust, illiteracy, kate winslet, nazis, non-review review, oscar, ralph fiennes, review, stephen daldry, the reader | 9 Comments »