Posted on November 16, 2011 by Darren
Anaconda is a B-movie. It’s not a homage to a B-movie, or a love letter to that type of film. It’s not a nostalgic throwback, or an attempt to capture some of the elements of those old cheesy productions. It actually is a B-movie. There’s no real attempt to execute the film in a manner that rises above those, or even captures that type of filmmaking at its best, it’s just a solid example of what a B-movie might look like, were it produced today. It’s hard to argue that Anaconda is a good film – and I’ll readily concede that it’s actively a badone – but there is some charm to be found it, if only from the way that all the hyper-trashy elements seem to come together in what appears to be a perfect storm of creature feature cheese.
I always had a crush on Jennifer Lopez...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Anaconda, Computer-generated imagery, Dick Dastardly, film, Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, jon voight, Movie, non-review review, Owen Wilson, raiders of the lost ark, review | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 15, 2011 by Darren
I quite enjoyed High Anxiety, even if it didn’t rank quite as high as some of Brooks’ other efforts. While it still possesses the same wonderful wry moments, High Anxiety is a Mel Brooks film that arguably works better as a farce than as a parody. I suspect that this has something to do with the director’s intended target. While Westerns were ripe for mockery in Blazing Saddles and old horror films were perfectly suited to the sense of humour in Young Frankenstein, it always seemed like Alfred Hitchcock was aware of his own filmmaking style, and seemed to occasionally be gently mocking it himself, rather than playing his heightened suspense with a po-faced sincerity. I think that parody and satire work best when they represent an attack on a target that suffers from a little bit too much self-importance, while Hitchcock’s films are generally a little more self-aware than that.
Gone to the birds?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, Birds, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, hitchcock, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, non-review review, parody, Psycho, review, Young Frankenstein | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 14, 2011 by Darren
Targets still feels quite a bit ahead of its time, which is quite something for a film intended to transition between the classic horror monster movies and the more sinister and grounded modern horrors. Indeed, Boris Karloff’s last starring role seems to prefigure a shift in the type of horror movies flooding the cinemas, years ahead of the more iconic and mundane “slasher” icons who succeeded Dracula and Frankenstein as the monsters at the matinée. Targets is an intriguing and remarkable little film, charmingly understanded and perhaps appealing for the lack of pomp it attempts to generate.
The horror!
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Béla Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Bryon Orlok, dracula, film, frankenstein, jack nicholson, Karloff, Martin Luther King, Movie, non-review review, Orlok, Peter Bogdanovich, review, Roger Corman, Targets, Terror, The Terror (film) | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 11, 2011 by Darren
It’s funny. I always figured that long-term critical re-evaluation was sort of a one-way street. I guess it always seemed that people were talking about “classics” that got an unfair rap from critics and audiences on initial release, but have subsequently become amongst the most influential films within their genre. I’m talking about movies like Blade Runner or The Thing, movies that were attacked on initial release, but have undergone a massive transformation and vindication in popular consciousness. I generally figured that good films that got bad reviews would eventually be found and praised for the quality productions that they were, while over-praised mediocre (or worse) films would languish in purgatory, forgotten about, save the occasional television re-run. So I’m surprised at the way the tide seems to have turned against Juno in the five years since the film’s original release.
Well, that's one response...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, Blu-ray Disc, David Edelstein, diablo cody, film, george lucas, Golden Globe, Golden Globe Award, Internet Movie Database, juno, Movie, no country for old men, review, rotten tomatoes, star wars, Top Lists | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 10, 2011 by Darren
Staten Island is a convoluted little film that seems to shameless emulate several anthology films, with the most obvious influence being seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, borrowing the device of telling three interlocking but distinct stories set in different timeframes relating to the same bunch of characters. Still, that’s not necessarily a reason to dislike the film, which manages to offer an interesting, if not comparable, set of tales. James DeMonaco probably should have realised that borrowing so heavily from a classic film sets a ridiculously high standard, and one the movie falls far short of reaching. Still, there are moments where the film does work, even if they seem evenly-spaced with awkward and pointless sequences.
One psychotic mobster, sitting in a tree...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: ethan hawke, film, Little New York, Manhattan, Movie, New York City, non-review review, pulp fiction, quentin tarantino, review, Seymour Cassel, Staten Island, Vincent D'Onofrio | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 9, 2011 by Darren
I don’t think that pulpy nostalgia lends itself particularly well to cinematic reimagining. We’ve seen a variety of high-concept mish-mashes on the big screen in the past decade or so. There was a time when Freddie vs. Jason was confined to the bargain basement of your local DVD store, but we’ve seen major theatrical releases like Cowboys & Aliens or Aliens vs. Predators in the past number of years – all based around the idea that you can pit a cool concept against another cool concept and the resulting movie will be “super-cool.” Essentially an opportunity to answer the age-old question of “who would win in a fight between cowboys and ninjas”, The Warrior’s Way has a few really enjoyable and gleefully silly moments, but they tend to get lost in the midst of an overly-stylised and too-heavily-green-screen-ed moments, with a skilled cast unable to inject life into a range of characters who are struggling to reach the second dimension.
Give it a stab?
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Computer-generated imagery, Danny Huston, Dong-gun Jang, Ennio Morricone, film, Geoffrey Rush, guillermo del toro, kate bosworth, non-review review, review, Spaghetti Western, the warriors way, Warrior's Ways | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 9, 2011 by Darren
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.
The Fantastic Four helped launch Marvel to publishing greatness over the 100+ issues drafted by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but they’ve seldom occupied a prominent place in their publishing line-up since that dramatic introduction. Sure, the title earned a place as one of the three Ultimate on-going titles (at least before Ultimatum) and sure, there were occasionally hugely successful and iconic runs like that of John Byrne, but these were the exception rather than the rule. The title never really reached a stage like the X-Men, Spider-Man or even Avengers books (in modern Marvel), where they were clearly the title to watch. While I’m not entirely convinced he succeeded, Mark Waid is consciously trying to find a definitive approach to the title. And I respect that.
The adoring public…
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: authoritative action, comic book, Comics, dr. doom, fantastic four, jack kirby, mark waid, marvel, marvel comics, new x-men, reed richards, review, stan lee, the fantastic four, unthinkable, victor von doom | 3 Comments »
Posted on November 8, 2011 by Darren
I know nothing of baseball. Unlike the other great American sporting pastime of American Football (or, I guess, “football” to them), I simply can’t wrap my head around the activity, which seems (to me) to be a strange mix of rounders and the imaginary “whack bat” from The Fantastic Mr. Fox (which was undoubtedly intended as a parody of cricket, to mix my metaphors even further). It takes a lot for me to invest in a movie about an activity that I can barely comprehend, and Moneyball accomplishes that, by managing to craft one of the most telling and relevent sporting movies I’ve seen in quite some time. I think the film does struggle to establish an emotional connection, but it’s a very clever and very intriguing little movie.
Field of dreams...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Beane, Billy Beane, brad pitt, fantastic mr. fox, film, jonah hill, Moneyball, Movie, non-review review, Oakland Athletics, Peter Brand, philip seymour hoffman, Pitt, review, United States | 2 Comments »
Posted on November 8, 2011 by Darren
I have a soft spot for Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen. Yes, it’s big and vacuous and ultimately empty, with a bunch of celebrities sitting around and enjoying each other’s company, but it’s also fun and diverting, composed by a director with a wonderful eye. I’d argue that it’s almost as solid as Ocean’s Eleven, and a damn sight stronger than Ocean’s Twelve.
In con men circles, that would be called "the Selleck"...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: al pacino, brad pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, danny ocean, Ellen Barkin, film, george clooney, Movie, non-review review, Ocean's 13, Ocean's Thirteen, review, Soderbergh, Steven Soderbergh | Leave a comment »
Posted on November 7, 2011 by Darren
Ken Loach’s Route Irish is a fascinating little thriller, even if it does ultimately feel quite shallow and end in a rather unsatisfactory manner. Indeed, it’s very hard to construct a mystery where the audience already knows the answer, based on experience within the genre. Framed as an investigation into the death of a contractor in Iraq, the culprits behind the assassination are obvious from the moment the film starts rolling, which means that none of the twists and turns pack any punch – because we already know the answer. However, Loach is a director skilled at offering atmosphere and mood, and he makes a valiant effort to overcome the script’s rather obvious deficiencies.
Paying the ferryman...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Baghdad, film, iraq, iraq war, John Bishop, ken loach, Mark Womack, Middle East, Movie, non-review review, review, Route Irish, Route Irish (film), United States | Leave a comment »
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