review | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Oz – The Great & Powerful

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Darren

Oz: The Great & Powerful is a fabulous production. A few minor misgivings aside, it looks and sounds fantastic. Sam Raimi has done the best job bringing Oz to the screen since the original version of The Wizard of Oz all those decades ago. In its best moments, there’s an enthusiasm and a lightness of touch that fits the material perfectly and captures the wonder that we associate with Oz. It’s very clear that a lot of love and care was put into the production design of the film, and that Sam Raimi’s hand moved with the utmost consideration and affection for the original film. It makes it a little disappointing, then, that the script to Oz: The Great & Powerful should feel so undercooked, more like an early draft than a finished screenplay.

Up in the air or down to earth?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: cgi, Dorothy Gale, Ellen Ripley, film, Great Comet, James Franco, Land of Oz, mila kunis, Movie, Movies, oz, oz the great and powerful, oz: the great & powerful, rachel weisz, Raimi, review, sam raimi, spider man, the great and powerful oz, tim burton, Wizard of Oz | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: John Dies at the End

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Don Coscarelli is that most frustrating of film-makers. He’s a remarkable talent able to produce a story with the zany off-kilter madness of Bubba Ho-tep, but can also produce something as disappointing and as frustrating as John Dies at the End. It isn’t that John Dies at the End is completely without charm. It can occasionally be a wittily subversive take on the staples of American horror, from the works of H.P. Lovecraft through to the gore of seventies and eighties schlock-fests.

The real problem with John Dies at the End is that, for all its charm and its wit, it feels terribly unoriginal.

Sauced…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: agent smith, Bubba Ho-tep, clancy brown, Don Coscarelli, film, Film festival, Filmmaking, jameson dublin international film festival, John Dies, John Dies at the End, Movie, non-review review, paul giamatti, review, russell t. davies, United States | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Robot & Frank

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Robot & Frank is perhaps best described as a live-action Pixar film, a lost script or concept from that period only a few years ago when it seemed like the studio could do no wrong. The beauty of films like The Incredibles or Toy Story 3 was the way that these fantasies allowed us to engage with incredibly adult issues in a disarmingly wondrous way. Up could deal with the pain of loss in great detail, because it was really the story of a man flying his house to South America, right? Finding Nemo could play out the darkest fears lurking in a parent’s subconscious, because it was really about cute fish, correct?

And so Robot & Frank provides a wonderful vehicle for the exploration of what growing old really means, and how we cope with the challenges that it presents. Because, after all, it’s just a film with a cute-looking robot butler, right?

Frank’ll test his metal…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: art, Domestic robot, film, Film festival, Frank, frank langella, jameson dublin international film festival, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013, kevin spacey, Langella, Movie, non-review review, Peter Sarsgaard, pixar, review, Robot & Frank, Ryan Gosling, South America, toy story 3, United States | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Hansel & Gretel – Witch Hunters

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Darren

There is a gem of an idea buried in Hansel & Gretel. Indeed, there isn’t too much excavation required to recover it. It lurks near the surface, visible to the naked eye. What would happen if you took a fairy tale and reworked it as a bombastic action adventure, complete with the clichés, archetypes and gimmicks you associate with such films? Hansel & Gretel veers on wry self-parody at points, as if an acerbic take on Hollywood’s fondness for “gritty” reimaginings of familiar concepts. With producers including Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, it’s not too hard to believe that this subversive exploration of genre tropes was explicitly intended as a sly joke at the expense of these sorts of nonsensical and gratuitously violent and aggressive takes on old classics. There are moments where Hansel & Gretel flirts with genuinely post-modern greatness.

Unfortunately, there’s also a sense that the film lacks the will to follow through on that somewhat sarcastic premise, and the result is that the shrewder gags are undermined by a surreal earnestness that seems to ask the audience to accept Hansel & Gretel for nothing more than what it is. The result is a discordant and scattered piece of film, one that seems almost at war with itself.

The hottest adaptation of Hansel & Gretel you have ever seen…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Action film, adam mckay, Fairy tale, famke janssen, film, Gemma Arterton, Gretel, Hansel, Hansel & Gretel, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, jeremy renner, Movie, non-review review, review, sylvester stallone, Tommy Wirkola | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Cherchez Hortense

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Inoffensive. That might be the best way to describe Cherchez Hortense, a French comedy of manners about people trying to figure out how to get what they want from life – and each other. The cast do a great job, especially Jean-Pierre Bacri in the lead role of Damien Hauer, who just about manages to give the film enough weight to stop it floating effortlessly away. There’s nothing wrong with some light character-driven comedy, but Cherchez Hortense suffers from the fact that it seems like even one direct conversation would sort absolutely everything out. Okay, that’s a slight oversimplification (it depends which direct conversation), but it’s not too far from the truth. While the script is sharp and witty enough that the actors never feel like they’re just going in circles, there’s a weird sense of contrivance around Cherchez Hortense which gives means it’s hard to get too invested in anything that’s going on.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, arts, César Award, Cherchez Hortense, China, Cinema of France, Damien Hauer, film, French language, Hauer, jameson dublin international film festival, Japanese cuisine, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Kristin Scott Thomas, marion cotillard, Movie, non-review review, paris, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, review | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Broken City

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Darren

Broken City seems like an ironic title for a movie that seems to take so much pride in being functional. Broken City is a political investigative thriller, a subgenre that has produced any number of genuinely classic films. However, while Broken City doesn’t really excel in any true sense, it does take a great deal of care in making sure that everything works, that everything is assembled with enough care, and that there’s no real discordant note to be heard. Broken City isn’t a very good film on its own merits, but it manages to avoid being an overly bad one.

Broken marriage…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alona Tal, arts, Broken City, Catherine Zeta-Jones, film, IKEA, Kyle Chandler, mark wahlberg, Mayor of New York City, Movie, non-review review, Political thriller, review, russell crowe, Thriller (genre) | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Welcome to the Punch

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Welcome to the Punch is a weird best, a sort of a hybrid that runs on a engine built of mismatched parts. It’s very clearly a distinctly British film. the presence of Mark Strong and James McAvoy attests to that, let alone the supporting cast composed of people like Daniel Mays, Jason Flemyng, Davide Morrissey, Peter Mullen and Andrea Riseborough. However, it’s constructed in the style of an American action movie, with lots of guns, explosions and chases. It’s a very strange cocktail, and Welcome to the Punch suffers because it doesn’t blend the strength of both schools of thrillers. It feels rather clumsily, and rather hastily, thrown together without any real thought as to what the final composition might turn out like.

Top gun…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Andrea Riseborough, Daniel Mays, Eran Creevy, film, james mcavoy, Jason Flemyng, mark strong, Movie, non-review review, Peter Mullen, Punch, review, Steven Soderbergh, United States, Welcome to the Punch | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Much Ado About Nothing

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing has delightfully intimate roots. Apparently, the movie stems from occasions in various Whedon households where he would host “Shakespeare Sundays”, with friends and family reading through classic plays in a very cosy environment. Much Ado About Nothing represents an extension of that intimacy. It’s literally filmed in Whedon’s own home, using money saved for his and his wife’s twentieth anniversary. Whedon even wrote the music, and his extended family are heavily involved. Jed Whedon supervised the music and his sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen can be seen singing at points.

That’s the wonderful charm of Much Ado About Nothing, a movie that seems to have grown and developed out of a genuinely personal creative space, a project deeply personal and intimate to Whedon, filmed while he was editing one of the biggest movies of all time. In a way, Much Ado About Nothing feels like the most talented and highest quality student film ever produced.

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alexis denisof, Amy Acker, Dogberry, film, Hero, Jed Whedon, Jonathan Cake, joss whedon, los angeles, Maggie Siff, Maurissa Tancharoen, Movie, Much Ado About Nothing, non-review review, review, shakespeare, Sunday, Theatre, Whedon, William Shakespeare | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Stoker

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Stoker is, without spoiling anything, essentially a vampire movie without a vampire. It’s a psychological thriller with a decidedly charged sexual undercurrent. It’s also a story of the things we keep secret, the dangers of blood and unwholesome desires. Park Chan-wook does an excellent job adapting Wentworth Miller’s screenplay for film, and the result is a strange and macabre beauty, a film that is occasionally a little too ethereal for its own good, but remains compelling and uncomfortable viewing.

Shear terror…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: dracula, film, india, matthew goode, Mia Wasikowska, Movie, nicole kidman, non-review review, Park Chan, Park Chan-wook, review, Stoker, vampire, Wentworth Miller | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Look of Love

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Darren

This film was seen as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Paul Raymond (or “Paul Ray-monde!” as he introduces himself in flashback) is a pretty compelling character. The so-called “king of Soho”, Raymond was at one point the wealthiest man in Britain, owning an empire built on the back of gentlemen’s clubs, pornography and property. Michael Winterbottom’s exploration of Raymond’s life and times is a fascinating exploration of a very contradictory figure. On one hand, with his sharp suits and dignified dialogue with the press, Raymond presented himself as something approaching a gentlemen. He owned a nice house, his children partook of “all the right activities” and he was even fond of quoting Oscar Wilde. On the other hand, his empire was founded and built on an idea that was so simplistic it would be condescending if it wasn’t so successful: Raymond acquired his wealth through simple acknowledgement of the fact that people will pay to look at naked women.