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Hannibal – Amuse-Bouche (Review)

Second episodes can be tough. Pilots tend to establish the core themes and characters of a show, offering a very clear blueprint going forward and perhaps hinting at the direction that you want to take things. They are grand mission statements, couched in broad terms and delivered with a sense of novelty. Second episodes are a bit less exciting. They are about putting that plan into action, defining the edges a bit, expanding outwards where necessary and refining as needed. It’s with the second episode that you really get a sense of what a show is going to be like in a more practical week-to-week sense.

By that measure, Amuse-Bouche works quite well at giving us a sense of putting the show’s feet on the ground and helping prepare us for what lies ahead for the rest of the season.

It's growing on me...

It’s growing on me…

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Hannibal – Aperitif (Review)

I’ll admit to being a bit sceptical about Hannibal as a concept. I am quite fond of all three of the Anthony Hopkins films, although I realise that both Red Dragon and Hannibal are flawed pieces of work at best. I also have a soft spot for Michael Mann’s Manhunter, even if I am not as firm a devotee as others. However, there’s a point where you reach saturation even with an especially interesting character.

There was something increasingly frustrating about watching Thomas Harris and various writers and directors delve beneath the surface of “Hannibal the Cannibal” to offer trite explanations and rationalisations for a character who was originally a force of nature. A television series seems to be the perfect way to over-saturate the market even further. If the character of Hannibal could seem trite and mundane after four films released years apart, how do you make a weekly television series exciting?

Surely you’ll either resort to explaining away all the mystery of the character, or you’ll simply wind up with a particularly shallow and generic serial killer show. There is a middle ground to be found, but it will be hard to strike that balance. With that in mind, I will confess that I am quite impressed with the pilot for Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal. Although it’s too early to form a definitive judgement, Aperitif is quite appetising.

The meat of the matter...

The meat of the matter…

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Win! Tickets to the Jameson Cult Film Club Screening of Snatch in Galway…

Would you ‘adam and eve it’, the Jameson Cult Film Club is coming to Galway, and we’ve teamed up with Jameson to offer tickets to one lucky geezer and three of his mates to the ultimate screening experience of Snatch in a secret location in Galway on August 23rd.

The Jameson Cult Film Club is all about watching your favourite cult films at spectacular screenings staged to transport the audience right into the world of the movie. These free events are not just your typical screening, it’s an experiential viewing experience with clever use of props, staging and live action to ensure the audience in the venue are transported right into the world of the movie! Characters from the movie, live theatre and special effects timed perfectly with on-screen action help to create an electric atmosphere and leave movie fans wanting more.

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Non-Review Review: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

I actually quite enjoyed Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate, even if it seems to lack the same clear political bite of the novel and original film version of the tale. In many respects, Demme’s film adaptation is a triumph of atmosphere, featuring a superb cast and a perpetual sense of uncertainty. While its politics seem a bit less provocative and engaging than the source material, Demme is still a superb film maker. There’s a wonderful sense of unease and discomfort that seems to pervade every frame of the film, with the politics of the movie perhaps the only facet that is never unclear.

The naked truth…

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Win! Tickets to a Jameson Cult Film Club Screening of The Silence of the Lambs!

“Well, Clarice – have the lambs stopped screaming?”

The Jameson Cult Film Club is back in Dublin for its biggest and most electrifying double screening to date!

We’ve teamed up with the Jameson Cult Film Club to offer two lucky readers a pair of tickets each to the exclusive screening of the horror thriller, The Silence of the Lambs at a secret Dublin location Wednesday August 15th.

For the uninitiated, Jameson Cult Film Club is all about watching your favourite cult films at spectacular screenings, staged to transport the audience right into the world of the film. These free events are not just your typical screening, as characters from the movie, live theatre and special effects timed perfectly with on-screen action help to create an electric atmosphere throughout the screening.

To give you a bit of a feel, here’s a video sampling some previous highlights:

If you would like to join Clarice Starling, Dr Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill at this exclusive Jameson Cult Film Club screening in the “Baltimore State Forensic Hospital” on August 15th all you have to do is answer the question and fill out the form below.

Note: Entrants must be over 18 years of age and able to attend the screening on August 15th 2012.

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Going Straight: Comedic Actors in Dramatic Roles…

New pictures from I, Alex Cross were introduced over the weekend. If you aren’t familiar with it, don’t worry – it’s an upcoming adaptation of an Alex Cross novel, the same series that gave us Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. While Along Came Spider wasn’t anything special, Kiss the Girls was a fairly decent nineties serial killer film, if not quite on the level of it obvious influences in The Silence of the Lambs and se7en. There were two surprises in these shots. The first was how incredibly freaky Matthew Fox looked – he looks pretty damn scary, so respect to Fox for pulling off that transformation. The second surprise was just how convincing Tyler Perry looked in the lead role. Perry is the latest in a long line of comedic actors looking to expand their range, and I can’t help but wonder why so many comedic performers tend to branch out so far.

Not a man you want to Cross…

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Minor Miracles: Supporting Characters & The Lesson of Hannibal Lecter

“Less is more.” Or so we’re often told at least. It generally seems to be used in a polite way to limit our exposure to things we don’t like. However, I can’t help but wonder if it is true of supporting characters. After all, those interesting side characters in movies that happen to capture our imaginations with a relatively minor roles. Indeed, I reckon that I could probably name more supporting characters I took a shine to, rather than iconic lead characters. While we undoubtedly relish every moment they appear on-screen, and perhaps lament that we only get so limited an exposure to them, I can’t help but wonder of that somewhat restricted presence might be precisely what makes them so appealing in the first place.

Bloody brilliant…

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My Best of 2011: Black Swan & The Elevation of Schlock…

It’s that time of the year. To celebrate 2011, and the countdown to 2012, I’m going to count down my own twelve favourite films of the year, one a day until New Year’s Eve. I’m also going to talk a bit about how or why I chose them, and perhaps what makes this list “my” best of 2011, rather than any list claiming to be objective.

Black Swan is number six. Check out my original review here.

It’s interesting, how one can end up loving the same films, for very different reasons. I suspect that a great many critics and commentators lavish praise on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan for its elegance and sophistication, which I appreciate and admire. There’s a lot to love about the film. However, my own appreciation of the movie seems to be for a very different reason. I think that what makes Black Swan so utterly compelling is the fact that it’s essentially a classic horror movie elevated to the status of fine art.

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The Film Fan’s Curse: What Might Have Been…

The first photograph from the Farrelly Brothers’ The Three Stooges appeared on-line last week. It will star Will Sasso, Sean Hayes and Chris Diamantopoulos as the eponymous trio. Still, I can’t help wondering how many film fans looked at that picture and shared the exact same thought that popped into my head, mourning what might have been, rather than getting excited about what we had. Sure, most of the audience who see the film probably won’t know any better, but I can’t help be wonder what the original cast of the remake might have looked like.

Three of a kind of a letdown?

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Non-Review Review: se7en

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 “nineties noir” – I’ll be looking at two of the finest noir-inspired films of the nineties.

Although David Fincher has directing credits before se7en (most notably Alien 3), it was this look at a broken world which marked the up-and-coming director as a talent to watch. It’s a movie which works on many levels, entertaining on the superficial surface level while intriguing viewers looking for something just a little bit deeper. I have to say, of all the films I revisited as part of this blogging event, I think I got the most out of returning to se7en.

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