tom hanks | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Darren

“I’m tired of remembering it that way,” Walt Disney admits of his childhood at the climax of Saving Mr. Banks, in a rare moment of personal candour. There are moments when Saving Mr. Banks seems to come very close to working – exploring the link that exists between memory and imagination. In a way, that’s very much what Walt Disney was all about, adapting and renovating classic stories in such a way that they seemed to be more the stories that we wanted to hear than the stories that we remember.

Unfortunately, for too much of its runtime, Saving Mr. Banks serves more of an example of the process of “imagineering” that an exploration of it.

It’s not quite tell-all-vision…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: banks, Bradley Whitford, disney, Mary Poppin, Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers, Saving Mr. Banks, tom hanks, Travers, Walt Disney, Walt Disney Company | Leave a comment »

The X-Files – Gender Bender (Review)

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Darren

Gender Bender is weird. As an atmospheric moody piece of television, it’s pretty phenomenal – the script manages to tap into a whole bunch of basic nineties fears and uncertainties, while director Rob Bowman layers on the sense that something is not quite right here. On the other hand, as a narrative, the episode comes up short. From the cop-out ending to the laziness of putting Scully in peril twice, the story for Gender Bender is nowhere near as tight as it needs to be.

And yet, despite that, there’s a pervading sense of dread and unease that makes it far more compelling than it should be.

In the woods…

Continue reading →

Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: Alejandro Jodorowsky, alien, Bender, Bowman, Dana Scully, Frank Herbert, Gender bender, H.R. Giger, John Bartley, Kindred, Mark Snow, Michel Seydoux, Nicholas Lea, Pez, Rob Bowman, Ryan White, sexuality, tom hanks, X-File | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Captain Phillips

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Darren

Captain Phillips is the tensest thriller of the year, no small accomplishment when you consider that director Paul Greengrass and writer Billy Ray are working from a high-profile true story that unfolded across media less than a decade ago. “This story is getting a play here,” a naval negotiator is advised a little over half-way into the film, and it’s hard to imagine that anybody going to see the film isn’t loosely familiar with the events (and outcome) of this Somali pirate attack.

Despite this, Greengrass manages to ratchet up the tension on Captain Phillips, turning it into a high-stakes thriller. Even knowing the inevitable outcome, Greengrass pushes the audience to the edge of their seats, refusing to allow the movie to throttle down from the moment that two unidentified blips appear on the trawler’s sonar screen.

Movie piracy really is bad…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Billy Ray, Captain Phillips, Catherine Keener, Greengrass, Maersk Alabama hijacking, Muse, Paul Greengrass, Phillips, Piracy in Somalia, Tom Hank, tom hanks | 8 Comments »

Boy, Is My Face Yellow: The Cloud Atlas Yellow-Face Non-Issue

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Darren

Damn you, international release schedule! I really wanted to to weigh in on the whole Cloud Atlas “yellow face” controversy that was raging at the end of 2012, but thought it best to wait until I had actually seen the film to offer comment. That just seems like common sense, even if Spike Lee clearly doesn’t agree. Of course, by the time that Cloud Atlas was released in the UK and Ireland, the storm in a teacup had passed, but I still think it’s worth commenting upon.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Bae Doona, Ben Whishaw, Chung Ling Soo, Cloud Atlas, David Gyasi, Doona Bae, Halle Berry, hollywood, Hugh Grant, hugo weaving, Ireland, Jim Sturgess, tom hanks, Tom Tykwer, United States, Wachowski | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Cloud Atlas

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Darren

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

Cloud Atlas is a bold, imaginative, creative, frustrating, original, inventive, exhausting and ambitious piece of work. It’s a film that really forces the audience to collaborate, to try to force the pieces of story on the screen to fit together into a structure that is both rewarding and unique. Coming out of the film – which has been dubbed “the most expensive indie movie of all time” – I was left with the impression that Cloud Atlas is a film where everybody is going to hold a slightly different perception of what the film is, and what it’s about. I can very honestly say that Cloud Atlas is quite unlike any other film I have ever seen, and that sense of experimentation and the sheer skill to force the narrative into a shape that makes some sort of sense, unique to almost each viewer, is one massive accomplishment.

Sweet music…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adam Ewing, arts, Ben Whishaw, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Edinburgh, Film festival, Film Festivals, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, hugo weaving, Movie, Soylent Green, tom hanks | 11 Comments »

Michael Clarke Duncan, R.I.P.

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Darren

It’s very strange to hear that an actor who really emerged during your life time has passed away. I was actually already an aspiring movie buff when Michael Clarke Duncan gave his breakout performance in The Green Mile. Duncan, of course, had been around for a while before that. He’d been working in the entertainment industry even before he decided to seriously pursue acting as a career – the early nineties saw the guy working as a bodyguard for Will Smith among others. He turned earnestly to acting in the mid- to late-nineties, and had a small but memorable role in Armageddon that led Bruce Willis to recommend him for The Green Mile. In many ways, I watched Duncan become a recognisable screen presence, and I was very shocked and saddened to hear of his passing.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, armageddon, bruce willis, Duncan, green mile, Jack Coffey, Leonardo diCaprio, los angeles, michael clarke duncan, Myocardial infarction, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, rest in peace, Shawshank Redemption, Television, tom hanks, Universal Channel, will smith | 7 Comments »

Five Minute Cloud Atlas International Trailer

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Darren

This is really something. The five-minute look at Cloud Atlas, which certainly looks to be one of the most ambitious movies of the year, is here. It looks wonderfully impressive – with an epic scope that seems to span all of time and space, stories interlocked and connected. Directed by Tom Tykwer, and the Wachowski siblings, it looks like a visual feast. I have to say, this just got bumped up the must-see list. Check out the international trailer, below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Ben Whishaw, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Halle Berry, jim broadbent, Matrix, tom hanks, Tom Tykwer | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Rope

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Darren

Rope occupies an interesting place in Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography. The director himself was less than fond of it, allegedly quite happy that it remained out of circulation for some time after its initial release. Jimmy Stewart has apparently been critical of his own performance in the film, although I think it’s a wonderful example of a beloved actor playing against type. In the years since, however, it has been somewhat re-evaluated. While most film fans would be hesitant to describe it as an unqualified success, it’s certainly a technically ambitious little film, and the tight script and set-up allow Hitchcock to indulge his knack for creating suspense.

I hope nobody choked with all those ten-minute takes…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfredhitchcock, arts, Brandon, Cut the Rope, David, film, games, Health, hitchcock, James Stewart, John Dall, Movie, murder, Murder Mystery, Necklace, non-review review, OpenSky, People, Performing Arts, review, Rope, Skipping rope, tom hanks, White Shadow | 10 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Darren

Stephen Daldry’s latest film, and surprise Best Picture nominee, looks lovely. It opens with a credit sequence that see Tom Hanks falling through the air like an even more stylish version of the Mad Men opening credits. The blue background is just the right shade, the picture is crisp, the focus is tight. Of course, that beautifully illustrative opening sequence exposes the primary flaw with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Some things just aren’t meant to look pretty, and some events can’t be wrapped up inside a feel-good blanket with a tidy ribbon on the outside.

Not quite picture perfect...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, Asperger syndrome, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, film, Jonathan Safran Foer, max von sydow, Movie, new york, non-review review, Oskar, Reader, review, sandra bullock, stephen daldry, tom hanks, viola davis | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Catch Me If You Can

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Darren

Catch Me If You Can is an enjoyable little film which feels like Spielberg indulging in some sixties nostalgia, while allowing Leonardo DiCaprio to scratch yet another name off his “greatest living directors” bingo card. It’s always impressive when a movie running for two-and-a-half hours just breezes by – some might suggest that such a film is “light”, and it’s a hard position to disagree with, but I think it marks a nice change of pace from the darker movies Spielberg was directing during the first decade of the new millennium. It’s not a classic, but it’s an enjoyable piece of cinema, crafted by talented people, that moves almost as fast as its lead character.