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Non-Review Review: The Hardy Bucks Movie

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Darren

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

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a massive fan of The Hardy Bucks. Still, it’s hard not to smile at an Irish success story that seen a bunch of lads fooling around on YouTube, brought them to national television and launched a feature film. The Hardy Bucks Movie isn’t revolutionary. It’s not a work of comedy genius for the ages. Quite a lot of it feels overly familiar, an Irish spin on the “young men go wild abroad” subgenre that has proven popular in the past number of years. And yet, despite that, there’s a quaint charm to The Hardy Bucks Movie that makes it reasonably entertaining. The lads from Castletown has survived the transition to the big screen with their dignity – such that it is – intact.

The naked truth…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Amsterdam, art, dublin, Feature film, film, Film festival, Hardy Bucks, Hardy Bucks Movie, Ireland, jameson dublin international film festival, Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013, Movie, Poland, Ryan Gosling, United States, Viper, youtube | Leave a comment »

My 12 for ’12: The Muppets & Everything You Need, Right In Front Of You

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Darren

I’m counting down my top twelve films of the year between now and January, starting at #12 and heading to #1. I expect the list to be a little bit predictable, a little bit surprising, a little bit of everything. All films released in the UK and Ireland in 2012 qualify. Sound off below, and let me know if I’m on the money, or if I’m completely off the radar. And let me know your own picks or recommendations.

This is #3…

I can’t help but feel that The Muppets probably aren’t quite as popular over here as they really should be. After all, we had to wait about three months for the eventual release of the film in Irish cinemas. Even later this year, following all the publicity around the recent revival, I was only able to find one cinema in Dublin doing three screening of The Muppets’ Christmas Carol, despite the highly-publicised re-release. However, perhaps I shouldn’t take their international publicity for granted either. After all, Jason Segal spent six or seven years trying to guide everybody’s favourite felt performers to the big screen again.

Still, The Muppets demonstrated that the gang had lost absolutely nothing in transitioning out of retirement and back to the screen, demonstrating that all these sorts of characters need is a bit of sincere love and affection.

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Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: art, British Isles, christmas, Christmas Carol, disney, dublin, george lucas, Ireland, irish, Irish people, January, jason segel, joel schumacher, LucasArts, Lykke Li, Marvel Studios, Matrix, Muppet, Muppet Show, Muppets' Wizard of Oz, Phantom Menace, quentin tarantino, The Walt Disney Company, youtube | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Paranormal Activity 4

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Darren

I actually quite liked the opening set-up of Paranormal Activity 4. As far as horror franchises go, the Paranormal Activity series is still much more spry than most other long-running series, and there’s a certain charm to the opening hour of Paranormal Activity 4 that seem almost playful. It feels strange to talk about a movie featuring an ominous demon hunting a small suburban family in these terms, but there’s a surprisingly warm and endearing sense of humour to be found in the first two-thirds of the film. Things definitely come off the rails towards the finalé, as the movie (and the series) become too burdened down with mythology and story – and the last third certainly becomes a little over-crowded and generic, threatening to collapse under its own weight as so many modern horrors do.

While it’s nowhere near as innovative, clever or genuinely frightening as Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Activity 4 measures up reasonably well to the standard set by the sequels, ending up much stronger than Paranormal Activity 2, and about on-par with Paranormal Activity 3.

Something to watch over me…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: @TweetYourScream, facebook, ghost, Google, Horror film, Investigators, Kathryn Newton, Matt Shively, paramount pictures, Paranormal, paranormal activity, Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, twitter, United States, youtube | 4 Comments »

David Lynch’s Rock of Ages (Trailer)

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Darren

Occasionally I stumble across something in the wilds of the internet that I just have to share. Here is a rather interesting fan made trailer examining something all of us have wondered about: what if Rock of Ages were directed by David Lynch? Okay, maybe not all of us. But some of us. Probably. Anyway, it’s a work of bizarre brilliance, so check it out. I especially like the liberal application of Roy Orbison.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: art, Blue Velvet, David Foster Wallace, david lynch, Eraserhead, laura dern, Lynch, rock of ages, youtube | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Lucky One

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Darren

It’s hard not to feel a tad manipulated by The Lucky One, a story that seems to want to be about the relationship between fate (or chance) and choice. Following a veteran of a foreign conflict as he tries to adjust to life back home, trying to make sense of his survival in a war that claimed the lives of countless friends and colleagues, I don’t doubt that The Lucky One was intended as a profound meditation on those themes. However, what we end up with is a rather muddled romance that never truly gets off the ground thanks to a lackluster central performance from Zac Efron and some rather uncomfortable subtext.

Not quite picture perfect...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, Blythe Danner, Dr. Seuss, Efron, film, High School Musical, Lucky One, Movie, Nicholas Sparks, non-review review, Posttraumatic stress disorder, review, Romeo and Juliet, Taylor Schilling, youtube, Zac Efron | 3 Comments »

Done in 60 Seconds: An Interview with Andrew Norton

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Darren

We might not be the best team in the world at soccer, we might not be the favourites to take home a record-shattering amount of gold medals in London, but the Irish have always had a bit of a cultural charm. This year, we were lucky enough to be represented at the final of the Jameson Empire Done in 60 Seconds competition, with Andrew Norton’s condensed spoof of the iconic District 9 landing a place among 29 international contenders on a shortlist including entries from Kazakhstan, Russia, Latvia, Israel, Sweden and the Ukraine, among others. I had the pleasure of chatting very briefly about putting the sixty-second clip together, breaking into short-film making and the perils of looking like a security guard on the red carpet.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012 Summer Olympics, 60 Seconds, Celtic, danny devito, Empire Award, Gold medal, Grafton Street, irish, israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, London, ron howard, Short film, sport, Sweden, tim burton, Ukraine, youtube | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Shame

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Darren

Shame is a masterpiece, a master class in cinema, and the perfect example of a director and lead actor working synchronously and seamlessly. The movie wouldn’t work without director Steve McQueen willing to push it as far as possible, knowing when to pull back and when to dive in, matched by Michael Fassbender’s fearlessness, throwing himself into a naked performance. (This is where I make a cheap joke about it being “in more ways than one.”) Shame is pretty much the perfect note on which to start 2012.

Stands out from the crowd...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Carey Mulligan, Fassbender, film, McQueen, Michael Fassbender, Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, Movie, new york, New York City, non-review review, review, Sexual addiction, steve mcqueen, subway, youtube | 10 Comments »

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer…

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Darren

It’s officially on-line. The trailer of The Dark Knight Rises has, after a weekend of bootlegging, been officially released. It looks impressive, and gives us our first sense of anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. If the theme is to reflect the recession (as much as The Dark Knight could have been said to reflect the war on terror), I imagine Selina will be quite important to the story. We’ve seen a lot of Bane, and there’s relatively little of him here. And, is that a bearded younger Bruce (back in his League of Shadows days) being told that the chant means “rise?” But enough crazy theories for now. I’ll have more of them later in the week.

In the mean time, enjoy. For more analysis, click here.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bane, batman, Batman in film, bruce wayne, catwoman, dark knight, Dark Knight Rises, imax, youtube | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The American

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Darren

The American is a slow-moving introspective film. Director Anton Corbijn seems to be trying to evoke Sergio Leone, with the story of an American hired gun lying low in a small Italian village. Slow-moving and subtle, The American feels quite meditative for most of its runtime, although it does occasionally seem almost comatose. Still, George Clooney makes for a convincing leading man, adding a great deal of depth to an archetype we’ve seen countless times before. While it’s a little too slow for its own good, it’s never less than beautiful and often fascinating.

Beautifully shot...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Anton Corbijn, Coldplay, Corbijn, david fincher, george clooney, Ian Curtis, jack, Las Ventas, Music video, non-review review, review, sergio leone, Spaghetti Western, United States, Vevo, youtube | 4 Comments »

Internet Advertising…

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Darren

I love it when movies make an effort to embrace new technology. It can be something as careful and precise as the carefully orchestrated internet campaign of The Dark Knight (“I believe in Harvey Dent”) or the slow and steady burn of Tron Legacy over two years, or it can even be more direct than that. I thought I might share two of the more wonderfully internet-specific trailers I’ve ever seen, released within a week of each other. These are pretty much ways of publicising a movie that could only work on-line. The first is the interactive Scott Pilgrim trailer. As if we needed more reason to get excited about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.