Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity 2 – Past and Present?
Posted by Patrick Hodges
In the past week, I have watched the most recent entries of two very different horror franchises, but before I get to revewing them, a brief history lesson. In 2003, director James Wan made a movie called Saw for just a little more than $1 million. It appeared at various film festivals (Sundance and Toronto) to critical acclaim before being picked up by Lionsgate Pictures. It went on to gross over $100 million worldwide, and a franchise was born. I, personally, was shocked by how much I liked it. "Intelligent horror" is almost always an oxymoron, and I just couldn't get over how cleverly written it was and delightfully twisted the imaginations of its creators were. It remains one of my favorite films of all time, and I wanted more. However, I don't think I could have accurately predicted just how much MORE I was going to get.
Greatest achievement on Blu Ray?
Posted by Matthew Starr
I finally got around to watching Criterion Collection's blu ray transfer of The Thin Red Line this past weekend and I now truly believe this is the best blu ray title on the market. First and foremost the film is simply one of the greatest of all time. If I ever get around to compiling my favorite movies this will surely be within my top ten. This film is the definition of poetry in motion. The Thin Red Line is one of the few films that is more than just an interesting narrative or entertainment, it is an experience.
Blockbuster City
Posted by Matthew Starr
.jpg){kind=avatar}
There is news today on the two biggest franchises in film at the moment. In regards to Avatar it has been reported that Cameron's next two films will indeed be Avatar 2 and 3 and he will shoot them back to back. Expected release dates for the films are December 2014 and 2015 respectively. You know a franchise is huge when news of a film four years away gets reported in every blog and trade paper.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest – The Beach Book Trilogy Ends
Posted by Eoin O'Faolain
And so the hugely successful adaptation of the Millennium Trilogy closes this week with the US release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. These Swedish movies have been so popular that David Fincher is already directing an English-language remake. But is it really worth it?
The final film in the trilogy follows the gothic, mildly autistic, Lisbeth Salander as she recovers from the attack of the previous film, and faces a court case that may return her to the corrupt institute that damaged her as a child. Helping her from the outside is journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who gradually uncovers a secret group responsible for “making decisions that the government were too afraid to”, who not only want to get rid of Salander but also destroy Blomkvist’s reputation. And on top off all that, the unhurtable beast Niedermann plots revenge on Salander.
There’s no doubt that this series is anymore than the equivalent of a holiday novel: Plenty of intrigue but only on a surface level. The first film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was a tired whodunnit about a deeply unsurprising case of a Nazi serial killer. The two sequels segued together better, following a sort of political conspiracy that put Salander in the centre of something bigger than anyone could suspect. But all of the films in the trilogy are deeply unspectacular. The stories are largely silly, both in plot and in execution. For example, the murderer Niedermann, who cannot feel pain of any sort, is straight out of a Bond movie. Only the Millennium films take themselves so seriously that its tone clashes with such a ridiculous figure.
Conviction
Posted by Matthew Starr
So I am a sucker for survival stories and yes I do consider Conviction a survival story. It is for Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) sentenced to life for a murder he didn't commit and to a lesser extent for his sister Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) sacrificing most of her time and life to do what is necessary to set him free. Stories revolving around the wrongfully imprisoned (Shawshank Redemption and Hurriance), men tested by nature (Cast Away, Touching the Void) and of course horror films, specifically zombie films are always able to connect with me more fluidly than other narratives. So when Conviction was over and Juliette Lewis was suddenly making her way down the aisle to begin an audience Q and A it was no surprise that I felt I had just seen an interesting, moving and generally enjoyable film.
Hereafter
Posted by Matthew Starr
I caught Hereafter yesterday and had the same reaction I have had to most of Clint's films since Mystic River. It was interesting, some scenes were really well done but there was nothing exceptional about it. I say most because I thought Letters from Iwo Jima was slightly better than Clint's usual work and I did not react similarly as most people did to Million Dollar Baby.
Hereafter opens with a compelling tsunami scene that at times did look at little too digital but still captured my attention and got me hooked into the film as is all you can ask for from an opening scene. From there it slows down to the usual Clint Eastwood pace which I am fine with if I care about the characters and their plight but in his films of late I almost never do. Matt Damon plays George Lonegan, a man who can speak to the dead and at one point ran a business taking advantage of his unique gift. He had to quit because it was consuming his life and what he once considered a gift he now considers a curse as it holds him back from living a normal life.
Trailers: Made in Dagenham and Rabbit Hole
Posted by Matthew Starr
Two trailers were released this week for films featuring key players in the race for best actress and supporting actress.
Nigel Cole's Made in Dagenham reflects the 1968 Ford sewing machinists strike where female workers protested against sexual harassment and for equal pay. The early indication is that Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson and Rosamund Pike are excellent in their respective roles. I will be seeing the film at a screening on November 1st.
Gotham Nominees
Posted by Matthew Starr
The Gotham Nominees have been announced. The IFP awards the best in American independent cinema. There is usually at least some carry over from these nominations to the major awards. The best features are as follows with the rest after the jump. The biggest surprise is surely Let Me In which seems to be one of the most divisive films of the season. As I blogged a week or so again I was not much of a fan. The biggest boost of the day went to Winter's Bone.
Best Feature
“Black Swan”
“Blue Valentine”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“Let Me In”
“Winter’s Bone”
Trailer: Biutiful
Posted by Matthew Starr
When I finally write up my top 50 or so films of the decade entry sometime in the coming months, Amores Perros will certainly be somewhere on that list. I was not impressed with 21 Grams despite some stellar acting and after a second viewing of Babel this past summer I grew more fondly of that film. Biutiful has played at Cannes, Telluride and Toronto and the buzz is that the highlight of the film is Bardem's performance and that he is a contender for a nomination. The film is also Mexico's entry for best foreign film.
Zuck on The Social Network
Posted by Matthew Starr
Well now we know that Mark Zuckerberg has seen The Social Network. At the Startup School conference at Stanford he spoke briefly on the film and what they got right or wrong. He says they got the details of his clothes down but was off the point thematically in revealing what sparked him to create Facebook.