Chimpomatic

News

Reviews

Articles

Surveillance
Play Video

Promo Promo: The Invisible - Generational

New Invisible vid directed by Th13teen. Bonus Post War Years remix here

 "Taken from The Invisible's new single Generational which includes a 15 minute Theo Parrish Remix & Anna Calvi cover of The Wall. Released 22 October 2012 on Ninja Tune."

#chimpx
#Music
#PromoPromo

1st Nov 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Play Video

Trailer Park: Decay

What happens when you let physics students shoot a zombie film in the maintenance tunnels at CERN? Wired has more.

#chimpx
#Film
#TrailerPark

1st Nov 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Search

Paranoid Park

Gus Van Sant's skateboard / whodunnit mash up meanders aimlessly, pretending 'Kids' never happened.


#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF

30th Oct 2012

Read more 2.5 star reviews

Wally Pfister On Camera Placement

Interesting piece looking at cinematographer Wally (Dark Knight, Inception) Pfister's arguments about camera placement and the idea of "cheating space" in rival blockbusters like Avengers.

"What's really important is storytelling. None of it matters if it doesn't support the story. I thought "The Avengers" was an appalling film. They'd shoot from some odd angle and I'd think, why is the camera there? Oh, I see, because they spent half a million on the set and they have to show it off. It took me completely out of the movie. I was driven bonkers by that illogical form of storytelling."

#chimpx
#Film

30th Oct 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Texas Killing Fields

Shambolic, badly directed thriller from Michael Mann's daughter - set in a rainy (?!) Texas.


#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF

29th Oct 2012

Read more 1 star reviews

Like Crazy

Successful low budget indie, building a touching portrait of firstlove and a long-distance relationship.


#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF

29th Oct 2012

Read more 3.5 star reviews

Skyfall

Solid, stylish, well-rounded Bond - that tips its hat while also serving as something of a reboot.


#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF

26th Oct 2012

Read more 4 star reviews
Play Video

The Fourth Dimension

Full-length new compendium movie up on YouTube- first up, Harmony Korine directs Val Kilmer. On a BMX... Looks like a Vice/Grolsch team up.

via Indiewire:

Synopsis: The Fourth Dimension: where fawns are the miscreants of nature, time travel only applies to ants, and velvet is evil. Channeling the spirit of Tristan Tzara in his manifesto to deliver magic and other things, Eddy Moretti—aka the General of this cinematic synecdoche, and in other dimensions known as one of the masterminds behind Vice magazine—deploys a troika of strange and talented-as-hell directors to carry out his orders to form a more perfect union of space and time. The journey begins with Harmony Korine's new age brainchild "The Lotus Community Workshop," starring Val Kilmer as "Val Kilmer." Alexey Fedorchenko comes next with "Chronoeye," the story of a Russian time traveler whose expectations for seeing the past stifle his ability to live in the present. Fittingly, we end with the quasi-apocalyptic and ominously allegorical "Fawns," directed by Polish newcomer Jan Kwiecinski. All three directors transcend convention by challenging themselves and audiences to find something new in cinema. Together, the triptych of pieces crash but don't clash in a fashion that would make both Einstein and Eisenstein beam. [Synopsis courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival.]

#chimpx
#Film

26th Oct 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

The 40 Yr Old Virgin

Prototype @JuddApatow movie without the LOLs of Knocked Up or the confidence of Funny People.


#JustWatched
#Film
#CSF

25th Oct 2012

Read more 2.5 star reviews

Argo

(dir. Ben Affleck)

Trenchcoats, crazy CIA plans, beards and a gripping true life hostage situation - there's a lot to enjoy in Ben Affleck's latest. Following The Town and Gone, Baby Gone, this is another assured directorial job from Affleck, here channeling the spirit of 70s classics like All The President's Men and Klute to craft an intelligent, grown-up thriller that doesn't have to resort to shoot-outs to ratchet up the tension. Bonus points for Van Halen and Led Zep on the soundtrack.

Tehran 1979: Ayatollah Khomeni's revolution is in full swing, the US embassy is stormed, 52 hostages taken - but six staff members manage to escape in the confusion and seek refuge in the Canadian embassy. Back in Washington, Carter-era spooks concoct "exfiltration" plans - with "the best bad idea" being a fake Hollywood production company scouting middle eastern locations for a Star Wars rip-off.

The film keeps the potential for any "Hollywood - so CRAZY!!" stuff to a minimum - managing to contrast it with the intensity of 70s revolutionary Tehran without resorting to Get Shorty wackiness. Max graininess in the cinematography (shot with an Arri Alexa, fact fans, as well as "on film, cut in half, blown up 200%" according to IMDB trivia) combines with actual news footage to build convincing period atmosphere. 

Affleck plays Tony Mendez, the CIA agent leading the plan, a role that plays to his strengths. The rest of the casting is spot on - Bryan "Breaking Bad" Cranston, Tate "Damages" Donovan, John Goodman as Hollywood make-up expert John Chambers (responsible for Planet Of The Apes' apes and Spock's ears), Alan Arkin, Victor Garber, Rory "Dazed And Confused" Cochrane, Titus (Lost's Man in Black) Welliver, Scoot (Monsters) McNairy and a cameo from Adrienne Barbeau in the goofy Argo cast's table read.

For more background, here's the Wired article on the actual CIA operation and the real-life fake movie. It's a great read, though obviously it's pretty much the entire plot. One nice detail that gets a little lost in the film - Captain America co-creator Jack Kirby did the original comic strip-style production drawings.

#Film
#chimp71

24th Oct 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Read more 4 star reviews
Back