News
Reviews
Articles
Surveillance
Dot Com
M.A.S.T.E.R.A.N.D.C.O.M.M.A.N.D.E.R. T.H.E.F.A.R.S.I.D.E.O.F.T.H.E.W.O.R.L.D. I.S. G.O.O.D. T.O.O.
Links
Tags
15th Dec 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Search
School of Rock
sneak preview of school of rock this week... just about lives up to jack black/richard linklater together-at-last expectations. much more a black film than linklater in feel, but no worse for it. lots of classic rrrrock and classic rock jokes as you'd imagine, plus the kids are all good (no "kid-actor" moments) and joan cusack works her uptight principal role as far as it will go.
enough to shake off the what's up with cinema??? feeling after being supremely underwhelmed/confused by matrix: back to the valley of the dawn of the matrix .
13th Nov 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
The Castle
(dir. Rob Sitch)
"With Presets?"
"Yeah. And Megabass!"
"Wow! I can't wait to go to Bangkok"
For those who like their comedies simple of plot and rich in quotes, the Castle is going 'straight to the Pool Room' ('a special place for mementos and things that remind you of things' (See Below)). In a nutshell; the Kerrigan family are told to leave the family home, making way for a Big Corporation's plans to extend the nearby airport. Kerrigan Dad, Darryl, disagrees and takes on the Company in the courts.... that's it.
Family/Neighbourhood = good, Faceless Companies = bad and a sweet victory for the little man (no hidden twists here). But the jokes and one-liners are packed hard and fast and the characters, whilst simple souls, are there to be rooted for. In places it's a fast show school of gags - keep them simple, then repeat "two-fifty! For Jousting Sticks! Tell him he's Dreamin'!". Other lines are as inspired as they are dumb "Dad, I don't know what the opposite of letting someone down is, but you've done the opposite!" There's just too many of them - watch it a couple of times then annoy your friends by quoting upcoming lines..."Dad, I dug another Hole!" Also features an appearance by Eric 'The Hulk' Bana, as the Kickboxing Brother-in-Law - "The food was an absolute credit to the airline".
I'll give the quotes a rest now, before transcribing the whole script. Just watch it. Then Laugh.
29th Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
Waking Life
(dir. Richard Linklater)
Way back before Dubya tarred it's good name, Texas was occasionally a cool place. The Butthole Surfers, ZZ Top (pre-Mtv) and Richard Linklater all herald from the Lone Star State. Richard Linklater has already made his ode to Texas in Dazed and Confused, and the success of that led to bigger things (The Newton Boys), then due to a lack of success, smaller things again.
In 2001 he kicked out two low-budget movies. First came 3-actor-shot-on-DV movie Tape, which was pretty good, then this film ñ Waking Life. Shot on DV, then animated over the top, the movie features many of Linklaters previous stars including Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delphy and Nicky Katt ñ as well as a nice cameo by Stephen Prince, re-telling his Gas Station story from American Boy.
It is more like a series of scetches and scenes, strung together through technique and the meandering, philosophising thoughts of the main character (Wiggins) as he tries to deal with his dreams. It makes for interesting viewing, but like many of Linklaterís movies it never quite hit the right note for me. Hopefully heís in form with School of Rock, because after that heís got a sequel to Before Sunrise coming outÖ and thatís bound to be another love/hate sitaution.
29th Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviews
Cypher
(dir. Vincenzo Natali)
Never got round to Cube, but from all accounts it was a pretty decent lo-budget sci-fi... So's this, from the same director. Jeremy Northam, doing fine US accent (and miles away from that stuck-up dude he played in Gosford Park) is a bored salaryman datachimp who decides life would be more interesting if he was a corporate spy. Like the way it's pretty much all monochrome (found myself checking I wasn't watching on some not-tuned in properly channel on my tv) for most of the film, with the odd splash of colour, v stylish. In the future too, but unspecified, like it's only about 5 minutes into the future; ie they're still using CDs to burn their data. Lots of corporate brainwashing, general mind-melding, who-am-i? identity confusion, Lucy Liu as a potentially rogue agent hooking up with Northam at Anywheresville conventions and hotel ice machines. Nothing totally new, but it does what it sets out to do: ie make a satisfying, atmospheric low-key sci-fi.
27th Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4 star reviews
Brotherhood Of The Wolf
(dir. Christophe Gans)
loopy stuff (yup, literally)... kung-fu, secret orders, one-armed noblemen with way too much fraternal affection, 18th century peasants being savaged by crazed were-beasts on the moors... plus monica belluci. real mess of a film, in the best possible way. just a bit too long. good though.
27th Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviews
Less Than Zero
(dir. Marek Kanievska)
In this movie, based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis (waaaay before the American Psycho hype), three rich-kid friends graduate from school and then move out into the big wide world. While Andrew McCarthy goes of to college, best friend Robert Downey Jr. Stays in LA and steals McCarthy's girlfriend - Jami Gertz.
On returning to LA to help Downey kick his various addictions, all three get mixed up in the dirty underworld of drugs supplied by sleazy James Spader.
Pretty in Pink crossed with Heat as the Brat Pack get serious. Kind of. After a shakey start - highlighted by a David Lee Roth soundtracked 'erotic' romp - this does actually settle down to be pretty good, with Robert Downey putting in a good performance (possibly method acted judging by his later years) as the strung out Julian. The soundtrack has some Brat Pack classics on it too, although every other track seems to be an 80's re-imaginging of some 60's classic - Slayer do "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" anyone?
21st Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 3 star reviews
Bad Boys
(dir. Michael Bay)
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence play two badass, wisecracking, unconventional cops on the trail of some stolen heroin. Jerry Bruckheimer is in full blown, pre-CSI, Top Gunesque brown filter mode. This is crap. Like Beverley Hills Cop III on steroids.
7th Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 1 star reviews
The Core
(dir. Jon Amiel)
The core of the earth has stopped revolving. A crew of experts/astronaut types are recruited to fly a nuclear powered train type-thing with laser headlights into the centre of the earth to set off some nukes, kick start the earth and save 6 billion people.
Total action by numbers movie that can be best summed up as Armageddon vs. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. The only problem with that is no Bruce Willis. Or Steve Buscemi. Instead we have Aaron Eckhart (that dude from Erin Brockovich) and Hilary Swank. Not that that means its actually any worse, just that it makes you wonder who would put $50 or $80 Million into it. And in fact that's part of the problem. Movies like this need $100M, not $50M, for stars and hype and publicity - to generate enough interest to cover the gaps in the plot and the execution.
It's not unwatchable however. Add a few unbelievably heroic personal sacrifices, a pinch of Hollywood luck and 135 minutes of your day have drifted by easily enough.
1st Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 2 star reviews
Bringing Down The House
(dir. Adam Shankman)
I had the misfortune of sitting through this pile of crap on a plane, before sleeping became a much better way of killing 90 minutes. I can only comment on the first half of the movie, but a child could plot the undoubted outcome.
Stiff-white-guy lawyer Steve Martin meets sassy-streetwise-homegirl Queen Latifah through a case of misrepresentation in an Internet chatroom. She needs his lawyer help to clear her name. He wants a new girlfriend. 90 minutes of lame fish-out-of-water comedy later they no doubt realise it's what's inside that counts and live happily ever after.
This was such a Steve Martin-by-numbers script, that a computer could have written it. They didn't even bother spening any time setting the scene - the whole chatroom episode was wrapped up before the opening titles finished. None of the side splitting comedy of The Jerk or Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
"Those aren't pillows!"
1st Oct 2003 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 1 star reviews