Now, a lot of people in the UK will have heard of Donnie Darko. It was championed by a Radio 1 DJ, and one of the songs from the soundtrack was Christmas number 1 in 2003 (was it really that long ago?). Donnie Darko (Jake Gylenhall) is a troubled teenager …
Pride and Prejudice
I’m a fan of the BBC TV series and I was afraid that they had ruined it, but I do also like Knightley as an actress and thought Matthew MacFadyen was excellent in the Spooks TV series and hopefully they can stay faithful to the novel and not …
I’ve mentioned Film Studies in a couple of articles previously and thought I’d reprint the following article I wrote some time ago on another of my websites.
I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a degree in Film (a BA (Hons) in Film Studies to be precise). Now, I’ve …
Brotherhood of the Wolf is a French-language film (with subtitles, though you do get a dubbed English-language track on the DVD) based on a myth/legend of a werewolf killing people in 18th Century France. This isn’t your typical period piece. Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), the royal naturalist, is …
I will start this article/rant with a confession: I have a degree in Film Studies. My course involved a split between theory and practical with a slight bias on the theory, so I’d like to think that a) I’m qualified to talk about film theories and b) I know …
Neil Marshall achieved something very rare when he directed Dog Soldiers: a successful low-budget British horror movie. There aren’t that many. He’s back this year to try and repeat that success with his new film, The Descent, based around some cavers trapped in a cave system under the …
Okay, so I downloaded Revelations yesterday. Now, I didn’t download the full DVD quality set, it’s 7Gb, life’s too short and I’m not that patient, I grabbed the 250Mb Quicktime version, so I obviously didn’t get the full viewing experience. In all, it took me about four-and-a-half hours …
The first time you hear the story of Domino Harvey, the model-turned-bounty-hunter who was the daughter of English actor Laurence Harvey, you think it must have been made up. Domino was public-school educated before becoming a DJ and designing T-shirts then turning to modelling and stage school (there have …
Well, there’s a new Star Wars fan fiction doing the rounds and boy does it look good. 40 mins long and made by fans who happen to make films for a living, everything (bar the script and acting apparently) is on a par with the originals. The site …
Another quick round-up of some trailers that caught my eye of late.
Broken Flowers
Bill Murray is back in something that doesn’t feel a million miles away from Lost in Translation (note that I said feel, it have very little other comparisons). Murray plays Don, a veritable Don Juan, who receives …
Another trailer that caught me eye was for Pretty Persuasion, which looks like a cross between Cruel Intentions and The Opposite of Sex (although someone on IMDb referred to it as ‘A fine mixture of Election and Heathers’). Look out for cutting comment on the media, Americans philosphy on …
I was a fan of The Transporter. Sure, it’s no cinematic masterpiece, but it had a reasonable story and, aside from Jason Statham’s American accent, nothing really bad about it. I’m also a fan of Statham and the film gave him room to strut his stuff with full …
While the title makes it sound like a DIY video for anyone wanting to paint their home, Primer marks the film-making debut of Shane Carruth. It was shot low-budget, with almost no cast and crew and was written, directed, edited, scored and even stars it’s maker. What’s more …
Maturin
I’ll never be able to repay this debt.
Aubrey
Nonsense, name a shrub after me, something prickly and hard to eradicate.
Apple and Sony (and even Tesco) have both expressed their desire to stake a claim in the future movie downloads market recently, and CinemaNow already offers movies for download with Wippit due to offer them sometime over the summer. With the takeoff imminent, and the rise of video on …
An excerpt from an email conversation I was having with a friend of mine:
I’m not convinced by King Kong yet, I have seen some of the earlier stuff, but nothing really grabbed me. They find some island with some caveman natives and a giant monkey. He captures the …
I was going to write a quick piece about a review of Kill Bill: Vol 1 (scroll almost to the bottom) I found on my new favourite hunting ground: Scope. Then I found another review, this time concerning, of all things, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which …
I was watching the latest trailer for the Fantastic Four recently (how many trailers are they aiming to release, not that this one is vastly different than the others) and I was looking into the actors when I saw the names of the characters. It has long been known that …
This won’t mean much to most of you but plans for a cinema in Eastleigh (near where I live) have finally been agreed and approved. They’ve been talking of building a leisure complex, which was to include a cinema, on and off for years. Different sites have been …
The first trailer for King Kong, a new version of the classic film directed by Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) has been released. I know very little about this version, I knew it was being made as it’s something Jackson has wanted to do for a …
I was recently forwarded an article about the new wave of Brit flicks about to hit us; this time they’re going to be from the horror genre, in fact something of a Hammer Horror revival courtesy of us Brits is apparently gaining momentum and ready to bowl us off our …
Dr Ian Malcolm
Yeah, but John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.
Jack Sparrow
(Imitating Elizabeth)
“It must have been terrible for you, Jack. Must have been terrible.” Well, it bloody is now.
Seeing Norrington’s ship off shore
Jack Sparrow
There’ll be no living with her after this.
Ragetti
Is it supposed to be doing that?
Pintel
They’re stealing our ship.
Ragetti
Bloody Pirates!
Another article from the Guardian mentions how War of the Worlds may indicate a shift in Hollywood’s usual marketing techniques. It has had little advanced work, little plugging and pushing and no advanced screening for reviewers, things that are almost unheard of for a film this big.
The reason that’s …
Han Solo
Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Saruman
There will be no dawn for men
Norrington
That is, without doubt, the worst pirate I’ve ever seen.
Jack Sparrow
You need to find yourself a girl mate.
The Guardian has an interesting article on how to be a movie villain. The first things they say is that you need to be British. It’s not the first time this has been noted. It amazing really, when you think about it, how many villains have been …
