Monday 28 March 2011

The How About Project Part 7 (of 26)


Films with nuclear power plants as their settings, made before 1980. Cautionary tales or films too easily forgotten?

3: Incident At Browns Ferry (USA Documentary, 1977)
2: Fiend Without a Face (UK, 1958)
1: The China Syndrome (USA, 1979)

Yes, The China Syndrome starring Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, and a wickedly bearded Michael Douglas. Check that one out if only to witness the beard.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

R.I.P. Elizabeth Taylor

A true legend. Her screen presence was commanding and, I dare say, addictive. Cat On a Hot Tin Roof is the first of her films that comes to mind when pondering her extensive career. I've never seen Cleopatra, so I'll be remedying that as soon as I can. She was a talented actress. I think I speak for the boys when I say she was also quite a looker back in the day.

Thursday 17 March 2011

Sheathing the Claws

Darren Aronofsky is no longer directing what will be a new stand-alone Wolverine film, featuring the character's time in Japan.

While reports say it is because Aronofsky does not want to commit to a job that keeps him away from his home and family for nearly a year, I suspect there's something more to it. (I'm surprised no one's yet theorized that the filmmakers may suddenly be steering clear of Japan what with all the ongoing turmoil there, creating a domino effect that has effectively halted production of the film.)

Aronofsky directing the world's favourite feral mutant felt too good to be true anyway, so really, I'm not that surprised. Just really disappointed. I was looking forward to finally getting one really great X-Men film.

Pessimistically (and because it's 20th Century Fox), I predict his replacement will be very underwhelming, as will the film.

And Japan could use some love right now.

What crap news.

Sunday 13 March 2011

The How About Project Part 6 (of 26)

Having finally read his entertaining and inspirational memoir, My Last Sigh, I felt compelled to recommend my favourite Luis Bunuel films this week. Highly, highly recommended especially if you've yet to experience his work:

3: The Great Madcap
2: The Exterminating Angel
1: The Phantom of Liberty

Of course, you really can't go wrong with any of his films. These just happen to be my faves thus far.

Friday 11 March 2011

Review: Battle: Los Angeles

People "watching" an audio-decribed version of this film are gonna be so pissed at the redundant description of everything that happens. Shit, nothing annoys me more than when film characters tell me what I can see as plain as day with my own bloody eyes, as if I'm a complete idiot. And throughout a whole damn film. As if the filmmakers assume I'm going to miss something, that something's going to go right over my head. Because I couldn't possibly piece together an action flick with crappy dialogue and near non-existent character development all by myself.

This flick was awesome to behold. The action is superbly directed and just owns our eyeballs for the near two-hour stretch. But. There's nothing iconic to take away from the film. It feels like you've seen it all before, somewhere. So kudos to the filmmakers for their skills, but shame on them for their lack of creativity.

Sure, there are iotas of uniqueness planted amongst the frenetic grit of what is essentially a war film, including a few interesting weapons, a new take on the oft-interpreted hazard that is our mobile networks, and a fresh look at what our water could mean to life on other planets. But. Nothing that really grabs a guy hoping to be bowled over by what's been billed as a fresh look at the alien invasion genre which is really starting to wear thin.

Why oh why won't a studio step up and give us what we really want? We go to the cinema after all, in the hopes of seeing a spectacle unlike anything we've seen before. Not something that censors itself, in all likelihood as early as the writing stage.

Visual flair saved this movie. I'll probably watch it again a few years from now, but man, could these guys have been any more apathetic about their script? Could they have been any more allergic to ingenuity?

Thursday 10 March 2011

Squirrel!

Someone at National Geographic knows how to have fun. They went and built a floating house based on the one in Pixar's Up. And not only did it truly fly, with passengers, but it broke some kind of record for the most balloons ever used.

Forget about bungee jumping. Let me in on the real life hunt for Kevin.

Awesome.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Review: The Adjustment Bureau

Here's one of those films that never floors you. It has no big "wow" moments. It lacks sex and violence and spectacle. And its finale is ridiculously (and ironically) predictable.

And yet its a highly entertaining film.

Because the desperation of the characters, which is at the core of the story, is a gradual thing that becomes more and more intense and even believable without being over the top. And the "wow" moments are little instead of big, and I would argue more effective, for having more to do with the romantic chemistry of the leads. And the film is sexy instead of visually explicit; its violence is rare and purposeful; and the spectacle is in the scope of the ideas being played out and discussed on screen. The end of the film? While predictable, offers a payoff the audience (most of the audience?) yearns for.

I seem to admire Matt Damon more and more. Even when he's running the hell out of the camerawork here, there's not a hint of Jason Bourne. He's really great in this movie and I believe every aspect of his character, flaws and all. And Emily Blunt just continues to arouse me on so many levels. She too is fantastic and constructs such a perfect chemistry with Damon that you'd imagine it could not have happened with any other actor. Together they make this movie what it is -- a romance. One of the best I've seen in a while. A romance laced with just enough sci-fi, action, and mystery, to make you forget you're watching a romance. Until the greatest moments of the film hit you over the head, which are really nothing more than Damon and Blunt expressing their love for one another.

Sure, there are a few nagging elements that keep me from absolutely loving The Adjustment Bureau (I found Roger Sterling distracting, and I sometimes found myself suddenly not listening to the dialogue of a new scene for want of piecing together the short expository scene that preceded it, and I think I would have liked just a bit "more" of an ending, etc.), but I'm still recommending it highly (the senate run montage near the beginning of the film, as well as Terence Stamp as the bureau's "hammer" are such first-rate bonuses that I have to mention them).

Basically, it's a pretty great thing to want to embrace romance where and when you weren't expecting to find it. I doubt it was Philip K. Dick's intention to pull on our heartstrings, but the adaptation here works.

Let's just call it insightful and get back to the snogging, shall we?

Saturday 5 March 2011

Short Review: True Grit

Finally watched it and I have to disagree with many that it's the Coen Brothers' best work. While a fine, entertaining, and poignant film, it comes nowhere near the greatness of No Country For Old Men, or O Brother Where Art Thou? which are my faves.

I loved Hailee Steinfeld in the film and think she should have been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar rather than the Supporting Oscar. She was in practically every scene and held her own against the likes of Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. I look forward to seeing her in something else.

I loved much of the cinematography, and thought the shootouts were particularly well shot. In good ol' Coen Brothers fashion, the film was funny and violent in equal measure. And maybe that's why I love them so damn much. I can think of no other filmmakers who can combine comedy and threat so well.

I have some minor problems with the film, including being annoyed by much of the garbled dialogue (mostly on Bridges part), and I found the general pacing of the film a bit off. But the look of the film, and the writing, more than made up for the foibles.

I love me my Coen Brothers. Even a satisfactory film by them is leagues ahead of nearly everything else being produced in Hollywood. True Grit was not satisfactory, it was very, very good. If anything, it's making me want to go back and watch Miller's Crossing and Blood Simple, to see just how much the boys have grown.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Books

I've recently caught up on some much needed reading, mainly of books that have been gathering dust on their shelves for too long. Two of those books were bios of a couple of my all-time favourite people in cinema: Buster Keaton and Luis Bunuel.

Sadly, Edward MacPherson's account of Keaton's journey through famedom, Tempest In a Flathat, turned out to be less a biography and more a review of Keaton's full slate of films. While it starts out well enough, providing details of Keaton's start on the Vaudeville stage alongside his family, the book quickly becomes a checklist of his work in cinema, giving synopses of Keaton's better-known films sprinkled with some behind-the-scenes stories that, while certainly funny, are inexplicably sped through. Sure, I learned a few interesting things about Keaton, but nowhere near enough. At best, the book has given me the itch to go back and watch some of my favourite silent films all over again.

The other book, Bunuel's memoirs titled, My Last Sigh, is a book I can't recommend more highly. In contrast to the Keaton bio, Bunuel turns the most mundane episodes of his life into epiphanies worth sharing with his readers. His was a life filled with humour, strange dreams, beauty, war, protest, and poetry. He says a great deal about the Surrealists, about the previous century's politics, and about religion. He shows us around a Paris that tried so hard not to change. He scares us with his firsthand account of Civil War-Spain. He sheds some light on the reality of Dali. He even reveals his love for swords sheathed in walking canes, among other passions. It's rumination of the most entertaining kind. More importantly, he shares with you his thoughts about all the incredible films he's made over the years, including the origins of some his greatest and most daring screen images and moments. I urge you to find this book and savour it.

Then go out and buy the Criterion versions of all Bunuel's films, and the biggest collection of Buster Keaton films that you can find. That is, if you want to love film even more than you do now.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

The How About Project Part 5 (of 26)

Great movies about television, made before the 80s? Here are a few:

3: Medium Cool
2: A Face In the Crowd
1: Network

Got me thinking about other television-themed films, and am about to watch Broadcast News, which I've never seen. Any others you can think of that you'd recommend?