…Or nightmare, to be more precise. Usually, these modern freaky kid horror movies do nothing for me at all except make me not want to be anywhere near someone’s children for a few weeks. But I like most of Guillermo Del Toro’s work in that even if it fails in one way or another, he knows how to leave some memorable imagery taped to your eyeballs for a while. MAMA looks to be one of those “under the seat” flicks where you’ll leave the theater walking backwards and calling the babysitter to take the damn kids home with her for the night. Of course, I’d bet the man himself wouldn’t have it any other way…
OK, I’m more than ancient enough to grasp the whole timeless lifespan physio-psychobabble thing going on here, so I wasn’t too knocked for a loop by the first trailer like many were in their confusion. I m glad however, that some sort of plot is becoming clearer here and yes, I still predict this will be a film that does even better on home video because it will demand repeated viewings to fully understand.
Unlike something like Speed Racer, which too one viewing to grasp that it was a pure nuts idea for a live-action film. OK, OK, I saw it three times on cable just to pick out the in-jokes and because some stuff actually made me laugh. Just keep that between you and me and we’re all good, OK? Damn internet is too yakky….
OK, I’ll bite (and hard, at that) – a new Metal Gear Solid game coming from Kojima Productions? With that proprietary Fox Engine making sure the game looks even more amazing as an anniversary present for fans of the long-running series, this one’s a no-brainer even if it was a Metal Gear tsuguroku. Fortunately, it’s not, as you’ll see in this almost 11 minute jaw-dropper. I’m in all the way on this one, feet first. Hell, I’ll even post the trailer twice here (one is English subtitled) just to show my love for the series. Hey, I’m still buying Revengeance, Konami – I’m not some fair weather fan who only wants the same thing over and over. Thankfully, Hideo Kojima seems to be the same in that each Metal Gear experience has some truly excellent reasons to play through multiple times…
As for the proposed Metal Gear Solid movie everyone seems to be raving about (n one way or another)? I’m really, really on the fence here. Why? Well, young’uns… the joke goes something like this: in every Metal Gear Solid game, there’s that loooooooooooooong cut scene where unless you’re prepared for it, will go on and on (and on), forcing you to commit to playing around with camera angles with your controller just to kill time as an important plot point is explained. At some point (if you haven’t fallen asleep), you can et up and go make dinner, go to the bathroom or even go outside to check the mailbox (sometimes all of the above) before things get back to being playable.
You can’t expect a modern movie audience to be in on this at all (maybe the art house crowd will go for it, though), so hopefully, the folks writing it will go light on the exposition. On the other hand, I don’t want a stupid action flick with explosions and Meryl boobing out all over and a story that’s thinner than the edge of a katana. If this isn’t in The Dark Knight territory in terms of tone and execution, I’ll be a sad clown indeed. But let’s see what happens with this project. With a Solid Script (ha ha), perhaps Solid Snake can rake in the green with a big surprising smash of a summer flick.
That said, success or failure at the box office, I’ll still respect you in the morning Mr. Kojima!
“What a cast!”, was my first reaction and given that this film is by the same director who brought us the wonderfully dark In Bruges (go rent it if you haven’t seen it yet!), you can expect all sorts of excellent craziness of the controlled and uncontrolled varieties. It’s looking almost like a modern day Ealing Studios comedy directed by Quentin Tarantino. Which means it’ll be weird and good, I say. I have the feeling that this will be one of those films that might not blow the doors off at the box office, but once it hits home video and cable, people will be glued to it multiple times and quoting lines like they thought them up themselves…
Nicely striking image (and slightly reminiscent of the Batman variant poster for The Dark Knight) for the upcoming film starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey set to hit theaters across the US on September 21. Early reviews from those who saw screenings at San Diego Comic Con have been quite good, so hopefully the folks who think that first Judge Dredd flick was somehow “great” will get a true head check in a month or so (no Rob Schneider is a big plus for me and I sure won’t miss Sly and his helmet-less ways). That and hell, hopefully, the film will get a better critical reception that the Total Recall reboot, which is getting some unfair slams from people who’ve never read the original story (which had absolutely nothing to do with Mars)
What with all the hype and such over the Total Recall remake plus a few other upcoming sci-fi flicks hitting theaters this year and next, I figured I’d also get in a recommendation of one of my ancient favorites from a great director. Granted, Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution) is going to be a film many younger readers (or those less well versed in cinema) will like or hate outright for its low-tech look and lovely black & white cinematography alone. On the other hand, those viewers willing to dive headfirst into Godard’s film should come up grinning afterwards.
In my own case, I didn’t truly appreciate it until about the third time I saw it. Actually, the movie made me (and still makes me) laugh a lot because it’s so offbeat, but each viewing revealed even more things about it to take away. The whole idea of taking a popular detective from the present day and dropping him into a “futuristic” setting without changing the film noir aesthetic one bit while using real locations around 1965 Paris in unique ways makes for a great film school lesson in minimalism. That said, the film is layered with meaning if you pay attention and maybe have a pot of coffee at the ready if you’re new to this sort of experience. Clever viewers won’t “need a drawing to get the picture” is all I’ll say here…
I won’t even over-detail the plot, as it’s pretty baffling if you try and dive too deep into things and assign meaning and clarity to it all. Basically, super agent Lemmy Caution needs to tackle a three-part objective by putting an end to a super computer overlord controlling a city where not being part of the program is a death sentence. along the way, Caution needs to track down a fellow agent gone missing and kill off the scientist who created the computer. Let’s just say things get REALLY odd, there’s a love interest, an interrogation, a joke-dispensing vending machine, a slow-motion fistfight and a truly weird finale that manages to wrap things up pretty nicely.
I’d also say that next to the brilliance that is Breathless, this is probably the easiest of Godard’s films to get into, so if you’re flipping a coin between this and say, Week-Endand Je vous salue, Marie, well, I’d go with this one first. Tracking down a copy on DVD may be a bit difficult, as The Criterion Collection version is currently out of print. However, if you live in an areas with an indie film store, you may find it there. That is, if there are any of those left. I guess the internet is actually more helpful than it usually is in this case, but don’t go blabbing that you went and pirated this or anything. You never know who’s listening and watching. Then again, you DO know… but let’s not give them any more ammunition to use against you in the future, OK?
I finally got around to watching the Fright Night remake a week or so ago and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was while doing a number of things that made it a lot less campy than the original. Farrell’s performance as an apple (and human) chomping vampire was pretty neat and the rest of the cast did a great job throughout. Granted, the film wasn’t quite flawless, but it certainly kept my attention and didn’t wear out its welcome. Total Recall looks as if it will be along the same lines in terms of outdoing the original, but we’ll see how it holds up under the scrutiny of the folks who like to (over)compare good and bad points.
OK, so I’m not following every drop of news about this new Bond film, but that’s because I’m too busy and I really hate ruining whatever surprises are in store by knowing the entire plot, characters and whatnot. That said, this one looks like it’s going to be the most interesting of the three Daniel Craig films (unless they manage to work in the skydiving Queen from last week’s Olympic ceremony!) on a few levels. November 9 is zooming up like that train at the end of the trailer and I’m happy that the film is looking better and better with each new bunch of clips.
I hadn’t heard of this film until a few days back when someone let me know there would be a long trailer going up this week along with a teaser site. Of course, I reserved judgment on the almost six-minute trailer until I got the chance to see the entire thing, as I still have burning headaches from overexposure to Speed Racer (OK, I caught it twice on cable – once to check it out, the second time to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating) and the last two Matrix movies. Anyway, this amazingly ambitious effects-heavy flick looks like something worth watching a few times just to catch everything, meaning it may do well at the box office, but it will probably do even better as a rental or outright purchase so those who get pulled into it can view it multiple times to catch anything they missed on the first viewing.
I’m gathering Zack Snyder has been listening hard to criticisms leveled against his films and some elements of his directorial style certain vocal fans dislike. Either that or he’s been watching Terence Malick’s exquisitely mind-blowing The Tree of Life one too many times while eating bowl after bowl of Corn Flakes and reading a Ralph Lauren catalog shot by Bruce Weber. Anyway, these new Man of Steel teasers manages to be vague, impressive and inspiring all without coughing up a single spoiler or explosion. That said, I’m hoping the final film has a wee bit more color in it, as this sort of bleached out look in movies is fading fast (har har). With plenty of time to go before the Summer 2013 release, here’s to more revealing and intriguing future trailers that don’t give away a thing while managing to be equally thrilling.
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