Jan 31, 2012
New "Chronicle" TV spot
IGN has just posted the fifth tv spot for the upcoming sci-fi flick "Chronicle" about a group of teenage boys who acquire supernatural powers. The film is scheduled for release on February 3rd.
"7500" Trailer
Takashi Shimizu's new film "follows a group of passengers who encounter what appears to be a supernatural force while on a transpacific flight". Shimizu is best know for his "Grudge" films. This one hits theaters this August.
Jan 30, 2012
"Super 8" and the lost awards season
Adam Vary at Entertainment Weekly has posted an interesting article about JJ Abrams' "Super 8" and the fact that it's been completely passed over during awards season. Personally I thought Super 8 was one of the best films of the past year and share Vary's indignation. Maybe he shouldn't have made it a talkie.
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| "Not one stinking nomination?" |
Jan 29, 2012
Sherlock Holmes; A Game of Shadows - 2011
Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes has virtually no connection to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional Victorian private eye and this is not a film that attempts to bring Victorian England to life any more than the first one did. This is a 21st century action film where the actors happen to be wearing old-looking clothes. Holmes himself is part Jason Bourne, part Tony Stark and part Neo from The Matrix.
That said, Sherlock Holmes; A Game of Shadows, is an enjoyable, well crafted piece of work and I never found myself looking at my watch at any time during the film. The story - while admittedly far fetched - is thoroughly fleshed out and Ritchie has a solid command of how to execute action sequences; which is a good thing since the film is virtually one big action sequence. Story-wise the film has the air of a James Bond film with a bearded megalomaniac puppetmaster ala Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) from "Moonraker" manipulating the high and mighty for his own gain and, of course, end of the world as we know it stakes. That the story is too big for it's own Victorian britches could have been an issue but because the world in which events unfold is never really in the foreground we're not too terribly conscious of the disconnect.
The Hugo Dax character is of course Dr James Moriarty, Holmes' legendary nemesis who occupied only the fringes of the previous film. Here he's front and center, played with gusto by Jared Harris. His world-altering plan is to set the European heads of state against one another in order to create a world war in which he will supply the weapons. He's well aware that only the mercurial genius Sherlock Holmes stands in his way and the film chronicles his attempts to remove Holmes from the game so that his plan can play out unabated. Just why he'd wait to do this until the plan was already in motion is the one weak point of the screenplay. But if you can get by that you should have no problems with the rest of the story.
Ritchie plays up the bromance between Holmes and Watson to absurd heights and then undermines it all with the one scene in the film that flirts with genuine emotion. Holmes and Watson, on their way to Paris, are on the ferry to Calais when Watson finds the bloody handkerchief of Holmes' would be paramour, Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams reprising her role). While Watson is unaware of the details he surmises correctly that something terrible must have happened to her. Holmes takes the kerchief from him without saying a word and moves away sniffing it while Watson surveys his partner quietly taking his measure (as we are meant to). He realizes, maybe for the first time, that beneath the Peter Pan exterior lies a human being as susceptible as any of us to the devastation caused by the loss of a loved one. This crucial scene takes about a minute to unfold yet redefines the relationship between the two men (and by extension the entire film) going forward. Without it Game of Shadows would be an entirely different film.
Jude Law seems much more confident this time around. In the first film he seemed a bit lost to me as if he was trying to figure out just how he could occupy a character like Watson without being lost in Holmes' (and Downey's) shadow. Here he seems much more at ease with Watson perhaps because his character is given a more central role. Indeed the entire story plays out as a eulogy of sorts Watson is writing about his friend at some unspecified future date.
Downey himself remains as flippant as ever. His performances always have a Jack Nicholson-esque air about them where it's often hard to tell if he's acting or just being himself. When he slides into his patented deer-in-the-headlights mode you don't see his character thinking things out, you see Downey mulling over how he's going to play it.
As mentioned before the rest of the cast is solid with Stephen Fry having a jolly old time playing Holmes' brother and Noomi Rapace doing a perfectly suitable job as a gypsy whose brother has gotten himself unwittingly ensnared by Moriarty and is forced to do his new master's bidding.
All in all Sherlock Holmes; A Game of Shadows is a fun 2 hours at the movies. It moves along briskly, is reasonably intelligent, sports fine performances and is a step up from the first film.
That said, Sherlock Holmes; A Game of Shadows, is an enjoyable, well crafted piece of work and I never found myself looking at my watch at any time during the film. The story - while admittedly far fetched - is thoroughly fleshed out and Ritchie has a solid command of how to execute action sequences; which is a good thing since the film is virtually one big action sequence. Story-wise the film has the air of a James Bond film with a bearded megalomaniac puppetmaster ala Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) from "Moonraker" manipulating the high and mighty for his own gain and, of course, end of the world as we know it stakes. That the story is too big for it's own Victorian britches could have been an issue but because the world in which events unfold is never really in the foreground we're not too terribly conscious of the disconnect.
The Hugo Dax character is of course Dr James Moriarty, Holmes' legendary nemesis who occupied only the fringes of the previous film. Here he's front and center, played with gusto by Jared Harris. His world-altering plan is to set the European heads of state against one another in order to create a world war in which he will supply the weapons. He's well aware that only the mercurial genius Sherlock Holmes stands in his way and the film chronicles his attempts to remove Holmes from the game so that his plan can play out unabated. Just why he'd wait to do this until the plan was already in motion is the one weak point of the screenplay. But if you can get by that you should have no problems with the rest of the story.
Ritchie plays up the bromance between Holmes and Watson to absurd heights and then undermines it all with the one scene in the film that flirts with genuine emotion. Holmes and Watson, on their way to Paris, are on the ferry to Calais when Watson finds the bloody handkerchief of Holmes' would be paramour, Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams reprising her role). While Watson is unaware of the details he surmises correctly that something terrible must have happened to her. Holmes takes the kerchief from him without saying a word and moves away sniffing it while Watson surveys his partner quietly taking his measure (as we are meant to). He realizes, maybe for the first time, that beneath the Peter Pan exterior lies a human being as susceptible as any of us to the devastation caused by the loss of a loved one. This crucial scene takes about a minute to unfold yet redefines the relationship between the two men (and by extension the entire film) going forward. Without it Game of Shadows would be an entirely different film.
Jude Law seems much more confident this time around. In the first film he seemed a bit lost to me as if he was trying to figure out just how he could occupy a character like Watson without being lost in Holmes' (and Downey's) shadow. Here he seems much more at ease with Watson perhaps because his character is given a more central role. Indeed the entire story plays out as a eulogy of sorts Watson is writing about his friend at some unspecified future date.
Downey himself remains as flippant as ever. His performances always have a Jack Nicholson-esque air about them where it's often hard to tell if he's acting or just being himself. When he slides into his patented deer-in-the-headlights mode you don't see his character thinking things out, you see Downey mulling over how he's going to play it.
As mentioned before the rest of the cast is solid with Stephen Fry having a jolly old time playing Holmes' brother and Noomi Rapace doing a perfectly suitable job as a gypsy whose brother has gotten himself unwittingly ensnared by Moriarty and is forced to do his new master's bidding.
All in all Sherlock Holmes; A Game of Shadows is a fun 2 hours at the movies. It moves along briskly, is reasonably intelligent, sports fine performances and is a step up from the first film.
Jan 28, 2012
Off the beaten track trailer of the day - "Thale"
Written and directed by Aleksander Nordaas this low budget but great looking Norwegian thriller attempts to deconstruct the tales of the director's youth by proposing that those mythological creatures of the forest are actually offshoots of our own genetic family tree.
Though the nudity is very brief and/or low key this baby is probably not safe for work so don't say I didn't warn you.
Though the nudity is very brief and/or low key this baby is probably not safe for work so don't say I didn't warn you.
Jan 27, 2012
New Trailer for "Lockout"
Luc Besson continues his quest to make European films indistinguishable from big American action numbers with "Lockout". If you thought Adrian Brody was an unusual choice for an action hero I give you Guy Pearce.
"Lockout" hits theaters April 20th.
"Lockout" hits theaters April 20th.
Monty Python gang set for reunion film
If it walks like a python, talks like a python and smells like a python it must be a... well, a Monty Python. John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam are set to collaborate on a new film written by Jones entitled "Absolutely Anything" about a human who becomes the playtoy of a bunch of aliens. No word yet on whether or not Eric Idle will join the cast though he is said to be mulling it over.
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| From left: John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Michael Palin |
Jan 26, 2012
2 new tv spots for "Wrath of the Titans"
A couple of new TV spots have hit the airwaves ahead of the March 30 release of "Wrath of the Titans". Personally I think it looks great. I just hope they did the 3D thing right this time.
TV spot 1
TV spot 2
TV spot 1
TV spot 2
Jan 25, 2012
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