Funny things have been popping up on the world wide web showing how the movie-magic or dirty tricks of the film industry.
First is the trailer for the "new" Spiderman. Yep, they are re-starting that franchise already.
and here is a comparison to a game trailer to the game Mirror's Edge.
The second is a comparison on scenes from two of Michael Bay's movies - Transformers 3 and the Island.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Death by 3D
For some time now I have been following with amusement the confusion that Hollywood is going through with their movies and titles. We have not even begun to see the tip of the colossal wave of re-makes or whatever they may end up selling a re-hashed movie as. I get the fact that they simply want to make money and thus don't need another reason (such as a good idea) to tackle an old movie anew. But I wonder how long people will still go see that kind of s...t? Let me stay on track here though and not go off on a rant...
I finally saw the trailer for the Fright Night re-make that is now coming out. I had heard of this project and mentioned it before in a post with the remark of how awful I thought the idea was to produce this. The original was a great 80's vamp flick that was humorous and frightening at the same time. It played at the old 60's Dracula and Van Helsing movies making fun of them at times while using that to introduce the new not-so-cheesy vampire in the form of a handsome young man who when angry transforms into a grotesque monster.
The new movie seems from the trailer to take itself far to seriously. In the original movie Fright Night was the title of an old vampire show that is being canceled and thus a play on that cheesy type of flick... I couldn't see the Van Helsing-esque character in trailer for the new one at all and no vampire tv show. That makes me wonder, what is then the meaning of Fright Night for the new movie? I suspect none. At least none other than to try to lure fans of the original to see this one only on the base of them having the same title.
This is the conflict that Hollywood is having with titles these days. They just don't make any sense anymore.
Another example. The Fast and the Furious. They made a sequel called 2 Fast 2 Furious (so far so good).Then came The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Ok...), then Fast & Furious (yep...similar to the first...but not the same...without the THE and with & instead of AND THE...). There I stop following the logic. Now I just saw the first movie and can't speak for the story in these sequels but from the plot summary it looks like the Fast & Furious is pretty much the same like the first one. Oh, and now there is a new one - Fast Five.
I have a hard time to know what movie is what unless I really have followed it from the start. I can't know judging by the title alone. And what happened to a simple ...2...3...4?
When they re-made the movie Piranha they added the ever-so-popular 3D to the title, making it Piranha 3D. Now they are working on a sequel to that and guess what they decided to call it - Piranha 3DD. Yep, time to get funky.
3D seems to give the chance to re-hash every single title that doesn't have it in there already. Hurray. When the movie How to train your Dragon came out they put 3D so big on the poster that I literally first thought it was a movie called 3D. It became funnier when I started seeing them disclaim REAL 3D. What is then un-real 3D?
Soon they will be releasing the prequel to The Thing. That happens to be one of my favorite horror movies of all times made by John Carpender in '82. They first planned a sequel, then a two part tv movie for the sci-fi channel and now lastly it's a prequel...but a re-imagining...huh? How does that work? And even if it's a prequel they decided to simply go with the same title The Thing.
Yes, Hollywood has abandoned making sense.
As Horror movies have demonstrated a lot of new trends and funkyness in their titles I list a few ones that I really enjoyed:
Pride Prejudice and Zombies
Twittering from the Circus of the Dead (it took the son of Stephen King to come up with this one)
Strippers vs Werewolves
Dracula 3D (yes they're going for it)
Orcs! (guess what it was originally going to be called --- Orcs! Orcs! Orcs! I'm not kidding)
I finally saw the trailer for the Fright Night re-make that is now coming out. I had heard of this project and mentioned it before in a post with the remark of how awful I thought the idea was to produce this. The original was a great 80's vamp flick that was humorous and frightening at the same time. It played at the old 60's Dracula and Van Helsing movies making fun of them at times while using that to introduce the new not-so-cheesy vampire in the form of a handsome young man who when angry transforms into a grotesque monster.
The new movie seems from the trailer to take itself far to seriously. In the original movie Fright Night was the title of an old vampire show that is being canceled and thus a play on that cheesy type of flick... I couldn't see the Van Helsing-esque character in trailer for the new one at all and no vampire tv show. That makes me wonder, what is then the meaning of Fright Night for the new movie? I suspect none. At least none other than to try to lure fans of the original to see this one only on the base of them having the same title.
This is the conflict that Hollywood is having with titles these days. They just don't make any sense anymore.
Another example. The Fast and the Furious. They made a sequel called 2 Fast 2 Furious (so far so good).Then came The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (Ok...), then Fast & Furious (yep...similar to the first...but not the same...without the THE and with & instead of AND THE...). There I stop following the logic. Now I just saw the first movie and can't speak for the story in these sequels but from the plot summary it looks like the Fast & Furious is pretty much the same like the first one. Oh, and now there is a new one - Fast Five.
I have a hard time to know what movie is what unless I really have followed it from the start. I can't know judging by the title alone. And what happened to a simple ...2...3...4?
When they re-made the movie Piranha they added the ever-so-popular 3D to the title, making it Piranha 3D. Now they are working on a sequel to that and guess what they decided to call it - Piranha 3DD. Yep, time to get funky.
3D seems to give the chance to re-hash every single title that doesn't have it in there already. Hurray. When the movie How to train your Dragon came out they put 3D so big on the poster that I literally first thought it was a movie called 3D. It became funnier when I started seeing them disclaim REAL 3D. What is then un-real 3D?
Soon they will be releasing the prequel to The Thing. That happens to be one of my favorite horror movies of all times made by John Carpender in '82. They first planned a sequel, then a two part tv movie for the sci-fi channel and now lastly it's a prequel...but a re-imagining...huh? How does that work? And even if it's a prequel they decided to simply go with the same title The Thing.
Yes, Hollywood has abandoned making sense.
As Horror movies have demonstrated a lot of new trends and funkyness in their titles I list a few ones that I really enjoyed:
Pride Prejudice and Zombies
Twittering from the Circus of the Dead (it took the son of Stephen King to come up with this one)
Strippers vs Werewolves
Dracula 3D (yes they're going for it)
Orcs! (guess what it was originally going to be called --- Orcs! Orcs! Orcs! I'm not kidding)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Too Far?
Here is a new commercial for Dead Island, a zombie computer game.
My question is - do you think it goes too far?
Personally I think it does. It's exploiting the shock value of showing a small kid die brutally. Somehow it crosses the line for me. I realized that I don't want a computer game to intrude on some areas that are more serious for me. And it gets ridiculous if a game takes itself too seriously, I think. Same can be said about other products. I play a game to be entertained, excited, not for drama value.
The concept is interesting in the sense of showing the result first and then back-tracking to see how it came to be. But there again it's nothing new. Here is an award winning commercial that I believe sparked the idea for this game trailer:
My question is - do you think it goes too far?
Personally I think it does. It's exploiting the shock value of showing a small kid die brutally. Somehow it crosses the line for me. I realized that I don't want a computer game to intrude on some areas that are more serious for me. And it gets ridiculous if a game takes itself too seriously, I think. Same can be said about other products. I play a game to be entertained, excited, not for drama value.
The concept is interesting in the sense of showing the result first and then back-tracking to see how it came to be. But there again it's nothing new. Here is an award winning commercial that I believe sparked the idea for this game trailer:
Monday, February 14, 2011
Kung fu & Horror
After a tip I decided to watch a movie called IP MAN. In case you haven't heard of it, it's a great new kung fu-movie about the real-life martial art legend of China- Ip Man. He was the martial art teacher of Bruce Lee and remains a symbol for kung-fu excellence.
The movie follows a part of his life where he is the undefeated master of kung-fu who's existence gets thrown upside down after the Japanese occupation. Now a poor man he finds no use for his fighting skills and begins to doubt himself and the path he chose. It is an interesting and fresh view upon a genre that I really like, yet usually is filled with very superficial characters and thin or simply ridiculous stories. Kung-fu movies many times are an excuse-of-a-story to see great fighting. Don't get me wrong, I like them none-the-less or maybe even because of that, yet Ip Man had an unexpected depth to it.
The entire movie is worth watching simply for one jaw dropping, chill-down-the-spine scene: At one point the Japanese invite Chinese martial artists to fight against them in a "friendly" match. If the Chinese win, they get food. Needless to say that desperation brings some of Ip Man's friends to go, yet some of them never return. Ip Man then witnesses his close friend getting executed after losing a match. This infuriates him and he steps into the ring challenging 10 of the Japanese black-belt karate fighters, much to the surprise of the general who enjoys watching these matches. What follows is the essence of a good martial arts movie and yet again proof that we in the West have a lot to learn from Asia in the art of kicking-ass in a beautiful way.
I have seen the trailer for Ip Man 2 that I'm not really interested in as I believe it's simply trying to ride the popularity of the first one. And in case you find there is another movie also made recently called The Legend Is Born - Ip Man, this is not the same movie and is not worth watching...yes I made the mistake of confusing the two.
The second movie I wanted to mention is a South Korean horror movie called I saw the Devil. That movie goes under my skin.
It belongs in the same category for me as the French movie Martyrs. They both have stories that utilize the horror only as a side dish to a nightmarish plot that really got to me.
I saw the Devil is a great title for the movie as the story is about a husband who tries to track down a serial killer who is responsible for his wife's horrific murder. As he gets closer to the killer and begins a cat & mouse game with him he slowly realizes just how merciless, cold, ruthless, brutal and senseless this person is. Trying to understand such a mind is like staring into darkness. This movie is that darkness staring back at you.
One of the scenes that got to me was as we watch how the killer goes about getting one of his prey. Usually when there have been movies about serial killers you didn't see the details of them luring in their prey and then brutally killing them. Usually they cut away. Here you see him offering his victim a ride seemingly a nice guy. Then, as he turns into a side street he pulls out a metal bar for the poor woman to see and continues to beat her head in. I mention this scene not in order to spoil anything, because the movie is filled with these kind of scenarios and thus there is still plenty left unmentioned. One worse than the other. The story is really unpredictable and leaves you wondering how it could possibly get worse from there on; yet it does. I found myself at one point literally saying out loud "oh no!". I realized slowly what they were planning to set up and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue watching it. But I did.
Sure, the story is over the top. Yet it was their intention to play with your emotions, get you to feel the most extreme horror and terror. And that they did so successfully that I simply cannot recommend this movie to anyone even though I consider it well done.
This one should only be watched by people that can handle a movie that goes to the core.
The movie follows a part of his life where he is the undefeated master of kung-fu who's existence gets thrown upside down after the Japanese occupation. Now a poor man he finds no use for his fighting skills and begins to doubt himself and the path he chose. It is an interesting and fresh view upon a genre that I really like, yet usually is filled with very superficial characters and thin or simply ridiculous stories. Kung-fu movies many times are an excuse-of-a-story to see great fighting. Don't get me wrong, I like them none-the-less or maybe even because of that, yet Ip Man had an unexpected depth to it.
The entire movie is worth watching simply for one jaw dropping, chill-down-the-spine scene: At one point the Japanese invite Chinese martial artists to fight against them in a "friendly" match. If the Chinese win, they get food. Needless to say that desperation brings some of Ip Man's friends to go, yet some of them never return. Ip Man then witnesses his close friend getting executed after losing a match. This infuriates him and he steps into the ring challenging 10 of the Japanese black-belt karate fighters, much to the surprise of the general who enjoys watching these matches. What follows is the essence of a good martial arts movie and yet again proof that we in the West have a lot to learn from Asia in the art of kicking-ass in a beautiful way.
I have seen the trailer for Ip Man 2 that I'm not really interested in as I believe it's simply trying to ride the popularity of the first one. And in case you find there is another movie also made recently called The Legend Is Born - Ip Man, this is not the same movie and is not worth watching...yes I made the mistake of confusing the two.
The second movie I wanted to mention is a South Korean horror movie called I saw the Devil. That movie goes under my skin.
It belongs in the same category for me as the French movie Martyrs. They both have stories that utilize the horror only as a side dish to a nightmarish plot that really got to me.
I saw the Devil is a great title for the movie as the story is about a husband who tries to track down a serial killer who is responsible for his wife's horrific murder. As he gets closer to the killer and begins a cat & mouse game with him he slowly realizes just how merciless, cold, ruthless, brutal and senseless this person is. Trying to understand such a mind is like staring into darkness. This movie is that darkness staring back at you.
One of the scenes that got to me was as we watch how the killer goes about getting one of his prey. Usually when there have been movies about serial killers you didn't see the details of them luring in their prey and then brutally killing them. Usually they cut away. Here you see him offering his victim a ride seemingly a nice guy. Then, as he turns into a side street he pulls out a metal bar for the poor woman to see and continues to beat her head in. I mention this scene not in order to spoil anything, because the movie is filled with these kind of scenarios and thus there is still plenty left unmentioned. One worse than the other. The story is really unpredictable and leaves you wondering how it could possibly get worse from there on; yet it does. I found myself at one point literally saying out loud "oh no!". I realized slowly what they were planning to set up and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue watching it. But I did.
Sure, the story is over the top. Yet it was their intention to play with your emotions, get you to feel the most extreme horror and terror. And that they did so successfully that I simply cannot recommend this movie to anyone even though I consider it well done.
This one should only be watched by people that can handle a movie that goes to the core.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Mini-reviews
Want to share some goodies as I've been positively surprised by some movies of late.
To begin with there is Stone - starring Robert De Niro & Edward Norton.
This is one of those subtle yet high impact movies if you like stories with subjects of morality and human interactions. This would be a anti-action flick if you so will. But in that case the quality of acting makes or brakes the film and in this case...well De Niro and Norton delivered.
The characters in the movie are all far from good people which makes it interesting in the situation they find themselves in: De Niro is a case worker at a prison who is about to retire when he meets one of his last cases, Stone played by Norton. Stone is a prisoner trying to have his sentence shortened and De Niro must write a qualification/recommendation based on what he thinks during their sessions. It becomes a triangle when Stone has his pretty and freaky wife (Milla Jovovich) meet De Niro to persuade him in his favor.
The movie touches on religion and has an interesting way to bring up themes of our times in form of radio talk that you hear throughout the movie in various scenes.
This movie reminded me in some ways a lot of another movie I saw a while back:
Under Suspicion (Morgan Freeman & Gene Hackman) is another low-key movie that lives entirely on the interaction between two great actors. Again the theme was an interesting area of morality and how we perceive and judge people. I really enjoyed this movie and feel that it was a rare touch upon a subject that is rather sensitive. The entire movie plays in an interrogation room where police detective (Freeman) is pressing a suspect (Hackman) to a series of rape/murders. As a little sexy bonus we have Monica Bellucci as the suspect's wife. Yam.
And saving the best for last, here is my Ten Star out of Ten recommendation:
The Man from Nowhere. Yet again heavy hitting South Korean movie that left me with sweaty palms and a dropped jaw. The discovery of Korean cinema has been such a treasury chest to me and again I was not disappointed.
Bin Won plays a mysterious pawn show owner who goes on a mission to save a little girl that gets kidnapped by a cruel gang. The movie takes the time to set up the pieces, introduce the characters and we see how the mysterious loner with a sad past befriends this tragic girl who lives in his neighborhood. His past and motivations slowly unravel as we get spun into a gang rivalry that ends with the little girl kidnapped and the police arresting the mysterious man for her mother's murder. The story keeps taking you to darker places and has you at the edge of the seat for the entire second part of the movie. The action is both ruthless and impressive at the same time and you can't complain about the lack of blood spilled. However it is well used and propels the story instead of becoming all about the action.
I will go even so far as to say that I liked this movie more than Old-Boy and Chaser, both also fantastic South Korean movies. The actor Bin Won also played in the recent movie Mother, which is another a must-watch, yet The Man from Nowhere is definitely the winner and he does an excellent job in portraying the tough guy with a soft spot.
To begin with there is Stone - starring Robert De Niro & Edward Norton.
This is one of those subtle yet high impact movies if you like stories with subjects of morality and human interactions. This would be a anti-action flick if you so will. But in that case the quality of acting makes or brakes the film and in this case...well De Niro and Norton delivered.
The characters in the movie are all far from good people which makes it interesting in the situation they find themselves in: De Niro is a case worker at a prison who is about to retire when he meets one of his last cases, Stone played by Norton. Stone is a prisoner trying to have his sentence shortened and De Niro must write a qualification/recommendation based on what he thinks during their sessions. It becomes a triangle when Stone has his pretty and freaky wife (Milla Jovovich) meet De Niro to persuade him in his favor.
The movie touches on religion and has an interesting way to bring up themes of our times in form of radio talk that you hear throughout the movie in various scenes.
This movie reminded me in some ways a lot of another movie I saw a while back:
Under Suspicion (Morgan Freeman & Gene Hackman) is another low-key movie that lives entirely on the interaction between two great actors. Again the theme was an interesting area of morality and how we perceive and judge people. I really enjoyed this movie and feel that it was a rare touch upon a subject that is rather sensitive. The entire movie plays in an interrogation room where police detective (Freeman) is pressing a suspect (Hackman) to a series of rape/murders. As a little sexy bonus we have Monica Bellucci as the suspect's wife. Yam.
And saving the best for last, here is my Ten Star out of Ten recommendation:
The Man from Nowhere. Yet again heavy hitting South Korean movie that left me with sweaty palms and a dropped jaw. The discovery of Korean cinema has been such a treasury chest to me and again I was not disappointed.
Bin Won plays a mysterious pawn show owner who goes on a mission to save a little girl that gets kidnapped by a cruel gang. The movie takes the time to set up the pieces, introduce the characters and we see how the mysterious loner with a sad past befriends this tragic girl who lives in his neighborhood. His past and motivations slowly unravel as we get spun into a gang rivalry that ends with the little girl kidnapped and the police arresting the mysterious man for her mother's murder. The story keeps taking you to darker places and has you at the edge of the seat for the entire second part of the movie. The action is both ruthless and impressive at the same time and you can't complain about the lack of blood spilled. However it is well used and propels the story instead of becoming all about the action.
I will go even so far as to say that I liked this movie more than Old-Boy and Chaser, both also fantastic South Korean movies. The actor Bin Won also played in the recent movie Mother, which is another a must-watch, yet The Man from Nowhere is definitely the winner and he does an excellent job in portraying the tough guy with a soft spot.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
review - Sword of the Stranger
A great new anime movie, Sword of the Stranger came as a blessing.
I had noticed that for a while I hadn't seen any anime movies or series. Because they are not as popular or as well represented in the West it comes as a challenge to find those hidden gems that truly do keep coming.
Sword of the Stranger is both really well done in animation, atmosphere, choreographed action and storytelling. The story is subtle in a way as it doesn't wander into fantasy or fantastic dimensions as animation often leads people to (or perhaps they feel with animation there is a need to exploit the possibilities of over-the-top because the medium lets you get away with it more easily).
In ancient Japan we have a little boy being persecuted who meets a traveler. The boy witnesses his fighting skills and hires him to safeguard him and his dog on their journey. They become a cute trio and slowly begin to bond during their travels. On the other hand you have the group hunting the boy - a team of Chinese warriors led by an old monk.
The Chinese team is on a mission for their emperor to build a certain temple in Japan according to an old prophecy. When the time is right, the prophecy says, they must sacrifice a young boy in the built temple and this will give them the essence for eternal life - what the emperor is craving. For some reason this team believes this above-mentioned boy is the one and that they must find and sacrifice him before the time runs out.
Spoiler Alert for the next part -
This warrior team appears supernatural, however we find out that most things about them simply appear to be so from ancient Japan's standpoint - the Chinese for example have gunpowder and what looks like the first type of rifle. They also appear supernatural in their way to withstand pain, but again, we learn they use medicine that eliminates any sensation of pain for a limited time.
For some reason one of them (and this point I find highly...interesting) there is a "blond devil" with them. The most powerful warrior of them all is a European with blond hair and blue eyes, making him stand out from all others. Although in league with the Chinese, he has his own goal, to find a worthwhile foe to battle.
Needless to say, our trio is separated by the foreigners and our traveler must face the "blond devil" to save the boy.
Overall, a solid story utilizing the animation aspect to intensify atmosphere and making the action faster and more brutal then live-action movies can.
Once again Anime teaches us in the West a lesson leaving me humble as always.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
rotten youth
A short review of the movie Harry Brown.
The movie follows Harry Brown (Michael Caine) who is retired but lives in a suburb that has turned into a playground for gangster teenagers. His wife dies leaving him a widdower, but when his best friend is murdered in a gruesome way by the teenage gangsters Harry takes the law into his own hands. The police seems clueless as always and thus, Harry goes on a spree...however - this is not an action movie. It is slow paced, but has strong impact at the right moments. It's fun to see an old man take on youngsters and the theme of revenge is always strong. Michael Caine also portrays his character brilliantly as a subtle, calm man, who has a hidden side to him that is revealed when he's had enough of living in fear.
One of the strongest scenes in my opinion is, when Harry goes to see drug dealers pretending to be looking to buy a weapon. The drug dealers are just so... f-'d up and out of this world that they creeped me out.
The theme, one might argue, is the f-'d up youth of Britain. This theme I found in several other movies:
Cherry Tree Lane - not recommending it as it's a highly terrifying view into a home invasion by teenage gangsters. A lot of long drastic scenes with close ups of the character puts you uncomfortably close to the happening. The whole movie seems only to have the purpose to bring to you the very last scene (which I'm not going to tell :)
Eden Lake - also not recommending it. Unless you like nasty...and cruel. That's the theme here. The movie left me feeling very bad which is maybe then successful in its goal. It's the story of a couple on a weekend retreat that is terrorized by a gang of youths. I have to say tho that I never really bought the fact that the man couldn't just whoop those teenagers asses..
The music in this movie somehow sounded familiar and had a very similar touch with The Descent. Indeed, I found its the same composer David Julyan. He is also, turns out, the composer for Heartless - the fourth movie you could count in the category as the movies above. The music for Heartless however had a theme that I noticed was inspired by the music from The Warlock. I am curious if anybody else noticed this.
The movie is interesting. It tells the story of a young man who is deformed by a large birthmark over his face. He is offered a deal by...the devil? to have a new chance at a life he never had. But dealing with the devil is never never a good idea...
The movie follows Harry Brown (Michael Caine) who is retired but lives in a suburb that has turned into a playground for gangster teenagers. His wife dies leaving him a widdower, but when his best friend is murdered in a gruesome way by the teenage gangsters Harry takes the law into his own hands. The police seems clueless as always and thus, Harry goes on a spree...however - this is not an action movie. It is slow paced, but has strong impact at the right moments. It's fun to see an old man take on youngsters and the theme of revenge is always strong. Michael Caine also portrays his character brilliantly as a subtle, calm man, who has a hidden side to him that is revealed when he's had enough of living in fear.
One of the strongest scenes in my opinion is, when Harry goes to see drug dealers pretending to be looking to buy a weapon. The drug dealers are just so... f-'d up and out of this world that they creeped me out.
The theme, one might argue, is the f-'d up youth of Britain. This theme I found in several other movies:
Cherry Tree Lane - not recommending it as it's a highly terrifying view into a home invasion by teenage gangsters. A lot of long drastic scenes with close ups of the character puts you uncomfortably close to the happening. The whole movie seems only to have the purpose to bring to you the very last scene (which I'm not going to tell :)
Eden Lake - also not recommending it. Unless you like nasty...and cruel. That's the theme here. The movie left me feeling very bad which is maybe then successful in its goal. It's the story of a couple on a weekend retreat that is terrorized by a gang of youths. I have to say tho that I never really bought the fact that the man couldn't just whoop those teenagers asses..
The music in this movie somehow sounded familiar and had a very similar touch with The Descent. Indeed, I found its the same composer David Julyan. He is also, turns out, the composer for Heartless - the fourth movie you could count in the category as the movies above. The music for Heartless however had a theme that I noticed was inspired by the music from The Warlock. I am curious if anybody else noticed this.
The movie is interesting. It tells the story of a young man who is deformed by a large birthmark over his face. He is offered a deal by...the devil? to have a new chance at a life he never had. But dealing with the devil is never never a good idea...
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
remakes that should not be made
Yes folks, that's a new list I'm compiling. I've had it with terrible remakes, so from now on every time I hear of a terrible new attempt at rewarming, re-imagining or re-booting a movie... it goes on my disastrous list of (insert dramatic music) remakes that should not be made
Here recent ones that poked my eye sore..
Fright Night - I may have mentioned this one in an earlier post. Such a shame, because the original is so great. Why soil its memory?
Hellraiser - Ok, they did a ton of Hellraiser movies of which only the first is interesting. A hilarious comment I heard was that the actor who played the main character (the only character who re-appears throughout the series) Pinhead, refused to be in this reboot. Guess what the studio said...so what? We're moving on as planned!
Childs Play - after a series of only 5 movies, time to reboot. Chucky nevah dieeee...
They Live - Are you f...ing kidding me? Why? Well, at this point...why not?
Children of the Corn - after a series of 7 movies...lets start over again.
Red Dawn - Pls, explain this one to me. Original movie was based on the cold war fears of a war with Russia. This time around...who is doing the communist invasion? Obama?
This list is followed up by my second list - sequels that should not be made
28 Months later - (continuation of 28 days later, 28 weeks later) - the first one a brilliant, if not the best zombie movie out there...followed by disaster...so why continue the train-wreck?
Alien - prequel, and sadly it's Ridley Scott who's overseeing this unholy project where he explains more about the mysterious Pilot (giant alien from the first movie) and possibly the background of the Aliens themselves (biological weapon bla bla). Again, a great film followed by a brilliant sequel, not so brilliant Alien 3 and a mind-bogglingly horrendous Alien Resurrection. My question remains, why pick up a series of movies that has been ridden into the ground already. Isn't there a saying about beating a dead horse...or something like that?
Ghost Busters III - really? now? how many years later? That bubble has burst already.
Lost boys: the Tribe - copy paste comment above. This movie is already out! The best thing is..there is another one on the way called Lost boys: the thirst ...(for money?)
Here recent ones that poked my eye sore..
Fright Night - I may have mentioned this one in an earlier post. Such a shame, because the original is so great. Why soil its memory?
Hellraiser - Ok, they did a ton of Hellraiser movies of which only the first is interesting. A hilarious comment I heard was that the actor who played the main character (the only character who re-appears throughout the series) Pinhead, refused to be in this reboot. Guess what the studio said...so what? We're moving on as planned!
Childs Play - after a series of only 5 movies, time to reboot. Chucky nevah dieeee...
They Live - Are you f...ing kidding me? Why? Well, at this point...why not?
Children of the Corn - after a series of 7 movies...lets start over again.
Red Dawn - Pls, explain this one to me. Original movie was based on the cold war fears of a war with Russia. This time around...who is doing the communist invasion? Obama?
This list is followed up by my second list - sequels that should not be made
28 Months later - (continuation of 28 days later, 28 weeks later) - the first one a brilliant, if not the best zombie movie out there...followed by disaster...so why continue the train-wreck?
Alien - prequel, and sadly it's Ridley Scott who's overseeing this unholy project where he explains more about the mysterious Pilot (giant alien from the first movie) and possibly the background of the Aliens themselves (biological weapon bla bla). Again, a great film followed by a brilliant sequel, not so brilliant Alien 3 and a mind-bogglingly horrendous Alien Resurrection. My question remains, why pick up a series of movies that has been ridden into the ground already. Isn't there a saying about beating a dead horse...or something like that?
Ghost Busters III - really? now? how many years later? That bubble has burst already.
Lost boys: the Tribe - copy paste comment above. This movie is already out! The best thing is..there is another one on the way called Lost boys: the thirst ...(for money?)
Are you feeling it?
Ok... this is so obviously wrong...
and if you couldn't get enough..here the male version
best of all are the slow motion shots! Whaat a workout!
and if you couldn't get enough..here the male version
best of all are the slow motion shots! Whaat a workout!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Blurry
Fun trailer from Blur Studios. They have a lot of great, fun trailers on their website well worth looking at (Star Wars: the old republic, The Goon) so check them out at : http://www.blur.com/
Sunday, September 5, 2010
2 Reviews - Black Death, Solomon Kane
Time for some medieval glory.
Had the joy of watching these two excellent movies and here's my impression of them.
Let's begin with Solomon Kane.
This is a real fantasy movie. To those who can relate to it - this is based on the novel by the same author as Conan the Barbarian. It was written a long time ago and is a perfectly kitch and cliche filled fable. Perhaps that is why nobody had filmed this story until now, but I was happy with the overall result. Again, I think this movie appeals to people who are into the fantasy genre.
The story tells of Solomon Kane, an evil pirate who is remorseless and greedy. Right in the beginning he is confronted with an agent of none other than Satan to claim his soul. Solomon however escapes and with fear of his soul, turns to God and away from his wicked ways. But darkness seems to spread around the lands and there seems to be no refuge from it. Solomon returns to his old home land where he was once the son of a King (before being renounced by his father) but it is here where he must realize that he cannot live a life of peace. In order to save an innocent young woman he must once again turn into that wicked person he was. There is black magic, darkness, demons and other gruesome things.
Overall it's a very dark movie. There isn't a lot of joy and happiness at all...or any for that matter. There is evil that is fought with evil. Even the whole saving the damsel in distress isn't a merry event at all. I won't go into details here but the positives of this movie for me was exactly that dark atmosphere. The main actor James Purefoy is excellent for the role of Kane but I recognized him from one of the best TV series ROME.
The negatives about the movie are the predictable storyline and the overkill at the end. Just as the climax of the movie is about to be reached, they introduce too much "cgi demoness" that made it feel more of a computer game than a movie. Too bad, because if the end had been a little more in line with the rest it would have given it an extra star from me.
One last thing that bothered me. It may seem strange, but when a characters name is dropped too many times it becomes annoying to me. And here I felt his name came up... well just too *#^&@ many times.
trailer:
On to the next>
Black Death - couldn't be a more fitting title.
This movie gets high rating from me. I just love realistic portrays of the middle ages. Things were not shiny and happy during the "dark ages". People had dirty teeth, poor health, struggled with starvation unless they were noble and kings didn't treat their subjects fair and with respect.
Again, stay away from this one if you don't like dark stories.
The story tells of England during a plague of Black Death (around 1300 A.D.). A young monk leaves his monastery to join a group of men sent by the bishop to investigate a remote village.
This village apparently hasn't seen any sign of the plague that is killing hundreds all around England at the time. Rumors tell of witchcraft and black magic that is being used as well as rituals of raising the dead.
This group of men that the monk joins is a nasty bunch and perfect for the task of bringing in a necromancer if there should be one.
A lot of the story shows how the land was plagued with this disease and the mind-state people were in. The young monk has a secret of his own and everyone is confronted with their fears during this trip.
The fight scenes are realistic, bloody and cruel - just as battles were at that time. People were not "fencing" with smiles on their faces and nobody died by a small piercing to the chest. The real thing were people bashing each others skulls in, slicing throats and chopping limbs. Watching a documentary where they researched and explained an ancient battle ground and the remains of the people that died there took away any illusion I had about those times. But I digress.
Again, I'm staying away from telling too much of the story, but suffice to say that it did take me for a little loop. I was surprised at the end, but then again surprised at being so surprised. That makes no sense I know:)
trailer:
I give Solomon Kane 3 stars out of 5, and Black Death 4 1/2 stars.
Had the joy of watching these two excellent movies and here's my impression of them.
Let's begin with Solomon Kane.
This is a real fantasy movie. To those who can relate to it - this is based on the novel by the same author as Conan the Barbarian. It was written a long time ago and is a perfectly kitch and cliche filled fable. Perhaps that is why nobody had filmed this story until now, but I was happy with the overall result. Again, I think this movie appeals to people who are into the fantasy genre.
The story tells of Solomon Kane, an evil pirate who is remorseless and greedy. Right in the beginning he is confronted with an agent of none other than Satan to claim his soul. Solomon however escapes and with fear of his soul, turns to God and away from his wicked ways. But darkness seems to spread around the lands and there seems to be no refuge from it. Solomon returns to his old home land where he was once the son of a King (before being renounced by his father) but it is here where he must realize that he cannot live a life of peace. In order to save an innocent young woman he must once again turn into that wicked person he was. There is black magic, darkness, demons and other gruesome things.
Overall it's a very dark movie. There isn't a lot of joy and happiness at all...or any for that matter. There is evil that is fought with evil. Even the whole saving the damsel in distress isn't a merry event at all. I won't go into details here but the positives of this movie for me was exactly that dark atmosphere. The main actor James Purefoy is excellent for the role of Kane but I recognized him from one of the best TV series ROME.
The negatives about the movie are the predictable storyline and the overkill at the end. Just as the climax of the movie is about to be reached, they introduce too much "cgi demoness" that made it feel more of a computer game than a movie. Too bad, because if the end had been a little more in line with the rest it would have given it an extra star from me.
One last thing that bothered me. It may seem strange, but when a characters name is dropped too many times it becomes annoying to me. And here I felt his name came up... well just too *#^&@ many times.
trailer:
On to the next>
Black Death - couldn't be a more fitting title.
This movie gets high rating from me. I just love realistic portrays of the middle ages. Things were not shiny and happy during the "dark ages". People had dirty teeth, poor health, struggled with starvation unless they were noble and kings didn't treat their subjects fair and with respect.
Again, stay away from this one if you don't like dark stories.
The story tells of England during a plague of Black Death (around 1300 A.D.). A young monk leaves his monastery to join a group of men sent by the bishop to investigate a remote village.
This village apparently hasn't seen any sign of the plague that is killing hundreds all around England at the time. Rumors tell of witchcraft and black magic that is being used as well as rituals of raising the dead.
This group of men that the monk joins is a nasty bunch and perfect for the task of bringing in a necromancer if there should be one.
A lot of the story shows how the land was plagued with this disease and the mind-state people were in. The young monk has a secret of his own and everyone is confronted with their fears during this trip.
The fight scenes are realistic, bloody and cruel - just as battles were at that time. People were not "fencing" with smiles on their faces and nobody died by a small piercing to the chest. The real thing were people bashing each others skulls in, slicing throats and chopping limbs. Watching a documentary where they researched and explained an ancient battle ground and the remains of the people that died there took away any illusion I had about those times. But I digress.
Again, I'm staying away from telling too much of the story, but suffice to say that it did take me for a little loop. I was surprised at the end, but then again surprised at being so surprised. That makes no sense I know:)
trailer:
I give Solomon Kane 3 stars out of 5, and Black Death 4 1/2 stars.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Why Inception is so important
I won't be doing a review on the movie Inception but will touch on it in the context of recent movies. Besides urging everybody who hasn't to hastily go and see this movie, Inception is so important because of the standard it follows. It's a clever, original idea, perfectly filmed with little cgi and more live action, great acting and extremely mood-setting music. It was a rare chill down the spine event to watch and I can't really recall when I had that last when I went to the movies...oh wait, The Dark Knight... also a movie by Christopher Nolan.
I think that in the swarm of mediocre to disastrous movies people have become dulled down to expect very little when going to the movie theater. If a movie just occupies them from having a clear thought, that seems just about to do the trick.
The second part is a critique that I kept hearing about Inception. "It's so damn complicated!" Honestly I don't find it that complicated at all. And when I heard somebody saying that during the movie it took them 30 seconds to turn off their phone and that had been enough to make them lose the thread... can you hear my internal screams of pain? If you make the requirement to a movie that you can step outside for a minute and when you return you want to be able to still know exactly what's going on - well then I advise you to watch soap operas instead. There you have ever repeating plot lines, just in case you missed the last 3 episodes.
Are people's attentions spans really that short??
I recently found myself on a blog where people were voting for the most anticipated movies and high up there was Cloverfield 2. A lot of people there seemed to have liked the first one and were drooling over the continuation of that nausiating experience. I remember that I literally got motion sickness while watching it because of all the camera shaking. Why I mention this is because when some people challenged the first movie, those who were in favor of it didn't have any points to defend it other than - it had a giant monster in it.... and it's strolling through NY. Oh, and somebody thought it was so realistic, I mean that party of Abercrombie and Fitch people who then decide to go follow the giant monster to see if the ex-girlfriend of one of them needed help, right...?
The movie literally didn't have a story or a plot other than, giant monster takes a stroll through NY...shot on shaky handy-cam. If that is all you need then fine, but I like to see the concept wrapped up in a compelling story. And again to my original point, THAT is what Christopher Nolan delivered with Inception and why I finally felt having been satisfied after a long dry-spell.
In the end a short newsflash. I read that Guillermo del Toro is going to film At the Mountains of Madness. This is a story by H.P. Lovercraft, one of my favorite old-school horror writers. Unfortunately none of his stories have been filmed in any acceptable way and have instead ended as B-movies somewhere on dusty shelves.
That an acclaimed director who was going to direct The Hobbit now reveals that it has been his dream to film this story is great news. I can't wait to hear more about this one.
I think that in the swarm of mediocre to disastrous movies people have become dulled down to expect very little when going to the movie theater. If a movie just occupies them from having a clear thought, that seems just about to do the trick.
The second part is a critique that I kept hearing about Inception. "It's so damn complicated!" Honestly I don't find it that complicated at all. And when I heard somebody saying that during the movie it took them 30 seconds to turn off their phone and that had been enough to make them lose the thread... can you hear my internal screams of pain? If you make the requirement to a movie that you can step outside for a minute and when you return you want to be able to still know exactly what's going on - well then I advise you to watch soap operas instead. There you have ever repeating plot lines, just in case you missed the last 3 episodes.
Are people's attentions spans really that short??
I recently found myself on a blog where people were voting for the most anticipated movies and high up there was Cloverfield 2. A lot of people there seemed to have liked the first one and were drooling over the continuation of that nausiating experience. I remember that I literally got motion sickness while watching it because of all the camera shaking. Why I mention this is because when some people challenged the first movie, those who were in favor of it didn't have any points to defend it other than - it had a giant monster in it.... and it's strolling through NY. Oh, and somebody thought it was so realistic, I mean that party of Abercrombie and Fitch people who then decide to go follow the giant monster to see if the ex-girlfriend of one of them needed help, right...?
The movie literally didn't have a story or a plot other than, giant monster takes a stroll through NY...shot on shaky handy-cam. If that is all you need then fine, but I like to see the concept wrapped up in a compelling story. And again to my original point, THAT is what Christopher Nolan delivered with Inception and why I finally felt having been satisfied after a long dry-spell.
In the end a short newsflash. I read that Guillermo del Toro is going to film At the Mountains of Madness. This is a story by H.P. Lovercraft, one of my favorite old-school horror writers. Unfortunately none of his stories have been filmed in any acceptable way and have instead ended as B-movies somewhere on dusty shelves.
That an acclaimed director who was going to direct The Hobbit now reveals that it has been his dream to film this story is great news. I can't wait to hear more about this one.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Why I hate Disney
If you were used to watching Manga movies you may remember the old intro that those movies used to have:
It still gives me a boner...
And that is in essence why I hate Disney. If you look at this trailer that was made sometime in the late eighties, early nineties, you still get a sense of how awesome these Manga (japanese animated movies/series) are. Their understanding of animation is just a medium with which they can tell any fantastical story. Their genre isn't limited in any way which is why they still appeal to me today. I have watched my share of Manga's and though I'm far from being an expert on the issue I know what they are capable of.
This trailer made me always think as a teenager "wow, someday soon people in the West will understand the power of animation and begin a wave of awesome movies". Now, a decade later I look back and see that it never happened. Stories that couldn't have been told with a film because they were simply too fantastical were no problem for animated films. Animation gives you the ultimate freedom of telling a story. Now that the special effects (cgi) have reached a decent level, that becomes the solution. James Cameron told an interviewer that he waited for many years (10 years I believe it was) to make Avatar because the "technology" wasn't in place to make such a movie at the time. My point is, with animation it could have been done. That is what the Japanese realized a long time ago but still hasn't caught on here.
Our tradition with animation has been left to Disney. And they own everything that is related to animation (ok almost everything). The only genre we (in the West) still understand animation to be is - kids/comedy. Sure you have adults going to see these Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks movies, but they are made for kids (because then you cater to the full spectrum of age which equals more dineros). Animation is in such considered kid's stuff - and that just makes me mad. Plus, to me it doesn't get creepier than an adult telling me how much they just looooove the Lion King and have watched it more than 10 times... (get chills).
Sure, in the last few years these movies have had their humor sometimes more geared for adults and you see gentle first steps with subjects that are not the most common as stories for children.
But we are still sooooo far away from the possible mind-blowing awesomeness that could be achieved. For some time it was my goal to become an animator for that very reason.
That's why that old intro got so many memories flowing back.
It still gives me a boner...
And that is in essence why I hate Disney. If you look at this trailer that was made sometime in the late eighties, early nineties, you still get a sense of how awesome these Manga (japanese animated movies/series) are. Their understanding of animation is just a medium with which they can tell any fantastical story. Their genre isn't limited in any way which is why they still appeal to me today. I have watched my share of Manga's and though I'm far from being an expert on the issue I know what they are capable of.
This trailer made me always think as a teenager "wow, someday soon people in the West will understand the power of animation and begin a wave of awesome movies". Now, a decade later I look back and see that it never happened. Stories that couldn't have been told with a film because they were simply too fantastical were no problem for animated films. Animation gives you the ultimate freedom of telling a story. Now that the special effects (cgi) have reached a decent level, that becomes the solution. James Cameron told an interviewer that he waited for many years (10 years I believe it was) to make Avatar because the "technology" wasn't in place to make such a movie at the time. My point is, with animation it could have been done. That is what the Japanese realized a long time ago but still hasn't caught on here.
Our tradition with animation has been left to Disney. And they own everything that is related to animation (ok almost everything). The only genre we (in the West) still understand animation to be is - kids/comedy. Sure you have adults going to see these Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks movies, but they are made for kids (because then you cater to the full spectrum of age which equals more dineros). Animation is in such considered kid's stuff - and that just makes me mad. Plus, to me it doesn't get creepier than an adult telling me how much they just looooove the Lion King and have watched it more than 10 times... (get chills).
Sure, in the last few years these movies have had their humor sometimes more geared for adults and you see gentle first steps with subjects that are not the most common as stories for children.
But we are still sooooo far away from the possible mind-blowing awesomeness that could be achieved. For some time it was my goal to become an animator for that very reason.
That's why that old intro got so many memories flowing back.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Predators - Review
The long awaited movie event. Predators.
Small side-story - I was running late to the movie theater, so I was hurrying through the streets and as I got closer I began humming to myself "Long tall Sally, she's built sweet, she got everything Uncle John need -- gonna have me some fun, gonna have me some fun...". (small reference to the original Predator movie)
I'm not going to give anything away here and do encourage anyone who liked the original to see this one. By that I'm already giving away that I liked it.
It was a great fun ride throughout. As we knew from the trailer a group of people are kidnapped, put together in a jungle and hunted by the Predators.
All the chosen people were real "characters" and although I didn't like them all it still made for an interesting mix. They did an interesting turn of being similar to the original Predator movie in some ways, but then straying away from it to make this into its own movie. What I liked in particular were the WTF and ho-ly-shit moments because this movie has a lot of them. To be more precise, there are a bunch of reveals and surprises for this group of people as they move along in the jungle and you can somehow share that feeling of discovery and astonishment as they move along. That was the original's strong point. You didn't know what was going on until much later in the game. I won't go into the sequels (Predator 2, AvsP, AvsP-requiem) but suffice to say that they didn't have any of that mystery or charm (the AvsP movies actually didn't have anything to offer at all).
So while the story unfolded you never knew what would pop up next from the bushes.
They also avoided trying to "explain" the Predator-alien any further except that they added a little extra on top, which you will understand after seeing the movie.
It's funny because I was actually worried in the first three minutes of the movie, because I didn't like that they used two elements from the original right away (the music & minigun). But as the story went on it got much better.
I read a critique that was complaining about Adrien Brody as the main lead. I disagree.
First, he's a genuinely good actor, second, he wasn't what I would have expected, which is always nice as a little surprise, and third, to try to imitate Arnold with a muscle packed, macho-one-liner tossing hero would just look ridiculous. Those days are unfortunately over.
I won't be going into the small things that bothered me simply because in a long line of disappointing movie experiences, this one actually delivered and made for a really fun time to watch. And that is a lot to ask for in today's stream of sequels and remakes.
My conclusion is a pat on the back for Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal for recognizing what it was that made the original fun and unique and how to develop that into a separate new experience.
Small side-story - I was running late to the movie theater, so I was hurrying through the streets and as I got closer I began humming to myself "Long tall Sally, she's built sweet, she got everything Uncle John need -- gonna have me some fun, gonna have me some fun...". (small reference to the original Predator movie)
I'm not going to give anything away here and do encourage anyone who liked the original to see this one. By that I'm already giving away that I liked it.
It was a great fun ride throughout. As we knew from the trailer a group of people are kidnapped, put together in a jungle and hunted by the Predators.
All the chosen people were real "characters" and although I didn't like them all it still made for an interesting mix. They did an interesting turn of being similar to the original Predator movie in some ways, but then straying away from it to make this into its own movie. What I liked in particular were the WTF and ho-ly-shit moments because this movie has a lot of them. To be more precise, there are a bunch of reveals and surprises for this group of people as they move along in the jungle and you can somehow share that feeling of discovery and astonishment as they move along. That was the original's strong point. You didn't know what was going on until much later in the game. I won't go into the sequels (Predator 2, AvsP, AvsP-requiem) but suffice to say that they didn't have any of that mystery or charm (the AvsP movies actually didn't have anything to offer at all).
So while the story unfolded you never knew what would pop up next from the bushes.
They also avoided trying to "explain" the Predator-alien any further except that they added a little extra on top, which you will understand after seeing the movie.
It's funny because I was actually worried in the first three minutes of the movie, because I didn't like that they used two elements from the original right away (the music & minigun). But as the story went on it got much better.
I read a critique that was complaining about Adrien Brody as the main lead. I disagree.
First, he's a genuinely good actor, second, he wasn't what I would have expected, which is always nice as a little surprise, and third, to try to imitate Arnold with a muscle packed, macho-one-liner tossing hero would just look ridiculous. Those days are unfortunately over.
I won't be going into the small things that bothered me simply because in a long line of disappointing movie experiences, this one actually delivered and made for a really fun time to watch. And that is a lot to ask for in today's stream of sequels and remakes.
My conclusion is a pat on the back for Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal for recognizing what it was that made the original fun and unique and how to develop that into a separate new experience.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Rewriting History
U-751 - it's time to rip this movie apart.
I'm only speaking from memory, but I do remember the points well that I am going to mention. The reason for why I want to tackle this movie is because I recently bumped into a list of "10-best submarine movies" which included this title. It really made me mad and I'll explain why.
During the movie it is noted that the following story is based on true events...
The story is about a US navy submarine that is sent out during the Second World War to capture a German submarine (U-751) that is disabled. The reason that particular submarine is so important is a decoder that is on board which could decode all the German messages giving the Allied forces the upper hand in the War. Of course they succeed in the end to get the decoder and thus making the Americans the heroes of such a strategic advantage. Only, it wasn't the Americans who did that in reality. It was the British navy. At the time the British captured the so called enigma decoding machine the US wasn't even involved in WWII yet.
Such arrogance just makes me wonder. Is this an attempt to rewrite history for people who would buy into it? Movies are movies, but if based on actual events (real world war scenarios) you can't go changing things and claim it's "based on true events". I would accept it if they noted - "the following events are made-up". I mean, this was not a small fact that you could accept for the sake of making that event more interesting as a movie. This was a major war victory that cost lives of British soldiers and turned the tides of the war to a great degree. I later read that British Prime Minister at the time this movie came out, Tony Blair, said this movie to be an affront to British sailors.
Now consider that this movie won an Academy Award!
The other point I feel strongly about is how the movie portrayed the German submarine sailors as remorseless - they shoot helpless British (yep, now their British) sailors on a lifeboat that are trying to ask for asylum after the Germans sunk their ship. Such an event is said to never have happened (according to historians). The Navy of both countries had strict codes of honor in cases as such of surrendering. But again, let's ignore what history says and re-paint it with clear good and baaaaaad.
To conclude. This movie doesn't belong on any "best of" list and until the Academy Award goes to a movie about how the Allied forces invaded the beaches of Normandy without any American involvement I think this movie should be ignored.
I'm only speaking from memory, but I do remember the points well that I am going to mention. The reason for why I want to tackle this movie is because I recently bumped into a list of "10-best submarine movies" which included this title. It really made me mad and I'll explain why.
During the movie it is noted that the following story is based on true events...
The story is about a US navy submarine that is sent out during the Second World War to capture a German submarine (U-751) that is disabled. The reason that particular submarine is so important is a decoder that is on board which could decode all the German messages giving the Allied forces the upper hand in the War. Of course they succeed in the end to get the decoder and thus making the Americans the heroes of such a strategic advantage. Only, it wasn't the Americans who did that in reality. It was the British navy. At the time the British captured the so called enigma decoding machine the US wasn't even involved in WWII yet.
Such arrogance just makes me wonder. Is this an attempt to rewrite history for people who would buy into it? Movies are movies, but if based on actual events (real world war scenarios) you can't go changing things and claim it's "based on true events". I would accept it if they noted - "the following events are made-up". I mean, this was not a small fact that you could accept for the sake of making that event more interesting as a movie. This was a major war victory that cost lives of British soldiers and turned the tides of the war to a great degree. I later read that British Prime Minister at the time this movie came out, Tony Blair, said this movie to be an affront to British sailors.
Now consider that this movie won an Academy Award!
The other point I feel strongly about is how the movie portrayed the German submarine sailors as remorseless - they shoot helpless British (yep, now their British) sailors on a lifeboat that are trying to ask for asylum after the Germans sunk their ship. Such an event is said to never have happened (according to historians). The Navy of both countries had strict codes of honor in cases as such of surrendering. But again, let's ignore what history says and re-paint it with clear good and baaaaaad.
To conclude. This movie doesn't belong on any "best of" list and until the Academy Award goes to a movie about how the Allied forces invaded the beaches of Normandy without any American involvement I think this movie should be ignored.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Stereo-Types
You notice these things, sometimes they smack you in the face with it, other times you just get a small itch of "uncorrectness" not really consciously taking it in. Racism.
I'm talking about Hollywood and how they have their set race-stereotypes which they seem unwilling to move away from. Since I moved to the USA I noticed how blatantly open racism is and how people treat it as an accepted, understandable element of a multi-racial/cultural society. This is then of course reflected in Hollywood movies. The following movies are all examples that I was able to list up from the top of my head, and I'm sure if I spent more time doing so I would come up with much more.
First example is the self sacrificing black man. Don't know how they came up with this character, but he can be found in many movies where he believes in dying for his white counter-parts.
Day of the Dead (2008) - in this remake we have a soldier who is black, and willing to sacrifice himself for the white woman officer whom he didn't seem to like most part of the movie. He tries to hold back a horde of zombies screaming back to her "run, get out of here". Note, in the original no such nonsense.
Starship Troopers - I liked this movie. It had an ironic view on the military regime and didn't take itself so seriously. But still, when it came to the scene where the "bugs" were about to overrun the barbie & ken-couple, it was the black man who got wounded and offered to stay behind with a grenade taking out as many of those damn bugs on his way out.
U-751 - (starring Bon Jovi? and Matthew McConaughey, both who I have a great dislike for (as actors-love Jovi's music --"shot through the heart"...who don't love that). in this sorry excuse of a movie which I have another bone to pick later, we have the first soldier to bravely sacrifice himself for his comrades, and yes, he's black.
Also, it's more obvious if the gangster in the movie is black, right?
Daredevil - this colossal failure is built on the comic-book character of the Daredevil. In the story he fights his nemesis, Kingpin, which by the way, is a villain also often appearing in the Spiderman comics. Both in Daredevil and Spiderman comicbooks the Kingpin character is basically a mob crime boss with no supernatural powers - a huge fat bold white guy. In the Daredevil movie they decided to make him a black guy. Then why not make Superman a black man? What? did I say something wrong? Fail to see the logic in that decision.
Being married to a beautiful woman from South Korea suddenly made me aware of the Asian stereotypes and has made me more sensitive about seeing how they are portrayed.
Very Bad Things - the story is similar to the Hangover but darker. A bachelor party to Las Vegas ends with a dead prostitute and the guys decide to chop her up, bury, and forget about it.
The prostitute that dies while having sex with one of them (bangs her head) is asian. To be more precise it's an Asian porn movie actress who plays her - Kobe Tai. The point that I'm trying to get at is that if women are to be shown in a really negative way ( prostitute + dead in freak sex-accident + chopped up & buried ) then it's better to have her be Asian. It's less unsettling.
Live Free or Die Hard - on that note: in the fourth Die Hard movies Bruce Willis fights an evil Asian woman. Of course she is good at martial arts... And although Bruce gets his ass kicked most of the time, he fights her as if fighting a guy - real dirty and brutal. I remember being shocked at how they showed that kind of violence against a woman. But again, it was an Asian woman, so not as bad. Oh, and here is one of the lines Bruce says in the movie about her: "Can I get another dead Asian hooker bitch over here right away?"
Another point that my wife made was that you very rarely see a really beautiful Asian woman in American movies - unless they are "Asian hooker bitches".
I hate Valentine's Day - not worth mentioning, but since I did the mistake of renting this with my wife: in the movie the asshole buddy of the male lead character brings one of his constantly changing dates to a party and totally ignores her. Even the main female character, who is supposed to be the "hero" character and sympathetic to the viewer, treats this poor girl, who is Asian, like dirt. But hey, again, it's ok because she looks like a nerdy Asian.
The Hangover - as already mentioned above, it's a bachelor party trip to Las Vegas movie. At one point they finally find their car, which had gotten lost during their drunken night out. In the trunk they find a tied up, naked Asian guy who turns out to be a gay gangster boss(?) of inconclusive Asian background: he uses a Korean word at some point but says "kiss my chinese ***". Love how much they don't care. As long as he acts Asian and has a thick accent. They had basically kidnapped and undressed this guy throwing him into the car-trunk because one of them thought he was like a funny mascot...
Another scene was when they got their kidnapped friend back from the Asian gangster, but found out it wasn't their friend. "Our guy is white, not black!" Yes, the person they got was a black guy. They even suggest the gangster taking him back. But the black guy doesn't even get upset by their remarks.
That being said, I laughed watching this movie, partly because it was incorrect in many ways, but it just becomes obviously one-sided who ends up in what stereo-typical role.
The Relic - the female lead character is a professor working at a Museum. She is fighting to get a grant that will help fund her further research and without which she and her research team would be out of work. Oh, but that evil-nerdy-ass-kissing Asian Professor is trying to steal the grant away from her. He is portrayed as such an asshole, you just want him to get killed (it's a horror monster movie).
The only movie I ever recall having seen an Asian guy with a white female was in Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story - I guess Hollywood didn't decide to change the real story of Bruce Lee although I can really imagine one of the executives going: "Does she have to be white?"
Lastly I wanted to mention one story that I heard in a documentary. It was about horror movies and this older woman was telling how she had heard about this shocking new horror movie in 1968 called Night of the Living Dead. People had been buzzing about it and so many people were curious to see it and as was she. The real reason for that was that for the first time they had a black man in the main role. That was more shocking than the terror of walking dead people at that time. But that movie and it's remake are one of my favorite horror movies of all times because it doesn't follow cliches and treats the story just as something that is happening no matter what status the people may have had in their life previous to the horrors to follow.
I'm talking about Hollywood and how they have their set race-stereotypes which they seem unwilling to move away from. Since I moved to the USA I noticed how blatantly open racism is and how people treat it as an accepted, understandable element of a multi-racial/cultural society. This is then of course reflected in Hollywood movies. The following movies are all examples that I was able to list up from the top of my head, and I'm sure if I spent more time doing so I would come up with much more.
First example is the self sacrificing black man. Don't know how they came up with this character, but he can be found in many movies where he believes in dying for his white counter-parts.
Day of the Dead (2008) - in this remake we have a soldier who is black, and willing to sacrifice himself for the white woman officer whom he didn't seem to like most part of the movie. He tries to hold back a horde of zombies screaming back to her "run, get out of here". Note, in the original no such nonsense.
Starship Troopers - I liked this movie. It had an ironic view on the military regime and didn't take itself so seriously. But still, when it came to the scene where the "bugs" were about to overrun the barbie & ken-couple, it was the black man who got wounded and offered to stay behind with a grenade taking out as many of those damn bugs on his way out.
U-751 - (starring Bon Jovi? and Matthew McConaughey, both who I have a great dislike for (as actors-love Jovi's music --"shot through the heart"...who don't love that). in this sorry excuse of a movie which I have another bone to pick later, we have the first soldier to bravely sacrifice himself for his comrades, and yes, he's black.
Also, it's more obvious if the gangster in the movie is black, right?
Daredevil - this colossal failure is built on the comic-book character of the Daredevil. In the story he fights his nemesis, Kingpin, which by the way, is a villain also often appearing in the Spiderman comics. Both in Daredevil and Spiderman comicbooks the Kingpin character is basically a mob crime boss with no supernatural powers - a huge fat bold white guy. In the Daredevil movie they decided to make him a black guy. Then why not make Superman a black man? What? did I say something wrong? Fail to see the logic in that decision.
Being married to a beautiful woman from South Korea suddenly made me aware of the Asian stereotypes and has made me more sensitive about seeing how they are portrayed.
Very Bad Things - the story is similar to the Hangover but darker. A bachelor party to Las Vegas ends with a dead prostitute and the guys decide to chop her up, bury, and forget about it.
The prostitute that dies while having sex with one of them (bangs her head) is asian. To be more precise it's an Asian porn movie actress who plays her - Kobe Tai. The point that I'm trying to get at is that if women are to be shown in a really negative way ( prostitute + dead in freak sex-accident + chopped up & buried ) then it's better to have her be Asian. It's less unsettling.
Live Free or Die Hard - on that note: in the fourth Die Hard movies Bruce Willis fights an evil Asian woman. Of course she is good at martial arts... And although Bruce gets his ass kicked most of the time, he fights her as if fighting a guy - real dirty and brutal. I remember being shocked at how they showed that kind of violence against a woman. But again, it was an Asian woman, so not as bad. Oh, and here is one of the lines Bruce says in the movie about her: "Can I get another dead Asian hooker bitch over here right away?"
Another point that my wife made was that you very rarely see a really beautiful Asian woman in American movies - unless they are "Asian hooker bitches".
I hate Valentine's Day - not worth mentioning, but since I did the mistake of renting this with my wife: in the movie the asshole buddy of the male lead character brings one of his constantly changing dates to a party and totally ignores her. Even the main female character, who is supposed to be the "hero" character and sympathetic to the viewer, treats this poor girl, who is Asian, like dirt. But hey, again, it's ok because she looks like a nerdy Asian.
The Hangover - as already mentioned above, it's a bachelor party trip to Las Vegas movie. At one point they finally find their car, which had gotten lost during their drunken night out. In the trunk they find a tied up, naked Asian guy who turns out to be a gay gangster boss(?) of inconclusive Asian background: he uses a Korean word at some point but says "kiss my chinese ***". Love how much they don't care. As long as he acts Asian and has a thick accent. They had basically kidnapped and undressed this guy throwing him into the car-trunk because one of them thought he was like a funny mascot...
Another scene was when they got their kidnapped friend back from the Asian gangster, but found out it wasn't their friend. "Our guy is white, not black!" Yes, the person they got was a black guy. They even suggest the gangster taking him back. But the black guy doesn't even get upset by their remarks.
That being said, I laughed watching this movie, partly because it was incorrect in many ways, but it just becomes obviously one-sided who ends up in what stereo-typical role.
The Relic - the female lead character is a professor working at a Museum. She is fighting to get a grant that will help fund her further research and without which she and her research team would be out of work. Oh, but that evil-nerdy-ass-kissing Asian Professor is trying to steal the grant away from her. He is portrayed as such an asshole, you just want him to get killed (it's a horror monster movie).
The only movie I ever recall having seen an Asian guy with a white female was in Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story - I guess Hollywood didn't decide to change the real story of Bruce Lee although I can really imagine one of the executives going: "Does she have to be white?"
Lastly I wanted to mention one story that I heard in a documentary. It was about horror movies and this older woman was telling how she had heard about this shocking new horror movie in 1968 called Night of the Living Dead. People had been buzzing about it and so many people were curious to see it and as was she. The real reason for that was that for the first time they had a black man in the main role. That was more shocking than the terror of walking dead people at that time. But that movie and it's remake are one of my favorite horror movies of all times because it doesn't follow cliches and treats the story just as something that is happening no matter what status the people may have had in their life previous to the horrors to follow.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
They travel in Pairs
I have often found it curious how movies sometimes seem to appear at the same time with great similarities in content. Here some examples just from the top of my head:
Antz - A Bug's Life
The Abyss - Leviathan - Deep Star Six
Finding Nemo - Shark Tale
Now again I found myself wondering if these two are another case of this. Judge for yourselves.
Black Death
Season of the Witch
I am actually excited about both (despite my unexplainable dislike of Nicolas Cage) as the theme is something that I am into.
As far as I understand it Black Death is a British production while Season of the Witch is American. Notice even the similarities in the opening scenes of both trailers - a wide shot of the landscape. I wonder which movie came first?
Antz - A Bug's Life
The Abyss - Leviathan - Deep Star Six
Finding Nemo - Shark Tale
Now again I found myself wondering if these two are another case of this. Judge for yourselves.
Black Death
Season of the Witch
I am actually excited about both (despite my unexplainable dislike of Nicolas Cage) as the theme is something that I am into.
As far as I understand it Black Death is a British production while Season of the Witch is American. Notice even the similarities in the opening scenes of both trailers - a wide shot of the landscape. I wonder which movie came first?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
can we bottle that shit?
Sometimes I really have to picture it happening. How some Hollywood executives sit in a fancy minimalistic feng-shui office eating sushi and snorting coke as they discuss the idea for the next block-buster. And it's in these meetings where they go "what about the karate-kid goes to china? Yeah, and he meets somebody like...like...Jackie Chan who becomes his mentor! And teaches him how to fight and so forth...", "Ok but isn't that kung-fu they do in china?", "Yeah, and your point is?", "You're right, kung-fu, karate, ping-pong...it's all the same crap anyway."
Yes, I am talking about the new Karate Kid movie. Again they are not bothered with continuing the story so I guess it's a re-boot? remake? Don't even know or care. All I know and the trailer taught me is that the KARATE-kid is doing Kung-fu. It's about the principals here folks! Treat the subject with respect and knowledge. Otherwise I feel treated like a dumb ass which maybe the majority of movie goers is nowadays, since they keep going to see this crap.
Another movie I haven't seen and won't see is Memoirs of a Geisha. My wife pointed out to me that this American version of this story was unfortunately badly done though visually beautiful. To begin with most of the main actors and actresses in the movie are Chinese and not Japanese though the story inevitably takes place in Japan. My wife also mentioned at some point the music they played in the background was Chinese as well. Hm, well its Asian anyways so who cares, right?
On the same subject is the American re-do of Martyrs, a french horror movie from 2008 (yeah, just released and already re-make on the way!). It's really interesting to me because I read an interview with the makers of the planned re-do where they fully admit, that there is no way to re-do this movie. So if it's not possible then why...re-do it? What are they planning to film then? Uhm, well the subject was so interesting...so they are going to do a similar movie, not really addressing that interesting subject directly, but a thinned out version of it? I fail to see the logic behind this project or what they intend to be filming considering their admission to it not being re-doable.
The reason why it's not re-doable is very clear to me. Martyrs is the most horrifying, cruel, inhuman, perverted, sadistic movie I have ever seen. I don't recommend anyone watching it unless they are fully aware and capable to stomach it. On the other hand, it's so horrifying because it's really well done. The subject is very interesting as Hollywood recognized, yet only interesting within it's terrifying framework that the french movie delivers perfectly. There is no way to handle that subject in another way thus making a re-do or even a different take on it impossible without totally losing the impact and the whole point of it.
The original is brilliantly acted and the story is very well told. It is not predictable at all where this movie is going as you begin watching it but when you get there it becomes spine-chillingly clear. It has to be said that I am a great fan of the horror genre and am not easily spooked or disturbed by horror movies. This is why I can justify my warning. The french have recently been producing many shocking horror movies putting the terror back into the genre. Well, as some of you may know the french have a history of shocking movies not to mention literature.
This whole project is to me again Hollywood logic with their ever-lasting quest for the next big thing and the question of - can we bottle that shit?
Yes, I am talking about the new Karate Kid movie. Again they are not bothered with continuing the story so I guess it's a re-boot? remake? Don't even know or care. All I know and the trailer taught me is that the KARATE-kid is doing Kung-fu. It's about the principals here folks! Treat the subject with respect and knowledge. Otherwise I feel treated like a dumb ass which maybe the majority of movie goers is nowadays, since they keep going to see this crap.
Another movie I haven't seen and won't see is Memoirs of a Geisha. My wife pointed out to me that this American version of this story was unfortunately badly done though visually beautiful. To begin with most of the main actors and actresses in the movie are Chinese and not Japanese though the story inevitably takes place in Japan. My wife also mentioned at some point the music they played in the background was Chinese as well. Hm, well its Asian anyways so who cares, right?
On the same subject is the American re-do of Martyrs, a french horror movie from 2008 (yeah, just released and already re-make on the way!). It's really interesting to me because I read an interview with the makers of the planned re-do where they fully admit, that there is no way to re-do this movie. So if it's not possible then why...re-do it? What are they planning to film then? Uhm, well the subject was so interesting...so they are going to do a similar movie, not really addressing that interesting subject directly, but a thinned out version of it? I fail to see the logic behind this project or what they intend to be filming considering their admission to it not being re-doable.
The reason why it's not re-doable is very clear to me. Martyrs is the most horrifying, cruel, inhuman, perverted, sadistic movie I have ever seen. I don't recommend anyone watching it unless they are fully aware and capable to stomach it. On the other hand, it's so horrifying because it's really well done. The subject is very interesting as Hollywood recognized, yet only interesting within it's terrifying framework that the french movie delivers perfectly. There is no way to handle that subject in another way thus making a re-do or even a different take on it impossible without totally losing the impact and the whole point of it.
The original is brilliantly acted and the story is very well told. It is not predictable at all where this movie is going as you begin watching it but when you get there it becomes spine-chillingly clear. It has to be said that I am a great fan of the horror genre and am not easily spooked or disturbed by horror movies. This is why I can justify my warning. The french have recently been producing many shocking horror movies putting the terror back into the genre. Well, as some of you may know the french have a history of shocking movies not to mention literature.
This whole project is to me again Hollywood logic with their ever-lasting quest for the next big thing and the question of - can we bottle that shit?
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