Hitchcock writing is always a challenge to read through the first time. But doing a decent job in remaking the writing into a movie? That is a challenge. The movie is being remade and the recent news is that director, Dennis Iliades who recently remade Last house on the Left is taking it over. Initially …
The first time I watched The Graduate, it did not take long for me to realize that the movie would prove to be a lot different from what I had expected. All this revelation took was hearing the opening of The Sound of Silence and feeling its solemn mood. The music choice shows how multi-dimensional …
Workmanlike and inoffensive, Brothers will neither devastate nor severely disappoint. Brothers Directed by Jim Sheridan The latest in a long line of Sheridan dramas oriented around family units, Brothers, adapted from the 2004 Danish feature of the same name, is competently constructed and generally well-performed, but hovers just above mediocrity throughout the proceedings. Perhaps in …
Opening credits: are they witty, colourful, innovative, or just the cinematic equivalent of wallpaper? A barrage of production company logos is all very well, but there’s something about a clever combination of words, images – animated or photographic – and music, all condensed into a few minutes of screen time, that heightens your sense of …
In its glorious and barreling 87 minutes, Anderson and Baumbach, have taken the gist of Dahl’s book and carefully expanded it into everything you would expect it to be. Fantastic Mr. Fox Directed by Wes Anderson Wes Anderson joins Spike Jonze in adapting a much beloved children’s literature in the same year. First Jonze delivered …
A certain instructor at film school once confided in me that no filmmaker ever made real money off a short film. At the time, I respected his honest opinion, and while he may (or may not) have been right about making “real” money, that doesn’t mean short films are worthless. For evidence, I present to …
Roman Polanski, Polish filmmaker, could very well be released from Swiss jail after more than a thirty yearlong court battle. In 1977 Polanski was accused of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl he was doing a photo shoot with. The shoot took place in Jack Nicholson’s house, and was Polanski’s second with the girl. …
Francis Lawrence, director of I Am Legend, must have a thing for “end of the world as we know it” movies. And his latest endeavor is no exception. According to Pajiba, Lawrence has elected to direct a movie adaptation based on a young adult graphic novel called In The Small by Michael Hague. The plot …
Completely entertaining and dripping with fan appreciated details, Watchmen is a gift to comic book nerds and film enthusiasts alike. – Watchmen: Director’s Cut Directed by Zach Synder Trying to determine the value of a film based on a book (or graphic novel in this case), is a dangerous undertaking. Separating the downfalls and offering credit …
Amreeka Directed by Cherien Dabis Screenplay by Cherien Dabis 2009, USA There is an obvious correlation between the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the rise in Islamaphobia across the United States. Arabs (or anyone Arab-looking) who had already established their lives in the States before that year suddenly found themselves the target of racial prejudice, …
Director Tim Burton is being featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City with his own exhibition starting this month. The exhibit will feature work ranging from his more junior years as a teen, right through work he did in college and including sketches, props and models from movies he has made …
How well do you know your Harry Potter trivia? Does the name Nicholas Flamel ring any bells? He was the alchemist responsible for “the Sorcerer’s Stone” in the title of the inaugural Harry Potter book and movie adaptation, but Flamel is more than a J.K. Rowling creation. He was an actual alchemist who born in …
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Directed by Chris Weitz Are we to expect more from a feature film than from an average episode of a daytime soap? That’s one of many questions to be begged not only of casual moviegoers but of even the most hardened fan of Stephenie Meyer’s socially negligent Twilight series as …
A true action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger is also the ultimate source of classically terrible and amazing films. Forget G.I. Joe, Schwarzenegger is the real American hero proving that in America it’s as easy to have a lucrative film career without talent or experience as it is to be a senator of a major state without …
Confession: I enjoy things that are so bad they’re good so much that when it comes to television I honestly can’t differentiate between the bad and the good. With the success of shows like Rock of Love (now on it’s third season) it would appear that the worst you make a show the better television …
Actor Nicholas Cage has “lost two homes in New Orleans worth a total of $6.8 million in a foreclosure auction Thursday…Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions Bank purchased (one of) Cage’s (homes)…(in New Orleans) French Quarter appraised at $3.5 million for $2.3 million. For the second home, the Bank “paid $2.2 million for Cage’s 2523 Pataniya Street property …
Troma’s dug deep into the depths of Ukraine’s smut factory to unleash this skeezy compilation of Soviet shorts from trash hound extraordinaire Yakov Levi. All the shit sharin’, prostitute slangin’ and babushka fearin’ you could hope for is finally here. Shameless Tasteless, features everything from anal dares gone wrong to dance floor abortions (gone right?) …
It happens pretty often where you see a movie for the first time and it has the ability to give you shivers. It moves you and makes you feel a certain way, unlike anything else. Sometimes, you are lucky enough to see those movies in a theatre and lose yourself for a few hours. When …
Duncan Jones made his debut with the film Moon, released earlier this year. Now talk of the talented director’s next film is buzzing about. Variety reports that Jones has recently signed on, with Jake Gyllenhaal in mind to be his leading man; his latest script endeavor is called Source Code, being released by Universal. Ben …
2012 Directed by Roland Emmerich This review is SPOILER ridden so beware. Then again, if you’ve seen any disaster movie made since 1960 then nothing will be a surprise. Trust me. Judd Apatow, Tina Fey, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and all the other maestros of contemporary comedy should be afraid, as there is a new …
Exploding vehicles (and heads), decapitations, a whole lot of nudity and an overexcited Quentin Tarantino are just the starting point for Not Quite Hollywood: the wild, untold story of Ozploitation!, Mark Hartley’s jaw-dropping history of Australian genre cinema. Forget Picnic at Hanging Rock: it’s more a case of let’s blow up Ayers Rock and set …
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Dir. John Krasinski John Krasinski deserves some enormous kudos for bringing such a faithful, intelligently constructed and nontraditional adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s writing to the screen–even a flawed one such as Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Wallace’s work defies filmic adaptation, and it takes incredible heart and chutzpah to even …
Warning: Unabashed Geekery To Follow Ah, I remember fondly the years of Tolkien mania, that stretch of time spanning 2001 to 2004 back when The Lord of the Rings was busting up box office records and sweeping the Oscars, and Frodo and Gandalf were names familiar to social groups outside your average D&D gatherings. I …