And the Palme d’Or goes to… The Cannes film festival continues their love affair with Michael Haneke. His latest in competition film, The White Ribbon, won the coveted top prize this year. But that has come to really no surprise by those who follow Cannes history. Heneke has always been a favorite with the festival. …
Auteur Theory: Volume 3 Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng has managed to create one of the most unique and thrilling visual styles of the last decade. His career began in directing ads, and since then he has been the mastermind behind three films, echoing a love for cinema and an incredible spin on how to piece …
Terminator Salvation Directed by McG This review contains Terminator series spoilers. With Charlie’s Angels helmer McG becoming the third director to tackle the once-venerable sci-fi-action series concocted by James Cameron, we can at least be thankful that he’s found an original way to screw up a franchise. Where most series end up with an entry …
Twittered to Death: Patrick Swayze (identified by the BBC as “Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze”) was the victim of a cruel practical joke after “Florida radio station Kiss FM posted a Twitter message saying the 56-year-old had passed away. It was later removed.” After that worm got out of the can, “…the rumour spread quickly …
Cult Cinema: Volume 10 Horror fans are a mysterious, cultish bunch. Or at least, they like to think they are, imagining themselves the vanguard of the underground; Morlocks feeding off pampered, mainstream Eloi dandies with D&G sunglasses and designer perfume. But go to any horror film screening, and see if you’re not surrounded by Blackberry-toting …
Body Count: Volume 8 One of the many disadvantages of living in a place like New Hamsphire is that you have to live on the edge vicariously through the lives of people who live closer to the action through correspondence so it was a while before I got into the depths of crazy horror movies. …
Angels and Demons Directed by Ron Howard There’s a nebulous threat looming on the horizon in director Ron Howard’s latest Dan Brown adaptation, and it’s not the antimatter that powers the film’s obnoxiously rigid ticking-clock device. Rather, it’s the needless exposition and mannered overplotting (much of it courtesy of frequently awful screenwriter Akiva Goldsman) that …
Christian Bale demanded rewrite work be done on “Terminator: Salvation” before he took the role of John Connor, a role he insisted on rather than the character the filmmakers had in mind– “…central character Marcus Wright…at a Toronto press conference in January, he (director McG) said, “I went to see him… He reads the script …
Auteur Theory: Volume 2 Austria breeds weird filmmakers. They are a country lacking a large film industry, but one that encourages experimental filmmaking; they even put it on TV. If that happened in America, just flipping on the television to find some out of control flashing colors with droning voices on hand-processed super 8, I …
Top 6 Teen Comedies of the 80’s When it comes to movies, there are two things that the early-to-mid-1980s are best known for: slasher films and teen comedies. Here is a list of my favorite teen comedies of the 1980’s. 7- Sixteen Candles (1984) One of the many collaborations with John Hughes and Molly Ringwald, …
– Body Count: Volume 7 I did a report on H.P. Lovecraft back in the seventh grade and my teacher thought I was fucking insane. Up to this point, I hadn’t really read much by the guy but my mother turned me on to his writing via The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward and an …
Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death. 2003. An International co-production between Belgium, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, and the UK. 92 min. Written and directed by Peter Bate. “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than …
Cult Cinema: Volume 9 It’s common geek knowledge that Star Trek is a smarter version of Star Wars. However, this should not be the badge of honour that so many Trekkies wear with pride, since Star Wars is essentially what idiot kids dream about when they’ve eaten cotton candy instead of their Ritalin. Here’s the thing: musing …
Dom DeLuise, the iconic character actor, died this week at the age of 75. Whilst perusing his many obituaries, I was struck by Reuters opening paragraph: “Dom DeLuise, the U.S. comic actor who gained fame on television and in movies such as “Blazing Saddles” and “Smokey and the Bandit II,” has died…” The first is …
Star Trek Directed by J.J. Abrams The greatest challenge of taking on any known cultural property in the world of film is that of fulfilling the “fan-service” requirements held by the stalwart fans of said property. Take too many liberties in pursuit of making a more interesting film, and you’ll attract ire (Ang Lee’s Hulk); …
Body Count: Volume 6 I bought a region free DVD player nearly ten years ago when I decided that I had had enough reading about particularly sweet editions of movies being released in foreign markets. These days it seems like just about everything released everywhere finds its way to Region 1 DVD but it wasn’t …
Auteur Theory: Volume 1 New York horror filmmaker Frank Henenlotter has managed to remain in relative obscurity thus far in his career, despite the notoriety his films have achieved. But for those who know his work, it feels as if his filmography is far more massive than just six films. His films are definitively schlock …
Courtesy of: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090501/entertainment/centertainment_us_carrey/ “Jim Carrey has emerged as a leading candidate to star in “The Beaver,” an offbeat comedy-drama that centers on the relationship between a man and a beaver puppet he wears on his arm. Kyle Killen’s script has generated enormous interest in film development circles, drawing comparisons to “Being John Malkovich” and “Lars …
Billed as a horror film, The Hunger is anything but. What it is, however, is a credible first effort by Tony Scott (Déjà vu, Domino, Man on fire), Ridley’s younger brother. Immediately after watching I came to the conclusion that this film is one of either two things: an incredibly good 80s vampire movie or …
28 Days Later… 2002, UK Directed by Danny Boyle Written by Alex Garland Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson The more times I see this film, the better it gets. This may, however, be because it’s made up of three better movies, The Omega Man, Dawn of the Dead, and …
Body Count: Volume 5 . There are certain directors whose represent absolutely pivotal moments in filmmaking. People like Griffith, Welles, Coppola and Scorcese have contributed to film in a way that has shaped the entire medium and changed the game. But there are also directors who represent pivotal moments of genre evolution: George Lucas and …
Hard Target For 20 years Hong Kong director John Woo was the driving force in film on the Pacific Rim. Following the success of The Killer, Woo’s 1989 masterpiece of operatic violence, he made out to Hollywood with his chop-socky. Hard Target. Woo’s American debut took the Belgium-born Jean-Claude Van Damme to new lows of …
Sugar Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), aspiring Dominican baseball star, is the focus of the sophomore effort from Half Nelson writer-director team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, a film long on empathy but short on revelation. Santos is eventually picked to play for a minor-league team in …