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Appreciating Danny Boyle in Wake of Slumdog Millionaire
Peerless How many distinctive directors pack as much storytelling heft as visual panache? Few if any have the track record of Danny Boyle. I had considered putting Boyle in the Under Appreciated Page, but I just have so much to say about him I figured he deserved a front page spot. In film circles Boyle…
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Despairing in advance of The Punisher
My colleague at the University of Maryland demolished Ray Stevenson’s The Punisher in his review, and most critics have been similarly ill-disposed towards the new film. http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2008/12/04/Diversions/A.Punishing.Viewing.Experience-3568157.shtml I for one had marshaled some hope, after the goofball camp of the Thomas Jane Punisher, that this seemingly more serious incarnation might be worth seeing. This does…
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Ray Stevenson Joins Strong Cast for Book of Eli-Hughes Comeback?
Hughes Brothers The writing directing team of Allen and Albert Hughes delivered powerful and distinctive, if flawed, work with Dead Presidents and Menace II Society. Since then they’ve done From Hell with Johnny Depp and some TV work, as well as being involved in New York, I Love You, but they haven’t really had their…
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Bourne 4-The Bourne Redundancy
Variety reported that Universal was moving ahead with a 4th Bourne film, based on an original story instead of a Robert Ludlum novel. They also mentioned that Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon were attached. What’s funny about this is Damon himself commented on how ridiculous a 4th Bourne film would be, and in doing so…
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Fight Scenes That Make No Logical Sense
Probably the most inexplicably popular trend is the confusing fight scene. Most likely conjured up by a poor director with a low budget and martial arts-limited actor, these scenes have become absurdly over-used. Dark Knight had them. Why? The movie cost over a hundred million to make. They couldn’t let us see what’s going on…
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Korean Remake Fever
It seems Hollywood is well aware that South Korea makes some of the most engaging, freaky, genre-defying, chock full of life films around. The above movies are set to be remade…but wait…it’s a little more complicated. Will Smith and Steven Spielberg are names being tossed about for an Oldboy remake, but word around the web…
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Box Office Analysis-Friday Surprises
Box office figures for Friday are in, and there are some surprising grosses to talk about. Four Christmases Makes Way Too Much Money Posting an opening probably a little higher than expected, Four Christmases topped the box office friday with 13.2 million (all figures according to Variety.com and boxofficemojo.com). The film now has grossed 28.2…
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Four Christmases-Five Groans
Representing the squandered talents of two (2) proven comic talents (Director Seth Gordon of “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” fame, and Vince Vaughn of “Wedding Crashers” fame), “Four Christmases” is the type of well-marketed, high-concept, assembly line dreck that makes money and reproduces to create more processed junk comedy. Vaugh generally has only…
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Bolt Barks at Pixar’s Shadow
In the documentary “The Pixar Story”, some of the commentators discuss their sadness that Pixar basically made obsolete Disney’s hand-drawn animation division. In much a similar way, it seems Disney has become second-banana to Pixar in the computer animation department. Sure the companies are affiliated, but it seems pretty clear when a film is a…
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WTF Gerard!
Why Gerard Butler (300) insists on doing chick flicks is beyond me. He was perfectly fine in P.S. I Love You but really, is this the best use of his prodigious talent? And at the very least P.S. I Love You had an intriguing concept. His upcoming, “The Ugly Truth” with Katherine Heigl doesn’t seem…