To bankroll a movie, particularly in Australia, one needs stars. That’s how you end up with something like Irresistible, starring Susan Sarandon, and Jindabyne, starring Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. Of course, you also need promotion and distribution, which is why Jindabyne was the only one of those two that anyone had ever heard of.
December Boys has received a star: Daniel Radcliffe. He warrants a sort of blitz all of his own, so let’s see if December Boys has legs. To my mind it’s an enjoyable film, but not an easy sell. Australian cinema is weird like that.
Oh dear. I appear to have grown weary of “dopey showgirls in gooey gowns” and come out the other side. After months of the same trailers attacking me from all sides, I’ve been struck by a few new works that prove that the art of trailer sculpting.
First up is Juno, which I admittedly did not see in the cinema:
Until I realised the secret sentimentality of Thank You For Smoking which detracted only slightly from its total … “rockitude”, I was quite in love with Jason Reitman’s work. Juno looks like another one of those films that fit into the incredibly malleable list of “movies made for Alex”. It looks like the right sort of melanchomedy that I eat right up – and, of course, I love Michael Cera. And … well, pretty much the whole cast. Jennifer Garner ain’t quite Jennifer Connelly, but hey! She can have my love anyway.
Anticipation: high.
The next trailer up is something that I was a bit more dubious on, Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium:
Yeah, I saw this trailer and I could only really think “what?”. It was seen before Hairspray, and Ajay turned to me and said “Let’s go see Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium!” I was forced to reply “I think we already did.”
I’m assuming that this is a movie about a fellow lacking imagination (Jason Bateman – keep on working, friend!), who rediscovers the spirit of wonder through Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman and a magical toy store. If you watch the trailer very carefully, you can pinpoint Jason Bateman rediscovering the spirit of wonder!
So I don’t really know what to make of Magorium, save to say that I find no greater joy than in Natalie Portman in this mode, and that the reason Dustin Hoffman is looking as he did in Stranger than Fiction is because this is written by Zach Helm, who also wrote that fine film. So I’m going on talent, “Magic” (you know), and the fact that, yeah, Jason Bateman rediscovering the spirit of wonder warms my heart.
Also, in relation to Hollywood’s newfound passion for converting children’s fantasy novels into movies, Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising is being made into The Seeker: The Dark is Rising. I had assumed it was some newfangled kid’s franchise, but my mother assures me that it’s from 1974. Apparently it’s been rewritten beyond recognition, so that’s a moot point, but I don’t think I can really fit in another “American kid surrounded by British actors” movie.
Will they never end?
I would complain that Robert Downey Jr. plays all of his roles in exactly the same fashion, but he does it so damned well. I’d say he was the best thing about Zodiac, but everyone in that movie played their parts well, they just couldn’t make them interesting.
Keeping in mind Downey Jr.’s quality (quite different to Faramir’s quality), I am pleased to see that the first Iron Man trailer is online. If you listen very carefully, it’s impossible to miss … that song.
I like the idea of Iron Man’s origin story: that, rather than creating a super weapon for a terrorist cell, he turns himself into a super weapon and beats up the terrorist cell. Now I understand that Iron Man has, in recent comics, turned into a kind of one man hero registry, ready to round up everyone and tell them what for. The film series (and, who knows, it might be a Hulk level disaster, although I think it takes a lot of effort to make a movie that incoherent) is not yet at that point. We don’t even see Samuel L. Jackson storming onto the scene as Nick Fury. But I’m excited, and I have virtually no knowledge of this franchise at all.
Strangely enough, it’s almost impossible to tell that this is a Marvel movie. Obviously they’ve got the title at the beginning, but it doesn’t have any of the “importance” of Spider-Man or the “high budget masquerading as low budget fake whimsy” of Fantastic Four behind it.
I’m quite looking forward to Iron Man now, and it gets extra bonus points for being directed by Jon Favreau, who was smote down by the mighty fists of karma wielded by Jason Lee. There’s hope for this world yet, my friends.
So you may recall Shamus’ gambit DM of the Rings. Well, Shamus is now owned by the denizens of the internet, and has followed it with a legitimately drawn comic, Chainmail Bikini.
The last year has left Shamus open to the darkest criticisms known to man, finding internet popularity, and already they’re trying to tear strips off of him. What we’ve got so far is writing comparable to DM of the Rings, which is not surprising because it’s been confirmed that they’re the same characters in the D&D group, drawings, and different fonts used for each character. While this makes sense to differentiate the characters from each other in the fantasy segments, I think that legibility may be a bit of a problem for Josh and Marcus.
Otherwise, I salute Shamus for having the ability to get a distinctive voice out there. As someone presently struggling to find my own voice, Beyonce style (if you don’t … if you won’t … listeeeeeeen), it’s something that I definitely admire. Some day, perhaps you’ll even want to read Batrock.net, gentle readers!
The other lesson that we can learn from the cinema is that any given US governmental body has a couple of corrupt bastards in it who bend the innocents to their whims. Naturally, only one man can right this wrong!
Paul Greengrass’s The Bourne Ultimatum never lets up. With no downtime, the ending sneaks up on you and bites your face off. Despite its lack of cinematic structure for comfort, this is still an exciting film. I’ve never held much stock in Matt Damon, but he’s more accomplished than I’ve given him credit for.
From all that I know and have seen on England in the eighties, I’m incredibly surprised that anyone lived to write or make films about it. This Is England is a movie about when lighthearted, victimless destruction takes a turn toward the dark heart of nationalism.
Fear not, gentle cinema goers! Paul Verhoeven has returned to Holland, and this is his first Dutch film since 1983. While almost all European international releases deal with the past, can one really blame the continent for having such a rich and terrible history? I’m not convinced that I’d seen a Dutch film before this one, and I’ve certainly never examined this part of Euro history: Holland’s occupation by Germany.
Black Book not only realises an infrequently examined aspect of European history, it does so in a distinctly unsanitary fashion. It feels like several movies all at once, but this makes it more real; in Black Book, one can see many things that they are unlikely ever to see elsewhere.
I’ve seen a lot of “educational” movies in the last couple of weeks. What all movies tell us is that it takes only one man to bring down a corrupt system. Wise men know that this man is John McClane, although some might argue that his name is John Rambo (those same people, I would argue, have faces paralysed by years of steroid abuse).
I don’t feel like I do a lot of action movies; they have to have something going for them. If every action movie starred Bruce Willis, maybe that would change. I felt pumped for Die Hard 4.0 (yeah, its working title was retained for Australia). My pumpedness was paid well in explosions, gunfire, crashing people into walls, and crashing people into walls which then proceed to explode. This movie has everything.
Well, actually, this is a remake of a 2001 German movie. Except it’s not a remake so much as it is “based on the original screenplay Mostly Martha by Sandra Nettelbeck”, which strikes me as an odd credit. At any rate, No Reservations is the brand of movie that, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the whole movie.
This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, because the main cast is talented: the incredibly beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones, charismatic Aaron Eckhart and thoroughly unannoying child actress Abigail Breslin raise the movie above being too shockingly twee. It strikes an okay balance, and makes for the perfect “Liz Movie”. (The definition of a Liz Movie is the sort of movie that I would only see with my friend Liz, and under no other circumstances).
I’m going to post a screenshot from a movie. If you’re the first person to guess the movie, you win!
If you win, you have to continue the game by posting a screenshot on your blog with the same rules outlined here (please link here as well). The winner of your round will host the next round, and so on.
If you don’t have a blog (and if you don’t want to start one), I’ll host the next round as well (the screenshot should still come from the winner, if possible). If you do have a blog, but the winner of your round doesn’t, you should host the next round too.
Once the winner posts their screenshot, Mark will link to it from this post. Each winner needs to link to the next winner, and so on.
Only movies are eligible. No television shows.
If no one can figure out the answer within 3 days, then you’ve stumped the internet. If you want, you can give hints. If we still have no winner, then congratulations, you’ve won. Maybe I’ll start a hall of fame or something. Give everyone the answer, and post another screenshot (or pass the baton to someone else, and link them). If you decide to host the next round, be nice, and post an easier screenshot. This game would be no fun if you keep posting random landscapes from obscure Italian films.
My original choice from this movie would have scarred everyone for life, so I present to you something more palatable:
Click to enlarge
I believe in you, people.
Update: Mark wins with I (heart) Huckabees! His hubristic new round is online!
