solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

Before I go any further, I have to say I just don't see what all the fuss is about… I watched The Host and it got a big fat "Meh" from me. I'm big onto my monster flicks, and love Korean cinema, but I couldn't help but feel totally let down by the movie. I wrote a review a few weeks ago, the day after I'd seen it:

The Host is definately not the one with the mostest. Being a big fan of Korean cinema, I was eagerly anticipating this movie, as I'd heard that it had done really well in Korea, and the internet buzz was pretty positively looking forward to it. So, I toodled along down to the cinema to be entertained. I wasn't expecting anything more than a creature fest, with a little style. Sadly, I was thoroughly disappointed.

Its the story of a beast thats born through a chemical mishap in the Han River (which incidentally is a beautifull place!). Creature gets big, people get eaten and chased. There's a Virus that people that come into contact with the beast contract, and there's also confusion over whether said virus actually exists or not (I didnt quite figure this one out even though I sat through the whole thing). A girl gets taken to its lair in a sewer tunnel off the river, from where she calls her dad on her cell phone. Her dad, an absolute idiot, embarks on a mission to save her. Now, I'm not an easy man to disappoint when it comes to Asian Cinema, however, this one took the biscuit. The subtitles for a start, were extremely badly translated. It would seem whichever translation company got the gig either didn't have enough time, or they were very, VERY cheap. The acting is atrocious. Even for slapstick asian style flicks. As for the creature, please… most of the time it looked like a big blob with a couple of legs. Really badly designed, absolutely nothing new at all. It can swim, and it can swing under bridges, and it has a massive tongue. I'm bored even describing it to you it was that uninspiring. The CG, while it had its moments, and despite the poor design of the creature, was somewhat crappy too. Without spoiling it (it does a good enough job itself!), the fire at the end is possibly the worst CG effect I've ever seen. People, I'm sad to say, avoid this one at all costs. Given the option to give it a second chance, I think I'd rather sick up a lung.

I caught an early screening of Darren Aronofsky’s third, much delayed and much talked about (Brad Pitt, 70 million bucks, 2002, Australia, tits up) esoteric sci-fi realist love-poem The Fountain recently. Pi and Requiem for a Dream are both great, stimulating cult classics and the idea of this guy making a big-budget Mayan/present/future epic about the tree of life had me foaming at the mouth for (literally) years. The first trailer was fantastic (see below) but early word on it was that it was a mess and extremely hard to love. I chatted to a few people that had seen it and I was fascinated because I couldn’t work out how I might respond to it when I saw it. That was until one writer I really respect told me that although flawed, I’d definitely get into it. He said it had lots to offer, and even though it’s slow and not commercial it’s a very cool, stoner love story.
 
And he was right. It’s very trippy and as you’d expect it generally looks great and is very confidently directed. The three time periods are cut together in a stimulating way and although it’s a bit of a head fuck (and one or two moments are too earnest) the story (man seeks tree of life to save dying wife in three time periods) is weirdly simple. It works because he never fully explains everything (2001 style) so you are left hanging in a good way.
 
That said, it is a slow film and a huge shame that his planned MASSIVE Mayan battle was cut out (due to budget and Lord of the Rings doing it first). The small, brief battle is great and the film would have worked a lot more, and worked for many more people, if he had left in some of that scale and energy. If you like his other films get stoned and go and see it. I look forward to seeing which of his next two projects he goes with (one small and one HUGE).

Check out the trailer here

Brendon over at Film Ick and I had been discussing the recent rumours of a Poltergeist remake recently. Obviously, the idea of remaking a film of this calibre seems utterly pointless to us film geeks, but nonetheless, we remained hopefull that it wouldn't be dragged through the dirt like so many other pointless remakes. However, Brendon has pointed out that some comments and quotes have been made claiming that the remake wasn't going ahead. Horror-Movies.ca have claimed that its not happening, citing quotes from reliable insiders.

"…a source who worked on the original film as well as a contact at MGM" are quoted saying -

"there is NO truth to this…it is all bullshit…" 

Ok, so far so good…

then the source apparently approached MGM/SONY to get their take on the new movie that is being made and their response was quote :  

Another picture from the set of the new Die Hard movie "Live Free or Die Hard" has appeared, and it looks like poor old Brucy boy, whilst having to deal with his arch enemy, heavy traffic, is also taking a bit of a beating elsewhere. Time out Bruce?

It will star (obviously) Bruce Willis and the relatively unknown Justin Long who played an uber geek in Galaxy Quest, a fine film and make no mistake!

When a criminal plot is in place to take down the entire computer and technological structure that supports the economy of the United States (and the world), it's up to a decidedly "old school" hero, police detective John McClane (Willis), to take down the conspiracy, aided by a young hacker (Long).

Shooting is currently taking place in Pasadena and is set for release in the States in June 07 while we have to wait another month over here in the UK with a release date of July 07.

Source Latino Review

Its the laugh everyone mimicks. Eddie Murphy with his notorious guffaw, which quite likely had a helping hand in his casting as the donkey in shrek?

Anyway, after two hugely successful films in the 80's under Bruckheimer, the franchise slipped considerably into a quagmire of disinterest at the third movie which Bruckheimer had nothing to do with. I blame the movie's flop on it not being made in the 80's, which is where these films truly belong. Even though the movie was directed by John Landis of Lampoon and Blues Brothers fame, it was pretty ropey.

So what will the fourth do for us? Well, chances are it'll undergo a revamping. No doubt it'll try to capture the Action-Comedy Hero status that the character Axel Foley personified, but how far will they take it? Your guess is a good as mine at this stage. So what stage are we at? Well, its out to writers at the moment. We'll have to wait for dribbles of script to leak onto the net for any real concrete ideas as to where the franchise is going to go, but for now, we have some attached crew and cast.

Obviously, Eddie Murphey will return as Axel Foley. …and thats about as far as we get for cast (if only Stephen Berkoff hadn't been shot on his mole in the first flick, he was ace as Victor Maitland!). We do have Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Constantine, Doom and Four Brothers) attached to produce, and although this doesn't instantly make me sit up straight it might not be all that bad.

"Axel Foley is one of the great action-comedy characters, a character that Eddie loves. I'm lucky enough to help bring it back," di Bonaventura said. "This genre is missing from the landscape."

Well, after BHC III, no wonder its been missing Lorenzo!

Variety had the news first allegedly, but IESB was the source I found first. 

I'm stunned… It was only last night that I was discussing this possibility with a friend afterwatching Pan's Labyrinth. Preacher, is being immortalised by HBO. (God bless those HBO people…)

Ok, whilst with one hand I'm culling the outbursts of excitement at the prospect of finally seeing the Preacher worked for the screen, with the other, I'll try to offer some sort of idea as to what the preacher's all about. Bear in mind though, that there's no way I can do it justice. You'll have to seek it out and read it for yourselves to truly understand why I almost wet myself when I heard this news…

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon wrote and visualized the graphic novels. Marvellous they are too. It follows the story of a guy called Jesse Custer, who when a big mishap in heaven occurs involving 2,000 years of incestuous inbreeding, becomes the host for Genesis, a baby like deity that falls from heaven. This pisses Jesse off, and so, with a mind to kicking God's ass, he sets out on a pursuit of biblical proportions. Jesse is pretty tidy with his fists, and has a penchant for white jeans (*cough*Gearge Michael*cough*), but the jeans thing is forgivable. Along the way, we meet his feisty and beautiful girlfriend Tulip, who's a little pissed at him for walking out on her a few years previous and becoming a parish preacher, an Irish vampire sociopath named Cassidy who likes a drink and the occassional fight (they later become best friends since they have the fighting and drinking things in common) a sadistic and completely humourless Herr Starr who's in pursuit of the Preacher, a spirit cowboy who's six shooter never misses, and boy does he like to use it to inflict pain on the un-righteous, and a boy who after the death of Kurt Cobain takes a shotgun to his face but manages to spectacularly fail in killing himself, instead, leaving him with a face like an arse. Colourful characters huh? The graphic novels are truly amazing, and its a real treat to see some really intricate artistry for the covers penned by Glenn Fabry

So, HBO have picked it up. It will be done as a series (lets hope its a feature length episode per book!). Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon will Exec produce. So far so good, it seems like its in safe hands!

I've been waiting for this one for a while now. I had a feeling it was going to shake up my top three movies of the year, and boy was I in for a treat. It's a wonderful and truly amazing work. I found myself utterly gobsmacked staring at the fantastic looking Digital Projection (oh yes! Not a pube in sight! Smoochy!) on the screen. 

So, what is it? Well, its a dark and twisted Alice in Wonderland type fairytale about choice and faith, set against the backdrop of a WWII fascist Spain. A little girl, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) who's widowed mother weds a captain from the Spanish Civil guard who's marshalling a heavily wooded area of Spain to try and thwart a small anti-fascist resistance. Ofelia is taken with her pregnant mother to be with him as he believes that a Son should be born where his Father is. Whilst at what can only be described as a military camp rather than a home, Ofelia discovers an ancient Labyrinth in the gardens near the surrounding woodlands. Within this Labyrinth, she discovers a Faun who claims that Ofelia is in fact the daughter of a Great King. A princess. He explains that it is prophesized that she would return, but that in order to return to her kingdom, she must perform three tasks before the Moon is Full.

The stuff that fairytales are made of…

Its delightful in how effective it is in bringing the contrast between this fantastical world that Ofelia is enveloped in and the harsh reality of Civil war and its brutalities she escapes from. This is something Del Toro wanted to present vividly to the audience and does so with a magestic confidence. We're thrown about between these two contrasting worlds so elegantly that it really left me speachless. When Ofelia is in the the "real" world we're bombarded with cold, dark, blue settings that make us feel claustraphobic and disturbed, yet when she delves into the "other" world its just as dark in mood but for some reason there's a warmth to the settings she traverses. Stark and violent contrasts but with undertones of disconcerting similarities, executed with sheer brilliance.

The creatures she meets are amazing. Not the over the top, elaborate, CG fest you might expect, rather relying on the creatures being just downright frightening.

Now then!

I'm really looking froward to Smokin' Aces. I saw the teaser trailer recently, but now there's a new theatrical trailer. It confirms for me, everything the teaser had suggested. That this was going to be a fine, fine film. Its directed by Joe Carnahan who was behind Narc which was absolutely outstanding, and I have every faith he's come up with something here that could, given time, become a real cult movie.

Scoot on over HERE to catch the trailer 

There's also a HD version HERE for all you pixel monkeys out there (Trailer 3 on the left hand side)

You can catch Smokin' Aces in January. 

Smoochy 

Greetings chaps and chapettes       

This is my first post here at Solace. I really wanted to make it a good one, and I thought I'd nailed it.

2 Hours ago, I was watching the final credits of Pan's Labyrinth. For those of you who might know me, this movie was one that I was anticipating with such gleefull, boyish excitement. A movie I'd convinced myself was going to topple my Top Three of the year and leave them in a state of disrepair. I can assure you that this was nothing less than the samsonite, as I'd expected. But, this first post is about something else entirely…

Its around about this time of year every year, we movie goers get a little treat. Yeh, the picture at the head of this probably gave something away. The Sundance Festival, and a fine festival it is. The lineup was announced tonight. Ooh goody!

It looks like a good one, considering there were SO many entries this year. 3,287 entries! Yowzer! So we're bound to get some distribution for some cool movies that we wouldn't have gotten without Sundance! Hip Hip! …you know the rest. (Although, the "Unnamed Dakota Fanning project" …we* don't want that so much, thanks though!)

You can check the lineup over at Variety. There's also some interesting words on this years festival from the Firector of the festival, Geoffrey Gilmore. I'm looking forward to hearing whats in store for us in the coming year from the indie flicks!

So, short and sweet, but an introduction nonetheless! …but for the Pan's Labyrinth review, it needs to not be 1:40am

Stay Hungry 

*Explanation for sarcasm RE: Dakota fanning -

Dakota is a great actress, its just I fear she'll be considered for the role of Carol Anne in the Poltergeist remake which I just couldn't abide and therefore dislike anything she does by default until I hear concrete evidence that either the movie is no longer going ahead, or at the least, she's not going to play carol anne.  

Posters for 'I am Legend' just appeared over at moviesonline, I can safely say my emotional response to them is minimal. Moody yet bland. What I want is Will Smith stomping a vampire skull… or at least something more than an empty street and a nice car.

(now proved to be fan-made posters, thanks to Barry Collins for pointing this out)