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addicted to cinema, tv, PFC and chocolate cornflake cake 
Diary entries by filmfan in February 2008
By filmfan
on Tue, 26th Feb 2008 at 16:52
This is pretty cool. If you like movies (films, really, but its a US-centric blog today) as much as I do you'll spend ages exploring the snazzy interactive thingy from The New York Times. They've plotted the box office takings of the films that were out in the last 22 years and its quite interesting to see what was popular at a particular time and how long it lasted. I found out about this at one of my new favourite haunts online - www.firstshowing.net . I'll try not to blog about everything they do, but I thought this was pretty fun. Bits and pieces now..... The BBC's movies section (oddly part of their Film section) is a great resource. I like the film diary, but the whole site is invaluable to a cinephile such as myself. Full of great interview, reviews and so on. Obviously IMDb is like catnip to me. Its a time-sponge is what it is. I'm working my way through the Top 250, I'm almost a fifth of the way through. At the rate I'm going I might have seen them all before I'm 100. Mind you, it is updated so I might do better if I keep picking corkers like Juno and No Country For Old Men. Not to be outdone, Channel 4 are great for movie stuff. Film4 the channel is free, which is great for me, and the related Facebook app. is quite good too. The website's Movie Rush is great for trailers, interviews etc. and the Box Office Top 10 bit at the bottom of the Cinema section is great for sorting the wheat from the chaff and cutting through the hype to find the films worth seeing. The Guardian's film section is worth a look too. Permanent link
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By filmfan
on Mon, 25th Feb 2008 at 21:52
I saw The Bank Job and Be Kind Rewind. Here's what I thought. Oh and the Oscar results are in. The Bank Job - Jason Statham and friends rob a bank and find themselves the targets of a conspiracy when they find that they've stolen some incrimating photos. Everyone's out to get them before the photos go public. This is a pretty entertaining, but ultimately forgettable, heist movie. Its funny and violent where it needs to be and the acting's all fine. A fair way to spend an evening if there's no footy on. Be Kind Rewind - Jack Black and Mos Def recreate some classic films when the stock of their video store is wiped. This is funny and feel good. Director Michel Gondry is the guy behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another great film. Be Kind Rewind is about loving movies and hating being told to hate piracy. For official sites and what's next on my list, check my last blog. The Oscars happened yesterday, despite all that writers' strike stuff, which seems sorted now anyway. For the full list of winners click here. As you might have guessed I'm happy that Juno got an Oscar for Diablo Cody's script - hard to believe its her first. Watch out for more great stuff from her. Check my last blog for links. I'm happy that the Coen brothers did so well with No Country For Old Men and well done to Javier Bardem for winning best supporting actor - that was a really creepy character. Good to see Ratatouille and Sweeney Todd pick up an award each too.
Do you think that the Oscars went to the right people? Comment this blog and tell me your thoughts.
By filmfan
on Sun, 17th Feb 2008 at 01:17
The Bank Job (28th Feb) Brits rob bank, unearth political cover-up and get involved in a sex scandal. Based on real events, this stars Jason Statham with guns - what more could you want? Cool seventies soundtrack by the sounds of it as well. For fans of Life on Mars and Crank - which has got a sequel in production as I type. Called Crank 2: High Voltage, it follows Chev Chelios as he tries to find the Chinese mobster who replaced his heart with a battery-powered device that needs shocking to keep him alive. This will not sound stupid if you saw Crank - it sounds frickin' awesome! Vantage Point (7th March) The US President is shot and the security services need to find the eight people who all had a view of what happened. Puzzle piecing action with Matthew 'Jack from Lost' Fox, Dennis Quaid and Forest Whittaker - of Last King of Scotland fame. Diary of the Dead (7th March) Like zombies? Like movies filmed handheld-style? Harbour a desire to fight off hoards of brain-eating ex-humans before they eat your guts? Then you'll love the latest flesh-flinging flick from George A. Romero - the first one since the 'Night' original to be 'completely' his own. Clicky for the myspace, which'll be better than the official site when its up I'll bet. Mister Lonely (14th March) Celebrity impersonators meet and fall in love - or something. Its either really crap or touchingly made with subtleties in each impersonators character which are like who they're pretending to be - or something. Meh. Horton Hears a Who (21th March) The first CGI adaption of a Dr. Seuss story, features the voice-talent of Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Seth Rogen (Knocked up, Superbad), Jonah Hill (err...Knocked up, Superbad and Walk Hard), Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, Wedding Daze, Engaged-to-Sacha-Baron-Cohen) and a lot more funny people. Play guess that voice and enjoy the pretty colours and zany plot. Oh, and Mr Eko is a town crier. Drillbit Taylor (28th March) Owen Wilson as a 'soldier of fortune' employed by some kids as a bodyguard to protect them from a school bully. Part written by Seth Rogen - yep him again - and with a funny, trailer it looks pretty funny.
If you've read this far and haven't seen Juno yet, I can only say you're missing out. Its a teen movie without the crass stereotyping and its a romcom without the soppy crap. Its up for all the best awards and has one a skipload of them already - deservedly so too. If you've read this far and have seen Juno, here's some links about the cast and crew. Screenwriter Diablo Cody's Myspace, and other blog - both great reads. Director Jason Reitman's About 99 more words in this entry
By filmfan
on Thu, 7th Feb 2008 at 17:41
Since Walk Hard, I've pretty much gorged myself on film. I've seen six movies all at Vue Gunwharf Quays, helped greatly by their Orange Wednesdays 2 for 1 scheme and I will now attempt to review them all. Crazy? Maybe. First up was Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I saw this and then No Country for Old Men - perhaps not a very clever idea. Anyway, Sweeney Todd is a film version of the stage musical by Stephen Sondheim. Therefore everyone sings what they'd be better off saying. This doesn't get old quite as quickly as you may expect, and leaves you plenty of time to love/hate Johnny Depp's singing in the title role. The songs are actually quite funny, despite their gory subject matter, but the best is a duet by Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (acting in her fifth film with hubby Tim Burton in the Director's chair) as Mrs. Lovett a pie shop owner. With cameos from Sacha Baron Cohen (very good) and Anthony Head (blink and you'll miss him), plus the likes of Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall in bigger, creepier roles Sweeney Todd is bloody good, in every sense, but not for the squeamish. Minutes later and I'm sat in front of beautiful Texan landscapes as Tommy Lee Jones (ageing local sheriff trying to make sense of a changing world) is on the trail of Josh Brolin (wisecracking opportunist crook) who is being hunted by Javier Bardem (the scariest man - and haircut - of the year)because Brolin stole a case of drug-money. This is a Coen brothers film, and as such requires a bit of interpretation. This is great. I'm not sure if I've seen a Coen brothers film before, least not all the way through, but I like them. I ought to see more of their work. So, an unsettling, nerve-jangling, blood-letting evening, all in all.
Perhaps ignoring the headrush of seeing two films back-to-back in the cinema, perhaps encouraging it, I saw Cloverfield and Juno the following Saturday. Each recommended by almost all the critics, Cloverfield and Juno share an odd sort of anti-Hollywood sentiment. Cloverfield is a relatively small budget monster movie which focuses on the human story without skimping on the CGI. Whilst Juno couldn't be more independent if it wore a t-shirt with 'Fuck you I'm independent' written on it in big homemade lettering. Cloverfield is best known for being the film with THAT mind-blowing trailer. Y'know the one where a party is interrupted by the Statue of Liberty's severed head crashing into the buildings and streets outside. This was just the starting point for fans of Lost-creator J. J. Abram's work. His fans are a different breed. They will pick apart and analyse every snippet of anything even rumoured to be connected to one of J. J's projects. So, if you wanted to, you could follow the big fact hunt for the back-story for Cloverfield. You'd encounter a suspicious slush drinks company, an eco-terrorist organisation and about half a dozen Myspace accounts for the party-going characters. I followed all this second-hand, through CloverfieldClues, after I was pointed to the website 1-18-08.com, one of the key parts of the massive online marketing campaign. It lives up to much of its own hype, and if you've seen it, you too can ponder the possibility of a sequel! I like the idea of a fake documentary which is interrupted during filming by another attack. Perhaps the monster's still alive; perhaps it left something deadly in its wake.
Juno, as you'll have guessed from my earlier uber-blog is a pretty big
deal. I wanted to see it almost a month before its ful... About 715 more words in this entry about me"Web Junky, Media-Monkey and Telly Addict"
blogroll & links (what's this?)I hear about new films here: firstshowing.net I blog about how much I'm looking forward to them right here. (Look Left) I finally get to watch the bigger movies here: Vue Portsmouth Then I blog a review of them right here. (Look Left) Sometime they even make it here: Pugwash News |
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