Posts filed under "cinematic-score"
Ok if in case you didn’t read the title of this post, it has the word spoiler in it for a reason, not interested in finding out what has happened on the end of the third season then pretty please with a cherry on top go somewhere else and you don’t ever need to blame me for ruining anything for you. Good everyone else here?
Watched it yesterday and I’ve got to say I was pretty damn excited about this episode. I got back home at a normal time and went straight to downloading the episode. All the while I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The big massive revelation; who is the Cylon, who is the Cylon. I don’t get one I get 4 of them, definitely didn’t see that one coming, especially Saul as one that’s come out of NOWHERE. I’m sure they’ve thought this one through, but seriously how the hell does that actually work? He’s like over 50 years old and that’s how old the Cylons are right? At least that’s what we were originally led to believe.
So I did a bit of researching. Ron Moore’s podcast isn’t up on the scifi channel yet however if you look around you’ll be able to find a couple of interviews scattered around the place where he talks about things.
The biggest twist of couse was definitely Starbuck’s appearance at the end of the show. I honestly didn’t expect that. I’ve got to say that while listening to Ron’s commentary regarding the reasons to kill off Starbuck never rang true with me. It seemed as though it was all about the AUDACITY of it all, which felt a little bit on the weak side. It’s nice to see how they’ve pulled one of the best cons in recent television history. ‘Kill off a character’, have actress in on it as well so all her interviews point that she’s going to be moving on, don’t insert her name in the credits of the actual episode and then have her come back right at the end. Of course there are a lot of unanswered questions but it’s definitely one of the better endings on the show which always has pretty spectacular cliffhanger season endings.
Also I really loved ‘All along the Watchtower’ cover by Bear McCreary and his brother, definitely will be getting that once it’s available from somewhere.
http://www.brokenkode.com/battlestar-galactica-season-3-finale-spoilers
Frank Miller’s 300 had my money several times over from the moment I heard it was going to be made. Then came the trailer and I nearly came in my pants several times over (I know not a pretty vision but at least I’m being truthful). Then I shared the trailer with Stathi and Christos and while I thought I was excited, these guys were even more excited about this movie than I was. Honestly between the three of us we’ve probably seen the trailer like 3000 times. I can’t count the number of times we’ve quoted the lines:
“Blasphemy? Madness? THIS IS SPAAARTAAA!”
So to say that we were completely hyped for the movie is a slight understatement. So how do we celebrate this momentous occasion of the release of 300? We book the top section of Everyman cinema in Hampstead (much more about this glorious cinema theatre in a moment) and pack it with 40 something Greeks. To say there was a bit of atmosphere in the theatre, is once again a slight understatement. Half of us screamed the above line when Leonidas said it.
The Venue
It’s strange but one of the things that annoys me about cinemas is that the experience seems to have been diluted. I’m talking in a general sense here. It’s no longer something special, it’s no longer something that is truly an experience in every sense of the world. Thank god someone remembered this and made the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, North London. Basically it’s very small little venue however there are different levels of seating throughout all of which are larger than usual, with little tables to the side of them. The side seats are leather with foot rests and all of them have champagne bottle holders. The ambience in there is amazing. Seriously I kept looking at just how beautiful the place was and how great all the colours worked together seamlessly. The screen isn’t the largest, the sound isn’t this amazing THX (at least I don’t think it is) but it’s definitely one of the best cinema’s I’ve ever been to. This enhanced this movies completely for me even further than if I watched it in your run of the mill movie theatre.
The movie itself
In case you missed my review over at Splash Panel, go and have a read about the actual graphic novel itself first of which this movie is based upon. This isn’t a movie based on a myth, this is a movie based incredibly faithfully on a graphic novel that is based on history. Keep that little fact in mind when watching this movie. It’s not supposed to be historically accurate. It’s meant to be a man movie.
“A new age has begun. An age of freedom, and all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breathe to defend it.”
The story is a timeless one, depicting one of the greatest if not most important battles in history, completely stylised of course with loads of magicians and huge monsters people and weird freaks, however believe it or not it’s not the story that counts here but how it is delivered. You see this story has been told several times before, however never like this. Some of the fight scenes in here are some of the most brutal you’ve ever seen in a swords and sandals epic. Forget all the rubbish that is Troy and Alexander and open your eyes to 2 minutes of pure Spartan maddness cutting through one guy after the other. Then chilling out and eating an apple over the dead. It’s meant to be over the top. It’s meant to be completely manly in nature. The dialogue just drips of testosterone and I think that’s one of it’s greatest qualities. You don’t get enough movies where the guys are completely hard as nails.
A distinct success of the movie was use of colour filters throughout the movie. From the soft yellows used for Sparta to the blues used for scenes with the Immortals. The darker browns used for the fight scenes made the red capes sand out even more. Make no mistake this movie isn’t for everyone (although I wish it was). For a start it’s an 18, which means this movie is violent, has got scenes of a sexual nature (read: soft porn) but there isn’t any real swearing as Miller didn’t really have any of that in his book.
My gripes
I’ll get this out of the way quickly so that we can move on. There were not that many, in fact there was probably only one gripe of which I didn’t hear it in the trailer but basically they chose to pronounce the name of the single most important character in the movie incorrectly. I am of course talking about Kind Leonidas. It is not LEO-N-EYE-DIS, the proper pronounciation of the name is actually LEO-NEE-DAS. It’s a pretty simple thing that I honestly wish they would have gotten any Greek boy from the nearest restaurant to tell them how to get it right phonetically. Of course this could NEVER ruin the overall experience which was pure magic.
The Casting
I’ve got to say that the casting in most cases (except for Leonidas’s son, who thankfully had nothing to say) was completely inspired. Gerard Butler was an AWESOME. Gerard held your attention completely. His voice was worth EVERY penny they paid him as he truly made you believe in the Spartan way. Never retreat, never surrender.
The choices Vincent Regan for the Captain and David Wenham for Dilios were also chosen very well. I loved Lena Headey as the Queen, that was also pretty damn inspired casting. However for me the surprise casting was for that of Xerxes; I have NO idea how the hell they managed to make Rodrigo Santoro actually look like Xerxes but it’s incredibly impressive stuff.
The Details
The icing on the cake for me however was definitely the ending credits. See that’s the level of love and attention that’s gone into this. Basically for the end credits they’ve taken Frank Miller’s panels and basically given them a bit of a 3D effect treatment of the blood being splattered everywhere. Truly awesome stuff and it was great to see such reverence to the source material itself.
From a comic book point of view it was completely faithful to the style. The additional areas were actually very very well done. The scenes with the Queen showed just how hard she was. It was an welcome addition to the story while I am a purist in these things I think if it’s scenes that don’t take away from the actual original source material then I have no problems with it at all.
Final Word
This is not intended for a girlie night in, or people who enjoy movies light the Princess Bride or some such rubbish. You’re here to see Spartans kicking ass and talking names. You will probably not see as stylish a movie for a very long time. You see it’s a complete an utter epic. Epic in scope and epic in the way that it portrays everything. From the tumbling arrows that blot out the sun, to the amazing scenes with the ships crashing down and the Spartans overlooking the devestation, ripped directly out of the book and shown in motion.
It’s only a month and a half away before the movie of the year gets released, check out the teaser preview (mostly stuff from the previous trailers but there are a couple more schene to look at. Oh yeah, if you’re worried about spoilers, well don’t just go out and buy the damn book, it’s worth you money and should be on your shelf.
As I continue my review of 2006, go read part 1 if you want to find out my thoughts on The best of the Net 2006, I’m turning my attention to movies. Interestingly I think this year has been one of the worst years for movies in a really long time. That isn’t to say that I haven’t enjoyed a good number of movies this year, it’s just that I found less time for movies this year, which I can probably attribute to the lack of quality flicks being shown this year.
Cinema Movies
This is a list of the actual movies I saw in the cinema (that’s a pitiful 11 (I forgot that I’d watched Pan’s Labyrinth movies, which is completely ridiculous as far as I’m concerned):
Aeroplane Movies
while the rest of the new released movies were watched on flights:
Best Movie of 2006
From the above the best movie was without a doubt Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. I’ve talked about it more extensively on my review of the movie. Funnily enough Kevin Smith’s Clerks II is a definite runner up as it definitely gave me a couple of hours of pure entertainment. The whole donkey sequence was one of the funniest things I’ve seen on screen. So funny I actually had to stop and catch my breath. Comic genius. Cars is up there as well, although it’s definitely not as good as either the Incredibles or Finding Nemo.
Most disappointing movie of 2006 for me personally was X-men 3. Seriously they were on auto-pilot for that movie. Another minor disappointment for me was Superman Returns. Not because it was a bad movie, but rather because it wasn’t as great as I actually really wanted it to be.
To be Continued…
Here’s a list of movies that were released this year and that I will no doubt try and actually watch sometime in 2007:
However the PRUNE of all prunes surely has to go to Rocky Balboa (and that’s considering some of the stinkers I’ve seen this year, I mean it’s got Last Holiday for fuck’s sake). I mean seriously what the hell were they thinking when they got round and signed all the contracts for this? It’s one of the most ridiculous concepts I’ve ever heard and it’s really strange that Hollywood is so lame that it has to create another sequel. They should have stopped after 2 and called it a night. Hell I might even stomach 4, but seriously Rocky 6? I haven’t even seen this and sure as hell am not going to bother wasting my time with it. What next Die Hard 4? Oh shit yeah they’re going to be making that.
The Prestige, the new Christopher Nolan movie is like getting Christmas early. I mean how could the following ingredients possibly disappoint. You get Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine, David Bowie all in one movie, set in turn of the century London, revolving around magicians and the ultimate magic trick.
Seeing as how becoming a magician was one of my first dreams of what I wanted to become when I was older, you can imagine how giddy I felt watching this movie. It wasn’t slightly good, it was bloody good. Watching the movie there was this sense of urgency, tricks and double tricks, twists and turns. You always were thinking how is that trick done, how do they do it, what’s the deal with it all.
Bale is awesome as he’s definitely beginning to take over as one of the premier actors you go for when you need a solid performance. Michael Caine is doing a spectacular job as always. In fact with regards to the acting (and casting for that matter), everything was completely spot on.
One of the first things you find out about the movie is why it’s called the Prestige. I’m not going to ruin it (unless you’re really into magicians, then you probably already know, I didn’t), as I wouldn’t be able to it the same justice as Michael Caine does in the first few minutes of the movie. The story centres around two rival magicians who go through life trying to achieve greatness. As you can imagine with a movie coming from the Nolan brothers we’re going to be dealing with a non-linear timeline with many twists and turns (I mean come on, what else would you expect from those that gave you Memento, one of the all-time classics of modern cinema.
Nolan has definitely routed himself as one of my favourite directors as he’s currently three for three in my book. He’s definitely taken over from David Fincher who has disappeared into the ether of late (wasn’t Panic Room the last Fincher movie?).
Abracadabra.
I’ve been meaning to talk about the latest season of Battlestar Galactica since it began airing 3 weeks ago now. For all those who don’t know what I’m talking about, go here and read (which reminds me I really should go back to my old posts and format them accordingly, how embarrassing). Without a shadow of a doubt the great TV show that is currently on the air. Groundbreaking in many ways and essentially just a damn good story.
Matt beat me to the punch with his review on the latest Battlestar Galactica episode (season 3, episode 4) Exodus Part 2, but it most definitely was a complete rocket (no pun intended). As of right now I’m going to get into details so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE with a cherry on top, go somewhere else because I’m going to be throwing SPOILERS. You’ve been warned.
So what did I like about this episode? So many great moments to think about. I absolutely loved the scene with the Galactica jumping into the atmosphere and launching the Raptors; classic scene, the flames the idea itself and a flawless execution.
Gaeta is a great little character. If there was one person that I think would be me on that show it would be Gaeta, except I would have definitely pulled that god damn trigger. In any case I’m still holding that Baltar is a fraking Cylon, based on the completely dodgy way in which he escaped his ‘death’ in the pilot. Everything blows up and he’s hiding behind Number 6’s skinny (and incredibly lovely legs). Bollocks the man is a Cylon.
The scenes with Tigh and Ellen were brilliant. I think Saul is a complete fuck up however he’s been put in a pretty bad position time and time again. Most people would have cracked under the pressure. He kind of has, however at the same time he keeps fighting, even though he probably wishes he would die. Listening to Ellen give her final goodbye was just great. Here you had a woman that obviously would do anything for you, and has had to. This is war and in war you do ugly, terrible things, in order to survive. I don’t think Ellen was evil, more like completely stupid and misguided, but she loved her husband, after a fashion.
The Pegasus coming to the rescue was completely predictable and I was wondering when they were going to get rid of that ship. There can be only one Battlestar, although Bill’s now back to being a Commander rather than an Admiral, which is a shame, I really liked that growth of character.
Speaking of growth in character, that is actually one of the most important aspects of this little jump the writers have put into this particular season. All these character are now even more fucked up and damaged than what they were before the invasion. Now the inter-relationship politics are even more intense, however we have no idea what caused this rift. What happened in that one year. I guess we can expect to find many of these questions answered in the coming weeks. I’m going to try and do this analysis on a regular basis.
Also for some reason, listening to the podcasts, while I do like the fact that the team is actually doing these, some of the magic is actually taken away from the show by them talking about their practical consideration, room and the cost of an episode. I dunno, I guess the show really does suspend my disbelief that I don’t want anything to bring it back.
The transformers trailer actually looks pretty damn good. This might be pretty old news but I hadn’t heard anything about it on the net.
Democrcy Internet TV Platform - in all it’s open sourcy goodness. Just in time for the new Battlestar Galactica series (how the hell did so many months go by since season 2 ended, it really does seem like an eternity), the new My Name is Earl series and the new Lost series (still need to finish watching the rest of Season 2).
Update: This seems to have been taken down from Youtube. It was only a matter of time really. But then again you can’t keep things like this off the net for too long. So I’m sure another link will surface at some point (Movie is set for a 7th March release).
I’ve watched this trailer three times now and every time I watch it I get goosebumps. The book is so memorable that I still remember dialogue even though I read it over 10 years ago. All the best bits of the graphic novel are condensed into that trailer (ok most of the best parts, because there are many). The NIN music is a brilliant addition, and I’m glad they’ve gone down the route of keeping the feel, the edginess, the darkness of the graphic novel in tact. Easily the best story Frank ‘Sin CIty’ Miller has ever worked on and that’s saying something considering his illustrious career. Don’t know who’s playing Leonidas but he looks and sounds the part completely. Fucking awesome.
A new Pixar animation is generally cherished over here in Casa Broken Kode; then again do you blame me? After all they ‘sand the underside of the drawer’ (it’s a policy they have at Pixar regarding how much car and attention they give to their movies). The last couple of features from Pixar have been absolutely amazing. From the brilliant Finding Nemo, to The Incredibles, to Monsters Inc, every one of their movies, OOZES with characters and colour and story. Each movie has a clarity of vision and a crispness and love of one’s craft that the viewer generally cannot help but be drawn into these magical worlds that they create. With an introduction like that and knowing how hard it is to follow up on any kind of successful feature, be it a website, film, graphic novel, album, how does Cars fair in comparison?
The story in simple terms follow Lightning McQueen as he tries to travel to California along Route 66 in order to compete in a race for the Piston Cup (Daytona or something similar I guess, don’t know much about America motorsports). McQueen is not a very pleasant chap. He’s obnoxious, he’s over confident and he doesn’t have any friends. His trip to California takes a bit of a detour as he finds himself in the middle of Radiator Springs. A town where life has passed it by. It’s here that he learns that there’s more to life than just racing. All very inspirational, all very cotton candy type stuff, which is part of the problem.
I’m going to give you the bad news at the start of this review simply because it’s easy to be done with that aspect of it all, so that I can concentrate on the stuff I actually liked. The story believe it or not is actually the worst part of this movie. The reason is because it felt too formulaic for me. As I was watching this movie, I started remembering a couple of the previous Pixar movies and they all seem to follow a very similar story structure and then I remembered who was directing this. It’s a Lasseter movie. He’s a great director, don’t get me wrong, but the story and structure of his movies follow a pattern. Once you’ve watched them as many times as I have, you notice this pattern and can see it coming. With regards to the story, I guess this particular one is only better than ‘A Bug’s Life’ which I swear I can’t even remember what the story was actually about. I remember all sorts of dialogue from the rest of their library, but not that one. I don’t think Cars will be that unmemorable, it’s just that it’s not what I’m going to remember this movie by.
Another aspect of this movie that sticks out is that you honestly have to been American, or have visited the states to fully appreciate this movie. It’s about Cars. It’s for people who generally like cars and everything that comes with this sort of thing. I’m not a massive car fan in general, although I love Formula 1 (or at least I used to until this year which is driving me [no pun intended] further and further away from the sport) I’m seriously not this car aficionado. My cousins (and especially my brother I’ve noticed) can’t stop talking about cars but I’ve got to admit that the whole topic BORES me to tears. Seriously.
Which brings me onto the elements of the movie that I will remember very clearly and constantly chuckle about. The stars of this movie, wasn’t the animation itself, unlike previous Pixar outings, but rather the characters. It’s all about the characters. In a clever way the creators over at Pixar tried to make a car that everyone could associate themselves with.
My favourite car without a doubt was Guido. The guy was too cute in every sense of the word and he embodied a lot of things that I can relate to intimately. Every scene the car was in (along with Luigi) where the classic scenes. When he shows up at the drag race with the massive Italian style Afro I nearly fell of my seat. His ultimate display of skill in the final minutes of the movie and his subsequent ‘Pit Stop’ were absolutely brilliant. I really want to know what he shouts out in Italian because I’m pretty sure it’s another fantastic set of lines (for all those in the dark he apparently can only say two words in English, ‘Pit Stop’). I will most definitely be getting a Guido for my birthday (I’ve already started hinting to people that I’d like one). The interaction between the army car and the hippy was brilliant. ‘Hey man, RESPECT the classics’. I even found ‘Mater’ mildly amusing.
The guys at Pixar did something different in the final scenes of the credits. Rather than showing ‘outtakes’ like they usually do, they decided to extend things a little bit and actually try and poke some fun in another way. Some parts were pretty damn funny, while others could have done with a little bit more fun injected in them. The little ‘Mack’ section was absolutely hilarious. Really very funny.
‘Cars’ was without a doubt well worth the cash I slapped down to watch it. Was it as good as the other Pixar movies, not really no. It’s terribly tough trying to beat a lot of their movies and I think that’s the problem they face. They bettered ‘A Bug’s Life’ but not the other ones. It had it’s charm and introduced us to some classic characters and a decent yarn to keep you occupied.
Saw ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ yesterday. Got me some thoughts about it, but as you can expect I’m going to be talking about story details, so consider this your SPOILER WARNING. Don’t look further if you’ve not seen this movie yet. Dead Man’s Chest follows on from the previous Pirates movie. The movie begins as Elizabeth and William Turner’s wedding is interrupted by the Royal Navy or some authority as they place them under arrest. However this is not just to uphold the law, it would seem the Commandant has ulterior motives. He blackmails Turner into going out to find Captain Jack Sparrow and retrieve his compass, that as you remember from the previous movie, didn’t work.
Meanwhile Captain Jack is in a whole WORLD of trouble as it seems he struck a deal with Davey Jones for 10 years of being a Captain of the Black Pearl in exchange for his soul (and 100 years of serving on Davey Jone’s ship). Of course Jack’s not all that keen to get going with this plan, so he’s trying to find a key that unlocks Davey Jone’s chest.
That’s as spoiler free as it gets people, from now on this really is your final warning. So anyway I really didn’t understand the reason why Davey Jones took his heart out and put it in that chest. I know SOMEONE mentioned something in the movie, but honestly it whizzed by so quickly I have no idea what the actual reason was, so if you picked this up, please do tell. I guess that’s one of my complaints about the movie. They had so much story to tell that someone was a bit asleep at the wheel when they went and edited this thing. Not much editing happened as far as I’m concerned. I could have done without the cannibals scenes or that whole ridiculous fighting scene on the spinning wheel thing. The whole scene with Elizabeth and the two other pirate monkeys on the beech was pretty cringe worthy as well.
The thing I will say however is that it’s Johnny Depp’s movie. I pretty much guarantee that if Jack Sparrow wasn’t in this movie, NO ONE would bother watching it, because to be blunt, everyone else pales in comparison to what the man does. His eyes and his facial expressions are spot on. The carefree way in which he’s constantly running around the screen is also really funny. He’s definitely got all the best lines and he’s the kookiest character of the lot, which means a lot really. He also claims the best scene in the entire movie, where he utters: ’ Hello beastie’. Very cool scene.
Regarding the rest of the story, it was pretty standard fun with a great little ending with Barbosa making his return. Dunno how he did it but I’m sure they’ll be explaining it sometime next year when the third one is released.
I was particularly impressed with ILM’s effects on this movie, which seriously did showcase all that they can do with regards to integrating all sorts of things with the live action. From the destruction of various ships by the aforementioned beastie, all the way to Davey Jone’s octopus beard thingy. One point that I’d like to mention was the great use of colours in this movie. The apple eaten by Barbosa right at the end, to the costumes and the various beaches around the place, colour plays such an important part in this movie.
Better get comfortable, because you’ll need to be as the one thing that can definitely say about this movie is that it is LONG. It’s about 45 minutes longer than it really needed to be. There was a slew of sections in this movie that simply dragged on longer than I would have wanted. Ana mentioned it at the same time as me, because every time you thought it was going to end, it just kept going. Paradoxically, I have never yawned as much coming out of movie in my life. It’s not that I was bored or anything, probably just tired but it was very strange.
I did enjoy this movie, with the exception that I thought it was far too long in areas, but that’s the beauty of DVD, where I’ll be sure to fast forward those areas I thought stretched out too long.
In case you missed it (because I did until very recently), Yahoo’s now got a nice Summer Movie Guide set up. The movies I’m most excited about are: Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Clerks II, Superman Returns and Over the Hedge. Should I be looking out for anything else?
Go buy the DVD version of an open-source movie? Open source as in you’ve got full access to all the elements that went into making the movie. I know sounds completely crazy but very cool at the same time. I’ve been waiting for this for a good long while, ever since I heard about it all those moons ago. If you’ve not tried Blender and want to try your hand at 3d modelling, you really don’t have very far to travel, and nothing to pay for your visit either.
Just finished watching the latest trailer for the Superman Returns movie and I’ve got to say that Bryan Singer seems to have HIT the nail on the head. He’s actually made this character seem like a great deal of fun. There’s a certain optimism in the entire trailer and the fact that the characters are playing off the actual stereotypes is something that comes across incredibly well. Then again you’d need some pretty stellar actors to pull it off well, and I can think of no one else that does it better than Kevin Spacey. His line at the end of that trailer is priceless. Can’t wait for this….and I’m not even a Superman fan (with the odd story as an exception).
I was meaning to write about this last week but I got caught up in other things and once again missed reviewing this movie. It’s not a new movie, however it holds a special place with me as it’s my feel good movie. It’s the movie I watch on a Sunday when I’m slightly depressed “…that it is a Sunday and that Monday’s UGLY UGLY head is slowly poking out of the infested mutant pipe that spawned it”. In case you didn’t catch that I really hate Mondays. It’s the story of Amelie and if you’re a guy by the end of the movie you’ll be wishing you find yourself a French lady just like her (movie is in French and set in Paris). Every part of this movie screams class. From the opening titles that show a little Amelie doing things that children do to amuse themselves. This is then followed by a lightning fast narrative that picks up random occurances of life, until we reach the birth of our title lady Amelie Poulain.
The casting of little Amelie is incredible and the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet doesn’t fall into the trap of letting his children stars actually talk. I’ll try and elaborate on this a little bit. One of the things that is a big no-no in Hollywood because it generally spells the death of that movie commercially (and most cases critically as well) is using animals as the driving stars or children (there are of course the rare occasions where it all works in a magical way; Sixth Sense comes to mind, but that was an incredibly unique movie anyway). Little Amelie acts the role, but by not speaking and letting her eyes and actions speak we get a lot more convincing performance. It’s a subtle trick and I doubt it would work on me again but because it’s done so well in this movie I love it.
The entire setup is the fact that Amelie was not getting the attention she craved from her father. So much so that the only time he would have any physical contact with her is when he was giving her monthly physical check. This act would get her excited that her heart would beat so hard giving her father the impression she had a heart condition. Thus she was taught at home and made her both odd and closed to the outside world.
The movie follows her life from birth till the present moment as she struggles to find a purpose in life. At the same moment it touches the lives of many people around her. What’s very fun is just how inventive her sense of justice is and how she would go about making sure that justice is served.
One of the most amazing things in this movie is the use of colours. For me at least it set the standard with regards to rendering colours for a film. In fact the only other movie I can think of that comes close to the level of attention to the colours and the use of filters is the chinese epic ‘Hero’ (which I’ll be sure to review at some point as well). The colours leap out at you and add a layer that would have made the movie a lot less rich if they hadn’t obviously given it the attention that it required. By doing this the film is given a distinct look that is different from the very start. Greens and reds are used to dynamic effect.
The acting in this movie is very well done and the all the characters are very well thought out. This is the first movie I’ve seen with Audrey Tautou in it, but she got a fan for life as she plays her part in the most sublime fashion ever. She’s the obvious contender to Audrey Hepburn’s classy movie star queen title (must be something in the name to be honest).
Finally I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the superb soundtrack which gives that French flavour like no other movie can do. Once again another superb layer that is added which elevates. It’s like all the stars were aligned at the right time to make sure this movie was one of the greats.
If you’ve not had the chance to watch this superb movie then I seriously recommend you stop what you’re doing and make sure you secure it for tonight or this weekend. If you’ve got to buy it or rent it or whatever your life will be that much better after you’ve watched this gem captured on celluloid.
Not really what I was hoping to hear, but the Firefly Season 2 news that has been making the rounds, doesn’t seem to be anything but a lot of hot air and one fan’s dream. It’s nice that he likes it so much and stranger things have happened but I doubt we’re likely to see another Firefly series which is a crying shame. If you’re more interested in new Serenity stories head over to Splash Panel as I’ve just done a review for the gap between Firefly season 1 and the Serenity movie.
…meanwhile if you’re interested in what Lois Lane will look like look no further than Just Jared. Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor is easily the best thing they could have possibly done. Inspired casting if you ask me.
In keeping with the X-men theme of late, from Joblo (thanks to The Beat), we’ve got some pictures of all the X-men characters. My favourite is definitely Colossus and as I mentioned before the beast.
Go have a look at it. Yeah I know something you would expect this sort of thing over at Splash Panel but like I said the content there is SOO specific that it just doesn’t fit in there. So checking out this trailer all I can say is that I like the fact that all the characters are back in action. It’ll be fun to see another X-men movie. Having said that there are a couple of things that I thought looked a little weak.
The first being Angel and just how wrong he looks. He’s meant to be soo much more imposing, and yet in this shot looks completely wrong. The casting looks wrong. Just everything looks wrong.
They got the Beast SPOT ON, which originally I was pretty scared they’d screw up, but it seems they spent most of their time sorting out his look and should have maybe spent some time looking at that horrible Angel look. I thought it was nice seeing Colossus in there as well, can’t wait to see him in full metal cladding.
I’ve not heard much about the story, but I’ve got to say that’s the one aspect I’m exceptionally scared of. The story could signal the death of this franchise which would be a shame as I truly enjoyed the first two movies (X2 more than X-men). Here’s hoping for the best, and expecting the worst.
Empire describes it as “Akira for the 21st Century” but watching this movie reminded me more of the mid 90s when I first watched Ghost in the Shell. Sky Blue apparently took 7 years to create. To say it’s spectacular sounds to me like to do a diservice to the amount of painstaking detail that the animators have chored over to create, it’s more than spectacular. I remember when I first saw Ghost in the Shell I was absolutely amazed by the sheer grandness of the design. The animators where having fun showing off this world they’d created. 10 years later the production team behind Sky Blue do one up, and surprisingly the results haven’t come from Japan as you’d expect but rather from Korea. If this is a glimse of things to come from the Korean animation scene, I honestly can’t wait to see what Japan will fight back with, because make no mistake, Sky Blue has set the bar with respect to animation.
The story centres around the city of Ecoban. In a world where no one has seen the colour of the sky, it’s been raining for over 100 years. The existence of Ecoban depends on the work force called the Diggers. Before the catastrophic events that lead to the natural disaster, a certain group anticipated the upcoming downfall. They built Ecoban to make sure that they survived. They locked the doors and didn’t let anyone in. Those stuck on the outside became the diggers. This obviously caused a great deal of hostility between the two groups.
My only gripe with the movie was the weakness of the american voice over actors, who did feel a bit forced. Not as fluid and convincing as I’ve come to expect from my animated endeavours.
I wish I could describe the sheer imagination of the world the animators showed off in this movie, but I think the best way for you to understand is to watch it.
The Superman Returns teaser trailer is up and it did give me goosebumps. Mainly the Marlon Brando voice to be honest. The music was completely spot on, created all the atmosphere I could have hoped for. I will echo a couple of comments I’ve heard online about the fact that it doesn’t really look like Metropolis and more like Gotham, but I think that’s just the trailer. My favourite part is easily the jump scene in the fields.
Saw this movie last week, but due to various problems, it’s taken this long to talk about. Just to warn everyone
MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP. IF YOU’VE NOT SEEN THIS YET, AND ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THE STORY, TURN AWAY NOW. DON’T LOOK FURTHER, JUST GO READ SOMETHING ELSE.
Budget
Right from the start of this movie you could tell this was going to be a good Sci-fi flick. The smaller-than-usual-budget-for-a-sci-fi-movie (apparently $40 million) however does come through in the lack of overly elaborate sets. This was arguably the one aspect that did make the movie seem less fit for the big screen than anything else (i.e lack of big name Hollywood actors etc). Although the story does journey to different locales, the real life sets were less than spectacular.
That isn’t to say that it’s a cheepo movie. Money has been spent on this film. This movie would have been the best Firefly episode ever made. The CGI used here was superb, and there were shocks, spills and revelations. I enjoyed seeing the worlds that Firefly/Serenity inhabit. That aspect has always been missing from Sci-fi TV series. Battlestar Galactica does do a gallant job of trying to rectify this situation, in that the sets don’t look the same from one shoot to the next, however BG doesn’t really show much in way of new worlds, so they don’t need to spend much money on the CGI.
Characters
For me although Kaylee was originally my favorite character, she quickly turned to my number 2 or 3, as River easily took over that role towards the end of the Firefly show. With the Serenity movie she’s established herself as the number 1 character of the show, by a long way. Apart from the fact that I’m completely gone on Summer Glau, she’s also the quirkiest character there. I’d question whether she looks 17, however it seems that the youth of America need to be told that they have to look like 25 year olds. Can anyone say Beverly Hills 90210?
Starting from the beginning young-River, looks NOTHING like the older version. IMHO that’s easily the worst casting of the movie. Not that the little girl was a bad actress (like a certain mini-skywaker), but she just wasn’t a good match. This was more than made up for by giving River the best scenes and the best lines.
If I hadn’t watched Firefly, I’d say that not enough information was given about Book, and his death meant little to the audience that were not familiar with the movie. Same goes for Wash. Good way to end his life on screen however:
I’m a leaf on the wind
The Operative is a suitably evil bad guy, although I’d question Mal’s decision not to kill him on several occasions. His opening scene is one I’ll remember for a while. Just the coldness of his actions are pulled off very well. I never cringed once when I saw him on scene, which I generally do when I see the ‘typical bad guy’.
Inara didn’t get much time on screen, which is a crying shame as she does a very good job of challenging Mal’s authority/ideas and plans. I’m glad they progressed that aspect of the relationship, even by the slightest amount.
Storyline
The revelation of the Reavers was another great little gem of storytelling, as we’ve always been led to believe that they’re just humans gone wrong of their own accord. Always nice when you get a payoff to watching something for an extended period of time (think Babylon 5). It’s also very cool to see them more up close. It just adds a certain brutality to the show, and gives it a bit of an edge.
Conclusion
As a Firefly fan, I was impressed by the overall package of a movie it was. I’m still on the fence about whether or not it truly required a full length feature movie in the cinema, as something deep down felt like it just didn’t belong there. The Firefly fans are going to take a lot from it than anyone else that’s for sure.
Just as a sidenote, if you’re interested in finding out what exactly happened in the 6 months between the end of Firefly and the start of Serenity (i.e why Inara and Book left), then check out the upcoming Serenity mini-series in trade paperback from Dark Horse (it’s written by Joss Whedon and apparently very well drawn, I’ve only scoped out the covers which are brilliant).
I’m going to do you two favours with this post, so I’m hoping you all send some love my way. This can be in the shape of money donations or buy me something from Amazon, I’m not too fussy. The two things I’m going to save you are TIME, which as we all know we don’t have enough of and some of your hard earned CASH.
DO NOT, under ANY circumstance go and watch the new Guy Ritchie, pile of stinking, tumor-inducing, shitty excuse for what he’s calling his new movie, Revolver. Don’t bother watching this on DVD, don’t watch it when it’s on TV eventually, don’t watch it if a friend comes over and the only other thing on TV is some reality TV program, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE. This isn’t one of those reviews where they’ll be very cool and include it in the packaging (like Fight Club).
I thought about this and the problem is that Guy Ritchie actually thinks he’s as good as Quentin Tarantino. The two previous movies I’ve seen by Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking barrels and Snatch) were both very enjoyable affairs. Revolver on the other hand can only be described as that bit of food that’s stuck in between your teeth, that decides to come out 3 days later.
It’s not that the acting was bad, because it wasn’t. The actors read their lines and did their thing. I can’t really fault the camera work, or the sets or the music, which were all pretty well done as well. Unfortunately what was really lacking in this movie was the fact that both the actual writing/dialog and direction were both truly sub par. Endless reams of self-analytical bullshit, compressed into this stream of drivel, that make you go,’WTF did he just say?’ In fact the closest approximation I can give you in terms of how bad it got, was the dialog in the 2 Matrix sequels.
Yeah, that bad, honest, I wouldn’t be going on like this if it wasn’t.
I suppose it’s because I’m a fan of his previous work, that I feel like he cheated me of a decent movie here. The core concept and ideas if were given to Tarantino would be brilliant. And another thing, why would you do an animation in a movie (and a bad one at that) so close to Kill Bill? I mean at least that scene had a purpose, nearly a year since I saw that scene I can still tell you about it. I only saw this animated sequence yesterday and I can only remember one small part of it!
I know he’s better than this, so what was he thinking when he was editing this? Whatever Ritchie is smoking, I seriously don’t want ANY of it.
Finally saw Howl’s Moving Castle yesterday. Laurent and I have been talking about watching this on the big screen for nearly a year now, as we’re both MASSIVE Miyazaki fans. In fact coming to think about it, I don’t think you can possibly watch a Miyazaki movie and not become a fan of his. Every new Miyazaki movie should be savored because in my opinion they honestly don’t come out as often as they should, which if I had it my way would be every single week.
The thing I liked the most in the movie was the characters who were all extremely well defined. The thing that made me laugh was how all the male characters came off as incredibly CAMP (read: slightly fruity in case you’re not familiar with the term camp), and to a certain degree I couldn’t really take them seriously. My favourite character without a doubt was Turnip Head, who is a fantastic addition to the number of characters under the Studio Gibli umbrella. A really pleasant surprise as well was the voice of Billy Crystal for Calcifer, who did an excellent job.
The world that this movie was set in reminded me of Kiki’s Delivery service a great deal, however for some strange reason I didn’t think the animation was even as close as polished as it was in Spirited Away, which remains my favorite Miyazaki movie ever.
Having said all that coming out of the movie you’ll have a massive smile on your face, since it’s such a great piece of cinema. As Laurent put it:
“There’s still hope in this world”
Every once in a while you see something, read something, hear something that takes you back a few years and you start remembering all sorts of things in your life that seem to be from a different world; you were a different person, the world around you was completely different. The memory is so vivid that you even start remembering smells. That’s how I felt when I watched Leon again.
Leon (or as it was renamed in the US, The Professional) was released something over 10 years ago. I must have seen it a year or so after that. This was my first ever exposure to Luc Besson. I remember watching that movie and falling in love with every aspect of it. 10 years on I find that it lives up exceptionally well. Nothing looks dated, which is such an exceptional achievement in my opinion. This movie was probably the one movie that made me hunt down writer/directors before any other movie.
In case you haven’t seen it, go now and buy it, download it, rent it whatever, because you owe it to yourself to treat yourself to a classic. Story centers around Leon and Matilda. Leon is played by Jean Reno, Matilda is the 11 year old Natalie Portman. In the mix we’ve got Gary Oldman who very nearly steals the show, if it wasn’t for the exceptional acting by the two lead characters.
Set in New York, the story talks about the relationship a professional killer, or ‘Cleaner’ builds with an 11 year old girl as he trains her in the ways of the hired mafioso kill. We’ve got fantastic characters, corrupt cops, classic performances, and killer (no pun intended) action scenes. Not spoiling anything, but the movie also ends with what is the BEST movie song ending EVER, (‘Shape of my heart’ by Sting).
Now turn away because I’m going to start talking in detail about the movie. Consider this your SPOILER WARNING. For those who haven’t seen the special edition, come closer while I tell you what you’ve been missing out on.
The special edition includes some seriously amazing additions. I remember when in University, people knowing my affection to the movie would always tell me of deleted scenes that had sex scenes between Leon and Matilda. I’m here to tell you that in fact that is COMPLETE and UTTER BOLLOCKS.
The movie has several new scenes, some of which I can’t believe he removed from the final cut. I think it was M. Night Shyamalan who said that directors generally end up removing their best scene from the final cut, and I think the Russian Roulette scene is easily one of my favorites of the entire movie. I’ve just got this hunch that Luc Besson felt the same thing about that scene as well.
My one main gripe however is that the director/writer of this movie wasn’t involved in the production of this DVD. I find that exceptionally strange as it seemed like such a personal project.
Most of the actors were on call for some interviews. Notable exception of course is Gary Oldman, who at the time of the movie’s release was the only ‘star’ in the credits. The movie obviously propelled everyone involved to another level, but Gary Oldman played the role in a manner no one else could come close to. I used to hear a lot of criticism that every single character that Oldman played was always over the top. In a way he was typecast, but at the same time in the best possible way. His Captain Gordon in Batman Begins was exceptional, his Dracula (which I’m not a fan of vampires) was brilliant, he was fantastic as the Devil in that 10minute movie directed by Tony Scott and Clive Owen in there. For my money however his role in Leon was him at his best.
If you were ever a fan of this movie, then it will be money well spent in getting this special edition version. It’s worth everything you pay for it and more.
I only got to finish the series years after the fact, but the first season still holds up pretty well. My love for the series was only fueled with the release of the exceptional Macross Plus during the late 90s. That was a brilliant Anime series. The story was superb, the animation was ahead of anything else out there at the time. The characters were very well done, the music was very memorable, and it was a very stylised series.
The Comic So after 3 years of waiting, we’re ready to see the next wave of Robotech. The new series by Wildstorm, with art by Udon seems like it’s going to be a complete monster hit (for the fans at least), and I’ve no doubt that Tommy and Jay will not disappoint with the story. What’s nice is that it actually ties into the upcoming movie release…
The Anime A sequel? Damn that could go both ways. I honestly didn’t know they were working on a movie. I know that the first Macross Movie was meant to get restored (has that been released yet?). Seems like the trailer for the movie (The Shadow Chronicles) was shown in San Diego, so that should be making the internet rounds soon enough. Target is for a late 2005 release, but I’ll bet it won’t be out till 2006 at least.