Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

25 Feb

Oscars 2013 Reactions – Almost Live!

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , .

So I missed the live broadcast of the Oscars this morning on account of work, but I’ve been pretty successful in keeping a media blackout going, so I shall now watch the recorded version and write my thoughts on the big awards here as I see them, then post them tonight. How exciting!

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz

This one was arguably pretty open but I was still surprised that the favourite, Tommy Lee Jones, didn’t win. Very pleasantly surprised, that is, because Christoph Waltz was AWESOME in Diango Unchained and I had pretty much assumed that the Academy would ignore his turn because he had already won quite recently. Two wins from two nominations!

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20 Feb

A Hole Filled

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: .

Credit to deviantart’s alicexz

A few days ago, after over a decade of sporadic chances to do so, I finally watched Disney’s “animated classic” Mulan for the first time. I watched it on the big screen no less, as part of Event Cinemas’ Disney Princess festival. It was all kinds of awesome, which wasn’t entirely unexpected, but watching it at my age, with my catalogue of film watching experience (*adjusts monacle*), made me notice some interesting stuff. Here I shall rant a little about them. There might be spoilers here, but come on, who in their right mind wouldn’t have seen this movie by now?

1. It looks amazing.

I did experience it in a cinematic atmosphere, so that is probably a factor here, but I flat out did not expect to be so floored by Mulan‘s visuals. I mean, this is a 14 year old movie we’re talking about. It reminded me of how good Disney’s hand-drawn craftsmanship can look and, perhaps more surprisingly, its liberal use of the kind of CGI seen in the famous Wildebeest scene in The Lion King didn’t actually look that dated (probably because it’s combined with said craftsmanship). The film’s city finale in particular really made an impression on me. Continue reading →

7 Feb

Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , , .

Saw this two nights ago. The Oscars are closing in!

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Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro
Director: David O. Russell (Three Kings, The Fighter)
Rating: M
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Duality

I’ve gone into Oscar season a little darker than usual this year. Perhaps due to the Academy’s rather off-putting snub of Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises and even, where it matters, Django Unchained and Argo, I wasn’t in the mood to do the research. So I went into Silver Linings Playbook without the knowledge that it had a nominee in each of the major acting categories, with only half a trailer and the name of a rather skilled director to give me any idea what to expect. This happy combination set me up to be sucker punched by a film that may just have done to romantic comedy what the excellent The Cabin in the Woods did to horror: prove that daring to shake things up can really work as long as you have the talent to back up your bravado.

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26 Jan

Movie Review: Django Unchained

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , .

Time to kick off a new year of reviews. The latest from one of Hollywood’s most successfully quirky directors has finally been released in Australia – two days ago in fact.

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Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
Director: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds)
Rating: MA15+
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A new Quentin Tarantino movie is usually something of an event these days. The infamously subversive lover of genre film only has eight full directing credits to his name, and each one of those movies tackles a different pocket of cinematic history with an enjoyable brashness that only fleetingly conceals a deep reverence for the medium. His eighth, the recently released Django Unchained, is no different in this regard. While it may be flawed, the film ticks all the boxes that make a Tarantino flick so unique and so enjoyable. In my book, that makes it a winner.

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29 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Movies

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , .

YouLoveIt

Somehow we arrive at the end of ten days of top ten lists, one hundred “things” in all. This is the last one; the ten absolute best movies I have seen this year. It was a fantastic year for the big screen, as while there were plenty of indie efforts worth writing home about, many of the blockbusters really stepped up their game in a big way. The unexpected, record-smashing success of one film in particular may have altered the way big studios think about their intellectual properties and release schedules for good.

I don’t profess to having seen all the movies that came out in 2012; heck, I didn’t even see all the movies I wanted to see in 2012. But I did see more than enough of them to make this list a tough one to put together. One thing I noticed about the list after I had finally decided on an order is how weird it looks to see so many movies on it that came out in the first two months of the year; that was so long ago it almost feels like they didn’t release this year at all. The odd thing about living in Australia is that we usually only get movies released late in any given year Stateside early in the next one, which means the majority of movie websites on the internet would have already discussed some of these big screen gems 12 months ago. But I’ll take what I’m given and I was given a lot of good movies in 2012.

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VR BEST OF 2012 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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10. Hugo

The golden world of Hugo won much attention during last year’s award season for its brilliantly understated use of 3D (look how far we’ve come in 12 months – where is the talk of 3D now?), but that isn’t what made it stand out. Hugo is a heartfelt story appropriate for all ages and its affection for Hollywood’s early history is palpable, particularly in the second half of the story. The sentiment never comes off as cheesy, which could easily have been the case, and the whole film is all the more remarkable given it was directed by gangster film veteran Martin Scorcese.

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25 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Movie Scenes

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , .

YouLoveIt

There’s nothing like a great film scene. When you’re sitting in the theatre and something happens onscreen to make you lean forward in your seat, or sit bolt upright, or cower into a fetal position, that’s what going to the movies is all about. In 2012, I experienced quite a few of those moments. Here they are, arranged in convenient order for your reading pleasure. Please note that while I won’t be going out of my way to include spoilers, the very fact that I am talking about impactful scenes within movies should suggest the kind of caution with which you might want to approach this list.

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VR BEST OF 2012 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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Spoilers

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10. Sky Ball – Chronicle

Chronicle is a film with some pretty dark interpretations of the age-old “What would it be like if normal teenagers actually got superpowers?” question. Yet the most memorable scene of the movie for me was the joyous initial expression of physical freedom in which the three main characters engage soon after recieving their new telekinetic abilities. Once they learn to levitate themselves, the wonders of flight are shown in all their shackle-less glory through a wonderfully shot sequence culminating in a sky-high game of catch. It really feels like you’re there, thanks to the film’s “found footage” gimmick.

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21 Dec

Best of 2012: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2012, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , .

YouLoveIt

The movies of 2012 brought with them an avalanche of memorable characters, whose exploits stuck in our minds for a range of reasons. Some made us laugh, some made us cringe, some made us quiver and some just made us want to stand up and applaud. For my second Vagrant Rant Best of 2012 list, I present my top ten favourite movie characters of the year.

The characters on this list need not be brand new creations; fresh interpretations of other material, recurring players in a series and even depictions of real-life people were all fair game when I was putting it together. Regardless of what other people may have been saying about them, I have not included any characters from movies I did not see in 2012. So, sadly, those amazing Boxing Day Australian releases (The Hobbit, Wreck-It Ralph, Les Miserables) are out of the picture.

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VR BEST OF 2012 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s scary. You have been warned, fanboys.
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10. Sid – The Descendants

The Descendants, released at the very beginning of 2012 here in Australia, is a truly heartfelt triumph on many levels, but its many facets would not come together quite so effectively without the comic relief provided by the female lead’s dimwitted boyfriend, Sid. Nick Krause’s performance lends the role just the right combination of idiocy and believability, with a hint of something poignant thrown in. This ensures that, despite the film’s many character interaction highlights, you just aren’t likely to forget his exchange with those two seniors. Not at all.

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15 Dec

It moves!

Posted by vagrantesque in Misc, Movies.

Vagrant Rant now supports video!

Yay!

To celebrate, here’s the latest and final trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Django Unchained, which we don’t get in Australia until next month.

SO keen.

9 Dec

Movie Review: Skyfall

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , , .

I saw this celebration of 50 years of James Bond the first Tuesday it was available. Suffice to say I was very pleasantly surprised.

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Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench
Director: Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road)
Rating: M
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I never thought I would be comparing a James Bond film to a Batman one. Not in my wildest dreams. Yet here I am, having watched a sucker punch of a 007 film that quite possibly ranks as one of the best instalments in one of cinema’s longest-running sagas, doing just that. Emotional, lengthy and fraught with unpredictability, featuring great action scenes that for all their grandiose ambition don’t stick in your mind as much as the quieter character-driven interactions; yep, to say this movie wasn’t influenced even a little by Christopher Nolan would be a bit daft. Throw in a skin-crawling villain who has already been compared to Heath Ledger‘s Joker in The Dark Knight by several critics and you get a film that is worthy of a certain category of artistic praise and yet is still quintessentially, unmistakably, Bond.

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25 Nov

Behind, Pt I

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , .

And so it is that all of the top ten movies I was most looking forward to at the beginning of the year have been released. Well, all except one. Here’s a look back at those ten.

2012 has been an amazing year for movies so far, with several blockbusters breaking all kinds of records, and we still have a month to go! I can’t remember a Boxing Day release line-up as incredible as the one we Aussies have lined up for us this year, plus there’s a new Bond film that has just hit. It’s going to be a crazy summer.

But before that all plays out before us, it’s about time to look back at that list I posted back in February, wherein I rolled out a list of my top ten most anticipated films of the year:

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