Posts Tagged ‘Movie’
22
Jan
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: banks, Disney, emma, Film, hanks, mary, mister, Movie, mr, poppins, Review, saving, thompson, tom. Leave a comment
Time to get started on a new year of reviews! I’ve got a double for you to start things off.
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Starring: Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell
Director: John Lee Hancock (The Alamo, The Blind Side)
Rating: PG
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Disney is currently in a position quite unfamiliar to the vast majority of the world’s entertainment media companies, let alone one of such gigantic size. Not only does the American monolith own the wildly successful Marvel cinematic universe, which surely has to be the most fruitful gamble of the movie-making decade, but its own traditional primary animation studio is in the midst of a notable renaissance of quality. They still have the very active geniuses at Pixar in their stable, and their recent acquisition of the Star Wars license has yet to boil over into significant fanboy argument (which it will, make no mistake, once Episode VII finally comes out). So for Disney to deliver a no-frills live action film as good as Saving Mr Banks right now is a little bit ridiculous. Surely they are only allowed so much good fortune at once.
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29
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2013, Lists, Movies. Tagged: 10, 2013, Best, countdown, Film, Movie, piece, scenes, sequence, set, ten, top. Leave a comment
This is without question one of my favourite lists to make. A particularly amazing scene within a movie can elevate the entire film in the eyes of anyone it affects. Much like a memorable character, a well executed scene can also overshadow a mediocre film. But either way, a notable segment of film is always a talking point, and an immensely enjoyable talking point at that. The following scenes made me stand up (not literally) and take notice throughout 2013. Some were scary, some were amusing, and some just blew me away, but all were captivating in their entirety.
Spoilers most definitely follow, given the nature of this list.
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VR BEST OF 2013 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. Respectful disagreement is welcome.
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10. News Team Rumble, Round Two – Anchorman 2
I wouldn’t say Anchorman 2 is better than the first one – it’s way too long and tries a bit too hard to make a point – but I laughed quite a lot during the movie anyway, which was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. It occasionally suffers from a desire to revisit old jokes, but it manages to pull most of these off, none more spectacularly than when Ron Burgundy’s news team finds itself in the middle of another obscene inter-network brawl. The number of big-name cameos that take place in this scene borders on ridiculous, even compared to the over-the-top equivalent battle in the first Anchorman. The actors who show up (I won’t name them just because the film is still so fresh in theatres) mostly aren’t even comedic ones, but they all clearly relish the chance to make fun of themselves. Minotaurs, werewolves, cannons and fighter jets then get involved. The revisitation really shouldn’t work, but it does.
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27
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2013, Lists, Movies. Tagged: 2013, Best, Characters, Film, Movie, performance, ten, top, Year. Leave a comment
Here we are at the midpoint of my Best Of 2013 lists with my first movie-themed countdown. This year I decided to delay starting the movie-specific lists to allow for the last traditional release date of the year for new movies, Boxing Day, to pass by. Hopefully this will avoid a repeat of last year’s situation where I had to ignore Wreck It Ralph and Les Miserables. That said, let’s count down some memorable characters.
The characters on this list need not be appearing for the first time in a film; fresh interpretations of other material, recurring players in a series and even depictions of real-life people are all fair game. 2013 gave us examples of all these types, and while each character on this list stimulated a different set of emotions from audiences, all managed to be memorable in some way. Many of them are villains, but there are some good guys thrown in there too. Some were actually more memorable than the movies they came from, while others helped their movies to reach great heights. In any case, these are the scene stealers I enjoyed watching the most in 2013. Some spoilers will probably follow.
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VR BEST OF 2013 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. Respectful disagreement is welcome.
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10. Niki Lauda – Rush
Though Niki Lauda is, of course, an actual person, the version of him put to screen in Rush by Daniel Bruhl (of Inglorious Basterds fame) is at once frustrating and admirable. Though his real-life Formula One rivalry with Liam Hemsworth’s James Hunt is exaggerated in the film to the point where Lauda is portrayed as obsessive over beating Hunt (at one moment even lamenting that “happiness is the enemy” if he wants to be successful in his pursuit), Bruhl sells enough of Lauda’s vulnerable and/or appreciative moments to make him the highlight of the film. Though much of the marketing for the film sells Rush as a movie about Hunt’s champion 1976 season, it really belongs to Lauda (and Bruhl).
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21
Dec
Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2013, Lists. Tagged: 2013, annoying, Best, disappointment, frustrating, Game, Movie, Music, ten, top, Year. Leave a comment
Let’s kick off a new year of way-too-convenient summary lists by getting the bad stuff out of the way. I like to think of myself as an optimistic person, content to look on the bright side of things most of the time, and this is more true in the case of popular media than anything else. Some say I am easily impressed and I will admit that it takes a lot for me to be genuinely disappointed by something. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Across movies, music and videogames, what follows are the ten 2013 situations that gave me most cause to be disappointed. They cover deflating news stories, poor quality of products relative to expectations and relevant situations in general. While I doubt I’m alone with some of these, the list is still, naturally, quite personal.
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VR BEST OF 2013 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. Respectful disagreement is welcome.
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10. Rayman Legends was delayed to be spread out
Rayman Legends ended up being one of my absolute favourite games of the year, and quite possibly my favourite 2D platformer ever, when it was released this September on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii U and PS Vita. However, it was originally slated to be released in February as a very exciting Wii U exclusive. Set to be a strong argument for picking up a Wii U early in the console’s life, it was unceremoniously delayed by seven months so that versions could be developed for other platforms. While I’m all for seeing more people have access to the truly stunning game, the game was for all intents and purposes ready to ship in February on Wii U so the delay showed the cold and ugly side of modern videogame business. And as a Nintendo fan, I was crushed.
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28
Nov
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: catching, Film, fire, francis, Games, hunger, jennifer, lawrence, Movie, Review. Leave a comment
Saw this one the night it came out – so much hype around it! I’ve let it stew for a week to make sure I was giving it fair thought.
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Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson
Director: Francis Lawrence (Constantine, I am Legend)
Rating: M
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After all the excitement that came along with the wonderfully realised film adaptation of the first Hunger Games book (to which I gave a glowing review last year), I find myself in a weird position regarding its sequel. The end-of-year blockbuster has done little to change my opinion that Catching Fire is the weakest of the three chapters in Suzanne Collins‘ young adult novel trilogy story-wise, but Catching Fire the movie is so cleverly made, so effectively acted and so tonally spot-on that I am forced to admit, with some degree of surprise, that it is every bit as good as its predecessor.
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31
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: 2, ass, Film, girl, hit, kick, kickass, moretz, Movie, Review, wadlow. Leave a comment
Now here’s a movie that’s fun to review. It came out last week.
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Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Jeff Wadlow (Cry_Wolf, Never Back Down)
Rating: MA15+
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In 2010, when the first Kick-Ass movie came out in cinemas, it was a pretty novel idea to see a movie so earnestly reflect the real life explosion of social media (liberal use of MySpace notwithstanding) to ground a truly bizarre, highly stylish, blood-spattered and frequently pitch-dark concept in a kind of hyper-reality. The whole thing was unfathomably fresh to the point of controversy and, while certainly not for everyone, became an instant favourite among plenty of comic book movie fans who didn’t know they wanted something so different. In 2013, however, it’s understandably quite a bit harder to recapture that kind of freshness. Acknowledging social media is hardly a unique gimmick anymore and the shock of seeing an 11 year-old girl (Chloe Grace Moretz as Hit Girl) swearing and dismembering left and right is dampened both by repetition and by the fact that she is no longer 11. With that important caveat out of the way, it’s worth saying that Kick-Ass 2 is a very entertaining movie. The series is still funny, still stylish and if you enjoyed the first one, your money will be well spent on the sequel.
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20
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: blomkamp, copley, damon, elysium, Film, matt, Movie, neill, Review, sharlto. Leave a comment
This is my 25th movie review on Vagrant Rant! Thanks for reading, people.
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Starring: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley
Director: Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
Rating: MA15+
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Being a South African by birth and an Australian by environment, I have a natural bias towards underdog success stories from the Republic. South African directors making their mark on Hollywood have provided quite a few of these stories lately (seriously, watch Gavin Hood‘s Rendition if you haven’t already) and none have done so more loudly than Neill Blomkamp. In 2009 the relatively unknown talent teamed up with famous producer Peter Jackson to bring the world the truly excellent District 9, a heart-pounding sci-fi flick that was not only a pertinent allegory for apartheid-era South Africa but an entertaining adventure all on its own. The Blomkamp–Jackson team was earmarked as the overwhelming favourite to do a Halo movie, but after that potential project got shot down (for the umpteenth time, I might add), Blomkamp went back to the drawing board and came up with Elysium, another politically charged sci fi romp.
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16
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Movies. Tagged: Film, Game, in, Movie, reviews, spoilers, Videogame. Leave a comment
Over the last few months I have been fortunate enough to start getting some constructive feedback on my blog, whether written or in person, which means people care enough about it to lend me their two cents. This is an amazing thing and it truly is moments like those that help me to keep on posting. So thank you to everyone who has done so!
Having said this, one of the more popular comments I get concerns a topic that I’m sure nearly everyone who has ever written regular reviews in history has dealt with: spoilers. So allow me, dear reader, to comment on my side of this topic.
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14
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: bank, Film, heist, magic, magician, Me, Movie, now, Review, rob, see, you. Leave a comment
This one only just hit Aussie cinemas, despite going Stateside in May. Who knows why.
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Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman
Director: Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Clash of the Titans)
Rating: M
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Regardless of whatever I’m about to say in this review, Louis Leterrier‘s Now You See Me undoubtedly deserves some credit for being marketed really well. It has a quite frankly incredible cast, a snazzy look and a captivating concept that brings to mind a mash-up of Christopher Nolan‘s The Prestige and the very successful Ocean’s Eleven franchise. Magicians who rob banks – now ain’t that novel? It certainly wasn’t afraid to flaunt any of these strengths during the many months of trailers, posters and hype that preceded its American release and now, a month and a half later, its Australian one. When it comes to actually watching the movie play out on screen, though, it may become apparent that (oh boy, I just can’t wait to type this) the real magic trick is the movie itself. It deceives you into thinking it’s good. Abracadabra.
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7
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: end, Film, frost, Movie, pegg, Review, worlds, wright. Leave a comment
The Blood and Cornetto trilogy comes to a rather spectacular end.
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Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike
Director: Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz)
Rating: MA15+
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Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are surely, by now, a team of near-legendary status. Their cooperation begat the amazing 2004 British comedy classic Shaun of the Dead and its spiritual successor, 2007’s fantastic Hot Fuzz. Fans of the two off-beat, violent and absolutely hilarious films have been waiting an awfully long time for the third and final film in what is now known as the “Blood and Cornetto” trilogy (though in the interim Wright did give the world the wonderfully stylish graphic novel adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs The World). Finally, here it is, armed with explosions and laughs and plenty of beer. This is The World’s End.
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