Review: Cloverfield · 19 January 2008
If I could review this movie in a sentence, it would be:
Great CG, Good concept, bad acting, corny ending – but was distracted by the motion sickness from an hour and a half of handi-cam filming.
Let’s hope when J.J. Abrams directs the new Star Trek he uses a regular old Panavision, and not a Canon handheld…
Review: Spider-Man 3 · 3 May 2007
(click for larger image.)
Okay, so I just got back from the premier of Spider-Man 3 in Gold Class… my freaking god. It was good. Oh, yes; it was good.
So further to my predictions made the other day:
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
1.) Aunt May hasn’t died yet (as she does in the comic.) and Rosemary Harris continues to do an outstanding job as the grieving widow – Harris could have been cast to a more perfect role; she’s the exact epitome of Aunt May.
2.) That Harry Osborne, as obviously hinted at at the end of Spider-Man 2, does indeed pick up where his father left off and uses the technology of the ‘Green Goblin’ costume with a few modest modifications. One of which is the glider – which I actually kind of prefer in this one.
In the first Spider-Man when Spidey faced Green Goblin Mk I, the glider was too big and clunky, and didn’t seem to have the same rangle of motion or flexibility as the one we’ve all grown familiar with in the comics. Goblin usually flies on the glider (which looks more like a snowboard with green case-mod propellors in this one) – with the ease that Silver Surfer glides on his surf board (see the new Fantastic Four movie for reference.)
The fight in the sequence above looks absolutely brilliant. There are a couple of slips with blue-screen stuff but all-in-all it is an excellent action sequence. Harry’s mask looks a bit naff, but I don’t think we’re missing out on much. (By that I mean that even when the mask comes off, James Franco changes his expression about as often as the steel mask..)
3.) Peter has really gotten the hang of using his ‘web-balls’. You’ll remember these were used on the crooks in the stolen car who were shooting at Spidey when he was on his way to MJ’s show in Spider-Man 2. They looked a bit too cartoony and a little tacky on that occasion, but this time they look like quite a powerful weapon that he’s really honed. Seeing Peter fight without his suit looks awesome too. It reminds me of in the original comic where the first Green Goblin (the original Osborne) nullifies Parker’s Spider-senses using a gas, and ties Parker up with cable and drags him around New York in the air slamming him against stuff while he’s in his civilian clothes which only partly cover his costume underneath – showing everyone his face.
Anyway in this sequence we clearly see that Pete gets the absolute bejesus knocked out of him, but not before dealing Harry a pretty violent clotheslining with his webbing.
Harry, very symbolically, dies by being impaled by the blades on his own glider – flung at him with great force by Venom. Harry only gets hit because he jumped in front of Peter/Spidey to save him. Good show!
4.) Sandman is Spidey’s number 2 foe for this movie; being the real killer of Uncle Ben. (Hmm… can’t wait to see em sort that plot hole out..) is revealed; Sandman (Flint Marco.)
I think Thomas-Hayden Church was a really interesting choice for this role; especially considering his comedic background in his well-known “Ned and Stacy” and “Sideways” roles. Although, so is Topher Grace (“That Seventies Show”) who is playing Venom.
As a side-note; I always wondered if Sandman and Hydro-man got together and combined Voltron-style, would they become “Mud-Man” or “Cementor!”.... indeed.
And yes, “Cementor” does almost become a reality in the sewers. Is there anything this movie didn’t deliver on!?
The day digital animation technology mastered ‘water’ was monumental; but the day has come when they have REALLY intensely mastered ‘sand’. Every grain of sand moves perfectly – would hate to think how long this sequence took to build (or how much it cost!!)
5.) That Peter is proposing to marry Mary Jane, but the suits augmentation of his emotions is hindering his ability to see that his attitude is changing for the worse.
The other classic scene to look out for is Peter on the phone to Dr. Connors while he gets his smitten land-lord’s daughter to feed him cookies and milk while he’s just taking the piss out of Connors and ordering the girl around.
6.) ..That somehow Venom/Brock finds Mary Jane and tangles her up in his own black web, similar to the regular opaque one at the start of the trailer.
Thanks for that, Bernard. Again, something that could have been brought to his attention YESTERDAY!! – BEFORE he became a homicidal psychopath hell-bent on revenge, resulting in concussion and horrible facial-disfigurement.
7.) That Gwen Stacy played by Bryce Dallas Howard , makes an appearance, and that Peter starts getting involved with her.
In the comics, Gwen is Peter’s first love and dies at the hands of the original Green Goblin; perhaps this time she’ll die at the hands of another foe, since Gobby Mk I is already dead.
8.) Sam Raimi’s brother, Ted, returns again to play Jameson’s assistant, “Hoffman” but for possibly the first time ever, Raimi doesn’t have a cameo appearance for his all-time regular Bruce Campbell. (The Ring-side Announcer in Spidey1, and the Usher/Stage-Doorman at the theatre in Spidey2.)
Campbell has a classic role as a French restaurant manager in one of the funniest scenes in the film. It seems he just wasn’t credited for it on IMDB
Ted Raimi does have a pretty funny scene involving some marketing and ‘buzz words’ for the Bugle’s new ‘marketing strategy’. Very funny; I’ve seen this scene in real life, and it played out exactly like this.
9.) For the third movie in a row, Parker manages to have his Spidey-suit completely torn to shreds… again.
9.5) The game is going to be insanely good – with Venom, Green Goblin Mk II, Scorpion, Kingpin, Sandman, Dr Octopus, Electro and Rhino – aaw yeah.
10.) Spider-man is awesome.
If you want to see a contrary review (and admittedly – the prevalent response to the film, play the clip below:
Spider-Man 3 · 24 April 2007
Having just watched the above exclusive NBC preview of Spider-Man 3 on YouTube, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Spider-Man 3 is going to be the best super-hero film ever made.
A big call, yeah; and heavily biased. But how could anyone help but completely succumb to the involving action and heightened melodramatic emotion that is the quintessential marvel comic.
I’ve been an obscenely obsessive Spider-man fan since I was 9 years old. Within half-an-hour of receiving my pocket money every Friday I would have already rode my bike to the greenwood newsagents and made a decision on which copy of ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ or ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ to buy.
I’d read the whole thing cover to cover before even getting back on my bike to ride home.. where I would then read it again. Cover to cover.
I’ve always grown up wanting to be a cartoonist; I never considered myself doing anything else; and Spider-Man comics had a lot to do with that.
Yes, they are my number plates, and no I didn’t specifically get them made – I got them in return for drawing a picture…
When I was very young, all I would draw would be a.) Spider-Man, b.) Ninja Turtles or c.) Ren & Stimpy.
By closely studying and absorbing the styles of artists like John Kricfaluci, Ryan Brown, Jim Lawson and some of the best Marvel Artists to have ever graced the pages of Spider-Man. Brian-Michael Bendis was a particular favourite Spidey artist of mine, and I usually found myself copying his style for many years.
Spider-man became the one thing I consistently followed and sustained a kind of child-like fanaticism for. Sure, you could call it childish; but everyone’s got to afford themselves some childish obsessions every now and then.
Anyway, enough of the life story, back to the movie.
When I first heard news that Sony pictures had finally cut through the red tape with Marvel and managed to settle a movie deal for the first major motion picture of Spider-Man, my stomach turned inside out. I gritted my teeth daily with anticipation as the news and snippets slowly filtered down through the various news sources and Peer-to-Peer file-sharing communities.
As the day grew closer, I grew more and more anxious as to whether they would bone-up yet another great super hero by portraying them in film.
Let’s not deny it – Batman & Robin was the last major super-hero film to be released, and my freaking god was it horrendous. If anyone was going to do that to Spider-man, it would be nothing short of gross tragedy. (At least for die-hard nerd boy fans like me..)
Although this time around, something really kept my interest up. The fact that Stan Lee and Avi Arad were executive producers, and the whole Spider-Man franchise was going to be directed by the genius, Sam Raimi. The man behind Xena, Hercules, Darkman and Evil Dead.
The movie turned out a success. Probably one of the biggest understatements of the film world; it was the most successful opening weekend for any film in the history of cinema. Ever.
Spider-man became the new benchmark in super-hero films, and despite the subsequent production of films like the Fantastic Four, Daredevil (*shudder*), The Hulk, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and all of the X-Men series – nothing has come close to matching the success of Spider-man.
I’m beside myself with excitement that there are talks of a Spider-man 4. coming out in 2009. Insane. Possibly a bad thing – I don’t know how long it could go on before it turns into another Batman-style franchise where the hero is played by a different actor each time. That said, it’s a bitter sweet feeling – you can never have enough Spider-man…??
So! My predictions and expectations for Spider-Man 3…
Okay, based on the two trailers currently out, and the extended preview trailer above, I’d say this is going to be the super-hero movie to end all super-hero movies.
Over the last 6 years, Sam Raimi, the writers and the producers have listened to what the fans – new and old alike – have been screaming out for. Arguably the single most requested character to be included in Spidey 3 is the one and only; Venom.
(click for larger image.)
Briefly; Venom is the result of a black liquid alien symbiotic life-form that is brought back to earth from mineral samples taken from an asteroid passing through the solar system near Earth.
In Spider-man 3, they’ve amended the story slightly to make the symbiote’s origin the moon, rather than the asteroid – and instead of a random astronaut – why not use one we already know; John Jameson. Son of Daily Bugle editor, J. Jonah Jameson – ex-fiancé of Mary Jane.. Hell, if I were left standing at the altar like that I’d probably want to piss off to the moon too.
Anyway the sybiote augments aggression and any form of power when it binds itself with another life-form. But not only does it augment the power; it absorbs it. So if one were to bind with the life form, and then the life form were to bind with someone else – it would take with it the memories, knowledge and powers of the previous ‘occupant’.
We know from the trailer above that Peter comes into contact with the symbiote through some means, but eventually brings it to Dr. Connors – (you’ll remember him as Peter’s university lecturer in the second film who berates him about being consistently late and tired. Incidentally, Dr. Connors becomes one of Spider-man’s greatest foes in the comic when he uses a neogenic recombinator in an experiment using reptile dna to replicate his lost arm, the same way reptiles can re-grow their tails.)
So Dr. Connors ends up examining the sample; and it seems to take a liking to Peter. It would probably be a safe assumption at this stage that it has either already bound with Peter, or at least already attempted to.
Clearly the symbiote inevitably binds itself with Peter; who is ridden with guilt, anger and fear over the loss of his uncle, the re-emergence of his uncle’s killer, and the newfound threat of Harry Osborne – out for blood over the death of his father.
These emotions are augmented by the symbiote and bind themselves in the form of Peter’s Spidey suit. The results are an increase in Spidey’s ability to jump (he can pretty much jump as high and far as the Hulk), his webbing is thrice as strong, his Spider-sense is heightened to the point of ultimate awareness; and his strength is increased 10 fold.
The only Achilles heel of the alien symbiote is that it doesn’t respond well to high-frequency sound waves; especially at close range.
We see from the trailer that Peter works this out and uses a bell in a bell-tower to disturb the alien symbiote into releasing Peter from its grasp, only to drip on to Eddy Brock; Peter’s photographic nemesis from the Daily Bugle. Brock hates Parker, and on discovering that he is Spider-man, wants to reveal his secret to the world… or just kill him.
The symbiote carries all of Spider-man’s powers, and also augments Eddie Brock’s hatred for Parker; thus crating the most formidable enemy Spider-man will have ever faced. Basically it’s Spider-man versus super-Spider-Man… with a nasty case of psychosis.
A lot of things are given away in the trailer
1.) Aunt May hasn’t died yet (as she does in the comic.) and Rosemary Harris continues to do an outstanding job as the grieving widow – Harris could have been cast to a more perfect role; she’s the exact epitome of Aunt May.
2.) That Harry Osborne, as obviously hinted at at the end of Spider-Man 2, does indeed pick up where his father left off and uses the technology of the ‘Green Goblin’ costume with a few modest modifications. One of which is the glider – which I actually kind of prefer in this one.
In the first Spider-Man when Spidey faced Green Goblin Mk I, the glider was too big and clunky, and didn’t seem to have the same rangle of motion or flexibility as the one we’ve all grown familiar with in the comics. Goblin usually flies on the glider (which looks more like a snowboard with green case-mod propellors in this one) – with the ease that Silver Surfer glides on his surf board (see the new Fantastic Four movie for reference.)
The fight in the sequence above looks absolutely brilliant. There are a couple of slips with blue-screen stuff but all-in-all it is an excellent action sequence. Harry’s mask looks a bit naff, but I don’t think we’re missing out on much. (By that I mean that even when the mask comes off, James Franco changes his expression about as often as the steel mask..)
3.) Peter has really gotten the hang of using his ‘web-balls’. You’ll remember these were used on the crooks in the stolen car who were shooting at Spidey when he was on his way to MJ’s show in Spider-Man 2. They looked a bit too cartoony and a little tacky on that occasion, but this time they look like quite a powerful weapon that he’s really honed. Seeing Peter fight without his suit looks awesome too. It reminds me of in the original comic where the first Green Goblin (the original Osborne) nullifies Parker’s Spider-senses using a gas, and ties Parker up with cable and drags him around New York in the air slamming him against stuff while he’s in his civilian clothes which only partly cover his costume underneath – showing everyone his face.
Anyway in this sequence we clearly see that Pete gets the absolute bejesus knocked out of him, but not before dealing Harry a pretty violent clotheslining with his webbing.
4.) Sandman is Spidey’s number 2 foe for this movie; being the real killer of Uncle Ben. (Hmm… can’t wait to see em sort that plot hole out..) is revealed; Sandman (Flint Marco.)
I think Thomas-Hayden Church was a really interesting choice for this role; especially considering his comedic background in his well-known “Ned and Stacy” and “Sideways” roles. Although, so is Topher Grace (“That Seventies Show”) who is playing Venom.
As a side-note; I always wondered if Sandman and Hydro-man got together and combined Voltron-style, would they become “Mud-Man” or “Cementor!”.... indeed.
5.) That Peter is proposing to marry Mary Jane, but the suits augmentation of his emotions is hindering his ability to see that his attitude is changing for the worse.
6.) ..That somehow Venom/Brock finds Mary Jane and tangles her up in his own black web, similar to the regular opaque one at the start of the trailer.
7.) That Gwen Stacy played by Bryce Dallas Howard , makes an appearance, and that Peter starts getting involved with her.
In the comics, Gwen is Peter’s first love and dies at the hands of the original Green Goblin; perhaps this time she’ll die at the hands of another foe, since Gobby Mk I is already dead.
8.) Sam Raimi’s brother, Ted, returns again to play Jameson’s assistant, “Hoffman” but for possibly the first time ever, Raimi doesn’t have a cameo appearance for his all-time regular Bruce Campbell. (The Ring-side Announcer in Spidey1, and the Usher/Stage-Doorman at the theatre in Spidey2.)
9.) For the third movie in a row, Parker manages to have his Spidey-suit completely torn to shreds… again.
9.5) The game is going to be insanely good – with Venom, Green Goblin Mk II, Scorpion, Kingpin, Sandman, Dr Octopus, Electro and Rhino – aaw yeah.
10.) Spider-man is awesome.
That is all.
Comment? [1]
Borat: A Prediction · 13 November 2006
A perfectly articulated prediction on the upcoming Borat movie from John Mayer’s blog.
I couldn’t concur more with Mayer’s sentiments on this. I remember back in the day (2001) when I was Borat-crazy I was exactly the way everyone’s going to be for the next 12 months…
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BORAT: A PREDICTION (From John Mayer’s Blog)
Make no mistake about it: “Borat” is locked and loaded, ready to invade the public consciousness. Get ready to say goodbye to it.
When “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” is released tomorrow, there will be a short window of time, from about 6pm on Friday to about 10pm on Sunday, when the film’s impact will sit in perfect equilibrium with both its mass appeal and its comic potency. “The hip eclipse”, let’s call it. I say 10pm because somewhere in Oxnard, CA, 7pm local time, a young Friday’s waiter will deliver a plate of Jack Daniel’s Chicken Strips and punctuate it with the phrase “You laaaaaaiik!!!!!”. This will be the first sign of the “Borat” outbreak – what will eventually be transmitted through contact with co-workers, on airplanes and in casinos, and GOOD LORD, in bars everywhere.
It won’t be the fault of the movie, and it certainly won’t be the fault of Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat’s creator. It will be due to a society set up to adopt, consume and then divorce a trend in dizzying time. The infrastructure is ripe for it, a now perfectly balanced sphere of blogs, critiques, and various other forms of media with which to hijack the trend. Borat impressionists will appear on youtube, and a home-made mega-mix of lines from the movie will be cobbled together by a 14 year old and placed incongruously atop a house drum beat. It will be an internet sensation. And while Dayton, Ohio greets it, the Lower East Side will have already eulogized it. If you don’t believe me when I say we will kill it by hugging it too hard, look at what happened to Brokeback Mountain – “I wish I could quit you” became a ready-mixed punch line for months, and it wasn’t even trying. (Even the word “brokeback” itself came to be an out of the box bon mot.) We’ve been waiting for the next “WAY!” and “NOT!” for a long time. And we’re about to get it in the form of “high five!” and “wa-wa-wee-wah!”
And if you’re still wondering what leg I have to stand on with this, just remember: I was truly hip for three weeks back in 2001.
Yakshimesh!!!!
Comment? [1]
Kenny · 1 August 2006
Forget Jindabyne as the year’s best Australian film, tonight I saw the preview of Kenny and I reckon it’s the Aussie film of the year!
I laughed so hard in some parts I seriously worried about the state of my bladder.
It’s the story of a real Aussie battler, with just real documentary footage shot from a camera crew following Melbourne plumber and port-a-loo supplier Shane Jacobsen (Kenny) around in his day to day life in its highs and lows. Kenny works for SplashDown, a company that supplies and maintains toilets for big events – you know the ones you’re always queueing for at the big day out or the WASO Concerts. The movie follows Kenny’s journeys to Tennessee and back, meeting a girl, seeing to his dad’s sudden bout of poor health, camping with his brother and dad, and coping with his young son and trecherous ex-wife.
I was so thoroughly impressed by this film, and was crying with laughter at the vrilliant ending (for which he had to go to the Melbourne magistrates court to defend.)
At the end of the movie, everyone was surprised to see the lights come up with Kenny sitting among us all. He walked down the aisle, shaking my hand as he passed, and answered a barrage of questions from the audience including a 10 year old’s question “How’s yer dad Kenny” to which he replied “Yeah he’s good, you can have him if you want.”
This movie is like a time capsule – if you were to take a chunk of Australian culture right now and preserve it for the future, you’d use this movie to do it. I don’t think I’ve thoroughly enjoyed a movie like this in over a year. I’d recommend anyone see it. There’s another good review of Kenny here.
Film Review: Derailed · 23 February 2006
Hey, I’ve got a blog.. might as well use it – How about a Film Review!?
Derailed is an unfortunate title for the film that saw Jennifer Aniston’s life become just that.
That aside, it’s an intriguing, watchable film adaptation of the book by James Siegel.
The film sees family man Charles Schine (played by one of my favourite actors, Clive Owen) and Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) become lustfully attracted to each other after meeting on the commuter train to work one morning. Lucinda (also married) offers to pay for Charles’ ticket after his wife emptied his wallet that morning. Their intriguing exchange develops into an affair, and before ya know it – Boom! The crumby hotel-room door bursts open before Aniston can grab Charles’ fly and they’re being mugged by a Frenchman-cum-New-Yorker rapist (played outstandingly by French actor, Vincent Cassel (of Ocean’s Twelve) fame.)
To tell the police would lead to them asking what the guilty couple were doing in the hotel room in the first place, but even though Charles is willing to admit his infidelity, the guilt of not being able to defend Lucinda from the rapist has Charles respect her wishes to not go to the police. She claims that her husband would divorce her and take her daughter, which he can understand.
From here, the film sees Owen’s character bow to the whim of Cassel’s slimy character “Philippe LaRoche” in delivering large sums of money, each larger as the demands continue.
Basically, the film follows Charles’ attempts at hiding the affair and trying to protect his wife and sick daughter, who has a money-guzzling case of type 1 diabetes.
Without spoiling too much, it could have been a much better story (film and book) if it hadn’t ended the way it did, and the main character was punished by the people that he had actually wronged; his family, but then that probably wouldn’t fit in with the whole Hollywood-style ending that the audience want to see.
That said, there is a pretty out-of-left-field twist that will surprise even the most adept of twist-predicters. This gives the film an edge, and I suspect this is what drew Clive Owen to sign on to this project.
It may just be my previous exposure to Clive Owen’s previous roles like ‘Jack Manfred’ in Croupier, the ass-kicking comicbook-hero ‘Dwight McCarthy’ in Sin City or the suave, ass-kicking Driver in the BMW Films but I felt so frustrated watching poor old Charles get slogged in the guts about half a dozen times throughout the film, regardless of how guilty he was of his intended adultery.
I feel he had some nice husband-wife chemistry/tension with Melissa George (the girl from hy home-city, Perth – who went to Warwick High School down the road.. very wierd.) and that this aptly justified his desperate efforts to conceal his dirty-deeds.
Cassel’s characterisation was fantastic, though I would agree with those who say he got a bit carried away in the more melodramatic opportunities of his character. He made an outstanding villain whom you seriously want to see vengence thrust upon when the time comes.
I think both Owen and Cassel did a great job, but I was disappointed by Aniston.
As a preface to seeing the film, I was exposed to a litany of praises of Jennifer Aniston’s ‘unlikely’ performance by various US reviewers. “You’ve never seen her like this before” they said.
So, in hearing this, I was expecting her to finally stray from her “Rachel Green” Friends character that she has sported for the majority of her career. Even as the free-spirited ‘Polly Prince’ in Along Came Polly , she played the same ditsy sitcom character. I eagerly anticipated her finally letting go and immersing herself, perhaps changing her vocalisations, physicalisations, just anything. (Even a haircut wouldn’t have killed her!)
But alas, I had seen her ‘like this’ before.. in every peice of work she’s done. Sure, she’s playing a different character, but she doesn’t execute it any differently.
Whether this was the decision of Avy Kaufman in casting (who did an excellent job on Brokeback Mountain and Capote ) or the director, Mikael Håfström , or whether it was just Aniston’s artistic choice, is unknown, but nonetheless disappointing.
As I mentioned above, I found it quite ironic that Aniston was playing a deceptive temptress who commits adultery while her real-life husband, Brad Pitt, was doing exactly that while film was being shot.
Would I recommend this movie?
Yes, I would encourage anyone who likes an unexpected (and questionably indulgent) twist in their films to see Derailed. But if you’re looking for a “gritty new Jen”?... maybe you’re better off just reading a gossip mag.
Seen the film? What did YOU think?