The latest by Tarantino, sorry, the latest mega epic (or “I can’t cut anything any more”). Nearly 3 hours. 3 hours, ffs Quentin! So what it’s all about? Django is a slave freed by a bounty hunter (Dr. Schultz) played by Christoph Waltz who is after three men that Django can identify. After freeing Django and hearing of his sale and his want to find his wife, Schultz invites him to join him bounty hunting for the winter, after which he will help him retrieve his wife. Django’s wife is owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and lives on his vast estate named Candie …
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After seeing the trailer most people are going to know if they’ll enjoy this blacksploitation-cum-Asain martial arts inspired flick or not. Written by Eli Roth (best known for Hostel) and RZA who also directs and stars (?). This is RZA’s directorial and writing début. Coming with a “Presented by Quentin Tarantino” should be no surprise (also a producer) with the style involved. Is the style coming watered down from recent homages (Kill Bill etc.) rather from the source material and missing something for that? That material being kung fu action, Japanese mega gore and aforementioned blacksploitation. The plot revolves/spirals around a …
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Ruby Sparks is about a writer Calvin Weir-Fields (played by Paul Dano) who as a 19 year old wrote a seminal book. Ten years on and he’s done little else (we can all relate, right?). Filled with neurosis he is given a task to write something, anything, even if it’s bad, by his psychologist  He writes about a dream girl or rather, a girl he is having dreams about, then a few days later, there she is in his home. Not imagined, no figment of a mental break down. A living, breathing person made flesh by his words. This is Ruby Sparks (played by Zoe Kazan). Who, …
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Looper is the latest by writer and director Rian Johnson. Although he has only made two feature films, excluding Looper, both should be on your watch list: Brick and The Brothers Bloom. So, in my book he is two for two. Can Looper make it three for three? There are a few interesting things about the concept of this film before we even really get going. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe and Bruce Willis plays Old Joe. Yep, in case you missed the trailers or build up: Warning this film contains time travel! Not only that, it is also set in …
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Just so we are clear on the rule: When you try to look cool you never can do. With that said; lets take a quick recap of the franchise so far: Resident Evil – Good. Resident Evil: Apocalypse – Fine apart from Nemesis (I am Robocop). Resident Evil: Extinction – Ali Larter and other annoying characters. Resident Evil: Afterlife – Still Ali Larter! Plagas from nowhere and not explained at all. A very general overview as given to us at the start of the movie is something like: Alice worked for Umbrella that created a virus (of the “T” type) …
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I marked this down as a “catch on disc” movie. Now it is, lets see if I was wrong to wait. The latest collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, Dark Shadows is based on a daily television series that started in 1966 and ran for 5 years, so Wikipedia informs me. With both Burton and Depp being fans of the original you can imagine they’ve been planning this film for a long time, if only in their minds. Written by John August (who has worked on quite a few of Burton’s recent projects) and Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, another one I’m waiting for the disc) but …
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If any of these put you off: Take This Waltz, Relationships, Indie. Stick with it as you may find this film a pleasant surprise.If you enjoyed Lost in Translation this may be a film you’ll enjoy as well. Written and directed by Sarah Polley, best known for staring in Splice recently and who first came to my attention in the excellent Go. Staring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Luke Kirby with Sarah Silverman makes for quite an interesting cast. Listed as being released in 2011 this appears to be one of those films that had a very limited release and now …
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If you missed The Expendables, the basic idea is: Take a load of old actions stars, throw in a few newer ones (for the kids) and make an old school action film with knowing nods to the cheesy elements of the genre. It was mostly a forgettable action romp. In my case, I remember a big explosion on a dock type area and Sly not kissing “the girl” which, was quite a relief. It did alright so why not do it again? There are mostly two ideas for sequels: Expand on the original idea with a new original story in …
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The Raid (Redemption) is an action-cum-martial arts Indonesian film written and directed by Gareth Evans. Staring Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah and Yayan Ruhian. The first and the last also being the fight choreographers. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing some of these names in Hollywood films. In fact, if you check IMDB, you already will. This may be old news to some of you but with a limited release it’s bound to enjoy a good life on disc. If you are less than enamoured with the genre, The Raid makes no attempt to transcend the genre. The …
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A “re-imagined” version of the Philip K Dick story: “We can remember it for you wholesale”. Well that’s what they say when they don’t want you to compare it to a previous film based on the same story. In this case the 1990 film called Total Recall directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Trooper) and staring Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator, Predator), same name, good start there chaps. When I first heard of this remake, sorry “re-imagining”, I did shout a metaphorical “WHY!?” Then I saw the trailer and was willing to put the first film to the back of my …
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