Needless to say, the trailers and early forecasts for G.I Joe didn’t exactly promise Citizen Kane-esque heights of filmic artistry, but frankly, if that’s what you’re after then you probably shouldn’t go and see a Steven Sommers flick that’s been co-produced by Hasbro.
Tag Archives: Film
An American Werewolf In London
11 CommentsJune 30, 2009 – 7:02 am
Striding into the Soho Curzon, the grubby seats and collections of movie-freaks in the audience suitably transported you back to 1981, as Midnight Movies celebrated the 30th anniversary of a monster hit. And although Director Landis expressed his hope that this was a good print and waxed lyrical about the Blu-Ray’s detail, the terrible print on offer actually adds to the experience, making this an authentic recreation of those godawful 80s visits to the Scala.
Werewolf is a movie that benefits from being BIG. The Yorkshire moors are oppressive in their grimness – brown and seemingly endless – and, speaking as someone who grew up in a rural area, the tiny hamlet standing in for East Proctor successfully conveys the boredom, and isolation inherent in the location. There really is a feeling that anything could go on out there and it adds to the atmosphere immensely.
One Line Wonders
11 CommentsJune 29, 2009 – 1:00 pm
You may not know it yet, but you’re already (we’re pretty sure) familiar with the phenomenon of the ‘one line wonder’. They mostly appear in 80s movies, but occasionally they crop up in other decades. They’re similar to, but entirely separate from, the ‘one liner’ – the throwaway pun often used by action heroes like Arnie or Stallone after they’ve killed a throwaway villain.
The one line wonder is a comment uttered by a character who takes no part in the plot or action of a movie and has no other lines. However, they are usually memorable, funny and brilliantly quotable.
The Hangover
8 CommentsJune 17, 2009 – 2:06 pm
Like a drunken friend asleep on your kitchen floor, The Hangover manages to be both a messy, rude shambles and curiously endearing.
The stag-do-gone-wrong premise isn’t particularly original, but The Hangover works hard within narrow confines, dishing out big laughs thanks to ingenious set pieces and some hilarious verbal sparring throughout. Thanks to roofies being mistaken for E, the stock characters (the wimp, the instigator, the nice guy, the weirdo) have even less of a clue as to what’s going on than the audience, and as they embark on a wild hunt for The Groom (not to mention a missing tooth and the owners of both a baby and a tiger found in their hotel room). Gags come thick and fast.
The Unborn
3 CommentsJune 14, 2009 – 6:05 pm
The Unborn arrives still-born, confused, overwhelmed by its influences and riddled with incidental music that seems designed to inflict the viewer with its own brand of barbarous audio-vandalism.
Classic horror, this is not.
