The line “Get back your ass back to Mars” holds a lot of special memories for me. Not only was it something my university housemates used to say to each other when we were arguing over whose turn it was to go to the 24 hour garage to procure the confectionery treat that helps you work, rest and play, it's also a line from one of my favourite all time movies – Total Recall.
Looking forward to the release of The Avengers movie next year? Well, it’s getting ever closer, and Marvel are showing off with the announcement of new footage that will be airing on Saturday 15th October at this year’s New York Comic Con. Hopefully for those attending the event there might even be some sightings of the cast and the film’s director and writer, Joss Whedon.
Believe it or not, there was a time when Brian De Palma's iconic and influential Scarface was the target of derision and disbelief due to being viewed as an unnecessary remake of the popular 1932 Howard Hawks original. If the internet existed in the 1980s I imagine movie blogs and entertainment sites would be over-spilling with outraged copy. Similar to now, only with more embedded MIDI covers of movie soundtracks.
You wait 70 years for a British female director with a singular vision, crafting subtle yet devastatingly affecting stories utilising star-lite casts, often with first time actors, which use a first rate visual sense to elevate kitchen sink realism, and two come along at once! OK so maybe it was seven years in between Lynne Ramsay’s beguiling debut Ratcatcher and Andrea Arnold’s, the tense, disturbing but beautiful Red Road. But the point is that both directors have new films coming out so the comparison is perfectly valid. And no, before you go crowing about the nasty sexist man trying to prove he isn’t sexist by writing an article about how great it is that two girls have been able to find the time between doing their nails and fluffing their bosoms to make some luvvely wuvvely films hence proving he is even more of a great big patronising sexist, it’s not like that. It doesn’t matter a fig that they’re women; what matters is that both made startling original films and now are both bringing out adaptations. Ramsey is bringing us We Need to Talk About Kevin and Arnold has made yet another bloody version of Wuthering Heights. How many Pride and Prejudices, Jane Eyres and Wuthering Heightses do we actually need?
What this is is a very modern form of selling out.
With the summer silly season firmly behind us, it’s time to get down to the serious business of awards fodder pictures that will ease audiences into Christmas before the plethora of early 2012 gong shows and the unabated glut of industry self-congratulation that goes with it.
Jeremy Renner is to take the lead role in a true story about ‘the greatest bank robbery in American history’ titled King Of Heists.
The story is based on an 1878 event in which thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities – almost $50 million in today’s terms.
If you are one of the few filmgoers who hasn’t yet seen the highest grossing movie of all time, look away now to avoid a spoiler.
The official trailer for the new David Koepp movie, Premium Rush, is available online. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jamie Chung, Dania Ramirez and Michael Shannon, the film is about bicycle delivery man Wilee (Gordon-Levitt) who is setting out on a routine delivery. Surprise surprise... things don't go to plan and soon he finds himself involved in a life or death chase. Shannon plays a crazy cop who wants to get his hands on Wilee’s package.
Shark Night 3D is a clichéd teen flick that bores rather than scares. If there’s one thing to take away from watching it it is this: a dog can be the best part about a film, even when he is competing against 46 supposedly terrifying fishy predators.
The action takes place on a lake in Louisiana. Sara (Sara Paxton) hasn’t returned home in three years. Whilst opening up to Nick (Dustin Milligan), she explains that she left town in a hurry after accidentally cutting open the face of ex-boyfriend Dennis (Chris Carmack) with the propeller of a boat. Whoopsy! Of course, the group soon bump into the aforementioned Dennis along with his perverted red-neck friend Red (Joshua Leonard), and later the local Sheriff Sabin (Donal Logue) - the three are about to involve the hapless teens in their brutal hobby.
The Thing, John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece, is one of my all time favourite movies. Much like Carpenter's other classic, Halloween, I can watch it any time and it still has the same impact that it did the first time I saw it - it's a visceral experience and one that is impossible to shake.
Prequels are almost as worthless to me as remakes, especially when they attempt to tell a story we already know the ending to, and fill in details that should remain shrouded in ambiguity. The Thing is one such movie, the ominous fate of the Norwegian camp and the arrival of the cosmic shape-shifting nightmare are things that Carpenter delivers with a deft control of pace and atmosphere, what little we know is enough and it only adds to the frightening and entertaining appeal of the film.
