Michael Shannon IS Zod!

The Superman reboot has a supervillain.

To Entertain or not?

The question of whether film is made for entertainment or what its value is in our cultures bothers me these days. This nagging question led me to discover the so-called 'father' of motion picture, Eadward Muybridge. Muybridge's picture frames set in motion certainly sheds a truly different light on the present state of the film industry and how things have changed since the beginning of motion pictures.

Johnny English Reborn

Rowan Atkinson’s lovable and laughable antics are back as he reprises his role as secret agent Johnny English. This time he goes up against international assassins in order to save the Chinese premier’s life.

Okay, so we weren’t expecting a sequel, but movie goers who enjoy slapstick comedies will be thrilled. Rowan Atkinson does for Johnny English what Mike Meyers did for Austin powers, essentially mocking the whole spy genre with misinterpreted detective lingo and hilariously funny action scenes. Basically Johnny English is Mr. Bean with a gun, excluding Teddy.

According to Variety.com Johnny English 2003 cost $40 Million to make, but earned only $28 Million stateside, so why make a sequel? Well, it turns out Johnny English was a huge success everywhere else, earning $161 Million worldwide, why not make a sequel? Oliver Parker directed Reborn and used a stellar support cast, including Dominic West, Gillian Anderson, Rosemund Pike and Pierce Brosnan. Gillian Anderson, best known for her role as Scully in The X Files, will be playing English’s love interest and fellow agent, if that’s not enough to make any movie fan tingle with comedic excitement, I don’t know what will.

The debonair Mr. English will be returning to the UK’s silver screen on the 7^th of October 2011, it is not yet known when it will be released in South Africa, but be assured every Pink Panther, Naked Gun and Austin Powers fan will be on the look out.

Trailer Roundup

For your viewing pleasure I have compiled a couple of trailers for films that are coming out later this year that you may or may not have heard about but which you should definitely keep an eye out for. It's an interesting and diverse lot that ranges from Terence Malick's Tree Of Life to the comedic silliness of Bridesmaids. Check them all out after the jump.

Will the Harry Potter madness ever end?

Harry Potter has been part of our lives for what seems like forever. We first got the books which we waited with baited breath for the release of each one, then the movies started to be released and now a documentary on the movies.

What about 'The Detox Film'?

I feel like there needs to sprout a new genre from the film industry. What about 'The Detox Film'? Sometimes things get cluttered, we are involved in a visual battle where we must defend our eyes from the flux of incoming images. Why are most of these images so intruding and aggressively demanding on our sight?

Consider the latest film you have seen; were you truly relaxed at any time during the screening? Its obvious how aggressively films are edited to capture and hold our attention; the speed at which images are flung at us makes me amaze at the actual capacity we are able to handle while still remaining sane. Either its amazing or it's shocking. Nevertheless it is evident how arresting this realization is - this constant flux of imagery has our eyes under its control.

'So can we take the control back?' we might wonder. Hence my suggestion of a detox film. One such film I would say belongs to this unestablished genre is the both visually, physically and spiritually relaxing documentary Into Great Silence, directed by Philip Groning, that was first released in 2005. It is an intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grand Chartreuse , high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The film solely consists of images and sounds of the rhythm of monastic life. There's neither commentary nor sound effects added. In my opinion this is a truly detoxifying film - note: don't expect any fast pacing action.

Salute Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)

One of American film's most revered directors, Sidney Lumet died at the age of 86 on Saturday.

He had been ill with lymphoma and passed away at his home in Manhattan.

Lumet was nominated by Hollywood's film academy four times for best director.

In 1957, he received an Oscar nomination for his debut feature film: 12 Angry Men. Before this film, he had worked on various off-Broadway films. He went on to win Oscar nominations for 1975’s Dog Day Afternoon, 1976’s Network and 1982’s The Verdict. He received his final Oscar nomination for the co-writing the screenplay to 1981’s Prince of City.

Some people have argued that he is not quite as good as Martin Scorsese or other directors but how does one really rate directors at that stratospheric level of filmmaking? For one thing, he told New York's stories like few others have.

The following list of selected Lumet films in a five decade Hollywood career make for exceptionally good viewing:

12 Angry Men (1957) - A crisp adaptation of a play

The Pawnbroker (1964) - One of the early films to consider the effects of the Nazi regime's concentration camps on their survivors

Serpico (1973) - A true story that challenges police corruption in New York about an honest New York cop who blew the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974) - An exciting adaptation of the classic novel, featuring a list of strong actors

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - This film challenged the drama genre because it was based on such an unusual but true story. The Chase Manhattan Bank in Flatbush, Brooklyn, was held siege by a homosexual bank robber determined to steal enough money for his lover to undergo a sex change operation. Al Pacino's performance is unforgettable.

Network (1976) - The movie studies how the media can be abused for the gain of a few.

The Verdict (1982) - This film is about redemption. It features Paul Newman as a career trying to resurrect his life. It may be his best ever performance, at least one of the performances that stretches him as an actor and not just an action hero.

Find Me Guilty (2006) - A fan of true stories, Lumet directs Vin Diesel as Jack DiNorscio, a mob man who defended himself in court in a mafia trial. Paul Newman may have also made The Colour of Money but Vin Diesel has not acted this well since and its hard to believe he ever will.

The CelebrityCafe.com wrote: On NJ.com, Stephen Witty said his films "shared a dedication to character and performance, a feel for the sweaty rhythms of New York, a preference for narrative clarity over fanciful artistry."

"He had a unique gift with actors, an unusually dynamic feeling for drama, and a powerful sense of place, of the world of the picture," Martin Scorsese said.

He said Lumet was a "New York filmmaker at heart".

"Sidney Lumet will be remembered for his films. He leaves a great legacy, but more than that, to the people close to him, he will remain the most civilized of humans and the kindest man I have ever known," Al Pacino said.

"Sidney gave me my start in film composing in 1963 with 'The Pawnbroker' and I was privileged to work with him on four additional films including 'The Wiz,'" composer Quincy Jones said.

"Sidney was a visionary filmmaker whose movies made an indelible mark on our popular culture with their stirring commentary on our society," he said.

A director who began to tell New York stories, especially involving the city's minority populations, Spike Lee, said on Twitter:

"We all lost a Master Filmmaker yesterday, the Great Sidney Lumet. There could have been no INSIDE MAN without his superb DOG DAY AFTERNOON."

"Sidney was a visionary filmmaker whose movies made an indelible mark on our popular culture with their stirring commentary on our society" (Quincy Jones)

With AFP

Alistair Anderson

DVD Review - Vampires Suck

Rating: 3.3/10

This is one of the worst spoofs ever made.

Film Review: The Eagle

Rating: 5.9/10

This film is based on a popular children's novel and it shows.

Film Review: Rio 3D

Rating:  7.2/10
 

Film Review: Somewhere

Rating: 5.2/10 - Average

Today I have the honour of reviewing the latest film by the daughter of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola whose previous work was the critically acclaimed Lost In Translation. Sadly she is one of the few Hollywood female directors, the other being the Oscar winning Kathryn Bigelow, who are well respected in the industry without having to do romantic comedies or vampire/werewolf teen flicks (I'm looking at you, Catherine Hardwicke). See the full review after the jump.

Film Review: Unknown

Rating: 5.5/10

Set in Berlin, Unknown re-establishes old-style spy conventions in a gripping and somewhat controversial narrative with a slightly flaking sense of suspense. Liam Neeson pulls the assassin off convincingly, mainly because he isn't new to the thriller. However at times Neeson’s excessive Americanism overwhelms the film’s initial experience as an international spy thriller, or as director Collet- Serra describes it, “a reverse amnesia movie”.

 

Everything Must Go - Trailer

I used to just think that Everything Must Go was an album by Welsh band, the Manic Street Preachers.

It was in 1996, but now it is a film too. It stars comic maniac Will Ferrell.

The Internet Movie Database's description of the film reads:

"When an alcoholic relapses, causing him to lose his wife and his job, he holds a yard sale on his front lawn in an attempt to start over. A new neighbor might be the key to his return to form."



Ferrell is a hard working actor, who makes some duds but also graces the screen with hilarity. He was recently in the cluster turd, Land of the Lost, for example, but he reached levels of comic genius, in Zoolander, Old School, Step Brothers and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. He was also in my favourite Christmas film, Elf, and in the sweet drama, Stranger than Fiction.

Everything Must Go may be a bit similar to Kicking and Screaming, where he played a father trying to get in his family's good books again, by coaching his son at soccer.

That wasn't a great film, so hopefully Everything Must Go will be better.

What might add an extra quality to the film is a appearance by Christopher Jordan Wallace, son of rapper Biggie Smalls, who died about a year after Christopher John's birth, and Faith Evans.

Watch this space for a release date soon

Alistair Anderson

Let's do the twist

Luke, (creepy breathing sound effects) I am your father. What an epic twist, the Empire strikes back really blew away audience members with its plot reveal. Hollywood has put forth some movies that will be forever known for their shockingly brilliant twists.

Some of my favourites include the Sixth sense, Saw I, Fight club, The others and Identity, all movies that would have you sitting on the edge of your seat with a surprised expression, looking to your friends to see if any of them had picked it up. . . they hadn’t. We, as enthusiastic movie goers, would like to think we would not be had, but alas Hollywood has delivered some tricky endings we just could not have anticipated. So what is the formula for a good plot twist? According to Dan Heller a story needs to be built around the main characters psychological objectives but then surprise audience members by delivering a logically-acceptable plot twist that abandons those objectives. For example in The Sixth sense Bruce Willis believed he was helping a boy who could see ghosts and in the process his marriage was falling apart, the twist revealed Bruce to be a ghost, explaining why he was always with the boy, didn’t eat or sleep and was ignored by his wife.

So, the formula for a brilliant movie twist should include suspense and the element of surprise, the more unexpected the outcome the more dramatic the surprise effect. Who could forget where, in Saw I, the bloody body that had been lying in the middle of the floor during the whole movie, stood up and walked out! The unpredictability of thriller movies will keep us coming back for more, well done Hollywood.

Box Office Preview: 07-04-2011

Welcome to our weekly preview of all the latest films that will be opening in local cinemas this weekend. Our duty is to inform you on what to see and what to avoid so that you don't spend your hard earned money on duds that should've never been given the production greenlight in the first place. Check out the full list of new releases after the jump.