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Showing posts with the label paul

THE MASTER - REVIEW

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Over the years, Paul Thomas Anderson seems to have perfected his journey into tackling big themes through personal stories and through flawed, toxic characters. Case and point: The Master . Religion was a prominent theme in Anderson's previous effort There Will Be Blood and you could say that the whole film, despite outlining the rise and fall of Daniel Day Lewis' oil tycoon, was indeed about the relationship between business and religion. With his latest, we take a look at cults, yes, but also humanity in general. Here we have a Scientology-style organisation, "The Cause", based on the idea that Man is not an animal and, in fact, is far more important and deeper than he realizes and along comes Joaquin Phoenix's drifter, a down-and-out alcoholic drifter with a sex fixation. Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffmann), the cult's "master", decides to make him his pet-project, his guinea-pig. But it seems that proving the core theory that man isn

OBSERVE AND REPORT - REVIEW

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Occasionally a comedy comes along that's just so weird or mean-spirited that studios just don't know how to market it. I'm thinking The Cable Guy , Super or even Neighbors , back in the day. Observe And Report , be warned, isn't the Paul Blart: Mall Cop -style knockabout cartoon comedy it was sold as. In fact, this is the much darker tale of what happens when a deluded, if well-meaning, sociopath goes off his meds. Seth Rogen, in possibly his best role to date, plays Ronnie, head of mall security, who takes his job a little too seriously. When a flasher repeatedly invades the mall, the police are called in and Ray Liotta's cop begins a routine investigation which Ronnie promptly interferes with, thinking he's on some sort of one-man crusade to protect Anna Faris' odious perfume salesgirl. He takes the case into his own hands, which inspires him to try and join the police force and ask Faris out. Both plans, of course, backfire. It's good to see

PANDORUM - REVIEW

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It's not easy being a claustrophobic sci-fi horror. For one thing you have to compete with every Alien movie out there, then you need to adapt to a certain formula while introducing new aspects to the genre yourself. You can go the arty route with something like Solaris , or go for pure cheesy B movie lols Event Horizon -style, or go for something in-between like Sunshine . Being produced by Paul W.S. Anderson, you'd think Pandorum would be closer to Event Horizon and yet it feels more like The Descent . Think that movie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Pandorum does look great and almost feels like a low-budget Prometheus or a less boring version of Dante 01 . As you can see, I've already listed like 10 other movies. Derivative much? Yes Pandorum is pretty much almost exactly like any other horror sci-fi film you've ever seen. Which is a shame because it does have its own good ideas and unique style. Rubbishy Descent-style monsters-aside, I like how gross

RUBY SPARKS - REVIEW

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I know what you're thinking: " Ruby Sparks ? Wait, isn't it that Stranger Than Fiction rom-com knockoff?" Yes, yes it is. Complete with white people problems and lots of 'em! Right off the bat, Ruby Sparks is every Woody Allen/Nora Ephron rom-com you've ever seen: shrinks, stereotypical neurotic writers, cookie hippie relatives... It's good, don't get me wrong, but you've seen it all before. Same goes for the movie's surreal "hook" involving Zoe Kazan's Sparks, a fictional character written by Paul Dano's writer Calvin, who inexplicably comes to life one morning. What follows is a rollercoaster ride of emotions and forced quirkiness which finally develops into a kind of 500 Days Of Summer meets Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind -type bittersweet tale of the impact relationships have on us and how we screw them up, basically. It's cute, it's sweet, it's all-over-the-place, it's heartbreaking,

ROBOCOP REMAKE - MINI PREVIEW

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Well, it looks that the (likely) ill-conceived RoboCop remake is finally going forwards as the news that Michael Keaton will replace original pick Hugh Laurie as the film's villain is made official. Not to mention the early viral campaign which seems to be there mostly to serve as kind of warning that CGI will most definitely replace practical effects, not a huge surprise seeing as that other Paul Verhoeven remake Total Recall , out this year, as you know, did just that. Ah ED-209, I'm guessing this new model's stair-tested. Not sure what RoboCop himself will look like but if the teaser promo above and whatever concept art is floating around the internet is anything to go by then I think it's fair to say that we won't be getting our favourite 80's design but something completely different. Darker? More intimidating? Or... Hm. I wonder what Peter Weller thinks of this potential character design...

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - POSTER ART

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New artwork by Paul Shipper .

PEE-WEE COBBLEPOT

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COSMOPOLIS - REVIEW

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Here's one I was really looking forward to. When you're a fan of David Cronenberg's stranger works, seeing him make relatively straight-forward films like History Of Violence or A Dangerous Method is always a bit disappointing. No matter how good those movies are, you just want the guy to go all out Videodrome -style, blow-up some heads or just put messed-up images in your head (the birth dream sequence from The Fly , anyone?). I guess the director's style had to mature at some point but personally, with the exception of Eastern Promises , I haven't truly been impressed by the director's work since eXistenZ . And I still haven't. Cosmopolis has received mixed reviews thusfar with some praising its daring, mostly limo-set plot and message, while others calling it "shallow" and "self-indulgent"... because it is. Frankly, this is not a good movie. And I don't say that because I didn't get it, quite the opposite, Cosmo

ANCHORMAN 2 - TEASERS

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CREAM away San Diego, cream away... ...and now it's THIS teaser's time to play.

ROBOCOP - REVIEW

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Sure cop movies are cool but... you know what else is cool? Freakin' robots that's what. Good thing the 80's knew that, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to enjoy Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop , a film with a premise so awesome it must have taken about a minute to greenlight. Peter Weller, of Buckaroo Banzai "fame", is Murphy, the Detroit cop who gets his ass handed to him in a particularly unfriendly gun-fight. What's left of him is soon turned into a badass robotic crimefighter with an apt for genius one-liners and incredible shooting accuracy. Sadly, his hardware is owned by corrupt company OCP which makes ridding the city of all its scum a bit of a challenge. The "scum" in question includes big cheese Dick Jones (the ever intimidating Ronny Cox), the dad from That 70's Show and... Leland Palmer? Twin Peaks reference. It's funny, go watch the show. So yes, it turns out that having the police owned by a big-ass,

ANCHORMAN 2 - TEASER POSTER

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The Legend Continues...

STARSHIP TROOPERS 3 - REVIEW

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Still feeling the aftershock from Starship Troopers 2 's assness, I finally decided to end the suffering and complete the trilogy. Presented by Paul Verhoeven, starring Casper Van Dien, boasting big robots on the cover (I know, I'm easily led): Starship Troopers 3: Marauder promised to offer something resembling a decent film or at least something better than the preceding train wreck. The result? I'm happy to say that it is, indeed, better than Hero Of The Federation. Like a hundred times better. No more shall we roam around dark corridors aimlessly, no more shall we endure some of the dullest dialogs and characters in movie history and no more shall we have to sit through the most repetitive display of bug attacks you'll ever see. Man these guys were stealthy: patiently waiting around the corner for humans to pass by innocently... Bullshit! These are mean-ass killer bugs goddamnit! They don't stop for shit! This is partly why Marauder works: it underst

STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 - REVIEW

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How do you follow a film like Starship Troopers ? I mean, Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi flick was something of a rare gem. The kind of genial, silly, wonderfully entertaining, crazy project that comes around once every blue moon and proudly shows that a sci-fi creature feature can and should be done right! After RoboCop and Total Recall , who knew that the director had one more ace up his sleeve? Especially after the likes of Basic Instinct and *shudder* Showgirls ! Yes, Starship Troopers was great. But I'm avoiding reality. I'm not here to review that movie. I'm here to review its sequel. A sequel so awful it was turned down by Casper Van Dien AND Denise Richards. :O At first I was like "Whaaaat? Surely it couldn't be as b..." but soon enough, my friends, soon enough I knew that a bug had crawled up my ass and would not leave my rectum for the next hour and 20 minutes. That bug was Starship Troopers 2 . Man, what a cheap follow-up. From the off

WIN WIN - REVIEW

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Indie movie king Paul Giamatti stars as a desperate attorney/wrestling coach who decides to bend the law in order to keep himself afloat financially. Unfortunately with the unexpected arrival of a runaway kid at his doorstep, things soon get more complicated than he had originally anticipated. Giamatti can do that type of role in his sleep but somehow he keeps his performances fresh and fun everytime: this one's thankfully no exception and he elevates what could have easily felt as a slight, studenty-style little flick into something more prominent and heartfelt. Films like this often fall into the trap of wanting to be too quirky or cool and ending up feeling forced ( Juno ?) thankfully Win Win is grounded enough that it never feels the need to overcompensate for anything. The premise follows a flawed but well-meaning character through a little journey of self-work while tricking you into thinking this is nothing but a wrestling movie (it's really not) in order to bring a

THE TOURIST - REVIEW

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The poor man's Knight and Day ? Perhaps not. Depp and Jolie are hardly the B sides of Cruise and Diaz. If anything The Tourist is a more laid-back alternative to the pumped up nonsense of Knight and Day. Both films have similarities though in that they are both throwbacks to Hitchcockian spy movies in the vein of North By Northwest and To Catch a Thief . So which works better? I suppose it depends what you're in the mood for. If you're in need of some Mission Impossible -style silliness with multiple chase scenes and explosions then Knight and Day just about hits the spot. If however you want something just as silly but a tad more focused and sophisticated then The Tourist is a better bet: no dodgy CGI or slo-mo plane explosions there. Although The Tourist is far from perfect and is closer to Salt than anything else, it feels like it's suffered some unfair bashing. The chemistry between both leads and the predictable end "twist" being the k

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS - REVIEW

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Something of a classic in France, the "original" Dinner For Schmucks, Francis Veber's Le Diner De Cons , was, it must be said, overrated to begin with. French to US film adaptations are never a great success but occasionally you do get something that's at the very least about as decent as the original ( Three Fugitives , Father's Day ). And although Diner De Cons did the job, there was definitely room for improvement. And to be fair, Dinner For Schmucks does really well to fix some of the original's flaws. For one thing, you actually get to SEE the titular dinner! And it is gloriously ridiculous. Plus, whereas the original felt a bit too stagy and claustrophobic, Schmucks is on a sugar rush and never stops for a second. Which is also its main flaw, but we'll get to that. In terms of the cast, this is as good as a comedy of that type can hope for: Rudd, Galifianakis, Carell, Clement, Walliams... Everyone has a ball and everyone does a gre