Touched (what I've been watching?!)

Ok so I had the chance to revisit Drive, and was it better the second time round? Yes I think it was, I really didn't understand the hype the first time round, but coming to it on my own terms helped me appreciate the film more as a whole. Despite that fact, I still think it is good move rather than a classic (or something to be revered for years to come), and no amount of Gosling smiling silently at Culligan for endless scenes will change my opinion on that. The trouble is.... Hollywood churns out so much crap each year that when anything half decent comes along that isn't wall to wall dumb action set pieces or some comedian in a fat suit or drag, everyone seems to lose their critical minds over it. Tinker Tailor, The Artist, The King's Speech, Black Swan are all good films, but are they films that will be referenced as some of the best movies of all time, no...... Why? Well being different is gold to critics, but Gold gets boring too look at quite quickly (nope i've no idea what that means either).

Oh and despite the unforgivable circumstances in which Darabont left the series - Walking Dead series 2 is still pretty awesome, I just wish AMC could have indulged the great man's vision and provided the budget needed. In fact surely the success of the first series and DVD/BR sales would have meant the second series would have had a bigger budget not less??? Ok so I am not armed with all the facts and the recession is hitting the TV industry as well so.....

I also watched the first episode of Touch, with Keifer Sutherland and Danny Glover and a gifted autistic child who kind of manages to see that all people are linked, basically he is able to determine every path of fate/destiny everyone's lives take and how each of us is destined to 'touch' a certain number of lives/people in our life time. It does sound a fairly high concept if not slightly overblown and daft premise. Tim Kring who brought us Heroes is the writer/creator and we all know what happened to that! Granted the first series of Heroes was brilliant, the second half of the second series was also good but as soon as we got to the third the whole series unravelled faster than toilet roll left in room full of angry puppies. I am eagerly waiting for more though, which is more than I can say for Alcatraz from lost creator JJ Abrahams which is utter nonsense, but hey it's very watchable nonsense, its like a very low brow murder mystery thriller with a bit of sci-fi dobbins throw in, so in a kind of candy for the brain style way i'm going to stay dumb and keep watching even if my higher self says NOOO STOP YOU KNOW IT'S WRONG!

Zombieland the series??

Aint It Cool news is reporting the writers of the film are resurrecting the sitcom series based on the film - following an aborted pilot! Article here

Maybe down to the success of a certain other zombie related TV series... NO?

Apocalypse and Weddings

Lars Von Trier has and always will divide opinions and his latest film Melancholia has divided me straight down the middle. The part of me that respects intelligent conceptual film making and gratefully absorbs some of the most beautiful, disquieting and sumptuous cinematography committed to celluloid, loved this film. The concept of a planet on a collision course with Earth also pushes every sci-fi loving button in my body. 


But then my parasitic critical twin emerges and cries foul, 'oh my god is this film really just about the tedious drama and overblown pomp and ceremony of wedding?' In many ways the first part of the film really is just that. Worse still the narrative presents a series of thoroughly unlikable characters that it is impossible to empathise with, there isn't even enough back story here to understand the tensions, depression and general discourse at hand. Ok so the mum's a bitch and the dad is a loon, the sister is a control freak and the bride is a conflicted manic depressive who doesn't love her new spouse. Just because these characters are played by the likes of Gainsbourg, Hurt and Dunst does not mean this pushes this above the level of an ITV drama. Thankfully the wedding is not the whole film and the thought of them all being wiped out by a planetry collision offers hope.

More importantly the imagery and intensity of the second half does redeem this film as the director finds his true voice. After all Lars von Trier does conflicted, brutal and beautiful better than any other director I know and no-one hear is miscast. I also appreciate we are't meant to understand or empathise with the characters, life doesn't always find an acceptable rhythm. The film is challenging for both the right and wrong reasons, but the cinematography is so rich and intense that even the opening operatically scored slow motion montage of the events about to played out, alone makes this film worth watching, (weddings aside). 

Reviews round up

Been pretty quiet really as we hit the lull before the Autumn/Christmas movies kick in, but do check out my review of Drive and Delme's review of the brilliant Tyrannasaur, we've got also got a review of the quietly disturbing 'We need to talk about Kevin'!

If you haven't already seen 13 Assassins or Attack the Block then why the funk not? Click the links for the reviews.

The Retreat Trailer

We're looking forward to this one, check the trailer and synopsis below!

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Kate (Thandie Newton) and Martin (Cillian Murphy) escape London for an idyllic cottage on the remote Blackholme Island, off the west coat of Scotland, in the hope of recovering from a personal tragedy. Cut off from the outside world, their hopes of recovery and rekindling their relationship are dashed when an injured young soldier is washed ashore with news of an airborne killer virus that's sweeping through Europe.

This film is dropping on the 15th October!