This was the week that Eddie Murphy baled out of the Oscars, leaving the way clear for the some fabric puppets
The big story
Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners. Not any more. Someone, somewhere, decided it had to get "edgy". Last time, they had cool young persons in the shape of James Franco and Anne Hathaway introducing it - and look how that worked out.
The big idea for 2012 was to hire a bona fide Hollywood hotshot, so naturally the word went out for Brett Ratner. Yes, well... he made Rush Hour 2, you know. No sooner had Ratner persuaded his mucker Eddie Murphy to act as the show's host (an inspired choice, we give him that) then he was promptly ejected from his co-producer role after...
The big story
Once upon a time the Oscar ceremony was a comforting drone punctuated only by the odd song-and-dance routine and the banshee wailing of overwhelmed best actress award winners. Not any more. Someone, somewhere, decided it had to get "edgy". Last time, they had cool young persons in the shape of James Franco and Anne Hathaway introducing it - and look how that worked out.
The big idea for 2012 was to hire a bona fide Hollywood hotshot, so naturally the word went out for Brett Ratner. Yes, well... he made Rush Hour 2, you know. No sooner had Ratner persuaded his mucker Eddie Murphy to act as the show's host (an inspired choice, we give him that) then he was promptly ejected from his co-producer role after...
- 11/11/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
We're streaming Krzysztof Kieslowski's brilliant trilogy live on the site. And we'd like you to join our discussion about the films
"When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996," wrote Richard Williams a decade later in the Guardian, "it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him." A retrospective look at our archive content on the Polish director hammers home his point: this was a man of rare vision and brilliance. And his central achievement, the Three Colours trilogy – which takes its titles from the colours of the French flag, and inspiration from the political ideals at the heart of the Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity) – is an uncontested landmark in European cinema.
It was also, sadly, his final achievement: Kieslowski took early retirement at 52 after making the last in the trilogy, Red, then had a fatal heart attack two years later. It makes...
"When Krzysztof Kieslowski died on March 13, 1996," wrote Richard Williams a decade later in the Guardian, "it was as though a certain kind of cinema had come to an end along with him." A retrospective look at our archive content on the Polish director hammers home his point: this was a man of rare vision and brilliance. And his central achievement, the Three Colours trilogy – which takes its titles from the colours of the French flag, and inspiration from the political ideals at the heart of the Republic (liberty, equality, fraternity) – is an uncontested landmark in European cinema.
It was also, sadly, his final achievement: Kieslowski took early retirement at 52 after making the last in the trilogy, Red, then had a fatal heart attack two years later. It makes...
- 11/10/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
James Cameron movie is brilliant at bringing a world to life you sometimes feel bludgeoned with his none too original green, antiwar message writ large. By Rob Mackie
There is no 3D version on either DVD or Blu-ray planned for the near future but there will be a director's cut out in the autumn. For now, a 2D version still feels like an event without that third dimension. It's very much a James Cameron movie, for better and worse. The director is brilliant at bringing a world to life and while I've seen the plot summarised accurately as Dances With Wolves in space, its visual splendours are many. But Cameron movies come with his own dialogue so it's only the visuals that stay with you and you sometimes feel bludgeoned with his none too original green, antiwar message writ large.
Rent DVDs at guardian.co.uk/sofa cinema
James CameronScience...
There is no 3D version on either DVD or Blu-ray planned for the near future but there will be a director's cut out in the autumn. For now, a 2D version still feels like an event without that third dimension. It's very much a James Cameron movie, for better and worse. The director is brilliant at bringing a world to life and while I've seen the plot summarised accurately as Dances With Wolves in space, its visual splendours are many. But Cameron movies come with his own dialogue so it's only the visuals that stay with you and you sometimes feel bludgeoned with his none too original green, antiwar message writ large.
Rent DVDs at guardian.co.uk/sofa cinema
James CameronScience...
- 4/22/2010
- by Rob Mackie
- The Guardian - Film News
Documentary about a film that never was by the director of Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear. By Rob Mackie
Fans of the great French director of Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear will find much of interest in this documentary about the film that never was. Inferno was elaborately storyboarded with endless tests for experimental camerawork using op art and distorted visuals to denote his lead character's obsessive jealousy. With free experimentation and an "unlimited" budget, the 1964 production sounds like a dream come true, but Clouzot was an insomniac described by fellow workers as "anxious and nervous". He also had a history of being hard on actors, and it all ended tragically, but the footage here suggests this might have been a film to rank with his best.
DocumentaryDVD and video reviewsRob Mackie
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to...
Fans of the great French director of Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear will find much of interest in this documentary about the film that never was. Inferno was elaborately storyboarded with endless tests for experimental camerawork using op art and distorted visuals to denote his lead character's obsessive jealousy. With free experimentation and an "unlimited" budget, the 1964 production sounds like a dream come true, but Clouzot was an insomniac described by fellow workers as "anxious and nervous". He also had a history of being hard on actors, and it all ended tragically, but the footage here suggests this might have been a film to rank with his best.
DocumentaryDVD and video reviewsRob Mackie
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to...
- 4/9/2010
- by Rob Mackie
- The Guardian - Film News
The Earth's crust gets unstable in Roland Emmerich's latest disaster movie, starring John Cusack. By Rob Mackie
Roland Emmerich's appetite for destruction is keeping the disaster movie going, pretty much single-handed. As if determined to raze every famous building in the world, he ups the ante here with the Earth's crust becoming unstable. Cue massive earthquakes and tsunamis and, as the genre demands, an estranged family that will be reunited by these events. The characters are as cardboard as ever, but the cast is surprisingly good: you don't expect to find John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton in this kind of movie. At a $200m budget, you would expect the spectacular and you often get it. It's a decent thrill ride, though there's nothing as subversive as the Americans trying to emigrate to Mexico in his big freeze movie, The Day After Tomorrow.
Rating: 3/5
John...
Roland Emmerich's appetite for destruction is keeping the disaster movie going, pretty much single-handed. As if determined to raze every famous building in the world, he ups the ante here with the Earth's crust becoming unstable. Cue massive earthquakes and tsunamis and, as the genre demands, an estranged family that will be reunited by these events. The characters are as cardboard as ever, but the cast is surprisingly good: you don't expect to find John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton in this kind of movie. At a $200m budget, you would expect the spectacular and you often get it. It's a decent thrill ride, though there's nothing as subversive as the Americans trying to emigrate to Mexico in his big freeze movie, The Day After Tomorrow.
Rating: 3/5
John...
- 4/8/2010
- by Rob Mackie
- The Guardian - Film News
An absorbing directorial debut by Michael Keaton, who also stars. By Rob Mackie
Restraint is such a rarity in Us cinema that Michael Keaton's directorial debut is refreshing. It's a quietly absorbing film centred around two very reticent central characters: Keaton's depressed hitman and Kelly Macdonald's shy office worker with a mysterious past. The sparse dialogue is believable. Much remains unexplained, but it's enjoyable to fill in the gaps yourself.
Rating: 3/5
DramaDVD and video reviewsRob Mackie
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Restraint is such a rarity in Us cinema that Michael Keaton's directorial debut is refreshing. It's a quietly absorbing film centred around two very reticent central characters: Keaton's depressed hitman and Kelly Macdonald's shy office worker with a mysterious past. The sparse dialogue is believable. Much remains unexplained, but it's enjoyable to fill in the gaps yourself.
Rating: 3/5
DramaDVD and video reviewsRob Mackie
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 4/1/2010
- by Rob Mackie
- The Guardian - Film News
Heath Ledger's last film is archetypal Terry Gilliam fare. By Rob Mackie
Heath Ledger's final film is archetypal Terry Gilliam fare: stuffed with ideas and imaginative visuals, but with only a hazy idea of plot, which puts a few twists on the Faust legend. Ledger's death resulted in three actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, playing parts of his character. In this context, it works well enough that it might have been planned. Overall, with Tom Waits's enjoyably devious take on the Devil, it works better than Gilliam's previous Ledger collaboration, The Brothers Grimm. The Imaginarium, a sort of travelling entertainment show is what Gilliam's been giving us for all these years. It's both fun and exhausting.
Rating: 3/5
DramaHeath LedgerTerry GilliamDVD and video reviewsRob Mackie
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Heath Ledger's final film is archetypal Terry Gilliam fare: stuffed with ideas and imaginative visuals, but with only a hazy idea of plot, which puts a few twists on the Faust legend. Ledger's death resulted in three actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, playing parts of his character. In this context, it works well enough that it might have been planned. Overall, with Tom Waits's enjoyably devious take on the Devil, it works better than Gilliam's previous Ledger collaboration, The Brothers Grimm. The Imaginarium, a sort of travelling entertainment show is what Gilliam's been giving us for all these years. It's both fun and exhausting.
Rating: 3/5
DramaHeath LedgerTerry GilliamDVD and video reviewsRob Mackie
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 4/1/2010
- by Rob Mackie
- The Guardian - Film News
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