Killing in Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass is undoubtedly a truly fun experience for watching. It’s filled with stabs of smart, profane humour and knowing touches and nods to inspirations peppered throughout. The performances, particularly from the future superstar Aaron Johnson and the ridiculously precocious Chloe Moretz are superb. The action sequences, though occasionally creaking under budgetary concerns, are packed to [...]
Bourne Again?
At the UK premiere of Invictus, Matt Damon has said that the next Bourne film is likely to be a prequel or a reboot (shudder!!). Add to that the reboot of Spiderman which is on the way and the only comment I can make is “What the heck are movie companies thinking of?” First off, [...]
A Riposte to Lovely Bones Praise
There is plenty of criticism to fling at the article written on The Quietus this week by Josh Saco seemingly in defence of Peter Jackson, currently drowining under a flood of criticism for his The Lovely Bones adaptation. Just for the purpose of keeping this simple, I’ll concentrate on the assertions made about the film [...]
Implications of a ‘Hollywood Stock Exchange’
Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street investment house, is reportedly harbouring plans to make its ‘Hollywood Stock Exchange’ fake money spread-betting game a reality, offering investors the opportunity to make real-money bets on the financial performance of films. Though the concerns around this are far beyond the movie world – insider trading likelihood, expanding the volume [...]
Intimacy in A Single Man
I liked Tom Ford’s debut film quite a bit. An adaptation of the Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name, the film is meticulously constructed throughout, both in terms (predictably) of the costumes and set design and the editing style. The latter probably harms the film somewhat, especially during the first few scenes in which [...]
Smith asks fans to finance Red State
Kevin Smith has made an appeal to fans to donate to back his next movie, the long-delayed horror movie Red State, after heeding a suggestion made to him through Twitter. There has been some backlash against the idea, and it doesn’t seem even close to fullproof, but this could prove a really interesting acid test [...]
Batman & Robin: Worst Film Ever?
Lists are made to be argued with, so I won’t deny that primal urge, but I do feel obligated to hold onto Movie Overdose’s position as the only, and it does seem only, defender of Batman & Robin as a movie experience. The film was today voted the worst film of all time by Empire [...]
Box-Office Depression
Reading the most recent issue of Time, there was a brief note during its Oscar predictions on the comparable box-office totals for The Hurt Locker and Avatar. The first, an essentially apolitical Iraq war movie which explores the psyche of those addicted to conflict, made a total of $12m at the US box-office. That’s a [...]
Understanding Characters
I watched James Gray’s Two Lovers last night, his polarising relationship drama starring Joaquin Phoenix which, inevitably, was unfairly caught in the storm of madness which surrounded his breakdown and (hopefully) botched rap career launch. Gray’s films are a strange experience. The man appears to have very little sense of irony on the surface of [...]
Chris’ Favourite Year of the Decade: 2006
So, which year in the last decade was the best for film? For me, the shortlist dropped down to two years immediately, 2000 and 2006.
A Serious Man: Not an Odd Film Out
In a column for the Guardian over the weekend, Joe Queenan used A Serious Man to stand in example of movies by directors which stand apart from the rest of their filmography. In the case of A Serious Man, Queenan writes: A Serious Man falls into that category of films that, for whatever reason, do [...]
The Problem with Paranormal Activity
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PARANORMAL ACTIVITY FOLLOW Welcomed as a returning hero this year by the horror genre, Paranormal Activity heralded the commercial arrival, or re-arrival, of the ‘found footage’ genre (we’ve already got James Marsh entering the fray). The Blair Witch Project, a film still entirely underrated, popularised the sub-genre in the late-90s, though without [...]
MOD Summer Round-Up #1 (April to June)
Being in the UK, deciding what actually constitutes summer in our increasingly muddled weather environment is pretty darn difficult. Should we start with May? Well, if summer is the period of the year in which things were sunny and bright and lovely, then May, June and July are all out for us UK folks. Our [...]
CGI, Moon and a Dearth of Problem-Solving
There’s a great blog post on The Guardian from Phelim O’Neill extolling the virtues of the “old-fashioned, miniature model work’ done for Moon. As anyone who listens to our podcast will know, Tom and I are luddite-esque on our anti-CGI attitudes, something pushed to a mass-extreme over the summer from Wolverine, through Terminator: Salvation and [...]
Futurama Voice Cast Signed, A Good Idea To Bring It Back?
We chatted, angrily and with utmost Fox-aimed contempt, on the podcast a few weeks back about the news that the studio were planning to replace the entire original voice cast of Futurama for its return to television screens. The fury with which the majority of the online world and Futurama-fanbase reacted to the news was [...]
Why 3D Isn’t Needed, Briefly
Writing for The Guardian in the past week, Dave Eggers ran down the movies of his life and provides some information on how they fit into his make-up. It caught my attention partly owing to our recent autobiographical season on the podcast but also because of one small comment he makes which seems so beautifully [...]
Doesn’t a Buffy Reboot Need No Whedon?
It came out in the past week that Joss Whedon, the genius creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly/Serenity and Dollhouse, has turned down a chance to write the big screen reboot of Buffy. We reported about the series returning to movie screens recently and it seems to me this could be the best thing [...]
Your Favourite UK Cinema?
The Harbour Lights in Southampton NOTE: This post has been slightly edited owing to some clarification given by Picturehouse’s Vince. The Guardian had a nice piece over the past week asking to know what people’s favourite cinema was? The majority of it obviously depends on where you live and the number of cinemas near you. [...]
The Curious Case of Sin City 2
Some strange activity coming from the news surrounding Sin City 2. It’s been an active property in recent weeks, garnering much press over the potential hire of Angelina Jolie to join the selection of lithe, leather-clad women which make up that side of the Sin City cast. Now it seems, despite a name like Jolie [...]
Bromancing and the Destigmatisation of Homosexuality
Toby Young wrote in a column in the Independent over the weekend to comment on the growth of so-called bromanticism in modern movie making, arguing specifically that this phenomenon has grown in the wake of the “destigmatisation of homosexuality”. The point is pretty trite and obvious, but I don’t think it had even occurred to [...]
Ponder: Is Zack Snyder Worth Getting Excited About?
I was probably sitting right in the centre of the grand Watchmen debate. I didn’t hate the film with fanboy outrage or the bemused annoyance of the un-anointed. But I didn’t sing its praises in the way many others did. I will freely admit the film is a startling vision, but beyond looking just about [...]
New Anti-Piracy Tactics: The Right Move?
Xan Brooks wrote a Guardian blog post today to espouse the virtues of the new tactic being employed by the Industry Trust in the UK to try and combat film piracy. He has found some solace in this recalibrated method of thanking audiences who do no practice film piracy, rather than scorning those who do. [...]
Support Parnassus
Just a quick post but I want to point everyone in the direction of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus forum which has been set up to raise awareness of the movie which, despite being the final film of Heath Ledger and having a cast which includes Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, has yet [...]
Producer John: Dune Beats Watchmen As Greatest Failure
As the shy and retiring producer of The Movie Overdose it’s my job to get Sam and Tom together in the same room and record their thoughts and opinions on the world of cinema. More often than not I’m quite content to sit back and bask in the velvet tones of your two magnificent hosts, [...]
The Anti-Hipster Issue
A recent post on Screener. Movie Stuff raises some very interesting issues as regards the treatment of so-called ‘hipster’ stylistic values in cinema. It’s sparked by the reviews to have been put forward for the Where the Wild Things Are trailer, noting reviews which seems to identify the two key creative protagonists behind the adaptation, [...]
Six-Star Movies
When you write criticism, films and music primarily, you are constrained into rating a piece based on a set scale. This normally takes the form of a 4-star or 5-star pictorial option or a marks out-of-ten barometer to give your readership a quick and easy way to understand your sentiment towards what is being reviewed [...]
Avatar News
Avatar, the 3D mega-project from James Cameron, was the subject of a profile in Time Magazine which, among a variety of other things about 3D cinema and its potential as the future of moviemaking, noting that Avatar’s budget has now soared beyond the $300m mark, likely making it the most expensive movie ever made. Avatar [...]
Phillip Morris: Too Gay for Cinemas?
I Love You, Phillip Morris, the gay love story starring Ewan MacGregor and Jim Carrey, has thus far failed to pick up a distributor and, according to The Times, may end up going straight to DVD in the US. Devin Faraci over at CHUD said the movie does have explicit gay sex scenes, noting one [...]
Natasha Richardson 1963-2009
Our sincerest condolences to any and all he knew Natasha Richardson, the outstanding British actress who died early this morning. To her family and friends we offer our deepest sympathy for her untimely passing and lament her loss both as a to theatre and film and to the causes of which she was patron. RIP [...]
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