Film Guide

I remember seeing A Nightmare on Elm Street on VHS sometime in the late 80′s. It was supposed to be a horror, but it’s over the top blood soaked slasher style only had me in fits of laughter. The concept however was an interesting one, though the wisdom of revisiting what is considered a genre classic had me apprehensive and not expecting much from the 2010 remake.

The new Nightmare borrows heavily from the original but isn’t a complete carbon copy. It’s been pretty much universally slammed with a lowly 13% on the infamous tomatometer, but after watching it for myself, I had to wonder if the films harshest critics were far to focussed on the original to see the remake for what it was.

Essentially a low budget slasher/shock horror full of cliches and cheap thrills, Nightmare delivers exactly what it promises; popcorn frights. Nothing more. And in this it does succeed.

Not having an overblown attachment to the original is probably essential if you have any hope of enjoying the film however, as the new Freddy Krueger doesn’t quite have the charisma of the original’s Robert Englund.  Read the rest of this entry »

Although it still hasn’t been decided if The Hobbit will be shot in New Zealand (the actors union ban has been lifted, but it may be too late), things are moving full steam ahead with the J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation. This week Warner Brothers and New Line have issued a press release with the first round of official casting info, and it looks like all the rumours were indeed true: Martin Freeman will play Bilbo Baggins. Previously it had been rumoured that his shooting schedule for season 2 of Sherlock might not allow him to star in The Hobbit, but this seems to have been resolved one way or another. After the jump, check out the full list of actors playing the Company of Dwarves in The Hobbit.

* Thorin Oakenshield — Richard Armitage (Robin Hood, Captain America: The First Avenger)
* Kili and Fili — Aidan Turner (Being Human) and Rob Kazinsky (EastEnders)
* Dwalin — Graham McTavish (Secretariat) as Dwalin
* Oin — John Callen (Power Rangers Jungle Fury)
* Gloin — Peter Hambleton (The Strip)
* Bombur — Stephen Hunter (All Saints)
* Dori — Mark Hadlow (King Kong, Meet the Feebles)

As you might expect, Peter Jackson had many glowing things to say about his cast. Most of them are fairly unknown, especially to North American audiences, but that is the same approach he used for much of The Lord of the Rings and it seemed to work well. Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are also expected to reprise their roles as Gandalf and Gollum, although the announcement didn’t make mention of this fact. There are also a handful of other roles still to be cast, including the voice of Smaug. Are you pleased with how the cast of The Hobbit is shaping up? -filmjunk

At the end of Iron Man we saw Tony Stark (Downey) come out publicly as Iron Man. So as this sequel unfolds we see the mounting pressure from all sides on this billionaire inventor. The pressure comes from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to hand over, arguably the most powerful tech available to those with little or no accountability, Stark must battle not only his foes, his friends but also his own inner demons in order to truly find a way forward. Apparently Iron Man writer Shane Black recommended that Tony Stark’s characterization be inspired by J. Robert Oppenheimer, a scientist who had worked on the atomic bomb but after witnessing his creation’s destructive potential defamed himself as “the Destroyer of Worlds” and sank into depression. This comes across very strongly throughout this sequel.

As the story plays out we see it perfectly integrating the best bits of the first with great additional characters and tech. From the addition of the somewhat of an enigma character of Natalie Rushman (Johansson) as the up and coming “go to” girl through to the stunning yet evil portrayal of Ivan Vanko (Rourke). Rourke shines as the embittered broken down physicist, who carries with him not only his own moral failings but also that of his father. After spending over a decade rotting in a Russian prison, Vanko plots revenge on the objects of his hate, the son of the man that he blames for his father’s deportation back into squalor in Russia.   Read the rest of this entry »

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When Paranormal Activity (the first movie) was made in 2006 it took a long journey of 2-3 years for a general release. The resulting film was an instant success netting almost $200 million worldwide. Even more surprising was the cost of the film was extremely low, with a handful of actors and crew all helmed by first time director Oren Peli.

At first the movie company thought the film was tanking, as there were a number of people leaving the cinema’s during the early days of screening. They quickly realised that the reason behind this was due to the fact that a large number couldn’t sit through the movie because they were scared.

So Paramount and Dreamworks, realising they had the makings of franchise gold, shifted Oren Peli into a producer role, brought director Kevin Greutert (Saw IV) and screenwritter Michael R Perry (Dead Zone – TV , SVU – TV) onboard and rapidly created Paranormal Activity 2.  Read the rest of this entry »

Mention Prince of Persia to late 80′s gamers and you will find a whole community of fans who loved the side scrolling leaping and jumping of a ground breaking game. Since then the franchise has been lightly revised until 2003 when new life was breathed into it with the Sands of Time Trilogy.

Taking its lead from the Sands of Time trilogy, Disney have brought the magical story telling of the original writer, Jordan Mechner, and the genius of Jerry Bruckheimer together for an exceptional movie.

Prince of Persia : Sands of Time follows the story of Prince Dastan (Gyllenhaal), one of the three princes of Persia. After a hard fought battle for an ancient holy city, Dastan is lifted up as the hero of Persia for his unorthodox approach to warfare.

Among the many treasures of this holy city is the Princess Tamina (Arterton). While being exeedingly beautiful and fiesty, she also holds the secrets to an ancient power; The magical Sands of Time, with the power to turn back time itself. Without heading too far down the storyline the Dastan and Tamina join forces to combat an enemy that catches everyone by surprise as a battle rages for the control of this amazing ancient power.  Read the rest of this entry »

In an age when we can create entire worlds out of nothing more than 1s and 0s, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether what we’re seeing in movies is real or artificial. CG has allowed us to see all kinds of things that were not possible even 10 years ago, but it has also become a crutch for filmmakers looking for the easiest way to accomplish a task. With all this power, somehow it’s not surprising that the technology would eventually be used to digitally remove an actor’s clothes. That’s right, as painful as the truth may be, Jessica Alba’s nude shower scene in Machete was accomplished with the help of CG. Apparently it’s not such a brave new world after all. The Daily Mail explains that Jessica Alba has vowed never to go in front of a camera nude, and so in order to get around this limitation, Robert Rodriguez had her wear white underwear and then swapped it out in post. On the one hand, it’s no different than the myriad of digital alterations we’ve seen applied to actors on screen, but on the other hand, nudity was promised as part of the package with a movie like Machete and this does feel like a bit of a cheat. Still, is it any different than employing a body double, which Lindsay Lohan clearly used for her own nude scenes? In the end, Jessica Alba remains partially covered in the scene, which makes it seem even more ridiculous that they would take such measures to accomplish it. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if digital nudity starts becoming more commonplace, especially with the need for 3-D breasts in movies like Piranha! -FilmJunk

It’s not often that a romantic comedy has you wishing that your lawyer was on speed dial, or asking yourself “what if” questions, or laughing uncomfortably because “yes, that is how it is”. Maybe this is a new genre – Romantic Comedy Upsized?

Life As We Know It opens with Holly (Katherine Heigl) getting ready for a date with her best friend’s husband’s best friend, Messer (Josh Duhamel) – confused!?. It ends disasterously…. and Holly seems destined to always be the bridesmaid and never-the-bride (oh, hang on, haven’t we seen that before? And seriously, why is it that someone so gorgeous and successful can’t find Mr Right?), while Messer continues happily in his life of no commitment and one meaningless one-night-stand after another. Admittedly, this all has me anticipating your typical sequence of events where, over years of path crossing, Holly and Messer eventually fall madly, deeply in love and live happily ever after. And that kind-of happens.
Instead of crossing paths though, life throws both Holly and Messer together, into an unforeseen situation when tragically, their best friends die in a car accident, leaving them as named, legal guardians of their one year old daughter, Sophie. (This is where the mother in me started drafting a will). Both feel they are inadequate for such a responsibility and struggle in their attempt to step into the family mold left behind by their friends. They realize eventually that they can make it work if they create their own family unit – as two single, extremely attractive, professional people raising their God-daughter…… and, as in most romantic comedies, love enters unsurprisingly, and two become…. well, three. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ian Fleming may have given birth to James Bond – code name 007 – back in 1953, but it was French author Jean Bruce who beat Fleming with the creation of Hubert de la Bonisseur de la Bath, French superspy with the code name OSS 117 a few years prior in 1949. Even though a number of the OSS books were filmed, de la Bath was forgotten almost overnight once Sean Connery made his mark on the silver screen.

Director Michel Hazanavicius has decided to put the French super spy back in Vogue, but with a slightly different approach, parodying the original films as well as referencing the early bond films. Hazanavicius seems to put a great deal of effort in recreating the visual style and feel of the early Bond films, from the cloths and mannerisms to the fake rear projection for the driving scenes amongst the most obvious.

The sense that you’re watching a parody that seems to effortlessly mix Bond with Austin Powers comes into full force in the first scene with a shoot-out at a ski lodge, where de la Bath manages to kill his would be assassins (and all but one of his female entourage) without actually aiming his gun or re-loading.  Read the rest of this entry »