Here’s an interesting addition to the Summer’s film lineup. A documentary based on the reporter Sebastian Junger’s experiences with the U.S. Military in one of the most dangerous outposts in Afganistan, this film promises to be an eye-opening experience. I for one have only a vague picture of what Afganistan looks like, let alone what it’s like at the front lines.
Archive for category films
restrepo
May 19
clash
Apr 20
Just finished watching the new version of Clash of the Titans and… it was awesome. Not awesome in the sense that it had a particularly great story, or had amazing acting. No, it was more in its total abandonment of those things for the sake of entertainment. Clash is the kind of movie that you have to watch with the right set of expectations, and anyone who’s seen the original knows exactly what this means. See it for what it is, and it will be worth your money. One word of warning though, Pegasus isn’t worth seeing in 3-D so just see it in regular old 2-D.
scott pilgram
Apr 15
Oh summer, you fickle beast. You get us excited with all of your blockbuster movies, but then we feel bad for watching them during your warm sunny days. Well, I’m hoping that this new film based on a comic book series of the same name will be good enough to spare a couple hours of outdoor time for. Allow me to introduce you to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Official Trailer. from PERSONA985 on Vimeo.
tron
Mar 30
Here’s some more tron love. This time for the original… know your roots. Oh, and yes it’s been re-worked for our modern eyes (love those suits).
tron
Mar 9
So the attempt to resurrect old franchises and movies continues, and I suppose that when you think about it this was bound to happen. I mean, all of us kids that were introduced to these movies and cartoons as kids are now making the movies. Sometimes this tendency to regurgitate the old can be depressing (see the Transformers and GI Joe movies), but every once in a while something comes around to make you smile like that little kid who saw it when it first came out…
retro star wars
Feb 12
Continuing on what appears to be a trend, I present to you a re-imagining of the world of Star Wars by artist Justin Van Genderen. Following suite with the retro-ization (ya, pretty sure that’s not a word yet) of famous films, his posters represent some of the planets and places of the Star Wars galaxy, evoking a simpler time before the prequels were a glimmer in the CG eye of Jar Jar Binx. Check out his site here. Found via Boing Boing.
quentin redone
Feb 10
As the previous post representing alternate views of the Superbowl attests, many of us are fans of Quentin Tarantino’s work. From the academy award nominee Inglorious Bastards to the classic Pulp Fiction, Tarantino has been one of the most unique directors to come along in generations. Well, to celebrate this uniqueness, artist Ibraheem Youssef has created a series of prints that re-imagines the movie posters for some of Quentin’s classics. Check them out here. Found via Uncrate.
moon
Jan 25
Having already made up my mind as to which film was my favorite of the year, I present to you a very close second. Moon
is a film that harkens back to the hardcore science fiction genre, before a bunch of guys with weird haircuts, color matching swords, and lasers that had the odd ability of producing sound in a vacuum took it over in the late seventies. It’s the kind of film that has you trying to guess the outcome and figure out what exactly is going on, but does so while also assuring you that there is some kind of logic that threads everything together and that there is at least an inkling of plausibility to it. There are of course some moments where you have to suspend your disbelief on the coat rack for a bit, but they’re all things that still allow the basic rules of physics to apply and ask only that the audience allow for the “it could happen in the future” explanation to be instituted. Sam Rockwell makes up pretty much the entire film and should get the nod for best actor at the oscars this year (this would only happen in a universe where the basic rules of logic were used by the Academy), while Kevin Spacey fills the role of his trusty computer Gerty. This film has me thinking of rereading some of the Sci Fi classics from yore, and posting about them here so that Science Fiction can begin to take back its reputation from the crap that’s appropriating the title these days. Check out the trailer for the film here.
iron man
Dec 16
Just saw the latest trailer for Iron Man 2. I don’t know what to say… I like thought provoking films that get at the human condition, aaannd I like popcorn films that are total escapism. I’ll let you decide which category this film falls in. I’m just glad that CG in films has finally reached the level where it seamlessly meshes with reality so that we don’t have to worry about it too much (unless you’re James Cameron that is). I’m also glad that Robert Downey Jr. decided to become an actor again. Check out the trailer and the concept art that I came across (although that whiplash pic doesn’t at all resemble Mickey Rourke, I kinda like it better).
sherlock
Jan 19
Posted by shawndagan in action, art, films, illustration, video | No Comments
This is just a quick shout out for a movie that many might overlook with all of the Avatar mania going around. The new Sherlock Holmes movie, directed by Guy Ritchie, is a well paced action movie with a fresh take on the eternal detective from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Robert Downey Jr. continues his unexpected comeback to the big screen with an amazing performance as Mr. Holmes, while Jude Law fills out the role of the ever-present Watson with a surprisingly convincing performance. The film is fast, and has some of the usual tropes employed by Ritchie, while at the same time holding to the character’s original identities amazingly well. Go see it during these rainy storms that we’re about to suffer through, or if you need more prompting you can see the trailer here. Below is an image from a proposed graphic novel based on the movie by artist John Watkiss. Also, click on the image at the bottom to see a clip of the amazing end credits from the movie (it’s not too spoilerish). They are probably one of my favorite credits sequences to date.
Tags: action, commentary, film