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Im not one for taking the time out to flush a movie down the toilet. Why? Well I love movies and still enjoy the thrill of going to the cinema. However, this awkward 2010 version of Clash of the Titans tempts my evil critic to come out. The first issue with Clash of the Titans is the utter pointlessness of screening it in 3D. Regardless of the current popularity of 3D the choice to convert the film from 2D into 3D was an exceedingly poor one. This movie did not need a 3D upgrade. Its like taking a Jackson Pollock and mounting it in a fancy frame. The colours tell the story not the woodwork holding it together.
Nevertheless, Its great to see a film being retold for a contemporary audience. But its easy to fall into the older is better trap, this in consideration of Desmond Davis 1981 version of Clash of the Titans. Suffice to say that the Davis movie reinforces the idea that a good story expressed in an interesting and smooth way beats the pants off the smoke and mirrors of technology. This is not to say that Clash of the Titans 2010 is a total stinker because parts of it were fantastic and really enjoyable. However, it stutters along between the action and drama with pointless scenes that slow the movie down. The dialogue in many parts was so appalling that the acting looks stiff and boring. I do have to make this obsequious point with regards to props. For a $125 million 2D/3D production someone could have designed and crafted the weapons so that didnt look like brand new rubber ACME toys.
I find it easy to understand why this film has been in and out of production since 2002 but the action scenes are great and more than make up for its shortcomings. I enjoyed it and particularly thought the scene where Perseus played by Sam Worthington enters Medusas lair in order to kill and retrieve her head. The tension and action played out carries the film towards its hair-raising end. The Greek myth of Perseus provides a fantastic backdrop for an exciting and riveting story. The myth (not the movie) is packed with full-bodied characters, monsters, madness, drama and the timelessness of the human condition. Even though Clash of the Titans does not breath fresh life into the myth of Perseus its fun and worth the price of admission. Yet, I have to reiterate my major beef, the 3D obsession. It added nothing to the end result and if anything it was a pointless distraction. The fact that the film was shot for 2D means the film was shot for that format which in my humble opinion negates the need for the uninspiring postpartum 3D fix.
Review by Gary Daly (I paid to see this film)
Sherlock Holmes circa 2009 starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law is a fantastic film. Holmes a character who has throughout literary and cinema history been reinvented. Some reviewers have exposed themselves as far too precious in regards to the authentic Sherlock Holmes. The great thing about Pop Culture is the ability to individualise your own experiences across the creative spectrum. I think Downeys Holmes is an insightful and enjoyable generation of character. Much like his Charles Chaplin he is comes to life as the experiences and moments mount.
Jude Law brings to the film a meatier Dr. Watson who like Holmes resists the call of the wild. His efforts to civilise himself are extremely funny and make for some interesting turns in the narrative. Jude Law has a wonderful screen bond with Downey and together they make Sherlock Holmes a movie worth seeing. If like Joe Carrajola you like to laugh this movie delivers.
The film has a ridiculous and interesting story that drives the characters and narrative forward towards a climax where Professor Moriarty, Holmes arch enemy and thus opening the way for another Holmes feature or features arriving on your screen in the next couple of years.
If you, like me watch movies for fun and entertainment Sherlock Holmes provides excellent value for fun and has given me the motivation to go back to read and watch the countless Sherlock Holmes material available. I suspect that this version will like the rest and inspire further reinvention sometime in the future. Enjoy!
Reviewed by Gary Daly (I paid to see this movie).
Cormack McCarthys disquieting and visionary novel The Road has been turned into a poignant and visceral film. The storys transformation into film is wrapped so tight in McCarthy darkness that the ash permeates the entire film, almost suffocating the viewer. The strength of Hillcoats film is his refraining from using clichéd pop-apocalyptic imagery to bring to life the hard-core misery of The Road. The movie drags the onlooker through a quagmire of distressing and merciless events, which succeeds in demonstrating the universal idea of extinction. The paucity of hope, nastiness and desolation of humanity does not in any way overwhelm the experience of this first-rate movie. If anything, these descriptors are the elements that make this movie so extraordinary. Hillcoat translates McCarthys novel into a superb visual narrative driven by drama and action.
The film taps into the unconscious and reveals the collective nightmare of the looming doomsday to come. The End of World genre has a strong presence in movie history; yet, Hillcoat (through McCarthys vision) foregoes the ubiquitous crazed zombies, buff action heroes or lunatic soothsayers. Hillcoat grasps the end of the days theme through an authentic imaginative journey that questions the value, if any, of survival in dire circumstances. The film flows because of its restrained dialogue, a functional approach to story telling and a creative feel for character. The Road engages and communicates directly to the filmgoer at the gut level and Hillcoat drives the emotional intensity directly at the viewer. Some responses to Hillcoats film have been critiqued as bleak, dark, morbid, disgusting and horrific. Yet, these descriptions fall short of insight, as the intensity in this exceptional, exhaustive but simple narrative is bang on target.
The story is told through the journey of a father and son. The film exposes the myth of the inherent goodness in humanity. Calamity has reduced the billions to scattered mobs of filthy, brutish bands driven by need to cannibalism. Nevertheless, Hillcoat never allows the extremes of his creative exaggeration to get the better of him. His vision is direct and to the point. We see human beings in minute detail compromised by their total and utter wretchedness drained of hope. Visual vignettes form a collage of suffering and demonstrates the absolute exhaustion and despair at surviving the end. The Road is an inferno and in a paradox of understatement explores the consequences in a straightforward manner. By using techniques of time, memories and short dialogue with an eye for witness the characters in The Road amble in their tormented journey of acquiescence.
I watched The Road as a thesis on extinction and concluded that any ideas of the inherent streaks of goodness existing in humanity is obliterated by the viciousness of humans and the pointlessness of survival for survivals sake. The story whittles away humanity a slice at a time. Civilisation has fallen apart in lumps, shards and chunks. Hillcoat intuitively captures this hazy earthly atmosphere and the vacuum of civilisation where morality, civilisation and progress are redundant.
Review by Gary Daly (I paid to see this movie)
District 9
I really love science fiction movies and take every opportunity to see them at the cinema (other than on DVD). I always expect so much from science fiction movies. Unfortunately I have noticed that many of the sci-fi films being made do not, as Jane Austin said, match my sense and sensibilities. Perhaps I anticipate more than can be delivered? However, Neill Blomkamps District 9 is a brilliant sci-fi movie because amongst its many other attributes it hooks the imagination. District 9, is an enjoyable and skilfully produced movie with first-rate visuals, a myriad of extraordinary characters, complete with an engaging storyline. The story consistently darts to and fro through a fog of possibilities and outcomes that hinder the audiences ideas on the resolution of the plot and the destiny of its characters.
The aliens (know as Prawns because of their crustaceous appearance) arrive on earth and hover above the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Their impressive spaceship is like a gargantuan floating city. The aliens are silent and for three months the world watches, waiting for something, anything to happen. Yet, its the humans who finally decide to crack open the ships door seals. What they discover is nothing short of a ghost ship set adrift in space with starving and dying aliens. The aliens are a marvel of form and function with insect like bodies that communicate by using a metallic-clickaty-clack verbal language (think Predator or even slightly reminiscent of the African Xhosa language). On earth the alien refugees are separated from the humans and resettled by force in designated Townships, a South African Apartheid era control, a ghetto. The story blasts off from there and keeps firing until its unforeseeable conclusion, which is excellent because if any film deserves a sequel this is it. District 9s co- writer and director Neill Blomkamp has been quoted as saying he has, An inclination for an idea (Brown 2009
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