Daily Archives: 25 July 2011

Film, Views

Trailer: Drive (2011)

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I wasn’t sure what to think when Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He won the director’s award, but it sounded like it was just another action-crime film. The cast sounded great–Ryan Gosling, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Carey Mulligan–but the story seemed off to me.

Now that the trailer has been released, I’m sorry I ever doubted the film. It’s beautiful. It’s violent. It’s stylish. It has all the elements of an everything falls apart crime drama in the style of, say, Takeshi Miike or Danny Boyle. Fair warning: it’s the redband trailer. That means not suitable for all audiences. I don’t remember any cursing, but it does get violent in a brutal way.

Thank you for the early birthday present. I will cherish the eleven-day early gift of a stylish adult action movie with a great cast in September. It really means a lot. Now can you invite a smart and subtle horror film with a plot and a splashy big budget musical to join you for my birthday? Thanks in advance.

What do you think? Sound off below. And because of an incident earlier today with a certain foul-mouthed troublemaker who doesn’t understand humor writing, I must remind you that we keep the writing on this site PG. No cursing, no racial/sexual slurs, no threatening comments. That’s a one-way ticket to bansville.

Film, Reviews

Film Review: Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (2010)

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Joe Cross follows in the footsteps of Morgan Spurlock by taking on an incredible dietary challenge for a documentary. He will only consume juice from raw vegetables and fruit for sixty days. Joe believes he needs to make a change in his life. He has a rare skin disorder that causes his body to react as if he’s being attacked by mosquitoes from the slightest touch, he’s significantly overweight, and he’s fed up.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is half of an interesting film. Joe Cross is a very charismatic figure. Much of the running time of the film is him interacting with random people in America about their diets. He talks to fat people and thin people of all ages asking about their lifestyle choices. Cross has this effortless aura about him that gets people to open up about the darkest culinary secrets. He’ll laugh with them when they admit they only eat fast food or commiserate when they discuss their serious medical problems. This part of Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead could have made a great documentary.

That is not Joe Cross’ agenda. Cross wants everyone to try juice fasting for at least 10 days.

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Film, Views

The Amazing Spider-Man Trailer

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It’s been a rough few years for Spider-Man. His third live-action film became a joke for many film-goers because of the infamous dancing Emo-Spidey sequence. Julie Taymor teamed up with Bono and The Edge to bring a Spider-Man musical to Broadway, only to be faced with significant financial, injury, and critical problems that are still ongoing. Any word on whether or not they’ve paid Julie Taymor any money yet or settled on royalty issues for the creators?

Now the rebooting of the franchise is nigh. Andrew Garfield will be replacing Toby Maguire as the pint-sized web-slinging superhero (even though he’s 6 feet tall: no shorter actors could fit the bill this time?) in the 2012 feature The Amazing Spider-Man. It is, once again, the origin story of Spider-Man. He will be bullied, he will be bit by a radioactive spider, and he will slowly develop his powers and persona over a roughly 2 hour period.

My question is this. Is there anything in the first trailer (embedded below) to actually get excited about? I’m not sold at all.

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Film Review: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

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The appeal of Captain America, the character, comes from his willingness to do anything to make sure America is free from all danger. He’s perfectly capable of being a one-man army but chooses to work with a team in the spirit of American cooperation. He is dangerous force with his indestructible shield and athletic prowess.

The film Captain America: The First Avenger gets this character trait just right. When the action picks up–and it picks up a lot–the film is infectious. I’m not a big action film fan and I was on the edge of my seat, rooting for the red, white, and blue-clad hero to destroy the forces of Red Skull and save the world.

If there is a flaw to the film, it is the innocuous day to day dialog. Writers Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeeley (both of The Chronicles of Narnia series) have not improved upon their natural dialog writing skills. Their strength is character development through action and acts of supervillainy (remember the introduction of The White Queen in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?), not realism in everyday dialog. The only word I can use to describe these low-key scenes is cheesy.

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