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Posts Tagged ‘2008’
From Book to Screen: Bret Easton Ellis
19, Apr 2012
by Emil Ekelund
A common thread that runs through all of Bret Easton Ellis’ books is the exploration of hollow persons. People who are generally well-off financially yet dead on the inside, so numb to the world around them that even acts of horrific violence and depravity can’t faze them more than momentarily. Ellis has populated his stories with these characters, often set in the 1980s to satirize the excessiveness of the time period. While reading all the books back-to-back is probably not recommended, the author manages to find enough variety and different themes to explore to make them all have some value. If he seems one-note, one does not look closely enough. Read the rest of this entry »
- In: From Book to Screen
- Tags: 1980's, 1985, 1987, 2000, 2002, 2008, American Psycho, Andrew McCarthy, Billy Bob Thornton, Bret Easton Ellis, Christian Bale, Clifton Collins Jr., Glamorama, Gregor Jordan, Guinevere Turner, Harley Peyton, James Van Der Beek, Kim Basinger, Kip Pardue, Less Than Zero, Marek Kanievska, Mary Harron, Mickey Rourke, Nicholas Jarecki, Robert Downey Jr., Roger Avary, Shannyn Sossamon, The Informers, The Rules of Attraction, Winona Ryder
Posters of Prominence: The Avengers
5, Apr 2012
by Nigel Druitt
Usually, our Posters of Prominence articles are reserved for movie posters that speak to us in a personal and profound way. Works of art that fill us with awe and wonder, and stick with us because they are just So Cool.
This time, I’m looking at a poster that is prominent for all the wrong reasons. A poster that is so shockingly bad, it makes my heart ache: The theatrical one-sheet for Marvel‘s hotly anticipated The Avengers. Read the rest of this entry »
- In: Posters of Prominence
- Tags: 2008, 2012, Captain America: The First Avenger, Drew Struzan, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Joe Kubert, Joss Whedon, Michael Bay, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson, Spider-Man 2, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Incredible Hulk, The Social Network, Thor, Transformers, X-Men: First Class
Parental Guidance Not Needed
17, May 2011
A local theater screens cult favorite movies every other Saturday night and recently played The Goonies. I got to talking with a friend of mine about it, and how it represents the movies of our youth that targeted us as viewers. Looking over the list of films that have played during this midnight series I see Beetlejuice (1988), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Gremlins (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Return to Oz (1985), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). Every one of those movies was released in the 1980s and rated PG. Other films include both Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), the Back to the Future and Indiana Jones trilogies, most of which were released in the 1980s as PG films. I’ll grant you that some of these are “lesser” cinematic achievements (Return to Oz will scarcely be discussed in the same breath as The Wizard of Oz), but many are bona fide classics.
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: 2008, movies
The Guilty Pleasures: Dragon Edition
27, Apr 2011by Nigel Druitt
Dragons. Are there any cooler creatures in all of mythology? Unfortunately, in the world of celluloid, these great creatures of imagination have not really gotten their due. (At least, not in live-action cinema; why I have not yet seen How to Train Your Dragon is still beyond me.)
Is there any live-action film in which dragons have truly come off as cool as they deserve? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire wasn’t too bad, but the dragons aren’t the stars. As I impatiently await the day when Peter Jackson brings his vision of the ultimate dragon, Smaug, to life in The Hobbit, I think about other dragon-themed movies that I have enjoyed in the past. None of them are deserving enough to be called “great”, but I’m very forgiving of movies I want to like. In one of these cases, I was the perfect age to see a dragon with real presence brought to life on the big screen – even if the movie he inhabited was far from perfect. Without further adieu, I present, in ascending order on my Flickchart, my picks for Guilty Pleasures starring dragons.
- In: Guilty Pleasures
- Tags: 1996, 2002, 2008, 300, Beowulf, Christian Bale, David Thewlis, Dennis Quaid, DragonHeart, Elektra, film, films, Flickchart, Gerard Butler, Harry Potter, heath ledger, Hellboy, How to Train Your Dragon, Howard McCain, James Caviezel, John Hurt, kevin spacey, Matthew McConaughey, movies, Outlander, Peter Jackson, predator, Randy Edelman, Reign of Fire, Rob Bowman, Rob Cohen, Ron Perlman, sean connery, Star Trek: First Contact, Sucker Punch, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The X-Files, Vin Diesel
In Search of Best Picture
17, Feb 2011by Nigel Druitt
As the Oscar telecast creeps up on us again, it begs the question: How many times has the Academy really gotten this “Best Picture” thing right, anyway?
Think about it. How many controversial decisions are there in the Academy’s history? How many times is a movie other than Best Picture long remembered as the best of the year?
- In: User Showcase
- Tags: (500) Days of Summer, 127 Hours, 1941, 1977, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 28 Days Later, 3:10 to Yuma, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, A Serious Man, academy awards, adaptation, Alfonso Cuarón, American Beauty, An Education, Ang Lee, annie hall, Atonement, Avatar, Babel, Batman Begins, Best Picture, Big Fish, Black Swan, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Casablanca, Catch Me If You Can, Chicago, Children of Men, Chocolat, Christopher Nolan, Citizen Kane, City of God, Clint Eastwood, Crash, Crouching Tiger, District 9, Donnie Darko, Eastern Promises, Erin Brockovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Fight Club, film, films, Finding Nemo, Flickchart, Forrest Gump, Frost/Nixon, George Lucas, gladiator, Gone Baby Gone, Good Night and Good Luck, Gosford Park, Guillermo Del Toro, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, heath ledger, Hidden Dragon, hot fuzz, How Green Was My Valley, How to Train Your Dragon, Howl's Moving Castle, In Bruges, In the Bedroom, Inception, Inglourious Basterds, Iron Man, Juno, Kick-Ass, Kill Bill, Let The Right One In, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Luc Besson, Martin Scorsese, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Memento, Michael Clayton, Mickey Rourke, Milk, Million Dollar Baby, Moon, moulin rouge, movies, Munich, Mystic River, No Country For Old Men, Oldboy, Orson Welles, Oscar, Pan's Labyrinth, Peter Jackson, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Pulp Fiction, Reese Witherspoon, Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Sandra Bullock, Saving Private Ryan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Seabiscuit, Sean Penn, Serenity, Shakespeare in Love, Shutter Island, Sin City, Slumdog Millionaire, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Star Wars, Steven Soderbergh, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Aviator, The Blind Side, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, The Departed, The Fighter, The Hours, The Hurt Locker, The Kids are All Right, The King's Speech, The Lives of Others, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The Pianist, The Professional, The Queen, The Reader, The Shawshank Redemption, The Social Network, The Town, The Wrestler, There Will Be Blood, Tim Burton, Toy Story 3, Traffic, True Grit, Up, Up in the Air, Walk the Line, WALL-E, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, William Hurt, Winter's Bone, Woody Allen, Zodiac