Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina fame is also trying her luck.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/318676760/darcis-walk-of-shame

I love that they couldn't even be bothered to give the pitch video a basic colour grade.

[The Place Beyond the Pines]

On a semi-related note: it surprise anyone else SLJ can keep a healthy working relationship with Spike Lee (they're collaborating on the Oldboy remake) considering his involvement with EVERYTHING Tarantino does?

I've wondered about that as well. I think the role that SLJ plays in Django is an ironic reference to a comment Spike Lee made about him after he defended Tarantino.

http://shetterly.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/when-spike-lee-called-samuel-l-jackson.html

The Place Beyond the Pines Wow, what a film- particularly for the first 2 thirds. I saw Derek Cianfrance's 'Blue Valentine' when I went to Cannes a couple of years ago and loved it. I didn't think he had a film like this in him though. It's so ambitious, like some of the great American films of the 70's- a time when young directors were encouraged to take risks. If it wasn't for the fact that the third part is overly reliant on coincidence I'd put it up there with the likes of The Godfather and Goodfellas as one of the great American crime films.

[The Gospel According to Matthew]

Wait, you haven't seen any of the Final Destination movies? 

See one and you've seem them all. Have you seen The Omen and/or its sequels? The original Omen I think is one of the best horror films of all time. Anyway, Final Destination is basically a rip-off. They're always a reasonably fun watch though- especially in a group-  just for the game of guessing who will die next and how.

The Gospel According to Matthew - If I'm being honest, I didn't love it. Parts were striking but all in all there were slightly too many lingering close-ups. That's fine in itself but when you're using untrained actors the long close-ups kind of look like someone forgot to turn off the camera.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Wasn't sure about it at first but now I think it might be one of my favourite Wes Anderson films. I think he's a director whose films you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole (ridiculous name) - Switched it off 30 mins in due to sloppy plotting and piss poor dialogue. How are people not noticing how much Zach Snyder sucks?

Pretty chuffed about that.

As a movie blogger it’s not often that you find yourself doing hard time in prison as a result of your activities (unless you live in North Korea)  but that’s exactly what happened to this writer last week when I was put under lock and key as part of a Future Cinema production of The Shawshank Redemption.

For those who don’t know, Future Cinema is an entertainment company that offers a unique and immersive cinematic experience where props and actors are used to recreate the film that is being screened.

After registering, I was given a new identity (Forest Stone) and told I had to be at Bethnal Green library in East London for “sentencing” at 18:50 sharp.  Here, my fellow defendants and I were sat down by lawyer who explained to us that he was a bit useless and couldn’t do much for us but we’d probably be all right anyway. He was wrong about the latter; I was given 6 years for armed robbery by a foul-mouthed judge with an accent that made him sound like an extra from The Sopranos.  




Next we were to be transported by a rather handsome prison bus to the place where I would call home for the remainder of my youth- or the night at least.  On arrival, it soon became apparent just how much attention to detail had been put into creating this extraordinary experience. High fencing surrounded the courtyard of the imposing Old Cardinal Pole School, a building perfectly suited for imitating Shawshank Penitentiary.

Whilst being bullied and harangued by guards and inmates alike we were ushered to a sports hall, the bitter January chill exacerbating the rising sense of fear amongst us. Here we were given sacks containing prison clothing and told to strip down to our undergarments.

My invitation to the event had been last minute so I wasn’t dressed according to the dress code that had been advised in the registration email. 95% of the other guys in the room were wearing long johns beneath their trousers.

Should I go with the illusion or refuse?  It was border-line at this point. Whilst wavering on a tightrope of indecision an attractive red-headed nurse approached me and asked sternly “What are YOU doing?” In the highly-strung state I was in it was more than I could take. Before I knew it my trousers were round my ankles and I was realising a recurring childhood nightmare at the ripe old age of 25. Even she seemed surprised by my commitment to the cause. At least I could take solace in the fact I hadn’t decided to put on my Spongebob Squarepants boxers that day.  

Once me and my fellow convicts were dressed in the prison garb we were marched through the building to its core. Shoved into a cell, I found myself locked up with a young Ellis “Red” Redding. He told me he was a guy who could get things.

Lights flickered and failed and the screams of guards beating prisoners echoed through the impressive multi-tiered atrium- uncannily similar to the building in the film. At one point a bloodied convict was literally dragged by a guard in front of my cell. Throughout the whole experience it was chillingly impressive how well all the actors kept in character- mini-scenes constantly being enacted, sometimes for the benefit of only a handful of onlookers.



 After being released from the cell it was time to head to the canteen. A sullen-looking cook slopped small portions of baked beans onto steel trays as we filed in. If you hadn’t paid an extra £20 for food and drink at the start of the evening the beans were all you were getting. The fact that this wasn’t included in the cost of the ticket was the only real disappointment of the experience as it meant half the people in the room were tucking into hotdogs and guzzling beers while the other half were left twiddling their thumbs.

Once half the people had filled up there was some free time before the screening. Various activities were set up around the building ranging from needle-work to working in the laundry. I made a pretty useless candle.



As for the film itself, it’s still the slick and absorbing emotional roller-coaster that it’s always been.  Sure,  there’s a cheesy sentimentality that prevents it from being as great as IMDB would have you believe, but anyone who doesn’t shake a fist in satisfaction when Andy Dufresne  manages to both escape and bring down the dastardly prison warden in one ingenious fell swoop must be some sort of stone-hearted sociopath.  

Watching it following the immersive intro that I have described certainly adds to the experience. For the first 20 minutes at least I almost felt like I was a part of the narrative.  Also, there’s a nice little touch when Andy’s quick-thinking whilst he and his friends tar the roofs of Shawshank earns not only them free beers but also the audience.  

Future Cinema presents The Shawshank Redemption runs until February 24th. I recommend you check out this truly immersive experience for yourself while you still can.

Why do successful companies always have to get into everything?

Looks like we got a damn Commie on our hands fellas.

Not as far as I remember 

I didn't even realise it was the T-1000 until I was writing the review. His character is pretty cool in this.

Yeah, it's a decent scene and doesn't stick out as having been added in.

It's been cut completely. Apparently is was the best scene in the film, before it was removed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/gangster-squad-finally-set-to-debut-in-theaters-after-reality-intervened/2013/01/09/29e7082e-5a7f-11e2-b8b2-0d18a64c8dfa_story.html

Director Ruben Fleischer, whose first two feature films were predominantly comedic (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less), steps into new territory with 'Gangster Squad'- a stylish, if somewhat frivolous interpretation of the rise and fall of organised crime in 40s and 50s Los Angeles.

In maniacally hammy form, Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen- the man who believes running LA, and possibly the world, is his destiny. He's an ex-boxer and ruthless killer. Feared even by the people who work for him- who are likely to be painfully despatched at even the most unavoidable mistake- he owns the police, the politicians, the casinos, the night clubs, just about everything and everyone in LA.

It’s time somebody did something about it, damn it!

That somebody turns out to be Chief Bill Parker, played by Nick Nolte- who incidentally has a voice that could grate gravel (seriously Nick, lay off the Cubans and Bourbon, you made my ears bleed!) Actually he just palms the job off on to hero cop Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) who looks like he could be his son but isn't.

With his Rushmore jaw and equally chiselled code of morality, O'Mara is definitely the man for the job. Aided by his wife (behind every great man etc.) he assembles a ragtag team of misfits who are united by one thing, they won’t be bought and they won’t let criminals run the city. Okay, two things. Together they will be known as The Untouchables The Gangster Squad.  

The recruits are knifeman (Anthony Mackie), aging gunslinger (Robert Patrick), the brains (Giobanni Ribisi), and the young buck (Michael Pena). Oh and not to forget reluctant second in command Sgt. Jerry Wooters, played by Ryan Gosling . Gosling slots neatly into Noir archetype of the cynic with a heart of gold and his love interest and the film’s obligatory femme fatale is played by Emma Stone . The two have worked together successfully before in the sharply-written rom-com ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’, so pairing them up again is a pretty sure thing.

One suspects that Fleischer’s only direction for Gosling was ‘look cool’, because that’s pretty much all he does. Also, for some reason, the ‘Drive’ actor seems to be pitching his voice an octave higher for this role, possibly trying to emphasise the slick, screwball-esque dialogue between him and Stone. Instead he just ends up sounding like a peeved eunuch (I guess eunuchs have every right to be peeved).  It’s not a classic performance from him but then again this isn’t the kind of film where actors are really given the chance to shine. It’s difficult to get an Oscar nod when you’re pouring concentrated acid on a man’s genitals.

Without wanting to spoil anything, anyone who has seen more than a few films will know from the start who in the team is expendable before they are expended of- it’s probably going to be the least photogenic ones. You can judge for yourself who the least photogenic ones are. Maybe you think Gosling and Brolin are plug uggos!

I alluded earlier to a certain similarity between 'Gangster Squad' and a certain classic Brian De Palma film and that’s because said similarity hits you in the face like Al Capone’s baseball bat. Like Capone, Mickey Cohen rules through a combination of fear, bribery and a popularity with the press that keeps the public on his side.  Like Elliot Ness, O’Mara is the only beacon of light in a corrupt city but is flawed in that he overlooks the inevitable collateral damage when taking on a man as powerful as Cohen. Fleischer is no Brian De Palma though and nowhere in 'Gangster Squad' is there anything that comes anywhere near to matching the majesty of the Eisenstein-referencing shootout in Grand Central Station from 'The Untouchables'. There are some exciting set-pieces though. The best, a three-pronged prison cell escape that is edited with aplomb and includes the standout gag of the film.

Visually, Gangster Squad owes something to the screen adaptation of Frank Miller’s 'Sin City' and the work of Zack Snyder- like Snyder, Fleisher has a proclivity for slow-mo. That might be a good think for you and it might not. 'The Untouchables' itself is a somewhat stylised film but 'Gangster Squad' makes it look grittier than Ken Loach’s kitchen sink.

Also reminiscent of 'Sin City' is the regularly expressions of extreme violence. It sets the bar high early on with an execution that will turn your stomach (think Ancient Chinese punishment but with cars instead of horses).  I’m all for a good bit of gore but there comes a point where it drifts into vulgar absurdity if death and pain are dealt out with more flippancy than a packet of polos.

The violence regularly punctuates what is undeniably a polished representation of 1940’s LA. 'Gangster Squad' is certainly pretty and also pretty entertaining while it’s zipping along with tommy gun ferocity. When it does slow down for melodrama is when it falls down. The tension between O’Mara and his wife over his decision to take on Cohen is dull and unconvincing and it’s unlikely you will shed a tear at any point throughout the film- unless of course it’s because Nick Nolte has perforated your eardrum.

[Cabin in the Woods]

 I'm trying to catch up with as many of the year's more notable releases before 2013 swings around and first one ticked off the list is Cabin in the Woods.

Before watching all I knew was that Joss Whedon was involved and that there would be some sort of genre-bending going on. I'm a big fan of Buffy so from the first minute I recognised Whedon's unique voice in the characters' dialogue. As good as his words are, they are at times almost too distinctive and he has a tendency to throw in slightly too many gags. That worked ok for The Avengers but this is, at least partly, a horror film. Also, in reminding us of his TV work through the dialogue it does occasionally make it seem like a extended episode of one of his fantasy shows. Some variation of it would have made a great season finale to Buffy or Angel but as a stand alone film it all comes across as being a bit silly and doesn't quite visually match the scale of its concept- original as that concept is.

 That said, there was a lot I liked about it. The bit where they go down the lift and see all the other nightmare creatures, followed by their release, was particularly exciting.

We were about as compatible as a snake and a mongoose. For one thing she found it funny- I was stony-faced from soup to nuts.

Lawless isn't a bad film, in fact in certain ways it's quite good, but in terms of my expectations it fell short. John Hillcote really made a great film with The Road and I was expecting something more here- especially with the cast it has.

Chronicle is like 100 youtube clips sewn together. The 'found footage' technique is manipulated to the extreme with characters given silly reasons why they are filming all the time. End of Watch did it better because the director realised that you don't have to make every single shot in the film something that was filmed by one of the characters to achieve the visceral found footage effect.

There was definitely a HUGE naivety in spending the amount of money they did on John Carter when you consider that it doesn't have any major stars in it and that very few know anything about the source material. It's clear they were trying to launch a new Star Wars. The problem is that times are very different and people have seen a lot of stuff like this before now. Taking away how much of a financial flop it is and looking just at the film itself, it does manage to capture the same sense of adventure and fun as Star Wars. Again, it's partly about expectations. I'd heard it was crap but I actually really enjoyed watching it so it definitely makes my good list though probably not my top 10.

Quote

Didn't like:
American Pie Reunion

What?!?
That movie was the year's pleasant surprise for me (along with Men in Black III and The Amazing Spider-Man), I laughed out loud a lot. Maybe because the characters are around my age and their commentary of what this stage of life is like was spot on.

I found the whole experience pretty painful, not just because the film is awful but because I was on the worst date in the history of dates.

[Looper]

Just out of interest, what was it about the editing that bothered you? The Michael Caine story about when he visited a cafe in Florence hoping to see Bruce with a wife stands out for me as being particularly badly written. Bad writing makes good actors look bad as well- I thought he was awful in it. Marion Cotillard also. Overall I did kind of enjoy it though.

I haven't seen that many films at the cinema this year either. It's too damn expensive for one thing.

Really liked Looper and The Master.

I think i'm only one but I found David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis pretty fascinating.

Controversial choice but I actually think the new Spider-Man was the best superhero movie of 2012. I still have a bit of a brain malfunction when I think that they did a "reboot" of a franchise that started in this century though.

Moonrise Kingdom is great if you like Wes Anderson, which I do.

End of Watch is almost brilliant, let down by annoying dialogue and a contrived ending.

Also liked

The Hunter
Avengers
TDKR
The Imposter
Skyfall
John Carter

Didn't like:

Lawless
Chronicle
Prometheus
American Pie Reunion

Need to see:

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Berberian Sound Studio
Amour
Dredd
Rust and Bone
Once Upon a Time in Anotolia
Killing them Softly
The Hobbit
Cabin in the Woods
The Raid
Life of Pi

The Hobbit and LIfe of Pi I will see at the cinema before the month is out. I'm going to try and see at least a couple of the others before I give my top 10. Might have to be naughty and download them.

I like it. A bit worried that Ben Affleck is going to hunt me down for falling asleep during Argo though.

[Fortress]

 

Fortress- Pretty awful yet at the same time pretty watchable. Like a lot of sci-fi movies it has a few good ideas wrapped up in dreadful characterisation, cliched plot devices and woeful dialogue.

[Bernie]

I had quite a prolific film-watching weekend by my standards.

Bernie- Strange little film from Richard Linklater. Liked it more when I thought it was a fabricated 'true story' and not an actual true story.

Argo- Was hungover and ended up dozing off a bit throught the first half. Caught all the good stuff in Iran in the second half where the tension is really well built up. An entertaining thriller, nothing more.

Clockwatchers- The female version of Office Space. Not quite as good but almost. 

[Lawless]

I've had more time to think about 'The Master' and I've decided i'm not in love with it. It lacks the clarity needed to match its ambition and, as with There Will be Blood, gets slightly overpowered by the undeniably brilliant perfomances of the lead actor/actors. Still one of the best of the year though.

Lawless-  There's some pretty brutal violence here- I'm talking windpipe -crushing, throat-slitting, ball-chopping violence. For some reason though, it never shocks and actually borders on being comical at times. John Hillcote is certainly a talented director but he is let down here by a weak screenplay- courtesy of Nick Cave. The period feels authentic but is inhabited by a bunch of cartoon characters. Brilliant actors like Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Guy Pierce all give one-note performances. It's watchable but needed a bit more nuance to approach any sort of artistic value.

[The Master]

What don't you like about Casino Royale twaddsy?

I've only seen it once- when it was released- and although I liked it, it didn't feel like Bond film to me. I'm not exactly a massive Bond fan but the series has a unique place in film history. If the new film had continued in the same direction I think it could have been the end of the series. It's important it maintains its identity.

The Master Saw a 70mm print at the Odeon West End yesterday. My thoughts on it are still gestating. Hypnotic and engrossing, close to a masterpiece, probably my favourite film so far this year. More to come...

Yeah, I'm not a massive fan of Goldeneye. In fact I saw it the other day and didn't think it as good as I'd remembered. I like it more than Brosnan's other ones though and more than Craig's others too. I should have said the best Bond since License to Kill because I think that is actually one of the best. It's got the silliness but it's also pretty brutal- there's a genuine sense of the characters being in peril. Dalton is underrated as well.