November, 2009

Clearly inspired by Spike Jonze’s fiercely imaginative fantasy drama Being John Malkovich – but with all the fun sucked out of it – Cold Souls presents Paul Giamatti playing a version of himself as a neurotic Oscar-nominated mope experiencing a dearth of creativity and inspiration. After reading a New Yorker story about the services of [...]

After pulverising the film industry with Titanic in 1997 mega-minded director James Cameron retreated to the cavernous lairs of computer labs and editing suites to develop the technology powering Avatar, his highly anticipated blockbuster-to-be which is expected to become this festive season’s box office behemoth. Twentieth Century Fox marketing teams around the world collaborated in [...]

In a darkly comic contemporary parable about maintaining strength amid spirit-crushing adversity America’s preeminent tag-team writer/ directors, the inimitable Coen brothers, dump the weight of the world onto the shoulders of a mild-mannered protagonist and push him to the precipice of personal and professional breakdown to see what sparks fly out of his conscience. The [...]

To mark next week’s theatrical release of Woody Harrelson’s gnarly new action comedy Zombieland, Cinetology readers have the chance to win one of 25 in-season double passes. They are valid nationwide from December 3. Here’s the official synopsis: Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) doesn’t [...]

If Roland Emmerich and Ronald McDonald teamed up to make a movie it would look something like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, an aporkalyptic disaster pic in which gigantic bits of food fall from the sky – causing earth-pounding, civilisation-destroying deliciousness. Based on a children’s picture book published in 1978, the story follows goofy [...]

The phenomenal success of the Twilight and Harry Potter books prove great fortunate can be found in the arena of high school and adolescent coming of age stories, provided tales of classroom dramas, puberty blues and extra curriculum shenanigans can be mingled with more risqué supplements. Harry Potter brought magic, wizards and witches to the [...]

Just when it looked certain that the eerie success encountered by The Blair Witch Project was a once-off – after all, it’s been ten years since that faux DIY freaking-out-in-the-woods spook fest became an international box office behemoth – another American film financed on a similarly miniscule budget has been greeted with similarly phenomenal success. [...]

Star-centric posters featuring large floating heads and a pithy tag line are the film industry’s garden variety marketing one sheets, but here is one cookie cutter image that really works. The poster (left, click to enlarge) is for Clint Eastwood’s new pic Invictus and depicts Matt Damon superimposed onto the back of Morgan Freeman; they [...]

“I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth’s Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock’s “Fingerprints of the Gods”. When I discussed it with (co-writer) Harald (Kloser), I said we need a “plausible” reason, not a scientific one. Show this film [...]

Since making a name for himself in 2001’s indie mind melt Donnie Darko and later as Heath Ledger’s lover in Brokeback Mountain (2005) Jake Gyllenhaal has remained somewhat aloof and left-of-centre from the inner circle of mega-earning A list Hollywood actors, largely avoiding the cha-ching! lure of junky action blockbusters. The big exception is The [...]

In today’s Crikey newsletter I write about the upcoming nano budget indie flick Paranormal Activity and in particular about the extensive (and remarkably successful) online marketing techniques that have been used to promote it. If you’re not a Crikey subscriber (tsk tsk) you can sign up for a free three week trial here. Here’s a [...]

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is arguably the world’s most famous festive season morality fable, a story of spiritual redemption and rediscovered merriment for misanthrope miser Ebenezer “bah humbug!” Scrooge. Jim Carrey, aided by a thick sheen of CGI profiling, plays the über frugal pernicious protagonist with a splendidly uptight aura. It is his second [...]

In The Time Traveler’s Wife Eric Bana plays Henry DeTamble, an unlikeable mope with an uncontrollable tendency to spontaneously melt into nothing and reappear, naked, in another timeframe. As you do. Rachel McAdams plays his eponymous wife Clare, the ultra tolerant lovesick type who clearly sees in him something nobody else can. Well into this [...]

While rumours of a Ridley Scott directed live action adaptation of Hasbro’s blockbuster board game Monopoly continue to sporadically surface on the internet (http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/03/02/exclusive-ridley-scotts-monopoly-movie-to-address-real-life-economic-problems/) ,thus  boggling the brains and testing the gullibility of readers the world over, news surfaced last week of a deal Hasbro has made with Sony Pictures for the rights to a [...]

This Is It was the name of Michael Jackson’s highly anticipated concert tour that was scrapped less than three weeks before opening night, when death interrupted the pasty-faced star’s plans for a comeback. Director Kenny Ortega’s documentary of the same name plays a lot like a concert movie, but given there was never any actual [...]

Earlier this year myself and some Twitter buddies played a game called #nicer filmtitles. As its title suggests, the game all about taking the name of popular films and making them, well, nicer. For example, The Empire Strikes Back becomes The Empire Writes A Strongly Worded Letter. The Day the Earth Stood Still becomes The [...]