September, 2011

In the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, one question that has recently bounced around the Crikey office is: who will play Rupert Murdoch in the (presumably inevitable) movie adaptation?

Comedian Steve Carell dips his toes in the temperate waters of lo-fi indie-brand dramedy in Crazy, Stupid, Love, the latest film from Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the duo who penned 2003′s sleazily sardonic masterstroke Bad Santa and wrote and directed I Love You Phillip Morris (2009). Carell more or less reprises his character from The [...]

Taylor “that other guy from Twilight” Lautner scores his first starring role as an on-the-run knucklehead in Abduction, director John Singleton’s vacuous low-rent riff on The Fugitive (1993). If nothing else, Lautner has found consistency with his emerging oeuvre: a movie as daft, dull and monotonous as the glitzy vampire franch from which his fame emanates. [...]

The title might sound like pretentious gobbledygook, but watch documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog’s The Cave of Forgotten Dreams and you’re likely to emerge entirely convinced of the veracity of those words. Herzog landed one hell of a find: access to a cave  in Southern France decorated with remarkably well preserved 32,000 year-old drawings. The Chauvet [...]

Are reality TV programs about blabbering drunk drivers less legitimate than acclaimed shows such as The Wire? Should one feel guilty about reading a Dan Brown book when an unread Charles Dickens novel gathers dust on the shelf? Why would anybody watch a dopey Hollywood rom-com when they could be charmed by the sharp-witted delights of French [...]

Lars and the Real Girl director Craig Gillespie revisits the blood and garlic splattered territory of Fright Night, a fun mid-80′s vampire flick about a teenage boy whose life is turned upside down when a blood sucker moves in next door and nobody believes him. The story has been shifted to Las Vegas, a perfect, [...]

. ‘Nuf said. Poster designed by @lethalleigh

This original Point Break remake poster (click to enlarge) comes from the mastermind of Leigh “nobody knows more about Point Break than me” Josey. Follow him on Twitter here.. . This week the online film community has been abuzz with spirited discussion regarding the announcement of an upcoming remake of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action film [...]

Any movie that follows the creative template outlined by Alvin and the Chipmunks and its ‘Squeakwell‘ has more than a few wrongs to right. And there is an awful lot wrong with director Raja Gosnell’s big screen adaptation of The Smurfs. A look quick at Gosnell’s CV, which includes Big Momma’s House, Home Alone 3, Scooby-Doo 1 [...]

Hollywood is roundly criticised for manufacturing an endless conveyer belt of spectacle and sensationalism — an industry, so the common wisdom goes, where nothing is sacred, everything is for sale and no subject is taboo. It’s more than a little surprising, then, that throughout the ten years since the September 11 attacks the industry has maintained great [...]

In the gimmicky tradition of films like Dating the Enemy (1996) and Freaky Friday (2003), The Change-Up is a body switch comedy that follows two characters who wake up in the other person’s body. For the premise to be interesting the characters need to have starkly different lives and personalities. This difference is neatly encapsulated [...]

This week three films opened nationally which I previously reviewed as part of my coverage of this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. The three films — Aussie drama Face to Face, Japanese period piece epic 13 Assassins and quirky UK comedy Submarine — are all quality releases.

Last year Reebok embraced the dark side of the foot, releasing a sleek line of shoes inspired by Star Wars. This year, hot on their heels, Nike are jumping on board the movie fandom footwear bandwagon with a run of self-lacing shoes inspired by Back to the Future 2. Marty McFly’s spiffy space-age boots were [...]

“God hates fags, God hates fag enablers; therefore God hates Kevin Smith.” — a Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson. Defying audience expectations in a manner as bold and brazen as Quentin Tarantino calling “cut” on a syrupy Hollywood rom-com or Michael Bay producing a quirky indie drama, writer/director/cranky airline commuter Kevin Smith – who is best [...]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that one-time Oscar nominee Eddie Murphy will host next year’s awards night ceremony. Murphy, 50, was the first choice of show co-producer Brett Ratner, who recently directed Murphy in the upcoming action comedy Tower Heist and issued the following froth-from-the-mouth press statement: Eddie is a [...]

Director Seth Gordon’s blokey middle-of-the-road comedy about three buddies united by contempt for their bosses has a premise audiences will either instantly relate to or feel damn fortunate that they don’t. In Horrible Bosses Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) loathe their superiors. And who can blame them? There’s Kevin Spacey [...]