A quick question, before we go further: why do you think Warner Bros’ wholesome 2011 family adventure Dolphin Tale — “the amazing true story of a brave dolphin and the compassionate strangers who banded together to save her life,” thank you official synopsis — generated disappointing results at the US box office? Your answer, if [...]
#Avengers fans, NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let’s help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do! Those were the “them’s fightin’ words” shot down the barrel of the Twitterverse last week. They reverberated across the geekosphere with the force of a Hulk smash to the nads and spawned blog and [...]
2D in 24 frames per second. 2D in 48 frames per second. 3D in 24 frames per second. 3D in 48 frames per second. IMAX 3D in 24 frames per second. IMAX 3D in 48 frames per second. These are the six different formats — that’s right, six — Peter Jackson’s first adaptation of The [...]
Author, journalist, DIY bomb maker and gun loving liberal Hunter S. Thompon (aka the ‘Good Doctor’) was celebrated for many things, none more so than his brutally colourful pointy-edged prose, his lust for drugs and alcohol and his legendary ability to transform hotel rooms into sites that reportedly resembled zones of apocalyptic destruction. Like any [...]
Click here to listen to The Parallax Podcast Has Sean Penn reinvented himself? Is Penn’s performance in his new film This Must be the Place his weirdest yet? And is the big budget bombast of Battleship — based on a board game — as dumb as it looks? These questions and more are debated in [...]
It boasts one of the biggest Hollywood casts ever assembled, was co-written by one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century and directed by Seinfeld alumni Larry Charles, who went on to make blockbuster mockumentaries Borat and Bruno. And yet virtually nobody saw — or even heard of — 2003′s strikingly weird apocalyptic [...]
If film reviewers are a dime a dozen these days – at least outside mainstream media outlets – those with CVs that look even a smidge like The Australian‘s Evan Williams are anything but. Williams, a critic for The Oz since 1981, has a particular fondness for political movies, even though he approaches them with [...]
To mark the theatrical release of writer/director Gareth Evans’ hellzapoppin’ Indonesian action film The Raid (which opens March 22), Cinetology offers readers the chance to win one of 25 in-season double passes valid from March 26. To go in the running follow these steps: 1) became a fan of Cinetology on Facebook and 2) email me with your [...]
It has an odd ring to it, doesn’t it: 21 Jump Street, starring Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill. Hollywood’s latest remake of a barely remembered TV show, this one an 80s police drama featuring then teen idol Johnny Depp, arrives with a splash of Oscars pedigree. And, in terms of surprises, that ain’t the half [...]
February 28, 2012 – 8:33 pm
This morning I returned to familiar conversational territory when a colleague in the office raised the question of the Oscars’ Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories. Particularly a) whether there is any real difference between them and b) whether anybody can explain it. Before you read any further, assume there is a difference and have a [...]
February 27, 2012 – 6:24 pm
Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist and Martin Scorcese’s Hugo were the top performers at this year’s Academy Awards, snagging five Oscars apiece. The Artist scored three of the major categories (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor) while Hugo won the lion’s share of technical accolades (Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects). Both are [...]
February 7, 2012 – 8:03 pm
As guest contributor Tara Judah observes in the post below, the landscape of the cinema industry is rapidly changing. Exhibitors are currently in the foggy intersection between old and new, with cinemas across Australia — and indeed the world — in the process of replacing 35mm film prints with DCP (Digital Cinema Package) technology. The [...]
February 3, 2012 – 10:07 am
Few veteran film critics are as internet savvy as The Australian and SBS online reviewer Lynden Barber. Barber worked as a staff writer for newspapers and magazines in the 80s and 90s, banging away on stories during the days when “Google” still sounded like something you might use to shield your eyes, but has had no [...]
February 1, 2012 – 10:12 am
Director Kriv Stenders’ box office hit Red Dog — which took in more than $21 million domestically last year — scored the top gong at last night’s AACTA Awards (formally known as the AFIs). Taking home the Best Film trophy, the pooch prevented Justin Kurzel‘s devastatingly brilliant Snowtown from a clean sweep. Snowtown won Best Direction [...]
January 31, 2012 – 9:37 pm
Hollywood, to state the bleeding obvious, was not an industry founded on philanthropic values, and its most prized product – actors – are in the business of selling their famous faces. Screen performers need to make a living like the rest of us, and they bring home the bacon by cashing in their bodies and [...]
see it
skip it
don't rush
