Da Couch Tomato

An attempt at a new layout, with horrible glitches, and very minimal knowledge of HTML.
Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts
Wikipedia

The Act of Killing is a documentary filmed by Joshua Oppenheimer and executive produced by Werner Herzog. It follows the sunset years of Anwar Congo and Adi Zulkadry, who started as young gangsters sponsored by the Suharto regime to hunt down, torture, and kill communists from the Sukarno rule. The same regime holds strong in Indonesia today.



In their sunset years, the two shoot a movie about their youth as gang members. We learn that the Indonesian word for "gangster" is derivative of the English "free man." That movie's plot moves from gritty black and white reenactments of the killings to surreal scenes in which the gangsters wear sequined gowns and have dead communists thank them for sending them to heaven. This film should be viewed for the added perspective on discussions on impunity, which we see some incidents of in the Philippines today. I believe the film is insightful because of these key points:

1:05 AM
DreamWorks

This, in my opinion, is the best computer-animated film I have seen so far. But why was it not nominated for an Academy Award, when this could clearly have given Pixar a run for its money?

DreamWorks
Jack Frost. No relation to Robert Frost.
2:13 PM
Orange Magazine TV

I just want to go on the record and say this: Gloc-9 is the real deal.

lionheartv via Blogger
Just waiting for his movie deal.
8:00 AM
USA via DCT

The first season of Suits had so much promise. I thought it could’ve been one of those shows that was almost as good as attending law school itself, where you learn stuff such as what motion to file for a certain case, or how to lift restraining orders with minimum paperwork, or how to buy time for injunctions. Stuff that would make the layman go, “Hey, you can’t do that to me. I know my rights. I watch Suits!”

USA
"But could you explain that in Mandarin?"
10:25 AM
TWC/Annapurna

You all know this is an art film, because it can be summed up in one word: BORING. Yeah, art films (or art house films, as they are known in the States) are great, but not all of them are. Some are just downright slow and non-engaging, which is primarily the reason this film is released by Fox Searchlight and not any major studio.

TWC/Annapurna
"What the hell? This isn't Fox Searchlight, dumbass."
8:29 AM
20th Century Fox/Europa

Back in 2008, there was a film called Taken, which did “take” a lot of money home from the box office. (See what I did there? The word “take”?) Then in 2012, the same producers decided they wanted to “take” more of our money, so they released a sequel, creatively entitled Taken 2. (See, I used “take” again. Never mind.)

20th Century Fox/Europa
"I see what you did there, and I don't like it."
2:37 PM
Disney

Last year, two animated films reawakened an interest in stop-motion (Frankenweenie and ParaNorman). But Disney (which released Frankenweenie) decided that a black-and-white stop-motion flick might not equal big box office returns, so they made sure to release another flick – a computer-animated one.[citation needed] It’s funny how in Hollywood, computer animation has become the norm, while clay and stop-motion have been relegated to weird, artsy films.

Disney
Screw those artsy animated movies!
11:26 AM
Fox Searchlight/Montecito/Cold Spring

If you don’t know who Alfred Hitchcock is, then I suggest you stop masquerading as a cinephile, because you are a liar.

Fox Searchlight/Montecito/Cold Spring
"Cinephile... is that like pedophile?"
8:15 AM
Focus Features/Laika

ParaNorman is the animated version of The Sixth Sense. You know, because he sees dead people. Just kidding.

Focus Features/Laika
But seriously, he sees dead people.
6:41 PM
Disney

You might be asking yourself “When is Tim Burton going to do a computer-animated flick?” And the answer to that is: probably never.

Disney
"Nevah!"
2:19 PM
Lionsgate/Reliance/DNA

There’s a saying in pop music that if you’re doing a remake, make sure it’s better than the original. The same goes for movies, I guess.

Lionsgate/Reliance/DNA
Though I think the chin was better in the original.
11:06 AM

Hope Springs, as the title would hint at it, is about having hope and hope following through with your expectations. Headlined by the Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, the film morphs into a hopeful romantic movie about an elderly couple. But really, Hope Springs is actually the name of the small town where our two leads spend a few days or so to undergo an intense marriage counseling from this guy.

That's doctor-psychologist Steve Carrell. Would you really take this guy seriously?
3:45 PM
Fox Searchlight

Dear Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,

What the hell is this travesty? Beasts of the Southern Wild, four Oscar nominations? Seriously? Let’s go through those nominations one by one.

Fox Searchlight
You do that, while we watch these babies race.
11:10 AM
HBO

If you’re not a fan of the mockumentary style of filmmaking, I have some bad news for you: it’s not going away anytime soon.

The mockumentary seems to be really effective in comedy, and American television has made sure to capitalize on this. Series creator Armando Iannucci has taken his BBC political satire The Thick of It (which I am downloading right now) and transferred it across the Atlantic to the bumbling and bungling (they mean the same thing, right?) office of the Vice-President of the United States.

Looks like a nice place to work.
3:20 PM
HBO

Alternative title for this season: The Ballad of Gyp Rosetti. (I just love using “The Ballad of insert-name-here”. Makes it sound more poetic.)

Anyway, Gyp Rosetti is this guy:

HBO
Played by Bobby Cannavale, whose dick could be seen
dangling just a few seconds before this shot.
6:39 AM
The Weinstein Company

What makes a great love story?

A great love story is one which makes you fall in love along with the characters. That’s because no matter what gender you belong to, you can always put yourselves in one of the character’s shoes. And pretty much everybody could relate to either Bradley Cooper or Jennifer Lawrence.

The Weinstein Company
Or both.
8:50 PM
Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh

The success of Les Misérables stems from the great directing of Tom Hooper. As a musical, it strays away from becoming merely a stage performance filmed on camera. Other movie musicals tend to be either “more movie than musical” or “more musical than movie”. Hooper’s Les Mis (yes, I get tired of typing the accented “é”), however, succeeds in becoming a perfect hybrid, becoming, in my opinion, a great example of musical cinema.

Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh
Nothing says "cinema" more than Russell Crowe's mug.
9:17 AM
Clevver Movies via YouTube

Westerners are always suckers for anything oriental. This year, Ang Lee tries for another Oscar as he follows Danny Boyle’s formula of exotic vistas plus heavily-accented Indian actors. Although the film promises deep spiritual stuff, “a story that would make me believe in God,” it fell short. The Academy, however, has only one slot in its spiritual/New Age category, and between Life of Pi and Cloud Atlas, the nomination had to go to the former, as the latter was a bit difficult to digest, even for heavy psychedelics users.

At least this film had animals.
3:28 PM
Showtime

Thus endeth the second season of Homeland. Was it any good? Of course it was. It won the second Golden Globes for Damian Lewis, Claire Danes, and for Best Television Series – Drama.

Showtime
The two winners doing, uh, drama.
1:06 PM
The Weinstein Company

*PISS OFF IF YOU HATE SPOILERS*

Whether you love Quentin Tarantino or you hate him, you can’t deny that he is one of the few living original storytellers for the cinematic medium. For that fact alone, Django Unchained stands apart from its Hollywood brethren of adaptations, remakes, and reboots.

The Weinstein Company
Also, Jamie Foxx in electric blue.
10:01 AM
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )
Premium Blogspot Templates
Copyright © 2012 Da Couch Tomato