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| Disney Times |
The younger kids today might not know who Robin Williams is. He made his debut as the alien Mork in Mork and Mindy, but it was his title role in 1978's Popeye that made him Hollywood's hottest comic commodity.
The younger kids today might not know who Robin Williams is. He made his debut as the alien Mork in Mork and Mindy, but it was his title role in 1978's Popeye that made him Hollywood's hottest comic commodity.
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| Hybrid Stars |
At first, I thought Lucy was Luc Besson's first directorial gig in a long time. But IMDb has proven me wrong. He had one last year, in fact, and it was a Hollywood film, which means I should have at least heard of it. But I have not. This could only mean either 1) it wasn't really a Hollywood film but a French film with a Hollywood cast; or 2) it did so poorly at the US box office that they chose not to distribute it here.
It was, in fact, the second one. It scored 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is around the average score for a Luc Besson film. So does that mean he sucks? No. Maybe. I don't really care.
The Golden Rule of Moviegoing is this: Never let critics dictate your cinematic taste. That rhymes, so dibs.
Luc Besson is one of my favourite film directors. I don't care what others think. I watched this film because it was directed by Luc Besson, and not because of the promise of seeing a Scarlett Johansson butt close-up. Now let's use this time to discuss Luc Besson's directing style in relation to his latest film, Lucy.
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| Why would anyone cover his eyes with ScarJo right in front of him? |
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| YouTube |
As I mentioned in a previous review, sequels are the bane of Hollywood. This is especially true of animated films, because children cannot discern good movies from bad ones, and will most likely drag their parents to watch anything with their favourite characters in it.
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| Or anything with wingsuit flying. |
This, however, is not true for How to Train Your Dragon 2.
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| See? How can you go wrong with lots of warships? |
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The United States' Men's Soccer Team made history in their game against Belgium, resulting in their elimination from the Round of 16 of the World Cup. They ended the 90th minute with no goals scored for both sides. But football is known for its unpredictability, and true to form, all goals were scored in added time.
The second half of added time showed the world the best football ever played by the Americans. All thanks to their coach, Jürgen Klinsmann.
And then I read the tweets about him. And the tweets about US Soccer. Which made for a great morning read yesterday.
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| YouTube |
The art of adaptation has many forms (I am of course talking of adaptation in its literary sense). Adaptation is the process by which a work is transposed from one medium to another. For example, a novel can be adapted from a stage play, or a poem can be adapted into a short story. And movies can be adapted from almost any medium under the sun.
The film Noah from director Darren Aronofsky is one such example, coming out as the second of at least three films this year adapted from biblical sources. Understandably, viewers would tend to compare Noah with other biblical films such as The Passion of the Christ, The Last Temptation of Christ, and The Prince of Egypt.
There are some films which are considered modern-day adaptations of Biblical stories, like the obvious modern-day Christ narrative The Matrix, but in my opinion, these aren't so much adaptations as modern-day retellings. Yes, they may be similar, but they are distinct. Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet is a modern-day adaptation, while Romeo Must Die is a modern-day retelling of William Shakespeare's classic play. So where does the difference lie?
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| "Adaptation? Retelling? I'm confused now." |
Maleficent was the Celia Rodriguez of the Disney universe. Her outfits look like she's best friends with a gay designer, and when she arrives in parties, everything stops. In fact, she doesn't need an invitation to come to parties. She is so kick-ass her grand scheme to get back at the king for not putting her on the guest list is pure genius: everyone in the kingdom will fall in love with Aurora, only to have their hearts shattered when she turns 16 and she dies of a needle prick.That's as cruel as giving a baby AIDS by sharing a druggie's needle with her. For 16 years, people around Aurora build relationships with her knowing she will die soon if she so much as breaks her skin with a needle. It's hard to get emotionally invested with a girl like that, but Aurora is gifted with beauty and charm, so it's really a Catch-22.
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| YouTube |
The thing that hath beene, it is that which shall be: and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing vnder the sunne.
Ecclesiastes 1:9
You might be wondering if this is the Noah review, because of this Bible verse in fancy old English. No, it’s not. And the old English text comes from the 1611 version of the King James Bible.
What does the verse mean? In a nutshell, what it’s saying is that nothing is original anymore, because everything has been done before. Sounds like a perfect descriptor for Hollywood cinema.
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| The only thing that hasn't been done before is the collaboration between Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. |
Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past, or The Longest-Running Non-Rebooted Movie-Comic Franchise So Far
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| YouTube |
The X-Men film franchise is now on its fifth film (2013’s The Wolverine is considered a spin-off, which would make 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine a prequel slash spinoff – or a sprinquel, if I may coin the term. What's that? No, I may not coin the term? Okay then.), and Days of Future Past (DoFP, because I love acronyms) is the second film in what we all first thought was a reboot. DoFP ends somewhere before the events of X-Men: The Last Stand, which could actually allow the filmmakers to pretend that third X-Men movie never really happened.
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"Yes, I've gained weight, but only because I actually never thought we'd be asked to come back. ." |
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| FanPop |
Remakes and reboots are the bane of Hollywood, and could possibly cause the downfall of American cinema. This year, an American reboot of an American remake of a Japanese icon makes its way to the big screen.
This year's Godzilla audience can be divided into two camps: those who hated it, and those who loved it. Let us discuss both sides and the points they raised, whether or not they are valid.
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| Godzilla and MUTO chibis. Your arguments are invalid. |
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| YouTube |
My reaction at the end of the movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was to exclaim quite loudly, "Great screenplay!" And after absorbing the entire experience, filtering out the fancy 4DX gimmick (which shall be discussed in another post), I wondered what made me say it was a great screenplay. The best Marvel movie for me so far is still Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and that was a great screenplay. Some have called Spider-Man 2 a "bridge movie", defined as a second film in a franchise trilogy with no other purpose than to connect Parts I and III together.
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| Almost became a bridge movie were it not for Heath Ledger. |
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