220. The REAL Short Box: DC Cinematic Controversy!
Posted: April 30, 2022 | Author: admin | Filed under: | Tags: Actors, Amber Heard, Aquaman, Batman, Comic Books, Comics, DC, DC Comics, Ezra Miller, JLA, Johnny Depp, Podcast, Shitting the Bed, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman | 133 Comments »In this Podcast, The Gang discuss their disdain for some of decisions coming out of the DC Cinematic Universe, including some of the actors!
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MAKING A KILLING: Movie Reviews of The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Murder on the Orient Express by Howard Casner
Posted: December 13, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Agatha Christie, Albert Finney, Barry Keoghan, Collin Farrell, David Sachet, Efthymis Filippou, Ingrid Bergman, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Green, Murder on the Orient Express, Paul Dehn, Poirot, Sidney Lumley, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos | 2,433 Comments »
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Warning: SPOILERS
When I saw writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos and writer Efthymis Filippou’s earlier film Dogtooth, I must be honest and say I didn’t have the most favorable reaction and many might consider that odd.
I felt it a rather dated attack on middle class mores that had already been done to death in the 1950’s and 60’s, especially in the off-Broadway theater.
But then I saw The Lobster, their last film, an hysterical satire and social commentary on love and relationships and the society that promotes them.
And now I’ve seen their latest, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and I realized I was partially right about my earlier analysis because the more I see of their work, the more I realize the turgid social commentary of those decades are not their main influences. Rather, these two artists are the 21st Century embodiment of the existentialist/theater of the absurd practitioners like Beckett, Ionesco, Sartre, Albee and others of that ilk.
FUHGEDDABOUDIT: Movie Reviews of Coming Home and Black Mass by Howard Casner
Posted: September 27, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Mass, Coming Home, Corey Stoll, David Harbour, Huiwen Zhang, Jesse Plemons, Jez Butterworth, Jingzhi Zou, Joel Edgerton, John Connolly, Johnny Depp, Kevin Bacon, Li Gong, Mark Mallouk, Peter Sarsgaard, Random Harvest, Rory Cochrane, Scott Cooper, W. Earl Brown, Whitey Bulger, Yanshi (Daoming Chen, Yimou Zhang | 7 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
In 1942, Ronald Colman played a character so shell shocked by the trenches of World War I that he walked out of the hospital where he was recovering, having no idea who he was.
He was taken in by a singer in a vaudeville house (Greer Garson), fell in love and the two married. Then years later, he suddenly, out of nowhere, remembered who he really was, but totally forget that his wife existed. He discovers he’s the scion of a wealthy family and eventually runs for political office, not knowing that his secretary is actually his wife.
This movie is Random Harvest and is perhaps the most romantic and delirious use of amnesia in film. But amnesia has always been a useful tool of storytelling, whether romantic (here and in Law of Desire) or in thrillers (Mr. Budwing and Mirage) or comedy (The Hangover and 50 First Dates).
Coming Home, written by Jingzhi Zou and directed by Yimou Zhang, falls into the more melodramatic end of the spectrum like Random Harvest. It’s unabashedly sentimental and relishes in a sort of 1930’s studio romanticism tone and style, though the grittiness makes it more Warner Brothers than MGM. Read the rest of this entry »
FANTASY ISLANDS: Movie Reviews of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Into the Woods
Posted: December 30, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anna Kendricks, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Dion Beebe, Emily Blunt, Fran Walsh, Guillermo del Toro, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen, Into the Woods, James Horton, James Lapine, Johnny Depp, Martin Freeman, Meryl Streep, Orlando Bloom, Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Rob Marshall, Stephen Soundheim, The Battle of the Five Armies, The Hobbit, Wyatt Smith | 6 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
The latest entry of The Hobbit franchise is called The Battle of the Five Armies, and I guess I have to first say that I found the title a tad puzzling because I only counted four…armies, that is. There were elves, dwarves, man and orcs.
I guess the fifth comes about if you divide those orcky things into two different factions, but, I don’t know, that sorta felt like cheating to me.
At any rate, I think the story of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings could be used as a metaphor for filmmaker Peter Jackson and his production of this final installment of the adventures of a little person called Bilbo Baggins. Read the rest of this entry »
BRAIN DEAD: Movie Review of Transcendence by Howard Casner
Posted: April 24, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Clifton Collins, Colossus: the Forbin Project, Jack Paglen, Johnny Depp, Jr., Kate Mara, Morgan Freeman, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Transcendence, Wally Pfister | 9 Comments »
Transcendence (or perhaps more aptly titled Trance-enduscence), the new sci-fi thriller written by Jack Paglen and directed by Wally Pfister (a first feature for both, though Pfister was the cinematographer on many Christopher Nolan films), is about a scientist, Will Caster, who tries to turn the world into a dystopian Eden when his brain is uploaded into a computer.
The basic structure is as familiar as any standard piece of Victorian literature, the period when Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein, a horror story about an egotistical scientist who tries to play God by creating a man out of a bunch of miscellaneous parts from dead bodies. Read the rest of this entry »
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