Training Day, Bad Cops and Police Media Management

Bad cops are easy to recognize in the movies. Why not so much in real life? 

Goodbye IMDb message boards. Hello...The Movie DB?

As discussed recently, IMDb is shutting down its message boards. People have been wondering where to go to discuss movies. The Movie DB seems poised to run with the ball IMDb has dropped, and I like what I'm seeing thus far.

IMDb messages boards shutting down

There has been plenty of coverage of the recent sad news, that IMDb is shutting down its message boards. Clearly, mentioning it as such is not attempt to leave you wondering how I feel about it - indeed, the message board became the most useful feature of IMDb for me.

Noah, & Bibically themed films; the new "go-to" for Hollywood?

Now granted it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but don’t think I’ve given up my movie and specialty TV watching. That will never change. 

I just had to take a break while back in post-secondary classes. Now that I’m off I can get back to some articles and stuff on my mind. 

Yep, a lot of good movies so far this summer. Yes I have seen some, (How to Train Your Dragon 2, being the most recent one), so I will try to get into those as soon as I can. But first I wanted to talk about a noticeable pattern I’ve been observing - there’s been an increase of Biblically-themed films, and even a few TV shows of the same genre. 

The Pads of Mad Men

Matt Weiner is apparently "well known for being fastidious about period detail." 

As such, the following map, showing where a few Mad Men characters live, can help us envision their movements in and around New York City.

Brett and Marvin: Pulp Fiction and the (skill-testing) question

In this fifth installment exploring Pulp Fiction's treatment of redemption, we consider Jules' famous scene with Brett; he  had asked Brett if he knew why a Quarter Pounder with cheese was called a Royale with cheese in France. Brett proved he was a smart guy, figuring out that a Quarter Pounder with cheese can’t keep the same name in France… “because of the metric system” (“Check out the big brain on Brett…you’re a smart mothe…”) It was on the basis of his right answer that Jules could “lay his vengeance upon him” – because he should have known better. 

The Apartment

So, after watching Double Indemnity, I went looking for other Billy Wilder titles. I’d previously heard of The Apartment, although at that time I had no idea who Wilder was; it seemed like a good next movie to watch, given that Fred MacMurray was in both. And given that, unlike the darkness of film noir, this was a romantic comedy. Let's see how he handled himself. 

Double Indemnity - the film that started it all

I've mentioned on not a few occasions that Billy Wilder is my favourite movie-maker of all time. Quentin Tarantino is up there, as is Spike Lee, David Mamet, David Fincher, John Hughes, and other honourable mentions. However, insofar as I've been able to recognize, Wilder was not limited to any single genre - whatever style he approached, he nailed it.

The first Wilder movie I ever saw was not chosen because it was Wilder. I knew nothing of plot, didn't go looking particularly for it; I was at the video store (back when one went to video stores to rent videos), and decided to start getting through some classics. I saw the case, it had some award mentions on it, so I said "Okay, let's watch this tonight."

That movie was Double Indemnity, it had me from the opening to the close, and was the beginning of a journey of movie-making discovery I'm still travelling.

2013 Summer Movie Wrap up! Big year for sequels and stand alone films alike.

Well first and foremost, sorry for the lack of previews and reviews here. It’s been a rather busy summer for me, with several life changing events (some minor like a move to a new location; to more major like getting married!) But despite these changes I was able to squeeze some film watching here and there. 

Star Trek: Into the Darkness, In my opinion, very entertaining film for both trekers and noobs alike!

Well with all the bantering happening with all the changes Disney has made (and is still making) with various Star Wars projects, most of them being cancelled incidentally, many are questioning what Disney’s angle with all of these various takeovers that are happening, first with Marvel, and now more recently with Lucusfilm (there’s already an article about this, so please check there first. I might do a "part two" of that topic later on). But back to the topic at hand - JJ Abrams sequel to the re-launch of the Star Trek series, “Star Trek: Into the Darkness.” 

I must say this was a very well made film. It was entertaining, surprising, a lot of inside and more obvious jokes, and plenty of action with good CGI that wasn’t over the top. Much like its predecessor, this film kept with the alternate timeline created in the first film. However while doing so, they re-told one of the classic tales from the original Star Trek series in its own unique way. 

As a long time fan of all of the Star Trek franchises, I’m glad they kept to the originality of the series, while at the same time developed new and unheard of sequences that was never in the original series. But again, this is a different timeline from the original; therefore you can experiment with many different aspects of the story without it looking like a re-hashed variation of the original, which is why I love this concept of an alternative past. By the way that too is also a staple of Star Trek, the space/time continuum theory, which works well with this series.

Django Unchained and the sad decay of genteel etiquette

The American interpretation of slave management was a brutally violent enterprise. The facade of civility was exactly that - a pathetic attempt to cover, to sanitize, the pall of violence that hung over daily life.
 
Django Unchained did a great job of capturing the awkward frailties of trying to be genteel and, at the same time, so cruel. Both Don Johnson as Big Daddy, and Leonardo Di Caprio as Calvin Candie, very deftly captured the nuances of the internal conflict.

Life's Hoppin' Bob and Django Unchained's Stephen: Understanding the Uncle Tom complex

Have you ever heardd someone ask why Black people can't "unite" like other cultures, or why there is so much violence within the Black community (I will not digress to observe that there is inner-racial violence in any criminal element, such as Italian on Italian or Japanese on Japanese, except to say that the Black community does not hold a patent on the phenomenon).

Hoppin' Bob from Life, and Stephen from Django Unchained, bring to life characters who, on the face of it, seem particularly reprehensible but, on closer examination, are very understandable and, perhaps even, sadly sympathetic.

Well, almost.

Star Wars vs Star Trek, or Potential new sci-fi Mashup?

So, as many of you know now, a few months ago, the Disney Company bought the rights to Lucasfilm for a little over $4.05 Billion US. According to several sources, this will give Disney the ownership but not control over the Lucas brands and letting them create what they want…hopefully. And with this purchase, they plan on creating a new trilogy for Star Wars starting with an episode 7 in 2015. 

At first I was a bit scared with this, considering its Disney and all and was afraid that they would cute it up much like many Disney films. Then I was reminded that Buena Vista, a bi-company of Disney, are responsible for making many other films that aren’t exactly up to Disney ratings (P.G. or lower) such as the Kill Bill series, and many of the current Marvel movies , which by the way Disney also bought the rights too as well. Hmm...They certainly are buying their share of the entertainment pie, and then some...aren’t they? 

The Length of Movies: Longer than necessary, or Post Modern Impatience?

Happy New Year everyone. Looks like this will be the first new entry for the new year.. This idea came to me when watching a news segment on BBC news regarding the length of many current films, compared to films of the past. 

Traditionally, most films are precisely or just over the 90 minute mark. Lately with more current films however, have been known to go over that time, in some cases between 100-125min in length. 

Cloud Atlas: Simple message for a very complex film

First of all, apologies for not getting this review out sooner. It’s been rather hectic with work and day to day living and all.

I had to admit, when I first heard of this film being debuted at the 2012 TIFF, I was sceptical on how it would be. I had heard it was based on a well known novel, but one I had never read before. Then I heard it was directed by the Wachowski bro…er, the Wachowski’s, the creators of “The Matrix” franchise. Since they are known to be very picky on outside products to base their films on (in this case this novel), and the fact they every film they made so far has been very visually stimulating and unique, it was no surprise to me that this was one of the main films I wanted to see at TIFF.

Flashpoint, Toronto and the character of Setting

 
Flashpoint is a hit show both here in Canada as well as in the USA, and its Toronto setting is a part of its success. But, what took so long for Toronto to be front and centre?

Setting is an important part of story-telling. Setting is often actually a form of character, and certain stories can only be told in certain settings, because the character of setting impacts the story.

For some strange reason, Toronto had yet to be embraced as a setting in which a compelling story could be told...but I've never understood why. Thanks to Flashpoint, however, those days could finally be over.

The Replacement Gods: Post-modern rant, or potential eye opener?

Hmm... now I guess it’s time for something a little “controversial.”

As a fair number of you are already aware, there’s been an ongoing (and in some cases heated) debate on the documentary “The Replacement Gods” among Christians and comic/ superhero/hero archetype enthusiasts alike.

And even larger debates among those who are Christians but still like their sci-fi and comic-related forms of entertainments, much like me. Yes, we are a rather interesting group - some consider us odd; others would even going as far as calling us hypocritical or even blasphemous for taking an interest in some forms of “geek culture,” whether in the forms of video games, reading material, or types of films or TV shows we enjoy.

Looper: A good Sci-fi flick that still misses 'something'..

It’s been a while, since this summer that there was a new entry here. That mainly has to do with the usual doldrums of end-of-the-summer blockbusters, and the waiting game of those fall/ winter films that don’t come out until at least a month into fall itself. Then, of course, the anticipation of those same fall/winter films that are showcased at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), which instills the other waiting game of when those films are released… Thankfully a few of them I anticipate seeing are being released within this month or so. A few have been released already, which brings me to the film in question, “Looper”. 

Life, prison and the new slavery

I’m a big fan of Eddie Murphy’s acting chops. Even in movies that most people hate (Norbit is a great example) he demonstrates remarkable character-acting. This post is not about Murphy specifically, so I’ll refrain from attempting to further explore the nagging question of why he has not been able (or willing) to do what other 80s comedians (Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton to name two off the top of my head) have – be taken seriously doing drama while still being able to dabble in comedy periodically.

This post is about the 1999 movie Life, perhaps Eddie Murphy’s greatest. He’s had many great movies (Coming to America pops to mind on many levels), but Life is yet at another level still.

Superhero Genre Part 2: The End of the Heroic Film Era?

Now we come to my issue with heroic archetype films, and Hollywood’s current approach towards it. Yes granted with some of the current films that were recently released, (The Avengers, Amazing Spiderman and the Dark Knight Rises especially) I still feel that this genre of films and possibly many more, could soon come to a end.