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Star Wars, Indiana Jones… are there any more great films produced by George Lucas in the last 30 years that he can now cynically revive with so-called sequels designed solely to cash in the nostalgia of Generation X-ers? Phew, looks like he’s done the lot, unless of course he wants to release a CGI-augmented version of American Gigolo… Read the rest of this entry »
Well, there’s certainly a lot of blood involved. In fact, in the swordfight scenes that are strewn haphazardly through this trash heap of a film, all it takes is the slightest contact between sword and body armour for a veritable fountain of the red stuff to burst in a torrent from the unfortunate protagonist. Not that there’s anything wrong with a C-grade vampire/fantasy flick going a bit overboard with the gore. What’s less forgivable is the execrable acting and a truly atrocious script. Read the rest of this entry »
Christopher Paolini’s novel is a hugely popular fantasy with young and old readers alike. Surely there must be more to it than what has made it to the screen in this big budget Hollywood interpretation?
And this is where things are going to start getting difficult for the Harry Potter films. After the appalling Chris Columbus’ painfully mediocre interpretations of the first two books, this film series suddenly hit its straps - first with Alfonso Cuaron’s brilliant Prisoner of Azkaban, and then with Mike Newell’s surprisingly fine effort for the Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was always going to be a difficult book to turn into a film, with its extreme length and preoccupation with Harry’s incessant brooding and angst (hey, fifteen is a difficult age, OK?). Although new director David Yates struggles to craft a coherent plot out of it, there are certainly some things to admire in this one. That won’t stop hordes of Harry Potter readers clamouring for his head because of his rape and pillage of the storyline but, hey, you can’t have everything! Read the rest of this entry »
The appeal of the fantasy and sci fi film genres must seem so easy to understand for the clueless Hollywood execs who churn out so many examples of each these days. Whip up some spectacular CGI effects, throw in a monster or two and loads of breakneck action and insert star here. Amongst all that mediocrity, then, it’s surprising to see an effort that displays such thoughtful craft in its writing and execution. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, it’s aimed at kids. So you have to make allowances. But it’s damn hard to make allowances for something so lame. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s really quite fascinating how fantasy has evolved from being exclusively the domain of children’s stories to now more frequently being targeted at adult audiences. No film embodies fantasy’s new darker form than Pan’s Labyrinth. Guillermo del Toro has created a fable so brutal, so frightening and yet at the same time evoking such imaginative wonder that it makes your head spin.
