While picking up my “you know better, but it’s the explosions!” copy of Transformers: Revenge of Bombacity The Fallen (T:ROTF)at the local Best Buy today, the checkout guy was shocked, SHOCKED, when I told him how dumb I thought Michael Bay’s latest foray into robots and asplosions was. Hypocrisy? Sure, but there’s an underlying point here: if everyone loves the movie, does reviewing it even matter? After our review of T:ROTF on the 6/26 radio show, we received a lot …
Author: Dan
You know how you can tell summer has officially bought the farm? Trailer Tuesday. Bombastic musical beats and explosions are gone. Angst-filled yelling and tears and dramatics are the new hotness in pursuit of accolades and the palm logos adorned with “Winner of”. Take Andy’s Precious pick for example: harsh and bleak with a touch of hope. Or Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans*. Harsh and bleak… with a touch of CRAZY. A sequel/remake (but don’t call …
Apparently, it’s Star Wars day… or we’ve become The Movie Blog. Either way, I’m sorry. Nevertheless! There’s a fun project running on the content site Vimeo called Star Wars Uncut. It’s a fan-video compendium that takes the original Star Wars (I will not call it Episode IV: A New Hope– nyah!), chops its 121 minutes into 15-second segments. Fans then pick a segment, film it on their own and upload it. When it’s all said and done, you’ve got 121 …
Waaay back in April, ThinkGeek April-Fooled many a Star Wars nerd with their Tauntaun sleeping bag. Seems everyone wanted to nestle their middle-aged spare tires and a box of cookies children into its fleece-lined innards. Reader Jason even went so far as to say “They had better produce and market this. It could single handedly stimulate our economy out of this recession.” Well Jason, consider your wish Thinkgeek’s command, because dudes scored a license from Lucasfilm and are ready to …
John Woo. JOHN WOO! Yeah. Used to be a time when the name John Woo meant something: Glorious action, slow motion symphonies of leaping, shooting and fiery explosion, doves (he’s a Christian, you know) and over-the-freakin’-top John Travolta. But that was then. Now, it’s 2009 and America’s love affair with John Woo–a brief fling that launched with Broken Arrow, culminated in Mission Impossible: II then quickly hit the skids with Windtalkers— is on the backburner. Woo’s done some producing and …
Here at A(AD!)ATM, we’ve been using the universally recognized “star” system for our film reviews. It’s a system that’s been around a while, it’s well used and it works… but for all its recognition, the star system isn’t all that nuanced. How does a silly, brainless crap fun-fest like G.I. Joe nail three stars, while a well-executed and surprisingly effective film like District 9 receives the same score? They’re both entertaining in their own right, but one feels destined as …
The Coen brothers can be obtuse filmmakers: operating as if to apply their master’s touch on mainstream films solely for building the studio goodwill needed to produce the films they’re really interested in making. Such is the case with A Serious Man. It’s not mainstream. It’s not even midstream. Critics will love it, but the general audience won’t see it and those who do will find it totally, inaccessibly boring. Which doesn’t mean it’s bad- it just means A Serious …
Here in Cache Valley (IE- Logan), there was only one place to go for screenings of indie films like The Hurt Locker, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood: The Logan Art Cinema. As of today, the only place to go might be Hastings, Hollywood Video and your living room. Thanks to a virtually hidden location and meager attendance, Westates Theaters (Cache Valley’s favorite local monopoly), has decided it high time to give Logan Art Cinema its …