December 2010

The Archives

  • 12.16.10
    Let’s get it Tron: Interview with director Joseph Kosinski and producer Sean Bailey Interviews, Trailers | (1)
    INTERVIEW WITH TRON:LEGACY'S DIRECTOR JOSEPH KOSINSKI AND PRODUCER SEAN BAILEY I admit it: sometimes my job is really cushy. And I was never more aware of this fact than when I was invited to Paris to interview the director and stars of the biggest film of the year, Disney’s highly anticipated Tron:Legacy. I’ll also admit that I shamelessly bragged about this invitation to everyone around me. But it seems karma is a weather-affecting demon, and boasting about the perks of your job in an era of a 13.5% unemployment rate results in one thing: snow. Lots and lots of snow. ...
  • 12.16.10
    2010: The Chinese Year of Wasting Our Lives on Youtube… Lists | Comments Off
    In honour of the countless hours we all spend watching crap on the internet, the wonderful Gordon Hayden & I rounded up some of this 2010's most popular internet virals for an epsidoe of Ireland AM. Our original selections did have alot more X-Rated ones, but we saved them for Gordon's Uploaded Christmas Special on 3e. And should Gordon & my patented waffling style appeal to you, I can often be found giving reviews on his show on Spin 103.8, We Love Movies - whether I'm invited to or not... :) See the episode here.
  • 12.14.10
    Are We There Yet, Are We There Yet, Are We There Yet, Are We There Yet?? Blog Exclusives, Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    REVIEW: THE WAY BACK DIRECTED BY PETER WEIR. STARRING JIM STURGESS, ED HARRIS, COLING FARRELL, SAOIRSE RONAN. [133 MINS] Opens December 26 RATING: TWO/FIVE [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/HsG09e3R6qU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] It’s hard to fault Peter Weir. Having provided cinema with some of its most interesting explorations of ordinary characters facing testing circumstances, whether it’s dangerous situations like in The Cars That Ate Paris or Master and Commander or confronting oppressive, stunting authorities like in Dead Poets Society or The Truman Show, this director sure knows how to work a nice “the human spirit can overcome all” theme. But The Way Back marks a decidedly odd choice ...
  • 12.02.10
    MONSTERS: What’s that coming over the hill, is it a… Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    REVIEW: MONSTERS DIRECTED BY GARETH EDWARDS. STARRING WHITNEY ABLE, SCOOT MCNAIRY. [94 MINS] Opens December 3 RATING: THREE/FIVE Refreshingly for a sci-fi movie, Gareth Edwards’ low-budget feature debut Monsters isn’t all panic and mayhem. Set six years after NASA discovered extra terrestrials, life has resumed as normal, with the creatures now quarantined in South America. As always, taxi drivers provide much-needed perspective on the aliens’ occasional rampages, stating calmly “Yeah, it happens every year. We take our chances.” Given our recent political and financial meltdown, Monsters could be viewed as a hopeful message about Ireland’s ability to survive anything, but Edwards clearly has a more ...
  • 12.02.10
    MEGAMIND: I like big brains & I cannot lie Reviews, Trailers | (1)
    REVIEW: MEGAMIND 3D DIRECTED BY TOM MCGRATH. STARRING WILL FERRELL, TINA FEY, JONAH HILL, BRAD PITT. [96 MINS] Opens December 3 RATING: THREE/FIVE You have to love Megamind’s casting. Will Ferrell plays Megamind, an odd-looking, amusing gentleman who engages in villainous attention-seeking acts, while Brad Pitt gives voice to his arch-nemesis Metro Man, the (literally) child-juggling hero who just wants a break from being perfect. Caught between them is Tina Fey’s Roxanne, a sassy reporter tired of being surrounded by useless men like Jonah Hill’s Hal, an over-eager slob who initially seems harmless but is in fact creepy, unfunny and just keeps popping up everywhere. ...
  • 12.02.10
    EXTRA, EXTRA: December 2 Trade News | Comments Off
    * Apollo 18 sure has a nice marketing strategy. With a cool poster of an alien footprint beside Neil Armstrong’s dents and a tagline of “There’s a reason we’ve never gone back to the moon”, I’m already excited. Except…the movie doesn’t exist. Hoping to build up enough press to merit spending money, the creators have a planned release of March 4, 2011, giving them just four months to make, you know, the actual film. It’s like the Hollywood version of saying “I’m nearly there!” when you haven’t left the house yet. * Jeremey Groomer, star of The Hurt Locker, has confirmed ...
  • 12.02.10
    A Gas Film That’s No Laughing Matter: Interview with director of The Pipe, Risteard O’Domhnaill Interviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    INTERVIEW WITH RISTEARD O'DOMHNAILL “I fell into TV by accident, I did theoretical physics in college, so it was a bit of a jump!” laughs Tipperary born director Risteard O’Domhnaill. “But I moved to Mayo in 2005, just working freelance really, and the Rossport protests were right down the road. I used to go down every morning, filming a bit and as I spent more time there, I just felt that there was just this sense of real injustice, as these locals had been abandoned by everyone and were being lambasted by the media, so I kept coming back. It ...
  • 12.01.10
    THE PIPE: David, Goliath & The Pipe. Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    REVIEW: THE PIPE DIRECTED BY RISTEARD O’DOMHNAILL. [83 MINS] Opens December 3, IFI and The Lighthouse Cinema RATING: FOUR/FIVE [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/A0JeVbrDx5M" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] “An oil company vs. ordinary people.” This tagline invokes images of pretty actresses slumming it in denim and taking down large corporations with nothing but pure moxy as the Academy of Motion Pictures has a mass orgasm. But thankfully this is the only cliché present in Risteard O’Domhnaill’s thoroughly compelling film about Rossport’s Shell to Sea campaign. Spanning over a decade, The Pipe begins with Winning Steak-standard graphics illustrating the layout of the Mayo village and the proposed pipeline. This ...
  • 12.01.10
    SECRETARIAT: F*ck your political correctness, I’ve a horse outside… Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    REVIEW: SECRETARIAT DIRECTED BY RANDALL WALLACE. STARRING DIANE LANE, JOHN MALKOVICH, AMANDA MICHALKA. [116 MINS] Opens December 3 RATING: TWO/FIVE [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/UKmuvjL2cVw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] There are many things wrong with Randall Wallace’s Secretariat. It’s overlong, schmaltzy, predictable (even for a true story), the dialogue is script-by-numbers, the score is ridiculous and features the usual caricatured and vaguely racist Disney stereotypes. Given that I originally thought Secretariat was a sexy, edgy S&M movie about James Spader and his pet mare, you can only imagine my disappointment. It’s 1969 and Penny Chenery (Diane Lane, hidden under a bad wig and bizarrely distracting blue contacts) is a ...
  • 12.01.10
    OF GODS AND MEN: Good God, Man… Reviews | Comments Off
    REVIEW: OF GODS AND MEN DIRECTED BY XAVIER BEAUVOIS. STARRING LAMBERT WILSON, MICHEL LONSDALE, OLIVIER RABOURDIN, PHILLIPPE LAUDENBACH, JACQUES HERLIN. [122 MINS] Opens December 3, IFI and The Lighthouse Cinema RATING: TWO AND A HALF/FIVE At one point during Xavier Beauvois’ philosophical drama Of Gods and Men, a Cistercian monk asserts that “We’re not martyrs,” but at times watching the film, I sure felt like one. Based on true events, the film focuses on eight French monks living in a monastery in Algeria in the weeks before their kidnap and murder in March 1996. Tragic stuff indeed, but the religion-heavy, sombre tone of the film ...