July 2011

The Archives

  • 07.28.11
    A BETTER LIFE: Should have been a better film Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    A BETTER LIFE Directed by Chris Weitz. Starring Demián Bichir, José Julián, Eddie 'Piolin' Sotelo, Joaquín Cosio. 98 mins. Rating: Two and a half/Five In cinemas: July 29 POTENTIALLY AFFECTING IMMIGRANT DRAMA SUFFERS A BAD CASE OF PATRONISING WHITE GUILT In Chris Weitz’s blatant rip-off of The Bicycle Thief, Carlos (Demián Bichir, who recently proved in The Runway that his charm transcends language) is living in L.A. with his rebellious son Juan (the awkward unknown José Julián.) Stuck in the Catch 22 of illegal immigrant life, Carlos must buy a truck to work for citizenship papers. However, until he has his papers, owning the truck ...
  • 07.28.11
    HORRIBLE BOSSES: Worth playing hookey for Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    HORRIBLE BOSSES Directed by Seth Gordon. Starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx. 98 mins. In cinemas now Rating: Three and a half/Five FANTASTIC PERFORMANCES AND CONSISTENTLY FUNNY JOKES IN AN NO-WORK ALL-PLAY COMEDY A mainstream, big-budget film with an all-star cast, superficially Horrible Bosses doesn’t have much in common Kevin Smith’s 1994 cult classic, micro-budget comedy Clerks, but they both manage to capture the attitude of their era’s worker bees. Clerks spoke to hoards of young Generation X-ers who were full of pop-culture references but empty of ambition, disappointed but ambitionless, entitled but impotent and ...
  • 07.28.11
    SUPER 8: Making nostalgia a thing of the past Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    SUPER 8 Directed by J.J. Abrams. Starring Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Basso, Ron Eldard. 111 mins. Rating: Four/Five In cinemas August 5 CHARMING, FUNNY AND EXCITING SCI-FI FLICK IS A NOSTALGIC RETURN TO GREAT FAMILY FILM An homage to Steven Spielberg first and a sci-fi movie second, J.J. Abram’s Super 8 is completely open about its source material. A cocktail of The Goonies, Gremlins, E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, with a touch of Iron Giant and a generous splash of Cloverfield, there was a danger of Super 8 invoking the kind of glaucoma-ridden nostalgia that has tricks audiences into ...
  • 07.28.11
    ARRIETTY: Tall tales Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    ARRIETTY Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Mark Strong, Olivia Colman, Phyllida Law, Geraldine McEwan. 94 mins. Rating: Three and half/Five In cinemas July 29 BEAUTIFUL JAPANESE ANIMATED FILM IS A SWEET AND SOOTHING FRIENDSHIP FABLE Made by Studio Ghibli, the studio that brought anime film to the attention of not only mainstream audiences but the Academy Awards through the beautiful and Oscar winning Spirited Away, Arrietty is the most soothing and lovely children’s film to be released in years. The directorial debut of animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi, this simple tale was supervised by Spirited Away’s writer and director, the esteemed animator Hayao ...
  • 07.21.11
    PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 trailer released Blog Exclusives, Trade News, Trailers | Comments Off
    UPDATE: The trailer has been confirmed to be the real, official trailer from Paramount. I'll leave the conspiracy theories to Tom Cruise in the future. So the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 is here! Well, we think. I think it might be a well-made fake, so I'm waiting for Paramount to confirm, but just in case, we'll assume it's real. Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman, who are the guys behind the controversial documentary, Catfish are apparently again mining the found-footage angle, and it appears that Katie Featherston will return, as the third movie looks to explore the childhood of Katie and ...
  • 07.21.11
    HORRIBLE BOSSES: A good excuse to play hookie Reviews, Trailers | Comments Off
    HORRIBLE BOSSES Directed by Seth Gordon. Starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx. 98 mins. In cinemas July 22 Rating: Three and a half/Five FANTASTIC PERFORMANCES AND CONSISTENTLY FUNNY JOKES IN AN NO-WORK ALL-PLAY COMEDY A mainstream, big-budget film with an all-star cast, superficially Horrible Bosses doesn’t have much in common Kevin Smith’s 1994 cult classic, micro-budget comedy Clerks, but they both manage to capture the attitude of their era’s worker bees. Clerks spoke to hoards of young Generation X-ers who were full of pop-culture references but empty of ambition, disappointed but ambitionless, entitled but impotent ...
  • 07.20.11
    THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN Trailer launched Blog Exclusives, Trade News, Trailers | Comments Off
    Oh so torn. On the one hand, I love Marc Webb's Christopher Nolan vibe, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. And this does look pretty damn great. On the other hand...I just don't care anymore. In fact, I stopped caring about Spiderman 10 minutes after the Sam Raimi's Spiderman & while the third was also a great film, apathy still reigned. And now this. I mean Jesus, it'll only have been 5 years since the last Spiderman when this reboot comes out. That is frankly leotarded. I'm also hoping the POV aspect won't be overdone, as that's basically elevated ...
  • 07.19.11
    John Lasseter coming to Dublin Blog Exclusives, Trade News | Comments Off
    The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA), and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Ireland, have announced details of a new event - In Conversation With... John Lasseter. An animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Lasseter directed the first two Toy Story films, acted as the executive producer on Toy Story 3 as well as on Monsters Inc, WALL-E, Up and most recently, Cars 2. The most invigorating and inspirational presence in animation, he has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film - Tin Toy, as well as a Special Achievement Award - ...
  • 07.18.11
    THE DARK KNIGHT RISES teaser trailer released! Blog Exclusives, Trade News, Trailers | Comments Off
    ....But as Warner Bros are being sneaky sneaky, you have to visit their Facebook page to see it. It's taking "tease" to a whole new level, isn't it?? But still. Can. Not. Wait. See the trailer here. Follow @roemcdermott
  • 07.14.11
    A night with Clive Barker at the IFI Blog Exclusives, Trade News | Comments Off
    Last night myself and Gordon Hayden, the wonderful critic & film fanatic from Spin 103.8's We Love Movies indulged our love of horror by attending an evening with Clive Barker in the IFI. The brilliant horror writer, director and producer is probably best known for his work on Hellraiser, Candyman and his volumes of short stories, Books of Blood, & last night we got the chance to see some of his first works, the black & white silent short films Salome and The Forbidden, which Barker made when he was 20. Before we watched the films, the charmingly blunt ...