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Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing
Bethany Rooney and Mary Lou Belli
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Move over, movies: the freshest storytelling today is on television, where the multi-episodic format...
Bill Nighy recommended Punch-Drunk Love (2002) in Movies (curated)
Stardom: Hollywood
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Start a new life as an aspiring actor in Stardom: Hollywood, and go from nobody to A-list celebrity!...
David McK (3425 KP) rated Star Trek (2009) in Movies
Aug 23, 2020 (Updated Jan 22, 2023)
2009 big screen reimagining of the iconic 60s TV series, and I use that as the touchpoint deliberately: we're back to a (recast) Kirk and co instead of the Next Generation crew, or even those from Voyager/Enterprise/Discovery.
In retrospect, it also somewhat comes across as director JJ Abrams pitch for making a Star Wars movie: this is also lens flare and slow motion, with the action ramped up considerably from the TV series or even most of the previous movies. it's also the first of the three Kelvin-verse Star Trek movies: I'm unsure whether we'll get any more in that timeline, what with the tragic death of some of the (young) key actors - I'm looking at you, Anton Yelchin (Chekov) - and with others of the cast moving on to other bigger (?) sci-fi things - yep, that's you Zoe Saldana (Uhura).
The plot, as alluded to above, involves time travel, with the events thus kicking off an entire new timeline, that here sees Chris Pine taking on the role of James T Kirk - initially introduced as a kid, driving his step fathers classic car off a cliff (talk about setting out your stall early!) - and Zachary Quinto (then more famous as the villain Sylar from TVs 'Heroes') talking on the role of a younger Spock.
Most of the cast, I felt, was pretty much spot on - the only one that really rubbed me up the wrong way was Simon Pegg as Scotty, although even he grew on me a bit (I'm also not entirely sold on the aesthetics of the USS Enterprise here - more like USS Chibiprise!). We also have the 'passing of the torch' (as it were) from one character to another, with the inclusion of a certain key half-human actor who will forever be associated with that role ...
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Lee (2222 KP) rated The House (2017) in Movies
Jul 14, 2017
Will Ferrell is Scott, Amy Poehler is his wife Kate. When their daughter Alex gets into the university she wanted, they’re over the moon. Especially as the town runs some kind of scholarship program, paying for one lucky students education each year. This years lucky recipient is due to be Alex but when sleazy city councilman Bob decides to cancel the program in favour of building a huge pool for the town, Scott and Kate need to come up with another way of raising the money. Recently divorced neighbour Frank has a big empty house and between them they hit upon the idea of building a casino in his home, somewhere for the locals to come and spend all their money. Things go well for a while, then things get way out of hand. Cue the opportunity for some riotous, hilarious humour…
Only there’s none of that. It’s riotous, but this is just such a lazily written movie that the humour is non-existent. Featuring a date rape ‘gag’ within the first five minutes(?!) it just gets progressively worse from there. Pointless, nonsensical playground style bickering, name calling and random violence feature heavily throughout in a scatter-gun attempt at trying to raise a laugh. All of this ends up coming across as either poorly written, badly improvised, or both. Even the editing is a total disaster – in one scene Amy Poehler has a guy standing right behind her, cut to another camera and he’s gone, cut back and he’s there again, cut back and he’s gone!
The biggest disappointment about this is the complete waste of talent. Admittedly, Will Ferrell is on a downward spiral anyway since his Anchorman days and the brilliant Step Brothers, but you’d still expect more from him than this. One of my favourite TV shows, Parks and Recreation, stars Amy Poehler as the hilarious Leslie Knope, so I’d expect way more from her too. Even her movie roles haven’t been too bad so far. I guess it just proves that if you’ve got a seriously dud script on your hands, there isn’t really much that anyone can do to fix it. This isn’t just a bad comedy, it’s a bad, bad movie.
Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated The Hunger Games in Books
Oct 5, 2020
When the book came out, the movie followed shortly after. In that time, I decided to watch the movie rather than reading the book. The movie was amazing and I loved it. But a few years later, when this book found its way to me again, I needed to read it and solve the ultimate battle – movie versus books. As it usually happens in my case – the book version won – without any doubts.
The Hunger Games is a story about Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12, who lives with her mum and little sister in the poorest district of them all. She hunts in the woods with her friend/crush Gale in order to provide food for her family.
Surrounded by all twelve districts, there is the Capitol, the shiny city where all the rich and popular people live. A long time ago, the districts tried to go into war and lost. As part of the surrender, each year the Capitol organises a live TV show, called The Hunger Games. Every year, a boy and a girl from each district are randomly chosen to battle in an arena until the last man standing.
When Katniss’s little sister is chosen as the girl tribute from district 12, Katniss volunteers to take her place without even thinking. Both her and Peeta (the male tribute) are then headed over to the Capitol and the preparations for the games can begin.
In a world where people like watching children kill each other, it can be pretty upsetting to see this as a reality. I can’t help but think that unfortunately, people have some instinct left in them and are unconsciously enjoying watching other people suffer. Think of the gladiator fights, ultimate fighting matches and other events similar to these.
Putting that aside, what I love about this book was the attention to details. From the descriptions of the districts, to the preparations for the games. And the game itself was so well written that I kept turning page after page, desperate to see what will happen next.
I love Katniss, her bravery, her love for her little sister, all the sacrifices that she has made. Starting with her volunteering instead of her sister, to her love with Gale. Her spirit to make things right can be felt throughout the whole book. Her rebellion and her stance with all the people that are not treated fairly by the Capitol.
Even though presented as a Young-Adult, I am convinced this is a book every adult should read as well, and have a few thoughts about their surroundings. I loved the first book, and I can’t wait to start reading the second book of the series as well.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Darkest Hour (2011) in Movies
Jun 2, 2018 (Updated Jun 2, 2018)
I suppose it looks okay, and many members of the cast have gone on to marginally better things (remakes of Judge Dredd and Robocop, plus TV work for Marvel), but the whole thing seems to be actively trying to be as forgettable as possible. The film's big innovation - the Moscow setting - ends up contributing nothing to the film, really; actual Russian characters are kept peripheral. Ultimately just a very, very bland film: Olivia Thirlby deserves some kind of mention for actually making you care slightly about her character. Apart from that this is the kind of SF film that brings science fiction into disrepute. And science. And quite probably fiction, come to that.