When the term “monster movie” is thrown about, to some it evokes the shaky hand-held glimpses at the Gozilla-esque creature from Cloverfield. To some others, it brings back memories of the Godzilla-esque creature from 20 Million Miles to Earth. I’m sure somewhere it even evokes memories of Godzilla. But rarely does a monster movie find a way into the human psyche and human spirit.
David Fincher was surely shot into prominence right out the gun with his feature directorial debut as the third installment in the ultra successful Alien franchise. Three years later he sealed his fate in the directors hall of fame by not only sidestepping the sophomore slump, but progressing leaps and bounds to experienced veteran status. Fifteen years later, Seven is still pointed to as one of the go-to gritty neo-noir stories for anyone interested in the crime genre.
Tags: 1001 Movie Club, Crime, Dark, Detectives, Drama, Mystery, Neo Noir, Serial Killer, Suspense, Thriller, Violent
For nearly forty years Martin Scorsese has been one of the more prestigious American directors. From his rebellious early days of anti-heroes, to his classy gangsters and tough guys, his worldly melodramas, two things has been ever prevalent in his films: blistering character studies and a constant reinvention of directorial style. Shutter Island may be the culmination of Scrosese’s accumulated knowledge of film.
Reception to Shutter Island has been all over the place. Some consider it a confusing mess, others consider it eloquently puzzling. Both arguments can be completely justified. Scorsese’s newest film is a confusing mess and can definitely wear on the nerves of those who don’t buy into its allure, but those who do will find a plethora of rewarding characteristics.
I was recently asked to contribute to LAMB Devours the Oscars over at the LAMBs. They are providing a 33 day commentary on each category and Best Picture nominee until the night of the awards show. Please visit their website to view all of the other nominees and categories and the wonderful bloggers who have taken the time to write about them. Thanks!
–This Guy Over Here.
It’s always nice to see a low-budget independent film with little-to-no buzz finally get the attention it deserves. James Cameron has been suffering for attention nearly his entire career; finally his ship has come in. Oh wait, that horrid pun made me smell my own ironic humor. Get it? Because “ship” could mean “Titanic” and that was his other juggernaut of a film. Do you get it?
On February 2nd, 2010 Avatar was officially graced with nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. This fact should be completely disassociated with the fact that on January 26th, 2010 it became the highest grossing film of all time with eight hundred quadrillion dollars. It was nominated because of its spectacular spectacle… right?
I thought I was a late bloomer when it came to upgrading from DVD to Bluray back in 2008, but I think time has shown that I was still on the beginning incline. My biggest hesitations were the HD DVD vs. Bluray war and not wanting to rebuild my already massive collection. But Bluray ended up winning, and a great deal on a PS3 sealed the deal.
Through this transition, I decided to take advantage of consolidating my collection into the films that I either really loved or found to be historically significant. No more of this $4.99 bin hoarding, (does anyone really need to own Sahara?) And thus, I began weeding down my collection to sell and upgrade.
But it wasn’t soon into the timeline of Blurays that companies began pulling the same money-grabbing techniques that they had with DVDs: double-dips. Award Season releases, directors’ cuts, unrated cuts, super special editions, theatrical releases. It’s enough to make any film lover go mad. I’m not sure why I was so naïve to believe this would be alleviated with the advent of Bluray. Maybe I thought since one disc could hold every single version of the film plus hours upon hours upon hours of special features, that companies would just, ya know, not be dicks.
Tags: Bluray, Double-Dip, DVD
For those of you familiar with my Twitter timeline, you’re no stranger to the epic battle I’ve had with Netflix postponing their shipment of Funny People to me. I placed it at the top of my queue as soon as was possible before its release date in November, 2009. Initially listed as a “Long wait”, it eventually became a “Short wait”, but by the time the middle of February 2010 rolled around, I interpreted it as an “Indefinite wait”.
But, after much deliberation on their part, Netflix finally graced me with the shipment of Funny People on Bluray. In the four-month waiting period, I consistently annoyed my Twitter followers by complaining about the lack of compliance on Netflix part. I figured, as some sort of consolation, I at least owed my readers an extended record of my experience with the film. Such is what follows.
Thanks for sticking with me!
… Does anything really need to be said about this category?
The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.
Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.
Powered by Vote It Up
