You may not know his name but you know his voice – the king of trailer voiceover has passed away. Don LaFontaine IS that awesome husky voice on the trailers, he came in to the industry completely by chance and effectively changed the way trailers were made by becoming the first in a long line of “deep authorative voiceovers” that are now the staple of most big budget trailers. If you want to be reminded of some of his classic trailers just youtube him, and if you want to find out a little bit about the man behind the voice check out this video. He may be gone but his voice will not be forgotten.
As you may or may not have gathered from the posts of this blog so far one of my greatest passions is animation and animated film. There has been some really great stuff out already this year (“Kung Fu Panda” and “Wall:E” specifically) but every time I go to the cinema I am dismayed by the complete lack of 2D animation coming to our screens. It would certainly be wrong to say 2D animation is dead but I definitely find it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for the sparse upcoming projects from this fading school of animation. (more…)
Just to prove I’m not dead I thought I’d post an absolutely insane trailer for a crazy upcoming b-movie called “Tokyo Gore Police”. As you may have guessed it contains A LOT of gore, with quantities of fake blood to rival Peter Jackson’s record breaking “Braindead” and some pretty inventive gore effects (that sadly don’t cover up the film’s obviously low budget). This film looks to embody the b-movie spirit in it’s trashiest, campest form. There’s a little bit more information about the film on the link provided.
Okay “Stardust” FINALLY came out in the UK this week – a film I have been extremely anxious to see due to my love of the source material on which it is based. I’ve always been a big fan of Gaiman’s work, and his original novel “Stardust” was no exception – I just fell in love it, an epic fairytale that quickly became one of my favourite books. And so when I found out a film adaptation was on the way that actually had Gaiman’s blessing (with Gaiman even involved with production) I was very intruiged. Could it possibly do one of my favourite books justice?
Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze up the ante with “Adaptation” a bonkers self-referential splurge on writers’ block and orchids (as a metaphor for passion).
Kaufman includes himself as a character in this script, and his portrayal is everything a screenwriter should be: self-deprecating, overweight and hopelessly timid. His character is wonderfully offset by a fictitious identical twin brother, an equal parts loveable and infuriating character who typifies the awful amateur screenwriter, with banal, idiotic and overused ideas, who to top it all off is excepted in to the industry by blind luck. Both characters are brought to life by Nicolas Cage who, while I generaly dislike, shows his ability as a half-decent actor during some of the more tender scenes between the two characters.
“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” – Ingmar Bergman.
“I have always admired him, and I wish I could be a equally good filmmaker as he is, but it will never happen. His love for the cinema almost gives me a guilty conscience.” – Steven Spielberg
Okay, “Elephant” is a film inspired by the Columbine shootings, and shows a regular high school day ending in a similar harrowing incident. The film is shot beautifully, with some huge (and technically amazing) tracking shots, that follow several different students on their individual journeys throughout the school. They serve to build up a picture of a vibrant high school full of life, and really put you in to the shoes of some of the characters.
Prewarning: This article contains spoilers for the film “True Romance” – watch the film before reading this, as obviously seeing the scene within the context of the entire film is very important. Also this movie uses some fairly strong racist language (much of which is within this scene) but is not, in any way, racist (the context, and reasoning for the language is revealed in this scene analysis if there were any doubts!). If you’ve already seen the movie then great – give the scene a rewatch and lets have a closer look at what makes it so great.
The upcoming adaptation of “Beowulf” is easily my most anticipated film of the moment. For a start it is about time this story had a decent adaptation, a major feature production that ISN’T rubbish. Decent adaptations of the classic Old English saga have been very thin on the ground – the only one I remember enjoying was the “Animated Epics: Beowulf” version for TV. But it was a TV short, not a feature. Beowulf is dark, epic fantasy before fantasy even existed, and it has heaps of potential to be an all round awesome feature film (potential that has not yet been realised). It also looks like they are including the third act of the story, a section that has been frequently omitted from past adaptations, which is great, as cutting it out is like cutting out the last book of “Lord of the Rings”.
John Woo’s “A Better Tomorrow” is one of my favourite films, while it may not be the best example to illustrate his action artistry it illustrates his skill as a filmmaker and storyteller perfectly. The story itself is a classic emotional tale of gangster redemption: Mark and Ho are partners in crime, gangster bosses and best friends. Life is great (Ho even managing to conceal his profession from his cop brother Kit) until one day a job goes foul, Ho is banged up in prison and Mark gets crippled trying to avenge him. One prison montage later and Ho is released to find his father topped by rival gangsters, his brother hates his guts, and his best friend Mark is working for peanuts downtrodden by the same gang he was once a boss of. Now the two of them must get out and play it straight, but will the gang let them go and will Kit ever forgive Ho?
