Funny show, with a pretty constant composition. Three main hosts, one of which is a bit of an idiot, one of which is a bit boring, one of which is a bit racist and predictable. However, they’re all at least somewhat likable, and it’s interesting to see what they do in the show (each episode poses some somewhat obscure, automobile-based challenge to these three hosts). They also bring up some celebrity guest, who drives a lap on their track in a “reasonably priced car”…. Everything’s peppered with jests, jives, and dry humor. Very British. However, over everything, it is indeed a car show. All together pretty good.
Quite cheesy, but a pretty great war movie. Violent and unrelenting… Lighting was questionable (somewhat cheesy and VERY stylized/aesthetic) but characters are well-defined, unique, and likable. Cinematography was just a grade above action movie standard, mixed with drama. Acting’s nice, but Mel Gibson’s still a racist sonuvabitch, so I found it hard to like his character… The character was really predictable and overly “heroic”/”romantic”/CHEESY. I suppose that’s what you get from a movie of such a time period. Interesting that the film looks at multiple perspectives: that of the soldiers on the front, that of the soldiers at home, that of the families of the soldiers (both the protagonist’s allies and enemies), and that of the Vietnamese (the enemy, in this case).
Primer. Mindfuck film to the max, introducing a twisting paradox of time-traveling madness woven into the plot. I just wrote a long bit about this, and then it deleted it. Great quality, given a fund of $7k. Cinematography’s nice, nothing particularly brilliant, acting (and everything else) is a bit geeky, lighting is well-used and diverse. The smallest details are the most valuable to the comprehension of this film.
1. Interview with “Sledgo” Peart (cousin of Marley)
Sledgo talked about a range of topics, mostly centered around Marley’s struggle in childhood, whilst sitting outside some sort of semi-urban shack. The camera work was pretty much a consistent direct steadycam of Sledgo’s face, though once the camera panned over a few of his fellow locals before coming to rest on him, perpendicular to the side of the building Sledgo leaned against. B-roll ranged from the occasional steadycam sweepover landscape shot to quite a few close-ups of the people and places where Marley grew up. The audio was very clean, only softened by the occasional environment sound, like leaves rustling. The sharp focus worked quite well, and while a good part of the interview was dominated by B-roll, all the B-roll played well. The one thing: the color cast was somewhat pale and almost blue-tinted, as a result of the soft lighting caused by sun dispersed through clouds (which did work well). However, this pale-blue didn’t match up with just about any other interviews (most of the others were basked more in beige-yellow light)… I may have color-corrected a bit, but I’m not sure.
2. The documentary portrays music as a sort of universal binding force between people, regardless of political views, race, language, etc. (which it is.) Music tends to be more on the pacifistic side in terms of politics, usually as some sort of anti-war propaganda, like many American tunes during the Vietnam and World War eras. Some nice examples (not necessarily American) might be “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones, or “Apple Blossom Time” by the Andrews Sisters.
3. I’d imagine it was tough to get some of the interviews, just given some of the racism going around in the world. Then, of course, there’s the challenge of cramming all the political violence and history that had been going on at the time, without taking away from Marley nor making it seem insignificant, or expressing any biases, whether falsely giving Marley a side on the conflict or presenting the opinions of the filmmakers themselves.
4. The film featured plenty of B-roll and older interviews and reports from the ’70s through the late ’80s. This really helped express the events of the world, along with what the world thought of both them and Marley. They also had some beautiful cinematography… I particularly liked the shots of Trenchtown and the steadycam fly-overs of different Jamaican regions. Beautiful… I think the Trenchtown shots really showed the most, though.
Bam! Film poster. The film itself is about the slow destruction/decomposition of a space station, and the visiting repair man sent to see what the hell is going on. Now, what’s going ON is something somewhat semblent of the movie Space Odyssey… Parasites, zombies, fun things. All CG.
The poster’s the first shot, looking down a slightly bloodied, empty, dark space-hallway within the space station. Yeah. I’m not sure about the title yet, but for now “Silence” seems adequate.
Come up out da wahta
liek ay baybe dowfin
Yeah, I’m not gonna write this all down, just watch it, it’s SO BEAUTIFUL. Nice little rap video. Yeah. Eat sauce.
Such flowing, beautiful lyrics… Quite deep, bro. You can feel the emotions, bro, it’s just so powerful… And dem beats, bruh, so saucy like pudding… Yeah. Pudding. And then the animation… Like mah lawd Jesus in screen form… It’s so well done it looks totally real, but you just, like, know that it’s impossible, so you’re like, bro, dat must be CG…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frDamZjCbkI
Obviously, I’m bein’ sarcastic if by some miracle you haven’t noticed yet. But it’s hilarious. So watch it.
Now, apparently this has to have some sort of value as a review, so here. It’s utterly hilarious. Animation’s total crap, but it’s meant to be that way… Clearly, a mockery.
God, so cheesy. This is the perfect example of why child-actors get under my skin: movies with child actors tend to be cheesy, semi-poorly-written, and very, VERY predictable, even if the children themselves are decent actors, which they rarely are.
Anyway. Super 8 is about this kid who has this group of friends, and one of them’s trying to make a zombie movie, so they all help, but then one time they’re filming and a giant-ass train crashes right where they are, and the MC saw that there was a truck that caused the crash, so he goes and sees that the guy driving the truck had been one of this teachers, so then they go home, and an alien that was in the train goes and wrecks everything because he’s pissed and needs parts for his ship which he’s rebuilding, and the MC likes a girl, one of his friends, but his dad’s a cop and her dad’s got a history, so the dads don’t get along, and then the girl gets taken by the alien, so the MC and some friends go and try to save her, and of course it works, and then the alien finds them and is about to squish them when the MC’s like, bro, you don’t have to do this, or something, so of course the alien leaves them alone and then the girl and MC fall in love and goddamn I hated that movie.
I know I left out parts, but believe me, if you make the mistake of beginning to watch the title sequence you’ll know the entire story. God, so predictable, I hated it…
And the LENS FLARES! All these damn CGI lens flares! They’re so annoying, and they’re all blue, because OBVIOUSLY every light in the movie is apparently blue, despite the fact that the thing has a normal if somewhat dull palette. Nothing special about this movie, in my eyes. Don’t see it. I may be biased, but I’m right in my mind.
Basically, this movie’s about a mortician named Bernie who befriends a wickedly mean old widow. This lady is unceasingly cruel, to everyone, and smothers Bernie’s life by keeping him busy as a sort of care-taker. Eventually, Bernie snaps and shoots her, then puts her in a freezer. He proceeds to fool everyone into thinking she’s still alive while he carries on with his life.
Really, this movie isn’t anything amazing: the acting is good, cinematography is fairly standard, ya know. The fact of the setting (Texas) makes for some very southern and somewhat redneck characters on occasion, which cracked me up. However, this is more or less a true story. That’s the catcher… It’s all the same a funny movie, and I advise you watch it.
I’m not really a “Nitro Circus” kinda guy, and frankly to me its a bit repetitive and annoying, but I forgot the damn name of the film I was going to review, so here you go.
Nitro Circus is basically about a bunch of extreme-sportsmen (and non-extreme-sportsmen) who rig up ridiculous stuff (massive jumps, ramps, slopes, whathaveyou) and then go off it with something- anything from jetskis to monster trucks to tricycles will suffice.
To me, it’s really just Jackass, but with people who’ve managed to actually learn how to, say, do jumps on a bike, rather than a bunch of outright idiots who sit around laughing and throwing things at one another, going for “nutshots”.
That just about sums it up. If you like extreme sports gone wrong but still somewhat kept from being fatal, Nitro Circus is for you. Merry Christmas.
Quite an interesting film. In essence it’s about a suicidal, wounded stuntman back in sometime between the 1920’s and 1950’s who, in order to gain access to a lethal dosage of painkillers for himself, befriends a young girl. To do so he tells her a long and winding tale, metaphoric of his own, which she re-conceives in her mind based off people she’s recently met. It’s a truly beautiful movie. As you might imagine, all the imagery of this “tale” is portrayed in the eyes and mind of this young girl.
The acting and all was good, but what was really striking was the stunning pallet of both colors and scenes. These kinds of epic, unrealistic concepts and visuals are found less and less often as we progress in age, and thus it’s refreshing to see such beauty tied into a much more mature, lugubrious love story (in metaphor, of course).
It is a wee bit cheesy, and the little girl’s acting bugged me at times, but all the same it’s quite nice. I think I just have a problem with young actors for some reason… I dunno. Either way, this is a stupid trailer riddled with spoilers, one of those terrible ones that just tells the whole story. It coulda been much better if they would’ve cut down on the cheesy key dialogue, but hey- what can you do?
trailer you shouldn’t watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUUv20XfDyc
The whole film felt a bit like Moonrise Kingdom, mixed with Pan’s Labyrinth, mixed with … Some other more stoic film. Yeah. The trailer is VERY Moonrise-esque… You’ll see what I mean. BEAUTIFUL