Filed under: Movie News
Really? Why did Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock change from wrestling to acting? In his past films, he has smashed and crashed his way in WWE style.
Firstly, there was his tiny role in The Mummy Returns and Johnson began his light-hearted action hero career as the ruler of Egypt. And even though there was no body slam, his jilted acting suited the part fairly well.
Then came his very own ‘feature film’ with The Scorpion King where he played the frowning, sexy, bronzed character Mathayus. Another fairly fluffy film for the wrestling heavyweight.
The last film that has hit the Hollywood radar to include Johnson, was Get Smart – another corny, silly yet pretty funny flick. Johnson played the big, sexy and capable Agent 23. So when will Johnson break out of the ring (excuse the pun) and find a serious role?
Right now it seems.
After child and family friendly movies, Johnson is in talks will the producers of Faster, an edgier action movie, to star in the lead role. Here he will play an ex-con, hell bent on avenging the death of his brother. Lets just wait and see whether this action movie will need a Running Powerslam or not.
Dwayne Johnson: will he ever step out of the ring?
Filed under: Movie News
James McAvoy is breaking out of the serious movie mould and has just signed on to the lead role in the black comedy, The Details.
After appearing in historically dark flicks such as the Last King of Scotland and alongside Kiera Knightley in Atonement, a film about a raccoon invasion in his backyard may not be the change that McAvoy is looking for.
In his recent film career, the closest thing James McAvoy has gotten to a comedy is during his role in Wanted, as a gun toting assassin prodigy. Not planned as a comedy, Wanted was more hilarious for its overcooked story line and overtly sexual characters. Wanted was as corny as a backyard full of vermin.
James McAvoy, sticking to what he does best, drama.
McAvoy will work alongside Laura Linney, Elizabeth Banks and Anna Friel in The Details, which will start filming in Summer in Seattle.
Filed under: Opinion Pieces
Typically, vampires are bloodsucking, bat turning, coffin sleeping, scary monsters in capes. Even Montgomery Burns made a nice looking vampire in The Simpsons Halloween Special, with the typical bee high hive hair and blood dripping from his fangs.
But the latest vampire flick to come out of Tinseltown, Twilight, has given a new spin to the cannibal image. Not only is the vampire family vegetarian (or at least as vegetarian as a Vampire can be – they only suck the blood of animals) but also they play baseball, go to school and have lewd, very taboo relationships.
Twilight is the film version of Stephenie Meyer’s widely successful novel that has been wooing teens since 2006. Now on film the Twilight phenomenon, with Robert Pattison as the dreamy Edward Cullen, has reached fever pitch.
And when I think about it, I’m not really sure why?
Twilight is a story about Edward, a ‘good’ vampire who falls for Bella, a girl who has just moved to the dreary town of Forks. Just your simple story of boy meets girl: boy finds girl so irresistible that he wants to suck her blood. The pair become lovers, not in a physical way, and all is peachy until another vampire sets out on a hunt for Bella. The Cullen family defends her and their love is saved.
The film is brilliantly corny and overdone. It has fabulous un-dead stereotypes like the incredibly white skin of the Cullen family that forced me to shield my eyes from the glare.
These hero-come-vampires also have a fully functioning kitchen, even though they don’t cook and the patriarch of the family is the town’s best doctor. Do his patients not notice his 18th Century vibe?
And where are our leading lovers fangs? And why doesn’t he perish in the sunlight? It is these simple vampire character changes that have made the Twilight a success. It’s this corniness and the unrequited love between the ever pale, yet very good looking lead characters that make this film work.
Edward and his love Bella swing from the trees in the corny flick, Twilight.
Filed under: Movie Reviews
If Slumdog Millionaire were art, then the medium would be language, painted with emotion and culture. Any scene from this Academy Award winning film could be used as a still, and be hung in a museum. This colourful, fast paced and often gritting film juxtaposes the decay of culture in the beautiful nation of India with the rise of wealth, greed and corruption.
Jamal Malik (Dev Patal) looks out over where his slum used to be.
Set in the slums of Mumbai, Slumdog Millionaire is a rag to riches story of the uneducated Jamal Malik (Dev Patal) who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and is able to answer every question correctly.
Jamal becomes an overnight sensation in India from success on the first night of the show. The cocky host Prem Kumar, played brilliantly by Anil Kapur, suspects the chai-wallah (as he has labelled Jamal) is a cheat and contacts police. After the filming, he is whisked away by the overly brutal police for interrogation and torture.
During very violent torture scenes, Jamal reveals how he knew the Millionaire answers through a biographic retelling of his life and love. The flashbacks and their relevance to the questions is a huge coincidence but necessary for the movement of the plot. Also, viewers may question the realism behind the Indian police would using electro torture on a game show contestant.
Through flashback, the audience will see a young Jamal grows up amongst incredible poverty, pollution and religious racism; his mother is killed in an anti-Muslim riot in his slum. This begins his journey alongside his troubled and often psychotic brother Salim and his lifelong love, Latika.
Slumdog Millionaire has been heavily criticised in the American media for its portrayal of and its alleged ‘glorification’ of Indian poverty, pollution and the slums. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle uses the camera to highlight the mountains of plastic and dirty river water against the childish playfulness of a young Jamal. The slums are filmed with the same fast paced editing that the Indian skyscrapers are, showing no difference between the two.
There is no stand out performance in this film they are all amazing for their age. Freida Pinto as an older Latika is revered and mature, whilst Salim (Madhur Mittal) plays his gun wielding, gangsta character to a tee. Director Danny Boyle has created Jamal’s two closest loves to represent the different sides of a modern India.
Unlike many other films to appear on our screens in 2008/2009, Slumdog Millionaire has a different cultural effect. The films heroes are Muslim and are not American. This sparks a beautiful change in dynamics in the film and its genre.
Filed under: Opinion Pieces
The 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still should possibly be renamed The Day this film stood still.
Another flick where the general public (i.e. us) are berated over our existence. And that’s not to say that I do not agree with the general message of the film, but during this movie, it is drilled into the viewer like algebra in Year 9.
Keanu Reeves plays the creepy alien with a conscience in The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Stood Still, staring Jennifer Connelly and Keanu Reeves is about an alien vessel landing on Earth to save the planet from its destructive species, humans. The fairly peaceful alien invasion is met with American hostility, confirming the alien’s (Keanu Reeves) opinion of people.
The major messages of climate change, violence and kindness are thrust upon the viewer from the onset of the film. There are many more troughs than peaks, especially during America’s constant barrage of violence on the ‘friendly’ ETs.
The climate change and violence issue is a common one in Hollywood of late. Even animation is getting in on the message with films like Wall-e using it as a draw card for its audience. Notice the trend yourself by watching Knowing, The Day the Earth Stood Still and even Transformers to gain a Hollywood conscience.
A Film Affair 