Man of Steel

Recently actor Willem Defoe slammed Hollywood for its “cynical approach to making money” chastising them for rebooting the Spiderman franchise for second time in less than a decade. Defoe, more critical than others as he starred as the Green Goblin in the twenty-first centuries’ first reboot of the superhero, probably won’t be joining any queue to see the latest Superman reboot.

Gravity

Alfonso Cuaron is a highly talented filmmaker and one of the most visionary filmmakers working today, Gravity is further proof that Cuaron is a filmmaker of the highest quality.  Having looked at the wizarding world (Prisoner of Azkaban) and a dystopian world (Children of Men), Cuaron takes on the final frontier – space. Gravity basis its story on two astronauts whose mission goes horribly wrong after the Russians destroy their own defunct satellite. The debris from the resulting explosion hurtles round the planet eventually hitting the Space Shuttle The Explorer. Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) are the only two survivors, with dwindling oxygen levels they must reach safety without any communication with Earth.

For some it is about the price tag

Sofia Coppola grew up in a highly privileged background; this is clearly evident in films such as Somewhere in which her family’s Hollywood background is a main theme of the film. The Bling Ring is again set in a highly privileged background, Southern California, and it concerns a group of teenagers (dubbed The Bling Ring) who tour around Hollywood hills looking for celebrities’ home to rob whilst their occupants are away on a film shoot or partying. 

Now you see me

Since its early beginnings the cinema is regarded as an elaborate stage for magic tricks. In the days of silent cinema characters used to vanish in a puff of smoke (for example a Voyage to the Moon), obviously this was taken from magic shows performed on stage. Directors such as George Melies were seen as magicians and leading pioneers in practical effects in cinema’s early years. In today’s world magic tricks performed on screen have the ability to convince a viewer that a monster or dinosaur is really there as a magic trick is essentially an illusory feat. The monster isn’t really there, but digital trickery can convince us that it is.

The East

The East is the second combination between Britt Marling and Zal Batmanglij, the two previously worked on the thriller The Sound of my Voice which concerned a pair on investigative journalists infiltrating a cult (lead by Marling). Similarities between the two films are obvious on paper, in The East Britt Marling plays Jane Owen (aka Sarah Moss) a former FBI agent now working for a private detective firm headed by Patricia Clarkson. Jane Owen is assigned to infiltrate an organization know as The East, however the longer she stays with the group the more their activities appeal to her.

World War Z

It matters very little whether zombies are slow or fast because either way they cause extensive damage, kill many millions and rise to become a gigantic army of undead intent on devouring everyone’s brains. The slow and lumbering zombies bring to mind the films of George A. Romero whose zombies were mostly used for social commentary regarding human and social behaviour. For example in Dawn of the Dead the scenes in which the zombies invade and stumble through the shopping centre are images we see every day in shopping centres across the globe as humans buy crap they really do not need, following each other like sheep as they lap up the latest craze or trend. Films such as 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks later are films that spring to when one mentions fast zombies (though the term zombies is debatable).

DVD reviews

M. Night Shyamalan has made more stinkers than the new born baby next door and has, of course, attacked the very people who put him in the position that has allowed him to have so many chances because of poor reception of his last films. His last three films The Lady in the Water, The Happening and The Last Airbender show a man who has not been able to match the potential he once showed.