Well what do you know....I remembered my feature! So here we are, week 2 and I have decided to review one of this years Academy Award nominated animated short films.... it didn't win and I haven't seen the short that did, but I quite enjoyed this one.
This Way Up (2008) Directed by Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith Running Time: 9 Minutes Country: UK
We follow the exploits of a father and son operating a funeral parlor and their attempts to get the recently deceased body of an elderly lady to her final resting place.
I must admit I found the short to be quite amusing and it is certainly visually arresting. It is 3-D animated, but certain shots could be mistaken for stop motion or clay animation. I like that there is very little "dialog" and I am being generous in even hinting that there is any....but overall a well rounded, funny and imaginative piece.
You can find a trailer, gallery and talent information on the official site here
Found this in my travels around the interweb this week.....WTF?
Criterion are obviously returning to their days of releasing quality art-house and foreign language films...films like...
Presumably the June Australian release will have the same content given that it is a 2 disc edition and comes with a Digital Download Copy (one of the first in Australia, at least from Warner)
Shame the film was overly long and pretentious...they will be lucky if I even bother to rent it.
None of them have me chomping at the bit waiting in line for tickets or even downloading every new trailer or snippet! What's wrong with me....I used to love these no-brain action fluff pieces, what has changed? Sad thing is, I haven't been to the cinema at all in April!!! NOT ONCE! Even sadder is the fact that I could see anything for free if I wanted to and I still didn't go!! I am getting a bit sick of the Hollywood rehash I must admit, especially when they start screwing with Universes that I was quite content to leave untainted.....I hear Predator might be getting a "reboot".... why can't we have something original for a change?
Well it doesn't stop with cinema outings though; the DVD shelves are also piled with "to watch" titles of varying interest and no end in sight.
It would seem that I am going through a TV watching phase at present. Movies are currently going through a "serial" phase, where nothing is sacred and they just "revise" the same stories over and over, but TV, well that is where the real story telling is...
What will it take to get me back to the movies? I wish I knew, but certainly nothing in the "coming soon" poster section at my local cinema....which is such a shame.
I was going to start another new article section with this film, namely a comparison of Original Vs. Remake. I love Asian horror and I have been mostly disappointed with Western remakes of such, but I thought if I started a comparison review of them it might help me appreciate the remake more. So why don't I?, you may ask... Well, to be honest Premonition wasn't a good enough film to begin with. After watching the original, I didn't really have any desire to see the Sandra Bullock driven remake.
The film starts off well enough with a family traveling home on the highway, your typical work crazed father needs to stop and send some information to his workplace. Whilst waiting in the phone booth he finds a newspaper article that foretells the death of his young daughter complete with photo....with only minutes to go he turns to see the newspaper article come true. His failure to do anything and his obsession with finding the newspaper article results in a marital breakdown that drives his wife away. We then jump 3 years and find that his wife is investigating these theories of newspaper premonitions and with more success than her husband.
She finds a photo from a clairvoyant that leads her to return to her estranged husband and together they investigate the newspaper articles further.
The film does tackle a few interesting themes, my favorite for example; what happens if you try to change the premonition? The film makes no real allusion as to where the paper comes from which might have been nice.
The acting is alright (I find most Japanese films to be either over or under acted; this falls into the former), the cinematography is fine and the visual effects are quite effective. The film also features some nice ambient surround usage and a subtle and appropriately eerie score.
On the whole though, the story could have used a bit of polishing and it doesn't really explain anything very well, but it was still an entertaining 90 minutes so not all is lost.
I promise I will start an series of article on original vs remake, it will just take me a little while to find something worth watching and comparing....I am open to suggestions though!
Season 1 Episode 10: Haunted So...episode 10, why do they do it?, the idea is fine....dead woman comes back to life through a doll, but it just doesn't work. Boyd makes a little speech about the ethics, but where is the real hardcore exploration of the possibilities and consequences?!! Instead we are given a Law & Order episode and if you watch Law & Order then you will likely know the killers identity before the half way mark anyway!
I stand by my statement that the Dollhouse should not be doing these singular episode "adventures", there are many stories and themes that could be explored without ever leaving the house, but they continue to follow Echo out on her jobs.
The running plot with Mellie and Ballard got a little interesting and the Topher subplot was a bit sad, but this was still an average episode.
Here is the round up of shows I watched this week....
Season 2 Episode 21: Chuck Versus the Colonel Well from the events taking place in this episode it would seem Chuck is winding down....This may not be such a bad thing. Chuck wasn't a show that I was watching religiously, I simply found it an entertaining way to waste 40 minutes or s0, the story was getting a bit old and predictable and unless they do plan to shake things up a bit, another series seems unlikely.
Season 1 Episode 7: Home Is Where The Heart Stops This week a rather solid episode of Castle, The team try to solve a series of house invasions that has escalated to murder, we are given further insight into Detective Beckett's past and there was even a great cameo by Patrick Bauchau. I quite like the idea of Castle, but I am always just not sure it is living up to the potential, maybe it is just because I am just to used to the Law & Order series for which this owes a royalty. Speaking of Law & Order....
Season 8 Episode 1: Playing Dead Jeff Goldblum joins the cast of Criminal Intent...which I will be honest and say I have not watched since around Season 4, but hey I like Jeff Goldblum what can I say! Although he isn't in this first episode, I will keep watching to see how he does. I thought this episode might have been better suited to SVU, but it was still OK I guess. I can't believe how much weight Vincent D'Onofrino has put on, he looks very poorly...
Season 1 Episode 3: Ka-Blam Um...only 1 death this episode...maybe things are slowing down, but at least they are starting to get interesting. Bit crass that everyone seems to be ignoring the disappearance of their friends/guests though.
Season 1 Episode 5: Hugh Dennis I think that this is such a great premise for a show! Have guests experience things that they never thought they would! This episode was quite funny, again I have no idea who Hugh Dennis is, but he was quite entertaining. He went down a coal mine, read a Jeremy Clarkson book and ate Roadkill! Looking forward to the next one!
There was no Dollhouse or Big Bang Theory this week....oh well. I also started watching C.S.I season 7, but as it is not exactly new I won't be reporting it here. I will say, that the writers obviously have something against Catherine Willows...how much can you do to a character in only 2 episodes!!! sheesh....anyways...that's all for now until next week for more TV.
Final Destination (2000) Back before the new millennium dawned upon us I was an avid viewer of creepy TV shows, such as Millennium, The X-Files, The Others and The Wonder Cabinet. These shows all had one thing in common; writers James Wong and Glen Morgan. The talent of these writers left no doubt in my mind that they would make the jump to the big screen and Final Destination is the result of this. Alex and his friends are about to take a school trip to France, whilst sitting on the plane awaiting departure Alex has a vision of the plane exploding. As he tries to remove himself from the plane, the resultant fight leaves not only him, but six other members of his class at the airport. Imagine their surprise when Alex's vision proves to be correct and the plane explodes minutes after take-off. The FBI take a keen interest in Alex, but it soon becomes clear that the students have only cheated death temporarily. One by one the survivors of flight 180 are mysteriously killed. The premise of the film may not seem like anything new, but the inventive way in which death takes its victims was quite ingenious.
Final Destination 2 (2003) On the box office success of the first film, New Line commissioned a sequel, this time however Morgan & Wong where nowhere to be found. That didn't stop the film from coming up with equally imaginative ways to kill off its teen cast, this time after they all avoid being killed in a superbly shot and executed highway accident. Only Clear Rivers survives from the first film, with Alex conveniently bumped off in exposition, though Tony Todd also makes an appearance as the creepy William Bloodworth. The sequel was less about story and more about the death sequences, which I guess had become the gimmick of the series by now anyhow. Even without Morgan and Wong, there was still some casting from their previous television series in the from of Keegan Connor Tracy.
Final Destination 2 was a solid entry to the franchise and what it lacked in story it tried to make up for in ingenuity.
Final Destination 3 (2006) With Morgan and Wong back behind the camera I was sure this would be a treat, sadly the opening premonition left little to be desired (unless you are afraid of roller coasters) it did up the stakes a little with some of its death sequences, but the real joy of the 3rd installment is the DVD release. Later in the production of the film, there was a little controversy with the studio about the timing and way in which some of the characters were killed. Morgan & Wong decided to release the film the studio wanted, but filmed all of their takes as well. This led to the Choose Their Fate edition of the movie, one of the best interactive features ever to hit DVD. Using seamless branching the film becomes an interactive feature allowing you to make critical choices that can lead to the fate of all of the lead characters. If you choose not to kill any, the film runs for around 24 minutes. The feature includes lots of bonus or alternate takes as well as extended scenes or even different and in some cases worse deaths depending on your choices.
Final Destination 3 was certainly not the highlight of the series, but it does still make a worthy addition.
The future of the series..... As fate would have it (pardon the pun), a 4th installment is currently in production and in 3D too. Final Destination: Death Trip should be out some time in 4th quarter 2009, it is directed by David R. Ellis (the 2nd films director).
Show Me Love or Fucking Åmål as it was originally titled, is one of my favorite films. It is smart, funny, dramatic and above all honest and true. It gives me great pleasure to introduce this film to people who would otherwise never have seen it, and even greater pleasure when they enjoy it us much as I do.
It is such a simple film made on a tiny budget using hand held cameras (yet it out grossed Titanic at the box office in its native country!!), anyone familiar with its director Lukas Moodysson, will know the style of film making he is famous for. Show Me Love is set in Sweden, yet its story is universal. The film is about Agnes, a teenager who moved to Åmål a year ago, she is an outsider at school and is suspected of being a lesbian, the fact that she is, is the basis for the movie. Agnes is in love with Elin, the popular girl. Elin doesn't know Agnes even exists. Through a twist of fate Elin and her sister end up at Agnes birthday party where, as a dare, Elin kisses Agnes before both girls run away laughing. I make it sound as though the film is about sexuality and whilst it does cover this issue, the film is about so much more. It is one of the truest representations of repressed teen angst and small town living I have encountered, we feel for Agnes, we are shown her family life and loving parents who don't understand her , but want to. We see the opposite in Elin who goes out partying, disobeying her parents and relies on magazines to tell her what is cool or not. After the kiss, both girls are changed, but for different reasons and it is great to see the film explore their actions and understanding of themselves as it unfolds.
Show Me Love opened my world to Lucas Moodysson, I appreciated his style of film making, I enjoyed Together, I was forever changed by Lilya-4-eva and A Hole In My Heart left me disturbed on levels I didn't even know I had... I still think Show Me Love is his greatest achievement and that it will remain on my top 10 list for some time yet.
Well what do you know....I remembered my feature! So here we are, week 2 and I have decided to review one of this years Academy Award nominated animated short films.... it didn't win and I haven't seen the short that did, but I quite enjoyed this one.
This Way Up (2008)
