A few years back it became a hobby to make fun of the trend in marketing to describe things as extreme. Extreme sports are one thing (you aren’t going to see me jumping out of a helicopter into the middle of circling sharks while wearing a suit of meat with the goal of safely swimming back to shore. Way too extreme. Yes I made that sport up.), but can deodorant really be that extreme? Then again, every once in a while something worthy of the descriptor comes along. Such is the case with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. [Read more...]
Film Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
01/19/2012 by Leave a Comment
Review: Robin Hood (2010)
05/14/2010 by Leave a Comment
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe reteam yet again for a new spin on the Robin Hood, a grounded origin story, and while I enjoyed much of the film there is a lot of things you catch yourself going; huh?.
We all know the story of Robin Hood, right? Well Scott and Crowe take us on a journey that ends with Robin becoming of the Hood and we see how he got there. An archer in Richard the Lionheart’s army returning from the crusades, Robin and a couple of his friends end up in the position of delivering the crown the young King John. John who begins taxing and abandoning his subjects while inadvertently assisting a French attempt to invade England causes a lot of problems for the country and Robin will end up in a role to right it.
Review: Shutter Island
02/19/2010 by Leave a Comment
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel Shutter Island is a successful mystery thriller with a great lead turn by Leonardo DiCaprio and a plot that brings some originality to a potentially tired idea.
DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of one of the inmates at a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. He is paired up with a new partner, Chuck, fresh off a transfer from Seattle and the two figure out in a hurry that things aren’t quite right in the facility. The lead psychiatrists aren’t helpful or cooperative, the patient in questions escaped undetected, from a locked room, and did this all barefoot in a rough terrain grounds to escape too. Added to this, a hell of a storm sweeps in over the island and strands Chuck and Teddy there and Teddy decides to dig deeper into the islands secrets that he believes are being hid within the facilities walls.
Now, go into this film as much of a virgin as possible to the material if you can. Talking anymore about the picture would be a disservice to the twists and turns it takes and while it isn’t a wholly original idea there are enough surprises and nuance to the story the make itself its own. [Read more...]
