Film Buffs

With Guillermo del Toro’s announcement that he’s no longer directing the Hobbit films, the writer, director, and producer is freed up to follow more of his own properties.  Many fans are hoping these will include Hellboy 3, which del Toro says he has definite plans for, but isn’t on his list of upcoming projects.  Instead, the always-interesting filmmaker is involved with a variety of films across several genres.  The most recent of these, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, premiered at San Diego Comic-Con last month.

Del Toro’s influences have always included classic horror and weird fiction like H.P. Lovecraft’s.  His previous films like Hellboy and Pan’s Labryinth pop with eye-catching creatures and old-fashioned scares.  With Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, he takes his first shot at actually updating such a source—in this case, a 1973 made-for-television film of the same name. Read more »

Inception, the new sci-fi actioner from director Christopher Nolan, is only his first film since 2008’s blockbuster The Dark Knight.  However, it’s also his first film since 2000’s Memento to be based on an original idea, rather than a novel or comic book.  So what are the results?  According to many reviewers, nothing short of stunning.

To ensure proper enjoyment of the plot, most of it must remain a mystery (as it has, in fact, since the film’s inception).  The premise is simple if surreal: Leonardo DiCaprio enters people’s dreams and changes them to suit the ends of his clients.  He works with a team with pulpy names like “The Architect”, “The Forger”, and “The Chemist”, but rather than coming off as simply Ocean’s 11 in a sci-fi world (which, let’s admit, would be awesome), Nolan crafts a twisting story that holds its own with his earlier Memento. Read more »

In the last few years there has been an insurgence of vampires into the film and literary world.  These historically dark creatures have also taken on a whole new persona that can actually be good and virtuous.  Stephenie Meyer introduced us to the Cullen family in her the first book of the series, Twilight. This non-biologically related group of people is bound together by their commitment to overcome the inherent evil of being a vampire.  Read more »

With Hollywood apparently running low in the fresh ideas department, studios seem to be serving up repackaged leftovers, sometimes throwing in a big budget to try to make an old classic shine again.  Unfortunately, this approach is often either done too soon or strays too far from why audiences fell in love with the original film.  Here is a list of the 5 most unnecessary remakes out there.

5.  The Karate Kid (2010) – When it was first rumored Mr. Miyagi was being brought out of retirement, a lot of people thought Karate Kid was being rereleased for a new generation to enjoy on the big screen.  After all, it came out in 1984, just long enough ago for some of its original young fans to share it witht there kids today.  An entirely new remake was nowhere near necessary, but sentiments are tempered in that this movie could probably survive on its own.  With some key setting and plot changes, at least the new version offers a fresh spin on the classic, as opposed to just recasting it wish new stars and better effects.

4.  The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) – At first glance it would seem this 1951 film could use a freshen-up.  Studios were probably licking their chops at the chance to apply today’s new technology to one of science fiction fans favorite scripts, but in doing so they missed the point of why fans today still rave about the golden oldie.  The black and white version is quirky, engaging and believable in its naivety and doesn’t fit with the modern day script updates and thematic relevance re-writers forced down viewers’ throats.

3.  Lolita (1997) – It takes guts to remake a Kubrick film, with his notorious reputation as a perfectionist, and Adrian Lyne’s new version is far from terrible, but a lot of the genius in the 1962 film lies in crafting Nabokov’s novel to be not only suitable for the sensors of the early 60’s but true to the story’s central motifs.  Remaking Lolita under today’s relaxed societal norms turns the film from a masterpiece into a mere movie. Read more »

These movies may be geared towards kids, but the fact of the matter is they’re enjoyable for all ages.

1. Shrek: The lovable green ogre has made the top of the list on more than one occasion. The first Shrek (2001) pulled in a domestic gross of $267,665,011, Shrek 2 (2004) topped the charts with $436,471,036, and Shrek the Third (2007) made a whopping $322,719,944. Way to go Dreamworks. It’ll be interesting to see how the fourth Shrek: Shrek Forever After, compares.
2. Finding Nemo (2003): Coming in second place with $339,714,978, Pixar and Walt Disney’s Finding Nemo was an instant success. People of all ages found themselves falling in love with the crippled clown fish and watched intensely as Nemo’s father journeyed across the deep blue sea in search of his son.  Enduring through sharks, jellyfish, turtles, and the forgetful but lovable Dori, Finding Nemo is a new age childhood classic.
3. The Lion King (1994): It’s hard to find a single person in America who hasn’t seen this movie. Raking in $328,539,505, The Lion King is somewhat a rite of passage for kids these days.  The cute, lovable lions take audiences on a heartfelt journey filled with laughter and tears.
4. The Incredibles (2004): Pixar and Disney got it right again with this fun loving superhero family. Earning $261,437,578, The Incredibles provide a new superhero dream for kids and their families. What makes this plot work so well is how relatable the characters are. Even with superpowers, teenage daughters are teenage daughters and dads are dads.
5. Monsters, Inc. (2001): The world fell in love with big-eyed pigtailed Boo and her monster pal Sulley in 2001. When monster’s who generate energy by scaring children find themselves horrified of baby Boo (and all kids for that matter), their world is turned around in a hilarious turn of events. Monsters Inc. made $255,870,172 in domestic gross as it filled our hearts with happiness.  Read more »

This summer’s upcoming releases make for a long list of re-made movies and best-sellers turned motion pictures.  Eclipse, the third movie in the Twilight saga may be the most anticipated movie of the season but it is also a film that appeals to one, relatively narrow, demographic.  Being the third in the series and based on a book also make it nothing extremely original to Hollywood.  Inception on the other hand, may be this summer’s saving grace. This sci-fi flick tells the story of Dom Cobb (Dicaprio) who has the rare ability to steal information from people’s minds while they are dreaming.  In the ultimate mission, Cobb is tasked with, not stealing, but implanting an idea into someone’s dream.  With the tagline “your mind is the scene of the crime,” this film has the potential to perform very well at the box office.

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Comedian Zach Galifianakis is best known as Alan, the guy with the beard from “The Hangover.”  But before his performance as a satchel-toting, one-man wolf pack helped secure the summer 2009 blockbuster the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy and starred in a Kanye West music video, he hosted his own late-night show on VH1 in spring of 2002 and played a serious and socially awkward morgue attendant on a FOX series.

The short-lived “Late World with Zach” featured typical late-night talk show elements like monologues set to piano and skits, including one in which he practices stand-up at a preschool sans beard. It aired for nine weeks and then he landed a role as Davis, a sidekick to his psychic morgue co-worker played by Eliza Dushku in “Tru Calling.”

Recurring TV roles aside, Galifianakis has also played in several web comedic shorts like his “Between Two Ferns” on FunnyorDie.com, in which he ungraciously interviewers actors while they’re sitting in arm chairs on a stage between two ferns. Past guests include Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Jon Hamm and his “Hangover” co-star Bradley Cooper.

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A whole generation (23 years to be exact) after Oliver Stone’s release of the original morality tale, the sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” tested the waters at Cannes and found them as warm as the French location would suggest.

Critics on location for the premiere at Cannes were quite a buzz. From all reports, Gordon Gekko is a changed man whom no longer goes by his famous mantra “Greed is good.” Michael Douglas reprises the role, with the character fresh out of a prison sentence resulting from the original film’s events.

Instead, Gekko’s pushing a book he authored that condemns his characteristically greedy ways established in the first film that critic Julian Sancton suggests in a Vanity Fair review reached a generation to only inspire them to seek riches and follow his path. The IMDb Cannes 2010 blog suggests that perhaps Stone is trying to make amends for creating the appealing anti-hero in the first place.

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Following millennia upon millennia of plays and other performing arts which hark back to the very beginning of human civilization, film is the modern inheritor of so many different attributes, virtues and vices of humanity.  Ever since the first silent films were made in the early 20^th century society has had a profound love affair with film—one full of highs and lows, the good and the bad, the memorable and the forgettable.  In honor of the tremendous importance which film exerts on our modern society, and in light of the fact that there are always countless film buffs out there looking for an opportunity to refine their trivia prowess, here we’ve assembled a list of the most-winning actors and films of the silver screen ever since the Oscars—the most prestigious film award of them all—have been around.  Read on and see just how informed a film buff you really are!

The Big Kahunas: to start off our list, it only seems fitting to honor those films that have reaped the most Oscars all around in all the categories.  These epics of the big screen left an indelible impression on our souls and on our psyche as a broader society, and any and all film buffs simply must be aware of them.  Which are we referencing in particular?  True gems such as Ben-Hur, Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, each of which pulled in 11 Oscar wins in all…a true feat of cinematographic ability!

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Whether they’re infected through bites, curses or breathing air, walk or run at Olympic speeds, zombies are everywhere. Well, at least in movies. Watch your fingers and check out our crash course in the walking undead below in our top 10 list.

1. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968): George A. Romero’s first-ever zombie flick comes across like a salvaged first-person video of the incident, with a group of strangers holed up in a random farmhouse to fend off the creatures that in low-budget, black and white.
2. “Dead Alive” (1992) Known as “Braindead” in its native New Zealand, this Peter Jackson movie has oceans-worth of fake blood left for mama’s boy Lionel to clean up after combat scenes to stave off zombies from his love, whom his mother hates. However, it is only after a monkey bites his mother at the zoo, she dies from the bite and comes back as a zombie that all the other townspeople are infected.
3. “Dawn of the Dead” (1978): This other Romero flick serves as social commentary about mindless, mass consumerism when a few survivors during an epidemic seek shelter in a secluded shopping mall. But the walking dead still manage to find them.
4. “28 Days Later” (2002): A man awakens from a coma to find England deserted, save for zombies and a handful of survivors after a rage virus epidemic. He joins together with others to survive the outbreak and the military troops that are stationed there to suppress it.
5. “Evil Dead 2” (1987): The second in the trilogy (preceded by “Evil Dead” and followed by “Army of Darkness”) by Sam Raimi, who would go onto direct the current “Spider-Man” series, teamed up with his brother to make this campy B horror alternate telling of the first installment. A college student takes his girlfriend to a secluded cabin, only to accidentally conjure up an evil from the surrounding woods that possesses her and turns her into a zombie-demon called a deadite.   Read more »