Film review: Hairspray (1988)

If I had to choose one person from the world of film to spend an evening talking to, it would be no contest. Director John Waters would win by a mile. I can easily see myself spending hours talking to him. This is despite the fact that I had seen only one of his films before (Pecker (1998)) and didn’t think much of it. I had tended to steer clear of his films because I had heard that they sometimes devolved into gross-out humor which I avoid.
[Read more…]

Soylent? Really?

There is a new food product that supposedly provides you with all the necessary nutrition in liquid form so that you don’t have to waste time shopping for food, cooking, cleaning etc. In a move that I must admit is marketing genius, the 25-year old inventor and CEO of the company has called its product Soylent, which was certain to attract attention from those who recall the classic 1973 dystopian film Soylent Green, even if the implications from that film are disturbing.
[Read more…]

Honest trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street

I recently panned the film The Wolf of Wall Street. The people who produce the funny Honest Trailers series have created something that gives a much better view of that film than the trailers produced by the film’s producers. These parody trailers are funnier when you have seen the film. They are funny even if you thought the film was good but are funnier if you thought it was terrible.
[Read more…]

Kenneth Turan recommends films not to be missed

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan also reviews films for NPR and in general I have found his recommendations to agree with my own tastes. So I was interested to hear a clip that he had published a new book where he recommends 54 films, starting from the 1920s until today, that he thinks that everyone should see. He feels that especially with older films, there are some gems that people today are not aware of.
[Read more…]

Film review: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

This film is a mess. There is no other word to describe it.

How it got nominated for five Academy Awards including best film, actor, supporting actor, director, and screenplay beats me, unless it was because of the star power of highly acclaimed director Martin Scorcese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But it did not win a single one, suggesting that there is at least some justice in the world of judging films.
[Read more…]

Oh great, another Left Behind film

It appears that there is a new version of the film based on the Left Behind books to be released on October 3. For those not familiar with this series of best sellers, they are based on the Rapture that supposedly will occur at the ‘end times’ as foretold in the Book of Revelation, when the true Christians will suddenly be all taken up to heaven before Jesus returns to destroy the evildoers (i.e., those left behind) in years of bloody warfare. Or something like that, it’s all a bit confusing. But one thing that is sure is that there will be blood. Oh yes, lots of blood. The books revel in it.
[Read more…]

How Edgar Wright does visual comedy

This blog has been talking a lot recently about Simon Pegg-Nick Frost films. Reader kyoseki sent me a link to this clip to the skills of Edgar Wright, the director of many of the performances of the duo.. The person who put this clip together says that Wright is a master of using visual effects for comedic purposes and not depending simply on verbal gags, and shows how he does it.
[Read more…]

Film review: Paul (2011)

In a comment to my review of the three Simon Pegg-Nick Frost comedies, reader sumdum suggested that I might also enjoy seeing another film involving this pair and that is Paul, in which the duo leave the cozy confines of the English pub and play two science fiction graphic novel fans who attend the annual Comic-Con in San Diego and then go on a road trip in an RV to visit all the sites in the US that are believed to been the site of extra-terrestrial visitations.
[Read more…]

Film review: The English pub trilogy

Recently I watched three films in rapid succession: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013). Although they are all distinct films with different characters and the stories are unrelated, they form a trilogy in that all three were written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, were directed by Wright, and starred Pegg and Nick Frost who plays Pegg’s sidekick. They also featured appearances by Martin Freeman (all three films), Bill Nighy (two films), Steve Coogan (one film), and two ex-Bonds Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton (one each).
[Read more…]