12 October 2012

So this week we have Bradley Cooper with dreads, a naked Kristen Stewart and an insight into Paul Dano’s deepest carnal desires, while the most star-studded film is a documentary about an ex-homeless guy in New York. As always, click the images to open the trailers in another window.

Here Paul Dano writes about a girl only for said girl to suddenly appear in the flesh. Obviously he makes her the ultimate manicpixiedreamgirl and they inevitably end up in arcades, sitting outside cafes, goofing around at the beach and other indie-boy fascinations, but the biggest issue facing the movie is, with Dano able to create her and their relationship using his ideal ideals, where can any conflict come from to make this at all interesting beyond the opening act.

This is the second of three animated Halloween films that are being released way too early for Halloween. Obviously having three in the market on the same weekend would be daft, but no more daft than having three animated Halloween movies released in the same year. This one has Adam Sandler and Kevin James in lead roles so, despite my total ambivalence towards Paranorman, this has to be the shittest.

A British remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Danish debut feature that spawned a trilogy for the director of Drive, this film has Refn executive-producing alongside two of the producers who worked with him on Bronson. It is this combination that appears to be the selling point that the studio are trying to work with, and Refn has appeared for Q&As for this version. Unfortunately I have the original trilogy on my shelf but am yet to watch so I can’t really shed any light on this beyond the trailer.

Radioman is a previously homeless guy who has not only become a famous New Yorker, but is one of the most famous extras in the world. It is this aspect that the film is sold on with talking heads from George Clooney, Meryll Streep, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, Matt Damon, Jude Law and many more as they all discuss their interactions and opinions on the guy. I was lucky enough to be in Radioman’s company briefly earlier this week and he seems genuinely excited about this film and life in general, and I am hoping to catch this on extremely limited release. Check the film’s website for more information.

This film has flick-past-on-netflix written all over it. Dax Shepherd is dating Kristen Bell (yeahiknowthatmakesnofuckingsense) when Bradley Cooper turns up with dreadlocks and unveils the true past of Shepherd much to the initial distress of Bell. This looks so pointless that not only I am surprised it got made, but I need to see it to understand why it did.

This is one of three book adaptations intended for this winter that seemed unadaptable (Cloud Atlas and The Great Gatsby being the others). A book that revels more in longing and the pleasure that longing brings for possibilities and open-endedness, than it does plot or a successful narrative, I’m not entirely sure why they feel this is ripe for a big screen adaptation. However, Walter Salles managed to make The Motorcycle Diaries into something that enthralled me and so I am hoping he has managed to do the same here.

My Pick: On The Road

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‘10 THINGS…’ IN NOT QUITE BEING PERFECT SHOCKER

This guy, old enough to see early Black Flag shows or be DJ Qualls’s dad, is the one blemish on an otherwise perfect movie:

What a wanker.

5 October 2012

This week we get a film written, directed and starring Ted from How I Met Your Mother, one from the producers of Paranormal Activity, a film from Transformer sound-a-like Olivier Megaton, and a novelist who was given the job of adapting his own book for screen and then directing it too.

As the only film on this list that I have already seen, I can honestly say that Taken 2 is less a sequel to Taken and more all of the potential storylines for the Taken franchise squished into one narrative that is unbelievable in a way sadly unfun way. Neeson and Janssen also get in on the kidnapping act this time round and the film flips and flops as they all get their chances to be taken and then escape with some of them getting more opportunities to play the victims than others. It is not that this film is awful, it’s merely that no one involved seemed to care about making it at all interesting or exploring anything that could be interesting. Drink before and during to enjoy.

Josh Radnor seems to be the new Zach Braff just less likeable and unwilling to just give us one movie and fuck off. His 2010 debut Happythankyoumoreplease won the stupidest name for a film of the year but also a lot of critics’s hearts. Not mine though. It seemed like the worst kind of wish-fulfillment and this doesn’t seem much better. However, this one has Richard Jenkins and Elizabeth Olsen in it so it has my money.

This looks genuinely creepy. Just watch the trailer. I am looking for a willing person to come watch this with me. Apply in the comments. Must live in London. FYI, I’m a jumpy bastard.

This trailer makes me want to kill everyone. So fucking cliched and, as I have previously mentioned, I am pretty sure that these are the kids that I would have hated in school for shouting so loudly against their own self-made adversity. However, the reviews have been strong and the book is supposed to be great. I will inevitably give it a poke.

My pick: Liberal Arts

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LOOPER ATTEMPTS TO ANSWER AN AGE OLD QUESTION

I can’t remember any other film ever attempting to answer this question and yet it was definitely one asked fairly often on the playground from year six on-wards. It’s not quite as exciting as ‘would you kiss Miss Snaggletooth in an assembly for £100?’, but it is certainly a big one.

In case you haven’t seen the film and want to go in without any form of it being ruined, here are a few gifs of JGL’s recent striptease to show his love of Magic Mike with the question below: