Saturday, October 13, 2007

Movie Mineseeper - The Second Silver Platter Is Hidden Edition

- Uwe Boll thinks Grand Theft Auto and Halo would make for bad, or at least redundant game-to-movie adaptations. I doubt he's wrong... but why did he think, say, Far Cry or Bloodrayne would necessarily be any different?

- Logan-Marshall Green has taken the lead role in Brett Ratner's TV pilot, Blue Blood. It's a cop thing.

- Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have discussed their plans for the Hellraiser remake and it seems they don't want us to think of it as a remake at all. I see their highly-touted film Inside is at the Frightfest all-nighter on November 2nd - are any of you lot going to that?

- A press release from The Catholic League has just trickled down to little old me. Bill Donahue is alleging that the removal of the theological subtext in the Golden Compass film is a 'stealth marketing campaign' on the part of the film's producers. He argues that, having seen the (neutered) films with their kids, Catholic parents may ignorantly buy them the (potent) books. Oh - honestly. For one thing, there's no reason to assume New Line give a monkeys about the book sales.

- Michelle Rodriguez' jail sentence is to wait until she finishes shooting Avatar. She's headed into prison on Christmas Eve.

- Want to know which five films Joel and Ethan Coen would like to see remade? Which film Steven Soderbergh thinks is even better than its high flying reputation? The five films DBC Pierre suggests are best avoided when on medication? Five films Mike Figgis thinks have great sex? Mavis Cheek's list of five film scores 'to make the spine tingle'? Five films that defy genre, according to David Hare? Five of the baddest hair days on film or five great cinematic drag acts? Then thank the Guardian for ripping a bunch of highlights from Faber and Faber's list book Ten Bad Dates with De Niro.

- Nikki Finke thinks she started a chain reaction that went on to hurt the box office of those horror films she'd like to classify as 'Torture Porn'. We already knew she semi-secretly thought this, but now she's confirmed it by speaking to Elle on the subject. She's very wrong for a number of reasons... but here's just a couple of the ludicrous assumptions that her argument hangs on: the never-demonstrated notion that critics can sway the box office of genre films to any meaningful degree; that by the time Nikki Finke started running off at the mouth about the matter, all manner of more powerful, if only equally tiresome, spokespieces for the supposed moral majority hadn't already played the whole dumb argument out.

- Jim Hill has broken down the animated opening scenes of Enchanted, with plenty of images on show.

- Anne Thompson has posted videos of Julie Taymor speaking Across the Universe on AMC's Shootout.

7 comments:

Mark Kardwell said...

A GRAND THEFT AUTO movie would be totally redundant, though there's clearly been plenty of movies influenced by the franchise anyway. Which, given that nearly every twist and turn in that series is influenced by (or a piss-take of) a movie, seems like some weird snake-eating-its-own-tail type scenario.

Tyler Foster said...

I hope Saw IV makes the most money out of any entry in the franchise just to make Nikki Finke shut her stupid face. Gee, all that torture porn must be making me hateful...

Unknown said...

Every time I read something on Hostel or Saw you seem to be defending those poorly done flicks, Brendon. Style over substance, is all I'm saying. I hate this "torture porn." And anything to bring back solid horror films back is much needed. I think there needs to be more films like The Descent where you actually care about the characters.

I understand what you have against Nikki Finke but these movies are utter piss.

Brendon said...

Chirs, I agree with your point as far as the Saw films go... but the Hostel films? Blimey. they're not shallow at all. In fact, they've got infinitely more relevance and depth than The Descent.

And the substance of the Hostel films is hardly well-hidden, is it? I mean, it's there for all to pick up on and enjoy. Just peruse the film's reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to see even club-headed critics discuss the film's subtexts.

Unknown said...

Subtext? I'm sorry, but that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Relevance? Sure, I agree. Depth? No. Just because it's based on real tragic events happening in the world does not give the film a "subtext." You want relevance and depth, watch "Lilya 4-Ever."

Brendon said...

I love Lilja-4-Ever. It's great.

It isn't the relevance to 'tragic events' that gives the Hostel films subtext. Not - it's the bloody subtext that gives it subtext.

The first film is a bleak fable about exploitation and how some young innocents learn the way of the world - and it's no accident they are a) white b) male and c) American.

The second film deals with commerce, globalisation, touches on Bush-era politics and returns to the mechanics of the first film for some new spins on those ideas.

It is irrelevant if these events happen in real life or not, they films use them to explode themes relating to real life issues - not events.

Unknown said...

I don't want to take up any more of your time 'cause I love the site, but all I'm saying is that Roth drawled out the script which, you have to agree, could've been hacked down to five minutes (music video, anyone). He simply saw a perfect premise to throw some blood around a room and call his flick a "horror film."

I saw more tits and ass and stale characters than anything else, which is the product of usually badly written movies. They gotta keep those males in the audience eyes open wide, right?

Stupid characters doesn't make for a good movie. Stupid characters are made for horror films written lazily 'cause they always die. Funny how that always happens.

There are much better movies about young innocent beings learning the way of the world, which brings me back to Lilya 4-Ever. And hey, Lilya didn't have a forced ending where the "good guy" kills the "bad guy." Wow, didn't expect that from Hollywood.