The Dark Knight Rises
Dir. Christopher Nolan
Country: USA
Aus Rating: M15+
Running Time: 160mins
Showing posts with label Batman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Batman. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Review: The Dark Knight Rises
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Review: Kaboom
Kaboom
Dir. Gregg Araki
Year: 2011
Aus Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 86mins
Dir. Gregg Araki
Year: 2011
Aus Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 86mins
If one had to put Gregg Araki’s latest film into a finite box then it would be fair to call it a queer apocalyptic stoner religious cult horror comedy. Not content to just make a movie about the end of the world, or the bisexual frolics of American collegegoers, or masked cult devotees murdering students on campus, Araki has gone and merged them all together in the form of Kaboom. Whether the title is a direct reference to the sound the world would make if it was suddenly blown apart or if it’s the metaphoric noise a young person makes upon entering the sexually confusing world of post-high school education, either way Araki has crafted an entertaining, violently funny movie that’s amongst his best work yet.Did you hear today that Kaboom star Juno Temple - she of the film's best performance, I might add - has been cast in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises?
Wait - why am I asking that? Of course you've read it since it has been pasted on every single "entertainment" website known to mankind. Never mind that it hasn't been announced exactly who she's been cast as. Nothing more than "street smart Gotham Girl" according to websites like Cinema Blend, which for all we know could be little more than a walk on role with one or two moderately sassy lines about how "the streets work" or some such. I'd recommend seeing Kaboom before Nolan remembers he can't write or direct women very well at all and sticks this formidable rising talent into a do-nothing role. Oh sure, Marion Cotillard was quite good in Inception, but the character was problematic. The less said about Ellen Page, Katie Holmes, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hilary Swank the better.
Perhaps, in fact, the mere casting of Juno Temple is a sign that things are changing in the brain of Nolan.
I can actually see her fitting in amongst the Joker's menagerie of minions. Or, actually, wouldn't she have made a far more interesting choice for Selina Kyle than Anne Hathaway? Far less obvious and she looks like she could do brittle quite well.
Anyway, amongst all the "Juno Temple Officially in Dark Knight Rises" links that filled up my Twitter feed this morning, I was also bombarded with every website this side of Bea Arthur Mountains Pizza Blog telling me about the latest casting rumour of Superman: Man of Steel. Yesterday is was Carlos Ramirez, today it's Michael Shannon. And what's the bet that a new name pops up within a day or two? It's all such lazy film writing, don't you think? One website posts a rumour from an anonymous source and everyone else just copies it (with or without citation) and tada an easy thousand (or tens of thousands? I can't begin to imagine how many hits those sites - you know the ones - get) blog hits! It's truly depressing.
1. Write article about project being announced before anybody has been attached.
2. Write article about specific actors being considered for various roles of various sizes in project that still may or may not exist.
3. Write article about the perceived “frontrunner”.
4. Write article about a rumour that an actor has been hired, but not confirmed.
5. Write another article as we wait to find out if the rumour was true. Come up with magical reasons for and against chosen actor’s non-selection.
6. Write article about movie studio announcing they haven’t made an announcement. Copy press release verbatim.
7. Write article about how a different actor altogether has been cast, negating everything that was written earlier, and yet conveniently not wiping away your website’s unique hits and advertising dollar!
8.-10. Write several articles about the life and career of the chosen actor, judging them before a single frame has been filmed.
11.-4379. Write articles about every single minute detail including what the extras had catered for them to how many takes it took a notoriously fussy director to film one scene as if it’s news. Announce an entry on Twitter “WOW! NEW PHOTOS FROM SET OF [insert movie]” that are of someone having a cigarette away from the set. Somehow turn paparazzi pictures of a cast night out into a story about a “troubled set. Have site “reporter” visit the set and report about how harmonous and perfectly run the set is as if they completely unaware of the impending visit. Announce everything as “EXCLUSIVE!” or “FIRST LOOK!” even if all you mean is “first look on my own website, but you’ve probably seen it elsewhere already.”
4380.-4412. Report on the test screenings from people who saw the movie without completed visual effects, music, editing and detail how the screenings were “disastrous”. Include spoilers, just ‘cause.
4413. Report on studio “tinkering” with the film, even if said “tinkering” included, ya know, finishing it like they had planned.
4414. Write review.
4415. Write article about box office takings despite having no real knowledge of how box office/budgets/money even works.
4416. Promptly forget the film ever existed because ew, gross, it’s old. Unless it’s good, in which case
a) Start new website feature named “Under-Appreciated Movie of the Week” discussing the film, even though it made over $300 million at the box office,
b) Write article asking “Will Oscar Embrace [movie in genre they rarely ever embrace]?”
c) Write article about how the Oscars “snubbed” said movie and how the Oscar’s “don’t mean anything but omg we’re gonna keep talking about them anyway!”
4417. Repeat for next movie.
All the more reason to go see a movie like Kaboom I suppose. Those of us here in Melbourne are lucky to have a place like Cinema Nova who are exclusively screening it as well as several other amazing titles like I Love You Phillip Morris. I believe it's getting a similar Brisbane release at the Tribal Cinema, but that's second hand Twitter knowledge so don't take my word for it. It's in Sydney too, but I don't know where. Movies like Kaboom don't come along too often - of, if they do, it's not on a cinema screen - so please see it.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Top 50 Posters of the Decade: #50-26
You knew it was coming! I couldn't let the end of the decade pass and not do a list of the 50 best posters from the past ten years. Get ready for pure and utter gorgeousness. Now there is going to be obvious overlap with my 100 Greatest Movie Posters countdown from 2008, however, as with any list, if I had done that of any other day things would be difference and, thus, there are post-2000 titles on that list that appear further down on this list than you would think they should be. That's just the way it goes.
Honourable mentions? There are many. 25 to be exact. Consider them ranked as top left being #75 and bottom right being #51, but I didn't really put as much thought into them as I did the top 50. I will be posting numbers 50-26 today and the rest tomorrow. Enjoy.
50. Secretary
While so many people are eager to hoot and holler that Polish and Czech poster are where it’s at with their designs that mean nothing and their ugly aesthetics (well, a lot of the time, anyway), I actually think it is Asia that is producing the best alternative designs. You'll notice several of them on the list including this hot pink polka dot infused design for Secretary.
49. Dancer in the Dark
The most original design for Lars Von Trier's musical masterpiece, and one that subtly hints at the emotional wringer that audiences will be put through.
48. Adaptation
My admiration for this design as gone downhill quite a bit in the years since it first came to prominence. I still love the smudged text and my admiration for the Nicolas-Cage-is-Shattering thing has subsided since I've started to follow poster design closely. It's a great design, don't get me wrong, it just feels like the intervening years are lessened its specialness.
47. Saw
The original and the best. Am I talking about the films or the posters? Take a pick. However, in the realm of poster design the original started the trend and the rest are just following suit. Unless you're a hardcore anti-horror then I doubt you can say this didn't make you sit up and take a moment when you first saw them.
46. Sexy Beast
Doesn't this just make you chuckle? A little? Especially if you have seen the film and know what it's about.
45. Jesus' Son
While I have not seen Jesus' Son, I am lead to believe that it is not all sunshine and rainbows, and yet to incorporate such bold ideas onto this design takes guts.
44. Good Night, and Good Luck.
Perhaps the true star of key art design this decade gone was Jeremy Saunders. He has four designs on the countdown, but it could have been more. This uber-cool retro design for George Clooney's film should be used around the world, but it wasn't. Of course. Thankfully the international crowd seems to be catching on to this Saunders fellow.
43. Valentine
A dud of a movie, but like a lot of genre product, it has a solid and key piece of central design. Plus, dolls are creepy.
42. Swimming Pool.
It's got sex and it's got mystery. That's pretty much it.
41. The Prestige
40. Moon
Two hypnotic designs (for two equally impressive films, I might add) that add extra dimensions and texture to films that could have easily been marketed in a much more standard and stereotypical manner.
39. A Christmas Carol
Does a great job at selling the movie as the darker film it (apparently) is. If this were a horror movie I'd think it was even better since I actually get a bit of a chill from it, don't you?
38. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
A poster that shows off the film's joyous celebration of life mentality. I like that the musicians are in black and white with colour shooting out of them as if to say "all this colour and life can come from something gray." If you want.
37. Requiem for a Dream
It’s certainly “EYE” catching, isn’t it? Ba-doom-ch!
No, but seriously, for a poster that utilises the dreaded stripe design AND movie-still-as-marketing-device it works shockingly well. It kinda haunts and alludes to the film's crazy scattered mind.
36. The Dark Knight
I KNOW! How dare I put a poster from The Dark Knight so incredibly LOW on the list? I might as well just shoot myself now. And not even the "Why So Serious?" one, too? Yada Blah Etc.
35. Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Iconic and instantly recognisable. Probably the best use of block colour on a poster for the entire decade.
34. Lost in Translation
This poster - my preferred of the two major posters for Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation - conveys so much. The loneliness, the culture shock and the bewilderment all in a colourful and eye-catching design. It even has a dinosaur! And that tagline, "Everybody wants to be found", is bliss when it easily could have been "In a foreign land, two souls will connect" or some bull like that.
33. No Country for Old Men
Somehow it was Asia that had the bright idea to market the Coen Brothers' film on the ideas of American gothic. A much darker idea than the more recognised American posters and one that gives light to the shattering of an American ideal. Wonderful.
32. The Black Dahlia
There were many great designs to Brian DePalma's absurd loony bin of a movie, but this my favourite. Creepy and direct with a hint of retro.
31. High Tension
High saturation, high promise of horror and high visual panache. It works at showing off the film's grungy and violent appeal (even if the film is actually quite retched). Cecile de France looks super-imposing and I love that blood splatter at the barbed-wire end of her weapon.
30. 3:10 to Yuma
Yes, it looks like it's advertising a Bob Fosse western, but I think that's what makes it so brilliant bonkers. You have flamboyant gun toters, text running in all sorts of directions, random objects and one of helluva sight gag. Incredible inventive for a movie of a genre so indebted to history and formula.
29. In the Mood for Love
For a movie that is bathed in colour to use just ONE seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. That deep red is just dreamy and with Maggie and Tony all but sinking into it? Heavenly...
28. Code Unknown
Sometimes Michael Haneke films have incredible marketing, and other times it's as if nobody has any idea how to sell it. This design for Code Unknown is quite stunning in the way it represents the themes of the film (it is one of my favourite Haneke films for what it's worth) and the vague disappearing act that characters in this and all Haneke films seem to go through.
27. The House Bunny
26. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Ever since Steve Carell looked up slightly to the left in the mall photo house-inspired poster for The 40-Year-Old Virgin (note: correct grammar) in 2005 the design has been aped, repeated and copied so many times that it is impossible to count. A lot of the time it has been done by Judd Apatow's own production house. However, nothing beats the original, although Anna Faris looking hilariously dumb on the poster for The House Bunny certainly came close. Just looking at them is bound to raise a giggle or five.
Make you come back tomorrow when we count down from #25 all the way to the best poster of the decade! Feel free to leave a comment!
Honourable mentions? There are many. 25 to be exact. Consider them ranked as top left being #75 and bottom right being #51, but I didn't really put as much thought into them as I did the top 50. I will be posting numbers 50-26 today and the rest tomorrow. Enjoy.
50. Secretary
While so many people are eager to hoot and holler that Polish and Czech poster are where it’s at with their designs that mean nothing and their ugly aesthetics (well, a lot of the time, anyway), I actually think it is Asia that is producing the best alternative designs. You'll notice several of them on the list including this hot pink polka dot infused design for Secretary.
49. Dancer in the Dark
The most original design for Lars Von Trier's musical masterpiece, and one that subtly hints at the emotional wringer that audiences will be put through.
48. Adaptation
My admiration for this design as gone downhill quite a bit in the years since it first came to prominence. I still love the smudged text and my admiration for the Nicolas-Cage-is-Shattering thing has subsided since I've started to follow poster design closely. It's a great design, don't get me wrong, it just feels like the intervening years are lessened its specialness.
47. Saw
The original and the best. Am I talking about the films or the posters? Take a pick. However, in the realm of poster design the original started the trend and the rest are just following suit. Unless you're a hardcore anti-horror then I doubt you can say this didn't make you sit up and take a moment when you first saw them.
46. Sexy Beast
Doesn't this just make you chuckle? A little? Especially if you have seen the film and know what it's about.
45. Jesus' Son
While I have not seen Jesus' Son, I am lead to believe that it is not all sunshine and rainbows, and yet to incorporate such bold ideas onto this design takes guts.
44. Good Night, and Good Luck.
Perhaps the true star of key art design this decade gone was Jeremy Saunders. He has four designs on the countdown, but it could have been more. This uber-cool retro design for George Clooney's film should be used around the world, but it wasn't. Of course. Thankfully the international crowd seems to be catching on to this Saunders fellow.
43. Valentine
A dud of a movie, but like a lot of genre product, it has a solid and key piece of central design. Plus, dolls are creepy.
42. Swimming Pool.
It's got sex and it's got mystery. That's pretty much it.
41. The Prestige
40. Moon
Two hypnotic designs (for two equally impressive films, I might add) that add extra dimensions and texture to films that could have easily been marketed in a much more standard and stereotypical manner.
39. A Christmas Carol
Does a great job at selling the movie as the darker film it (apparently) is. If this were a horror movie I'd think it was even better since I actually get a bit of a chill from it, don't you?
38. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
A poster that shows off the film's joyous celebration of life mentality. I like that the musicians are in black and white with colour shooting out of them as if to say "all this colour and life can come from something gray." If you want.
37. Requiem for a Dream
It’s certainly “EYE” catching, isn’t it? Ba-doom-ch!
No, but seriously, for a poster that utilises the dreaded stripe design AND movie-still-as-marketing-device it works shockingly well. It kinda haunts and alludes to the film's crazy scattered mind.
36. The Dark Knight
I KNOW! How dare I put a poster from The Dark Knight so incredibly LOW on the list? I might as well just shoot myself now. And not even the "Why So Serious?" one, too? Yada Blah Etc.
35. Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Iconic and instantly recognisable. Probably the best use of block colour on a poster for the entire decade.
34. Lost in Translation
This poster - my preferred of the two major posters for Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation - conveys so much. The loneliness, the culture shock and the bewilderment all in a colourful and eye-catching design. It even has a dinosaur! And that tagline, "Everybody wants to be found", is bliss when it easily could have been "In a foreign land, two souls will connect" or some bull like that.
33. No Country for Old Men
Somehow it was Asia that had the bright idea to market the Coen Brothers' film on the ideas of American gothic. A much darker idea than the more recognised American posters and one that gives light to the shattering of an American ideal. Wonderful.
32. The Black Dahlia
There were many great designs to Brian DePalma's absurd loony bin of a movie, but this my favourite. Creepy and direct with a hint of retro.
31. High Tension
High saturation, high promise of horror and high visual panache. It works at showing off the film's grungy and violent appeal (even if the film is actually quite retched). Cecile de France looks super-imposing and I love that blood splatter at the barbed-wire end of her weapon.
30. 3:10 to Yuma
Yes, it looks like it's advertising a Bob Fosse western, but I think that's what makes it so brilliant bonkers. You have flamboyant gun toters, text running in all sorts of directions, random objects and one of helluva sight gag. Incredible inventive for a movie of a genre so indebted to history and formula.
29. In the Mood for Love
For a movie that is bathed in colour to use just ONE seems like it shouldn't work, but it does. That deep red is just dreamy and with Maggie and Tony all but sinking into it? Heavenly...
28. Code Unknown
Sometimes Michael Haneke films have incredible marketing, and other times it's as if nobody has any idea how to sell it. This design for Code Unknown is quite stunning in the way it represents the themes of the film (it is one of my favourite Haneke films for what it's worth) and the vague disappearing act that characters in this and all Haneke films seem to go through.
27. The House Bunny
26. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Ever since Steve Carell looked up slightly to the left in the mall photo house-inspired poster for The 40-Year-Old Virgin (note: correct grammar) in 2005 the design has been aped, repeated and copied so many times that it is impossible to count. A lot of the time it has been done by Judd Apatow's own production house. However, nothing beats the original, although Anna Faris looking hilariously dumb on the poster for The House Bunny certainly came close. Just looking at them is bound to raise a giggle or five.
Make you come back tomorrow when we count down from #25 all the way to the best poster of the decade! Feel free to leave a comment!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
The Best (and Worst) Posters of 2008
It is frustrating sometimes being a movie lover and not living in New York City (oh to dream). I am routinely unable to do a top ten list until June! Luckily for your guys I don't have to have seen all the movies to be able to judge their key art. As anybody who has read Stale Popcorn for longer than a week will know, I love posters. I talk about them a lot. This past year I even did a top 100 countdown and so here on the even of 2009 I present my favourite (and least favourite) pieces of poster art for the year 2008. I'm sure I've missed something that I will regret leaving out (such as the Zoo poster from last year's countdown), but thems the breaks!
(All posters can clicked on to enlarge)
(All posters accumulated at IMP)
THE TEN BEST POSTERS OF 2008
10. Wall-E
Retro animation at it's finest.
9. The Strangers
Okay, so it spoils the film's biggest and best scare - although, so does the best trailer of 2008, side note - but it does everything a poster should: Makes you want to see the movie. If the thought behind this poster's image doesn't get you then you were never going to see it anyway.
8. In Bruges
I love a poster that is playful like this. See also The Bank Job.
7. The Black Waters of Echo's Pond
For all the huss-and-fuss over the poster campaign for last year's Grindhouse, these two posters for an obscure horror flick are the two most retro designs that I have seen recently. From the tea-stained borders, the creases and the hand-drawn aesthetic. All so wonderful.
6. The Wackness
You know you're on the right track with a movie set in the early 1990s when your key art instantly brings back memories of recording mix tapes. Such pitch perfect design here.
5. The House Bunny
No poster made me laugh as much as this poster, which puts Anna Faris front and centre where she belongs.
4. The Dark Knight
I couldn't decide which of these I liked more. The more classically beautiful city shot or the twisted and crazier Joker design. I cheated and used both. They're both excellent.
3. Goliath
I knew I had to rank this poster high because I have no idea what the movie is and yet I feel like I must see it or else I will EXPLODE. A lot of the time posters for these low budget independent movies can be really bad, but sometimes they have the luck of hiring a great designer who can come up with something like this. Another of these nearly made it in for the movie Fix, but it fell just short of the top ten.
2. Dear Zachery: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Just absolutely beautiful. Stunningly so.
1. Funny Games
Was there ever any doubt. Truly a masterpiece.
Now Just For Fun...
(excluding previously mentioned posters)
Best Rip-Off:
The Spirit
For ripping off everything about Sin City.
Best Poster That Could Have Easily Been Terrible:
27 Dresses
Essentially for not being this or this or (heaven forbid) this.
Dreamiest Use of Colour:
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Poster Series:
(Excluding The Dark Knight and Wall-E to be fair!)
No Right Turn
I know they're all fairly simple, but I like these posters, don't you?
Best Saul Bass Impersonation:
Burn After Reading
Runner-Up: Flawless - it would've won if it completely gave in to the idea.
Sexiest Poster:
Elegy
Might as well sell your movie on Penelope Cruz' posterior, no?
Best "Do They Realise?" Moment:
Paranoid Park
Worst Photoshopping:
Sex and the City: The Movie
Or, since the scene is actually in the movie, Worst Non-Photoshopping When Photoshopping Was Necessary?
Unscariest Poster for a Scary Movie:
Dying Breed
Runner-Up: One Missed Call
Worst Backtracking:
August
Ummm... they went from a poster that told you enough to one that doesn't tell you a thing other than "Josh Hartnett wears clothes in this movie" and who wants that, honestly?
Worst False Advertising:
Sex and Death 101
Bridget Fonda circa the early '90s is not in this movie!
Worst "Empty Space" Offender:
Revolutionary Road
Most Unappealing Poster:
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Ugh, why would I want to see this smug-looking piece of garbage?
The "This Deserves a Better Poster" Award:
WHERE DO WE START?!?
Milk, Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Rachel Getting Married, Changeling... etc etc. What a terrible terrible year for Oscar movies and their posters. Literally all of the above were dreadful!
~~-~-~~
The First Annual Showgirls Honourary Award for Brilliance in the Face of Ineptitude in Poster Design:
Whore
~~-~-~~
And that's that, folks. I can't be bothered doing any more because I'll go blind. What did you think? Did I miss anything? Speak up in the comments, please!
(All posters accumulated at IMP)
THE TEN BEST POSTERS OF 2008
10. Wall-E
Retro animation at it's finest.
9. The Strangers
Okay, so it spoils the film's biggest and best scare - although, so does the best trailer of 2008, side note - but it does everything a poster should: Makes you want to see the movie. If the thought behind this poster's image doesn't get you then you were never going to see it anyway.
8. In Bruges
I love a poster that is playful like this. See also The Bank Job.
7. The Black Waters of Echo's Pond
For all the huss-and-fuss over the poster campaign for last year's Grindhouse, these two posters for an obscure horror flick are the two most retro designs that I have seen recently. From the tea-stained borders, the creases and the hand-drawn aesthetic. All so wonderful.
6. The Wackness
You know you're on the right track with a movie set in the early 1990s when your key art instantly brings back memories of recording mix tapes. Such pitch perfect design here.
5. The House Bunny
No poster made me laugh as much as this poster, which puts Anna Faris front and centre where she belongs.
4. The Dark Knight
I couldn't decide which of these I liked more. The more classically beautiful city shot or the twisted and crazier Joker design. I cheated and used both. They're both excellent.
3. Goliath
I knew I had to rank this poster high because I have no idea what the movie is and yet I feel like I must see it or else I will EXPLODE. A lot of the time posters for these low budget independent movies can be really bad, but sometimes they have the luck of hiring a great designer who can come up with something like this. Another of these nearly made it in for the movie Fix, but it fell just short of the top ten.
2. Dear Zachery: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Just absolutely beautiful. Stunningly so.
1. Funny Games
Was there ever any doubt. Truly a masterpiece.
Now Just For Fun...
(excluding previously mentioned posters)
Best Rip-Off:
The Spirit
For ripping off everything about Sin City.
Best Poster That Could Have Easily Been Terrible:
27 Dresses
Essentially for not being this or this or (heaven forbid) this.
Dreamiest Use of Colour:
Slumdog Millionaire
Best Poster Series:
(Excluding The Dark Knight and Wall-E to be fair!)
No Right Turn
I know they're all fairly simple, but I like these posters, don't you?
Best Saul Bass Impersonation:
Burn After Reading
Runner-Up: Flawless - it would've won if it completely gave in to the idea.
Sexiest Poster:
Elegy
Might as well sell your movie on Penelope Cruz' posterior, no?
Best "Do They Realise?" Moment:
Paranoid Park
Worst Photoshopping:
Sex and the City: The Movie
Or, since the scene is actually in the movie, Worst Non-Photoshopping When Photoshopping Was Necessary?
Unscariest Poster for a Scary Movie:
Dying Breed
Runner-Up: One Missed Call
Worst Backtracking:
August
Ummm... they went from a poster that told you enough to one that doesn't tell you a thing other than "Josh Hartnett wears clothes in this movie" and who wants that, honestly?
Worst False Advertising:
Sex and Death 101
Bridget Fonda circa the early '90s is not in this movie!
Worst "Empty Space" Offender:
Revolutionary Road
Most Unappealing Poster:
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Ugh, why would I want to see this smug-looking piece of garbage?
The "This Deserves a Better Poster" Award:
WHERE DO WE START?!?
Milk, Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Rachel Getting Married, Changeling... etc etc. What a terrible terrible year for Oscar movies and their posters. Literally all of the above were dreadful!
~~-~-~~
The First Annual Showgirls Honourary Award for Brilliance in the Face of Ineptitude in Poster Design:
Whore
~~-~-~~
And that's that, folks. I can't be bothered doing any more because I'll go blind. What did you think? Did I miss anything? Speak up in the comments, please!
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