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tartley.comAgainst my better judgement I couldn’t help but snag a torrent of this. Sure enough, as the opening credits kicked in, my housemates assured us it was rubbish. But then what happened is that I proceeded to love it. Clearly it polarises. The whole thing is shot in a shaky handicam held by one of [...]
The Earth obligingly stood still for us twice this week, on back-to-back nights. In each, a lone alien man arrives in a spaceship with his giant robot buddy Gort, to tell humans that they must mend their destructive ways or be destroyed. The 1951 version was very Fifties – intrusively hopeless special effects, and seems [...]
Directed: The Coen Brothers, 1996. Some brilliant performances, some lovely moments. Emminently watchable. Interesting point, I don’t know about Fargo itself, or The Dakotas, but the fine residents of Minnesota will insist that they neither sound or act like the depicted characters, which is of course absolutely charming. (love you guys! :-)
Director: Andrew Stanton I resisted for quite a while, expecting cloying superficiality. I was wrong. Or at least I like this kind of cloying superficiality. Clearly made with love by a truly dedicated army of master artisans. Featuring sound effects from the same guru sound guy who worked on the original Star Wars, along with [...]
Director: Brian de Palma (1983) Oh, I don’t know, my expectations were too high or something. I expected an intense study of greed, corruption and criminal will. Maybe I’m desensitized. All I found was that it frequently descends into simply camp 1970s gunfight scenes. Amusing to note the influences it has had on other media, [...]
There is, of course, no point whatsoever in me posting a belated review of the Simpsons Movie, which I and everyone else gleefully watched many months ago now. To the now long abandoned discussions of its merit I have absolutely nothing of value to contribute. However, that shall not dissuade me from posting this one [...]
It got a right drubbing critically, and was a box-office failure, but I found it powerful and compelling. It may not be crafted with the greatest finesse, but nevertheless it raises interesting and powerful questions, of the competence of our leaders in war, of the culpability of the media in towing the line, and of [...]
