Archive for the ‘action’ Category
Author: Colin
Action!
I have seen the best film ever made. The only problem is that this wasn’t it. It is, however, an action movie that tries quite hard to make you believe it’s a spoof of an action movie – but I certainly don’t mean that in a bad way. Yes, there certainly will be people out there who will enjoy picking holes in this movie; the cheesey dialogue, the seemingly endless supply of bullets and grenades available to our heroes, a plot so thin you can see daylight through it and an array of über-macho blokes doing what the Americans so fittingly describe as ‘blowing shit up’. Did I like it? Yeah, of course I did.
Author: James
A+
Don’t you just love it when a remake comes together?
Revisions, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), have been getting rather bad press of late, largely because most of them have suffered somewhat from being crap.
Deep joy, then, when a director (Joe Carnahan, he of the excellent Smokin’ Aces (2006)) first-time writer (Brian Bloom) and an ensemble cast led by Liam Neeson combine to offer an action flick that engages guts, brains and funny bone – and the result would be The A-Team (2010).
Author: Eleanor
Super-heroic stuff
Another day, another Picturenose recruit. We are delighted to welcome talented young author Eleanor Salter to the fold, with her take on the latest comic-book adaptation.
By now, nearly everyone must have seen or heard of Kick-Ass (2010) via its clever advertising and the famous actors in the cast, and the hype leading up to the release of one of the biggest films of the year was well worth it. The actors include Aaron Johnson (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)), Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider (2007), World Trade Center (2006)), Mark Strong (Stardust (2007), Sherlock Holmes (2009)) and 13-year-old Chloë Grace Moretz ((500) Days of Summer (2009), Bolt (2008)).
Author: James
Light, bright night
Picturenose is delighted to welcome Otilia Ilie to our reviewing team, who opens her account with her take on a date with a difference.
From Shawn Levy, director of The Pink Panther (2006) and Night at the Museum (2006) comes a funny, light action-comedy – Date Night (2010). Claire (Tina Fey) and Phil (Steve Carell) Foster are “just a boring, married couple from New Jersey” who decide to add some spice to their marriage with a ‘different’ sort of date.
Author: James
Wielders of Mass Deception
Paul Greengrass’s cinematic deconstruction (and destruction) of the reasons why the US went to war in Iraq.
For me, Paul Greengrass fell from favour more than a little with his previous film, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – after the slick, high-pitched excitement of The Bourne Supremacy (2004), the gritty, hand-held, POV, faux-documentary approach did not sit well at all with an action franchise drawing favourable comparisons with Bond.
Author: Colin
sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I grew up a fan of the graphic novel, having cut my teeth on Marvel and DC comics. I appreciated that it was possible to tell an engaging and adult story in comic format and the pinnacle of this renaissance for me was when a friend bought me the graphic novel Watchmen for my birthday. Alan Moore’s story and Dave Gibbons’s art made the story by turns dramatic, amusing and pithy. Then Zack Snyder came along and turned the whole thing into an introspective and smug piece of shit.
Author: James
Mythic
Things have certainly come some way since the last time your reviewer donned an extra pair of glasses to complement his own for a movie – writer Stephen King, who is very short-sighted, once declared that if 3D ever came back to cinemas in a big way, he was going to invest in a pair of prescription lenses, one red, one blue.
Author: Colin
It’s a no-brainer
We love zombies here at Picturenose headquarters. From the sublime and groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead (1968), through the witty and respectful Shaun of the Dead (2004) to the contentious Zack Snyder remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004). Why contentious? Because I thought it was crap, that’s why. Running zombies? I don’t think so.
Author: Emma
Top Gere?
Richard Gere was back in uniform just three years after Yanks (1979) as trainee naval aviator Zack Mayo in this blockbuster about the gritty life of officer training college.
Mayonnaise, as his drill sergeant calls him, is determined to pass flight school and head off for a glittering career without a woman in tow after watching his booze-soaked navy skivvy father get his leg over a legion of prostitutes.
Author: Colin
Flat Beat
I got this movie for €5 in amongst a slew of other rare finds. I think I paid around €4.75 too much for it. Naturally, I was excited to get this critically acclaimed film for an absolute steal of a price and in the original, non-dubbed format. Joy. The only slight problem I have with the film having watched it, is that it’s just about the most boring and pointless films I have ever seen. And I mean that. I can’t think of one that comes close to this in the tedium stakes.
- Colin: Mike: the Matrix was utter toss. Don’t go there. Anyhow, I’m right with you on Aliens –...
- Colin: James: Why not do ten more and see if you can avoid putting the god-awful travesty that is Independence Day in...
- CD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (it’s about an alien who is Jesus…but better than ET) Soylent Green...
- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose!
Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that... - James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.