Category Archives: Film

Brad Williams is an inveterate film buff who also writes for WhatCulture.com

Matt King (George Clooney) is a man with a lot on his plate. Sole custodian of the proverbial family gold mine, all eyes are on Matt as the deadline approaches to sell off a massive plot of Hawaiian land. To make matters worse, one month ago his wife was in a boating accident, leaving her in a coma ever since. Life before the accident was rocky and unfulfilling, but now Matt has to become the father he never knew how to be, the husband he always should have been, and the man his father always intended. Read the rest of this entry →

I unfortunately was so ridiculously busy this year that I didn’t see that many movies, listen to that much music or do much at all except work. However in the spirit of new beginnings I’m hoping this year will be quite different. In that spirit I’m going to list my top anticipated films of the new year.

Feel free to call me an idiot for my picks. Or just add in your own.

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Ever since I saw Orlando Bloom listed as “Legolas” on the IMDb page, I have been a bit worried, and seeing the now-released trailer further substantiated my growing concern: The very thing that made The Lord of the Rings films so great is being abandoned, and puts The Hobbit at risk of suckitude. Read the rest of this entry →

As you all know the new Bond film, Skyfall, is in production at the moment. I loved the first Craig film – a reasonably faithful adaptation of Casino Royal. It had several of my favorite action set pieces in a Bond film. It took a franchise that had become stale decades earlier and made it compelling. Many compared it to the Bourne films which clearly were an influence. However what made Royal so great was what it did differently from Bourne. It was more a revisioning of the classic aspects of Connery’s Bond from the 60′s as well as many aspects of Ian Flemming’s own life and failings as a spy during and immediately after WWII.

The sequel was a grave disappointment to many people, myself included. I must confess that I liked it far better upon a second viewing in my home theatre system. (See the Kulturblog discussion here) The action was aping Bourne far more than before but was so frenetic that one couldn’t follow what was going on. The witty dialog of Royal was gone. There were many scenes which were best described as “cockamamie” — perhaps better suited for Roger Moore than Craig. (For example the overly flammable hotel in the desert)

I was worried that the franchise would experience a rapid fall off from a good start. Much as what happened with Peirce Brosnan’s Bond. Ironically also given a great start by the same director: Martin Campbell. A director who seems able to only do his best work with Bond as Green Lantern and most of his other films attest. (Although I have to confess I did like the first Zoro as a guilty pleasure)

An interview with Craig linked to on Twitter and a few other places has made me rethink Quantum of Solace though.

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A caveat: I am francophile.  I acknowledge this conflict of interests here because I want to put it to one side in order to gush unashamedly about ‘The Artist’.

Perhaps the least surprising thing about Christmas this year is the success of ‘The Artist’.  It has already won the ‘New York Film Critics Circle Award’ for Best Film and is a good bet for a nod at this years Oscars.  In fact, after seeing it the other night, I will be surprised if it is not nominated in categories across the board.  It is, without doubt, wonderful. Read the rest of this entry →

Over the weekend I was reading John Scalzi’s blog. (He wrote Old Man’s War among many other excellent books) Scalzi is largely responding to that Wired article last week about how movies get falling into lava all wrong. (They always make the viscosity the same as water whereas lava is viscous enough that you wouldn’t sink in) One of the examples used was Gollum from the end of Lord of the Rings. Scalzi thinks this is silly, saying:

In a film with spiders of physically impossible size, talking trees, ugly warriors birthed out of mud and a disembodied malevolence causing a ring to corrupt the mind of anyone who wears it (and also turn them invisible), we’re going to complain that the lava is not viscous enough?

Now I know a lot of people are in Scalzi’s camp on this. I disagree though.

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Well we are now in Christmas movie season. No I don’t mean those horrible cheap “feel good” seasonal movies all over Lifetime, ABC Family or the like that hearken back to the golden days of the 70′s. Rather I mean the big blockbusters targeting everyone. We’re already well into the season with the latest Twilight film being #1 for something like three weeks running. There’s Muppet fever and even Martin Scorsese is in the act.

What have you seen? What did you hate? What are you most looking forward to? After a fairly disappointing summer will the winter films do better?

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Andrea Arnold is the director of the new, and critically acclaimed, version of Wuthering Heights but she also directed Fish Tank, which won the BAFTA for Best British Film.  Because Arnold is an up-and-coming British director, highlighting some of her past work seems worthwhile, especially for an American audience that may have missed her second feature film. Read the rest of this entry →

My wife is going to tease me for admitting this, but I’m a fan of the Linklater-Delpy-Hawke story that is Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. For the first film it’s mostly because it’s set in Vienna, a city which has absorbed three years of my own life. Plus, who doesn’t dream in their younger years of exciting romances enjoyed via Interrail tickets?

The sequel is a remarkable example of a mostly ad-libbed character piece set nine years after that night in Vienna. Delpy and Hawke shine and you yearn for a cosmos which will allow them their life together rather than the jaded, thirty-something malaise into which they have slipped.

Now we hear that a third film is a possibility.  May Jesse and Celine have better luck this time.