Monthly Archives: March 2011

A sword-slashing trailer arrives for Takashi Miike’s “13 Assassins”

Posted on March 31, 2011 by | Leave a comment

In 2002, Quentin Tarantino helped bring a marital-arts epic to the big screen, Yimou Zhang’s Hero. Starring Jet Li, the film featured a group of assassins desperately attempting to kill a tyrannical lord and in 2010,  Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) created a similar themed film, 13 Assassins.

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David Fincher Filmography Mash-Up

Posted on March 30, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Previously The Filmsmith brought you the Christopher Nolan filmography video that cleverly teased out the themes of Nolan’s films, and the image system within which he works.  Now we have a slick video of David Fincher’s filmography created by Kees van Dijkhuizen.

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DVD Tuesday: Made in Dagenham

Posted on March 29, 2011 by | 1 comment

In 2008, Sally Hawkins proved herself to be a strong actress with her daring performance in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky. She has appeared in various small, but important, roles since then–none of which have allowed her the space to achieve a similar performance. While she doesn’t quite reach the standard set three years ago, her newest starring role is really something to behold. Made in Dagenham is something of a return to form for Hawkins, and a reassuring promise that great things are yet to come. Continue reading →

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Trailer for single-take horror feature, “The Silent House”

Posted on March 28, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Decoupage-filmmaking, shooting a film with long takes between cuts, has been in play well before Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope or Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. But then in 2002, the world was amazed as Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov created the first feature-length single-take film, Russian Ark and in 2010 director Gustavo Hernández accomplished a similar feat, filming a 78-minute single-take horror film entitled The Silent House.

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Rango an animated comedy western – for adults

Posted on March 27, 2011 by | 1 comment

As I entered screen number 13 for Rango, I noticed the plethora of chattering children.  And when the trailers flashed one animated film after another, vying for the audience’s adoration with cheap laughs and the presentation of cute characters of varying formations (bunnies, birds, and bears), people chuckled and “Awww-ed” right where the marketing teams wanted.  Then Rango started up and this 24-year-old man laughed his way through the picture while children sat in silence and parents thought, “What the f*ck did I bring my offspring to?” Continue reading →

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If Movie Posters Were Honest

Posted on March 26, 2011 by | Leave a comment

When I’m not browsing The New York Times‘ website to find out about the latest despot killing his protesters in the Middle East, I go to Cracked.com for lighter fare.*  They posted an item called “If movie posters were honest” and here are the best ones. Continue reading →

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Sucker Punch: The U.S. re-makes Pan’s Labyrinth

Posted on March 25, 2011 by | 3 comments

Tarantino is regularly accused of producing films that are as artistically nutritious as a family size bag of potato chips.  I’ve written before about why I violently disagree with such assessments, because that crown belongs firmly upon the head of director Zack Snyder, whose latest film is a PG-13 fetish fantasy flick. Continue reading →

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Cinematic Television

Posted on March 24, 2011 by | 2 comments

I have already written extensively on a couple of miniseries this year that have blurred the line between cinema and television (Red Riding Trilogy, Carlos). Many directors are turning to this format as a way to expand the possibilities of cinema, and as a result, we are experiencing what may in the future be referred to as the definitive golden age of TV. HBO has raised the bar on series like The Wire and The Sopranos, and AMC is right on their heels with Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Some of these shows are just damn good television, but in a few instances there is little to distinguish between the big and small screens. Here are a few of those instances. Continue reading →

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“Superman: Man of Steel” goes the route of “Batman Begins”

Posted on March 23, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Superman’s tale can be difficult to deliver for a couple of reasons: first, his Kryptonian tale has been done to death; second, it’s difficult to portray an invincible character audiences can relate to. Many place the Richard Donner Superman films as superior to anything Hollywood has produced since, but Zack Snyder’s version of Superman may yet have hope of matching the status of the originals. Set to star Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Henry Cavill as Jonahan, Marth, and Clark Kent (respectively), Snyder’s version is star-studded. But the real reason it may succeed where others have failed is that Snyder has one of the greatest minds in the business backing him–Christopher Nolan.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt may play Alberto Falcone in “The Dark Knight Rises”

Posted on March 23, 2011 by | Leave a comment

When Christopher Nolan’s Inception hit theaters last year, Joseph Gordon-Levitt impressed mainstream audiences who hadn’t seen his indie-film dramas. Many Nolan fans were left eagerly hoping that JGL would land a role in The Dark Knight Rises; after many months of speculation and rumors, it’s finally been confirmed that he has indeed landed a role in the film.  But which one?

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