Archive
MEET THE SPARTANS – Christopher Lennertz
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
These ‘instant spoof’ movies – Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie and the like – are becoming so tiresome. They wore out their welcome a long time ago, but nevertheless the studios keep churning them out, so someone, somewhere, must like them. Meet the Spartans is the latest such rehash, taking potshots at films such as 300, Spiderman III, Shrek and Ghost Rider – all of which were clearly rife for ridicule (not). Kevin Sorbo, Sean Maguire (a long way from Grange Hill) and Carmen Electra slum it in the cast; Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer direct.
The irony of all this is that Christopher Lennertz’s score is entirely serious – as Elmer Bernstein showed, the best way to score comedy is to not treat it like a comedy – and ends up actually being better than a lot of the scores for the movies this film lampoons Read more…
RAMBO – Brian Tyler
Original Review by Clark Douglas
John Rambo, that complex-political-symbol-turned-pulp-hero played by Sylvester Stallone, is finally back. After a long absence in which nobody really seemed to miss Rambo very much, Stallone has brought the character back to life in an attempt to quench the undying mild curiousity of his fans. His new effort is winning reviews similar to those that greeted the second and third Rambo films, and people generally seem a lot more cynical about seeing 60-year-old Rambo do battle in the jungle than they did about seeing 60-year-old Rocky do battle in a boxing ring. Read more…
UNTRACEABLE – Christopher Young
Original Review by Clark Douglas
Gregory Hoblit’s “Untraceable” was a film that seemed to be made with good intentions, but it never really worked. The film stars Diane Lane as an FBI Agent investigating a website that allows it’s visitors to help kill a victim. How? All they have to do is go to the website. The more hits it gets, the closer some innocent victim comes to their death. The film is essentially a disgusted sermon about our horrible, desensitized culture (which I agree with in principle), but it too willingly revels in the very depraved violence that it seems to be condemning. Read more…
Academy Award Nominations 2007
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 80th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2007.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- MARCO BELTRAMI for 3:10 to Yuma
- MICHAEL GIACCHINO for Ratatouille
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for Michael Clayton
- ALBERTO IGLESIAS for The Kite Runner
- DARIO MARIANELLI for Atonement
These are the first Oscar nominations for Beltrami and Giacchino. It is the 5th nomination for Howard, the 2nd nomination for Iglesias, and the 2nd nomination for Marianelli. None of the nominees have ever won an Academy Award before
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- GLEN HANSARD and MARKÉTA IRGLOVÁ for “Falling Slowly” from Once
- JAMAL JOSEPH, CHARLES MACK, and TEVIN THOMAS for “Raise It Up” from August Rush
- ALAN MENKEN and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted
- ALAN MENKEN and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “So Close” from Enchanted
- ALAN MENKEN and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted
The winners of the 80th Academy Awards will be announced on February 24, 2008.
CLOVERFIELD – Michael Giacchino
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A silly but enjoyable monster movie written by JJ Abrams (the creator of Lost) and directed by Matt Reeves, Cloverfield stars Mike Vogel, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Odette Yustman and Michael Stahl-David as a group of young twenty-somethings in New York who, while attending a going-away party, become the unwitting observers of a catastrophe when a huge monster of indeterminate origin begins attacking the city. The film then unfolds in pseudo-documentary fashion, as video taped on a hand held camera by one of the group, as they make their way across the increasingly devastated downtown Manhattan, trying to make their way to safety. Read more…
27 DRESSES – Randy Edelman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A breezy romantic comedy starring Grey’s Anatomy’s Katherine Heigl and directed by Anne Fletcher, 27 Dresses is a film about a perennial ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’. After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, Jane Nichols (Heigl) finally resigns herself to her matrimony-less fate when her sister Tess (Malin Åkerman) accepts a proposal of marriage from her boss George (Edward Burns), whom Jane secretly loves. Into the situation comes reporter Kevin (James Marsden), a frustrated serious journalist stuck covering the society pages, and who has a view of marriage as cynical as Jane’s. Of course, this being a romantic comedy, it’s not difficult to predict what happens next. Read more…
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