Monday 7 July 2008

Monday musing

Been AWOL for the last few days, the consequence of meetings, work and watching movies (among them Hancock, Diary Of The Dead and Sorcerer). Hope to get back to a more regular posting schedule this week so please bear with me. In the meantime, couldn't let this moment pass without reference to a few things.

1) Variety's rave of The Dark Knight. I got my invite in the post on Saturday but the screening still seems too far away.

2) The poster for the BFI Southbank's Comic Movie Season was drawn by the legendary Brian Bolland. I asked. He said yes. Hurrah!

3) Tickets for August's comic book movies are now available.

4) This is brilliant.

6 comments:

Gerard said...

How's Hancock? For some reason I have no interest in it whatsoever despite my thinking it's a pretty cool idea.

I bought Diary on R1 import as there's still no Australian release confirmed. I like. It didn't wow my face off, but it's solid, funny and gory. Makes for a nice, quick double with Cloverfield, too.

Mark Salisbury said...

Hancock's interesting but has problems. I too had no interest in it, but then heard there was a "twist" that was getting some critics in a tizzy and felt like checking it out. It's short, reasonably fun, but the "twist" is both well telegraphed and obvious when you think about the presence of a certain Oscar winner in the movie.

As for Diary, I'd read so many reports that it was a return to form for Romero blah blah blah. Well, it's good but not great.

There are some terrific deaths (the half zombie head hanging from the tree is genius, as was the acid trick) but I'd still rate [REC] higher than either this or Cloverfield for using the found footage/video cam experience to its optimum. Plus [REC] is way scarier. Have you seen it?

Gerard said...

No! And I'm seriously dying to. I read your review in Total Film last month (yep - our stores are about two months behind on TF...) as well as your post on here a few months back and it inspired me to do some research. Everything I've read seems to mirror your feelings - a virtuosic use of the handheld gimmick amplified by some serious scares.

I'd not really read anything much about Diary, but then again, as said, it's yet to confirm any form of release here, so I enjoyed it plenty, but it's nothing incredible. A nice late nighter, really - not incredibly taxing, just entertaining and bloody. A perfectly decent zombie flick.

I might check out Hancock yet. I assume you refer to Charlize Theron's character? If I can squeeze it in sometime, I probably will. I'm just so damn busy lately. And I daresay most of next week's moviegoing hours shall be spent with another superhero entirely...

Mark Salisbury said...

Yep. Twas Theron I was talking about. Sorry, maybe I was being a tad spoilerific, but I'd been debating how to write about the movie since I saw it.

Hearing such polar responses to it was, along with the twist, the only reason I went. I could be wrong, but it seemed to me to be a superhero movie from people who don't really like them. When the likes of Miller and Moore get all twisty and subversive with the genre, you know they're doing it from the point of view of love. Here, I don't know.

I was hoping to read the original script, Tonight, He Comes which was floating around the net last week, before posting, but just haven't found the time.

The Dark Knight can't come soon enough.

Gerard said...

I actually downloaded that sccript a few nights ago but can't remember where I saved the damn thing. At any rate, I'll not read it until I've either seen Hancock or decided I'm not going to bother.

I know what you mean about Miller and Moore, and the love is what makes their work so outstanding. I think you've actually nailed why I'v not managed to muster any interest in Hancock beyond wanting to see what all the fuss is about - it really doesn't seem like there's any love for the genre at work.

And that it most assuredly can't. I was emailed invites to a few screenings today and was CERTAIN one would be for The Dark Knight as Village Roadshow (TDK's Aus dstributor) has a few screenings on the list. Alas, it's not to be. I'm calling in sick on Wednesday though :D Also have a ticket for a Batman Begins/Dark Knight double next Sunday. Awesome.

Matt Jones said...

Caught HANCOCK last night-it's a miracle the 'twist' has not been spoiled by the media. I found it pretty mediocre-Theron is the strongest part of it. Some lame fx work don't you think?