Дата: Воскресенье, 07 Авг 2011, 11:41 | Сообщение # 76
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хвалебная рецензия на фильм "Ковбои и пришельцы"
Movie Review: Cowboys & Aliens
Cowboys and Aliens is a good movie, a really good movie. However, if you’re looking for a sci-fi movie set in the Old West you may be disappointed because at its heart Cowboys and Aliens is a western. It may have a side order of sci-fi, with alien bad guys instead of outlaws or cattle rustlers, but this movie is definitely a western, albeit an unconventional one.
You do get cool spaceships and lasers and nasty ET’s sprinkled in among the horses and the six-shooters, but the storyline is straight out of the western genre. An outsider (Daniel Craig) wanders into town, stirs up some trouble, and gets himself arrested. Then the bad guys shoot up the town with glowing lasers and flying ships, in order to kidnap hapless townsfolk. The survivors eventually band together to form a rescue posse and go off to bring back the abducted, meeting bandits and Indians along the way.
The director, Jon Favreau, does an excellent job of bringing together the disparate elements in a solid plot that manages to weave the sci-fi elements into the narrative convincingly; the idea of aliens being thought of as demons by the people in town was both realistic and amusing. The film also has a stellar cast playing the classic roles, including an outstanding Daniel Craig as the amnesiac outlaw turned reluctant hero, Harrison Ford as the grizzled, severe cattle baron, and Sam Rockwell as the ineffectual greenhorn; they all mesh well to give the movie some emotional depth.
Cowboys and Aliens is an enjoyable film, filled with fun dialogue, shootouts, fights, and rollicking western action, sci-fi style.
Дата: Воскресенье, 07 Авг 2011, 11:55 | Сообщение # 77
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Saturday, August 06, 2011 Cowboys & Aliens So we went to see Cowboys and Aliens. Afterward, we never discussed whether we thought it was a good movie or not, which is telling. I didn't think it was horrible, but certainly not good. Not something I'll want to watch again.
Mostly we discussed little pieces of the film. My dad appreciated the diverse array of firearms, rather than everyone carrying the same thing, but felt the various leather gear (saddles, gunbelts) looked far too new. He thought Harrison Ford, Clancy Brown, and Olivia Wilde all knew how to ride horses properly (well, proper cowboy style), but some of the others didn't. He figures if Craig had done any riding prior to this, it was probably English style, so that might explain his tendency to bounce on the saddle. I thought Harrison Ford spent most of the movie walking funny, as though his boots didn't fit. My dad countered that Ford's pretty old, and riding a horse will make you look old. I haven't ridden horses, so I defer to his farmboy judgment.
Watching the film, I wondered why the aliens bothered to examine humans, if they consider us insects. I suppose we examine insects for more efficient means of killing them, but I think the aliens had it pretty well figured out. They just needed to be more careful with their stuff. I couldn't figure out why Ella (Wilde's character) didn't bring anything with her to help. Sje must have used some sort of advanced technology to make it here, she couldn't bring her own blasty weapons? Why did they dump the steamboat in the middle of the desert? They couldn't take what they wanted from it on the river, they had to drag it 500 miles first?
For a species Ella says don't like the light, there certainly had no compunctions about rushing out in the middle of the day to kill people during the climactic battle? Why do that? yes, the annoying humans damaged their flight deck/hanger, but wait until night to come out and kill them. Then they'd have the advantage, or force the humans to try and come in and fight on the aliens' turf.
Mostly while I was watching, I was thinking of how certain things reminded me of other movies. The opening shot going from a panning long shot to an abrupt closeup reminded me of the open of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. When one of the aliens got very close to the kid's face, I thought of Sigourney Weaver in Aliens 3, and the aliens having a chest cavity that opens so they can reach out with two other arms was reminiscent of Independence Day. When the spaceship lifts off, I thought of Apollo 13*. For some reason, Craig blasting away with that wrist cannon made me think of Mega Man. OK, that's not a movie, and Doom was probably a more apt comparison, but I liked Mega Man 4 more than Doom 2. It's my brain, I'll make the connections I want.
My dad thought there were two bits that referenced Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when Craig meets his old gang, and when he and Wilde crawl out of the water after a crash landing.
I think that sums the movie up pretty well, really. It felt like it was pieced together from other, better films. Well, Independence Day isn't a better film, but the others are. Part of the films' failing is it takes too long to care about the characters. When the aliens abduct people, we haven't seen those characters enough to care they were taken. In the case of Harrison Ford's son, I was quite glad to see him gone. But we also haven't spent enough time with the characters who chose to pursue the aliens to care about them, or their loved ones. Some of that develops as we go along, but the movie would have been better served with more early character development, and fewer shots of Olivia Wilde staring intently at Daniel Craig.
Seriously, there were far too many of those shots in the first half-hour. And even that reminded me of another film, because it was like all those intense looks Chalize Theron gave Will Smith in Hancock, which were also irritating.
* I also thought of a cover to a DC comic I saw advertised in my dad's comics. A cowboy's on the ground, sprawled across his downed horse, watching a massive rocketship either take off or land amidst some skirmish. I'll have to poke through the comics I kept, see if it's advertised in them anywhere.
Cowboys, aliens and Daniel Craig DANIEL Craig is finally playing a cowboy, but still doesn't talk about himself, writes LISA MARKS WESTERNS may be an endangered movie genre but at the 15,000ha Paws-Up ranch in Montana, cowhands in Stetsons still tend to their cattle.
It's here that Daniel Craig, the star of Cowboys & Aliens, a movie mash-up like no other, strides across the lawn of one of the estate's colonial-style cottages.
Looking taut and purposeful, his face appears rugged, punctured only by his piercing blue eyes and boyish blond hair.
Though his smile is charming, there's a pervasive sense of danger. His Cowboys & Aliens director Jon Favreau has called him the "Steve McQueen of his generation".
And for good reason. He has a unique screen presence and takes no prisoners on or off-screen.
Notoriously private, Craig displays quirks above and beyond the usual A-list paranoia. Congratulated on his recent hush-hush wedding to actress Rachel Weisz, he smiles but remains tight-lipped.
He positions a camera away from him because "he doesn't want to end up on the internet" and refuses a request for a photo.
He offers a simple explanation for his wariness.
"Talking to the press is part of the process," he says.
"I'm making movies that have to make money so I have to sell them. Fun making it, but selling it is what it's about."
His honesty feels like a punch in the face but at the same time it's refreshing. "My private life is my private life and, as I go on, I become more and more private," he says.
That's not to say Craig is completely humourless.
When asked about his free time, he deadpans: "I never have any free time and, if I do, I spend it with friends and family.
"I don't go fishing or sew. OK, I admit, there's some needlepoint at the weekend."
Joking aside, his role as Jake Lonergan, the mysterious gunslinger, alongside Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde and a fistful of CGI aliens, is a risky move.
"This isn't a movie for the critics," he says. But he loved the project from the start.
"The script really turned me on to this and it looked fun," he admits. "Plus, I always wanted to play a cowboy."
He was a relative newcomer to horse-riding and had to work hard to keep up with his experienced co-stars. "I just tried to cling on for grim death," he says, laughing.
If Cowboys & Aliens is a success, it'll be his third franchise; he starts shooting a new Bond movie in November, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo based on the popular Stieg Larsson novels, is set for an end-of-year release.
"It is extraordinary but I try not to think about it too much."
It seems that keeping his head down has enabled him to navigate showbusiness. "I don't know what being a movie star means," he says.
"All I wanted to do was make a living out of acting and I've managed to do that. I never considered another job."
Дата: Вторник, 09 Авг 2011, 23:22 | Сообщение # 78
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Cowboys and Aliens not up to expectations
Jeffrey McGullion Roanoke Classic Movies Examiner
The problem with a movie titled Cowboys and Aliens is that it had better deliver big time. A title that blatant and bold fills movie goers with anticipation for something truly spectacular and apprehension for a total disaster. There can really be no in-between. Or so one would think. Sadly, that can't be possible in-between is where Cowboys and Aliens falls. While it by no means is anywhere near the abysmally bad depths of the similar titled Snakes on a Plane, it fails to reach the heights of great movie fun. It ambles rather than thunders into Roanoke's Carmike 10, Valley View Grande 16, and Grandin Theatre as well as the Salem Valley 8.
Director Jon Favreau fails to find the focus, style, and action-adventure magic that made his big screen version of Iron Man such a hit. The opening long western landcape pan that eventually finds Daniel Craig unfortunately foreshadows the mostly slow struggling-to-find-its-place pacing of the entire movie. And there are never really any big moments in the film but rather several scenes of typical competently executed action that never really get our adrenaline pumping.
However, it must be noted that Favreau and stars Craig and Harrison Ford did not have much to work with. Five writers are credited with the screenplay and four others contributed with story and source material. And this is the best the whole team could come up with: Harrison Ford plays a not so nice cattle rancher looking to bust his jerk of a son (Paul Dano) out of jail but space aliens who have been abducting people and stealing gold upset his plans and kidnap his son and some other folks.
Not sure what to make of that? Neither were the filmmakers. The movie never firmly establishes a tone. While there are many laughs, it's not a comedy or parody. For the most part it takes itself quite seriously, but not enough so as to be truly scary or exciting or full fledged action-adventure. What that leaves for the viewer is frustration.
The most pleasant surprise Cowboys and Aliens provides is two wonderful yet all too brief performances from Keith Carrradine as the Sheriff and Clancy Brown as Meacham the preacher. Ford and Craig are completely forgettable but Carradine and Brown bring an ease, naturalness and energy to their roles that give them authenthicity and make them stand out from the pack.
Cowboys and Aliens is far from being a bad movie, but it is sure to disappoint most Roanoke movie goers. Oh what might have been and woe what is sadly lacking.
Дата: Понедельник, 17 Окт 2011, 08:59 | Сообщение # 79
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Review: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn
Spielberg's latest effort sees a return to form after the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a beautiful, exciting action packed family adventure.... Tintin is Spielberg’s latest action packed romp fit for all the family. The film has been in development for a good many years using motion capture technology made famous by Robert Zemericks, but Tintin is a long way off the glassy-eyed uncanny valley efforts seen previously. Many people have perhaps wondered why Spielberg and Jackson chose to use motion capture ahead of live action and the reason is simple, not only are they able to present stylised characters true to Hergé's original designs but also feature fun over the top action which would simply come across as cheesy in a live action affair. The film is quite simply stunning to look at and the 3D never felt tacky and was there to supplement the superb CGI. There’s a playful humour littered throughout the film, which treads the line between serious and fun perfectly without feeling too forced or ridiculous.
Combining the stories of The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure, the film depicts Tintin's (Jamie Bell) first encounter with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) as they race against the dastardly Sakharine (Daniel Craig) to discover the truth behind Sir Francis Haddoque and the legend of The Unicorn.
The film quickly kicks into high gear and rarely lets up, it truly is an adventure film from the get go, with not a dull moment in sight. The only problem I had with this was that I felt it perhaps caused some characterisation to suffer a bit, with Tintin’s motivations perhaps lacking at times. Despite this the protagonists have a charm and likeability which has you rooting for them the whole way through, and I am glad that they avoided the origin root so many films go for with Tintin’s backstory being told quickly and succinctly through framed newspaper articles.
As for the voice cast, Jamie Bell puts in a great performance as Tintin, whilst Nick Frost and Simon peg bring their comedic A-game to bumbling detectives Thompson and Thomson. However it is Andy Serkis’ turn as the drunkard Sea Captain Haddock who really steals the show with a truly inspired performance.
The real star of the film is Snowy, Tintin’s canine companion, who not only bails our heroes out of trouble (and near death) on several occasions but also puts Batman’s detective skills to shame more than once. The film doesn’t end on a quiff hanger as such (I am so terribly sorry but I couldn’t resist one hair related pun) but sets the scene for Jackson’s sequel and definitely leaves you wanting more. It might not be Spielberg’s greatest piece of cinematic work (I’m not even going to begin to think about what is) but once again he has brought something new to the cinematic table and shown why he is arguably the greatest director of the last 30 years. Will the film win any Oscars? Probably not (well maybe for visual effects) but it is a great fun action film for all the family with more than a twang of classic Indiana Jones in there, it really is a true comic book movie, and dare I say it possibly my CBM of the year (sorry Matthew Vaughn).
Дата: Понедельник, 17 Окт 2011, 09:01 | Сообщение # 80
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Review: Fun, frisky 'Tintin' pages Indiana Jones
Spielberg bounces back with high-energy foray into motion capture
You'd have been forgiven for thinking that Steven Spielberg had lost his fun gene after he last gifted our cinema screens, a distant-seeming three years ago, with the dismal "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull": a soulless, haphazardly crafted piece of directorial brand-whoring, in which Harrison Ford's eyes appeared deader than those of any mo-cap mannequin.
Tardily reviving a beloved franchise that seemed to have reached generational closure in its third instalment was always a dubious move -- but it acquires full-blown redundancy with the arrival of "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," a springy, souped-up entertainment whose ample boy's-own pleasures hew far closer to the original Indiana Jones template than that dim 2008 sequel.
Of course, the Tintin-Indy parallel is neither original nor accidental: Spielberg was allegedly first drawn to Belgian author-artist Hergé’s classic boy-adventurer comics 30 years ago, after some critics made the comparison in reviews of “Raiders of the Los Ark”; he’s held the film rights to the series, on and off, since 1983, himself visualising the films as “Indiana Jones for kids.”
He’s had a long time to think about it, to put it lightly, and that thought process is visibly up there on the screen: as lovingly detailed a homage to the director’s own past glories as to the source material itself, the film is perhaps most notable for its lack of tonal compromise, and occasionally hampered by an urge to translate as many facets of the Tintin phenomenon as the markedly trim 106-minute film can hold. (It’s worth noting that “Tintin” is the shortest theatrical feature of Spielberg’s career; if the rigors and restrictions of motion-capture technology are what’s making him work this tidily, then bring on the future.)
Many Hergé devotees, this writer included, may have expressed concerns about the stability of a marriage between Hollywood’s foremost purveyor of high-gloss, high-concept mass entertainment and the more quizzically European charms of the 1940s-set comics. What the American and the late Belgian share, however, is a story-loyal earnestness that serves the film well: the Tintin books were never as quippy or ironic as the comparable French-speaking Asterix franchise (when I was growing up, kids mostly sided with one or the other), characterised instead by the density of their mystery plots and the gentleness (wetness, detractors might say) of their humor. Never a filmmaker accused of great wit, Spielberg’s wide-eyed naïvete as a yarn-spinner is what protects the material from the dread threat of a winking postmodern makeover.
Such treatment did appear to be on the cards with the recruitment of hip British comedy merchants Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead”) and Joe Cornish (“Attack the Block”) to polish Steven Moffat’s initial screenplay, but the rollicking, action-heavy narrative scarcely offers breathing room for their more singular affectations. (One of them, an unprompted bestiality-themed joke involving sheep and sailors, strikes a decidedly odd note.) A grab-bag of story elements from three of Hergé’s books that sometimes leaves the seams exposed – as in a protracted and rhythmically misplaced flashback sequence of high-seas swashbuckling – the script is mostly content simply to follow Tintin, the boyish Brussels-based reporter-turned-detective realized here by Jamie Bell, around. He’s certainly busy enough: his quest on this occasion, zippy nonsense involving buried pirate’s booty that scarcely warrants description, takes him from Western Europe to the Sahara to Morocco and back again. In pursuit is Daniel Craig’s supercilious villain; in constant attendance are his two chief allies from throughout the series, sozzled Scottish seadog Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) and, of course, his little white mutt Snowy. (Fans may be disappointed by the rather cursory treatment meted out to recurring subsidiary characters, including bumbling detectives Thompson and Thomson and preening Milanese soprano Bianca Castafiore. Next time, perhaps.)
Only in detailing the circumstances of Tintin and Haddock’s acquaintance, and incorporating Marlinspike Hall, the grand Haddock family mansion that remains their joint home throughout the comics, does the film count as an origin story: for the most part, the uninitiated are blithely required to accept without explanation this family-free child-man’s curious career path.
(Perhaps as a nod to the character’s unlikely latter-day status as a gay icon, the script has some evasive fun with the question of Tintin’s sexuality, or lack thereof: “I’d rather you keep them on, thank you very much,” he primly replies to Haddock’s figurative line about being caught with his pants down, while a neighbor informs us that “Mr. Tintin has strictly no visitors after bedtime.”)
It’s all sufficiently propulsive that the motion-capture technology used to render this whole adventure becomes a less distinguishing hook than it might have been – which is as well, since for all its unprecedented state-of-the-art application here, the medium still demands occasional compromises in magic, notably in the area of character work. Tintin in particular, pastier and more physically edgeless than the wiry ginger of Hergé’s designs, isn’t the most appealing of presences. (Mo-cap king Andy Serkis, however, does prove that forceful voice work – this time with a lavish Scottish brogue – can override visual barriers.)
Still, the film’s smashing key set pieces – notably a gorgeous, breathless downhill chase through the streets and canals of Bagghar as thrilling as any live-action sequence from Spielberg’s oeuvre – fully justify this technological leap of faith, while also successfully adapting the distinctive flat-color textures of Hergé’s trademark ligne claire drawing style. It’s in these scenes, presumably the toughest for the director to build with these unfamiliar tools, that “The Adventures of Tintin” nonetheless feels most effortlessly Spielbergian, with John Williams’s insistently clangy score (most interesting when it creeps, “Catch Me If You Can”-style) a comfort even when it overbears. If any one image from the film sums up the assurance of this lickety-split franchise-starter, it’s the playful sight gag of Tintin’s trademark red quiff cutting through the ocean like a shark fin from “Jaws”: where Spielberg’s last film dispassionately clung to his popular legacy, this fresh, foreign inspiration gets him to include himself in the joke. http://www.hitfix.com/blogs....a-jones
Дата: Понедельник, 17 Окт 2011, 09:05 | Сообщение # 81
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The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn – review
It’s testament to either the genius of Hergé or the limitations of computer graphics – or more probably both – that two dots of ink from a Belgian cartoonist’s pen can express more wit and artistry than £82 million of the best 3D special effects Hollywood can conjure.
The difference, you see, is in the eyes. And in this first of three planned Tintin films by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the eyes do not have it – ‘it’ being that vital, twinkling difference that separates a character worth caring about from a dummy in a Debenhams’ shop window.
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (actually a mishmash of Unicorn and The Crab With The Golden Claws, with dashes of Red Rackham’s Treasure and other Hergé works thrown in) is a perfectly decent animated adventure, comparable to the better output of DreamWorks if perhaps not Pixar.
Using The Secret Of The Unicorn’s hunt for three scrolls as its starting point, the film hares from the cobbled streets of ... well, wherever it is Tintin lives, to the fictional Moroccan port of Bagghar and back, via the high seas and the Sahara desert, without ever pausing for breath. Hot on the tail of the young reporter and his faithful (and very well-animated) dog Snowy, is Sakharine (Daniel Craig), whose role has been expanded here from model ship-collecting oddball to ruthless international crook. While Tintin’s breakneck pace is totally at odds with the spellbinding logic of Hergé’s books and the irresistible bounce and flow of Spielberg’s own Indiana Jones movies, it often works in the film’s favour. A terrific motorbike chase through a Moroccan marketplace, presented in one impossible, continuous take, should impress the stuffiest 3D refuseniks and capture even the shortest attention spans. Likewise, an hallucinatory sequence that brings galleons crashing through the moonlit Saharan dunes is pure blockbusting spectacle.
But there’s a mechanistic quality to Spielberg’s craft that’s undoubtedly disappointing: a film directed by one such distinctive artist and based on the work of another shouldn’t feel like it could have been made by almost anyone.
The main personality-stifler is the film’s use of performance capture; the method by which the cast’s movements and expressions have been translated into computer-generated visuals. However much more successful the technique is here than it has been elsewhere, crucially it’s not successful enough: even if Jamie Bell wasn’t so monotonously earnest as Tintin, he’d still look about as conscious as a bollard with a quiff.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also disappoint as the inept sleuths Thomson and Thompson, but through no fault of their own: the soupy physicality of the CG world and Spielberg’s restive camerawork saps their slapstick of rhythm and impact. Only Andy Serkis, a performance capture veteran, convincingly breathes life into his character’s pixels, delivering a full-blooded and frequently hilarious turn as Tintin’s sozzled ally Captain Haddock.
The script, co-written by Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat and British filmmakers Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, is well-intentioned but misjudged, occasionally falling back on facile screenwriter-ese (“The bad news is we’ve only got one bullet!” “What’s the good news?” “We’ve got one bullet!”) and some very English here’s-one-for-the-dads innuendo. Both sit uneasily with the wry humanism and neat satire of the books: this is less an adaptation of Hergé’s writing than a kind of airless pastiche of it.
On its own terms, The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn is a success, although it’s debatable whether these are the terms on which every audience member will approach it. As a family-friendly adventure romp it ticks every box, but the unique appeal of the Tintin books does not lie in seeing boxes being ticked.
Famously, Spielberg only discovered Hergé’s work when a French critic called the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, an obvious homage to it. Even more famously, Hergé later said that Spielberg was the only director capable of successfully bringing it to the big screen. That probably remains true. But this film hasn’t done it. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture....ew.html
Дата: Понедельник, 17 Окт 2011, 09:08 | Сообщение # 82
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The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Steven Spielberg was apparently turned on to the Belgian comicstrip hero Tintin while making his first Indiana Jones films, so it seems entirely fitting that his motion-capture animation "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" should rep such a rollicking return to action-adventure form, especially after the disappointment of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Clearly rejuvenated by his collaboration with producer Peter Jackson, and blessed with a smart script and the best craftsmanship money can buy, Spielberg has fashioned a whiz-bang thrill ride that's largely faithful to the wholesome spirit of his source but still appealing to younger, Tintin-challenged auds. Pic should do thundering typhoon biz globally, but will whirl especially fast in Europe.
Paramount release is skedded to bow Oct. 22 in Euroland and then roll out worldwide, hitting North America just in time for Christmas. It's a canny distribution strategy that will maximize exposure and B.O. potential in the territories that know Belgian artist Herge's source material best, thereby building up a solid rep before the pic reaches the U.S., where Tintin is still effectively a cult figure, known mostly among comicbook fans and Europhile cognoscenti.
Early buzz on fan sites indicated that expectations weren't high for Spielberg's take on the material, given the arguably overused devices of 3D and motion-capture. Working hand-in-hand with Jackson, however, the director and his team have deployed both technologies with subtle finesse throughout, exploiting 3D's potential just enough to make the action scenes that much more effective without overdoing it; likewise, the motion-capture performances have been achieved with such exactitude they look effortless, to the point where the characters, with their exaggerated features, almost resemble flesh-and-blood thesps wearing prosthetic makeup.
Indeed, in the early going auds might wonder why the filmmakers bothered with motion-capture at all. But the choice starts to make sense once Snowy, Tintin's faithful white terrier, performs antics not even the best-trained pooch could perform and the sets, stunts and action sequences become ever more lavish.
Extreme Tintin purists might quibble that the screenplay, by all-Brit team Steven Moffat ("Doctor Who"), Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead") and Joe Cornish ("Attack the Block"), doesn't stick to the letter of Herve's original strips. But others will appreciate how skillfully it shuffles and restacks elements from three of the adventures: slices from "The Crab With the Golden Claws" (published in 1943), the lion's share from "The Secret of the Unicorn" and a wee bit from "Red Rackham's Treasure" (both published in 1945). The remainder of the latter book will presumably bedrock the inevitable sequel.
Accompanied by his mutt mate Snowy, boy reporter Tintin (voiced by and based on the movements of Jamie Bell) buys a scale model of an old ship called the Unicorn at an outdoor market in an unnamed city with both French and English writing on its storefronts -- a sly bit of fudging that tips its hat to the fact that the books were retranslated for every country they were published in. Two other men immediately try to repurchase the model off him, first sinister gent Sakharine (Daniel Craig) and then an American named Barnaby (Joe Starr).
Tintin refuses, and once he realizes the ship contains a vital clue about the location of missing treasure, the ever-inquisitive lad begins his adventure in earnest. Eventually he's kidnapped and spirited off to the Karaboudjan, a steamer nominally under the command of one Capt. Archibald Haddock (Andy Serkis), whose permanent state of inebriation has left him powerless against the machinations of Sakharine.
Haddock, it transpires, is the last remaining descendant of Sir Francis Haddock (also Serkis in flashbacks) a 17th-century naval commander who lost his ship, the Unicorn, in a battle with pirates led by Red Rackham (Craig). Tintin helps Haddock escape, and after a detour in the Sahara and a bravura chase through the fictional city of Bagghar, Morocco (all done in one shot), they make their way back to their point of origin. Along the way, they're aided and abetted by two bumbling, identical Interpol officers named Thomson and Thompson (Wright regulars Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, respectively), who aren't that critical to the plot but are helpful in terms of comic relief.
Aside from a crack about a shepherd said to have shown too much enthusiasm for animal husbandry, the humor throughout is resolutely PG-friendly, lacking in the knowing irony and snarky, anachronistic wisecracks that have become such predictable fixtures of other recent blockbusters and reboots. Spielberg largely honors the innocent, gung-ho tone of the original stories, with their air of boyish derring-do (femme characters barely feature at all here), sensibly shunning the racist and anti-Semitic elements that just won't wash with contempo auds. Result is retro without being stodgy or antiquated; Tintin himself, for instance, has a more mischievous glint in his eye than the wide-eyed naif of the strips, which makes him feel more modern, if curiously unplaceable in terms of age.
The worst that could be said of "The Secret of the Unicorn" is that the action is so relentless, it nearly comes to feel like a videogame as it leaps from one challenge to the next. Younger auds will embrace it more than older ones, although even teens may feel it lacks the kitsch majesty that made "Avatar" such a hit.
Toon geeks are likely to be among "Tintin's" biggest fans, so consistently stylish and richly detailed is its design work. With immense sensitivity, the animators have translated Herge's spare, elegant drawings into a multidimensional world that seems realistic (especially in its use of chiaroscuro lighting, which plays wonderfully with sunlight and shadows throughout) yet still charmingly stylized and cartoony. Perhaps the film's sweetest joke comes at the very beginning, when a street artist, modeled on the real Herge, does a quick-sketch portrait of Tintin that looks exactly like one of the original strips. (Deluxe color, widescreen, 3D); editor, Michael Kahn; music, John Williams; art director, Andrew Jones, Jeff Wisniewski; conceptual designers, Rebekha Tisch, Chris Guise; costume designer, Lesley Burkes-Harding; sound (DTS/SDDS/Dolby Digital), Rod Judkins; sound designer, Dave Whitehead; supervising sound editor, Chris Ward; re-recording mixers, Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Andy Nelson; animation supervisor, Jamie Beard; animation technical director, Shaun Friedberg "Pyrokinesis"; senior visual effects supervisor, Joe Letteri; visual effects supervisor, Scott E. Anderson; visual effects, Weta Digital; stunt coordinator, Garrett Warren; assistant director, Adam Somner; casting, Scot Boland, Victoria Burrows, Jina Jay. Reviewed at Odeon Leicester Square, London, Oct. 16, 2011. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 107 MIn
Дата: Понедельник, 17 Окт 2011, 18:07 | Сообщение # 83
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Praise for Spielberg-Jackson Tintin film
Steven Spielberg's collaboration with Sir Peter Jackson to put cartoon classic Tintin on the big screen has received mostly glowing reviews.
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, most of which was computer-generated by Weta Digital in Wellington, premieres on Saturday in Brussels before its first international release next week - also in Belgium, home country of Tintin's creator Herge.
Reviews from that country have been enthusiastic.
"Bull's eye," was the headline in the Dutch-language De Standaard newspaper, while the French language Le Soir called it "a pure jewel".
Film magazine Empire gave Tintin four out of five stars, saying it was "action-packed, gorgeous and faithfully whimsical".
Empire said co-producer Jackson had "cajoled a joie de cinema" from Spielberg, noting that whereas Jackson had been a "Tintin geek" since boyhood, Spielberg was a late convert.
"In effect, Spielberg landed the goofball sidekick with whom to traverse the globe, without leaving the studio," the magazine said.
Spielberg directed the cast including Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig in a Los Angeles studio.
They wore bodysuits covered in spots and, exploiting motion capture technology, Weta Digital converted their movements and expressions into animated film.
But two British papers have found fault in the animation.
The Guardian gave it only two stars, saying the film's human details are sorely wanting.
"How curious that Herge achieved more expression with his use of ink-spot eyes and humble line drawings than a bank of computers and an army of animators were able to achieve," it said.
The Daily Telegraph gave it three stars and also panned the computer graphics for eliciting less expression than two dots from the Belgian cartoonist's pen.
"The difference, you see, is in the eyes. And in this first of three planned Tintin films by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the eyes do not have it - it being that vital, twinkling difference that separates a character worth caring about from a dummy in a Debenhams shop window."
However, American entertainment magazine Variety differed.
"With immense sensitivity, the animators have translated Herge's spare, elegant drawings into a multidimensional world that seems realistic," it said.
Will Europeans like Spielberg's 'Tintin' less than Americans?
The initial reviews for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” are trickling in. Tintin, a sleuthing boy reporter with a trusted dog named Snowy, is a cherished Belgian comic book character, and conventional wisdom heading into the film's release has been that the movie would be an easy sell in Europe (where Tintin’s built-in fan base is strongest) but perhaps tougher in the United States, where many people aren't familiar with the character.
Yet so far, it seems like critics for U.S. trade magazines are slightly more enamored of the 3-D motion-capture animated movie than are critics for British newspapers.
The film will roll out in Europe at the end of October before hitting American theaters just before Christmas. Tintin is voiced by Jamie Bell, who buys a model of an old ship called the Unicorn at a market. Two men immediately try to buy the model from him, an American named Barnaby (Joe Starr) and the sinister Sakharine (Daniel Craig). Tintin spurns the offers and realizes the ship contains a clue about a missing treasure. Eventually, he runs into trouble with Capt. Archibald Haddock (Andy Serkis).
Writing for Variety, Leslie Felperin raves that "Tintin" is “a rollicking return to action-adventure form” for Spielberg, “especially after the disappointment of ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.’ Clearly rejuvenated by his collaboration with producer Peter Jackson, and blessed with a smart script and the best craftsmanship money can buy, Spielberg has fashioned a whiz-bang thrill ride that's largely faithful to the wholesome spirit of his source but still appealing to younger, Tintin-challenged” audiences.
Likewise, the Hollywood Reporter’s Jordan Mintzer says “Tintin” is “a good ol’ fashioned adventure flick that harkens back to the filmmaker’s action-packed, tongue-in-cheek swashbucklers of the 1980s,” adding that the saga is “filled with captivating CGI action and clever sight gags, while maintaining a compact narrative that never takes itself too seriously."
But Xan Brooks, of Britain’s Guardian newspaper, was less enthralled. He opines: “When the Belgian animator Hergé died in 1983, he left behind one last, unfinished Tintin adventure. Entitled Tintin and Alph-Art, the story hinged on an evil scheme to abduct Tintin and encase him in liquid polyester. The gallant boy reporter would therefore become a 'living sculpture,' beautiful but dead. ... Three decades on, this dastardly plot may just have been completed. Out of the blocks comes 'The Adventures of Tintin,' a rip-snorting 'Indiana Jones'-style romp from director Steven Spielberg, darting from the cobbled streets of Paris to the bazaars and hill towns of north Africa in search of buried treasure. On the face of it, all is well. But look closely at the film's protagonists, with their strange vestigial features and blank, marbled gaze, and one comes to suspect that here, at last, is the version of Alph-Art we assumed would never see the light of day.”
While Brooks concedes that “the big set pieces are often exuberantly handled,” he believes “the human details are sorely wanting. … There on the screen we see Hergé's old and cherished protagonists, raised like Lazarus and made to scamper anew. But the spark is gone, their eyes are dusty, and watching their antics is like partying with ghosts. Turn away; don't meet their gaze. When we stare into the void, the void stares back at us.”
The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin is similarly lukewarm, writing in his review that “It’s testament to either the genius of Hergé or the limitations of computer graphics –- or more probably both -– that two dots of ink from a Belgian cartoonist’s pen can express more wit and artistry than £82 million of the best 3D special effects Hollywood can conjure.”
He also has a problem with the eyes. “The difference, you see, is in the eyes. And in this first of three planned Tintin films by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, the eyes do not have it – ‘it’ being that vital, twinkling difference that separates a character worth caring about from a dummy in a Debenhams’ shop window.”
But Ian Nathan, writing for British film magazine Empire, gives the flick four out of five stars, calling it “action-packed, gorgeous, and faithfully whimsical.”
“Spielberg has brought a boy’s heart, an artist’s guile, and a movie-lover’s wit to computer generating Hergé’s immortal hero,” he says. “Here is a joyful play of opposites: the romance of old-school cinema, conjured by the slick synthesis of CG wizardry.”
Дата: Суббота, 22 Окт 2011, 13:38 | Сообщение # 84
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Tintin: Mad about the boy
It was Hergé's dying wish for Spielberg to bring his great creation to life on film. But as it opens next week, diehard fans say he's ruined it. Rob Sharp reports
hey call themselves "Tintinologists": those who delight in every detail of Hergé's fictional young reporter.
So ahead of Hollywood's film version of the adventurous Belgian's story, premiering in Brussels tonight, the adaptation of the graphic novel series faces not so much criticism as fanatical uproar.
Press screenings of Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which opens in Britain next week, have prompted one critic of the £82m movie – which uses cutting-edge "performance capture" technology – to compare it to "witnessing a rape". Other earlier reviewers have panned it as an "airless pastiche" and "painful" – strong words for a story about a man with a quiff looking for buried treasure.
People get freaked out if people change anything they came into contact with as a kid," said a Tintin fan and author A L Kennedy, who is set to review the film for BBC Two. "From what I've seen in the previews the film does look a little blurry. Hergé always had such a clean line." She said there was an element of annoyance towards Spielberg because he is "well-off and famous". "The film-makers were almost already on a sticky wicket. The original was so beautifully drawn, I'm not sure how you would render that".
Inspired by Hergé's "palette" of characters, stories and designs, Spielberg has teamed up with the Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson to create a predictably Hollywoodised Hergé, focusing on action instead of the Belgian's trademark humour, employing the vocal talents of Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig.
Spielberg used the same special effects company responsible for James Cameron's Avatar, utilising updated motion capture techniques. The director says he turned to such technology "because it most resembles the hand-to-paper art of Hergé", but reviewers lament its stifling effect on the books' personality.
"I do think it lacks a bit of heart," said the author Naomi Alderman, who is also reviewing the film. "That's partly to do with the characters: Captain Haddock is a caricature, Thomson and Thompson are comedy figures. I did sigh a bit when I saw there were only two females, and they have five lines between them, but that's the fault of the source material."
Meanwhile Jean-Claude Jouret, a former manager of the Tintin estate, told AFP this week: "There's a risk that Spielberg's vision will undermine Hergé's. It's undoubtedly good business but perhaps it won't help the long-term preservation of his work."
Such vitriol grates with the warmth normally reserved for Hergé, born George Remi in 1907. He began publishing Tintin's adventures in a Brussels newspaper in 1929, and the strips were an instant hit. By the peak of his fame, his work had been translated into 60 languages.
He published 24 books in total, ending with Tintin and Alph-Art, half-completed when he died in 1983.
It was around this time that Spielberg, who'd heard reviewers compare his 1983 film Raiders of the Lost Ark to the work of the Belgian author, rang him up. "He just committed, at that moment, that he wanted me to be the director to turn his stories into films," says the director, though Hergé's biographers intimate that the process was somewhat more fraught with legalities.
You can see why Spielberg would have been instantly attracted to the universality of Hergé's world. "His work is very loveable. Once you discover it you become very attached," said Michael Farr, author of Tintin: The Complete Companion. Apart from Tintin's determination to solve puzzles, he has few other defining characteristics, and his facial features are barely more than three lines and two dots. He is vague and can appeal to anyone. Often working from photographs for his detailed backgrounds, Hergé's influential drawing style was even given its own name: "ligne claire", or clear line.
Nick Rodwell, the head of Moulinsart, the company that controls the image and rights to all Tintin merchandise told The Independent yesterday: "Tintin is a great myth of the twentieth century. You can read the books when you are 14, when you are 38, and you can appreciate different things."
Responding to criticism of the new film, he said: "They have created their own interpretation, in the same way different theatre directors interpret Shakespeare. If this movie brings people back to the books so much the better. To be in a position to have Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg taking it on – it's good for Belgium and it's good for the work." He added that scholars went on to create the New Testament "because they weren't happy with the Old Testament."
If previous Tintin adaptations are anything to go by, his grandiose talk stems from some successful precedents: the 1991 animated TV series The Adventures of Tintin aired in at least 17 countries, Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, a theatrical adaptation staged at London's Young Vic, played to sell-out audiences, and the movie franchise will roll on.
Second and third films are in the pipeline. "Hopefully I will be Tintin for a while," said Bell yesterday. "If audiences really embrace it, I will be doing it for the rest of my life – I could be 45 and still be doing it."
One boy and his dog: Tintin's exploits
1929 Tintin and Snowy appear in Le Petit Vingtième, a supplement of Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle.
1930 Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is published as a book.
1931 Tintin in the Congo, Hergé's most controversial tale, is published.
1938 Tintin visits Britain for the first time in The Black Island.
1941 The Crab with the Golden Claws sees the introduction of Tintin's companion Captain Haddock, left.
1961 Following a small Belgian film from 1947, the first major appearance of Tintin on screen is in Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece.
1976 Tintin and the Picaros is the last complete Tintin book to be produced.
1983 Tintin author Georges Remi, right, who used the pen name Hergé, dies aged 75.
1986 An unfinished work found after his death, Tintin and Alph-Art is published.
1991-92 The Adventures of Tintin television series runs.
2008 A 1932 ink and gouache cover design forTintin in America sells for €650,000.
2010 A bronze statue of Tintin with Snowy sells for £108,705 at a Paris auction.
2011 The Adventures of Tintin is released in cinemas on 26 October.
Дата: Четверг, 22 Дек 2011, 09:45 | Сообщение # 85
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Coming off his critically acclaimed and box office smash The Social Network, director David Fincher tackles the “American” version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson and the Swedish film of the same name, the remake stars Daniel Craig (007 himself) and relative newcomer Rooney Mara who appeared briefly as the woman who scorns Mark Zuckerberg who ultimately creates Facebook because of it in Fincher’s The Social Network.
Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) is a co-owner and writer of Millennium Magazine. He loses a libel case and must pay a huge amount of money. He, along with his partner/lover, fear it could be the end of the magazine. Lisbeth Salander (Mara) is compiling a background check on Blomkvist for Henrik Vanger. Vanger knows how impressive Mikael’s skills are and once Lisbeth gives Henrik the all’s clear on Mikael, Henrik makes him an offer to solve a family mystery that has plagued them. Henrik’s great niece Harriet has been missing for over 30 years and no one can tell Henrik if his family member is alive or dead or what happened to her on the day she went missing. Mikael is promised information on the man who beat him in the libel case so he takes the case.
Mikael is given free reign to solve the disappearance. The closed minded family isn’t exactly open to talking to someone about the family secret and most believe he is just there to write Henrik’s memoirs. Mikael finds a few hints and pieces of information, but asks for help in his investigation. He is given Lisbeth’s name, the same woman who did his background check. Her ability to hack computers and get away with not so legal actions comes in handy and Mikael soon realizes she’s well worth having around.
As the duo digs deeper, they find out the family isn’t exactly the purest of people. With closets full of skeletons like past family members being Nazis, Harriet’s disappearance is just one mystery that must be solved.
There are of course other side stories including Lisbeth’s guardian having a stroke and confrontations she has with her new boss at the security company she works for, Mikael’s partner/lover and his own daughter, but the main storyline is the pair trying to solve the family disappearance.
I will be honest and say I have NOT read the book or seen the Swedish version of the film so I have no basis of comparison to them, so this review is solely on Fincher’s film. That being said, it’s an amazing story told by a masterful artist. Fincher is one of the top directors in the game right now and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of his best. His shots of the bridge to the island the Vanger estates are on are perfectly crafted. His long tracking shots on the train or pulling away from the door where a heinous act is being done to Lisbeth are things the average movie goer won’t notice or care about, but anyone into film will be mesmerized. Fincher knows exactly what to do with a camera, when to over shoot, add something extra, use stillness to set tone, etc. And speaking of tone, Fincher once again uses Nine Inch Nail’s frontman Trent Reznor with Atticus Ross to score the film. The last time Reznor and Ross worked with Fincher, they won the Oscar for The Social Network. Their score is haunting at times, mellow at times, and sets a pace and tone that makes one think they should score every film. Reznor’s use of simple piano playing over a scene adds mystery and intrigue to a movie already full of it. And the opening cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song immediately puts the audience in an excited mood anticipating what will come.
Daniel Craig gives a solid performance as Mikael. His character is at times strong and powerful yet also flawed. The libel case almost crushes him, but with the possibility of revenge, he is driven to solve the case of the missing girl. He finds solace in his new partner having someone just as driven and flawed with her own dark secrets.
The supporting cast is just as impressive. Stellan Skarsgard, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, Joely Richardson and the rest each play a critical role in the film. Skarsgard remains an underrated actor and his Martin is almost bi-polar being so open at times and manic at others.
But the person at the heart of the film is Rooney Mara. I don’t know what demons she has in her to draw from, but her performance is very good for someone we don’t know much about. Lisbeth is a strong female character, but at the same time vulnerable and easily taken advantage of. There are scenes where she gets trapped in a situation she doesn’t want to be in, but then next she’s the strongest person in the room. Mara will surely become one of Hollywood’s “IT” girls and when this film is a hit (and it will be), she will continue the Lisbeth character in the next two film adaptations.
The most amazing thing about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is its rating. It is rated R and boy should it be. Those with a weak stomach or who are very sensitive might not exactly like the film. There is murder and swearing of course, but the violence is the least of the film’s taboos. There is quite a bit of nudity, even graphic nudity at that, but there is also a very disturbing rape sequence that might offend some viewers. It’s not gratuitous nudity for the sake of showing some boobs, it’s disturbing and haunting images and scenes that develop the characters and the storyline. Fincher is a master showman and as amazing at it sounds, these scenes are quite necessary for the film to continue. Disturbing as they are, the film would not be as powerful without them. How it wasn’t rated NC-17 is beyond me.
Again I can’t compare this “Americanized” version with the original, but that doesn’t keep me from highly recommending the film. Yes I love almost everything David Fincher has done, but the film itself is also a heavy character/dialogue driven story with solid performances from its actors. It has a master director, incredible script by Steven Zaillian (the screenwriter of Moneyball, Gangs of New York and Schindler’s List just to name a few), very impressive cast and musical score by one of music’s best. The film will clearly be a hit and will lead to the next two films, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, to be remade. Hopefully Fincher will remain on board because I eagerly await 2 more films from him with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. http://www.examiner.com/movie-i....-review
Дата: Суббота, 13 Окт 2012, 14:34 | Сообщение # 87
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Первые ревью на "Скайфолл"
Daniel Craig returns for his third turn as the British secret agent in a new James Bond story from director Sam Mendes.
The movie James Bond is now 50 years old and wearing his years very well in Skyfall.
The most significant reset of the 23-film series that's unconnected to a change of the actor playing 007, this long-awaited third outing for Daniel Craig feels more seriously connected to real-world concerns than any previous entry, despite the usual outlandish action scenes, glittering settings and larger-than-life characters. Dramatically gripping while still brandishing a droll undercurrent of humor, this beautifully made film will certainly be embraced as one of the best Bonds by loyal fans worldwide and leaves you wanting the next one to turn up sooner than four years from now. PHOTOS: 'Skyfall': New Photos of Daniel Craig as James Bond, Javier Bardem as Villain Raoul Silva Bond watchers have been especially eager for Skyfall to arrive for several reasons, particularly to see if the Craig sequence of films can bounce back from the crushing low of Quantum of Solace after starting so high with Casino Royale, and to evaluate what fresh perspective might be delivered by big and unexpected talents like director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins. The answers are “yes” to the first proposition and “quite a bit” to the second. PHOTOS: Fall Movie Preview 2012: Major New Releases From Spielberg, Jackson, Tarantino, the Wachowskis, Burton and More Whereas Casino Royale tasted like a fine old vintage served in a snappy new bottle, Skyfall seems like a fresh blend altogether, one with some weight and complexity to it. Much of this, to be sure, stems from Mendes, who, with series veteran writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade along with John Logan, yanks Bond, M and MI6 out of the world of colorful megalomaniacal villains and into the vexing world of shadowy terrorists and cyber warfare. In the process, they also give Bond not only a few aches and pains, but a sense of mortality, exemplified by a credits sequence festooned not by silhouetted naked women, but by images of the secret agent's tombstone and of his being sucked to his doom underwater. Since it happens in the 10-minute action opener, it's giving nothing away to say that - after an elaborate and logistically outrageous chase through the streets and bazaars and over the roofs of Istanbul, and then on top of a train into the countryside - M is seen writing her veteran agent's obituary. He's survived, of course, but his brush with death has been so close that Bond goes Jason Bourne for a while, holing up anonymously on a tropical beach with a babe and drinking himself to oblivion. But when the modern new London headquarters building of MI6 explodes in a terrorist attack, Bond reports back for duty to a boss who herself is being none too gently being shown the door by intelligence and security committee chairman Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). In fact, all British agents embedded within terrorist organizations have been compromised and are beginning to be killed, making M look incompetent and Bond seem a bit of a dinosaur whose wits and brawn are no match for high-tech warriors. “So this is it, we're both played out,” he says to her, prematurely, as it turns out, although Bond still is put through some arduous tests to re-earn his old job back. Bond has never endured so many rude remarks about his physical prowess since Sean Connery made his middle-aged one-shot return to the role in the ill-advised Never Say Never Again. For her part, M plays a more central role here than she ever has before, and Judy Dench, as usual, makes the most of the opportunity, investing her authority role with great dignity undercut with a sliver of insecurity. The globetrotting continues to Shanghai, where the striking high-rises make a terrific nocturnal backdrop to Bond's stealthy pursuit of the assassin/hard-drive thief he narrowly missed in Istanbul. From there it's on to Macau, where the old Bond re-emerges in a tuxedo to drink his martini (very smartly shaken, not stirred, by a deft lady bartender) in a casino where he gets hot and heavy with the striking yet nervously neurotic Severine, who is given a distinctive preoccupied edge by Berenice Lim Marlohe. Trailing along behind to keep an eye on things and trade dry banter (and perhaps more than that) is field agent Eve, very engagingly played by Naomie Harris. It is Severine who can take Bond to the man who's causing all the trouble. In a scene of surpassing beauty and weirdness, by yacht the two approach a strange island city, from which the entire population has just fled. It has just been taken over by a strange tall man with dyed blond hair, insinuating humor and heavily armed henchmen. At the 70-minute mark, Javier Bardem makes his fabulously staged entrance as Silva, who, like many Bond villains of the past, is half persuasive and half-lunatic, has delusions of exceptional grandeur and is partial to explaining many things to his captive before he means to kill him. He also has a theatrically sexual side that brings something new to the gallery of Bond villains. In all events, Bardem makes him a riveting and most entertaining figure. Even if Bond is able to turn the tables on Silva and bring him back to London as a prisoner, that's far from the end of it, as Silva is one resourceful chap whose advanced computer skills test the expertise even of the new Q, the MI6 weapons and technology guru now reimagined as a very young man and wonderfully played in full geek drag by Ben Whishaw. The scene in which he and Bond meet for the first time in an art gallery is an instant mini-classic. Ultimately, there is a very conscious, even articulated effort to balance the old and new, the traditional and the modern in Skyfall - stylistically, dramatically and thematically. Longtime series producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have never gone so far as to hire a full control-demanding auteur to direct one of their films, and while Mendes is certainly the most distinguished outside director they've ever brought aboard, he's one as tradition-minded as he is innovative. Many of the dramatic scenes would do justice to a non-genre film, and the same can be said of the quality of the acting. The traditional quips surface at times in low-key form; some of them are quite good and they're never corny. The action, much of it presumably staged by veteran second unit director Alexander Witt, is consistently strong (even if a motorcycle and jeep chase through the jammed streets of Istanbul reminds, as did a recent one through Manila in The Bourne Legacy, that motorized chases through thick urban crowds are never entirely convincing). Tonally, the fundamental seriousness of the film places Skyfall at the other end of the Bond spectrum from the monkeyshines of some of the silliest Roger Moore entries, such as Moonraker and A View to A Kill. The long climax, set at an isolated old house in Scotland presided over by a thickly bearded Albert Finney, plays out partly like a highly elaborated version of Straw Dogs, albeit with far heavier artillery. The moving and highly satisfying ending nicely tees up the ball for the next round. Cinematographer Deakins' work is dense, colorful and impactful, noticeably a notch or two above the series’ norm. Production values are similarly at the high end of things, and Thomas Newman's score is far from generic, finding many moods while delightfully allowing room for Monty Norman's immortal Bond theme when the moment calls for it. And, oh yes, there's Daniel Craig. He owns Bond now, and the role is undoubtedly his for as long as he might want it. Perhaps a tad less buff than in Casino Royale and certainly more beat up, he entertains the ladies less here than perhaps any Bond ever has. But two other women, his boss and the Queen, have first call on his favors, and he repays them for their confidence many times over - as he does the audience.
Дата: Суббота, 13 Окт 2012, 14:35 | Сообщение # 88
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'Skyfall' Generates Rave Reviews, Unleashes New Action-Packed Clip
Many critics and reviewers dub the movie the best James Bond film so far, and praise Daniel Craig's magnificent performance as the 007.
Moviegoers in the U.S. still have to wait for a couple of weeks before watching "Skyfall", but their long wait seemingly won't end up with disappointment since the film is already granted overwhelmingly positive reviews from various critics in Europe. The Sam Mendes-directed movie is even dubbed the best James Bond pic so far by some reviewers.
Digital Spy wrote, "Shake your martinis, folks. We've seen the new James Bond movie and it's a corker!" while British GQ tweeted similar praise, "Just seen #skyfall. Daniel Craig is magnificent - you will not be disappointed. Roll on another 50 years of @007."
Meanwhile, Time Out Film gushed, " #Skyfall. Bold. Good-looking. Craig is in his element. Mendes atones for sins of Quantum with gorgeous photography, story and room to think." Nick Duncalf wrote, "The nice people @SonyPicturesUK wouldn't want me to give away much about #Skyfall. They won't mind me saying it's the best Bond in 40 years."
More positive review came from Daily Mail, which stated, "Skyfall was a fantastic combination of 007 meets Bourne meets Spooks meets Home Alone." The tabloid added, "Bond is back and he's more dangerous than ever but so is M who is the most ruthless character in Skyfall."
The Times praised the film as "a great British bulldog of a movie." It said, "From the moment the orchestral sound of Adele belts out, sending a nostalgic shiver down the audience's collective spine, we know this will be a triumphant return to classic Bond. Sam Mendes, the director, deftly balances fanboy worship of 007 tradition with sophisticated film-making, and (apart from early Connery), nobody does it better than Daniel Craig."
Almost at the same time the reviews were published, "Skyfall" debuted a brand new clip for those who haven't seen the movie. Titled "Take the Shot", the action-packed snippet highlights a very intense scene where Eve is forced by M to "take a bloody shot" toward Bond, who is fighting a baddie atop a moving train.
James Bond “SkyFall” Gets 5 Stars from Top British Critic
James Bond is back. “Skyfall” premiered this week at the London Film Festival. The top critic, Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail, gave it five stars. Bamigboye is no pushover, so we can this review seriously. If the Sam Mendes-directed blockbuster met with his approval, then it’s a hit. Baz writes (and I’ve edited down his full piece which you can read at the link at bottom): “Bond is back and he’s more dangerous than ever but so is M who is the most ruthless character in Skyfall. As played by Dame Judi Dench, the security services chief is like a lioness in winter as she prowls her office ordering an agent to ‘take the bloody shot’, a move that puts Daniel Craig’s craggy James Bond in grave danger. A sinister force from M’s past, played with delicious relish by Javier Bardem, has stolen the identities of M’s agents. This Bond adventure directed by Sam Mendes is pure classic 007 fare , back on firm footing after the less than memorable Quantum of Solace. Skyfall opens with a bravura kick-ass pre-credits sequence that could win a best short all-action Oscar all by its beautiful self if such an award existed. Dench’s M is in for the kill from the get go. Bond pleads with her to let him help an agent who’s bleeding to death. ‘You don’t have the time. ‘Leave him’, she demands. Then there’s marvelous action mayhem in a Turkish bazaar with cars and motorbikes screeching up stairs and raising the roof on rooftops. But M’s in no mood for pussy-footing around as she monitors events from her office back at HQ. She’s squeezing the trigger by remote control, her eyes are like steel and she means business because she knows the game’s up if the agent identities get into the wrong hands. Great actress that she is the dynamic Dame still knows how to raise a laugh or two even though M’s in a thundering mood. Mendes and his screenwriters, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan have invested the film with some action sequences and some cute one-lines. Some of the best come from Albert Finney who plays Kincade the keeper of Bond’s Highlands childhood home ,Skyfall. Bond informs Kincade that he should stay out of the forthcoming firefight . ‘Try and stop me you jumped up little s**t,’ is Kincade’s icy response. Mendes has done a marvelous job and Craig is superb — looking super cool in a Tom Ford suit– as a Bond who’s still looking suave after 50 years giving pleasure to all. The two so-called Bond girls played by Ms Harris and Berenice Marlohe are flirty but they’re not used here in the usual kind of ‘rumpy-pumpy’ way which I think is progress, of sorts. I plan to see Skyfall a few more times before the year’s out. Nothing can beat a landmark, classic James Bond picture. They don’t come around all that often.” http://www.showbiz411.com/2012....-critic