Trailer Tuesday: Dark Shadows

With an American AND South African release date of 11 May, for a long time it seemed like Warner Bros. was cutting things unusually fine in terms of unveiling the trailer for the latest Tim Burton-Johnny Depp team-up, Dark Shadows. Finally, last Thursday, less than 2 months to release, the trailer was unveiled... to a divisive response.


Dark Shadows is based on a cult classic TV soap opera that ran from 1966 -1971. What set this soapie apart from its sigh-filled, convoluted brethren was its addition of supernatural elements to the melodramatic mix. With Dark Shadows, witches, ghosts, werewolves, seances and the occult popped up in soap operas for the first time... along with one of the first ever "good," redemption-seeking vampires of pop culture, Barnabas Collins.

In the 2012 movie adaptation, Johhny Depp is Barnabas, a 18th Century playboy who lives in the creepily atmospheric town of Collinsport, Maine, which his family helped establish. Barnabas has the world at his feet, but his life and true love is stolen from him when he is transformed into a vampire by one of his jealous former flings, a witch called Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). Captured and entombed, Barnabas is only accidentally released in 1972. Immediately he sets out to reverse the fallen fortunes of his family, get revenge on Angelique (who is still around) and, most importantly, adjust to life in the Disco Era. Yes there are sparkling vampires in Dark Shadows, but the twinkle is all due to mirrorballs...

Dark Shadows features an all-star cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller and Chloë Moretz as Barnabas's dysfunctional descendants. Helena Bonham Carter and Jackie Earle Haley play Collins employees with secrets of their own.

On paper, Dark Shadows 2012 sounds faithful enough. Until you watch the trailer...

The TV series has an ardent fan following to this day, and the faithful have not been pleased by director Burton's apparent decision to take the overblown gothic soapie - loved as a straight-faced camp classic - and transform it into an obvious, goofy comedy. Or at least that's how the marketing material is making Dark Shadows look.


Of course, this is predominantly the reaction of existing Dark Shadows fans. They're disgusted by their obsession being given a Brady Bunch Movie treatment. This said, to my knowledge Dark Shadows has never screened on South African TV screens, and locals - as well as younger generations around the globe - have no preconceived ideas about what a Dark Shadows film should be like.

Personally, with no exposure to the original series, I'm very happy to see Burton, Depp and co. having fun. Instead of trying to insert quirkiness into a more sombre project, they're balls to the wall committed to making a comedy; to keeping things light and silly. Whether Dark Shadows is more miss than hit (remember Burton's kookily enjoyable but uneven Mars Attacks!?), it's nice to see such an overt change in direction for Burton and Depp. Oh, and, as always, it's always fantastic to watch Michelle Pfeiffer back in (fading) ice queen mode.

Look out for Dark Shadows in early May. And check out 3 pages of pics from the film here.

Movies releasing today: Six of the best (and could-be-better)

Six new movies open in South Africa today. Whether you're in the mood for Oscar-winning Art House fare, big budget special effects extravaganzas or just some mindless, undemanding genre fare, you'll find it in cinemas as of right now.

The Artist:
Definitely my pick of the week is The Artist, which won 5 Oscars at this year's Academy Awards... including the biggie, Best Picture. Meticulously mimicking the style of silent movies, this comedy drama chronicles the changing fortunes of fictional Silent Era film star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), who feels horribly threatened by the arrival of "The Talkies," and the rise of new fan favourite performers like Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo).

I was fortunate to catch a preview screening of The Artist a few weeks ago, and you can read my thoughts on the film here. In essence, The Artist is both technically brilliant and feel-good. And it expresses its love for the foundation years of Cinema in a far more accessible, effortless way than its big Oscar rival, Hugo. For the record, international critics have loved The Artist too. The film has an aggregated Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97% Fresh.


Journey 2: The Mysterious Island:
Shot for 3D is this sequel to family action adventure, Journey to the Center of the Earth. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson replaces Brendan Fraser in this loose adaptation of another Jules Verne classic, The Mysterious Island. Johnson, in a bid to bond with his stepson (Josh Hutcherson), seeks out a legendary island, and must survive its many exotic dangers while leading Michael Caine, Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman to safety.

You can read Kervyn's Journey 2 review on The Movies.co.za here. Evidently the film is pretty much in keeping with what passes for family entertainment these days - harmless, unambitious and distinctly juvenile in terms of jokes. The film is a mediocre 42% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.


The Big Year:
For a comedy nobody has heard about, The Big Year features a pretty impressive trio of funnymen: Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson. Mired in assorted life crises, the 3 men escape their problems by competing for a rather unusual honour - the title of North America's Greatest Bird Watcher. Helmed by the director of The Devil Wears Prada and Marley & Me, so expect the laughter to be paired with moments of tender self-evaluation.

The Big Year was a box office failure, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a turkey. With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 40% Fresh, the film has warmed the hearts of some critics and distanced others with its comedic limpness. Either way, expect family-friendly The Big Year to be charming and heartfelt, but also bland and simplistic.


Contraband:
Phew, finally the flood of January to March action thrillers is slowing to a drizzle. Rounding off the season of formula thrills is this gritty smuggling tale, based on a 2008 Icelandic film. Mark Wahlberg plays a top contraband runner turned family man (married to Kate Beckinsale), who is forced into one last heist when his wife's brother accumulates a hefty debt to vicious mobster Giovanni Ribisi. Ben Foster, Lukas Haas and J.K. Simmons also star.

With a middling Rotten Tomatoes rating of 50% Fresh, Contraband is apparently one of those unapologetically B-grade genre efforts. It's quite watchable, doesn't skimp on the fun and demonstrates some enjoyably electric pacing. However, in the end it's all a bit too lazily formulaic to make it anything truly special.


Otelo Burning:
This South African coming of age drama debuted at the 2011 Durban International Film Festival. Today it goes on wider release locally at Nu Metro cinemas. Inspired by real life events, the work-shopped production of Otelo Burning is set in Durban during the late 1980s and centres on a couple of township teens who, in the turbulent dying days of Apartheid, discover escape from political violence through surfing - an activity previously associated with white privilege. In Zulu with English subtitles.

Otelo Rising has screened at various film festivals around the globe, and while it hasn't been reaping in mass accolades it has been praised for its performances and cinematography. The film is apparently solid and crowd-pleasing, but doesn't quite do enough to distinguish itself from hundreds of other "life improvement through sport" tales.


Melancholia:
Depression and Apocalypse dovetail in this sci-fi tinged drama from divisive Dancer in the Dark and Antichrist director Lars von Trier. Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and Alexander Skarsgård star in this tale of a young woman's whose descent into depression coincides with Earth's impending destruction by a rogue planet. Showing exclusively at Ster Kinekor's Cinema Nouveau.

Von Trier's films tend to be bleak but fascinating, and evidently the acclaimed Melancholia is much the same. It certainly won't be to everyone's taste, but it's been called bold, beautiful and unforgettable... if you aren't put off by its heavy intellectualism and artiness. Apparently Dunst's powerful performance is reason alone to watch the film - she won the Best Actress Award at last year's Cannes Film Festival. 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

John Carter film review

When I went to watch John Carter in 2D, the cinema screening was preceded by 2 trailers which, back-to-back, depicted aliens blasting apart skyscrapers while shocked human heroes screech and snipe at each other. That’s pretty much what classifies as a mainstream science fiction actioner today. Mass urban destruction; complicated, CGI-heavy action set pieces; overwhelming noise and gung ho heroes – it’s a slick, soulless combination stamped out by the Hollywood Machine like clockwork this time of year. As appetising as month-old rice cakes, it’s films like these that movie-going children today have to base their fondest film-related fantasies and memories on.


Now John Carter is faaaar from perfect, but this first ever film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series of stories (dating all the way back to the 1910s) is inherently different to the conveyer belt creations of today. John Carter feels like classic pulp – constantly teetering on the edge of camp silliness, but managing to never fall into Flash Gordon territory. And this is despite the film not shying away from obvious credibility fractures like having characters stand around in ridiculous, skin-baring costumes and discuss heady political issues in crisp English accents.

John Carter’s secret for success is that the film has heart. The movie is messy and uneven, but doesn’t wink or sneer at its absurdities. Director Andrew Stanton – a prominent Pixar animator – and his team are clearly committed to making this galaxy-leaping adventure as fun as possible for the whole family, providing viewers with a real sense of wonder as we visit another world. Much like James Cameron’s Avatar did. If I were a parent I’d expose my children to the warmth-blooded John Carter in a heartbeat over the Star Wars prequels as cold as Hoth and as stiff as Obi-Wan’s beard.

In terms of John Carter’s plot, in the late 1800s young Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) is summoned to the estate of his deceased uncle, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), a former Civil War cavalry officer turned treasure hunter. At the mansion Burroughs loses himself in Carter’s diary, which tells a bizarre story of how 10 years previously the bitter soldier was transported from Arizona to Mars – an arid, dying world which the locals refer to as Barsoom. On Mars, Carter is captured by the brutal, multi-limbed Tharks but his attempts to return to Earth draw him into a centuries’ old civil war between the humanoid cities of Helium (led by emperor Ciarán Hinds), under blue banners, and Zodanga (led by warlord Dominic West), in red. Secretly fuelling the conflict meanwhile are the Therns, supposed Holy Men whose control of the powerful “Ninth Ray” is certainly not for altruistic purposes.


Some reviewers have complained that the plot for John Carter is confusing and nonsensical, but I had no such gripes. There’s certainly the sense that a lot of footage (particularly relating to character introductions and development) has ended up on the cutting room floor, but in terms of actual storyline, much of the novel’s “dated” scientific rationale seems to have been surprisingly retained in its non-streamlined form – and there’s even one pleasant plot twist.

For the record, the film does leap from Indiana Jones to Avatar to Dune to Flash Gordon to Star Wars, but it’s all part of John Carter’s charm – and, well, Burroughs’ stories were the inspiration for all those pop culture properties in the first place.

There’s plenty to like about John Carter. It’s a nice change that this space traveller doesn’t sneer down at the Martians. Their winged flying machines are as much a marvel to him as the concept of Earth’s oceans is to them. The fact that the big budget John Carter is from Disney also could have been a stumbling block, but the Mouse House pedigree is actually to the film’s benefit. The studio really knows how to handle “magical” scenes, investing them with a sense of sincere awe. John Carter has its goofy moments, typically linked to Carter’s enhanced jumping abilities (due to Barsoom’s lesser gravity) but they feel more gleefully child-like than dumb or annoying.


Not that everything in John Carter is necessarily 100% safe for little ones in the audience. The film’s 2 strongest fight sequences – one in a gladiator pit and the other against savage hordes in the desert – are graphic and dramatically intense… much more than you would expect from a Disney film. The Thark are also not those tree hugging/plugging hippies, the Na’vi. These oversized alien beings equate compassion with weakness, and this is especially apparent when they start kicking and beating the film’s most loveable character – Woola, a pug-ugly, multi-limbed Martian “dog”, who endears himself to Carter and the audience instantly.

Speaking of characters and performances, Kitsch makes a solid lead, although he is far better, and more interesting, in the film’s first half, when Carter is still in surly, disinterested anti-hero mode (think Harrison Ford). Lynn Collins – my new first choice for Wonder Woman – plays Carter’s love interest, Helium princess Dejah Thoris, and the actress is highly convincing as a princess of another world: intelligent, soulful, and strikingly beautiful as opposed to conventionally pretty. Mark Strong meanwhile makes an ominous, elegant villain (as always), and the film’s CGI-wizardry – particularly strong in the department of character creation – helps to make Willem Dafoe’s Thark leader, Tars Tarkas another standout, likeable figure.


If I have any major complaint to make about John Carter, it’s to do with the film’s action scenes. Even the 2 best, already mentioned above, feel too abrupt. If they had been afforded some extra screen time and intensity variation, they might have been more exciting and memorable. They definitely would have benefited from an extra shot of adrenalin, and the chance to flaunt some impressive choreography.

Still though, despite its failings, John Carter does get one thing right that so many other movies today don’t – and that’s simply its spirit. John Carter feels like a fantasy/sci-fi adventure from another era. As a child of the 80s, John Carter is certainly an enjoyable throwback experience to the fantasy I grew up on.

3 and a half stars out of 5.

Girlz 'N' Games webcomic #97: Best in Show

Well, for the record you can read my full, proper review of this year's big Oscar winner, The Artist here. If you can stomach the prospect of watching a silent movie, this clever and exceptionally charming throwback film is well worth catching. Of course, it never hurts when your movie features the most adorable Jack Russell since Wishbone. Dog lover bias activated!

Anyway, this comic was really just a chance for me to shake up the usual Girlz 'N' Games format, express my soppy softness for all things canine and try my hand at some animal sketching for a change. Enjoy.

-----

P.S. If you got a kick out of this Girlz 'N' Games comic, please "Like" the Girlz 'N' Games Facebook page.

Hey Hollywood, here is your Wonder Woman

Something a little different this Tuesday, taking a break from movie trailers...

If you are one of the 50 people who had the sense to watch John Carter this past weekend, then you would have been staring at American actress Lynn Collins, who plays a half naked Martian woman - the scientist warrior princess, dutiful daughter and protector of her people, Dejah Thoris.

Now Lynn Collins is one of those actresses who looks different from every angle, and in every film - geeky types may remember her as Wolverine's true love, Kayla Silverfox in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now of course, contacts, make-up and grooming shaped Collins's look in John Carter, but my first thought on seeing her onscreen was "By Hera, it's Wonder Woman!"



Raven locks. Striking blue eyes. Solid in physicality and facial feature. As equally comfortable with sword in hand as standing on a podium making a plea for peace and progress. Intelligent. Strongly emotive. Compassionate. Elegant in movement and accent.

And really, is it such a stretch to go from a scientist warrior princess to ambassador warrior princess?


Now I'm not the only person to make the Collins-Wonder Woman connection. In fact, the actress has commented in a very recent Digital Spy interview about fan support for the (at this stage pure fantasy) casting.

Personally I'm putting my backing 100% behind this idea right now. Collins's beauty isn't conventionally delicate, and that's the way I've always imagined Wonder Woman. It's certainly the way the character's signature artist of the past 6 years, Terry Dodson, draws the world's first and greatest female superhero.

Hollywood, look at these images below, and please make my casting wish so!

Monday Movie Review: War Horse

For a film nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, War Horse is a surprisingly mixed bag. Admittedly the film has always been marketed simply as a good old fashioned tearjerker and war epic, but even in this regard, Steven Spielberg’s latest is hit and miss. Visually War Horse is a treat, and you get a handful of genuine sob moments, but otherwise the film is robbed of its full dramatic impact by its episodic format and relentless insistence in slapping on sentimentality with a shovel.


You pretty much know what you’re in store for with War Horse from the film’s opening shots, focusing on the rolling green hills of the English countryside. Immediately the audience witnesses the birth of a wilful young colt, Joey, a part-thoroughbred who wins the heart of heavily accented Devon farmboy Albert (Jeremy Irvine) – who even comes complete with a goofy Ron Weasley sidekick.

It’s all very Black Beauty to begin with, and in this quaint setting everyone speaks like they’re Hobbits from the Shire, for extra pastoral charm. The Wheel of Fortune spins a couple of times for Joey and Albie even before the outbreak of World War I. However, in 1914, as the war effort ramps up, and young men enlist, Joey is sold to a cavalry officer (Tom Hiddleston) and soon he’s in France, charging Gatling guns, making new horsey friends and touching human lives. Meanwhile, Albie vows to be reunited with his beloved animal.

At its core, War Horse – based on the youth novel by Michael Morpurgo, as well as its stage play adaptation – is a tale of innocence and naiveté destroyed by war. The audience witnesses the transition from armies marching into battle in full dress uniform and worrying about the honour of sneak attacks, to mud-splattered soldiers cowering in rat-filled trenches, as concerned about mustard gas as the prospect of shooting their own deserters.


The problem is that in depicting this loss of innocence, Joey has to encounter different human characters. And given that we meet some of them for maybe 10 minutes of screen time max, you don’t have a chance to become emotionally invested in their fate. Secondly, the audience only really cares about Albie and Joey’s story, so these interludes become more of a time-wasting annoyance than anything else. And there’s always the interesting point to consider that evidently we’re more easily moved by the death of an animal than person.

Whereas War Horse is hobbled by its story structure, the film excels in other areas, particularly the technical – let’s not forget Spielberg is a grand master when it comes to depicting war onscreen. War Horse is the first movie in a while where I have really appreciated the potency of good sound editing, and there’s no denying the visual memorability of 2 scenes in particular – the cavalry in the wheat field and Joey’s desperate gallop through No Man’s Land. So kudos to Spielberg’s regular collaborating cinematographer, the award-winning Janusz Kamiński.

In terms of emotional memorability, meanwhile, one of the film’s strongest sequences is a meeting between an English and German soldier that, unlike so much else in the War Horse, actually trusts in understatement, simplicity and the subdued for effect, and rings more true as a result.


Performance-wise, Irvine is likeable enough but he’s more an embodiment of the quietly well-mannered but strong-willed England that Spielberg seems so enamoured with in this film. Emily Watson radiates a quiet intensity as Albie’s mother though, and Tom Hiddleston proves his effortless magneticism and grace in Thor wasn’t a once off.

At 146 minutes, War Horse isn’t a brisk film – particularly once it passes the 2 hour mark. And by the time the Gone With the Wind-style finale kicks off, complete with Technicolor sunset and characters in silhouette, the audience has been emotionally keyed by John Williams’s overpowering score just one too many times for it to still be effective.

The end result then is that War Horse feels like a Best Picture nominee that earned its accolades more for its technical polish and big name pedigree than its overall superiority to other movies released during 2011.

3 stars out of 5.

This review originally appeared online at The Movies.

Movies releasing today: Commence Blockbuster Season!

Every year the midyear blockbuster season seems to kick off a little earlier. And I think it's safe to say that with 2 big crowd-pleasers opening today - both of which play heavily towards Hollywood's beloved teenage boy demographic - the 2012 blockbuster deluge has begun.

John Carter: It's taken well over 80 years but Edgar Rice Burroughs' highly influential pulp fiction creation has finally made the leap from the printed page to the big screen, courtesy of Disney. Screening in 2D and converted 3D, John Carter is a fantasy sci-fi adventure for the whole family, with Taylor Kitsch playing the title character, a Civil War veteran who finally finds purpose when he is mysteriously transported to the dying world of Mars - populated by assorted alien beings These are played and voiced by the likes of Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong and Dominic West. It all looks very Avatar meets Stargate in the trailer.

It's debatable whether audiences unfamiliar with the decades-old stories will pitch up for the film this weekend - especially since Disney has made some truly bizarre marketing decisions, like shortening the film's title from the more evocative "John Carter Of Mars." Anyway, at the time of writing this post, John Carter had an aggregated Rotten Tomatoes review score of 49%. Apparently it's an ambitious but derivative mess, especially in terms of its plot, but the movie really captures the spirit of fantasy adventures from earlier eras.


Project X: This R-rated comedy - shot in the found footage/home video style (yes, again!) - promises to be the ultimate house party movie. Three high school nobodies decide to up their popularity by throwing a huge bash for their classmates... only for it to transform into a wild open house event via the power of social media. As the evening progresses, things rather unsurprisingly spiral out of control. Think of this one as Superbad and Risky Business meets Can't Hardly Wait, produced by the director of The Hangover.

While Project X is sure to satisfy its target audience, the film has horrified older critics. Sporting a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 28% Fresh, Project X has been called mean-spirited, misogynistic, unoriginal, repetitive and fronted by truly unlikeable, irritating characters. Of course these same reviewers have reacted badly to the film's "no consequences"Jersey Shore-style debauchery. There are others - admittedly a minority - who have called Project X a politically incorrect, guilty pleasure.


Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: If John Carter and Project X are directed at the teen, geek and Guido crowd, catering for a decidedly more mature audience is this cerebral adaptation of John le Carré's classic espionage thriller. Set at the height of the Cold War, Gary Oldman is George Smiley, a British agent tasked with determining who, out of Colin Firth, Ciarán Hinds and Toby Jones, is a long-term mole in British Intelligence. Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy and Mark Strong also star in this ultra-pedigreed British-French production.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was nominated for 3 Oscars this year (Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score). The film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 84% Fresh. Apparently it's a masterfully made, realistic spy tale with Oldman in top form. The film is emotionally cold though, slow paced and features a VERY dense plot - so wear your concentration hat when you watch it.