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Starring Matthew McConaughey as the titular Mud, this film follows two young boys as they discover a boat washed up in some trees, only to find out that it is being occupied by a strange man on the run from someone or something. It’s a nice little coming of age story with some great work from the two young leads, and was a nice antidote to the overblown action and drama in the two other films I’ve seen this week; The Great Gatsby and Star Trek Into Darkness.
Never having been interested in Star Trek’s many and varied iterations on TV and movies, I didn’t know what to expect when I first saw J. J. Abrams’ reboot a couple of years ago. But thankfully I absolutely loved it, and with the show’s enormous influence on pop culture I understood an awful lot more of the references than I expected I would. So when I saw Into Darkness I certainly had higher expectations than the last time, but whether or not they would be met was another thing altogether.
Baz Luhrmann takes a stab at what is quite possibly the greatest novel of all time, The Great Gatsby, and he may have bitten off slightly more than he can chew. It’s not a terrible film and it’s close enough to the novel to please fans of the book, but it just doesn’t gel together like it should.
Part two of my staggeringly exciting US TV fall preview is here! Today is the turn of NBC, who have only released trailers for six new shows so this one will be shorter than Fox’s. As before, I’ll post the trailers for you to watch and then a few comments from me on how I think the show will fare in the big bad world that is US network television ruled over by the great King Nielson.
For those of you who, unlike me, don’t like in a world immersed in television you may not be aware that Fox, NBC, ABC and the rest of the US’s big networks are releasing trailers for all of their new shows premiering in the ‘fall’. So I thought it might be interesting to take a look at each of them in turn and make a snap decision based on 3 minutes of footage from the show’s pilot episode whether or not they are going to be any good. There’s an interesting selection: a couple of sit-coms, a sci-fi action show, a twist on an old tale and more. Whether or not any of them last is something we’re going to have to wait and see. First up is Fox.
Set in the slums of Buenos Aires, White Rabbit brings together a pair of idealistic priests as they try to do what they can for the local people. Their differing views on how to deal with the area’s politics, drug dealing gangs and housing project strains their relationship, and leaves us wondering whether these two friends will be able to work together for the good of their flock.
Low production values, no-name actors and filming in a city as busy and frantic as New York could have been a recipe for failure, but Gimmer Shelter manages to find charm where often they would be none. Starring two young actors as they try to beg, borrow and steal their way to raising $500, it’s a nice little movie which will hopefully lead to great things for those involved.
Paul Raymond, property magnate, soft-porn publisher, owner of Britain’s first ever strip club and purveyor of many, many boobs. It’s certainly an interesting character to base a film around, but does Steve Coogan’s portrayal live up to the legend? And more importantly is the film actually any good?
I know for a while now it’s been an issue in cinema that all the big block-busting films have been sequels, prequels, reboots and spin-offs, but this summer looks like it’s going to be the worst of all. So I thought I’d take a look at all the big releases this summer to see what really is on offer, whether any of these sequels will actually be good, and if there’s a glimmer of hope in there that we might be brought something new.
It’s strange to think that this is already the third annual Dundead Festival. I’ve been attending since they began and it really doesn’t seem like it was that long ago. For those of you not in the know, Dundead is a horror and cult film festival put on by Dundee’s DCA cinema, running a main festival once a year along with individual screenings, double bills and mini-festivals throughout the year.
