Forward Motion

The Long Goodbye (1973)

2012-01-29T16:29:00.000Z

Robert Altman's take on the world of Raymond Chandlers's infamous detective Philip Marlowe is less an adaptation of his 1953 novel and more of a deconstruction of the genre as a whole, updating it to a (then) modern day setting and befitting it with Altman's typical disdain and derision of the wealthy and immoral, not to mention his shunning of typical Hollywood cliché. . Elliott Gould steps

13 Assassins (2010)

2012-01-25T18:04:00.000Z

Takashi Miike, best known for his prolific filmic output and over the top extreme violence (think Ichi the Killer or Audition) returns after a quiet few years with an unlikely venture, a classical and relatively sombre Samurai movie who’s poise and accomplished look are a reminder that under the gimmicks and gore Miike is a supremely talented director, here he tests his hands at an epic and

Arrietty (2010)

2012-01-20T20:36:00.000Z

Studio Ghibli’s latest offering is another perfectly esoteric choice for the Japanese animation giants, an adaptation of Mary Norton’s the Borrowers, relocating the film but retaining much of its inherent conceits and characters whilst still allowing the studio’s prevalent themes to shine through. Miyazaki is only on script duty here, with former animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi in the directors

The Straight Story (1999)

2012-01-18T18:51:00.000Z

David Lynch has never been one to stand by convention, and back in 1999 coming off the back of the deeply strange and impenetrable Lost Highway he chose to follow it up with a U rated film published by Disney. As odd as that sounds The Straight Story remains a Lynch film through and through, it merely replaces his darker id with a sweetness and decency that feels just as real and resonant.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

2012-01-08T23:59:00.002Z

Robert Aldrich’s dark and oppressive Kiss Me Deadly is one of the most renowned film noirs of the 1950s. For me personally it was a case of renting it having heard the name, but not much else which is always a situation I enjoy with a film I can watch with no expectations or prior knowledge. The film starts in familiar fashion, a damsel in distress, a hardboiled private detective and a mystery

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

2012-01-08T23:58:00.001Z

For the fourth entry in the Mission: Impossible series the producers sought out Brad Bird for his live action debut, and it turns out to have been (surprise surprise) an excellent decision. What results is a fast, slick and highly entertaining blockbuster that sits right up there with the best the series has offered in the past. . Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, this time when his team is

Songs from the Second Floor (2000)

2012-01-08T23:57:00.003Z

Occupying the very top tier of the arthouse cinema scale of intelligibility comes this strange, sad and oddly compelling Swedish drama from the turn of the millennium. Written and directed by Roy Anderson the film doesn't tell a story insomuch as it provides a meta-commentary on modern society through a series of carefully constructed, and invariable odd, vignettes typically populated by

The November Project - Days 29-30

2011-12-01T18:13:00.000Z

So we reach the end. Sort of. November has ended and while I haven't quite reached my goal of finishing a draft of my script, I'm very close and will continue on until I'm done! The draft currently stands at 102 pages and I can't foresee too much more to come. . This whole project has been a great learning experience as much as anything, and I plan on continuing it on (maybe not on quite such a

The November Project - Days 25-28

2011-11-28T18:32:00.000Z

Another brief update, things have still been progressing well over the last few days, I'm still behind schedule but going strong nonetheless. I have now reached page 99 and still intend to continue on until the script is complete (as opposed to simply the month). I am approaching the end but it is still difficult to know how long it will end up. . It has been a bit of a tough period with some

The November Project - Days 18-24

2011-11-24T19:28:00.000Z

Oh dear. . That's rather a big gap to leave and I once again apologise. It's been a busy few days and the writing has suffered a little bit, but as I'm nearing the back end of the script I have a balance between spending time writing, but also figuring out the story, as this part was only very loosely sketched when I started so I want to be able to write to some sort of plan, rather than just for

The November Project - Days 15-17

2011-11-17T19:06:00.000Z

Another week, and another break in these updates. I think attempting them daily on the blog in addition to writing the script was a noble effort but one that was doomed to failure, thankfully the same has not been the case for the actual writing which has taken precedence (as it should) and kept to schedule so far this week managing my 4 pages a day so far. . As far along as I am with this now

The November Project - Day 14

2011-11-14T18:56:00.000Z

Greetings, I have returned from a three day hiatus and have managed to get straight back on the wagon, which was always the challenge. I managed a solid 5 pages today to put me back on track and it's nice to think I can back off a but if needed now to my standard 4 pages a day pace after doing a bit more for the last week or so. .Other than that no major discoveries today, except for the fact

The November Project - Days 7-10

2011-11-10T19:03:00.000Z

I have returned, to the world of blogging anyway. You should be please to note though that this does not mean that I have not been writing these past few days, because I most certainly have. Given that I am away from Friday - Sunday this week I knew I had to write some extra pages this week to make up for this and to not leave me much catch up work next week. Thankfully I have managed this

The November Project - Days 5 and 6

2011-11-07T19:20:00.000Z

A bit of a late double update from the weekend so apologies for the delay. I managed to get quite a bit done this weekend which was good, including re-writing a scene from Friday, which may be slightly counter productive given my challenge but the scene needed to go so I was glad for the change. . Overall I managed 10 pages over the weekend which puts me still ahead of schedule and in good stead

The November Project - Day 4

2011-11-04T22:01:00.000Z

A quick end of the week update for you, I managed to get another three pages done tonight. I have to confess to being pretty burnt out and not making it four, but I had also reached a natural end point of a scene so am happy to leave an extra page or two for the weekend. . It was a bit more of a chore to get to it today, once I was done procrastinating all I could though I still managed it which

The November Project - Days 2 and 3

2011-11-03T19:25:00.000Z

Hello again, just another quick update on my progress. I know I said I'd update every day (and I will endeavour too) but I had no time at home yesterday so have consolidated it with today. I did however manage 2 pages early in the morning yesterday, and a full 4 today which keeps me ahead of schedule thanks to my slight headstart but it's nice to keep that buffer as I'm sure there will be more

The November Project - Day 1

2011-11-01T18:58:00.001Z

Is it November already? Well seeing as I've signed myself up doing this writing challenge I pretty much have to through with it now. Day 1 has been good though in all seriousness, I will confess I am not starting my script completely from scratch I had approx. 10 rough pages written from a little while ago that I am building on, which gives me a bit of a cushion that I'm sure I will need through

The November Project

2011-10-30T15:43:00.000Z

You may have noticed that the blog has been rather quiet these last few weeks, well I've decided to take a bit of a different tack with it for the month of November which has taken some planning, and it's something I wanted to quickly detail here. . Now every November NaNoWriMo happens, that's National Novel Writing Month to you or me, a challenge for people to buckle down and get a 50,000 word

Becoming the Storyteller

2011-10-25T18:47:00.008+01:00

The below is an article written for D-Pad Magazine giving some thoughts on storytelling techniques in gaming, find the original here. . If there has been one thing that has become most notable in the times since videogames emerged into the hallowed third dimension, it has been the focus on story and storytelling. There once was a time when all the story you needed was simply to know that a

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

2011-10-15T15:26:00.000+01:00

Since Independence Day successfully brought back the large scale alien invasion concept, back in the mid 90's it has been a well from which many films have drawn. Battle: Los Angeles (or Battle: LA) brings its own twist to the tale, mixing the epic scope of previous blockbusters, with the gritty war-movie aesthetic usually reserved for much smaller scale endeavours. Unfortunately it also mixing

Frozen (2010)

2011-10-13T17:37:00.000+01:00

Adam Green followed up his 2006 horror film Hatchet, with this small scale affair, based around a simple premise and with just 3 characters. The setup concerns a pair of best friends, Joe and Dan, played by Shawn Ashmore and Kevin Zegers and Dan's girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell). After spending the day at a local ski resort they take a late in the day lift out to the peak for one last run. From

Green Hornet (2011)

2011-10-11T17:45:00.000+01:00

I have been a fan of Michel Gondry since his video directing days, and for the most part have enjoyed his transition to feature director, Eternal Sunshine being one of my favourite films, but there have also been glimpses of his oddball sensibility and eye for the clever and absurd even in the films that didn't fully work. Green Hornet is the first really commercial project he has helmed,

Drive (2011)

2011-10-04T19:19:00.000+01:00

Like it's enigmatic central character Drive is a cool, calculating proposition, carefully measured and capable of both unexpected sweetness, and shocking violence. Nicholas Windig Refn's first Hollywood film is stylistically bold, and signifies him as one of the most exciting talents in an industry where truly individual voices are sometimes hard to find. . Ryan Gosling stars as the nameless

Morning Glory (2010)

2011-09-30T18:53:00.001+01:00

As a lighthearted and entertaining throwback to the witty work-based comedies of Hollywood past Morning Glory gets a lot right. Though coming from the director of Notting Hill and writer of The Devil Wears Prada, two of the better films of a similar ilk from recent years, it should at least to a certain degree be expected. It also heralds the return of that rarest of beasts, an enjoyable and

Don't Look Now (1973)

2011-09-28T17:54:00.001+01:00

Nicolas Roeg's revered, but little known psychological horror is an effective and disturbing example of 70s cinema at it's finest. The story, as it is, concerns a happily married couple Laura and John Baxter (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, both excellent throughout) who suffer a terrible tragedy. In order to recover they take a trip to Venice, but the impact of their loss follows them,

Buried (2010)

2011-09-25T15:21:00.000+01:00

Taking the idea of minimalism in film about as far as it can go, Buried is a taut thriller based solely on the premise of a single actor in a single location for its entire running time. It is an ambitious undertaking, and if anything is surprising it is that the film actually, for the most part, makes this work. What it does mean though is that the film never really justifies its limitations,

Jackie Brown (1997)

2011-09-11T11:19:00.000+01:00

Until recently this was the only Quentin Tarantino film that I hadn't seen, for whatever reason it had always eluded me, at the time though it was under close scrutiny, coming off the back of Reservoir Dogs ad Pulp Fiction, and whilst it is perhaps less immediately impressive as those efforts there is an added layer of maturity here that I was surprised and impressed with. Many will forever

I Saw the Devil (2010)

2011-09-09T18:51:00.001+01:00

As I have no doubt previously expunged upon in great detail I am a big fan of the current crop of films coming from South Korea, which is fast establishing itself as the most exciting and interesting source of cinema of any kind at the moment. Director Jee-woon Kim is at the forefront of this movement coming off the back of the hugely entertaining The Good, The Bad, The Weird and A Bittersweet

Blow Out (1981)

2011-09-01T18:55:00.001+01:00

The latest in the recent batch of Brian De Palma movies that I have been catching up on, Blow Out is also my favourite of the directors work so far. It keenly marries his directorial flourishes to a compelling story, proving a good old fashioned thriller along the way, with a few twists. . The film starts wonderfully, in a voyeuristic POV shot we witness a serial killer stalk a college

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

2011-08-30T18:35:00.002+01:00

It is a sign of my delayed reviewing schedule for this year that I am only just getting round to one of the summers biggest blockbusters, long after all who wanted to see it will have already done so, but nonetheless I find the film worthy of discussion, exemplifying as it does the very best and worse that Michael Bay and large scale Hollywood productions have to offer at this rather strange

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)

2011-08-29T17:06:00.002+01:00

Zack Snyder's first foray into the world of animated films is a bit of a left field choice for the director who has thus far displayed a knack for gloriously over the top violence; a fantasy story focusing almost exclusively on Owls based on a series of children's books. As well as being lumped with that unfortunate subtitle, the film struggles throughout to really create an identity for

Predators (2010)

2011-08-25T11:25:00.000+01:00

Neither a sequel, not real remake of the original Predator film, Predators stands as a new entry in the series, designed to return to the simple premise at the heart of that initial films success, pitting a team of marines in a hostile environment against the titular predators. On the whole this was the right approach for the series, whose only real action in the last decade or so

Deconstructing Harry (1997)

2011-08-24T10:22:00.000+01:00