Thursday 21 April 2011

Bravo Toho



This is worth a peep.


Last year, Toho Cinemas here in Japan showed some classic films on their smaller screens and they're doing it again in 2011. I only got a chance to see one last year (12 Angry Men) but I'll be trying to fill my boots this year.

Some of the gems they'll be showing are: The Magnificent Seven, Sunset Boulevard, The Thomas Crown Affair, Alien, The Graduate, Taxi Driver, Shane, The French Connection and The Hustler. They even have a few non-English language films but that's me buggered as they don't show English subbies.

Enjoy them if you can - they only show one a week, at 10am.

Monday 18 April 2011

The Green Dream

I've noticed that The Green Lantern is upon us soon. As that's the name of my favourite comic book hero and my favourite Muttonbirds song, I'm hoping it will also be my favourite comic book film adaptation. High hopes, I guess.

The trailer looks formulaic, which should be expected, and the villain is that fey prat from An Education. Ryan Reynolds (who looks a bit like a mate of mine called Rewi) is probably OK for the part. He did well in a box underground for 80-odd minutes in Buried, but I reckon many could have played that role.

The trailer also seems choc full of CGI, which is starting to wear thin but I guess without it, The Green Lantern would look pretty crappy. I imagine a Super Hero movie without CGI would be something like a Sweded film from Be Kind, Rewind or a ride at Pissweak World (from The Late Show). Nice.


UPDATE (Oct 2011):

Saw this the other night. Hmmm. Not as bad as some have suggested but it just seemed very.....empty. Shoddily plotted with bodgy dialogue ("Why are you wearing this stupid suit? You're a pilot. And a damn good one!") and perfunctory aliens, good and bad.

Not really sure if the theme of 'will over fear' is slyly critiquing the post-9/11, post financial crisis (western) world or is actually supporting the Hollywood hawks (the evil Parallax alien could well be a cardboard Bin Laden or some other 'scary, militant Islamist'). I'd guess the latter.

So not as objectionable as the Spiderman films but not as good as X-Men or Iron Man and not even as much fun as Fantastic Four.