The Hobbit @ Moviedump.org
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The Hobbit @ Moviedump.org
moviedumpblog.wordpress.com is now kaput! Go read our The Hobbit review at moviedump.org.
Life of Pi | Moviedump.org
moviedumpblog.wordpress.com is now kaput! Go read our Life of Pi review at moviedump.org.
Life of Pi | Moviedump.org
moviedumpblog.wordpress.com is now kaput! Go read our Life of Pi review at moviedump.org.
Holy Motors
This starts out like you’re watching a Tropfest DVD, a sequence of short films where the signature item that thinly binds the whole together is nothing more in this case than actor Denis Levant. It ends up in much the
Holy Motors
This starts out like you’re watching a Tropfest DVD, a sequence of short films where the signature item that thinly binds the whole together is nothing more in this case than actor Denis Levant. It ends up in much the
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A slight, sometimes imperceptible tale nevertheless remarkable and rewarding for its sheer lack of convention. It’s disorienting enough to leave us wondering whether we are watching an apocalyptic sci-fi, a myth retold, or just a minor extrapolation of events surrounding
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A slight, sometimes imperceptible tale nevertheless remarkable and rewarding for its sheer lack of convention. It’s disorienting enough to leave us wondering whether we are watching an apocalyptic sci-fi, a myth retold, or just a minor extrapolation of events surrounding
Attack The Block
Ewokish chavs on bicycles save their corner of the world from something toothy and belligerent out of Ben10. Like many movies about wayward youth it resolves with the protagonists’ reintegration into society, but in doing so discounts any special vision
Attack The Block
Ewokish chavs on bicycles save their corner of the world from something toothy and belligerent out of Ben10. Like many movies about wayward youth it resolves with the protagonists’ reintegration into society, but in doing so discounts any special vision
Wake In Fright (1971)
A changing of the guard in Australian thespianism, featuring Jack Thompson in his first cinema role and Chips Rafferty in his last. It’s a great swan song by Rafferty, upsidedowning everything he’d done before. But Wake In Fright goes much
Wake In Fright (1971)
A changing of the guard in Australian thespianism, featuring Jack Thompson in his first cinema role and Chips Rafferty in his last. It’s a great swan song by Rafferty, upsidedowning everything he’d done before. But Wake In Fright goes much
Take Shelter
Michael Shannon’s cheer squad raises this film’s critical rating. No one seems to agree on what it’s about though. As far as I could tell whilst watching, it was a film about mental illness that demanded much patience of its
Take Shelter
Michael Shannon’s cheer squad raises this film’s critical rating. No one seems to agree on what it’s about though. As far as I could tell whilst watching, it was a film about mental illness that demanded much patience of its
Play Misty For Me (1971)
A great popcorn-munching, psycho-watching, knife-wielding suburban thriller that precedes and outclasses the bunny boiling Fatal Attraction – ’cause look, back in the day, who drove women crazier, Clint or Michael Douglas? There’s interesting debate to be had on whether it’s
Play Misty For Me (1971)
A great popcorn-munching, psycho-watching, knife-wielding suburban thriller that precedes and outclasses the bunny boiling Fatal Attraction – ’cause look, back in the day, who drove women crazier, Clint or Michael Douglas? There’s interesting debate to be had on whether it’s
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
The literally sprawling epic that made cinema history for all the wrong reasons, raping the coffers of United Artists so resoundingly it made directorial freedom look like a bad thing. Rightly pariahed for its indulgences and cavalier discipline, Heaven’s Gate
Heaven’s Gate (1980)
The literally sprawling epic that made cinema history for all the wrong reasons, raping the coffers of United Artists so resoundingly it made directorial freedom look like a bad thing. Rightly pariahed for its indulgences and cavalier discipline, Heaven’s Gate
The Avengers
The Marvel Avengers go supergroup with Joss Whedon at the mixing desk. Downey Jnr’s Iron Man dominates as Whedon gives him all the good lines. Notable for an epic fx-driven battle between the assembled Avengers and some grommet faced bad
The Avengers
The Marvel Avengers go supergroup with Joss Whedon at the mixing desk. Downey Jnr’s Iron Man dominates as Whedon gives him all the good lines. Notable for an epic fx-driven battle between the assembled Avengers and some grommet faced bad
Black Narcissus (1947)
One ought not to rebel against nature it seems, nor the nature of things. A gaggle of nuns embark on a girl’s own Heart of Darkness journey into the Himalayas but ‘something in the air’ undoes the itinerant sisters one
Black Narcissus (1947)
One ought not to rebel against nature it seems, nor the nature of things. A gaggle of nuns embark on a girl’s own Heart of Darkness journey into the Himalayas but ‘something in the air’ undoes the itinerant sisters one
Safe House
The trilogy of this, Training Day and Man on Fire (let’s overlook The Book of Eli) mounts a strong case for Denzel Washington being today’s front running hollywood BAMF and you didn’t even notice. Maybe a cage match with Vincent
Safe House
The trilogy of this, Training Day and Man on Fire (let’s overlook The Book of Eli) mounts a strong case for Denzel Washington being today’s front running hollywood BAMF and you didn’t even notice. Maybe a cage match with Vincent
Source Code
Up until it starts trying to justify it’s underlying science, Source Code looks for all the world like a classy, economical sci-fi thriller. But it’s unclear whether it’s us or the writers who never quite grasp what they’re talking about,
Source Code
Up until it starts trying to justify it’s underlying science, Source Code looks for all the world like a classy, economical sci-fi thriller. But it’s unclear whether it’s us or the writers who never quite grasp what they’re talking about,
Dark Shadows
Another inventive flourish from Depp, maybe a career-best performance from Eva Green, plus noticeably good cameo walk-ons from Pfeiffer, Bonham-Carter and Moretz all sadly fail to make this arch gothic panto add up to the sum of its parts.
Dark Shadows
Another inventive flourish from Depp, maybe a career-best performance from Eva Green, plus noticeably good cameo walk-ons from Pfeiffer, Bonham-Carter and Moretz all sadly fail to make this arch gothic panto add up to the sum of its parts.
Margin Call
Still wondering where all the money went? A lot of it was never really there. And then there weren’t enough chairs when the music stopped. It’s a story that deserves half a dozen tellings and probably the first movie I’ve
Margin Call
Still wondering where all the money went? A lot of it was never really there. And then there weren’t enough chairs when the music stopped. It’s a story that deserves half a dozen tellings and probably the first movie I’ve
The Artist
Despite Jean Dujardin being a virtuoso charmer and perfectly cast, the falling star of the silent screen he plays here is a disagreeable prima donna – ungrateful, self pitying and sinfully proud. There are inspired strokes of visual invention, but
The Artist
Despite Jean Dujardin being a virtuoso charmer and perfectly cast, the falling star of the silent screen he plays here is a disagreeable prima donna – ungrateful, self pitying and sinfully proud. There are inspired strokes of visual invention, but
Woman in the Fifth
This glacial American-in-Paris mystery noir mounts some captivating intrigues then walks away without a single payoff. What happened?
Woman in the Fifth
This glacial American-in-Paris mystery noir mounts some captivating intrigues then walks away without a single payoff. What happened?
Goon
This thing threatens so much near-greatness its not immediately clear what’s holding it back. Sean William Scott (yes, Stifler) is barely recognisable, holds the lead spot effortlessly and earns a career reboot with help from a semi stellar indiewood cast
Goon
This thing threatens so much near-greatness its not immediately clear what’s holding it back. Sean William Scott (yes, Stifler) is barely recognisable, holds the lead spot effortlessly and earns a career reboot with help from a semi stellar indiewood cast
The Raid
Somewhere in Jakarta, a bunch of rookie SWAT cops find they’ve bitten off more than they can chew in attacking an apartment block full of murderous crims. It shouldn’t have been hard to make that work, but a smart, efficient,
The Raid
Somewhere in Jakarta, a bunch of rookie SWAT cops find they’ve bitten off more than they can chew in attacking an apartment block full of murderous crims. It shouldn’t have been hard to make that work, but a smart, efficient,
The Hunger Games
This best selling US tweeny book franchise gets a lot less love than Harry Potter did. Other than the cast there’s little to distinguish it from a sci-fi channel production. Nevertheless, the Survivor/Big Brother/Battle Royale template proves an enduring recipe
The Hunger Games
This best selling US tweeny book franchise gets a lot less love than Harry Potter did. Other than the cast there’s little to distinguish it from a sci-fi channel production. Nevertheless, the Survivor/Big Brother/Battle Royale template proves an enduring recipe
This Must Be the Place
It would be nice if every movie was as different from every other movie as this one is, but in a different way. Then… wait a minute… it’s a road movie. It just took a while to get onto the
This Must Be the Place
It would be nice if every movie was as different from every other movie as this one is, but in a different way. Then… wait a minute… it’s a road movie. It just took a while to get onto the
A Dangerous Method
A fine production of a story that seems like it should have had far more to say. A great deal is touched upon but little is explored beyond Sabina Spielrein’s interest in spanking. Spielrein is Jung’s first patient and its
A Dangerous Method
A fine production of a story that seems like it should have had far more to say. A great deal is touched upon but little is explored beyond Sabina Spielrein’s interest in spanking. Spielrein is Jung’s first patient and its
The Dark Knight Rises
Don’t know what all the fuss was about, seems like pretty decent entertainment to me. That’s what I thought two hours in. But the last long hour sees the darkness groan and splinter under the weight of it’s ambitions. It
The Dark Knight Rises
Don’t know what all the fuss was about, seems like pretty decent entertainment to me. That’s what I thought two hours in. But the last long hour sees the darkness groan and splinter under the weight of it’s ambitions. It
Carnage
Middle class pretences of civility take a beating as parents debate the correct thing to do after their kids have a violent altercation. Predictably, despite all intentions to the contrary, the parents’ altercation is far more grim. Amusing, but beyond a
Carnage
Middle class pretences of civility take a beating as parents debate the correct thing to do after their kids have a violent altercation. Predictably, despite all intentions to the contrary, the parents’ altercation is far more grim. Amusing, but beyond a
Haywire
Soderbergh has a stab at affected genre in this revisitation of Nikita without the bondage, or Bourne without the amnesia. You know the story, and once again the moral is… maybe don’t double cross your highly trained martial arts super
Haywire
Soderbergh has a stab at affected genre in this revisitation of Nikita without the bondage, or Bourne without the amnesia. You know the story, and once again the moral is… maybe don’t double cross your highly trained martial arts super
Shame
This temporally stretched essay on sex addiction seems more concerned with effects than causes, though an abusive past is indicated for two siblings, played by Fassbender and Mulligan. The classy cast, stylish minimalism and enough things going wrong sustain tension
Shame
This temporally stretched essay on sex addiction seems more concerned with effects than causes, though an abusive past is indicated for two siblings, played by Fassbender and Mulligan. The classy cast, stylish minimalism and enough things going wrong sustain tension
Martha Marcy May Marlene
To convey one’s mood in seventeen syllables is very diffic. That’s a haiku by John Cooper Clarke. You do and you don’t need that last syllable. To convey ones idea in 3 acts can be like that too. Martha Marcy
Martha Marcy May Marlene
To convey one’s mood in seventeen syllables is very diffic. That’s a haiku by John Cooper Clarke. You do and you don’t need that last syllable. To convey ones idea in 3 acts can be like that too. Martha Marcy
Drive
There are many movie car chases but hardly any good ones. Most are placeholders where the only thing moving fast is the cutting. Drive nods its head to 1968 so hard it risks whiplash as a fastback 2008 Bullitt Mustang
Drive
There are many movie car chases but hardly any good ones. Most are placeholders where the only thing moving fast is the cutting. Drive nods its head to 1968 so hard it risks whiplash as a fastback 2008 Bullitt Mustang
I Melt with You
A suicidally downbeat Big Chill for men, exploring the disappointment inherent to middle age. You grow up expecting the world but in the end you only get a life, and these forty-something school buddies on a vacation bender are grief
I Melt with You
A suicidally downbeat Big Chill for men, exploring the disappointment inherent to middle age. You grow up expecting the world but in the end you only get a life, and these forty-something school buddies on a vacation bender are grief
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Fincher’s version of this curious fantasy about a young woman serial raped by father figures, first within the family and then by the state. Not quite moving on, she opts for a steamy relationship with her middle aged employer. To
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Fincher’s version of this curious fantasy about a young woman serial raped by father figures, first within the family and then by the state. Not quite moving on, she opts for a steamy relationship with her middle aged employer. To
The Grey
The Edge with wolves. And snow. Some stylish direction inspires high hopes – later deflated as this mortality tale fails to grasp a theme worthy of the life and death struggle its characters face after their plane crashes in the
The Grey
The Edge with wolves. And snow. Some stylish direction inspires high hopes – later deflated as this mortality tale fails to grasp a theme worthy of the life and death struggle its characters face after their plane crashes in the
The Ward
John Carpenter’s not really triumphal 10 year return to the screen. There was a good idea in here somewhere but what we mostly get is people running. This has more running than Apocalypto. This time its chicks in a psych
The Ward
John Carpenter’s not really triumphal 10 year return to the screen. There was a good idea in here somewhere but what we mostly get is people running. This has more running than Apocalypto. This time its chicks in a psych
Somewhere
Fuck story. The world’s full of stories. Who needs another one, right? Sofia Coppola decides instead to make a melting still, a not dry nature morte portrait of an LA actor (Stephen Dorff) surprised by success, who gets everything he
Somewhere
Fuck story. The world’s full of stories. Who needs another one, right? Sofia Coppola decides instead to make a melting still, a not dry nature morte portrait of an LA actor (Stephen Dorff) surprised by success, who gets everything he
Blue Valentine
Watch the love die and wonder why. No winners in this study of romantic failure. Unable to recommend this truthful well acted tragedy as its point escaped me. Perhaps what tragedies need to do is establish at the outset that
Blue Valentine
Watch the love die and wonder why. No winners in this study of romantic failure. Unable to recommend this truthful well acted tragedy as its point escaped me. Perhaps what tragedies need to do is establish at the outset that
Prometheus
The crew of the starship Prometheus are roused from cryo-sleep to ask the big questions. Who are we? Why are we here? Yes they’re really asking those questions. None of them seem to know who anyone else is or why
Prometheus
The crew of the starship Prometheus are roused from cryo-sleep to ask the big questions. Who are we? Why are we here? Yes they’re really asking those questions. None of them seem to know who anyone else is or why
The Help
Has there been a bad film about the US civil rights movement? The most self critiical nation on earth once again finds its terrible race karma a bottomless wellspring of pungent narrative. Does amply what it sets out to do
X
Direction outshines story as Jon Hewitt produces another genre vs art house mashup that works really well bar an action scramble near the end to tie up the plot at the expense of its themes. The unstoppable baddy resembles a
X
Direction outshines story as Jon Hewitt produces another genre vs art house mashup that works really well bar an action scramble near the end to tie up the plot at the expense of its themes. The unstoppable baddy resembles a
Restless
Starts out looking like an age-appropriate revision of Harold and Maude, as emotionally imploded funeral crasher Henry Hopper somehow manages to get stalked by a puckish, gossamer Mia Wasikowska. Fans of Gus Van Sant’s ouevre of slow will find this
Restless
Starts out looking like an age-appropriate revision of Harold and Maude, as emotionally imploded funeral crasher Henry Hopper somehow manages to get stalked by a puckish, gossamer Mia Wasikowska. Fans of Gus Van Sant’s ouevre of slow will find this
The Descendants
Take a bleak premise about infidelity and terminal comas and drizzle with saccharine. Clooney gets an oscar nomination for one of his most laboured and least convincing performances. Maybe it was really for The American. Watchable drama about family and
The Descendants
Take a bleak premise about infidelity and terminal comas and drizzle with saccharine. Clooney gets an oscar nomination for one of his most laboured and least convincing performances. Maybe it was really for The American. Watchable drama about family and
The Adventures of Tintin
This one divides the room, leaving me on the side that was waiting for the frenetic more is less dynamism to finally exhaust itself and allow me to leave the cinema. There was a hero’s journey in here somewhere, with
The Adventures of Tintin
This one divides the room, leaving me on the side that was waiting for the frenetic more is less dynamism to finally exhaust itself and allow me to leave the cinema. There was a hero’s journey in here somewhere, with
The Iron Lady
Thatcher without the thatcherism? It’s been described thus but the thatcherism is actually right there in the opening scene as a pinstriped yuppie queue-jumps doddering Maggie at the corner shop. Meryl earns her oscar and maintains a tradition of wins
The Iron Lady
Thatcher without the thatcherism? It’s been described thus but the thatcherism is actually right there in the opening scene as a pinstriped yuppie queue-jumps doddering Maggie at the corner shop. Meryl earns her oscar and maintains a tradition of wins
The Ides of March
Clooney adapts, directs and acts in a story outlining all the reasons why he’s unlikely to run for President. With Gosling as The Prince.
The Ides of March
Clooney adapts, directs and acts in a story outlining all the reasons why he’s unlikely to run for President. With Gosling as The Prince.
Melancholia
This appears for the first hour to be a good old fashioned Bunuel-style thrashing of the bourgeoisie and everything it holds sacred, with rogue ops courtesy of rampaging bridezilla, Dunst. Then Melancholia’s orbit tightens into an understated spiral of high
Melancholia
This appears for the first hour to be a good old fashioned Bunuel-style thrashing of the bourgeoisie and everything it holds sacred, with rogue ops courtesy of rampaging bridezilla, Dunst. Then Melancholia’s orbit tightens into an understated spiral of high
Midnight in Paris
Owen Wilson is the 10th Woody, you know like David Tennant is the 10th Doctor. The first Woody began deploying effigies of himself when they started to say he had grown too old too disgracefully. Hell, he even married Rosemary’s
Midnight in Paris
Owen Wilson is the 10th Woody, you know like David Tennant is the 10th Doctor. The first Woody began deploying effigies of himself when they started to say he had grown too old too disgracefully. Hell, he even married Rosemary’s
Contagion
The roll call of stars lining up to work with Soderbergh make this look like a disaster blockbuster, but Contagion is a sober examination of how a global cataclysm might play out handled by a 21stC bureaucracy, with unexpected intrusions
Contagion
The roll call of stars lining up to work with Soderbergh make this look like a disaster blockbuster, but Contagion is a sober examination of how a global cataclysm might play out handled by a 21stC bureaucracy, with unexpected intrusions
Hugo
Marty seems out of his element in so many ways here – probably roughly equal to the number of ways in which this highly polished turd is… just that. Moretz and Kingsley bring enough charm to the table to make
Hugo
Marty seems out of his element in so many ways here – probably roughly equal to the number of ways in which this highly polished turd is… just that. Moretz and Kingsley bring enough charm to the table to make
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