It’s 2012 now, in case you didn’t notice, so before the world comes to an end and Roland Emmerich can say “I told you so!”, I think it’s best we reflect on the year that was.
Speaking for myself here – and not for Tom Clift, whose list is also below — 2011 was one of those years where the average quality of movies was quite high, [...]
My comrades over at the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) — of which I’m a voting member — recently announced the winners of the society’s 15th annual awards, and to little surprise (given its seven nominations), the top honours went to Terrence Malick’s arthouse opus The Tree of Life. For the sake of comparison, the title of best film last year [...]
There was a name change, long days and mostly good weather on set for Forbidden Ground (previously The Front), the latest film from Sydney-based Rebellion Pictures which wrapped up filming before Christmas. Cut Print Review caught up with Swedish-born co-director/writer/producer/actor Johan Earl on set in Wongarbon, NSW (18km south-east of Dubbo) almost midway into the 16-day location shoot, in an exclusive where we had a chat as Johan was in [...]
Based on the timeless Belgian comics by Hergé, directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and brought to life using the same motion capture technology popularized by Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express) and perfected by James Cameron (Avatar), The Adventures of Tintin bears, in theory, all the promise of a cinematic event. Not so in execution. Part gumshoe mystery, part animated Indiana Jones, [...]
While its revolting premise and some ingenious marketing has earned The Human Centipede much notoriety online, the 2009 Dutch horror film about three unfortunate tourists sewn anus to mouth by a maniacal German scientist isn’t really all that difficult to stomach. Indeed, the relatively small amount of gore and bodily fluids that director Tom Six actually depicts in the film – along with the general crumbiness of the dialogue, plotting, [...]
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film – live action or animated – quite like Happy Feet Two, and I don’t mean that in a good way. If the original Happy Feet were a whirlwind adventure, this manic sequel is a Category 5 hurricane, the intent being to sweep audiences off their feet, but the result being more in line with taking a flying brick to the face. Director [...]
The bitter cynic within me — located just left of the pancreas, if we’re being precise — would want nothing more than to rip into the manipulative emotional rollercoaster that is Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo, the kind of on-rails Hallmark drama where every ascent is followed by a predictable fall. Yet preventing such a scathing report is my inner romantic, a resident of the heart who shows up [...]
Now that we’ve collectively agreed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull never happened, let us return to fawning over Steven Spielberg for that kind of “gee whiz, let’s do that again!” giddiness you get from watching movies like The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The director might be working from a collection of mid-20th century comics by Belgian artist Hergé, but this is undeniably [...]
