Of all the film styles in all the world, Steven Soderbergh chose in 2006 to adapt Joseph Kanon’s novel The Good German as a faux- noir, emulating the techniques and styles of Hollywood’s golden age, with no modern concessions. It wasn’t exactly pitched that way to Warner Brothers though. He told Empire, “I said, OK, [...]
Sylvester Stallone will often tell anyone who’ll listen about the mistakes he has made in his career. For every Rocky there is a Rhinestone, for every First Blood, there is a Rocky 5. While the 1980s was a fruitful period for Stallone commercially, by the end of the decade, he was in steep decline. It would [...]
Towards the end of the 1980s, action films were packing up their tents and starting to change tack. Brainless action was becoming a thing of the past and thanks to films like Die Hard, the muscleman was no longer the hero, instead the average Joe in a vest was in charge. Sadly, no one told [...]
My tribute from the vaults to the late lamented [Spooks] “Global terrorism, Islamic extremists, all phone-tap resources plus Echelon pointed at the Middle East, and now the old enemy looks like it’s rearing its ugly head…and it’s such a beautiful morning…” So opined Sir Harry Pearce, KBE, head of MI5′s Section D (counter-terrorism), in the very [...]
Hi, I’m Noel. I’ve never before seen a Terrence Malick film, and Tim was kind enough to invite me to Cinetropolis for a series of articles in which I’ll explore Malick’s works for the first time, starting with his directorial efforts, then following up with a look at additional films he wrote and/or produced. [...]
Ever since the first caveman dragged his mate back to the cave, men and women have seemingly been at loggerheads. In the fifties and sixties, sex comedies were all the rage, and the reigning queen was Doris Day. She embodied the emancipated but starry-eyed woman who butts heads with pig-headed alpha males like James Garner [...]
Hans Landa, the loquacious, charming, calculating nemesis of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is the villain we can’t help admiring for his chutzpah. Ironic, for someone who’s nickname is “The Jew Hunter”. WARNING: This piece contains major spoilers Rarely can a film have depended so much on the successful casting of a supporting role. At one [...]
With Gangster Squad on release this week, I thought I’d take a look at Mulholland Falls, another tough neo-noir set in the post war city of angels. It features a similar team of two-fisted detectives who work off the books, loosely based on the Gangster Squad’s real life Robbery Division contemporaries, the Hat Squad. However, based on the [...]
Sadly Guillermo del Toro’s ambitious planned film adaptation of At The Mountains Of Madness was shelved last year, and by all accounts seems unlikely to be resurrected, as he himself states Prometheus touched on much of the mood of H.P.Lovecraft’s original tale. It did however lead me to recall an earlier, glorious horror failure, The [...]
Now that Disney have bought Lucasfilm, will they plough ahead with their intended remake of Star Wars’ coat trailer, The Black Hole, or consign this imitators memory to the dustbin of history? The success of Star Wars took Hollywood by surprise in 1977, and suddenly science fiction films were hip again. Disney dusted off elements of 20,000 [...]
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