My Life in Cinema

Timothy Patrick Boyer goes to the movies.

0 notes &

Snow White & the Huntsman is director Rupert Sanders’ feature debut… and it shows. The pacing here (especially in the first act) is excruciating, the editing and camera work are distracting/annoying and the best parts of the film (the cast of dwarfs and Charlize Theron’s queen) are criminally underused. You can tell Sanders has roots in commercials, because - as it stands - this film only ever really works for 30-seconds at a time. This is a boring, often ugly take on the Snow White tale, with a cast that deserves a much, much better movie. - 3/10 -Timothy Patrick Boyer.

Snow White & the Huntsman is director Rupert Sanders’ feature debut… and it shows. The pacing here (especially in the first act) is excruciating, the editing and camera work are distracting/annoying and the best parts of the film (the cast of dwarfs and Charlize Theron’s queen) are criminally underused. You can tell Sanders has roots in commercials, because - as it stands - this film only ever really works for 30-seconds at a time. This is a boring, often ugly take on the Snow White tale, with a cast that deserves a much, much better movie. - 3/10

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

Filed under Film Movies Reviews Snow White & the Huntsman Rupert Sanders Charlize Theron Kristen Stewart Chris Hemsworth Stills

1 note &

My Week in Reviews: June 1, 2012

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2012)

Boring… boring… occasionally very well shot… boring… and horribly, horribly boring. Sure, I get that it being boring is kind of the point, as to put the audience in the shoes of these characters and their search, and to show how they’re all victims of procedure. But come on, it gets to a point where I don’t give a shit about the message you’re trying to convey if you’re not trying to convey it in a way that’s anywhere near interesting/captivating. - 2/10

Safe House (Daniel Espinosa, 2012)

Run of the mill, highly formulaic and predictable CIA action film, and not even the best of its kind this year! (That title, so far, goes to Haywire.) However, Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington (who you can see just loves playing the “bad guy”… really, he’s just a complete bad-ass) are both very good, the fight scenes are messy in a good way and there’s a better than decent chase scene near the beginning of act two. Not the worst way to burn through two hours… also not the best way to burn through two hours. - 6.5/10

Hemingway & Gellhorn (Philip Kaufman, 2012)

Most of the first act is a visual mess… as are chunks spread throughout the rest of the film. The way they chose to tell this story made the two-hour-and-forty-minute running time feel like five hours. This could’ve easily been cut down to two hours flat without losing much at all. Clive Owens is an effective, if occasionally over-the-top (but then again, he was an over-the-top man) Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll was much, much better in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris… he was Hemingway), and Nicole Kidman is mostly fantastic as Martha Gellhorn (she is, however, quite awful as elderly Gellhorn); other than these sometimes-great-but-more-often-only-decent performances, though, HBO really dropped the ball on a potentially epic film. - 3.5/10

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

Filed under Film Movies TV Television HBO Once Upon a Time in Anatolia Nuri Bilge Ceylan Safe House Daniel Espinosa Ryan Reynolds Denzel Washington Hemingway & Gellhorn Ernest Hemingway Clive Owens Nicole Kidman Philip Kaufman

11 notes &

Of course… I own every single one of these… it’s like Amazon peeks into my library before they start their sales. Also, anyone who doesn’t own Malick’s The Thin Red Line on Criterion Blu needs to take advantage of this sale!! (And while you’re at it, pick up the rest of these too - especially The Great Dictator and Seven Samurai.) criterioncast: Right now Amazon has several Criterion Blu-rays at or around 50% off. These sales often come and go quickly, so if there are some discs that you’ve been waiting to buy, now is the time. The Barnes & Noble sales usually come in July and November, so we still have a month or so before that hits. Here is a list of some of the titles that are around $20 (or less in many cases) (These sale prices are as of the time of this post going up, I’ll try to update this post when I can) Seven Samurai (Currently $24.99 / 50% off) Godzilla (Currently $20.99 / 47% off) The Thin Red Line (Currently at $19.99 / 50% off) The Darjeeling Limited (Currently at $18.99 / 52% off) Bottle Rocket (Currently at $20.49 / 49% off) America Lost And Found: The BBS Story (Currently $67.99 / 46% off) Days Of Heaven (Currently $18.49 / 54% off) The Seventh Seal (Currently $19.49 / 51% off) The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (Currently $18.99 / 52% off) The Great Dictator (Currently $20.99 / 47% off) World On A Wire (Currently $20.99 / 47% off) Stagecoach (Currently $18.99 / 52% off)

Of course… I own every single one of these… it’s like Amazon peeks into my library before they start their sales.

Also, anyone who doesn’t own Malick’s The Thin Red Line on Criterion Blu needs to take advantage of this sale!! (And while you’re at it, pick up the rest of these too - especially The Great Dictator and Seven Samurai.)

criterioncast:

Right now Amazon has several Criterion Blu-rays at or around 50% off.

These sales often come and go quickly, so if there are some discs that you’ve been waiting to buy, now is the time. The Barnes & Noble sales usually come in July and November, so we still have a month or so before that hits.

Here is a list of some of the titles that are around $20 (or less in many cases) (These sale prices are as of the time of this post going up, I’ll try to update this post when I can)

Filed under reblog Film Movies Criterion The Criterion Collection Amazon Blu-ray

2 notes &

My Five Favorite War Films

In honor of Memorial Day, and all of the brave souls to whom this day is dedicated, here are my favorite war films:

5. Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001)

4. Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987)

3. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

1. The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

Happy Memorial Day, and Thank You!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

Filed under Film Movies Lists War Memorial Day Black Hawk Down Ridley Scott Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg Full Metal Jacket Stanley Kubrick Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola The Thin Red Line Terrence Malick My Five Favorite

0 notes &

My Week in Reviews: May 25, 2012

Journey to the Center of the Earth (Henry Levin, 1959)

There’s just a sense of creativity in this film (and most ‘50’s sci-fi) that is absent from the adventure films of today. This isn’t one of my favorite from the genre (or era), but James Mason is always great and there are just so many great moments/set pieces in this film. - 7.5/10

Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang, 1944)

Not quite as suspenseful as I was expecting, but it’s still quite gripping, and very well executed (Milland is fantastic, and the moment when he’s leaving the fair is perfection). It kept reminding me of ‘30’s-‘40’s Hitchcock in terms of style… perhaps that’s why I kept expecting it to glue me to the edge of my seat more than it did. - 7.5/10

The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)

Brilliant film noir about a detective out for justice/revenge… Glenn Ford’s a beast, Gloria Grahame’s a babe and Lee Marvin’s a bastard. All out perfection! - 10/10

Daisies (Věra Chytilová, 1966)

Aside from it being extremely feminist, this film is the best kind of experimental filmmaking. Energetic, anarchic, creative, exciting… and downright outrageous! - 7/10

Killers on Parade (Masahiro Shinoda, 1961)

Take Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs and throw them into a Japanese gangster film. A jazz solo mixed perfectly with a live-action cartoon… pure insanity, and a whole shit ton of fun. It’s not one of the best film I’ve seen from the Japanese New Wave, but it’s certainly one of craziest! - 8.5/10

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

Filed under Film Movies Reviews My Week in Reviews