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Archives For November 30, 1999

RoboCop (2014)

June 16, 2014 — Leave a comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INmtQXUXez8

Michael Keaton plays the CEO of OmniCorp; a corporation with designs installing their humanoid drones across the United States in the spirit of maintaining peace. And profit. And justice. But mainly profit. Despite having the media in his back pocket (personified by Samuel L Jackson’s Bill O’Reilly – sorry Pat Novak), Keaton is having trouble convincing America that machines with deadly weapons are really the best thing for policing its streets. When young detective, Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is horrifically disfigured after a car bomb, a plan is put into place to bring about the first hybrid of man and machine, or – to those of you paying attention at the back – RoboCop!

Whilst there are car chases and gunfights and all the fun things to keep you chomping on your popcorn, his interpretation of RoboCop feels more like the opening chapter to a story than a stand-alone film with its heavy expositon. The script seems to think we need to see every step towards Murphy’s transformation from emotional human being to steely eyed, unquestioning drone. So, we witness training montages with watchmen’s Jackie Earle Haley’s mean sunuvabitch drone controller and boardroom discussions with Gary Oldman’s compassionate medical team. It’s all stuff that could have been condescend to 20 minutes of the opening act.

The nihilism of the original has been jettisoned in favour of more emotion through Murphy’s family who, unlike in the original, are front and centre for the majority of the film. As such, we spend large gun-less sections of the film worrying about Murphy’s humanity and compassion. It’s a bold move, but it doesn’t entirely convince and, unfortunately, it all just feels superfluous to what people have paid to see, which is RoboCop robocopping.

When it was announced that Paul Verhoeven’s seminal and ultra-violent RoboCop was up for a reboot, eyebrows were raised so high, they could only be brought down by industrial machinery. But on the basis of what’s on show Jose Padilha’s reboot, there’s not that much on show that justifies the vitriol that was fired at it with angst cannons. But then it’s also not exactly winning us over.

Original review can be found at https://earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/robocop-2014/

About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.

If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.

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52 Tuesdays

May 5, 2014 — Leave a comment

No matter how close we are to someone, do we really know everything about them? How aware are we of all the pieces that make them a whole? In 52 Tuesdays, teenager Billie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) certainly thinks she is always on the ball. Somewhat precocious, she shares a happy home life with her mother, Jane (Del Herbert-Jane) and partyboy Uncle Harry (Mario Spate). When Jane reveals her desire to become a man, Billie is packed off to live with her father Tom (Beau Travis Williams) whilst Jane transitions into James; both mother and daughter agreeing that they’ll meet every Tuesday to spend some quality time together.

Directed by Sophie Hyde and co-written with Matthew Cormack, and filmed over the course of literally 52 Tuesdays, James and Billie are shown taking two different, but similar journeys to define themselves. Whilst James is building a new life for himself, Billie, initially supportive of him, begins to flounder and seeks some form of control in her own. This blossoms into an sexual exploration with two seniors at her high school, played by Imogen Archer and Sam Althuizen.

Read the rest of the review at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com

About The Author
My name is John Noonan. I’m a freelance writer that specialises in arts and entertainment. From genre flicks to chick flicks, I love the stuff. So much so, I started a film review blog at earlybirdfilm.wordpress.com. I also contribute to online and hard copy press, including FilmInk magazine.

If you like what you see, I am available for hire. You can contact me via the social media channels above or the form on my home page.

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Does Not Compute: Five Films That Show Technology is Not to Be Trusted

November 27, 2013 — Leave a comment

Antisocial, the frankly awesome tale of social networking gone awry, will be making it’s Aussie debut at Monster Fest this year (tickets available here), before being released on glossy Blu-ray and DVD on December 4th. Brutal, shocking and guaranteed to make you think twice about what you post on Facebook, we can’t wait to show it to you.

Technology has always been shitter. For every Manborg out there, there’s some other tech that will inevitably want to bite us on the ass. Just look at the Terminator films – James Cameron was clearly out to warn us all with those. But we’re all aware of Skynet now, the 90s have gone and we’re not in a desperate struggle against big metal skeletons. We dodged that bullet. But that doesn’t mean we should be resting on our laurels. John Noonan presents 5 other occasions where technology has nearly led to the downfall of humankind.

 

Demon Seed (1977)

Based on the novel Dean Koontz, 1977’s Demon Seed shows you exactly what happens when you go about creating Artificial Intelligence and don’t give it what it wants. In this case, the AI known as Proteus wants ‘out of this box’. Unwilling to comply, his creator shuts him down and goes and plays Minesweeper (maybe). Like a petulant child, Proteus manages to hack his way into his creator’s home security system. Therein, it takes his wife (Julie Christie) hostage and, horrifically, forces her to have its child. But it doesn’t stop there, no no. Proteus wants to put its consciousness into the child so that it can become human. Now look… There are upgrades and then there’s that!

Dean Koontz returned to his novel in 1997, rewriting it from the point of view of Proteus who, amongst other nefarious machinations, tries to use Muppet impressions to comfort his prisoner. Obviously not everyone is keen on remakes, but you have wonder about the damage Proteus could do with things like broadband, Wi-Fi and Simpsons Tapped Out.

Read the rest of the list at: Monsterpictures.com.au

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Won’t Somebody Think of the Children

November 19, 2013 — Leave a comment

We’re all getting a bit excited as we draw closer and closer to the wonderful Linda Blair coming over here for the 40thanniversary showing of The Exorcist. Her legendary performance as Reagan got us thinking about children in films. An English proverb says that ‘the soul is healed by being with children’; but then whoever said that obviously never had to contend with some of the under-16s John Noonan writes about in this list of five killer kid films.

1.thechildren

The Children – The Children (2008)

Ah, Christmas. According to many, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. A precious moment to gather with the family and celebrate the birth of Our Lord Saviour, Cthulu. Or Jesus, if you’re a bit old fashioned. In Tom Shankland’s The Children, a middle class family have their festivities (and new age parenting techniques) turned on its head when their little darlings start displaying some rather overtly homicidal tendencies. Hinted as being the result of a virus that worksit’s way up the generations, the children find torturing the pet cat and luring Daddy into a booby trip are a hell of a lot more fun than the Queen’s Speech and Brussel sprouts. This Dora the Explorer militia will think nothing of stabbing crayons in your eyes.

When Shankland was selling this one to the financiers, he would describe the film in which a child forces a doll into an adult body cavity as ‘an elevated film exploring parent child relationships.’ Now, that’s how you market, people.

Read the rest of the list at: Monsterpictures.com.au

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Monster Pictures Guide to the Arts: Musicals

October 10, 2013 — 1 Comment

It was announced this week that Matt Smith, Doctor Who star and human Easter Island Statue, will be getting all twinkly-toed and falsetto as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: The Musical, due to start in London in December 2013. Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the thought of Patrick doing the soft shoe shuffle whilst taking pot shots at the cheap seats with a nail gun and belting out Whitney Houston songs, certainly brings us cheer of an evening. But whilst the thought of basing a musical on a book which Germany deemed harmful to minors and seen as a bit rum in Queensland does raise eyebrows, you gotta give it to everybody on board for at least giving it… a stab (hyuck, hyuck).

We’re feeling pretty theatrical ourselves and as such, we present to you five more unusual choices for musicals. Without a Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark in sight.

And a 1, and a 2, and a 1-2-3…

5reanimator-themusicalt‘I’m the modern heir to Prometheus/bringing fire to maaan’ sings Dr Herbert West in this tribute to Stuart Gordon’s 1985 schlock-fest, which Gordon has also co-written. H.P. Lovecraft himself denounced his serialised story Herbert West- Re-Animator, calling it his poorest work. As such, he couldn’t possibly have dreamt that one day it would become part of an award winning comedy/rock musical whose highlights include: a dancing cat corpse; a splatter zone in the first 8 rows of the theatre; a tribute to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and yes, a musical number where a disembodied head gives, ahem, head.

The musical has received some pretty glowing reviews with Variety describing it as ‘not since ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ has a screamfest tuner so deftly balanced seriousness and camp’ and it even made its way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.

Christ, imagine what they could do to The Call of Cthulu!?

The rest of this article can be read at: http://monsterpictures.com.au/features/monster-pictures-guide-to-the-arts-musicals/

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