The Mayans may have been wrong about the end of the world, but don’t worry– the Go, See, Talk! Trailer Round-Up is here with two visions of Armageddon to slake your thirst for wanton destruction. Of the pair, the first isn’t a literal Ragnarok, but rather a localized catastrophe that devours an entire city; then again, when your film is set against a backdrop of explosions, crumbling buildings, and rapidly rising social anarchy, maybe that counts as the wholesale destruction of a cinematic world. Either way, Aftershock looks harsh, nasty, and bonkers in all the right ways, though I’ll take bets on how long Eli Roth actually survives in the film (and on…
-
-
'Stoker' Official US Poster Gets Symmetrical & Dirty
If I have anything further to offer regarding Stoker, South Korean wunderkind Chan-wook Park’s first American venture, it’s marketing praise. Our cultural gatekeepers haven’t overlooked Park’s existence, so to call him an unknown quantity State-side would be something of a falsehood, but his name doesn’t have much meaning to the mainstream. So seeing Fox Searchlight go to work promoting the film, first with two teasers released in the fall, then with the international poster and a promo video in October, is something of a surprise, but the good kind of surprise– perhaps the best kind. Who doesn’t want to see one of their personal favorite contemporary directors get a good…
-
Oscar Shortlist For Docs Is Anything But
Get this: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ shortlist for the Best Documentary category is fifteen films long. Fifteen! Sort of makes you question the entire use of the phrase “shortlist”, especially given that their other shortlists are, you know, actually short. We can chalk this up to some pretty significant rules changes to qualification in that particular area, instituted by the Academy this year. It’s not unusual for the AMPAS to alter or fine-tune the rules for submission and eligibility year to year– as the culture of film ebbs, flows, and otherwise changes, it’s likely a necessity, else the Academy is just fickle– but as Deadline reports,…
-
G-S-T Review…Les Misérables
There’s little use in trying to disguise my frustration with Tom Hooper’s sluggish interpretation of Les Misérables, though in the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge immediately that I have never seen the musical on which it is based. (And it’s been years since I read Victor Hugo’s original novel.) Put another way, I have no personal ideal of what Les Mis should be, so as far as it concerned me, Hooper– who successfully directed a strong cast of performers to Oscar gold two years ago with The King’s Speech— had the floor here. A shame, then, that he squanders the opportunity by muting his strengths as a filmmaker…
-
Sweet (No, Make That Gorgeous) Trailer…'To the Wonder'
It feels like the book has already been closed on Terrence Malick’s forthcoming release, To the Wonder— the film received nothing but contempt in varying forms and degrees at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. At the same time it’s hard not to watch this clip and be awed. Beautiful, stunning cinematography is Malick’s calling card, of course, so there’s little surprise to how utterly captivating the trailer is, but expectation doesn’t make what we see here any less lovely and magnetic. Of course, if Malick’s style of untethered, free form filmmaking isn’t your cup of tea, you’ve likely already got your mind more or less made about To…
-
Franco Nero Lives! or: How You Can Get To Know the Original 'Man with the Silent D'
If you’re not familiar with Franco Nero, now might be a good time as Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Django Unchained (keep your eyes peeled for our review next week) draws ever nearer to its theatrical release. You could also wait to see the film for yourself, but Nero’s brief cameo is a poor introduction to one of the greatest screen gunslingers of all time; if you can set aside six hours between now and Christmas, Keoma (one of the twenty best movies you maybe haven’t seen!), Companeros, and of course the namesake of Tarantino’s picture, Django, should get you far better acquainted with Nero’s legend. Seriously, go watch them, and I’ll wait here until you get back.…
-
Oscar's Make-Up Shortlist Might Throw You For a Loop
Well, here’s some cool news– especially if you liked Rian Johnson’s Looper anywhere near as much as we did. The AMPAS released the last seven films still in competition for this year’s “Best Makeup” category, and while I can think of a lot of other areas where Looper deserves recognition (and in which it might still receive said recognition, for all I know), it’s still nice to see Johnson’s film competing with giants like Spielberg and Jackson. On that note, I’m probably not the only person who finds the absence of Cloud Atlas to be more than a little startling. If that picture– which we also liked–seemed like it had…
-
Peter Jackson to Film Tintin First, Finish The Hobbit Second
…well, this is a few days old, and the headline is exactly what it sounds like, but it’s worth mentioning if you ask me. We’re at the height of Hobbit furor over here (at least I am; Bill had a different take on it than I did), so what better way to maintain continuity than by reporting on Jackson-specific news? Of course, I don’t have that much to say about the matter. I liked The Hobbit; I liked The Adventures of Tintin; I like Jackson, even though he let me down with his ’05 and ’09 efforts. There’s something incongruous about the idea of Jackson halting post on The Hobbit…
-
G-S-T Review…The Hobbit
Nine years, eleven Academy Awards, and two massive cinematic disappointments. Since wowing the world in 2001 with The Fellowship of the Ring, the first entry in his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy series The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson has amassed an impressive tally of goodwill and squandered the lion’s share; as a consequence, his return to Middle Earth, a similar treatment of Rings precursor The Hobbit, has been speculated over with alternating degrees of trepidation, iconoclasm, anticipation, and blatant excitement. Given Jackson’s previous artistic and commercial success playing in this particular fantasy sandbox, as well as his subsequent failures (2005’s King Kong, 2009’s The Lovely Bones), it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where…
-
Sweet Trailer…'Pacific Rim'
This may well be the shortest word-for-word piece I’ll ever write for Go, See, Talk!, but that’s only because the highly-anticipated trailer for Pacific Rim speaks for itself. Big monsters, big robots, big imagination, and big excitement all wrapped up in a 2:16 clip. Count this one at the top of my “must-see” list for 2013, and sound off in the comments. (Courtesy of Badass Digest) If the viral website and sweet looking “jaeger” diagrams didn’t do anything for you, this trailer should have rocked your world; it did ours! Directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi (The Brother’s Bloom) Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day and Clifton Collins Jr. Pacific…