Stories of fantasy and high adventure are certain to contain genre stand-bys like magic, kingdoms a far, fair maidens and the like. Yet in Pixar’s latest (and first true period-piece) this “maiden” is not a damsel in distress by any means. Brave‘s Princess Merida actually has more in common with any number of Hayao Miyazaki’s female protagonists than it does the colorful princesses whose posters grace little girls’ walls. It channels some of the more stand-up kind of womanly characters we’ve seen in the last few decades…even if in this case she is defiant to a fault. With a line like “I am Merida, and I’ll be shooting for my own hand”…
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G-S-T Review…Rock of Ages
Full disclosure: I’ve never seen Rock of Ages live on stage. I have no idea if its sprawling, loosely connected storylines intersect in a more satisfying way when played out before a live, active, participating audience. I don’t know if the theater, rather than the multiplex, represents a more comfortable and better-suited environment in which the particulars of musicals can thrive. So, in short, I don’t really know where primary authorship of Rock of Ages‘ film adaptation lies– it’s with either Chris D’Arienzo or Adam Shankman– but I do know a train wreck when I see one because, as that locomotive cliche dictates, I’m unable to look away. That mesmerizing quality represents…
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G-S-T Review…Prometheus
Prometheus, industrious and monstrously ambitious, deserves to be seen divorced from hype and hubris. Admittedly, that’s scarcely a small feat. Few films released in 2012 carry with them the massive weight of expectations which Prometheus bears on its shoulders. That’s just how things go for any production intent on serving as the precursor to cinematic iconography; in the case of Prometheus, that’s Alien, Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction/horror masterpiece. How does even a master like Scott top one of his best works more than thirty years after the fact? Put simply, he doesn’t have to, pedigree or not. His film only need exist on its individual merits, and happily Prometheus, a beautiful and thoughtful and flawed creation story, very…
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G-S-T Review…The Intouchables
Without a doubt, The Intouchables proves that humor can be found even in unfortunate situations with the right mindset. A film about a quadriplegic and his caretaker shouldn’t be this fun, yet writer/directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano pull it off with the perfect amount of heart, humor, and adventure. Based on a true story, the film follows a wealthy quadriplegic that hires a young man from the projects to take care of him. Despite everything saying that this is a bad idea, Philippe (François Cluzet) thinks Driss (Omar Sy) holds the key to genuine sympathy and a say-anything attitude that is sorely missing in his life. Throughout their journey they grow…
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G-S-T Review…Snow White and the Huntsman
There’s little ingenious, clever, or new about a dark fairy tale; the grisly and the horrific have been hallmarks of such folkloric narratives since the Brothers Grimm put pen to paper two hundred years ago. In that same respect, there’s nothing overtly offensive about them either, at least not at face value, as a veneer of darkness in contemporary fairy tale fare can just be interpreted as a dedication to tradition. Faithfulness to either tone or detail does not comprise one of Snow White and the Huntsman‘s glaring flaws, however; for just shy of two hours, the film tries gamely to assert itself as worthy sword-and-sorcery filmmaking. At times, it…
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G-S-T Review…Men In Black 3
There’s an old saying that when you’re at rock bottom you can only go up. That certainly describes the MIB series after the hugely disappointing sequel from 2002. Even after a decade, that film still leaves a bitter taste. However, at G-S-T we always root for a redeeming sequel. Did we get one? Well almost, but again, anything would fare better than MIB 2. What’s most enjoyable is that this film, and series really, is so familiar that it’s almost like no time has passed since we saw Agents J and K save the Earth for the first time way back in 1997. Here come the Men In Black *clap clap* and Agents J and…
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G-S-T Review…Chernobyl Diaries
Curiously enough, Chernobyl Diaries may mark the first non-found footage found footage film. While constructed using mostly a straight narrative approach, there’s a nagging sense that this cautionary horror jaunt (penned and backed by Paranormal Activity mastermind Oren Peli) may have actually benefited from more fully embracing the tricky conceit; it’s shot like a found footage movie, it’s crafted like a found footage movie, it scares like a found footage movie, and the title’s reference to “diaries” naturally leads us to conclude that someone, somewhere, came across the footage we’re watching by unhappy accident. But those eponymous documents are nowhere to be found in an hour and a half of story. Chernobyl Diaries bases…
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G-S-T Review…Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson films aren’t for everyone as he’s definitley an acquired taste. However, those that get his films, kind of like David Cronenberg (only way more accessible), really dig his work. Regardless of whether you are a fan of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore or The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson, with help from co-writer Roman Coppola, crafts an adorable and endearing film about young lovers who cast off the rules and opinions of others. This story is almost an on-screen representation of just who Anderson is. As a film maker, he does what he wants, how he wants it and most times the stories are better for it. So too are the young characters who are ultimately the…
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G-S-T Review…Battleship
If you feel the need to blame someone for the birth, production, and release of Battleship— as I do– look no further than Michael Bay. The proprietor of shining contemporary examples of big spectacle gone very, very stupid, Bay brought the “movies based on toy lines” movement to life in 2007 with Transformers; two sequels and a G.I. Joe film later (which itself is getting sequelized this summer), and that childish aesthetic shows no signs of abating in the near future. Battleship proves to be the loudest and dumbest toy-to-cinema adaptation yet (barring last year’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon), a soulless, pointless, hollow cacophony of trite cliches and boring…
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G-S-T Review…Dark Shadows
A common fact easily overlooked: television isn’t the same medium as film. As modes of visual storytelling, they may bear a family resemblance, but they represent long-form versus short-form approaches to narrative. In short, the rules, as well as the limitations and advantages, differ greatly for both. A television show has room to breathe and stretch its legs by its very nature, for example, while a movie is more contained by its own. Conflating the two, then, is a mistake, and one which Tim Burton makes repeatedly throughout Dark Shadows, his interpretation of the identically-titled 1960s/70s televised Gothic soap opera; the result is so overstuffed and hopelessly rushed that there’s…