Wanderlust could well be the best thing David Wain has done since 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer. Maybe that’s not the best way to start a review of a well-liked director’s latest film; I feel like I’m stacking the deck, immediately, against Wanderlust, but at the same time the movie contains and emphasizes many of the same characteristics that made Wet Hot so great and have since established it as a modern comedy classic. The humor here is big, broad, and shamelessly silly, the characters are well-drawn, endlessly funny individuals, and the satire at the film’s core is well-realized. Where the two movies differ lies in the way Wain’s latest rambles, which is only appropriate to a…
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G-S-T Review…The Secret World of Arrietty
The latest animated feature from the world-renowned Studio Ghibli not only calls on the elements of the great Ghibli films from the past 20 years but more importantly reminds us why we go see their films in the first place. Ghibli pictures are escapism and great storytelling in their most pure and exemplary forms. Moreover, in this adaptation of Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers, it shows us that we don’t have to go very far from our own bedroom to find an imaginative and rousing tale. Sure there is a small touch of special Ghibli magic and otherworldly themes to The Secret World of Arrietty but it’s easy to believe in a…
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G-S-T Review…This Means War
The romantic comedy genre usually has one thing down pat: the comedy. Even if you simply roll your eyes at the romance of it, they are usually genuinely funny. Unless they are This Means War, one of the weakest efforts from the romantic comedy genre I have seen in the past few years. That’s a shame because some of the trailers hint at something that takes a different and fresh approach. For instance, what if two buddy spies fell for the same girl, and used all of the tools available to them to take advantage of the situation? That should be an interesting premise. Turns out what is written on…
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G-S-T Review…The Vow
What would you do if the person you love couldn’t remember you? How how hard would you try to get them and their memories back? Sounds kind of like science-fiction right? Well it’s not, The Vow is based on real events and it’s actually a pretty inspiring little story. Moreover one that should not be written off at first glance. True the timing of this release can be considered Valentine’s Day fluff, but look past where the film lands on the calendar this year and you’ll find a story that is stripped of pretentious candy coating and an example of what true love is really all about.
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G-S-T Review…Chronicle
Some might say found footage films have run their course but Chronicle makes a strong defense that there’s still plenty of ground left to cover. From micro-budgets and kind of oddball storytelling to macabre or esoteric subject matter, these types of films are finally shaking off the label of “trend” and are being met with more acceptance than something like a Grindhouse film. But there’s more art to this style than just dusting off some old camera and shooting aimlessly (someone please tell young filmmakers that shaking the camera is not the only way to make something ‘realistic’). If a story is good a film can exist in any medium. Many times a film…
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G-S-T Review…The Woman In Black
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of The Woman In Black from our guest contributing writer Bill Graham. Have a look at what he had to say about the Daniel Radcliffe’s eerie post-Potter film and offer your thoughts below. “Is that all they’ve got?” That’s what I wondered as I sat through Daniel Radcliffe’s first foray onto the big screen since the conclusion of the Harry Potter film franchise with The Woman In Black. He went from dark adventure fantasy to Victorian-era Gothic horror that simply throws jump scare after jump scare at you in the hopes of getting a reaction. For many of the teenage girls in the audience—perhaps fans of…
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G-S-T Review…The Innkeepers
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of The Innkeepers from our staff writer Andrew Crump (of A Constant Visual Feast.) Have a look at what he had to say about Ti West’s sophomore effort and offer your thoughts below. Categorizing Ti West’s The Innkeepers accurately seems tricky at a glance; is it a horror film with comedy elements, or the other way around? Invariably, the film falls under the horror umbrella without much debate but its blend of scares, charm and laughter makes it a genre standout among more recent haunted house fare. Dread builds over the course of The Innkeepers, and inevitably that leads us to a suspenseful, frightening climax in which our worst fears…
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G-S-T Review…The Grey
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of The Grey from our staff writer Andrew Crump (of A Constant Visual Feast.) Have a look at what he had to say about Joe Carnahan’s tense survival flick and offer your thoughts below. Ten years after the release of Narc, Joe Carnahan has returned to where he started as a filmmaker with survival thriller The Grey, eschewing hyper-stylized shoot-outs and outrageous, impossible action scenes for something grim, grounded, and surprisingly poetic. While a film set in the Alaskan wilds feels like a far cry from a gritty urban tale of narcotics investigations, The Grey shares far more in common with Narc than Carnahan’s recent outings, studio tent-pole hopeful The A-Team and the Tarantino-influenced Smokin’ Aces. The…
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G-S-T Review…Man On A Ledge
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of Man On A Ledge from our guest contributing writer Bill Graham. Have a look at what he had to say about the Sam Worthington led crime thriller and offer your thoughts below. A talented cast does not always equal out to a quality film. While Sam Worthington defiantly clings to the side of a building with threats of suicide, his plight to be found innocent is mostly hollow. Sometimes the withholding of information from an audience can have a great payoff. Then there is Man On A Ledge. Director Asger Leth seems content to hold most of his cards just out of the audience’s reach. That…
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G-S-T Double Take Review…Haywire
Editor’s note: One of the first in a series of new features presented as a sneak peek to commemorate/kick off Go,See,Talk’s upcoming 3 year anniversary we present this, our first, “Double Take” review. Here, both of our writers Bill and Grady give their thoughts on Steven Soderbergh’s all-star action-fest Haywire.