Remaking a John Wayne film is a bona fide ballsy move. The man is an American legend and they certainly broke the mold after they made him. I don’t care who you are, the idea of trying to recast any role made famous by John Wayne (not that he was the greatest actor) is an idea that would make most filmmakers shy away; they even named toilet paper after him for crying out loud.* Well if you want someone to fill the shoes of The Duke, you really can’t go wrong with “The Dude” and in the end it proved a gamble that paid off. The more films the Coen Brothers…
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G-S-T Review…Tron Legacy
It still boggles my mind that after nearly 30 years anyone would want to go back to a film that has the dual notoriety of being a flop* as well as a cult classic. Something of a black sheep in the Disney family of films Tron, before now, was relatively unknown to most modern audiences. Yet while the original film was ahead of its time but still lacked much of the technology to really do it right, Disney still thought they had something worth exploring. Enter Joseph Kosinski and a budget of over 300 million (production and marketing) and Disney sought out to make a dazzling film for the ages. Not sure they…
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G-S-T Review…Black Swan
Few film personalities consistently knock it out of the park with each proceeding effort; Darren Aronofsky is one such director/writer. In what is undeniably one of 2010’s best films (I’d go as far as to say the best) Aronofsky once again takes us down a path fraught with heartbreak, disappointment and, to an extent, insanity. However, instead of being as depressing as it may sound, he dazzles us with visuals in a yet another visceral experience. His stories take us to worlds that that few audience members have ever been to but uses common themes that anyone can relate to or understand. It pays to be a bit familiar with his other works to truly…
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“12 Days of Kurosawa” Wrap Up Review
Hello World, Marc Here: From my family to yours I’d like to wish a very Merry Christmas to all you G-S-T fans!! And for those of you keeping up with our “12 Days of Kurosawa” I’ll say メリークリスマス!! It’s been a wonderful 12 days and I have to say that I now understand the wild popularity behind legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. A master of visual storytelling, what really stands out in each film is the subtlety to cinematography, specifically the way each scene is set up. So, as I now have newly minted respect and admiration for his work, here is a very brief review of the films in my series…
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G-S-T Review…127 Hours
Danny Boyle is known for fantastic and visually stimulating films. James Franco is an extremely versatile and dynamic actor. Amazing entertainers in their own right, together the two paired up for one of the years most intense and highly praised films. Telling the incredible true story of Aron Ralston was one that was handled with grace and respect…but still very much in your face. Boyle and Franco knocked this out of the park in a way that perfectly complimented Aron Ralston’s all-out and adrenaline-fueled lifestyle. For those of you still unfamiliar with Aron Ralston, the outdoor extraordinaire survived one hell of an ordeal while hiking Blue John Canyon (near Moab, Utah). By a…
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G-S-T Review…Unstoppable
Half of the iconic Scott Free Productions, Tony Scott, in this run away train movie, provides plenty of action and fast paced tension. Really, for a movie about a train, it’s a lot better than you’d expect. Unstoppable makes for an enjoyable time even if it confines itself to the trappings of most actioners: 2 men, 1 task, a race around the clock, yadda yadda yadda. Yes it’s an old formula but it still works. It still it feels like Tony is always making films that try to be like his big brother Ridley’s but he always seems to fall short in terms of graneur and scale. As Ridley goes the more…
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G-S-T Review…Due Date
Being ever so much funnier and engaging than the trailers implied, Due Date, Todd Phillips‘s second road trip movie, proves that he has more up his sleeve than Frank the Tank and a “one man wolf pack“. Personally speaking I really didn’t know what I was in store for aside from his hilarious but brief resume which goes back to 2000’s Road Trip. Call me a less than sophisticated film enthusiast but I’ll take a good laugh riot over a perfect story most days of the week. That said, going into Due Date, did anyone expect the latter from a film that is supposed to the the former? A road trip is a road…
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G-S-T Review…The Town
A let down to say the least, The Town was full of stereotypes, an unlikely and forced-fed love story and finally a pretty slow “I don’t care how we get there just get there” pace. I may be selling this short and not recognizing the film’s so-called brilliance, but this just wasn’t a story worth telling. Maybe it was me but the trailer gave the feeling that this would be a high-octane bank robbing film (don’t trailers always do that?). But seriously, for a film about bank robbers who were the very best, there was surprisingly little robbery and even less proof that these guys were pros. PLOT: If you start…
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G-S-T Review…DEVIL
OK, let’s get past the fact that this film hasn’t been eagerly anticipated due to M. Night’s association. There now we can evaluate this an appreciate this for what it is; a surprisingly good and pretty cool supernatural “who dun it?“. For those of you remaining rightfully skeptical, in this film Night is really just providing the outline for the story and letting someone else do all the work. Taking him away from the helm seems like the right idea. The good news is that is just what the film needed and really works despite some minor flaws. Right off the bat, this film faces a challenge by setting it in such a contained environment.…
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G-S-T Review…The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Kidnapping movies have more or less the same outcome; the kidnappers get what they want or they don’t. It’s one of the most basic sub-genre of movies which, at the same time, makes it tough to be original. That said Alice Creed does give us a ransom film that’s not entirely predictable. High points for the film abound but one thing to take close note of is writer/director J Blakeson has fully proven that the “less is more” formula still does and will always work. The Disappearance of Alice Creed is like a perfect, no nonsense “how to kidnap someone” movie…only thing they don’t tell us is how to get guts…