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Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Next Big Thing in
Sport Movies

post from Film School Rejects on 07 November 2009 07:21:00 PM. © Film School Rejects

The Flying Scissors

Here at FSR, we’re not just about throwing the spotlight on major Hollywood releases. We also like to give a nod to the indie filmmaker when we have a chance. That’s why we have loved the success of films like Paranormal Activity, which started as a grass-roots movement and became a national phenomenon.

The Flying Scissors Cast The independent production The Flying Scissors is attempting to do the same thing, starting off with a college tour of screenings around the country. The Flying Scissors has been rolling through the American universities since the end of September, and it will be seeing a limited theatrical run in New York starting November 12.

The film is a mockumentary about a cut-throat Rock-Paper-Scissors competition and was produced for a price tag of less than $100,000. You can check out the trailer by visiting their web site at www.FlyingScissors.com. You can also find more information about the current college tour, release information and DVD details.

Will this spawn a sequel about a Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock competition? We can only hope so.

Review: The Box

post from Film School Rejects on 07 November 2009 07:16:00 PM. © Film School Rejects

thebox-1

I can’t imagine that adapting a short story that’s already been adapted into an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” and attempting to extend it into a feature length is an easy task. Especially when the original story has that built-in single-note ethical spin that seemed perfect for Serling and company to weave into their morality tales. There was a chance that Richard Kelly could have built a huge framework for The Box around a single ominous punchline. A chance. But to no avail.

A mysterious stranger named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) delivers a box to the doorstep of Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) and gives them the opportunity to push a button that will kill someone they don’t know and earn them a tax-free million.

The central premise of the film is a fairly fascinating moral question of how much another person’s life is worth and what lengths you’d go to set your finances in order. But that heavy lifting was really done when author Richard Matheson wrote the story in the first place. In fact, most of the heavy lifting of this film comes not from Richard Kelly, but from either the source material or the original episode. Adding onto the pile, Kelly creates a longer narrative about a middle class couple that spends too much money, drives a really, really nice car, and can’t afford to send their child to private school anymore on discount.

If it seems like I have little sympathy for their situation, you probably won’t either.

And really, without that sympathy – without a true question of what depths one would have to go to before they take someone else’s life – the rest of the story falls pretty flat.

It also falls flat because the acting from Cameron Diaz is about as good as a regional theater actress stumbling her way through a Tennessee Williams play. Her southern accent is atrocious and she delivers almost every line with a incredible lack of emotion. On the other end of the spectrum is Frank Langella who places a quiet, business-like creepiness (even if his CGI scarring helps him sometimes and hurts him in others) onto the table next his diabolical box. Marsden is also a stand out, a great actor in a good role who is only hampered occasionally from some flowery dialog that even he seems to get sick at the sound of.

thebox-2

I also feel compelled to mention the score because of just how incredibly beautiful it is. It’s strange and experimental, beautiful and haunting, but it doesn’t belong anywhere this movie. Even as transcendent as it is, it plunks down into inappropriate times during scenes that almost give a Ba-Bum-Bum! quality to some of the dramatics.

On the whole, the moments before the button-pushing question is answered aren’t played to much intensity. Neither is the rest of the film. It’s also a mess in the same way that plagues all of Kelly’s work and it could use a keen editing knife to help it make more sense. However, unlike Donnie Darko, Kelly seems desperate to overexplain and infantalize his audience. He comes off as if he believes he’s the first person to ever understand his primer on Sartre – the directorial version of the kid waving his hand in the back of your philosophy class just a little too desperate to prove he knows the answer. He achieves this hand-waving through far too many scenes of exposition for things which come naturally out of the context (and even repeats some of the exposition or has random characters enter a scene solely to ask a question that will lead to more exposition and then dip back off-camera only to be seen as “NASA Worker #2″ or “Reporter in back of room” in the credits).

Without those moments, and with some far better acting from the lead, the movie could have been a great, strange entry. Instead, it ends up being fairly tedious with some weird moments that work sincerely and others that really add nothing to the story or the characters (like an abandoned chance at salvation, and a moment where a character is in one place and then another through the magic of editing).

While it seems natural for any movie or story with a moral question at its center to leave audiences discussing the conundrum afterwards, my friends and I stood around in the lobby instead questioning whether or not we should have bothered going to see The Box in the first place.

The Upside: Some good performances from Marsden and Langella, and several scenes that are really rewarding.

The Downside: A muddled story that doesn’t line up, a score that doesn’t line up, and a director who can’t be esoteric without attempting to let you know what he means.

On the Side: Richard Matheson is still alive, so he can watch it!

Grade: C-

THE BOX Review

post from Rama's Screen on 07 November 2009 06:54:17 PM. © Rama's Screen

You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension of not only sight and sound but also of the button and mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas and a family with money problem in the 70s. It is a dimension as vast as space and as [...]

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http://ramascreen.com/the-box-review/

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Thesis

post from Shiny Movie Guide on 07 November 2009 06:48:00 PM. © Shiny Movie Guide

Thesis (1996)
Dir: Alejandro Amenábar

A film school student doing a thesis on violence discovers a seemingly real snuff movie.
Amenábar's first Spanish thriller is a solid effort that is let down by a sluggish pace and an unsatisfying ending. It's well acted by the leads and the subject matter provides some effective scares. Though the film's message is nothing new, it does manage to raise a few interesting points on violence in the movies.

Story: 7
Acting: 6
Directing: 7
Scares: 6
Gore: 4
Overall: 6

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http://shinymovieguide.blogspot.com/2009/11/thesis.html

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TRAILER

post from Trailers: BlogDance: The best film / movie blog posts from around the web on 07 November 2009 06:00:00 PM. © Trailers: BlogDance: The best film / movie blog posts from around the web

Title:
Category:
Credit:
Rating:
RSS Feed for film trailers in category

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http://film.blogdig.net/archives/articles/November2009/07/_TRAILER.html

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Review: ‘The Fourth Kind’
Should’ve Been Narrated By Robert Stack

post from Film School Rejects on 07 November 2009 05:20:00 PM. © Film School Rejects

fourthkind-header

With the Saw films firmly on the ice flow of sequels toward apocalypse, the question I keep coming back to is, ?where are horror films going to go from here?? Saw, and its subsequent imitators, satisfied the bloodlust of modern horror audiences for a time, but the cycle of desensitization continues and if horror films are no longer striving to gross out the public, it is once again time for them to break new ground. It appears that horror is now targeting the fourth wall to achieve that purpose and The Fourth Kind champions the concept.

It strikes me as appropriate that this film should be released on the heels of the sensational Paranormal Activity. Both are movies that attempt to breakdown that invisible barrier of disbelief that detaches an audience from the terror on screen. Both claim to be based on a true story which, again, eliminates that safety net of it being ?just a movie?. But The Fourth Kind takes even that idea to the next level by actually incorporating video and audio recordings from the actual incident into the fictionalized account starring Milla Jovovich and Will Patton. They are working so hard to blur the line between fiction and reality that there are literally moments when the line in the split screen dividing the two segments wanders to and fro. I have to admit, at first I scoffed at this concept. When Milla comes out at the beginning and informs us what we are about to see is both real and very disturbing, I thought I smelled the distinct aroma of a William Castle gimmick. To me, it felt like someone had finally found a way to adapt a segment of ?Unsolved Mysteries? into a film. I actually kept waiting for the disembodied spirit of Robert Stack to pop up and narrate the events while standing next to a creepy streetlight.

But the fact is that the images in The Fourth Kind are among the most disturbing that I have ever seen. The film is about a psychologist who is convinced that several of her patients have been victims of alien abduction. They all report eerily similar symptoms and they are all having trouble sleeping though they don?t know why. Under hypnosis, they become shockingly unstable and exhibit a level of panic and fear like I have never seen. It?s actually in the hypnosis scenes, where we get to see the footage of the ?actual? patients where the freakiest shit occurs. It was kind of like Paranormal Activity meets Signs, so do with that what you will. All I know is that, even as I sit and remember these moments, the hairs on my arms are standing at attention. I found it inescapably haunting and chilling like few other horror films can deliver.

I fear that people are going to get bogged down in the debate over how much of the footage is actually genuine and, indeed, if this entire story is fabricated. Personally, I think it?s completely inconsequential to the experience of the film. I honestly don?t believe the footage we are seeing is authentic, there are lines of dialogue that completely negate that, but that didn?t prevent me from sitting slack-jawed and bug-eyed at what I was seeing. In fact, I think one of the big problems with this film is how staunchly it proclaims to be real. The movie tries so hard to convince you it is legit, but then shoots down its own credibility with bad dialogue and a hoaky credit sequence featuring actual yokels calling 911 to report UFO?s. Riveting, if stupid. I think the film would have done better to tone down their assertions and let the audience decide how much they want to believe (even though the last line Milla speaks is ?what you choose to believe is up to you). No Milla, don?t pretend you are giving us a choice after cramming picture-in-picture “evidence” down our throats.

The Fourth Kind is a solid film with some great scares and horrifying images. If the story is true, then it definitely deserved to be told. If this is all in the name of meta-horror, then we can still appreciate the artistry that went into crafting such a badass film. If nothing else, this will make you realize that anal probes are not the scariest part of alien abduction. Cue the ?X-Files? theme.

The Upside: Really disturbing images that will prompt the perfect level of fright.

The Downside: Really should have just been a fake documentary; the facile assertion that it is a true story will be its downfall.

On the Side: The film’s producers went so far as to insert references to Dr. Tyler, who never existed, into websites such as the “Alaska Psychiatric Journal”. This film out Blair Witches The Blair Witch Project.

Grade: C+

New Town Killers

post from Filmstalker on 07 November 2009 04:54:55 PM. © Filmstalker

New Town Killers has a lot of promise, it's a great idea filmed in a great city by a Scottish writer/director and a strong Scottish cast. Richard Jobson is the man behind the writing and directing, and in front of the camera we see Dougray Scott and Alastair Mackenzie playing the high flying financial businessmen who have an extremely dark pastime. I'm not a huge Richard Jobson fan, but the draw here is the dark story, that comes at a time in Scottish business that fits the idea rather nicely, it carries the very underused talent of Scott and a...Visit Filmstalker for the full story. Restricted feeds to protect content.

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Rules To Rock By project on Kickstarter

Looks interesting, check it out & support:

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http://diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/2009/11/rules-to-rock-by-project-on-kickstarter.
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Law Abiding Citizen

I'm a fan of Gerard Butler, and Jamie Fox can be good, although he can often be complacent in the performances he gives. The plot of Law Abiding Citizen sounded interesting, but it was F. Gary Gray that really caught my eye with the entire package, and really rounded off what was shaping up to be looking like a great film. Gray directed The Negotiator, a tense, well written and directed thriller that I still love watching to this day. So with all this going for it how could anyone not be excited for the film?...Visit Filmstalker for the full story. Restricted feeds to protect content.

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Robert Zemeckis Wants Living Beatles For 'Yellow
Submarine'

post from Starpulse Entertainment News - Movie News on 07 November 2009 04:00:29 PM. © Starpulse Entertainment News - Movie News

Moviemaker Robert Zemeckis wants surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to play themselves in his planned remake of the Fab Four's animated classic Yellow Submarine.[...] Read more!

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http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/11/07/robert_zemeckis_wants_living_b
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