Posts Tagged ‘Samantha Morton’
Wednesday, August 5th, 2026
THE ODYSSEY. Good movie. Christopher Nolan (executive producer: ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE) gives us his take on the ancient poem, as filtered through his heavy duty filmatism, shot on IMAX film, with some of his beloved non-linear structure, a ridiculously stacked cast and a weird Ludwig Göransson (THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN) score. It’s classic Nolan material but with the welcome addition of some monsters and horror, because it’s set in “a time of apparent magic.”
Nolan has joined the category of Spielberg and Eastwood, where I’ll see anything he makes and know I’ll probly like it even if it’s something I wouldn’t otherwise be interested in. Even if it seems like homework. Obviously THE ODYSSEY sounds like more of a popcorn movie than DUNKIRK or OPPENHEIMER, but I sure do feel like I’m supposed to already have opinions about Homer and epic poems. By the time I saw the movie the discourse revolved around a lengthy takedown in the London Review of Books by classicist Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation Nolan cites as an influence. But even regular movie critics seem to be full of thoughts about The Odyssey and The Iliad and what not.
This is all valuable, but I must say up front that I have none of that background. Instead I come to THE ODYSSEY as someone who actually liked the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS and paid to see such Fantasy Sword Dude movies as KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, BEOWULF (in IMAX 3D), CONAN THE BARBARIAN 2011, HERCULES 2014, WARCRAFT, GODS OF EGYPT, and IN THE LOST LANDS, as well as Elevated Fantasy Sword Dude movies THE GREEN KNIGHT and THE NORTHMAN. And I enjoyed most of those. Not to brag. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Anne Hathaway, Bill Irwin, Charlize Theron, Christopher Nolan, Corey Hawkins, elevated fantasy sword dudes, fantasy sword dudes, Greek mythology, Himesh Patel, James Remar, John Leguizamo, Jon Bernthal, Logan Marshall-Green, Ludwig Goransson, Lupita Nyong'o, Matt Damon, Mia Goth, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton, Tom Holland, Travis Scott, Will Yun Lee, Zendaya
Posted in Reviews, Fantasy/Swords | 29 Comments »
Friday, April 11th, 2025
Watching MICKEY 17 reminded me that I should create more peace with Canada by finally watching those two movies Robert Pattinson did with David Cronenberg. Since Pattinson is Batman he counts as American now, and these fine Canadian films set in the U.S. have become a beautiful bridge of brotherhood between warring nations. Furthermore, it just so happened that they were the only Cronenberg movies I hadn’t seen. Now that I have seen his full filmography I am complete, and I cannot be stopped. LONG LIVE THE NEW REVIEWS!
COSMOPOLIS (2012) is one of those movies that gets enough exactly right about modern Capitalism ’n Shit that it seems kinda prophetic right now, but also, I’m pretty sure, plenty of other times. It depicts the world of a damaged 1%er freak whose alleged genius is only in relation to the arcane manipulation of international currencies. The way his work is discussed I’m not sure if it’s math or sorcery. As far as I can tell he contributes nothing to the world while taking everything and believing he doesn’t get enough. (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Bruce Wagner, Carrie Fisher, David Cronenberg, Don DeLillo, Evan Bird, Gord Rand, Jay Baruchel, John Cusack, Julianne Moore, Juliette Binoche, Justin Kelly, K'naan, Kevin Durand, Mathieu Amalric, Mia Wasikowska, Olivia Williams, Patricia McKenzie, Paul Giamatti, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon
Posted in Reviews, Drama | 21 Comments »
Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
JOHN CARTER is your typical Civil-War-veteran-transported-via-magic-cave-to-Mars-to-fall-in-love-with-a-princess-and-fight-a-war tale. I mean, how many movies can we have on this topic?
Oh wait, I was thinking of can-you-fuck-your-friend-all-the-time-and-not-fall-in-love romantic comedies. That’s the more common one. The civil war veteran on Mars deal is not that big of a genre this year, and this new (partly) live action take from Disney might be the last one. It’s not shaping up to be the smash hit required to make back its big budget, and the box office trainspotters are already giggling and high-fiving each other as they dig it a shallow grave in an unused lot behind Space Mountain. That’s too bad, ’cause it’s a hell of alot of fun.
(read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: adventure, Andrew Stanton, Brian Cranston, Cieran Hinds, Disney, Edgar Rice Burroughs, James Purefoy, Lynn Collins, Mark Strong, Mars, Samantha Morton, Taylor Kitsch, Thomas Haden Church, Willem Dafoe
Posted in Fantasy/Swords, Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit | 164 Comments »
Wednesday, January 1st, 2003
Sometimes a movie comes along without much of a push, and without much commercial appeal, and not very many people go to see it or even hear about it. But most of those who do are pleased to find that it is an unusually good picture. They tell their friends about it, they write rave reviews of it. Then your connection in the home video industry, Pornographical Jerry, hooks you up with an advanced preview cassette of the picture and you give it a shot. And holy shit, it turns out to be the best movie you’ve seen in a long fucking time. Now you can’t wait to use your power and responsibility as an acclaimed Writer on the films of Cinema to promote the movie, so you try to time your review to come out on the day it is released so that all the little Outlaws out there will storm into their chain video stores and say look asshole, where is it? Where is Jesus’ Son fer cryin out loud, don’t give me that never heard of it look, this is a highly acclaimed movie. “Oh, you mean the one on Vern’s sight? Right over here, sir.” (read the rest of this shit…)
Tags: Alison Maclean, Billy Crudup, Denis Leary, Dennis Hopper, Holly Hunter, Jack Black, Michael Shannon, Samantha Morton, Will Patton
Posted in Drama, Reviews | 1 Comment »
