When one thinks of a powerful film, what comes to mind? An epic saga? A grandiose drama? A hard-hitting film of controversy? For me, the films that have the greatest impact, the films that offer the most honest and realistic portrayal of contemporary concerns, are those that present themselves in their purest form. All the fancy camera work, all the flashy visual style and emotionally-charged music in the world will never take the place of a powerful story. And, that story does not necessarily need to be complex.
As they say, less is more. FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN is 90 minutes…
Universal Releases Official Synopses For 2010 Slate, Gives Good Look at MacGruber and Ridley Scotts Robin Hood
What follows basically amounts to me copy/pasting an entire press release from Universal, for which I apologize. But this is one of the few times where the action is worthwhile, because the studio has sent out a set of approved synopses for the 2010 slate, and there are details here about films like MacGruber, David Gordon Green's Your Highness and Ridley Scott's still-Untitled Robin Hood Adventure that we hadn't seen assembled all in one place.
Three of these movies are like class reunions. The reasons for being interested in Robin Hood and Your Highness are probably pretty obvious. Robin Hood has Ridley Scott reuniting with Russell Crowe and returning to the middle ages and potentially offering a historically accurate (or more historically accurate) take on the story than we're used to. I like the idea that Scott is making a movie that dovetails slightly with Kingdom of Heaven (both involve ...
2 nice looking new Images from Neil Marshalls CENTURION
Here are a couple new images for the Neil Marshall directed Roman epic, Centurion. There really isn’t much that has been released on this film, these are the first decent images we have seen and they look great. It definitely got that historic movie feel that Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven had. The movie speculates [...]
Every year at Fantastic Fest, they ask that filmmakers submit a short intro bumpers, many of which play before the festival movie screenings. It's actually, a mini short film festival in itself, as the best bumpers are actually presented with Awards. We've featured filmmaker Jesse Eisener on the site a few times in the past. You might recognize him as the guy who made Hobo With A Shotgun (which will soon become a feature length film) and the awesome award-winning horror short Treevenge. He created a awesomely weird bumper for this year's Fantastic Fest called The Number to Heaven. Watch it now after the jump.
Head on over to FilmmakingFrenzy to watch more Fantastic Fest bumpers and vote on your favorites.
Review: Five Minutes of Heaven
Sunday, August 23, 2009 10:28 AM | From Cinematical
By Scott Weinberg (reprint from Sundance Film Festival 2009)
The latest film from Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel is a simple, straightforward, and very sincere story that covers some rather fascinating issues: The cyclical nature of violence, the difficulties inherent in forgiveness, and the importance of being able to defeat tragedy and go on to live a happy life. If it sounds like a dark and slightly depressing story to hear, well that's the good news. For all its stark honesty and confrontational emotions, the messages found in Five Minutes of Heaven are refreshingly humane and hopeful.
We open in mid-'70s Belfast, and a very young Alistair Little is about to commit a heinous act. Fueled by streetwise fury and a need to prove himself, Alistair assassinates another young man, leaving his little brother as the horrified witness to the act. Poor Joe Griffen has just began a cycle of tragedy that would defeat most people: Dead brother, accusing mother, heartbroken father ... one act of horrible violence leads to a ripple effect that virtually destroys Joe's life.
The trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones is now online, and can be watched below. The film tells the story of a young girl, Susie Salmon, who has been murdered and watches over her family and her killer from heaven. However this heaven isn’t all cloudy and fluffy like we’d imagine, it’s [...]
30-Second Sneak Preview of Peter Jacksons The Lovely Bones
Entertainment Tonight will be premiering the first trailer for Peter Jackson's big screen adaptation of The Lovely Bones on Tuesday, August 4th. The trailer will be attached to Julie & Julia, which hits theaters this Friday. On Monday, ET ran one of those 30-second first look sneak previews, complete with loud blabbering annoying voice over. If it wasn't an anticipated film, I'd tell you to skip it, but I just got done watching it three times in a row.
The preview gives you a first look at the very surreal look of "heaven," which doesn't look much like the heaven we normally imagine. While at Comic-Con, I had the opportunity to see an extended trailer/promo reel that was put together for studio people and exhibitors. Unfortunately, I screened the trailer on the hectic first day of Comic Con, in-between seeing District 9 and running to a screening of Ninja Assassin, and ...
Casting Notes: Danny Huston in Robin Hood, Jason Statham in Blitz
Here's a couple of short casting bites. First up, according to THR Danny Huston has joined the cast of Ridley Scott's still-untitled Robin Hood picture, which is currently shooting in England. The awesome Huston -- well, maybe not so awesome in Wolverine, but just check him out in The Proposition -- is stepping in as Richard the Lionhearted. You might remember that Iain Glen briefly played the same figure in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, which takes place in a timeline that slightly overlaps this new Robin Hood picture.
And, confirming news that started to percolate over a month ago, Jason Statham is in final talks to join the London-set serial killer thriller Blitz. Details after the jump.
Blitz, adapted by Nathan Parker (who scripted a film you may have heard of called Moon) from Ken Bruen's novel of the same name and directed by Elliott Lester (Love is the Drug), is ...
/Filmcast Ep. 58 - Public Enemies (GUEST: Dan Trachtenberg from the Totally Rad Show)
In this episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley find out what this whole Mumblecore deal is all about, try to write the plot of the new Asteroids film, assess the career and etymology of Nimrod Antal, discuss the look of Public Enemies, and get excited about the trailers of Jennifer's Body and The Informant. Special guest Dan Trachtenberg joins us from the Totally Rad Show.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm's live page as we review Bruno.
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Shownotes
Introduction
(00:44) Dan Trachtenberg from the Totally Rad Show
What Have We Watched
David Chen (02:50): Humpday (a Mumblecore film), Kung Fu Panda
Dan (13:34): Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut
Devindra (21:34): Miami Vice Directors Cut, Claymore
Adam (31:18): True Blood
News Discussion
(40:16) Asteroids ...
"Five Minutes of Heaven" - First poster in.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 4:21 PM | From MovieJungle
We have the first poster in from "Five Minutes of Heaven," the winner of the Directing Award World Cinema as well as the Screenwiring Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Oliver Hirschbiegel ("The Invasion," "Das Experiment," "Downfall") helms from the writing by Guy Hibbert ("Saigon Baby," "The Russian Bride"). The film sees theatres on August 21st and stars Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Juliet Crawford, Conor MacNeill, Jonathan Harden, Mathew McElhinney, Diarmuid Noyes, Mark Davison and Katy Gleadhill.
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