kickass
07/27/2007
Beowulf
Zowie. Robert Zemekis follows up his motion-capture family extravaganza The Polar Express with the motion-capture fantasy spectacular Beowulf. The fact that those two projects are bookended by the basically-one-man-show Cast Away and the planned motion-capture remake of A Christmas Carol start to make you think maybe Zemekis just doesn't like working with live actors all that much. But this project looks mighty damn cool.
With the increasing dominance of CGI in the fantasy film genre, it's amazing no one's really run with this concept before. Mo-capping the actors gives them the same visual texture and intensity as the backgrounds and effects, making the whole world blend together seamlessly. It's really pretty gorgeous.
And to those who say mo-capped actors look plastic and creepy, I say puh-leeze. Like Angelina Jolie didn't already look like a goddess crafted from Sculpey anyway.
06/06/2007
Shoot 'Em Up
So, if you had to cast the ultimate action movie, would you cast Paul Giamatti and Clive Owen as kickass, gun-happy adversaries? No? Then you are a poor, misguided fool, because Shoot 'Em Up has done just that, and it is AWESOME. Mark the date, my friends, because it's here -- that elusive Holy Grail of movies, the film with something for everyone. EVERYONE.
You've got Owen for the ladies, Monica Belucci for the guys, Giamatti for the film geeks... but wait, there's more. Sexy bullet talk for the gun fetishists, quirky violence humor for the Tarantino buffs, explosions for the Bay fans. Wait, I'm not done. Pratfalls for the slapstick aficionados, double-fisted-flying-shooting for the Woo lovers, and, last but not least, a baby. For people who like their movies to have feelings and meaning and, you know, babies.
Watch it. Watch it now.
