Kicking of this week is the rather splendid Conan the Barbarian and his full barbaric glory in a full length trailer for the cult remake.
Martha Macy May Marlene emerges convincing head above the rest of the pack in a subtle and disturbing turn from Mary Kate and Ashley’s little sister. Intruders, The Road to Nowhere and The Ledge, are all sort of just OK, while One Day makes me sort of resent you all for the minutes is spent watching it on your behalf
Your little extra is a rather good – if somewhat copycat Cars 2 viral (remember Lots-O-Huggin bear?)
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
Director: Marcus Nispel
Cast: Jason Momoa, Ron Perlman and Rose McGowan
Synopsis: The tale of Conan the Cimmerian and his adventures across the continent of Hyboria on a quest to avenge the murder of his father and the slaughter of his village.
Official Website: http://conanthebarbarianin3d.com/
US Release: 19th August 2011
Review/Score: Loathe as I am to admit it, this actually looks pretty damn entertaining. Of course it’s still nonsense, silly looking monsters and absurdly clad ladies - it IS Conan after all, but level of Badassery is through the roof, the action sequences look promising and Jason Momoa is bloody convincing. He needs to be careful mind, if he doesn’t want to get typecast.... *CoughGameOfThronesCough* 8/10
MARTHA MACY MAY MARLENE
Director: Sean Durkin
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson and John Hawkes
Synopsis: Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
Official Website: http://www.marthamarcymaymarlenemovie.com/
US Release: 7th October 2011 (Limited)
Review/Score: A Haunting and perplexing trailer here, pitched between phsyco drama and thriller we follow a young woman drawn into an increasingly sinister cult. Aesthetically the pic is pleasingly dreamlike, with muted washed out colouring and a smudgily shifting focus reminiscent of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. There is a real sense of confusion and distress in Elizabeth Olsen’s performance which, marking a promising debut for the littlest Olsen. 7/10
INTRUDERS
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Cast: Clive Owen, Daniel Brühl and Carice van Houten
Synopsis: A horror/thriller centered on the origin of the monsters that are born in childhood and are passed on by the family.
Official Website: N/A
US Release: TBA
Review/Score: A teaser in the truest sense, a brief 50 seconds here of something fairly run of the mill. Youn girl is scared/possibly possessed Father/figure is protective/angry – cue shaky camerawork and funny noises. I’m sure it’ll be scary, but then, I’m easily scared. 6/10
ROAD TO NOWHERE
Director: Monte Hellman
Cast: Shannyn Sossamon, Tygh Runyan and Cliff De Young
Synopsis: A young filmmaker gets wrapped up in a crime while shooting his new project on location.
Official Website: http://www.roadtonowherethemovie.com/
US Release: 13th May 2011
Review/Score: Lacking any dialogue at all it’s hard to tell what this movie is about. But I think it might be something to do with the the Reality/Fiction binary, while exploring the relationship between an actress and her director/lover as a metaphor for the relationship between our conscious and unconscious minds, while an overarching and self-reflexive film production theme draws attention back to the aforementioned reality/fiction binary, problematising our assumption of its fixity, thus forcing us to re-examine the paradigmatic assumption that a space exists between the two, pushing us into the liminal position occupied by the protagonists and compromising the paradigmatic assumptions that define and reinforce our existentiality. Or something, whateves, Shannyn Sossamon is pretty hot. 6/10
THE LEDGE
Director: Matthew Chapman
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Charlie Hunnam and Liv Tyler
Synopsis: A thriller in which a battle of philosophies between a fundamentalist Christian and an atheist escalates into a lethal battle of wills.
Official Website: N/A
US Release: 29th May 2011 (Limited)
Review/Score: Sadly, not a film about the late, great, Heath ledger. It IS however a tense little nugget of a thriller. Something about fundamentalists, of any faith is eternally fascinating (perhaps because so few of us have the patience or attention span to become fundamental about our own toenails let alone an unseen, unheard, and largely unfelt deity?), and Patrick Wilson’s smooth, good looking fundamentalist here is suitably so. The trailer is well constructed, escalating in speed and intensity two people are drawn into an illicit affair, but it’s all surface, the characters are two dimensional and their motivation flimsy. Sad really. 5/10
ONE DAY
Director: Lone Scherfig
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess and Patricia Clarkson
Synopsis: After spending the night together on the night of their college graduation Dexter and Em are revisited each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives. They are sometimes together, sometimes not, on that day.
Official Website: http://www.experienceoneday.com/
US Release: 19th August 2011
Review/Score: AS my esteemed colleague Rob Mitchell pointed out: this is a master class in horrible accents. Even the ENGLISH star Jim Sturgess has a rubbish English accent. The premise (a couple meet for one day every year for 20 years) while undoubtedly romantic in novel form does not translate to the Movie form - event movie voice over guy sounds clunky delivering the extended exposition. While the temporal emesis is cue for many terrible faux-period hair dos, ugly dresses, and emotional reunions. ALL the emotional reunions. Tedious tedious tedious dross. 3/10
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