What You Been Doing Toby?

Good day to you all, here is a little recap of what blahblahblahToby has been up to since last we spoke.

On the movie viewing front we have forged ahead with the noir-a-thon whilst not even considering telling you all about if for even a second. Last we spoke we were up to 1944 yet here we are having just seen the incredible Samuel Fuller directed Pickup on South Street from 1953. I can't even comprehend writing that many reviews as a catchup but I may one day soon fill you in on a brief rundown of each incredible piece of classic cinema.

We are now proud subscribers to the Australian DVD rental service Quickflix which keeps sending me movies to watch and never complaining at their late return.

The end of the English football season saw us cancel our sports subscription with Foxtel and replace it with some of the worst movie channels I've ever seen. Did you know that TCM hardly ever broadcasts high quality picture and sound? I have to listen to a really horrible hissing constantly. However I did get the chance to see something amazing, The Petrified Forest starring Trevor Howard and Humphrey Bogart in the role that made him a star.

We had a nightmare of a time trying to see the new Ridley Scott, Prometheus. The trailers were incredible, the hype in my mind built to extreme levels, surely it was going to be the greatest movie ever? Check out the trailer complete with tension building music and a lack of Rafe Spall whilst I prepare The Adventure of the Couple Who Wanted to Watch Prometheus.

The Adventures of The Couple Who Wanted To Watch Prometheus

Toby saw the trailer for Prometheus and finally realised it was sort of a prequel to Alien. When Leah came home Toby said "watch this" and pressed play. Leah said "oh wow, we have to actully go to the cinema to see that."

Prometheus was released on Wednesday. Leah and Toby had a day off of work on Thursday. Toby checked the listings for the Belmont cinema and they arrived for the 11am 2D screening.

"I'm sorry, the 2D screening is playing in our Gold Lounge and costs an extra $20 each." This was the mouth breather behind the popcorn desk speaking. "Fuck that we'll go somewhere else," said Toby.


Toby checked the listings for another cinema and Leah drove for 30 minutes to get there. "I'm sorry, that screening is now in 3D" This was another mouth breather behind the popcorn desk speaking. "Fuck that I'm going to download it, at least that will be 2D." said Toby.


Toby was angry, Leah was mad. "I'm so fucking mad" said Leah. "I can't believe this fucking place" sid Toby.


It was Tuesday. Leah said "we should go and watch Prometheus." Toby said "OK"


Toby checked a third cinemas listings. They said it was showing in 2D only. Toby and Leah went to see Prometheus. The movie was in 2D. It wasn't actually very good.

And so ended the first trip to the cinema since February. Not much fun really.

I've been reading a lot. At present count I've read 139 books in 2012.

Remember how I wasn't as excited by Drive as everyone else? (check out the review if you've forgotten) I read the original novel by James Sallis (review here) and discovered that the movie was much better than I gave it credit for.

Amongst my favourite books of the year so far has been Savages by Don Winslow, a fantastic novel with an opening chapter that consists of the following:

Fuck you.

You may have noticed that Oliver Stone has adapted it in to a movie due for release this September. I'm unsure as to whether he will do the book justice but I'm still excited to see it.

And for all those noir afficionados out there, the discovery of Megan Abbott writing fabulous pulpy goodness in the style of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson and James M. Cain is something that you should be very excited by. Even if it's just for the artwork:

We took a trip across the country from Perth to Sydney relatively recently, all in the name of seeing a band. Nobody ever comes to Perth. It's a very isolated city, no matter how much money there is from the mining boom. That band was Taking Back Sunday, performing in Australia with their oriiginal lineup for the very first time. For a couple of former emo kids like me and Leah this was something we couldn't resist, especially as their new album was a fantastic return to form.

The gig wasn't amazing as the lead singer can't actually sing but we had a great time anyway and we even walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge at night to get to the show. Highlight of the evening, despite my extreme fear of heights!

Just to round out the blog with more interactive elements here why don't you enjoy this music video from the band we spent four hours on a plane travelling to see:

 

We've also been putting the finishing touches to our trip around Europe for this coming September. But I think I'll save that for my next post "So Toby, Now That You're Back On BBBG What's Happening?"

Good post title no?

Now for making dinner. I highly recommend visiting The Post Punk Kitchen for all your dinner ideas.

The Week In Movies 3/10/11 - 9/10/11

Wow, so this week is a first, I have reviewed every single movie I watched. All two of them. I guess it's lucky, life has been hectic which means this post doesn't take too long to write. It's the worst week in the history of this blog. So if you are worrying about me as my good friend Scott (of Kind Of A Big Deal Front Room Cinema fame) has been, please rest assured it's nothing personal I'm just frying my brain.


I saw Drive earlier in the week and wasn't thoroughly impressed yet did enjoy it, if you didn't see my moaning review feel free to go read it.

This weeks film for our Noir-a-Thon was Phantom Lady, a film which was good and most entertaining indeed. Review should be ready tomorrow.

That's it. No turnoffs, no links either because I don't think I've read anything other than looked at some lovely Criterion covers from And So It Goes and Southern Vision.

Feel free to scream at me in the blahs, wake me up, give me some energy, find me some free time to watch movies and read blogs please?

Movie Review: Drive (2011)

I was going to sit down and explain why I am seemingly in the minority of people who didn't love Drive but then I started reading other reviews and felt a little ashamed of having such a controversial opinion.
I went over to see Jon at Films Worth Watching who has already come across people with the same arguments as me and in his excellent review seemingly bats them away with the ease of a great writer and a great lover of cinema. He made me want to see the film again.


Nicholas Winding Refn, director of the Pusher trilogy and Bronson, good movies with flaws that left me feeling a little flat by the time the movie ended but with strong performances. Ryan Gosling, not exactly a good looking guy brought to peoples attention by appearing in a Nicholas Sparks movie and has only worked sparingly since including an apparently (because I'm yet to see it) stellar performance in last years Blue Valentine. The combination of the two has produced what is undoubtedly Refn's finest work and quite probably Gosling's too.


It's a movie about a guy who drives, his name is Driver, he hardly says more than three words throughout the film but he sure can drive and bite on a toothpick. There's a heist. It goes wrong. There's some danger, some chases, some women and children in peril, some violence but not too much and nothing really shocking if you view it as part of the film rather than an "oh my golly gosh darn my children are going to see this one scene and want to stamp each other's heads off, kill Hollywood!" way or if you've seen movies that weren't made in Hollywood before.

And this is where I have a problem with the movie. It wears its cinematic influences on its sleeve, whether Refn was joking about 16 Candles and Pretty Woman or not it was obvious to me that the protagonist was basically Alain Delon in Le Samourai, Leah pulled up the Michael Mann comparison straight away and the scene in the elevator was like a watered down version of the opening of Irreversible.


Refn is a Scandinavian film maker, that's an area of Europe for those not so familiar with geography, and he brings a very European style to the film. His cinematography is beautiful, the atmosphere he builds with the soundtrack is very powerful and the protagonist who hardly speaks just adds to that. As far as I can tell the uniqueness of these aspects in an American action movie are the main reasons people are loving Drive but I've seen it all before and I think that might be why I don't love it. Yet. As I said, I will re-watch it and I sort of expect to change my mind when I do.


People have been bringing up the film maker with the giant face and pop culture dialogue to compare Refn to and I can see that; his filmic references to movies long past and use of soundtrack are similar in style but I hadn't seen the films referenced by Tarantino before seeing his movies so it was a lot more impressive than seeing Melville and Freidkin and Kim Ki-Duk regurgitated on screen.

If you've read this far you may be thinking that I didn't actually like the movie. I did. It's the best Hollywood movie I've seen in a long time. I can't even remember the last one that was as good as this that I could compare it to. Inception perhaps. Best American genre movie since Inception. But I can only give it 7 or 7.5 our of 10. This would be one of those times that being a film geek has dampened by enthusiasm for a film as I think on another day at another time I could quite easily have gushed and called it the greatest movie who ever lived or something equally nonsensical.


Let the blah begin. Or the name calling if you prefer! But whatever you think of my words please go read Jon's review, it's really very good.