Archive for the ‘noel vera’ Category
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
The trials and tribulations of families with teenage children are a staple of movies and TV sitcoms but things get hairy and interesting in Vincenzo Natali's Splice when that child is genetically engineered. As Critic After Dark Noel Vera calls it, "unwholesome fun."
Splice (2009) is your basic horror fable updated ...
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Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
When you watch Roman Polanski's latest film you inevitably have to deal with the issue of Polanski himself - he's an excellent example of the artist-director who does interesting to great films but whose private life, or opinions, or deeds tend to overshadow that work. As Critic After Dark Noel ...
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Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Philip Noyce's Salt is ridiculous, it's reactionary, it's over-the-top and, as Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, whaddaya know, it's a lot of fun.
Philip Noyce's Salt has many of the virtues something like Christopher Nolan's Inception lacks - it's cleanly made; it doesn't ask to be taken as anything other ...
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Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Christopher Nolan's Inception may be his best film to date but as Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, it's still a 150-minute house of cards built on the premise of dreaming with little in the picture that has the authentic feel and solidity of real dreams.
It's okay. Easily the best ...
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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
A man, in Masuyuki Suo's I Just Didn't Do It, is accused of molesting a student. He is asked to plead guilty and pay a fine. Instead, he claims innocence and his life in the Japanese court becomes a hell on earth. As Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, this ...
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Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
The evil in Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is so in your face that there is no room for any shades but, as Critic After Dark Noel Vera points out, it is Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer that conveys menace through the very smoothness of its ...
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Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Fuelled with a singular vision, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a film about storytelling, but only the way Terry Gilliam can do it. And even the death of star Heath Ledger fails to dampen the mood. As Critic After Dark Noel Vera notes, imagine all of Gilliam's works rolled ...
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Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
It's not the horror that's on screen in Samuel Bayer's remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street that's scary. As Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, it's the prospect of an endless number of sequels, sloppily done.
I wouldn't call Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - with its ...
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Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
If Iron Man 2 is preferred over the first movie, it's because it's soapier. But, as Critic After Dark Noel Vera says, when it comes to comic-book action movies, it is Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass that has the two Iron Man movies totally beat.
Prefer this sequel over the original and here's ...
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Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
A US marshall investigates the disappearance of a murderess from an insane asylum. Whether it's pulp fiction or heavy psychological thriller, Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island is leaving viewers wondering what the director is up to. Is he trying to start afresh with a blank canvas? Critic After Dark Noel Vera ...
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