Trailer: The Dark Knight Rises

Here's another big superhero movie trailer that hit the web this week. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman and Marion Cotillard. The much-anticipated third film in Nolan's hugely successful Batman series has a release date of July 20th 2012.

Trailer: The Amazing Spider-Man

Check out the trailer for the Spidey reboot The Amazing Spider-Man directed by Marc Webb. It stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen and Sally Field. Although not sure that we need a Spider-Man reboot so soon after the initial trilogy, this movie does have a great cast. It's set for release on July 3rd 2012.

In focus: Sigourney Weaver

Susan Alexandra Weaver was born on October 8^th 1949 in New York City. At school she was always much taller than her classmates (she reached 5’ 10’’ by the age of 13!) so was picked on and in order to gain their acceptance, she became the class clown.

She changed her name to Sigourney and later she trained at the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, where one of her classmates was Meryl Streep. She made her theatrical debut in 1973 in Watergate Classics. After finishing her studies, Sigourney pursued a stage career for a while before breaking into films in 1977 with Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. A couple of years later she starred in the film that would make her a star: Alien. Her character, Ellen Ripley, was tough and intelligent, and Ridley Scott’s film was a big hit.

Following this success, she appeared with William Hurt in Eyewitness and with Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously and became married to Jim Simpson in 1984. Then came another popular film, comedy fantasy Ghost Busters, with Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd. She reprised her role as Ellen Ripley in Aliens, which was a huge success, and was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

A very productive period followed, with Weaver starring in Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl, Ghostbusters II, Dave and Alien 3. She also gave birth to a daughter, Charlotte Simpson, on April 13^th 1980. Sigourney played Ellen Ripley one more time in Alien: Resurrection and won a BAFTA and received a Golden Globe nomination for Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm.

She then took on a few comedy films; the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen and Alan Rickman, 60s spy comedy Company Man, and Heartbreakers with Gene Hackman, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ray Liotta, about mother and daughter con artists who seduce wealthy men.

In 2003, Sigourney was ranked #20 on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time. She was one of only two woman to make it into the Top 20, the other being Audrey Hepburn. Weaver reunited with Alan Rickman in the 2006 independent film Snow Cake, in which she played a high-functioning autistic woman whose daughter is killed in a car crash. Her well-researched performance was very believable and touching and the film was screened at a number of international film festivals.

At the age of 60, she reunited with her Aliens director James Cameron for his massive blockbuster hit Avatar, which became the top box-office success of all time. She still continues to surprise and entertain both her fans and the people she works with and has earned great respect in the industry. She played the baddie in Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Paul and has many projects in the works, included a rumoured appearance in the forthcoming Ghostbusters III movie.

5 Recommended Films:

• Aliens 
• Alien 
• Ghost Busters 
• Galaxy Quest 
• Gorillas in the Mist

Other films to watch: Avatar, The Ice Storm, Alien3, Alien: Resurrection, The Village, Snow Cake, Dave, Heartbreakers, Ghostbusters II, Working Girl, Paul, Vantage Point, Infamous, Holes, Imaginary Heroes, Death and the Maiden, The Year of Living Dangerously.

5 Movie Quotes:

• “Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.” – Ellen Ripley in Alien
• “You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage.” – Ellen Ripley in Aliens 
• "You like this ring? You want to keep the hand this ring is on? If I see or hear or smell you anywhere near my gorillas, you'll be writing with your other hand and I'll have a new ashtray.” – Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist 
• “Fred, you had a part people loved. I mean, my TV Guide interview was six paragraphs about my *boobs* and how they fit into my suit. No one bothered to ask me what I do on the show.” – Gwen DeMarco in Galaxy Quest 
• “Look, this wasn't here! There was *nothing* here! There was this... space! And there was a building or something with flames coming out of it, and there were creatures writhing around, and they were growling and snarling. And there were flames, and I heard a voice say ‘Zuul’! It was right here.” – Dana Barrett in Ghost Busters

5 Pieces of Trivia:

• Her salary for Alien: Resurrection (1997) was more than the entire cost of the original Alien (1979) movie. 
• She changed her name from Susan to Sigourney after reading The Great Gatsby. 
• She made her movie debut in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), where she was on-screen for just 6 seconds. 
• In the film Alien: Resurrection (1997) she actually managed to sink the basketball into the hoop backwards on the first take, even though she wasn't supposed to or intended to. The shot was almost ruined because Ron Perlman broke character because he was so amazed. 
• She is one of the very few actors who have been nominated for both a Supporting (Working Girl) and Lead Acting (Gorillas in the Mist) Academy Award in the same year for their achievements in two different films.

Review: Krabat and the Legend of the Satanic Mill

After a ‘30 years war’, most of Europe is devastated and the people are suffering from famine and plague. Krabat is a 14 year old German boy with no family left and no hope of a good future. He has a dream about a mill with 11 ravens sitting on posts, and 1 post left empty. A voice calls him to the mill so he journeys there and finds an old man who takes him on as one of his 12 apprentices. They work hard at the mill and even practice black magic, which their master teaches them.

Krabat is befriended by one of the apprentices, a young man called Tonda, whom he looks up to. He also meets a young woman from the nearby village and falls in love with her. After a series of tragic events, Krabat comes to realise that all is not as it seems at the mill, and it may not be the safe haven he dreamt of after all. Has he gotten in too deep or will he be able to escape before it’s too late?

In this film, Krabat is at first tempted by the power and sense of community at the mill. He wants to make a better life for himself after the war, poverty and losing his family to the plague. He works hard at the mill and in his training, eager and willing to succeed. However, things take a sinister turn after he suffers another great loss. This seems to clear Krabat’s mind, as if he had been under a sort of spell or misapprehension, thinking he had a good life at the mill. He becomes determined to find out what is really happening and attempt to leave.

Krabat and the Legend of the Satanic Mill is based on the 1971 German novel The Satanic Mill by Otfried Preußler. Directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner, it stars David Kross in the title role. Kross appeared in The Reader (2008) as the younger version of Ralph Fiennes’ character Michael Berg and can next be seen in Steven Spielberg’s Warhorse (2011). Christian Redl (Downfall) plays the master in charge of the mill and Daniel Brühl plays Tonda. Brühl impressed as the main character in Goodbye Lenin! (2003) and has also appeared in Hollywood films such as The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009).

These three main characters are strong, with the actors giving some good performances. However, the minor characters, including most of the apprentices, aren’t as impressive. They lack any impact or emotional attachment and seem to blend together, meaning it’s often difficult to tell them apart and to remember what they’ve done previously in the film.

Krabat has some beautiful cinematography, especially when the natural landscape fills the screen. It also has good special effects, most notably the transformation of the apprentices into ravens and back into human form again. The story is interesting and original, however the film seems to take too long to build and ultimately the audience isn’t rewarded with a big payoff. There are many questions left unanswered with regards to the true purpose of the mill and the mysterious cloaked figure that makes rare visits. The film needed to be more dramatic and exciting. It lasts for two hours, yet there is only one scene with real action in it, a fight with some soldiers in the nearby village, and this features little actual physical combat as the apprentices use telekinesis to attack their opponents.

Krabat has great potential even though the film doesn’t fully realise it. It fails to explore some interesting story elements and is a little slow on pace. However, it focuses really well on the themes of temptation; with the lure of black magic and power, and friendship; with the sense of brotherhood and companionship Krabat experiences. It’s an enjoyable dark fantasy that has a Grimm fairytale-like feel to it and effective performances from the lead actors.

 

[DVD screener provided by Flickering Myth. Review originally posted here]