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Film Banana - by Johnny D

 
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Drood

Drood
Drood



Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Bestseller Simmons (The Terror) brilliantly imagines a terrifying sequence of events as the inspiration for Dickens's last, uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in this unsettling and complex thriller. In the course of narrowly escaping death in an 1865 train wreck and trying to rescue fellow passengers, Dickens encounters a ghoulish figure named Drood, who had apparently been traveling in a coffin. Along with his real-life novelist friend Wilkie Collins, who narrates the tale, Dickens pursues the elusive Drood, an effort that leads the pair to a nightmarish world beneath London's streets. Collins begins to wonder whether the object of their quest, if indeed the man exists, is merely a cover for his colleague's own murderous inclinations. Despite the book's length, readers will race through the pages, drawn by the intricate plot and the proliferation of intriguing psychological puzzles, which will remind many of the work of Charles Palliser and Michael Cox. 4-city author tour. (Feb.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
In this creepy intertextual tale of professional jealousy and possible madness, Wilkie Collins tells of his friendship and rivalry with Charles Dickens, and of the mysterious phantasm named Edwin Drood, who pursues them both. Drood, cadaverous and pale, first appears at the scene of a railway accident in which Dickens was one of the few survivors; later, Dickens and Collins descend into London�s sewer in search of his lair. Meanwhile, a retired police detective warns Collins that Drood is responsible for more than three hundred murders, and that he will destroy Dickens in his quest for immortality. Collins is peevish, vain, and cruel, and the most unreliable of narrators: an opium addict, prone to nightmarish visions. The narrative is overlong, with discarded subplots and red herrings, but Simmons, a master of otherworldly suspense, cleverly explores envy�s corrosive effects.

Copyright ©2008 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker


Why you might ask yourself why i am writing a review about a book well i am not this is going to be about an upcoming movie by Guillermo del Toro.

Guillermo del Toro is Booked Through 2017
Source: Variety


Variety has published an article talking about director Guillermo del Toro's schedule, which is now booked through 2017. Here are several clips:

Universal — which has a three-year first-look deal with the helmer inked in June '07 — and del Toro are making a long-term commitment by setting up four directing projects, including remakes of "Frankenstein," "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Slaughterhouse-Five."

The fourth project is an adaptation of "Drood," a Dan Simmons novel acquired by U that will be published in February by Little, Brown.

Of course, del Toro's first priority is New Line and MGM's "The Hobbit," to which he has committed the next five years. He has begun writing "Hobbit" with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, collaborating via video conferencing and trips to New Zealand every three weeks.

While it's difficult, if not impossible, to plan projects five years into the future, at this point U execs think "Drood" is the most likely to be del Toro's first post-"Hobbit" directing vehicle.

In addition to the four pics, the studio still has its sights set on del Toro's pet project, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

THis book is probaly one of the bniggest waste of time i have spent reading on a book but a movie, well it could really work.

Here is the deal this book has so many twist and turns and red herrings it just throws you around like a rag doll and leave you like what the hell just happen. If you ever read a Dan Simmons book it will be one of the longest books you will ever read. He just goes on forever and ever about details that you really don't need, but his action scenes and the build up to them are great for movies.

As reader you will know what will work in the movies and what won't espically in this book as iit goes up the crashing down and so on and so for 800 pages. This book has great potential for a movie drugs, sex, murder, heart stopping suspense, but as for a book i wouldn't recommend anyone reading this. It goes no where but it saving grace this will be a movie that will be worth seeing.
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Movie Release Dates Summer to Christmas

June 24
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
DreamWorks



June 26
Cheri
Miramax Films
limited

The Hurt Locker
Summit Entertainment

NY, LA
My Sister's Keeper
New Line Cinema


Surveillance
Arclight
limited



July 1
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
20th Century Fox
3D

Public Enemies
Universal Pictures



July 3
I Hate Valentine's Day
IFC Films
limited

Local Color
Monterey Media

NY

July 10
Blood: the Last Vampire
Samuel Goldwyn


Bruno
Universal Pictures


I Love You Beth Cooper
Fox Atomic


Soul Power
Sony Pictures
limited

Weather Girl
Secret Identity Productions
limited


July 15
Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince
Warner Bros
wide & IMAX


July 17
(500) Days of Summer
Fox Searchlight



July 24
All Good Things
The Weinstein Co.


The Answer Man
Magnolia Pictures
limited

G-Force
Walt Disney Pictures
3D

Orphan
Warner Bros


Shrink
Roadside Attractions
limited

The Ugly Truth
Columbia



July 31
Aliens in the Attic
20th Century Fox


Funny People
Universal Pictures


Lorna's Silence
Sony Classics

NY, LA


August 7
Cold Souls
Samuel Goldwyn


G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
Paramount


Julie & Julia
Columbia


Paper Hearts
Overture Films

NY
Shorts
Warner Bros


When in Rome
Walt Disney Pictures



August 14
Bandslam
Summit Entertainment
limited

District 9
Screen Gems


The Goods: the Don Ready Story
Paramount Vantage


It Might Get Loud
Sony Pictures
limited

A Perfect Getaway
MGM


Ponyo
Walt Disney Pictures


The Post Grad Survival Guide
20th Century Fox


Taking Woodstock
Focus Features
limited

The Time Traveler's Wife
New Line Cinema



August 21
Inglourious Basterds
Universal Pictures


My One and Only

limited

World's Greatest Dad
Magnolia Pictures
limited


August 28
The Boat That Rocked
Universal Pictures


Final Destination: Death Trip 3D
New Line Cinema
3D



September 4
All About Steve
20th Century Fox


Carriers
Paramount Vantage


Extract
Miramax Films
limited

Gamer
Lionsgate


Pandorum
Overture Films


Shanghai
The Weinstein Co.



September 9
9
Focus Features
limited


September 11
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
AfterDark Films
limited

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself
Lionsgate


Whiteout
Warner Bros



September 18
Armored
Screen Gems


Brand New Day
Universal Pictures


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Columbia
3D

The Informant
Warner Bros
limited

Jennifer's Body
20th Century Fox


Splice
Senator
limited


September 25
The Boys Are Back
Miramax Films
limited

Fame
MGM


The Invention of Lying
Warner Bros


The Surrogates
Touchstone Pictures



September films (no specific date)
The Burning Plain
Magnolia Pictures



October 2
More Than a Game
Lionsgate


A Serious Man
Focus Features
limited

Shutter Island
Paramount


Sorority Row
Summit Entertainment


Toy Story
Walt Disney Pictures
re-release in 3D

Untitled Michael Moore Documentary
Paramount Vantage



October 9
Couples Retreat
Universal Pictures


An Education
Sony Classics
limited

The Informant
Warner Bros
wide

Whip It
Fox Searchlight


Zombieland
Columbia



October 16
New York, I Love You
Palm Pictures
limited

The Road
Dimension · The Weinstein Co.


The Stepfather
Screen Gems


Where the Wild Things Are
Warner Bros



October 23
Amelia
Fox Searchlight


Astro Boy
Summit Entertainment


Saw VI
Lionsgate



October 30
The Box
Warner Bros


Youth in Revolt
The Weinstein Co. · MGM
limited



November 6
A Christmas Carol
Walt Disney Pictures
3D

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
Lionsgate
limited

The Wolfman
Universal Pictures



November 13
2012
Sony Pictures


The Fantastic Mr. Fox
20th Century Fox



November 20
The Blind Side
Warner Bros


Broken Embraces
Sony Classics
limited

Everybody's Fine
Miramax Films
limited

Planet 51
TriStar Pictures
3D

The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Summit Entertainment



November 25
Nine
The Weinstein Co.


Ninja Assassin
Warner Bros


Old Dogs
Walt Disney Pictures


The Princess and the Frog
Walt Disney Pictures
Disney Digital 3-D
NY, LA

November 27
Brooklyn's Finest
Senator
limited



December 4
Brothers
Lionsgate



December 11
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
Columbia


The Lovely Bones
Paramount


The Princess and the Frog
Walt Disney Pictures
wide, Disney Digital 3-D


December 18
Avatar
20th Century Fox
3D


December 25
Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakuel
20th Century Fox


Sherlock Holmes
Warner Bros


Untitled Nancy Meyers Romantic Comedy
Universal Pictures



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Updates

Sorry that i havent posted anything in a bit but been busy and just want everyone to know that i will be posting reviews on drum roll please

Star Trek

Angels and Demons

Friday the 13th

and what ever else i get to see between now and then

thanks everyone for the support.
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Dragonball Evolution

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La Chinoise - Mao! Mao!

La Chinoise is a commentary by Jean-Luc Godard on the social uprisings of the 1960s including the Cultural Revolution instigated by Mao Zedong; the (yet to happen) student riots in Paris as well as America’s involvement in the Vietnam War; seen through the lives of five unique, student communist revolutionaries (Guillaume, Veronique, Henri, Yvonne and Serge) who decide to open their own subversive “Red Guard” school in the apartment of some wealthy bourgeoisie people.

La Chinoise was released in 1967, almost with a sense of immediacy given that the Paris student riots were to occur the following year. It seems almost to be a premonition of the revolts of students who with indignation at the class discrimination and a politically controlled education system, marched into anarchy in an attempt to bring down the De Gaulle government using Maoist, Marxist teachings as a tool for destruction. It was a movement responsible for more liberal institutions of equality, sexuality and human rights replacing the more reactionary, religious and patriotic ones


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Le Mepris: The Contempt of the Gods

**SPOILERS WITHIN**

Le Mepris is a film about filmmaking. It is also a film about God. About Godard as God. About control. About love, lust and desire all printed onto celluloid and rolled into a nice discus shaped reel, to be tossed our way by the powers that be


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King Lear - Shakespeare through Godard

Jean-Luc Godard’s “adaptation” (emphasis on the quotation marks there) of William Shakespeare’s King Lear is more avant-garde and experimental than his other more notable films, possibly because King Lear belongs to Godard’s second wave of cinema where he was less concerned with social and political trends. I warn you that it can be extremely demanding of the viewer and for someone less familiar with his work, advisably, this may not be the best film to begin with. I would skip this for now and mosey on over to something like Bande a Part or Alphaville, which would introduce you a little more smoothly into the mind of this marvelous madman.

Okay, now to try and decrypt this film so as to try and give you a slight insight into what this film is trying to communicate. King Lear is supposed to be set in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster which unfortunately for our young protagonist, William Shaksper Junior the Fifth (Peter Sellars not Sellers as I was disappointed to discover), has obliterated every last shred of art (including literature, films and paintings) entrusting him with the responsibility of rediscovering and rewriting that which has been lost. Whether his specific task is to recreate Shakespeare is unclear, but after hearing mafia kingpin Don Learo (Burgess Meredith) and his daughter Cordelia (Molly Ringwald) quote straight from the original text, he is inspired and tries then to articulate some poetry of his own. Even though Godard has used names straight from the play this is not an adaptation of Shakespeare’s vision but is a study (as the end inter-title says), an interpretation, and I would say a defamation (which I will explain later on) of it. The film makes little attempt at following conventional filmic techniques (even those conventional by Godard’s standard) that would be used by other directors, for example, Akira Kurosawa and his faithful adaptation of Hamlet in Throne of Blood, when adapting Shakespeare. The plot of the film is very thin as there is little in the shape of things that occur. Narrative is confused for there is no real chain of events or cause and effect of any kind. There is absolutely no character development, or construction for that matter because most of the dialogue that would usually set up the character is used to ask philosophical questions about the evolution of art and nature. As far as drama of which we would expect elements of romance and tragedy, there are deep touches of it, though it is not the kind of romance between two people but more Shaksper Junior’s affair with ideas. His burgeoning fascination of how art is created when there is no art to refer to leads him to fall in love with nature. The tragedy lies in the realization that words are needed to make things exist for without them we would be ‘nameless


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Masculine, Feminine: In 15 Acts - The Battle of the Sexes

Masculine, Feminine is essentially a film that chronicles the lifestyles and opportunities available to a selection of Parisian youths, who represent the dichotomy not just between male and female but also between politics and popular culture; passion and superficiality; and obstinacy and caprice. More closely it documents the relationship between yet another Jean-Luc Godard beauty by the name of Madeleine (Chantal Goya); a woman of fashionable tastes and Paul a man who like other Godard heroes is possessed of a rebellious nature that finds an outlet through an anarchist demeanor. Like the character that Anna Karina has been known to play, Goya imbues her role with the same sexy, aloof, self-satisfied lethargy. She is a woman of Haute Couture who, because of her work, is not estranged to the glamorous, celebrity lifestyle, of which she so desperately wishes to be a part of. Paul on the other hand is a man who though bereft of educational resources is not deterred to instigate some societal changes; driven to succeed given his stint in the military. Unlike Madeleine, Paul has tasted the hardships and suffering of life and is desperate to escape the dispiriting routine of work, eat and sleep to a more rewarding profession where his reflective nature can flourish.

Such differences between the two seem appropriate given Godard's style of casually striking up a romance out of the blue between two disparate strangers. In this instance it begins with a man in a cafe, randomly conversing with a woman of whom he has noticed there before. Moreover it is not long before the relationship evolves almost without any real substance, in that Godard seems to skip the whole "getting to know you Bulls**t" and jumps straight into the ferocious candor that is the true test of any relationship. In an early scene, Paul is trying to connect with Madeleine and express his awareness of the deeper levels of tenderness and the importance of love as necessary to human survival; however she is slippery, questioning his motives, whilst touching up her looks and flippantly teasing him when he gets to serious. Later in the film Paul proposes to Madeleine and shortly afterwards the shot cuts to him angrily throwing a magazine at her that she was reading, eliciting nothing but a burst of laughter, furthermore showing how girlish fantasies of fame and fortune are too important to her to give any consideration to a genuine love that Paul is offering


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Bande a Part: Breaking Bonds with Boredom

"I'm just talking, I'm fed up, it's impossible to get anywhere", says Arthur, the delinquent leader of the trio of misfits known as the band of outsiders. This sentiment is what resonates throughout a film which suggests that to be truly liberated, one must give in to life; prizing the free spirit over any expectations of success. Jean-Luc Godard is known for his free-spirited and subversive style of filmmaking, as a pioneer in fresh aesthetic techniques that translate to the screen as attempts at trying to wake the audience from a zombified resignation that comes when the expected is delivered.

Arthur (left), Odile (middle), Franz (right) in the famous Madison Dance scene

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Johnny D's Blogs

I have no other blogs :(
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