movie taco: april 2014

8/12/2019 Movie Taco: April 2014

1/14


2/14

1. AndrewGarfield asSpider-Man

2. Jamie Foxx asMax Dillon

3. Emma Stone asGwen Stacy


3/14

Even Mark Webb is willing to admit that Mark Webbs The Amazing Spider-Man wasntall that great. Yeah, there were a lot of things I would have done differently says thedirector of his 2012 reboot. But you see - the difference with this film is that the scriptis really good. Suuuuure, you say. Just another director making e xcuses and trying topull me in to a sequel to an incredibly mediocre film. Maybe youre right! But maybe,just maybe, youre WRONG! For his second swing at Marvels most famous superhero,Webb has resorted to a formula that hasnt exactly worked out for S pidey-directors inthe past: sticking THREE villains in your film, as Sam Raimi did in 2007s Spider-Man 3

to little acclaim. Once again, Webb is confident in his latest film, and seems to think hecan pull the hat- trick trick off. Paul Giamatti is really only in the movie for fiveminutes he declares. Hes probably not lying, although the Rhino -heavy marketingwould suggest otherwise! Also facing off against Peter Parker are Jamie Foxxs hoodie -


4/14

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfieldas Gwen and Peter.


5/14

clad scientist Electro, whom we dearly hope isntanother Li zard (the first ASMs incredibly boringantagonist) and Dane DeHaans Harry Osbourne(Norman Oz is played by Chris Cooper, but doesnt

look set to be doing any hoverboarding this timeround!) As for the ladies Andrew Garfields Parker will be seenon screen with, Emma Stone returns as Gwen Stacywho, if comics lore and the costume of purple-skirt-and-knee-high-black-boots are to be believed, may notsee this film through to the closing credits! ShaileneWoodley was originally cast as secondary love interestMary Jane Watson (played by Kirsten Dunst in the

Raimi trilogy), but has apparently been cut from thesecond (if not third and fourth) ASM entries. Yes- thereare two more of these coming soon!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is released on May 4.


6/14

Neill Blompkamp, director of District9 and Elysium , has spoken at greatlength- including in a TED talk- abouthis intense interest in the scientificideal referred to as the singularity -in which computers will becomedeveloped to the extent that they willbe fully capable of operating on their

own. This includes the idea that itwill be possible for the human brainto be uploaded and operate purelyinside a computer. So why isntBlompkamp directingTranscendence , the tale ofscientist Will Caster (JohnnyDepp), who, on the brink of a major


7/14

discovery that willchange the world, is shotwith a poisoned bulletand put into a near-fatalcoma. Hisconsciousness is hence

uploaded to a digitallymonitored network by hiswife and colleague(Rebecca Hall) and,largely for the purpose ofnarrative coherence, theseemingly insane

experiment actually pays off! However, Casters longing for knowledge quicklydevelops into an obsession with gaining power, and everything starts to goFZZT! Joining Depp and Hall in the cast are Chris Nolan veterans CillianMurphy and Morgan Freeman, as well as Paul Bettany and Kate Mara. Ohyeah- we forgot to mention that Pfister was the cinematographer on, amongother films, Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy, and that Nolan himself is anExecutive Producer on this film!

Tr a n s c e n d e n c e is released on April 18.


8/14


9/14

Gulag prison! The set-up for this is simple: Kermit is framed by his evil Russiandoppelgnger (Constantine, the worlds most dangerous frog) whilst in Berlin onThe Muppets world tour (organised by Gervais Dominic Badguy) and thrownin The Gulag. Sounds simple, doesnt it? Especially considering this is in essencea film directed at 5-10 year old children!

Tina Fey excels as Nadia, the seemingly stern guard of The Gulag, who slowly isrevealed to be a Kermit super fan and ends up singing about eight timesthroughout the film! Including extended cameos from Ray Liotta, JemaineClement and Danny Trejo as Kermits fellow inmates, the Gulag section of thefilm is consistently original and brilliantly entertaining, and you know what? It

NEVER resorts to cheap pop culture references!

The world tour takes the rest of the Muppets (along with Constantine,masquerading as Kermit and doing a hilarious impersonation of the veryAmerican frog) from Berlin (special guest: Christoph Waltz) to Madrid (specialguest: Salma Hayek) to a little neighbouring city to BuzzHub DUBLIN! Oh,Dublin! How rarely do we see you in a major Hollywood film, and what a treat itis to see a 20-minute portion which was clearly entirely filmed on a sound stagein LA, pretending to be Irelands capital! The Muppets play the fictional DublinTheatre, next door to the fictional Irish National Bank, whilst Dominic Badguy

bribes an Irish Times journalist (Hugh Bonneville, doing an awful accent) intogiving the show a good review (watch out Tara Brady- Disney may be doing thesame). The reason for Badguy taking the gang around Europe by train(backwards)? He is Constantines Number Two (as it emphasises in a b rilliantduet between the criminal duo) and between them they are attempting to steal the


10/14


11/14


12/14

THE MAGNIFICENT

ANDERSON When Joss Whedons The Avengers was released in 2012, it was praised for being theclosest a filmmaker had ever come to recreating the experience of reading a comic book onscreen. Likewise, watching any one of Wes Andersons films feels like reading a greatAmerican novel, with expertly crafted descriptions of every character, location and prop, andan atmosphere so engaging that you feel as if you are reading the words being spoken off a

page. The Grand Budapest Hotel , Andersons first foray into semi -fictional European

history, is his most novelistic film to date, in particular due to its Russian Doll framingdevice, which mirrors David Mitchells Cloud Atlas , as narrative doors open to reveal new periods and sets of characters before closing again.

To some cynics, itmay look as if Hotel isAndersons Monument

s Men , a film with aseemingly idealensemble cast, butnone of whom actuallytry to act and arehampered by a weakscript. However, it isanything but. All ofAndersons friendsand past collaboratorswho turn up for verysmall cameos really do

bring what is available of their A-game. Why? Because working with Anderson has, formany of them, either made (in the case of Jason Schwartzman) or rejuvenated (Bill Murray,Bob Balaban) their careers. For some (Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan), its just a chance to


13/14

experience one of the most finely tuned and well-working directorial machines on Earth. Allof these actors fill the screen with their unique characters of various shapes and sizes, but atthe centre of the madness is The Grand Budapest Hotel itself, a deliciously iced cake of a

building the exterior of which resembles a painting, the interior appearing to have beenstolen from Orson Welles The Magnificent Ambersons with its long corridors, vast

ballroo ms and weaving staircases. Jude Laws Young Writer is staying when he encounters amysterious old man (F. Murray Abraham) who, upon being revealed as the owner of thehotel, recounts the story of his relationship with the building to Law. We then revert toAbrahams younger self (newcomer Tony Revolori, in arguably the best debut performancesince Moonrise Kingdom s Gilman and Hayward), lobby boy during wartime and protg toRalph Fiennes equally sleazy and charming M. Gustave. Fiennes performance isnt s o mucha revelation as the climax to several years of career-defining roles that have seen him gofrom playing The Period Drama Villain to The Period Drama Hero to Fantasy Villain WithCGI Face. His poetry quoting and faux laughing are a brilliant cover as he woos elderlywomen (the most notable of which is played by Swinton) and steals a valuable painting towhich he only has partial ownership in order to give himself and Revoloris Zero a betterlife. Amongst the seemingly endless cameos, it is primarily Willem Dafoe and Ed Nortonwho truly stand out, as a hired goon and army commander, respectively, both hamming it upin the best way imaginable. Adrien Brody is unfortunately miscast as the films primaryantagonist, and Harvey Keitel sadly underused in an understandably short turn. The biggest

problem with the cast is certainly the choosing of the aforementioned Ronan as Zeros loveinterest. As a citizen of the country where Ronan is most idolized (her native Ireland), I cansay from a front row perspective that she is one of the most overrated actors of hergeneration, constantly stealing roles from better young actors in potentially superior films. Idearly hope Anderson doesnt use her in such a big role (or in any role, for that matter)

again. After watching Hotel, it becomes clear that Moonrise Kingdom was Andersons most personal film, and may always be his most moving. With its instantly relatable tale of quirkychildhood love and the youthful perspective on the ridiculous behaviour of the surroundingadults, Kingdom may have been Andersons masterpiece. Hotel isnt even a contender for his

best film, seriously lacking the depth of Kingdom or Tennenbaums or the charm of Rushmore or Mr Fox . However, none of the directors usual magic is lost amongst th e Film of Actorsand Sets, especially when the Mlis-esque paper mach landscapes transition into anadorably cheap action-

packed chase, and a small

animated Russian dancerappears halfway throughthe end credits. It willmost likely improve uponmultiple viewing, and isunarguably another greatnail in Andersons box ofgreat films, but The Grand

udapest Hotel is under

no circumstances aclassic.


14/14

This is something special.Something very special indeed An entire issue of X-Men.Launches April 20, 2014 at Midnight.

movie taco: april 2014

Documents