Monday 30 May 2022

Famous Paintings in Film - Reel 2

Drowning By Numbers

Children's Games - Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Samson and Delilah - Peter Paul Rubens
Ghost Stories

Hell (detail) - Hans Memling
Nebuchadnezzar (detail) - William Blake
Vanilla Sky

Wheatfield with Cypresses - Vincent van Gogh
The Seine at Argenteuil - Claude Monet
Summer (left) and Autumn (right) - Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Thick as Thieves (2009)

The Birth of Venus - William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Andromache Mourning Hector - Jacques-Louis David
Belisarius Begging for Alms - Jacques-Louis David
Nobody

The Meagre Company - Frans Hals and Pieter Codde (left) and The Feast of St. Nicholas - Jan Steen (right)
Self Portrait with a Felt Hat - Vincent van Gogh (top left), The Milkmaid - Johannes Vermeer (top right) and Saul and the Witch of Endor - Jacob Cornelisz van Oostanen (bottom)
The Bedroom - Vincent van Gogh
Miscellany

Castle Freak
Vanitas with a Still Life and Skull - Pieter Piertsz van Roestraten
Cradle of Fear
Girl with a Pearl Earring - Johannes Vermeer
Darlin'
The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist - Caravaggio
Devil's Diary
The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch
Get Hard
The Shipwreck - J. M. W. Turner
Escape Room (2019)
The Agnew Clinic - Thomas Eakins
Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro
Oath of the Horatii - Jacques-Louis David
Bad Santa
The Gleaners - Jean-François Millet
Censor
Saturn Devouring His Son - Francisco Goya
Fright Night (1985)
Portrait of Lunia Czechowska - Amedeo Modigliani
Evan Almighty
Washington Crossing the Delaware - Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze (left) and The Peacemakers - George P.A. Healy (right)
Crying Freeman
The Birth of Venus (detail) - Botticelli
Casino Royale (1967)
Danaė - Titian
Clue
Landscape with a Huntsmen and Dead Game (Allegory of the Sense of Smell) - Jan Weenix
Dirty Grandpa
Sistine Madonna (detail) - Raphael
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun - William Blake
Dracula 2000
The Last Supper - Pedero Berruguete
Electric Dreams
Ascending and Descending - M. C. Escher
An American Werewolf in London
Sunflowers (1888) - fourth version - Vincent van Gogh
Casino
Tete-a-Tete at the Ritz - Pierre-Georges Jeanniot
Cool World
Number 1 (Lavender Mist) - Jackson Pollock
Dazed and Confused
The Fifer - Édouard Manet
Constantine
Christ on the Cross between the Two Thieves - Peter Paul Rubens
Until next time.

Thursday 26 May 2022

Top Gun: Maverick - The scoop and digest

We've been waiting impatiently since 2019, but Joseph Kosinski's highly anticipated sequel to Tony Scott's 80's classic finally soars into cinemas.

For those who care, Top Gunner (2020) is The Asylum's mockbuster.

Worth your time? Not really.

Tom Cruise - Maverick
Jennifer Connelly - Penny
Miles Teller - Rooster
Glen Powell - Hangman
Monica Barbaro - Phoenix
Lewis Pullman - Bob
Jay Ellis - Payback
Danny Ramirez - Fanboy
Greg Tarzan Davis - Coyote
Ed Harris - Rear Admiral Chester Cain
Val Kilmer - Iceman

Summary

Under the orders of Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is tasked to train twelve hungry Top Gun graduates for a mission to destroy an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant before it becomes fully operational.

However, target inside snowy mountainous region is protected by multiple SAM launchers.

Elite pilots include Payback, Halo, Yale, Bob, Coyote and notably, Goose's son Rooster.

Maverick must exorcise personal demons and faces his greatest challenge yet.

Hypersonic

A scintillating, heart-pounding return to the danger zone.

Expectations were high, but I didn't expect shit to be this fucking good.

Unlike Ghostbusters: Afterlife, we're not bombarded with relentless fan service.  Sure there are nods and homages, but balance is carefully struck.

Ignoring F-14 Tomcat scenes, aerial shots and in-flight sequences (at Cruise's insistence) are not CG.

Cinematography is excellent and like Berlin, adrenaline-fuelled finale takes your breath away.

Given respective ages, it makes sense that Tom Skerritt and James Tolkan don't return.

Michael Ironside could have reprised role as Jester, but who knows?

With the omission of Kelly McGillis, Connelly is drafted in as Cruise's love interest.  Fans will know decision isn't random, as character was mentioned by Goose, Stinger and Carole in original.

Cruise is on brilliant form, with Teller and co impressive in support.

Screenplay slices enjoyable cheese and sensibly features low-key humour.

Near the beginning, a disorientated Maverick staggers into a packed diner and asks "Where am I?" A kid drily answers "Earth".

Ha ha ha!

Ice communicates with Maverick via messaging service and because Kilmer lost his voice due to treatment for throat cancer in 2015, his son Jack briefly provides the yap.

Touching cameo is handled with sincerity and emotional dignity.

Enjoy as intended - on the BIGGEST screen possible.

Saturday 21 May 2022

'Probably' everything that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ripped off

If Jurassic World was the amber, then J. A. Bayona's follow up is the nectar.

Summary

Before a volcanic eruption destroys Isla Nublar, John Hammond's former partner Benjamin Lockwood sends a team of mercenaries to relocate dinosaurs on another island.

However, rescue mission is all a front for specimens to be secretly sold on the black market.

Plot essentially reworks The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow and his team of mercenaries plan to capture dinosaurs from Isla Sorna and unveil them at an amphitheatre zoo, an attraction uncle abandoned in favour of the park from original.

Carnosaur 2 (1995)

Even though sequel primarily rips off AliensLockwood estate models itself on the mayhem that ensues at the Yucca Mountain facility.

Not stopping there, a kill is lifted.

Ken Wheatley


Sarah Rawlin


Dinosaur King is a bonkers card-based arcade game released by Sega in 2005, with the majority of prehistoric beasts split into the elements of Earth, Wind, Fire and Water.

Gameplay is similar to Mushiking: The King of Beetles.

Anyway.

Baryonyx


Carnotaurus


But wait.

Indoraptor vs Utahraptor


Seriously?

As a side note, a 'super-raptor' was considered for The Lost World, but Spielberg rejected the idea, saying it was "a little too much out of a horror film. I didn't want to create an alien."

Ironically, Indoraptor behaves like a xenomorph, particularly when stalking leads in the fossil exhibit.

And.

Utahraptor - Turok
Just look at those porcupine-esque spines protruding from head.

Personal best

After escaping its cage, antagonist charges for Gunnar Eversol and co inside an elevator.

Dinosaur King anime - S1 E46

Saurophaganax goes for Max and Zoe who are escaping in, yeah - an elevator.


HA HA HA!

Rexy killing Carnotaurus vs Dino Stalker (2002)


Err, okay.

Raw Thrills' Jurassic Park Arcade centres around a security team recruited to rescue dinosaurs from a volcano which is due to erupt on Isla Nublar.

Nothing like Mt. Sibo then.

Helicopter transport vs attract mode


The first in Steve Alten's book series Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror was published in July 1997.

It was revised and expanded in December 2015 with new artwork.

Mosasaurus vs Megalodon


Both monsters are beneath a huge wave and about to make an unfortunate surfer their next meal.

WH-WH-WHAT?

Indoraptor on rooftop vs T. rex in jungle - Dino Crisis


Roaring against the moonlight?

Jesus, I should get paid for this shit.
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