Whoohoo 100 posts

I've padded out this damn blog enough now to justify 100 posts. Whoohoo champagne for all!

If I type in Daniel Krone's film blog in a Goggle image search it turns up every photo I've used in my blog . . . neato ^.^

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=Daniel+Krone's+film+blog&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=170l2503l0l3342l15l10l2l0l0l0l359l1685l1.6.2.1l12l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1225&bih=643&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=lWruTormBsGeiQKqg9mtBA . . . well for the first couple of pages at least

Almost there

Almost . . .

My Top 5 Films of 2011

1.) Drive - (And yes I f*cking love this song)

2.) Troll Hunter -

3.) Rango -

4.) Attack the Block - (It's also fun that my short documentary "A Cult Influence" was mentioned alongside this in it's Slashfilm.com http://www.slashfilm.com/votd-a-cult-influence-minidocumentary-cult-movies/ article. :) )

5.) Tinker Tailor Soilder Spy - (My first classy film on the list. Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong . . . a brilliant cast. This film is a masterpiece with only one flaw...it's damned hard to follow. Other than that, a real, honest bloody spy thriller I loved. It takes a while to let the style sink in, but if you just go with what it's trying to do, it's a brilliant masterwork.)

*Runner Up* : - Source Code : It didn't expect much out of this one . . . and I was blown to pieces. Duncan Jones you are great.

Ballet Horror . . .

Two directors with the same initials both have directed iconic horror films about ballet:

Dario Argento

Darren Arronofsky

Deeper thoughts . . .

Points of view are what separates individuals the most . . . finding a person with a significantly similar point of view to your own is often inspiring. Which is one of the reasons I believe art fascinates us. It's a way to peek into a person's mind.

also

If a woman has sex with a man with multiple personalities is it like a gang bang? - Warning the content of this joke may be offensive to younger audiences - future note . . . put warnings in front of things so people can make a decision to read or not first

Steven King coincidences . . .

Annie Wilkes in the book 'Misery' uses an ax … but in the film uses a hammer.

Jack Torrence in the book 'The Shining' uses a hammer…and in the film uses an ax."

The Dark Knight Rises Prologue my thoughts

These 6 opening minutes were more enjoyable then most of the films I've seen all year.

It's no secret Christopher Nolan is possibly the hottest director alive today. And I think this coming July he may be remembered for all time, (If he isn't already) for completing his trilogy.

I do not want to nitpick this film, I do not want to cry that my favorite scenes were missing, or that he would do it differently in the comics. Nolan has spawned his world called "The Nolanverses" a universe by Christopher Nolan and fans of film.

Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) won a posthumous oscar . . . how can you top that ? The Joker is one of, if not the most iconic villain of all time . . . how can you top that ? And the answer is research. If you were trying to top an X-Men movie, you'd pick Apocalypse over Magneto if you were trying to top a Superman movie, you'd pick Brainiac over Lex Luthor . . . and so it goes in the lore of The Batman the only villain after Heath Ledger's bone chilling performance as Joker would be Bane. Played by the soon to be house hold name Tom Hardy.

There was one complaint among the fans who waited two hours to see 6 minutes of a film that's 6 months away and I'm not going to spoil it. One tiny detail that to me added to the realism of what's going on and a mystery about the character of Bane. I'll give you a clue though . . . Darth Vader has a similar problem . . . and it's slightly more noticeable in Bane. And since I'm comparing him to possibly the greatest villain in film history…that doesn't bother me in the least.

Bane is perfection. The Joker is chaos.

Bane is a chess player with muscles.

Nolan understands the language of film to a T. From sound to sight. Harry Lime (villain in 'The Third Man') is talked about for about an hour before he appears in that movie. Nolan even in 3 minutes can built up the legend of a character by mentioning his name in one scaredsh*tless throw away line. Same as he did with 'Why do they call this guy 'The Joker'?' 'I don't know, maybe he wears makeup…like warpaint.' And so they do with Bane.

This opening is bigger than the bank robbery. Not in the sense of explosions but in the raw tactile nature of doing a job. Nolan is structured in pacing and detail, not just in the hole of a story but in one 6 minute scene.

After the scene which left me speechless even after the unique way they did just the WB Title Card for the movie - which always leaves me chilled to the core. After the scene they show quick cuts from the movie only one pissed me off only one bothered me, and I hope it's handled better in the film. (Catwoman, who I'm not thrilled about.) But you get the sense of the scope of the film. It will be huge.

Nolan doesn't give a damn about characters…he's making stories about olympians, titans and gods…stories not just worthy to be written in paper but chiseled in stone and film to be seen forever…LEGENDS. Comic are the modern day greek myth…it's a fact...

Bane isn't a god. He's a Titan, even the gods fear him.

"Hugo". . . not that fantastic really . . .

Are we running out of ideas so quickly that simply homaging greatness is akin to greatness itself ?

http://www.slashfilm.com/national-board-review-calls-hugo-film-2011/

"Hugo" won best film by the National Board of Review . . . I wonder what film they saw.

; - - - A picture from the book I've yet to read. (If I ever will)

"Hugo" is a well shot, decently acted small quaint children's film that cinephiles will get an extra kick out of. It isn't a cinema masterpiece. And the 3D isn't the greatest 3D ever recorded as some critics have said, and truth be told it's miles better than "Shutter Island" just a tad better than most directors films and below Scorsese's other films. But Martin has been homaging the history of film since "Taxi Driver". Which contains numerous homages to Godard films and John Ford films. Two of Scorsese's biggest influences. "Hugo" for my dollars is far less subtle. It's very noticeable "Hugo" by the end of the film isn't about the adventures of a young boy...it's about the preservation of old films.

;-Although I did get to see "Voyage to the Moon" from 1902 cleaned up and in 3D on the big screen. Which I must say was a magnificent treat for a film lover, but homaging a filmmaker that's over 100 years old as important as he was in the history of film does not a great film make. But still great to see :)

Okay lets get this review started. The sets are gorgeous (oscar worthy) though as advertised as an amazing adventure, there are only a handful of sets showcased in the film. A toyshop, library, house, train station, movie theatre, and the gears of the clocks inside the train station. That's it, they travel outside of the train station once and when they do it's usually a street corner near a bridge, river, and a movie theatre.

"Hugo" Cabret is an orphan cliche and stumbles across the wonderful trope of an adventurous young french girl whose idea of adventure consists of books. (She's basically the French equivalent of Lisa Simpsons) but played rather sweetly by Chloe Moretz. made famous as Hit Girl in the hit film "Kick Ass" (And if you try to think perverted fan-fiction thoughts she'll murder you.)

"Hugo" however isn't violent and barely passionate, it is a quaint cute little story that has the substance of a Hallmark story of the week, however directed by a master director.

"Hugo" is a young boy whose an apprentice clockmaker with his father who finds a mysterious wind up figurine and tries to repair it. Then dies and "Hugo" is whisked off to work with his uncle repairing clocks in the train station and he's the drunk cliche trope character who doesn't love "Hugo" and basically uses him for cheap child labor.

At the beggining of the film "Hugo" is caught stealing parts from a toymaker and the toymaker asks him to empty his pockets after he's caught stealing. The toymaker finds a little notebook with drawings of the wind up figure and begins to feel sad, he takes the boys book and threatens to burn it. His granddaughter is Chloe Moretz who befriends "Hugo" and assures him he won't burn the book and he can get it back later. She also informs him that her grandfather cried when he read through the book. (This is a piss poor plot device used to get to what the film is really about.)

Ehem, the Grandfather character gives "Hugo" some ash tells him he burnt the book and the boy cries and then later is revealed this is a trick...hurray now "Hugo" has to work off his robbery and being an orphan in order to win back this book. Well Chloe and him eventually break back into the grandfathers house, spilling a mysterious cabinet filled with crazy fantasy drawings (which will later be revealed) getting his book back and discovered that in all the coincidences the clockwork man "Hugo" has spent numerous hours repairing only will operate with a key Chloe Moretz says her grandfather gave her. Get it now...the key that Chloe has works on the machine that "Hugo" had and his father tried to repair that he found in an old museum. "Hugo" thinks that turning on the machine will solve some mystery about his father or the meaning of life or something...his father died in a fire, basically repairing the robot is his idea of finishing something his father started which is him embarking on a mystery his father was too dead to even know about all the dad character wanted to know was what it did when you turned the machine on, yet to my amazement the film tries to fool the audience into thinking this big mystery will give "Hugo" closure, when in reality his dad died before he even embarked on it. (Which really bothers me from a writing standpoint.)

Well the machine turns on and draws the famous "Voyage to the Moon" picture of a rocket in a moon with a face...and the kids turn over the picture to Chloe's grandmother and she cries and talks about hating the past. Well the go to the library (Chloe's character loves books remember) and research the film, and find an expert on George Melies (Whom we find out is Chloe's grandfather and the toymaker from the train station - both of which I believe were completely made up for the sake of the book and have no basis in fact about the real George Melies, but if I can believe Eli Roth shot Hitler in the face than I guess I'll believe this.)

Anyways they end up sneaking an old film of Melies back to Chloe's grandparents house and showing the grandmother who becomes very nostalgic as possible a lot of film fans are. And the grandfather George Melies (played pretty well by Ben Kingsley) stumbles in on the session and reveals the whole history of how he made the films, fell in love with making the films and eventually had to sell his old films, joined the war effort, burned down his studio and founded a toy shop in the train station. And that's the plot of "Hugo" there are a few side characters that have cute little moments, the most memorable being the station guard played by Sasha Barron Cohen and a few others that aren't really important to the plot but have cute moments.

The film ends in a theatre with a beautiful montage of Melies films and a hammy speech about preserving films with "Hugo" now feeling apart of a family and ending with Chloe's character in a cliched voice-over about 'that boy she met' at an after party after a screening of Melies films.

"Hugo" has a level of charm that is beautiful but not masterful, and no where near perfect. I was happy I saw it but not enriched in anyway as I'd expect a great film to always do.

<- "Hugo" is not like this.

(No sound)

<- This is what "Hugo" is about. It is not a film about a young boy who loves to tinker.

So many film lovers are praising 'Hugo' and I don't really see why. The history of film is interesting but something I already knew about and the part where the film meets the real world history I felt didn't match up that well.

(The real George Melies) (Ben Kingsly as him)

;--- There is even an homage to this famous old picture.

The American

There is a certain type of film that annoys the piss out of me….boring films.

'Hollywoodland' I remembered finding tolerable and actually enjoying though it was long as hell and I can barely remember it now and recently 'J. Edgar', Warner Brothers cuddle monkey for best picture drug on and on and on as if every little detail they found in their research of this man had to appear in the film and slowly just to make sure the audience got it. . . .but that's not the film I'm reviewing.

"The American"

About a year ago I saw a film titled "The American" with George Clooney with my lovely friend Tiffany. 1 1/2 hours later Tiffany was sound asleep and I was glued to the film waiting desperately for something to happen.

"The American" with George Clooney, directed by Anton Corbin (director of the amazing film 'Control' about Ian Curtis of Joy Division *Control) is a well acted, well shot, and overall piss poorly paced film.

But honestly I'd rather watch "The American" that a film like J. Edgar, because Italy is prettier to look at than desaturation st. and an annoyingly grading voice over - - - regardless my impressions a year later of one of the most hypnotically boring films I've ever seen are that Tiffany is kind of cute when she's asleep…I mean….ehem.

"The American" was marketed as the next 'Bourne Identity' with George Clooney. But the truth is it's a character study of an old spy on one of his last jobs and it takes its sweet ass time. Apparently I think the director was trying to savor something or capture something that wasn't really there. Capturing a moment in time is what film is about but I think he missed that it doesn't have to be slow for an audience to remember it.

I believe Roger Ebert described it to like an older samurai film…and I guess from the small handful of those I've seen it makes since. Long quiet scenes of him sharpening his sword in an all too familiar ritualistic fashion would be similar to a scene where George Clooney literally builds a silencer for a gun practically from scratch in real time. (One of the more interesting scenes in the film I might add.)

The film opens with an assassination of apparently a spy in George Clooney's midst who he's been with he has to kill. And then cuts to him going out to his assignment to Italy. Which transitions from a beautiful shot of him driving through a tunnel. And the music pulses well and I thought…hey this film is pretty good….

And then he reaches Italy.

He checks into a crappy hotel with a coffee bar across the street (I know because there is a scene where he orders coffee in real time).

George's character is a man of simple pleasures…his work and hookers…a typical brooding loner male character in fiction. But not without it's merits as much as I'll say the film is boring and barely anything happens George's performance as well as the other actors aren't bad and the cinematography is gorgeous (In the since of a perfume still photo ad in a magazine) and I thought worthy of a little golden man statue at least for making this boring film worthy of keeping my eyes open.

George is an old spy on a last job who occasionally talks with a local priest about the meaning of life and such odd stuff and receives instructions through a pay phone (which we later gather is a boss setting him up on one last job)

During his work preparing for one last assassination he trains his new home built gun with silencer in the woods with a woman he falls for who if I remember correctly is another spy. Maybe sent by his boss. I can't remember.

Sometime during the middle of the film another assassin appears and attempts to kill George in a rather anticlimactic but rather action packed chase and shootout sequence in the tiny, tiny streets of the italian villa George is living in...a good sequence but too shadowy, short, and chaotic.

Character:

George has a hooker he constantly goes to who we get the feeling likes him more than he does her; for him it's just ritual and a way to stave off loneliness and boredom.

George's beautiful woman partner…whose purpose I can't remember.

George's boss and the priest he encounters (whom as I remember gives him vague platitudes about life and such.)

After preparing for this final assassination job…George during the climax is finally going to do it and during that he's double crossed (best to my memory) and assassinated by either his boss or that beautiful woman he was with. (I can't remember) Then after he dies a butterfly fly out after him…

; fade to white.

This ending could have been memorable and justified if it was intense and explosive, but indeed it was not.

I didn't re-watch "The American" to write this review, it's really just in my memory from a year ago so it might be completely inaccurate and encouraged to write from my viewing J. Edgar and being reminded of this genre of slow films that probably shouldn't be slow. Ill disciplined.

But I must say I think these films believe that because they are long that they are epics in the since of . . . "Lawrence of Arabia", "Dr. Zhivago", "The Last Emperor" and that because those films are classics and remembered that if they have that same discipline of slowness that they will be remembered as great epic classics as well…is FALSE! Reason #1 is scale. These films are epics because they are telling epic stories and reason #2 is purpose . . . these films are purposely designed to be paced that way they aren't paced slowly for the lack of understanding of why a scene should be long, slow or fast at all.

Because your films are long does not make you an epic. A film's pacing needs to be intrinsic to the type of film it is and not needs to be added because the director was afraid to cut any scenes or worse because the director believes that making scenes long and tedious will make them better.

Subtlety in the mists of action films and fast paced films is nuanced and resonates and allows you to see layers on multiple viewings…subtlety in slow brooding films is obvious because no matter how subtle you are it's easier to catch something quick, when nothing else is happening.

I would have enjoyed this film more had I known what it was…it is not horrible. Just watch it realizing what it's going to be.

I also realize that their must have been something I missed because at the end of this movie I wondered the purpose of the butterfly, a meditation on life...I'm not sure. I'm not sure I even remember why he had to die. This is more of rant than a review cause I didn't really want to sit through this film again just for the purpose or remembering it. But I have a feeling in the future I'll watch it on a day I have nothing better to do and I might enjoy it more.

George's character has a lot of similarities to Ryan Gosling's character in 'Drive' he's quiet, brooding, and has a specialty. But the craft of filmmaking around these characters makes their entire feeling different. Had "The American" been directed differently I think the film would have been praised, there is definitely enough talent involved but I believe a quieter more internal film is what Corbijn wanted anyways. 'Hugo' is a quiet film that takes place in a train station with a small handful of characters that are quiet and basically human...but the advertisement makes it seem like a great adventure. This film like many others was just another lie trying to get asses into seats and with the right point of view might have fared better.

New Entry (No creative titles here)

'Life isn't worth living unless your life is worth giving' - an old phrase I used to use to remind me how fragile things are and how I probably should be doing wild things (I used to be very uptight) and try new things (I used to be very shy) give it your 100% life that is. I've been thinking about that phrase a lot lately and what it means to me and my thoughts about my friends and my past and my future.

After losing one of my best friends a few years ago, for the better I'm sure but still sad. I realized life is too short and everyday you've got to give it your all.

I don't know the purpose of this life or universe. I just love to laugh, chill with my friends and relax and think about it, and that's all I think I need.

Link to Silliest Movie Monsters.

Silliest Movie Monsters List

Drive review . . .

Nihilistic, meditative, operatic . . . and not to mention perfect.

Pauses speak volumes over words . . .

. . . Nicholas Winding Refn knows this in spades...and after his Pusher trilogy he created the arguably modern cult-classic "Bronson"; which arguably put Tom Hardy's name sky-rocketting to the top of the Hollywood's actors to watch list, he did a film called "Valhalla Rising" . . . and experimenting with stylish ways of shooting scenes and editing the right music in and moving it around in unique ways to create a feel more like an opera than a film he directed what I feel is a modern masterpiece.

"Drive" is NOTHING like a "Fast and the Furious" film...and I loved it for that.

It's a character study about a character that barely talks. Ryan Gosling considered a heart throb for his roles in films like 'The Notebook' and 'Crazy Stupid Love' is still left with his dreamy perfect hair and sex appeal for the ladies but a character uniquely fleshed out and nihilistic enough to make good company sitting quiet in bars with Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) and Alex De Large (A Clockwork Orange) looking confused about the world around him and doing what he does best . . . though unlike Alex and Travis, "Driver" (Ryan's nameless character) is more compassionate whose violence and disturbed nature bubbles under the surface and never truly ever comes out in the light. And for this film I think it works.

He is a professional film stunt driver (whose face is way too unmarred to actually look authentically like a real hollywood stunt driver) who moonlights as a driver for robberies. And there in is a seed of the story.

The opening of the movie has a particularly effective scene where Ryan calculatingly drives two robbers away from a warehouse robbery in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. He's not driving a muscle car but rather a realistic unsexy and inconspicuous type car and very calculatingly hides in parking lots, speeds in and out of traffic at the most key and opportune moments all while listening to a police radio scanner to pick and choose his moments like one of the most intricately filmed and edited sequences of cat and mouse I've ever seen in film.

Drive has a B-Movie plot. Moonlighting robbery driver falls for a girl whose boyfriend gets out of jail, is still mixed in with a mob, and he takes over the family as friend an alpha male - and a subplot is that a mafioso, played masterfully by Albert Brooks (who deserves and Oscar nomination for this one) playing opposite of heavy Ron Perlman (who he's far more intimidating than, which is a feat if you've ever seen Ron Perlman you'd understand), sponsors a friend's (Bryan Cranston) Driver to drive a race car for him to make legitimate money.

There aren't any sex scenes in 'Drive' (Sorry Carey Mulligan fans). But I'd be wrong if I didn't consider it a sexy movie. The lighting, poses of the actors, and music is carefully planned to make the most out of the tiniest of moments.

And as the Driver becomes deeper friends with Carey Mulligan's husband who just got out of jail the plot gets thicker and thicker where he helps him on 'one last job' that explodes into a downward spiral of violence and revenge in a fight he doesn't have to get involved in but just does on the principal for love over a women he can't be with.

This film had me near to tears because despite that I've not murdered people for a woman, once in my past I had been through some chaos...and this film brought out those memories. I have taken a girl out driving for hours with no goal in mind accept to get lost...and this film reminds me of me. And great films can tap into you on a very personal level and this one did. I don't love it because it's 'cool' it love it because it's passionate.

But in the same way I'm in love with it...it's the same way I have much trouble recommending it. The music, lighting, gaudy slow motion shots make it overly stylish and to film lovers not sensitive to its sensabilities of what it's trying to convey it can seem horribly self indulgent. But to me it's no different in style than a Park Chan Wok ("Oldboy") film or Quentin Tarantino film.

"Drive" has a sense about the type of film it is, and not the type of film the audience wants it to be...and I respect that, more than anything. I'm told reminiscent of hardcore 80's cop dramas but I've not seen enough of those to make that comparison.

If you don't mind silent moments, scenes that have poetry and seemingly no substance, techno music, and nihilistic violence and a character at the end of the film you can't truly know. Who never really had a true arch...and don't like a character that feels like an archetype of a type of repressed masculinity bubbling to the surface (as I see it anyways). . . than Nicholas Winding Refn's "Drive" is not your film.

But if that doesn't bother you...go see it . . . immediately

If I've learned anything lately

Life will cut you.

Music and Sex

"Music is like sex, if you play...you get really sweaty, use a lot of energy, loose yourself in the rhythm, it helps when there are others around...and if you hit that sweet note few things in life matter at that moment."

The Closing Lines of an Essay I wrote in collage

"Society isn't all mindless zombies coerced into believing that just because it's printed, broadcast, or playing at your local theater that it's fact, and not an artistic or scientific representation filtered through the minds of relatively intelligent human beings, who are also capable of individual thoughts, to be seen by the average society."

Hope.

...is a useless crutch that old men cling to like fools. Real men have lost real things in their lives. It makes their souls like leather. Hard-work, patience, and a steady understanding of the world is all that's ever needed for success. And putting food on the table and having one good friend is a bounty more than most so be grateful in spades if you have more than that.

What I feel about Stephen King's "It" novel

Stephen King's "It" visually how I imagine the novel.

"The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years -- if it ever did end -- began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain." - From the thoughts of Mike Hanlon, Stephen King's "It".