movie taco magazine: january 2013
TRANSCRIPT
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J a n u a r y 2
0 1 3
CatchingFire
Theexclusivefirstlookat
thehighlyanticipated
sequelto‘TheHunger
Games’
Oscars2013
Wepredictwhatwethink
willwin,andsaywhatwe
thinkshouldwin!
Reviews
TheHobbit,Wreck-It
Ralph,CloudAtlas,Zero
DarkThirtyandmore!
THEHOBBIT:ANUNEXPECTEDJOURNEY
This is not so much a disappointment of a film as
an underwhelming, unsurprisingly and predictable
remake of something we all adore. That’s not the
description of a bad film, is it? I’ve spent weeks
deciding whether to see this is 3D 48FPS, 2D
48FPS, 3D 24FPS or 2D 24FPS. IMAX has not yet
reached rural Western Ireland. I eventually chose
the most exciting option, and the one I have
preferred since my birth- two-dimensional 24
frames per second. Yay! I won’t therefore be
commenting on the new format Peter Jackson
has used to make The Hobbit . The opening
prologue, which tells of how the dwarves losttheir mountain to Smaug (pronounced smowg,
fyi), is notably lighter is tone and visuals than
anything in LOTR. It’s also very beautiful,
breathtaking even in the boring old fashioned
format I watched the film in. We then begin our
time in The Shine literally a few hours
before Fellowship begins, with Frodo heading off
to read under that tree. I know, I was crying too.
We then go 60 years backward, when Bilbo is
played by the excellent Martin Freeman, who
shines in this as expected. Thirteen dwarves
whom vary in annoyance arrive at his front door
and barge their way in. Some of them are old and
wise, some middle-aged and aggressive and
some young and foolish (“Do you have chips?”)
The ones I was most interested in (‘Dwarf with Axe-head in Head’, ‘Dwarf that is Gimli’s Dad’)
didn’t speak once, weren’t referred to at all
and featured on screen for less than 5
seconds each. Why? It’s not like the film
had to be cut down! It was almost 3 hours
for God’s sake! I was almost asleep by the
end, and it was only 6.30pm by the time it
ended! The Shire bits were too long, the bits
with the Orcs and Wargs were
WAAAAAYYYY too long, and their were at
least 3 endings. Jackson has two more films
to deal with this story! The highlight of the
film by a mile is the Riddles in the Dark
portion, which sees a technically improvedGollum appearing on film for probably the
final time ever! It was directed by Andy
Serkis (who plays Gollum and should have
gotten an Oscar for Rise of the Planet of the
Apes), whilst PJ was filming some other
stuff, and you can really tell that it was a
different person behind the camera.
Everything about it deserves an award, but
especially Serkis’ performance as
literature’s greatest schizophrenic, which is
way more playful, experimental and
absolutely mad than it ever was back in the
Noughties films. Smeagol and Gollum’s
personal arguments are absolutely hilarious
beyond belief, and had me rolling around on
the floor laughing. Sir Ian McKellen (I usuallyignore the ‘sir’ but, you know, it’s Gandalf!)
is amazing as always as the ol’ guy, and
cameos from Sir Christopher Lee, Ian Holm,
Hugo Weaving and (should be) Dame Cate
Blanchett really add to the small amount the
atmosphere the film has. Richard Armitage’s
performance as Thorin gets better and the film
progresses, and by the end is very good
indeed.The main problems I had with the film
were the length, the repetitiveness of everythi
from the music to the dialogue to the fighting
and how unsurprised I was by the events that
occurred. I predicted exactly how it would end
with us catching a glimpse of Smaug’s eye, a
I left feeling a bit bored. Who am I kidding, a lo
bored. The film has received no Golden Globe
noms, and I can see why. It feels like a decen
Christmas blockbuster which I wouldn’t mind
seeing a few times again, but it’s not the well-
made masterpiece, the work of art that Peter
Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films were. All tha
said, it was nowhere near as bad as George
Lucas’ first Star Wars prequel, The Phantom
Menace.
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BESTPICTURE
ShouldWin: ZeroDarkThirty
WillWin:Lincoln
Snubbed:MoonriseKingdom
BESTDIRECTOR
ShouldWin:MichaelHaneke
WillWin:StevenSpielberg
Snubbed:KathrynBigelow
BESTLEADINGACTOR
ShouldWin: JoaquinPhoenix
WillWin:DanielDay-Lewis
Snubbed: JosephGordon-Levitt
BESTLEADINGACTRESS
ShouldWin:EmmanuelleRiva
WillWin: JenniferLawrence
Snubbed:HelenMirren
BESTSUPPORTING
ShouldWin:ChristophWaltz,Anne
Hathaway
WillWin:RobertDeNiro,Anne
Hathaway
Snubbed:LeonardoDiCaprio,
ScarlettJohansson
BESTANIMATEDFEATURE
ShouldWin:Wreck-ItRalph
WillWin:Frankenweenie
Snubbed:Madagascar3
BESTSCREENPLAY(ORIGINAL,
ADAPTED)
ShouldWin:MoonriseKingdom,
SilverLiningsPlaybook
WillWin:DjangoUnchained,Arg
Snubbed:LiberalArts,CloudAtla
BESTMUSIC(SCORE,SONG)
ShouldWin:Skyfall,Ted
WillWin:Lincoln,Skyfall
Snubbed:MoonriseKingdom,
BreakingDawn-Part2
Oscars2013
TheAcademyAwardsarecoming
nextmonth,andsincethenominationswerejustannounced,
hereareourpredictions!
WORDS:JERRYCOLLINS
LISTENTOOUR
LIVEREACTIONSTO
THEOSCAR
NOMINATIONSON
THEFIRSTEPISODE
OFOURNEW
PODCAST,MOVIE
TACO
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EveryRevolutionBeginsWithASpark
IMAGES:LIONSGATEENTERTAINMENT
ThisNovember,oneofthemosthighly-anticipatedsequelsofalltimewillhit
thescreen-CatchingFire-theadaptationofthesecond(andbest)bookin
SuzanneCollins’record-breakingHungerGamestrilogy.Here,onthispage,are
thefirstexclusiveimagesfromthefilm.
Above:DirectorFrancisLawrence
(centre)withLiamHemsworth
andJenniferLawrence
Belowright:OscarwinnersPhilip
SeymourHoffmanandWoody
Harrelson
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Jessica Chastain doesn’t do a lot of acting
in Zero Dark Thirty . In fact, she barely says
anything at all in Kathryn Bigelow’s multi-
Oscar-nominated thriller, which charts theCIA’s ten-year search for Osama bin
Laden. Chastain stars as Maya, the
operative placed in charge of the bin
Laden search, and she really does STAR.
She’s in almost every scene, yet barely
does anything. She makes one decent
speech about halfway through, swears at
important people a few times, and gets her
big moment in the final shot of the film, but
it’s not really the kind of performance that
deserves an Oscar. Speaking of the final
shot, the film’s ending came as a complete
shock to me, with it’s subtlety and failure
to follow the traditional Hollywoodnationalistic, militaristic protocol of
welcoming the ‘hero’ home with applause.
Instead, we realise that Maya has nothing
to go home to after killing bin Laden. She
says earlier in the film to one of her
colleagues that she has no boyfriend, noteven any friends. We also realise that we
know absolutely nothing about Maya, not
her surname, age, place of birth- nothing.
Joel Edgerton, who we can see this
Summer in The Great Gatsby, appeared in
the trailer more than he did in the film, and
seemed to be wasted in a few quick shots
during the extended, incredibly tense Abbottobad raid scene. TV’s John
Barrowman also made a quick
appearance, saying approximately 6
words whilst standing next to a barely
recognisable James Gandolfini. Neither
Obama nor Bush are named in the film,
although they are both seen briefly on
screens, and apart from recreations of real
terrorist attacks of images of real terrorists
being used, the only reference to the real,
outside world is when, during an
interrogation, a suspected terroristdescribes another as being “tall, with a
long white beard and a cane”, and Mayasays “so, he’s Gandalf!” It was this, among
other things, that made Bigelow and Mark
Boal’s script so engaging, and deserved of
awards. There are also many similarities
to Argo, a far less superior film released
recently, such as the constant scenes of
American delegates driving through
protesting crowds in Middle-Eastern cities,
which was basically all of Argo.
The tension that made The Hurt Locker so
interesting is only seen here in small parts,
but features enough to keep fans of that
film interested. The performances by allactors are excellent, notably Mark Strong
on top form. The torture sequences
towards the beginning are not particularly
graphic or violent, but are still a painful
watch. Overall, this is a very solid, tense
thriller which I hope to see win some
awards, even if not for Best Actress.
CLOUD ATLAS
It’s always sad when you watch a film and
you can tell that the filmmakers thought itwould be a masterpiece. The Dark Knight
Rises is an example, but the difference
with that is that we all thought it would be
a masterpiece too. David Mitchell’s
novel Cloud Atlas is very well written, well
paced and well-structured. Andy and Lana
Wachowski and Tom Twyker’s overlong,
ridiculously complicated and hard to follow
film is terribly structured. All the stories
from different centuries and decades are
mixed together, cutting back and forth. In
other words, we have five or six versionsof Tom Hanks who all look pretty much the
same, on screen just seconds after oneanother. I had to bring a list of characters
and descriptions of the plots to the
screening with me, as I was told by a
friend that I would get a headache trying to
follow the story otherwise. The cast list is
amazing, and the performances by most of
the actors are great, particularly Hugo
Weaving, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Ben
Whishaw and, as always, Hanks, who at
one point plays an Irish fighter with a book
called Knuckle Sandwich, the idea of
which and the Irish stereotyping had me in
tears of laughter for ages. Although the
actors are good, and the CGI settings aredelightful to look at, the film is ridiculously
overambitious, and its lack of success has
proven that people like The Matrix but
not The Really Long, Complicated Follow-
Up.
WRECK-IT RALPH
Disney haven’t had the best year. Th
underrated John Carter was a
comically huge flop, Brave was
probably Pixar’s worst film, Timothy Green‘s box office performance was
as underwhelming as the film itself,
and although they did distribute The
Avengers, the biggest film of the yea
it wasn’t theirs , and so much of the
box office takings didn’t go to them.
is good however, that those gifted
people at Disney Animated Studios, a
section of the company who are
quickly proving themselves to be mo
talented that Pixar at the moment,
have come up with this geniusly-
made, incredibly entertaining and
surprisingly sweet CGI romp. In the
film, John C Reilly voices Ralph, a
lonely game baddie who regularly
attends meetings of Bad Guys
Anonymous. I am one of a few
members of my generation who have
never owned, and rarely played, a
video game, and so the apparently
obvious game character references
went right over my head. Give me afilm with Hitchcock baddie sidekicks
popping up in the background and i’
there! The fact that I was able to find
such pleasure in watching WIR
without getting these references is a
true testament to how good this film
really is, and how it will truly stand th
test of time, just like the film it is
clearly trying to copy, Toy Story. It
most certainly will live on like that, fo
the next generation, with its quite
mature, yet lovable and relatablecharacters, and its simple, yet not so
simple it will bore adults, plot. Sarah
Silverman, Jane Lynch, Jack
McBrayer (not yet forgiven for A
Thousand Words- my worst film of
2012) and the fantastic Ed O’Neill
( Modern Family , in a role far too sma
for his awesomeness) provide voices
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(Continued)
for some of the hilarious characters
Ralph meets along the way. The main
villain of the piece is an excellently
terrifying creation called King Candy,whose voice is a delightfully 100%
copy of Ed Wynn’s turns in Mary
Poppins and the animated version
of Alice in Wonderland . This is by far
the best animated film of the year so
far!
HITCHCOCKIf you’ve even had a quick glance at
my list of favourite films, you’ll know
that Alfred Hitchcock is pretty much
my favourite director ever. From The
Man Who Knew Too Much to The
Birds to my No.1 film ever, North by
Northwest , his masterpieces have
entertained, educated and astounded
me with their brilliance since I first saw
them. Whilst BBC and HBO’s recent
TV movie The Girl was a Hitchcock
biopic for the haters and only mild
enthusiasts, portraying the great man
as a perverted sleaze-bag, Sacha
Gervasi’s star-studded film is a biopicfor the fans. That is apparent from the
opening, and made me prone to like
this, whatever was given to me. It’s
easy to see that Gervasi is a
documentary maker by trade. The
cinematography and editing are quitepoor, and let down the excellent story
and actors. Boy! What a cast! Sir
Anthony Hopkins as Hitch, Helen
Mirren on top form as his wife Alma,
Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh,
Jessica Biel as Vera Miles… the list
goes on! I was slightly disappointedhowever, that Andrew Garfield wasn’t
cast as Anthony Perkins, as I have
always been almost distracted by hisstartling resemblance to the Psycho
star, and thought he would have been
excellent in this. Also, the great
Michael Stuhlbarg, who has had a
busier year than Joseph Gordon-
Levitt, starring in Men in Black 3,
Lincoln and this, turns up as Hitch’s
agent. This portrays Hitch as the man
I believe he truly was- empathetic,
funny, kind and easily hurt- this can
be seen when he thinks Alma hasbeen having an affair with her
screenwriting partner and takes to
comfort eating. I dearly hope that
everyone who saw The Girl watches
this and realises what a great man he
really was, despite his somewhat odd
fascinations with his leading ladies. I
enjoyed this more than I have with
many other films this year. It’s not
an amazing film, but it’s about as
good a Hitch biopic I would expect t
see in 2013.
LINCOLN
I’m not one of those people who thinks
Steven Spielberg is the greatest filmmake
in the world. In fact, I can count on one
hand the films of his that I actually like:
Raiders, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Empire of
the Sun, Last Crusade. The stuff he’s
made over the past decade has been, in
my honest opinion, mostly shit. Lincoln is
somewhat a return to form for the Oscar-
winning director, however. He has,
surprisingly, managed to make a film tha
is purely 150 minutes of aging actors in
wigs sitting in dusty rooms, discussing
American history that I, being Irish, know
little about, quite interesting and
entertaining. Daniel Day-Lewis gives one
of his best performances in the lead role,
and Sally Field is a lot better than she wa
in this Summer’s Amazing Spider-Man.
The supporting cast is incredible. If this
cast were put together in any film ever
made, they would make it enjoyable to
watch. There’s Tommy Lee Jones, Josep
Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal
Holbrook, Jared Harris, John Hawkes, an
we’ll give special mention to the excellen
Michael Stuhlbarg, who you may know
from A Serious Man or Men in Black III. S
although the actors were great and the
plot entertaining, Lincoln didn’t feel like a
film, it felt like a play. A film, especially on
that wins awards, should make use of th
magical medium, and Lincoln failed to do
anything even the slightest bit cinematic.
NEWS
>>>>> Christopher Nolan, the genius
behind such masterpieces as
Inception and The Dark Knight , is in
the process of choosing his next film,and several sources have revealed
that it is likely to be sci-fi adventure
Interstellar , penned by his brother
Jonah, who co-wrote The Dark Knight
and Rises . If this happens, it will be
Nolanʼs third film with ʻIn-ʻ in the title!
>>>>> Jurassic Park IV has been
confirmed for a June 2014 release
date, and will be produced, but not
directed by Steven Spielberg (whose
Lincoln is reviewed on the right of this
page!)
>>>>>> It wasnʼt enough for Skyfall to
be the biggest movie ever at the UK
box office, but over Christmas it
crossed £100m, the first film in history
to do so!
AnimagefromCloudAtlas
,oneoftheleastsuccessfulfilmsof2012,
reviewedonpage4.
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IFTHEPOSTERSFOR2013’SOSCAR-NOMINATED
MOVIESTOLD
THETRUTH!
NEXTMONTH:THEHOST,OBLIVION,BEAUTIFULCREATURES&THE20HOTTESTSTARSOF2013!