film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: BRWC

  • 5 Great Actors Who Are Also Great People

    5 Great Actors Who Are Also Great People

    It’s fine to judge an actor by the performances he or she gives. A great actor can bring life to a character and can transform a film from enjoyable to incredible. However, even if someone is an amazing actor, he or she can still be a not-so-pleasant person to be around. So which of Hollywood’s greatest actors are also great people?

    Neil Patrick Harris

    Everyone knows who Neil Patrick Harris is – from his Tony Award-Winning performances on the Broadway stage to his role as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, his talents seem to be endless. However, Neil Patrick Harris has also supported numerous charities for a variety of causes, including cancer and AIDS research. He has yet to show up in the news for being anything less than a class act in public, and he always gives off the vibe of being self-aware and down-to-earth.

    Tom Hiddleston

    As Loki, Thor’s younger brother in Marvel’s Thor movies, Tom Hiddleston has managed to make the villain one of the most popular characters in the Marvel movie universe. Outside of the movies, Tom Hiddleston is the complete opposite of his movie persona.

    One of the best stories that shows the kind of person he is involves a Loki cosplayer. Fahr Sindram was at the Thor 2 premiere in Germany wearing her Loki cosplay when Tom Hiddleston approached her and actually knelt in front of her. After this he hugged her and posed for some pictures with her. Earlier that day he had seen her cosplay pictures and asked to meet with her. That Hiddleston would take the time to acknowledge someone’s work says a lot about him.

    Fred Rogers

    Mr. Rogers is one of the most beloved characters on TV. From his ever-present smile to his trademark sweaters, he always brought a smile to people’s faces. Fred Rogers was the same off-camera as he was in front of it; he also never smoke or drank and was a vegetarian. In addition, he was a huge proponent for public television and spoke to Congress about the necessity for funding it. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he managed to convey kindness and respect whenever he spoke, and he will always be remembered that way.

    Angelina Jolie

    In her most recent performance in Maleficent, Angelina Jolie carried the movie wonderfully, and her performance in Girl, Interrupted was rewarded with an Academy Award. However, she is recognized for her charitable work at least as often as she is for her acting. She used to work with the United Nations as a Special Envoy and a Goodwill Ambassador, and one could even picture her rolling up her sleeves and getting to work building homes for people. She has six children with her husband, Brad Pitt – three of whom are adopted. Even though she’s one of the highest-paid actresses, there’s no denying she’s giving back wherever she can.

    Sandra Bullock

    From Miss Congeniality to Gravity, Sandra Bullock has shown she’s got a strong set of acting chops, and her Oscar for The Blind Side proves it. In 2013, she received another honor: the Favorite Humanitarian Award at the People’s Choice Awards. She adopted a school in New Orleans that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina and donated $100,000 to restore the facility to working condition.

    She has also donated thousands of dollars in scholarships to students looking to advance their education, and she donated $1 million dollars to the American Red Cross relief in Japan when it got hit by a large earthquake in 2012. She has also adopted a child from New Orleans, whom she keeps out of the spotlight to raise in as normal an environment as possible, considering his mother is a famous actress.

    It’s easy to pick out the actors who are also good people. While many may see charity work as a publicity stunt, the people who keep returning to it time and time again are the ones who show their true colors. Additionally, it’s more than just charity work – the actors’ interactions with their fans also indicate what kind of people they are.

  • Mine Games: A Review

    Mine Games: A Review

    Clichéd? Yes. Scary? No. However, Richard Gray’s Mine Games doe throw a few surprises into his sixth directorial feature that just about lets him get away with releasing yet another teen cabin the woods story into the already busied genre.

    It’s a risky business using such an archetypal setting; we’ve all seen Cabin Fever, Evil Dead, Cabin in the Woods etc. To do this type of film you need some real big sleeves and I think that’s what Gray realised when he created Mine Games. With the source of horror derived from an abandoned mine in the middle of the forest, I was then expecting something along the lines of My Bloody Valentine, especially as the opening scenes were as regular as they come: good looking group, three boys, three girls, drugs, alcohol, no parents to tell them what to do, totally unaware of what’s to come.

    However, Gray manages to turn this around as the story takes an unexpected leap into mysticism and surrealism, when two of the teens see their own dead bodies in the mine. Soon after, our house Psychic Rose (Rebecca Da Costa) starts kicking off, throwing this film into a complete other direction. As the story moves along, the characters get more and more confused and trapped as they all begin to see spooky events unfolding that do not add up.

    The suspense is not very pressing and even the most “shocking” moments don’t create much of a stir. Having said all of that, there’s no denying Gray’s effort in attempting to break the mould and in this sense he did well. It might not be the scariest watch but definitely amusing. Just don’t be expecting to jump out of your seats.

  • The Use Of Maths In The Movies

    The Use Of Maths In The Movies

    When thinking of maths in the movies your mind will probably automatically jump to things like ‘A Beautiful Mind’ which tells the story of Nobel prize winning mathematician John Nash or ‘Breaking the Code’ which focuses on Alan Turing, but maths is absolutely everywhere in movies across all genres. Maths plays a very important and vital role in story telling, it validates.

    In science fiction maths is used effectively to solidify the science and outlandish theories, for example in the film ‘Equilibrium’ where futuristic enforcers known as “Clerics” have mastered a martial art called the gun kata which through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, determines the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element. The gun kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. In a scene explaining this angles and equations overlay the action to lay credence to the theory and help sell the scientific nonsense to us. In ‘Primer’ several scenes involve maths to sell the idea that four men who invent error-checking machines have solved the problem of time travel using a storage container… Yep that’s really the plot of this movie. Aside from science fiction ‘21’ is a great movie about mathematicians using a simple card counting system to win millions at the blackjack tables of Las Vegas. Maths is a great solidifier for us as it is absolute and is considered the key to the universe.

    Another thing maths is used for is movies is to convey mystery or higher intelligence, many movies involve nearly near impossible equations, the search for a specific mathematical problem or patterns of numbers that correlate with something in nature or a shadowy organisation. A few examples of this are ‘The Number 23’ where the protagonist comes up with thousands of ways to calculate the number 23 and believes it has a sinister nature, or ‘Knowing’ where a M.I.T. professor finds a list of numbers in a time capsule which seemingly prophesise dates and times of disastrous events. In the movie ‘2010’ the black monolith of alien origin which seems to appear at intervals to advance mankind’s development, has the dimensions 1:4:9 which are the first three square numbers. The Fibonacci number sequence is prominent in ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and is used to decode the mystery of the shady Knights Templar and their search for the Holy Grail.

    As well as being a great narrative device maths has another key role in character development. It is used as shorthand for intelligence. In many movies a certain character will explain a mathematical principle that applies to the story or quote statistics to easily convey their superior intellect. In ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ the alien Klaatu solves a mathematical equation that a professor has been trying desperately to solve in order to be taken seriously and display his race’s higher intelligence. In the movie ‘Road Trip’ the gang have to cross a stream in their car, after much yelling and silly suggestions the character Rubin calmly asserts they could jump the gap and runs through the trajectory of the ramp, the weight of the car and its contents as well as the speed the vehicle would have to travel in order to successfully make the jump. Matt Damon’s character in the film ‘Good Will Hunting’ is introduced as the poor janitor at M.I.T. who has no direction in life. Later he is shown to have a gift for mathematics when he solves a problem on a board that nobody else has been able to solve. So a quick demonstration of maths by a character can instantly make them out to be of genius level intellect. Robots and computer A.I. systems in movies are usually given dialogue stating percentages or statistics to convey how easily they can make large calculations.

    The other shorthand maths gives us is the placid quiet pacifist. Characters in teen movies introduced as maths whizzes are usually socially awkward and solitary. Mathematicians in movies are often seen obsessing over blackboards covered with equations and puzzles they try desperately to solve. As we know from ‘Straw Dogs’ though, you should never get on the wrong side of a mathematician. Some stories have characters driven mad by numbers and unsolvable equations, usually turning them into homicidal maniacs. Take Hal from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ or the character of Max Cohen in ‘π’. Just remember not to worry, the primes are not against you and it’s just a movie.

  • Branded To Kill – Blu-Ray Review

    Branded To Kill – Blu-Ray Review

    Seijun Suzuki, now regarded as one of the finest directors of his generation, first made his name as a part of the Japenese New Wave, crafting films with Hachiro Guryu (the name given to a team of writers) like Branded to Kill that would have him hounded out of the Japenese film industry for years. Now regarded as one of the masterpieces of his career, it is now available in beautiful HD regards of our very good friends at Arrow Video.

    When the No# 3 Hitman in all of Japan, Goro Hanada (Jo Shishido), takes a job from a woman he has fallen in love with (Annu Mari) and accidentally kills the wrong person, he is forced to take on The Organisation and their army of assassins and in the process prove that he is worthy of being No# 1.

    It wears it”s Film Noir influence with pride, pulling from a similar monochrome nihilism but coming with it”s own particular and twisted Eastern sense of humour. Suzuki manages to strike up an amazing balance, both dealing with the themes of destructive desire, reckless ambition, and identity, all the while maintaining a fantastic gangster plot and creating some of my favourite action scenes of the era (just wait until you see the shoot out at the breakwater!).

    Naozumi Yamamoto”s incredible jazz score pounds the scenes casino full of cool, 60″s style and it”s bold, bizarre editing adds a real madness to proceedings. When the two come together, the film begins descending into an outrageous and surreal fever dream of sexuality and violence. It”s important to remember that this was at a time when Japan was beginning it”s own culture revolution along with the rest of the world.

    In both parts impressive and insane, silly and solemn, entertaining and infuriating. What a great film always is before anything else; an experience, and one of a kind at that.

    Bonus

    Interviews with Suzuki and Shishido that gives some insight into how they feel about the film in hindisght as well as a trailer, but the real reason to buy is the two-for-the-price-of-one inclusion of Trapped in Lust, the Pink Film re-imaging of Branded to Kill

    While fun, it”s basically a stripped down version of the original premise to play up the sex, violence and insanity Thankfully, that doesn”t mean that it”s any less interesting a film to watch, especially for it”s cinematography, and The Handsome Mario and Saigo are still terrifying.

    Anyway you look at it, these are well worth a look for those with a taste for Japenese cinema looking for examples of the film culture that bred later directors like Takeshi Miike and Takeshi Kitano.

  • James Franco To Tell The Untold Story Of ‘The Room’

    James Franco To Tell The Untold Story Of ‘The Room’

    James Franco, in his latest directorial project, will be working on a movie based on the creation of Tommy Wiseau’s movie The Room. In addition to directing The Disaster Artist, based off the bestselling book of the same title by Greg Sestero, Franco will be starring as Tommy Wiseau. His brother, Dave Franco, will co-star as Greg Sestero.

    Anyone who loves hating on terrible B-movies knows about The Room and its wonderful badness. Directed, written, produced, and starring Tommy Wiseau, the movie’s infamy has spread to insane proportions. The movie’s cringeworthiness has placed it at the top of many lists of so-bad-its-good movies. Tommy Wiseau produced the film with his own money, the source of which is fairly unknown – although he has made it this long without needing a tax fraud attorney. With unrealistic dialogue, continuity issues, and a general sense of confusion, you can only imagine what the process for creating the film must have been like.

    For those who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing The Room, the basic plot revolves around Johnny, a successful banker who has an ideal life. He has a beautiful fiancée, Lisa, and a great best friend, Mark. However, Lisa cheats on Johnny with Mark and things become a little confusing after that. There are also a lot of random games of catch, as well as many attempted plot lines that quickly get ignored for the remainder of the film. When it comes to bad movies, The Room is a masterpiece.

    James Franco, meanwhile, has received much acclaim for his work as both an actor and director. From his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in 127 Hours to his comedic works like Pineapple Express and This is the End, Franco is as diverse as they come. So what happens when one of the world’s worst movies and an acclaimed actor combine?

    Greg Sestero, who played Mark in The Room, wrote his memoir The Disaster Artist to share with the whole world just what went into making one of the worst films ever made. James Franco’s production company, Rabbit Bandini Productions, and Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Productions, will be co-producing an adaptation of Sestero’s novel. Though filming won’t start for another year, there has already been plenty of prep work done for the film.

    The movie will most likely follow the storyline in the memoir, allowing fans of The Room to get another look at the “genius” behind the film. The chapters alternate between filming The Room and the budding friendship between Tommy and Sestero, and will detail the many trials faced during the filming of The Room. These include Tommy’s inability to remember the lines that he wrote, the crew attempting to explain the continuity errors in the script to Tommy, and the aforementioned director throwing water bottles at some of the many actresses who were cast as Lisa. Believe me when I say that’s barely skimming the surface.

    James Franco is definitely an interesting choice for Tommy Wiseau – there isn’t much resemblance between the two of them – but when Franco sinks his teeth into something, it’s usually a good sign.

    One last surprise: Wiseau is involved in the production of The Disaster Artist. Apparently, he lives up to his reputation, as James Franco says that working with him is “everything you’d expect.” If you’ve read the book, you can understand why he’s reluctant to let Wiseau get too involved in the project. If you haven’t, just wait until you see the movie. All will be clear then.