Dick Smith: RIP

The legend that is Dick Smith: makeup FX artist has died. One of the truly great visual artists in cinema history. You'll probably have noticed his work most overtly when he transformed rosy-cheeked thirteen-year-old Linda Blair into the devil him/her/itself in The Exorcist. However, I would point you also to his Oscar winning work turning F. Murray Abraham into the decrepit, elderly Salieri for Amadeus. A feat of makeup ageing that still, thirty years on, no CGI has yet to equal.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Not so much a movie, as an exquisite, miraculous mechanical automaton from a delicate, half-forgotten age. Insubstantial and inconsequential, yet for all that, somehow rather delightful.

Rating: 3/5

The Raid 2 (2014)

The Raid 2: A Review:

10: PRINT "pain"
20: GOTO 10
RUN

Rating: 3/5

How to fail an Audition.

Sigh. Another week, another terrible money-grabbing pointless remake idea, signalling another impending case of forever more having to say, in place of "Have you seen Audition? It's really smart / interesting / moving / terrifying (delete as applicable)" saying instead "Have you seen Audition? No not that steaming pile of inept, derivative flatulence directed by Brett Ratner / Eli Roth / Rob Zombie (delete as... on second thoughts, just delete all)".

Audition Remake Planned (Empire Online).

I've ranted written at some length previously about my issues regarding remakes, especially of non-English language movies. You can find that article here.

Apocalypse Now... and Again.

Great news. Pacific Rim 2 is confirmed. Reports of it being made according to Dogme 95 rules still TBC.