Dork Adore » Film

Attack The Block – Dork Preview

Nick Bryan — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:06:17 +0000

In upcoming movie Attack The Block, aliens are invading London. If they hit the Kent-ish suburbs where I lurk, they’d be able to march cheerily from house to house, licking stray people out of the back of their rooms.

Fortunately for the nacho/guacamole industry, they are hitting a South London council estate instead to thin out the hoodie population. So, tower block kids vs aliens: Who will win?

Off The Streets

Film titles like “Cowboys Vs Aliens”, “Monsters Vs Aliens” and “Zombies Vs Tories” have become commonplace of late, so we might be forgiven for thinking this is more of two bogeymen being pitted against each other. Estate kids may not be a standard movie fear-figure, but with the constant tabloid headline-mongering about their desire to steal our wallets and stab us in the living brain, they’re on the up and up.

And according to writer/director Joe Cornish, he’s using kids with a not-too-stagey realistic kinda background to get that authentic feel. Cornish, of course, is half of surreal comedy duo Adam & Joe, a pretty good pedigree to have. The movie also sports Nick Frost, as all British semi-serious genre movies should, getting a bit more use out of his Paul haircut.

It looks like this could be a good laugh, anyway, slightly more action-heavy than the Sean of the Dead/Hot Fuzz stable. It’s released on May 13th, there might even be a full review closer to the time. There’s more from Cornish in the recently released making of feature, embedded below, or there’s a proper trailer here.

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Streaming Services Round-Up – The Best In Free TV

Nick Bryan — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:00:27 +0000

Ever since DVD drives overtook CD drives and students began downloading Buffy illegally, people having using their computers to watch TV and movies. And the rise of legal online streaming sites has only pushed us further from our sofas.

Me writing about streaming services as if you don’t know about them would be the internet equivalent of approaching bin men to inform them about black plastic sacks. At this point, services like the BBC iPlayer are used by a huge percentage of the public, not just the geek elite (see BBC iPlayer hits 100 million monthly requests),

But there are a few lesser-known sites that offer unique features at no cost that I thought were worth bringing to everyone’s attention.

State-Sanctioned Viewing

The first online streaming service to take off big-style was the BBC iPlayer, innovated into existence by the BBC’s massive R&D budget (or “licence fee” if you prefer, which is a glaring advert for its existence). It’s become so popular that ISPs have complained about an increase in internet use.

And after the iPlayer took off, other channels were forced to follow suit. So in a relatively short space of time, we had 4 On Demand, Demand Five and the amusingly named ITVPlayer.

These were all rickety when they launched, in part due to the need to slot adverts into programmes. But nowadays, they offer a decent service. 4OD is particularly worth checking out for its range of free archive material. (All of Peep Show! The IT Crowd! Spaced!)

Underground Private Enterprise

Aside from the catch-up services offered by the channels themselves, there are independent websites offering a similar-yet-different range of shows for free. The biggest appear to be See-Saw and Blinkbox, both of which offer an eclectic range of older stuff, such as 90s lawyer-soap This Life or the downright freakish League Of Gentlemen. They have adverts inserted, but it’s survivable.

So it entails some surfing around, but there really ought to be something to watch. If you’re willing to pay a little cash, both those sites are willing to give you an even wider range. Blinkbox hosts a range of streaming movies too, again priced from zero pence upwards, and Indie Movies Online has still more, although perhaps not a lot you’ll have heard of.

Lastly, if your TV explodes, or someone else has nabbed the living room to watch rubbish, TV Catchup provides live streams of all the freeview channels. And if you poke around, many of the channels’ own catch-up utilities provide that service as well.

Anyway, that’s enough to keep me busy. If I’ve missed any big names in entertainment-streaming, do slip them into the comments.

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Vampires Suck – The Trailer Rises

Nick Bryan — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:00:40 +0000

In just over a month, Vampires Suck is released in the UK. From the school of cinema that brought us Epic Movie, Not Another Teen Movie and countless others, it attempts to mercilessly shred the Twilight movies. And other vampire cash-ins, but mostly Twilight.

In fact, if you’ve somehow managed to avoid any familiarity with the blood-sucking Pattinson juggernaut, you might struggle with this trailer. These people really hate sparkly vampires; it’s lucky they rushed it out quickly enough for Twilight references to seem relevant.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The Vampires

These movies already have a bad reputation for going for the cheap laugh, but Vampires Suck managed to attract further internet rage by out-earning geek darling Scott Pilgrim Vs The World at the US box office. Fortunately, Pilgrim made it out first over here, so there’s little risk of repetition.

Aside from that, it looks like a typical outing from the Hollywood self-parody factory, but there are a couple of good jokes in there. And it’s quite possible all the best bits are in the trailer, so checking it out below could save you the price of a cinema ticket.

Or am I being needlessly harsh? If you love these films, tell me off in the comments below.

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Free Despicable Me minion amigurumi crochet pattern

Emma Cossey — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:55:44 +0000

This autumn brings another 3D animated extravaganza with Despicable Me, a movie about a supervillian (Gru, voiced by Steve Carell) who hopes to pull off a heist involving the moon. The only thing that stands in his way? Three little orphan girls who wish to adopt him as their new dad.

Gru has an entire army of minions, who resemble this cute little fella on the right. Looks like a baby version of Beaker from The Muppets to me.

Despite the fact that the film has only just been released in the US and won’t be released here until October, WolfDreamer has already been able to create an amigurumi of the quirky character, and provide a free pattern for those of you who want to recreate him.

Want to see the character in action? Here’s a short trailer from the upcoming animation.

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At the premiere of The Expendables

Emma Cossey — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:06:41 +0000

Movies don’t come much more star-packed than the upcoming action movie The Expendables. With a cast including Sylvester Stallone (who also directs) Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, it’s likely to be a huge box office hit.

Particularly for those of us who remember the stars before various questionable cosmetic surgery procedures…

The film tells the story of a group of mercenaries hired to infiltrate a South American country and overthrow its ruthless dictator. However, the men soon realise things are not quite as they seem.

Last night saw the UK premiere of the movie, and many of the stars were interviewed on the red carpet.

Want to know what they had to say on the movie and filming process? Check out the video below.

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Toy Story 3: Dork Review

Nick Bryan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:25:25 +0000

After eleven years, Toy Story returns! Of course, the original films were fantastic, genuine modern classics. Not only that, they launched the current era of animated movies, by proving that computer-generated characters had feelings too. So a little bit of pressure existed on Pixar for this one.

Fortunately, it is great. I mean, it really is. Much like that Inception review the other week, I’d have to really desire notoriety to give Toy Story 3 a bad write-up. It joins a relatively elite club of second sequels that have kept up the quality, especially in recent years when “third film” has too often been synonymous with “hernia-like bolted on growth”.

Toying with our emotions

Since its release, Toy Story 3 has swiftly gained a reputation first for being excellent, and second for being very sad. As Doctor Who’s David Tennant years proved, one way for a children’s story to appeal to adults is the causing of an emotional breakdown. It teeters on the edge of being mawkish, but this is a Disney film after all. I’m not going to spoil anything, but it might be wise to see this film in 3D so the fake plastic sunglasses can hide your tears.

Since I mention it, I did see this film in 3D. I’m aware there is a rising backlash against it, annoyingly timed to clash with my piece on 3D television, but it doesn’t intrude on the experience here and at times looks very impressive indeed. In my limited experience, 3D looks a little better on these animated movies than live action. Sorry Avatar, I know you spent all that money.

Part of a limited series

Despite the intervening decade-plus, what’s most impressive is the sense that Toy Story just hasn’t skipped a beat. The characters are exactly as we remember from our idyllic childhoods, although time has passed for them as it has for us. But even if you didn’t re-watch the first two in preparation like I did, I think it would be all too easy to slip back into it.

I know I’ve now gushed away merrily for 300+ words, but a large part of me still hopes that this is the end. Because this is an almost perfect trilogy and I’d hate to see it ruined. But, cleverly, the ending of this film could serve as either a final conclusion or a springboard for a fourth. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

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Facebook: The Social Network movie trailer

Katie — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:00:34 +0000

If you haven’t seen it already, the latest teaser trailer for the Facebook movie, The Social Network, is now online.

If you use a Lost Boys-style cover of Creep by Radiohead and you flash up some dramatic looking scenes, I’m always going to be impressed. But despite that, it’s got plenty of potential to be a great film — murder, intrigue and geekery. OK, maybe not murder, but plenty of geekery.

The film is out in October in the US. It’s directed by David Fincher of Zodiac, Se7en and The Curios Case of Benjamin Button fame, with Jesse Eisenberg from Zombieland as Mark Zuckerberg. Surely a perfect piece of casting?

So, Revenge of the Nerds 2.0?

Check out the trailer overleaf.

The Social Network Movie official site

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Dork Adore » Film

Attack The Block – Dork Preview

Off The Streets

More stories like this

Streaming Services Round-Up – The Best In Free TV

State-Sanctioned Viewing

Underground Private Enterprise

Anyway, that’s enough to keep me busy. If I’ve missed any big names in entertainment-streaming, do slip them into the comments.

More stories like this

Vampires Suck – The Trailer Rises

Scott Pilgrim Vs The Vampires

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Free Despicable Me minion amigurumi crochet pattern

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At the premiere of The Expendables

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Toy Story 3: Dork Review

Toying with our emotions

Part of a limited series

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Facebook: The Social Network movie trailer

So, Revenge of the Nerds 2.0?

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