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Nice Visual, Shame About The Plot

Uploaded to MoviePilot August 14th 2017

In 1982 there was a BBC sketch comedy series called Not The Nine O’Clock News that starred Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. In their fourth series the opening episode contained a song parody of what was, at the time, the current attitude towards music videos. It was called Nice Video, Shame About The Song.

The idea of the song is fairly basic, at the time more money was spent on amazing looking video clips than on making sure the song actually worked on its own. It also became a bit of a catchphrase, a shorthand way of describing a piece of media that relies too much on visuals and forgets the other elements of visual storytelling. Let’s explore a few examples of films where it really was a nice video, shame about the song.

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leebutler Uncategorized

5 Fascinating Documentaries That You Might Have Missed

Uploaded to MoviePilot August 8th 2017

Who doesn’t love going on a good documentary binge? We’ve all had that craving, those nights when we want to put on a movie that explores something going on in the real world. Bowling for Columbine, Super Size Me, Blackfish and March of the Penguins are just a few examples of iconic documentaries that you’ve likely seen or at least have heard of.

So, the question is: What can you watch after an hour and a half of Michael Moore lecturing you about the NRA? Or, how about when you’ve watched two hours of a killer whale documentary that’ll make you hate Sea World forever? Luckily for you, I have just the thing — a list of five documentaries that might have flown under your radar.

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leebutler Uncategorized

Gone Too Soon: An Analysis Of ‘Toxic Crusaders’

Uploaded to MoviePilot on August 7th

A short written series I did about cancelled shows, there are a few others and I probably won’t bring these back but… who knows?

One of my personal obsessions is short, cancelled TV series. It’s a fascination I’ve had for years, shows that were on TV for one or two seasons before getting pulled off the air, never to be seen again. I’d, therefore, like to welcome you all to the first instalment of “Gone Too Soon”, where I am going to talk about cancelled TV series that were cancelled after one or two seasons. I will be exploring what worked, what didn’t work and why it might have failed to get an audience. But before we start, THEME MUSIC!

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leebutler Uncategorized

The Greatest Show Ever: ‘American Vandal’ Trailer Drops

Uploaded to MoviePilot on August 4th

Netflix has done it again. Proving to the world why they are the masters of their domain. The list of their hit shows just keeps pounding away, slapping us in the face with their awesomeness. The latest addition to this cavalcade of creativity is American Vandal, a show about a young boy who has been accused of the most heinous of crimes… drawing meter long king kong dongs everywhere!

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leebutler Uncategorized

‘Atomic Blonde’ And Stylistic Consistency

Uploaded to MoviePilot August 3rd 2017

One joke added in a caption due to events that happened since this article was originally printed.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Atomic Blonde]

When making a film, one of the key things that the film makers decide is what the visual tone of the movie will be. This is essential in every film but it’s particularly important when doing an adaptation as the style of the movie should correspond to the style of the book that it’s being adapted from. It also needs to have a style that is consistent within the film itself. If you’re watching Captain America and suddenly the entire tone of the film changes from something out of Marvel Avengers to something out of Marvel Zombies, you’d notice and be instantly put off the main story. A sudden change in tone or a random stylistic choice can be detrimental to a movie.

Atomic Blonde has this problem. Stylistic choices happen randomly that don’t really make sense within the context of the two-hour film that we’re being presented with and I want to talk about those choices, but I need to make something clear. I enjoyed this movie. I think it’s a good, fun action film and you should probably give it a look, but the element of stylistic inconsistency that ran throughout this movie is something that I need to talk about it.

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Suddenly Olaf? Casting Rumors for ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ Remake

Uploaded to MoviePilot on July 31st 2017

Little Shop Of Horrors is a beloved 1986 film based on the hit off-Broadway play of the same name. Now it looks like Warner Bros might be moving ahead with a remake of Little Shop, with rumours of who could take on the two lead roles starting to circulate.

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leebutler Uncategorized

‘War For The Planet Of The Apes’ Review: Damn Dirty CGI Apes

Uploaded to MoviePilot on 28th July

This is in a style I attempted for MoviePilot briefly when I thought I could put reviews on there… they weren’t a review place, this was me being dumb. Also, this style isn’t one I like, but I’m keeping this for reference purposes. Oh, and yes this is why I didn’t review War For The Planet Of The Apes before now. 

The modern-day Planet Of The Apes franchise has garnered a rather impressive reaction, especially when compared to the Tim Burton attempt at the franchise. Both Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes got really high praise, something that many found stunning considering that a lot of us still were getting over that 2001 version. So, here we are, the third movie in the series and it has a lot to live up to.

How did it handle the high bar that the two previous films set? Let’s figure that out.

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’31’ Review: Rob Zombie Let Loose

Uploaded to MoviePilot on 27th July

This is in a style I attempted for MoviePilot briefly when I thought I could put reviews on there… they weren’t a review place, this was me being dumb. Also, this style isn’t one I like, but I’m keeping this for reference purposes. 

Rob Zombie has something of a reputation in the horror genre. Some love him, some hate him, some change their opinion about him from film to film. I’ve personally always been relatively indifferent to his work. I found House Of 1000 Corpses to be an interesting throwback picture and thought Devils Rejects was really good for the majority of the runtime, but everything else he’s made hasn’t really sat well with me. Especially his remakes of Halloween which, in my humble opinion, are possibly some of the worst of the horror remakes. So I had some trepidation going into his 2016 movie 31, a movie that he made using funding from his fans because it was apparently too extreme for the studios.

Let’s see if he used his chance to break free from the studio system to his advantage.

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From ‘Hairspray’ To ‘Pink Flamingos’: A Beginners Guide To John Waters

Uploaded to MoviePilot July 24th 2017

45 years ago a little film made by a group of renegade movie lovers was released into cinemas and the world hasn’t been the same since. It was shocking. It was appalling. It was one of the most disgusting movies to ever be put into cinemas… and I love it.

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