Movie Review: MAN OF STEEL

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Forget the cheesy characters and the soap-operish plot of Smallville, forget the embarassing fourth installment starring the legendary Christopher Reeve in 1987, and forget the lame reboot directed by Brian Singer. The man of steel is back, darker, grittier and much cooler. Zack Snyder took the reins of this project after many names went down the drain, and the result is a massive, epic and glorious representation of the man of steel’s origins and troubles while growing up and integrating on Earth.
In slightly more than two hours Zack Snyder manages to cram brilliant expository and illustrative sequences as well as stunning and magnificient visuals, but the fulcrum of the whole story is always him, Kal-El aka Clark Kent, lost, introspective, always asking questions about himself and in constant soul searching. His character drives the entire movie as well as his doubts, his fights and the always challenging matter of coexistence.
The black and grey palette that makes everything and everyone look menacing, Supes included, is contaminated by moments of sheer visual joy during surreal and oneiric sequences as well as by poignant details highlighted by the expert camera work and the nuanced cinematography.
Any label for this movie would be redundant, yes it’s a superhero movie, yes it’s an action movie, yest it’s a disaster movie, yes it’s a drama, yes it’s a fantasy and adventure flick. But The Man of Steel is no Avengers. There is no comic relief, there are no bright colors, there is no fun, there is no Lex Luthor (just a brief Lexcorp sign on a truck), there is no kriptonite and there are no superfluous details. The Man of Steel punches you very hard and directly in the stomach, the set-pieces are huge and the destruction sequences are like anything I’ve seen before. Zack Snyder’s expertise and sensibility are pivotal to the look of the whole movie. A simple scene of Superman and Lois Lane in a desert looks simply beatiful and incredibly wide in a Win Wenders kinda way, as well as some other delicate shots that remind of Terrence Malick’s refined vision.
Zack Snyder is no rookie and thanks to the support of Christopher Nolan and fellow writer David Goyer, The Man of Steel has raised the bar of the superhero movies. Henry Cavill seems like he was born to be Superman, dark hair, blue eyes and super-ripped, as well as Russell Crowe, surprisingly convincing in the role of Jor-El. Michael Shannon did not fall into the trap of imitating Terence Stamp and therefore there is no Kneel to Zod quote, but his General Zod does not fear any comparison and he nails a striking performance. Also Kevin Costner and Diane Lane add subtlety and sensitivity to the familiar side of the man from Kripton.
Metropolis and Smallville will need some serious rebuilding and restoration, but we will surely be seeing more Superman soon.

 

 

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Videoplugger @NATPE 2013

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Next week this exciting trade fair is taking place in Budapest from 24-27th of June.

We are represented at the fair by CEO Emanuele Galloni and senior sales manager Gergely Lakatos who is originally from Hungary so he will feel very at home.

Formerly it was known as DISCOP EAST, NATPE Budapest is the European branch of the highly successful international content market which was held in January this year in MIAMI BEACH.
The slightly obscure acronym stands for “National Association of Television Program Executives”.
Originally it was solely for Television content, remodeled in 2003 by its former CEO Nick Feldman to now include broadcast and cable, domestic and international – also providing a place for new media seeking programming.
The Budapest market focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, bringing key buyers and sellers together at this market in their own back yard.

Sources: The Hollywood reporter, www.natpebudapest.com

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Au Revoir Margot!

For the rather sad occasion that we have to say au revoir to our collegau Margot Di Domenico Lassalle who will be leaving us for other adventures on the other side of the pond, we had a lovely lunch in the Forest Hill eaterie Question Bar.
we wish you all the best for the future Margot and good luck!
Ire_lea_Mon ebba_margot theboyz matteoNatalieDerya LunchatQuestionBar Margot+girls

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Fast & Furious 6

Director: Justin Lin
Stars: Vin Diesel, , Dwayne Johnson

 fast_and_furious_6_trailer

Any movie that is a sixquel cannot be good. Can it?
The fifth installment of the F&F saga was the best one to date and the one to beat as far as crashed cars, fresh narrative, unexpected twists and massive set pieces. After having torn to pieces Rio de Janeiro and fled with a considerable amount of money, our gang of heroes is now on a hiatus chilling and enjoying life. Only problem is that another group of criminal doppelgangers is threatening the world peace by trying to build some macguffin that could destroy yadayadayada. Fast5 newcomer federal agent Hobbs (The Rock) and bad-ass female sidekick Riley (Gina Carano) go on a hunt to find Toretto & Co. and convince them to locate and cripple the new kids on the block’s plans together.
This sixth episode sees the anticipated return of Toretto’s ex-flame Letty, only as an (half) amnesiac, but still able to flawlessly drive and remember how to call her ex by his nickname Dom, and also the rest of the gang that we met in the fifth and previous chapters. The plot becomes immediately secondary, obscured to oblivion by the magnificence and the imperiousness of the action sequences, and the banter of Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris and The Rock is just an interlude between fights, car chases, crashes, shootings, explosions, gearstick changing and pedal-to-the-metal quick shots.
Vin Diesel does not make any effort to act, mumbling and uttering lines with confidence and a slight arrogance, whereas Paul Walker lets his blue eyes do the talking. New entry Gina Carano is tough enough to compete with all that testosterone and her underground fight with Letty is one of the best one-on-one face offs of the movie. Luke Evans is also a super cool villain living to excess and beguiling Toretto’s gang and everybody else into doing whatever he wants, and it’s too bad his character does not get more screen time and a deeper analysis. Dwayne Johnson earned his second outing after FF5 thanks to his sturdy charisma, and it’s his relationship with Toretto that fuels these last two movies, going from mutual hatred to begrudging approval – and he gets to show off some wrestling moves too.
Unfortunately the trailer gives away some of the best bits, leaving just a handful of twists that don’t surprise much after all, like when somebody randomly says that they want to retire and go away to settle down and grow old together, but history of cinema already taught us what happens after that. Fast and Furious Six is everything everybody expected and even more, pushing the envelope and going further and further as far as incredible stunts and drives, and when Toretto ends the tank scene without a scratch I thought that what I saw was a figment of my imagination. Street races and car-related moments don’t have much space in a plot that’s mostly about saving the world, fights and one-liners, but hopes are for the next chapter, predictably anticipated in the moments right before the end credits.
Like Vin Diesel said, the key word for FF6 is trust, but the word for FF7 will be forgiveness.
Ready. Steady. GO.
Ride or die.

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10th Focal International Awards Gala 2013

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Yesterday we had the honour to participate in the Focal International Awards Gala at the Lancaster Hotel Videoplugger being nominated in the category best footage library 2013. Getty Images won the category, we would like to congratulate them on their win. The jury said about Videoplugger that “Their multi-lingual set up and vast contact list means they can make fast and effective connections with TV stations and libraries well off the archive track”. And that “a more helpful and efficient service would be very hard to find.”

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Emanuele Galloni JBergsonGLakatos

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Videoplugger at the FootageMarketplace

Videoplugger invites buyers to come to their stand no 9 at this years networking place FootageMarketplace for buyers and researchers of library footage.

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FootageMarketplace2013

Buyers   are   invited   to   enjoy   the   relaxed   atmosphere   of   the 195 Piccadilly (the home of BAFTA), in which to talk, make new contacts, build relationships, expand networks, and do business, face-to-face and one-to-one, with international footage libraries.

  • Pre-register for complimentary entry
  • Enjoy a fabulous five star free buffet lunch.
  • Meet top international footage libraries with specialist collections
  • Discuss licencing, view screenings and acquire new content.
  • Network in the comfort of  195  Piccadilly (the home of BAFTA) at the heart of London’s West End
  • View the latest footage collections.
  • Talk with fellow researchers, editors, producers and visual content controllers.

Floor plan, list of stock footage libraries and their table number – click here register Here

http://www.videoplugger.com/about/news/

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ABCs of DEATH

Preview @ Prince Charles 18th of April, 2013 – In cinemas 26th of April

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Anthology movies are risky. The quality of the narrative and the effectiveness of the whole picture can suffer dangerous downs as well as enjoying intense ups, and ABCs of Death is not the exception to this rule.
26 shorts crammed into one single film, $5000 each, complete freedom of creativity given to the various directors, they go from 30 to 300 seconds and the 2-hour ride is one hell of a bloody roller-coaster. It is hard to pick the best ones, the most inspiring (and inspired), the most intense, the most gruesome, the most original, the worst or the silliest (well, F might as well be the one), all of the 26 shorts give something to shout for and each one of them will make you cringe and hold on to the chair very tightly.

Nacho Vigalondo opens the dances with A (for Apocalypse) and sets the mood for the rest to come, while the extremely oriental, weird and surreal Z (for Zetsumetsu) by Yoshihiro Nishimura closes the curtain. The highest bar for quality film-making is set by D (for Dogfight), directed with brutal precision and crude realism by Marcel Sarmiento, whereas the peak of gore and sickness is reached by L (for Libido), where Timo Tjahjanto portraits an onanistic and perverted death match dressed with a chainsaw topping, and by X (for XXL) where Xavier Gens’s talent and over-the-top twist help to sell the message of discomfort and inadequacy. Other notable letters are S (for Speed), directed by Jake West, an oneiric downward spiral into the darkness of addiction, P (for Pressure), where Simon Rumley displays his usual discreet and yet powerful touch to describe everyday struggle and drama, M (for Miscarriage), directed somewhat hastily by Ti West, but effective in its straightforward brutality, and U (for Unearthed), by Ben Wheatley, a POV rush whose immediacy and rawness will surely glue your eyes to the screen. Best artsy short is surely O (for Orgasm), by Bruno Forzani, a close-to-videoart concept yet visually astonishing and emphatically powerful.
Despite a few obvious shallow or not-so-original-nor-horror ideas, ABCs of Death succeeds in earning the tagline of Anthology to end all anthologies, allowing its directors to show off their best shots, or at least their best intentions.
Now repeat, A for Apocalypse, B for Bigfoot, C for Cycle, D for Dogfight, E for Exterminate….

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Inspector Nardone (Commissario Nardone) on True Movies 2

We watched Italian Inspector Nardone over the weekend on TRUE MOVIES 2  satellite television channel showcasing a unique mix of true to life films, classic series, dramas and mini-series.

This is a crime series set in the postwar period in Milan the center character is Inspector Mario Nardone based on an a real person. Directed by Fabrizio Costa a co production by Rai and Dap Italy from 2011.

He is portrayed by aspiring would-be heart throb Sergio Assisi.
The premise is wellknown to Italian crime aficionados, Nardone is the dare devil cop, who ruffles the feathers by disregarding unwritten rules and corrupt police. He is transferred from his hometown of Avelino in the poor southern Campania to a northern more modern Milan, because he went against his superiors. Continuing in Milan in his previous manner he becomes a successful Police Inspector clearing up petty crimes, but when his investigation starts un-earthing illegal deals involving one of the most powerful people in Milan his boss gets nervous…

It features beautiful women, maffioso, lots of smoking, good espresso and Sergio Assisis handsome face with what looks like eyeliner.

There is all you need to get your Italian crime fix of the day if you have watched and loved Inspector Montalbano on BBC 4, you will already be used to the sub titles and will surely find this interesting.
One slight is that its scheduled a bit late at 11pm at night, hopefully it will get the audience this classy true period crime series deserves. For all TV schedulers out there lets have more Italian crime on prime time TV, as it deserves.

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Videoplugger Shortlisted for the Focal Award 2013 Library of the Year.

Focal Award 2013Whop Whop!

We have many reasons to be cheerful these days and one of them is the shortlisting of Videoplugger as footage Library of the Year by  Focal International Awards 2013 “the leading and most complete set of awards for the archive footage business in the world.”

The 10th FOCAL International Awards Ceremony will be held on the 2nd of May in the prestigious Lancaster Hotel.

Wish us good luck we are in competition against the awesome Getty Images and the New Zealanders; NHNZ Moving Images.

We are so excited, and the fact we have been shortlisted is a great achievement and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our staff, clients and suppliers that makes our services worthy the FOCAL international award.

 

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ZERO DARK THIRTY

by Kathryn Bigelow
with Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt

When the final credits started to roll I was still flummoxed by the very last shot, probably the most meaningful and intense of the whole film. I was confused because after almost three hours, one single wordless shot made the entire movie different. It made it deep, dark, pessimistic, empty. The exact opposite of what had happened until then.

Maya is a CIA agent who has been working on Osama Bil Laden for the past 12 years of her life. She is the one pulling the strings together for the final hunt and after disappointments and deaths, the day has finally come.

Kathryn Bigelow goes back to the war genre after The Hurt Locker, but this time the controversy the movie created was enough for the marketing campaign. Real tortures, real truth, real events, real actions etc. the thing is that Zero Dark Thirty is not a documentary. Yes, it is based on first-hand documents, but at the end of the day it is a movie, it is fiction. It is shot in India, and not Pakistan, there are goofs, there are special effects, there are actors. What we should focus on is how good or bad the movie is.
The first half is hard to follow, a bit chaotic, many characters, names, jumps in time, but most of all there is no knowledge of any main figure. Jessica Chastain is very well cast, and her sharp face is suitable for a role that requires hard features as well as a tough character. Zero Dark Thirty is no Act of Valor, it’s not an action movie, it’s more about strategy, waiting, scheming and finally striking. The sequence of the final showdown is very well crafted, a suspenseful and expert mix of hand-held camera work, precise violence, subtle special effects and effective editing. 25 minutes everyone was waiting for, but definitely not worth all the hype. Half-disappointing and half-boring, Zero Dark Thirty deserves credit for its talented director and female protagonist, who both made it very raw, gritty and harsh, but the much hype, criticisms, and controversy elevated it higher than where it should be.

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