James Franco - ANIMAL MY SOUL

Tag Archive: James Franco

Making The Room – when the truth is funnier than fiction

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March 7, 2018

THE DISASTER ARTIST directed by James Franco (USA, 2017)

Forget about Grinding Nemo and Gary ‘Winston’ Oldman, the Oscar statuettes this year should have gone to ‘The Disaster Artist’ and James Franco respectively.

Of course, neither were even in contention due to the serious allegations of sexual impropriety hanging over Franco but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a brilliant and hilarious movie.

Franco’s full-blooded star turn as failed actor and wannabe movie star Tommy Wiseau is compelling from start to finish. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much in the cinema. Continue reading →

Tags: James Franco, Robert Smith, Sean Penn, The Disaster Artist, The Oscars 2018, The Room, Tommy Wiseau

127 HOURS OF HEAVY ROCK

Filed under: Movies, Music — Leave a comment

February 24, 2011

127_hours_poster Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is based on Aron Ralston’s autobiography, Between A Rock And A Hard Place, and dramatically re-enacts the five days he endured trapped by a boulder in Blue John Canyon, Utah and his amazing escape (minus one limb).

I was braced for some gory scenes after reading of people fainting during the screening of this movie. In the event, I found the climatic scene to be fairly mild. Unlike splatter films, most of the horror is left to your imagination. I can only think those who passed-out were psyched-up beforehand just thinking about what it must take to cut off your arm with a blunt knife.

It is not giving away anything by saying this is what happens at the end of the movie; the drama is not built on suspense. Boyle describes it well as “an action movie with a guy who cannot move” and his movie gives some idea of being inside Aron ‘s head during this ordeal.

It’s hard to imagine there are many with the kind of mindset and survival skills that would enable them to survive in the way Aron did. Some clue as to the type of guy we are dealing with comes from an NBC interview he gave in which he was asked whether he had shouted for help. He replied that he had yelled a few times but added that he didn’t do it much because he knew there was very little hope that anyone would hear him and because “I didn’t like the sound of my voice – it sounded panicked; it sounded scared”.

Remember this is someone in a life or death situation, with the odds stacked in the grim reaper’s favour. If you can’t feel scared in this situation, when can you? Continue reading →