Second Skin Trailer

It looks great. I can’t wait to see it.

Guy Pearce signs on for The Road

From Moviehole: “Australian duo Guy Pearce and Kodi Smit-McPhee (“Romulus, My Father”) have joined the cast of “The Road” based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.

Bloody Disgusting hears that Robert Duvall may also be part of the cast.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food–and each other.”

I read the book last year and it was fantastic. Though I’m not exactly sure how well the story will translate to the screen, I am still very excited to see how they approach it. The cast they’ve selected including Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, and now Guy Pearce seems very promising. With the possible addition of Robert Duvall, this movie looks to be awesome no matter how they approach the story.

In Bruges

In Bruges was not the typical mainstream crime comedy I expected. The film surpassed, by far, anything I expected of it. Not only was it hysterically funny, it was also very dark and emotional, touching on subjects such as murder and suicide. In 2004 Martin McDonagh wrote and directed a short called Six Shooter that was well recieved for its over the top dark humor and witty script. In Bruges displays that this success was not just a fluke.

Colin Farrell, is finally given a chance to act in this one. In what I think is one of his greatest performances, he plays Ray, a London hitman who is sent to hide out in the Belgian city of Bruges after a horribly botched job. As his accompanying mentor and partner, Ken, Brendan Gleason gives a fantastic performance as usual. The first act of the film is almost entirely driven by quick, witty back and forth dialogue between Ray and Ken, in which Ray makes it clear that he is not happy to be in the medieval city of Bruges and Ken assaults him with historic facts about the city. Ray is finally given some relief when he meets Chloë on the set of an art film. Chloë played by French actress Clémence Poésy may have some dark secrets of her own. The depth of insight that we are given into the characters early on in the film sets us up for an emotional ride as the story begins to twist and turn its way into a full blown action film. These twists and turns are set in to motion when Ken and Ray recieve an expletive ridden telegram from their boss, Harry, played by the fantastic Ralph Fiennes, and an equally hilarious and vulgar phone conversation between Ken and Harry.

Farrell is given a lot room to work in this film, he’s given room to not only play Ray as the complaining loudmouth we’re introduced to, but a real human, frought with real human grief and human emotion over is actions in the recent past. We see that the character is human as he tries to cover his grief by complaing and chasing women.

For fans of the gangster comedies of Guy Ritchie or the dialogue heavy and violent Tarantino crime movies, this is a must see. With one of the most original approaches to the genre I have seen in a long time, Martin McDonagh has presented an instant classic in my mind. I will see it again when the opportunity presents itself, and I reccomend the same for anyone else.

Originally posted here.