Posts Tagged ‘Saw VI’

Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese

It was announced today that director Martin Scorsese will be the recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for his outstanding contributions to the field of entertainment at the 67th annual Golden Globes on January 17th. He joins a list of fellow recipients that includes the likes of fellow director Steven Spielberg, Warren Beaty, and Anthony Hopkins.

Source: Variety

In Other News…

Vice chairman of Lionsgate Michael Burns has officially announced plans to make a Saw 7, which will reportedly be shot in 3-D. The news comes shortly after Saw VI concluded a relatively unsuccessful box-office run (making less than $23 million), even though it landed Lionsgate in the black.

“As long as we make money on it we’ll keep doing this,” Burns said, pointing out that such franchises tend to have a long shelf life across different platforms. “Dirty Dancing,” he pointed out, still sells 2,000 DVDs a day for the company, and that’s after 20 years. – The Hollywood Reporter

[The rest of this full article also details Lionsgate's plans to push other brands under its control, such as the critically acclaimed Precious and various Tyler Perry projects.]

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

While in keeping an eye on the world of film criticism, a new assessor managed to stand out. Christopher Monfette (of IGN.com) wrote a particularly well-crafted review of Where the Wild Things Are in that he was able to deftly articulate his personal observations whilst using material from the movie to explain and support his perspective. Now, such achievements ought not to be considered great. On the contrary, reaching such a level of writing should be considered merely a fulfillment in competence. However being that the number of online movie reviewers who actually display evidence of an education seems to decrease by the day, I must insist on congratulating members of this guild.

Clarity is not the only notable attribute concerning Monfette’s writing. His articulation, which is something that goes beyond simply choosing the right syntax and word choice, is able to reveal deeper elements of the film by only referring to the surface values of his citations. This allows him to avoid giving spoilers and still provide a tangible viewpoint based on clear reasoning. Having the ability to accomplish this is impressive. The thing to watch from now on, though, is if he is able to write and review at such a level consistently. To judge for yourselves on whether or not he seems capable of this I invite you to also read his review of Saw VI.

Monfette’s experience seems limited (he has only a couple dozen published reviews) and I failed to find any kind of biography, but as things stand now I would consider him to be a critic to watch. It should be fun tracking his career, especially if it continues to rise.

Cliff:

Answering this question is not as easy as it might seem. For starters, I would like to make clear that I am a supporter of torture films (or what many people incorrectly call “torture porn”) as a subgenre of horror cinema, for reasons that can be best understood by reading my essay on the topic. In short, however, I would claim that torture films can be considered artistic, and thus if a torture film’s artistic merit can be defended then it is justifiable insofar that it is a valid cultural artifact. Not all torture films can be sufficiently defended, but the possibility is there nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: More contemporary than usual, while still unusual

Director: Kevin Greutert

Screenwriters: Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Saw IV, Saw V)

Cast: Tobin Bell (Saw), Costas Mandylor, Mark Rolston, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith

Length: 1h 30m

Synopsis: The maniacal Jigsaw (Bell) has long since been dead, but his “games” continue to be played. The next main target is a health insurance executive (Rolston) who has denied coverage to persons in need of it, resulting in their deaths. The man carrying on Jigsaw’s work, detective Hoffman (Mandylor), forces the exec to come to terms with what he’s done. The goal of his games remains the same as all the others: to test a person’s will to live. Read the rest of this entry »