Ridley Scott's The Counselor: "worst ever made"?

Ridley Scott's new film The Counselor has opened in the States to some of the most negative reviews of the director's career. The drug trafficking thriller, penned by renowned author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road), baffled and bored critics, even prompting one -- Salon's Andrew O'Hehir -- to deem it the "worst movie ever made". Despite a star-studded cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt, audiences didn't go for it either, leaving the film with a miserable box office opening that's also one of Scott's worst. The Counselor opens in NZ on November 7.

Friday Clips #9

Here's another round of fun/interesting/odd/miscellaneous clips for your Friday viewing pleasure...

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Fateful Findings - this extremely bizarre film is being groomed to the "the next cult classic" along the lines of Tommy Wiseau's The Room.

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Blade Runner re-imagined as a classic black-and-white noir:

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The team at Bad Lip Reading takes on Game of Thrones:

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The honest truth about Pacific Rim:

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Star-studded "Let It Be" music video - I'm not sure what the heck this is or what it's for, but it plays like a hilarious purgatory for washed-up celebs from the '80s and '90s:

Trailer: Non-Stop

See what happens when you put Liam Neeson on a plane? Non-Stop re-teams the 61-year-old Taken star with his Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra for a mid-air mishmash of anonymous text messages, ransom demands, passengers getting knocked off and Neeson getting framed for all of the above. The trailer doesn't really leave much to the imagination, and the story feels stitched from a bunch of other terror-in-the-skies-type thrillers, but damn if I don't want to see Neeson kick up a storm at 40,000 ft!

Step into Will Smith's Penthouse-on-Wheels

If you can pony up US$2.5 million you might be able to chill like Will Smith in one of these monster motor homes. Two stories, 14 TVs, leather seats, a 100-inch screen, etc... this thing is insane and must be seen to be believed.

Don't Worry, It's Just a Cat

Cats: the source of all false terror. I'm sure there are way more examples but not a bad start, Vulture:

In Space No One Can Hear You Nitpick

Firstly if you haven't seen Alfonso Cuaron's spectacular Gravity yet, just set aside 90 minutes this week and buy a ticket to a 3-D screening at your nearest IMAX pronto. Reviews have been largely, universally positive (it's currently boasting an impressive 96 rating on Metacritic), and having seen the film, I can attest that it IS a big screen experience worth savouring. And not just any normal screen, but the biggest screen possible, hence the IMAX recommendation. I rarely go back for seconds at the movies these days -- heck I barely make it out to the theatres anymore -- but Gravity is one film that could justify another viewing. It's just that kind of film. 
Plenty have been written about Cuaron's gob-smacking technical achievements already so I won't go into detail, but for those who've seen the film and need some post-viewing reading, Vulture has a great interview with director Cuaron and former US astronaut Scott Parazynski, who fact-checks the film's space experience. Meanwhile, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson unleashed a barrage of tweets nitpicking the film's "realism". Trust me though, none of this will matter when you're watching it -- Gravity is one of the most beautifully immersive blockbusters ever created, and definitely the best of its kind released this year.

Quentin Tarantino's Top 10 Films of 2013... So Far

The Tarantino Archives have published the Django Unchained filmmaker's fave films of 2013 so far, and I have to say, it looks like the guy hasn't been eating his "cultural vegetables" lately. Again, as with recent years, it's a rather middle-of-the-road, American-centric bunch of films that speaks to QT's populist leanings rather than the cinematic eclecticism that's influenced his work. That's not to say there aren't any good films in there, but I always seem to expect something more adventurous from Tarantino...
 
1. Afternoon Delight
2. Before Midnight
3. Blue Jasmine
4. The Conjuring
5. Drinking Buddies
6. Frances Ha
7. Gravity
8. Kick Ass 2
9. The Lone Ranger
10. This is The End

Trailer: Escape from Tomorrow

I haven't been able to shake Escape from Tomorrow since seeing the trailer last week. Randy Moore's debut film is one unique beast. An impressive feat of guerilla filmmaking, this surrealistic horror flick was shot on location at Walt Disney World and Disneyland without any permission from Disney. After shooting - with a cast and crew who did their best to remain incognito - Moore apparently took the film to South Korea to edit it in secrecy just in case Disney caught wind of what he had done. So far it's screened at Sundance to positive reviews and Disney are "aware" of its existence, but no legal action has been taken. Click below to see Disneyland as if imagined by David Lynch (or something):