Nasty Little Thing Productions: Doom stuff, Man on Fire

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Doom stuff, Man on Fire

"Here's the great thing about Doom... It's rated 'R', it's unapologetic, just like the video game..."

I was very relieved to see the above quote from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in this interview about the upcoming Doom movie from Universal Pictures. JoBlo, Arrow and Doomworld reported the arrival of the first actual picture from the Doom movie, which I must say looks pretty good. Has a sort of Aliens-feel to it, in my opinion. The movie is going to be directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 the Grave), and is written by Dave Callaham and Wesley Strick. The effects are by Stan Winston Studios. Well, I am optimistic about this movie and I hope it turns out to be a fun experience.

Oh and that Rock interview linked above also has some info on the Johnny Bravo movie, which he is starring in! I love the Bravo cartoons, but I'm not sure how a movie adaptation will turn out.

JoBlo also reported about the final poster for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which is also really good-looking. It is painted by Drew Struzan. I remember observing the name "drew" on all the Star Wars posters (subsequent to 1997), the Back to the Future posters, the Police Academy posters and several others, and I've always wondered who the person was. Now I know. BTW: I LOVE the artwork he has done.

I watched Man on Fire last night. A WARNING for those of you who are considering buying the VCD released by Excel Home Videos in India: this version REMOVES ALL ON-SCREEN TEXT from the movie — so there are no opening credits, and, get this — no subtitles! For a movie that has a lot of dialogue in Spanish, this means that a substantial part is missing from this version. Also, director Tony Scott uses on-screen text to emphasise dialogue, and that is also missing in this version. His BMW Films short Beat the Devil is an example of this technique in action, and I was eager to see it in Man on Fire. Sadly I was disappointed.

Anyway, I liked the movie, it was brilliantly acted, and I loved the relationship portrayed between the characters played by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in the movie. Tony Scott gives this movie a very stylised (sometimes excessively so) look, utilising lots of camera tricks. Some might find this over-use of style annoying, but I kind of like it, and after viewing Beat the Devil some five times, it has grown on me.