The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Review: 'The Eagle' Marred By Humorless Melodrama & A Silly Bromance

By Drew Taylor
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February 10, 2011 5:27 AM
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Helluva Chase Though...While mildly engaging initially, but soon marred by cliches, all-to-familiar and humorless swords and sandals tropes, a barrage of mixed accents (including puzzling Brooklyn ones), and the unintentional bromance comedy of two warring leads turned bffs by the end of the picture, Kevin Macdonald's "The Eagle" fails to deliver anything we haven't seen from the Roman soldiers/bros. on-the-run genre.

By Drew Taylor
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February 9, 2011 5:51 AM
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Scottish Director Also Talks Harvey Weinstein, The Similarities To 'Centurion,' & Why Nobody Gave A Shit About 'State Of Play'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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February 2, 2011 9:46 AM
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It's been a long, messy road for the developing, and highly anticipated Bob Marley documentary "Marley" to see the light of day. Martin Scorsese was originally working on the documentary for the Weinstein Company way back in 2008, although he swiftly bowed out, and was then replaced by Jonathan Demme. The project then came to a standstill when Demme left the project after he and producer Steve Bing didn't see eye to eye on the film during the first rounds of editing, although, Demme did tell us he was proud of the work he had done on the film.

By Simon Dang
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January 10, 2011 3:25 AM
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1 Comment

Plus Two Television Spots From The FilmWith its release finally around the corner after being pushed back from a previously scheduled September bow, a batch of new photos and television spots have been unveiled for Kevin Macdonald's Roman epic "The Eagle" including new looks at Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell and Tahar Rahim as well as a first look at Mark Strong.

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 6, 2011 2:29 AM
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With his big budget medieval pic "The Eagle" set to debut next month, it's easy to forget that director Kevin Macdonald got his start in documentary film, with the excellent "Kindertransport," "One Day In September" and "Touching the Void" under his belt. Earlier this summer it was revealed he was teaming with Ridley Scott's Scott Free production company on a rather ambitious project, "Life In A Day." The idea was simple if somewhat of a logistical challenge: On July 24th YouTube users uploaded footage from around with the idea of telling future generations of what life was like on the planet on that single day. Against All Odds Productions joined the production to make sure that cameras were provided in even the remotest areas of the Earth and the result was 4500 hours of footage from 192 countries. We weep for the editors.