With the release of Danny Boyle's latest film -127 Hours- just a mere months away, here's a career retrospective via images and films that have defined his career. Boyle is no doubt a visual stylist & at his best -Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire- has a way to move us with the images he creates. At his worst -A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach- he still dares us to leap into his imaginative worlds where nothing is safe and everything appears to be deceiving. Is he overpraised? I say he's not. He just makes the best out of -very often- poorly written screenplays that should never take off but do because of his talent. Then again he -semi- fucked up The Beach, which was a great book but an underwhelming movie. Looking back at all these pictures again, I'm reminded of how much of a love/hate relationship I have with the guy. Boyle doesn't always tend to underline his films with much substance and instead resorts to building up visually amazing images that kind of try to hide the weakness of a plot or a screenplay. That happened with Slumdog Millionaire -and he succeeded quite well might I add.
This is slight Boyle and not at all mandatory viewing. As it is with all of his film Millions is visually stunning but has a kiddie storyline that never really takes off. Altough its leading boy is just a real charmer and I guess I kind of see what he was trying to do with this one. A failure in my books but not without its core group of fans.
Some would say A Life Less Ordinary is his worst film. I'm inclined to agree and disagree, considering there were a few things I liked about that said picture and that it was not as dreadful or bland as something like say Sunshine? which -don't get me wrong- has its fans but did not have me at hello. + this one has Cameron Diaz when she was actually still curvy and hot.
As close to a great zombie movie as we have had in the past 2 decades. 28 Days Later felt almost like a rebirth for Boyle after striking out with his last two efforts (A Life Less Ordinary & The Beach). It put Cillian murphy on the map and gave a kind of new twist to the Zombie genre- Boyle made zombies quicker and more alive than ever. My only complaint? a piss poor ending that gave in to Hollywood conventions and resorted to violence and bombs. Followed by a mediocre sequel, not directed by Boyle.
His best movie, bar none. Trainspotting is a relentless and unafraid assault in its frank depiction of low rent junkies. Yet I'm afraid that a film this rebellious and this gritty is never going to appear again in Boyle's CV. Then again I shouldn't complain, few filmmakers can actually claim to have a movie this good in their filmography. I just wish Boyle would resort to getting a great screenplay like this one and hit it out of the park like only he can. These days he's given in to the studios and produced some solid effort but there's nothing better than going low budget and using much more creative freedom.
Now if only he didn't fuck up the film above. Maybe he'd be getting some extra points & a bit of a better reputation. Then again, everybody has their own dud. Scorsese's New York, New York?
First things first. I was breathlessly entertained by Slumdog Millionaire, so much so that it ended up on my ten best list in 2008 (#5). However, one that loves this movie must also confess to giving in to its multiple plot holes and -at times- unrealistically Hollywood approach, which all culminates with a kind of fairy tale Bollywood style finale with vibrant song and dance. I dug it, but this isn't necessarily a film you should take too seriously.
You can check out the trailer for 127 Hours right HERE. It's a real doozy, even though they kind of push the whole Slumdog Millionaire image for quite a bit of time at its beginning, which is understandable considering there arent necesarilly any big names to market this film around and -NO- James Franco is not considered a big name, well maybe to the gay community.
This is slight Boyle and not at all mandatory viewing. As it is with all of his film Millions is visually stunning but has a kiddie storyline that never really takes off. Altough its leading boy is just a real charmer and I guess I kind of see what he was trying to do with this one. A failure in my books but not without its core group of fans.
Some would say A Life Less Ordinary is his worst film. I'm inclined to agree and disagree, considering there were a few things I liked about that said picture and that it was not as dreadful or bland as something like say Sunshine? which -don't get me wrong- has its fans but did not have me at hello. + this one has Cameron Diaz when she was actually still curvy and hot.
As close to a great zombie movie as we have had in the past 2 decades. 28 Days Later felt almost like a rebirth for Boyle after striking out with his last two efforts (A Life Less Ordinary & The Beach). It put Cillian murphy on the map and gave a kind of new twist to the Zombie genre- Boyle made zombies quicker and more alive than ever. My only complaint? a piss poor ending that gave in to Hollywood conventions and resorted to violence and bombs. Followed by a mediocre sequel, not directed by Boyle.
His best movie, bar none. Trainspotting is a relentless and unafraid assault in its frank depiction of low rent junkies. Yet I'm afraid that a film this rebellious and this gritty is never going to appear again in Boyle's CV. Then again I shouldn't complain, few filmmakers can actually claim to have a movie this good in their filmography. I just wish Boyle would resort to getting a great screenplay like this one and hit it out of the park like only he can. These days he's given in to the studios and produced some solid effort but there's nothing better than going low budget and using much more creative freedom.
Now if only he didn't fuck up the film above. Maybe he'd be getting some extra points & a bit of a better reputation. Then again, everybody has their own dud. Scorsese's New York, New York?
First things first. I was breathlessly entertained by Slumdog Millionaire, so much so that it ended up on my ten best list in 2008 (#5). However, one that loves this movie must also confess to giving in to its multiple plot holes and -at times- unrealistically Hollywood approach, which all culminates with a kind of fairy tale Bollywood style finale with vibrant song and dance. I dug it, but this isn't necessarily a film you should take too seriously.
You can check out the trailer for 127 Hours right HERE. It's a real doozy, even though they kind of push the whole Slumdog Millionaire image for quite a bit of time at its beginning, which is understandable considering there arent necesarilly any big names to market this film around and -NO- James Franco is not considered a big name, well maybe to the gay community.
The image shows the Maras’ Jean and Joan in the infamous cave, which plays a central role in their search for an imaginary land where true love is possible.