Tag: volcano

Moana
(2026)

Director – Thomas Kail – 2026 – US – Cert. PG – 115m

***1/2

Disney’s live action remake of its Polynesian heroine mythological romp – out in UK cinemas on Friday, July 10th

It’s a curious experience watching Disney’s live action remake of Moana (John Musker, Ron Clements, 2016), one of the Studio’s better animated movies of recent years. Of course, some audience members (particularly small children) may never have seen the orginal, or, equally, because Disney are very, very good at marketing their films to a mass audience, they may already be familiar with it. Either way, the film is likely to be enjoyed by both those who know the original and those who don’t.

The original had its roots in Maori mythology, and this live action retread follows much the same path. It’s set on the island of Te Fiti, a resting goddess whose heart (a small, round, green stone) has been stolen from her in order to give humans the power of creation by the demigod Maui, and then lost along with his giant fishhook which bestows shapeshifting powers upon him.

As a small child, the chief of the island Te Fiti’s daughter Moana can’t stop thinking about venturing beyond the reef, a trangression forbidden by her father Chief Tui (John Tui) and his ancestors.… Read the rest

Art Documentary Exhibitions Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen
Michelangelo
Love and Death

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date May 20 2025
No Comments on Exhibition on Screen
Michelangelo
Love and Death

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2017 – UK – Cert. U – 91m

*****

Sixteenth Century Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo remains one of the greatest artists of all time, yet his overreaching ambition frequently proved his undoing – back out in UK cinemas to tie in with the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth from Tuesday, May 20th

“From a fountain of mercy… my suffering is born.” These words (voiced by James Faulkner as Michelangelo) accompany images of a present day sculptor (Marco Ambrosini) working away at a piece of marble in his studio. The writings of Vasari (voice: Lawrence Kennedy) take up the story. A boy was born to a noble family in 1475. Art Critic and Author Jonathan Jones places Michelangelo among the greats, like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso. He deals with the strangest, darkest and most difficult stuff. He is the original famous artist. He had two biographies written about him in his lifetime, and took great interest in them, helping bring them to fruition. He painted, sculpted, built architecture, wrote poetry, even built military fortifications. This was the time when artists started being regarded as creative geniuses, according to Art Historian Jennifer Sliwka. Vasari referred to Michelangelo and his art in terms of Divinity and then the Divine.… Read the rest

Tags 1475, 1530, 15th Century, 16th century, acolyte, Alessandro Cecchi, ambition, anatomy, ancient ruins, and Martin Clayton, architect, architecture, Arnold Nesselrath, Art Critic, art historian, artist academy, artists’ workshop, assistants, attack, author, Bacchus, Battle of the Centaurs, Bertoldo, Bible, biographer, biographies, block of marble, burning at the stake, cadavers, Carrara, Casa Buonarotti, Casa Buonorotti, Christ in judgement, Christian redemption, church, Clinical Anatomy, closed access, Colosseum, columns, commission, committee of artists, Condivi, Conservator, control freak, Cosimo de Medici, Creation of Adam, creative genius, crucifixion, cupola, David, David Bickerstaff, David Rintoul, Dawn and Dusk, dead Christ, decorative, delegate, design, Divinity, Donatello, Duomo, end of the world, engineering, English, Exhibition On Screen, eyes, facade, family, Florence, Florence Cathedral, flow, football, fortifications, frame, France, Francesca Nicoli, gay, gay sexuality, Genesis, German, God’s finger, grief, hands, Heaven, hiding, higher spiritual realm, Holly Trusted, imagination, impart life, interview, irrationality, Italian, Italy, James Faulkner, Jennifer Sliwka. Art, Jonathan Jones, Laboratoire Artistici Nicoli, language of architecture, Laurentian library, lava, Lawrence Kennedy, Leonardo da Vinci, library, London, Lorenzo di Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent, male world, marble, Marco Ambrosini, Martin Gayford, Mary, medical science, Medici, Michelangelo, military fortifications, mother, motifs, motion, movement, muscular nude body, Neo-Platonist, New Testament, night and day, nudity, Office of Works, Old Testament, painter, painting, papal court, patrons, peace deal, Peter Abrahams, Phil Grabsky, Phillippa Abrahams, physical agony, physical beauty, Picasso, picture frame, pietà, poet, poetry, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II, Pope Leo X, Pope Paul II, power, Prints and Drawings, problem-solving, professor, punishment, quarry, religious art, Rembrandt, Renaissance, Rome, Royal Collection Trust, sacristy, San Lorenzo, San Lorenzo monastery, Santa Croce church, Santo Spiritu, sculptor, sculpture, self-portrait, Senior Curator, Sistine Chapel, Sistine Chapel altar wall, Sistine Chapel ceiling, sodomy, St. Peter’s Rome, staircase, studio, studying cadavers, tactile, Tania Kovats, teenage angst, The Battle of Cascina, the Divine, The Last Judgement, tomb, torment, touch, trams, turn convention on its head, UK, upbringing, V&A, Vasari, Vatican Museums, Virgin Mary, vision, volcano, wall of flesh, Warwick Medical School

Features Live Action Movies

Crazy Thunder Road
(Kuruizaki
Sanda Rodo,
狂い咲きサンダーロード)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date June 10 2022
No Comments on Crazy Thunder Road
(Kuruizaki
Sanda Rodo,
狂い咲きサンダーロード)

Director – Sogo Ishii – 1980 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 97m

*****

Following on from Arrow’s superb BD of Sogo Ishii’s Burst City (1982) comes Third Window’s equally impressive BD release of its predecessor in the Ishii canon Crazy Thunder Road (1980) – on Blu-ray from Monday, February 21st 2022 and, as of January 2024, available to stream on Amazon Prime UK

This was Ishii’s Nihon University student graduation project, his first to be shot on 16mm rather than Super 8, which somehow got picked up for distribution by major Japanese Studio Toei which led to their giving him a budget for Burst City. Tom Mes, who as with Burst City supplies a commentary for the film, describes Crazy Thunder Road as “one of the Holy Grails of Japanese film releases if not the Holy Grail.”

When Toei presented Ishii with what seemed like astronomical funding for Burst City, it led him to overreach himself. In retrospect, he considers Burst City unfinished… [Read the full review at All The Anime]

Crazy Thunder Road was out on Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, February 21st, 2022 and, as of January 2024, available to stream on Amazon Prime UK.… Read the rest

Tags 16mm, 1970s, 1976, Adam Torel, amateur, amateur film, amateur film movement, anti-establishment, army, aspiring filmmakers, Autonomous Film, barmaid, bike, biker, bikers, bookend, camera spin, car, commentary, concrete, defence, defend, destruct, doom, enthusiasm, entry points, eruption, film club, film production, funding, Gakuryu Ishii, gang, gang leader, gangster movie, gone soft, graduation, Holy Grail, improvisation, independent, Japan, Japanese film production, Jasper Sharp, Jishu Eiga, Kinji Fukusaku, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, leader, listings magazine, maboroshi, microbudget, Naomi Kawase, nationalist, Nenji Kobayashi, Nihon. student, no money, on your own terms, p, paramilitary, performance, phantom, Pia, Pia Film Festival, production, project, punk, punk ethos, rage, raining, renegade, right-wing, script, Shinya Tsukamoto, shooting at different speeds, Sogo Ishii, stopped hiring, Super 8, Tatsuo Yamada, Time Out, Toei, Tokyo, Tom Mes, UK, unfinished, university, university film club, volcanic ash, volcano, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, YIDFF

Animation Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Fire Of Love

Director – Sara Dosa – 2022 – US – Cert. PG – 93m

The volcano footage *****
(and there’s lots of it, plus footage of the volcanologists themselves)

The brief animated inserts ***1/2

Almost everything else **

The 25-year career of the late volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft is explored through their extensive film archive of volcanic activity – out in cinemas on Friday, July 29th

There have been volcano movies before, but nothing quite like this. Most of them fall into the disaster movie category, with the better ones (The Last Days Of Pompeii, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1935; Dante’s Peak, Roger Donaldson, 1997) delivering incredible visual effects. The force of nature that is the volcano is obviously extremely dangerous to film so you can understand why film producers would want to recreate images of the phenomenon for the big screen rather than attempt to go out and film them.

This current film, however, is not a fictional feature in that mould but something entirely different: a documentary. It perfectly fits the remit of its distributor National Geographic of “exploring, illuminating, and protecting the wonder of our world”. It’s ostensibly a film about two real life volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft who first met in 1966 and died in an volcanic blast in 1991.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

The Lost City

Directors – Aaron Nee, Adam Nee – 2021 – US – Cert. 12a – 112m

***

A jaded woman’s romantic adventure novelist and her cover model find themselves in a real life jungle straight out of one of her books – out in cinemas on Wednesday, April 13th

Ever since her archaeologist husband died five years ago, novelist of trashy, erotic women’s adventure fiction Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) has had writer’s block. Her publishers love her books because they sell in huge volume, but she’s really an archaeology nerd who hates the novels she’s written. A friendly nudge from her editor Beth (Da’vine Joy Randolph), however, helps her complete another one, so it’s on to the promotional tour, something else Loretta hates.

She’s told exactly what to do by Beth and new social media manager Allison (Patti Harrison) This time round Loretta is required to wear a one-piece, cleavage-revealing, purple sequinned outfit that she (understandably) really doesn’t like as she is interviewed once again before fan audiences by male model Alan (Channing Tatum), whose appearance alongside her on the front cover of her books has helped propel her (and him) to stardom, effectively casting them as her heroine Angela and sidekick Dash.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Wendy

Director – Benh Zeitlin – 2021 – US – Cert. 12a – 111m

*****

A bold re-imagining of Peter Pan told through the eyes of Wendy which is unlike any other version of the story you’re likely to see – out in cinemas on Friday, August 13th

Her mother runs a fast and furious restaurant. Wendy (Tommie Lynn Milazzo) crawls along the long tables.

Boys play on trains on the nearby tracks outside.

Her brothers James (Gavin Naquin) and Douglas (Gage Naquin) come out to play on the jukebox, but quickly get thrown out for causing disruption. Through the night the goods trains pass. There’s a spark. Wendy, slightly older now (Devin France) sees something atop a train. A boy. She runs outside to chase the train. Her mother’s voice calls her back in.

The fast trains pass. One day she is on one, riding the rails. The boy (Dwight Henry) is in the freight car. He tells them to stand close to the open boxcar door. The train crosses a bridge over water. He pushes them out. They’re in the water.

Then they’re all in the boat, crossing the ocean to the island, Mother. They land. Beach. Forest. Geysers erupt.… Read the rest

Tags adults, BBFC, beach, belief, Benh Zeitlin, blade, blood brother, boat, boxcar, bridge, bridge over water, certification, children, crawl, decayed, Devin France, dream, drifter, Dwight Henry, eruption, fly, forest, freight car, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, geysers, giant fish, goods trains, grotto, grow up, house, island, jukebox, man-made interventions, mother, natural world, never grow up, object, ocean, pirates, restaurant, riding the rails, rock, sea, section of pipe, table, tracks, train, US, used, volcano, water, weathered