Sentences with phrase «high concept film»

Ex Machina is a high concept film about genius, obsession, lust, love, and violence.

Stephen Frears» directorial debut Gumshoe, a cockeyed detective film starring Albert Finney as a small - time bingo caller who plays at being a private detective for fun and ends up in the middle of a real mystery, and Arch Oboler's 1951 end - of - the - world drama Five, a low budget, high concept film he produced independently, also arrive under the «Martini Movies» imprint.

The Artist plays around with the distinction between silent and sound cinema, resulting in the superficial entertainment value of a high concept film school joke.

Much like the high concept films pioneered by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, it quickly becomes clear that the bare - bones concept is the start and end of the story.

Not exact matches

In the works since early September, the UA deal has left Wagner and Cruise «completely open right now» to all varieties of film projects, Wagner told TIME, «ranging from high concept to smaller, character - driven films.»

He did all this while maintaining a strict vegan diet, a difficult concept to fully comprehend due to our preconceived (and, as the film asserts, incorrect) notions about the correlation between animal protein and high energy levels.

The low - wattage, high - concept psychological drama Man Down is too misbegotten to be rescued by Shia LaBeouf's Method lead performance; in fact, the most interesting thing about it is his masochistic commitment to the film.

French filmmaker Luc Besson (The Family, Brick Mansions) writes and directs Lucy, a loopy, high - concept science fiction thriller that, like most Besson efforts, is actually just a dumb and goofy action genre film masquerading as a smart and insightful one.

Of course, being a low - budget independent film with relatively little star power, no high concept, and minimal sizzle, The Intervention was destined to make do with the obscurity of limited theatrical release.

Union is capable of powering the film through, valiantly trying to plug the holes the high - concept plot can't reach.

Like many of us, Drew Pearce misses the smaller, high - concept science fiction films of the 1980s like RoboCop and The Terminator.

Antiviral is a high - concept sci - fi film debut from Brandon Cronenberg, son of legendary director David Cronenberg.

However, underneath the high - concept themes of the film, Rumor Has It remains a routine romantic comedy with serious moments thrown in, and will likely only please viewers considered to be regulars of the genre.

Alas, my heart sank when I realized that the film I was about to see was not a remake of the 1995 forgotten Cindy Crawford - William Baldwin classic but a in fact change of pace low - key political drama from the go to high concept action film - maker of the past decade, Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs Smith) focusing on the Plame Affair, one of the key scandals in recent American political history.

«Westworld,» the 1973 sci - fi film conceived by novelist Michael Crichton that marked his directorial debut, is often regarded a high - concept precursor to his later work, «Jurassic Park,» in which a high - tech amusement park descends into chaos when its primary attractions — in this case automated denizens of an idealized Old West, rather than T - Rexes and velociraptors — turn on the attendees.

They're both produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by up - and - coming filmmakers (as were the original Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane), and all of the films so far have featured strong casts and high - concept science fiction stories.

The decade after provided us with several entries in this vein of high concept romance — Stranger Than Fiction, Lars and the Real Girl, 500 Days of Summer, Ruby Sparks, 2013's About Time — all films I enjoy and admire.

A high - concept satire that fits perfectly with the rest of Payne's oeuvre, the film explores a world in which scientists have figured out the solution to overpopulation: by shrinking obliging humans down to mere inches in height.

It's an unabashedly high concept premise that's employed to positive effect by director John Landis, although it does go without saying that the lion's share of praise for the film's success belongs to both Aykroyd and Murphy - as the actors» exceedingly engaging work ultimately proves instrumental in smoothing over some of the more questionable elements within the narrative.

Joe Wright's film was quite high concept by taking Leo Tolstoy's novel, and setting it in a theater.

The latest venture from Andy and Lana Wachowski's looks a lot better from a trailer point of view as a high concept sci - fi event movie, instead of positioning the film as a sort of space adventure love story.

Nolan came up with a surefire, high - concept film that plays into his strengths as a filmmaker.

That a tiny British film — with no big stars, no high concept, no flashy source, a story most appreciated by thirtysomethings but featuring tweens, released in no more than 152 theaters during the start of summer blockbuster season — didn't set the States ablaze?

To preface my feelings on the film, before we even jump into the plot synopsis and critique, I have to admit that films focusing on high science concepts and emerging technology have always been fascinating to me, especially when it involves the human mind.

Run the words of the title together and you get a not - terribly - clever yet not - entirely - awful summary of what the film is getting at when it's not busy being a retarded high - concept buddy cop flick pairing your typical crusty old vet with an earnest rookie who happens to be an alien with a spotted pate instead of a hilarious racial minority.

Run All Night reunites Liam Neeson with his Unknown and Non-Stop director Jaume Collet - Serra for another high - concept action film - this time set in the urban jungle of NYC, during one incredibly long chase, over one incredibly violent night.

by Walter Chaw Emboldened, perhaps, by the surprisingly good The Other Guys and the surprisingly great Get Him to the Greek, I went into Steve Pink's Hot Tub Time Machine with the belief that its high - concept idea — not the time travel, but the casting of»80s icon John Cusack in a film that would return him to his decade of greatest power and influence — would be at least enough for it to function as a fairly smart nostalgia piece.

After making four high - octane action films with Mark Neveldine (including Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance and both Crank movies), Brian Taylor goes solo with this high - concept thriller about kids in peril.

Independently made (on a reported $ 80 million budget) by French producer Dimitri Rassam, «The Little Prince» may lack the fast pace and high - concept storytelling of today's most popular animated fare, but it should strike a solid chord with family audiences around the world (where the film has been heavily presold) and particularly in France, where Paramount opens the film July 29.

High - concept in the basest definition of the term, the film would fall apart with a sigh if it weren't held together, however tenuously, by jump - cuts, zooms, slo - mo — the whole kitchen sink of obfuscating choices courtesy an artist trying way too hard to be au courant by imitating a style of film that hasn't been fresh since around the time that Tarantino hit the scene.

His new film, Free Fire, is built around a premise that is simultaneously old school and high concept: two groups of criminals in 1970s Boston arrange an arms deal in an old warehouse, things go south, guns are drawn... and they proceed to engage in a gun battle that plays out over the course of the entire movie, mostly in real time.

Since that film, the director has struggled at times with high - concept features.

For such a «bright» film I think there's a lot of emotion there that really helps to ground the high concept nature of the film.

Shane Black was once the highly paid screenwriter of such lowbrow, high - concept, energetic, pulpy action films as Lethal Weapon (1987), The Last Boy Scout (1991) and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996).

It's quickly clear that Sweet November is not one unwieldy high - concept formula film, but several unwieldy formula films chewed up and regurgitated as a disquieting mess of unabashed manipulation and howlingly awful execution.

In the Seventies we went to see the new Altman, Coppola, Fassbinder, or Mazursky film; the contemporary mass audience goes to see a star, special effects, or a high concept.

Director Pete Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland have managed to mix a grindhouse movie, high concept sci - fi and character study into one film.

Directing from a solidly plotted script by Brian Helgeland, who isn't slavish to the original film (the film credits John Godey's novel but not the 1976 screenplay adaptation), he delivers a focused and refreshingly straightforward thriller that forgoes the usual high tech confusion and contrived high - concept twists so often laid in to surprise audiences.

The great shame and irony of Antitrust is that after all the high concept — the creative use of sesame seeds, the Citizen Kane-esque skewering of a media tycoon, the constant reiterations of the hero's intelligence — the film remains a conventional addition to the thriller genre that is slightly better than it should be because of its audacious goofiness, but far worse than it could have been because of its failure to be goofier.

There's no high concept here or need for a third act twist, it's just a gritty, balls to the wall action thriller very much in the vein of the sort of revenge themed films of the 70's.

But, as with so many high - concept films, it takes an awful lot of implausibility to keep the story airborne.

Like Liar Liar, it was a high - concept project that would have been perfect for a TV movie, if only it wasn't a vehicle intended to let loose Carrey the $ 20 - million - plus - per - film comedian.

However, where those films manage to marry high concept to the humdrum, Last Days On Mars never quite strikes the same balance.

There can't have been many filmmakers to enter that lofty club immediately after a film as uniformly reviled as «Jumper,» an inept high - concept -LSB-...]

In a film culture where genre storytelling all too often boils down to the stock gimmicks used over and over again with special effects or high concept twists to hide the familiarity, this is so refreshingly old school smart that it feels almost new.

Bruce Almighty is an attempt by Jim Carrey (The Majestic, Me Myself & Irene) to marry the comedies that made him a star with the more high - concept films he has made since becoming a more serious actor.

It's funny how the zeitgeist works, in that it is hardly unusual for two films with very similar high concepts to hit the screens at close to the same time.

Equals is what the film industry calls high - concept — since its world operates within a clear what - if scenario — but the actual concept in which leads Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult are marooned isn't any better than one of those games they play in acting studios.

But even if you don't think basing a feature film on a popular saying is a shaky proposition, The Cobbler severely underwhelms because it totally fails to capitalize on its high - concept premise in an intriguing way.

The latest in the trend of board games movies, Ouija is something that one might call «high - concept» only in irony - because like Battleship before it, this film proves to be anything but.