I’m just back from a weekend in Dublin spent at the inaugural Moviefest event, organised by Movies.ie. Up until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t heard about it, but when I realised what it actually was I knew I couldn’t not get tickets. Moviefest isn’t a traditional film festival, instead it’s a weekend of exclusive screenings and footage of upcoming blockbusters and big films from some of the big studios, along with stuff from independents too. Sound familar? Well, it does indeed take it’s cue from Hall H of Comic Con, the famous movie heaven which Moviefest takes it’s inspiration from. What’s great about it is that it actually does bring a slice of Comic-Con to a lot of people who wouldn’t have made it to San Diego. So, here’s how the first day went, with a look at what we saw.
* The event was all in Screen 17 of Cineworld, the biggest screen in Ireland and a fantastic spot for movie marathons. Cineworld played an absolute blinder throughout – the staff were helpful and enthusiastic, and there was no lengthy queuing or any problems like that.. It began at 10:30, with posters everywhere for FRIGHT NIGHT, the first screening. Reviews on the film are embargoed for now, but I can say that it was a great way to kick off the fest.
*After a quick break, we settled in for preview footage. We got to see a whole host of trailers from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Dreamworks – we got to see the Captain America teaser for the Avengers again, with the news that a brand new trailer is on the way, so look out for that. The trailers for LION KING and BRAVE were both shown in 3D, and looked very impressive.
*In amongst a big promo reel for Disney were brief shots of FRANKENWEENIE, Tim Burton’s new stop-motion animation based on his original short. It couldn’t have been by anyone else – black & white, with classic Burton style puppets. Definitely looks like it has more in common with his early short films and drawings than any recent movie, extremely promising.
*We were treated to extensive footage of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, which you can read my detailed account of here. If this isn’t an Oscar contender, I don’t know what is.
*Steven Soderbergh’s OTHER new movie, HAYWIRE, was also previewed with the trailer plus an extended fight scene, featuring lead actress Gina Carano and Michael Fassbender in proper hand-to-hand combat. It’s a brilliant scene set in a hotel room, with no music whatsoever and properly visceral fighting. Looks very promising, and parts of the movie were actually shot here in Ireland. Fassbender gets to actually use an Irish accent this time too.
*We saw an exclusive trailer for CONTRABAND, that was so exclusive that it was cut for the fest with temp music (from Tron: Legacy, no less). Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale and Giovanni Ribisi, the movie is about a security guard sucked into crime – sounds pretty direct-to-dvd but I was pleasantly surprised, it looks very exciting.
* We saw a scene from IMMORTALS with the Gods fighting Titans, and I’m far from convinced. The costumes were laughably awful and at times it looked more like an ad for Lynx than a proper movie.
* We were shown the extended preview of IN TIME from Comic-Con (and online) – I still think it looks like the most ridiculous movie of the year, not sold on it whatsoever!
*Lots of other trailers were shown – some that had been scene in cinemas, online or both, and overall we saw at least two hours of promo stuff. Whilst the exclusive footage on day 1 was mainly Tinker Tailor and Haywire, there was still plenty of exciting, interesting trailers.
*The incomparable Guillermo Del Toro gave an introduction to a very brief clip of DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, and apologised for not making the fest – he called Dublin the ‘city of ghosts’ which got a great reaction. He went on to talk about why he chose to produce the movie, citing a love for non-gory horror and classically terrifying movies that rely on tension. It certainly helped build anticipation for the movie itself, which isn’t far off.
*The mystery film was DRIVE – easily one of the best (if not the best) films I’ve seen all year and it was fantastic that the fest allowed people to see it so early, you can check out Ferg’s review of the movie right here! That was followed by body-swap comedy THE CHANGE UP – you can read my review of that one right here too.
*Overall, the first day was great. Three movies, along with two hours of footage in a fantastic cinema with an enthusiastic, passionate audience……what more could you want? Well….Day 2 had the answer to that one. Check out my roundup of Day 2 right here.
