Latest news with #IntheLostLands
Telegraph
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The British B movie king who makes billions – and enrages the critics
In 2019, B movie director Paul WS Anderson returned to the heart of darkness. Or, to give it its present-day name, the Great British Bake Off set. Anderson, whose work is as loathed by critics as it is popular with audiences, was at Pinewood Studios, outside London, where his daughter, Ever, was playing the younger version of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow in the Marvel caper of the same name. For old-time's sake, he and his wife (and regular collaborator) Milla Jovovich, swung by the studio backlot. At that point, it was at the nexus of British cosy telly as the home of the Bake Off tent. In the mid-1990s, however, it was where Anderson filmed one of his rare critical hits, Event Horizon. 'I used it for abject horror, and now it's used for a baking show,' he would tell Vulture. 'We watched them shoot, because we're big fans of the show and we liked seeing Paul Hollywood and all those people. Someone comes running over to us. Turned out the director had recognised us, and they were desperate to invite Milla to be on the celebrity edition.' If there is a Paul Hollywood of over-baked, calorific, yet reliably more-ish B movies, it is Anderson. Nobody seems to much like what he does, but he continues to defy film-making gravity and clock up success after success. This weekend, he's back upsetting reviewers once again with his George RR Martin collaboration, In the Lost Lands. Adapted from an obscure 1982 Martin short story recommended to Anderson by Jovovich, In the Lost Lands is the director's love letter to old-school sword and sorcery. With an art style inspired by the brawn-and-chain-mail bikinis style of artist Frank Frazetta, it stars Jovovich (of course) and wrestler-turned-Marvel-regular Dave Bautista as a witch and a warrior travelling through a cursed kingdom. There's lots of swordplay, though, as is the tradition with Anderson, the one foe he cannot defeat is the critic. 'A threadbare film that barely resembles an idea,' said the New York Times. 'An agonising slog,' agrees Detroit News. Critical pans are old hat for Anderson. His low-budget 1994 debut Shopping – starring a baby-faced Jude Law and future wife Sadie Frost – was condemned as an 'orgy of destruction', a line Anderson turned into a marketing slogan. 'That was supposed to be a criticism and I loved it so much that we stuck it on the poster.' Shopping was a British indie flick financed by Channel 4 – an experiment which, according to Anderson, encouraged the broadcaster to go on to fund Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Yet as Boyle became the toast of cineastes, a different fate awaited Anderson. He moved to Hollywood, where his over-the-top directing found a more receptive audience, and since then, he's barely slowed down – guided by the philosophy that, in his line of work, commerce must always trump art. 'The film business is a business, and there's a relationship between how much you spend and how much a movie has to make.' His 15 theatrical movies up to In the Lost Lands have a combined box office of more than $2 billion, and he has a reputation for always bringing in his projects under budget and on time. He's a decent boss too, having a policy of not forcing his VFX teams to pull all-nighters to meet a deadline ('after a 10-hour work day, people start slowing down, and you're not getting the best out of them'). However, Anderson's major contribution to the advancement of humanity is undoubtedly his six Resident Evil outings – blockbusters that have mopped up financially without anyone really paying attention. The highest earning, 2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife brought in a whomping $300 million on a budget of just $60 million. All told, Resident Evil and sequels are the most successful horror movie series ever. They also confirm Anderson as a true Hollywood unicorn: a director who almost always makes money. 'His work in the Resident Evil franchise is where he stands out to me. As a director he was able to bring a complex video game story to life in a way that was well received by fans of the game, but accessible to people who had never played it,' says Nic Brown, author, filmmaker and host of the B movie podcast. 'He definitely has a 'type' when it comes to film – sci-fi action with monsters – and he knows how to get the most bang for his buck with that type of film. He also has an eye for what looks good on camera.' Despite what the critics might tell you, he's even turned out the occasional worthwhile release. With 2004's Alien vs. Predator he revitalised two flagging franchises with one of the first crossover events in cinema, but his masterpiece is surely Event Horizon. The space horror he shot on the future Bake Off set was blatantly derivative of Ridley Scott's Alien. Yet, it delivered chills by the bucketful and had a great cast, including a post-Jurassic Park Sam Neill and a pre-Matrix Laurence Fishburne. Dismissed as sci-fi tosh at the time, it has since been rehabilitated. A 2021 BFI essay praising Anderson heralded it as 'a haunted-house-in-space picture that finds a gateway to hell on the other side of a black hole'. He has also won a cult audience for 1998's dystopian Soldier, in which Kurt Russell played an ageing warrior put out to pasture by a sinister mega-corporation. 'Soldier finds him at his most stripped-back and economical,' said the BFI. 'The dialogue-free opening sequence that introduces Kurt Russell's obsolete military assassin might just be his best.' It is the Resident Evils that – for all their lucrative qualities – divide opinion. In a radical departure, reviewers have tended to be kind towards them – but they are loathed by devotees of the Resident Evil video games, who point out that Anderson's work bear almost no resemblance to the PlayStation source material. Sony would seem to agree. It has just green-lit a reboot of the zombie saga, to be directed by Zach Cregger (best known for horror flick Barbarian), which will 'harken back to the original Capcom game's horror roots'. That will please the Resident Evil community, which is generally of the opinion that Anderson hijacked the series to give his wife steady employment (Jovovich plays Alice – the hero of the movies but a minor character in the games). 'He is just. Awful. Awwwwwful. Every time he announces a new movie I feel terrible,' wrote one Resident Evil fan on Reddit. 'It is just unfathomable how he has been allowed to continue making such bad adaptations and staining not only existing material but killing all hopes of ever receiving proper adaptations in the future. ' Anderson would never claim to be a Scorsese-esque titan of the screen. Yet he does see himself as a proper filmmaker. He cites John Boorman as an influence and names Walter Hill's 1978 minimalist thriller The Driver as a key cinematic text. He has also spoken about how he was inspired by the post-industrial landscapes of his native Newcastle. Born in 1965, he came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Northwest was in the throes of industrial decline. Memories of shuttered coal mines and rusted ship-yards have contributed to his gloomy style – from the urban grit Shopping to the grimdark wastes of In the Lost Lands. 'I grew up in the north of England, which was a fairly bleak post-industrial landscape. When I was growing up, there was a lot of dereliction. It was a big heavy industrial part of England: iron and steel, coal mining, ship building,' he said in a recent interview. 'But when I was a kid, all of that industry and infrastructure had fallen apart. I'm also from a family of coal miners, so that partly explains my fascination with underground spaces and tunnels, and these malevolent environments.' Everything about Anderson's career is super-sized. His first hit, 1995's Mortal Kombat, earned $122 million on a $20 million budget. Conversely, his most earth-shattering flop, 2014's Pompeii – starring Kit Harington at peak Game of Thrones fame – burned through $100 million only to go up in smoke. He even instigated a crisis with China when a line improvised by an American-Asian actor on the set of 2020's Monster Hunter went down badly in the world's biggest film market and provoked an international incident that resulted in the project being essentially banned. 'Some people drew a relationship between [the] line of dialogue and an old school yard rhyme that dates to the Second World War and was used to taunt Chinese children. I was totally unaware of this, and so was the actor who improvised the line,' he told Vulture. 'And, by the way, the movie went through the Chinese distributor and the Chinese censorship board, and no one there picked up on it either. But then it became a big thing.' It's hard to imagine any such backlash attending In the Lost Lands – though George RR Martin fans may be disgruntled at seeing their favourite fantasy author co-opted into the Anderson circus. Either way, don't expect the director to be much bothered. An unstoppable box office force, he ploughs on whatever the critics say. In fact, his ability to keep moving forward even as the brick-bats come flying at his head might be his greatest talent.
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
In the Lost Lands review – not much to find in pointless science-fantasy
This Europudding production plods unrewardingly through the murky and humourless terrain of science-fantasy; it is a movie of flabby characterisation, dull storytelling and midprice VFX work. German screenwriter Constantine Werner has adapted a story from fantasy author George RR Martin and the resulting dialogue lands like a series of sandbags on a concrete floor; director Paul WS Anderson handles the material with stolid determination. The setting is some postapocalyptic futureworld where humanity's remnants gather in an urban hellhole, while outside in the 'lost lands' chaos reigns. Anderson's partner Milla Jovovich bring a persistent blandness to the part of Gray Alys, a witch who, by defying the theocratic tyranny, has come to symbolise a growing resistance; she is being menaced by hatchet-faced, crop-haired witchfinder Ash (Arly Jover). It is Alys's vocational custom never to refuse a request accompanied by payment, and so when haughty young princess Melange (Amara Okereke) asks her for the power to shapeshift, Alys agrees, knowing that there is a shapeshifter in the 'lost lands' whose powers she can steal. But Melange's courtier-slash-lover Jerais (Simon Lööf) approaches her secretly and begs her not to confer this dangerous skill on Melange – and Alys accepts that request as well, though the question of how she is to reconcile these opposing missions does not lead to any very interesting tension. To guide her through the lost lands, Alys befriends a tough hunter called Boyce (Dave Bautista), and Bautista does at least give us a kind of quizzical bemusement in the role, which is no more or less preposterous than anything else. As they battle their way through the hostile landscape, Alys and Boyce become close, though one is keeping secrets from the other. The film's pure pointlessness reaches its climax with a non-epic moment in which a train plunges off the edge of a cliff, and the audience is apparently being asked to gasp at how spectacular that is – a tough ask, given that it is, of course, effectively happening on a laptop. In the Lost Lands is in UK and Irish cinemas from 14 March.
Express Tribune
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
New George RR Martin adaptation hits theatres
The film adaptation of American author George RR Martin's short story, In the Lost Lands, hit US theatres this Friday. Much like Martin's renowned novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, which was adapted into the popular television series Game of Thrones, In the Lost Lands is an epic fantasy film that follows the quest of a sorceress named Gray Alys. Speaking to GamesRadar+ on Wednesday, star Milla Jovovich and Paul WS Anderson revealed that they already have ideas to take the story further. "I would love to delve more into Gray Alys, and Paul and I talk about it all the time," Jovovich said. "We've talked so much about her origins, and where she came from, and what the curse is, and how she got it. I mean, there are so many questions." The author seems to be in favour of the venture, too. "I know George would as well, because his original idea was to write a series of Gray Alys stories. So touch wood, this might be the impetus for him to do that," Anderson added. The film also stars Dave Bautista as the drifter Boyce. "We want to stay true to the roots of the story, but also start world-building and making it bigger. So hopefully we'll have the opportunity to do that in the future," Bautista said in an interview with Tyler Treese. "I've just been told that George RR Martin was extremely happy with the film, so that's really great to hear. The pressure's on since he's been so successful and there's such a high standard to live up to," he added. Martin, who has yet to publish A Song of Ice and Fire's sixth instalment The Winds of Winter, critiqued spin-off show House of the Dragon over creative choices. "When Ryan Condal first told me what he meant to do, ages ago (back in 2022, maybe) I argued against it," he wrote in a blog post in September.
New York Times
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘In the Lost Lands' Review: A Postapocalyptic Romance
The dystopian action movie 'In the Lost Lands,' based on a short story by George R.R. Martin, is a threadbare film that barely resembles an idea. Dave Bautista plays Boyce, a taciturn body hunter hired by a sorceress named Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) to pursue a shape-shifter for their kingdom's young queen (Amara Okereke). Boyce and Alys are pursued by a zealous soldier known as Ash (Arly Jover), a leader of a religious royal guard dressed like Knights Templar intent on killing Alys. This lackluster script struggles to build a captivating story to match the allure of its expansive desert setting. Instead, Boyce's tragic origins are kept hidden by the director Paul W.S. Anderson in order to spring a hokey third-act twist. Another issue is that Alys seems to exist solely as Boyce's lovesick romantic interest. Neither Bautista nor Jovovich can cobble together anything resembling chemistry, and this isn't helped by Bautista consistently overacting. After making the equally garish 'Monster Hunter' in 2020, somehow 'In the Lost Lands' is Anderson's least imaginative film. Though Anderson and his trusted cinematographer Glen MacPherson remain capable of framing and lighting engrossing shots, the cheap effects used for the film's many firefights and explosions look like a flurry of pixels. The editing attempts to hide these shortcomings, cutting around the action to the point of being incomprehensible. And maybe that's for the best. In the Lost LandsRated R for violence and being an eye sore. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
In the Lost Lands Review: Dave Bautista & Milla Jovovich Movie Is Dreadful
In the Lost Lands is an adaptation of a short story by George R. R. Martin, known for writing the novels that eventually became Game of Thrones. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the film is about a queen desperate for love who sends witch Gray Alys (Milla Jovovich) to the Lost Lands to give her the power to turn into a werewolf. Gray sets out on this mission with a hunter named Boyce, played by Dave Bautista. The Guardians of the Galaxy star brings some screen presence here, particularly with his opening monologue, but right from the beginning, something looks a little off about this movie. This trailer is quite deceptive, as most of the best-looking shots in the film are in it. For the most part, the dreary landscapes we find ourselves in look hideous. Much like Megalopolis from last year, every single shot looks artificial, as if it's been processed through a computer. Nothing looks believable about any of the settings in this film. Glen MacPherson's cinematography is genuinely hard to look at. While the bleak color palette seems intentional, it's not well-executed. As a matter of fact, most of the shots have blown-out highlights. The lens flares look atrocious; it often feels like we're getting blinded by this world. Even though there's production design and Anderson is approaching this with a vision, In the Lost Lands looks less like a movie and more like a well-rendered video game. Despite the budget being north of $55 million, this film looks cheaply constructed. With a star caliber like this, that's unacceptable, even if you can see Anderson trying to make this movie look and feel different from his previous work. This movie can best be described as a bunch of people playing dress up. The politics of this world feel so insane in this heightened reality that it's hard to buy into. Everything feels like an approximation of an authentic conversation. This comes from the direction of the performances and even little moments where a character pronounces the word 'infidelity' as 'inifdelity.' I'm 100% convinced that this was a typo in the script that the actor spoke out loud because it's such a major flub that made me rewind the movie just so that I could make sure I heard my ears correctly. Bautista has proven himself to be one of the better wrestler-turned-actors of recent years. He's sought out the chance to work with skilled filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve, Rian Johnson, and M. Night Shyamalan, allowing himself a strong career beyond his high-profile work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Drax. But this role was a misstep. While he's generally a strong performer, it does sometimes feel like he's taken a leaf out of Vin Diesel's book: whisper all the dialogue, and then scream a line when your character gets angry. How are the action scenes? The editing fails them. There are a few fights in In the Lost Lands that could have been good, but they're filled with too many cuts and slow motion. The deaths can get comically repetitive after a while, too. There's one action scene involving a bus hanging off a cliff that could have been phenomenal, but Anderson does not choose the right angles to shoot it, nor does he know how to pace the sequence to allow the right moments of tension and release. The action all becomes noise at some point. It's also hysterical that Gray can overpower her adversaries by giving them visions. At one point, her opponents get the upper hand on her by wearing sunglasses. Sunglasses! Remember how Superman's weakness is kryptonite? Well, Gray's weakness is a pair of Ray-Bans. Protect yourself from a witch and protect your eyes from UV rays with this all-in-one pair of shades. This movie is so unserious and absurd, but the fact that it's taking itself so seriously makes it so much worse. It gets so melodramatic at points that it becomes hilarious, especially as the final act offers plot twist after plot twist with increasingly insane dialogue. When we look at movies and say they remind us of films from the 1990s or 2000s, it's often meant as a compliment. For In the Lost Lands, it unfortunately applies in the most derogatory, direct-to-DVD, bargain-bin way possible. As ComingSoon's review policy explains, a score of 2 equates to 'Terrible.' Almost irredeemable, it is likely a waste of time for almost everyone involved. Disclosure: ComingSoon received a screener for our In the Lost Lands review. Tickets are now available. The post In the Lost Lands Review: Dave Bautista & Milla Jovovich Movie Is Dreadful appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
