Recently viewed films

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:06 pm

Although I almost waivered and bought a ticket to see King Kong for a second time (loved Jackson's remake, btw) I went and saw Munich yesterday. I thought it was a terrific, mature and achingly tragic film. A little cold around the heart at times although you can certainly argue that taking such an approach is just what a film with such incendiary subject matter needs.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 4:18 pm

caught A Christmas Story (for the nth time) over the holiday. ALMOST made it thru Christmas in Connecticut this year, but the eggnog did me in. The Longest Yard and Bill Dance's Best Bloopers (vols 1 & 2!!!) were part of the Austinator's Christmas, and since a boy's best friend is his mother, I've been watching those with him. Maybe not what I'd choose for myself, but they beat the absolute hell out of Elmo Saves Christmas, I tell you what.

Post by **spooky girlfriend** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 4:27 pm

Doc and I picked up Badder Santa and what a hoot that was. Watched it without the kids, but if you let yourself you can just laugh your ass off.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:36 pm

Saw Match Point, Running Scared and Lower City over the last few days. Match Point has been given a savaging by some of the UK media, but it really isn't that bad. It's certainly Allens best since Sweet & Lowdown, which wouldn't be too hard anyway. Sure the dialogue is pretty clunky, it is engaging and amusing. It gets a bit ponderous towards the end, although the great Jimmy Nesbitt plays a blinder in the last reel, worth the ticket price alone. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is unintentionally hilarious or maybe we Irish cant help laughing at his acquired plummy English accent.

Running Scared is a Paul Walker vehicle that has been released here 2 months ahead of its US release. It's fabulously all over the place. Incredibly intense violence, sure to trimmed for you squeamish Americans, re-shoots a go-go so the pacing is completely wrecked, it's either a complete piece of shit or a cult film in the making. The main problem, of course, is the lead. Hopelessly out of his depth, he's almost as lacking in credibility as that LOTR actor in that soccer hooligan film. I enjoyed it immensely.

Lower City was the best of the three. Another engaging drama set in the South America, great visual style and refreshingly honest performances all round.

Now, I believe there's some gay cowboy film, not featuring John Wayne(whose iconic imagery is used to great effect in Running Scared) playing somewhere.....

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:06 am

Match Point is truly awful. Inane dialogue , paper-thin characterisation, crude camera work - I hated every minute of it. Usually I can just switch of and enjoy rubbish like this . However , Woody used to be so good so I found myself wincing all the way through this. Nesbitt is the only good thing in it , as he adopts the wry face of someone who just cannot believe he is being paid to spout his dreadful lines. People should see a film before making a judgement but, really , this is two hours that would be better spent squeezing blackheads on your nose.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:32 pm

Not a new film, as ever with me, but I did stay up, boom boom, and watch Insomnia the other night. Al Pacino going nuts over lack of sleep and guilty conscience in never-dark Alaska as he plays cat-and-mouse with girl-killer Robin Williams. I'd missed the existence of this film completely when it was released, but I loved it enormously. Smart, original, and with a classic Pacino performance that kept you rivetted until 1 am but also made you want to sleep for a month. Directed by Christopher Nolan, who did Batman Begins, and turns out to be a 35 year-old Englishman. Well worth checking out.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:23 pm

Indeed, and the original is even better. Loved Nolans version, the dvd's director's commentary version is presented in the order the scenes were shot, a fascinating way of watching it. Williams looked like he was back on form with that film and One Hour Photo coming out around the same time. Unfortunately not so, check out the junk he's done since. And what the hell happened to Martin Donovan? He's done even worse junk. Of course Al hasn't done much since either.

Just back myself from Just Friends, a harmless enough comedy. Strange to see nostalgia films for the mid 90's already. Anna Faris was quite good playing a ghastly Britney type character. For a production line film like this the visuals are great, not surprising considering the cinematographer is this old geezer, who also worked on Let It Be. God, IMDB is great!

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:28 pm

Terribly confusing. Every time I read the name Christopher Nolan, I think of this one:

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:51 pm

martinfoyle wrote: Just back myself from Just Friends, a harmless enough comedy.

Some say that film is a shoo-in for one of these: http://www.razzies.com/

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:45 pm

I saw Brokeback Mountain last night and enjoyed it...some feat turning a 15page short story into that long a film! I don't really see why people rave about Jake Gyllenhall (apart from him being a good looking bloke) - there's nothing about him, for me anyway. Heath Ledger is much more sympathetic and interesting.

Here's an interesting article about the issue of homosexual portayal in Hollywood I read in the Independent the other day by the very sensible Johann Hari...

http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=766

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:04 pm

Neil Jordan's Breakfast On Pluto is excellent. Whimsical, funny , great use of music , beautifully understated performances from Cillian Murphy , Liam Neeson , Ruth Negga and Gavin Friday - a joy from start to finish.
Of course , any film that can make "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" absolutely essential to the plot development just has to be good!

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 7:55 pm

I just saw Match Point and must say I enjoyed it a good deal more than Mr. Foyle, agreeing with about half of the critics here in North America who say it's Woody's best in years. At the same time, aside from the opening credits (Woody's classic typeface), not much about this film is very obviously Woody Allen at all. Still, I thought the story and the subtext were quite good, as were the visuals and performances. In my opinion, anyway.

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:26 pm

This weekend I saw

The New World - Beautiful visuals just about compensate for a rushed, choppy opening sequence, with the slight storyline very much secondary to the overall mood of the piece. Apparently the DVD will have a much more satisfactory longer version.

Munich - Technically excellent but emotionally weak affair. The central point is hammered home repeatedly and gets boring. A sequence where a naked woman is killed with bicyle pumps is pure Benny Hill and got, understandably, laughs.

Hidden (Caché) - Typical head wrecking Haneke , but not half as unsettling as Funny Games . Daniel Auteuil is as fascinating as ever , a frown saying a thousand things.

On DVD I fanally watched Diner , something I've been meaning to do for years. It's as good as I expected , tinged with sadnes at the waste that has subsequently been Mickey Rourke's career.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:30 pm

I liked "Match Point" too, though I have to say I found it tough slogging during the middle portions. It doesn't have the same dramatic tension as the "Crimes" half of "Crimes and Misdemeanors", which it's so often compared to because the main character is not really that conflicted about his bad acts (i.e., he doesn't appear to have any conscience at all, while Martin Landau's character did, but behaved badly anyway).

I might not have noticed if it had been half an hour shorter, which it probably should have been. Sort of like "King Kong" that way....

Notably, my favorite movie this year (other than, well, you know...) is "A History of Violence", which clocks at just over ninety minutes. I like movies that no one to begin a scene and when to end it. Not that it's easy.

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:52 am

"YSL: 5 Avenue Marceu, 75116, Paris": this was one of a couple of documentaries on St. Laurent done by the same director. The other one was lame, but this was terrific. It's just a cinema verite treatment of the making of St. Laurent's last collection. I am not a fashionista, but it was nevertheless enthralling to see the painstaking way these clothes get made. It's a team effort with St. Laurent as the guide. He makes drawings, and then these incredibly talented dressmakers (all women but for one male) actually make the thing come alive. They formally present the finished product to the designer, and when he uses his favorite adjective "ravishing", you can feel the emotion as the women respond "Merci, Monsieur". The camera truly functions in a fly on the wall way. Great use of cinema verite. Highly recommended.

"Wheel of time" (or something like theat): another docuemtary, this one by Herzog. It's about Buddhism. Interesting topic, but undone for me by Herzog's pretentious narration. Even his accent irritated me.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:41 pm

Watched the first disc of No Direction Home last night in the dark with my dog in my room because no one else would watch it with me. I know, I know, but the best compliment I've ever been given is that I am never early. I know next to nothing about Bob, but have always perceived him as Doing Bob Dylan, so it was kind of shocking to have him speaking frankly and not from behind the mythology or whatever. No whiteface! Can't wait for the 2nd disc. And his voice sounds just like my friend Maris, so that was kind of weird.

But what was up with the subtitles? My old tv only has "loud" or "off", so I had no problems hearing any of it, but were any of the different voices they subtitled impossible to understand?

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:06 pm

No-one seen Walk The Line in the States yet, or anywhere else? Opens here this weekend. Sounds very promising.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:08 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:No-one seen Walk The Line in the States yet, or anywhere else? Opens here this weekend. Sounds very promising.

Not me, but the missus saw it and thought it was quite good. Couldn't get her to stop singing "Folsom Prison Blues" for a week - was driving me insane.

Post by **BlueChair** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:02 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:No-one seen Walk The Line in the States yet, or anywhere else? Opens here this weekend. Sounds very promising.

I really enjoyed it.

strangerinthehouse · Post by **strangerinthehouse** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:08 pm

I thought Walk the Line was better than Ray. Best part: Cash singing Folsom Prison Blues to Sam Philips.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:54 pm

Saw BB Mountain yesterday. God, what a great movie. I don't want to give anything away, but there are some plot points I'd like to discuss with anyone who cares to pm/email me...

noiseradio · Post by **noiseradio** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:10 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:No-one seen Walk The Line in the States yet, or anywhere else? Opens here this weekend. Sounds very promising.

Loved it.

VonOfterdingen · Post by **VonOfterdingen** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:50 am

Yesterday i saw a screening of "V for Vendetta".
It's dark, well acted, slow. very leftwing, controversiel and very very good.

In a country like Denmark where the government is just as ignorant as that newpaper with the cartoons "V for Vendetta" is very potent stuff. And so it will be in England of course.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:57 am

It's Presidents Day here in the States, and I have a rare holiday. I finally get a chance to catch a movie and what am I seeing??...

"Curious George", with my daughter.

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:22 am

quit yer bitchin' WSS - at least you've got the day off.

and the music for CG is pretty good!