The Proposition - extremely well shot, the landscape is as much of a character as the actors. It's a rather oblique and elliptic film though, never really developing the characters enough to understand them. Yet, for all that, it's extremely lyrical and definitely memorable in its depiction of Australia during colonisation.

The music by nick cave, whilst fine by itself, never really went with what was on screen. And the films does feel a bit too overly ponderous at times.

7.5/10


The Gift - strong acting, especially from blanchett who turns what could have been a standard role into something more. But the rest is pretty by the numbers stuff, and rather predictable.

5.5/10


Stalag 17 - perhaps I was expecting too much given that it was a Billy Wilder film, but I wasnt too impressed. It's all rather slight really, with everything too neat and cute to really have any impact. And the Billy Wilder dialog is missing too. Only William Holden comes off well, but this was not a role to deserve an Oscar IMHO.

5.5/10


Veronica Mars - Overrated a fair bit, this is fairly light, throwaway tv. The scripts arent as sharp and clever as they think they are and I found myself staying one or more steps ahead of most mysteries throughout the season, inclduing the main season long plotline (although that was handled better than most other episodic mysteries).

The one thing that is worth watching is Kristen Bell who should be a star in the making. She takes the show to a higher level, and without her it would be even more mediocre. A very capable perfomer, unfortunately most the rest of the cast dont pull up anywhere near as well.

6/10


Kiss of Death - fairly decent noir which is a bit aytpical, more crime drama than traditional noir. Missing the snappy dialogue but still retaining the noir atmosphere, and featuring Richard Widmark in a truly slimy performance as gangster Udo.

7/10


The Last Emperor - um, this may have been a good movie, it's a bit difficult to tell. I was extremely distracted by the fact that the majority of the film was in English.

Like the recently released Memoirs of a Geisha (I've only seen the trailer), it just comes across as really artificial and unnatrual when the speakers arent communicating in their native language. Sure, there are some bits that needed English, but I would have much preferred a subtitled film in Mandarin/Canotnese.

It made all the dialogue sound really strange and some of it was quite poorly written anyway.

Nicely shot, but I just couldnt get into it at all.


4/10 (but that's really just what I felt and probably not an accurate score).


The Unbearable Lightness of Being - One fabulously executed sequence, when the russians first invade czechoslovakia, but the rest came across as laborious quasi-arty claptrap. Acting was ok, despite a few dodgy and unstable accidents, but the script came across as half-baked. I dont know how true it was to the original source but some of the lines were very hokey.


4/10

The Fly - B grade story given A grade treatment by David Cronenberg. I havent seen anything else by him (although looking forward to A History of Violence), but he has a very distinct style. I was also especially surprised by the attention to character, this could so easily have been just a b grade monster film.

Easily the best thing Jeff Goldblum has done and some of it was wickedly disgusting.

7/10


Ong Bak - Does exactly what it sets out to do. Probably a bit too long, with a bit too much "plot", but the action scenes are executed very well.

They still lack impact, as is the case in most modern day martial art scenes, and thus appear more as sped up spars rather than actual fights. However, in this film, the fighting is very precise which raises up onto a different level. The chase scenes are also excellently done.

6.5/10


Unleashed - Indulges in every cliche that exists, but in a very earnest and self assured fashion. C grade story given almost A grade treatment. Still, despite all the gloss, the cliched script shines through a bit too often.

The action scenes, although far less frequent than Ong Bak, are also well done. Again, although most of the fight scenes lack impact, there are a few near the start that are excellent and definitely highlight the brutality and exhilaration that are now out of fashion.

6.5/10


Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Had heard quiet a few good things about this one and came out extremely disappointed. Not anywhere near as clever or witty as it thinks it is, a few jokes hit the mark but overall I thought it was try hard noir.

5/10