Constantine - Ponderous, overblown & silly. Keanu was woeful, rachel weisz was actually pretty decent given the role but this is one of the most stupidly scripted and directed films in a while. Visuals are ok, I wasnt all that impressed.

The most annoying thing is it takes itself so seriously.



Oldboy - Pretty impressive stuff. Even more so when you consider the script is a bit silly and as high concept as most US blockbusters. However, the direction is very well done and the main actor commands a lot of presence. The last half hour doesnt work as well as it should, probably because I thought the twist was telegraphed way too early and obviously.

But the craftsmanship and storytelling skill are definitely of a very high quality.



A Letter to Three Wives - Felt very much like a warmup to All About Eve for Mankiewicz. Decent performances, assured direction and some clever dialogue make up for some unecessary and oveblown melodrama. Not as good as Eve but worth a watch. 

Batman Begins. Yeah, this was si teh rock - better than any of the last batch of batman films. Still had it's fair share of cliches though. I didn't like the way the nerdy guy gets to drive the batmobile at the end (cue shots of said nerdy guy going "whoah!" a lot as he struggles to control the batmobile). We also got the obligatory shot of random bystander staring into his drink in disbelief after seeing the batmobile whizz past, but apart from that the film kicked arse.

War of the Worlds. One of Spielberg's best, and my opinion of Tom Cruise as an actor has definately gone up after seeing this. Although it winds down towards the end, most of the film is just one spectacular Spielbergian set-piece after another. Watching the beautifully-shot, indiscriminate, and disturbingly cathartic mass extermination of the human race has never been so entertaining. It's also dark as fuck for a "summer blockbuster" but that's Spielberg's influence for you. 

My Sassy Girl - another pretty impressive korean film. For most of its running time, its likable, amusing, well made but ultimately disposable. However, the last 15 min take it up a few notches into the pretty good territory. In fact, I'd say the last 15 min is some of the best scripted and acted passages that I have seen in a film from this genre. And the lead actress is hot.



Picnic at Hanging Rock - Also a pretty good film. It has quite a few moments where there is some quite shoddy acting and the script's a bit thin, especially in the last half hour or so but the direction by Peter Weir is first rate. Combining excellent cinematography with some nifty music, he manages to create a lot of mood and atmosphere in a polanski mixed with some antoinini kind of way (in fact, it's hard not to thinkof L'Avventura when watching this). While the movie centers aroun Hanging Rock, its very very good, the rest of it is average to above average at best. 

Appleseed (2004) - Recentish anime made entirely in 3d with cel shaded characters to give them a 2d look. Comes complete with requisite ponderous, overblown, cliche sci-fi story. But in anime, I'm generally really attracted by the visuals.

In that department, this is a mixed bag. The characters look pretty good, and the 2d shading on 3d models works quite well. the backgrounds however were disappointing IMHO. They just looked like very dodgy CGI and the artwork/design just wasnt that attractive/memorable. As the story wasnt engaging either, I came out of it pretty underwhelmed.


L'Eclisse - Final part of Michaelangelo Antonioni's loose trilogy around the theme of alienation (the other two being L'Avventura and La Notte). While La Note's usually regarded as the weakest, I actually thought this was the toughest one to really get into.

It's beautfiully shot as usual by Antonioni (further enhancedby the absolutely magnificent video transfer by criterion) and Monica Vitti puts in a good perfromance but combined they only held my interest for the first hour or so. After that, I found it pretty tough to care. Most of that really stems from the fact that there's really no narrative whatsoever. Some films work with that element missing, and this worked for an hour like I said but in the end, it just didnt work out. 

Closer - Pretty good film with strong performances and good script. Nifty ending too, which ties most the themes in the film together quite well. Suffered a bit from not flowing all that well but a good film regardless. Clive Owen was easily the standout.


Finding Neverland - Self consciously happy and gentle, but Johnny Depp grabs it by the throat and single handedly lifts it into the pretty good territory. He handles many scenes with great subtlety where shouting/overacting could have been justified. Beautifully shot too, especially the pirate dream sequence with the funky water.


Queen Margot - Best way to describe the is some sort of french epic blockbuster. Its well shot, mostly well acted and has some great scenes. But it's hampered by some poor performances in key roles and also a very messy narrative (which admittedly might not be so distracting if you were familiar with the characters and the time period). In the end, it comes across as poorly as most recent US epics.


Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Brilliant! Awesome script, awesome acting, great direction. Easy to see the similarities between this and Closer even though they're almost 40 yrs apart. In fact, Closer almost comes across as a more modern sequel. But this is by far the superior film. Only flaw would be perhaps a *slightly* overlong running time. 

First 3/4 are really good. Tripods are genuinely powerful and menacing. Build-up is great. But what I like the most is how gritty it is compared to most big blockbusters - seeing the trauma and shock and the human side of it - like the guy ripping his hands trying to get into the car, the girl screaming with shock, the ferry cable ripping through those left behind - good stuff. Also liked the crazy flaming train that went past. I saw ID recently and it fucking blew compared to this - so LITE, so WEAK. So yeah big ups to WOTW for getting a bit more grimey on us, it's good, hopefully this will be part of a trend for more gripping blockbusters.

Unfortunately the last 1/4 is a lot weaker, doesn't really go anywhere, from a pretty tense situation under the house it's suddenly a combination of: action hero saves the day + barely explored event stops the tripods + happy ending. The organic stuff across the world wasn't as gnarly as it should have been either. The last bit....just didn't continue the pace of the earlier bit, and glossed over how things went without any exploration of interesting aspects nor any continuation of the earlier darkness. A pity as it could have been wrapped up well pretty easily. But still, overall a good film. W3rd. 

Windstruck - Reunion of the My Sassy Girl team, but this time it's an absolute disaster. Never knowing what it wants to be, this ends up being a very incohesive, contrived and generally uninvolving film.

Jun Ji Hyun is talented and extremely hot, but this role highlights her limited range. Shs is very unconvincing as a police officer. Also, the directions is rather pedestrian save once scene (dancing in the rain) which is well done. And I dont know th reasoning behind the ending, but it is a very bad decision (probably because all it ends up doing is remind you how much better My Sassy Girl was). 

That movie looks really cool, just saw commercials for it and it's the only movie in a while that got me interested. Will try to go see it when it comes out, plus Ben Affleck's friend is generally a happy kinda guy in movies, so ... yeah. 

Bourne Supremecy -- nice cinematography all the way around. Great shots of Moscow and Berlin dominated the entire movie. I know, most people go for the acting, and Ben Affleck's friend is certainly good at that, but I've already read the novel, so the car chases and exterior camera were really what got my attention, and Julia Stiles crying.

I find Julia Stiles in tears a very enjoyable experience because she turns the traumatic break down into high artistic expression. I don't know what school she learned her chops, but wow, she can make that face of hers plummet threw the through-ways of oblivion.

I would like to date her just so I could break up with her and see that exquisite gift of hers up close and personal. 

as in threw up, but 'through' still makes more since. 

LOTR is a very good film because it lets us escape from the world and think of things from another person's point of view... i mean if we think we have problems look at Frodo a litle kid who has been given all the responsibility in the world.. and he does not fall from the task at hand.. he grows up quickly as he looks after himself and his new friends. he overcomes all these problems and still keeps some sanity. 

Try aged fifty. If you've read the book, anyway. 

I thought he was like 33. And Bilbo was like 133.A Long Expected Party or somesuch. 

sure, but hobbits mature even slower than human boys! 

A 33 year old hobbit is like a 10 year old boy??? FINALLY A LOOPHOLE!!!!

/end pedo 

My understanding was that in the book a long time passed between Bilbo's eleventeenth birthday and the war of the ring/Frodo setting out, so he was about 50 when he left. In the film they changed this for pacing reasons, so Frodo only had the ring for a few months before he set out to destroy it. Sorry to disappoint, Zwiffle... 

50 is still like 15 in hobbit years, right? 

Il Mare- Quite good korean film which relies more on mood than anything else. The slow style suits the story but the ending falls into the familiar paradox pitfalls that plague most time travel films. Still worth watching.


Memories of Murder - Excellent film based around the investigation into Korea's first serial killings. Seven and Silence of the Lambs aside, this is better than most serial killer films that come out of the US and is easily one of the more intelligent films in the genre. 

I heard about that one somewhere else, and it looked really good. I'll try and find it now that it has the nitin approval. 

spot on, sham
but rewatching it at home on dvd was kinda boring 

hi 

Korean film by Kim Ki-Duk and its a very low key but enthralling movie for the slowly but effectively built first two thirds. Its an unusual story with hardly any dialogue between the two leads but the writing, acting and cinematography are strong enough to get you into it.

Then comes the last third, which depending on your own point of view, will either make you appreciate the film more or, like me, or will make you wish the initial premise was stuck to.

I thought the last third came off as showy and pretentious while the first two thirds were effortless in their engagement.

Still, worth a watch, chances are more people than not will like the last act more than me. 

The Descent - any good? I used to like the odd bit of horror (well, Hellraiser anyway), but watching Event Horizon scared so many shades of crap out of me that I haven't watched any since. I've heard The Descent is pretty good and quite scary - would it be worth a look as an example of the modern horror film? 

daz posted his thoughts (he liked it) earlier on.

And scared by Event Horizon? Was that sarcasm or seriousness? 

Finally, took long enough to find Daz's comments.

Anyone else got any??

And yes, I'm serious, myself and a friend saw it in the cinema and although were we both blase about violence, horror etc etc, it freaked us out no end. In fact I had to go home and play Quake for 6 hours solid before I could sleep =). Yeah so some film buffs might be "whatever" about it, but I've been somewhat vindicated that whenever the subject of scary films is raised online amongst the supposedly unshockable gaming/internet community, EH always gets mentioned as something that freaked people out. So, there :P