Under Suspicion - Overdircected, badly scripted and terribly scored thriller with Hackman, Freeman and Bellucci. Only saving grace is semi-decent performances and a stunning looking Bellucci.


Amores Perros - Outstanding.

Mexican director Alejandro Innarritu hit a home run with 21 grams but this, his first film, is similar in theme and style but perhaps better orchestrated. Its very confronting and at 154 min, a little too long, but one that is very hard to forget. 

Contempt - This is one of the more uninvolving things I've seen in a while and I wouldnt recommend it to most people. But, if you're into ideas, this is well worth a watch because there's definitely quite a few neat ideas and concepts on display here.

As for the film itself, theres an extended conversation sequence much like the one in Breathless which is just as good, but apart from that there's nothing more to really like.

Worth watching for ideas (and brigitte bardot), but not really for the film. 

The old soviet version is good (it's color so seventies). Natalie Bondarchuk is amazing. The movie is a bit long and slow and some "artsy" scenes don't really fit but overall, it's a mind-moving experience. It is somewhat faithful to the book, but it's mostly ok in that aspect, which is rare.
Recommended.

I haven't completely seen the new hollywood version, but from the first half, it seems they've missed quite a lot of points in general feeling, although it gets better with time.
No comment.

I've read the book twice, first when I was maybe seventeen and now later as twenty-something. It felt very different on both times. On the first time, I couldn't identify with the psychological problems of the characters, while on the latter time it's scary how much similarities one finds in one's own life and actions. 

I just got a hold of both the other day and intend to see.

Is Stalker the game based on the film/book ? 

This is from the Stalker website:

Q: What inspired the creation of the game?
A: Quite a few things, deliberately or not, have an influence on developers. Speaking about computer games, we can say that the "three whales" which have inspired the developers of "S.T.A.L.K.E.R" are "Elite", "Daggerfall" and, of course, "Fallout". The Zone's atmosphere is based on Strugatsky brothers' book "Roadside Picnic", and the movie "Stalker", directed by Tarkovsky, based on the Strugatsky brothers' script. 

have you read the strugatskis' book stalker? It clearly inspires the game. Some effects seen in the dx9 demo are directly from it. 

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3143249

And it looks like 9/10 times he's blaming some part of the industry for his film failures than himself. 

Phait, that has got to be one of the most hilarious things that I have read in ages. There is a whole lot of finger-pointing and excue making going... YOIKS!

That is an example of denial on parade. 

Be good lads and add an "s" in that last post of mine... would ya'?

No excuse in spelling sexcues worng wryte? 

Kagemusha - Big, epic scaled film from Kurosawa that is very similar in style to Ran. In fact, a lot of it seems like practice for Ran. It's not quite the masterpiece that Ran is, but on its own is quite a good film. Quite overlong at 180 min, it sometimes gets a bit too bogged down, but is a refershing change from the modern hollywood epic.


Heavenly Creatures - The movie that put Peter Jackson on the map, even though nobody really knew who he was until LOTR.

It's easy to see why, its an inventive look at a disturbing true story with impressive peformances. However, I thought a lot of it was overdirected and many scenes could have done with more understatement/subtlety. The last 20 min are lyrical in their simplicity, and chilling in their effectiveness. More of the movie could have done with that sort of direction.


Down by Law - A strange, raw, familiar and languid film from Jim Jarmusch. Gloriously shot, extremely moody and impeccably acted with some clever humour, it's hard not to like even though there is absolutely zero plot. 

Ready?
http://www.impawards.com/2005/doom.html

Christ... 

Rififi - French film noir by Jules Dassin and a pretty good one. Well made and acted, the only thing that stopped it going into the very good - great category was the fact that noirs have cool dialogue and in this case, it didnt have the same impact since I was reading it rather than hearing it.

The Innocents - Gloriously gothic and filled with atmosphere. But the script (I understand its adpetd pretty well from a book) is not that great. There is zero mystery and barring one or two scenes hardly any suspense. And the ending (or rather the execution) is very silly. Pity, because it's well made, acted and shot.

Also, its influence on many films, especially The Others is easy to see. 

I've had one or two courses of french at high school, and it's surprising how much you understand out of movies if you have the text there to help you out. I don't know if you speak much french, but if you don't and like that movie stuff, I'd recommend taking a few courses so you get the basics. After all a lot of english and latin words are the same as in french so it's easy to deduce what they speak, and you learn some more if you have your native language text and the original speech there. 

I know a fair bit of french from school but when people converse in their native language, they talk a lot lot faster! 

sorry, I didn't know if you knew french. But I think watching with subtitles where you see the thing before they say it makes understanding easier / remotely possible in some instances where they don't talk so much. Although it might hurt the feeling a bit. 

Even knowing very little Japanese gives me a little more insight into subtitled Japanese movies. Especially when the subtitles are not a literal translation, I think you get a little more out of it by seeing one and hearing the other. 

...why is there an 'Alien' in the Doom movie poster? 

distrans: you're right: there's an 'Alien' in the Doom movie poster !! God, there're back as well... 

how alieny of an imp.. 

id's hellknight head design for that 

The Talented Mr Ripley - Ok, its overlong, a little overdirected in parts but I still found it to be quite enjoyable thanks to the performances, the settings and a smart enough script.



Rio Bravo - Also overlong, has quite contrived plot points and fairly stereotypical characters, but this western from Howard Hawks is still quite entertaining.



Cinema Paradiso - I just didnt like this. I know I'm probably in the minority, but I thought this was just overly-sentimental tosh. I'd bought the R1 DVD to check out both cuts but since I saw the shorter theatrical and didnt think much of it, I'm not going to bother with the director's cut.

Also, I should mention, that despite all that I didnt like about this movie, the ending is a perfectly judged and executed scene. 

Cape Fear (1991) - I dont know if it was entirely deliberate but I found this to be gloriously campy and if it was all intentional, it was a masterstroke to go over the top in every department. I havent seen the original but this is not strictly a remake, it's more of a semi-serious parody.

If, on the other hand, this was not intended tongue in cheek, I dont know what Martin Scorsese was thinking. 

Worth seeing? 

at the time, he meant it to be over the top in every way. I loved it, that lurid, EC comics feel . The camera work feels like it was shot using gamma rays. Half the cast should be dead from cancer mutations by now. 

good to hear.

And yes, quite a lot of it was shot on acid.