Through a Glass Darkly - Part of bergman's loose trilogy along with The Silence and the far superior Winter Light. This one had some good acting and cinematography but the direction was too heavy handed and despite being 87 min, it felt 10-15 min far too long.

Above average fare from the great director.


La Dolce Vita - Once I'd gotten over the shoddy sound design and the dodgy dubbing used for some actors, I started enjoying it a bit more.

But, I dont get it. There's some memeorable sequences and nice scenes but, as a whole, this just didnt work for me. And at 160 min, it began to get frustrating 

Extremely well made and shot, with very good performances. It also features a script with a bit of a copout last act.

Luckily, the limp finish doesnt completely detract from the rest of the quality on offer and it still ends being a decent film overall. 

The Scarlett Empress - Heavily flawed but very watchable movie with Marlene Dietrich as Catherine of Russia. Most notable aspect and drawcard are the very impressive costume designs and sets that put a lot of recent productions to shame. 

anyone seen it?
the trailer looks interesting... 

La Dolce Vita is one the best movies ever
maybe not for everyone. old but gold


Nochnoy Dozor (night watch) is bleh, honestly
casting sux, script is a mess (based on quite good but very legthy book)
picture is nice, some cool camera\directing
Its ok-ish, nothing more

whatever I watched lately..
blade3 (got this by accident) - sux big time, boring and very forgetable

closer - unconvincing, clive owen fails

The Island (with mcGregor) alot of nobrainer/commonplace in the plot, but really entertaining with good stunts and chases, prolly best action Iv seen this year 

Amores Perros is very good indeed.

Tarkovsky` stalker movie has nothing to do with action really. The game could borrow only some ideas for the setting. It�s quite a philosophic flick, Im afraid a lot of it is lost in translation.

Speaking of Solaris - I love the original, but the american version is not bad, surprisingly.
(And the book did nothing for me - I dont even remember much of it) 

Serenity:

Saw one episode of Firefly and didn't like it. Decided to give the movie a try and it bloody ruled. Definitely one of the better sf movies I have seen in a fair while and has inspired me to give the series another chance when I see it cheap on DVD.

Pride and Prejudice:

*sigh*, yeah I know, but I got dragged along with my girlfriend. Never actually seen any previous version of this so can't say how it compares, but there are some truly hideous edits and camera shot choices. I'm not a cinematography buff at all but even I cringed at the cheesiness of how some of the shots were filmed. Guess most of us wouldn't like it but your historical romance buffs (ie women) will lap it up. 

I dont know, Dolce Vita just didnt click with me.

I intend on watching the original Solaris this weekend actually. I've heard the american version's not bad (soderbergh and clonney work well together generally) but have only heard good things about the original. 

There needs to be made an over the top, garish, cocaine scene American version. No, I mean it. 

there is Russian version (somewhat different) of Dolce Vita, not a bad one 

"There needs to be made an over the top, garish, cocaine scene American version"

Scarface 

makes you want to drop everything, fill up the tank, and head down to Miami.

Just don't blow your own snow. 

The Uninvited - korean "horror" film whihc is really more a psychogical drama rather than a horror movie. As a former, it works reasonably well with good direction and acting. But, the script, is really what should be a ough draft and not a final cut. It's overlong by about 30 mins and a little scattered and incoherent. With some more judicious editing, this could have been a very good film rather than an above avergae one.


Solaris - Saw the russian version on the weekend like I planned to. Outstanding stuff.

It drags a little in some parts, but is quality all the way apart from that. The ending is fabulous and I'm now keen to check out the remake, just to see what's kept and what's not.


To speedy and anyone else that's seen it, do you know the reasoning behind the colour/b&w shooting. This is one movie where I couldnt work otu why it was done. 

I enjoyed it. I didn't even know it's based on a TV show, so it's very accesible. I didn't really like paying $8 for a ticket, though. 

I dont rememer what was in b&w 

Dr.Stanley Buba
Chairman Foreign Contract Award Committee(NNPC)
17/10/2005
Maputo Street Zone 3
Victoria Island- Lagos-Nigeria.

Dear Sir ,

I SPAM THEREFORE I AM 

Dr.Stanley Buba
Chairman Foreign Contract Award Committee(NNPC)
17/10/2005
Maputo Street Zone 3
Victoria Island- Lagos-Nigeria.

Dear Sir ,

Is MC Frontalot for real? 

the american version seems too "clean" although I haven't yet seen all of it...
the russian version had some strange parts like the really long pointless car-driving scene.
I liked the book the most - on second reading. 

that car scene reminded me a lot of 2001 and its imagery. 

@ Nigerian scam posting on func_, and the "kept secret forever" on a public message board is pretty solid as well.

I actually liked Cinema Paradiso. But yeah, I tend toward the overly-sentimental if I'm not careful.

I get all choked up at the drop of a hat and am easily manipulated by tear-jerk tactics. So it goes. 

seen a lot of tv stuff over the last month or so :

24 Season 3 - easily the weakest of the seasons, some preposterous plotting and unecessary subplots. Given the scripting it had though, it made a decent fist out of it.

6.5/10

24 Season 4 - A welcome return to form. It's almost as if the writers finally acknowledged that the novelty had worn off and the show had become a slave to its format. So to combat this, they upped the ante in terms of action, twists and stakes. As good as if not better than Season 1, though for completely different reasons.

8/10

Six Feet Under season 3 - The show changed trajectory this season and the results were hit and miss. For every thing that was done well, something else was done poorly. The last 4 episodes are a knockout bunch though. Still, it was weaker than the much stronger first two seasons.

6.5/10

Six Feet Under Season 4 - The decline continues. Personally, I thought the show just turned into high grade soap opera by this point. Some good episodes (david and the hitchiker) but overall the weakest season I've seen.

5.5/10

Spooks Season 1 - competently made BBC spy series, nothing really wrong with it overall. But it's much too cliche for all the reverence it receives.

6.5/10

Entourage Season 1 - Decent series about the life of an up and coming movie star with not much talent, a killer agent, and some leechy friends. Sets up nicely and could be a real winner if the writing becomes sharper.

7/10 

you know, the John Carpenter Antarctica base scifi/horror movie. It was on telly last night. I didn't see it from the beginning, and I've seen it partly before, but it was pretty good to watch again.

They don't do such movies anymore. This is from 1982.
I don't know what is different... I guess the special effects here were still mostly to support the story and not an act itself, although they were a bit cheesy at a few places. Then also, the people acted pretty rationally feeling and felt reserved, and the surrounding base was very no-frills. No cheesy high technology there.

And there were no women in the film to distract the plot.

It's based on a fifties scifi story. I guess the whole thing is just that it's more "adult" than modern scifi movies. The plot had some sidetracks that were good, necessary and consistent, so it felt "realistic". Plus the hero, "Mac" played by the Snake Plissken guy was a good good guy - such actors with some peculiar character are not made anymore, but the casting just selects some generic hunks. 

...and while it didn't suck balls as badly as I was led to believe it would, it certainly wasn't what I would call a good movie. :)

Kinda cheesy and kinda predictable, cookie-cutter characters, an elite military team that continually does really stupid things, slow to get started, and with a "first-person-cam" sequence that actually embarrassed me in a dark movie theater.

The BFG effect was cool, and some of the fight sequences were fun. Meh. 

yeah, it actually had suspense and a script, that's the main difference. The effects were a bit hit and miss but it's a pretty nifty movie. 

That is a good one. So is the original The Fog with its slow, malevolent atmosphere. Has anyone seen the remake yet?