but what about brad? 

was he in the movie :) 

King Kong is a rather long movie, so if you like long movies don't miss this one!

Also: Worms. 

This french psychological melodrama has to have one of the most unsympathetic and unlikable characters to ever grace the screen. I just wanted to smash his head in.

The actor that played this character didnt help either, putting in a very phony and mannered performance. The direction was poor as well, relying on cheap cliches.

The one saving grace was Emanuelle Beart, who seemed to be chanelling Brigitte Bardot. 

Fantastic Four - what a non event of a film. There is nothing worth watching here. Nothing.

Forget the acting, script etc, the actual special effects are some of the most badly integrated in recent years. Everything looks so fake except for The Thing's costume, the one thing that wasnt CG. Even Hulk and Daredevil, bad as they were, had some aspects worth watching.


The Professionals - I'm not usually a big fan of westerns but this is a very good one. Great casting and excellent dialogue. Conrad J Hall's cinematography is also great. 

The Professionals got me in the mood for some more Western action and I tried out Sam Peckinpah's acclaimed film.

This is very very good, one of those few films that can pull you into their world and make you feel as if you're there. There is a rawness to it all, and also a sense of very refined filmmaking.

If anything, the plot's a bit too meandering, but apart from that, this is great. 

A Bittersweet Life - korean gangster flick/noir by the same director who did A Tale of Two Sisters.

And like a Tale of Two Sisters, this is a very stylish film. Some very good cinematography and nice action sequences. It's a very predictable, pulpy film though, going through every crime/noir cliche in existence.

In the end, like A Tale of Two sisters, it turns out to be above average fare. 

And anyone else.

I don't know whether it is socially acceptable to like Minority Report, but I certainly did. Was on Xmas TV the other night and I'm glad I watched it. Smart, pretty stylish, good blend of action and plot, and an entertaining progression that kept me interested. On the downside there were some silly moments, some triteness, and the integration of hi-technology was unconvincing, but overall a cut about most sci-fi thrillers I felt. 

I didnt mind minority report myself, I thought the first half hour was pretty good. I just thought the twist at the end was kind of unnecessary. It may have been better if they stopped it at the point where tom cruise's character was arrested and shown going down the elevator into captivity. 

I haven't sat through a movie in ages, but I just saw 'War of the Worlds' with Tom Cruise.

The special FX were awesome and the movie started out decently enough. The problem is that the tension and suspense that come when the invasion first begins never stops through out the movie!

I kept waiting for a break or some plot development or character development or something -- but none to be had. It was just one tense "escape from the alien" scene after another.

The ending was totally unbelievable and abrupt. I thought Tom Cruise was good, but I would have liked to have seen some more acting besides the little girl screaming and Tom Cruise flipping out.

2 out 5 stars 

was glad that this was all there was :

"It was just one tense "escape from the alien" scene after another."


That is much better than most blockbusters that try to include a b grade story. The film didnt pretend to be anything more than what it was and that is ok in my book.

And I can see people having issues with the ending, but a similar number of people would have complained if it was changed fromt he book's ending. 

The Bone Collector - reasonable performances by the two leads but as usual with most serial killer films, the script is extremely clunky.


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - It takes a while to get used to johnny depp, the backstory to wonka seems a bit out of place, the songs are awful, the oompa loompas are a bit disappointing.

But this is one very entertaining film with glorious production design and visual detail. Nice to see Burton back in business after the PotA remake and the ho hum overly sentimental Big Fish. 

The Thomas Crown Affair (original version) - I thought this was only slightly better than the remake which isnt saying much. This version comes across as quite dated and corny despite having the presence of both mcqueen and dunaway.


Don't Look Now - Great stuff. Part thriller, part drama, part gothic horror, this is a knockout film from Nicholas Roeg. I thought the ending was a little predictable but everything else is of extremely high quality. Brilliant stuff. 

It's a political/military thriller with Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young. Was on tv when I surfed channels and accidentally hit it.

It is interesting how dated it seemed, the picture was kinda bad and the voices were often clipped. Kevin Costner was a bit of a stoneface at times, not much portraying the extreme feelings he would go through here. But the supporting performance by Will Patton as political aide Pritchard is what helps make this movie good, along with the interesting and exciting plot. There are quite a lot of small supporting actors that all have interesting characters by themselves and that adds a lot to the film. Sean Young ain't bad either.

I think as a whole the film works and is good to watch. It sets average goals and prettymuch succeeds in getting to them. 

Its cool. Some amazing action scenes. Looks pretty and stylish (ok, you could say its a ripoff of u know what and what)
And wtf with ppl starting to get annoyed when there is actually some not brain-dead plot in a blockbuster-action (nevermind the obvious cheesy ending)?
If you compare Island to say another Bay's movie Armageddon - the plot of the later is much much worse. Prolly everyone was expecting same from the Island and was dissapointed to see some attempt at proper sci-fi in the first part of the movie. well, too bad 

Just go watch it! It`s a gem in the pile of popcorn and pretentious crap.
Genius dialogues, great story (if quite unrealistic) with some dramatic twists. And characters that make you care! - that`s something I haven`t seen for a while (and I despise the usual cheesy hollywood methods of making the viewer feel something).
To put it in one line: there is no black and no white. Thats what this movie is about (in both meanings).

of course check IMDB for better reviews http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/ 

have u read the original "war of the worlds" book?

movie is very good btw, except some ending cheese (family reunion? wtf)
I dont like Tom, but he was really good in it.
And Tim Robbins was awesome.

Also, wtching it at home is meh, unless you have big-ass tv/projector and really good sound with THE bass 

yes, I've read the book. The ending (not the reunion) is fairly true to it.

and I watched it at home, yes we have the big ass tv and sound system, and lets just say I had to rearrange quite a few things afterwards. The DVD has one of the best soundtracks in quite a while. 

The Johnny Cash account based upon his autobio "Man In Black", which I've read and enjoyed.

Since I'm not one for pretentious movie reviews, you won't get that here. You'll just get a points summary:

Acting: great performances by Joaquin (he has the voice down and learned to play the guitar and songs) and Reese (what a beautiful smile by the way). Also interesting to see Robert Patrick (lawl I put Patrick Stewart first, imagine...) as Cash's dad.

Music: Awesome - I tell you, not many films that recreate or feature music performances made me want to applaud with the crowd - Joaquin's ACTUAL performance - guitar playing, singing (whether or not it was recorded realtime or dubbed) - was very convincing and moving.

Story: I'm not real keen on details from reading Cash's autobio, but overall I believe the film stayed quite true (despite one of his kids saying their mother Vivian was portrayed as shrewd - and boy was she!). The thing that bothered me quite early on was, they didn't quite show how Cash gets real aquainted in music. Show him listenin' to the radio as a boy, and as he's older walks into a guitar store on duty in Germany, comes back home and tries to get a record deal at a studio. Very quick pace there. Actually the movie was fairly quickly paced, but only dealt with Johnny's earlier years and drug addiction. No way you could do justice portraying his entire life in the span of even 3 hours. (I believe this film was under 2 and a half hours).

Overall
A film quite worth seeing. I may pick it up on DVD, but I'm more compelled to pick up Ray on DVD - I liked the progression of that movie more. 

Office Space
Decided to see what was so funny about this, and was really looking forward to it - and while it had it's funny moments, it just wasn't the heralded comedy it was put up to be, for me. Although I was tired and nodding off near the last 3/4ths of the movie...

Blood Work
Really looked forward to seeing Eastwood in an interesting premise but - while this film had a noir feel about it that kinda hooks you, it just fails because the dialogue is written and performed more like what you'd see in everyday life. Because of this, oddly, it wasn't as convincing or interesting. Eastwood's gravely voice got tiring as well. The plot, once it revealed itself - wasn't completely shocking, but surprising. But then the way they handled that and the end just blew. Eastwood really let me down in this flick. I hope Absolute Power is better. 

felt the same, the brit sitcom captures that atmosphere (and is a lot funnier) so much more effortlessly. 

is "The Office" related to "Office Space?" Or is it just similar subject matter? 

different style of comedy really 

but similar subject matter (well, in parts).

Also, stay away from the american version. 

The Interview

Knockout script, probably the best australian script in the last decade (although I havent seen any of the big aussie three from last year : Proposition, Look Both ways, Little Fish). A few missteps here and there, but generally this is extremely well written.

And the acting is extremely good too, except from the supporting cast who ham it up a fair bit. Nicely shot and directed by Craig Monahan too.


The Skeleton Key

Interesting concept, bad execution. For every good, intelligent moment in the script, there's an equally bad one that defines stupidity. And it goes for too many "boo" moments which seems to plague many thriller/horror films these days.


Underworld - Rubbish in all areas, from the script to the acting to the direction to the score to the action to the look. Most people praise the look but it is so derivative, it's hard to credit it.


Unscripted Season 1 - quite flawed but equally intriguing and compelling show shot as a mockumentary by George Clooney about 3 struggling actors and their experiences. Some brilliant moments in every episode, which is a lot more than most shows can lay claim to.

I prefer it to Entourage (even though it's comparing apples and oranges), which is also a good show.


Sympathy for Mr Vengeance - well shot, well written, well acted. But the pacing is incredibly off in this earlier film by Chan Wook Park, 20 min or so could easily have been lost. And I felt the whole thing came out a little contrived too.