they're not mostly accurate, but the imdb ratings are a good guide.

3.6/10 isnt looking good. 

I watched maybe half of it and skimmed through the rest - its like a B movie with forced/bad acting and annoying editing/cutting. 

Bulworth - A pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting much from this flick, but it turned out to be great. Beatty creates a fantastic study of movie methodology via "a day in the life of" formula. The story is outlandish, but at the same time, absolutely believable... This is due to Beatty's fine writing.

There is only one logic flaw that I noticed, however, its at the very end of the movie, and by the time you get to that point you have already come to accept and believe these characters to be absolutely real that you can easily imagine a different solution to the one presented and then all is well.

I recommend checking this one out if you haven't already. Plus it has some *very* funny parts in it.

8.5/10 

As I've been living at my parents' place without internet for a while, I've been watching a lot of TV movies. Just browsing the channels until suddenly I hit something interesting.
I'd like to mention two that have left an impression. I suggest watching these if they happen to be on your local tv channels.

Fingersmith (2005) is a two-part BBC drama. (I didn't even know about the second part until I accidentally saw it.) It's a story about well, some characters living in 1800:s London. The plot is quite interesting and not all misery, and the acting is done with great feeling. I really don't like to tell too much of movies beforehand, I don't recommend reading the IMDB blurbs on any movies either, they just ruin the feeling. It's based on a book, which might explain much of the complexity of the plot. It has also some love scenes that are actually somehow beautiful compared to a lot of the cliche and crud that's around.

Elsker dig for evigt (2002) or in english "Open Hearts" is a dogma film from Denmark. It's a drama about people and well, extreme feelings they go through when life deviates from status quo. I like the acting here, it seems quite natural and believable. The dogma style fits so well too, with the cameras and all. I've seen a swedish movie from 2004 that dealt with many of the same themes, but it failed to convince me. It somehow went over-the-top and the drama was more screaming. This is a pretty placid movie in outward expressions (at least the later part) of the people and the tension is built with your mirror neurons when you understand what the people are thinking and feeling.

Don't read the IMDB pages, they reveal too much of the plots. 

well, the fingersmith has actually three parts. Hmm, I didn't remember that. I saw the first part so much earlier and the latter two in a rerun that the first two merged into one in my mind or something. 

Un FLic - Not in the same class as Le Samourai or Le Cercle Rouge, but this is another classy crime/heist film from Jean Pierre Melville. Everything Melville is there, the effortlessly cool mood, the excellent scene compositions and another commanding turn from Alain Delon. The script and story, however, are not as great as in the two films above.

There's also one scene which badly betrays the low budget, however, it doesnt detract too much from the overall film.

7/10


Hiroshima Mon Amour - Alan Resnais' stunning 1959 movie features a great time shattering narrative, which despite being copied and imitated many times, is still strikingly effective.

The story of a woman who embarks on an affair whilst in post-war Hiroshima, Resnais paints an impressive parallel between a woman trying to forget her past and move on whilst being in the city trying to do the same.

I thought the ending was slightly abrubt and occasionally the acting not upto scratch, but this is one of the great ones.

8/10 

The Man on the Train (2002) - A recent frenc film with an interesting premise : Two men meet by chance and conclude that each would prefer and be more suited to the other's life. One being a bank robber and te other a retired poetry teacher.

What follows though is a ponderous, contrived drama/thriller with a great mood but not much more. It starts off as a western, goes through a buddy/odd couple mode, and then turns into a standard thriller. Patrice Leconte just doesnt quite bring it all together. Disappointing.

4/10


Raising arizona - It's reasonably clever, has good performances form nicolas cage and holly hunter & brilliant camerawork from Barry Sonnenfeld, but I just didnt find it all that funny.

Easy to sit through because of the great cinematography (which is also a lesson on how to have skilled camerawork without needing beautiful imagery), but like The Big Lebowski, I found this to be a disappointing Coen brothers effort. Strange, because usually I find their work quite witty and funny, but their two genuine attempts at comedy havent worked for me.

5/10


In Cold blood (1967) - Richard Brooks' adaptation of Truman Capote's famous novel is an interesting but ultimately flawed film.

The look of the film pretty much sums up the problems. It's going for a documentary feel, yet the use of cinemascope takes away from this severely. Not taking anything away from Conrad L Hall's work, that is brilliant as usual but it highlights the inherent problems with the movie.

It's a fairly decent look at two non-psychopath murderers, but the direction is a bit heavy handed, the length overly long and a lot of the drama artificial.

But, the acting is quite good, the cinematogrpahy often brilliant (despite the scope issue above) and the plot reasonably interesting.

7/10 

Capote - It does make a nice double with In Cold Blood, the different focus of the two films making for interesting viewing.

Firstly, Hoffman did deserve his oscar (although personally I dont think he was necessarily better than Ledger), conveying the shortcomings of the title character that make it a difficult role to play, and a level of magnetism necessary to do so.

The film, however, doesnt really have much to offer apart from Hoffman's brilliant characterisation. It's all well made and put together but there's not much to it.

Still, there could have been many worse things to centre a film around than an excellent performance, and overall it's definitely very good.

7.5/10


As a side note, the two movies presnet the facts slightly differently, especially sequence of events. I have no idea which is more accurate, but it was interesting to see and compare the slight, but important differences. 

Night Watch (2005) - well I dont know what all the fuss was about, I thought this was completely atrocious. It's no worse than standard hollywood crap like Constantine yet that gets lambasted while this gets praise.

2/10


Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence - worse than the first, which was above averae at best anyway, in every regard.

The mesh of 2d and 3d animation is ok, nothing psectacular, the action is shot very poorly and the rest is not worth talking about.

3/10 

I just watched Ghost in the Shell a few days ago and I totally love it. The soundtrack + "slow sequences" create such an awesome atmosphere. 

the first or the second ?

I'll admit the first has some nice atmosphere and a great soundtrack, but the sequel is awful. 

I just watched the 1st one the other day as well, and yeah I thought the atmosphere was nice but it was too slow imo though the action was nice.

I got the sequel too, haven't watched it yet though. 

And I would love some recommendations of movies in a similar style. 

for anime, but have you tried the series that came out of the movie ?

ghost in the shell : Stad alone complex

I didnt personally like it much, but it does have a very similar style to the movie. 

Seabiscuit - badly scripted, badly directed, overlong, oversentimental movie about the depression era underdog racehorse. Shot nicely in parts, but it's sorely lacking in almost all other areas.

5/10


V for Vendetta - I got the same feeling while watching this that I got when I saw From Hell - that Alan Moore's graphic novel must have been very very good.

But whereas From Hell was a semi decent film, this is absolutely terrible. And the blame rests squarely on the awful script from the wachowski brothers. I assume their 'adaptation' left certain parts of Moore's work untouched and the rest was rewritten, because the discrepancy in quality in the writing is very noticeable throughout the movie.

The performances were ok, all involved have done better though. And the action scenes are once again poorly shot.

3/10 

Bah, 8/10!

I have the graphic novel and I admire both, even though there's much more depth in the novel. 

last weekend. I could point out a few weeknesses in the editing, script, and a few improbable things, but overall it was an excellent movie. 8/10 easily.

Natalie Portman deserves a mention for her solid performance as well. Though it is hard to grade someone who is that distractingly easy on the eyes except when they are absolutely awful like in the Star Wars trilogy. 

I got the impression that the Wachowski brothers weren't trying to follow the comic exactly, but rather make a film based on their interpretation. And here I think they did a wonderful job, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly, even though I could point out a lot of the changes. I love the original version, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the movie.

Nitin, I very highly recommend the comic, it's some of the best writing released in the late 20th century. 

clearly in the minority :)

But the half baked, pseudo-intellectual script (much like the last 2 matrix films) just pissed me off.


Vigil,

I've heard that about From Hell too. Have you read/got that one too ? 

I'm beginning to wonder if it was his work in the original Matrix as Assistant Director that made that film work so well. The feeling of Hitchcock suspense in the first part of that movie had a similar feel that V for Vendetta conveyed throughout. 

...I felt that stylistically Stand Alone Complex differed quite markedly from GitS. The depth of some of the set pieces in GitS was never repeated in SAC. I'm talking here of scenes like the tank battle in the museum; involving the now iconic destruction of the tree of life. SAC is pure action anime and never repeats the long sequences of exposition and reflection present in GitS.

I quite enjoyed watching SAC, but only because I quickly realised it wasn't going to be anything like the movie (in artistic or philosophical depth). There were even some comedic moments in the series (those pesky robots!). I've lectured on GitS but doubt I'd get more than an after dinner address out of SAC. 

like I said, I'm not the best person for anime :)

I noticed the 'comedy', but I put that down to being an anime series requirement of sorts. But otherwise, I can see what you're saying, I just cant say I noticed it whilst watching. Which most likely has to do with the fact that I didnt care much overal for GitS.

The tank sequence had to be inspiration for the matrix lobby scene though. 

was ass.

I'm not the best person to ask about anime either, but it was. It was the sort of gibberish you get from a lot of Japanese anime and game stories, and only worth watching for some of the visuals. Even then there are so many more beautiful films to see.

Ass/10

Can we have an ass icon? I thought Daikatana DM was really cool, and some of the SP maps weren't bad either, but it was the closest to ass I could find :( 

I did enjoy the first film though. That was cool. 

I Wake Up Screaming - minor noir, above average overall, but the script and direction firmly keep it in first gear.

6/10


The Double Life of Veronique (1991) - The Three Colours trilogy was great but this is something else. It's like watching all three of them at once.

About two women in two different countries (Poland and france), who somehow feel connected with one another, Kieslowski's film is arguably filled more symbolsim than any other film in recent memory.

I cant say I understand everything, but as was the case with Mulholland Drive, enough made sense to me to revel in the great filmmaking. The acting by Irene Jacob is brilliant, the direction outstanding, and the look & score amazing.

And it's one those movies that will undoubtedly offer more on repeated viewings.

9/10


Thunderball - The last of the Connery Bond films that I hadnt seen and it's not bad, but just...lacklustre I guess. It never really gets out of first gear, but never drops below a certain level either.

6/10