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 

Snakes on a Plane
A tour de france. A balls-out family romp.
"Snakes on crack?! That's all we need!"
Seriously though, this ticks most of the cliche boxes, and knows it's doing it. Seeing as it's a half-parody already, I thought it could have been even more ridiculous though, but as it is it'll give you a few laughs, a few titties, and a few brutal deaths.


V For Vendetta
Not as bad as everyone seems to be making out! Not up to the original Matrix, but better than the sequels I thought. As nitin pointed out, there's a bit of the lazy psuedo-intellectual feel that they gave to the scenes with the architect in the matrix trilogy, that's here as well.

I'm not sure it's got a lot of depth to it, but it's a good ride... it looks great and the soundtrack is bang on. I'm not convinced by Natalie Portman in this though... lovely though she is, she just wasn't all that convincing, although that might be partly down to the script, partly her slightly shoddy 1950s english accent.


The Big Sleep
Just fantastic. The script for this is brilliant, so witty. Bogart is maybe the suavest man ever. Definitely deserves to be up there with Casablanca. Can anyone recommend any similar film noirs? Nitin, you seem to have seen them all :) 

I love the big sleep, and yeah the script is great.

Similar styled and/or greatly scripted noirs (roughly in order of quality) :

The Maltese Falcon
Chinatown
Out of the Past
Double Indemnity
The Killers
The Third Man
Night and the City
Key Largo 

watched Key Largo again recently, and liked it much better this time around. Dont know why, and I still dont think it's a great film, but it is good. 

cheers nitin, I'll look into those. I've heard great things about the Maltese Falcon, so I'll try and get hold of that next. 

Considered the granddaddy of film noir, but I have never seen it. Is it worth spending an extra bit of money searching rarity shops for it? 

I noticed a buch of those errors in my last post to Mike! 

I've walked past Petrified Forest many times in the video shop, might give it a whirl someday.

Starbuck,

Maltese Falcon isnt as tightly plotted as Big Sleep, but the script is still very very good and Bogart is again great. Chinatown is IMHO the best script ever. Double Indemnity and Out of the Past have great 'dialogue' scripts. 

The Leopard (1963) - Scorsese and Coppola are always raving about this italian movie in interviews and it's not hard to see why.

Supremely directed epic period melodrama by Luchino Visconti. The cinematography and music are amazing, and no doubt inspired they way The Godfather was made. The movie itself was a bit hard to connect with, but the longer it went on, the easier it became. Perhaps, it was my extremely limited knowledge of Italy's history.

To go with the direction, the performances are strong, despite the multilingual cast causing a lot of dubbing to be used. Perhaps the best compliment would be to say that I hardly noticed the dubbing.

Burt Lancatser, surprisingly, makes a very good old fashioned Italian Aristocrat, Alain Delon is effective as the new age italian man (although it's unusual seeing him in a non-Melville film where he defined "cool") and Claudia Cardinale is very hot as the 'girl'.

8/10


Syriana - effectively made by the same team as Traffic, and has effectively the same problems. Namely, the same sense of self conscious 'importantness' because it's dealing with a current, important topic.

Having said that, it also the same strengths as Traffic, good acting, high production values and a strong sense of authencity.

The main problem is Gaggan's script, it's very messy, and there doesnt really seem to be a reson for it apart form trying to come across as "complicated". The dynamics of the plot are interesting enough by themselves, I dont know why it was felt that it had to be fragmented and spatially divided as it was.

Worth watching, and above average overall, but could hae been more effective.

6.5/10 

A common misconception is that the movie/dialogue (especially V's) is pretentious and 'pseudo-intellectual', but this comes from people who haven't even read the graphic novel.

You'd say the same thing about that. So consider the film's source and don't write it off as some Wachowski cliche.