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. 

maybe, but screenwriting is more than just lifting lines from a page.

What may soundgood when you read it, doesnt necessarily sound good when you say it. And it's not just the writing, but the delivery that adds to the 'psued-intellectual' feel. 

36 Quai Des Orfevres (2004) - unconvincing and highly derivative mix of the gritty crime films of the 70's and the blockbusters of today. Movie concerns two rival senior police officers cometing against each other fo a promotion by attempting to catch a local mob.

There was potential here but the direction ranges from poor-average and the script doesnt quite know what it wants to be. There are some very good scenes at time, mainly due to Daniel Auteiul who is vry good in his role and te occasional bit of sharp dialogue.

But for every good scene, there's a bad one. And the action, whislt good, is lifted directly from Heat. Actually, the movie does try to be Heat in other areas but fails.

Hollywood remake on the way, with Deniro and Clooney. Like I said, lots of potential, so remake could be better.

5.5/10 

Wolf creek - No more than what you expect it to be, but it's made with great skill Doesnt quite rival the first hour of High Tension, but then it doesnt have the silliness of the last 15 min of that movie either. I didnt find the first half hour boring/uninteresting as a lot of people claim, then again I dont mind movies that dont jump straight into the action. Also, the first 30 min probably contains some of the best shots of the aussie landscape put on film.

The rest of it iswell made and quite tense (also liked the homages towards Picnic at Hanging Rock and duel). Not as gory as I was expecting, but that is a good thing, as a lot of modern day horror films mistake gory for scary. In two minds over John Jaraat, he's menacing when he breaks out of the aussie outback ocker schtick, but that doesnt really happen often enough. It's a deliberate choice but didnt really work for me completely. Still, well made, and much better than the recent bunch of american horror crap.

7/10 

La Ceremonie (1995) - Considered to be one of the prolific Claude Chabrol's best films, this slow burn, moody and ultimately unsettling movie is indeed very very good.

Concerning an upper class french family who hire a new maid with something not quite right about her and her subsequent friendship with the local post office clerk who is also slightly off normal, it is a beautifully acted film by a who's who of french actresses (isabelle huppert, jacqueline bisset, sandrine bonnaire and virginie ledoyen) and is also assuredly directed and excellently written. It takes its time laying all the cards on the table, before unassumingly going on towards its inevitable climax.

If anything, I thought it could have been shot better to heighten the mood (especially the lighting), but as it is, this is still quite a classy watch.

7.5/10 

...and these aren't films - they are BBC natural world documentaries, but I suggest anyone with an ounce of interest in what goes on in our planet watches them as soon as possible as they all contain beautiful photography and exceptionally interesting subjects.

If you can't see them on TV, you can get them on DVD (which I recommend, as they contain really great behind the scenes extras), but they are also very easy to track down in high quality formats through slightly more illegal channels.

Each programme usually runs for around 50 minutes.

Life in the Undergrowth - 5 part series about the life of various insects. Some really amazing stuff in here, including a mammoth centipede that hunts bats, spiders that poach the catches of larger spiders, ants that kill trees and more. Some of these just blew me away.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeintheundergrowth/

The Blue Planet - A series of 8 programmes about life in the sea. I saw this a long time ago, so I don't remember all the programmes that well, but I do remember the second programme about what lives down in the darkest depths of the oceans was very cool, and contained some extremely odd creatures. My least favourite of these series, but certainly worth checking out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/tv/blueplanet/

Planet Earth - 5 part series about life on the planet. Obviously not as in-depth as the others, but still as in-fucking-credible. I've only seen the first in the series so far, and I nearly shed a tear when I saw the little elephant trying to find it's parents out in the desert. Amazing slow motion shot of a shark snatching a seal too. Really, incredible stuff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth/


There is also an extremely awesome Channel 4 programme about the science team that was studying the aftermath of Chernobyl floating around out there that I thoroughly recommend people check out. It's a pretty old TV recording, so the quality isn't great, but it really is worth watching, so don't let that deter you. The name is something like "inside chernobyl's sarcophagus"

Also on Chernobyl, there is a great BBC made factual drama based on the life of Valeri Legarsov - the expert who was brought in to oversee the evacuation and cleanup of the plant, who later commited suicide because of it.

There is another documentary called "Chernobyl Hearts", which I have not yet seen, that apparently won an oscar. 

It is about the only TV show I've ever turned down nights in the pub to watch. It originally aired in 2001, I think. If you haven't seen it, you really should. 

Was at a small film festival here.
It's better than I expected. Maybe a bit too much Gore there. But the data is presented pretty well. The radiative forcing a bit so-so. I'm so tired. My mind is disintegrating from all the vitutus.

I'd say it's worth watching definitely!