Y'know, we are like polar opposites. I love Vanilla Sky, and I actually like most of the soundtrack. I have to see the original, though. 

My interest is peaked as you've just stated in a single post that Lynch and Crowe both who are known for their individual ear for music made lousy choices in these movies under review.

I'm not saying you are wrong, because Vanilla Sky was a terrible movie that lacked in everything (pacing, plot, continuity, actors that meshed) so I don't remember the soundtrack at all, and I have never seen Lost Highway sober to really judge it, but I do recall it has a really good Bowie tune on it.

It also has Rammstein on the soundtrack, a group that only reinforces my belief that only American and British bands can play metal without sounding like silly cheesepuffs.

Of the two movies, Lost Highway is the only one I'm likely to see again, so I was wondering about the particular scenes you found the music a distraction instead of adding to the ambiance. 

I shot a favorite movie of yours
down, but I just didn't buy into it on any level :( 

phait, well at least that might make it easier for both of us to know what stuff to avoid :)


headthump,

I'm not saying the tunes are bad, just that they really didnt fit with what was on screen I thought. NIN's also in there but also used in a way I found distracting.

Anyway, scenes in particular were anything involving Bill Pullman working out a bit of the mystery towards the end and also second half scenes when he attacks people. 

I think you forgot the swedes and some others! (or at least I'd like to think so) 

..even if there's a bunch of good metal from the US it's a land with a very high cheesepuff ratio in my book. 

good metal bands come out of there, even if you exclude that band of Scots for being expats instead of natives, they give good metal.

As for the Swedes -- well, I tried some tunes from previous recommendations on the Music forum, and those bands sound like incarnations of Spinal Tap.

The cheese puff ratio in the US lowers significantly when you take the eighties pop hairband thing out of the mix.

Music is very competitive here. Every scene has bands of extreme musical abilaty, equal to the likes of Tool or Living color in muscicianship, but they don't get any airplay.

I've been to shows in Boston/New York/DC/Chapel Hill/Athens Ga./Miami/
Nashville/New Orleans and Austin Texas checking out the metal/rock scenes -- if Azaghal is among the best bands coming off the Continent -- bless your heart for trying, but it is not in the same league. 

Bob le Flambeur (1955) - One of Jean Pierre Melville's early films, and considered to be one of his best, but I couldnt really see why. It's technically half a Melville film really, with a very un-Melville first half that is quite leisurely and meandering. The second half is much more in line with what he normally does, and is very tight and precise. Worth a watch just for that.

I believe this was remade as The Good Thief in 2002 with Nick Nolte playing the title character. I havent seen that version but there's definitely things that could be improved upon.

6.5/10


In a Lonely Place (1950) - I have absolutely no idea why this isnt more well known, not only does it contain Bogart's best acting (although he's arguably given better performances) but it's also made by Nicholas Ray, who is generally only ever associated with Rebel Without a cause.

Anyway, this is a great film with Bogart playing a self-destructive screenwriter and Gloria Grahame matching him very well as a neighbour/muse.

It's a also a fine example to demonstrate that film noir was not just a genre for crime films or detective movies. This is pure film noir, but is primarily a drama interested in its two main characters.

Excellently directed, great dialogue, there's hardly any histrionics, and it follows though to the only ending that should have happened.

Minor nitpicks would be a bit of dodgy acting from Grahame in a few scenes, and a forgettable score but apart from that, it's great.

8.5/10 

Lacombe, Lucien (1974) - Louis Malle's terrific movie about a naive, directionless and borderline sociopathic young french man who, after being bored with his day to day job, attempts to join the French Resistance but upon rejection, inadvertently joins the Gestapo.

Through the character of Lucien, Malle manages to impressively blur the distinction between the hatred that fuelled some to collaborate with the Nazis and the passion that drove others to resist them. Its a bit overlong and the narrative does seem to get lost 2/3 of the way in, but it is still an excellently acted and directed movie.

8/10


Wonder Boys - The script tries a bit too hard in quite a few places and the ending is also a bit tacky, but in between there's some real high points. And it is also very funny.

Tobey Maguire overdoes his role, but Michael Douglas is quite good as the cynical writer who doesnt know how to follow up his mega-succesful last novel. Robert Downey Jnr is also great as his editor, trying to rush his next book to completion.

Quirky and entertaining but needed more focus.

7/10


The Name of the Rose (1986) - I didnt have much of an idea about what this was about and was pleasantly surprised. A very good, moody film and whoever cast Sean Connery got it spot on as this is the best he has ever been.

The movie's essentially a murder mystery set in a 14th century Bendectine monastery and Connery plays William of Baskerville, a monk who is "in tune with reason as much as he is with spirit". Its a very dark film, both in terms of subject matter and atmopshere, and the director has gone to much effort to get the ambience right.

The main mystery loses a bit of steam towards the end, as other matters get more focus, but overall this is a very satisfying movie with a good script and quality performances.

7.5/10 

accepted his Oscar for Beautiful Mind, he made a point of stating that the man who deserved to be recieving the award did not even get nominated. He meant Michael Douglas for Wonder Boys. 

Alien 3 (30 min extended version) - Finally saw this version, I'd seen the original theatrical version previously and it really was one bad movie.

This is better, but it only pulls the movie up from terrible to above average. Really, adding scenes can only do so much, this needed a major overhaul to be any good, let alonebe comparable to the first two which are great films.

Anyway, the extended cut flows better and is a lot smoother, but now its way too long at 144 min. Its actually fairly good till the 80 min mark, and then it doesnt realy know where to go or how to get there. and given that there's an hour left after that point, that's a lot of time. Pity, because the plot actually had some real potential, too bad the script is such a mess.

David fincher directs too distantly, you never really get involved with the movie despite the excellent production design and the reasonable performances. Its shot in the trademark Fincher oppressive style that is readily evident in Seven and Fight Club. but despite te excellent cinematography, there's no real memorable images nor any memorable set pieces, which were ther in the first two films.

6/10


Le Corbeau 91943) - Excellent little movie from Henri-Georges Clouzot about a small town plagued by a series of poison pen letters. Whilst the main mystery is a bit easy to work out, its fortunately not he main focus of the movie. Clouzot is more interested in portraying a community rife with paranoia and fear and wher people inform on the doings of others in order to hide their own secrets (which, given that this was made in the occupation years, is probably also an attack on the gestapo and other collabarators).

And its filled with some nice imagery, especially the closin shots. Good Stuff.

8/10 

I saw Black Dahlia this weekend. It was terrible! I'd read the book long ago, and liked it, which is probably why I didn't read any reviews that could have warned me. Think about everything that made LA Confidential good, and remove it. 

I was looking forward to it, as well as hollywoodland. but both have been getti bad reviews. 

another movie with Aaron Eckhart that I saw recently was "Thank You For Smoking," and that was highly entertaining. Might be on DVD by now. 

why do i disagree about alien3 being a bad movie so much. really need to watch this again. 

Raise the Red Lantern (1991) - I'd heard a lot about how great this movie was, but had put off watching it till an acceptable dvd release was out. Finally saw it this weekend off the remastered HK dvd and it is most definitely an absolute masterpiece.

It's a faultless movie, with Gong Li in the role of a lifetime as the fourth bride of a powerful chinese lord in the 1920's. The competition between the wives is tough, as their "master's" attention carries power, privileges and status.

Impeccably shot, outstandingly acted and excellent directed, this is probably the best modern asian film I've seen.

9.5/10


The Black Swan (1942) - At 84 min, it's a breeze to sit through but is ultimately a fairly corny old-fashioned pirate movie. Has charm in parts and looks great, but depsite the quick running time, it's nothing memorable.

5.5/10


Deadwood Season 2 - Finally finished this, took a while because I was trying to cut down my unfinished movie stack and so only saw this intermittently.

Anyway, well below the quality of season 1, which admittedly was hard to live up to given that it was probably the best season of drama television ever, but it's still much better than most shows' peaks.

The scripting, and in particular the dialogue, is not as excelent as season 1. This time around, the integration of swearing into the shakespearean like vernacular is not as well done and the swearing does actually become distracting and draws attention to itself. Also the first 3 episodes are a bit weak.

After that point the show does pick up and hits some of the same highs that it achieved in season 1. Theres a lot more happening this season and whilst its difficult to get a grasp of everything, there's a lot there to hold your attention.

7.5/10 

Wages of Fear (1953) - Henri Georges Clouzot 's brilliant film about four desperate men in a decrepit south american village, who take on the job of transporting a vast amount of nitroglycerine over some rather dangerous territory.

Most movies wish they had a script so good, the first hour is pretty much all buildup but it does a great job in setting the atmosphere and characters. The remaning time is the actual transport, and despite being 60% of the running time, it does not get tedius for any of it.

The acting is strong, the direction even stronger and although it might be predictable in parts today, it is still one heck of a movie.

9/10 

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) - It has some great scenes, but there are some poor choices by Martin Scorsese that significantly lessen the impact.

The main problem I had with this, and the one that took me right out of the film, was to have everyone maintain their accents. Especially Harvey Keitel. As I mentioned, this took me right out of the film and was completely distracting.

Other problems included an at times brilliant, and at other times completely silly score and some shoddy acting by some of the minor players.

In between all that, there really is some memorable stuff, much more than the entire length of The Passion of the Christ. And whilst Paul Schrader's script is hardly subtle, it is almost always intriguing.

A misfie overall, but an interesting one.

6/10


Diary of a Chambermaid (1964) - Another classy film by Luis Bunuel, this time about a chambermaid's sojourn at a wealthy 1930's french estate, which is inhabited by some rather curious people.

Jeanne Moreau is great once again and the movie starts off fairly lightly before veering off into more dark and surreal territory in the second half. One of Bunuel's more straightforward and accessible movies, but as good as his other more abstract stuff. The ending is a bit abrupt, but otherwise classy stuff.

7.5/10 

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) - the final movie in Chan Wook Park's vengeance trilogy and coming after Oldboy, it's a bit of a disappointment. It' still a decent movie, just not more than that.

It melds the styles of both Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Oldboy which works to great effect in some scenes but is not as effective for the most part.

This one is about Lee Gaeum Ja, who has been in prison for 13 yrs for a murder, and upon release obviously goes about extracting vengeance on the real perpretator, whilst the movie provides exposition about her character and past via flashbacks (some clever others not so clever).

There's lots of style and it does head off into unexectedly interesting directions despite the simple premise but there's also a definitely a sense of Park trying to cram way too much into one movie. And some of the segments are a bit too heavy handed.

But there's a nice strain of humour running through the movie, giving it a sense of the surreal and the flashiness of Park's style does cover up some of the narrative mess.

Enjoyable, disappointing and entertaining all at the same time.

7/10 

Personally I thought Deadwood got better with each season, but you're right about the swearing in season 2. I think they may have tried to live up to expectations a little to hard in thar regard. I thought the season 2 finale was one of the greatest moments I've seen on film, in television or cinema. Though admittedly it wouldn't stand up without the character building in episodes previous.

Season 3 addresses some of the problems with swearing [either that or I was just used to it by then] and ups the ante on the convoluted speeches [Farnham and Jane being particularly entertaining as usual]. It's also much more violent and the underlying tension running through the camp is tangible throughout with very few of the moments of respite that season 2 dotted around. I've yet to see the last two episodes, but so far it's stunning.

The greatest thing about Deadwood is that I come away from it thinking in their language, just as I do from Shakespeare. I don't think I could ever give the series enough praise tbh. 

is 3 meant to be the last season ?

its a great show, no doubt about it, I think I was just expecting too much after the near perfect season 1.

yeah, the finale for 2 was great even though it was pretty much an adpated version of the climax of godfather 1.

But al swearengen is quite possibly the most fascinating tv character ever. 

Night Moves (1973) - A fine character study from Arthur Penn parading around as a film noir. It has another solid turn from Gene Hackman in a role not too dissimilar from Harry Caul in The Conversation. He plays obsessive private detective Harry Moseby who suffers from existential dilemmas and doesnt quite know when to quit with a case.

The script is well written but takes on a bit more than it can handle. Whilst the mystery plot and chracter drama is competently written individually, it's not linked together all that well. So each plays out in acts but they never coalesce as a whole and there is a bit of a jar every time the script changes focus.

Still Hackman is excellent and there is some great dilagoue. Its well directed in a low key fashion from Penn too.

7/10 

Brick - Rian Johnson tries a bit too hard while directing and it's a little too self conscious of the genre and films it's trying to emulate, but otherwise this is pretty good. Its an interesting idea, trying to transpose film noir into a high school setting but it succeeds better than Veronica Mars in my opinion.

The main reason for that is because Johnson realises that you cant just transpose the elements of film noir, you also have to create a cynical and seedy world for those elements to be a part of. This he does successfully here, and whilst the actions and language of the characters are not what normal teenagers would engage in, it doesnt seem out of place in the world created.

However, Johnson doesnt seem to have enough confidence in his material and imbues the movie with lots of visual tricks that serve no real purpose and end up detracting rather than adding to the movie. Also, it ticks every box in the noir handbook but it would have been better off leaving some of those boxes unchecked as certain parts seemed very forced.

Joseph Gordon Levitt does very well as the main character trying to track down his girlfriend.

7/10 

The Bride Wore Black (1968) - french movie about a bride whose husband is killed ont heir wedding day and she goes on a vengeful spree to kill all 5 men involved, crossing their name off a list as she kill each one. Sounds a lot like Kill Bill, but general plot aside, this is more Hitchcock than Tarantino's film.

However, its pretty disappointing. Despite bing reasonably directed by Francois Truffaut, reasonably acted by Jeanne Moreau and also featuring a nice score by Bernard Hermann, it just didnt work for me.

5/10 

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go write real reviews for real sites !