yep, while trasposing it from hong kong to america, it doesnt quite work as well as Infernal Affairs (although that had its own faults).

Its definitely a good film, but hardly a great one. 

Was boring ! :) 

I loved Infernal Affairs, but despite my expectations I found The Departed much more effective. I'm inclined to think that it's because it's more 'western' so I can relate to it better, but I also loved every performance and I think much more love was put in to the soundtrack.

I'm also glad that it's not going to be a trilogy. The second two Infernal Affairs films were decent, but I found that they detracted from the first simply because I didn't feel that the story needed to go any further. 

different things to like in each.

Dearted has the better soundtrack with Gimme Shelter and is a lot funnier but Infernal Affairs had that killer performance by Tony Leung which is better than DiCaprio's (although he was still good) and also I liked its ending better and the plot had less holes. 

to excellent use. I would complain a bit about using Rolling Stone A.M. hit tunes instead of album cuts (Moonlight Mile would go great with a coke injestation scene) but then I recall that Let it Loose was also played in the movie, so that criticism would not be exactly accurate. 

The Illusionist - above average I guess but it really pales in comparison to Chris Nolan's far superior The Prestige. Nolan's movie had more depth in its script and its themes, more interesting characters and much better acting.

This is well shot, with a nifty lighting trick to make its production design seem fancier than it is, but everything else from the acting to the directing to the scriptng is on autopilot. And the less said about the very predictabe plot the better.

6/10 

Jezebel (1938) - Almost great melodrama with Bette Davis turning in a fantastic performance as a domineering and manipulative woman in 1850's New Orleans who is not afraid to break from society's rrules and traditions in trying to control her fiancee and those aorund him.

William Wyler directs well and the supporting cast is also very good, but this is Davis' show in every frame. Apart from a well conceived but not well executed ending, I didnt find too much wrong with it.

7.5/10


Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) - Well made bizarre semi-gothic film with Bette Davis playing "baby jane", a has been ex child star who is now a deranged misfit who both looks after and torments her more popular ex-actress sister, Blanche (played by Joan Crawford), who is paralysed from the waist down after a car accident in which Jane was involved.

Treads that fine line between really bad and deliberately campy pretty well, mainly due to the very good acting from both leads. Davis has the showier role and runs with it, she's barely recognisable both in terms of look and also her character. There's also some finely written supporting roles and a few interesting turns in the script, but the whole thing does feel as if it runs 15-20 min too long. The very end scene is pure genius though.

7/10 

ok, first of all, i watched it in english and didn't get some parts - the (scottish?) accent was just too much in places for me. I don't think that's a large problem though.

I was a bit dissappointed, as i heard quite good reviews of it. The sets were nice and the camera was, too, but overall it felt way too forced for me. forced like snatch/lock stock barrel bla feel forced, but those are comedy, trainspotting was more tragedy for me (at least the seriousness of the setting/theme suggests that).

the characters weren't exactly well defined or played well (even though i heard praise of ewan mcgregor he felt like he was just walking his body through the sets [or maybe that's great play wtf]), i liked the accents though.

what more is there to this movie? it had some serious 90's feel to it, but again, in a forced manner.

i dunno, this just isn't deep enough for me i think, it doesn't explore the (interesting) ideas it touches to their full extends.

5/10 for it being still quite entertaining. 

Overall very nice but much of what was going on as part of the civil war outside the house was much less engaging than the bedroom scenes and Ofelia's fairy tale adventures. I think it could have been better with almost all focus on the relationships between Ofelia, her mother, the captain, Mercedes (and maybe the doctor) and the fairytale stuff with less soldiers running around shooting at each other. That being said I do think both the real world and fantasy threads were twined together into a good ending.

Ofelia's second test should was cool enough to deserve a whole movie with more stuff like it. 

havent seen it for a while, but I thought it was great the first time around.

It moved (for me) seamlessly from comedy to drama, and while there was nothing deep about it, it was still very much an engaging watch. 

Ghost Dog : Way of the Samurai (1999) - Jim Jarmusch's homage/loose remake/parody of Jean Pierre Melville's excellent Le Samourai is an above average effort that is quite quirky and humorous but never as satisfying or classy as Melville's film.

As is usual in a Jarmusch movie, there's plenty of mood, an impressive soundtrack, not much dialogue and even less plot. And as is usual, the sum is less than the parts. Forest Whittaker acquits himself well but he's no Alain Delon, especially when Jef Costello was probably Delon's most iconic role.

6.5/10


Omkara (2006) - Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of Othello set against the backdrop of the political scene in north eastern india is not your standard bollywood movie. Its a bit of a shame that something like this is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to indian films, because the talent is obviously there, it's just not utliised properly.

Apart from some slightly uneven pacing in the second half, some one dimensional characterisations and an over intrusive background score, this is high quality moviemaking. The acting is uniformly impressive, despite some of the characterisation, with Saif Ali Khan a standout in the role of Iago. And for once the songs dont interfere and detract, but are integrated into and are an appropriate part of the narrative.

But the real highpoint is the dialogue, Bhardwaj's self written script impressively retaining the essence and prose of Shakespeare's dialogue while simultaneously adapting it to the coarse rural north indian dialect of Uttar Pradesh (think of the style of Deadwood's dialogue). On a side note, the dvd version I saw had terrible subtitles, so I'm not sure how well it will fare for non-hindi speaking viewers.

7.5/10 

you speak hindi? 

yep,speak, read and write in order of fluency :) 

Saw this on Friday on the big IMAX screen with the rest of the work crew, and, damn. One of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in quite a while.

The movie is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel "300", which is itself a retelling of Herodotus' tale of a vastly outnumbered force of Spartans attempting to hold the narrow pass at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army. The movie perhaps overdoes the exotic elements and effects a tad at times (e.g. the Persian bordello of yuck), but in my opinion, the sheer gusto of the whole thing makes up for it.

Great fight scenes. I've also seen very few movies that combine beautiful cinematograpy with huge helpings of grittiness (i.e. blood, sweat, grime) to such a striking effect.

At this particular showing, the audience spontaneously erupted into cheers at least a couple of times--the filmmakers certainly did something right. 

Interesting, may need your help. 

in what way ? 

Excalibur (1981) - John Boorman's version of the Arthurian legend is halfway terrible but strangely compelling. There's some shoddy production values that look frequently cheesy, the dialogue is cringeworthy at times and the performances are uniformly overly theatrical, everyone yelling most of their lines rather than acting.

However, it is also exceptionally well shot and scored, impeccably paced, and somehow manages to evoke the otherworldy feel of paganism and the dark ages. The direction really is outstanding (apart from the choice of acting style) and goes some way to making up for most of the weaknesses to some extent.

Definitely a more worthwhile watch than the recent attempt, King Arthur.

6/10 

Saw this today (not on an IMAX screen, though!). Great gritty feel, each scene had a clear purpose, and generally just felt epic. 

(Minor spoiler alert.) Was I the only one who felt the ending was anticlimactic, though? I mean obviously the Spartans die etc etc, but they just kinda sat there.

Otherwise I liked it. Too bad I didn't see it in Imax. 

it's about their honorable lives, moreso than their honorable deaths... 

Was thinking of using some Hindi in some music titles, etc. 

I see, well give me a yell when you need in GA. 

Throne of Blood (1957) - Akira Kurosawa's reasonably faithful adaptation of Macbeth is considered by many to be one of the best Shakespearean adaptations and also the best film version of Macbeth. That might be true as it is very well made and the deviations and exclusions from the play actually give it a somewhat better plot, but what will make or break this for you is Kurosawa's decision to film it with influences of Noh drama, basically meaning that the main actors perform in a very heightened style of overly theatrical acting and holding their expressions for long(er) periods of time.

It has been employed in some of his other period movies that I have liked, but usually in those there's more flamboyant direction or an ensemble cast acting normally, to offset the experience. In this particular movie, I just couldn�t get past it and it detracted from the quality of the rest of the movie.

Still worth a watch, but I was a little disappointed personally.

6/10


Six Feet Under Season 5 - The last season still carries over some of the soapie elements that crept in during seasons 3 and 4, but it also contains some of the best episodes and scenes in the entire series. When this show gets things right, it really works, and the last 15 min of the final episode is really great television that stays with you. I was up for two hours after seeing it last night.

Special mention to the acting by Peter Krause and James Cromwell throughout the season, it was first rate stuff from them.

7/10 

Don't. Just don't. Total boredom and no room for the actors at all. 

Saw this the other day, LOL!

Ok so its the same director and actors from Shaun of the dead, and the same style of humour also, so I geuss the easiest thing to say is if you liked Shaun, you will like this :)

I personally laughed out loud a lot more than the others cos I worked for the supermarket depicted in the film for a while and they rip the total piss out of it, some great moments there, and generally a ver enjoyable film as long as you dont take it to seriously...