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... 

The Sopranos Season Six Part 1 - the first six episodes are as good as the show has ever been since season 3, but then there's a huge downturn in quality as some of the poorest writing to date takes over, especially in relation to two major subplots (vito and AJ).

There's only so much the performers can do when the scripts are poor and the last six episodes make sure this is the worst season so far by a long way.

6.5/10


Red Beard (1965) - Akira Kurosawa's overlong but brilliantly made period film about a medical intern taking up apprenticeship in a public clinic in 19th century Japan against his wishes further demonstrates that his non-samurai films were just as great as his samurai ones.

The main plot can be seen as melodramatic soap opera stuff but the script and direction never let it come across that way. Apart from one badly misjudged sequence, there's a perfectionism present here in almost all aspects.

Toshiro Mifune is great in a restrained performance and his final collabration with the great Japanese director is excellent stuff.

8/10 

8 1/2 (1965) - I didn�t really get it. Federico Fellini's universally lauded movie is probably the most abstract and distant thing I have ever seen. I get the crux of it, the difficulty of the creative process, but don�t know how or what all that is depicted is meant to be. It is a film about a director struggling to make a film, in much the same way Adaptation was scripted to be about a writer struggling to write a script. It can therefore be seen as an exercise in self reflexivity and/or a film about the process and difficulties of filmmaking and/or the alienation and frustration experienced by someone who doesn�t know what to do and who is constantly being pressurised both personlly and professionally.

There's some very fluid camerawork and it moves seamlessly from reality to fantasy to memories but I just found that I couldn�t connect with it on any of the three levels mentioned above. It almost felt like you had to know Fellini, the person, to really get into it. Either way, it was an admirable effort but not something for me.

6/10


Sarkar (2005) - Ram Gopal Varma's loose adaptation of The Godfather set in the Mumbai underworld is a disappointing effort from someone who usually excels in that genre. Varma decides to give Coppola and Puzo's film an MTV makeover, relentlessly editing and moving the story forward, so much so that all character development is lost and buried, something that was a key to The Godfather's greatness. It also has one of the most overly bombastic and annoying background scores in recent memory. Some of the performances are good, but their impact is lost as none of the characters are given any time to breathe.

6/10


Clerks 2 - Kevin Smith's followup to Clerks is a decent movie till about 3/4 of the way through. Till that point, it's a low key, reasonably funny movie with some great monologues that are trademark Smith (my 2 favorites being the rant about how star wars is better than the LOTR trilogy and how porch monkey is an inappropriate racist term that should be reclaimed for general use). Then, it descends into 20 of the stupidest minutes in recent cinema, crashing from one bad scene to the next. It goes for funny and sentimental, and ends up being just tragic, ruining an otherwise decent effort.

5.5/10 

with 8 1/2. Everything else he has done
that I have seen is much better in what makes a good film imho, evocation of mood, story, characterization, umph, gusto, pretty actresses and the like. Why this one is considered his best in the general assessment of critics alludes my understanding. Frankly, I thought it was a waste of time to watch. 

8 1/2 was well-filmed and interesting and artsy and stuff, but it never really engaged me. 

so it wasnt just me then :)

Have to say I felt the same abou La Dolce Vita. 

The Host - Joon Ho Bong's followup to Memories of Murder isnt as great a film, but its quite a good effort for a monster movie.

I think it works as well as it does because its quite funny, black humour popping up in many unexpected scenes. Secondly, the creature isnt the sole focus which makes all the scenes not involving it work as well.

It takes on a bit too much (juggling satire, horror, thriller and family drama) which causes it to lose focus occasionally and become uneven in its pacing, but at the same time its that very characteristic that makes it so refreshing and unpredictable.

The CGI is convincing, although a bit shoddy in places, but Bong's audacity to shoot most the creature scenes in broad daylight in long uninterrupted takes (normally a no-no for movies like this) pays off quite well.

7/10 

This was an interesting article despite being on Kotaku:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/feature-the-colossus-and-the-comedian-246286.php

The short version is SOTC is featured in the upcoming movie Reign Over Me, and they did it as artistic choice rather than as product placement (I actually believe it since that's the wrong game for them to choose if it was really a marketing decision.)

Still, it would be interesting to see how they use it and whether it actually enhances the movie or not. 

havent seen it, but adam sandler plays a character suppressing his past (wife and daughter killed in 9/11) by isolating himself and playing lots of video games etc 

The Lady Eve (1941) - I find this to be the best of Preston Sturges' films, although it is still nothing more than above average in my eyes.

Thankfully, the slapstick is gone, and this time the reliance is on the dialogue for the comedy. Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck are both terrific and the script is good, but there was still a lot more room for wittier dialogue I think.

6.5/10


Pat Garett and Billy the Kid (1973) - Sam Peckinpah's version of the famous western legend is an odd movie, with brilliant individual scenes, but never quite coming together as a whole. Part of it is probably down to studio interference as he was never allowed to release his intended version. The dvd comes with 2 cuts, one labelled a director's cut, albeit still incomplete, and the other a 2005 restoration which is a combination of the theatrical and director's cuts.

The director's cut is definitely the better movie, if only because it uses the instrumental rather the vocal versions of Boby Dylan's music which is very overused and distracting in the 2005 version. It also has a better epilogue and prologue section which is still good but not as effective in the 2005 version. However, the newer version does include some great new scenes that really should have been part of the original version.

Either way, it's still a worthwhile watch but comes across as a mishmash rather than a coherent vision. James Coburn is great as Pat Garrett, the outlaw turned sheriff who is given the task to track down his old friend, but Kris Kristofferson is only ok as Billy the Kid, the outlaw who doesn�t want to adapt with the times. Some of the dialogue is brilliant and certain scenes show a lot of skill from Peckinpah, but this never quite reaches The Wild Bunch standards.

7/10 for director's cut

6.5/10 for the 2005 version 

Wedding Crashers - probably one of the worst movies I have seen in the last 5 years.

Insipid and unfunny.

2.5/10