The meeting between Gulpilil and the kids, I thought it was funny but I couldn't say why back then. The final vignette, it made me sad but again I couldn't articulate why back then. 

Talk to Her - its not quite the flat out masterpiece that All about my Mother was, but this is still a very impressive movie from the unpredictable and fresh Pedro Almodovar. He's probably one of the few directors working today that can take a story into territory you don�t see coming.

Anyway, this one is about 2 men who share a friendship whilst their lovers are in a coma at a hospital and although I don�t quite like where it ended up at the finish, it's well acted, excellently written and extremely well made. It has the usual Almodovar blend of quirky and humorus but awkward and uncomfortable situations with eccentric but connectable characters.

And the film within a film is pure gold.

7.5/10 

The Dreamers (2003) - Bernardo Bertolucci is undoubtedly a very talented filmmaker, but this is a pretty good example that talent alone doesnt result in a good movie.

Bertolucci's tale of a young american film buff in france who makes friends with a local brother and sister that share his love for classic films, all set against the backdrop of the student riots of 1968, is beautifully shot, skilfully made and is conceptually very interesting.

But while the first 30 mins or so is a great nostalgic look at the period, intercut fabulously with scenes from classic french new wave films, the rest of it dissolves into a frank, uninhibited, but more importantly, dull dissection of sex and politics.

Each charcater represents a type rather than an individual and whilst that allow bertolucci to be very self-reflexive, it also makes the whole thing quite heavy handed.

Pity, because done correctly, this could have been a great film.

On the plus side, the extremely good looking Eva Green spends plenty of time naked.

5/10


The Naked City (1948) - Jules Dassin's police procedural/noir might seem old hat given how many times it has been imitated but the tight direction and extremely well done location photography still raise it far above most other attempts in the genre. An inconsistent voiceover is the only real misfire as everything else clicks together like clockwork.

7.5/10 

On the plus side, the extremely good looking Eva Green spends plenty of time naked.

She is the beaut. I wonder if you noticed in Casino Royale when she smiled sometimes her face would get convoluted and her upper mouth would become long, thin and even lizard like. Not exactly attractive in those instances.
I'm willing to bet as a first rate actress she has practiced this expression to perfection in order to show a vulnerable side her good looks would otherwise hide. 

Underworld : Evolution - better than the first, but that wasnt exactly hard. 1 maybe 2 decent action scenes and the rest was dull and uninteresting exposition.

5/10 

Ugh. I knew nothing about it before watching. I felt Eve rather unconvincing (not badly played but badly written/characterized/introduced). She seemed to be supposed "one of the mass" in the beginning and hard to break to see the "truth" if I understood it correctly. Well, the movie totally fails on that. Maybe because it is too easy to see-through, dunno.
I also really disliked the cheap "flashbacks" and "omg important memory, turn the music loud and fade in/out to black". Some parts were really cool for sure.

5/10 from me. Left me highly unsatisfied and disappointed. It could have been so much better I think. 

AFAIR, the author of the original comic was not pleased with how the makers of the movie trivialized the motives of V. In the comics, he's got revenge on his mind but also the ideal of anarchy -- in the movie he's more of this cold-blooded killer, who also has a heart, and isn't that so touching? 

Stray Dog (1949) - not as well remembered as some of Akira Kurosawa's other movies, this is still a very very good watch.

Toshiro Mifune plays a policeman in post war Japan who is disgraced and ashamed after he loses his gun and spends the rest of the movie looking for it (the basic outline of this plot is used by Paul Thomas Anderson as one of his Magnolia segments).

This simple plot is used as a starting point for Kurosawa to take an in depth look at post war Tokyo, but never to the extent that it overshadows the main story.

Its occasionally poorly paced and for once Mifune seems out of place playing a timid character, but overall this is well written, full of many interesting characters and made with a very assured hand.

7.5/10


The Ninth Gate (1999) - Roman Polanski is well past his 70's heyday and this is never in the same league as either Rosemary's Baby or The Tenant, but his command of atmosphere is not lost and this on its own lifts this silly but fun occult thriller into above average territory.

Johnny Depp is ok as a book detective who authenticates old, rare books for a fee, and gets involved with a book that was supposedly written by the devil himself. From there on, it becomes a well made gothic mystery, but one which never quite pays off in a satisfactory manner with an ending that is clever and makes sense, but is also predictable and disappointing.

6/10 

Sunshine - the only film of note I've watched recently. I tend to agree with the above comments.

Nice style, decent characters, good tension initially, very stylish outside of the ship.

Weak story, degenerating plot, profoundly unconvincing technology.

That's all. 

Where do you get all these old movies? Are they all just right there on netflix dvd or are you regularly breaking into a secret cinemavault? 

yeah, most of them are available via netflix (around 80%). Some of the foreign stuff might occasionally not be there, but there's a video store near my house that offers foreign dvds for rent. 

Twin Peaks Season 2 - hmm, the first 10 epsiodes or so are of the same quality as season 1 and although I had worked out the killer in advance, the episode in which he is revealed (to us) is still great.

It definitely degenerates after that, almost not knowing where to go after the solving of laura palmer's murder and the side stories which were interesting as side stories become boring main stories. I've read that david lynch said that he never intended to reveal the killer and the show was meant to be more about the town. Don�t know if that approach would have avoided the problems present in the second season anyway, because after a while that would still mean the side stories would have eventually become the main stories anyway.

It sort of gets back on track in the last 4-5 episodes, although still below the level of the first half of this and the prior season. The finale, however, is great stuff. From the moment agent cooper steps into the black lodge, it is brilliant. Talk about being able to put your subconscious on the screen, you could literally feel that place and that's not something that is easy to do.

6.5/10


Marie Antoinette - it's been criticised a lot for being blatantly historically inaccurate and for not being serious enough, but it's pretty obvious after the first five minutes that that was never the point. But what exactly was the point of Sofia Coppola's new film is something that is unanswered even after the credits roll. For a two hour movie, there's not a whole lot going on here, both plot wise and substance wise. It meanders along for most of its running time and then rushes its last half hour as it goes into biography mode.

It is, however, possibly the best shot film of the last five years. Every scene is impeccably lit and composed and some of them could be framed and hung from a wall. So even when it doesn�t offer much content wise, it is never boring to look at.

5.5/10 

Purple Rose of cairo (1984) - just what was woody allen on in the 70's/80's and can he please get back on it? I think it falls slightly short of his very best, it's not quite sharp enough for that, but its still an exteremely clever and fresh piece of writing that is well performed by Jeff Daniels and the very talented Mia Farrow.

This one's about an unhappy woman in depression era new jersey who goes to the cinema to escape her real life. She becomes particularly enamoured with one movie, the purple rose of cairo, and starts to watch it repeatedly. During a screening one of the characters, who notices her repeated presence, comes out of the screen and into the real world to spend some time with her.

What follows is borderline genius as the remainder of the movie cast get stuck and become unable to progress the movie's plot with a character missing, the real actor who portrays the missing character is held responsible for his creation, and the escaped character struggles to overcome his pre-written characteristics and celluloid experiences when interacting with the real world.

7.5/10 

The Page Turner (2006) - nice little french pschological drama that, although predictable in its outcome, is well made and acted.

Deborah Francois plays a cold, disenchanted woman who in her youth was an aspiring pianist whose aspirations were cut short inadvertently by a famous pianist who judged one of her performances. The majority of the film is about how Francois' character works her way into the judge's life a decade or so later, intent on ruining it.

Like I said, its been done before and the outcome is fairly predictable, but its facinating to see how she goes about it in a calm and calcualted fashion, but always with a creepy sense of being unhinged. Also, the other thing going for it is that Denis Dercourt avoids the hollywood path in outlining every bit of detail and leaves quite a bit of the (irrrelevant) mechanics upto the viewer to determine.

Not for everyone, as the sheer unlikeability of the main character will distance some people, but it�s a decent movie that's worth a watch.

7/10


Little Miss Sunshine - its not terrible, but I find it absolutely staggering that this was a best picture contender. Poorly written, poorly executed and the shooting style is virtually identical to your run of the mill reguar hollywood movie.

The "drama" has so little weight that it may as well be non-existent, the "comedy" ranges from ok to just plain awful. And the ending had me laughing for the wrong reasons. That's up there with Clerks 2 as some of the stupidest last 20 min in a film.

On the plus side, some of the acting is pretty good, Greg Kinnear and the little girl doing much more than their one dimensional roles would have otherwise allowed.

5.5/10 

I find I agree with you quite a lot on many movies I've seen. (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, little miss sunshine for late examples that spring to mind.)

Maybe I should pick up that B&W french stuff if you like it so much. 

it takes a bit of getting used to for te old french style, especially if you havent seen anythign like it before, and there's just as much cra int hat era as any other, but the good stuff is well worth tracking down. 

The Last Metro (1980) - Francois Truffaut is a very hit and miss director for me, but what elevates him into the pantheon of great directors is that when he gets it right, the result is usually very close to magic. Apart from a non-ending, this is excellent stuff that's very hard to fault.

Set in 40's occupied France, it focuses on the wife of a banned jewish theatre director who is hiding him in the theatre cellar even though the whole country believes him to have skipped the country. It looks at the strain on the wife as she essentially leads a double life trying to manage the situation and the impact of the arrival of a mysterious new actor into the theatre troupe.

Catheine Deneuve is outstanding in the main role and while she gets good support from the rest of the cast, she is the one to watch. Truffaut effortlessly weaves his story strands together and its only at the end, when he doesn�t quite know how and when to finish, that the movie falters.

7.5/10 

On Dangerous Ground (1952) - Nicholas Ray's expressionistic film noir is a film of two distinct halves, the first being a Taxi Driver style roadside look at policework, the second being a more conventional thriller set amongst a small town.

Robert Ryan plays a cop disillusioned with the world and everyone in it till he meets Ida Lupino's blind girl who tries to bring him back from the point of oblivion. It's standard pulpy stuff but acted pretty well by the two leads and directed with so much flair and skill by Ray that he almost manages to convincingly pull off the very obvious studio enforced ending.

7/10


Only Angels Have Wings (1939) - It's a big call, but I think this is possibly Howard Hawks' greatest film, maybe even better than The Big Sleep. This is pretty much perfect stuff that's hard to fault about a group of pilots in a small port in South America whose job is to deliver mail over dangerous and foggy mountainous territory.

Cary Grant and Jean Arthur lead a pitch perfect ensemble cast that eats up every line of the terrificly plotted and written script and Hawks is in control of every scene. One of the great ones that fits in everything the modern blockbuster tries to encompass (action, comedy and drama) but usually fails at doing.

9/10


Confession of Pain (2006) - The reuniting of the team behind Infernal Affairs is a perfect example of how a decent plotline ands story can be absolutely butchered by a hopeless script and trite direction. The narrative is an absolute mess and the way it's edited only makes it messier and sillier.

Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro try their best as two friends who go about dealing with past tragedies in different ways, but their fine acting cant raise this into anything that's even remotely suspenseful or engaging.

4/10 

I saw Oceans Thirteen. I didn't mean to, honest. 

it surely couldnt have been worse than Twelve?

Saw a few more :

Entourage Season 3 Part 1, - more of the same, but this time around it's a bit more uneven with one or two absolutely terrible episodes.

The rest is the usual above average, entertaining, well made but disposable fluff. Pity, because every now and then such as the episode(s) with the Bob Ryan character, it reaches a higher level.

6.5/10


La Strada (1954) - well made, semi-surreal fiilm by Fellini that, although being a good movie, will be different for each viewer depending on how much they like Giulitta Masina's performance as the chilidsh and impish Gelsomina.

Her character is sold early in the movie to Anthony quinn's Zampano, a brutish travelling entertainer who mistreats Gelsomina whenever he gets the opportunity. Masina's performance is effective at milking her character's circumstances for viewer sympathy, but personally I also found it to be sometimes annoying and a bit too mannered and calculated.

But Quinn's performance in a mostly one dimensional role is excellent and Fellini directs with a sure hand, something which I think is missing from his later stuff.

7/10


Jane Eyre (1946) - havent read the book, have no intention to, and so the comments here are a reflection on just the movie rather than a movie-book comparsion.

The only reason I watched this is because its widely rumoured to have been directed by an uncredited Orson Welles. Rumour or fact, what is obvious from the opening shots is that it has been highly influenced by Welles which is a good thing because I personally didnt care much for the plot.

Joan Fontaine doesnt really help, playing her character as a variation on Rebecca, but as soon as Welles enters the movie about a third of the way through, it becomes exteremely watchable (although the first 10-15 min with a younger Jane Eyre are also very good). Welles is so good as the Duke of Rochester that you hang off his every word, regardless of whether anyone else is talking with him or not.

Its also beautifully shot with tremendous gothic imagery, and only the slightly rushed and unsatisfying ending holds it back from being a good film on the whole.

6.5/10 

The Good German

Just what was Steven Soderbergh thinking? If you are going to make a movie that pays more than homage to not one but two of the great cinematic classics in Casablanca and The Third Man you better make sure that you have both the knowhow to shoot in b&w and also some idea as to what made those movies tick.

Unfortunately he shows neither. Whilst he mimics the camerawork and composition of the period well, he has no idea how to light a b&w film resulting in nearly every scene looking overexposed with way too much contrast. There's no excuse for this, especially considering George Clooney was at hand whose Good Night and Good Luck is a perfectly shot b&w film.

As for the movie itself, what made Casablanca and the Third Man classics were scripts with strong characters who had great dialogue to work with. In contrast, all the characters in this film are peripheral to the machinations of the plot. On top of that, Tobery Maguire in a crucial role is badly miscast. Cate Blanchett fares better with her Marelene Dietrich impersonation, although it is a bit too inconsistent. George Clooney struggles to channel some sort of mixture of Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart and ends up with a performance that's completely in the wrong tone.

There's many references to the great dialogue of both Casablanca and The Third Man, but never actually a genuine piece of memorable dialogue. Which is a ll a pity, because I think the story and plot had great potential if handled correctly.

A big wasted opportunity.

5/10 

The Elephant Man (1980) - whoever had the idea of having David Lynch make this movie was a genius. This could have been your run of the mill, oversentimental oscar bait movie in the hands of most people, but Lynch turns it into a pure masterpiece.

This is flawless stuff really (although the 'romeo and juliet' scene didnt work for me), and I think its Lynch's greatest movie, even better than the great Blue Velvet and Mulholland drive.

The style is brilliant, everything from the very intricate sound design to Freddie Francis' extraordinary cinematography (which is perhaps even better than his work on The Innocents) to the incoporation of the signature Lynch surrealism is pitch perfect.

As for the rest, its a beautifully restrained piece of storytelling with a well written script that is brought to life by some terriic acting from almost everyone that appears on screen and operates on many levels.

9.5/10 

of Jane Eyre that aired here on tv in three parts lately. Pretty good. I talked about the social restrictions of the age a lot with my girlfriend and how they were the basis of the plot.
It probably is a lot harder to understand everything nowadays. 

So... for some reason I had nothing better to do on saturday but watch Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark back-to-back on TV. Some observations:

It's suprising how similar these two movies' basic elements are. Humanoid zombies, check. Larger, fast-moving "Alien"-type monsters, check. Is the underground complex somehow attached to an old mansion/orphanage via a tunnel? Check. Does the movie end with the entire fictional city being overrun/evacuated? Check.

Second, the basic stupidity of making a "cinematic" game into a movie. The thing that makes these games feel so cinematic, which is a good thing for the game, is the heavy use of familiar movie cliches from the appropriate genre. But the movie based on this game is going to be a movie based on a game based on a bunch of movie cliches. So now the movie has both the cliches of a video game, plus the cliches of an entire genre of movies.

On the plus side, it would be pretty easy to make a game based on either of these movies. 

metl,

you're not hanging out for the new Far Cry or Diablo movies then?

I saw Happy Together (1995) recently. Now I'm a big fan of In the Mood for Love and 2046, but all of Wong Kar Wai's earlier stuff only impresses me in bis, and usually on the whole not at all.

This is the same, there's a few interesting bits in this movie about the ups and downs of a gay asian couple in Argentina, mainly due to the excellent acting of Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung, but on the whole the bleak, meandering and aimless nature of it didnt do a whole lot for me.

5/10