/me crosses fingers 

A great short story it made. A reasonable move it coud make, with quality acting and no pseudo-scares. 

Rome Season 1 - bit disappointing because they could have done better with the material, but overall it's still quite a decent show, just a bit below HBO's recent high standards. There's probably 6 very good-excellent episodes and the remaining six are fairly average, including the very flat final episode which really should have been so much better.

The production values are very high for tv and so what you get is a beautiful looking show with great attention to detail, but the scripts and acting are not always up to the task. Although this season of the show looks at a fictionalised version of the events surrounding the rise and fall of Julis Caesar, its main focus is a semi-soap opera of two roman soliders and their families. I found the scripting and acting for this part of the show to really struggle and only when the show allows Ciaran Hinds to take centre stage as Caesar, and gives him material to work with, does it really come to life. There's also a lot of gratituity under the umbrella of "realism", but I cant really say it bothered me very much even though it was quite noticeable.

7/10 

nitin - Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door is apparently quite good. Don't know if its up your alley, but I like your reviews so... Interested in your take. 

there's two, the one with ellen page and catherine keener :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0802948/

and the more unknown one :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0802948/

you're right in assuming it's probably not up my alley but I'd probably still be interested in the first one, if it ever makes its way to Oz anytime soon. Low budget indie stuff comes and goes in a flash usually. 

The Fountain - It's definitely a very ambitious effort from Darren Aronofsky, who aims for a science fiction film in the same vein as 2001 and Solaris. But, unlike those movies, this has a fairly simple concept (death is ok) underneath the ponderous nature and recurring attempts at profundity. Once you take away the flashy technique, which is admittedly very good, there is once again not a whole lot left underneath.

The movie has three interconnected stories, some real and some a story within a story, and in all of them Hugh Jackman's character is looking for the answer to immortality for his wife. There is a heavy mayan influence in all three stories and its this aspect that links them together, sometimes in an obivous way and sometimes in a more deliberately oblique way. What is a bit annoying is that Aronofsky almost goes out of his way to make this a difficult film to get into by cutting between the stories foy symbolic purposes, but at the same time reducing the viewer's involvement in any of them.

However, I did find the central relationship between Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz to work for me, mainly because of the effective performances, even though its easy to see why it wouldn�t for another person. Without that centre though, there would be even less reason for a viewer to become engaged in the movie despite the three stories coming together quite well by the end.

7/10 

Boring, annoying soundtrack. 

D�j� Vu - Tony Scott's latest is actually very watchable for quite a while, a much more restrained movie than his usual frenetic style of dizzying the viewer with flashy pointless visuals. Till a certain point its also fairly interesting, mainly due to Denzel's committed performance, but as soon as the movie goes against the science it has so laboriously explained, it falls apart.

There's quite a few loopholes in the plot, which are the same loopholes that most movies of this sort fall into, but spending such an inordinate amount of time on the science just amplifies them when they occur. I think that you either go down the path of explaining stuff and staying consistent with the explanation (12 Monkeys and Primer) or ignoring plotholes and sidestep around them by not making the science a main focus (Terminator and Back to the Future).

Anyway, there' still a few nifty things, including a split time car chase and denzel's character's Laura like obsession with a dead woman, but they are not enough to overcome the scripting deficiencies.

5.5/10


Great Expectations (1946) - Even though I quite liked the novel when I read it about 10 years ago at school, I've never really seen any adaptations of it. But I cant imagine any being better than David Lean's excellent movie.

Like all great adaptations, it retains the essence of the novel not by being as faithful as it can to every plotpoint of the book (which this isnt) but by evoking the same feel and tone. Having said that, I was a bit disappointed by the changed 'happy' ending, especially when the printed ending was already changed from a more pessimistic one.

Still, apart from that minor complaint, it�s a very well made movie that is hard to fault.

8.5/10



Little Children - Similar in theme and concept to American Beauty, but this is nowhere near the same league. A poor blend of satire, drama and black comedy about suburbia this is a very slow movie which doesn�t necessarily have uninteresting characters, but their interactions are so fragmented and pointless that the drama never has any weight, the satire never hits its mark and the comedy is never in the right tone.

Todd Field's last movie, In the Bedroom, was also overly slow but had phenomenal acting from all its performers and a decent script. This has neither, although the acting is never bad (not oscar worthy though, another wasted nomination), it just isnt good enough to overcome the other problems.

4.5/10 

I just got Stalker on DVD, but I haven't had the 3 hours to sit down and watch it. I'm looking forward to the opportunity. 

i thought this was very good.

Not for everyone though. 

Hard Candy (2006) - When I read about this upon release, it sounded very similar to Audition, except with a pedophile angle. I never understood how that would work because if you make the victim unsympathetic, the majority of the impact would be lost.

Turns out that problem is there but otherwise it is only slightly similar to the japanese movie, and more interested in wordplay between its two lead characters (one who is really a 14 yr old vigilante, and the other who is a pedophile). The acting's great and its reasonably well made but there's big problems with the script. There's some stupid plotting but, more importantly, the way the main character's written is almost never believable. Ellen Page does pretty well with what she has, but she almost never sounds/behaves like a 14 yr old and that just keeps taking you out of the movie. Its also a missed oppurtunity, because if she did act like a 14 yr old more often, it owuld also be a more disturbing film.

5.5/10


Shakespeare in Love - another sub par multiple oscar winner that's light as fluff and badly made. I'm sure the idea sounded good and clever on paper and its obvious a lot of money went into costume/production design, but the rest of it is so very average in every department.

5/10 

Harsh Times (2005) - David Ayer's first film as director is very similar in setting and story to his screenplay for Training Day, but I think this is a slightly better movie because of the stronger acting. Christian Bale is excellent, despite his accent not being entirely convincing, as a troubled ex-war veteran trying to restart his life in the latino community of LA along with his friend Mike (a one dimensional character played pretty well by Six Feet Under's Freddy Rodriguez).

There's some interesting stuff here such as the convincing relationship between two close friends who nevertheless fuel each other's destructive tendencies and the evocation of the low-life setting also seems pretty authentic. But what it lacks is a focused screenplay, Ayer appears to know where he wants the movie to go but has trouble getting it there in a non-contrived fashion. He also doesn�t seem to have enough faith in his actors and tries a bit too hard with some unnecessary and distracting tricks to bring out Bale's repressed psychological condition.

On the whole, it's definitely a movie most people will not like because of the generally unlikable characters and bleakness of tone, but its worth a watch for Bale's impressive work.

6/10 

The Verdict - Written by Mamet, directed by Lumet and with one of newman's best performances, does anything else need to be said? I guess I should point out that my one problem with the movie has always been the unrealistic movieish approach towards the legal process but newman's acting and mamet's characterisation are so good that it doesn�t really matter all that much. Sidney Lumet also makes sure he has an unsentimental approach (as always) throughout which also helps buy some of the more implausible scenes.

The story of a past his prime alcoholic ambulance chaser lawyer who takes on a medical malpractice suit against the system is pretty clich� stuff but it�s the nuances in newman's character like always having personal selfish reasons taking precedence over "doing the right thing" that make it compelling.

7.5/10 

Slings and Arrows Season 1 - One of the best shows most people will never see, this extremely well written canadian series set at a troubled Shakespearean festival is frequently hilarious and regularly engaging as a drama.

The cast consists of mostly unknowns, although a pre-Hollywood Rachel McAdams does feature in a major role, but they are all uniformly great and eat up the blackly comic dialogue.

The more familiar one is with shakespeare, the beter the show is, but the great thing is it works even if you dont know any shakespeare.

8.5/10


The Story of Marie and Julien (2003) - Jacques Rivette has a name for making extremely long movies (his Out 1 is a notorious 13 hrs), but this one is relatively tame length wise clocking in at 151 min.

It is also the stereotypical european film - techincally well made, excellently acted but slow, meandering, cold, sterile and purely academic. As with all stuff, I dont really have a problem with that type of movie as long as it is well made. And for a while, this one is full of some very interesting ideas. But before it can seriously explore any of them, it moves on to another one.

It demands a lot of the viewer, which is fine in my book (and is also helped by Emanuelle Beart's very good performance), but then doesnt return in proportion.

5.5/10


The Sword of Doom (1966) - Kihachi Okamato's great film which can either be seen as the story of a bad samurai trying to be good or of a regular samurai completely engulfed by the desire for violence is a fantasticly dark character study in the guise of a samurai movie.

The fight scenes are terrific with the choreography ranging from good to brilliant, but it's the confident storytelling that really grabs one's attention along with some truly spectacular cinematography.

Unfortunately it's let down by a very abrubt ending after a terrific buildup which according to some quick research is due to this being the first of an intended trilogy that never got finished due to a lack of funding. That info is not surprising because it really does feel as if it ended simply because they ran out of money to make any more.

A pity because it drags it down from a classic flm to a great one.

8/10

[b]Perfume (2006) - Many great directors including Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese passed on the adaptation of the famous german novel, claiming it was unfilmable.

For close to two hours, Tom Tykwer proves them wrong as he makes a spectacular film charting the story of Jean-Baptiste Genouille (well played by brit Ben Whishaw), whose incomparable sense of smell and inexplicable lack of a personal scent isolates him from society and results in his single objective in life becoming the preservation of the perfect scent - the skin of beautiful women.

This is darkness of a different kind and its very well realised by Tykwer and his cast, although only Whishaw gets to flex any actin muscles.

But, there's a reason why it was considered unfilmable and its the ending. Assuming whats hown here is close to what happens in the novel, there is no way that can be communicated in a visual medium. Tykwer's attempt is interesting but the change in tone that eventuates to bring about this ending which when coupled with the direction overkill during this sequence will probably leave most people either laughing or scratching their heads, even though the events are a perfectly logical extension of what's gone before.

Still for two hours its a great film, and all the ending does is bring it down to good.

7/10 

The Nights of Cabiria (1957) - Fedrico Fellini's episodic look at the story of a na�ve but feisty prostitute is very similar in structure and plotting to his later La Dolce Vita, the main difference being that this one looks at the life of the poor rather than the life of the rich. Giulietta Masina plays the title role of Cabiria in a less calculated and more natural perfromance than in La Strada but a lot of this, whilst well made, is very repetitive. It does work though, mainly because Masina sells the naivety of the character well enough to make her surprise at comitting the same mistake more than once believable.

6.5/10



The Wicker Man (1973) - The british cult classic has a very big reputation as the Citizen Kane of horror movies but even though it follows most of the genre's conventions, it never really feels like one. And that aspect is both refreshing and disappointing. It�s a very intelligently written movie with some very interesting themes as it tells the story of a devoutly christian officer completely out of his depth investigating the disappearance of girl on a secluded island occupied by pagans. But something about it feels forced. I cant quite put my finger on it, maybe it�s the sometimes misplaced musical bits that are there to depict the paga rituals or maybe it just hammers in the pagan/christian conflict too hard for my liking. Either way, it's a worthwhile watch overall but I don�t quite agree with its stature.

6/10 

Being Julia (2004) - a sort of modern british version of All About Eve, and this has almost the same characterisations and the same plot but for most its running time, it constantly reminds you of that far superior film about a popular but aging stage actress, the artifice she creates around her and the scheming young actress who wants to take her place.

Only towards the end, when Annette Bening's character carries out her revenge does it actually come to life, and it is also the only time I actually thought Bening was any good. For the most part though, it's just a fairly average by the numbers movie that seems to be on autopliot.

5.5/10



Tombstone (1993) - one of the few modern westerns and also another take on the Wyatt Earp story, I thought this was terrible apart from Val Kilmer's excellent work. Kilmer is great as the alcoholic Doc Holliday character but unfortunately the rest of it is a poorly told, scored and acted movie that is never convincing.

5/10



Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954) - Jacques Becker's excellent, smooth and suave crime film has the sort of storytelling mastery that is missing from most modern films. It�s a very atmospheric and confidently made piece of work, which although having a clich�d plot, is very engaging due to the fine performances and also the focus on its characters and their motivations, rather than action.

7.5/10 

Hot Fuzz - I'm not a huge Shaun of the Dead fan but this is pretty funny. It's not the second coming of comedy either, but it definitely hits a lot more than it misses. Generally structured like a satire until the last 30 min when it goes into full on spoof territory, it successfully riffs everything from Bad Boys 2 to The Shining to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I love the way how its actually shot, edited and scored like a Michael Bay movie, so much so that it will pass as a good action film for a lot of people. It does occasionally try a bit too hard, but on the whole, very nicely done.

7/10 

...glad you got to see it! Caught it while visiting my sister recently. The whole family was on the floor in places. One thing that really pushed my buttons was how they shot, edited and backed the boring police paperwork/clue analysis sections...who knew hack work could be so exciting :) 

you've obviously never sen any of the CSI shows :) 

Maybe you already know it, but if you like Simon Pegg then you MUST watch Spaced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced
It's the most awesome TV series I ever watched. 

aware of it, been trying to track down the dvd for some time. 

Purple Noon (1960) - Earlier french version of The Talented Mr Ripley. I quite like the english version and this is a very very different film. But once you twig to the fact that this will be nothing like Anthony Minghella's movie, it has its own drawcards.

The first thing you notice is how it drops you straight into the story and cuts out the rather long and elaborate setup that's present in the english version. I'm a fan of that buildup and think that Clement's film could still have benefited from something similar, even if it wasn�t as long.

The next thing you notice is the difference in camera style. Minghella favoured wide scope vision and picturesque shots of his locations. Clement's film is shot in a much narrower ratio and he utlises it to make a really claustrophobic movie that makes you feel like you're right there next to the characters. It's very impressive camerawork.

But most of all, and I say this having no problems with Matt Damon in the role, Alain Dleon just makes a fascinating Tom Ripley. Damon and Minghella's script portrayed the character as a creepy pyschopath, Clement and Delon go for a much more understated sociopathic version of the character that I personally found to be much more effective and interesting.

On the whole, I think both versions are different films, but equal in overall quality.

7.5/10 

...correct :) 

damn the ending to hell. i mean, what the fuck! you get all worked up for the final and it just ends. awesome film anyway. when the main character (forgot his name) goes on a rampage at the end, its so damn awesome :-)

and for the ones who have seen stalker. i been so damn curious about this movie for such a long time. i saw solaris (the original one btw) and i really liked it. if i really liked that one, would stalker be worth buying?

*plops to the never ending universe. 

then there's samurai fiction (1998). its such an awesome film, everyone should see it. :-)
its not a serious samurai film, and the cinematography rules hell.

http://www.totaleclips.com/Player/Bounce.aspx?eclipid=e16703&bitrateid=10&vendorid=306&affiliateId=

hopefully the long link wont make things weird on the page :-)