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 :-) 

not to sleep. 

"now" to sleep. not "not" to sleep
ah whatever. fuck it. :-) 

well, Stalker has similarities with Solaris in terms of certain aspects of style (same director) but is otherwise not really the same.

So it depends really what you liked most about Solaris, the story or the way it was made? 

i loved everything about solaris. so i guess that means i should go with it.

i wish netflix would have it though. damn them to hells. 

looks interesting, is there a version with subtitles?
I like the style of shooting. 

the movie was released here in the us, but i have never seen in stores. i rented it online, so yes to subtitles 

Notes on a Scandal - quite liked this for the most part, Judi dench is excellent as the bitter, lonelyand unstable teacher who stumbles upon another teacher's affair with a student and uses it as a manipulative opportunity for her own motives.

Cate Blanchett provides good support (although she ahs one bad scene near the end) and it's generally well written. But all that good work is almost completely undone in a disastrous last 10 min which comes across as the writer not knowing how to finish it and just ended up ticking every box from your run of the mill creepy stalker film.

6.5/10


Stranger than Fiction - Charlie Kaufman lite. That's how this felt, a neat and amusing concept but without the inclination to actually probe the interesting ideas it conjures up.

The premise of a man becoming aware that he is character of a novel becuase he can hear the narrator's voiceover is full of possibilities but none of those are ever explored, and instead it settles for a routine romantic comedy angle.

Marc Forster indulges in all sorts of visual tricks to try and cover the thinness of the material, much as he did in Stay, but its not quite enough to make it memorable.

6/10


The Painted Veil - not out here yet, which is a shame, because it's easily the best picture of the year to date. John Curran's surprisingly different followup to his intense indie depresser, We Dont Live Here Anymore, is an excellent film that probably wont get the recognition it deserves.

A little while ago Steven Soderbergh tried to emulate movies from the Hollywood golden age, but without the code restrictions, and failed dismally. Curran successfully channels that era without ever compromsing the moderness of the production.

It looks tremendous, is paced beautifully and Edward Norton and Naomi Watts do great work in this story about a loveless couple and set against the backdrop of 20's China, where Norton's bacteriologist tries to help an inland town during a cholera outbreak.

It's great watching Norton in form and this is a welcome return to work for him (and much better than his lacklustre work in The Illusionist. Watts is even better in a performance that should be award nominated (but probably wont), another feather in her excellent recent ouput.

The only thing I didnt like is the ending, but that is possibly a minor plot point that probably stems from the book.

8/10 

The Simpsons Movie
About as funny as a normal episode of the simpsons, which is pretty damn funny. At the beginning though, homer asks the question "why would these morons pay to see something they could see on TV for free?" and he's right, they haven't been saving their best jokes or anything, and they rarely use the opportunity to escape the tv censors to do anything really crazy. It seems kind of dumbed down too, but there are parts where I definitely laughed out loud...

Knocked Up
Much much funnier though in a completely different style, this is easily one of the greatest comedies I've ever seen. It's from the guys who made '40 year old virgin' which was great, but this is a lot classier, funnier, and is a subtle enough movie to have been worth watching even if the laughs weren't there. Seth Rogan is amazing as the guy who accidentally gets a girl pregnant after aa one-night stand (Played by Katherine Heigl). It basically follows them from when they find out to until she gives birth, but it isn't cheesy or forced at all as much of the comedy comes from natural dialogue and banter the characters are having, and it never stoops to stereotypical characters and contrived situations.

Transformers
Haha I don't know where to start. Is it possible to make fun of a show which actually came out after the toys? This movie was literally brought to you by MATTEL, and they follow from where they left off by selling out in the most hilarious way i've ever seen.

I mean, I wasn't expecting Schindler's List, but I never imagined Optimus Prime would start talking about eBay. I wasn't expecting eBay to be mentioned many other times and feature heavily in the plot.

At one point in the final battle, the deceptacon magic actually creates a transformer that shoots mountain dew and is made of a mountain dew machine. NO JOKE. I call him refreshbot.

Also, all the autobots are shitty General Motors cars, and they pretty much show you an advert for each one, and occasionally let the GMC logo cover 60% of the cinema screen, seriously. I remember wishing the autobots had landed in a country which didn't have terrible cars.

There's more brazen sell-outery too: Nokia, HP, and especially the U.S. Marine core, who perhaps paid for the movie entirely. Wow, you'd have to be pretty damn patriotic not to throw up after some of the lines people say about the marines in this film (example: "you better watch out man, these guys aren't used to losin'." ).

The effects were CRAZY RAD SUPER though! Even if there was so much of them they actually got boring. Go watch this if you want capitalism itself take a shit on your head. 

regular ep of the current simpsons or regular ep from the simpsons back when it was actually funny?

I've heard knocked up is pretty funny, might wait for dvd though because I heard the same for 40 yr virgin and I dont think I laughed once during that movie (probably says more about me though) :)