Actually, i thought Dexter could've been less 'crime' and more sarcastic black humor character study. They could use the setting and his character a LOT more. But i guess it's hard for an american tv series to cut all the typical series crap.

This was one of the first shows with a main storyline throughout all episodes i actually liked. The La Guertha(?) character is a bit stereotype and overdone, and so is the black cop's writing, but the rest of the guys were pretty much spot on imho. The writing/plot... well, back to the 'series' argument: it could've been a lot more tight (although the show would have a hard time if it was any faster) and thought through, but i guess it's hard to fill 12 episodes. I would like to have it bounce the ball between characters a bit more; the way it is, there's only about 2-3 non-main characters in any given episode.

Also, the obvious 'we need to get a look into all the characters life' part sucks. Why, the main character is emotionally detached and we're in his view most of the time - so don't try to make me feel sorry for the career woman losing her job. But that's the 'typical US show' again :(, and probably adds to the feeling that the show could've worked better with a 'team' of characters that played ball (instead of attention whoring the shit out of eachother ;) AND the main char.)

Guess imho they could've cut the 'catching the serial killer' part a lot, and focused on the main character more. His job looks kinda interesting for example (i doubt it's realistic), and the feel of it would allow it to have lots of influence on his understanding and perception of the world around him. That's the stuff I'm interested in - you have an interesting character, so try to make me understand him and present the world from his POV in an interesting way. I think the show could have worked (better?) if there wouldn't have been a main story line at all, but seperate plots for each episode instead.

I can't stand shit like Prison Break - we're breaking out of a prison - for 15+ fucking episodes. right. The first two episodes were interesting, then it just became zZz :(

That's one thing i liked about dex - it doesn't try so hard to drag the main story over the course of the series.

btw, what's so silly about the idea of it? 

to the tune of merry music. And interspersed with light family drama. 

can somebody tell me WHY this did kill the conversation? :o 

"Cutting Live People In Pieces to the tune of merry music. And interspersed with light family drama"

Well I have to say thats not necessarily stupid in my book. Wrong/disturbing depending on your tastes maybe, but not stupid.

The silliness/stupid aspect for me is more with the implementation of Dexter's sociopathy. You never really see it save for the fact that he kills people in the way bambuz described (and to a lesser extent his fascination with the ice truck killer's methods). As it is though, he comes across more as your general vigilante rather than a sociopath.

Basically the sociopathic character serves the plots rather than the plots serving th character. One of the better epsiodes was with the pscyhiatrist that he goes after but also ends up seeing. That episode at least revealed a bit more about the character (even though ultimately it was used to serve plot again). 

that was idiocy.

I can't kill him yet, I need another session!

And boom he got his sexuality working.

Le sigh. 

Days of Heaven (1978) - Never thought I would see richard gere in a good film, let alone a great one. The imagery is astounding, the majority of this film has some of the most perfect lighting I have ever seen (and all of it is natural light which is even more staggering).

But its not just a collation of pretty images, I think this movie takes visual storytelling to a whole new level. You don�t really get to know the characters or see the story progress in the conventional sense, which I assume will put off a lot of people, but to me the method employed was at least as effective as conventional storytelling if not more.

8-8.5/10


The Battle of Algiers (1966) - infamous for being used by the Black Panthers and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as propaganda & training aid and also by the Pentagon in 2003 as an illustration of the problems that might occur in iraq, Gillo Pontecervo's depiction of the main period of the algerian war of independence is also one heck of a film.

The faux documentary filmmaking technique is flawless in its implementation and combined with Ennio Morricone's perfectly aligned score manages to put your right 'there' in the middle of everything. Amazing and extremely fascinating.

9-9.5/10


Pirates of the Carribeann 3 - there's some good stuff in here (the Leone homage was particularly inspired), too bad it's just surrounded in a total mess. Still, it's more than what the all round terrible second film offered.

5/10 

nitin giving a rating of 9.5? omg! 

Aliens vs. Predator - what a load of utter toss. Alien(s)/3 were good, Predator was good, AVP2 PC game was good. This isn't and lacks any redeeming features apart from a couple of shots of the Predator looking kinda cool.

(Hardly relevant I know but I had to diss it) 

Aliens vs. Predator

I tried really hard to like this film!! I dunno, Aliens for me was the best film, although Alien 3 I think was also brilliant. AVP just fell short with character development, script, plot etc. I thought that the film on the whole LOOKED good, and it had a reasonable ending...

Aliens vs Predator: Requiem

I watched this yesterday at the cinema. Dont really know what to say about it. It too lacked any real character development, and the ending really sucked!! I was a bit more brutal than AVP1...

In short, if your a fan of the Alien films, you may enjoy either/both films, but dont expect anything as classy as Aliens. The fight scenes and action sequences in these new films are good!! The acting/plot/script isnt.

:-| 

I liked it, BUT I wasn't expecting too much in the first place. I went basically to see aliens and predators kill each other, and I was happy with the result (which happened to be aliens and predators killing each other.) Also, alien-predator hybrid.

Didn't see requiem, but yeah I heard it was bad.

P.S. If you expect character development from AvP, shame on you. 

That nuke movie from 2002. On TV. Watched half-assedly. It just didn't captivate enough I'm afraid. It was not entirely bad but just felt as if the makers didn't put on a full serious effort. 

I agree entirely, thats kinda what I'm saying! I enjoyed the films because I too wanted too see Aliens and Predators killing eachother.

I just think that if you compare the new movies with classic Aliens or suchlike, you have fuck all plot! Aliens was a fantastically charismatic film. I mean who cant remember half of the lines out of the movie? It had a degree of classiness about its overall mood/feel. It was all slightly 'fantasy' style. It left just the right amount to the imagination...

The new movies just dont have the same memorability IMHO. Personally, I'm still a fan. I WILL be adding 'Requiem' to my DVD collection when it comes out to buy!! 

of both the original Alien and Terminator movies but I hated the second movie in each sequence, Aliens and T2.

Aliens soured my tummy because it turned a masterful blend of Science Fiction and Horror and turned it into a rather simple summer action flick.

The original Terminator was based on a pretty hoaky premise of time-traveling robot assassins, but this really didn't bring the movie down as an experience because the premise was mere exposition that took only a few minutes of screen time to explain. The rest of the movie was right there in your face in the immediate present with some mean mother fucker chasing your ass. This part of the flick was scripted to action movie perfection and you could ignore the weak premise.

T2 had that stupid premise integrated throughout the movie and suffered as a believable narrative because of it.

And the parts that didn't require a heavy dose of integrating this flawed concept were not so well done. Acting was off key, kid's display of humanity was not so believable for the roll he played, for one instance of poor characterization, and the editing of the scene transitions was also too heavy handed. Things really didn't flow well between scenes though there was really good unity within the individual scenes because of the advanced use of CGI. Transition points became moments to show off the specular highlights.

CGI pretty damn spectacular in this one, but the movie as a movie sucked. 

T2, come on, best of the series by far.

Go map.

AVP was bad bad (not good bad like Freddy v Jason). They could have done a simple straightforward genre flick like that but they fucked it up. They needed a better excuse for them to fight, if they WANTED some big ancient aliens conspiracy then they should have made it not retarded. Von Daniken fucks everything up once again. And the Predators were portrayed as idiots: they make this big game, but it's easy for them to not have their planned weapons, and I expected a love scene with the predator and that one chick at the end. The predators are an evil heartless race that believes in survival of the fittest within certain rules, they would never "work with humans" against the "greater evil" but would rather grind humans into ketchup. 

http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/alien-squirrel-759031.jpg

Terror has never been more furry. 

blowed. Avp requiem blows more.

And to those who saw it to see aliens and predators fight, did you actually see anything? I mean its shot with 50 edits per second in near darkness, how do you know what's killing what?

And headthump, valid points, Aliens was a summer action flick but a pretty damn good one. Yes it completely changes tone from Alien (the best one) but it's probably one of the best action films going around.

And T1 suffered from the premise just as much as T2 in my opinion. T2 is a better action film, I can see your point re T1 but I dont see how it affects T2.

And for what its worth, I liked T3 too (though it is by far the weakest). 

T3 was surprisingly solid. Like you say, it was the weakest in the series, but it was a respectable continuation of the story. 

I mean, 79 and 84! And there still haven't been many (any?) films of the style that were better... 

Worst Alien movie ever is easy to find: Star Ship Troopers... :P 

I seriously think most people miss the fact that it's a war movie pisstake, I find it pretty funny :) 

Starship Troopers 2 on the other hand was a real abomination!!

Species - I remember that being pretty shite... 

You drink every time there's a cliche. It's usually fatal. It's meant to be of course though, very tongue in cheek, and if you watch it like that it's good entertainment.

I liked both T1 and T2, but preferred T2 for sure. T1 had one thing T2 never had though, and that's a nightclub called TECH NOIR. If I found a place called that that looked like it did, i'd go there every night of my life. 

...best sequence of events.

Loner likes purdy girl, girl dumps dick to start a thing with loner, both get unceremoniously FUBAR as mere collateral damage. Love the matter of fact way she dies, hehee! 

New Rambo film is pretty fucking cool. It knows exactly what it is, an all out action/war film, and doesn't try to add in any other hollywood bullshit, or tone down it's violent and brutal violence. It portrays it's theme very simply, war is a hellish and horrible thing, and does a great job at it. Sly is still rocking and is perfect as the reluctant warrior who doesn't want to fight anymore, but ends up fighting anyway.

Great film, highly recommended to anyone who wants some pure bloody action. 

Remakes of old movies from decades ago are nothing new, but it seems like a strange new development that remakes/sequels are starting to come out that cast the original star. Such as the latest Rocky movie, the latest Indy movie, and the latest Die Hard, and the latest Rambo.