I found Silent Hill tedious too.

But then again, I actually want to see Barry Lyndon at some stage :) 

Remains of the Day (1993) - hadnt seen any of these Merchant/Ivory films before but this is excellent stuff. The direction is pretty well done but its really the central performance by Anthony Hopkins as a butler in a 1930's english manor that makes it what it is.

It's an absolute masterclass of acting, probably Hopkins' best work (which says a lot), laced with subtlety and restraint and getting you right inside his character's head in every scene. The story is also fairly solid and involving.

7.5/10


The Getaway (1972) - there was a time when you could just put Steve McQueen in the middle of an action film and you would have cinematic gold. There was also a time when Sam Peckinpah was peerless in orchestrating action scenes. Luckily, these two times collided at least this once and the result is a first rate character driven action film relying on screen presence and suspense for most its running time and then unleashing visceral action towards the end.

McQueen is as magnetic here as he was in Bullitt and while this is not one of Peckinpah's great films, its still a damn good one.

7.5/10


The Cranes are Flying (1957) - exceptional russian film cantering on the story of Veronika (and Boris) during the call to war in world war II. There is nothing new story wise in the depiction of the cruelty of war but the execution is immaculate, the first half pretty much faultless in establishing the characters and mood. The second is half is not as good, but that�s relatively speaking, and the ending isnt as strong as it should be but on the whole it�s a remarkable film with engaging performances and stunning cinematography.

This is one of the best looking functional examples of cinematography you are going to come across, creating extremely memorable imagery to add and further the story.

8-8.5/10


Jumper - not as bad as its made out to be, but not very good either. It would probably work fine if it was the pilot episode of a tv series but as a standalone film, its focused on the wrong (and uninteresting) characters and does not bother exploring the more interesting supporting ones (like the one Jamie Bell plays).

On a plain popcorn action film level, the action is ok even if its way too overedited but is surprisingly generic and none of it, despite many attempts, reaches the level of something like the starting scene of X-men 2.

5/10


Into the Wild - Christopher McCandless graduates and has the grades "to get into law at harvard". Instead, he decides he wants to "leave the sickness of society" and go into the wild to search for the "truth".

Thankfully, he doesn�t find it (well, not in any direct meaningful way) because that would have been the ultimate insult in what is already quite an insulting film. Apart from some stunning location photography, this is as empty and contains about as much "truth" as your regular dr phil episode.

For a 148 min film, you find out nothing about the main character despite incessant voiceover from him and others. All you get is a continuous depiction of his actions which could have told you something if the movie bothered to focus on the character during moments of action. But that's not what Sean Penn does, his focus is solely on the actions themselves and given the running time, a heavily flawed approach.

4/10


The Virgin Suicides - I am beginning to think Lost in Translation was a bit of a fluke for Sofia Coppola because both her efforts before and after are quite average. This is probably the weakest of the bunch in my opinion, a well shot, semi-surreal Picnic at Hanging Rock type attempt at the lives of 5 teenage sisters in the 70's with overbearing parents whose restrictions lead the girls to their eventual suicides.

Its fairly aimless with no real narrative drive and no real exploration of its one dimensional characters.

5/10


The Children are Watching Us (1944) - another one of Vittorio De Sica's neo-realist efforts, this time about the effect of adultery as viewed through a child's eyes. It's a pretty good effort with interesting characterisations and although it never reaches the heights of The Bicycle Thieves, its still quite a potent work.

7-7.5/10


Five Easy Pieces (1970) - before Jack Nicholson became the thickest slice of ham in the hollywood sandwich he was a great actor, and this has one of his great performances. He plays a former piano prodigy who upon becoming estranged from his artistic family ends up as a middle class nobody on the road to nowhere.

The movie itself is above average, it struggles a bit due to lack of focus and some plodding storytelling but it has well realised characterisations and Nicholson holds it together with a remarkable performance that is a far cry from his usual schtick these days.

6.5-7/10 

Agree on virgin suicides.

Regarding into the wild, i haven't seen the movie but did read the book. The book was a fairly interesting non-fiction retelling of the story from a non-sympathetic viewpoint. The movie (based on the trailers) appeared to tell it as a heroic story, which didn't appeal to me. Perhaps the full movie was more honest than the trailers made it appear, but your review suggests not. 

hmm, worth watching I guess but could have been a lot better. At least Stephen King brings himself to condemn religious craziness in it, as opposed to his usual condescending "folksy" portrayal of repressed American 'rustics'... Stephen King, is one of those people in American culture (like Tim Burton, Jack Nicholson, and Johnny Depp) that after a while I've started to realize, that I really don't like (with M Night Asshole it was immediate). The idea of "The Mist" is blatantly ripped from Lovecraft except not done nearly as well (ooh! another dimension! with a whole different ecosystem of evil life forms!), and the twist ending is cheap. I also hate kids in horror movies (wah! wah! waaah I'm scared I want mommy! wah!) Bah. There just aren't enough good horror movies coming out these days to satisfy what I'm looking for. I guess I'll rewatch The Descent and Altered from last year...

Into the Wild
I also really don't like Sean Penn - I have never liked him. He's a whiny hollywood liberal who looks like a pedophile, with that pedophile hair of his. I don't even know why he's famous. Anyway though, despite the preachy perspective he brings to this movie as a director, I still thought it was pretty good. I also think Pearl Jam is the most overrated band of the 90s (actually I like the musicians, at least Mike McCready in Temple of the Dog and Mad Season, I just hate Eddie Vedder)... it's in a way sadly indicative of the way America is that a guy does what McCandless does, and then 15 years later a rich rock star is singing about it and a rock hollywood asshole is making a film about it... these rich guys haven't worked a day in 20 years if in their lives, much less lived as tramps.

I don't think you could expect the filmmakers to be able to explain what the guy's exact motivations or inner thoughts were since he left only scrawled notes (at least that's how it's shown). The main actor was good, he portrayed someone who was really enthusiastic, idealistic, charismatic, optimistic, etc. Still, I imagine his death was not this nice happy peace with the hippie god, but more along the lines of miserable starvation. Anyway I enjoyed watching it. 

RICH hollywood asshole that should have read... 

"I also really don't like Sean Penn - I have never liked him. He's a whiny hollywood liberal who looks like a pedophile, with that pedophile hair of his."

Uh, what? I would like you to define that pedophile hair for me :-).

"I don't even know why he's famous."

Uh, that may be attributable to the fact that he's a pretty good actor. 

I may have overdone the ad hominem on him, but he's always looked creepy to me and I've never seen him in a role that I found anything better than passable. 

But last week, watching Sean Penn introduce Pearl Jam at The Who concert, as he rambled about The Who 'never selling out', it occurred to me, Sean Penn is The Hooker With A Penis.

Despite their grating bombast, I still like Pearl Jam as a band. Can't listen to much off of the first album because it has been played to death on the radio, but Viteology (sp?) still gets a spin in my player every now and then. 

re: penn

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15242216/
a friend with similar opinions sent me this link as an example of what we both hate. sometimes it's just really hard to see past how much hollywood moralizing pisses me off (and yes in this regard penn is a number one offender).

by all means, use a small portion of your often ill-gotten gains (many of these people are even more overpaid than professional athletes) to help yourself sleep better at night by giving to the cause-of-the-week as you strut around enjoying the high life... just shut the fuck up about it.

alright, now I'm done. 

if you had the time, and we had the beer, I could rant for several hours straight about what is wrong with Oprah, and how she has fucked up every other woman in America through osmosis of her shitty, emotion driven, self absorbed, psycho-babble spouting, ingrate attitude. If I ever settle down again, I'll likely need to find an intelligent Russian �migr� who has never heard of America's Queen B Bitch.

On the good news side of the coin, our female students have caught up with their male counter parts in mathematics and science tests. If this trend continues, Oprah could go broke in the next ten odd years given the silly, irrational shit ( http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Rhonda-Byrne/dp/1582701709 ) she espouses would be embarrassing to an audience with a firm foundation in the sciences. 

I bet metl does it deliberately. 

out of interest, what do you normally see?

tronyn,

"is one of those people in American culture (like Tim Burton, Jack Nicholson, and Johnny Depp) that after a while I've started to realize, that I really don't like ("

Johnny Depp? seriously? what dont you like about him? Apart from Bale, I find him one of the most intersting actors around.

"I don't even know why he's famous"

Err, have you seen either of Carlito's Way or Mystic River, the guy may be an idiot in real life (or appears to be), but he can act.

"a guy does what McCandless does...he portrayed someone who was really enthusiastic, idealistic, charismatic, optimistic, etc."

Not to add naive, stupid and downright arrogant. This ties into metl's question, the main reason for me not liking this was because the guy came across as a pretentious rich twat who loathed what he had precisely because he had it, and the movie turned him into some sort of tragic hero for doing so.

"I don't think you could expect the filmmakers to be able to explain what the guy's exact motivations or inner thoughts were since he left only scrawled notes"

No, but they could have tried. In fact, the few explanations they do offer are from psychology 101 (he had bad parents etc). Its no coincidence that, in the movie at least, everyone he meets in the 'real world' is an arsehole and everyone he meets on his road trip is nice and friendly. 

out of interest, what do you normally see?


Not much....I don't watch many films. Non-cheesy sci-fi action with occasional quirky things? 

yeah seriously Johnny Depp. I'm scratching my head trying to think of something I found him interesting in.. and coming up short.

As far as interesting up/coming actors, I'd say Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Eric Bana if he could ever get into a GOOD MOVIE again.

Seen Carlito's Way, really liked it, and as far as I can tell it relied on Pacino (and also leguizamo or however you spell his name, his role was important). Penn's character was an irresponsible asshole, but I've seen the same type played way better (Edward Norton in rounders. Actually add him to my list of interesting actors too, though again he doesn't seem to have been getting into really good movies lately).

Into the Wild
yeah the character was totally naive... I think one has to view what people like that do, as totally amoral. There's certainly no basis for viewing it as righteous - I mean society is sometimes evil yes, but nothing will change by running away from it. And yeah you're right they totally romanticized everyone he met on the road, except the asshole railroad guard (protecting capitalism!). Oh, hollywood - the richest bunch of jackasses in human history, obsessed with looks, status, fashion, and wealth, and yet they sit around condemning those very things and idolizing people on the fringes of society - from their mansions. 

Edward Norton movie selection bothers me, too :( 

Watched it today. While the movie (although good) in it's entirety wasn't the 2nd coming the media painted it to be, Ledger's Joker is everything the hype says and then some. He absolutely steals every single scene he is on, almost to the point of turning it into a movie about Joker and his arch-nemesis Batman.

Watch in cinema. 

although I wish they'd been able to make it even darker (R rating - it would have been good if he actually cut the smiles into others' faces). But then, basically everything I like, I feel like it could be improved by making it more dark, nihilistic, disturbing, etc. But as is Ledger's Joker is up there with Chigurh and Lecter for me. 

worth watching I guess but could have been a lot better

...

There just aren't enough good horror movies coming out these days to satisfy what I'm looking for

those were my initial two thoughts after watching. it had potential but was handled all wrong; less emphasis should have been put on the monsters since the whole 'horror' aspect lay more with the religious mob culture it portrayed. seeing monsters rip people into a bloody mess isn't scary. seeing people becoming religiously delusional to the point of sacrificing each other, however, is pretty fucking dark. it's a shame it was portrayed as more of a by-story without a great deal of thought or detail. add to that the general standard of acting / character stupidity being on par with your average cheap horror flick and it left alot to be desired. although i thought the 'twist' (if you can call it that) was actually pretty unconventional and effective

i'm sure there has to be a market out there for DECENT horror movies.. why aren't there more of them? 

has faults for sure, but better than most 'horror' that comes out these days.

Also I dont know which version you guys saw, but the B&W version that's on the dvd is tons better in terms of atmosphere and claustrophobia. 

since the director couldnt even get the studios to agree showing the movie theatrically the way he wanted (ie in B&W), its hardly surprising that it wasnt more darker etc. 

one thing which was really, really awesome about it was the line "Tentacles - Yeah." 

The Dark Knight
Finally saw this. A great action movie, a great superhero movie, and a great crime thriller. The previous Nolan/Bale movie was good, but this is a step up even from that, in terms of characters, writing, the maturity of the vision of Gotham City, and in terms of themes.

It does fall back into normal action movie territory at times, but at 2 and a half hours, it can't all be brilliant.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
It's been ten years since I saw the first one, so my memory of the original might be gilded by age (pun intended) but it just seems like the first movie was a serious political movie with a meaningful personal angle, while this was more of a historical soap opera, with a mundane love triangle and little historical or character insight.

Coming Attactions:

Death Race: appears to be a direct ripoff of Running Man, but with muscle cars.

Quarantine: looks like the spanish zombie thriller Rec is being released in the US this fall but with a more marketable name. Worth seeing, I reviewed it upthread. 

Juno
I was suprised by the genuineness of this, was expecting another throwaway "quirky" comedy. Once you get past the first fifteen minutes or so, Juno breaks free of its indie hipness to tell an actual story, with actual feeling. 

agree with juno, the first 10-15 min had me bothered but it actually has heart and likeable characters.

as for elizabeth, I didnt like 1 or 2, for different reasons. But I thought both were quite poor.