Day of Wrath (1943) - absolutely brilliant film set in a Danish village in 1625 where an old woman is accused of being a witch and condemned to be burnt at the stake. She seeks help from Anne, a young woman married to a much older pastor, whose mother she aided when she was accused of being the same. What follows is an ambiguously fascinating movie that deals with everything from societal, religious and familial oppression to self delusion without resorting to cheap melodrama or convenient explanations. Shot in a stunningly expressionistic manner by Carl Theodor Dreyer, it is also one of the most strikingly looking movies you'll come across.

8.5-9/10


Death and the Maiden (1994) - excellent film from Polanski that is an adaptation of a play by a Chilean exile who escaped the regime of Augusto Pinochet. The movie is set in Chile over the course of one night and centres on only three characters, rivetingly performed by Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Stuart Wilson. It would be unfair to reveal plot details save to say that the subject matter is dark and grim but expertly handled by Polanski and the actors who relish the stylized dialogue that is retained from the play. Kingsley and Weaver in particular are remarkable, with Kingsley unforgettable in his final monologue in the penultimate scene of the movie.

7.5/10


Dishonored (1931) - fairly average collaboration between Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich that is not at the same level as some of their other films. Sternberg seems to be directing on autopilot with none of his audacious and elaborate set pieces present and Dietrcih does her best but cannot rescue what is a pretty mundane script.

5.5/10


The Duellists (1977) - out of his early career work Alien and Blade Runner seem to get most of the recognition, and deservedly so, but Ridley Scott's debut film is also quite a little gem. Based on Joseph Conrad's short story about two french army lieutenants during the Napoleonic Wars whose quarrel over an initially minor incident turns into a bitter, long-drawn out duelling struggle over the following fifteen years, Scott's film is one of the best looking movies you will come across with perfect framing and lighting in pretty much every scene. Despite the episodic structure and lack of any real plot or characterisation, the minimalist style and exposition work really well and actually add a tense feel to all the duels as its hard to know where the movie is going next.

7.5/10


House of Strangers (1949) - solid noirish family drama by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Edward G Robinson playing a stereotypical italian patriarch who is oblivious to the burgeoning rifts developing between his sons. The ending is weak but Robinson is terrific and makes it a worthwhile watch until then.

7/10


How Green was my Valley (1941) - John Ford's soppy but effective film is too long by about 20 min but otherwise a solidly made and beautifully shot movie that manipulates the audience well enough with its melodramatic story of an irish family's struggles in a small mining town.

7/10


The Ice Storm (1997) - Ang Lee's movie is set before and after thanksgiving in 70's Connecticut, leading up to a threatening ice storm, and revolving around two neighbouring families having issues with either the political, social or sexual climate of the time. It�s a fairly cold film (no joke intended) with fairly impenetrable characters and with a cathartic ending that just didn�t quite work for me. But the acting is top notch and some of it is quite funny.

6.5-7/10 

on the Duelist. A very well made movie that tends to get lost in the shuffle of Scott's other work. I would have rated it a bit higher though. 

7.5 is about 4 stars on my scale, which is what I think it deserves since it had a few flaws. 

(1/(7.5 / 10))*4 = 5.333333

...in the grand Nitin condition your 4 stars is on a scale of 0 - 5.333333 stars :)

P.S. Cheers guys for the heads up about Children Of Men, sounds worthwhile. 

who rates stuff out of 5? 

7.5 is just 1.5 above 6 which fits neatly into Garrison Keillor's famous joke about mediocrity so I was being a bit quibbly I guess. 

M Hulot's Holiday (1953) - apart from Playtime, I cant seem to get into Jacques Tati's movies. It basically comes down to me not really caring for slapstick humour, no matter how cleverly staged it is.

4/10


The Man from Laramie (1955) - quite liking these Anthony Mann/James Stewart westerns. This one's not quite at the same level as Winchester 73 but it continues Mann's clever and interesting inversion of Stewart's established Hollywood image. Great use of landscape to reflect characters' feelings and although it follows a familiar pattern, its always involving.

7-7.5/10


Millennium Mambo (2001) - slow, initially interesting but ultimately uninvolving portrait of a young girl's life in modern day Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's movie seems to repeat itself ad nauseum after the first 30-40 min. The acting is good, Shu Qi carries the movie pretty comfortably, but the whole thing becomes rather mundane for most of the second half.

5/10


Missing (1982) - Excellent film by Costa-Gavras based on the disappearance of US journalist Charles Horman who disappeared in the violent aftermath of the US backed Chilean coup of 1973 that deposed President Salvador Allende. Ironically, the name of the country is never once mentioned in the film nor is the US' culpability explicitly stated as Costa-Gavra merely uses the political undercurrents to focus on the personal side of the story, the search in vain for Horman by his father and wife. In those two roles, Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek are absolutely superb in a masterclass of restrained acting. The minimalism extends to the depiction by Costa-Gavras of the siege, which is generally shown only in the background of most shots and never really taking centre stage or overtaking the plight of the characters.

7.5/10


Orpheus (1949) - Jean Cocteau's superb transplantation of the ancient greek myth to post-war Paris is a dreamy, surreal film with great use of rather simple special effects to portray the world of Death. Maria Casares also makes for a tortured, enigmatic version of Death and Cocteau's additional subplot involving Death and Orpheus adds another layer of intrigue to the original story. Jean Marais as Orpheus is a bit of a weak link in the ensemble but apart from that, this is classy stuff all round.

7.5/10


Our Man in Havana (1959) - While I found The Tailor of Panama to be a decent film, the Carol Reed movie of effectively the same story is far more entertaining, mainly thanks to a wittier and funnier script from Graham Greene. Alex Guinness chimes in with a suitably deadpan performance as a british national selling vacuum cleaners in Havana and recruited by MI6 to provide inside information in exchange for lots of money, which he then proceeds to fabricate in amusing fashion. Carol Reed utilises the same camera moves as in The Third Man and although they don�t work quite as well this time around, the quality of the script and performances more than make up for it.

7-7.5/10


People Will Talk (1951) - should be awkward but isnt mix of socio-drama and comedy with Cary Grant playing a doctor with non-conventional methods. Little bit heavy handed at times and the dialogue by Mankiewicz is over literate at times, but its interesting enough and Cary Grant demonstrates that he is quite possibly the smoothest man ever.

7-7.5/10 

Foreign movie posters :

http://www.cracked.com/article_16990_lost-in-translation-20-baffling-foreign-movie-posters.html 

Nitin, you need a site where you can post your movie reviews. *thinks* 

do you watch movies alphabetically? 

but I review alphabetically :) 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038043/

Good poetic invitation to reflect upon being here right now... 

The Pledge (2001) - wasn�t too keen on seeing anything by Sean Penn after really disliking Into the Wild but gave this a go simply on the strength of the cast (Nicholson, Eckhart, Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Patricia Clarkson).

And the acting does really save what is otherwise an interesting but flawed film, too weighed down by its own self importance in places (Penn really needs to stop thinking he is Terence Malick and leave out all the nature shots) but doing a fair job of charting a retired detective's spiral into mental illness when he becomes too involved with the disappearance of a young girl and pledges to find what happened to her mother. The plotting also has a number of questionable gaps but when it sticks to characterisation, its pretty involving stuff.

6.5/10


Police (1985) - fairly gripping police procedural by Maurice Pialat and starring Gerard Depardieu before he starred in every french film ever released. Most of the movie's success comes from the scripting by Catherine Breillat which spends an awful lot of time on small details and interactions, and with great effect, than plotting. Depardieu and Sophie Marceau also share good chemistry together, with Pialat just content on filming their awkward relationship in an objective, loose style.

7/10


La Ronde (1950) - graceful and elegant would be the best words to describe this and simply because of Max Ophuls' swirling camerawork that is just a pleasure to watch. In a definite case of style over substance, but also one where it doesn�t really matter, Ophuls creates a beautiful looking film as his cast go through connected vignettes about relationships in different social classes in 1800's Vienna.

7/10


Samurai Spy (1965) - Masashiri Shinoda's extremely confusing samurai film has more plot twists than are possible in a whole season of tv, let alone a 100 min film. Things seem to change so rapidly that its very hard to keep track of what's going on for most of the film and to whom. On top of all that, Shinoda seems intent on filming in an overly distracting arty style that just adds to the confusion. And the fight scenes are poorly shot, obscuring the characters and choreography in most shots (although when this happens in the climactic duel, it does work).

5/10


Shanghai Triad (1995) - Probably the worst Zhang Yimou film I've come across, which is saying a lot considering how disappointing House of Flying Daggers ultimately was.

Essentially, it's a seven day tale told through the eyes of a young child who moves from the country to 40's Shanghai and starts working for the Shanghai underworld, his job consisting of being an assistant to the boss' mistress. Yimou never feels comfortable with the material, especially with the presentation of the story through the child protagonists' view. There are a handful of good scenes, mainly involving the great Gong Li but this is definitely the least of all their collaborations. Even the visuals, which are normally a guarantee in Yimou's hands, are not all that impressive.

4/10


Sword of the Beast (1965) - This is more like it, Hideo Gosha strips the samurai film to its bare essentials with a moody, blistering movie full of great characters and tremendous fight scenes. Well worth a watch.

7-7.5/10


The Talk of the Town (1942) - not quite right blend of socio-drama and comedy from George Stevens that nevertheless works due to the rapport of Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. When it gets into message mode, its nowhere near as successful as when it stays in comedy mode, getting overly heavy handed and preachy. Still, a reasonable film overall for the lighter moments.

6.5/10 

Melodramatic. Good acting. impressively hard to sit through some times. Tied up too easily.

7
Hated Allan Balls other film. 

and the last of the holiday viewing :

La Terra Trema (1948) - Luchino Visconti's overlong, episodic, predictable but remarkably well made film set in Aci Trezzi, a small fishing village on the east coast of Sicily focuses on the trials and tribulations of the Valastros family in an environment of exploitation of working class fishermen. Unlike his later, more grander and operatic films, this one is strictly in the neo-realist fashion, with non-professional actors who are actual locals playing all the characters.

Whilst the story and character arcs are fairly predictable and cliched, the manner in which the film is made lends it an authenticity that is undeniably involving. There is also a distracting voiceover but I believe this was inserted for the benefit of the italian public since most of the film is in a rural sicilian dialect.

7.5/10


This Sporting Life (1963) - Richard Harris in one of the greatest performances of all time in what is also one of the best british films of all time. Lindsay Anderson's searing depiction of rugby player Frank Machin, whose real life is not as successful as his sporting life, mixes a formidable exploration of working class angst and the ups and downs of fame and celebrity with a tragic love story.

Its probably a bit unfair to make the comparison since Harris is his own man, but his performance definitely reminded me a lot of Brando from Streetcar and Waterfront. Almost matching him is Rachel Roberts as Machin's widowed landlady and love interest, with the scenes with both of them on screen being a showcase of great acting. But Anderson's contribution isnt just his work with the actors, the movie being a visual tour de force in pretty much every scene of the elliptical narrative that is connected together with impressive transitional editing.

8.5/10


To Die For (1995) - not quite black enough black comedy by Gus Van Sant that would have been better served by going more over the top with its material. I also found Van Sant's mixture of styles in the presentation of the movie way too distracting and unnecessary. But, Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix do put in very good performances and some of the potshots at tabloid celebrity are decent enough.

6-6.5/10


Twentieth Century (1934) - early screwball comedy from Howard Hawks but it still manages to match the farcical levels of both His Girl Friday and Bringing up Baby. Like both those two films, I found that it couldnt quite successfully sustain its over the top tone for the entirety of the movie but when it works, its very very funny. Carole Lombard and John Barrymore put in pitch perfect performances as an aspiring actress and her egomaniacal Boradway producer, respectively, trading some very clever dialogue at breakneck pace.

7/10


I Vitelloni (1953) - good early Fellini following the life of five thirty somethings in a small italian town, all of whom are likeable and distinguishable characters, albeit cliched. There's just something there about this period of Fellini's career that manages to engage you with his filmmaking, unlike his later more bloated and self conscious movies. Nino Rota once again provides an excellent score to the proceedings, making the whole thing quite enjoyable.

7/10


Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - probably the most accessible of all of Godard's movies, the movie is essentially a 12 segment collation of a young parisian woman's descent into prostitution. Anna Karina is very touching in the main role, and she had to be because Godard lingers on her face for extensive periods of time during many of the segments. Despite the subject matter, the movie's tone is fairly playful and self referential, the lightness of touch actually working in its favour until the misjudged ending which lacked the sense of gravitas it needed to work.

7/10


The Piano Teacher (2001) - well, theres sexual repression, theres extreme sexual repression and then there's this. The main character in Michael Haneke's extremely disturbing film is a more than repressed piano teacher who also has sadomasochistic tendencies. This is very uncomfortable viewing, Haneke doesnt pull back during any of the scenes depicting his character's behaviour but more importantly, it's just very hard to connect with the main character.

Isabelle Huppert, in a very brave performance, does manage to make you empathise with her character but its not enough given the extreme nature of the character. The ending, which should leave you disgusted, barely registers a reaction at all due to this problem.

5/10 

damn tags... 

IMO it's a sort of continuity of the logical progression of the trend with Central European movies.

Fucked up stuff supposed to shake the viewer doesn't mean a movie is worth watching.

I don't remember the ending anymore even.

Hopefully the trend goes more toward Mike Leigh, have you seen Happy Go Lucky, guys? It has its annoyances and stupidities, but as a whole it's a good piece. Telling of quite ordinary people for once, yet being interesting and very lifelike, capturing some of the life's magic. 

I watched the Cheech and Chong movies recently, no idea why I did not encounter them much earlier. They are two dopeheads going through .. uhm ... dope adventures. The first one was great fun, but the others very bland and stupid (except for ET with his extra testicle, I laughed so hard).

Yesterday I watched Loaded Weapon 1 ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107659/ ). Great fun. Generally very plain and stupid humour, but every 5 minutes or so a laugh-blast. It is like a persiflage of movies like Hot Shots or the Naked Gun. Sometimes it seems the actor's fun playing comes through. The scene where Samuel L. Jackson imitated that ugly bunny face girl for example. If you got a rather quirky sense of humour and are not a pretentious culture nazi, try it. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Really really bad, and it never ends. What the fuck? Similar to Forrest Gump but they took Tom Hanks and replaced him with a plank of wood. Also, where is Gary Sinise? 

I agree, I didn't enjoy it at all. It meandered, and took an extremely long time to get nowhere. I compare to to Aronofsky's The Fountain, another really long, pretentious, experimental love film from a talented director, except that The Fountain was far more interesting. 

Slumdog Millionaire

I was just happy not to be watching Benjamin Button. Also, this film is excellent. The plot is contrived, sure, but when seen as a modern day fable, that isn't necessarily a negative. It like it was dragged towards a modern pop-culture setting though. Also, dialogue is a little rough, and the end a little rushed. Those were the bad points, the rest is almost universally great. 

also, yeah Nynort, I see where you're coming from, but while they're both undoubtedly pretentious, the Fountain is interesting and mysterious (to me at least) and truly experimental, while Benjamin Button is just an emotional-fast-food, pseudo-intellectual oscar-fishing bucket of cocks, devoid of all merit.
Also, the Fountain looks pretty, and I like pretty pictures.


Sex Drive
I am something of a shit-teen-movie connoisseur as you may know, so when I say this is the greatest shit-teen-movie of the last few years, I hope you appreciate the weight of my sentiment. Us shit-teen-movie fans are simple beasts, as Hunter S. Thompson once said: "Too weird to live, and too rare to die", so I'll keep it simple:

Hilarity: Very high
Boob Count: Fairly Low
Stifler Count: Zero, but they got a guy that looks just like him and got him to play the same character. 

Madagascar 2: Boring, stupid, boring, clichee crap. Mild chuckle at best. Too much singing, crappy music. Might be fun for kids, but there are many so much better movies (for them). 

Crimson Tide : Enjoyed this very much, lots of suspense and felt very realistic (No idea if it is actually realistic). Good acting all round I thought.

U-571 : Yeah so I have a submarine fetish at the moment :P Historical inaccuracies aside I thought this was as good as crimson tide, but with weaker acting on the whole. Its always good to see Bill Paxton in a movie, and I was rooting for him to start shouting and flailing his arms around (game over man, game over!) but sadly he is quite subdued here.

The day the earth stood still : Seriously WTF, this remake was shit. Reeves basicly puts on his Neo acting profile but doesn't do anything other than talk. I wanted to throttle the kid by the end, and the female lead was quite forgettable but certainly better than the rest. I've not seen the original of this film so I cannot compare...

Rocknrolla : I heard this was Guy Ritchies return to greatness but overall I would call it OK. There are some moments of greatness (All involving Russians) but not enough to save the film from mediocrity imo. 

Recent Watches
#2666 posted by DaZ [80.41.151.213] on 2009/02/18 14:08:36
Crimson Tide : Enjoyed this very much, lots of suspense and felt very realistic (No idea if it is actually realistic). Good acting all round I thought.

Well, not really. I had the pleasure of watching this one with my brother who was a petty officer in the U S Navy for a decade and he was one of the guys responsible for one half of the code and pull pin that executes a launch. I got to enjoy</i. reaching over every ten minutes and telling me what was wrong with the current scene.

Two facts stay with me.

1) The petty officers of his position are armed at all times. When a senior officer gives them a command that breaks the nuclear protocol, the petty office is obliged under law to kill that officer.

2) Whenever a submarine loses communication for any length of time, they are obligated to return immediately to the port of origin and not execute previous orders. So if a Hackman did what he did, he would be coming back in freezer storage not as a court marshal.