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Ninjadmin · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:34 pm Post subject:

hiccup · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:36 pm Post subject:

Reckon my brother could smoke ninja's brother under the table, but is a fucking lightweight on teh booze, so ninjfrere would probably win out there.

bristle-krs · Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:

Manhunter
The best of the Thomas Harris film adaptations IMO (second: ‘Black Sunday’), a well-lit, well-photographed version of ‘Red Dragon’ with William Petersen as former FBI psychological profiler Will Graham brought out of a retirement caused by a breakdown following his pursuit and capture of Hannibal Lec(k)tor, in order to track down another serial killer, the ‘Tooth Fairy’.

Some peeps say it’s an emotionally cold film, but I’ve never figured that out, I think it’s pretty decent and unglossy. Nice use of music too. Love Tom Noonan as the psycho, and Dennis Farina as the Fed too. The sleeping tiger and Will meeting Hannibal are my favourite scenes.

Troy
On one level this Hollywood blockbuster version of the siege & fall of Troy is fairly enjoyable, but there’s plenty that grates. The script is fair awful, there’s no gods, loads of the canonical mythology is arse-over-tit, and there seems little or no direction for the actors. Eric Bana does okay as Hektor, Brian Cox was a suitably unpleasant Agamemnon, but with so many characters and so much plot to rattle through, too much of the time it’s just a blancmange of mugging fools.

The scene: It’s night time. The Greek army is subdued, having failed to breach Troy’s mighty walls. Odysseus is sitting round a campfire, brooding over his friend Achilles and his feud with Agamemnon, and concerned at the impenetrability of Troy. He, like many of the Greek leaders, seems resigned to a long and bloody war of attrition, and possible failure. But then he turns round, and sees one of his men carving a toy for his son back home. It’s a little horse... CLUNK! Barely one step short of having Odysseus stroke his chin, look wistfully into the sky and mutter “Now that gives me an idea...”

The Lion Of The Desert
The story of the guerrilla war fought by Omar Mukhtar against the Italian invasion of Libya which began in 1911, and of the Fascist General sent to crush the rebellion. Anthony Quinn and Oliver Reed chew scenery like bulimics eat chocolate; it’s no ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’ but it’s better than ‘Troy’. FASCINATING FACT!!! Colonel Gaddaffi bankrolled the production! ANOTHER FASCINATING FACT!!! The producer/director, Moustapha Akkad, was killed in a hotel bombing in November 2005 in Amman, Jordan.

bristle-krs · Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:02 am Post subject:

Jin-Rô
An anime addition to the ‘Kerberos’ cycle, which posits a Germanicised Japan developing in an alternate history version of the postwar period. Panzer Cop Kazuki Fuse hesitates to shoot a child carrying a bomb during a riot, and ends up in all sorts of bother. Some serious twists and turns in this one, all about different police departments vying for control, identity and loyalty. Downbeat shizzle. But I enjoyed it.

World Trade Center
Rather sickly flag-waver about two Port Authority cops who get trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers, the ordeal of their families, and the effort to find them and dig them out. Oliver Stone sets phasers to ‘mawkish’. Nicolas Cage does his emoting face; Michael ‘The Shield’ Peña is less annoying.

Insomnia (2002)
Good but not great Hollywood remake of Erik Skjoldbjærg’s ace arctic noir from five years earlier, relocated from Norway to Alaska, and replacing cold-hearted cop Stellan Skarsgård with Al Pacino. The set-up’s the same: there’s been a brutal murder of a local girl, and the local flatfoots have called in a more experienced big city detective to cast his eye over the evidence... But he’s got other things on his mind, and soon these - and the never-ending days - lead to him making big errors of judgement. Hilary Swank doesn’t fit in at all; Robin Williams attempts to play against type. A decent enough effort from Christopher Nolan but not a patch on ‘Memento’ - though the washed-out colours and photography are excellent. Shame the ending was changed.

Le Dernier Combat (The Last Battle)
Early Luc Besson joint, set in some undefined post-apocalyptic present day/recent past/near future world. It’s essentially a black and white silent movie, and it follows for the most part one man as he wanders around. Jean Reno plays a brute. This is the one with the chaps sleeping in cars, btw. For once there are some interesting comments on the IMDb boards.

The Wizard Of Oz
FFS it’s ‘The Wizard Of Oz’. Ruby slippers, Kansas, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, witches, munchkins, coked-up teen lead, B&W (well, sepia) and glorious technicolor. “Fly, my pretties!”

Conan The Barbarian
Arnie is a pissed-off swordsman with an axe to grind against frog-faced snake cult leader James Earl Jones. Fun for all the family. Some great fight scenes. Takes itself seriously.

Half Nelson
An inspirational history teacher with a hidden drug habit. His junior school student who discovers his secret. Their friendship. No contrived ending. Perfick - the best American flick I’ve seen since ‘25th Hour’. Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps are both excellent, as are all the supporting cast, in particular Anthony Mackie; Broken Social Scene’s score works very well; debut director Ryan Fleck does a fine, no frills job.

bristle-krs · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:11 am Post subject:

Children Of Men
Some people seem to really hate this, but I was really impressed, I scored it a full 10 on IMDb. It’s a post-apocalyptic set-up - a near future police state Britain, in a world struck low by infertility and much else. Clive Owen is a civil servant who is dragged into a dangerous venture involving a terrorist conspiracy/people’s revolution. Michael Caine gives a decent performance. Excellent sound and photography and amazing choreography, director Alfonso Cuarón should feel proud of the job he did here. I don’t want to say much about the plot, because I think it’s worth going into blind - several of the scenes really took me by surprise, Cuarón seems to have figured out how to direct counter-intuitively, away from the clichés, so it’s not like the stock situations you’d find in, say, a standard teen slasher. He works in a more heightened, natural film grammar. A special mention has to go to the set dressing - very real, bleeding into the story, and cutting down on the amount of exposition needed.

Gods And Generals
A not-particularly enjoyable take on the early years on the American Civil War, directed by Ronald F Maxwell and based on a novel by Jeffrey Shaara - sortof a prequel to ‘Gettysburg’. Lots of stilted speeches masquerading as dialogue, and large battle scenes that whilst possibly impressive to people on the ground, just aren’t filmed very well or with any sense of scale. Robert Duvall is pretty good as General Lee, Stephen Lang (the sleazy supermarket tabloid hack from ‘Manhunter’!) is very watchable as Stonewall Jackson. Difficult to take seriously if you’ve seen ‘CSA: Confederate States Of America’.

Land Of The Blind
Very stagey, rather limited-in-vision political parable-cum-satire. Tom Hollander is a cruel fascistic dictator who has playwright-revolutionary Donald Sutherland imprisoned; Ralph Fiennes is the gaoler who acts as a fulcrum. Pessimistic, heavy-handed, but well acted and well shot; it just looks a bit meagre. No less subtle than, say, ‘American Dreamz’, and I liked that; but a less convincing film dialectic than ‘Half Nelson’.

Kingdom Of Heaven
Ridley Scott gives good epic - I reckon this one’s better than ‘Gladiator’. Orlando Bloom is darn decent as a sad-hearted widower who ends up in Jerusalem during the Crusades. He finds not salvation of the soul but instead corporeal intrigue and base human behaviour. Some very good supporting roles, several of them satisfyingly short-lived, and impressively staged big set-piece battles. Whilst Scott sort of mangles the specifics of history, he does it to make the broader strokes more understandable, so we’ll let him off on that count.

Dekalog (Piec)
The original one-hour version of ‘A Short Film About Killing’ by Krzysztof KieÊlowski; cinematographer Slawomir Idziak provides excellent washed-out yellows and browns. This episode from KieÊlowski’s ten commandments-based ‘Dekalog’ series focuses on ‘thou shalt not kill’, and contrasts the illegal, near-motiveless murder of a taxi driver by a young drifter with his subsequent legal, state-sanctioned execution. Not a happy picture.

bristle-krs · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:20 am Post subject:

Red Sonja
Okay, I recant, it’s a heap of shit

Definitely a film that works better when you watch it as a hormone-addled teen than as an adult with taste. Brigitte Nielsen is awful, Arnie waddles around like a muscle mary with roid rage, there’s an annoying ‘Temple Of Doom’-style brat, and Richard Fleischer directs with all the enthusiasm of an arthritic suffering from ME. Sandahl Bergman and Ronald Lacey do alright as the villains.

Ninjadmin · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:04 am Post subject:

warrior king

from the people who brought you Ong Bak, proper sequel mode, more stunts and whole 5 minute long sections made by the thai tourist board. this time it's an elephant that he has to get back

pretty good fun but a diluted version of the 1st one

bristle-krs · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 10:35 pm Post subject:

more for the mix:

Per Un Pugno Di Dollari/A Fistful Of Dollars
Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood & Ennio Morricone prove a worthy match for Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune & Masaru Satô in this transposition of an Eastern ronin fable into a Spaghetti Western. A saddle tramp rocks up into a lawless and dusty frontier town, split between rival factions, and offers his services as a hired gun to each gang in turn, playing one off against the other. Good, punchy pace, memorable scenes, totally weatherproof movie

Per Qualche Dollaro In Più/For A Few Dollars More
Eastwood returns as another ‘Man With No Name’ wandering gunfighter, here in tentative bounty hunting alliance with Lee Van Cleef’s Colonel against a bunch of marauding bandits. Not as fun or exciting as ‘Fistful’.

Return Of The Seven
Horrible retread of John Sturges’s Kurosawa-teefing ‘Magnificent Seven’, with a rebooted cast of guns-for-hire who barely gel together against some dastardly Mexican overlord, or something.

Once Upon A Time In Mexico
Glossy, well-shot, terribly acted, rubbishly edited, barely scripted revisitation of the Mariachi character by Robert Rodriguez. Lots of bangs, very few on target. Antonio Banderas is alright, I guess, Johnny Depp is okay in the same way he was okay in ‘Sleepy Hollow’, but it’s pretty much wasted opportunity all the way through.

A Better Place
Kevin Smith’s mate Vincent Periera’s low budget movie about high school outsiders. It’s not terrible, it’s just a lot less good than many View Askewniverse fanboys seem to think it is. After his dad dies, Californian teen Bennet (Robert DiPatri) moves out to Jersey with his mom, and immediately finds himself outside the mainstream jock culture. He finds a friend (of sorts) in local weirdo misanthropist kid Ryan (Eoin Bailey, the writer from ‘Band Of Brothers’), they hang out, utter contrived dialogue, stuff happens, yadda yadda. Bailey’s very watchable. Overall reminded me of Hal Hartley’s ‘The Unbelievable Truth’ in terms of tone, pace, vision, acting etc.

Nochnoy Dozor/Night Watch
Big, loud, glossy MTV-style Russian modern day vampire/good versus evil epic. Thought it was rather rubbish. All the worst bits from Buffy knock-offs.

bristle-krs · Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:38 am Post subject:

Obchod Na Korze/The Shop On Main Street
An excellent little film directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, about life in a small SLovakian town during a period of ‘Aryanisation’ during World War Two, when a puppet clerical fascist state was set up. It focuses on Tono Brtko (Jozef Kroner), an easygoing but poor carpenter who despite his more aspirational wife’s nagging enjoys his life of pottering about. However, his brother-in-law - a fascist functionary and not a man he likes - throws him a googly: the new regime is taking business out of the hands of Jews, so how would he like to take over old Mrs Lautmann’s sewing shop? He agrees, and so we set off on the bumpy journey to resolution, and it’s not a pretty one. Along the way, though, we get to enjoy a marvellous relationship develop between Tono and Mrs Lautmann (Ida Kaminska), who seems to have no conception of all the turmoil around her (she thinks Tono is there as a helper), in no small part due to her deafness. Even though you know it’s about a grave subject, it is so beautifully constructed and structured that when it shifts in tone from the knockabout humour of the first two-thirds into the deadly serious final act, it shocks you, makes you shout at the characters. Definitely a film which emphasises that tragedy is not defined by numbers or scale, but by the very personal, very small individual actions and betrayals.

Red Dragon
Brett Ratner refilms the Thomas Harris novel, with Ed Norton, Anthony Hopkins and Ralph Fiennes supplanting William Petersen, Brian Cox and Tom Noonan from ‘Manhunter’. It feels a bit weird in places, because whilst this version includes some scenes omitted from ‘Manhunter’ (including a different ending), a lot of the time the dialogues is the same, or very similar. I didn’t enjoy it as much.

The Silence Of The Lambs
Jonathan Demme directs Jodie Foster as FBI rookie Clarice Starling, placed as bait before nutty professor Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in order to try and get some clues to the identity of serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Some nice acting in places, but overall feels overrated. Some painfully out of place humourous/lighthearted bits too (the butterfly geeks). Hopkins not as good as Cox.

Hannibal
Lecter is lose in Italy, pursued by rich pervert Mason Verger (Gary Oldman), a man horribly disfigured by Hannibal many years previously. Julianne Moore takes over as Starling, now a fully fledged fed, but one under a dark cloud thanks to a botched drugs bust. Ridley Scott directs with a painter’s eye, it’s IMO more enjoyable that SOTL, but still, it sort of lacks something. And I can’t stand Hopkins’ mugging.

Lord Of War
The story of the rise and fall of Ukrainian-American arms dealer Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage). Kind of enjoyable to start with, then gets very tedious. Too many clichés in search of a meaning. Similar in flavour to, say, ‘Layer Cake’ by way of ‘Scarface’.

No Man’s Land
Unpretensious, pretty zippy little amoral crime thriller - Charlie Sheen is Ted Varrick, a rich kid involved in a stolen Porsche racket, DB Sweeney (the poor man’s Andrew McCarthy) is Benjy Taylor, the young cop sent in undercover to infiltrate his gang as mechanic Bill Ives. Naturally things don’t go according to plan, etc. Randy Quaid is the Lieutenant (‘who wants results NOW’) investigating Varrick, Lara Harris is Varrick’s sister, who falls in love with Ives/Taylor.

Deathwatch
Fairly decent but not great supernatural WW1 flick - a bunch of Tommies get cut off in a forward German trench during a big offensive on the Western Front, only for their small band to be whittled down by a mysterious presence. Sort of a muddier ‘The Keep’, with a hint of ‘Fiends Of The Eastern Front’ atmosphere. Jamie Bell is the young kid who lied about his age to join up and is now regretting it, Hugo Speer is the fatherly NCO (“Don’t call me sir, I’m a sergeant - I work for a living”), Andy Serkin is the psychopathic squaddie, Lawrence Fox is the ineffectual upper class officer, etc. See also Kris Marshall of ‘My Family’/BT HomeHub ad fame whacking off to looted German porn.

bristle-krs · Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:39 am Post subject:

bristle-krs · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject:

catching up with stuff i've seen recently, and some i saw earlier in the year but forgot about:

Wonderland
Michael Winterbottom’s story of one extended family reduced down into the events of a few days, and anchored around the lives of three sisters, theirs hopes, fears, disappointments. Characters behave in a stilted way, sometimes predictable, sometimes not, are sometimes likable and sometimes not; but it’s engrossing despite its banality. A film that almost makes me like London. Has a great cast of actors who work well together - Gina McKee, Molly Parker, Shirley Henderson as the sisters, Ian Hart, Stuart Townsend, John Simm, Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham etc.

Machibuse (Ambush At Blood Pass)
Hiroshi Inagaki directs Toshiro Mifune and Shintaro Katsu in a tale of a wandering masterless samurai, a shipment of gold, an ambush and a whole load of double-crossing. Worth catching.

Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks, Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, farting, genius.

Bure Baruta (Cabaret Balkan)
Director Goran Paskaljevic and screenwriter Dejan Dukovski (adapting from his own play) weave together characters and happenings across in mid-90s, theoretically post-war Belgrade. There’s a lot of sadness, but some funny stuff too; sort of Robert Altman-goes-Slavic. Don’t go expecting a happy ending, though.

Stark Raving Mad
Seann William Scott leads an oddball team on a heist under cover of a loud party. Not a classic but fun - Lou Diamond Phillips is a tasty villain.

You, Me And Dupree
Slacker man-child Owen Wilson lodges with newly wed best pal Matt Dillon and his wife Kate Hudson. Michael Douglas convinces as an arsehole dad-in-law. Light but enjoyable.

The Guardian
Aquatic ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ with washed up Coast Guard rescue swimmer Kevin Costner atoning for his guilt over the death of his best friend by being a bit mean but then becoming a mentor to hotshot new recruit Ashton Kutcher. A bit, well, dull.

The Prestige
I thought this might be a corker - two Victorian magicians (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale - doing his best gorblimey voice, cf ‘Reign Of Fire’) battle over conjuring tricks - but despite some interesting themes, it didn’t really mesh together. A shame, and Christopher Nolan’s best effort.

Flushed Away
Aardman/Dreamworks computer animated feature about Roddy, an upscale pet rat (Hugh Jackman), who is washed down into the sewers where he meets ebony-to-his-ivory free range rodent Rita (Kate Winslet), opposites-attract stylee. Meanwhile an evil Toad (Ian McKellen) plots to wipe out his rodine nemeses and replace them with his own spawn. Good larks with some dirty jokes too, which is always a bonus.

Employee Of The Month
Slacker budget supermarket ‘box boy’ Dane Cook takes things easy till the arrival of a new cashier (Jessica Simpson) drives him into battle with champion tillmonkey Dax Shepard for the ‘employee of the month’ award. Shallow, breezy, and with a dubious message, but not awful, just not as good as ‘Dodgeball’.

Pierrepoint
Hangdog Timothy Spall as Britain’s last hangman Albert Pierrepoint. Not exactly laugh-a-minute, but watchable.

Lost In Translation
Two Americans adrift in Tokyo (Scarlet Johansson as a colllege graduate unsure of her future, twiddling her thumbs whilst her photographer husband works, and Bill Murray, a past-it Hollywood star making adverts for stupid money) find solace in a platonic relationship. Pretty good stuff I thought.

The Village
M Night Shyamalan’s fourth feature, an Amish-like rural community is held in thrall by mysterious animal mutilations, yadda yadda yadda. Beautiful photography and sound, some fine performances (Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard), just a bit of a see-through twist and a not very thorough structure.

Jesus’ Son
A funny little film about a wandering fuck-up, the perfectly monickered Fuckhead (Billy Crudup), getting into drugs, falling in love with Samantha Morton and trying to clean up in early 70s America. No real plot, but no pretensions either. A feelgood relation to ‘Requiem For A Dream’. Jack Black, Dennis Hopper and Denis Leary all have decent little parts.

Heat
Watched this again because I was bored, and it does drag - three hours of De Niro and Pacino moaning about how hard they got it, one a thief, the other a cop. But hey, it’s still got some great set pieces (the opening armoured car robbery, the attempted sale of the bearer bonds back to Van Zant, the bank heist, tracking down Waingro) and a hardworking cast (Tom Sizemore, a non-annoying Val Kilmer, Diane Venora, Natalie Portman, Amy Brenneman). And Michael Mann knocks together some top visuals, and no complaints on the sound and editing fronts either.

Dazed And Confused
Richard Linklater retcons ‘Slacker’ back to 1976, to the last day of school in some Austin suburb, where the kids are looking forward to a long summer and a party to kick it off. Tasty little ensemble includes Ben Affleck, Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Matthew McConaughey, Cole Hauser, Adam Goldberg, Marissa Ribisi and Rory Cochrane; there’s paddling, underage drinking, kegs, driving around and other stuff. The 90s ‘American Grafitti’ would be the pigeonhole, I reckon.

Simple Men
Hal Hartley pitches two brothers who have little in common together in their search for the father they don’t really know. Duller than even that sounds. Robert Burke is sort of alright in it.

BBS: The Documentary
Top 8-part documentary (released under Creative Commons licensing) about the rise and fall of dial-up bulletin boards, and of the cultures that grew up around them, structured around interviews with many of the people involved in creating, operating and using them. Interesting stuff, with plenty of meat to chew on. It’s a bit variable in sound and picture quality, but still very good.

The Hebrew Hammer
The first Jewsploitation flick, with Adam Goldberg as a semitic superhero-cum-private (circumcised) dick, tasked with saving Hannukah from the demonic plans of Santa’s evil son. A good lark, nothing spectacular, in a similar vein to ‘Drop Squad’.

Chinatown
The classic modern noir - Jack Nicholson as private eye Jake Gittes, chasing after water in 30s LA. Directed by Roman Polanski from Robert Towne’s script, if you’ve seen it you know it’s good; if you haven’t, there’s no point in explaining what happens.

The Two Jakes
Sequel to ‘Chinatown’, Towne delivers the script, Nicholson directs. This time round the plot’s built over oil reserves beneath LA in the 40s; it’s got Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly and Madeleine Stowe, there’s a pleasantly confusing plot, and it’s rather imaginately shot by Nicholson; it’s just not as good as its precursor.

bristle-krs · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:15 pm Post subject:

Zemlya (Earth)
A 1930 silent film by Olexandr Dozhenko about farmers in the Ukraine and the debate over agricultural collectivisation. It’s not really a barrel of laughs - some old chap dies at the beginning, there are some nattily-dressed kulaks, a new tractor arrives in the village, a young chap is killed. Very static, some strange (to mine modern eyes) set-ups (like the back of someone’s head when they’re talking), didn’t really dig it, though apparently it’s a masterpiece. Bloody awful subtitles on this version too: “Well I’ll be a sonuvabitch - them fellows are real class!”

The Bourne Identity
Matt Damon is surprisingly effective as the angsty, amnesiac CIA hitman being hunted down by his former employers for botching a job - some very exhilarating action sequences (like the punch-up in the US consulate), and a satisfyingly opaque plot which unravels at its own pace. Franka ‘Lola Rennt’ Potente is two thumbs as the Euro-flake Bourne hooks up with.

The Bourne Supremacy
An actually rather tasty sequel, which builds on the first flick and takes it somewhere different - this time directed by Paul Greengrass, who brings a more documentary-flavoured feel to the visuals (less still, slightly fuzzy, unusually lit), and yet still demonstrates a painter’s eye to shape, composition and movement in scenes like the struggle between Bourne and a fellow Treadstone operative in an antiseptically minimalist Munich house.

bristle-krs · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject:

so is anyone else going to take part in this thread?

J · Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:03 pm Post subject:

sorry man

wouldnt mind seeing lost in translation, think its on tv at the mo.
will go and see hot fuzz when i have the money.
the bourne films are fantastic, deffinetly 2 of my all time favourites, i love the locations, and the speech, and the girl in the first one.

flick · Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:34 pm Post subject:

i watched little miss sunshine t'other day and it was strange and good. i saw hard candy and it was pointless and bad.

Ninjadmin · Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:42 pm Post subject:

i saw a really good film the other day but i can't remember the name of it

flick · Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:40 pm Post subject:

thats always helpful

Ninjadmin · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:15 am Post subject:

saw the remake of 'the hills have eyes' tonight

was really impressed, wasn't expecting anything but it's purely played for laughs. the violence is all completely comic book and even tho it has some fairly nasty ideas in it, it never looks like anybody gets hurt

definetely worth a watch

flick · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:34 pm Post subject:

saw howls moving castle last night (subbed version). its beautiful.

Ninjadmin · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:38 pm Post subject:

districtline · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject:

i don't watch cartoons, they is for children

have sweet sixteen by ken loach lined up for tonight...

bristle-krs · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:53 pm Post subject:

it might be an idea for people to maybe describe a little bit about what the film's they've watched are about

flick · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 6:04 pm Post subject:

okay - howls moving castle is about a woman called Sophie who is kind of lacking direction. she works in her dead fathers hat shop and doesnt know what she wants to do with her life. one day she goes for a walk and meets Howl, who is this rather cute magical guy. a witch who fancies howl herself comes into the hat shop and puts a spell on Sophie that makes her an old woman. so Sophie has to leave home and she goes to find Howl, who lives in this really cool pile of junk with legs that is moved around and held together by a fire demon called Calcifer. and theres a war going on which Howl is trying to stop and a friendly scarecrow and Howl is part bird monster. or something.

Its really beautiful to look at and bizarre but interesting. just because its got a woman in the main role doesnt mean its 'girly'. :-/

having said that, anyone whose got kids i'd recommend this too. mine think its great. and its not a waste of an evening for anyone, i dont think. certainly not compared to most of the hollywood shit ive seen over the years. as anime goes it's odd enough to keep you interested but not so odd you lose patience, and like i said, it's really very beautiful, nice music, watch the subbed version obviously. and settle in with a large bag of maltesers to enjoy it

bristle-krs · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:56 am Post subject:

let's have some updates:

The Transporter
Jason Statham is an ex-pat living in France, who has a sideline as a driver-for-hire to various elements of the underworld. A great film trying its damnedest to struggle out from beneath its mediocre execution. It starts out quite stylised, but believable in its own bubble, then goes all 80s action thriller insane, and not in a good way. Some decent fight scenes, though, and Statham is good.

Dead Presidents
After the ghetto soap of ‘Menace II Society’, and before the travesty of ‘From Hell’, the Hughes brothers knocked out this tasty little period crime piece about a group of friends in the Bronx in the late 60s and then early 70s, with a little interlude in Nam in the middle. Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, N'Bushe Wright and Bokeem Woodbine are all effective players, Freddy Rodriguez (the chap from ‘Six Feet Under’) is a little overcooked, and Terrence Howard steals his scenes.

Dog Day Afternoon
“Based on a true story” heist flick, with chief robber Sonny (Al Pacino) full of nervous energy trying to keep things together inside the bank. Meanwhile, outside the power balance slips from the cosy incompetence of the local cops to the sinister menace of the smiling Feds, all whilst a full-on media circus parades its clowns and digs up Sonny’s own bearded lady. “Attica! Attica!”

Bugsy Malone
Best film musical ever - splurge guns, “wait a minute, I *am* Babyface”, Jodie Foster, “keep dose fingers pumpin’”, the Paul Williams score and lyrics, some fine, fine acting, impeccable lighting and beautiful photography.

The Rock
Far less than the sum of its parts - Nicolas Cage plays to his tic-laden strengths as the FBI chemical weapons boffin teamed up with Sean Connery’s special forces Man In The Iron Mask to infiltrate Alcatraz island, which has been taken over by grudge-bearing GI Joes. It’s ‘Die Hard 2’ with extra fat, iffy editing and indifferent direction. Oh hang on, that’s ‘Die Hard 2’ too. Oh well

Beverly Hills Cop III
Not as good as 1 but definitely better than 2 - Axel Foley hunts down his boss’s killers to a Californian theme park. Top ferris wheel scene, and some consciousness creeping in, sort of.

Cellular
The first 15 minutes of this convinced me it was going to be utter drivel - Kim Basinger as some sickly sweet school teaching soccer mom gets kidnapped, boo hoo, then you get hit with a sub-90210 strand about puke-inducing rich brats Chris Evans (no, not our one) and Jennifer Biel breaking up - but then it really kicked up a gear. Suddenly it starts reminding you of a modern Hitchcock. Of course, ultimately it’s not that good, but if you last out through the shit at the beginning, you will be rewarded. William H Macy’s soon-to-retire cop deserves more space to develop, though. Jason Statham is good as the leader of the kidnappers, if not so convincing as an American.

Crank
That Jason Statham gets around a bit, doesn’t he? Here he gets to keep his native tongue as a hitman in LA who gets injected with a superdrug which will kill him within hours. Instead of lying down and dying quietly (as various people suggest throughout), he gets mad and swears vengeance against those who sentenced him to death. It’s garish, brash and utterly likable, if you like that sort of thing. It’s also got a real screwball swing to it, especially in the scenes with his hippie girlfriend (Amy Smart) and his doctor (Dwight Yoakum).

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
William Goldman script? Impeccable. George Roy Hill’s direction? Perfect. Newman and Redford’s performances? Completely believable. Understanding that comedy works best leading into tragedy, the team that made this made a masterpiece - amoral, cowardly yet utterly likable and rational outlaws flee from the march of civilisation (and the law) into the wild west. “Who are those guys?”

Collateral
Cabbie Jamie Foxx picks up assassin Tom Cruise on a long night in LA. Could have been better than it was - some professional production and performances, but it lacks coherence. Cruise and Foxx on the footbridge is possibly my favourite scene, because it feels like a natural deadend, compared with the set-ups that happen before and after it, all of which push into twists, but which are each of them predictable. Not Michael Mann’s best, feels very much like a contract feature. LOL

London
Chris Evans and Jennifer Biel again, and again as an ex-couple. Oh, and, erm, there’s Jason Statham too... Syd (Evans) is hotheaded, jealous, and since the collapse of their relationship has sunken into drunk and drug-fuelled entropy. Then he discovers his ex, London (Biel) is leaving Manhattan to live with her new boyfriend in LA. So he decides to crash her leaving party, which is held at the appartment of Rebecca (Isla Fisher - Shannon from ‘Home And Away”!), who much like all of London’s other friends, seems to hate Syd. Anyway, to “clear his head” Syd has brought copious amounts of coke with him - along with the Wall Street trader/part-time drug dealer who sold it to him, Bateman (Statham). Syd and Bateman decamp to the bathroom to get cracking on the toot away from the disapproving eye of Rebecca, and play host to various visitors, whilst expounding on life, the universe and everything, with extra stops at god, love and pain, before Syd eventually ventures out to try and speak with London. All the while we jump back to see snatches of Syd and London’s relationship, to see why it fell apart. Very effectively done, with the minimum of pretensions. Round of applause all round.

bristle-krs · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:58 am Post subject:

Ninjadmin · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:19 am Post subject:

today i watched glengarry glen ross
ed harris, jack lemmon, some dude and al pacino are shady real estate salesmen getting shat on by their boss (kevin spacey) trying desperately to keep up with targets etc. and getting more and more pissed off
really enjoyed it, it's like a play, excellent performances from jack lemmon and al pacino shoting is always fun

can't remember what else i've watched, seen anchorman and dodgeball lots

bristle-krs · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:23 am Post subject:

i *hearts* ggr

the "some dude" is alan arkin (yossarian in the 'catch 22' film, and dad of adam 'chicago hope' arkin)

Ninjadmin · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:26 am Post subject:

it's the first time i've seen it

boskysquelch · dances with hedgehogs Joined: 12 Mar 2006 Posts: 554

I've watch 3 films a night for as many months...

....last night I only watched Death Note(with authentic Engrish subs..."He was dead" "How was he dead?" "He was dead with heart paralyze!!!"... and Happy Feet to follow.

night before we had Quills, Lady In the Water finished off with Derailed

and so on.....

flick · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:14 pm Post subject:

flick · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject:

okay so its not a movie but i have only just discovered Veronica Mars and its on its third series already in the US. ive spent the last few evenings watching series one, and im really enjoying it. basic run down:

in the past: Veronica Mars is a teenage girl, her best friend is a girl called Lily, and her boyfriend is this Lilys brother Duncan. theyre all part of the 'popular kids' in school. most of these kids are really rich (obviously) but Veronica isnt, but she is the daughter of the towns sheriff.

then Lily is murdered. a guy confesses but nothing adds up and Veronicas dad is convinced that Lilys dad did it. ultimately her dad gets fired. he decides he wont be chased out of town so he becomes a private investigator. Veronica wakes up one day and her mother has abandoned them both. she gets ditched too by her boyfriend and her friends. she puts on a brave face and goes to a party on her own anyway, where she is drugged and raped while she is unconscious. the new sheriff refuses to help her and laughs in her face. Veronica becomes her dads assistant and starts to solve mysteries.

you see all of the past in different flashbacks over the series. they do the flashbacks quite well, veronicas hair and attitude changes - in the past she has long straight 'princess' hair and is naive and innocent. in the present shes got a funkier shorter cut and is cheeky and aware. each series concentrates on a couple of larger mysteries which get unveiled slowly - in series one its Lilys murder and Veronicas rape, as well as related mysteries about her and all her friends parents.

but as well as that each episode focuses on a particular problem Veronica is asked to solve by other teenagers from her school, from locating missing dogs and parents to stitching up old boyfriends etc.

anyway, i'm hooked. its not as good as Buffy at its best but its far superior to most tv series, imo. im grabbing series two atm.

wraeth · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:34 pm Post subject:

bristle-krs · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject:

heh it's a fab flick

"...you doity double-crossin' rat!"

wraeth · Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject:

It brought back loads of weird trailer like memories; Jimmy Cagney, childhood dancin lessons, even Eclectic Kettle when they bounced off with that 20s shizzle ... was all quite spooky but in a good relaxed sort of way ... you was cooking when JTG and me were quietly singing ... was a proper Sunday afternoon film thing there

Ninjadmin · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:17 am Post subject:

today i watched

rambo III:
utter load of fucking shite, rambo has retired to a buddhist monastery somewhere till the russians kidnap his old commanding officer in afghanistan and he has to put his fucking headbnd back on and join the mujahadeen. don't fucking bother

friday:
ice cube and chris tucker are a couple of dumb kids living in 'da hood'. the story is quite a few cliches about growing up, being a man, getting on with your neighbours etc, but it's the characters and the world that make it. lots of lines . definetely worth a watch

i started watching terminator, but i can't be arsed

bristle-krs · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:57 am Post subject:

flick · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:47 pm Post subject:

i knew i recognised mac from somewhere. why on earth were you watching waterworld?? in the last few episodes of Veronica Mars there have been appearances by Joss Whedon, Kevin Smith, and Todd from Scrubs. its produced by Joel Silver and both Allyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter are on the cast, so im guessing they went straight for the Buffy fans. which works for me.

im about half way through season 2. i dont usually enjoy PI/detective/mystery stuff, to be honest. I hate all that CSI sort of stuff. I guess I like this more because its more buffyish (the characters are actually likeable, even the badguy ones) and less "gritty". and its witty, and the people are pretty, but theres no lingering shots over beautiful naked raped and murdered hookers or gratuitous "beautiful hooker tied up and tortured" shots like there is in every other episode of the usual crime tv series.

if yopu watch any of it id be interested what you think. the second season is quite weak compared to the first, so far. theres no more flashbacks and there is more attention to the episode mysteries than to the series length ones. apparently thats even more the case for series three, and theyre talking about getting rid of the long mysteries entirely for season four. this is a shame because i like the drip drip of clues and the build up. theyve been forced to change the format though because the network is demanding "more mainstream appeal".

hiccup · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject:

Watched Dave Chappelle's Block Party last night. Was pretty entertaining. Mr Chappelle can be funny, and some of the music was awsome. Especially the live version of Hip Hop with Dead Pres and The Roots. Good time documentary shizzle.

Watched Grand Theft Parsons the other day. Enjoyed that too. Johnny Knoxville was perfectly adequate, and whoever it was that played the hippie with the hearse was excellent.

bristle-krs · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:02 pm Post subject:

bristle-krs · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:09 pm Post subject: