I thought you perhaps had seen the directors cut or Layer Cake Redux or something.

Anybody a fan of Dario Argento? I recorded Deep Red (Or Profondo Rosso) over Chrimbo, and watched it earlier this week. For fans of horror/psychological thriller I'd recommend it, and it was far from the schlock gorefest that I was expecting. A subtle, and properly disturbing piece, well shot and (in the main) well acted. Argento is often name-dropped by the modern cadre of horror directors, so he's worth digging out.

American Beauty

I got this on DVD recently, as it is a film that I have seen a handfull of times but is so good.

The performances from Spacey and Chris Cooper are career defining, and the film flows so smoothly despite ignoring the usual constrictions of a film ('start' 'middle' 'end') with one of the best soundtrack of the decade.

Such an involving film, that makes you laugh, yet at the same time the film asks the audience to justify the actions of all the characters.

Proof that there is hope for Hollywood yet, with Mendes being one of the finest young directors about.

I've only seen two Argento's so far, Deep Red and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L'Uccello Dalle Piume di Cristallo) although i'm sure i've seen Tenebrae. I enjoyed Plumagge alot more than Deep Red. You are right that it's more than just a gorefest but i don't go along with some people calling a classic. Reminds me i need to see Suspiria.

[spoiler]The Doll coming through the door is disturbing as hell[/spoiler]

Suspiria is by far his greatest moment. Deep Red tells the best story in his films. It has its scare moments but it relys on a good story tp keep you interested rather than over the top gore and stylish set pieces.

I watched a film called Quality Of Life recently for Amazon.

I honestly thought it was a good movie but a mate of mine isn't crazy on it.

Bout these graffiti artists fall on hard times, one goes in a way to try and improve his life and become legit while the other friend goes down the shitter, quite a cliché movie but still very good I thought.

Alien Vs Predator Requiem.
Note: There are spoilers in this review that cover both AVP and AVPR, they are marked in black, read them at your peril!

Okay. Alien Vs Predator almost killed off my enthusiasm for the Aliens (And predator) films. The whole idea that Bishop was a part of 'first contact' I could deal with, but what happened to him didn't make any sense to me. [spoiler2]Also the idea that the Predators would be stupid enough to carry a corpse onto their ship with an Alien Impregnation just blows my mind.... [/spoiler2] I also thought the fight scenes were awful (humans and aliens) and that they tried too hard to make it feel claustrophobic failing miserably.

AVPR Does its damndest to 'save' the idea behind the movies. And I have to say, I just about bought it.... JUST about.

The best thing about the Alien and Predator movies was it's ability to create warm, interesting characters that were sent into a fucked up situation and seeing how they cope with it, as well as having a kick arse bad guy to scare and impress you with just how bad it could be. There is nothing scary about this movie. You know whats coming most of the time. Although it does its best to throw you the odd curveball, you're just ready for them.

This film opens up with the Predator ship pretty much right after AVP finishes. Something happens to that ship and suddenly its sent hurtling through our atmosphere down towards a sleepy, but much larger than I'd expected, town. The scenes on earth start off with the first few victims and the emergence of the main baddy [spoiler2]'Predalien' [/spoiler2]which they try hard to make a badarse.

The last Dying Predator manages to send a message into space calling for help and it reaches what I think is either the Predator homeworld or a Colony of them. Not sure which. But it was curious seeing that.

So, the Aliens have landed and what lots of fans of the series have asked for, they let rip on rural America.

We get introduced to the 'usual' supporting cast, the humans, yes as usual you've got your hollywood 'too clean cut' folks in there but with a smattering of almost normal people which is good. While there is a bit of time spent of them it's not too forced thankfully and we cut bewtween meeting them, the Predator landing on Earth and doing it's own investigation alongside the Police investigation of the missing 'first victims'.

And from then on we go from localised to city wide chaos with people trying to survive until we reach the end of the movie.

Spoilerific notes below. I'd really recommend only reading them after you've seen the movie.



[spoiler2]I'd say they've definatley tried hard to rejuvinate the series here and I think they've come close with a few really bad mistakes. First of all they do some things that don't make sense. The Predator is investigating what's happened, it uses a singularity to get rid of the ship, it takes some kind of bacterialogical agent that dissolves the victims of the Aliens, all pretty cool, and then when the predator meets the cop it decides the cop needs to die which is fine, but instead of dissolving him, it skins him and hangs him up.... What??? Its purely done with 'shock' in mind but it makes very little sense.

The other main break in canon is the Predalien. While Alien 3 shows that the Alien will hybridise with what it infects and that's fine, the Predalien is acceptable, what isn't acceptable is now they've changed the Predalien into a creature capable of 'injecting' eggs into humans (though french kissing them ) and it can make multiple chest bursters from one host without needing facehuggers. Now Unless thats how the predators breed that particular nugget doesn't make sense.[/spoiler2]


A lot of the time this film felt really badly like 'Aliens lite'. There are sections of the film that you can directly link with Aliens and say "Hey that's blah blah lite, or blah blah lite" and there was a little too much of that for me. But saying that, the film was watchable, it had some really gory moments, it had some moments that made me laugh out loud and some 'oooooh shit!' moments. It's light years ahead of AVP (And its trying to save AVP all the way upto it's final scene!) and it's definatley a movie I wouldn't mind sitting through again.

It's got a real panning from most reviewers, but I don't see why, sure it's no five star classic that you MUST go out and see, but it's certainly not the worst movie ever made by a long way. It's definately worth a watch, even if you want to wait until you can get it on DVD or when its on Sky.

I hated AVP. I won't ever be watching it again. AVPR though.... Okay. I can accept it... Just! And I really feared it would completely ruin my love of the Aliens series. It didn't thankfully.

I saw Sweeney Todd last night.

I feared that all the 'masterpiece' style reviews it was getting would ruin it for me. I was right.

When a film gets those sort of reviews I find it never, ever lives up to expectations and rather than take the film at face value you feel a bit disapointed by the whole affair. It was a very good film, just not as good as it was made out to be. It still has huge, glaring faults and problems that everyone seems to have ignored. For example the sailor boy, whose name i've already completely forgotten, was about as annoying as a stubbed toe. The way in which he belted out that 'joanna' song at every possible oppurtunity made me want to scream, he sang it in such an annoying manner. In fact, all his scenes were fairly useless. He looked as wet as a bathed flannel, and despite acting as if he was terrifically in (irrational) love you never quite believed he had anything more than wind. The scene in the asylum is hilarious, too, as he literally has no emotion.

This film's at its best when it keeps its foot on the pedal. When the songs are thick and fast, with a dark sense of humour and an eye on the macabre. The scenes where Todd is trawling the streets looking for customers; the scene where he first gets off the boat at the very start; the first scene in Mrs. Lovett's pie shop and the scene where Mrs. Lovett is fantasising about a life on the seaside are all genuinely fantastic. However, the poignant emotional moments fall horrifically flat I thought. The aforementioned 'Joanna' moments are painful and the 'I-Won't-Let-Anyone-Harm-You' exchanges between Mrs. Lovett and her apprentice is overdrawn and sickly.

As a whole, the film is far more graphic than I thought too.

I just imagined that the Hollywood remake of Sweeney Todd would be laden with inuendo and suggestion of the macabre (especially with Burton in charge) but no, they really do go for the throat, so to speak.

As for the cast, besides the horrific sailor boy it's all fairly well cast.

Rickman is great, as usual and Timothy Spall is unspectacular but solid.

Helenha Bonham Carter and the boy who plays her apprentice (man, I'm crap with names) are simply fantastic and Johnny Depp would be a revelation, if we didn't already know how good he was. Also, Sacha Baron Cohen's cameo was simply brilliant (and I don't even like the man).

Good film, very good. Not great.

I rewatched Hot Fuzz again a couple of nights ago. The film is a very good comedy, but the last half feels even more stuck on the second viewing (although it is hugely entertaining). I still feel it is a progressive step from Shaun of The Dead, but watching the film made me wonder if Wright was being wasted on these types of films. He is clearly evolving into a great director, and the comedy film setup might be stemming his true excellent. Watch some of the shots and the clear distinctive feel to it, and tell me that this man couldn't make an amazing thriller or intelligent action film.

Went to see 2 films over the weekend so heres some thoughts.

First up was Sweeney Todd. And unlike the Daz a few posts up, I hadnt really read any reviews, I just knew what it was about, who was in it and it was a musical. I was totally blown away by it, the style, the songs, the story. I loved every minute of this. The casting was especially excellent, every actor perfectly suited for the role they had. Its a good thing Johnny Depp could sing (and quite brilliantly too, I might add) because it would take a long time to find an actor to portray Sweeney Todd as well as he did. I think Depp could convincingly portray a terroists innocense if asked, he turns in stellar performance after stellar performance and its a truely special actor.

The second film I saw was Walk Hard. The short trailer I had seen looked average and just a lame shot at the recent musican biopics such as Walk The Line and Ray. However, I was pleasantly suprised with this, the story was well held up by some very funny moments and laced with entertaining cameo after cameo, as you'd expect from this kind of thing. The satirical songs really sound like they couldve been country rock classics and are sang really well by Reilly, who is very good in the lead. This one is nothing really special, or as constantly ball bustingly funny as Anchorman, but its well worth a watch if you get that chance.

I watched a Greek zombie-movie called 'Evil' the other night. Found it randomly on Lovefilm and it was bloody hilarious (pun fully intended). It's a somewhat tounge-in-cheek gorefest that fits somewhere between Bad Taste and Dawn of the Dead and it had my flatmate and I howling with laugther.

Watched Death Proof on Sunday night, Really enjoyed it but I can see how its divided people, considering QT was marketing it as a slasher on wheels there’s very little action and I’d say the film it most resembles is Jackie Brown in that its very script heavy and you’re gonna know from the outset if you’ll like it or not because you either tolerate QT’s dialogue or love it.
There is some awesome car scenes in it and it has the living god that is Kurt Russell in the lead role so it was bound to be good. The whole ‘grindhouse’ gimmick doesn’t really factor into the film apart from some jump cuts and intentional edits near the start of the film, in fact the whole last half of the film hasn’t even got the film dirt and scratches on it which I found bizarre. Watched it with 3 friends, two of us loved it, two of us hated it, One actually used the phrase “what the fuck was that!” when it finished but he’s a nay saying mother fucker and hates anything unless it has Bob Dylan in it.

Also watched The Devils Rejects last night on ITV4, I’ve been wanting to see it since its release because I heard it was a throwback to 70’s horror but for some reason never wanted to buy it (even when it was £2.97 in Music Zone).
Anyway it was shit, pure and simple, Really badly scripted, some terrible acting, terrible CGI gore and Rob Zombie just seems to have crammed as many horror references in as possible to make a film for the fan boys. He really misjudged the humour in the film, tried to make the FireFly family some sort of Anti Heroes, which failed, and had so many random and unexplained plot holes that I was actually starting to hate the film towards the end. After seeing the remake of Halloween I am seriously thinking that Rob Zombie might be up on my hate list with Uwe Bowell and Paul Anderson.

Watched No Country for Old Men the other night and have to say for the most part i enjoyed it a lot. It was quite interesting comparing it to Blood Simple and seeing how much more accessible the Coen's films have become over the years, whether thats a good thing though i am not sure as it doesn't have that feel that your watching the twisted vision of Joel and Ethan as much as there other films does. It does has the quirkiness and the excellent character actors but just feels like its missing something.

Being a Goonies mark it was great to see Josh Brolin putting in a great performance and also an honorable mention for Kelly Macdonald who i spent most of the film trying to remember where i had seen her from and not once did i consider she was a Scot. Tommy Lee Jones was Tommy Lee Jones but without a doubt the film belongs to Javier Bardem who the brothers give the best quirks and is chilling as the man sent in to tidy up the mess.

I won't go in to too much detail on the ending but for my money the final 3rd was lacking and i expected more, the Coen's clearly did it on purpose and i understand why they put in the ending that they did but [spoiler]I wanted a big fuck off showdown, and after being teased with it for the entire film i was extremely let down when it didn't materialize,[/spoiler] but as i said they do it on purpose and u guess you could say im missing the point but thats just my opinion.

I quite liked The Devil's Rejects. I found it quite clever, and this is coming from someone who absolutely despised House Of 1000 Corpses.

Finally got to see No Country For Old Men and.... I loved it. We need more simple films, and by that I mean ones with no need for countless contrived revelations that exist purely to shock the audience at expense of the story. The acting was naturally fantastic, and the lack of a soundtrack didn't once bother me. Everything worked really, the film has so much more bubbling underneath the surface than most will realise.

As for the ending? Well I liked it. It's entirely faithful to the novel, so don't go attaching credit/blame to the Coens for coming up with it. It's refreshing to see a film play against type, and it worked.

2008 has 11 more months to produce a film as good as this. Will it?

I agree with you on everything up until the ending. That film IS freaking amazing anyway but after the film I got up and saw a fairly full audience slowly stand up and say is that? I thought everything was absolutley gripping up until the ending, which sadly dropped me to the point where I was bored/uninterested. Which was a real shame as I loved the rest of it more than any other film of 2007 (I think). But having said that its absolutely worth it anyway, everyone should see it. But it does have a marmite ending.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - A bunch of stereotypical characters, but some awesome gore, sweet make-up effects and some unpredictable, surprising deaths. Just an all-around fun movie. Oh, and who doesn't love a film where Henry fucking Rollins blows up an old man?

8/10

I caught Ferris Bueller's Day Off the other day, and given it's cult status I was expecting much of the teen comedy. And it was quite good. It made me laugh in parts, but seemed undeserving of it's cult status. Am I the only one who found Matthew Broderick smarmy, smug and unbearable as Ferris, only balanced out by the brilliant Alan Ruck as Cameron. The plot works well enough but seems to be building up and up, and then totally fizzle out. The film is nice and warm, and funny in parts, but how it became such an iconic 80s flick I don't know.

Fizzled out how? Could you explain; I don't get how the film 'fizzled out'..

I can see how you wouldn't like the film if you didn't like Ferris, but I really don't get that comment...

The film seemed to be building to a big concluding climax - y'know with Cameron getting more anxious, the Principal getting closer to Ferris etc etc, and it sort of fizzles out. I don't know whether you would call the car going through the garage, or the parade, the climax of the movie but to me it just seemed to sort of slowly and convinently wiggle it's way out of the all of the built up conflicts.

Hellraiser

I got this on DVD for £2 from Smith's a while back, and thought I would pop it in tonight.

It's one of the best 80's horror flicks I seen, and I would probably rank it up there with Nightmare On Elm Street (the first one, obviously). It's not a masterpiece of a movie by a long way, but it has a very interesting storylines, good turns from the cast (how much does Andrew Robinson as Larry look like a young Vince McMahon!), and a gritty feel to it. The gore effects are grisly, and stand up fairly well today, on the other hand the box effects look proper shit. Apparently they blew the budget by the time they got to post-production and had to go all home-made on it.

The story line is chilling, and whilst it goes for the occasional cheap scare, it is a slow burner over-all, with the limited use of Pinhead etc really adding to the shock factor of the last 20 minutes.

And it is the last 20 minutes that slightly let it down, if anything. The long drawn out battle with the various Cenobites is not as exciting as it needs to be (I'm talking about the fight after that scene), and the saving twist stinks of a slap-dash job (perhaps Barker was asked to change the ending?).

Overall, a great piece of 80's horror, and a lot scarier than most of the horror churned out every week in your local cineplex.

I didn't see it like that...

Cameron finally manages to let go of all his anxiety and shit; after the final straw of the car getting totalled he has something of a revelation... Jeanie learns not to be such a dickhead, and ends up being the one who saves Ferris's ass after his (climactic) race home, and Rooney continues to act a twat and gets his comeuppance.

I get the feeling you wanted everything to blow up in Ferris Bueler's face and for him to 'learn something'.

I have just finished watching Reign Over Me starring Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler in a uncommon serious role. The story tells the tale of Alan Johnson (Cheadle), a succesful New York dentist who runs into his college room mate Charlie (Sandler) who he hasn't seen in years. Charlie has lost his wife and 3 daughters in one of the planes used in the 9/11 attacks and has pretty much become an extremely intoverted recluse. Charlie has managed to "forget" everything that has happened in his past and so when he runs into Alan he doesn't recognise him. The film follows Alan's efforts to help Charlie deal with his issues and get some professional help.

Although this film doesn't sound like a bunch of laughs I though it was a very powerful and imotive piece of cinema. The two leads were fantastic especially Sandler and it was nice to see him play away from his normal roles. The soundtrack was used as part of the story (they are all songs that Charlie has on vinyl or on his Ipod) and it supplies some cracking tunes, even Bruce Springsteen gets a few tunes in there.
I really can't recommend this film enough, I thought it was fantastic.

That film is fantastic, really underrated, and easily Sandler's best role yet. I was welling up near the end during the court case, when Charlie finally breaks down. Such a good film, and the use of music is brilliant.

I just watched Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, both are good but not great. The one major gripe I had was in the second one, they're in LA, go down into the tunnel then suddenly end up in Las Vegas? That was pretty ridiculous, and it was obvious the director took some storytelling liberties just to quickly move the plot along. But aside from some silly plot holes, the films were really fun, and Chris Tucker was hilarious in the sequel.

This is actually the second time I have seen this film and both times there have been 2 scenes that always get to me. It's the initial scence outside the shrinks office where Charlie first talks to Alan about his family (great acting by Sandler, the director uses a lot of lengthy shots just on him and the emotion he portrays is heartbreaking) and the scene where Charlie goes back into the hearing and speaks to his wife's mother and father. That bit where he kisses her on the cheek and then leaves is great as well. One of very few films recently that has made me well up. Awesome flick.

I agree, both of those scenes were brilliantly acted and the scene you mentioned at the end, when he goes back into the hearing, is my favorite of the entire film.

Hmmm I didn't think I did wanna see him get fucked over, but maybe I did now.

Yeh, your right there are lots of nice mini conclusions tying off character's journeys well, I think I was just waiting for that 'Napoleon Dynamite dance' moment.

Premiere of Rocky Balboa is on Sky Premiere tonight at 8pm. Sky Modern Classics (or Greats, can't remember) are showing all of the Rocky films until the Rocky Balboa Premiere.

Just thought you'd like to know.

I just watched School of Rock for the first time with the wife and son, really enjoyed it, fun film.

Picked up Superbad on DVD last Tuesday. Lots of fun to watch and seemingly endlessly quoteable too, especially the pearls of wisdom coming from Fogell.

I also watched Bad Boys 1 & 2 over the past week. Again, fun is the key word and I think both films deliver it in spades. Sure, the second one in particular is pretty over the top and the actual story has it faults. But as a popcorn action movie, it does its job well.

I went to watch P.S I love you today. My girl's read the book so she was really looking forward to this. I thought it was pretty good.. some funny moments.

She however was a bit disappointed because it was 'no where near as good as the book'.

Has anyone seen Walk Hard yet?.. Its wierd because.. it only came out last week.. yet Leicester cinemas wernt even showing it today!

saw two films today

alvin and the chipmunks at my old work which was the biggest pile of shit film ive ever seen
superbad on dvd which was absolutly hilarious

meant to watch rocky balboa on sky as well but then i remembered its on all week so ill catch it then

Wrestlemaniac, the biggest pile of shit film I've ever seen. Really.. the film's so bad everyone should see it just to share the experience

Rush Hour 3 - Nowhere near as good as the first two, it moves along too fast from scene to scene and the story is pretty lame. Still fun, and has some cool fight scenes, but overall disapointing.

The Upside Of Anger

In the suburb of Detroit, the upper middle class Terry Ann Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen) becomes a bitter woman when her husband apparently leaves her family and her, traveling with his Swedish secretary to her country. Her neighbor and close friend of the family, the lonely retired baseball player Denny Davies (Kevin Costner) and presently working in a talk-show in a radio, continues visiting Terry and her daughters, and drinking with Terry. Denny falls in love for Terry, but the wounded and full of anger Terry try to avoid a steady relationship with him. Meanwhile, life does not stop, and her daughters graduate, date, marry, sicken, as part of the dynamics of a family.

This film desperately wants to be an indie off-beat comedy, and whilst it doesn't whole heartedly succeed in that ball park all too while, it is a fairly poignant statement on anger. When the laughs do come they are very dry or fairly dark, with Shep (Mike Binder, who also wrote & directed) stealing the laughter limelight. At other points, the film misses the target altogther, horrificially obvious during the 'outbusts' of laughter that seem to occur everytime the family sit round the dinner table together (which not only come across as contreived but are seriously irratiting).

Costner does fairly well as Denny, showing that he can choose roles you wouldn't always expect him to go for, and even Joan Allen manages to show the evolution of anger and its effects well. Some of the real praise though should go the daughters of Terry, who seemingly tear their mother apart but hold the movie together.

Not a bad flick, and it does make a great comment about miss placed anger, but never goes up to the gear it needs to in terms of emotion or laughs.

Juno - My brother stuck it on and watching the first couple of minutes I was going to do something else with my time but stuck it out and it's quite an enjoyable film. A 16 year old girl, Juno, get's pregnant after sleeping with her best friend, bleaker, and decides she doesn't want the baby. At first she decides she will have an abortion but decides against and agrees to have the baby for a couple. They are polar oppposites and ending up splitting near the end but the woman still get's the baby and Juno and Bleaker decide they are more than best friends.

It's like a cross between a romantic film and a less tardy version of Napolean Dynamite.

stupid double post...

Saw Sweeny Tood this weekend.

Much like D-d-d-d-daz I found the sailor boy to be beyond annoying. However apart from him I thorughly enjoyed every second of this film and I could happily have sat there another hour and seen more. Timothy Spawl was brilliant, as was Rickman, Depp, HBC and everyone else. The Style of the film was out of this world and even though the story was obvious there were still a few things in there that kept you completely hooked. At times I almost felt I was in the theatre watching some incredible play it was that vivid.

I was caught up and swept along with the story, and the anticipation I had for him making his chair and the mechanism.... well by the time it got to it I was begging for it to happen and the first victim........ and to be honest that death was both hilarious and gruesome.

I thought it was a fantastic film, if you didn't know who Depp was and watched Pirates followed by Sweeny I really wonder if you'd even recognise the actors.... He's fab, I'd consider gaying up for him.

Very very good film. And normally I find musicals annoying, unless they are Greese.... or Rocky Horror show.

Now Rocky Horror show that is a good 'un
I saw it for the first time last year and just recently saw Tommy which is completely barmy but a classic all the same!

Donnie Brasco

This film tells the 'true' story of a FBI under-cover agent (Johnny Depp) befriend the NYC mafia rings, particularly striking up a friendship with middle-man gangster 'Lefty' (an excellent Al Pacino). However, it's not the great gangster film is so desperately wants to be. It suffers from a fairly uninspiring script, and tonnes of unintentional funny moments (see the zoom in the cop running like its the special olympics in the final bust). Infact without the great chemistry between Depp and Pacino this film would blow. When watching this film you get the impression that director, Mike Newell, has seen Goodfellas one too many times.

Straightheads

This taut and truly violent thriller sees a middle-class woman (Gillian Anderson) and a security man (Danny Dyer) who after ravaging in an explosive night of passion head off to a posh party in the highlands, however on the way they encounter a connection of violent gun holders who beat him and horrifically gang-rape her. After surviving this terrifying encounter, the traumatized couple decide to take revenge on the mob. After coming to terms with what happened, the couple manage to get hold of a rifle, and as the sun goes down a truly harrowing blood bath unfolds as the revenge stricken pair unleash their deadly revenge.

Steamin' pile of shite.

Imagine a really long, really brutal but boring episode of The X Files.

Watching this you get the impression that Gillian Anderson was hoping this would be her 'Straw Dogs' but instead it is an under-developed, violent without thought look at revenge. I really did hope this film would be a lot better than it was, but no it is one of the worst films of last year.

Disagree about Donnie Brasco, I think its a very underrated film that shows Depp's scope and range as an actor. However, I definately agree about Straightheads, absolutely horrible movie.

watched Déjá vu today and I thought it was a pretty good movie, way better than the critics gave it credit for.

I actually really enjoyed this. I'm not big into horror/chiller/creepy whatever, and I can see your point about a lacklustre script and bargain bin supporting cast (and I wasn't overly keen on the ending), but there were some nice "jumpy" moments in there, and I've always enjoyed Keaton.

Then again, I didn't think The Sixth Sense was the masterpiece it was pimped as. The whole film seemed to be a set up for the "Oh, Bruce Willis is a ghost" swerve, and then everything after that was just a "let's just tie up the loose ends as quickly and unimaginitively as possible".

So yeah, White Noise. It's nothing amazing, but it's worth the £4 you'll find it in bargain bins for. It'll make girls cuddle into you too. And make you look up EVP on wikipaedia the day afterwards when you get bored.

I saw White Noise in the cinema.. thought it was pretty good at the time! I remember the trailer for the movie being awesome too.

Has anyone seen the 2nd one?.. Any good?

yeh White Noise 2 ain't bad. It's not connected to the first movie, it's just another movie based on a similar phenomenon...it also have Nathan Fillion in it, which is a reason to see it in itself.

SPOILERS U TOOL!

thats not a review thats the plot, there's a subtle difference.

Watched 3 films on Sat because i was stuck at my parents house because of the weather.

Death Sentence - I believe this is based on the actual source novel which was used as the basis for the Charles Bronson film 'Death Wish' although its slightly more restrained then that film. I've never been a big fan of Kevin Bacon, I've liked films hes been in but something about him bugs me, possibly his piggy nose.
Anyway film was ok, pretty unspectacular with nothing that really stands.


Shoot 'Em Up - Wall to wall gun fights for 90min, A few good ideas but its pretty much a waste of a great cast, There is no real script to speak of, apart from half a dozen or so one Liners, half of which miss the mark. It was pretty much what i expected and nothing more but the gunfights had none of the impact of a film like Leon or The Killer and the editing didn't really help the action.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix - I've watched all the Potter films but haven't read the books so aren't sure what they cut out plotwise but it all seemed a bit rushed, still a good family film and my mum even stayed awake till the end, a feat that I have only witnessed a handful of times in my life

January

Bruce Almighty 5/10( US) 2003
Second viewing. Still a laugh but nothing great

Calvaire/The Ordeal 4/10 (Belgium) 2004
Already talked about this in the horror thread. It's ok but nothing to remember, several rip offs from better films and some very dark comedic moments

Trading Places 10/10 (US) 1983
The 1405th viewing still one of the greatest comedies ever made.

At The Height Of Summer/The Vertical Ray Of The Sun 6/10 (Vietnam)2000
Reminded me a lot of Spring, Summer....in a lot of ways but that's a much better film and you care a lot more for the characters. Stunningly shot and Vietnam looks a beautiful place but the story never grabs you.

The Descent 7/10(UK) 2005
Seeing Creep first took away the effect of seeing the creatures but it was still very good. Intense, very well shot, Natalie Mendoza's stunning and some very nice twists.

Finding Neverland 8/10 (US) 2004
I'm way too macho to talk about this film Johnny Depp as usual was outstanding, the dream sequences were brilliant and loved every minute of it.

Aimee & Jaguar 6/10 (Germany) 1999
Incredible true life story of a married mother in war torn germany who takes up a lesbian affair with a member of the jewish resistance. Suberbly acted with Maria Schrader looking like she just walked in from a Bogart noir thriller with a stunning performance. I won't say the film as a whole is an incredible watch but it's a heartbreaking story

Kings And Queen/Rois et Reine 6/10 (France) 2005
Two connected stories, one about a single mother about to marry for the third time who visits her father only to find out he will die soon and the second is a story about a neurotic guy who's sister has him put into a psychiatric clinic. It bounces back and forth between comedy and tragedy, the performance's are excellent, the film as a whole is very moving and i'd recommend anyone to see it. It's long at 2hr 45 and you feel every minute but it's very rewarding

Zatoichi 7/10 (Japan) 2003
Finally watched this after having it for months. Not quite as great as i'd hoped but still very good. The ending was a suprise but it worked for me and i now plan on making Kitano the first director who's back catalouge i plan to go through.

Nightwatch 6/10 (Rus) 2005
Reminded me of Kill Bill Vol 1, not in terms of story but i had the same reaction of "oh that looks cool" "That looks incredible" and like that film i don't know wether i really enjoyed it on the first watch. I later watched Kill Bill and did enjoy it the second time maybe the same will happen with this. Suprised some had a problem of being confused with the story, i thought it was easy to follow but i said the same of Hero.

Cronos/ (La Invención de Cronos) 7/10 (Mex) 1993
Alot better than i thought it would be, funny in parts and Ron Perlman was excellent.

Spirited Away 8/10 (Jap) 2002
I'm not a huge follower of anime, i've seen several like Kiki's Delivary Service, Little Norse Prince, Ghost In The Shell(no idea what that was about ) Metropolis and Only Yesterday but none of then thrilled me or made me want to see more untill Spirited Away. Everything i could say has probably been said about all the greatest animations but it was a real magical and pretty great film. Goes without saying the animation was some of the best i've ever seen.

Belleville Rendez-vous 6/10 (Fra) 2003
This was a bit of an anticlimax, i expected alot and at times it delivered especially the last 10 minutes or so but the first 30 minutes really dragged for me but it was enjoyable overall.

R-point 6/10 (SKorea) 2004
For the first hour it was very entertaining although when they get to the jungle you start to feel Arnie and the Dreadlocked alien might appear any minute. It loses it's way in the second hour but over all it was ok.

January:


Spider-Man - 7/10
Spider-Man 2 - 8/10
Spider-Man 3 - 8/10
Reign Over Me - 8/10
Seraphim Falls - 7/10
Die Hard 4.0 - 9/10
Alpha Dog - 8/10
Fracture - 8/10
The Bourne Identity - 7/10
The Bourne Supremacy - 8/10
The Bourne Ultimatum - 9/10
Nightmare Hostel - 2/10
Hillside Cannibals - Horrible/10
Halloween (2007) (Workprint Version) - 4/10
Rush Hour - 7/10
Rush Hour 2 - 8/10
Rush Hour 3 - 6/10
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - 8/10 (FUN)

8 out of 10 for Fracture????

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I mean, I saw the twist coming from a mile away, but I love Gosling and Hopkins so I just enjoyed the acting throughout.

That was one of the Cheap DVD's from Woolworths, wasn't it? My brother said it was terrible too.