ukedge87

The film has a stigmata of hatred

Don't you mean "stigma" ? Sure hope you haven't used that term in any of your coursework. As for the film, it's a preachy, disgusting movie of the week.

Yep I did.I'm not a student, so I have no idea what coursework your on about.

I watched Paul Haggis's Crash the other day. The film has a stigmata of hatred around it that I've picked up from various people, whether it be the stealing of the name of a film from Cronnenberg or the way it deals with its subject I'm not sure. I thought the film brought up lots of good points and makes lots of good arguments, without forcing a resolution down my throat. I was impressed with that, not many directors choose to simply state the facts without being objective to the nth degree.

 

However, it is how melodramatic the film gets that really made me think it wasn't as great as it should have been. Seriously. At the time when watching it, I was aware of how melodramatic the sequences such as the 'child getting shot' sequence were, but thinking about it a few days after it strikes me as almost laughable in its nature. A film like this needs to be raw and naturalistic to deliever it's message, yet the sheer ammount of melodrama makes the point it makes almost irrelevant.

 

However, for the most part a gripping and interesting film, even if it's not the classic it strives to be.

The Last King of ScotlandI watched this earlier today.. and I thought it was really really good. Forrest Whitaker's acting is top notch.. and there were parts in the film that were really gripping. Quality film.Has anyone seen 'There will be blood'?.. I've been wanting to watch if for a while now (mainly because Day Lewis is in it).. is it any good?

I think its a bit of a marmite movie. Its got a lot of acclaim so some people must like it, but I didn't. Danny Day Lewis IS awesome in it though, a very impressive performance. If the film was about an hr shorter and made the narrative solely around him trying to acquire the oil and power from the preacher character then I don't think I would have been left thinking what was the point?

But that is the point. Paul Thomas Anderson has decided he wants to make the film, to tell this graphic story, without the constraints of modern cinema. Instead the film is given a lot more freedom, outside of 'begining' 'middle' and 'climax' segmentation. You are taken on a trip, and just like a good book which moulds the words to it's narrative ignoring constraint, and the film is better for it. I watched Dallas Doll the other day, a Aussie flick released by Tartan over here. Utter shit. Really bad film, with Sandra Bernhard as the lead (putting on a brave face and not just going through the motions). However, the script and tone are both confused and your never sure whether something is farce or an attempt at complex emotions. The only redeeming feature, of sorts, is that it was Rose Byrne's screen debut.

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

 

I was really looking forward to watching this, having seen it on ITV as a child and being totally enticed by it at the time. However, watching it now as a film it doesn't quite work. There are plot holes so big you could drive double decker buses through them (the apes learnt to speak English! etc etc) and plain stupidity (Charlton Heston enjoying a nice fat cigar inside the air tight spaceship before it crashes being one of the worst). Its message of the consquence of our actions in the future and showing what it's like to be on the recieving end of a breed of creature that is totally ignorant and self-centred, is seriously weakened by Heston's final scenes in which he 'proves' humans were the smarter creatures all along (or at least attempts to). To be fair, the film is well paced, has some genuinely good ideas and the make up still holds up fairly well, but as anything more than a piece of silly sci-fi it fails.

 

There Will Be Blood

 

Went to see this at the cinema last night, and can say all the fuss being made about the film is justified. Really great movie, with Daniel Day-Lewis being on top form as usual (I don't think I've seen one film where at the end of the film I don't believe the character exists). The photography and soundtrack add to the brillant package, as the desolute landscape of dry America is juxtaposed by the thick, wet black oil spurts through the land and as corruption, false intentions, and lies flow just as thick. The film holds one of the most powerful scene I have seen at the cinema for a long, long time, using the unpredictable and 'beatless' nature of the script to lower the audience's guards. With an excellent cast, this is a masterpiece of a movie.

Rambo: First Blood: My mates were shocked that I'd never seen this before, being in my twenties and all. Since the trilogy is going quite cheap I decided to see what I was missing. Seeing the emotional twist in it was a nice surprise, as I had it in my mind that it would be an all-out bloodfest. Will hopefully get round to watching Part II tomorrow.

The first one is the only decent one out of all of them. The second and third ones are just over-indulgent one-man gun totting foreign national hating Stallone shows. I watched Magicians last night, the first major film with both David Mitchell and Robert Webb in the lead. It's nowhere near the greatness of Peep Show (but what is?), and the script is fairly lousy, but there are enough laughs in the flick to keep the film on course for its short running time, with the 'stooge' meeting in the resturant being one of the few belly laugh moments. Plus if you like British comedy films where you spot all your favourite comedy actors, this will keep you smiling, with some good turns from the lesser known stars of BBC3 and Channel 4 shows. Not a bad film, not a great film, just an average British comedy.

I saw Knocked Up the other day, thought it was a better film than Superbad and a good comedy. Perhaps not the greatness it got collared for, but still a solid 2 hours of entertainment. Judd Aptow is not the next Woody Allen, but hopefully we'll get a few more good flicks out of him.

I dont see the Woody Allen comparison at all, you might as well be sayin he's not the next Michael Bay(granted i haven't seen any of the early Woody's). He does have a hint of the John Hughes' to him though, Knocked Up is like a better version of She's having a baby.Eastern Promises was pretty good but i did find myself wanting a bit more from it and was left a little unsatisfied by the end. Also Viggo fighting with his dong out was a little out of the blue.

I made the Woody Allen comparison as it is a 'emotionally aware' comedy, which doesn't ditch a decent protrayl of a relationship for laughs. I really liked Eastern Promises, the fight scene is brutal and the nudity just helps hit home how fucking nasty it is. I thought it was brave move of Viggos' to go for it, but it pays off. Also, I always assumed the ending was some what anti-climatic to reinforce the fact that Cronnenberg wanted a fairly real and gritty protrayl of what is, supposedly, a real underground mafia in London. To have a big fighting scene with the cops turning up, and guns blazing etc etc would have just been there to tick a box in what a 'action thriller' is meant to deliever.

I saw Knocked Up the other day, thought it was a better film than Superbad and a good comedy. Perhaps not the greatness it got collared for, but still a solid 2 hours of entertainment. Judd Aptow is not the next Woody Allen, but hopefully we'll get a few more good flicks out of him.I also watched The English Patient, whilst being a fairly good film (and Ralph Fiennes is very good), it didn't strike me as an oscar worthy picture - despite winning 9 (including best picture). The film tries hard to be original, and despite a not bad twist at the end, feels like it is 40 years too late.

I liked Spanglish. Thought it was a really strong effort. Really well cast and well acted and tells a decent story. Particularly about the mexican mother who tries to teach her daughter respect and principle in tough circumstances.

Did you not find it contrieved and bloated in it's running length (and themes) though?

Spanglish

 

This film falls slap in the middle of Adam Sandler

The Assassination Of Richard Nixon

 

The Assassination is in my view, the nearest thing to a perfect

Saw The Pursuit of Happyness last night on Premiere. Great film. I don't think I could watch it again because it's so gut-renching at some points. It manages to hit rock bottom in simple, spectacular style without ever losing you before recovering to deliver the perfect ending.The kid in it is excellent, while Will Smith is just phenomenal. It just works so well. Chris (Snr) is fantastic, yet his moments of despair actually hurt me. It's a long time since I've watched something on the TV and wanted someone to suceed desperately.

I found the main problem I had with the film was that at no point did I doubt that it would all turn out roses in the end, it was just a case of seeing how they got there. As such, it all seemed a bit predictable - everything just kept getting worse and worse until he turned his life around through hard work, perseverance and sacrifice. Good film but meh.Anyway, bought Reign Over Me last week after reading about on here and really enjoyed it. Perhaps not as much as others did but my girlfriend enjoyed it much more than me, so that's pretty good :)It was part of the 3 for

Deep Crimson

 

This is Mexican director Arturo Ripstein "re-make" of the classic dark comedy The Honeymoon Killers, but chooses to stick closer to it's source material - the real serial 'lonely hearts' killer of the states in the 1940s.

 

This film is very dark, yet manages to deliever on enough chuckles and moments of the grotesque to keep your interest, with a great performance from Daniel Gim

Mr_Danger said:

 

 

Mr. Seven said:

Reads more like a studio press release than a review.

 

Juno

 

In the style of the modern brat pack film makers, Jason Reitman

Last night I watched Naked Gun 2 1/2 - The Smell Of Fear, and despite the fact you can already tell the franchise is heading for the toilet, there are still enough belly laughs to keep you through its short running time. Kennedy, Neilson and alsa Simpson are great as the three lead men, and the set up is about as obvious as a herd of elephants - but thats how these films work.

 

I honestly believe that one day these kind of flicks will be looked back on with the same sort of warmth as the Marx films.

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Donnie Brasco

 

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Hellraiser

 

I got this on DVD for

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.

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.

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.

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