All in all, this is a good film, not a great one. IMO it's not a serious contender for Best Picture, even though it was nominated. That said, if you want to enjoy a well-made play, and don't have money for the theatre (who does these days?) then pop Doubt into the DVD player for a couple of hours and watch some excellent actors in top form.
Having seen and enjoyed Doubt I agree with much of your review. Just one small correction however, Doubt was not nominated for Best Picture. All of the major players received acting nominations, and a writing nomination was received for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the film did not get a Best Picture nomination.
All in all, this is a good film, not a great one. IMO it's not a serious contender for Best Picture, even though it was nominated. That said, if you want to enjoy a well-made play, and don't have money for the theatre (who does these days?) then pop Doubt into the DVD player for a couple of hours and watch some excellent actors in top form.
Having seen and enjoyed Doubt I agree with much of your review. Just one small correction however, Doubt was not nominated for Best Picture. All of the major players received acting nominations, and a writing nomination was received for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the film did not get a Best Picture nomination.
Barry, I don't know what on earth you think you're doing, adding things to my posts using the quote function. If you check my original post above, you'll see I made no such mention of a Best Picture nomination.
Just kidding, of course. I stand corrected, and have edited my original post accordingly. Good catch!
Firstly The Spirit which is awful. The hero is charmless. Even Samuel L Jackson is rubbish. I think Robert Rodriguez must have been overly generous when he credited Frank Miller as his co-director on Sin City. The guy is incompetent.
Punisher: War Zone
1 star reviews all round in the UK press, Ah, I wouldn't have it any other way. Lots of complaining about this being an ultra-violent 80's throwback completely lacking in morality. Fools. Don't they know this is a good thing? Ray Stevenson is fine as Frank, preferable to Thomas Jane, but lacking the humour of Dolph. Dominic West is bizarre and funny as Jigsaw. The plot sees Frank unwittingly killing an undercover FBI agent and having to atone for this by helping out his family. There is one laugh-out loud moment when Frank picks up a little girl, asks if she's OK, then turns round and shoots a villain in the head. ) Highly recommended, unless you're a wuss. Film of the year so far.
A classic it may be but I was bored stiff. A bit like La Dolce Vita, in that you have this handsome, impassive lead, a media star, surrounded by jabbering idiots. Couldn't identify with anyone in this.
A classic it may be but I was bored stiff. A bit like La Dolce Vita, in that you have this handsome, impassive lead, a media star, surrounded by jabbering idiots. Couldn't identify with anyone in this.
I hate Fellini. Especially La Dolce Vita. I much prefer artier stuff such as:
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
Laura Gemser, who shares joint 1st place with Geraldine Chaplin in my list of most beautiful women in the movies ever, returns as intrepid photo-journalist Emanuelle. Once again Em finds herself taking her clothes off in pursuit of a good story. A young woman in an insane asylum bites the breast off a nurse. It turns out she has been raised in the wild by cannibals, so Em charts a course for the Amazon, with a handsome Professor, a not very Irish-looking Irish nun, and a foxy blonde who's hot-to-trot for both Em and the Prof.
Along the way they encounter a comedy chimp (do chimps live in the Amazon?) smoking Marlboro's, a very real python that appears to get its very real brains blown out, and some rather hungry cannibals. In fact they're so hungry they don't even cook their meat.
Interestingly this was made before Cannibal Holocaust. I always thought Em and the Last Cannibals was a rip-off of that film, but it predates it by three years.
Brilliant and bizarre drama from Wernor Herzog about a man raised in a cellar. Kasper is released and has to negotiate the complexities of polite society.
Herzog is one of the most humane directors around and this is one of his finest films. Highly recommended.
Story of a one time main event wrestler who is now reduced to wrestling in school gymnasiums. Mickey Rourke plays Randy the Ram, a wrestler who has given his body and soul to the ring and now sees the end is near. Marisa Tomei is an aging stripper and friend of Randy the Ram, who also sees the end of her career fast approaching. The Ram has a heart attack and decides to retire, finding work manning a deli counter and trying to reaquant himself with his daughter. He also trys to develop a romance with Tomei who isn't as confident that romance is a good idea. Things don't work out likes he hopes and he decides to return to the ring.
Rourke received a well deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor and Tomei also received an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Fans of Tomei will be happy to hear that you see almost all of Tomei in this film and she looks in fabulous shape.
I enjoyed all of the movie except the ending which I think cheated the audience. Recommended.
JD, are you raiding my movie shelf? Every piece of Euro cult sleaze you review I have and have.
I hear ya on the throwback 80s. A welcome indeed. That's why it took Stallone's return to show today's vanilla envelope politically correct tools how to make an entertaining movie.
And I love Gemser too. She's a goddess. Check out Sister Emannuele, it's a corker.
And I love Gemser too. She's a goddess. Check out Sister Emannuele, it's a corker.
Will do Alex. There's two Black Emanuelle box-sets available and I've been thinking of getting them.
Dead Like Me: Life After Death
Spin-off movie from the cult TV series. Ellen Muth :x returns as the wisecracking undead grim reaper, George Lass. Old boss Rube has crossed over to the other side, so George and the reapers have a new leader. Oily Cameron Kane (Henry Ian Cusick, Desmond from Lost) encourages them to enjoy their afterlives and neglect their duties. To complicate matters George is drawn back into the life of her grieving younger sister, Reggie, when she has to reap her boyfriend. A must for fans of the show, but it works well enough as a stand-alone movie for any newcomers unfamiliar with the original series.
Two thieving, good for nothing foreigners scrounge their way thru life, then one of them wins a million quid that would be better used to help the elderly... okay, okay, ;% I'll give the Daily Mail a miss today... I can always rent those wartime DVDs...
I enjoyed this, great cinematography and you feel you're seeing sights you don't normally get in film today. I don't mean to be Bondcentric about it, but this has the sort of look that the Bond films should have but don't. I mean, sure QoS went to Panama, but we never really saw any local colour, did we? Tosca was in Austria, but it could have been anywhere.
I did feel SM was a bit manipulative emotionally however, and the characters were broad brushstrokes. Good (and a bit surprising) to see Skins' Dev Patel do so well in this.
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
Now why can't ITV show this sort of film late at night more often? It's cold here in the UK, so the atmosphere in the house was just right. A bit of a slow burner, but it generated the right tension, mainly thanks to Barbara Shelley called upon to show creeping fear in the face of the men's genial recklessness.
[IMG][/img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_v94HclVn6hA/SUPBfYJCmyI/AAAAAAAAGRI/hgQ2-IeoA78/s400/Barbara+Shelley.jpg
Lee's Dracula didn't get much screen time however, and his death was a bit contrived (ice when the leaves on the trees suggest it's late summer?).
The film is okay, but it has a bad opening in which our Greta gets to perform a cack-handed 'erotic' dance as Mata - my, she had broad shoulders! Looks like one of the Carry On team in drag!
As is the case with 1930s films, the silence on the soundtrack is a bit oppressive and odd, as is the way scenes end abruptly. I can't help thinking Maggie Thatcher borrowed a lot of her mannerisms from Garbo, once she dispensed with the shrill, suburban housewife persona in the mid-1980s. That puts me off Garbo a bit.
Eagle Eye. This is a real triumph of style over substance--the story is one of the dumbest you can imagine, and the film liberally rips off The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and--believe it or not--the climax to Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (both versions); but, dammit all, I was never bored. I'll probably end up giving it three stars on Netflix, but that's only because I can't give it two and a half.
Here she plays a Soviet official sent to Paris to oversee three Marx Brother type Soviet loons who have bungled their attempts to sell a priceless bit of jewellery which, it turns out, belonged to an exiled Russian royal now in Paris, who wants them back.
Garbo speaks Russian in a dour, atonal voice tapering down at the end, like Lotte Lenya's Klebb in From Russia With Love, or Thunderball's Blofeld. She has the hooded eyelids and joyless expression of Macca's Linda when made to shake the tamborine to Mul of Kyntyre in Wings.
All the Parisians are American actors. The one who woos Garbo's inscrutable Red is Melvyn Douglas, unrecognisable from his later role as Paul Newman's father in Hud.
Sadly Douglas sank the film for me. It starts off very well, it's Top Hat territory really: mistaken identity, a suspicious hotel concierge, art deco apartments: all shiny surfaces and those big pannelled doors that slide open and shut. But Douglas is too sexless to be a leading man; you need a roguish charmer like Fred Astaire and once I realised how perfect he would have been in the role, I grew to loathe Douglas who reminded me a bit of the actor who played Watson opposite Rathbone in the Sherlock Holmes films, or even the headmaster in Ferris Bueller -certainly not leading man material. You want the woman to submit in a battle of sexes comedy because she'll be on to a winner, but not here.
Also, the credit crunch and the UK's current drift to bankruptcy makes this not such an amusing watch: when Garbo's dour Russian shakes her head and says: "Any culture that allows women to wear such a silly hat cannot be long for this world!", or words to that effect, it's an uncomfortable moment. Because it is a silly hat... Later, Garbo is seen wearing it once she 'sees the light'. Like having an Iranian woman deciding that Heat magazine is actually a jolly good read on her visit to the UK... 8-)
The DVD has a new episode, in which he dons a gladiator outfit, but it's a bit rubbish frankly.
He doesn't kill anyone does he? That would be really disturbing.
4 movies that remind you why you should be watching television.
Rachel's Getting Married
Family gatherings are bad enough, but watching a film about somebody else's family gathering is even worse. Well-off people and their problems deserve each other. Which brings us to-
Revolutionary Road
Like an episode of Mad Men, but with everything that makes it great taken out. No wit, no humour, no empathy. And this gets nominated for Oscars.
The Reader
Posh version of the 70's sexploitation flick, with Kate Winslet as a Nazi temptress getting her kicks with a teenager. Sadly Stephen Daldry lacks the cinematic flair of Tinto Brass.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Two annoying graduates spend a summer in Barcelona. Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz steal the show. The only thing the two leads (Scarlet Johanssen and Rebecca Hall) bring to the table is that old question, do you prefer blondes or brunettes?.
The DVD has a new episode, in which he dons a gladiator outfit, but it's a bit rubbish frankly.
He doesn't kill anyone does he? That would be really disturbing.
No, he doesn't. But as soon as he goes through the door into ancient Rome, Mr Benn runs into a mate of his, calls Smasher. ?:) You what? Benn was always meeting people for the first time, that's what gave it it's innocence. How come he knows someone in this world? Then the whole thing gets very contrived, confusing and hurried, plus there's hardly any of that distintive music on the soundtrack...
No, he doesn't. But as soon as he goes through the door into ancient Rome, Mr Benn runs into a mate of his, calls Smasher. ?:) You what? Benn was always meeting people for the first time, that's what gave it it's innocence. How come he knows someone in this world? Then the whole thing gets very contrived, confusing and hurried, plus there's hardly any of that distintive music on the soundtrack...
I always loved how afterwards he would be walking up the street and suddenly notice he was carrying a Native American tomahawk, or something equally dangerous. ) There was a planned movie a few years ago, but in the script he had a girlfriend! That's probably worse than having a mate called Smasher.
Malena. Recommended by lovefilm, probably because it picked up on my Tinto Brass obsession! ;% It's Italian, is set in World War II, has Errio Morricone on the soundtrack and stars a woman's voluptous arse, which the camera follows around. But it's a refined, discreet Tinto Brass, which as our ajb purveryers of filth John Drake and Alex would readily concede, is no good thing at all!
It's a coming of age drama, in which a skinny adolescent develops a crush on Malena (Monica Bellucio, not looking too great imo) and follows her everywhere, as the village inhabitants get jealous and gossipy about her supposed activities. I didn't like it much because I don't like movies where I have to relate to a sap unless the sap has some redeeming/charming qualities, plus it was as glossy and unconvincing as a TV advert, with no cliche left unturned regarding hysterical, jibbering Italians.
Just about the least thrilling thriller you'll ever see. I feel sorry for Clive Owen, he's better than this. Director Tom Twyker once touted himself as the new Krystof Kieslowski. He's not even the new Martin Campbell.
I also didn't like it all that much; like alot of bad Italian films, it feels too much like a telemovie. One question; how on earth could you think that Monica Bellucci ever looks less than great?
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
I dunno, she just looked a bit grim in expression.
According to imdb, there's a longer version with more bare flesh (Monica's) but I still don't see that it would be worth much.
BTW DS, in your film studies, is there any reference to the sort of films where you relate/identify with the lead, ie want to be him and sort of become him during the film, and others where one remains an outsider throughout, almost Kubrickesque, watching the chess pieces move around the table.
Not to be contentious, but I get the feeling some like to watch Dalton and Craig as outsiders looking at a character study of an assassin, while others want to be James Bond, their heart soarts when he makes a witty line they identify with.
Woody Allen's latest, tells the story of two young American women, Scalett Johansson and Rebecca Hall, who travel to Barcelona to spend the summer. While there, they both fall in love with a local artist played by Javier Bardem. Complcating matters for Hall, she is engaged to be married. Penelope Cruz is also in the movie playing Bardem's former wife, who is borderline psycho. Cruz received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role and she is very good. The whole cast is very good, but I was especially impressed by the lesser known Hall, who I thought was able to convey her characters conflicted thoughts on relationsips very well. The conversations that take place between the characters during the film are interesting, revealing a sense of unfullfillment, and of a longing for a more satisfactory relationship. No one is happy, but no one is quite sure what they want either.
I am a big fan of Allen's early comedic work, films like Take The Money and Run, Banannas, Sleeper, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex, are all very clever and funny films. However, Allen grew tired of making comedic films and began making more serious films, which I did not enjoy as much. As such it has been a while since I have seen an Allen film, but I did enjoy this one and I would recommend a viewing.
A Clint Eastwood directed film that tells the true story of Christine Collins, a single mother whose son was abducted in Los Angeles in 1928. Angelina Jolie received a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of Collins, whose stoic refusal to accept the Los Angeles Police Department's actions during the investigation into her son's disappearance resulted in a complete upheaval of the department.
I found the pacing of the movie a little too leisurely at times, as I wanted it to jump to the next plot revelation so I would know what happened. Despite that, I would recommend this film, as the true story of 1928 LAPD actions in this boy's disappearance is shocking, as was the crime they uncover.
I recently saw Milk for a second time as I wanted to reacquaint myself with Sean Penn's performance; the likely Lead Actor Oscar winner for 2008.
I'm not a big fan of Gus Van Sant (I find his arthouse films to be too indulgant) but I adore Sean Penn. As such I've been looking forward to seeing Milk ever since I heard about it as it was a dream project for Penn; IMO one of the truly greatest actors of all time.
His performance was superb, unsurprisingly, although I found it a little safe, and among the nominees, I was more impressed with Frank Langella's performance in Frost/Nixon. It should be said that IMO the greatest lead male performance of 2008 was Clint Eastwood's in Gran Torino. However among the nominees, I thought that Langella's performance was the best, followed by Penn's.
I have to say however that I was disappointed with the film, and seeing it for a second time confirmed why. The reason is that I don't think it delved into the personal enough, and as a consequence, it reminded me that great biopics are truly a rare beast.
Penn's performance, although IMO not his best (that honour would go to either Dead Man Walking, Mystic River or ever Carlito's Way) showcases what a detailed and subtle actor he is. He is restrained, underplayed and completely and totally becomes Harvey Milk. There was not one moment when I thought that I was watching Sean Penn play Harvey Milk. A wonderful performance, but as I said, I still think that Langella was better, and that Eastwood was superior to both.
The rest of the cast, especially James Franco and Josh Brolin, were also magnificent in what must surely rank as the most consistenly brilliantly acted film of the year, ot at least one of them.
The problem that I had however was that I didn't really get to know Harvey Milk;
we didn't learn, for example, why he stuck around with his last boyfriend.
The film was more interested in why Milk was so significant than who he was. He was treated as an icon, rather than a human being. Thus, the film raised a couple of interesting questions about some of his (less than wonderful) tactics yet refused to answer them, for fear of pointing to flaws in his character. There was a couple of exceptions, but it never really explored them, as it didn't explore much of Milk's character. Thus, the film felt long and it kept him at arms length. That's not to say I wasn't emotionally affected at the end. I was (moreso the second time than the first when I wasn't at all) but I was much more moved by a film like Gran Torino than by Milk.
I do think that Milk is a good film with great performances, but I don't think it's a great film and I don't think it deserves to win Best Picture (which should almost certainly go to Slumdog Millionaire.)
Two more comments:
1)I mentioned that I'm not a big fan of Gus Van Sant. That is true as I think that his 'art' films are completely self-indulgant and I will never forgive him for the shot-by-shot remake of Psycho, but I think the camerawork in Milk was outstanding. I don't think it's a great film by any means, but some of the shots are really beautiful.
2)I think that this year's supporting actor category is extremely strong. Ledger stole the show in TDK, Michael Shannon was magnificent in Revolutionary Road, I adored Josh Brolin in Milk, Philip Seymour Hoffman was fantastic in Doubt (although it's not a supporting performance) and while I don't think that Robery Downey Jr. should have been oscar-nominated for essentially putting on an Australian accent and blackface, I do admire that the Academy was willing to nominate a comedy turn, even if IMO it was undeserved.
As I don't want to risk any possibility of finding out the Oscar winners before I watch the Oscars tonight, this will be my last post on this site for at least 24 hours, and so I'll simply leave with the prediction that Hugh Jackman will rock as host!
"He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. and then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." Death of a Salesman
Hamlet 2. Ah, yes, I remember the way it was promoted: big Sundance Film Festival hit, co-written by one of the South Park scribes, all-star cast, subversive, sacreligious, and hilarious. . .and what a trite, flat, cheap-looking, thoroughly unamusing dud. And, being a quasi-native of Tucson, I would have been offended by all the shots taken at the city--except that the movie was filmed in Albuquerque.
Vox clamantis in deserto
RogueAgentSpeeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
1 star reviews all round in the UK press, Ah, I wouldn't have it any other way. Lots of complaining about this being an ultra-violent 80's throwback completely lacking in morality. Fools. Don't they know this is a good thing? Ray Stevenson is fine as Frank, preferable to Thomas Jane, but lacking the humour of Dolph. Dominic West is bizarre and funny as Jigsaw. The plot sees Frank unwittingly killing an undercover FBI agent and having to atone for this by helping out his family. There is one laugh-out loud moment when Frank picks up a little girl, asks if she's OK, then turns round and shoots a villain in the head. ) Highly recommended, unless you're a wuss. Film of the year so far.
Told you you'd love it B-) . It's an updated, comic book version of Commando. Gritty escapism. {[] {[] {[] {[]
Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice isUNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Well - it was okay - but (and this is going to sound daft, but...) it was trying too hard to be a Guy Richie film (and YES I do know it was a Guy Richie film ) ) but it was just too formulaic for me. He knows what's worked in the past, and he's just tried to do the same thing, but it somehow misses, or just too done, I can't quite work out which.
Gerard Butler is good as the lead, but it reminds me too much of a "nice guy caught up in a not so nice environment" and I can't help but be reminded of the ever so brilliant Layer Cake,(where DC plays a really likeable coke dealer - you don't want to like him, but you can't help but doing so) and I think Guy was trying to create a similar type of character, but somehow missing - by a long shot.
The story is fairly routine - one big shot gangster (old school) guy, owes another 'foreign'(new school) guy money, for some rather shaky 'planning' permission for a piece of real estate in London. Big shot old school has the control of the planning permission (or so he thought) - and so tries to screw over the new foreign big shot - however a very valuable 'lucky' painting is involved, and it gets stolen while in old school guy's care. Plus the money which foreign new school guy needs to pay old school keeps getting stolen, and so ensues a 'funny ???' adventure of drug dealers, drug users, and all the players in between, including the sexy girl - who unlike Sienna Miller in LC just didn't quite hit the mark - and the chemistry between her and Gerard (well that was bound to happen ) was just lacking - unlike the sizzling connection between Craig and Miller.
Even the so called twist at the end was lacking - and at over 2 hours, it could have been done with being 20 minutes shorter.
There was one very funny bit, and those of you who have seen it will know exactly which bit I mean - but that was it, so I give it only 2 out of 5 stars.
Overall - a dissapointment.
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Comments
Having seen and enjoyed Doubt I agree with much of your review. Just one small correction however, Doubt was not nominated for Best Picture. All of the major players received acting nominations, and a writing nomination was received for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the film did not get a Best Picture nomination.
Firstly The Spirit which is awful. The hero is charmless. Even Samuel L Jackson is rubbish. I think Robert Rodriguez must have been overly generous when he credited Frank Miller as his co-director on Sin City. The guy is incompetent.
Punisher: War Zone
1 star reviews all round in the UK press, Ah, I wouldn't have it any other way. Lots of complaining about this being an ultra-violent 80's throwback completely lacking in morality. Fools. Don't they know this is a good thing? Ray Stevenson is fine as Frank, preferable to Thomas Jane, but lacking the humour of Dolph. Dominic West is bizarre and funny as Jigsaw. The plot sees Frank unwittingly killing an undercover FBI agent and having to atone for this by helping out his family. There is one laugh-out loud moment when Frank picks up a little girl, asks if she's OK, then turns round and shoots a villain in the head.
Fellini's 8 1/2.
A classic it may be but I was bored stiff. A bit like La Dolce Vita, in that you have this handsome, impassive lead, a media star, surrounded by jabbering idiots. Couldn't identify with anyone in this.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Completely serious. The Spirit is rubbish.
I hate Fellini. Especially La Dolce Vita. I much prefer artier stuff such as:
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals
Laura Gemser, who shares joint 1st place with Geraldine Chaplin in my list of most beautiful women in the movies ever, returns as intrepid photo-journalist Emanuelle. Once again Em finds herself taking her clothes off in pursuit of a good story. A young woman in an insane asylum bites the breast off a nurse. It turns out she has been raised in the wild by cannibals, so Em charts a course for the Amazon, with a handsome Professor, a not very Irish-looking Irish nun, and a foxy blonde who's hot-to-trot for both Em and the Prof.
Along the way they encounter a comedy chimp (do chimps live in the Amazon?) smoking Marlboro's, a very real python that appears to get its very real brains blown out, and some rather hungry cannibals. In fact they're so hungry they don't even cook their meat.
Interestingly this was made before Cannibal Holocaust. I always thought Em and the Last Cannibals was a rip-off of that film, but it predates it by three years.
The film it self was nothing special - just your usual psycho with a pick axe on the looose - lots of blood and gore if u like that sort of thing.
Brilliant and bizarre drama from Wernor Herzog about a man raised in a cellar. Kasper is released and has to negotiate the complexities of polite society.
Herzog is one of the most humane directors around and this is one of his finest films. Highly recommended.
Story of a one time main event wrestler who is now reduced to wrestling in school gymnasiums. Mickey Rourke plays Randy the Ram, a wrestler who has given his body and soul to the ring and now sees the end is near. Marisa Tomei is an aging stripper and friend of Randy the Ram, who also sees the end of her career fast approaching. The Ram has a heart attack and decides to retire, finding work manning a deli counter and trying to reaquant himself with his daughter. He also trys to develop a romance with Tomei who isn't as confident that romance is a good idea. Things don't work out likes he hopes and he decides to return to the ring.
Rourke received a well deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor and Tomei also received an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Fans of Tomei will be happy to hear that you see almost all of Tomei in this film and she looks in fabulous shape.
I enjoyed all of the movie except the ending which I think cheated the audience. Recommended.
I hear ya on the throwback 80s. A welcome indeed. That's why it took Stallone's return to show today's vanilla envelope politically correct tools how to make an entertaining movie.
And I love Gemser too. She's a goddess. Check out Sister Emannuele, it's a corker.
Will do Alex. There's two Black Emanuelle box-sets available and I've been thinking of getting them.
Dead Like Me: Life After Death
Spin-off movie from the cult TV series. Ellen Muth :x returns as the wisecracking undead grim reaper, George Lass. Old boss Rube has crossed over to the other side, so George and the reapers have a new leader. Oily Cameron Kane (Henry Ian Cusick, Desmond from Lost) encourages them to enjoy their afterlives and neglect their duties. To complicate matters George is drawn back into the life of her grieving younger sister, Reggie, when she has to reap her boyfriend. A must for fans of the show, but it works well enough as a stand-alone movie for any newcomers unfamiliar with the original series.
Two thieving, good for nothing foreigners scrounge their way thru life, then one of them wins a million quid that would be better used to help the elderly... okay, okay, ;% I'll give the Daily Mail a miss today... I can always rent those wartime DVDs...
I enjoyed this, great cinematography and you feel you're seeing sights you don't normally get in film today. I don't mean to be Bondcentric about it, but this has the sort of look that the Bond films should have but don't. I mean, sure QoS went to Panama, but we never really saw any local colour, did we? Tosca was in Austria, but it could have been anywhere.
I did feel SM was a bit manipulative emotionally however, and the characters were broad brushstrokes. Good (and a bit surprising) to see Skins' Dev Patel do so well in this.
Dracula, Prince of Darkness
Now why can't ITV show this sort of film late at night more often? It's cold here in the UK, so the atmosphere in the house was just right. A bit of a slow burner, but it generated the right tension, mainly thanks to Barbara Shelley called upon to show creeping fear in the face of the men's genial recklessness.
[IMG][/img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_v94HclVn6hA/SUPBfYJCmyI/AAAAAAAAGRI/hgQ2-IeoA78/s400/Barbara+Shelley.jpg
Lee's Dracula didn't get much screen time however, and his death was a bit contrived (ice when the leaves on the trees suggest it's late summer?).
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Dracula Prince of Darkness
The Gorgon
Quatermass and the Pit
Rasputin the Mad Monk
And many more I'm probably forgetting.
Creaky Greta Garbo film, so old the MGM lion isn't the usual one but a somewhat half-hearted, disgruntled prototype.
Disgruntled lion
The film is okay, but it has a bad opening in which our Greta gets to perform a cack-handed 'erotic' dance as Mata - my, she had broad shoulders! Looks like one of the Carry On team in drag!
As is the case with 1930s films, the silence on the soundtrack is a bit oppressive and odd, as is the way scenes end abruptly. I can't help thinking Maggie Thatcher borrowed a lot of her mannerisms from Garbo, once she dispensed with the shrill, suburban housewife persona in the mid-1980s. That puts me off Garbo a bit.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Here she plays a Soviet official sent to Paris to oversee three Marx Brother type Soviet loons who have bungled their attempts to sell a priceless bit of jewellery which, it turns out, belonged to an exiled Russian royal now in Paris, who wants them back.
Garbo speaks Russian in a dour, atonal voice tapering down at the end, like Lotte Lenya's Klebb in From Russia With Love, or Thunderball's Blofeld. She has the hooded eyelids and joyless expression of Macca's Linda when made to shake the tamborine to Mul of Kyntyre in Wings.
All the Parisians are American actors. The one who woos Garbo's inscrutable Red is Melvyn Douglas, unrecognisable from his later role as Paul Newman's father in Hud.
Sadly Douglas sank the film for me. It starts off very well, it's Top Hat territory really: mistaken identity, a suspicious hotel concierge, art deco apartments: all shiny surfaces and those big pannelled doors that slide open and shut. But Douglas is too sexless to be a leading man; you need a roguish charmer like Fred Astaire and once I realised how perfect he would have been in the role, I grew to loathe Douglas who reminded me a bit of the actor who played Watson opposite Rathbone in the Sherlock Holmes films, or even the headmaster in Ferris Bueller -certainly not leading man material.
Also, the credit crunch and the UK's current drift to bankruptcy makes this not such an amusing watch: when Garbo's dour Russian shakes her head and says: "Any culture that allows women to wear such a silly hat cannot be long for this world!", or words to that effect, it's an uncomfortable moment. Because it is a silly hat... Later, Garbo is seen wearing it once she 'sees the light'. Like having an Iranian woman deciding that Heat magazine is actually a jolly good read on her visit to the UK... 8-)
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Early 1970s acid trip animated fantasy in which a 'straight' visits a fancy dress shop and is transported to other worlds on each successive occasion.
It's an allegory of the transition from 'modism' to psychedelia, from Paperback Writer to Sgt Pepper. Ray Brooks narrates.
The DVD has a new episode, in which he dons a gladiator outfit, but it's a bit rubbish frankly.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
He doesn't kill anyone does he? That would be really disturbing.
4 movies that remind you why you should be watching television.
Rachel's Getting Married
Family gatherings are bad enough, but watching a film about somebody else's family gathering is even worse. Well-off people and their problems deserve each other. Which brings us to-
Revolutionary Road
Like an episode of Mad Men, but with everything that makes it great taken out. No wit, no humour, no empathy. And this gets nominated for Oscars.
The Reader
Posh version of the 70's sexploitation flick, with Kate Winslet as a Nazi temptress getting her kicks with a teenager. Sadly Stephen Daldry lacks the cinematic flair of Tinto Brass.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Two annoying graduates spend a summer in Barcelona. Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz steal the show. The only thing the two leads (Scarlet Johanssen and Rebecca Hall) bring to the table is that old question, do you prefer blondes or brunettes?.
No, he doesn't. But as soon as he goes through the door into ancient Rome, Mr Benn runs into a mate of his, calls Smasher. ?:) You what? Benn was always meeting people for the first time, that's what gave it it's innocence. How come he knows someone in this world? Then the whole thing gets very contrived, confusing and hurried, plus there's hardly any of that distintive music on the soundtrack...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I always loved how afterwards he would be walking up the street and suddenly notice he was carrying a Native American tomahawk, or something equally dangerous.
It's a coming of age drama, in which a skinny adolescent develops a crush on Malena (Monica Bellucio, not looking too great imo) and follows her everywhere, as the village inhabitants get jealous and gossipy about her supposed activities. I didn't like it much because I don't like movies where I have to relate to a sap unless the sap has some redeeming/charming qualities, plus it was as glossy and unconvincing as a TV advert, with no cliche left unturned regarding hysterical, jibbering Italians.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The International
Just about the least thrilling thriller you'll ever see. I feel sorry for Clive Owen, he's better than this. Director Tom Twyker once touted himself as the new Krystof Kieslowski. He's not even the new Martin Campbell.
According to imdb, there's a longer version with more bare flesh (Monica's) but I still don't see that it would be worth much.
BTW DS, in your film studies, is there any reference to the sort of films where you relate/identify with the lead, ie want to be him and sort of become him during the film, and others where one remains an outsider throughout, almost Kubrickesque, watching the chess pieces move around the table.
Not to be contentious, but I get the feeling some like to watch Dalton and Craig as outsiders looking at a character study of an assassin, while others want to be James Bond, their heart soarts when he makes a witty line they identify with.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Woody Allen's latest, tells the story of two young American women, Scalett Johansson and Rebecca Hall, who travel to Barcelona to spend the summer. While there, they both fall in love with a local artist played by Javier Bardem. Complcating matters for Hall, she is engaged to be married. Penelope Cruz is also in the movie playing Bardem's former wife, who is borderline psycho. Cruz received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role and she is very good. The whole cast is very good, but I was especially impressed by the lesser known Hall, who I thought was able to convey her characters conflicted thoughts on relationsips very well. The conversations that take place between the characters during the film are interesting, revealing a sense of unfullfillment, and of a longing for a more satisfactory relationship. No one is happy, but no one is quite sure what they want either.
I am a big fan of Allen's early comedic work, films like Take The Money and Run, Banannas, Sleeper, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex, are all very clever and funny films. However, Allen grew tired of making comedic films and began making more serious films, which I did not enjoy as much. As such it has been a while since I have seen an Allen film, but I did enjoy this one and I would recommend a viewing.
A Clint Eastwood directed film that tells the true story of Christine Collins, a single mother whose son was abducted in Los Angeles in 1928. Angelina Jolie received a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of Collins, whose stoic refusal to accept the Los Angeles Police Department's actions during the investigation into her son's disappearance resulted in a complete upheaval of the department.
I found the pacing of the movie a little too leisurely at times, as I wanted it to jump to the next plot revelation so I would know what happened. Despite that, I would recommend this film, as the true story of 1928 LAPD actions in this boy's disappearance is shocking, as was the crime they uncover.
I'm not a big fan of Gus Van Sant (I find his arthouse films to be too indulgant) but I adore Sean Penn. As such I've been looking forward to seeing Milk ever since I heard about it as it was a dream project for Penn; IMO one of the truly greatest actors of all time.
His performance was superb, unsurprisingly, although I found it a little safe, and among the nominees, I was more impressed with Frank Langella's performance in Frost/Nixon. It should be said that IMO the greatest lead male performance of 2008 was Clint Eastwood's in Gran Torino. However among the nominees, I thought that Langella's performance was the best, followed by Penn's.
I have to say however that I was disappointed with the film, and seeing it for a second time confirmed why. The reason is that I don't think it delved into the personal enough, and as a consequence, it reminded me that great biopics are truly a rare beast.
Penn's performance, although IMO not his best (that honour would go to either Dead Man Walking, Mystic River or ever Carlito's Way) showcases what a detailed and subtle actor he is. He is restrained, underplayed and completely and totally becomes Harvey Milk. There was not one moment when I thought that I was watching Sean Penn play Harvey Milk. A wonderful performance, but as I said, I still think that Langella was better, and that Eastwood was superior to both.
The rest of the cast, especially James Franco and Josh Brolin, were also magnificent in what must surely rank as the most consistenly brilliantly acted film of the year, ot at least one of them.
The problem that I had however was that I didn't really get to know Harvey Milk;
I do think that Milk is a good film with great performances, but I don't think it's a great film and I don't think it deserves to win Best Picture (which should almost certainly go to Slumdog Millionaire.)
Two more comments:
1)I mentioned that I'm not a big fan of Gus Van Sant. That is true as I think that his 'art' films are completely self-indulgant and I will never forgive him for the shot-by-shot remake of Psycho, but I think the camerawork in Milk was outstanding. I don't think it's a great film by any means, but some of the shots are really beautiful.
2)I think that this year's supporting actor category is extremely strong. Ledger stole the show in TDK, Michael Shannon was magnificent in Revolutionary Road, I adored Josh Brolin in Milk, Philip Seymour Hoffman was fantastic in Doubt (although it's not a supporting performance) and while I don't think that Robery Downey Jr. should have been oscar-nominated for essentially putting on an Australian accent and blackface, I do admire that the Academy was willing to nominate a comedy turn, even if IMO it was undeserved.
As I don't want to risk any possibility of finding out the Oscar winners before I watch the Oscars tonight, this will be my last post on this site for at least 24 hours, and so I'll simply leave with the prediction that Hugh Jackman will rock as host!
Told you you'd love it B-) . It's an updated, comic book version of Commando. Gritty escapism. {[] {[] {[] {[]
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Well - it was okay - but (and this is going to sound daft, but...) it was trying too hard to be a Guy Richie film (and YES I do know it was a Guy Richie film
Gerard Butler is good as the lead, but it reminds me too much of a "nice guy caught up in a not so nice environment" and I can't help but be reminded of the ever so brilliant Layer Cake,(where DC plays a really likeable coke dealer - you don't want to like him, but you can't help but doing so) and I think Guy was trying to create a similar type of character, but somehow missing - by a long shot.
The story is fairly routine - one big shot gangster (old school) guy, owes another 'foreign'(new school) guy money, for some rather shaky 'planning' permission for a piece of real estate in London. Big shot old school has the control of the planning permission (or so he thought) - and so tries to screw over the new foreign big shot - however a very valuable 'lucky' painting is involved, and it gets stolen while in old school guy's care. Plus the money which foreign new school guy needs to pay old school keeps getting stolen, and so ensues a 'funny ???' adventure of drug dealers, drug users, and all the players in between, including the sexy girl - who unlike Sienna Miller in LC just didn't quite hit the mark - and the chemistry between her and Gerard (well that was bound to happen ) was just lacking - unlike the sizzling connection between Craig and Miller.
Even the so called twist at the end was lacking - and at over 2 hours, it could have been done with being 20 minutes shorter.
There was one very funny bit, and those of you who have seen it will know exactly which bit I mean - but that was it, so I give it only 2 out of 5 stars.
Overall - a dissapointment.
I turned it off half way through, both characters were supremely unattractive. Bond note: our mate Fekkish turns up as the older wealthy fellow.
Roger Moore 1927-2017