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  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    The Return

    Okay-ish horror with Sarah Michelle-Gellar haunted by the past, but not quite sure who's past is haunting her. The biggest surprise is seeing ex-Neighbours star Peter O Brien as a stranger who Gellar finds herself drawn to.
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Sweeney Todd - The Demon blah blah

    Its official.Johnny Depp can do no wrong.

    I really enjoyed it even though Sondheim isn't to my taste and I didn't think it was as gory as its been made out.

    Helena Bonham Carter was great. Very funny.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    A couple of obscure Rupert Everett movies.

    Tolerance made in 1988, is a tedious French period piece with Everett as a monk who finds himself amongst the aristocracy.

    Much more fun is PJ Hogan's Unconditional Love, with Jonothan Pryce as a world famous lounge singer popular with the ladies of a certain vintage, who unfortunately for them is actually gay. When he is murdered frumpy fan Kathy Bates and gay lover Everett team up to find the killer. It's not as good as Hogan and Everett's last collaboration, My Best Friend's Wedding, but it's sweet and all the leads are great.
  • Brosnan_fanBrosnan_fan Sydney, AustraliaPosts: 521MI6 Agent
    3:10 to Yuma

    A solid, well-acted film, with strong performances from Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. It won't be a "classic" Western by any means, but its worth one viewing.
    "Well, he certainly left with his tails between his legs."
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    The Changeling

    An excellent horror/thriller starring George C Scott.

    I hadn't seen it for years but Highhopes reminded me off it recently so I dug it out.

    It still holds up surprisingly well though some of it is dated and the effects are a little dodgy ( but it was made in 1980, so they can be forgiven).

    An underrated film that should have had more success.

    Probably due a remake anytime soon .....


    Possessed

    Horror film starring Timothy Dalton as a troubled priest who has to perform an exorcism.

    Based on the true story which also inspired 'The Exorcist', this is actually quite a solid film which doesn't rely on too many gimmicks.

    A good performance from Dalton though I would also have liked to have seen more of the fabulous Christopher Plummer.
  • Willie GarvinWillie Garvin Posts: 1,412MI6 Agent
    edited February 2008
    Edgar Wallace's The Terror(1938)--starring Bernard Lee,Wilfred Lawson and Alistair Sim.This has a little bit of everything:a stolen fortune in gold(300,000 pounds)hidden away for over a decade in an ancient country estate haunted by a cackling madman known only as "The Monk"-- whose noctural visits spell doom for its inhabitants.Naturally there's a beautiful damsel in distress,but a dashing Scotland Yard inspector solves the mystery and saves the day.

    The Terror is an "old dark house" thriller with a good balance of humor and suspense.It has excellent production values, with impressive sets and some attractive location footage.Cinematography and model work is of a high standard and the cast is uniformly fine.Among other things The Terrorshows that Bernard Lee--"M" himself!-- was once a leading man.It also proves that Alistair Sim was always strange looking--even moreso when he was in his early thirties.Additionally, character actor Wilfred Lawson is as adept with drama as he is with comedy.

    This movie runs slightly over an hour and the image on the Alpha Video DVD is remarkably clear(especially considering its age), with good audio.The Terror is a curio that's worth a peek.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    The Nines

    Directorial debut of John August, screenwriter of Go. Ryan Reynolds and Hope Davis play three different characters in three different segments of this movie that are all inter-connected somehow. There's a frazzled TV star under house arrest who is drawn towards his neighbour, a screenwriter struggling to get his vision on the screen despite his back-stabbing producer and a computer games designer lost in the country who meets a sinister hitchhiker. The stories about the machinations of Hollywood seem to be drawn from August's own experience, but he's wrapped them up in an inventive metaphysical conundrum. The ending to this film made me smile, but it might annoy the hell out of some people.
  • AlexAlex The Eastern SeaboardPosts: 2,694MI6 Agent
    The Day The Earth Caught Fire

    The brain-child of the innovative Val Guest, this intelligently written British sci-fi effort is a wonderful and engaging film. Leading man Edward Judd, (who would go on to play in the Welles adpation of First Men on the Moon and in Terence Fishers Island Of Terror), plays the alcoholic cynical newsman who combats immediately with his delightful and sexy co-star, Janet Munro, (who also played a clairvoyant in the cult film, The Trollenberg Terror) Their dialogue, along with everyone elses, crackles.

    Many have descrbed this as "One of the best Doomsday movies ever made" and I'd have to concur
  • Mr MartiniMr Martini That nice house in the sky.Posts: 2,703MI6 Agent
    Diamonds Are Forever

    I can't say this is my favorite Bond film. Not my least favorite either. It didn't seem to flow right and the acting seemed sub-par. If someone was under acting, some else was over acting. Maybe my mood wasn't right at the time. I'll give it 2.5 stars out of 5.

    Also, everyone mentions the big mistake in the movie. I know it stuck out like a sore thumb, but i did notice something. The camera does cut to Bond and Tiffany in the car, you see Tiffany and Bond shift becaue the car has somehow gone from the 2 wheels on the passanger side to the two wheels on the driver side. They just don't show how the car was able to switch wheels.
    Some people would complain even if you hang them with a new rope
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    edited February 2008
    He Was a Quiet Man

    Odd little drama with Christian Slater as a balding office loser, who has conversations with his goldfish about killing his co-workers. When he does bring his gun to work, he finds another guy has had the same idea and becomes a hero by killing him. Then he's drawn towards one fo the survivors, 24 star Elsiha Cuthbert and things begin to unravel.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,421MI6 Agent
    Blimey! I had an idea for a story like that once! (Fictional, I mean).
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Mr MartiniMr Martini That nice house in the sky.Posts: 2,703MI6 Agent
    U2 3D


    What a great IMax movie. If your a fan of U2, go see this now. It's a concert movie, but it's also an experience. The 3D is awesome. The sound is perfect, the movie is perfect.

    5 out of 5 stars.

    P.S. The Fly and the end credits ;)
    Some people would complain even if you hang them with a new rope
  • Dan SameDan Same Victoria, AustraliaPosts: 6,054MI6 Agent
    edited February 2008
    Frenzy

    I recently rewatched this Hitchcock classic on TV. It was the Master's second-last film and served as a brilliant conclusion to an extraordinary career. The story is classic Hitch (innocent man gets accused of being a serial killer), however what makes the film so delightful is the execution. Hitchcock's use of sound (and silence) is, pun fully intended, masterful. :D The performances are also fantastic and the film looks appropiately modern. Hichcock's use of humour is in brilliant use, although I must confess, that even having seen this film twice, I still can't detect Hitchcock's cameo. :)) Anyway, while it's not one of Hitchcock's absolute best films, it is still a masterpiece and I would absolutely recommend it to anybody who likes Hitchcock.
    "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
  • LoeffelholzLoeffelholz The United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
    "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

    Finally got around to seeing this one; watched it with the boys last night. Wow. It's really a shame that Verbinski let this franchise get away from him...one thing you shouldn't have to worry about, in a film like this, is keeping the plot straight :# It's overblown, it's overlong, it's overcooked and yet somehow underdone.

    The action's fine, but the scene where the Black Pearl and the Dutchman swirl around (and around, and around, and around) the maelstrom, while Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley get married, have five children, buy a nice house in the suburbs and have a liesurely game of backgammon---all whilst swordfights go on, cannons go off and Davy Jones' tentacle beard writhes 8-) ---all comes to naught, in my view.

    The effects are good (but, like creamy chocolate served up in 55 gallon drums, it becomes a bit too rich), the performances are fine---especially Johnny Depp, of whom I'm a huge fan; his conversations with his multiple selves were entertaining---but the whole thing just drowned in its own excess. I enjoyed the first one best, the second one not as much, and this third one least of all.

    Surprise kudos to Keith Richards, who actually did a spot of acting, here, IMO. Pretty cool, that.

    My boys loved these movies---all three of them.
    Check out my Amazon author page! Mark Loeffelholz
    "I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
    "Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,473Chief of Staff
    King Kong

    Peter Jackson's version- ie, the long one. And since it was the extended version, I do mean long. Very well done especially the recreation of 1933 NY, but for my money it didn't add anything to the original. Beats the hell out of the 1976 remake, of course, except for the fact that that version had a John Barry score.
  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,303MI6 Agent
    The Punisher on BluRay

    The BluRay version was on sale so I decided to upgrade. A very good adaptation of the violent Marvel comic about vigilante Frank Castle and his one man war on organized crime.

    Thomas Jane does a very good job of conveying Castle's slow transformation from cop & family man to a man seeking vengeance to, finally, a man who lives only to punish the guilty. By the time we get to Castle's final rampage on villain Howard Saint's club, he is capable of acts of violence and outright sadism that the Castle at the start of the film would have never contemplated. John Travolta on the other hand makes for a very mediocre villain who hardly puts up a fight when his inevitable demise (which is still very satisfying)it at hand.

    The action scenes are all very well staged and Castle's run-ins with Harry Heck and The Russian are especially entertaining. The BluRay presentation is also very good; while not possessing as much depth and "pop" as other BluRay releases, it's a clear improvement over the standard DVD.

    I know RogueAgent will get upset at me for saying this, but I'm really sorry Thomas Jane decided to walk away from the series. I just hope his departure didn't mean he knows something about the upcoming followup that the rest of us don't.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    A couple of Oscar-nominated gems. There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men. May either of these dark, American masterpieces stomp the terribly British Atonement into the dust.

    NCFOM has brilliant performances, especially from Javier Bardem as a killer with the scariest haircut you’ve ever seen. Daniel Day-Lewis is mesmerising in TWBB, but goes so far over-the-top towards the end of the film that it has to be seen to be believed. Both are highly recommended, though I’m not going to say anything more about what happens in them. Better to experience them for yourselves.
  • Willie GarvinWillie Garvin Posts: 1,412MI6 Agent
    edited February 2008
    Resident Evil-Extinction.

    This is the third chapter in the RE franchise and is really quite remarkable.Prior to viewing this I'll admit that I had some doubts at first,but found it to be a worthy sequel to the two previous films(which I saw earlier and they probably should be seen before seeing this particular movie).If you like science fiction and zombies,then this series is for you.

    The RE motion pictures will probably never win Academy Awards or receive excessive critical praise,but they're all exceptionally well made.The storylines are intelligent,the casts are impressive,the action sequences are superb,and the acting is always of a high calibre.And these movies are all refreshingly devoid of camp.Pure escapism served up con brio.

    Recommended.
  • Brosnan_fanBrosnan_fan Sydney, AustraliaPosts: 521MI6 Agent
    Juno

    Something of a letdown by director Jason Reitman after his more impressive Thank You for Smoking, but a well-acted movie nonetheless. Ellen Page delivers a credible performance in the lead, though there's no need for alot of the overly "hip" dialogue.

    However, it is a decent movie and there are worse ways to spend an evening; interesting to see what the Academy makes of it. 3.5/5
    "Well, he certainly left with his tails between his legs."
  • Dan SameDan Same Victoria, AustraliaPosts: 6,054MI6 Agent
    edited February 2008
    The action's fine, but the scene where the Black Pearl and the Dutchman swirl around (and around, and around, and around) the maelstrom, while Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley get married, have five children, buy a nice house in the suburbs and have a liesurely game of backgammon---all whilst swordfights go on, cannons go off and Davy Jones' tentacle beard writhes 8-) ---all comes to naught, in my view.
    Bloom and Knightley got married and had five kids? :o I had no idea; I mean, the entire time, I was praying for the film to come to a merciful end and so I had no idea that such an event transpired. :# :))

    I didn't particularly like this film. It was more than 2 1/2 hours long, yet there were few moments in it that were truly memorable. Plus, the worst thing was that the film left open the possibility of a sequel. :#
    "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
  • JamesbondjrJamesbondjr Posts: 462MI6 Agent
    3:10 to Yuma

    I love Westerns and I am always sceptical when new ones are released as a lot of 'modern' Westerns are abysmal.

    However, 3:10 to Yuma is fantastic. Both Russell Crowe as Ben Wade and Christian Bale as Dan Evans are very good. The standout performance for me though is Ben Foster as Charlie Prince, he is incredible.
    1- On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2- Casino Royale 3- Licence To Kill 4- Goldeneye 5- From Russia With Love
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    Art School Confidential

    Cynical comedy from Terry Zwigoff set in the art world. It's pretty funny in its skewering of pretentious art students, embittered teachers and eccentric artists. John Malkovich is particularly good as a teacher still waiting for his genuis to be recognised.
  • NightshooterNightshooter In bed with SolitairePosts: 2,917MI6 Agent
    John Drake wrote:
    A couple of Oscar-nominated gems. There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men. May either of these dark, American masterpieces stomp the terribly British Atonement into the dust.

    NCFOM has brilliant performances, especially from Javier Bardem as a killer with the scariest haircut you’ve ever seen. Daniel Day-Lewis is mesmerising in TWBB, but goes so far over-the-top towards the end of the film that it has to be seen to be believed. Both are highly recommended, though I’m not going to say anything more about what happens in them. Better to experience them for yourselves.

    I feel the NCFOM was leagues better than TWBB, solely because TWBB seemed more an acting exercise than a movie. The story was slow and had little, if any, movement, and the stellar performances don't do enough to save the film. Interesting if you're an actor, otherwise I'm not sure if it is worth it. NCFOM, however... that was just an excellent movie in all respects.
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent Speeding in the Tumbler...Posts: 3,676MI6 Agent
    Last night I saw:

    NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

    Simply a great film; it's this decade's FARGO but better IMO.

    I'd say that it's a shoe-in for Best Picture at the Oscars this year because Juno certainly isn't. I haven't had the opportunity to see TWBB but I've heard from others who have and there assessment is along the lines of what Nightshooter has already said...

    In the case of NCFOM, the Coen Brothers have done it again... B-)
    Mrs. Man Face: "You wouldn't hit a lady? Would you?"

    Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
    -Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,421MI6 Agent
    edited February 2008
    The Kite Runner

    Mainly to check out QoS director Marc Forster. (I posted on this before but that was a joke; it doesn't really end in a MiG dogfight above Afghanistan, though that might have worked quite well...)

    I'm in two minds about it really. The cinematography is terrific; not sure if the same guy is doing QoS but if so it will look just as good as Casino Royale. And there are many great and striking camera shots and angles... what Michael G Wilson said about Forster measuring up and preparing every camera shot like Hitchcock used to do... you can believe it watching this.

    Having read the book, it's kind of a different experience and I can't say it matched Atonement - a similar tale - in transposing the book to the screen. Atonement will, at this year's Oscars, not p1ss over films like There Will Be Blood but turn up its English nose at it in the manner of someone offended at the port being passed the wrong way around the table... :D

    Anyway... dull but worthy I'd say of Forster's style. You can see why Mickey and Babs went for him, they prefer directors who have some sort of cachet or snob value. Campbell, a great action director, was almost an accident; he was better known for the conspiracy thriller Edge of Darkness. Same goes for the other Brosnan directors, they're... no fun. I didn't hate Forster's style by any means, but as with Stranger than Fiction it doesn't seem very driven. the story doesn't propel itself along, it's all a bit Swiss and efficient, one scene after another but you don't get caught up in it much.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • darenhatdarenhat The Old PuebloPosts: 2,029Quartermasters
    Bridge to Teribithia

    This film was nothing what the advertising makes it out to be. It's a great idea for a story, and effectively handled, I suppose...but no one warned me it was going to be such a downer! The film tries desperately to put it's audience back into a happy mood at the end, but falls short. I sat down to watch a family fantasy film, felt like I got kicked in the gut halfway through, and after the movie ended, I'm left clutching my lower intestine. Thanks for that.
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    Cloverfield

    OK enough with the shakey-cam's already. I could handle the Bourne movies, but this was like it had been directed by Paul Greengrass, after drinking way too much coffee. If I want throw up I'll drink too much, or catch a virus.
  • Dan SameDan Same Victoria, AustraliaPosts: 6,054MI6 Agent
    John Drake wrote:
    Cloverfield

    OK enough with the shakey-cam's already. I could handle the Bourne movies, but this was like it had been directed by Paul Greengrass, after drinking way too much coffee. If I want throw up I'll drink too much, or catch a virus.
    I completely agree. It was incredibly annoying, especially as I wasn't always sure which characters had survived. :#
    "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
  • John DrakeJohn Drake On assignmentPosts: 2,564MI6 Agent
    Taffin

    Post-Remington, pre-Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan as a debt collector in small-town Ireland. I sort of lost interest when the first fight scene was accompanied with Irish jig music.

    Doctor Sleep

    Dreary thriller with Goran ER bloke as a hypnotist tracking a killer. Paddy Considine has a supporting role as a geek, but even he can't do anything to make this any better.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,421MI6 Agent
    The Kite Runner

    Mainly to check out QoS director Marc Forster. The cinematography is terrific; not sure if the same guy is doing QoS but if so it will look just as good as Casino Royale.

    Yep, it's the same guy. {i]QoS[/i] will look great then! :)
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
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