seen any good flicks lately?

Though I've not seen quite a few of the above, I'd like Inglorius Bastards to do well. 

 Anyone else seen Invictus yet? I'm giving it a 6/10.

Well, I've been a bit lazy about giving my reviews, but I've seen 3 movies since I last posted here:

Up in the air- like I said, I'm not a massive Clooney fan, but it was better than I thought it would be. He occupies the screen 100% of the time, but he does a pretty good job of it, as well as the two female co-stars.

I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, I pretty much agree with BDB's review. I always did think that Guy Ritchie had more than one genre of movie in him, let's see what the future holds for him. I also think that Jude Law and R. Downey Jr. worked very well together.

I was a bit disappointed with Avatar, especially having gone in there knowing how much the movie was supposed to have cost to make- about 300 million $. I saw it at an Imax, and it was visually stunning, but it did drag in parts in terms of the plot, and in the end it was just another elaborate souped-up over-long cartoon of sorts. Different persons have different opinions. I think we're going to have an endless wave of 3D remakes of popular movies over the next few years.

Movies I still want to mention are The Prophet, as mentioned by Parklife, and Invictus.

I loved The Prophet.

Very disappointed by The Wolfman. Despite fitting the role physically, Benicio del Toro was very miscast in a strangely subdued role. I realise this was the director's decision but it didn't work and his relationship with Emily Blunt was not believable. Hugo Weaving was fun as the detective though but the wolf himself (with the makeup and effects done by the same lad who did them in American Werewolf in London, were a little silly and the wolf, in the end, wasn't that scary. shame.

Invictus won me over in the end, perhaps because it involved rugby, but it wasn't exactly the most challenging film i've seen.

Lovefilm sent me Golden Balls.  Hmmm ... not sure if I was in the mood for it.  Sex, infidelity, cantankerous people talking fast.  Bit boring for me. 

I have, however, seen most of series 2 of True Blood (2 episodes to go), which I'm finding loads better than the first series.

I watched Moon the other day. Great performance by Sam Rockwell. At only an hour & 30 odd mins it was short and sweet and one of the best films I've seen in the past 12 months.

Also got to see Mesrine this month. I thought 4 hours of french Cinema may be hard going but was happy to be proved wrong. Well worth watching if you enjoy a good ganster flick but don't want to watch the likes of Cass, Rise of the Footsoldier and all the other brit flicks that have come out of late. Must say the only decent british ganster film I have seen of late is Shifty.

HH- glad you got a chance to see Mesrine, I hope you got a chance to see both parts, I thought it was brilliant.

Dude- thanks for your words on Wolfman, I like Benicio, so I hope my opinion does not coincide with yours!

LN- definitely 7/10 for Invictus! I like it very much, although it was very obviously formulaic and a hagiography of Nelson Mandela, sort of along the lines of "let's save the country by using sports and our hero the President has no ill feeling towards anyone". I thought Morgan Freeman was very convincing as President Mandela, and you didn't hear a single American accent, although the film was directed by the likes of Clint Eastwood. You didn't have to know about rugby either to follow the film, which has its denouement during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Matt Damon wasn't bad either, it was interesting to see him play a more youthful role as team captain Pienaar, for the first time in ages.

Some of the SA accents made me laugh MooMoo. Reminded me of Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee. I thought MD had to 'act' a bit more than MF did and will go up to 6.5/10 for the film but it's not getting a 7 from me. I need to see what's coming up at Curzon. I like independent films.

I'm not that familiar with SA accents There are a lot of good places around London for seeing independent film, the thing is finding out about them in the first place, and it can be an expensive venture to go to the movies even for an independent feature

Hey MooMoo - yep got to see both parts. As i said I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. This genre has been spoilt over recent years with the influx of films trying to copy Snatch, Lock Stock & Layer Cake so have normally avoided. Glad I never missed this after LoveFilm bigged it up.

Been on a roll as I watched Up with the kids. THought this was well up there with the best Pixar films (although I find they are normally decent)

 Got 21 sitting at home, not sure if I will be so lucky with this. ..

I never saw 21, hope it's nice!

An independent movie I mentioned on here a long time ago which is really good is called Couscous, or La graine et le moulet, from 2007, about a family (can't recall where in the Middle East) which is trying to set up a restaurant. It got all sourts of awards, and definitely is worth watching.

Curzon is pretty good Moomoo and the seats are comfy and clean. You are right flick watching does get pricey in London. *coughs* torrents *coughs* though only for the mainstream ones, do tend to pay for the Indie ones. The Prophet is high on my list of films to see. As I can't train much at the moment, I am putting my time to good use my sitting on my arse. 

I shall look out for couscous. I saw White Ribbon recently at Curzon. Linky thing to review Caramel was quite a sweet movie but not OTT.  I also saw Diving Bell and Butterfly at Curzon. It's a film I loved but don't want to watch again.

Visited the Curzon many times back in the 70's. Other favourite cinema was the Gate up at Notting Hill Gate. Currently, when I'm in town I occasionally visit the Tricycle up in Kilburn - the last film I saw there was "Son Of Rambo". For several years when I lived in London I was a regular attender at the BFI. Sadly now I live in rural Lincolnshire where cinema going opportunities are less available (err, that and the lethargy of old age).

As I've probably said before, I'm drawn to small films - usually the sort of stuff which UKTV channels have financial input into. On that basis I find it hard to get enthusiastic for the "Avatars" of this world - I even turned off The Dark Knight after the set up scenes as it just looked like another CGI concoction.

Last night I watched "Frost/Nixon" a movie right up my street. An intimate study of two "real characters". although its a Hollywood movie (directed by Ron Howard), it's actually quite a small movie really. I really enjoyed it, but rather surprisingly my sympathies lay on the side of the "evil" Richard Nixon. I think that was down to the characterisations of the actors. As a Brit, I always think of David Frost as being somewhat of a lightweight wannabe, who is strong on ambition and short on ability,. Furthermore he is played by Michael Sheen, who is a better impersonator of characters (best known for his takes on Tony Blair and Brian Clough) than he is an actor. On the other hand Nixon is a much more complex character and Frank Langella is a much better actor than Sheen. The movie does rather betray it's stage play origins with a rather clunky "did it or didn't it happen" telephone communication between the two major characters which signposts the denuement of their confrontation. However not withstanding that it was still a riviting watch.

Last week I also turned off the Clive Owen/Julia Roberts effort "Duplicity" as it seemed to be a flashy 60's style "thomas crown Affair" effort.......I think it really is an age thing,

Couscous sounds good Moomoo - I'll add that to my list.  I remember hearing about it when it was out.

I saw Caramel at the cinema LN, if it's the one about sugaring hair off yer legs.  Nice film.  Makes me feel like eating toffee just thinking about it.

LN & Parklife- I also saw Caramel, I quite enjoyed that! Definitely got the craving for toffee when they showed it being made in the movie!
I used to like going to the Curzon when I worked or lived closer to it, but thanks for the reminder, I will check it out. The Gate theatre, of course, is also a less expensive option on Notting Hill to the Kensington or Marble Arch Odeons!!
I have a friend who's a member of the BFI who sometimes takes me along.

Slacker and I went to see Avatar last night.  Thoughts were.... I was non-plussed by the 3D.  I did have the foresight to put contacts in but the glasses don't fit and just peed me off throughout the film and I didn't think they did enough with it.  They could have really had the audience reeling with the waterfalls and I don't think they went far enough.  I thought the best bits were the flies and the smuts of smoke.  However, overall the ohhh ahhh factor of the 3D effect does not outweigh the crap factor of the glasses.

I did think the blue people were very well done, beautiful characters, beautiful scenery.  The storyline (bad humans raping the planet, albeit not ours for a change, and failing to understand the landscape) makes me flicker between yawns that it's all been done before and a sadness that they are completely correct.  And of course, there has to be token US forces twat man booyah!

If it wins loads of Oscars, I think they should be technical ones.

As i just typed elsewhere, I saw Avatar a couple of weeks ago and found it a feast for the eyes and a midget gem for the brain.

And tonight I'm casting a vote for The Hurt Locker. I enjoyed it much more than I expected to for lots of reasons:

1) Unknown actors: Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie were fabulous, especially Renner who played the fearless very cool analytical IED disposal squad leader who completely avoided the maverick hero role.  I look forward to seeing Renner in more films. Maybe I'll call my next bike Renner and I think them not being well-known made it easier to imagine them as soldiers... 

2) Excellent sound editing that created suspense, belief and focus

3) Seems pretty realistic. I'm sure someone in the Army would have sat there picking up a few differences and for sure there was some cliche but it didn't have the OTT American angle. 

4) Completely avoided the political drama. There'll be more films about Iraq and  I think Kathryn Bigelow has set the standard. The focus on the film was all about the men and their specialised task of IED disposal which really added to the film. 

5) Narrative style cinematography with some excellent angles. In some scenes, it was like being there with them, deciding who/what was going to be dangerous, who/what to shoot.  

6) Some fabulous scenes I won't mention for those who've not seen it yet. 

 Giving this an 8/10. 

Oh yes, I saw that on dvd over Christmas, thoroughly excellent film.  Though I think that Avatar will beat it at the Oscars (assuming they're up together).

I too live in Lincolnshire but work in the small cinema in my town so get to watch a few films (although long after they have been on at the bigger complexes!!)

The most recent I saw was 'Nowhere Boy' which I really enjoyed. I believe we have Avatar coming up but it won't be 3D!!

Let the Right One in

Excellent.