seen any good flicks lately?

I've stumbled across a few German films on the internet, late at night, with Wii-ing in them.

I saw the Anvil film on a plane a few years back and enjoyed it I think.  Really bucks the idea of hard rockers being rock'n'roll 24/7 I thought.  Ordinary guys, pretty likeable, leading normal lives but all the while, wanting the thrill of performing.  Worth a watch I'd say.

I also saw the Waltz with Bashir at the flicks a couple of years back and was blown away by it.  Be interesting to see what you think of it SVT.

I saw Waltz with Bashir when it was in the cinemas, I thought it was amazing - really moving and thought-provoking, but I think you have to be in the right mood to watch it. Not a feel good film!

I also love Persepolis

Corinthian wrote (see)

Seriously, I can't think of a film based on a video game that even creeps into the mediocre category...

I thought the original Resident Evil could sneak into this category, of course it helps enormously that Milla Jovovich is very easy on the eye.

I'm in two minds about going to see The Iron Lady after reading the posts here, but think I probably will in order to decide for myself!

I went to see The Deep Blue Sea on Tuesday - a film based on Terence Rattigan's play. Rachel Weisz played the lead and I thought she was very good, but the film itself seemed hollow - as though a single idea was stretched too thin. The cinematography was beautiful, though, but not as memorable as Black Narcissus, which I saw on DVD at the weekend.

I'm going to see Puss in Boots tomorrow evening ........ in 3D.......

The Adjustment Bureau - what happens when when a couple destined to be together have to cheat fate in order to fulfil, er, fate?  You get an ok love story with a bit of running and a lot of silliness about hats being keys and people not being allowed to exercise free will.  It's not bad, it's just not particularly good or engaging.  It was billed as Bourne meets Inception.   They were obviously referring to the Cbebies version of these films as this is no where near as exciting as Bourne nor as clever and involving Inception.  Even die hard Damon fans will be a little disappointed.

Well POTC was based on a theme park ride and that's a good fillum...

The friend that I saw Puss in Boots with said that the character of Puss was very funny in Shrek 2.... and there were some very funny moments, but it was daft beyond words. I'm now looking forward to seeing Warhorse.

Hee hee ... let's all laugh at Liverpool, city of culture

The World's Fastest Indian - 8/10
Sherlock Holmes 2 - 7/10
MI4 - 7/10
Blindside - 8/10 - at last, a decent movie with Sandra Bullock

Saw The Artist last week and loved it  

Muttley - I saw something about that in the paper yesterday, I'm not sure if I buy it - seems like a bit of a marketing ploy to me.

This made me laugh - The Lambshank Redemption

Saw Warhorse last night and was very disappointed, as I love the book. Spielberg did his usual heavy handed treatment of it, and I could have wept at the result! And the framing of the final scenes were pure "Gone With the Wind". He nearly caught the horror of the trenches, but by the time we got to that part I felt so let down that it didn't have quite the right impact on me.

I'm told the play doesn't deviate from the book at all, so I'll try to see that.

Squawk - I know a lot of people who have seen War Horse in the theatre and all of them have loved it and been moved to tears (as one so succintly put it "I couldn't believe I was crying at a puppet"). I'm not too fussed on seeing the film, but I really want to watch the play (come on LastMinute - do a special offer!). Speaking of plays, I saw Hamlet with Michael Sheen this week - he was completely mesmerising. I'm not sure how much longer is left on its run, but if you can get tickets then go and see it.

Really want to go to the cinema this weekend, torn between seeing The Iron Lady, J.Edgar and Coriolanus - anybody seen them and care to give a recommendation as to which is best?  

xine267 - Yes, I work with someone who has seen the play and thought it was wonderful, so I'd love to see it. Doubt I could get to London, though, so I will have to hope that the play goes on tour.

According to Film 2012, J. Edgar is a bit of a stodgy biopic - fairly good whilst Leonardo is playing the young J.E., but is less convincing when padded up to play the older man. On the other hand, they raved about Coriolanus.

... and I do love Ralph Fiennes. I think that is my decision made   thank you!

Coriolanus

A windy chilly night 150 miles from home and the harsh bleakness of a strange town gearing up to weekend party time is mirrored by my mood – trying too hard to be cheerful in the face of hard times.  ‘You should never go to sleep on an argument’ sayeth the wise – you shouldn’t really watch a film on one either, sayeth me.  I’d crossed words with someone dear to me the night before and a communication blackout, not helped by my hotel being non receptive to mobile phone signals didn’t help.  ‘Sod her – she can ring me... I’m not backing down this time’ being the general theme...which strangely enough leads me naturally into the film review.

Coriolanus has often been described as one of the more difficult of Shakespeare’s plays and perhaps this explains why it doesn’t often find itself on the GCSE reading list or exam texts.  However, breaking the play down to its essence, it’s a simple cautionary tale about pride; overwhelming absolute pride, leading to an inevitable fall.  Though, there are sub themes of love, elitism and betrayal by those closest to you. As an aside, because of the general theme, many feminist critics hate this play and use it as a prime example of Shakespeare’s supposed misogyny.

To sum up the plot without giving away spoilers, imagine the character of Coriolanus as being a superstar rugby player, the captain of his international team, who is head and shoulders above any other player in terms of skill, physical presence, brute strength, leadership and bravery – but he has one major flaw in his character... he will not entertain the idea that other people are not as talented, brave or competent as he – and he will not temper the character traits that made him untouchable on the rugby pitch to suit the political arena – something his many enemies ruthlessly exploit..

The play was set in Ancient Rome (Pre Imperial) but this production shifts the scene to modern times, (Balkans conflict circa 1992?) and despite my prejudice about this modernisation sometimes being a cop-out by unimaginative directors– it really works with this film.  Fiennes is an excellent Coriolanus as is Butler’s Aufidius and Brian Cox is really on form as Menenius; also Venessa Redgrave and Jessica Chastain both really live the parts as Coriolanus mother and wife and one Redgrave Fiennes scene had tears running down this reviewers face.

The dialogue is original ‘Bill the Quill’ and this will put some people off; but stick with it – it’s really worthwhile entertainment and lovers of political intrigue and gore will not be dissapointed.

7/10 (enjoyable and at times very moving)

Addendum – I switched on my mobile as I walked into Yates Wine Lodge after leaving the theatre and had 4 missed calls and lots of texts come though at the same time... my apology wasn’t far behind!

J Edgar

What is it with biopics these days?  Has Hollywood forgotten that simple film-making  axiom, that to make the famous (and infamous) understandable, readable and most importantly interesting, you need to paint them realistically against the background of the events they shaped and most importantly – pull no punches... tell  it how it was!

 This film suffers from many flaws, but the attempt to form a narrative arc skewed towards the personal being political (in much the same way as The Iron Lady tried and failed) it doesn’t give a coherent or interesting account of Hoover the man,  nor of the momentous times he lived.  

There are other flaws.  The script is disjointed and yet again relies in the tired narrative device of flashback.  Look guys, a personal message from a failed/budding screenwriter.  Flashback was done to perfection by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, it has rarely been bettered, it’s been done to death since – your use of this technique is neither inspired nor a homage – it’s a cliché... and it rarely if ever works, it tends to alienate an audience who like to see their heroes still heroic and not aged or feeble ... so please, for the love of all that’s holy -  desist with flashback!

Flaw three – the makeup was sub ‘Planet of the Apes’ (The 1970s TV series – not Tim Burton’s version).  DiCaprio’s acting in this awful makeup was pitched exactly the same man as the 22 year J Edgar as he was as Hoover in his late 70s... it didn’t work, in fact it was bordering upon comical at times.

Flaw four – Eastwood’s direction... maan this film had no pace.  I found myself checking my watch at about the 45 minute mark and thinking that there wasn’t enough ‘story’ for another hour and a bit... but by jiminy  there was, and it dragged, and dragged.... and dragged.

Flaw five – there was no passion for the subject.  Not from the director, nor the acting leads (Dench honourably excepted) and certainly not any in evidence from the cinematographer , who used shadow and colour seemingly to disguise rather than display.

2/10... Bloody awful, more passion in a tub of Makeway Curry, certainly more spice

Blimey, is it only me who comes here now? Oh well...

The Grey

Pedant point number one and then on with the review - wolves don’t behave like this...they just don’t. Great White Sharks will sometimes take the odd surfer or diver; if a T Rex was to be reanimated it would probably eat half the population of London before it got the shits (all that rich food) and monsters from outer space hate our guts and would undoubtably wipe our pathetic whining species off the planet - but wolves? wolves are cuddly and cute and want nothing better to hang around us and be our mates - ask Kevin Costner.

The Grey is a disaster drama set in Alaska and involves the travails and perils of a team of stranded oil workers. The vast lands are inhabited by a gang of skinhead wolves with a bad attitude and probably a string of ASBOS. Our World weary would be hero Liam Neeson is a hired Gun who stops the attacking predators causing any troubles for the workers. A bit like the guy from Rent-a-kill, but these wolves are not ordinary wolves, they are ‘special forces’ wolves - SAS trained and all that

After long dreary months of, wait for it, flash-backs (silent scream of anguish) to a relationship he once had, whilst he's gloomily bumping off not so innocent wolves, it's time for the Neeson and the oil workers to head on home on the last flight out. But this is a Hollywood flight and Hollywood flights rarely if ever reach their intended destination.

After the crash the film becomes straight forward survivalist nonsense that’s been done better quite a few times before. Despite this, I found myself enjoying the film as the lead was played to perfection by Neeson and the tale was quite well told. At times it was very engaging in a fairly linear fashion; though it did hop in and out of the dreaded flash-back to sequences of Neeson’s wife and an occasional trip back to his younger days - probably to make Neeson a three dimensional character - it didn’t need to do this, a couple of well-written lines of dialogue would have served to achieve this character empathy.

The bad bits were that I knew who was going to be inside a wolf and who wasn’t within the first five minutes and the CGI enhancement to the wolves was easy to spot.

All in all, if you disengage your noggin 'The Grey' is not such a bad film and I found myself enjoying it.

I’ve a feeling the management of the cinema turned the heating off to enhance the Arctic atmosphere as I left into the frosty night bloody freezing and met ‘er indoors‘ who’d been shopping for boots for a few liquid stiffeners.

7/10 - Not for dog lovers

Badly Drawn Bloke wrote (see)

I've stumbled across a few German films on the internet, late at night, with Wii-ing in them.

I've heard about those sort of films ... golden shower anyone?

The Artist - 9/10 (but it shows how noisy a cinema can be)
Haywire - 4/10 (piss-poor acting and a pretty tedious/absent plot)