seen any good flicks lately?

interestingly, thon bloke off Film 2012 (james something) was talking about it and he reckoned the opposite. whereas most blockbusters nowadays are 'film by committee', making them predictable but dull he reckoned no comittee would make this bonkers a film.

maybe the reason it has made a colossal loss.

I don't know who is right but it's drivel anyway.

I caught Hunger Games. seemed like a mix of the running man (without the extreme violence), lord of the flies (without the character development) and battle royale (without both nor emotional involvement). poor, though thon lawrence lassie was quite good in it.

Agreed that Best Exotic is a nice film Inter, but I don't agree with BN being dreary.  He doesn't have a great range but I always find him very entertaining.

I finally got to see all of Shutter Island at the weekend, having previously only seen the first 40 or so mins on a disc that wouldn't play. Well, seeing the rest of it certainly makes for a different impression of the movie.  Is it a detective story, a ghost story, or an exploration of paranoia?  What it is is a decent thriller that'll keep you guessing until the end.  

Last weekend I saw Never Let Me Go.  On the face of it a simple tragedy involving a love triangle starting from childhood.  But these people's lives are different to everyone else's, always destined to be short and painful as, and I don't think this is a spoiler, they have been born to be organ doners in order to keep the general population alive.  With such subject matter it would be easy to go for over blown (think The Island) or very sentimental.  Neither is the case here.  What you do get is slow yet moving story which asks many questions about love and the value of life itself.  The climax to the film is truly heart breaking.  I found it really powerful and it's something that has stayed with me long after I ejected the disc and sent it back to Lovefilm.

While doing general pottering yesterday evening I had Avatar on the background.  I  have seen it before on DVD but thought it might do something on a repeat viewing.  Its an odd one for me.  I wanted to hate it but didn't, but I don't get what all the fuss was about.The story is paper thin - mad=bad, nature=good, throw in a couple of battles and job done.  But over 3 hours for it?  Purleese Mr C - have a word.  Yes it looks great but it didn't take my breath away in the way that Jurassic Park or Lord of the Rings did (both flawed movies but they both look great).  We're told it pushed the boundaries of CGI, and I can see that, but does it actually give anything to a film that wasn't available already?  All the CGI looks like animation rather than live action, and after only 2-3 years since it was made, some of it looks dated already.  It's made a fortune but for the money that was sent on it, I think it should have been much, much better.  I can't remember if I've used this line on here before, but to misquote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, they spent so long wondering if they could, they forgot to ask themselves if they should.

Hi all (with a an extra wave towards dude, who I haven't 'seen' for ages)

No recent cinema trips so I thought I'd check back through my recent DVD viewings...

Scott Pilgrim vs The World - daft, throwaway fun. Any film that makes a feature of a bass guitar duel gets my vote (well, since I started playing bass at least). Okay, this may actually be the only film with a bass guitar duel. It was okay for an evening's viewing but there's no immediate desire to see it again.

The Girl Who Played With Fire - maybe the books are fantastic. And I thoguht the first film (the Swedish version) was interestingly dark and powerful. And yet I couldn't really remember the wider plot. The same is true of this film, except that I already knew the characters so there was less interest.  Even now I can remember the characters but hardly anything of the plot.  I can only think that the books also rely on characterisation above storyline.

ahoy.

i saw thon scott pilgrim film. i didnt like it but reasoned that, like most films, it wasn't made with me in mind.

i nearly went to see Wild Bill today. the trailer (and that the director is dexter fletcher) put me in mind of a Lock Stock rip-off, but it has had good reviews from people whose opinion i respect, so i thought i would give it a go.

i say nearly because i read my book in the park instead.

maybe tomorrow...if it rains (fingers crossed).

Spotted a film called We Bought A Zoo showing at my local cinema.  So they bought a zoo and no-one could come up with a more imaginative title for a film.

It reminds me of  a scene in The Young Ones.

Neil: Hey, wouldn't it be terrible if we ended up having to eat each other? Like those sailors did in that film, um, 'We Ended Up Having To Eat Each Other.'

ha.

 'pirates' was a giggle.

The Task. Absolutely terrible.

Hey BDB! - did TP pass the message on re London?... I don't have your (anyones!) email address anymore as I had to purge my address books.

The Kid With a Bike (Le Gamin Au Velo)

You’re 12 years old again, those parents who are supposed to love you have left you all alone and everyone, but everyone adult has let you down. What do you do? Do you seek out those who’ve abandoned you? Do you conform? Do you accept your status as social orphan?

Or do you rebel?

The eponymous kid with a bike (and a succession of red tee shirts) choses to declare war upon the World; even on those who would protect him, nurture him, even those who want to love him and this reviewer completely ‘gets’ this lad’s rebellion - though he was bloody infuriating at times!

This is a charming little film that explores themes of rejection, unconditional love and the relationship between those who care and those who don’t. It’s superbly acted throughout; most notably by the ‘kid’ and the hairdresser, Samantha, who offers him redemption he finds difficult (impossible?) to accept - the waste-of-space adult who comes into the second half of the film is also well acted. 

There are a few faults; one is that the powerful first half of the film isn’t matched by the second half and the ending was, in my opinion, very feeble... a cop-out even.

The film reminded me of Truffaut’s ‘400 Blows’ and it explores similar territory. (And with that thought, I’ve just cottoned on to the significance of the red tee shirts!)

7/10 - If you’re one of those people who cries easily - take an extra hankie (who me? Nah... my eyes were sweating.. *sniff*... honestly)

if you all aren't entirely sick of scando-crime drama, then please do see 'headhunters'. i thought it was quite brilliant.