Good New

[tweeds]

revisited something from the recent past - good night, and good luck. well done george. not one of those films you'd really expect much of, but it hits way above itself.

[englandmj7]

Hard candy is an awful movie, although in a strange way I have some respect for it as I saw 3 men leave the cinema during a certain scene.

I didn't think it was "awful;" sure it left alot of ends untied and in general it didn't make complete sense, but it was gritty and thrilling nonetheless. It is certainly rentable. Either way, I feel for the dudes you saw walk out: First movie in my life that I have had to take a 10 minute "break" from watching so I could get through the thing......that is including Irreversible, etc. One VERY fucked up scene. :eek:

[Brienneoftarth]

night watch was a pretty good movie in my opinion. it was a little less mind blowing visually than ive seen in the genre but im guessing russia doesnt do big budgets. as for green street hooligans...absolutely horrible and proof positive that elijah wood needs to stop making movies...i fucking hate him...

[birminghamjim]

Children Of Men - I am a sucker for future dystopian societal break-down end of the world type stories, especially when based in the UK like john wyndham or 1984, I was always going to love this, but I had no idea how much. To get it out of the way, there are a couple of problems with the plot, inconsistencies rather than holes, that I wont go into lest the film be spoiled for those who have not seen it, but they didn't negatively affect the whole too much for me, and there are enough dazzling qualities to concentrate on to smooth them out. The premise is well worn, as I mentioned above just think Orwell and you're pretty much there, but with the novel conceit that human-kind is universally infertile, a condition that would very effectively leads to complete extinction in 50 years or so and has driven the world to the brink of anarchy, with a fascist racist bomb addled migrant magnet britain as the best of a bad situation.

with the protagonist theo the film again flirts with stereotype: loner antihero everyman, winston smith if he looked a bit like rick deckard, but clive owen plays him well. The other cast members are also effective, hope-ashitay, who plays kee, is wonderfully balanced between vulnerabe and streetwise, julianne moore does her job with typical efficiency, the ubiquitous ejioffor does enough to justify spectacularly high recent workload, and michael caine manages to reign in most of his more annoying idiosyncrasies to deliver a performance that critics have been lauding. I personally dislike caine's screen presence post the ipcress file, and feel his character could have been cut out of the film to pare it all down a bit (and i also hate hippies), but he and his character were actually pretty good in retrospect.

The film looks and sounds fantastic. I don't know much about the technology but i presume it was all filmed on handheld DV cams, because a lot of it is very dynamic, free flowing and up close and personal, but they must have used some pretty good image stabilising stuff. The cinematography is nice as well, slightly over exposed and sun bleached, but still gritty and dirty. It all feels sort of low-budget (it wasn't) whilst being very high quality. The raw skill of the directer cuaron though is glaringly bright in the action sequences. In a world of over-edited cross cutting bourne supremacy scott-brothers flashy pants rubbish, cuaron goes for the time honoured 'really fucking long take' and uses it amazingly. i remember years ago watching hard boiled and thinking woo was a god for tracking through a hospital based firefight in one continuous take for ages, cuaron though beats the master at his own game with a shot toward the end of the film that the camera entering a building from outside with no light balance problems, a tank, assault rifles, shitloads of soldiers, death, bullets, entire rooms detonating with people inside them seconds after the protagaonists exit them etc etc. as ai said before the sound is amazing, with the violent crack and ricochet of bullets and the sickening thump of explosions sounding exactly like you'd think they'd really sound (not that i have a clue what that stuff sounds like). aside from hard boiled, the action sequences reminded me of saving private ryan and black hawk down, but in my eyes exceeding both of those films, partly because the visceral violence complements the slightly home-made feel of the film i touched on earlier, i didn't feel i was watching a slick as fuck hollywood uber epic, thus making the expertly staged carnage all the more resonant.

i will re-iterate that there are a couple of problems with the film, but am wary of plot spoilers, and even with my slight reservations it is telling that i reckon it is easilt 9/10 good, and the mrs loved it as well.

[stillthehorror]

"science of sleep" was surprisingly not awful (the trailer had me worried, but those dream sequences work in context). there are some scenes in it that are just perfect.

gael hit the wrong note at times, but charlotte gainsbourg is rock solid.

recommended, but with reservations.

p.s. i'm pretty sure "children of men" was shot on 35mm and not digital.

[birminghamjim]

double props to cuaron then, and his focus-puller. the film did have the granular quality of, well, film, and looked far richer than say 'collateral'. almost like the difference between vinyl and cd's i suppose.

I watched clerks 2 last night. i feel slightly ashamed to say i enjoyed it more than i should have. i wouldn't shell out the money to watch it at the cinema, but it was worth the time just for kelly and the stud. my mrs surpirisingly enjoyed it, but she seemed worryingly nostalgic during the ass-to-mouth discussion...i'm sure it was nothing...

[honghonglulu]

"Vers le sud" (Heading South)

"The Illusionist"

"Keeping Up with the Steins"

those are the most recent films i saw in the theatres. all quite good for their genres, although Vers le Sud was best. charlotte rampling is the most beautiful and accomplished actor of anyone in those three films.

early in this thread "Cache" was mentioned. i just picked that up and it was powerful.

probably gonna watch "Yesterday Once More" again soon. anything with andy lau and sammi cheng is just a guilty pleasure. this one is very stylized. a fun hk film. although lau's performance is stronger in Infernal Affairs I and III.

[snugglepony]

was in nyc this weekend visiting some friends and saw the departed, which was absolutely stunning.

the strangest part about the movie for me is that it worked some serious scorsese mojo and somehow made me not hate leonardo dicaprio anymore...(?)

[polishmike]

i saw 'the departed' and i think it was good but not a masterpiece everyone calls it.

[viv1984viv]

film 4 korean season is brilliant- oldboy, sympathy for lady vengence, a tale of two sisters, tell me something, all good!

The Black Dahlia is very very good, dont usually walk out of a mainstream cinema and think- "ill watch that again". Went to the student cinema and saw Dumplings, a chinese film about vanity, and women who eat foeti to stay young.

[airfrogusmc]

was in nyc this weekend visiting some friends and saw the departed, which was absolutely stunning.

the strangest part about the movie for me is that it worked some serious scorsese mojo and somehow made me not hate leonardo dicaprio anymore...(?)

Scorsese is the man. He doesn't make bad movies just some are better than others. And to think the guy has never won best director. A great director can make a bad actor into a great one.

[Corbin Law]

i personally thought black dahlia was really not all that it was cracked up to be

it tried wayyyyyy to hard to be a film noir and not hard enough ot be a real movie

and too many subplot twists and scenes that really didnt do much for the actual story.

[stillthehorror]

and too many subplot twists and scenes that really didnt do much for the actual story.

that's kind of what you sign up for when you watch a depalma movie, though.

[hawkeye]

Saw Inside Man and the Proposition recently. Inside Man was really good, and I think from what I remember the marketing sucked. The movie was really well written and put together.

The Proposition was too short, I wanted more long Sergio Leone type shots of water dripping and people just sitting around doing nothing. Other than that it was excellent.

[SuperSerious]

seeing the departed @ 745 tonite... I KNOW its gonna be good

[holotekor]

the departed is pretty dope

[genemachine]

if you're into funny/fucked up horror type movies check out the belgian movie calvaire (the ordeal). i saw it recently and thought it was hilarious. gotta be into this type of movies though

here's a trailer

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/calvaire/trailer/

[damnIam]

Saw Inside Man and the Proposition recently. Inside Man was really good, and I think from what I remember the marketing sucked. The movie was really well written and put together.

The Proposition was too short, I wanted more long Sergio Leone type shots of water dripping and people just sitting around doing nothing. Other than that it was excellent.

I saw that movie too and I thought it was chocked full of people doing nothing. It was pretty good but started to grate on my nerves and I wanted it to be over.

[englandmj7]

Two 'newer' films I watched last week were:

- Art School Confidential - Different and enjoyable. Plays on all the ridiculous stereotypes of art students and had several funny moments. Is worth the rental fee I suppose.

- Thank You For Smoking - I thoroughly enjoyed this. It was witty, clever, and well acted. Very funny....

[red]

Saw Inside Man and the Proposition recently. Inside Man was really good, and I think from what I remember the marketing sucked. The movie was really well written and put together.

The Proposition was too short, I wanted more long Sergio Leone type shots of water dripping and people just sitting around doing nothing. Other than that it was excellent.

saw inside man a couple weeks ago. before that, i only heard it mentioned and never payed much attention to it. but i watched it and enjoyed it. it was like, "where the hell did this come from?"

[Guest Fade to Black]

Went to the student cinema and saw Dumplings, a chinese film about vanity, and women who eat foeti to stay young.

this movie was pretty good and surprisingly Miriam Yeung did an alright job. I haven't/want to see the Takashi Miike section of the trilogy...

[stillthehorror]

it's subdued.

but great because of it.

[Guest Fade to Black]

? You talkin bout the Miike?

i also want to see Audition really badly but never get around to finding it...

Visitor Q though, that's one movie i won't touch with a ten foot pole.

[Corbin Law]

i loved thank you for smoking

so incredibly clever and hilarious

the guy who wrote it is one of my favorite rightwingers

i listened to one of his books on cd on the way to new orleans and i sat in the car just to hear it to the end. he knows his history.

[englandmj7]

? You talkin bout the Miike?

i also want to see Audition really badly but never get around to finding it...

Visitor Q though, that's one movie i won't touch with a ten foot pole.

Don't watch Audition, it was appallingly bad........no structure, ridiculous concept. Tried too hard to be intellectual and "deep" but missed the mark by miles.

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

If you can get past the fact that it is one of those movies hailed by people who love alot of masturabatory, plotless, over-stylized art house flicks...WERKMEISTER HARMONIES by Bela Tarr is one of the most incredible movies I have seen in my life...and the fact that movies of this caliber are still being made gives me hope...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249241/

[swisloc]

Anyone seen Old Joy yet?

I'm excited by the posibility of Will Oldham in a featured role...

[PAND]

Don't watch Audition, it was appallingly bad........no structure, ridiculous concept. Tried too hard to be intellectual and "deep" but missed the mark by miles.

I've seen the Miike segment, its called Box. I've got it on dvd. Can't remember which one i least enjoyed, that or Park's called (cant remember).

Dumplings was the best, plus had Christopher Doyle doing the photography from what i recall.

Miike's Masters of Horror episode is lol and worth seeing, so too is Yokai Denso.

[trees]

saw the departed last night. it was good, but i thought infernal affairs was the better of the two. alot of the same scenes were used in the remake, but still seemed different than IA.

[ishboo]

Little Children is one of, if not the, best film of the past 5 or 10 years, hands down.

anybody who disagrees with me is wrong. this is not a matter of opinion.