Movie Tab II

I will have to watch that! thanks!

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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

Freaks and Geeks is great and all, but Rogen sure didn't get a lot to do on that thing. By the time the show runners decided they could trust him with lines of any substance or use him to anchor a subplot, it was already cancelled. Rogen's Ken and Franco's Daniel Desario had a couple of nice moments together, but they were few and far between. So I don't know if that really showcases the humble beginnings of the great chemistry they had in Pineapple Express.

I would love to see them carry a few more flicks together and I'd especially love to see Franco do more comedy. While I don't buy him at all as an angsty heartthrob, he is fuggin' hilarious when he wants to be. And judging by the amount of people I saw at Pineapple Express last night, I'd say these boys won't have any trouble getting another movie off the ground

The Bank Job (2008, Roger Donaldson)

3/5

I somehow don't think this will win the latest MoFo Movie Club Poll (If you haven't voted yet, you're weird!) so it'll be safe to post this little reviewette here...

I had avoided this movie in the video store for ages - the cover looked like a piss-take of DTV rubbish and the star had never filled me with anything more than a furrowed brow.

Nevertheless, I ploughed on due in no small part to the recommendation of Mr Powdered-so-called-Water!

The first thing that I realised was that The Bank Job was written by Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais. They might only be well known thesedays to BritFos of a certain age but these were the guys behind such classic sitcoms as Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, Porridge (my #1 TV comedy, as it happens) and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Movie-wise, they've not been quite so heavily lauded but did once stop by to help Roddy Doyle adapt a little novel of his called The Committments...

Anyway, O thought I'd mention this because for the first 20 minutes or so the writing was absolutely awful, like an episode of Eastenders penned by Broadmoor patients. I half expected to see a couple of Pearly Kings launching into a chorus of Roll Out The Barrel, fer gawd's sake!

Happily, once this introduction to 70s London for our American cousins had passed the script, and the film, settled down into a pretty enjoyable little heist movie. The cast is solid enough, pockmarked as British films often are by a plethora of TV stars. Fortunately the TV stars on show here are of a pretty high calibur - Peter 'The Irish RM & The Bounder!' Bowles (who my mum fell in love with once in Dublin, but that has no place here) and David Suchet, always a good villain, to name but two.

Even Bruce Statham is ok. He's a facially inanimate big lug but is reasonably charismatic and seems to know his place, a bit like Clive Owen with less hair and some presence. It was interesting to notice that a small part was played by Craig Fairbrass, a prototype Statham from a decade or so ago who's career didn't exactly go according to his agent's plan - rooting around for scripts in Dolph Lundgren's bin, probably. A lesson to wannabe action stars everywhere.

I'm meandering again.

Not the most inspired film you'll ever see but well constructed and enjoyable enough that I might even buy one day. Who doesn't love a good heist movie, eh? The Bank Job is good enough.



Thankfully, appearances can be deceptive. This isn't another remake of The Ladykillers...

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Are you falling out of love with Children of Men, Seds? I'm sure you were rating it higher than a 4 when it came out.

The Proposition (Hillcoat,2005) -

A great, underrated film -- gritty, violent, and completely amoral. It portrays a lawless Rural Australia in the late nineteenth century perfectly.

Also, easily one of my favorite soundtracks of all-time.

The Thin Red Line (Malick,1998) -

Overwhelming.

Solaris (Soderbergh,2002) -

Soderbergh's Solaris is one of the most emotional and cerebral science-fiction films I have ever seen, aside from Code 46. Some beautiful cinematography mixed with an amazing score by Cliff Martinez. It will leave you wondering long after the film is over, it will stick with you -- I promise.

I do like Soderbergh's much more than Tarkovsky's, honestly. Tarkovsky always annoyed me slightly with far too much philosophical dialogue, leaving little or no interpretation for many of his films. Nevertheless, a great film, but I do feel Soderbergh's is much more powerful.

I'm going to be watching a lot of the Olympics over the next few weeks but I will always squeeze a few movies in here and there.

Wall*E (Andrew Stanton - 2008)

We saw this after Pineapple Express the other day and I'm just now getting to tabbing about it. I really liked it and I guess I missed the whole gay robot thing, or sexless or whatever they were. For the record in this humble viewers eyes, Eve was the girl and Wall*E was the boy. I found it quite funny and really enjoyed it. It's not The Incredibles good but it was quite good all by itself.


Spider-man (Sam Raimi - 2002)

Spider-man 2 (Sam Raimi - 2004)

Spider-man 3 (Sam Raimi - 2007)


I finally watched all three together and I found the third installment a lot more enjoyable when viewed right after the first two. The first flick is still the absolute bee knees but the next two aren't by any means terrible. I can still agree that maybe they just tried to do to much the third time around and yet its still pretty enjoyable back to back to back.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

The Free Will (Glasner,2006) -

A deeply introverted, disturbing look into the mind of a rapist. Tortured by his demons, despising who he is, he looks for solace in a woman.

Some stunning shots in the film, but its marred by the very "video" look to it -- a little flat in some scenes. But regardless, the ending is very stirring, it will divide audiences with it's violence and gritty look (think Irreversible; although Irreversible had better cinematography and is a better film altogether).

I highly recommend it.

Orgazmo -

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Having a werewolf/vampire mini fest

Underworld
Van Helsing
Underworld 2
Blade

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

Ken Park (Clark,2002) -

Deeply disturbing -- I find it difficult to recommend this film to many people, despite how great it really is. Because its incredibly stirring, will likely turn many people away. I have tried to recommend this film to a few friends of mine, who did not make it through the film. Ken Park may be difficult to get a hold of, due to it being banned in many countries.

But if you can, see it.

Comedy marathon with a friend today. Sharing a few favourites...

This Is Spinal Tap -

Caddyshack -

Up in Smoke -

Xich lo (Anh Hung Tran,1995) -

Brilliant -- Anh Hung Tran is without a doubt one of my favorite directors. The cinematography is perfect, combined with the score somewhat reminiscent of what Tōru Takemitsu did for Teshigahara on Woman in the Dunes. One of the greatest uses of Radiohead's song "Creep".

I'm a big fan of gritty realism, so this really speaks volumes in that department. Also, one of my favorite performances by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai -- which is also one of my favorite actors.

Thank you for this masterpiece. Highly, highly recommended.

Twentynine Palms (Dumont,2003) -

Ugh, what happened Bruno? Several powerful scenes, but marred by the terrible ending. It went from a meditation of a couple's dull lives, to a cheap horror film. I don't mind meandering films, in fact I love them quite a bit. Some nice elements, but otherwise a misfire for Dumont.

Hopefully, his next film will be as good or better than his masterpiece L'humanité.

Waitress cant stop watching this film. I thought it was director/writer/actress Adrienne Shelley's only film but it turns out it was her 3rd feature motion picture. Gonna try and catch her other works. She also wrote another film before she died, 'Serious Moonlight' out next year.

Interview With A Vampire One of the few Tom Cruise films I can bear to watch. Kirsten Dunst is the true star of this one though as the child vampire Claudia.

Her previous two movies, I'll Take You There (1999) and Sudden Manhattan (1997), are quite different than Waitress, but both are worth seeing (I like Sudden Manhattan the better of the two).

The thread I started about her after the horrible murder can be found HERE. Her work is discussed there, too. Hal Hartley's Trust and The Unbelievable Truth are the ones to most seek out, in my opinion.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Thanks for the info Holden. I was lucky enough to catch Waitress while it was in UK cinemas and was utterly shocked and upset when I found out what happened to her. While others may not think of the film as highly as I do I adore it. It's sweet and sad in equal measures, funny in all the right places without disrupting the reality of the story. I also like the connection to the audience you get from the voice over in the latter half of the film as Jenna considers what being a mother will be like and how much she doesn't want to be one. And i love the whimsical way of entering Jenna's subconscious through pie-making, "Earl murders me 'cause I'm having an affair Pie", "I can't have no affair 'cause I don't want Earl to kill me Pie."

Also, Nathan Fillion - bonus.

I wanted to go old school and watch the greatest vamp movie made imo, Bram Stokers Dracula, damn Gary Oldman was goooood!!

And my exercise DVD that I used for the first time

The Firm (1988, Alan Clarke)

2.5/5

Until tonight I hadn't seen Clarke's penultimate film for 20 years when, even as a dopey teenager, I'd not thought a great deal of it.

Looking at the (TV) movie with slightly more careworn eyes I can see a deal of artistic merit, especially considering the constraints that Clarke was working under - there's some great steadycam work (a staple of the director's later years) and The Firm is bristling with intensity.

I suppose there is a degree of social comment in there - Thatcher's children and all that - but the strokes are painted so broadly that they're little more than caricature. I've never been Gary Oldman's greatest fan but if you are, The Firm is well worth a look - he's very very Gary Oldman in this.

Fight Club aficionados will probably dig this, its older and uglier cousin, too. I'm not a Fight Club aficionado either, unfortunately.

Clarke was a great director, one of the best to consistently work on British TV but, 20 years on, The Firm doesn't do it for me...



Big ups for Jim McDonald and Benny from Grange Hill though.