Cinemexperience: part deux., Some more filums you saw. Options

[Rua]

I'm damn near inspired to find my harmonica now.

You've just reminded me I have one....somewhere. Shame on me.

Watched Juno the other night.
It's rather sweet, even though I did find the main character a little unbelievable at times.
Liked it, didn't love it.

[Ade]

And stick a cushion under the back of your shirt and breed rabbits.

Oui. C'est très tentant, bien sur.

[Omniscia]

Rambo: First Blood Part II Part III, or whatever we're calling it now...

It's too bad there's already a movie out there called Dumbo, 'cos that would be a far better title. Loud, stupid, macho action films just don't work without the tongue-in-cheek humour I've come to expect from the best of the genre, and this was far too earnest for its own good.

Cornball pseudo-profundities abound, and the whole thing's gorier than Tom Savini's home movies. It doesn't help that Sly's dialogue is barely audible. Even if you didn't have everything in sight exploding every other minute, you can't easily understand a guy who sounds like he swallowed an ashtray full of rocks, although that could well be a side-effect of having apparently eaten Barry Bonds for breakfast...

[dandan]

la vie en rose - nothing existed before you. it's all gone...

a film of the life of edith piaf (marion cotillard). the daughter of louis (jean-paul rouve); a contortionist, who spent edith's early years in the military, and anetta (clotilde courau), whose dreams of being a singer cause her to neglect her maternal duties and, ultimately, abandon edith with her mother. louis took the sickly edith to live with his mother, aicha (farida amrouche), who ran a brothel in normandy, before eventually reuniting on the road, travelling with a circus. after a spat with the circus, louis takes to performing in the street, where edith is pushed into performing; unsure of what to do, she begins to sing. from here on in, edith begins to use her voice to make money and rise from the gutter to lauded as france's greatest popular singer...

the film is quite superb; weaving several narrative strands in a non-linear format. the first half of the film focusses on edith's childhood, building up to her first public performance, alongside her father on the street. this is inter-cut with edith's last couple of teenage years, where she makes the transition from the girlfriend of a pimp, albert (dominique bettenfeld), keeping herself from falling into prostitution by earning money singing, to a rising star, singing in a club off the champs elysées, under the wing of louis leplee (gerard depardieu). the second half of the film sees the successful edith living and loving in new york, building up to her famous performances at the olympia (where she premiered "non, je ne regrette rien"), inter-cut with her final years of life; frail from morphine and alcohol abuse, before being stricken down with cancer of the liver.

although some have criticised this structure, finding it confusing or disliking it lack of linear clarity. personally, i thought it worked extremely well and the final scenes compliment each other almost perfectly. my only critique would be the film's omission of any mention of world war two: during this period, edith sang for the occupying german forces. there is very little information about this part of edith's life (well, even less than exists about the rest of her life) and, despite some criticism, she remained popular throughout this period and, latterly, it was said she had been an instrument of the french resistance.

for the adult life of edith, seventeen to forty-seven, she is played by marion cotillard: a performance which earned her a 'best actress' oscar. assisted with make-up (which also won an oscar), cotillard is, quite simply, amazing as she inhabits the sprightly body of the seventeen year old edith and carries her through to the broken, arthritic, frame of her final years. a very deserving winner.

backing up this dominant central performance are a host of strong supporting roles which are filled by a host of fine actors; there's also wonderfully detailed production design, lighting and cinematography, which make this an extremely solid production. then, there's the music: as well as christopher gunning stepping up his game and providing a fine score, the film is, as one would imagine, filled with the glorious songs of miss piaf...

good stuff...

[dandan]

the uchoten hotel - suite dreams...

it is new year's eve in the hotel avanti. guests are arriving, there's an awards ceremony taking place later, entertainers to be accommodated, a countdown to organise, a troublesome call-girl to take care of, there's an escaped duck and the press are gathered outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of the disgraced senator who is hiding out in the hotel...

focussing on the staff and guests, as their lives and stories intertwine, this is a slice of classic farce; harking back to the likes of 'grand hotel' (which it references). this is the second film, written by koki mitani, which i've seen; the first being the excellent 'university of laughs'; another film with a clever script and great characterisation. although, for 'the uchoten hotel', mitani also takes to the director's chair.

the film effortlessly blends physical and situation comedy, alongside character driven humour and a touch of drama; for a film that runs over two hours, the pace is pretty frenetic and, on the whole, the film flies by. bringing the characters to like is a fine cast, including koji yakusho, takako matsu, koichi sato, shingo katori, ryoko shinohara, keiko toda, kumiko aso, you, jo odagiri and susumu terajima.

a really good slice of fun...

[Jimmay]

Eastern Promises

I didn't know much about this film and had forgotten to prepare myself for Aragorn's penis. It certainly was a shock with it slapping all over the place but I thought it was genuinely necessary for the scene.

I enjoyed the film a lot but it did feel rushed towards the end. However, part of me wonders whether it's just because most films I've seen recently have a penchant for dragging things out half an hour longer than is required (I'm looking at you Dark Knight) but when I thought about the ending of this film I realised that everything had happened as I wanted it to or thought it would but it just didn't show it on screen. I think more films need to take that attitude.

[crazeegems]

The Dark Knight

Wouldn't usually be my cup of tea at all. And yes, I admit that I only went to see it becasue of Heath Ledger. But , I did really enjoy it. Very impressive. It scared me a lot, but it also make made me laugh. The Joker dressed as the nurse. Genius.

[Jessopjessopjess...]

Star Wars: Clone Wars

The latest addition to the Star Wars universe is also its first fully computer-generated feature. Cynics (myself included) might say the prequels were CG heavy enough already, but this lively take on the universe is enjoyable enough. The medium means you can forgive the more childish tone, because it is aimed much more directly at children. At times it even feels like the creators were enjoying themselves, creating exciting action sequences, and even dropping in some genuinely funny moments – Stinky (Jabba's kidnapped son)'s first appearance was superb. Bad gal Asajj Ventress is a brilliant creation and a worthy addition to the Sith clan. There are also some nice directorial touches which were entirely lacking from George Lucas's typically lacklustre Star Wars work. Even the soundtrack was good; an entertaining hybrid of John Williams-esque themes and Manga-influenced action score. On the downside, some of the dialogue remains cringeworthy, and the story, set between 'Attack of the Clones' and 'Revenge of the Sith', verges on the tedious when the talky sections come to the fore. Despite the fun, I don't know if I'd recommend seeing it at the cinema...

[Julie]

Tropic Thunder

So much funnier than I was expected. Outstanding performances and good, silly fun with lots of explosions. What more could you want?

[GundamGuy_UK]

Wall-E - Long after everyone else has seen it.

After Ratatouille, my very high opinion of Pixar was lowered slightly. Not that it was a bad film (it is in fact quite good), it just couldn't compare to the likes of The Incredibles or Monsters, Inc. Pixar always seem to make a good film though, and after how wrong I was with Cars I went out to see this.

And I loved it. Part of me knew I would, because Pixar is so good. It really is one of the best films I've seen in a while. From the very bleak opening sequence to the fantastically well designed ending credits (showing what happened next as a series of art works progressing to show their culture reforming was a work of genius, and one of the best visual ideas in the whole film I think), I loved every moment. They say 80% of communication is non-verbal, and this film shows it. The robots rarely say anything other than their name, but they carry the story along perfectly. True, the big twist at the end can be spotted the second they set foot on the ship, but it's still a good one.

Charming, beautiful, thought-povoking, emotional and funny - everything we've come to expect from Pixar since 1995.


And as usual, the pre-movie short was excellent.



Michael Jackson's Moonwalker - I really can't think of what to write about this. I really like it, but I'm not sure why. It makes absolutely no sense at all, has no plot, and the movie bits are just like even longer versions of his sometimes very long music videos where half of it isn't the song (Bad, for example). But it has something about it that makes it great. The Smooth Criminal bit is the part everyone thinks of, but the rest of it is just as good weird good, and I'm glad to have seen it again.

This post has been edited by GundamGuy_UK: Aug 15 2008, 08:08 PM

[Omniscia]

Heavy Metal

Good soundtrack, interesting voice cast (John Candy as a mouse-eared sex-bot? Why not!), and some decent animation, but on the whole it's a bit too... pubescent. I could see where this would appeal if you're a 12-year-old boy, but I haven't been 12 in some time.

And the new Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix sucked! The dynamics were all over the place, and instead of smooth panning, the audio would abruptly switch channels with no rhyme nor reason at all. And the harder the rock, the harder it was to hear it!

[UnderSpaced]

Southland Tales
Letters from Iwo Jima

I liked them both, but I had no idea what was going on through half of Southland Tales. I think I got the ending though.

[sweetbutinsane]

The Machinist

After the initial gasp of horror at Christian Bale's impression of a skeleton, I ended up getting quite into the film and quite enjoyed it. I liked piecing together what was going on as the film progressed.

Equilibrium

Just watched it last night. I thought it was really good. The fight scenes were just insane; I could barely keep up! Had some nice moments too, like Preston saving the adorable little dog from being shot.

[logger]

The Faculty

The best cast in the world, ever, star in this Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers b-movie fest. Some good examples of different b-genres, high school, sci fi, horror and the best homage to The Thing I've seen with the 'Let's see who's really real' scene.

It's the first time I've seen it and I thought it was pretty great.

[Atara]

I love The Faculty.