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

[logger]

Henry Fool

Why hasn't Thomas Jay Ryan had a much greater career? Apparently he played 'Frank' in Eternal Sunshine, it's been a while since I saw this, and I don't remember him. Who was Frank?

[Sostie]

The Strangers is one of the scariest films of the last year, me thinks. You'll love it, it's totally archetypical for Freud's Unheimliches.

Really? It's OK. Has a few tense moments, but not nearly as good as Them/Ils which it's almost a remake of.

[logger]

Really? It's OK. Has a few tense moments, but not nearly as good as Them/Ils which it's almost a remake of.

And that was a massive meh-fest.

[logger]

Eternal Sunshine

Despite the interesting screenplay and Gondry's visual style I've never been a big fan of this film and this is only the second time I've seen it. Although the closest I get to romance is a desire to have pop-pop with Maeby Fünke I actually like romantic films when they're good but the fucking hipster, lets dance in our underwear douchebaggery-ness of this film is really too much to bear at times. It just may be too superficial for its own good, just like fucking hipster douchebags.

Why hasn't Thomas Jay Ryan had a much greater career? Apparently he played 'Frank' in Eternal Sunshine, it's been a while since I saw this, and I don't remember him.

And the reason I didn't remember him is because he's barely in it.

[dandan]

have you seen 'science of sleep'?

it is a million times better, as a slice of gondry romance; gael and charlotte trump jim and kate with ease...

[logger]

I liked that even less although that was because of my hatred for that form of stop motion animation, plus I didn't like GGB's character, he should have just grown some balls. I liked the 1 second time machine though.

[dandan]

a good lawyer's wife - together like a horse and carriage...

ho-jeong (moon so-ri) is a former dancer, turned teacher, who lives with her husband, chang-geun (kim in-mun), and their precocious, adopted son. when young-jak isn't spending his time working as an attorney, he is having an affair with a younger woman (baek jeong-rim). ho-jeong seems to be aware of this infidelity, but ignores it, despite her own sexual frustrations. however, when the teenage son (bong tae-gyu) of her neighbours begins to take an interest in her, temptation gets the better of her...

this was a little bit of a surprise; i've been aware of the film's existence for a while, but apart from knowing that involved moon so-ri having an affair, i had no knowledge of it's tone or content. still a $5.99 price-tag piqued my interest...

im sang-soo, whose 'the president's last bang', i heartily enjoyed, delivers a startlingly frank view of a family, their relationships and division. chang-geun's parents, have little to do with each other; the mother, in a scene of great comedy, reveals that she has been seeing someone else and, even if it sounds strange at her age, has been re-discovering the joys of the orgasm. this should give you an idea of the tone of the film. there is humour and drama, plenty of discussion of sex - with very little held back - and suggestions of deeper divisions, on a national scale, are also made.

an interesting and solid production. good stuff...

[melzilla]

Really exciting and informative review for 'Drag me to Hell', I'm looking foward to it even more now, and reassured it's not scary.

Indeed. That was exactly the kind of review I was hoping to hear about it. Really looking forward to this.

The Strangers is one of the scariest films of the last year, me thinks. You'll love it, it's totally archetypical for Freud's Unheimliches.

Really? I honestly thought it was all kinds of awful. (I would dig out what I said about it back then but I can't be bothered; something about the characters being that pathetic and tedious you can't wait for them to die horribly.)

[curtinparloe]

Night At The Museum
Nowhere near as outrageously shite as I expected.

Presumed Innocent
I forgot how enjoyable it was.

[KevinandNick]

I am regularly given review copies of movies to watch. Traditionally, I have scribbled down notes during the movie for me to type up later. I won a spiffy new phone recently and I have started to use the voice recorder function to dictate notes whilst the movie is in progress.

Last weekend, I happened to watch the Lucio Fulci classic House by the Cemetery, but I made the mistake of drinking copious quantities of red wine during the thing and towards the end, my observations become more "irreverent".

As a way of trying to prevent me from undertaking such drink-driven reviews again, I have posted some of the "highlights" on youtube. I know I sound a bit fey in places, but this is due to the booze...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pA8EeAGIDs

You have been warned!

Kev W

This post has been edited by KevinandNick: May 29 2009, 12:34 PM

[PrincessKate]

Night At The Museum
Nowhere near as outrageously shite as I expected.

I didn't manage to catch it all but Paul Rudd as a bastardy banker is HAWT.

[Baz]

Night At The Museum
Nowhere near as outrageously shite as I expected.

You can't beat a good bit of Dick......... van Dyke.

[dandan]

in the mood for love - our glorious years have passed like flowers...

hong kong, the early sixties. mrs su (maggie cheung) and her husband move into the spare room in mrs suen's (rebecca pan) apartment. mr chow (tony leung) and his wife move into a spare room in the next-door apartment. mrs su works long hours, she's a secretary for a shipping company, and her husband frequently makes long trips to japan on business. mr chow works similarly late hours' as an editor for a newspaper, whilst his wife works even later into the night.

with lives such as these, mrs su and mr chow find themselves bumping into each other at late night eateries, as well as when they're making their way in and out of their building, and a neighbourly friendship begins to develop, spurred on by their shared interest in martial arts serials. it isn't long, however, before the frequent absences of both mr su and mrs chow are revealed as more than coincidental: they're having an affair.

mrs su and mr chow's friendship continues to develop as they play out likely scenarios of their spouses burgeoning to infidelity and how they may choose to confront them. all the while, their own relationship develops; but, always in their thoughts, is a conviction that they will not pursue an illicit entanglement of their own...

this is a film that i've loved since i first saw it a long while ago. so, when i found out that it was screening in the newly restored howard assembly room (at opera north / leeds grand theatre), i was there in a flash. the venue is rather lovely and definitely a nice place to watch something. the film, as always, was great.

the film is a real gem: a minimalistic portrait of the moments that occur between two people who are falling in love. it is said that a more defined narrative was sliced from the film during editing; but, regardless of whether this is true, the intensity and intimacy created by having almost every frame focussed on the interaction between its two central characters, either together or apart and thinking about each other, is incredibly powerful.

wong's pacing is excellent: despite the film garnering criticism for its (perceived) languid nature, last night, the ninety-eight minutes simply flew by. as performers, and an on screen pairing, maggie cheung and tony leung are completely engaging. even though this film was made after maggie cheung had already begun to take on fewer and fewer roles, her talent, grace and beauty are as evident as they ever have been. coiffured and wearing a stunning selection of dresses, she seems to almost glide through the film, managing to convey internal dialogues and thoughts through small movements and looks. tony leung, too, suits the role perfectly; looking great in a haze of smoke and managing to convey a sensitivity and vulnerability, with a presence which makes him a believable object of desire, in the eyes of mr su.

so much credit needs giving to wong and michael galasso for the selection (and composition) of the music to which cheung and leung's movement is, seemingly, choreographed to. it is one of my favourite soundtracks and still gets frequent airtime in my house. much praise should also go william chang who, as artistic director, costume designer and editor (no less...), plays a huge part in creating the visual beauty which christopher doyle and mark lee capture on film with aplomb. by 'in the mood for love' doyle seems to have managed to reign in a lot of his jauntier camera trickery and, along with lee, gives more emphasis to the lighting and composition, which, for me, makes this one of his strongest works.

great stuff. maybe it's time to go and watch '2046' again...



i await zoe's "beautiful paint drying" critique...

[Zoe]

i await zoe's "beautiful paint drying" critique...

You've put it so eloquently I need not bother.

[Sostie]

Night At The Museum
Nowhere near as outrageously shite as I expected.

I quite enjoyed it. Contains one of my favourite film gags of the last few years (the toy soldiers' epic struggle for survival when they puncture a car tyre, and then a cut to the pitiful little stream of air in "real size")