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

[fatseff1234]

I can't help but feel like i've influenced the modern media somewhat.

[widowspider]

Once - a beautiful, beautiful film. It actually made me cry a lot.

This Is England - such an evocative film for its time. And holy shit, what an incredible cast. Major kudos to all those actors.

[sweetbutinsane]

Be Kind Rewind

Not exactly what I was expecting, but great nonetheless.

[GundamGuy_UK]

The Breakfast Club - Can't believe I'd never seen this before. I loved it.

[melzilla]

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

A beautiful and thoughful tale, well told, with plenty of heart and some stunning (yet subtle) technical wizardry.

Quite lovely.

This post has been edited by melzilla: Feb 9 2009, 01:53 AM

[Sostie]

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Well it looks lovely and is performed well. It wasn't quite as Forrest Gump as I feared it may have been (reminded me more of Big Fish and A Very Long Engagement). I did find the first half more engrossing then the second, which is a bit strange seeing that the latter half is the one with more emotional punch. Considering it's length it doesn't really drag, but too long I suppose to even bother exploring Button's relationship with his sister!
Was totally unaware that Jason Flemyng was in the film so that was a nice surprise (though his ageing make-up looked a bit dodgy). Likewise Tilda Swinton, whose "segment" seemed to encompass most of the film's themes in about 15 minutes.
It was good, but I wasn't moved as much as I'd expected to be or as I much as I felt I should've been. And I think we are owed one more lightning strike!

One thought - will the amazing FX used to make Pitt look younger be abused by vain film stars in the future!

VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA
This is meant to be Woody Allen "back on form". Well considering that the most recent Allen film I've seen is Small Time Crooks, he's never been "off form".
Well written, perfectly performed - it's good Woody. I can't for the life of me understand the fuss over Penelope Cruz's performance - a lot of it is just screaming in Spanish! Not that she isn't good, but the real stand-out performances are Rebecca Hall's and Javier Bardem's.

[dandan]

Was totally unaware that Jason Flemyng was in the film so that was a nice surprise (though his ageing make-up looked a bit dodgy).

flemyng rocks! have you watched 'atomic circus' yet? it's a flemyng / paradis (swoon) spectacular! i may give it a re-watch later...



i not stupid - because they care...

terry (huang po ju), kok pin (shawn lee) and boon hock (joshua ang) are twelve years old and find themselves in the 'em3' class at school. this is a bad thing; people look down their noses at them and consider them to be stupid or lazy. terry is, in all actuality, lazy; he's spoiled by his rich parents and unswervingly obedient to his over-bearing mother (selena tan). kok pin tries hard, but consistently fails, even though he shows a great aptitude for art. boon hock is from a poor family and has to juggle school with working at his family's noodle stand, which isn't easy. whilst the kids struggle at school, their parents seem to have just as much to cope with in their daily life...

there's times when 'i not stupid' is quite good fun, there's other times when it's a little annoying and there's times when it is just too obviously preaching at you or trying to highlight a social issue which exists in the state of singapore. unfortunately, the over-riding impression, left with me, was not one of fun. for a slightly less obvious, still with faults, but much more fun to watch slice of singaporean cinema, i'd recommend 'rice rhapsody'. especially as it has the wonderful sylvia chang and the less wonderful, but super fun, martin yan...

this, though, is reasonable at best...



the virgin queen - you are dead to me...

a four part bbc series, looking at four periods in the life of queen elizabeth I (anne-marie duff). starting with her life as lady elizabeth, moving through her relationship with the earl of leicester (tom hardy), the bothwell conspiracy and, finally, her relationship with the earl of essex (hans matheson) and death.

i've not watched either 'elizabeth I' (the helen mirren mini-series) or 'elizabeth' / 'elizabeth: the golden age' (the cate blanchett films), but when i free copy of this came my way i thought i'd give it ago.

being a series about elizabeth, following her from her early twenties, as she moved towards the thone, to her deathbed, when she was sixty-nine, a lot hinges on anne-marie duff. luckily, duff, aided by costume and make-up, is rather splendid as elizabeth. as a bright-eyed, zestful youth, a powerful middle-age and a decrepit, ailing final few years, she carries the role of with aplomb, managing to exude larger than life characteristics, when stately matters require it and showing herself as a vulnerable human in her personal relationships.

as for the rest of the performers, the slightly blinging nature of both leicester and essex (hardy and matheson, respectively) may irk some viewers, but i eventually warmed to them. the likes of dexter fletcher, tara fitzgerald, ian hart, ewan bremner, daniel evans, derek riddell and neil stuke, amongst others, flesh out a very strong supporting cast. the costume design, sets and dressings are also all noteworthy, with special mention going to make-up and special make up, which occasionally make the likes of elizabeth and kat ashley (fitzgerald) appear as rather frightening and ungodly creatures...

if i had to criticise, i'd say that there's a few moments where the soundtrack is a little intrusive but, by the same measure, there are also times when it works rather well.

good stuff...

[Sostie]

flemyng rocks! have you watched 'atomic circus' yet? it's a flemyng / paradis (swoon) spectacular! i may give it a re-watch later...

It was on my "to get" list. Now you've reminded me, I will "get".

[sweetbutinsane]

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Alternately (or is it alternatively?) funny and disturbing. My friend and I loved Chief.

I can now appreciate that episode of Spaced, and a small reference on an episode of The Simpsons.

[maian]

Matador (1986)

One of the weirder Almodovar films I've seen, this one focuses on (guess what) matadors, in particular, a young matador (Antonio Banderas) who confesses to a series of sexually charged murders, and his teacher (Nacho Martínez), who seems rather shady himself. Throw in a sexy lawyer (Assumpta Serna), a girlfriend (Eva Cobo) and you've got a heady brew.

Very good, and very odd, it's an hilarious and dark thriller that weaves around nicely in its journey to the climax (in all senses of the word).

Point of warning; if you're going to watch this, don't read the blurb on the back. It gives away the twist in the opening line.


Jar City (2006)

Icelandic murder mystery that utilises dual narratives, bleak cinematography and limited music to great effect.

When an old man is found murdered in his home, a police detective (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) starts to investigate his relationships with a couple of vicious criminals. Elsewhere, a man working for the genetic database is mourning the death of his young daughter.

Dark and twisty, it's really very good and intelligently made. You may need to listen to some Sigur Ros and Bjork afterwards to maintain any illusions that Iceland is a magical place of wonder, and not a grimy locale for brutal murders and corruption.

This post has been edited by maian: Feb 9 2009, 08:16 PM

[logger]

Point of warning; if you're going to watch this, don't read the blurb on the back. It gives away the twist in the opening line.

I think your review is the first of any kind I've seen that didn't give away the twist.

[maian]

That's pretty annoying. I got about 20 minutes in before thinking ''Oh, so I wasn't meant to know that, then?'' Not that it interfered with my enjoyment too much.

[Jimmay]

That's pretty annoying. I got about 20 minutes in before thinking ''Oh, so I wasn't meant to know that, then?'' Not that it interfered with my enjoyment too much.

I think the funniest (most annoying) way a twist was given away to me was when the credits came up at the start of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and it said Shannon Sossamon was in it. My mate then pointed her out to me when you saw the back of her head which deliberately didn't show her face. Later on in the film I turned to him and said, "I'm not supposed to know who she is am I?"

His guilty face was a picture!

[logger]

The Crazies

George Romero returns to Living Dead territory as a plane, carrying a military manufactured virus that turns humans crazy, crashes outside a small rural town and the government's attempt to control the outbreak. Now, despite its political intentions, this is very much an exploitation film, the budget is quite low, the actors are pretty poor, the dialogue isn't great and the sound and lighting are amateurish, although this does help with the cinema verite feel they were going for. Considering the resurgence of the zombie film over the past few years it's no surprise that this has been remade. The original with its subtext of the erosion of civil liberties as the incompetent government attempts to take more control over its citizens lives whilst fighting an unpopular war has a certain resonance today. Unsurprisingly, the remake has a lot more money behind it, which makes me very much doubt it will even attempt the extremely bleak atmosphere of the original (that's right, it's even more bleak than films were everyone on the planet becomes a zombie), and instead will become some kind of escapist, survival horror fantasy.

Not sure if I've seen this before, maybe back in the Moviedrome days of the eighties. Whilst definitely not a zombie film it has enough paralels to appeal to zombie fans and its influence can be felt through lots of horror and sci fi films. And even though it's extremely flawed and over long it's still worth watching even if just for its b-movie silliness.

[Serafina_Pekkala]

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA

I will be seeing one of these films at t'weekend. Which should it be? I quite like to see VCB. Although Frost/Nixon ... ? I can't pick.