The Thing

Not bad just boring, lacking all the wit and suspense of Alien v's Predator let alone the original, as incredibly bland characters that you don't care about fight for survival against an impressive CGI The Thing.

I remember trailers featuring scenes from that sequence, so they must have filmed it. Nothing spoilerific, obviously, but I remember one of the trailers showing things that weren't in the movie, and were clearly from that section of the book.

Paul

Some very funny jokes, but somewhat lacking overall.

I can't help thinking that this would have been a far better film if Edgar had been involved.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Richard Burton skulks through twisting, foul spy business.

In the Valley of Elah

Was alright but could have been a hell of a lot better if Paul Haggis wasn't such a hack.

not seen this, but my mum won't shut up about how good she thought it was...


i thought this was awful, but i do love 'hudson hawk'...


yes and yes...


i'll disagree on this one. i thought it was technically very well made, but with a lot of bad decisions on content. sound design is almost flawless, cinematography, lighting and editing are all wonderful, but some of the content (on a purely visual basis) is just really trite. as for the narrative, it's just okay but the film really suffers badly, having let you get to know two performers, then switching to two different performers when the film reaches its most emo moments; these then come across as being drastically overblown and it's really, really hard to give a shit about the characters. also, the decision of the director to include the phrase "f***ing c***s" was a poor one, in my opinion; it smacks of a pathetic attempt to engage with the youth, with a look, i can use the bad swears way. shiiting rubbish...

the best thing about seeing this at the opening gala of liff last month was when i walked out at the end, saw the adult heathcliffe being so pissed that, having already been escorted out of the screening by security, he was looking as if he was about to start a fight with the mild mannered film festival director. the director of the film had to take him by the arm and take him for a walk in the fresh air to calm him down. brilliant.


if you have the dvd with the pta commentary then listen, i think that is something you'd like...


lovable, but dreadful...


amazing film. and, a great lars commentary on the dvd...



yep, totally agree. it is amazing. so, i was totally in the same screening as you, assuming you saw this on the last day of liff? it was the best film of the film festival as far as i was concerned.


yeah, this is one of my favourite films. so many incredible touches. almost perfect.


personally, i've watched loads of films. some have been good, some have been shit...

the artist - brilliant
i am jesus - ace documentary on three people who think they are jesus
the ballad of genesis and lady jaye - i love mr orrige
sex mission - funny eighties sci-fi comedy
the sound of noise - deliciously silly norwegian comedy
if... - finally watched, thoroughly enjoyed...
fatherless
breathing
best intentions



and, i really feel as if i must say that 'shame' is absolutely fucking rubbish. rubbish.

Dan! How have you been?

I heard about all the fuss at the Wuthering Heights premiere, which I'm glad I didn't hear about until after I saw the film. I think you're right that the film suffers when it moves into the second half, largely because it moves towards the more traditional elements of the story and the style of film that the first half seems to be reacting against (which I think is more of the reason for the swearing than trying to engage with the youth. It's still sort of petulant, in that it's kind of saying "Pride and Prejudice wouldn't do this, would it?" but it worked for me) but it didn't spoil the film for me.

I did listen to the first half an hour or so of the PTA commentary on Hard Eight. Very informative and entertaining, but I started listening to it at about half past midnight and I kept nodding off. I'll have to sit down with it again soon.



Yeah, at the Hyde Park Picturehouse? I was pretty much dead centre on the ground floor. I did actually wonder if I would see you there since I know that you go every year. I think The Artist may be my film of the year. It's number 1 or number 2.

The Skin I Live In

Almodovar doesn't give a fuck, and why should he when he's this talented. Part gothic horror, part psycho thriller and part absurd comedy, excelling at all three to make one glorious, compelling, ridiculous film. I was surprised by how emotional I felt at the end after the film had been as "out there" as it had been but it just goes to show what extremes you can go to if you retain the emotional core.

I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't known the twist, something I actually found out over three years ago when somebody mistakenly gave it as the synopsis for Broken Embraces, but it is pretty obvious once the film gets to a certain point what is going to happen, the inevitability making it fascinating.

Princess Mononoke

In Japanese with subtitles, for the first time (thanks to Film 4). Does anyone know if the Japanese original has more scenes in it than the English dub? (I'm assuming not, but there seemed some scenes I hadn't seen before).

Either way, I think this has definitely become my favourite Studio Ghibli film.

Princess of Montpensier

A French classic novel adaptation but like Le Bossu, suffers from lack of international knowledge of the source material. Marie (Melanie Thierry*) is pretty and lots of men fall in love with her. But she falls for the one who is the most handsome dickhead and it ends badly for it. I can't blame on one level because it is Gaspard Ulliel and he looks dashing as usual in a doublet. Basically that is it. There is an older man (Lambert Wilson) and her wee hubbie (who is sort of like a French Daniel Bruhl). But I found I didn't care enough for Marie to follow her decisions and she was kind of ... Well ...boring. That said the whole look is pretty flawless as you would expect from Bertrand Tavernier. But the film lacks the substance of La Reine Margot, which is set at the same time.

* Emmanuelle Beart must be showing her shoes at her magic mirror as Thierry is even more of a pouty and coquettish blonde. I did not think it was possible.

i enjoyed this, it was like a french, easy listening, cinema, gently going about it's business in a solid, if unspectacular, fashion...

No, I think they're the same. The English dub of that is pretty good, too.

Yes, it's how I've watched the film the last four or five times and I've no complaints about it.

It was interesting to see the Japanese version though, I will have to watch some more Ghibli films that way.

The boxset I have is Japanese, so it's interesting for me to see the English dubs! The ones I've seen have been very good though - Spirited Away, Totoro, Kiki's, Mononoke. I do prefer the Japanese though - not in a snobbish way; I just like listening to it as a language.

With live action films I prefer subtitles. With animation I prefer dubbing.

I highly recommend Porco Rosso by the way!

Yeah - I felt the same. It was pretty good but unremarkable.

It's odd, as I usually watch films in their original language, but for some reason I've only watched the dubbed versions of the Ghibli films (where they have been dubbed, anyway).

I was put off dubbed versions of live films after trying to watch the dub of City of the Lost Children - terrible!



Already got it!

i usually go with the original language, as that's when the director had control, picked the voice talent they wanted and so on...

still, i have heard a few good dubs and some are better. for example, the director of 'the magnificent world of el-hazard' (which i recommend) says that he sees the american dub as the definitive version and reckons that it totally trumps the original...

for more sentimental reasons, i like the original, kinda crappy dub of 'akira', although the one they did for the anniversary is awful...

when it comes to ghibli, i've never encountered an english dub which comes anywhere close to the original japanese dub...

None of the Ghibli movies have been edited. However, some of the earlier dubs have had music changed and the script is different. With Mononoke, there is a LOT more dialogue in the English dub; one example that comes to mind is when he looks up at his diseased hand, and the camera shows a full-frame image of it. In English, he says "It's getting worse" or something, whereas in Japanese he just silently looks at it. It removes a lot of the subtlety of the movie, I think. In Japanese, the main character is quiet, but you can tell what he's thinking by the wonderful pacing of the movie. In English, every time his face is off-screen, he talks. "The forest is dying. My hand is evil." The Japanese version has lots of quiet moments and panning shots of scenery, which might be why you thought it was longer. It's the same running time, but the English version fills those shots with more speech, rushing it along a bit.

Kiki's Delivery Service has a completely different soundtrack, and My Neighbour Totoro has had a couple of different dubs. The general rule of thumb is that if Disney supervised the dub (anything DUBBED (not made, necessarily) after and including Spirited Away) it will have an excellent English dub, on par with the Japanese. Totoro was re-dubbed for this reason.

The only dub I stay away from really is Kiki's Delivery Service, because although it has some great performances, I just can't get past the changed music. The original soundtrack is beautiful.

There are no bad Ghibli dubs, but the more recent ones are definitely better. I actually think Mononoke is one of the worst, and not just due to the altered script.



As for recommendations, I'm not going to bother listing most of them because they're all in "films you must see" lists and all very famous. I want to recommend Pom Poko, in Japanese. It's very long, and it's a bit all over the place at times. It's also very Japanese, with lots of references to their old culture that I don't quite understand. But it's an amazing, amazing film and it's always overlooked. It's incredibly touching, and it features some really interesting visuals. Trailer
My Neighbours the Yamada's is also far, far better than you might think it would be. It has a look all of its own, and it's somehow the most real and the most imaginative Ghibli film at once. Trailer.


They also made a really cool music video called On Your Mark, which is mirrored here on YouTube but it doesn't really matter.

Do you mean you can follow the actual Japanese, or are you referring to the subtitles?



No, it's not the extra dialogue in the English dub that has made me think the Japanese version of the film was longer, there were several shots I didn't remember seeing before throughout the film and most of them were during the action sequences, rather than the more reflective moments of the film. I think the confusion on my part has arisen because the last few times I've "watched" the film, I've been doing other things as well (mainly playing Warcraft) and I think I've missed bits because of that.



Really? It can't be that different, music wise, as I have a copy of the score and I couldn't tell you what bits are missing!



Perhaps now would be a good time to make it clear that I already have all of their films on DVD! (I do like Pom Poko, but I found My Neighbours the Yamada's to be pretty tedious).

There are definitely whole sequences with different music, and I don't mean the credits songs. They replaced very quiet parts of the score with loud music, and there are loads more sound effects too. It also has a case of "add in dialog during silent scenes for the Hell of it", too. I also prefer the Japanese one for Jiji not regaining his ability to talk. As much as I love Phil Hartman's voice, Jiji is a completely different character in English and isn't as nice.

The result isn't bad as such, it just begs the question "Why?". It's not like Gunbuster or something (the master tapes of the music have been lost, so an English dub would be impossible without re-recording all the music and sound effects).

I will happily watch all of them in either language, though. It depends on my mood, and if I'm watching it with anyone else.

The Wicker Man

I always forget just how good it is. Possibly the last classic British film. It's just a pity Christopher Lee didn't play many comedic roles.

Zentropa (or Europa) (1991)

The third film in Lars von Trier's Europa trilogy follows a young American who travels to Germany after World War II in order to become a conductor for the Zentropa train company. He initially tries to do his job in the belief that he is helping Germany to rebuild itself, but as he deals with the occupying US army and the local partisans he finds himself doubting who is "right" in the situation. Stunning to look at, and with a nice motif of swapping the monochrome for technicolour whenever something real and emotional punctures the grey grimness of the story, it kind of felt disjointed. That could partially be explained by the framing device, which posits that the story is one being concocted by a man undergoing hypnosis, but it still doesn't make the shifts in plot any less weird and jarring. On the whole, I liked the look and the crime elements, but it lacked the cohesiveness of The Element of Crime.

American Gigolo (1980)

I think Richard Gere used to be allergic to shirts. Oh, the film's good, too. A sleek and very '80s riff on the crime drama set in a nice and seedy world that strains a little bit too hard at the very end when it tries for a transcendent moment (one which it stole wholly from Bresson's Pickpocket) but you can't fault it for reaching for something. I also liked the many, many permutations of Call Me by Blondie that feature on the soundtrack.

Short reviews thanks to a lengthy exposure to my parents new Sky+HD box.

2012
CGI unscripted hokum.

Up
Beautiful and hilarious.

Morning Glory
Grumpy Ford rules.

Greenburg
Irritating Stiller wins. Not sure why.

Unstoppable
Tense train delay.

The Other Guys
Classic Ferrell. Why doesn't Wahlberg do more comedy? Y'know, like The Happening? Arf.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

This is going to be the hardest post I've ever had to write because all I want to do is press caps lock and hammer my keyboard and fangirl.

I did have a little flutter of worry watching the trailers this afternoon before it started that it could do a Dead Man's Chest on me and be absolutely nothing compared to the first one. Didn't happen. I think it was better than the first one. The plot itself wasn't so silly (but there were plenty of silly moments to be had still) and they upped the action, peril and bromance without going over the top. Well, at least not with the first two. Plenty of laugh out loud moments, quite a number of times that I was holding my breath and once that I had to look away from the screen when bad times were happening (remember the slaughterhouse bit from the first one? Yeah, I found this bit was much worse than that. Just a friendly warning). It could have done a bit more with Noomi Rapace's character and I don't like the new Gladstone as much as the old one, but those are only minor complaints.

So yeah, fricking loved it.

I misread this as 'Dead Man's Shoes' and felt very confused for a bit, but now I've read it properly, I'm very glad to hear it's at least as good as the first.

^ I did the same thing. I needs me some better eyes and/or brain.

Metropolitan (1990)

I was idly checking iPlayer last night to see what films they had and I saw that Whit Stillman's debut, which I have read a lot of praise about, was on there, so I gave it a watch. It's the sort of film that Woody Allen would have made had he been born a WASP and grown up around the debutante set. Thoroughly enjoyable, literate and charming, it's made me excited about checking out Stillman's other films. Since there's only three of them, this shouldn't be two difficult.

The Terence Davies Trilogy (1983)

Between 1976 and 1983 Terence Davies made a series of semi-autobiographical short films about Robert Cooper, a closeted gay man struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality in light of his deeply religious, Catholic upbringing. Cooper is a very thinly veiled version of Davies, who spent much of his early 20s in a stage of spiritual crisis that he transformed into art with this trilogy, which starts with Cooper as a child, then as a middle-aged man, then as an old man waiting to die. The films have variable acting on display - the highlight is probably Wilfrid Brambles as the elderly Cooper, whose death is hard to watch, the lowlight would be some of the adults in the first film, "Children" - but the films look amazing, which is surprising considering that Davies had no prior grounding in film, and they get steadily richer and more powerful as they progress. Memory and the hold the past has on us is a key theme through all the films, which play fast and loose with chronology and have a cumulative power that is very strong. The combined running time is only 96 minutes, but Davies covers so much time and material in that time that it feels much more epic. A really startling debut.

Obviously, I've been looking forward to this for months and I'm looking at it through rose-tinted glasses and fangirl madness so I wouldn't take my opinion too seriously, but I do honestly believe that if you liked the first one, there's a very high chance you'll like this one too.

Empire also liked this one more than the first one, if that helps any.

The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Not as laughably terrible as the trailer made out, but still pretty silly. I look forward to CGI not looking unnaturally smooth and perfect. It was an alright story, and John Lithgow was by far the best performer (aside perhaps of course from Andy Serkis), but there was otherwise a lot of lazy characterisation. The predictably evil medical research boss who wants to rush it all through because MONEEEY and the inexplicably hostile little zookeeper guy who likes to torment the animals, to name just a few. At least it didn't come close to Tim Burton's godawful remake.

i read the subtitles, but it's all to do with the tone and stylisation of the voices; like i said, they're recorded with the director there and i trust ghibli to get right.

despite gundam's protestations about there being no bad english dubs of ghibli; in my experience i have found everyone i've listened to has been absolutely awful.

I can understand that. Having watched Akira in Japanese with subtitles, I shudder at the thought of having to listen to an English dub.



I can't really compare them with the original dubs, because I've only seen the one, but I would say that most of the recent English dubs are pretty good (in that they make sense and that they largely appear to stick to the original story). There have been a couple of times when I have thought "that doesn't make sense," but they have been few and far between.

Each to his own, I suppose.

Gremlins - A teenager gets an awesome and unique Christmas present, with only three very simple instructions to follow. He promptly goes against all three, resulting in the near destruction of his entire town.

I also watched Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder to get into the Christmas spirit.

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows - I didn't like it quite as much as the first one, but a fun film nonetheless.

Gremlins...if you can't feed the little beasty after midnight, when can you feed it?

Haha, everyone says that. I assume he means "from midnight until dawn".

What if you are air freighting them somewhere and crossing time zones, how does that work?

What happens when they go into space? Gremlins X?

It's probably to do with the moon or something, seeing as Gizmo liked to sing to it.

You'd be better off asking that old Chinese guy about it.

It's probably easier to just not feed them.

At all.

I watched Edward Scissorhands last night for the same reason. I'm thinking either Home Alone or In Bruges tonight and whichever one I don't choose will be watched tomorrow, then Nightmare Before Christmas for Christmas Eve Eve. Die Hard is my Christmas Eve film.

Yeah so far Christmas viewing has included Bad Santa, Home Alone, a bit of Home Alone 2 (it was on telly), Batman Returns, The Thin Man (still an impeccable comedy), and Die Hard is for tomorrow night (I swap it, Die Hard is my Christmas Eve Eve movie while Nightmare Before Christmas is for Christmas Eve.) I've never seen Elf though, is it worth it?

EDIT: Oh, and of course Scrooged.

^ I don't get the general love for Scrooged, I watched it last year and thought it was rubbish. Yes, Murray is funny in places, but for the most part it's poor at best.

Festive nostalgia.

What's Up Tiger Lily? (1966)

Woody Allen's sort of debut as a director finds him re-dubbing the language of a Japanese spy film to turn it into an absurdist quest for an egg salad recipe. It's clever and has some great lines, but I think it suffers from not having enough jokes crammed in. Compare it to Take The Money and Run or Sleeper and you can see how well he can cram gags into every available space. Here, the images on screen restrict him, and there are long stretches of silence when not much funny happens on screen. It also doesn't help that whilst he may have been the first to do this, others have done better work with the same central concept. Good, but minor.

Absence of Malice (1981)

Sydney Pollack directs a drama about a local businessman (Paul Newman) who finds himself at the centre of an investigation into the murder of a Miami Union rep after his name is leaked to the papers and a young reporter (Sally Field) writes a story on him. Things spiral from there, and the film is an entertaining examination of the limits of tabloid journalism and the ways in which innocent people can be hurt when organisations bend the rules even just a tiny bit. Also, Wilfred Brimley!

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

Very funny French spy spoof from the men behind my favourite film of this year, The Artist. I imagine that some of humour doesn't translate owing to my complete lack of understanding regarding the language, but there are enough clever lines that do translate, as well as fun physical gags and a thoroughly winning performance by Jean Dujardin in the title role.

The Muppets (2011)

I laughed, I cried, I remembered how gorgeous and talented Amy Adams is. The script is funny, warm and affectionate, acting as a lovely tribute to the characters whilst also being strong enough to work on its own, the songs are good and the cameos throughout are great, especially for fans of NBC's current comedy line up.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Brad Bird should direct all blockbusters forever.

^ Isn't he doing The Bourne Legacy next?

I believe that's Tony Gilroy who wrote the other Bourne films and directed the rather good Michael Clayton.

Yep. Brad Bird is meant to be directing a film about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake next. He's been working on it since before he was brought in to rescue Ratatouille, so it's a bit of a passion project for him.

I've never seen it either, but my (older) sister seems to love it.

I edited my Christmas film viewing schedule slightly due to being out yesterday and I also added some extra films.

In Bruges

It's been such a long time since I last watched it and I can still quote the entire thing. Brilliant, brilliant film.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Not a Christmas film, obviously, but I fangirled my way through it for a second time with my friend yesterday. Jared Harris is just brilliant and terrifying as Moriarty. I think I might need to see it once more to survive until the DVD release.

Home Alone

It must have been a good few years since I last watched it. I don't think Kevin used to annoy me but he does now. I still love the film, though. And Shovel Man.

Home Alone 2

Seriously, do people never learn?

Also, I ship Pigeon Lady with Shovel Man.

For a second I thought it was Anthony Worral Thompson.

Nightmare Before Christmas

I think I finally know all the words to all the songs. Not bad given that I'd only watched it three times before yesterday.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

What? It's vaguely Christmassy. And brilliant.

The Muppets Christmas Carol

How I've missed this film! I'm glad I remembered to buy it on DVD this year.

And now I'm off to watch Die Hard.