Films

Some recaps of reviews from "The Week":

**** UP IN THE AIR Dir: Jason Reitman 1hr 49mins (15) Oscar-tipped drama starring George Clooney.
"Clooney has rarely been better as he takes his character on a giddying steep ascent from callous anti-hero to just-about-feasible redemption". Co-star Vera Farmiga gets great plaudits, too. But the Daily Telegraph thinks it offers a honeyed and neutered version of job redundancy - witty, often delightful, an adult love story, but also "rather glib".

** 44 INCH CHEST Dir: Malcolm Venville 1hr 35min (18) An all-star cast of Cockney geezers.
Violent drama from the writers of Sexy Beast. Ray Winstone stars as a Cockney (how surprising!) who kidnaps and tortures his wife's French lover with the help of best mates played by John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Ian McShane and Stephan Dillane. (Presumably with their Zimmer frames - they sound a bit superannuated for such a lark.) What follows is "less a story than a concert of audition-style monologues from each of its stars, all apparently trying to outdo one another in football-terrace profanity", said The Independent. "The longer it goes on, the less tense and less funny it plays." The action scarcely moves from a single location, the story never takes off, and it feels like a stage play.

* THE BOOK OF ELI Dirs: The Hughes Brothers 1hr 58min (15) Denzel Washington is an apocalyptic Bible basher.
The Hughes Bros made a name for themselves with From Hell, but their rep's likely to nosedive with what Nigel Andrews says in the FT is bad enough to be not just an end-of-the-world movie, but an end-of-the-genre one. The script is a calamity, the direction even worse. It doesn't make any sense and the closing scenes are defined by a howlingly poor cameo from Michael Gambon playing a hillbilly cannibal. It was clearly intended as a doomily pompous multiplex-filler in Bible Belt America, said Tim Robey in the Daily Telegraph - you wonder what on earth an actor of Washington's calibre is doing in it. Gary Oldman does his "wearily authoritative baddy" shtick as if pressing a switch.

* ALL ABOUT STEVE Dir: Phil Traill 1hr 39min (12A) The pain of unrequited love.
Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper perform in this dismal rom-com. SB plays a kooky, borderline deranged crossword puzzle setter who falls in love with a news cameraman and stalks him across America. Chris Tookey in the Daily Mail said it's so weirdly unfunny, mistimed and inept, that he stayed to the end credits just to make sure that Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt weren't the executive producers.
 
Yes, and 'only' 80 - not that huge an age these days. Suffered from lung cancer for 'some time'. What a very beautiful young woman she was, too, and a decent actress.
 
Recently watched a DVD of 'The Reader', quite engrossing even though I knew the story. Wonder if there's a directors cut somewhere.

Also saw 'Public Enemies' this must have a directors cut, there are so many 'bits missing out'. Still, a good watch!

Monty
 
Really enjoyed THE HOURS for the first time, on tv a few nights ago. I don't know why there was such a brouhaha about Nicole Kidman's prosthetic conk (to play Virginia Woolfe) - her own would've been a tad too pert for Virginia's hooter, and if she hadn't stuck some sort of extension on, everyone would've been griping that she bore no resemblance to the heroine at all. I liked the story - considering it concerned clinical depression and death, it was handled with a very light touch and all three actresses put in understated, compelling performances.
 
A five film weekend.

Little Miss Sunshine: Kooky, but not as cool as it thinks it is.
Breakfast at Tiffanys: As cool as it knows it is. I love the Japanese bloke upstairs.
Jackie Brown: De Niro's best performance aside from the young Vito Corleone? I love the fact that Tarantino sets up the chance for god knows how many plot twists, but never needs to take them.
An Education: Brilliant. I am in love with Carey Mulligan. Is that wrong? I don't care.
A Prophet: Gripping, Gritty and Gallic. In one word: Great.

Given the last two were both anchored by effectively new-comers, all the more impressive.
 
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Saw White Ribbon yesterday. Startling film. Why arent more films made in monochrome? Always seems to be more intimate somehow and beautiful to watch. Performances were top notch. german cinema is really on a high these days

However, it did slightly drag in places with some scenes a little overplayed. Its a good sinister tale that leaves you thinking, but lacked a little tension at times

Minor quibbles thogh. Has to be seen
 
Spoons said:
Went to see Invictus,really uplifting,easywatching movie with good acting from Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman.Rugby match is very well done
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I thought it was alright, nothing special. I have always loved Morgan Freeman, one of those actors (and I think there very few of them these days) that can actually carry a movie on his own shoulders. Also reckon it could be considered highly controversial from a New Zealand point of view. Not sure if anyone remembers the 1995 final? But the whole New Zealand team was suffering from food poisoning (which in itself has been widely debated) in the final. That was not even mentioned, or somehow reenacted, which I reckon was an important historical and controversial fact, which has been "silently" missed.

The best movie I have seen this year is Its Complicated. Meryl Streep is just a true diamond in the rough when it comes to actors. Not the best storyline, but without doubt the most humourous and great light entertainment flick thus far.
 
If you haven't seen it before (or for a while), The Day of the Jackal is just starting on ITV.

It's very well made, if very 60s - even though it was made in the 70s - and Edward Fox is brilliant in the lead role.

It's also very true to the book. The book is the only book I've ever been unable to put down once I started reading it.
 
I wish I'd seen this last night. I love Day Of The Jackal. I watched Home instead. Solid if unspectacular. I struggle to warm to Huppert, but Olivier Gourmet is one of my favourite actors.
 
Smashing film on Channel 4 this afternoon: The Enforcer, starring Humphrey Bogart as a DA trying to nail the big boss of a gang of murderers. I'd never seen it before (or even heard of it) and just watched it 'cos it was on. Lapped it up all the way through. It was years ahead of its time.
 
Saw Avatar tonight in the cinema. Tbh the whole 3D thing was a shade less than intestense than I was expecting, but still pretty awesome to see it at the cinema.

Not a film you would want to see in 2D though really. Thorougly predictable and uninteresting.
 
Saw Brothers recently - very good indeed with a fine cast. Natalie Portman gets better and better each time I see her (her acting and looks!).
 
Bought two more DVDs today to add to my all-time favourites collection:

Where Eagles Dare and The Untouchables.

Was sorely tempted to get Red River too but resisted. Another day, maybe.
 
Crikey, DO, I had no idea you were so cutting edge! Any minute now, you'll be telling us you've bought Bullitt and The Eiger Sanction, you wild 'n' crazy guy, you!
 
I don't like the idea of buying DVDs for the sake of seeing how good a film might be. I picked up The Hurt Locker yesterday and was tempted to buy before good ol' common sense whispered in my other ear: What if it's sh*te? You'll have wasted a tenner.

If I like a film enough to want to watch it whenever I like that's the ones I buy. I don't actually have Bullitt (take the car chase out and there's not much of a film left) or The Eiger Sanction. They wouldn't make it into the collection (unless they were on sale for a quid a pop or something).

I really enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire when I saw it for the first time a couple of weeks ago but I wouldn't buy it. It isn't that kind of film for me.

I could watch the Bourne trilogy all the way through time and again (already have, actually).

And I reckon I'm not far off Krizon when it comes to how often I've watched Casablanca!
 
I see. So much for sworn secrecy, huh, Tracks? Actually, I do love Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Thirty-nine Steps, Rear Window, and will re-watch Blade Runner any time but, shock-horror! last night tried watching The Yawn Identity again, and was appalled I'd bothered the first time. So predictable, so zzzzzzz...

Yes, I'd agree with you, Dessiekins, about actually buying something. There are enough re-runs to take care of most nostalgia, although I find Shane a bit under re-run. Lovely film on several levels.
 
krizon said:
Actually, I do love Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Thirty-nine Steps, Rear Window,
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The only one of those I don't have is Rear Window. Picked it up and thought about it a few times but there's something about it that makes me not want to watch it. James Stewart in a wheelchair, probably.
 
But you have seen it, yes? If not, I think you'll overcome your qualms about JS in a wheelie (he's only bust his leg, he's not crippled) if I say that the exquisite Grace Kelly does appear in a beautiful satin negligee at one point...

I love the film, because it's so multi-layered with its observations of the lives going on in the apartments around Stewart. The extremely amorous bride vignette is really funny, and probably a touch on the naughty side for its time, while Miss Lonelyheart is sad, without becoming maudlin.
 
I would never consider myself anything within a million miles of a film buff, but I should probably get around to seeing Casablanca at some stage...
 
Oh, do, if you can, Tracks. It's a classic, in that it's got a good script, understated and naturalistic acting, and actually tells a story. I'm not a film buff, either - unlike some people who seem to have swallowed film guide annuals and know who produced, directed, starred, or did the catering, for everything going.
 
krizon said:
But you have seen it, yes? If not, I think you'll overcome your qualms about JS in a wheelie (he's only bust his leg, he's not crippled) if I say that the exquisite Grace Kelly does appear in a beautiful satin negligee at one point...

I love the film, because it's so multi-layered with its observations of the lives going on in the apartments around Stewart. The extremely amorous bride vignette is really funny, and probably a touch on the naughty side for its time, while Miss Lonelyheart is sad, without becoming maudlin.
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I've seen it a few times and I like it up to a point. Just not sure whether it's the kind of film I'd stop at when flicking through the collection and saying to myself, "I really should watch this."

Casablanca is just brilliant from start to finish.
 
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