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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 05:19 pm:   

As it's well into February and I've only just seen my first new cinema film of the year I thought I'd start this new thread for it:

1. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino

My inital reaction on learning the title of Tarantino's latest opus was to groan and think the guy has finally disappeared up his own arse and doesn't even want to make us think about what films he's aping this time. For the most part that criticism holds true as this is QT's most obvious and predictable pastiche/piss-take/tribute to the cult cinema that inspired him yet. However, this latest in a very long string of Django films proves as much a tribute to Mel Brooks' immortal 'Blazing Saddles' as it does to the spaghetti western genre that spawned the mysterious gunslinger.

Yep, as with the wonderful 'Inglourious Basterds' (his best film since 'Jackie Brown'), we're firmly in broad black comedy slapstick territory again. Every scene and outrageously OTT gunfight is played strictly for belly laughs, often of the sickest kind imaginable. As the target of the jokes is always those psychopathically racist bastards who made the practice of slavery in the Deep South their way of living we are perpetually made aware of what a "right on" guy Mr Tarantino must be, and encouraged to forgive him for treating the heavy subject matter so tritely, despite the frequent scenes of chained negroes being whipped to shreds, tortured, brutalised, fed to dogs and raped, etc... Is the guy a liberal crusader or trying to have his cake and eat it? Watch the film and you decide.

As with all Tarantino's movies the screen is always alive and the action never less than mindlessly entertaining but with its near three hour running length even he can't avoid the viewer's mind from wandering and patience from being tested in what is essentially another simple revenge thriller of black and white morality, with no hint of deeper meaning, that shouldn't have been allowed to run more than 90 minutes tops, imho! Grotesquely overlong and infuriatingly self-indulgent is the only way to describe Quentin's latest. He makes every mistake he made in 'Kill Bill' all over again and reveals himself as a spoilt kid wanking in a candy store and making an awful mess... but a colourful and exciting one for all that.

It's by no means a bad picture and includes some of his most deliciously funny dialogue in years and many set pieces of breathtakingly bloody action that are worth the entrance fee by themselves. But there's just so much extraneous filler material here that isn't half as clever as it thinks it is and really should have been excised in the editing room. It's a good western, a very funny black comedy and an entertaining night out at the movies but it is also Quentin Tarantino's weakest and most disappointing film to date. A frustrating backward step following the steady resurgence of 'Death Proof' and 'Inglourious Basterds', for all the great things that are in it.

Here's how I'd rank the wayward auteur's output to date:

1. Jackie Brown
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Reservoir Dogs
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. Death Proof
6. Kill Bill : Volume I
7. Kill Bill : Volume II
8. Django Unchained
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.249
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 05:30 pm:   

Disagree entirely. There's not a scene or a word should be but from this masterpiece. Only change i would make is Quentin's accent in his cameo.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 05:48 pm:   

I think he was meant to be a South African slaver, Weber.

Like I said, it's great fun but hardly great cinema and a definite backward step for Quentin, imho. I'm beginning to think he's incapable of making another serious minded film that still manages to be funny and exciting... as with his first three. He's turned into a cartoon director. But then I do love cartoons!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 06:23 pm:   

I thought it was australian... He really should stay clear of accents.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 06:25 pm:   

"encouraged to forgive him for treating the heavy subject matter so tritely, despite the frequent scenes of chained negroes being whipped to shreds, tortured, brutalised, fed to dogs and raped, etc... Is the guy a liberal crusader or trying to have his cake and eat it? Watch the film and you decide."

Surely you have to see what the bad guys are doing to justify what the good guys get up to. Otherwise it would be some rogue black guy running round killing dozens of people for no real reason.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 07:28 pm:   

Agreed. But when the intended effect is to make us laugh can the graphic nature of the imagery still be justified? Thank heavens he didn't show us Jews being gassed in 'Inglourious Basterds'. It's pure exploitation cinema but does calling it postmodern make it any less morally questionable than some of the 70s films Tarantino so reveres? Just asking the question.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 08:41 pm:   

Apart from Jackie Brown most of Tarantino's films are . . . oh, well.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 08:48 pm:   

It's the one film he made that showed genuine maturity, Hubert.

The rest of them are really just him jerking off... although often to spectacular effect.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.28.188
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 10:40 pm:   

I think the Tarantino needs to be compared with Fleischer's Mandingo (which is pretty considerable) as well as with the Django films.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 11:58 pm:   

It's much closer to 'Blazing Saddles' than any of the Django films, Ramsey. They were often unintentionally funny but loveable with it whereas 'Django Unchained' is an out-and-out comedy piss-take of the spaghetti western genre. It's played for broad laughs throughout and making Django a black man distances it still more from anything Franco Nero appeared in. Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy it but found it frustratingly lightweight and unfocused when we know what Tarantino is capable of.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, February 17, 2013 - 11:14 pm:   

Just seen 'Les Mis'... bloody magnificent!!!! A bona-fide A1 instant masterpiece to make one high on cinema!!!! Coherent thoughts to follow anon...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, February 18, 2013 - 03:57 pm:   

We have a new No. 1 that is going to be very hard to shake from the top spot:

1. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper
2. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino

How do I even begin to talk about this well nigh religious experience... nevermind calling it a film? For the moment words fail me but the overriding message I got from this magnificent work of art had nothing to do with socialism (Joel, my fellow socialist) or romance (Proto, my fellow Irishman) but had everything to do with the painful truth of the human condition and how the only thing that separates us from the creatures that crawl in the proverbial slime (human and animal) is the choices we make and our soul-given instinct for redemption. Not because we fear what may come after but because we feel shame at what went before. This film is a masterpiece because of the primal human emotions it lays bare (like porn for the soul) and the magnificent, yet almost incidental, music that complements the astonishingly moving performances so well. A standing ovation is in order for the director and every individual involved in this monumental cinematic achievement. It would wring tears from a stone... it did me.

Is it too early to say we have a Film of the Year?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.101.236.231
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 08:32 am:   

Jesus, man, your hyperbole grows more hyperbolic by the year! :-)

(Beats being cynical, tho.)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 05:56 pm:   

A story about choices... Valjean chooses to steal the loaf of bread, chooses to steal the silver, chooses to break his parole, chooses to give himself up to save an innocent man's life, chooses to honour his debt to Fantine and finally chooses to die.

But more than that, all the characters in this story of archetypes (which I had no previous knowledge of, other than hearsay) make equally momentous choices at moments of moral dilemma that seal their fates but, crucially, not their freedom to choose to undo the harm they have wrought. Fantine chooses to sell her body despite lacking the strength to live with such a decision, Cosette's horrendous guardians choose to give her up for the filthy lucre that rules their lives, without question, despite not realising the value of their ward, Marius chooses to throw his lot in with the revolutionaries rather than chase after his love, Cosette, poor heartbroken Eponine chooses not to deliver Cosette's message to Marius, Marius's rich father chooses to disown him as "a disgrace to the family" for joining the common rabble in their hopeless cause, the brave souls manning the barricades choose to accept death and glory rather than give up their principles, the soldiers choose to destroy them, but, most tragically, for me, Javert chooses never to be swayed, proving himself the ultimate jobsworth and heartlessly moral core of the picture... until the gloriously grey truth of the human condition comes crashing in upon him, and even then, he chooses rightly and wrongly. What a fucking magnificent story, what great, great, emotionally battering lyrics and music and, more than anything, what stupefyingly powerful acting and visionary direction. If Stanley Kubrick had ever chosen to direct a musical the end result would have been something very much like this!! Shout it from the rooftops and the barricades... we have our first MASTERPIECE of the year, and without doubt one of the defining films of the decade, the century and the history of cinema itself!!!!

For the record here are the Top 10 Musicals I have seen and loved:

1. 'Les Misérables' (2013) by Tom Hooper
2. 'West Side Story' (1961) by Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
3. 'Oliver!' (1968) by Carol Reed
4. 'Cabaret' (1972) by Bob Fosse
5. 'The Wizard Of Oz' (1939) by Victor Fleming
6. 'Carousel' (1956) by Henry King
7. 'Sweeney Todd : The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street' (2007) by Tim Burton
8. 'The Jungle Book' (1967) by Wolfgang Reitherman
9. 'Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory' (1971) by Mel Stuart
10. 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1993) by Henry Selick

Yes, it really is that good...
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.243.42
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 06:14 pm:   

Carousel? The central message of which seems to be it's ok to beat your wife and child because if you love them it doesn't hurt, no matter how far across the room you slap them. Plus it's got one of the worst songs ever written in it - that bloody clam bake song. It's a dreadful musical.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 06:21 pm:   

What, no My fair Lady or Singing in the Rain? I'm generally none too fond of musicals, mind.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.183.79.10
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 07:53 pm:   

I would certainly put SINGIN' IN THE RAIN above most in Stevie's list!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.140.43
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 10:44 pm:   

Believe it or not, apart from the oft repeated clips, I've never seen 'Singin' In The Rain'! Shocking, I know...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 10:52 pm:   

That's my ten favourite musical films and I can honestly say that 'Les Miserables', after one revelatory viewing on Sunday, now tops the lot. Astonishing film!!
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.16.4
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 10:56 pm:   

Great musicals:

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
THE PAJAMA GAME
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT
ON THE TOWN
LOVE ME TONIGHT
MEET ME IN ST LOUIS
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
...come immediately to my mind.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 11:38 pm:   

Les Miserables sounds like it might be a great film - if it weren't for the singing. I did see the French television series with Gérard Depardieu and a very creepy John Malkovitch. Luckily they didn't burst into song every other minute.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.15
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:06 am:   

"I got from this magnificent work of art had nothing to do with socialism (Joel, my fellow socialist) or romance (Proto, my fellow Irishman) but had everything to do with the painful truth of the human condition and how the only thing that separates us from the creatures that crawl in the proverbial slime (human and animal) is the choices we make and our soul-given instinct for redemption"

Hi Stevie,

I think you misread what I wrote above. I specifically said that I thought both the revolution and the romance were distractions from the central story of redemption and integrity.

I loved Les Mis, too. For almost completely personal reasons, it was possibly the most emotionally intense experience I've ever had in the cinema. That's saying something.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.15
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:07 am:   

(I just checked and what I wrote was on another thread...)
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.15
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:11 am:   

From your list, I most prefer the two modern films: Sweeny Todd and Les Mis. Companion pieces, given HBC and SBC's appearances in both.

HB Carter ALWAYS has white makeup, dark circles under her eyes, tangled hair and odd tattered clothes: HAMLET, FIGHT CLUB, SLEEPY HOLLOW, SWEENY TODD, LES MIS. What a shock her next role is: Miss Havisham!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 03:24 am:   

What astonished me about 'Les Mis' was the fact that the entire film is sung and the very few snatches of normal dialogue actually stand out as sounding odd, once one has got accustomed to the style, which took all of five minutes for me. In that sense it is the purest musical narrative outside of opera that I have ever seen. An astounding cinematic achievement that cannot fail to impress even the most diehard of musical haters - and I always counted myself among their number.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 03:30 am:   

It's hard for me to believe a film that sports as its three main leads Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Russell Crowe, could be one of the best films in "the history of cinema." But perhaps, perhaps....

I liked the recent Chicago very much—am I alone in that? Btw: A borderline musical is surely Casablanca: music runs through it like veins and arteries—it wouldn't be the same film at all without those marvelous, iconic songs; so surely it, too, deserves a place (or honorable mention) on such lists.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 03:40 am:   

Proto, then you got the same message from the film that I did. It is a story about the redemptive power of choosing to do the right thing no matter what mistakes one has made in the past. The time to give up on anyone is never. Poor Javert never learned that lesson and ends up the truly tragic figure at story's end.

I too found the film to be intensely moving and would rank it as the most successful old school melodrama of modern times. It has the courage of its convictions and that courage shines out of every scene and every impassioned performance. This isn't so much singing as laying bare the soul and one gets the impression that everyone in the cast must have found it a profoundly moving experience to have been involved in.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 03:49 am:   

Craig, those three actors will forever be remembered for this film above everything else they ever did.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.25.36
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 01:11 pm:   

Ah! I liked Chicago too.

The most "sung" film (that's to say, entirely) is Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, and very fine, but I'd say it was an opera rather than a musical.

Another film where song is crucial is Raymond Bernard's Wooden Crosses. Oddly enough, he also made a fine film of Les Miserables.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 04:33 pm:   

I was curious why you hadn't above listed Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Ramsey....

Stevie, have you seen Chicago? I can only think you haven't, because surely it would have appeared on your list above. (Gee, all I'm doing is grilling you lately, amn't I? )
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.22
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 07:06 pm:   

[Les Mis spoilers]

Stevie, I felt a lot for Javert in the end and had a hope that he could evolve his thinking and life rather than just end it.

His thinking couldn't tolerate shades of grey, nuances, as exemplified beautifully in the shot of him steping on a precipice. In Javert's mind, one misstep in life, and you're gravity's bride for ever.

How many lives are ruined unnecessarily by a failure to evolve nuanced thinking?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.215
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 01:24 am:   

I would go to see Zero Dark 30 but I haven't seen the first 29 films yet.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 07:28 am:   

How many lives are ruined unnecessarily by a failure to evolve nuanced thinking?

I'm sure he went down singing.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 46.18.9.33
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 10:10 am:   

zero dark thirty sounds like Michael Scott's film from the US version of The Office, which was called Threat Level Midnight.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 01:14 pm:   

I've met lots of Javerts in my time in the civil service, Proto. We call them jobsworths. To live for one's work and nothing else is the ultimate wasted life, imo. People and the love of life should always come first above material things and concepts of duty.

Actually, Hubert, Javert's last line in the film is one of the rare moments of spoken dialogue. Short, sweet and heartstoppingly powerful. The whole film is an emotional tour-de-force that the irresistible music and wonderfully naturalistic non-professional singing only serves to accentuate to an almost unbearable degree. I can only imagine how effective the stage show must be and this film has left me dying to see it!
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.46.17
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 06:24 pm:   

Singin' in the Rain is great. It's so good that it repeatedly breaks the rule about songs in musicals being there to further plot and characterisation -- Moses Supposes and the Broadway Melody Ballet spring to mind as songs that do nothing to advance the story -- but gets away with it anyway.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 06:50 pm:   

I too have met my share of Javerts. Two individuals spring to mind almost immediately. One of them died of cancer a couple years ago (not a few of my co-workers were glad to hear his demise had been an excruciatingly painful one). The other is still alive - he turned to Bible study.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.60.39
Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2013 - 07:45 pm:   

Javert's last line in the film is one of the rare moments of spoken dialogue.

Someone ought to have told him: "It helps if you sing."
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 12:49 am:   

I've just twigged why I loved 'Les Miserables' and 'Sweeney Todd' so much. Both films play like epic Dickensian fantasies set in a weirdly stylised musical world of heightened emotions. They're also incredibly dark and bloody, of course...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.30
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 07:27 pm:   

But haven't Epic Dickensian Fantasies, or at least their visual vocabulary, been worn down to raw cliche at this stage, not least by Tim Burton himself? Doctor Who. Christmas. Christmas Doctor Who. I've had my fill of pocked-watches and moonlit rooftops and haunted choral music with tinkly bits in.

There has to be another reason I was crying.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.30
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 07:30 pm:   

(Ooh, "pocked-watches" is actually a nice creative typo.)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 10:49 pm:   

But it's not just the Dickensian fantasy element that made me connect with these films, Proto.

It's the whole exaggeratedly emotional quality of pure melodrama, that filmmakers lost the knack of making back in the 50s, and that the irresistible power of the music and passionate singing of the cast of non-professional singers seems to have rejuvenated for a jaded audience nowadays - in the face of global depression on an unprecedented scale.

Highly stylised films like these, that hark back to a time of more innocent pleasures devoid of cynicism, are forcing us to reconnect with our more decent sensibilities as a global community. Can you imagine remakes of 'Random Harvest', 'Waterloo Bridge' or 'Casablanca' having anything like the same resonance if done straight nowadays?

We seem to need the distancing from our real lives that the music and period settings provide in order to switch off our cynicism and reconnect with our raw collective emotions. Last years's 'The Artist' (that was a musical devoid of singing) and 'The Muppets' tapped into the same emotional wellspring, IMO.

These films will come to be seen as an important sociological phenomenon of the early part of this most disorienting of centuries. I firmly believe that. They seem to offer hope and that's why I love them!
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.155.30
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2013 - 01:11 am:   

Yes, I agree. It allows you to bypass cynicism. We sometimes find ourselves on the wrong side of our own armour.

I would also put TITANIC and JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO in your list.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, February 25, 2013 - 10:08 pm:   

Saw two great new genre films this weekend that couldn't have been more different despite both concentrating on young children as the main protagonists:

1. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper
2. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
3. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino
4. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti

'Mama' is the latest Guillermo Del Toro produced Spanish horror film - although set in the States so no subtitles - and of the three I have seen (along with 'The Orphanage' & 'Julia's Eyes', both excellent) is definitely the scariest and most entertaining with a particularly memorable monster that is wisely kept off-screen, bar disturbingly subliminal glimpses, for 90% of the film's length. The plot is basically a clever rejigging of 'The Woman In Black', with elements nicked from the classic Japanese horrors; the 'Ringu' & 'Grudge' series. After the murder of their mother and disappearance of their deranged father two little girls are left abandonded in a remote cabin in the woods under the protection of an unseen benefactor until, years later, dogged detectives hired by their obsessed uncle track them down and return them to civilization and a loving home. But something monstrous follows them and isn't about to give up its precious wards. There may be nothing particularly original here but the handling of the scary set pieces and subtly creepy generation of a slow burning sense of dread by first time director, Muschietti, is extremely impressive and promises good things for his future career. Some of the early moments of half-glimpsed horrors at the edge of perception that the feral children welcome with beaming smiles and giggles are amongst the scariest horror scenes of recent years. In fact so much of the film is admirably understated, with nicely straight-faced and convincing performances to match, particularly by the two young leads, that the dreaded descent into CGI-overkill in the final 15 minutes, when Mama is finally revealed, is intensely frustrating after all the good work that got us there, perched on the edge of our seats. If a little more restraint had been shown in these climactic scenes this would have been a certifiable classic, the equal of the Jap horrors that inspired it, instead of an extremely effective above average frightener. Having said that the incredibly bleak final pay-off does make up for a lot and has one leaving the cinema rather shaken at the story's ultimate temerity. Very good indeed and showcases a new horror director to take note of...

And that was followed by a shock new offering from that most unpredictable of auteurs, Takashi Miike, in the form of 'Ninja Kids'... his first film made for children! I hesitate to put into words the effect of this completely insane and utterly loveable madcap epic. Set in feudal Japan with the same attention to period detail of his masterpiece, 'Thirteen Assassins' (2010), this freewheeling comic-fantasy adventure really does have to be seen to be believed. It plays like a jaw-droppingly un-PC Japanese version of the Harry Potter films with an assortment of very young fresh-faced and adorably cute children sent by their sternly traditional families for their first year in Ninja School, complete with little blue novice ninja suits, where they must pass with honour or die in the attempt!!! With all the wacky energy and visual zaniness of that old TV show 'Monkey' and the breathtaking action sequences that Miike is famed for, as well as laugh out loud slapstick humour complete with blood, sweat, tears, snot and dog shit (don't ask), this is like the crazed daydream of a demented Japanese Steven Spielberg wannabe who doesn't understand the meaning of the word "sentimentality" and has me wondering what kind of sense of humour they actually have over there in the Orient! Memories of that old gameshow 'Endurance' came to mind while watching what the adorable little tots in this are put through by their outrageously sadistic drill instructor (within 5 minutes we've seen him crush one poor mite's head to a bloody pulp for not paying attention in class). Lessons in ninja assassination skills follow, including; the art of samurai sword fighting, pointy star throwing, booby-trap construction, poisoning, explosives, sniping, camouflage, climbing sheer walls, throttling, hand-to-hand combat and much more, with much of the outrageous humour coming from seeing bumbling 10 year olds having to emulate their black clad overseers while hopelessly ouit of their depth and with failure not an option! There is a plot of a sort as the school is threatened with closure due to the machinations of a motley band of grotesque villains who seem to have stepped out of a nightmarishly absurd Monty Python sketch gone wrong and, of course, it is up to the young band of first year no-hopers (those still in one piece), led by bespectacled hero, Rantaro, to save the day. It's a complete one-off guaranteed to either confound or astonish Western audiences with its glimpse into the alien mindset of our Japanese cousins, and what they consider wholesome family entertainment, but I bloody loved it and doubt I will see a better children's movie this year. Miike is an insane genius and capable of absolutely anything after this!
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 114.25.188.84
Posted on Saturday, March 02, 2013 - 05:04 pm:   

"his first film made for children!"

I'd say Miike's Great Yokai War (2005) deserved that title, Stevie.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, March 03, 2013 - 08:03 pm:   

Wasn't aware of that one, Huw.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, March 04, 2013 - 11:26 am:   

'The Great Yokai War' sounds marvellous, Huw. A children's fantasy with stop motion animated monsters!

'Ninja Kids' is out-and-out broad slapstick comedy with all the crazed energy and eye-popping visuals of 'Ichi The Killer', minus the gore levels. The more I see of Miike's films the more in awe I am of his versatility.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.149.182.62
Posted on Friday, March 08, 2013 - 01:33 am:   

Stop the Presses!! We have a new Number One that has somehow managed to oust the mighty 'Les Miserables' and.. get this... seriously, get this.... it's a Horror Movie!!!!

The best I have seen since 'Antichrist' or 'Inland Empire' or 'Zodiac'.

Gonna leave you all in suspense for a little while in tribute to the man who inspired every frame of this instant masterpiece of psychological terror!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.231.71
Posted on Friday, March 08, 2013 - 06:52 pm:   

Bram ...... Inventor of the world's most famous vampire
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Saturday, March 09, 2013 - 06:44 am:   

Is it by chance THE CONJURING, Stevie?... I still remember this ratty old paperback my parents had sitting around the house in the 80's: The Demonologist, supposedly the true tales of famed "demonologists" Ed & Lorraine Warren (upon whom this new film is based), and it seriously blew my mind. Years—many agnostic years—later, and I still am not fully convinced, that the events and circumstances in that disturbing book didn't really happen, just as they described them (and those photos!)...
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.28
Posted on Saturday, March 09, 2013 - 10:34 am:   

My post was a not too cryptic clue to the name of the film.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Saturday, March 09, 2013 - 03:53 pm:   

That movie?!? The critics were tepid at best over it... and the trailer looked way over the top to me. In part to boot, I hear, a blatant rip-off of Shadow of a Doubt (anyway a brilliantly-premised film which I am alone now in thinking, sadly, dated).

But one thing I'll say: if it casts aside Les Mis, but yet stands up to fine films indeed like Antichrist, Inland Empire, and Zodiac—at least we know now where Les Mis really does stand....
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.200
Posted on Saturday, March 09, 2013 - 11:24 pm:   

The critics are just a handful of people given money to talk about movies. People are allowed to disagree with them. I think it's got more than 70% on rotten tomatoes which isn't bad.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.148.135.208
Posted on Saturday, March 09, 2013 - 11:38 pm:   

It's certainly divided opinion but the few folk I know who have seen it loved it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 01:01 pm:   

Over the last three nights either the cinema world has gone crazy or I succumbed to this bloody awful flu and now sit viewing masterpiece after masterpiece in some weird Stevie heaven straight out of the twilight zone. You wait for years for a great adult horror thriller that approaches the directorial genius of Hitchcock, Bava, Argento or De Palma, in his prime, and then THREE come along all at once:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Juame Balaguero
4. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
5. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
6. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino
7. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti

It would seem, at long, long last, that lessons are being learned from the Master all over again. Three way review to follow as these films play like a linked trilogy in some feature length portmanteau fever dream of my wildest imaginings. Think Campbellian psycho thrillers of the intelligence, quality, style, visual splendour and magnetic sensationalism, made unforgettable by the kind of visionary direction and utterly compelling performances, of stone cold classic horror films like; 'Peeping Tom', 'Psycho', 'Blood And Black Lace', 'Twisted Nerve', '10 Rillington Place', 'Frenzy', 'Martin', 'Dressed To Kill', 'Tenebrae', 'Seven', 'Insomnia' or 'Wolf Creek'.

Imagine films that belong in the same company, that dazzle the eyes with their dizzying technique and fire the grey cells with their fearless psychological intensity and corkscrew plots, each one presenting us with that most frightening monster of all, the killer with a human face as recognisable as our next door neighbour and a damaged soul and backstory that compels us to empathise with them, feel sorry for them and, god help us, almost root for them despite all their monstrous actions. That's what we have here, folks, in triplicate!!!

2013 has just taken off into the cinematic horror stratosphere.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 01:38 pm:   

Craig, yes, there is an Uncle Charlie in 'Stoker', and a niece who falls under his spell (or is it vice versa) but there all similarities end. There are equally resonant and obvious references to 'Vertigo', 'Psycho' and 'Frenzy', among other Hitch masterpieces, but this glorious tribute to the Master is very much Park Chan-Wook's own dizzying concoction. It is an instant masterpiece and the film that he was always warming up to! I say that as one of the biggest fans of his incredible Vengeance Trilogy. 'Stoker' tops all three of them, imho.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.204.217
Posted on Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 01:56 pm:   

Stevie, as a journalist working in the pharmaceutical arena I'm very keen to see Side Effects but believe it to be very much rooted in the facts around a certain medication and its off-label marketing. I'll be reviewing it as such within my job.

Much as I respect your appreciation of horror films in general, I thought Wolf Creek was shit: voyeuristic, exploitative, tacky, cheap drivel made by an adolescent boy sadist for an audience of adolescent boy sadists. I've seen few worse films.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 02:24 pm:   

I threw it into the list as the last psycho thriller I saw before these three that impressed me as wholly Hitchcockian, Joel. He may not have been as sympathetic a killer as Norman Bates or Mark Lewis but he was all too recognisably human.

'Side Effects' is another great thriller with a pitiably human killer and a strikingly bloody murder sequence that recalls Polanski's 'Repulsion' but the plot is completely original and deals with the worrying reliance on psychoactive drugs prevalent in today's treatment of mental disorder. It makes one think about questions of guilt and culpability like no other film in the genre but is also first and foremost an edge-of-the-seat suspense entertainment for adults. Like all the films I listed.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.193.168
Posted on Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 11:05 pm:   

Wolf Creek is Hitchcockian in the sense that its director is motivated by an icy contempt for women.

I didn't say that. I was being quoted out of context.

I'm looking forward to seeing Side Effects, and believe the plot is rooted in actual circumstances of recent pharmaceutical history. Sometimes reality can give you the makings of a great story more effectively than genre could.

Which reminds me: I saw 'No' earlier today, a new Chilean film about the election that saw Pinochet deposed, much to his surprise (we are told). Both sides employed successful advertising executives to run their campaigns – the twist being that the two executives worked in the same company – one as employee, the other as boss. How much of that was historically true I don't know and it doesn't matter – what it does is show in a quite riveting way how Chilean middle-class society under Pinochet lived on a knife-edge between glamorous prosperity and brutal repression.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, March 11, 2013 - 02:07 am:   

The killer in 'Wolf Creek' showed an icy contempt for all his fellow human beings, Joel, not just women. I thought he was a particularly convincing and scary psychopath and the director showed an understanding of the mechanics of suspense that was worthy of Hitchcock. Such films are designed to frighten and disturb by showing us the horrible things that can happen in this human dominated world when the intellect is uncontrolled by compassion or empathy in those thankfully rare individuals whom biology, circumstances and their own unique psyche turn into cold blooded monsters. But for the grace of God, the blind chance of egg and sperm or the personal values instilled by our formative experiences go any of us...

Once Evil finds a way in the result is like a cancer of the soul that needs to be studied, understood and battled every bit as much as its biological counterpart. Books like 'The Face That Must Die' and comparable films like 'Peeping Tom' (for me the best of the lot) play their own part in keeping us from cosy complacency. Forewarned is forearmed.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, March 11, 2013 - 03:37 am:   

Tomorrow evening, to coincide with the release of the new Bowie album, I'm finally getting to see one of the greatest films of the 1970s, and best sci-fi films ever made, Nicolas Roeg's great masterpiece, 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' (1976), on the big screen. A film I've always found strangely haunting and see new things in every time I watch it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.215
Posted on Monday, March 11, 2013 - 06:36 pm:   

Really excited about seeing 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' in the cinema. It's been some 20 years since I last saw it on telly and the film has always been high up in my Top 10 sci-fi movies list. As for Bowie's performance, never has anyone been so perfectly cast as an alien.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.148.135.208
Posted on Monday, March 11, 2013 - 10:08 pm:   

...and it has Candy Clark too! :-)
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.199.34
Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - 12:24 am:   

But Stevie, he doesn't look anything like an alien: he's only got two legs, two arms, two eyes, one mouth, and he's taller than he is wide and nothing at all like that grey thing detaching itself from the wall behind you.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 09:07 am:   

After watching that again I'm now left wondering if he was an alien at all. There are hints that the whole thing was some elaborate experiment to make us think there was an alien among us, as in "The Architects Of Fear" episode of 'The Outer Limits' or Alan Moore's 'Watchmen'. Either that or the powers that be knew he was coming and were watching him all along. The film is shot through with an intense paranoia that worms its way into the viewer's consciousness and makes one doubt everything one sees. I now believe Bowie was some kind of brainwashed pawn from beginning to end of this weird and wonderful fantasy.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 09:33 am:   

Make that four great genre pictures in less than a week and almost certainly the best children's fantasy, for all ages, of the year:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Juame Balaguero
4. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi
5. Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
6. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
7. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino
8. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti

Completely out of the blue Sam Raimi has delivered what is unquestionably his finest film to date and has gone a long way toward emulating with the Oz books what Peter Jackson achieved with Tolkien. This pisses all over Tim Burton's shambolic version of 'Alice In Wonderland' and is one of the most visually stunning fantasy films I have ever seen. Wildly entertaining from first second to last and remaining completely faithful to the source material this is an instant classic of its type done with rare heart, humour and guts in every department. It has something of the colourful but creepy otherworldly quality of that greatest of all fantasy motion pictures, 'The Thief Of Baghdad', and really is a joy to behold. File this wonderfully old fashioned heartwarming epic alongside the likes of 'The Artist', 'The Muppets' & 'Les Miserables' as yet another utterly beguiling hark back to the glory days of early cinema when big budget popular entertainment was made with real craft and presented devoid of cynicism. Well done, sir!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 04:13 pm:   

Has anyone here read L. Frank Baum's Oz books? I haven't and was only familiar with 'The Wizard Of Oz', which Raimi's wonderful vision pays homage to while distancing itself from at the same time. The emotional depth and resonance of the story, as well as the fantastic production design, with its real sets and downplaying of CGI to generate all the sense of wonder, has me itching to discover the books now. The other films they spawned, Boorman's appalling 'Zardoz' and the lacklustre 'Return To Oz' of the 80s, seem to have treated the source material very poorly if this glorious epic is anything to go by. It has that rare quality of witnessing a fairy-tale come to life before one's very eyes that I believed modern cinema was incapable of. A must see for all serious fantasy fans and, yes, you can tell it was a horror director at the helm. Young children may well be scared out of their wits but, by god, they'll have a ball watching this! Go see it!!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.45
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 04:21 pm:   

I read most of the Oz books when I was a teenager. IIRC Wizard was one of the weaker books in the series. Return to Oz was a merging of 2 of the other books, Ozma of Oz and another that I can't remember the name of.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 66.87.67.134
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 04:27 pm:   

Did you know all of Baum's books are in public domain? Have been for many many years. Just an aside FYI.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.62
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 07:02 pm:   

Was also good to see Bruce Campbell pop in a memorable cameo. Actually, off all the films from Sam Raimi's back catalogue, the one OTGAP most resembles is 'Evil Dead III : Army Of Darkness', although, where that was an entertaining cult picture, this thrilling fantasy masterwork is one of those magical films guaranteed to be loved by a generation of young people and the adults lucky enough to take them to see it.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.16.241.233
Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 07:19 pm:   

The only question I have about Oz is how did Sam Raimi shoe-horn his trademark Oldsmobile cameo into it?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, March 15, 2013 - 02:58 pm:   

Back to those three Hitchcockian masterpieces I'm still reeling from seeing one after the other last week:

First up, 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook is the most obviously referential to Hitchcock, with 'Shadow Of A Doubt' (1943), Hitch's personal favourite of all his films, providing the initial point of contact. It is also the most stunningly cinematic of the three and shows the director's confidence to be deservedly flying high, on the back of his genre defining Vengeance Trilogy - 'Sympathy For Mr Vengeance' (2002), 'Oldboy' (2003) & 'Lady Vengeance' (2005). This is spectacularly orchestrated cinema with every frame and dizzying camera movement or bravado shot having the stamp of the Master's influence, studied and understood and made glorious Art with. Bava, Argento & De Palma have a new rival for the Hitchcockian crown - an accolade that many have striven for and fell floundering along the way in slavish mockery. Park Chan-Wook not only has the talent and nous to dare to compare himself to the Master, with more enjoyably blatant references than anything since 'High Anxiety' (1977), but was provided with a script of remarkable assurance, by first timer Wentworth Miller, that plays wonderfully with all the familiar motifs while presenting a completely original and unpredictable gothic horror/suspense melodrama that has the audience as delightfully confounded as they are entertained from start to finish.

The plot centres on the Stoker family and, in particular, the daughter, India (Mia Wasikowska), an autistic and rather creepy adolescent girl, who lives in a sprawling gothic mansion in the Deep South with her flaky alcoholic mother (Nicole Kidman) and her austere father (Dermot Mulroney), who takes her on much loved hunting trips. Following the unexpected death of her father in an apparent car accident a handsome and effortlessly charismatic young man (Matthew Goode) turns up at the funeral proclaiming himself to be their long lost Uncle Charlie. He proceeds to move in and, with unseemly haste, take his place as head of the household, in every department... including the bedroom. Goode's enigmatic presence as a dark hypnotic intruder preying on the sexually frustrated womenfolk and leading them into damnation provides the deliberate thematic link to the author of my favourite horror novel. What unfolds from this set-up is a magnetically charged three way clash of egos with sexual jealousy and the threat of violence forever hanging in the air while dark family secrets proceed to raise their ugly heads and skeletons jangle in every closet. But how it all pans out I defy anyone to guess.

The three leads give career best performances in their attempts to outdo each other as the most icily sinister member of the Stoker family, and with great support from Jacki Weaver, as concerned old Aunt Gwen, Phyllis Somerville as the creepy housekeeper and Ralph Brown as the suspicious sheriff, as well as a gang of local louts who take an unhealthy interest in India's maidenhood, or lack of, we have all the ingredients for a fine gothic stew. The film has all the high emotion and haunting psycho-sexual undercurrents of 'Vertigo' (1958) coupled with the shock horror set pieces of 'Psycho' (1960) or 'Frenzy' (1972) and also the dark and rather disturbing wit of Hitchcock at his most playful. It is quite possibly the finest and most original homage to the great man I have ever seen and has instantly gone to the top of my Films of the Year list, replacing the monumental 'Les Miserables' by sheer force of cinematic genius alone. If you don't come out of this one glowing with satisfaction then you're no fan of cinema. An instant gothic horror/psychological suspense masterpiece that will take many viewings to fully grasp all the wondrous nuances of... DON'T MISS IT!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, March 15, 2013 - 03:44 pm:   

Flew through "The Slithering Shadow". Another highly atmospheric, scary and entertaining horror yarn with a particularly memorable monster and one of the longest sustained and goriest fight sequences yet. One can almost sense the author gritting his teeth and tearing the paper with his pen as he writes this stuff. It's sensational!!

Conan comes across as surprisingly prudish in this one as he and his latest paramour stumble into a den of drugged up sexual depravity ruled over by an amorphous demonic entity out of the Abyss. Barbaric and lustful he may be but depraved, never...
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.142
Posted on Saturday, March 16, 2013 - 01:18 pm:   

First timer Wentworth Miller? He was the much tattooed lead actor in all 4 series of Prison Break. And in films I know I have a film called The Grave Dancers dating back a good 6 or 7 years at least which he stars in.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.48
Posted on Saturday, March 16, 2013 - 02:17 pm:   

This was his first script, Weber, and shows where his true talent lies, IMHO.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.16.241.233
Posted on Saturday, March 16, 2013 - 02:51 pm:   

It was Dominic Purcell from Prison Break who starred in The Grave Dancers. That was quite a weird one, from what I remember. It seemed very low-budget and serious but then at the end had these over-the-top evil ghosts that could have come straight out of a Ghostbusters movie.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013 - 01:33 am:   

Every once in a blue moon a new unheralded little movie comes along that shocks me rigid with its originality, audacity and cinematic brilliance. I was staggered to discover that Juame Balagueró's latest Spanish horror opus, 'Sleep Tight', is just such a a beast. This, coming on the back of being wowed by Park Chan-Wook's Hitchcockian masterpiece, 'Stoker', only the night before, had me thinking I must have died and gone to Stevie heaven.

This is another Hitchcockian psycho thriller masterpiece of quite stunning quality. There is no other way to put it. I would rank this glorious thriller right up there with the great psychological suspense movies that defined a genre; 'Peeping Tom' (1960), 'Psycho' (1960), 'Repulsion' (1965), '10 Rillington Place' (1971), 'Martin' (1978), etc... Now we have a new name and performance to join that rarified list of truly convincing and frightening, for being all too vulnerably human, screen psychopaths who deserve their place in the Horror Hall of Fame!! Mark my words, you’ll be hearing a lot more about mild mannered César (Luis Tosar) and his inability to “be happy” once this fantastic film hits the horror grapevine. He is easily the most memorable new screen maniac since Mick Taylor in ‘Wolf Creek’ (2005) – and what he does to his victims is a great deal scarier…

On the evidence of the director’s two previous horror films ‘REC’ (2007) & ‘REC2’ (2009) [both watched in the past week as part of my regular triple bills] Balagueró was always a highly talented director but with ‘Sleep Tight’ he has carved out a place for himself as one of the greats. Michael Powell only ever directed one horror movie but it was eaily the greatest of its type. I would seriously consider this slice of perverse psycho-sexual wickedness as the most truly disturbing horror film, on a deeply taboo psychological level, since ‘Peeping Tom’. Remarkably, the quality of the razor sharp direction, the literacy of the script and the subtly nuanced and utterly convincing performances match Powell’s masterpiece on almost every level.

I hesitate to spoil anyone’s “enjoyment” of this blisteringly tense thriller by giving away too much of the set-up. As with Balagueró’s previous horror films all the action is set in a typical Spanish apartment block and centres around the shy, retiring desk front concierge called César. A timid, humble, softly spoken little man who is loved, trusted and confided in by the tenants, for his faultless reliability and attention to detail. He is the sort of sweet natured fellow who is always willing to help and ingratiates himself with everyone by remembering their problems and always asking after them. For him no job is too much to take on and the comfort of his tenants and upkeep of his building would seem to be the one thing that gives his life meaning. Whether it be feeding pets while their owners are away, fixing the plumbing, exterminating cockroaches or maintaining the air conditioning César is a perfectionist and trusted by all to come and go as he pleases with his great big bunch of keys… God help them all!!

Don’t let me give you the wrong impression about César or Luis Tosar’s completely sympathetic and even winning performance. César doesn’t want to harm his people. He only wants to be happy. Because, you see, he was born without the ability to feel happiness and is only curious to find out if such a thing really does exist or if what people think is happiness is merely an illusion they have fooled themselves into believing. Take that pretty little girl who just moved in and doesn’t seem to have a care in the world, on the surface, but kindly César can see the hurt behind her eyes and he knows what she really needs.

To call the character created by Tosar’s pitch perfect interpretation of Alberto Marini’s stunningly original script CREEPY AS FUCK!!!! is somehow to not fully grasp the impact of this nightmarish story or the actor’s skill in breathing life into such an innocuously human monster, the likes of which I have never before seen on the cinema screen. He dominates every second of the film and we are dragged kicking and screaming, our knuckles white, our teeth clenched, our eyes wide and staring in disbelief, into the very heart of his depraved psychosis. I could feel people in the cinema around me shifting in discomfort, muttering imprecations and gasping in hushed shock but not an eye could pull itself away from the screen. Everyone who loves this great genre of our’s needs to see this stunning masterpiece with an audience on the big screen. I haven’t felt such an electric reaction to a thriller in years. Absolutely fantastic filmmaking. Again… DO NOT MISS IT!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013 - 04:09 am:   

And the following night the hat-trick was completed by what is undoubtedly the finest film of Steven Soderbergh's mercurial career, IMHO. 'Side Effects' is yet another remarkably fine Hitchcockian suspense psycho thriller that references the Master with gleeful abandon and stands up as a great movie in its own right due to the originality of the premise and quality of the direction, the wonderfully tricksy script by Scott Z. Burns and committed acting from an all-star cast in great form.

Rooney Mara plays the helplessly psychotic heroine, Emily, a timid young woman prone to bouts of paralysing anxiety, black depression with suicidal thoughts and episodes of sleep walking that have her loving husband, Channing Tatum, deeply concerned and urging her to seek professional help. She approaches Jude Law's hip and radical young psychotherapist who puts her on an experimental new wonder drug called Ablixa, as recommended by Catherine Zeta-Jones' "face of psychotherapy", which has been designed for just her condition. What follows is as horrific as it is tragic and unexpected but there'll be no spoilers here.

The plot twists and turns with deft assurance, keeping the viewer's brain engaged and emotions involved, while shifting from moving psycho drama to horror thriller to legal moral dilemma drama, that makes us question all our perceived notions of guilt and culpability, and ultimately winds up in paranoid conspiracy land before pulling the rug out from under us with such gasp inducing aplomb that Hitch himself would have been standing up and applauding I have no doubt.

I've always found Soderbergh a frustrating director whose films are always technically fine but frequently fail to engage the emotions or have anything deeper to say beyond being professional entertainments but when he gets a good succinct script, like this one, he really does know how to deliver. By all accounts this is to be his swan song, having announced his shock retirement from directing, and, having seen most of his films, and been especially impressed by his last two genre pictures, the excellent 'Contagion' (2011) and 'Haywire' (2012), I have to say that he's bowing out with his masterpiece. Well done, sir!

Anyone going in expecting this to be a worthy exercise in decrying the use of psychoactive drugs in the treatment of mental disorder, at the expense of entertainment value, will no doubt be disappointed by some of the film's Stanley Ellin like twists but I have rarely seen a more finely crafted adult suspense thriller that really does keep us guessing on the edge of our seats till the very last scene. Brilliant stuff!! And I say yet again... DON'T MISS IT!!!! It's simply the best thing Steven Soderbergh has ever done.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013 - 04:42 am:   

What all three films share, aside from the Hitchcock references, are a truly great script married to inspired direction and gloriously committed acting. 2013 is already one of the great years for cinema on the strength of numbers 1 to 5 of my annual list so far:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - the finest Hitchcock homage and Southern Gothic horror movie I have ever seen with jaw-dropping direction that is a joy to behold.

2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper - the best and most powerfully moving screen musical ever made, in my experience.

3. 'Sleep Tight' by Juame Balaguero - the scariest and most likeable screen psychopath since 'Peeping Tom' and every bit as fine a film.

4. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - he's finally topped 'The Evil Dead' and produced the most beautiful and emotionally engaging fantasy film of the modern era.

5. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh - the crowning achievement of his distinguished career and the most stunningly original suspense psycho thriller in years.

6. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike.
7. 'Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino.
8. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti.

All in my humble opinion...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.241
Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013 - 09:35 pm:   

Just off to see the new Ken Loach film, 'The Spirit Of '45'. Loach is one of my great cinematic heroes. Up there with Woody Allen or Hitchcock, inhabiting his own niche of blistering true life drama and impassioned political integrity. One of the greatest directors Britain ever produced, IMHO.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.205.120
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 01:02 am:   

It's not on anywhere in Birmingham yet, Stevie. Loach is variable – that whisky tasting adventure was very slight, but several of his films are magnificent and this one sounds essential.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 01:04 am:   

Just seen one of the most incredibly moving and incensing documentary features ever made for the cinema. Everyone who cares about what Bevan did and Thatcher and her minion bankers systematically destroyed over the last 30 years NEEDS to see Ken Loach's 'The Spirit Of '45'!! It had me filling up and spitting blood in its masterful spelling out of just how we've all been hoodwinked while we basked in cosy complacency and let every single painful lesson of the last Great Depression and the working class sacrifice to defeat fascism of World War II be forgotten and frittered away. Time to rise up again people and realise our collective power in the exercise of righteous anger and social justice!! VIVE LA REVOLUTION!!!!

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper - accept misery as our lot no longer, people!
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Juame Balaguero
4. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach
5. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi
6. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
7. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
8. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino
9. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti

Yet to see a remotely bad film this year... incredible!
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 109.52.24.129
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 08:06 am:   

(What happened to my March 18 post about "Sinister" and "Mama"?)...that's strange, I can't find on any movie thread here, yet I checked it was regulrly posted before logging out...maybe I flunked somewhere.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 1.169.128.81
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 09:38 am:   

I think it's on the 'Beware The Lodge' thread, Giancarlo!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 12:03 pm:   

Still can't stop thinking about that beautifully made documentary last night. Yes, it's a socialist polemic every bit as emotionally manipulative as anything Michael Moore every made but so was fucking 'Triumph Of The Will' (1935) and when such cinematic craft is on the side of the Angels - as anyone with half a conscience will realise this glorious film is - then it is deserving of every accolade we can bestow upon it.

In the awful years of suffering, untimely death, economic hardship and the seductive evil of fascism (i.e. Thatcherism without the spin doctors) of the 1930s (that the Irish suffered 100 years before) and through the HORROR of the Second World War, when the Churchillian upstarts on their ivory pedestals had no choice but to fall back on the people they had trodden upon in the wake of the so called Great War to save their pampered lifestyles from the Nazi jackboot (that they secretly craved the decadent bastards!), the people suffered but pulled together.

The "great mystery" of the 1945 Labour landslide - the thought of which still terrifies every Tory hoo-ray henry to his marrow - is explained in simple, powerful, undeniable terms that merge all shades of grey into an Undeniable Rightness and Sense of Justice that puts to shame every Thatcherite/Reaganite apologist of the last 30 years like nothing I have ever seen before.

No such thing as fucking society?!?! Watch this beautiful masterpiece and rejoice for what was done in the name of our brave fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers in the one shining period of the 20th Century that gives genuine HOPE to this pitiful collective we call the human race. We aren't ants, we aren't sheep, we are PEOPLE.. fucking human beings... and it's about time we woke up to that fact!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 12:42 pm:   

Bugger! Apologies to Jaume Balagueró for misspelling his name all this time!

Just checked the guy's filmography and had no idea he directed the film version of one of my favourite Ramsey Campbell novels, 'The Nameless', back in 1999!! I must see this!!
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 01:32 pm:   

Thanks for the Loach review, Stevie. I hope I get to see it in a Birmingham cinema – so far no sign of it. Loach is working hard to align the film's release with an activist programme – there isn't much time to lose.

The Socialist Party is getting some serious political traction in Ireland now – both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – and needless to say, Sinn Fein are pulling out the stops to defeat it, because it plays better with the ruling class to give sectarian politics a vaguely left-wing spray job than to embrace serious socialist ideas.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 03:43 pm:   

I'm a wee bit annoyed at you, Joel, that you criticise Ken Loach for making "slight" (i.e. popular working class) comedies, like 'Riff-Raff' (1991), 'Looking For Eric' (2009) & 'The Angels' Share' (2012) when it is those very films that prove he is a truly great film director and not some glorified maker of party political broadcasts for the Labour Party!

Maybe now, having seen his compassion for your own, you people over the water will understand the great man's sense of duty and reparation when he made the two greatest and most honest films ever made about the English caused Troubles in Ireland; 'Hidden Agenda' (1990) & 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley' (2006). The man's unflinching honesty is what makes him such a great human being and a great film director.

Who else approaches him in the modern era as a stridently and proudly British film director? The saddest element of 'The Spirit Of '45' was listening to all those pensioners who lived through the lean years and fought for the victory of democracy over fascism, loyally waving their Union Jacks every time the King or the Queen rode by, as they described what they suffered then and what they are suffering now. And how fucking worried they are about their great-grandchildren. Shame on you, Maggie, shame on you...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.149.182.62
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 06:54 pm:   

I am moved - by the best scene in 'Donnie Darko' watched again at the weekend - to state the truism that the whole human experience cannot be divided into two opposite poles. Whether it's fear and love or left and right.

But there is such a thing as Right and Wrong as Ken Loach's great polemic for justice makes abundantly clear! Sir, I salute you and would shake your hand were it but possible.

What are We? Selfish dog eat dog bastards or decent human beings? There has never been a more stark time in modern history to decide where you stand...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.149.182.62
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 06:55 pm:   

Yeah, I watched "Five Characters In Search Of An Exit" at the weekend. Well spotted!
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.203.43
Posted on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 10:19 pm:   

I thought 'Looking For Eric' was excellent, Stevie, and so was 'My Name Is Joe' – but 'The Angels' Share' lacked focus and resonance, it was like a Channel 4 mini-series in which the main episode never seems to happen.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - 11:41 am:   

'My Name Is Joe' (1998) is one of my favourites of Loach's. As brilliant a thriller as it is an intensely moving drama. Perhaps the great Peter Mullan's finest performance.

I think my all time favourite is 'Raining Stones' (1993) though. It gets the balance between hilarious comedy, shocking real life human drama, that moves and infuriates in equal measure, and edge-of-the-seat tension, in the brilliantly integrated thriller elements, exactly right and has a fantastic performance by Corrie's Bruce Jones, that really has to be seen to be believed. I'd pick it as Loach's masterpiece.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 02:58 pm:   

I see 'Jack The Giant Slayer' is to open here tomorrow but I haven't found the CGI-heavy trailer or any of the critical reactions I've read to be too inspiring. What I'm really hoping for is a re-release of the original stop motion animated 'Jack The Giant Killer' (1962), which I have never seen, apart from a few mouth-watering clips.

More appealing is a new Romanian film, 'Beyond The Hills', which sounds like a harrowing true life drama on the subject of religious intolerance, superstition and exorcism. Looks good.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.7
Posted on Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 10:11 pm:   

Those are both good, overlooked Loach films, I think Stevie.

"The Socialist Party is getting some serious political traction in Ireland now – both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland"

I'm afraid that's not true at all, in the case of Eire, Joel. The latest polls group the socialist party with the Green Party and "others" down 5%. The big winner is the centre-right Finnia Fail party, which now tops the polls. This is the systematically-corrupt party which while in government just 5 years ago destroyed the economy and reduced the country into a wasteland for generations to come. So the big loser is logic.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 22, 2013 - 12:07 pm:   

Sinn Fein were closer to National Socialism than true Socialism, Joel, as I know all too well from the intimidatory tactics they used on their own people at polling stations all during the Troubles. They're a different beast now but remain tainted by their adherence to the past and unapologetic support of violence in a democracy. I could never vote for them on a point of conscience and have always been staunchly SDLP. John Hume was my great political hero growing up. The closest thing Ireland ever got to a Martin Luther King figure. His Nobel Peace Prize was richly deserved.

I find it richly ironic that Scotland are far closer to gaining independence, won by purely political means, than Sinn Fein could have ever hoped to be. Live by the sword, die by the sword...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 22, 2013 - 12:12 pm:   

Sadly the BNP are also "getting some serious political traction" among the more extreme members of the Loyalist community in Northern Ireland, Joel. One of the prices we seem to have had to pay for peace.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, March 22, 2013 - 01:24 pm:   

Proto, I was speaking in relative terms. When you get used to campaigning for a left party, a single MP or MEP is a serious breakthrough. But also see the point below...

Stevie, at least the Socialist Party's elected representatives work extremely hard to get things done – elected BNP representatives do nothing but sit back and talk drivel.

History has shown that the 'specific weight' of Socialist Party representation is exceptionally high, which is why mainstream parties are desperate to stop them. One MP can become a real political headache if he/she works hard enough, and well enough, to expose the real issues.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 22, 2013 - 03:14 pm:   

Over the last couple of years the BNP have been linked to orchestrated attacks against ethnic minorities living in Loyalist communities throughout Northern Ireland but particularly in Belfast. It's a crime that was unheard of over here when they were only interested in keeping the Catholics down.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, March 25, 2013 - 04:33 pm:   

We have our first ten:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper - accept misery as our lot no longer, people!
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Juame Balaguero
4. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach
5. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi
6. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
7. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
8. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino
9. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti
10. 'Jack The Giant Slayer' by Bryan Singer

As there was nothing else on I ended up going to see 'Jack The Giant Slayer' by Bryan Singer yesterday, curious to compare it to Peter Jackson's impressive 'The Hobbit' & Sam Raimi's utterly wonderful 'Oz The Great And Powerful'. It can't hold a candle to either film.

This is a fun romp and no more with the emphasis on adventure and spectacle at the expense of any attempt at deeper resonance. The direction is adequate but hampered by way too heavy reliance on CGI, that comes to overwhelm the senses, while the script and acting are perfunctory at best - being merely tools for the promulgation of the BIG action set pieces. I found young Nicholas Hoult astonishingly devoid of charisma in the crucial lead role and Ewan McGregor, hamming his way outrageously through the film, hasn't been this irritatingly cheesy since the 'Star Wars' prequels. The one performance that stood out was that of Stanley Tucci in a panto villain's role he relished immensely and was great fun in.

It killed a couple of hours entertainingly enough but pales beside some of the great fantasy films of recent years and won't stay long in the memory. Take the kids. They'll love it and you won't be too bored yourself. Just don't expect to be wowed.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, March 25, 2013 - 05:05 pm:   

Off to see 'Beyond The Hills' by acclaimed Romanian director, Cristian Mungiu, tonight. It sounds like an incredible true life culture clash horror story set in the superstitious backwoods of Romania and involving suspected demonic possession, forced imprisonment and exorcism, due to the Orthodox church's abhorrence of homosexuality. In the mood for something intelligent after yesterday's light romp.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 12:32 am:   

That was a well nigh perfect and highly absorbing drama. The best I have seen on the subject of exorcism and an incredibly moving doomed love story to boot:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balaguero
4. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu
5. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach
6. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi
7. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
8. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
9. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino
10. 'Mama' by Andres Muschietti

Review to follow...
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 2.199.5.47
Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 08:46 am:   

I've seen "Mama" at last. Excellent horror, although a bit spoiled by an overdone finale, too much CGI and a faint sentimental whiff leaving me slightly puzzled, beside some uncoherent (to me, at least) passage at mid-movie, but that might just be my perception. I'll watch it again in DVD version, as I'm planning to do with "Sinister" too.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 11:54 am:   

I agree, Giancarlo, it's a superior horror entertainment with some great creepy sequences but is marred, as too often happens nowadays, by a frustratingly overblown CGI anti-climax. When will horror directors learn that in the horror genre, unlike fantasy or sci-fi, less is always more.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 01:00 pm:   

'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu is a brilliantly made and acted combination of tragic love story and real life horror story that I found completely mesmerising. The director is clearly a natural talent with something of Ken Loach's knack for documentary realism coupled with a haunting poetic quality that really gets under the skin.

This is primarily a tale of two lost souls, Voichita & Alina, who grew up together in a tough Romanian orphanage and had only their love for each other to keep them going - their friendship and mutual protection of each other naturally turning to love and sex as they came of age. As lesbian couples go, Voichita was the quiet pretty one while Alina was the tough and physically imposing tomboy whose love was the fiercer of the two. Having left the orphanage as young women their lives drifted apart due to unavoidable circumstances and Voichita found herself drawn to Holy Orders in an austere but loving Orthodox convent where she found protection and peace in her faith. Alina escaped to Germany where she embraced the new found freedoms and ability to express her sexuality openly... but her heart always remained back home with the love of her life.

Years later Alina makes the fateful decision to return home, determined to seek out Voichita and rescue her from the backward and superstitious emotional prison of their upbringing. When they meet the love is still there but Voichita, completely indoctrinated by her religious "calling" and the charismatic influence of the convent leader, a grim faced and heavily bearded Orthodox priest we know only as "Father", rejects her physical advances as a sin and begs her to forget the past and let God into her life. Alina, hopelessly in love, naively decides to stay and join the convent, hoping that her presence will eventually win her former lover over. To their credit the Order accept Alina with open arms, despite reservations, due to her having been "tainted" by her time in the "decadent west", and thereby hangs the recipe for a real life tragedy of truly Shakespearean dimensions.

I must stress that never once does the script take the easy option of condemning the members of the convent or implying any sort of impropriety on the part of their priest overseer. These people are truly good, genuine Christians who actively welcome Alina and try everything over the film's length to love, help and understand her differences. They are hopelessly out of their depth and the longer Alina stays and grows frustrated with her inability to get close to Voichita or convince her to leave for the freedoms of Germany the more unstable her behaviour becomes, eventually resulting in a full blown nervous breakdown. Having no knowledge of mental illness and being horrified by the "obscenities" issuing from Alina's mouth in the throes of her madness they come to the inevitable conclusion that she has been possessed by the Evil One... and you can guess the rest. But not how fair the treatment of all the characters is or how convincing and admirably devoid of cheap sensationalism is the portrayal of a descent into physical and mental torture of a vulnerable individual by truly good people, driven by a very real terror of the supernatural.

The direction, script and cinematography are superb but what really marks this film out as something special is the stunning performances of the two leads; Cosmina Stratan (Voichita) and Cristina Flutur (Alina). To show an overwhelming mutual love that cannot be expressed is one of the most difficult jobs for any actor and when that is coupled with overpowering shame, on the part of Voichita, and a painful forced reining in of her forthright nature, by Alina (desperate not to do or say the wrong thing), until she can take it no more and her mind snaps, then the result is some of the greatest screen acting you will ever see... and admirably understated throughout. This is a real emotional powerhouse of a true life drama and undoubtedly the most penetratingly intelligent, compassionate and honest exploration of real life exorcism and superstitious fear of the unknown that I can recall seeing.

The film ends on a particularly haunting note, in the aftermath of the climactic ritual, in which the news breaks that a Romanian boy from the near-by city has just murdered his mother and posted photographs of her corpse on the Internet. The casual reaction of the police and inability to comprehend such evil of the condemned nuns and their priest says it all really. A devastating love story, completely devoid of lesbian tittilation, a harrowing horror story and one hell of a sobering culture clash drama. Deserves every award going, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 94.116.61.216
Posted on Sunday, March 31, 2013 - 05:13 pm:   

Off to see the new Danny Boyle film, 'Trance', in which he has teamed up again with the scriptwriter of his two best films, 'Shallow Grave' and 'Trainspotting' - John Hodge. I hear it's another Hitchcockian suspense thriller and always feel Boyle is at his best when he directs genre projects. This apparently involves amnesia, hypnosis and recovered memories as part of the plot of a crime thriller. Fingers crossed.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 08:54 am:   

Sadly 'Trance' turned out to be a very average thriller indeed. The plot is just too gimmicky and far-fetched for its own good and has that "eager to please" obviousness about it that expects a level of credulity from the viewer I just couldn't accept. Boyle throws all the directorial tricks he can think of at us but can't disguise what is all flash and no substance. It's mildly diverting and Rosaria Dawson is stunningly beautiful as the hypnotic femme fatale but ultimately this shows just how far the creative team have come from their glory days in the 90s. As innessential and forgettable a Hitchcockian suspense thriller as 'Stoker', 'Sleep Tight and 'Side Effects' were inspired and memorable, IMHO.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 03:45 pm:   

I always found Tom Baker to be the most sinister incarnation of the Doctor. There was something truly alien and inscrutable about him. Matt Smith started his run with the same quality but it was frittered away by too many comedic episodes, IMO.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 03:46 pm:   

Wrong bloody thread!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 03:58 pm:   

Off to see the new Irish movie, 'Good Vibrations', tonight - set in 1970s Belfast. It's about a guy I know very well. I must have bought half my CD collection in Terri Hooley's Good Vibrations record shop back in the 80s. I'm oddly nervous about watching it but it is getting rave reviews so fingers crossed, as usual.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, April 04, 2013 - 03:36 pm:   

I'm still reeling and trying to collate my thoughts, through the haze of a hangover, after seeing by far the best film ever to come out of Belfast. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn is bloody fantastic!! At last we have a film about the 1970s Troubles that is completely honest and has a stridently positive and uplifting but still tough and unsentimental tale to tell about that godforsaken time. I came out grinning from ear to ear and wanting to punch the air. I love this place!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, April 04, 2013 - 03:41 pm:   

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balaguero
4. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn
5. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu
6. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach
7. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi
8. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
9. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike
10. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino

It really is that good!! Review to follow...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, April 08, 2013 - 06:00 pm:   

And so to the indescribably wonderful 'Good Vibrations'... a story about the punk rock music scene in 1970s Belfast and the man who became their figurehead, a typical Irish eccentric with more enthusiasm than sense, Terri Hooley. I'm usually loathe to go and see much vaunted local productions because they invariably turn out to be painfully amateurish shite. This marvellous movie bucks the trend and is every bit as cinematically accomplished as 2011's 'The Guard'.

I lived through the awful Troubles of the 1970s-80s as a largely oblivious boy and an increasingly depressed and enraged teenager and know from personal experience that the only voice of positive defiance in the city came from the gloriously feelgood/angry music scene that produced the likes of The Outcasts, The Undertones & Stiff Little Fingers with their cross community fanbase and clarion calls for an Alternative Uslter to the madness that was tearing us apart.

This inspired warts-and-all biopic of local indie record shop owner and sometime record producer, Terri Hooley, tells that untold story magnificently and was particularly poignant and uplifting for me to watch as I was one of the mad ejits pogoing my way through it and buying my records and CDs off the man himself. Like a hate free minority of Norn Iron kids who had common sense and heart in those days music was my world and the Troubles could go fuck themselves!

The period detail and recreation of old pubs and shops is achingly accurate for someone who remembers them, the hi-octane directorial style is reminiscent of 'Trainspotting' and suits the subject matter while the inspired script avoids over-glorifying Terri or glossing over the bloodshed and vicious bigotry that we had to contend with all around us, day in, day out, until it came to be the "norm". From Bloody Sunday to Black Friday to the Shankill Butchers, all sides were in league with the devil in that awful decade, their souls shrieking in torment while their bodies grimaced in the eternal leer of animal hatred as they tore the other side and themselves apart - the fucking idiots!! There are moments of sobering blood-splattered horror in this story and also some of the most transcendent scenes of joy I have ever experienced in the cinema. I'm talking use of music and the soundtrack of my youth that is every bit as thrilling and emotionally energising as anything in 'Les Miserables'. Watch the film and you'll know exactly the moments I refer to. Never have such anthems of youthful hope as 'Teenage Kicks' or 'Just Another Teenage Rebel' soared so high or made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and the goosebumps ripple across my skin like when they explode from the speakers in this film.

The story is your classic rags to riches to rags biopic and features all the booze, drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll of the period with bombs exploding outside, bars being riddled with bullets and helicopter spotlights filling the night sky - and John Peel to boot! A sensational piece of filmmaking that deserves to do great business all over the world. I can't praise it enough and have been pestering everyone over here to go see it from the second I walked out grinning all over my chops and ran home to play all my punk records!! Absolute cinema magic and another one for that "feelgood in the face of Great Depression" list!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.30
Posted on Monday, April 08, 2013 - 07:37 pm:   

The shop Terri owned, and still does, is called Good Vibrations after the great Beach Boys song (yes, I'm a fan!) and the records he "produced" were knocked out upstairs. 'Teenage Kicks' being the most famous of them. Even now writing this I'm getting all misty-eyed for those times. They were dark but they were my youth and, by god, we kicked hard against the pricks!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.36
Posted on Monday, April 08, 2013 - 07:50 pm:   

Mention has to be made of the stunning lead performance of Richard Dormer as Hooley. He carries the film almost single handed as the mad bastard.

I'm a bit nervous to ask Terri what he thought the next time I see him propped on a bar stool but he's bound to get loads of pints and probably sex ffs on the back of this film so I'm sure he won't complain too much.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013 - 01:17 pm:   

I can feel the excitement reaching fever pitch at the thought of seeing the new Star Trek movie, 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness', this weekend!!!! If it's anything like as good as the last one it's gonna be the feelgood movie of the year!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.216
Posted on Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 06:16 pm:   

Bollocks!! It's listed for pre-booking only and doesn't open until the middle of May ffs!

Going to see 'Wizard's Way' instead. An indie comedy about two D&D nerds that's been winning awards at festivals. Sounds good and as I grew up playing D&D I should get all the in-jokes. Here's hoping...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, April 15, 2013 - 01:15 pm:   

That was bloody hilarious! The best found footage spoof I have seen. Made on a shoestring but with real intelligence, cinematic nous, cutting satirical wit and plenty of belly laughs. These guys are gonna be worth watching.

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook
2. 'Les Miserables' by Tom Hooper
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balaguero
4. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn
5. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu
6. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach
7. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi
8. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh
9. 'Wizard's Way' by some bloke called "Metal Man"?!?!
10. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike

Review to follow...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 05:04 pm:   

For anyone who loves the sarcastically droll British sense of humour at its most anarchic and clever they are guaranteed an absolute treat with the new Manchester made indie comedy, 'Wizard's Way', that, after a little research, I have discovered was made for a mere £400 on a second hand video camera, over one summer break, by three film buff mates; Socrates Adams-Florou, Chris Killen & Joe Stretch. The cinematic nous and raw comic talent theses guys show in this instant cult classic debut feature has me wanting to hail them as the greatest comedy team to have come out of England since The League Of Gentlemen. I kid you not... they really are that bloody talented!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 04:23 pm:   

Funny we were recently talking about great debuts and films made on a shoestring that put most big studio productions to shame. 'Wizard's Way' is the most impressive piece of non-professional DIY cinema I have seen since John Carpenter's 'Dark Star' (1974) - and is every bit as funny a spoof genre entertainment. The film begins with an ominous voiceover declaring the following footage to have been found on an unsold tape in a Manchester branch of Cash Converters and leaves the viewer's to decide on the veracity of what follows...

We are first introduced to a couple of amateur filmmakers who are determined to launch themselves into the big time with a cutting edge home-made documentary that will delve into the underbelly of modern British society, blah, blah... After kicking around a few ridiculous ideas they come upon a couple of super-nerds who are the last surviving players of an ages old (the 1980s, judging by the graphics) online RPG game called 'Wizard's Way'. Having learned that Compusoft are about to shut down the game's server, thus ending a lifetime's obsession forever, they con their way into being allowed to film the last days of a mighty quest and the harrowing aftermath that sees our heroes having to reengage with the real world, when all they know and care about is/was their glorious online identities as little pixelated stick men casting spells and waving swords about while they vanquish dragons and save princesses, etc...

What follows is one of the most seriously hilarious and brilliantly performed mockumentaries I have seen. If I tell you it has the belly laugh quotient of Woody Allen's 'Take The Money And Run' (1969) you may think I exaggerate (it being the undisputed masterpiece of the form) but seriously, folks, this movie really is that side-splittingly funny and clever. The laughs never stop coming nor the characters growing ever more pitiful and inept in their struggle to claim back their lives but, as the story progresses, through cringeworthy trauma after embarrassing social gaff, a subtle shift takes place in the focus of our attention from the filmed to the filmers. The second half of the movie introduces a strand of poignancy and also increasingly dark hints of encroaching madness, with everyday reality becoming confused with the reality of the game and of the documentary, until we are left with a wonderful double punch denouement that is as sweetly beguiling as it is downright bloody disturbing! I would call this an all-round pitch perfect spoof of the found footage/mockumentary genres that works as uproariously silly comedy, a tender character portrait of two of life's harmless nutters (or are they), and also as insidiously disquieting psychological horror of the "descent into madness" variety. It is an instant cult classic that deserves to make its writer/director/performers famous all over the world. Watch it and dare to disagree!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 06:37 pm:   

Time for a recap of the cinema movies seen so far this year:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
5. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
6. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
7. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic
8. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh - ****½ murder/suspense thriller
9. 'Wizard's Way' by Socrates Adams-Florou, Chris Killen & Joe Stretch - ****½ found footage/mockumentary/comedy
10. 'Ninja Kids' by Takashi Miike - **** children's fantasy/comedy

11. 'Django Unchained' by Quentin Tarantino - **** western/comedy
12. 'Mama' by Andrés Muschietti ***½ horror
13. 'Jack The Giant Slayer' by Bryan Singer - *** children's fantasy
14. 'Trance' by Danny Boyle - **½ heist/suspense thriller
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.106.241
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 08:59 pm:   

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2622826/

so will you be going to see this???
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 11:13 am:   

Why would I want to?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 12:20 pm:   

3 words from the plot synopsis - BIKINI SNOW DAY!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 01:45 pm:   

Nipple heaven!!!! When does it open, man?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, April 29, 2013 - 03:46 pm:   

Was dragged along to what looked like a typical chick flick by the girlfriend last night. The very title, 'All You Need Is Love', had me reflexively gagging as I asked for the tickets. But, lo and behold, it was actually rather an engaging adult feelgood/weepie melodrama of a decidedly old-fashioned type with Pierce Brosnan in the Cary Grant role (and acting better than I've ever seen him) and loveably sweet Danish blonde, Trine Dyrholm, in the kind of part that Deborah Kerr made her own - you all know the movie.

He is a rich businessman who has withdrawn from the world following the accidental death of his wife and now lives only for his work. She is a low income hairdresser recovering from cancer who wears a wig to cover her baldness due to chemotherapy. Yeah, I know... it sounds bloody awful. Throw in all the clichés of them getting on each others nerves on first meeting and then being thrust back together when his son and her daughter announce they have fallen in love and intend to be married and her callous husband running off with a giggling bimbo half his age and then turning up at the wedding with her in tow, etc, etc.. and normally I'd have been slumped in a half-catatonic stupor after twenty minutes. BUT the chemistry of the romantic leads is everything in these kind of films and Brosnan & Dyrholm are an irresistible delight together. He at his long suffering comic best and she so heart-achingly vulnerable, as she tries to hide her condition while falling hopelessly in love and not wanting to, that this old heart of mine found itself melting and I really did end up enjoying the show. Ultimately the whole thing is pretty predictable and sent every woman in the place through a series of sighing and sobbing fits as it wound towards its inevitable(?), though nicely underplayed, conclusion but there's enough brains in this Euro-production and a few nicely judged Woody Allenish surprises along the way to make it worth any real film buffs time. Really quite decent romantic tosh that only the most cynical could fail to get something out of. Imagine a multi-nationality Danish/Italian set Richard Curtis movie without the irritation factor.

On the above list it would get **** just behind 'Django Unchained' and in front of 'Mama'.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, April 29, 2013 - 04:07 pm:   

Correction: the film is called 'Love Is All You Need', and does not feature that Beatles song. Shows you how many rom coms I go to see!!

It was directed by Susanne Bier from Denmark. Her previous film, 'In A Better World', won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2011 and on the evidence of this one I can see why. The influence of Eric Rohmer, Woody Allen, Billy Wilder and the era of the classic romantic melodrama, tempering the Richard Curtis-isms, are what make this one quite special.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, May 07, 2013 - 01:11 pm:   

Only a few days to go until we are plunged Into Darkness... I can't fecking wait!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, May 10, 2013 - 01:04 pm:   

'Star Trek' this weekend!! EEEK!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - 05:18 pm:   

Unlike Saturday night's 'Doctor Who' the other great sci-fi reboot I saw at the weekend was a ***** masterpiece of pure family entertainment! Completely marvellous I loved every fricking momnent of it and may even go again:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
5. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
6. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
7. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
8. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic
9. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh - ****½ murder/suspense thriller
10. 'Wizard's Way' by Socrates Adams-Florou, Chris Killen & Joe Stretch - ****½ found footage/mockumentary/comedy

Anyone who loved J.J. Abrams' sensational 2009 reboot, 'Star Trek XI : The Future Begins', will be overjoyed to hear that this continuation of the greatest sci-fi franchise of them all improves in every way upon that rollercoaster ride of ridiculously rousing entertainment and pitch perfect casting. I still marvel at the sheer chutzpah with which they dreamt up the premise behind this latest reboot and the near miraculous fact of them managing to pull it off as well. Cake can be had and eaten it would seem. To recap, these films take place in a subtly different parallel universe into which the original Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is thrust, due to some sci-fi scriptwriting jiggery pokery, and where he encounters younger incarnations of all his old chums, and himself included, played by the eerily Spock-like, Zachary Quinto (who almost steals the show from BC). Got all that?

Anyway, in this second film (or twelfth) the chemistry between the actors and similarity to their famous counterparts is even more polished and naturalistic. Chris Pine is James Tiberius Kirk at his most charming and reckless. Quinto is the stiff-necked young Spock looking up to his older and wiser alter-ego. Karl Urban is the eyebrow cocking, Dr Leonard McCoy. Zoe Saldana, Uhuru. John Cho, Sulu. Anton Yelchin, Chekov. And even Simon Pegg has grown on me as Scotty. You can feel they have all settled into their roles having been accepted by the Trekkie fraternity and the results are a joy to behold. Add to that already wonderful mix the inspired casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as - there'll be no spoilers from me but this 'Star Trek' fan's grin nearly cracked his head in two when his identity was revealed (shhhhh...) - and magnetically charismatic in an enigmatic role that switches between villainous and misunderstood anti-hero with gripping aplomb (rubber stamping his effortless star quality) AND Peter Weller in menacing form as the unforgiving face of ruthless military pragmatism and, perhaps, true villain of the picture, AND Bruce Greenwood in a memorably touching role as Kirk's old mentor, Christopher Pike, and you have as fine an ensemble cast - capable of switching between comedy and drama often in the same scene - as ever graced a Woody Allen or Mike Leigh film.

All that is fine and dandy but would count for nothing without a decent story for these wonderful characters to grace. The script by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof is one of the grimmest and most intelligent that has ever graced the series, fully justifying the film's ominous title. It is a story of far future super-terrorism by a messiah-like fanatic (guess who) determined to bring down The Federation by every means at his disposal and without a shred of mercy. Big black villain, he? Or heroic revolutionary out to topple a militaristic goliath and conqueror of galaxies? Watch the movie and find out. It's sensationally thought provoking as much as it is entertaining.

With all that the movie would be fun enough without overdoing the spectacle but the state of the art special effects here are literally gobsmacking in their flawless perfection. This is without doubt the most beautiful looking and visually spectacular of all the 'Star Trek' movies, while the rest of them were pretty damn impressive to start with. The USS Enterprise has never looked better and the array of alien starships and future tech that floats by our awestruck eyes is truly something to behold. Abrams has to be congratulated for his exemplary direction, juggling intimate character comedy and drama, often with lip-trembling poignancy, with all the expected but pleasingly subtle little tributes to the original series (there's even a... SPOILER DELETED! and a... I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE!!) and the breathlessly exciting big action set pieces in deep space and on wondrous alien planets. The action, plot twists and character developments flow with rare and seamless assurance. In fact the whole thing is like one big sci-fi buff's apocalyptic wet dream!!

I loved it, loved it, loved it!!!! And can't wait to see it all again.

I watched the latest episode of the original series, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", on Sunday, and, if anything, it shone even more gloriously than ever in the light of how bright the franchise is looking these days. Thank you, Gene, wherever you are.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 - 05:43 pm:   

Although I hated 'Lost', and still think it an overblown behemoth that long outstayed its welcome, and was underwhelmed by 'Super 8' (2011), I'm beginning to come round to the idea that J.J. Abrams may just be a bit of a genius after all.

What he did with 'Fringe' (2008-2013) - easily the best genre TV series since 'The X Files' - and this miraculous reboot of the 'Star Trek' franchise makes it easy to be optimistic about his handling of the upcoming new 'Star Wars' movie. If he pulls that off as well I'll take back all my doubts about him!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 02:01 am:   

Just saw a really enjoyable old fashioned new melodrama tonight in the cinema. Another one!

It's been growing greater in my mind the more I think about it despite its Dickensian reliance on coincidence leading to high emotional resonance. I'm having trouble slotting it into my list which is always a good sign. Details to follow tomorrow.

But, at very least, we have another of those new type of escapist movies that eschew sensationalism and spectacle for intimate and touching human drama with a message of tolerance and faith in decency at its core. We're getting there, people.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 02:39 pm:   

This is it:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
5. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
6. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
7. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
8. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic
9. 'Mud' by Jeff Nichols - ****½ coming of age drama/crime thriller/love story
10. 'Side Effects' by Steven Soderbergh - ****½ murder/suspense thriller

Review to follow...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.8
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 - 12:20 am:   

Resident Evil: Retribution didn't make the cut as it was 2012, I guess...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPUPaxgIo98
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 03:31 pm:   

'Mud' by Jeff Nichols is a beautifully filmed and acted ode to the innocence of childhood, the magnificent Mississippi and the literary melodramas of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain & Stephen King. It is a thoroughly old-fashioned, captivating, heartwarming and heartbreaking coming of age drama about two fourteen year old boys who spend their days embarking on scavenging trips along the mighty river that is their home. The two leads, Tye Sheridan & Jacob Lofland, give performances of startling maturity that cannot fail but remind the viewer of Wil Wheaton & River Phoenix in Rob Reiner's 'Stand By Me' (1986).

On one of their daredevil adventures they encounter a homeless man living in the wreckage of an old boat on an otherwise uninhabited island, played with just the right level of charm, ambiguity and subtle menace by Matthew McConaughey (every bit as impressive here as he was in last year's 'Killer Joe'). Calling himself Mud this dishevelled but charismatic character soon has the boys hanging on his every word as he reveals himself to be on the run from the law for having killed a man who, he says, was mercilessly beating his wife, and the love of Mud’s life, to the point where she lost a child while pregnant. He asks for their help in evading the law and getting back in touch with his sweetheart, who lives locally, and whom he intends to sweep away to a better life.

The more sensitive of the boys, Ellis, believes his story while his more streetwise (or riverwise) best friend, Neckbone, thinks it’s all a load of bull but agrees to help in exchange for the automatic pistol that Mud carries everywhere with him. Soon they are acting as go-betweens delivering messages to the woman, who is holed up in a local motel, and pilfering spare parts for Mud to rebuild his boat and make his escape.

That’s the emotionally fraught set-up, made more poignant by the disintegrating state of Ellis’s parents marriage, and his needing to believe in Mud’s love for the sake of his own romantic worldview, but how everything pans out makes for a rollercoaster ride of pure old fashioned melodrama at its most irresistibly moving and heart-stoppingly gripping. I defy anyone to work out how the final reel plays out but you will be willing with every vestige of your being for Ellis’s trust to be justified and for Neckbone to get his gun and apologise at the same time.

This is wonderful, captivating popular feelgood/feelsad entertainment that is steeped in the traditions of classic literary and Hollywood storytelling at its most primal and affecting. Don’t miss it!!

And while you're there surrender yourself and go with the flow of the mighty Mississippi. You won't regret it...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, May 30, 2013 - 03:21 pm:   

Have we heard any positive vibes about Neil Jordan's latest foray into genre territory, the vampire flick, 'Byzantium'? It's due to open here tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit dubious about it.

The director has a decidedly patchy track record when it comes to fantasy/horror. 'The Company Of Wolves' (1984) is a visionary classic but 'High Spirits' (1988) was a dreadful attempt at horror comedy, 'Interview With The Vampire' (1994) was a load of overblown pseudo-romantic tosh and 'In Dreams' (1999) was a remarkably uninspired to the point of redundancy psychic thriller, imho.

The other possibility to go and see this weekend is a dystopian sci-fi/horror thriller starring Ethan Hawke called 'The Purge'. It sounds by far the more interesting of the two. Any news and/or thoughts?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.243.188
Posted on Thursday, May 30, 2013 - 03:52 pm:   

Sounds like you've made your mind up already Stevie. Personally I really liked Interview with a Vampire so if I can I'll certainly be going to see this one. The purge does sound rather good though.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, May 30, 2013 - 04:18 pm:   

I'm just tired of safe vampire movies, Weber. They've been done to death in recent years. I like Neil Jordan and he made some of my favourite films but he is very much a hit-and-miss director. 'Byzantium' sounds potentially interesting but could well just be more of the same. The last vampire movie I got excited about was 'Let The Right One In' (2008) and before that... probably Rodriguez & Tarantino's definite modern spoof version 'From Dusk Till Dawn' (1996) and then back to 'Near Dark' (1987) - the only film that successfully integrated doomed romance with the true horror of the vampire state, and one that has a lot to answer for.

Films like Coppola's romanticising of 'Dracula' (1992) and Jordan's buying into Anne Rice's sanitising transformation of the vampire from a demonic monster into some kind of tragic Don Juan figure all but struck the death knell for the old bloodsucker.

Give me 'Salem's Lot' (1979), Hammer's infernal cult of the undead or Murnau's 'Nosferatu' (1922) any day! Even John Carpenter's 'Vampires' (1998) was more fun in its pulp retro stylings.

'Byzantium' has a lot to live up to...

'The Purge', on the other hand, really has sparked my interest. Fingers crossed with both of them.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.37.208
Posted on Thursday, May 30, 2013 - 05:25 pm:   

I haven't heard good things about The Purge. Apparently it does nothing with the interesting concept and ends up being a completely pedestrian home invasion movie full of people doing unbelievably stupid things just to move the plot along.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.105.107
Posted on Sunday, June 02, 2013 - 02:18 am:   

I went to see Byzantium tonight and it's excellent.

Well acted and directed, a nice twist on the vampire story. It takes its own languid time to tell us an absorbing tale of a pair of vampires moving from town to town. I'm not going to say any more because I don't want to leave spoilers. But go see it.

BTW in defence of Interview with the Vampire, it's a tad unfair to lump it in with the Twilight style vamp movies. It had several scary vampires in it, some really memorable gore sequences - and most importantly, at the time it was pretty much the only vampire as romantic hero story. You say it's been done to death in recent years - IWAV was 1994 - that's not recent. And compare it with the current batch - twilight in particular, IWAV isn't that safe, there are genuine scares in there and some pretty cool ideas.

Near dark and Lost boys both featured heroes in transition who weren't full blown vampires yet (and who were both cured at the end IIRC) so they were still human as hero stories. Besides, without Lestat we'd never have had Angel in Buffy.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.119
Posted on Sunday, June 02, 2013 - 06:14 pm:   

Going to see 'Byzantium' this evening, Weber. Will let you know what I think. Fingers crossed...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.119
Posted on Sunday, June 02, 2013 - 10:41 pm:   

Just out of 'Byzantium' and totally agree with Weber. At last we have another modern vampire classic to rival 'Let The Right One In'!! This is easily Neil Jordan's best film since 'The Crying Game' and best horror film since 'The Company Of Wolves'. A beautiful allegory that reinvents the vampire myth, injecting a much needed sense of supernatural mystery and originality, and is made all the more effective for being so subtle and low key, like the early low budget films that made the director's name. Quite brilliant!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, June 03, 2013 - 07:14 am:   

After much thought here's where it slots in:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
5. 'Byzantium' by Neil Jordan - ***** horror
6. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
7. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
8. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
9. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic
10. 'Mud' by Jeff Nichols - ****½ coming of age drama/crime thriller/love story

A mighty reinvigoration of the vampire Mythos - as unrelenting horror - to stand alongside; 'Martin', 'Near Dark', 'Cronos' & 'Let The Right One In'. Forget the florid pansying about of 'Interview With The Vampire', 'Buffy' or that 'Twilight' bollocks... this is the real deal!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, June 03, 2013 - 12:39 pm:   

Neil Jordan's low key resurgence as a filmmaker of note, following the subtly beguiling crime dramas; 'The Brave One' (2007) & 'Ondine' (2009), continues apace with this brilliant little mix of domestic drama and pure gothic horror, that refuses to sell itself out to the expected excesses of either genre.

Think back to the films that made this man's name as an auteur; 'Angel' (1982), 'The Company Of Wolves' (1984), 'Mona Lisa' (1986) & 'The Crying Game' (1992), and when I say that 'Byzantium' - a full-blooded vampire horror movie - belongs in the same company then anyone who knows anything about cinema and horror should be wetting themselves with excitement at the thought of watching this virtually flawless and beautifully allegorical little masterpiece of vampiric reinvention - i.e. it works on far more than the surface level of pure story - unlike the mock-operatic nonsense that was 'Interview With The Vampire' (1994).

Everything about this film is perfectly judged and brilliantly presented. The acting is as sublime and dead serious as any of the great kitchen sink dramas of Ken Loach or Mike Leigh or the straight faced Hammer horrors of Terence Fisher (that this film pays wonderful deadpan homage to), the tone is beautifully poetic and melancholy, when it needs to be, and in-your-face gore splattered and sexually frank, as the story dictates, in just the right shock-to-the-system flashes, that recall Coppola's 'Godfather' masterpieces, with their (yes, Weber) languid pace and unforgettable set pieces.

The vampire myth is here subverted into a finely crafted allegory of the love that conquers all, a mother's love, and the sacrifices and, sometimes, death of the soul (or living death) that this entails for both mother and progeny. In its unrelenting psychological examination of the manic fanaticism that is the mothering instinct, at its darkest, Jordan's film is every bit as inciteful as Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960), Polanski's 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968), Corman's 'Bloody Mama' (1970), De Palma's 'Carrie' (1976) or the way Molly knows just exactly the right moment to give me a dirty look that says "hands off" when I'm cooing over the kittens.

But, more than that, we are also presented with a portrait of moral decay, with a thirst for some sort of fabled redemption, that may be as illusory as the Christian God that is so, apparently, ineffectual in this film, yet is forever lurking in the shadows, ready with an accusatory finger.

Throw in a brilliantly thought out Lovecraftian mythology and backstory, told in ghostly dream-like flashbacks that never detract from the harsh reality of the modern day squalor that the characters inhabit, and that owes no allegiance to any other vampire story, and a wonderful ambiguity that keeps the viewer guessing as to whether what we are seeing and hearing is real or fantasy, and what we have is a casting off of the crap that has accumulated around the figure of the vampire, since Anne Rice had her way, and a return to the truly frightening and monstrous demonic haunter of all our dreams that first spawned the undead bloodsucking myth in the first place.

Yes, there is romance - of a kind - and there are self-loathing vampires, who try to quell their conscience by only feeding off the guilty or those ready to die, but when they present themselves as Angels in disguise and pretend that they are not damned, while clinging onto the one last vestige of self respect left to them, as their bodies rot inside and their souls continue to blacken, the souls these vamps still hold onto, then that is when the full tragedy of their condition is driven home with maximum horrific effect. This is the vampire contagion, not as drug addiction, but as sexually transmitted disease with two condemnded women, mother and daughter, forever on the run from their past sins, as the harbingers of a new kind of life draining evil

There can be no redemption or lusting after glory for the already damned. There can only be lies and the continued satiation of the flesh. Neil Jordan has here accomplished, with the kind of acumen that first got him noticed as a visionary filmmaker, what Abel Ferrara set out to do in 'The Addiction' (1995) - and where that former splattermeister gamely failed, Jordan has gloriously redeemed himself and wiped out, at one stroke, the melodramatic big budget excesses that almost destroyed his career in the 1990s. Well done, sir! You've just made your first masterpiece in some 20 odd years! And it's as brilliant a horror movie as you're ever likely to see!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, June 04, 2013 - 05:15 pm:   

Off to see 'The Purge' tonight and if it's even half as good a horror movie as 'Byzantium' I'll be more than happy. FCAU...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, June 05, 2013 - 12:10 pm:   

Well, the word on the street about 'The Purge' by James DeMonaco is dead right. This is an exciting, tense and violent sci-fi/horror suspense thriller with a brilliant central concept and great acting that is certainly well worth seeing but leaves the viewer ultimately frustrated, for all the edge of the seat thrills while it's on, by refusing to explore any more than the surface layer of the idea behind the shocking action.

The set-up is that for 12 hours once a year, 7pm 21st June until 7am 22nd June, the America of 2022 goes through a process that the "New Founding Fathers" call The Purge. Between the blowing of sirens all across the land at start and end times all crime, including murder, is legally permitted so that the people have a way of purging themselves of all their bottled up rage and hatred. The rest of the year, so they posit, crime and unemployment are virtually non-existent while the economy booms like never before. A marvellous concept and the first half of the film introduces us to the sociological and emotional effect on the populace with chilling precision.

But when lockdown commences for the central character Ethan Hawke's heavily armed rich family in their luxury fortress-like hi-tech home then the film is happy to become an inferior imitation of 'Assault On Precinct 13' (1976) with very little of John Carpenter's flair for nail-biting suspense. The family find themselves beseiged by a mob of bemasked and blood crazed Hoo-Ray Henries, straight out of 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971), after the young son impulsively gives sanctuary to a homeless black man they have been hunting for execution - to clear the streets of vermin, as they put it. From there it's all action while the intriguing concept, that drew us in, is all but jettisoned in favour of uninspired formula thrills.

They almost pull things back at the very end with a truly chilling twist but sadly the filmmakers, when they could have sent us home genuinely shaken to the core by man's inhumanity to man, opt for a more comforting Hollywood cop-out ending.

I'd still recommend this as it is an exciting thriller with plenty of nice touches and holds the attention throughout but in the end we are left having wanted to see more of the outside world and just a little frustrated at the script's lack of imagination and bravery and the ultimately pedestrian direction.

I'd put it roughly on a par with 'Mama' but not as good as 'Django Unchained' and give it a tentative **** - mainly for the concept and the acting.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, June 05, 2013 - 12:24 pm:   

Hmmm... make that ***½ one notch above 'Mama' on the ongoing list.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - 06:00 pm:   

Saw a belter of a gangster movie at the weekend that has to be the best thing of its kind since Scorsese's 'The Departed' (2006) and has gone straight into the Top 10:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
5. 'Byzantium' by Neil Jordan - ***** horror
6. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
7. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
8. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
9. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic
10. 'The Iceman' by Ariel Vromen - ****½ gangster/biopic

Review to follow...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 04:18 pm:   

For anyone who loves the gritty ultra-violent gangster movies of the 70s & 80s, before the genre became so respectfully well mannered, they are in for a treat from this (I believe) unsung directorial debut by Ariel Vromen that tells the life story of one Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, one of the most notorious mass murderers in American history, who killed over a hundred people in a near 30 year reign of terror from the 1950s to the 1980s - when the Law finally nailed the bastard - for the lure of blood money from his Mafia paymasters.

This guy was almost the perfect sociopath, rather than impulsive psychopath, who was completely devoid of empathy and conscience but who, like Tom Ripley, was in love with the idea of respectability and comfort i.e. the good life. Being Polish he was never a made man but made himself essential to the pragmatic crime bosses of his day by being so bloodily good at his job and being prepared to take on all the contracts that no one else had the stomach for... including the cold blooded elimination of men, women and children (reluctantly deemed necessary by Ray Liotta's avuncular crime lord) and the disposal of their earthly remains afterward, by a creepily ingenious method of freezing, easy dismemberment and complete eradication of all traces the person had ever existed.

Michael Shannon, an actor I was previously unaware of, is electrifying and absolutely terrifying in the title role. He even looks monstrously scary (in an evil Frankensteinian kind of way) and his eyes could bore holes through steel. But, worse than that, this film portrays him as a real three dimensional human being and pulls no punches in making us understand what turned an awkward anti-social freak into one of the 20th Century's worst real life monsters. We see him as a struggling youth learning his trade (with the guidance of an unrecognisable Chris Evans as the burnt out killer he replaces) and as the consummate professional despatching his victims with calm assurance (whenever they don't wind him up - not a pretty sight) but we also see him as an outwardly loving and happily married family man with two lovely daughters he dotes upon and who genuinely know nothing about where all the money comes from. The old "I'm a businessman" line has never struck a more chilling chord.

Yes, I know, we've all seen this story done to death a million times before (hence the dropping of half a star) but what this film brings to a modern audience is a level of non-judgemental intelligence and unflinching humanity, as well as early Scorsese-like directorial confidence, to a surprisingly old-fashioned and empathic biopic of a person we could all too easily describe as inhuman. With pitch perfect attention to period detail and the feel of a small-scale epic to boot.

I would call this a modern classic of its kind and the best old-style gangster movie I have seen since 'The Departed' (2006). The obvious influences were Terence Young's criminally underrated 'The Valachi Papers' (1972) and Scorsese's last flawless masterpiece, 'Goodfellas' (1990). The fact that this film can hold its head up beside those behemoths leaves me nothing further to say about its quality. Go see it and hopefully we'll end up with a new auteur on the block if the film is as successful as it deserves to be...
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.43.193
Posted on Friday, June 14, 2013 - 06:38 pm:   

Michael Shannon is excellent in William Friedkin's Bug. It's a really harrowing film about schizophrenia and worth tracking down.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 03:15 am:   

Michael Shannon is great as the fanatical, sado-masochistic prohibition agent, obsessed with religious righteousness, in "Boardwalk Empire." Physically, he reminds me of the Bond villain Jaws... and while he's still around, they really should bring Jaws back—and re-vamp him (like they've revamped Bond) into something truly malevolent.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.43.193
Posted on Saturday, June 15, 2013 - 01:16 pm:   

He's also playing General Zod in the new Superman movie, in case anyone wasn't aware, so he'll probably start turning up in bigger roles from now on.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.121
Posted on Sunday, June 16, 2013 - 09:27 pm:   

Just realised he played a crucial supporting role in 'Mud' (see above) as well. Just one notch below 'The Iceman'. An actor whose time would seem to have come.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - 03:24 pm:   

Off to see 'Man Of Steel' tonight. Superman has long been one of my favourite superheroes (second only to Batman - with Spidey third) and I really hope this reboot does the becaped one justice. There's something pure and compelling about the figure of Superman. A veritable God playing at being a man and refreshingly free from any hint of psychotic darkness or corruption... that very nobility being his greatest weakness (even over Kryptonite) and his most cherishable strength. I'm hoping for a good old-fashioned feelgood comicbook romp along the lines of Joe Johnston's excellent 'Captain America' (2011).

Zack Snyder has a knack for turning out good looking, big and exciting action set pieces but has yet to prove himself the whole package as a director, imho. 'Dawn Of The Dead' (2004), '300' (2006) & 'Watchmen' (2009) were the kind of films that impressed visually while they were on but failed to live in the viewer's memory afterward and largely paled beside the source material they were based upon. While his one original project, 'Sucker Punch' (2011), was misguided wanky kack.

Hopefully the influence of producer and writer, Christopher Nolan, will provide here what Snyder has lacked up till now... fingers crossed. Will be good to see Michael Shannon as a villain again whatever happens.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - 12:52 pm:   

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Man Of Steel' last night and would rank it as Zack Snyder's most completely satisfying and accomplished film to date. The influence of Christopher Nolan is all over the movie with Superman's painful origin and eventual revealing of himself to the world given the same mythic gravitas that he brought to 'Batman Begins' (2005) - still the best of the trilogy for my money.

The production values, special effects and epic fight sequences are truly spectacular and genuinely thrilling. Square jawed Henry Cavill is perfectly cast and solidly charismatic as Clark Kent/Kal-El and Michael Shannon all but steals the show as the fanatical arch-villain, General Zod. The casting of the crucial support roles is well judged too with Amy Adams quite adorable (she reminds me of a very young Elizabeth Montgomery) as the feisty but vulnerable Lois Lane, Russell Crowe in majestic form as Jor-El, Diane Lane & Kevin Costner spouting homespun wisdom as Ma & Pa Kent and Laurence Fishburne bawling orders as Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet. That's the good news.

However, I do have reservations about the film and the franchise that is bound to follow. Nolan's overly serious (even po-faced) influence coupled with Snyder's concentration on spectacle at the expense of getting to the heart of the story leaves the film feeling cold and humourless. Richard Donner's 'Superman' (1978) was the very model of a well rounded, warm and perfectly entertaining comicbook adventure for all the family. I even remember my Mum loving the film when she took us as kids having expected to be bored stupid. Comparing the natural charisma of all the cast and the perfectly judged mix of thrills, laughs and heartache of that best of all superhero movies to this great looking but humourless slam bang hi-tech reboot, that seems aimed solely at comic obsessives, there can only be one winner.

It's a great night out at the cinema and Superman has certainly never looked better nor had so much money spent on him but, like Nolan's Batman movies compared to Tim Burton's, the heart of the character and the joy of the original comics is missing, imho. I'd give it a strong **** compared to the ***** of 'Superman' (1978). Christopher Reeve is still the definitive man in the red cape.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.138
Posted on Monday, June 24, 2013 - 04:46 pm:   

As there's nothing else on - I'm off to see 'World War Z'. What can there possibly be new to say about the zombie apocalypse scenario? Watch this space...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 81.137.244.250
Posted on Monday, June 24, 2013 - 07:47 pm:   

As I suspected that was a well mounted and entertaining but routine action movie with zombies, of the run fast variety. The only vaguely new element was showing the zombie apocalypse on a global scale from the point of view of the military and intelligence services who lead the desperate fightback. Brad Pitt is the gung ho top agent in the field trying to trace the contagion to its source. But Robert A. Heinlein gave us that story 62 years ago in 'The Puppet Masters'. It passed the time pleasantly enough and I'd give it a watchable but unremarkable ***. There's nothing new or worth getting excited about here, folks.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, July 07, 2013 - 02:26 pm:   

I've been puzzling over 'A Field In England' all weekend, as has everyone, I've no doubt, who saw it on Friday. The director's thoughts afterward weren't much help as he seemed to be enjoying the general bafflement, perplexed praise and demand for answers that the nebulous structure of the film demanded, while more or less saying, "What do you think it was about?"

Anyway, I think I've cracked what it was all about and my theory turns it into even more of a supernatural horror film than is at first apparent (well, it would). While somewhat frustrating (or challenging) as a narrative this is still beautifully shot and acted, brave and visionary filmmaking of great talent and integrity. Here's where I finally decided it slots in:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
5. 'Byzantium' by Neil Jordan - ***** horror
6. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
7. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
8. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
9. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic
10. 'A Field In England' by Ben Wheatley - ****½ historical drama/horror/fantasy

**** MASSIVE SPOILERS ****

Highlight below if you've seen the film and want one possible explanation, that I'm happy with and I'm sticking to:

This is a necromantic zombie movie in which the zombies don't realise they have been brought back from the dead and the necromancer and his henchman use them to find and dig for the treasure they seek while keeping the undead trio's real nature and decaying state from them by the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms. That's my theory and it fits all the facts of the action.

That's a neat trick I learnt from David Lees. Thanks, man.

Review to follow...
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.44.239
Posted on Friday, July 12, 2013 - 01:18 am:   

You're welcome! My take:

The treasure was friendship!

Actually I'm not quite sure what to make of it as, thanks to the current heat and the pace of it, I was having trouble staying awake towards the end. It definitely needs a second watching at some point.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, July 26, 2013 - 03:55 pm:   

Okay, time to catch up on my recent moviegoing experiences:

'A Field In England' by Ben Wheatley is a fascinating, if not entirely successful, piece of work that makes me want to stand up and applaud the man as a champion of intelligent, challenging genre filmmaking. I was forcibly reminded of Richard Lester's absurdist masterpiece, 'The Bed Sitting Room' (1969), with its non-conformist mix of typically English fortitude and surreal humour in the face of apocalyptic evil. This might just be the best non flesh-eating zombie movie since 'I Walked With A Zombie' (1943).

Now imagine the discovery of a gigantic arsehole in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (no, not Simon Cowell holidaying in Hawaii!) spewing forth demonic turds that proceed to lay waste to the entire planet. Got that? Now imagine the human race building a series of giant robots (uncannily like the Transformers and soon to appear in a toyshop near you!) to wipe up this evil-smelling menace (as you do) and then plugging the gap with the biggest nuclear powered rimjob in history. That's 'Pacific Rim'... the startlingly anti-climactic and monstrously cliched end to a five year wait for Guillermo Del Toro's next "masterpiece". This has artistic credibility ending Hollywood cop-out writ large all over it and is completely devoid of the imagination and visionary set pieces that made even his commercial films, prior to this, stunning achievements within the Hollywood system. Time to either jack it in or return to your roots Guillermo, me old chum. Your latest offering is pure bollocks! The worst Hollywood blockbuster I've seen since Michael Bay's vomit inducing 'Pearl Harbor' (2001). I still shudder to recall that day...

And so to the final instalment in the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg/Nick Frost horror spoof trilogy that was; 'Shaun Of The Dead' (2004), 'Hot Fuzz' (2007) & 'The World's End' (2013). The good news is that this final film is almost as marvellous as SOTD and even better than HF, imho. I'm loathe to spoil anything but the theme perfectly spoofed here is one of my favourites in horror/sci-fi literature and the idea of having it all seen through the increasingly drunk eyes of a group of middle-aged has-beens desperate to relive their mad youth on the ultimate pub crawl from hell was nothing short of inspired. The cast of familiar British comic talent are all in great form and the slow build-up gives us time to identify and grow to love each of their characters before the special effects kick-in and we're in "run for your life" horror territory... with not all of them making it out alive (if any). Really marvellous sweetly entertaining stuff! I loved it! But it didn't quite make the Top 10...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 01:08 am:   

Jesus, my jaws are sore from laughing...

Yep, I've just seen it and it's even funnier and dafter than I could possibly have hoped. Fucking hilarious!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 04:47 pm:   

I have a new Top 10 entry and it's the Comedy of the Year, by a country mile:

1. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
2. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
3. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
4. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
5. 'Byzantium' by Neil Jordan - ***** horror
6. 'Alan Partridge : Alpha Papa' by Declan Lowney - ***** comedy
7. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
8. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
9. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
10. 'Oz The Great And Powerful' by Sam Raimi - ***** fantasy epic

Yes, it is my joy to report that Steve Coogan's greatest creation has successfully made the transition from small screen to cinematic glory! I can't remember the last time I laughed so long and so hard at a comedy film. I had a stitch in my side and my jaws were aching by the time I reeled out obliviously covered in coke and popcorn. This is one film, like all the best comedies, that is best appreciated with an audience, whose combined laughter is not only infectious but possibly injurious to health. A wonderful experience!!

I deliberately watched all Alan's previous adventures on DVD over the past six weeks so I could appreciate the film all the more and get all the jokes. From the savage belly-laugh satire of 'The Day Today' to the inspired piss-take of TV chat shows, 'Knowing Me, Knowing You', and possibly the best British sitcom since 'Blackadder', the sublime 'I'm Alan Partridge', on to the deliriously silly 'Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters' and the two hilarious TV Specials, 'Welcome To The Places Of My Life' and the 'Open Books' discussion on his warts-and-all autobiography, 'I, Partridge : We Need To Talk About Alan' (I must order the audiobook version read by Coogan in character). If all that hadn't already established AP as the funniest comic character in British TV history (balancing clever post-modern humour with loveably juvenile silliness to remarkably hilarious effect) then this unfeasibly brilliant big screen treatment has put the rubber stamp on his utter genius.

Film versions of British TV comedy shows have a long and inglorious history with most of them turning out mildly amusing pale shadows of their small screen greatness. In the 1970s there was hardly a sitcom on the box that didn't get the big screen treatment and most of them disappeared into ignominy as mere footnotes to the much loved series they failed to emulate... somehow the magic was lacking. There were fabulous exceptions that proved the rule - the two Steptoe & Son movies and, of course, the Monty Python films are still genuinely hilarious - but I am going to put my neck on the block and say that never before has a British TV sitcom made the transition and kept all of the magic as perfectly as 'Alan Partridge : Alpha Papa'! It is an instant classic of the purest comedy gold that expands upon the devastatingly satirical premise and all the long established characters with quite remarkable success.

I went in with my expectations low. I expected to be entertained but to return to my DVDs thinking that therein was where the true genius of Alan lay. Even Richie & Eddie, Harry Enfield, The League Of Gentlemen and The Inbetweeners, for all their comic skill and imagination, had ultimately failed, for all the laughs, with; 'Guest House Paradiso' (1999), 'Kevin & Perry Go Large' (2000), 'The League Of Gentlemen's Apocalypse' (2005) & 'The Inbetweeners Movie' (2011), so what chance did Alan Partridge have?

Looking at the man's 20 year pedigree I realise I should never have doubted him. They brought back all the old characters to meet the recent ones and kept the look and format much as it has always been. This is a character Coogan could play in his sleep and the script by all the regulars - Coogan himself, Peter Baynham, Armando Iannucci, Neil Gibbons & Rob Gibbons - plays to the character's intimately observed character comedy strengths while broadening the plot out to just the right level of outrageous situational comedy to work for a cinema audience while keeping all the action in the familiar surroundings we are used to seeing our hero operate - rather than sending him off to the Costa Del Sol.

Basically, Alan is faced with the sack to make way for a younger hipper pair of arsehole DJs who are “down with the kids” and know all the street talk. The only other employee the executives (as loathsome a bunch as have ever been committed to film) are thinking of ditching is an Irish folk music specialist played by Colm Meaney – who plays his part wonderfully. To save his own floundering career, after the heights it had previously almost scaled, Alan deliberately sabotages his “rival” and saves his own skin. Then poor broken spirited Colm, after clearing out his desk and telling Alan how he was the only one he ever respected at North Norfolk Digital Radio, throws a wobbly (that does not involve Toblerone) and returns, armed to the teeth, to hold all the staff at the radio station hostage until he is reinstated and his loyal listeners are made happy again.

Alan Partridge – codenamed Alpha Papa by a crack team of hostage negotiators (and loving it, when he isn’t shitting himself at the point of a shotgun barrel) – is made Colm’s sort of trusted liaison with the police who have besieged the place. And the rest of the film is an inspired spoof of one of my favourite 70s classics, ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975) by the great Sidney Lumet. The ending will have you just as much in tears as did that epic tragedy... with knobs on. Armitage Shanks Redemption!!

Remember the Airplane and Naked Gun movies and how there were so many jokes per second that it took several viewings to appreciate them all? Imagine that done with biting satirical wit and comparable silliness and that’s kind of what you have here. It is a bona-fide cinematic comedy masterpiece that more than holds its own with the 20 year TV gestation of this greatest of all British comedy characters.

Steve Coogan belongs in the absolute front rank of British comedy legends... and then some!!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.134.109.39
Posted on Thursday, August 15, 2013 - 01:15 am:   

I think I have to agree with Stevie here. saw this tonight and loved it.

can't really add much to what Stevie said. I'm glad I didn't take a drink in with me or I would have snortled it all over myself several times over.

One thing I will disagree on though - is your assertion that the Inbetweeners movie failed to live up to the TV series. I thought it was easily the best comedy film I saw in the cinema that year and every bit as funny, gross and cringe-inducing (in a good way) as the series at its best.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, August 15, 2013 - 03:10 am:   

I really enjoyed 'The Inbetweeners Movie', Weber, as I did the other TV to cinema comedies I mentioned, but, imo, it just wasn't quite up to the hilarity of the TV show. 'Alan Partridge : Alpha Papa, however, is just as great as anything else the character appeared in and is a work of true comedy genius.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, August 26, 2013 - 10:20 am:   

Saw 'The Conjuring' by James Wan last week and it was truly dreadful. Where his last film, 'Insidious' (2011), really worked as a perfectly paced and genuinely scary haunted house yarn that paid enjoyable homage to the classics of the genre while retaining its own distinctive flavour this follow-up/cash-in reveals the Hollywood disease at its most soul destroying. We are battered over the head with every cliched horror movie stock scene and plot development from first second to last with no time given to build up of suspense or character development at all. The director really fucked up big time with this one! Nauseatingly predictable and uninspired it lacks even the rollercoaster fun aspect of its predecessor. Avoid!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, October 14, 2013 - 11:34 am:   

It's been ages since anything has drew my attention at the local cinemas but tonight I'm off to see the latest offering from my favourite living directorial genius, Woody Allen.

They're calling 'Blue Jasmine' his greatest film in years. Oh yeah, since 'Midnight In Paris' the year before last they mean. When will people realise that the man never fails to deliver and even when he's underpower - as with the oddly structured 'To Rome With Love' - he's always nothing less than thoroughly entertaining!

The second half of this year has been threatening to undo all the good work of the first half. Hopefully this is the start of a quality sprint to the finish! Hopefully...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - 06:40 pm:   

Never got to see 'Blue Jasmine' and I just hope it doesn't end this week.

Ended up at 'Machete Kills!' by Robert Rodriguez instead... just a tad different. Where 'Machete' kind of made sense as a spoof all-action revenge thriller, with knobs on, this film dispenses with all attempts at comprehensibility and instead remorsely batters the viewer over the head with the stream-of-consciousness absurdity of its dizzyingly colourful visuals, ridiculously OTT action set pieces and hilariously cringeworthy "bad" dialogue. I still have only the vaguest of notions what the plot was about (I picked up references to CIA black ops south of the border, Mexican drug cartels, alien abduction, nuclear armageddon, cloned super-soldiers and a space station run by a 'Star Wars' nut - so your guess is as good as mine) but have to say I enjoyed the ride immensely and came out on some kind of brain frazzled giddy high.

It's a big dumb stupid rollercoaster of bad taste and I loved every moment of it! While the cast; Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson (career redefiningly wonderful as the demented arch-villain!), Charlie Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Lady Gaga, and all the rest of them clearly loved every moment of making the thing. It's hardly classic cinema but if you want to be entertained until you're sick then look no further. This is the closest I've seen a live action movie come to the visual insanity of a Looney Tunes cartoon and, for that reason, I give it a guilty but very strong **** and rank it as superior to Tarantino's 'Django Unchained', for this kind of fare.

Now I can't wait for the sequel, 'Machete Kills Again... In Space!'. Don't ask!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - 06:45 pm:   

Never got to see 'Blue Jasmine' and I just hope it doesn't end this week.

Ended up at 'Machete Kills!' by Robert Rodriguez instead... just a tad different. Where 'Machete' kind of made sense as a spoof all-action revenge thriller, with knobs on, this film dispenses with all attempts at comprehensibility and instead remorsely batters the viewer over the head with the stream-of-consciousness absurdity of its dizzyingly colourful visuals, ridiculously OTT action set pieces and hilariously cringeworthy "bad" dialogue. I still have only the vaguest of notions what the plot was about (I picked up references to CIA black ops south of the border, Mexican drug cartels, alien abduction, nuclear armageddon, cloned super-soldiers and a space station run by a 'Star Wars' nut - so your guess is as good as mine) but have to say I enjoyed the ride immensely and came out on some kind of brain frazzled giddy high.

It's a big dumb stupid rollercoaster of bad taste and I loved every moment of it! While the cast; Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson (career redefiningly wonderful as the demented arch-villain!), Charlie Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Lady Gaga, and all the rest of them clearly loved every moment of making the thing. It's hardly classic cinema but if you want to be entertained until you're sick then look no further. This is the closest I've seen a live action movie come to the visual insanity of a Looney Tunes cartoon and, for that reason, I give it a guilty but very strong **** and rank it as superior to Tarantino's 'Django Unchained', for this kind of fare.

Now I can't wait for the sequel, 'Machete Kills Again... In Space!'. Don't ask!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.140.51
Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 12:43 pm:   

Saw two great adult tragi-comedies in the past week that stand out like beacons of excellence in a wasteland of cinematic mediocrity over the last few months:


Woody Allen's latest major opus, 'Blue Jasmine', is totally deserving of all the hype surrounding it, imo. I've seen virtually all of the great man's films and have followed his career devotedly since first falling in love with the "early funny ones" as a child in the 70s. This film is his best since my own personal favourite, and the one I consider his masterpiece, 'Crimes And Misdemeanors' (1989). It is also the first film since then to successfully embrace both the worlds of priceless laugh-out-loud character comedy and emotionally powerful high tragedy at its most sobering. The way he judges the balance so exactly right in this intense riches-to-rags character study, rather than the two separate tales that came full circle to meet at the end in CAM, has to be one of his finest scriptwriting achievements.

This is the unusually topical story, for Woody, of a pampered rich bitch New York socialite, Jasmine (Cate Blanchett, acting out of her skin in the part of a lifetime) who finds her world of privilege and casual luxury falling down around her in the wake of a huge financial scandal that sees her husband (Alec Baldwin) exposed as a particularly mean-spirited crook in a silk suit, whose life of corporate crime has leeched the lifeblood out of countless poor families... including Jasmine's own working class sister, a struggling supermarket checkout girl back in San Francisco. After losing everything and suffering an alcohol induced nervous breakdown this self-pitying wreck of a human being has nowhere left to turn but to the same sister, who takes her into her modest home without question.

From there the story brilliantly interweaves Jasmine's struggle to come to terms with her new "shameful" circumstances and build some kind of an "acceptable" new life for herself, while hating and mercilessly criticising everything about her long-suffering sister's "lifestyle choices", with incisive flashbacks to her former high life and the chain of events that led to her husband's and her self-inflicted downfall. This all builds to a final devastating revelation and confrontation that strips every vestige of pretence from this pitiful woman. She may be hard to love but you'll find it equally difficult to condemn her by story's end.

The entire film hangs on the conviction of Blanchett's performance and she sets the screen alight here in ways that reminded me of the young Bette Davis! She makes this outrageously, and often hilariously, vane, self-obsessed, shallow monster into a three dimensional human being we become utterly fascinated by and shows us layers of achingly human vulnerability and self-deception beneath the hateful exterior that make her one of the great cinema characters of the modern era. A figure of comedy and tragedy to rank alongside Blanche DuBois, she being Woody's obvious inspiration, imho.

The film is an instant ***** masterpiece and even a strong contender for the director's greatest achievement. I wouldn't argue with anyone who chose it as their favourite. Never, ever write Woody Allen off. Just when you think he's decided to coast entertainingly in his twilight years he produces two of the finest films of his career within a couple of years of each other. 'Blue Jasmine' and 'Midnight In Paris' (2011) are both well up in my own Top 10!! Seriously, even ardent non-Woody fans are loving this one and its packing them in at my local cinema. Don't miss it!

&

Although not a work of comparable genius, Stephen Frears' latest, 'Philomena', starring Judi Dench in typically awesome form and Steve Coogan in his finest (virtually) straight role to date, is another stridently adult and thought provoking tragi-comedy that at least belongs in the same ballpark.

This genuinely upsetting and very funny drama tells a shocking true story that could be used as the defining proof that truth is always stranger than fiction! I honestly defy anyone not familiar with the case, as I was not, to even begin to work out how this mad story unfolds. In many ways it a true life horror story of quite unbelievable levels of cruelty and evil - made bearable by equally unbelievable levels of humility and forgiveness.

Anyone who has seen Peter Mullan's great masterpiece, 'The Magdalene Sisters' (2002), will no doubt be a tad surprised to hear that this overwhelmingly charming and entertaining movie deals with the same subject matter and concentrates on one poor Irish girl's barbaric experiences at the hands of a demonically self-righteous and backward Catholic Church in Ireland! Yep, we're talking that level of horror but made palatable for the easily disturbed by instead concentrating on the emotional wreckage in later life of one poor innocent victim, Philomena Lee, who was imprisoned with hard labour as an uneducated teenager for the sin of getting knocked up by a local lad. Allowed to see her baby, Anthony, on daily visits to the convent orphanage, and bonding with him for his first few years of life, she is naturally devastated when the child is whisked off to America for adoption one morning without giving her any warning or a chance to even say goodbye. Those nuns sure knew how to put the boot in, folks!

Jump forward to Philomena as a feisty old woman unable to live with "not knowing", as she looks at the one faded old snapshot she has of Anthony on the day of his 50th birthday, and having faced nothing but grim unsympathetic faces and a stone wall of silence from the Church after a lifetime of pleading for information, and enter shallow, career obsessed journalist, Martin Sixsmith (remember him?), played brilliantly by Coogan, who sees his chance of milking a great human interest story that will get him back in the big time and present him as a white knight on a crusade for justice, after an infamous political scandal had all but destroyed his career.

This decidedly odd couple - the guileless, embarrassingly unworldly chatterbox of an Irishwoman and the stiff, no nonsense and very easily irritated English man of the world - embark on an American odyssey in search of the truth, while getting on each other's nerves to hilarious effect, and finding out rather a lot about themselves in the process, yadda, yadda...

If that were all there was to this story it would be yet another unremarkably watchable odd couple road movie of self-discovery and warm happy endings but the mind-numbing revelations this pair uncover in their quest, the narrative defying disappointments and ridiculously unlikely coincidences, that only real life can deliver, coupled with the sheer horror of just what was done on this woman and her child by supposed "Christians" literally stuns the senses and will have you staggering out of the cinema sickened to your very core and astonished at the human race's capacity for casual evil and also our humbling powers of endurance, while knowing you've had one hell of an entertaining, genuinely life-affirming and very funny journey in getting there. One of Frears most accomplished films I'd give this a highly satisfying, if in the end a bit too polite in shading us from the physical side of the horror (as Mullan did not), four and a half stars! Coogan, in particular, is a revelation in this.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.140.51
Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 12:58 pm:   

Oddly the two films above are the best of their respective directors since the same time period, imo. 'Philomena' is Frears' finest film since his masterpiece also, 'The Grifters' (1990). Go see it!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.140.51
Posted on Wednesday, November 06, 2013 - 01:27 pm:   

Here's my current Top 10 for this year so far:

1. 'Blue Jasmine' by Woody Allen - ***** tragi-comedy/character drama
2. 'Stoker' by Park Chan-Wook - ***** horror/suspense thriller
3. 'Les Misérables' by Tom Hooper - ***** musical/historical epic
4. 'Sleep Tight' by Jaume Balagueró - ***** horror/suspense thriller
5. 'Star Trek XII : Into Darkness' by J.J. Abrams - ***** science fiction
6. 'Byzantium' by Neil Jordan - ***** horror
7. 'Alan Partridge : Alpha Papa' by Declan Lowney - ***** comedy
8. 'Good Vibrations' by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn - ***** musical biopic/character drama
9. 'Beyond The Hills' by Cristian Mungiu - ***** horror/character drama/love story
10. 'The Spirit Of '45' by Ken Loach - ***** documentary feature
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, November 19, 2013 - 05:34 pm:   

Ended up at a romcom last night as part of the trials and tribulations of having a woman. 'Don Jon' by director/writer/star Joseph Gordon-Levitt was another in those long line of literately adult ensemble New York comedies by a talented newcomer desperate to emulate the young and unfeasibly talented Woody Allen. JGL plays a cocky young NY Italian stud who beds a different beauty every night and is the idol of his less successful mates - hence the nickname of the title - but who appears to meet his match in Scarlett Johansson's equally sure of herself NY blonde bombshell but is also secretly addicted to Internet porn and unable to experience what he dreams of being the "perfect shag" outside of those lurid web sites. There's absolutely nothing new here and the final message about emotional fulfillment being preferable to mad sex is hardly groundbreaking but the cast give it their all and the film passes the time pleasantly enough. I'd give it a reasonably entertaining ***. And next time we're going to see a horror!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - 11:36 am:   

I'm dying to hear your thoughts on 'Blue Jasmine', Craig. Have you seen it yet? One of Woody's absolute best, imo.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 04:23 am:   

Just here to echo Stevie's comments above regarding the film that has finally broken my long drought of no film watching—Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. Definitely his finest in maybe two decades; a hard movie to watch, but the "light" touch Allen lends to this tragic spiral makes it not as unbearable as it could have been. We all know how good now Blanchett is in it, but Sally Hawkins as her kind-hearted (but maybe, trouble in the making, too) sister almost steals the film (Bobby Cannavale and Alec Baldwin have choice roles, too). There are moments you wonder if the actors/crew were not trying to stare too much at Woody while filming—parts of the film read like indictments against himself. Best film of 2013, imho... though of course, I've seen so few, I'm really in no position to judge....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 05:11 am:   

I couldn't agree more, Craig. It was my film of last year as well and one of Woody Allen's atop 10 masterpieces, imho. Can you name the other 9 I would select?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.58
Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 05:16 am:   

Bloody hell, I haven't been to the cinema since the 18th November last year!! Mostly due to wrecking my knee and not being able to get about. There's been quite a few big films I missed and will have to catch up with anon.

Take that list above as my final Top 10 for 2013.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 06:11 am:   

My guess is....

Midnight in Paris
Crimes & Misdemeanors
Husbands & Wives
Annie Hall
Hannah & Her Sisters
Love & Death
Manhattan
Stardust Memories
Manhattan Murder Mystery


Those are my other 9 of the moment, at least, off the top of my head....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.234.16
Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 04:12 pm:   

I'd go for:

1. Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989)
2. Manhattan (1979)
3. Annie Hall (1977
4. Midnight In Paris (2011)
5. Blue Jasmine (2013)
6. Love And Death (1975)
7. Stardust Memories (1980)
8. Zelig (1983)
9. Sleeper (1973)
10. Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Ask me later and they may well have changed...
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Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker)
Username: Patrick_walker

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 62.3.229.59
Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2014 - 07:27 am:   

Sorry to gatecrash but I like a list. Blue Jasmine was also my top film of last year.
And here's my Top 10 Allens, in no particular order

1. Crimes and Misdemeanors
2. Hannah and Her Sisters
3. Annie Hall
4. Manhattan
5. Another Woman
6. Blue Jasmine
7. Vicky Christina Barcelona
8. Husbands and Wives
9. The Purple Rose of Cairo
10. Midnight In Paris
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.62
Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2014 - 07:30 pm:   

All great, great movies, Patrick!

Has any other director of the modern era been more consistently brilliant? The answer to that is a resounding NO!!!!
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Patrick Walker (Patrick_walker)
Username: Patrick_walker

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 81.131.90.29
Posted on Saturday, February 22, 2014 - 09:38 pm:   

Well, I'd say that despite obviously having a much shorter filmography, Michael Haneke has been more consistently brilliant. But I take your point!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, February 23, 2014 - 03:32 am:   

Sorry Stevie—Robert Altman, imho, has been equally as consistently brilliant as Woody. He had a few duds, but so has Woody. Altman's movies will survive trends and times, and even his most bizarre and obscure pieces (like Buffalo Bill & The Indians, say, or Quintet) prove ineluctable, and will come into their own; even if (dare I say like Shakespeare?) it takes a century or two for people to begin to catch up to them. No, these two are the sole preeminent directors of this our modern era.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.40
Posted on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 - 05:54 am:   

I've loved any of his movies that I have seen, Craig, but there are an awful lot I haven't. He's certainly a unique talent.

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