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Film 2008



Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
42,781
Lancing
The Uncle Spielberg's Film Club is being replaced with Film 2008. Place all your film / dvd reviews on here for consideration and debate.

I saw a mental film last night, just out on DVD, Wrong Turn 2 - Dead End. I thought Wrong Turn was a decent enough little horror , a good addition to the genre so was looking forward to Wrong Turn 2. It did not dissapoint let me tell you. For a straight to DVD release it was one of the best I have seen.

The premise was of course 6 twenty somethings in the Woods for an American survival reality show which became very real indeed. The mutants were very well done . bit like a day out in Croydon and the slayings were highly entertaining. All in all a little gem really.

7.6

Anything decent at the cinema now, plan to go tomorrow.
 


Cheeky Monkey

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2003
22,953
Saw a weird Robin Williams film last night - he played a gay New York dj who went to Wisconsin to visit a blind woman and her dying son, both of whom were regular callers to his radio show, only the woman wasn't only pretending to be blind (and very scary she was too) and the son didn't exist, she'd made him up. Sounds crap but was actually a total head fug of a film, or "Very Schpooky" as Sean Connery might have said.
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
59,198
The Fatherland
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is getting good reviews. I've yet to see Control. No Country For Old Men looks good.
 


Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
42,781
Lancing
Plumped for Enchanted in the end. Went to the multiplex at 3pm and after a 6 weeks run I was expecting the cinema to be quite empty , it was packed. word of mouth has got out about this one.

It was simply a wonderous and joyous 105 minutes entertainment, made me realise why I love a trip to the cinema so much rather than watching something on your own on a 30 inch tv set, its the collective and sharing joy of watching such a great family film.

Amy Adams give a bravora performance a real tour de force as Giselle the princess transported from fluffy cartoon land to harsh today New York to find her Prince. Nominated for a Golden Globe she should see an Oscar nomination follow. Others follow from cartoon land with a great turn from the Prince and the Chipmunk and Timothy Spall.

It had 2 stand out scenes amoungst a plethora of fun, the animals cleaning the flat and the song and dance routine in Central Park.

Everyone from 8 to 80 should love this film and it will become a future classic thats a guarantee.

8.5

Seen any recently ?.
 


Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
I have a preview ticket for No Country For Old Men tonight. Not been excited by a COen Brothers release for a good few years, but i am rather thrilled about heading to an Odeon to see this one.

Saturday was a great day for films. An early showing for a Beau Bridges brain-damage drama alongside the elderly, charmless Pam Dawber (whose relationship with Mork has obviously ended). His memory returned after time, his wife before the accident arriving at the same time. Dawber's heart was broken, but justice was maybe done.

In the evening there was a showing of Fantastic Voyage. What a beauty of a film. The briefest of religious debates betwixt paranoid scientists shrunken into the tubes and decaying lumps of the human body in order for them to laserbeam the fatty cork that hinders thought in one cranial avenue of a man they need alive and mentally active.

An hour later was Fateless. A Hungary/German sepia-centred tale of concentration camps until the Americans save the day. It simply follows the seemingly quiet, curly-haired boy who is tortured by the Nazis in various camps, all his inmates forced to stand still from dusk until dawn as punishment for one unnamed gentleman stealing rations from the unguarded kitchen one evening. It was an unpleasant tale, obviously, but quite prettily changed in colour at times, seasonally and acidically.
 




Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,673
Location Location
World Trade Center

Oliver Stones true portrayal of two port authority cops buried in the rubble following the collapse of the WTC. The first half an hour of the film is the most transfixing, as a normal day dawns in New York, only to be shattered by the terrorist attack. Nicolas Cage slips comfortably into his normal "everyman" persona and gives an understated and (as a result) convincing performance as John McLaughlin, the sergeant in charge of a handful of cops who enter one of the Towers shortly before it collapses.

The rest of the film flits between the anguished families of the cops and the cops themselves as they lay trapped in the rubble, facing up to the fact they may never see their loved ones again. Touching but without getting overly schmaltzy, it did perhaps go on for half an hour too long. But its a well made film that left me pondering on what must have been the unbearable torture of those families who, in the absence of any other information about their loved ones, were left glued to CNN and the news broadcasts as their only source. As the evening of September 11th drew in with no news, you could feel the hope ebbing away from them.

One fact I didn't realise before I saw that film - only 20 people were pulled from Ground Zero alive (these two cops being numbers 18 and 19).
 


Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
42,781
Lancing
Easy, I rated World Trade Centre. It got a mixed bag reviews but Stone was very restrained and it concentrated on the good in people that the terrible day brought out and not the bastard terrorists and why they did it. It was a responsible and worthy piece of work as was United 93. Both well made and worthy films about the one of the most terrible days in the notebook of Mankind.

7.6
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
Giselle the princess transported from fluffy cartoon land to harsh today New York to find her Prince.

No she wasn't! She was pushed down a wishing well by her evil mother-in-law-to-be. She certainly didn't jump in order to find her knight in shining armour.

Otherwise, I completely agree - a wonderfully charming film that is full of Disney schmooze but in the best way possible. Great heart-warming stuff.
 




S'hampton Seagull

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2003
6,803
Southampton
Saw Charlie Wilson's war yesterday. As it is only 'based' on a True story you can't be sure what is fact and fiction, fascinating story though. Tom Hanks on great form as well

7.1
 
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Uncle Spielberg

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 6, 2003
42,781
Lancing
No she wasn't! She was pushed down a wishing well by her evil mother-in-law-to-be. She certainly didn't jump in order to find her knight in shining armour.

Otherwise, I completely agree - a wonderfully charming film that is full of Disney schmooze but in the best way possible. Great heart-warming stuff.

Mr Picky :D

It was a complete Joy though Bozza wasn't it. Amy Adams gave a superlative performance in a difficult role. It is a cracking good film and the song and dance routine in Central Park almost had me jump to my feet and applause such a wonderous bit of film making. I loved every single second of it.
 


Captain Haddock

New member
Aug 2, 2005
2,128
The Deep Blue Sea
My first excursion to the flicks this year was for Ang Lee's latest vehicle, "Lust, Caution".

Now I'll grant you the title is appallingly pants, but the film itself was an admirable depiction of Japanese-occupied Shanghai and HK in the 1940s.

Emotionally engaging in places and strangely UNengaging in others, there's something distinctly icy about the portrayal of the lead characters, a married man and a female spy entangled in a somewhat clinical romance.

Wartime period was stylishly depicted and all the performances were top drawer: Tony Leung is a proper old fashioned 'movie star' that only Depp, Clooney and Pitt can currently match from Wallywood; Wei Tang plays the female lead and has already been tipped for awards for her performance (and considered one of the Top Ten up-and-comers to watch out for by Variety, the film industry 'bible').

The film had it's flaws but was worthy of a viewing, if for nothing else than two of it's three rather explicit sex scenes that are all raw aggression rather than sexy and sensuous.

Director Lee is always an interesting filmmaker, if imperfect.

6.0 (that's quite a high mark for Haddock, btw)
 
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Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,673
Location Location
Easy, I rated World Trade Centre. It got a mixed bag reviews but Stone was very restrained and it concentrated on the good in people that the terrible day brought out and not the bastard terrorists and why they did it. It was a responsible and worthy piece of work as was United 93. Both well made and worthy films about the one of the most terrible days in the notebook of Mankind.

7.6

Agree with that. None of the usual gung-ho heroism I was slightly dreading from this film. Just ordinairy people trying to cope. Well played Mr Stone.
 


Les Biehn

GAME OVER
Aug 14, 2005
20,610
Lust, Caution - I was never bored but still thought this film was quite dull. It never seemed to get to the heart of the characters. The development of the relationship between the 2 leads never entirely convinces, the occupation by Japan is never show to be suitably distressing so as to give us any understanding of the mobilisation of the resistance movement and often you could see the mechanics of the script and the acting. That said it was shot beautifully and the sex scenes were very naughty but always felt part of the story.

6
 


Kinky Gerbil

Im The Scatman
NSC Patreon
Jul 16, 2003
57,845
hassocks
I went to see Dan in real life on friday, it was good - more little miss sunshine than 40 year old virgin, which suits Steve Carell more.

It was funny in places and went along at the right pace.

7.6


A History of Violence.

hmmmm

the film could of ended after an hour, but somehow went on for another 40 mins - good up untill the hour mark then pointless.

5.7
 




MattBackHome

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
11,689
Shooter

Maybe it's the pan-atlantic language barrier, maybe that he was discussing the specifics of being a sniper, but in parts of this film I couldn't understand a word of what Mark Whalberg was going on about. That apart, its a pretty good romp - way short of the Bourne it aspires to, yet remains satisfying.

I Am Legend

SCARED me. I thought it was genuinely creepy. Good shit.

Back to the Future trilogy

10/10
 


Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
Went to that No Country For Old Men preview last night. Really quite good. Haven't read the book on which it's based, but am told it's fairly loyal to that. The machinery with which the shoeless, philosophical murderer-without-regret ends lives is a skewering chiller. And there's the odd piece of Coen Brothers humour in there to break the silence that lingers tensely throughout.
Well worth a look, even if not quite fluent all the way through. Brilliant acting, and apoclyptically scripted in that southern American religious way that's a waffle of holy tongues.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
Mr Picky :D

It was a complete Joy though Bozza wasn't it. Amy Adams gave a superlative performance in a difficult role. It is a cracking good film and the song and dance routine in Central Park almost had me jump to my feet and applause such a wonderous bit of film making. I loved every single second of it.

I agree - superlative stuff and it's warming that most can still appreciate such a film in the cynical times in which we live. Even Mark Kermode rated it!

I'm not ashamed (well, only a little bit) to say that "That's how you know..." (the music from the Central Park scene) accompanied part of my gym session this morning.
 


Les Biehn

GAME OVER
Aug 14, 2005
20,610
Watched a Room for Romeo Brass over the weekend. Enjoyed it and found it quite unsettling. Paddy Considine is mint in it. However like all Shane Meadows films (except Dead Man's shoes) it left me with the feeling that he couldn't follow through and tacks on a happy ending. It worked better in this film of his than most but to be honest Considine performance is so creepy and funny all at the same time it almost doesn't matter. Check out what he says in the first bit of this clip, made me piss myself.

[yt]tOHHK-yrFjA[/yt]
 




Meade's Ball

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,612
Hither (sometimes Thither)
I like Meadows' adoration for film and, as you say Les, the openings of his snappings are generally pleasing, but his Midlandsising reworkings of favourites tends to annoy me a bit, cheapens them, De Palmas them a bit, which is no compliment.
Dead Man's Shoes is the cream of his crop. Partly with the musical influence throughout. If you start a film with the wandering man in the wilderness with Smog playing in the background you are onto a winner in my eyes and ears.
 


Les Biehn

GAME OVER
Aug 14, 2005
20,610
I like Meadows' adoration for film and, as you say Les, the openings of his snappings are generally pleasing, but his Midlandsising reworkings of favourites tends to annoy me a bit, cheapens them, De Palmas them a bit, which is no compliment.
Dead Man's Shoes is the cream of his crop. Partly with the musical influence throughout. If you start a film with the wandering man in the wilderness with Smog playing in the background you are onto a winner in my eyes and ears.

All his films follow the same path, youngster/s find father figure, father figure has emotional or psychological problems, violent denouncement ensures.

The only one this doesn't really happen is Dead Man's Shoes. You could argue that Paddy Considine's character is a father figure to his brother and he has emotional problems but they knew each other already, the development is with the father figure and the main violent out burst comes at the end of the second act leading to something more interesting and less conventional at the end.

I think that's why it works best, it's narrative is lead by the characters rather than the narrative leading the characters.
 



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