anything in particular oyu liked about it? I just couldnt get into it.


Ratatouille - pixar just keep hitting the target, I didnt quite like this as much as some of their best (Toy Storys and Incredibles), but it's as good as their next tier (monsters inc, cars). A bit too long, but otherwise great animation, great characters and quite funny.

7.5/10


Bringing Out the Dead (1999) - nic cage in good movie shocker!! Not one of scorsese's well known films, which is a pity because it's very entetaining despite not really going anywhere and dragging a bit towards the end.

The humour is dark, the writing is sharp, the look is excellent and cage is very engaging as a paramedic who starts spiralling into depression when all his patients keep dying on him.

7-7.5/10 

The Queen - very good film but with a little more tinkering it could have been great. The writing and acting is generally of a pretty high standard but apart from the two main characters (ie the queen and tony blair), the rest of them are way underdeveloped and one note. Given the short running time, it woudlnt have hurt to spend some more time developing them rather than making them mere caricatures. There's also some very unnecessary dialogue that spells out each little thing to the audience. But having said all of that, its quite an engaging and interesting film and well worth checking out.

7.5/10


My Darling Clementine (1946) - It's technically a western by being a take on the wyatt earp story, but it only uses that as a basis for a pretty good character study (unlike Tombstone which was all about the events). Its beautifully shot, Henry Fond is great as usual and there is not too much of the standard Ford oversentimentality and unnecessary slapstick.

7/10



La Vie En Rose - falls into the usual biopic traps (mainly trying to cover all important events without spending enough time on any for them to really make an impact), the filmmaking is sloppy and nervous and the storytelling is chaotic and messy. But it has two things that stop it from being a disaster, Marion Cotillard's excellent performance as Edith Piaf and also the songs of Piaf herself (had never heard it before, but it�s definitely a very distinct and impressive voice).

5/10 

The Spiral Staircase (1946) - very solid gothic suspense/thriller that�s immaculately shot and well written for the most part. The last act is a little weaker than it should be, mainly due to plot limitations, but its still very well handled because the emphasis is always on character (which apparently is not the case in the 1975 and 2000 remakes).

7-7.5/10


Fires on the Plain (1959) - slightly surreal and very bleak look at the japanese side of things during WWII, concentrating on the mental disintegration and survival of japanese troops in the phillipines when they had been abandoned by their own forces who had retreated to the mainland.

There's a very noticeable distance from the characters, mainly because it tries to be very even handed, but otherwise it's quite effective in what it sets out to do, pulling out quite a few genuine surprises along the way.

7/10



A Woman Under The Influence (1974) - john cassavetes' most famous film is a very uncomfortable look at mental illness in domestic, blue collar america. Both Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk are nothing short of fantastic in their depictions of two people in love but unable to comunicate it to each other in ways the other understands, leading to an eventual spiral into family hell.

The performances really are staggering and make some of the otherwise hard to watch scenes easier to appreciate. I did find that it went on a bit too long (146 min) but that's probably just because it�s a very exhausting film.

7/10


3 Days of the Condor (1974) - otherwise known as that movie directly spoofed by seinfeld in the episode where newman warns kramer (who wants to stop receiveing mail) of being abducted by someone he trusts, it's also the movie that has obviously inspired stuff like the Bourne series of novels/films.

Its very classily handled in the suspense and writing side of things (save for a very dodgy relationship establishment between robert redford and faye dunaway's characters) but its also heavily dated from the technology side of things. Normally, that's not an issue for me, but quite a few of the scenes look like something out of a Bond spoof.

6-6.5/10


Cria Cuervos (1976) - similar in some ways to the great Spirit of the Beehive, and not just because it has another remarkable performance from Ana Torrent as an 8 year old dealing with the loss of her father and mother. Reality and fantasy intermittently swap places, never in an overly explicit manner, and always in a surprising way due to clever editing and writing.

Carlos Saura does a tremendous job getting into the head of his main character, a particularly difficult thing to do with children in my opinion. Excellent all round stuff.

8/10 

Fires on the Plain (1959)

I am tired of these mutherfuckin fires on this mutherfuckin plain...

On a more productive note, I was thinking it's fun to make top 10 lists of overly-specific movie genres. I was wondering what the top 10 assassination movies were, but I don't know if I've even seen 10 decent assassination movies total.

1. Manchurian Candidate
2. Taxi Driver
3. The Parallax View (does this count?)
4. Day of the Jackal
5. In The Line of Fire
... 

Your number 1 is wrong, metl. It's supposed to be L�on the Professional without any doubt. 

Agree 

i was thinking more about assasinations of politicians and leaders, rather than just anything with a hitman or sniper in it. 

...is a fucking violent movie with Vincent Cassel, Monica Belucci and Tch�ki Karyo.. This is the story of the charismatic criminal Dobermann, who got his first gun when he was christened, and his lead of a gang of brutal robbers. If you like violence in movie, you will be happy with it: it is dark, bloddy and violent as Hell.. 

you lost me there :) did I miss something or you just wanted to quote samuel L ?

As for the list, I'd swap 1 and 2 personally. I'd throw in JFK in the top 5 because I think it works great as a film.

Cant think of any more staright of the top of my head though. 

I've been trying to find a copy of that for a while actually. Mainly because I like Cassel (when he actually gets a good role) and Bellucci (anytime really). 

Not just snipers or hitmen. So how about The Assassination of Richard Nixon? 

but I would only put it in a top 10 if i was struggling, which is probably the case :) 

yeah, just had that "snakes on a plane" quote pop into my head when reading your reviews :)

JFK probably fits on there, though it takes place completely after the event.

There are probably some historical movies about the knifing of various Roman emperors that could fit on here, but I can't remember the good ones (Caligula is not a good one.) 

does stuff like Godfather, The Conversation or Munich count? or is that stretching too much? 

Though it didn't involve heads of states as the recepients, Munich should definitely make the list. The nude woman assassination was pretty brutal.

Not the Godfather, though. When a low life gangster gets murdered it is more properly called a hit.

As for The Conversation, I'll need my memory jumped started on that one, if I'm thinking of the right movie, the director who mostly does films on Baltimore, right? 

yeah fair enough, I cant think of 10 I would list so was going for everything :)

Conversation is a coppola classic with gene hackman back when he actually acted. :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/ 

Oddly enough, I was thinking of Barry Levinson's The Diner. 

Mona Lisa (1986) - nothing to do with the painting, but (out of what I've seen) easily Neil Jordan's best movie, although the title probably refers to the mysterious, impenetrable and alluring nature of the main female character.

Bob Hoskins is excellent in the central role of a driver of an upper class prostitute in middle class London who gets drawn into events and dealings well above his head. Jordan quite quickly establishes some very likeable characters and an impending sense of gloom in the first 15 min and from then on, it unfolds quite beautifully through some excellent writing that is also quite frequently hilarious.

The supporting cast is great with Michael Caine in an impressive cameo and Robbie Coltrane a scene stealer as Bob Hoskins' friend who is an ornamental spaghetti artist that also moonlights as murder mystery writer.

7-7.5/10


There Will Be Blood - It's Paul Thomas Anderson's most assured film, everything is restrained rather than overly showy, but its probably also his least impressive overall.

For close to 2 1/2 hours, it�s a searing portrait of greed, manipulation and single mindedness building to what looks like Citizen Kane territory. But the last act is completely in the wrong tone and was also far too rushed compared to the rest of the film.

Daniel Day Lewis's John Huston impersonation is quite entertaining and pretty good, but its also surprisingly very one note.

Had greatness in its hands, but let it slip.

7.5/10


Ace in the Hole (1951) - Billy Wilder's black humoured movie about media glorification is a fairly biting, well written satire in which Kirk Douglas's Chuck Tatum paraphrases Gordon Gecko's "greed is good" motto some 36 years earlier.

The movie centres around Tatum's news reporter who goes to some length to make a media circus out of a small town miner who is trapped in a mine on an old indian burial ground, even making sure he stays down there long enough to get more mileage out of the story.

The dialogue is sharp as usual from Wilder, including yet another great finishing line, and the whole thing keeps up the farcical nature of the situation quite well without managing to stretch credulity.

7.5/10 

but being a fan of DDL I wanted to see it. In any case, it's kind of hard to say what situation could emerge which would end up being reasonable.

Anyway, the obvious fact is that situations are underestimated, even if they provide temporary happiness. 

it's well worth watching. 

I thought the total opposite of what Nitin said.

I liked the second half, but after watching the first half, I nearly turned it off in disgust. Good job I didnt though. I remember saying to my girlfriend "I think these girls will survive, cause, I dunno, they just seem a little bit more worldly than the last ones". I couldnt have been more right. I liked the way the film ended. Very quickly, almost as if to say "well? do you REALLY need any more? is it not PERFECT?"

The first half was nasty for me. I mean it was almost as if to make you think "why am I even bothering to watch this?" when they were in the bar. And then when the first killing occur, It was just a bit disgusting, and gratuatus. But I suppose thats Tarantinos style.

I give a similar mark to Nitin, maybe a bit higher, like a 6, but I liked the bits he didnt, and didnt like the bits he did. 

I see this more as Tarantino exploring different style, much like a more traditional artist. That's why I'd rate it on a totally different basis than most other movies.

That said, i did expect a more interesting and consequent handling of it; but maybe i'm missing some cheesy 70ies/80ies movies background. 

Tekkonkinkreet
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831888/
The backgrounds are amazing but apart from that I hated pretty much everything: The story, the characters, the people's looks, the voices.

I found it very depressing and crazy. 

different style?

a bunch of (admittedly female) characters sit around for quite a while, all speaking like tarantino, interspersed with gory violence :)

ricky, a couple of my freinds had the same reaction as you actually. 

Gone Baby Gone - Ben Affleck makes a stunning debut as director with this excellent film that is dripping with character and mood.

He also does his brother Casey a big favour, giving him the meatiest role in the movie, and the younger Affleck does it full justice playing one half of a private detective team hired by the grandparents of a missing girl to 'augment' the police investigation into her disappearance.

From there on what follows is not only a superior police procedural but also an unflinching look at the nature of choices and their sometimes irreparable consequences, all presented in a very assured, restrained and subtle manner that is very rare to see these days.

It has a few flaws, the nature of the plot causes a few pacing issues near the middle of the movie and one of the seemingly main characters is only there to serve the plot but overall from out of what I've seen so far, this is the second best flm of last year behind No Country for Old Men.

7.5-8/10


La Silence de la Mer (1949) - a world apart from Melville's later films, this is almost a precursor to the films of Robert Bresson and those of the impending French New Wave.

Set during 1941 in occupied France, an old man and his niece are forced to provide billeted accomodation to german soldiers and resist in the only way they can, by refusing to say a single word during their stay. However. one such soldier continues to speak to them, admiring and understanding their silence, and the majority of the film looks at the relationship between the thre characters till the end of the officer's stay.

There are obvious limitations imposed on the film due to the plot, and its not helped by some of the acting, but the situation and teh characterisations are compelling.

6.5/10


We Own the Night - extremely predictable and generic crime drama that is well made but just cant overcome its unoriginal nature.

Joaquin Phoenix is very good at playing tortured and almost manages to raise this out of the average barrel, along with a fabulous rainstorm car chase, but the whole thing never really kicks outof second gear at any stage.

5.5-6/10