yeah Nolan is amazing - have you seen his first film "Following"? It's really good, shot for $3,000, and it really displays the sort of template for his "smart guys plotting against each other" type of script.

I can hardly wait to see him do something resembling the scifi of 10 years ago with Inception. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyQ3K0xnYg

I concur. 

What's so damn good about slumdog? I'd much rather place it in most over rated movie instead of any kind of best of. 

Slumdog is excellent but I wouldnt call it a great film personally.

Tronyn, been trying to get my hands on a decent dvd of Following for a while now. I think one's due out this year sometime so will keep hoping.

As for IB, my comments are above, but basically good movie hampered by poor pacing and a shit ending. 

anyone seen the french horror film Maryrs? If so, thoughts?

I initially thought it was very good for the first 2/3 but then bit off more than it could chew. But it has stuck in my head for two weeks now and that doesnt happen all that often. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLgszfXTAY

Just read the book, didn't like the writing style BUT it's still a very good book, captivating, grim, and gripping. The film looks rather good and mostly looks very true to the book and atmosphere EXCEPT for hyping up the human conflict in it. I reckon it will be a good un.

On the polar opposite end of the scale, Slumdog, well it was stylish, well filmed, great soundtrack, good blend of Asian / Western styles, some good little touches throughout, and overall just really entertaining. 

his last film, The Proposition, was very nice. Looking forward to it. 

Over rated. I pretty much agree with you regarding the last third of the movie - some great parts up until then, but the end was pretty goofy - Then again, I don't like it when Horror movies get too ambitious - they always seem pedantic when that happens.

When it comes to french horror, I definitely prefer Inside.

PS - boo slumdog. seriously. 

is on the to watch last. High Tension is still the one for me (provided I turn off 10 min before the end). 

Pandorum - Actually surprised me a bit - worth a watch if you like Sci Fi - interesting twist at the end.

Gamer - Predictable, but fun-ish. Some amusing parts. Some terrible acting made the regular acting in it look good.

Both had OK/good special effects which kinda helped :D 

For me it had a couple of strong scenes and that's pretty much it, as for stylish I have to say I found the style appalling even if there might have been a point in matching the style of the tv-show. 

I was pretty hyped for this movie, and I ended up hating it. It was quite boring and felt completely pointless, a few of the scenes were ok, but I was just waiting for it to pickup, and then it ended instead (the end was particularly MEH). 

Had you read the book beforehand? 

No, maybe it's better? Is it much different?
It's quite strange, it had many things I enjoy, I like brooding dark movies, and post-apoc stuff, and to be fair the acting was pretty good, but I just really did not like it. 

It's a taste thing, obviously. The Road is very bleak and not uplifting at all. It's a love/hate thing I've noticed with most people. 

it did have non millionaire scenes too you know :) 

no other Avatar comments?

If you are going to watch it, it is only a cinema movie as there's not much beyond the visuals. 

http://i35.tinypic.com/sor6sj.jpg 

but im not going to see it because it looks like something i wouldn't like 

and I liked Hillcoat's previous movie The Proposition even more. I'll be keeping track of what he does next.

Haven't seen Avatar, not really interested - the trailer makes it look like Dances with Wolves in space, with really good CGI. Meh. I'm really sick of this whole storyline (ahem, Last Samurai), it's a shitty cliche. 

yeah its pretty much Dances with Wolves with giant smurfs. And atrocious acting and dialogue.

And apart from one scene, I thought the CGI was not that impressive either. 

I don't get all these references to Dances With Wolves in space, Fern Gully in space, Last Samurai in space...

It's clearly Dune, but in space.

(haven't seen it yet) 

exactly, and don't even try to wonder if those visuals make sense.

It's still great in 3d though :)

CG wise, they took a lot of shortcuts with their materials, I think. All the skin is quite.. diffuse ;-) 

when there is only live action no? Some weird perspective/depth perception issue (to me anyway). When its totally cgi though, it doesnt seem to be an issue. 

I saw it a couple of days ago. The 3D effect is very hit n miss. One of the obvious problems is that the camera has it's (maybe unnecessarily narrow) focus which of course doesn't match your own as your gaze move around the screen, staring at blurry objects in the foreground doesn't look very good. Wonder how much better it would work with a broader depth of field or simply composing your scenes with a stronger focal point (although I suppose that in longer scenes on a big screen your eyes will start to wander still).

As for the movie it feels rather crudely divided into two halves: introducing the world of Pandora and setting the conflict loose.

During the introduction there are visually interesting parts but it fails to engage and feels more like watching a succession of concept art.

Can't help but blame James Cameron for a lack of sensibility as a director, failing to make the slow parts interesting and when it comes to the big conflict and action scenes he feels more at home but still lacks finesse, maxing everything out to the the point of silliness in typical hollywood block-buster style.

In the end I still thought it was worth seeing but perhaps it was mostly due to it being the first modern 3D movie I watch. Personally I'd much rather see a movie concentrating on exploring the 3D movie medium.

They did show the Alice trailer in 3D before the movie and it got me excited about seeing that as the more fantastic imagery should be a better match for the technology.

Otherwise one of the most memorable parts of seeing Avatar was that a friend's seat was missing (he did get another one) and instead there was a knife on the floor...