Taken made me feel quite sick actually. Count how many times the fucking wanker leaves girls who don't happen to be his precious american daughter to fucking die or continue being raped.

...

His character is a completely immoral twat.

it's about desperate father going to whatever lengths necessary to try and save his daughter (ie. part of his immediate family, not some random american girl) before the window closes. ignoring the fact he actually rescued another one of the girls during the quest, i'm struggling to see how choosing not to do the same for every single girl in the film is remotely immoral?

shooting the wife i can agree with but you're way off on the first point! 

I'd accept the point if his character was, say, the main character in Children of Men. ie a realistic human being.

But he's not, he's a badass super killing machine with "special skills". The main character in Deathwish is more upstanding :p 

zqf on the (im)morality, not that it bothered me that much at all since I wasnt expecting much else from Luc Besson.

But at least it didnt try to be moral like Man on Fire which was all the more worse for it. 

A bit late on this, but I thought it was good. I preferred No Country for Old Men a bit more, mainly because I actually got a bit of meaning from it. This movie, as far as I can tell, seems to be about an asshole oil tycoon who goes bonkers and destroys his life and the lives of the people around him. Not sure if there's a message that I'm missing or if it's just kind of a bummer of a story.

At the very least, the production was top notch and the shots were very well done. Score was great too. 

the main theme IMHO was the similarities between capitalism and religion and their willing to exploit the weak. 

Valhalla Rising

This will be one person's pretentious bore and another person's masterpiece. I personally found it to be more towards the latter, a hypnotically shot and scored, but largely plotless and wordless, film which feels like a Terence Malick take on the viking movie but with dosages of Herzog thrown in. Moments of brutal action, but they are few and far between.

Centurion

Is this really made by the same guy that made The Descent (or even Dog Soldiers)? Terribly written and with extreme OTT action that's so cartoony and with so much dodgy looking CGI blood, that you have to wonder whether anyone actually saw the final cut before release. Only saving grace is some stunning shots of the Scottish highlands. 

didn't enjoy it quite as much as No Country For Old Men, but it's kind of apples and oranges, though the overlap in bleak setting/bleak message does beg some comparisons.
I loved the portrayal of the main character losing his mind, one of the most alone characters I've seen on film. His rage at the preacher seemed to be based on the idea that whereas he sold something real, using lies, the preacher sold only lies. In other words, Plainview was offended that his hard work and dark genius which exploited stupidity, could be interfered with by someone who was neither brilliant nor hardworking, but simply exploited stupidity. 

Looking forward to that one! Not sure how that's gonna go - really don't get why all the fucking tuff people I know loved Bronson so much - super mediocre... not that it has much to do with VH, I guess
Hope to see it soon. As well as Black Death - looks nice and grim, and Triangle was totally not bad at all.
Nitin, any other good films on that 'bleak, depressing medieval horror-eque' tip? 

going to get Black Death for sure, looks interesting.

Other medieval stuff, I take it you've seen Name of the Rose, not that bleak but very good medieval type thriller/horror.

Apocalypto too although that's more medieval action. Also, even though it's a bit of a mess, Brotherhood of the Wolf.

And havent seen Bronson although was considering it after VH. Not good? 

Tedious bollox. Pointless, badly put together, incoherent waste of a decent premise.

NOTR is a favourite. 

Nerd of the rings? 

been a while, I was like, a kid. I might have to re watch that, actually, I barely remember it! 

I've been saving up 8 1/2 for years on my must watch list, assuming when I did it'll hit my top 20 list. What a disappointment.

It wasn't a bad film, in fact i'd probably say it's good. But certainly not an all time classic.
The dialogue was just rambling and often seemed to be seeping in it's own ego with it's exotic wording that weren't even of much relevance.

The plot itself was a great idea for a movie, but it fell a little flat and ended up being boring. And it's because it really didn't go anywhere. Where is the fantasy and surrealism depicting his state of mind? Instead we're left with a carnival show at the end where everyones dancing and in white. Anyone could have done that in their back yard with 30 actors... it's certainly not brilliant cinematography and film sets. The suicide scene following his dream sequence was a great idea, but I believe it should have been made clear the he killed himself. As it is, it seems more likely that the actual movie ended at the press conference and the suicide and carnival scene was just his fantasy.

What I did love about this movie was the acting and characters. The female characters in particular were all great, absolutely nothing dull there. Some weren't the best actors, but it was great in the same way as females in anime entertain - in that exaggerated, childlike way. Guido's character was well done as well, but at times seemed to lack something. A personality, perhaps.

I did like the film score though.

Probably give it a 7/10 overall. 

I felt the same, I actually think you need to know about Fellini's life to really appreciate the film which shouldnt be a criterion (it's mainly autobiographical).

I did think it was brilliantly shot though. 

did you love any of fellini's other films, nitin? 

but quite liked I Vitelloni, The Nights of Cabiria, La Strada and Il Bidone.

La Dolce Vita I found to be in the same category as 8 1/2.

Going by my understanding of your tastes, I would recommend I Vitelloni and Il Bidone. 

Hehe I don't even understand my own tastes. I'll probably watch all those above eventually though 

Fellini is an acquired taste I guess. I thought 8 1/2 was brilliant. 

do you own many movies? If so, do you have a list up anywhere? Would love to check it out. Our tastes seem to be generally similar. 

Not really I'm afraid. A friend of mine who is really into films used to run a cinema society at my uni. That's where I first saw Battle of Algiers, Stalker, Three Colours trilogy and stuff like that.

For fun we also used to have a semi-regular noir night too, since it was a reliable way to have a great film but a bit more casual and relaxing :p

I can always ask him to suggest a list for you. He's seen waaaaay more than I have. 

For those who don't live in the USA or know about that whole Mexican border bullshit, basically this whole movie is based around the issue of illegal immigration, which is a pretty hot topic in America today. Why? Because Americans are stupid or something.

Anyway, the movie itself isn't RR's best work. It's not as fun as Planet Terror, and I don't think it carries that well in the long run like Planet Terror does. Even though it IS fun, and there are lots of tits and action scenes and gore and wacky bits, it just seems to drag near the end imo. Still, worth a look, but obviously I would prefer Planet Terror over Machete.

Also, no Alba/Michelle/Lohan makeout scene. Disappointing, but not unexpected. 

i just watched Machete too... agree with zwiffle's review; it's entertaining at certain moments but overall kind of weak. 

that Taken was a pretty good portrayal of CIA-type stuff: be really self-righteous, totally amoral, totally selfish, totally self-contradictory, totally ruthless, and the average American thinks you are a "morally admirable" "badass" 

Yesterday: Dinner with Schmucks
Laughed so hard, highly recommended if you like Steve Carell. Rest of cast were fillers. So many great scenes. 9/10!

Today: Sex Drive
I really can't stand Clark Duke. Weird and rather bad movie. Could have been great if they either went full comedy or fully serious. Too many stupid things. Guess I am far from the target audience. 

there's a director's cut of sex drive... although i'm not sure if it's actually called that. it's probably the most ridiculous comedy i've ever seen, and it knows it too, which makes it rather fun. although i spent most of the movie salivating over amanda crew so can't really comment too much on the finer points