i've never watched a silent before (come to think of it i can probably count the number of B&W films i've seen on one hand too) but been interested in checking metropolis out. premise looks interesting.

anyway, recent musings...:-


on kaufman...

adaptation (2002) - brilliant. such a warped idea, executed to perfection with so many clever touches. one of those films i immediately wanted to re-watch just to take everything in again. some laugh-out-loud moments too. probably my favourite nick cage film

also tried re-watching eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004) to see if i could appreciate it more but it's still kinda lost on me. well written & performed with some touching moments, but joel's erasing process (which takes up the majority of the film) was just too disorientating for me to enjoy. it reminded me of being smashed out of my face on ketamine on a comedown a few years ago, getting lost in multiple realities where nothing quite made any sense (not always a pleasant experience, fyi). i might have better appreciated such headfuckery in a darker, more horror-orientated film (1408 springs to mind) but it felt out of place in what is essentially a romance drama


on cronenberg:

videodrome (1983) - another film that traverses multiple realities without always making apparent sense, but this one i liked. had a similar feel to existenz, albeit not as clear (in terms of both what was actually happening and the underlying messages) and rather more dark. ending was pretty harrowing

the fly (1986) - rather more straightforward... and gruesome! but decent enough. goldblum is superb. but yeah not one i'm in a hurry to watch again =)

have scanners & naked lunch still to watch.


on shit films:

fast 5 (2011) - shit in a fun way. there was enough ridiculously OTT action and comically wooden acting to make it semi-worthwhile. the third act car chase is completely stupid but brilliant at the same time

the green hornet (2011) - this was just shit in a shit way. stupid, unfunny & terribly written with characters ranging from pointless to highly irritating, and even the action scenes are spoilt with silly effects. avoid!

sucker punch (2011)...... okay i actually really enjoyed this. i know i shouldn't have. looked fantastic. action scenes felt like epic FPS boss battles! some great music too (that where is my mind cover nearly brought a tear to my eye...) some shades of poignancy in the end too. no really! agh who am i kidding, it has a average of 33% on metacritic, make your own mind up. i was on a hot date so that *MAY* have been a contributing factor... 

I didn't go away to masturbate over eternal sunshine of the spotless mind either. it was good, just not the cult classic everyone has made it out to be.

i've been watching the green hornet for a couple weeks now. that's how boring and shit it is. and i'm still only 3/4 through. seth rogen is terrible, playing the same old character as always, the only one he knows, but much more unlikable and just not funny. still not as bad as sandler though.

the asian dude looks like congs i shoot in video games, and it's completely unrealistic that they're superheros. bad movie. 

brilliant for about 70 min, then I found the usual smart arsery of Darren Arnofsky taking over and making it less moving and more tongue in cheek.

Still the first 70 min are tremendous.

7.5/10 

i thought the whole thing was strong... probably my favorite movie from him. 

i've been watching the green hornet for a couple weeks now. that's how boring and shit it is. and i'm still only 3/4 through. seth rogen is terrible, playing the same old character as always, the only one he knows, but much more unlikable and just not funny. still not as bad as sandler though.

i'm surprised you keep going back to it! honestly it's not worth finishing. i've tolerated him in his other movies (you generally go in knowing what to expect) but this was way below even his standards. like sandler with zohan 

omg this http://io9.com/#!animation/5798057

Goryish and violent. Thumbs up, and I'm half way through it. (you may have to remove the #! and change it with something else) 

links to that website never work for me. :S 

wow, fucked up. i clicked it a second time and it worked... heh 

I followed your link and got a video of a spider fighting with an ant. Then the spider gets attacked by another, bigger spider. Quite cool. Not sure thats what u intended? 

or at least not what i got. try copy and pasting the link instead of clicking it & you get something cheeseburger related 

between watching excellent movies and utter crap.

Get Him to the Greek definitely falls into the latter category. Initial 10 min are decent, than it's rubbish for about 90. 

I'm not a huge documentary person but the footage they have on this show is incredible! 

Pretty fucking amazing. Especially the deep sea episode. 

Thor wasn't that bad, for an action movie. I thought it was going be shit from the previews I saw. 

not up to that one yet, so far the Mountains and Ice Worlds episodes have really got my attention as well as the Fresh Water one. 

For the first time last week. What an amazing piece of film that is aswell. Jaw dropping. I had to watch it twice. That mountain is the coolest most scariest mountain evar! 

seriously, wtf?

I havent seen the first but I doubt that would make this seem any more logical. Utter gibberish of a plot, some very nifty effects sequences and a suitable score from Daft Punk.

But at the end of it all, wtf is all that came to mind. 

The king's speech
I did not expect to like it at all and instead I got the most wonderful movie I've seen this year (unless I am forgetting something). Very likable characters, a to me interesting story that was exciting and full of strong tension all the way. Some minor annoyances but I won't mention them wo noone gives them involuntary attention. 

why is this so hated? I thought it was quite fun with its campy parody style. 

It's weird for sure. Seems pretty disjointed. Maybe the tone is a little off also. It possibly is taking itself a little too seriously, because when it gets to the bit when -- SPOILER(?) SPOILER(?) HONESTLY WHO CARES -- hot Tron assassin girl steps out of the computer and turns from lines of code into a real flesh and blood person, it just seems absolutely ludicrous. Nowhere near campy and fun enough for that kind of thing to pass by unchallenged. This isn't Weird Science, I wish it was. 

didn't hate it or anything, but sometimes it was just really weird to be funny (if it was supposed to be) and there was the general sense that it was imitating sin city.

just my impression, of course. 

it definitely imitates Sin City visually but I dont think the tone is the same at all. Sin City was kind of like hyper noir, this was definitely in the parody mould. And it does get weird funny, but I liked that part :)

Unlike what I just finished, Scott Pilgrim, I dont think I 'got' this at all. Possibly the worst movie I've seen in a long time. 

From the trailer I described it as "Groundhog Day meets Speed meets The Matrix". And watching it it was pretty much Groundhog Day meets Speed meets The Matrix. Cool film I liked it a lot. Just nicely done and interesting how it pans out. Manages to do a lot with very little (a train, a small room, a science lab, and 5 main characters), the army girl is cool, and the feelgood ending is pretty nice too. Could have been slicker in places and possibly deeper but still good. 

I dug that movie (Source Code). You could go cross-eyed permanently if you spend too long thinking about the plot. Which I like!

I watched a movie called:

Enter The Void

Fucking wierd movie. Most of it is filmed from the perspective of a dead dude's spirit, and its kinda set in Hong Kong, ergo there is a lot of dirty sex and drugs and violence in it. But it's definately a 'different' take on a movie to the norm......... 

I though it was Japan? I have that in my pile, should get around to that.

So on my last day off before going back to work, I saw Greenberg and Mother and Child.

The former is a dramedy with Ben Stiller playing a neurotic a-hole trying to sort out his life. It's by Noah Baumbach so if you've seen Squid and the Whale or Margot at the Wedding, you know what to expect. Finely etched characters but pretty uncomfortabel viewing.

The latter is one of the great films of last year with excellent writing (albeit with a few obvious contrivances) and even better actign from Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Samuel L Jackson.