Sexy Beast (2000)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203119/

great cast, good story but way too artsy/weird for my taste. many small parts were unnecessary and not adding to the movie or could have been much nicer (by me, yeah). can't really recommend it unless you got a thing for artsy movies. 

I also thought Sexy Beast was a pile of wank. Kingsley is basically just not at all interesting or appealing to watch in any way in the movie. Winstone carrys the movie, but the plot was also just droll. So you can't polish a turd. 

this is one fucked up disturbing movie. what the fuck is wrong with these people lol. apparently there's an american remake. meta-stuff in it was interesting. evil ending!

Trainspotting. finally saw this, not as good as I was expecting, but still good... the withdrawal part was freaky and robert carlyle's character was awesome. he's so good at disturbing but funny characters. 

I loved Antichrist, this is another beautifully shot and creepy movie. I really enjoy Von Trier's misanthropic, nihilistic point of view lol. Kirsten Dunst's character is lots of fun, her bizarre behaviour and occasional outbursts are awesome, especially when she explains that "Life, on earth, is evil." Seeing her topless in the moonlight with that crazy look on her face was also nice. 

Nice film. Very traditional "stylish interpretation of bog-standard children's tale", but nicely done. I particularly liked the modern touchs in this traditional arena - especially the digitised other world, and also some familiar details (laptop, mobile phone, new VW beetle, takeout pizza at the end), and also liked Coraline herself, lots of good expressions and flouncing etc etc. 

Sick. Just sick. End of. 

american remake is pretty much shot for shot, but for some reason the original still works better. 

Really good. Tight, lean, well paced, down to earth but unsentimental. Although I would have prefered a bit more tension towards the end.

A good example of modern thriller type films where they take a fuckupable premise and don't fuck it up. Good soundtrack too. 

pretty well made considering how basic the plot and characterisations are. And a little too much cheesy 80's music for my liking. But boy is it stylish and cool.

And then there's Miike's 13 Assassins which rubbed me the same way as X-Men First Class, ie pretty much didnt feel anything at all. If Drive has basic characterisation, this has next to none. And without that, the final 45 min battle scene was just tedious. 

Coupling (2000-2004)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0237123/

is a great british comedy series. 3 girls, 3 guys. Mostly about relationships/sex. Currently early in season 2. Really nice! 

Coupling is fantastic, and it's worth noting that the creator went on to take over running Doctor Who, Sherlock (the modern BBC remake), and wrote for the new Tintin film, he's a bit of a legend. 

the new Sherlock rocks, cant wait for S2.

Also liked his modern take on Jekyll. 

Rare Exports (2010)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401143/

Man, what a waste. Started really well (only some not very likable characters, the kind was annoying) but about half way in it went berzerk into LOL NO JUST KIDDING WE ARE JUST A SHITTY B-MOVIE AND DID NOT MEAN TO MAKE A GOOD FILM LOLOLOL. The imdb score is probably thanks to people who like bad movies because it is so humorous and hipster to watch them. Damn! :( 

finally got to this, just amazed at the consistent quality of this show, probably the best season yet.

Breaking Bad s3 next. 

I don't watch a great deal of television, but season 3 of Breaking Bad is probably the finest season of any show I've ever seen. Quality from top to bottom. 

yeah I also just got done with s4. Really enjoyed it! I don't normally watch shows like this but I'm glad I stuck with it. 

I actually thought the first 5 eps were actually a step down from s2, mainly because the black humour was missing, but the last 2 eps almost gave me a heart attack.

Hope to finish it over the weekend. 

X-Men First Class
Plot moves way too fast to establish why I should care about these twats. Does a really bad job of explaining why Magneto went full dickhead. CGI apparently rendered in real-time on a Gamecube. Horrible foreshadowing of the other movies. "Professor X, I like the sound of that" VOMIT "I suppose that makes these kids my ""X-MEN""" DRY HEAVE, MINOR STROKE 

Black Swan
Fantastic. I liked this more than most reviews I've read. A lot of commentary on the film is painting it as overwhelming and confusing, but I thought it made complete sense and that it moved between phases very naturally. Swan Lake is infused into every inch of this film, down to the brilliant soundtrack. In contrast to some of the opinion I read here and elsewhere, I couldn't have imagined a better ending. Honestly I struggle to think of a film that ties itself up so satisfyingly and economically.

Also you get to see Natalie Portman having a crank, 5 stars. 

The First 30 minutes of 'The Green Lantern'
Probably wouldn't be any worse if the first scene was a sex-tape of your parents, and all the other scenes were of kittens getting hit with hammers. 

 

speaking of summer blockbusters;

the rise of the planet of the apes - a little predictable and often verging on ridiculous, but enjoyable nonetheless with decent pacing & performances (not to mention EPIC APE CITY ATTACK and draco malfoy getting punked). cgi mostly excellent. worth a look

cowboys and aliens on the other hand, urgh. not remotely fun enough to possess such a silly title; boring, utterly contrived and cliche-ridden with nondescript characters, weak plot and lacklustre fight scenes. i mean i wasn't expecting a huge amount of quality but it's a goddamn western with aliens starring james bond & indiana jones! from the director of iron man too, which i loved. but it tries too hard to be serious and fails spectacularly. avoid 

Thor
Odd decision to cast a 6 by 3 foot block of plywood in the leading actor role. Even more odd to see lovely lovely Natalie Portman rubbing herself against aforementioned plywood. She does a convincing portrayal of a astro-physicist though. NAAATTTT 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Ditto rj


Midnight in Paris
Owen Wilson stars as Owen Wilson in this whimsical manifestation of Woody Allen wanking himself with early 20th century american novels. The plot centres around Owen Wilson, who portrays a hollywood scriptwriter with a fetish for 1920s Paris. Unfortunately this boner is not indulged by Rachel McAdams in her dramatic turn as the insufferable cunt wife character.

The couple visit Paris, and their differences become increasingly apparent as by midnight Owen is transported into a magical 1920s dreamland where, nightly, he attempts to fingerbang Ernest Hemingway and write the next great American novel. Meanwhile McAdams stays home, charging items to Owen's credit card and entertaining the movie-going public by enacting a great range of cunty behaviours and actions.

But is his wife really Ms. Right? I mean really the girl for him? For a time it is hard for Wilson to see clearly, so drawn is he by her endearingly shitty demeanour, but time makes fools of us all. Like sands in the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

The film dwells with the transience of being, the ebb and flow of time and self - the warm glow of nostalgia, and the dank afterglow of banging a french girl and then not calling her back because the phone hasn't been invented yet. Why do we look backwards, and what does it mean to be truly present? Was the director truly present for the filming of this feature, or was it outsourced to India?

What would we do if presented with an opportunity to live in a different time, a bygone age? Would we take a coathanger to Woody Allen's mother in a desperate attempt to prevent Midnight in Paris from ever existing? It's a difficult, intriguing question, with many different opinions in response, most of which being variations of "Yes we would".

5/5 

Contagion

Well made film, not sure I've ever seen someone have "make the science look vaguely realistic" a bigger priority than "follow dramatic conventions" before. I went to see this with a bunch of people who work in emergency management and predictably enough loved it :)

Monsters

Fun film that did not look like it was made for about 5p -- although seeing the 'making of' explain how they made it by driving randomly around mexico finding locations and shooting scenes there did explain why some of it felt so disjointed...