Omar
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Post by Omar on Mar 2, 2007 5:10:08 GMT
Don't waste your time. Watch some of that Aronofsky stuff instead. Snow is overrated.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 2, 2007 14:51:13 GMT
And so begins March... The History Boys Nicholas Hytner 2006 UK 1st time; big screen In 1983, students from an all boys school in Sheffield work towards applying for Oxford. Having not seen the play, one would imagine, knowing there have been only slight and minor changes, it is a superb production - well written, great cast (the original cast show here, too), daring and ambiguous, emotionally involved and involving. The narrative here pitches boys either hitting adolescence or caught up in the middle of it; either way, they're all in some way confused, under the direction of their homosexual teacher who they allow to fondle them out of school hours. It's a very funny script, very sharp, acted in a manner not so different from what the theatrical version would require, but captured vividly with a succession of panning zooms, which creates a lot more movement than what would perhaps be expected. As it progresses, it becomes more and more psychologically complex and a lot more serious. Whether the final coda warms or repels is down to taste and/or mood when viewing, but it is cleverly done even so.
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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Mar 2, 2007 18:08:51 GMT
Don't waste your time. Watch some of that Aronofsky stuff instead. Snow is overrated. Well, I'm going to try and get to Little Miss Sunshine, The Illusionist, and a second viewing of The Science of Sleep today. But I'm going to fit Aronosky in there too. The snowday was much needed. Time to catch up on movies.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 2, 2007 22:07:32 GMT
World Trade Center Oliver Stone 2006 USA 1st time; big screen Two Port Area policemen are trapped under the rubble of the Twin Towers, and keep one another alive until help arrives. Stone's film has no real energy, no real explosive or electric rhythm, no narrative drive. It's not a bad film by any means - in fact it's rather watchable - but it's decidedly ordinary. It looks like a TV movie, viewable to all, with intentions of inspiration and shortcomings in production value. Two moments of mild effect - when the first tower falls, with the men inside, and when the two survivors first hear help above on the ground. It's a conventional film, though, about an extraordinary event; and what is it that makes Nicolas Cage far more enjoyable to watch when he's deliberately and physically disabled under a pile of rubble, as opposed to a pro-active, no-shit member of the emergency services...? Flat.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 3, 2007 3:43:42 GMT
The Illusionist Neil Burger 2006 USA 1st time; stream In turn of the century Vienna, a stage magician meets a childhood love, who is about to be married to the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It begins with a "come on, let's get on with it" exposition, a flashback within a flashback, and unfolds finally as a piece of detective fiction, in which the detective is a secondary character yet the one through which we view events, in awe of the mysterious illusionist of the title. The middle third is the best bit by far - it creates great potential for a battle of wits between the master magician in love with the bride-to-be of the jealous, bad-tempered prince. Suggestions of a thriller, potential for a more exciting second half, though, are cut short, and it turns out to finally be rather quite ordinary. Oh well.Superman Returns Bryan Singer 2006 USA 1st time; stream Five years after returning to his home planet, Superman comes back to Earth and saves the world from Lex Luther's plans. Action comedy, really, and it's good stuff. In fact, it's very good stuff, at times. A tad long, and the final quarter isn't nearly as good as the first three, but it boasts a shameless charm and succession of cheesy one-liners, a very old-fashioned goodie versus baddie plot with adequate enough romantic interest. A better lead could have helped, because this one is a bit cardboard, but the action scenes are really cool in an "I wish I was Superman" kind of way.
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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Mar 4, 2007 6:00:04 GMT
La Science des rêves The Science of Sleep Michel Gondry 2006 France/Italy 2nd time A young man disillusioned by the seperation of his dreams and reality falls in love with his neighbor. review>>>
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 4, 2007 14:22:13 GMT
The earliest I can see that on the big screen is the 23rd.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 4, 2007 17:31:39 GMT
My Summer of Love Pawel Pawlikowski 2004 UK 1st time; stream A teenage girl living with her born-again Christian brother forms a romance with a rich girl on summer break. The exposition of the two characters couldn't be more two-dimensional, with the naïve tomboy having sex with an older man in his car, and the older, wiser know-it-all quoting Nietzsche and drinking wine. Pawlikowski has followed up on the quiet intimacy of his Last Resort with a similar sort of tale, of things almost finding potential but never really connecting - and the film itself is almost good, but never quite. The acting is forced at times, but Paddy Considine is typically good and refreshing in a supporting role, one which, when it comes to prominence in the final quarter, gives the film some emotional complexity and much-needed power. Other than that, it seems a tame, ordinary film compared to Winterbottom's similar 9 Songs.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 4, 2007 22:28:38 GMT
MirrorMask Dave McKean 2005 USA / UK 1st time; stream A teenage girl whose family works in the circus enters a dream-induced world when her mother is taken into hospital with a tumor. Imaginative and, for the most part, impressive, and close at many points to being really, really good, but making the decision instead to go down familiar paths regarding story (it's basically The Wizard of Oz). It feels like something you'd see on CITV after coming home from school, though the final third enters confusing territory - it could have had a far richer texture, though, a more deeply embedded fabric of subconscious exploration, than it ultimately does. At one point, for instance, it is suggested that the dream we have entered might be somebody else's, but it's an idea which is discarded as quickly as it is introduced; and the book-ended realities, especially the one at the end, detract heavily. Still, though, the music is very good, the creatures are well designed, and the humour, if often misplaced, has its moments.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 5, 2007 0:26:56 GMT
Rocky Balboa Sylvester Stallone 2006 USA 1st time; stream Rocky, now widowed and owner of an Italian restaurant, wishes to take up boxing again. A lot more subdued than what might have been expected, and all the better for it. There's no real build up to the fight, here, no oppositional adversity for the hero to overcome; instead, his demons are entirely internal, and the character seems preoccupied by how his career is now perceived by others - and so, at times, it seems Stallone too is concerned about his own career, in view of the franchise for which he is famous. Possible routes of interest are suggested but never followed up on in any great depth: the real baddies here are those who organise the exhibition match, all in it for the money, with backstage sniggering going on about how much they're making from it. The fight itself is filmed in two styles: the introductions and first two rounds are all shot as if they are a real fight shown on pay-per-view television, with commentators, announcers, and all the expected camera angles (with a cameo from Mike Tyson at ringside), and so it is suggested that the film might finally be a comment on the state of modern boxing, all money and little heart; but thereafter it blends into an equally self-reflexive and intertextual, but very different, style, that of rapid montage, in which, with every punch absorbed, Rocky has flashbacks to other moments in the five preceding films. But it's less about the fighting, here, and more about upholding and revisiting one's own persona, fame and myth; and as a veteran action star now making films, Stallone is a lot more effective than Eastwood, at least.
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Post by Vercetti on Mar 5, 2007 3:39:56 GMT
Personally I think Eastwood's action career, which is a lot less blunt then Stallone's, has more merit. But that's just me.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Mar 5, 2007 4:18:56 GMT
Zodiac(2007/David Fincher) [First Viewing] Three men become fascinated and eventually obsessed with uncovering the identity of the infamous Zodiac killer.With it's incredible opening scene, one of the best in the past twenty five years or so, the film launches into what is Fincher's most impressive and ambitious project to date. Through creative shots and transitions, Fincher paints a rather passive portrait of a dark subject, leaving the true chills and thrills for lower key sequences, and making the murders themselves surprisingly straightforward. Fincher does a remarkable job at creating a sense of terror, evoking fear in something as mundane as Robert Downey Jr's character walking through a deserted car-wash in the rain (evoking images of Fincher's "Se7en"), or Gyllenhaal following a strange film enthusiast into the basement of a rustic California home. The attention to period detail is uncanny. Everything looks and feels just right in this film. The three main performances are excellent. The film is episodic, suspenseful, absorbing, humorous, chilling, and very well crafted. I can't help but think that I've always wanted to view a film like this, and now it has finally been made. I can't wait to see it again.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 5, 2007 17:06:11 GMT
Personally I think Eastwood's action career, which is a lot less blunt then Stallone's, has more merit. But that's just me. Yeah, different kinds of action, I reckon, but I was referring strictly to their films they've made. With particular reference to Million Dollar Baby and Rocky Balboa. But it's probably an unfair comparison, anyway, and I threw it in there just for the hell of it.
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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Mar 5, 2007 23:06:10 GMT
Garden State Zach Braff 2004 USA 1st time A young aspiring actor flies back home to his alienated Jersey hometown for his paralyzed mothers funeral.review>>>
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Post by The Ghost of LLC on Mar 9, 2007 3:19:40 GMT
Little Miss Sunshine Jonathon Dayton/Valerie Faris 2006 USA 1st time A highly disfunctional family hits the road in a broken down Volkswagen Bus to make it to a beauty padget in which their daughter is entered in.review>>>Good Bye Lenin! Wolfgang Becker 2003 Germany 1st time While an active supporter of German socialism rests in a coma, the Berlin wall falls. When she awakes, her children go at lengths end to prevent news of East German capitalism from reaching their mother in order to prevent putting her health at risk again.review>>>
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Post by Vercetti on Mar 14, 2007 1:19:04 GMT
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Mar 19, 2007 1:27:25 GMT
Romeo + Juliet(1996/Baz Luhrmann) [First Viewing] The children of two rival gang leaders fall in love.At first it catches you off guard, but once it gets going, Luhrmann's film is a feast for the eyes, and an unusually brilliant experience. Done in some sort of post-modern style, this may be the most unique and inventive Shakespearian adaptation yet. The cast is excellent, but it's the visuals and set up that truly amazes.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 19, 2007 2:01:04 GMT
Omar, check out Luhrmann's other two features, Moulin Rouge! and what I think is his best, Strictly Ballroom.
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Post by Vercetti on Mar 19, 2007 2:57:34 GMT
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Mar 19, 2007 3:07:50 GMT
Vercetti, I saw anew print of Manhattan at the cinema yesterday. I need to catch up with Proviews, too.
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