Current Watching

[Lucia Lanigan]

Current Watching

Yeah, I can definitely see how Anger's films would have felt trangsressive and exciting at the time (and a lot of it still feels impressively raw). But, as you say, outside of the context in which it was made, there's just not much there beyond historical interest.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Untraceable. It was boring! How can a gruesome thriller be boring? But it was.

I've also been getting into 30 Rock. It's pretty cool.

[G-Man]

Current Watching

30 Rock is brilliant. I can't believe somebody here said that Tina Fey's character is annoying.

I finally saw In Bruges a few days ago. A fine movie indeed. Some classic one-liners in there ("...my cunting fucking children...", "...of course you cant fucking see...").

Less so the Indiana Jones movie. If you watch Indy and miss that little fucker from the second movie, then it's really bad. That Shia Leboeuf dude must be the most uncharismatic actors ever to appear in a Spielberg or Lucas film. And he's beating some serious competition there.

[Ray de Galles]

Current Watching

The Big Bang Theory season 2 started on C4 last night, with the crap scheduling (11.05pm on a Tuesday?!) and lack of publicity that has become the norm for the UK channels' treatment of US sitcoms. C4 especially used to exist on it's US sitcom output, even if the shows now aren't of the standard of Friends, Frasier, Roseanne and Cheers why don't they do more with them?

Anyway, I really like the show even if I can't really put up a convincing argument as to why.

[Ray de Galles]

Current Watching

Matej wrote:

Third Season of My Name is Earl. It's pretty poor so far. They seem to have gotten lazy, and are totally wasting Jason Lee and the best stache on TV.

This confirms my point, I didn't even know C4 had aired a third series yet, when is it on?

[Guest]

Current Watching

Series three: Tuesdays C4 (late)
Series four: Thursdays E4 (9pm)

I think series three is generally thought of as poor, because they monkeyed around with the format. They went back to basics in s4.

[Heliotrope]

Current Watching

I actually liked the prison stories.

[Ray de Galles]

Current Watching

The Horse wrote:

Series three: Tuesdays C4 (late)
Series four: Thursdays E4 (9pm)

I think series three is generally thought of as poor, because they monkeyed around with the format. They went back to basics in s4.

Fuck, I thought those time slots were more repeats of season 2! C4 is totally fucked.

[Gangster Octopus]

Current Watching

Ditto. We totally missed the last one, 'cos I hadn't a clue when it was on.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Some things I have watched recently;

Teeth Dear god this was dire. OK the subject matter, ooh! a real vagina dentata! is pretty rubbish, but they could have made a kind of OK Ginger Snaps type (well, Ginger Snaps' first 2/3, as the end of that film is really terrible) piece about fear of sexuality and growing up and blah. nothing new but a bit of style or wit would have made something watchable. Instead it's quite literally just spoilers if you care several episodes of girl bites guy's cock/fingers off-lots of screaming ensues nonsense. DULL. Dullness is the worst crime in horror films!

Hellboy I watched this with my flatmate and we both agreed we had literally no idea what was going on. Was the man with the mechanical hand at the start sucked into the portal then spewed out again as a devil baby? Anyway, there were cute kittens. The rest of it was something about giant tentacle faced things and Nazis and mental patients and I don't know what.

The Insider rewatch as we are having a sort of Michael Mann season. Still terrific; the trademark aesthetics work so well with the understatement of the subject matter. Pacino is great. I remember when I saw it on release thinking cripes Crowe had to get fat for this. But now he looks trim compared to his usual self. Why can't women do this eh Hollywood eh?

Aliens for about the 40 trillionth time. It never gets old! I still love it. Convinced we were watching some different cut though.I'm sure I'd never seen some of the scenes (Newt with parents, for example) before.

Also stacks of TV; rewatched all of Galactica with flatmate. Up to s04e15. But he is going away next weekend! I'm gong to have to wait till tuesday after next to watch the last 5 eps. And Dollhouse and TTSCC but I've blathered about those elsewhere. Oh and started on Law and Order UK; yep it's Law and Order all right. Jamie Bamber is so gorgeous though, I will probably keep watching just for shallow reasons. Next up is Castle, which I am reliably informed has Nathan Fillion being sweet in it.

[Guest]

Current Watching

La Vie Moderne Lovely film, lots of details about nature, the seasons, etc, really bittersweet in its portrayal of a vanishing way of life. Go see it!

Neon Genesis Evangelion (three part film squished up version) I have really NO CLUE what happened. A lot of giant robots with blood and guts interiors ripped each other up in really gruesome ways, and there was some spiritual justificatory stuff about Lilith and Adam etc. It was quite pretty.

Alien 3 special edition Never seen this version before. Like a whole different film! Some of it an improvement, some of it not.

REC It was quite scary but a bit too kind of Cloverfield really.

Doomsday again, still stupid, still fun.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Current Watching

I've been working my way through more-or-less surrealist cinema from the late 20th century.

Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating is unbelieveably lovely, charming in the way only French things can be (although it could have done with being 30 minutes shorter, I thought). I've never seen anything else like it.

Andrzej Zulawski's Possession is absolutely fucking demented. It should be as hammy as the acting, which is no doubt so stilted because the actors had no more idea what was supposed to be going on than I do, but it's just too weird to be schlock (the wall-era Berlin setting is a treat to watch, too). Safe to say, I've never seen anything else like it.

Wojciech Has's The Hour-Glass Sanatorium is a stone-cold classic. A true visual feast, and those two hours felt like just one. The nekkidness is completely one-sided, but I'm sure Has would justify that by pointing out that those are the images that would have a plave in the protagonist's psyche. No ifs, ands or buts - I've never seen anything else like it.

And finally, Nic Roeg's Eureka.

**************SPOILERS*****************

At first, I thought it was shaping up to be Roeg's masterpiece, and only the film There Will Be Blood could have been. But then what promised to be one of the most spectacular achivements in cinema fell apart and left us with what felt like 4hrs, 57mins of Theresa Russell in a drama-free courtroom scene. Can't bloody stand that woman, she's just awful.

*******************END OF SPOILERS*************

Still, you can bet your sweet fanny I've never seen anything else like it.

[erwin]

Current Watching

Lyra wrote:

REC It was quite scary but a bit too kind of Cloverfield really.

What I liked about REC (apart from the creepiness) was that the central conceit (i.e. all the events are filmed on hand-held video camera) is a very convincing one: they're dedicated journalists and that's their job. Even at the end, when they're past caring about their job, there's still a very good reason for continuing to film ...

There's been an American re-make released quite recenty - naff by all accounts ... par for the course for American re-makes of good European films (cf 'The Vanishing').

[axel]

Current Watching

Sacha Baron Cohens new film now has a trailer. Personally I loved the Borat film, but realise not everybody liked it. More of the same basically.

http://mitbruno.com/bruno-movie/brunomovietrailer.php

[Ek weet nie]

Current Watching

The 400 Blows
Watching classic films on the big screen really brings them alive in a way that home viewing can't no matter how many inches your plasma has. This film was extraordinarily good. It draws you in with humour and tenderness, lets you get comfortable and then lets pressure build until you're scrambling for air. It's in the cinema at the moment, try to get to it if you can.

Antoine et Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board
They don't have the immediacy and vibrancy of the first of the story but they have maddening romance and longing, betrayal and trace the process of saying goodbye to immaturity better than any film I've seen.

Chuck
This show gets better and better. Any US viewers who are looking for laughter, cheesy 80s references and some kick ass action could do a lot worse than watch.

How I Met Your Mother
Little or no insight into modern romance but I'm a sucker for shows in New York and Neil Patrick Harris is possibly my favourite comic actor of the moment.

[G-Man]

Current Watching

Oh yeah, How I Met Your Mother is indeed legen - wait for it... and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is - dairy.

Having missed The West Wing when it was on TV, I've started watching it from the beginning on DVD. Annoying pro-Israel propaganda aside, it is as good as the hype had suggested. Up to the end of season 3 anyway.

I wonder how much the show suggested to the US electorate the feasibility and desirability of an ethical presidency.

[ian.64]

Current Watching

Burn After Reading - very, very good, but has that feeling of being a film the Coen Brothers made between bigger movies. It has that feel of not really being a Coen Brothers film - just a sprightly black comedy made by a different sort of director with a similarly impish sense of humour. The cast - terrific, with stand-outs from John Malkovich and the superb Frances McDormand. Moments: laugh-out-loud with that chair Clooney's character makes in his cellar. And the big, unexpectedly fat-faced grin on Brad Pitt's face as he appears out of the wardrobe and - next bit prohibited if you haven't seen it yet.

Ghost Town - a small treat in Ricky Gervais's funny ghost story. Veers away from sentimentality, and has what our American cousins call 'smarts'. An economic story, well told, with Gervais in winning form and even a few tears towards the end. Tea Leoni is very good indeed.

[erwin]

Current Watching

Tea Leoni is very good indeed.

Ditto ... in fact magnificent ... knowaddimean?

[ian.64]

Current Watching

Will you kindly stop digging your elbow into my side and winking at me? No, I mean that Leoni puts in a performance that doesn't have to trade on any cute business or forced comedy. She plays it with a straightforward, grown-up way that doesn't involve sentimentality and complements Gervais's own likeable - yes, likeable - turn.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Current Watching

The 400 Blows

Watching classic films on the big screen really brings them alive in a way that home viewing can't no matter how many inches your plasma has. This film was extraordinarily good. It draws you in with humour and tenderness, lets you get comfortable and then lets pressure build until you're scrambling for air. It's in the cinema at the moment, try to get to it if you can.

Seconded and then some. I saw this for the first time at the weekend, right up close in the Barbican cinema. Amazingly good film, with all the technical touches of the French new wave, but a more moving, human story at its heart; I think just about anyone would enjoy it, which is something you couldn't say about any of his peers' films. Bust your ass to see it if it's on near you - I think they've remastered it, so it should look even better than you remember, if you've seen it before.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Thirded and then some.
I've seen The 400 Blows a few times but it's only recently that I've began watching the other Antoine Doinel films. I often wonder if Truffaut hadn't died so young (he was 52) whether he'd have continued making them. I haven't watched Love On The Run, the final one, yet but I suspect Antoine would continue being restless and directionless into old age.

Incidentally, one of my favourite ever scenes in a film comes from Truffaut's Small Change / L'Argent De Poche. A small child plays precariously on a high window ledge. He slips and falls ten or so storeys down but lands unscathed. It's an utterly ridiculous scene - when he is shown falling, it's an obvious and pretty crap dummy being used and, of course, it's a completely unrealistic outcome - yet somehow it's perfect.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Martyrs. Utter fucking horrible shite. Avoid like the plague.

[Ek weet nie]

Current Watching

Please tell me that there are other fans of Chuck on the site. The last episode was the most awesome episode of any entertainment/comedy show ever.

[hobbes]

Current Watching

Just been watching Battlestar Galactica from the start. I've seen the odd episode, but not in any order.
Good so far.
I'm also watching Fringe which is silly beyond belief but rescued by a truly excellent turn by John Noble as the mad professor, an ably deadpan Joshua jackson as his son and a dreamily intense performance by Anna Torv that has me melting every episode.

[axel]

Current Watching

Watching lots of South Park online, up to series 7 and still very funny.

Keeping up with Lost, good and not half as complicated as people seem to think.

Newswipe, ok mix of Daily Show and Day Today, but not half as good as either of those.

Stewart Lee, really enjoyed this but anyone who hasn't seen him live needs to, NOW!