Current Watching

[Mumpo]

Current Watching

I've been up with the kids watching Rise of the Silver Surfer. I didn't let on, but I was really annoyed that it didn't actually show Galactus.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Jessica Alba looks dreadful as a blonde doesn't she?

Top Gun was great. Such a gorgeous Michael Mann visual/musical aesthetic. Now Black Widow is doing something similar.

[Lucia Lanigan]

Current Watching

I saw Abbas Kiarostami's Five yesterday, and loved it. Which was odd, because I was all ready to spit the dummy for the first ten-twenty minutes, but I was transfixed by the end. The blobbling moon reflected in the water is still doing its business a day or two later.

[ian.64]

Current Watching

Saw Up yesterday and thought it terrific stuff, laughing out loud at the funny bits (the evil doberman with the squeaky synth voice) and trying to hold back the tears at the poignant bits (nearly everything else) in a manly 'I appear to have something in my eye' kind of way. Superbly voiced (thumbs up to Ed Asner as the lead old codger) and scored (I always dreaded it when that very effective and simple piano theme that permeated the opening 'passage of time' sequence popped up, as it would set me off blubbing again. I normally don't like the 'quiet piano' approach as it seems a hackneyed trick to elicit poignant emotion by a composer, but Michael Giacchino uses it to great effect - and won a Bafta for it last night), and it remains a reminder of just how astonishing computer animation - when well done - can knock your socks off everytime.

Smart entertainment.

[Ek weet nie]

Current Watching

So, I started twittering one sentence reviews of films as an aide-memoire so I have something to remember if I'm looking back at my first impression of a film. Last 10 days or so:

Ondine (2009, Jordan) 54 Beautifully shot, cast solid but precocious kid, singposting and need to explain hamper. Too many cliches.

Into The Storm (09, O'Sullivan) 68 Standard biopic but Gleeson is pitch perfect and succeeds in being inspiring without being a hagiography

Farewell (09, Carion) 76 Tense thriller changes point of view and uses unusual camera angles. The sum up is too tidy though.

Enter the Void (09, Noé) 93 The strangest most sensory experience I've had in the cinema.Spellbinding wonderful,Noé is Ophuls on acid

Life During Wartime (09, Solondz) 83 Stylised, grotesque and the most twisted humour you'll see in the movies. A worthy sequel

Tides (Begums) (10, Zviedris) 10 Worthy subject, terrible execution. How can 70 minutes be packed with filler? Zero insight

Bye Bye Now (s) (09, O'Sullivan/Whitaker) 68 Amusing and poignant,a lament to the demise of phoneboxes and the death of a way of life

The Island (Ostrov) (06, Lungin) 59 Methodical approach with striking symbolism. Questionable conclusions and viewpoint detract.

Samson and Delilah (09, Thornton) 52 Misery piled on unrealistically with redemptive cop-out.2 lovely scenes tho (dancing & bathing)

Accident (09, Cheang) 71 Surveillance aspects excellent, set-pieces spectacular but the story was muddled with disappointing climax

Touki Bouki (73, Mambety) 73 Highly expressive almost surreal approach. Soundtrack kept things interesting. Loved the parade scene

Women Without Men (09, Neshat/Azari) 49 Occasional beautiful shots did not make up for the poor narrative. Iran has produced better

Breathless (09, Yang) 3/100 2 people walked out after 5 mins. They did the right thing. Repugnant film, why did people clap?

Please Give (10, Holofcener) 56 Nice acting, nice setting, nice story. No faults to it and no real positives either, just inoffensive

Same Same But Different (09,Buck) 22 If satire then it was very good, if played for real then it was awful. I lean towards the latter

Lourdes (09,Hausner) 87 Ambitous formal exploration. Took an easy target and thoughtfully examined. Testud and cast immense

A Brand New Life (09, Lecomte) 73 Very similar to Treeless Mountain though slightly inferior. Deeper meaning of just what family is.

She, a Chinese (09, Guo) 75 Manages not to turn into melodrama despite the build up of exploitation as she moves from village to city

What You Don't See (09, Fischer) 58 Clever, though one-paced, psychological thriller crossed with Funny Games. Ending inconsistent

Eyes Without A Face (60, Franju) 68 More a thriller than a horror for me.Concept is horrifying but Special FX have dated badly.

Lebanon (09, Maoz) 88 Visceral film that gets into your guts. Soldiers are too sympathetic but brings something new to the war genre

Lemon Tree (08, Riklis) 52 Facile "Why Can't We Just Get Along"? type movie. Every character is a caricature with plodding plot.

La Danse (09,Wiseman) 96 Incredible exhibition of the ballet.The art,rehearsal, audience, business and mundanity all covered.Terrific

I Am Love (09, Guadagnino) 92 Swinton is a force of nature,brilliantly shot, subtle when needed,not afraid to be overblown,ambitious

I'm hoping to kick off a conversation about any of those if possible so please shout out if you have seen any of those.

[ian.64]

Current Watching

I've been up with the kids watching Rise of the Silver Surfer. I didn't let on, but I was really annoyed that it didn't actually show Galactus.

As a youngster (and very much into comics) I was going doolally at the thought of a Silver Surfer movie (a mooted project with, inexplicably, Olivia Newton John as the silver one's romantic interest) at the time when blockbusters like Star Wars and Superman were rearing their spangly, expensive heads.

So, decades later here it is. And, in the main, it's arse.

[Jon]

Current Watching

God yeah, I remember Stan Lee moving to Hollywood and doing all these reports in Stan's Soapbox about how he was on the verge of clinching loads of major motion picture deals. All came to naught, but boy did it get us excited.

I quite liked the second FF film, it was an improvement on the first but, yes, the Galactus cop-out was a major disappointment.

[ian.64]

Current Watching

I quite liked the second FF film, it was an improvement on the first but, yes, the Galactus cop-out was a major disappointment.

I can feel my trousers shortening as we speak. What made the two FF films a hollow experience for me was the fact that they seemed to have been directed by someone - a Mr. Tim Story, I believe - whose main directorial signature was to simply put lots of polished production values in front of the camera and think that would sort itself out. Films like the 1978 Superman, X-Men (not the third one) and Superman Returns were directed by people who did a lot more than just place actors in the same frame as lush visual effects and think 'that'll do it'.

Some people will think 'oh, stop carping, they're just kids' films', but that's my point: they could've been great kids' films.

[Guest]

Current Watching

Did anyone watch Lizzie & Sarah? I liked it, I reckon it could reach similar heights of genius to Nighty Night. Well hopefully. Also I have been watching that Burnistoun thing on iplayer and it's really funny.

[Tony C]

Current Watching

I've been watching 'Glee'.

So has everyone else, apparently.

[Ginger Yellow]

Current Watching

Yeah, I saw Lizzie and Sarah. Not sure it's quite up to Nighty Night standards yet, but the cast is superb and the premise offers plenty of room for it to go really, really dark. It's pretty much a Who's Who of British alt.comedy. Hynes, Davis, Eldon, Heap, that bloke from Jam who looks like my mate's dad.

[ian.64]

Current Watching

Bought The Young Ones box set and wallowed in a nostalgic haze as obvious jokes, ingenious use of a small budget and rough yet spirited and energetic (and funny) performances still managed to entertain me in a huge way.

From the days when telly was on the verge of getting its fourth channel, never mind a zillion of them, it remains stirling stuff and surprisingly good-natured, to boot.

[Gangster Octopus]

Current Watching

ian.64 wrote:

Bought The Young Ones box set

Are the programmes the full length ones, or the hacked about ones?

[ian.64]

Current Watching

Full length. Thing is, they're so frantically edited that they give the impression that something's been left on the cutting room floor anyway. But the one episode I remember - the torture sequence in Hell, complete with bloody smack in the nose, and the racist police officer cornering a Ford Tippex representative on the doorstep - remains intact, unlike its last terrestrial showing, where it was hacked to bits, so they're more or less complete.

Extras are a bit iffy on current viewing. Just a handful of the involved (Sayle and Planer the only cast members interviewed) sitting in front of cheap Photoshop-produced backgrounds offering interesting tidbits. Haven't gotten round to the documentary on the beginning of alternative comedy yet, but it's an underfed contribution which should be indulgent celebration about the show. It's a bit like having uninterested friends stumble in and mumbling through a few anecdotes instead of having a joyous piss-up.

That said, it's worth the money just to have the whole shebang and not wait for ages for Dave to show them in indifferent piecemeal fashion at 12.30 at night every two weeks.

[Levin]

Current Watching

I watched both the early film documentaries on BBC4 over the weekend. One on Hitchcock's British films and another on early cinema in Britain and France.

They were quite good but that was despite Paul Merton really not because of it. That's Paul Merton presenter, writer and director.

Yes the footage used was good but he can't interview and he really isn't funny any more.

I guess the problem is that there only reason that there have been programs about silent cinema on this weekend is that Paul Merton wanted to make them.

[Ginger Yellow]

Current Watching

His Chaplin/silent comedy documentary was decent enough. I haven't seen the others.

[VTTBoscombe]

Current Watching

How did I ever survive without Sky+ - it is totally gear.

Last night after trying to watch the horrible "Toys" with Robin Williams (no style over no substance = turn over), we gave up and decided to watch "Almost Famous" with the kids - which I knew was a bit sweary ; but is a great rites of passage film, with a scary mother which always is good fun.
They loved it , as of course did I.
Listening to lots of Led Zep at work as always happens after I watch this.

Actually the kids were less shocked by the swearing in this; than when I innocently put on "Planes, trains and automobiles "the other day - I forgot about Steve Martin's rant at the car hire woman.

(Getting a bit worried we are exposing the nippers to too many nasty english swearwords as they are very protected from that at french school - learning french gros mots instead.)

[Guest]

Current Watching

Kick-Ass tonight. Yeah. It was pretty damn funny. It was probably the most fun thing I've seen since Wanted. Smart and entertaining and all that. It's not without its problems, and although there'slots of cute little jokes that I'd like to get another look at, I fear that some clunkiness would show through on a second viewing.

Thing about these post-postmodern things, and about films about comic-book aesthetics too, is that while there's always room for something fun and inventive with a lightness of touch - and this is all of those - there are just these moments where the gloss wears a little thin and you start to think things - from haha, they're doing a Tarantino on Tarantino, to that's clever, art imitating art imitating life imitating art imitating art imitating life *but in an interesting way* (or possibly not - stuff like this requires a bit of your goodwill). But luckily in this case, the next second, right on time, something really awesome and hilarious will happen,and you feel much better.

So yeah, overall, like most every review out there, probably, I would say Kick-Ass does just that.

[Reed John]

Current Watching

I want to see Kick-Ass. It's based on a comic by Mark Millar, the same guy who did Wanted, although the film of Wanted bears only a remote resemblance to the comic.

[Guest]

Current Watching

From Paris with Love. Literally the only reason to see this is if (like me) you love & adore Jonathan Rhys Meyers and wish that he would kiss *you* like that. Otherwise it's as dumb as a teatowel, and Travolta is really annoying.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Current Watching

Mrs G will probably want to see that then.....

[Guest]

Current Watching

Evidently a lady of excellent taste!

[Toby Gymshorts]

Current Watching

You've not met me, have you?

[Guest]

Current Watching

heh, no, despite being local, I don't think so. But still!

I really hope I can find somewhere showing Clash of the Titans in 2D for tomorrow or over the weekend. if not then they tell me Lourdes is good.

[Ek weet nie]

Current Watching

Lourdes is excellent, well worth watching.