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I still recall exactly what I was doing, when I watched that movie for the first time. It was a snowday, and I was looking through my video collection of movies I never watched. So I, walking around the house in only by under garments and robe, just popped it in. (That was some really good chocolate I had, too. It was a kind of dark chocolate that had some peppers in it.) But anyway, I loved it! So yeah... My last movie? >_> <_< The Tigger Movie. (Watched it in Children's Hospital) |
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I can't remember what I was doing the first time I saw Groundhog Day. But I believe it was 2003. |
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
A breathtaking 2D animated romp based on the turn of the century comic strip by Winsor McCay, about a boy named Nemo and his adventures in... okay well the title kind of speaks for itself there. This movie is best known for two things. 1. It was one of the first Japanese made animated movies to get a nation wide theatrical release in the USA and 2. A very very awesome Nintendo game that was loosely based off of the film/comic. Another interesting thing about this picture is that early on its production animation gurus Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata did some work on the movie, however due to conflicts with the American producers both of them quit the production and the film was finished by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, in fact if you poke around the net you will be able to find a demo reel that shows a bit of Miyazaki and co's work on the project. |
Mississippi Burning
A truly dark, violent, and all around "grim feeling" movie that deals with a great deal of racial controversy, KKK attacks and a lot of other really serious and heavy racial topics. Its an older movie with William Dafoe, Gene Hackman, Brad Dourif and others. My brother saw it and said he liked it a lot and my best friend recommended to me and he glorifies the ground it walks on. I don't tend to listen to him though sad as that may sound because his tastes in movies and mine are quite different, radically different sometimes and he tends to over exaggerate movies awesomeness simply because they won lots of awards, me personally no number of awards will make me automatically assume a movie is good, I prefer seeing it with my own eyes. And I did and I really did enjoy it, there's a lot of good old dark vigilante justice in this movie and the performances were excellent from just about everyone. From minor to major characters, everyone turned out truly gold worthy performances and I was extremely impressed and depressed. This movie is kind of hard to watch, its very emotional and painful with all the racism so its not something I can watch every day but it was still excellent. |
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
The comedy was funny, the drama was very well-done, the social message made sense, the commentary on Hollywood was good, and Veronica Lake was gorgeous. Yes, I am recommending this classic. |
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
A classic, adapted from the Tennessee Williams play about a deeply mendacious family who are forced to face up to some unpleasant truths when it becomes common knowledge that the domineering father is dying from cancer. I know that it's softer in certain areas than Williams' original, downplaying the implication of Brick's homosexuality and giving things a somewhat more cheerful conclusion (Williams himself supposedly hated it), but it's still a very engaging and powerful piece of film-making, thanks in no small way to the strength of the performances involved. Everyone here is on top form, including Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives and, of course, the late Paul Newman. His is a legacy which truly lives on. |
the four feathers
A movie that came out back in '02, starring heath ledger. this was only the second movie I saw with him in it, and he was quite different between the two films. Anyway, it's about a man in the english army during the 1800's who is shipped off to sudan. only he quits and, as such, does not go. his army buddies send him the four feathers in the title because they symbolize cowardice. so what does heath ledger do? go off to sudan and fight for the other guys. I dont know what else there really is to say other than this was actually a pretty good movie. I might look it up again and watch it sometime sooner or later. |
Confessions of a Shopaholic
I really needed to just go see a funny, feel good movie. And it definetely made me feel good.:P My best friend, who I saw it with, and I were killing ourselves laughing. Oh, and the fashion in this movie was so over the top that it was fabulous. Just sayin'. |
Felidae
And you thought that Watership Down was a bit on the violent side... Okay, so I knew from the moment that I checked the synopsis on this little-known mid-90s animated outing from Germany that I wasn’t exactly going to be in for something light-hearted and fluffy...a house cat named Francis moves into a new neighbourhood along with his human owner, where he discovers that the local feline population is being slowly eliminated through a series of mysterious killings – not by humans, as initially suspected, but by other cats - and opts to play detective. You can think of it as a film noir of sorts, with cats in place of humans, only it’s slightly more complicated than that, also touching upon such issues as genetic manipulation and humankind's relationship with the rest of the natural world. It’s an obscure animated film about cats. I love animation. I love discovering the really obscure ones which have slipped below the mainstream radar. Mostly importantly of all, I love cats. So it was a done deal that I sat down and watched it. And man, did it surprise me. I knew that it was going to be on the dark side, but I wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as stark and brutal as it was. Really, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Even the most infamously gritty of animal-orientated animated flicks – Watership Down, the Plague Dogs and the like – have nothing upon some of the onscreen brutalities we see in Felidae. Turns out that the presence of a feline serial killer barely scratches the surface of some of the nightmarish activities that go on within the shadows of Franics’ new neighbourhood. Most of the local cats belong to a sinister religious sect which engages in a highly macabre nightly ritual, the previous owner of Francis’ new house has gotten up to some pretty gruesome activities involving the cats, and there's blood, viscera and gore aplenty. In addition, there’s quite a bit of rough language and even some onscreen...erm, kitty romance. It’s certainly not the kind of thing that I would ever dream of showing to young children, or possibly even to older kids. So, it’s dark, it’s daring, it’s different; is it successful? I would say on the whole yes - it's gripping, unique and frequently harrowing, it captures the noir feeling very nicely, contains some brilliantly grotesque nightmare sequences and, provided you don't get too hung up on some of its more peculiar anthropomorphisms (the cats being able to operate computers, for example), it takes itself very seriously - though it does have its share of weaknesses. The storyline and characters are all very interesting, but there are points where it doesn’t go into quite as much depth or elaboration as is perhaps required. At some point I’m going to have to get hold of the original novel it was adapted from, since there are times when it dips into something of a skim-read feel, which do make the plot developments a bit baffling at times. Some of the character designs are pretty good - Francis, for example, looks attractive enough without being so cute and cuddly-looking as to detract from the intrinsically dark nature of the movie. Others I was a lot less keen on – notably Kong, whom they went to such lengths to make look bigger and burlier than the rest of the cats that in the end he doesn’t really look like a cat at all, more like a bizarre wolverine/bulldog hybrid. In addition, the ending feels kind of abrupt and, given all the horror that’s preceded it, somewhat on the glib side (again, there’s that skim-read feeling). In a way, it seems kind of strange that a film so unflinchingly adult-orientated would choose to constrain itself with the standard 80-minute running time expected of most animated features of the period - an extra ten minutes or so in which to better flesh out some of the more complicated themes and plot points probably wouldn't have hurt this film too much. Overall, though, it feels like a miracle that a movie of this nature should even exist at all. It's stark, gruesome and certainly not for everyone, but if you're a hardcore animation fan who likes their movies to be non-comformist and genre-defying, and you can stomach a bit of graphic animated violence, then this is definitely a must-see. |
FUTURAMA: Into the Wild Green Yonder
The final (But hopefully not the "Final" final) of the four direct to DVD Futurama movies. And I must say that this one has to be their strongest effort since the first movie (Bender's Big Score) and without giving too much away, this movie finally does something positive with the Fry/Leela relationship that has been built up through out the course of the series. So to sum up my experience in the ancient language known as "Critic speak" Great writing, great animation and of course great acting make this a voyage into the wild green yonder worth taking. |
Mystery Men
Uh... wow. I can not really say anything else about this movie, just wow. watch it if you like superhero movies, or even if you don't. |
A Mighty Wind
Another mockumentary from Christopher Guest, structured quite similarly to Waiting For Guffman and with more-or-less the same cast. This time, the subject at hand is folk music, and the efforts of three have-been (if ever) bands to stage a reunion concert in order to pay tribute to their mutual producer, who recently passed away. One of these bands, the Folksmen, is comprised of Guest himself, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, which did feel just the slightest bit gimmicky (despite the act itself apparently having existed prior to the film), but it was great nonetheless seeing them all together again. Another band, the New Main Street Singers, contains only one member of its original line-up (hence the name), and is managed by an utter twit whose cringe-inducing sense of humour and self-importance makes David Brent look relatively sophisticated. The final band, Mitch and Mickey, consists of an ex-couple, whose traumatic break-up all those years ago has left the former emotionally shattered, while the latter has since settled down and married a catheter salesman. Incidentally, it was their centrepiece song, "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" which earned the film an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song back in 2004. Admittedly, I'm not particularly big on folk music, so a lot of the little in-jokes and references probably went entirely over my head, but then nor am I a huge fan of heavy metal music either, and that's never prevented me from enjoying This Is Spinal Tap on multiple occasions. Although I wouldn't exactly place this in the same league as Spinal Tap, or even Waiting For Guffman (which provided me with a lot more laugh-out-loud moments and had a more relishable storyline all-round), it was still a lot of fun, and the Mitch and Mickey story arc gave things a healthy layer of poignency too. In short, not Guest's best work, but worth watching nonetheless. |
Enchanted
And you know what? It was kinda cute. I enjoyed it. |
Watchmen
Saw it on IMAX just a little while ago and boy, talk about seeing a movie on the BIG screen. All the hype, suspense, big talk and popularity following this movie has not been for nothing nor has it diminished anything. This movie is frigging, freaking, and fantastically phenomenal. The level of visual details, the complex costumes, the special camera angles and important use of music are well used. Everything here is pretty much perfect: acting, dialog, violence, gore, pacing, music, its all top quality and definitely keeps your attention. However, its not perfect as there are some flaws some minor some major. One is the annoying repetitious use of the fear of nuclear war since this movie takes place when the US feared Soviet invasion. I understand that's part of the story's plot and where the movie is supposed to take place, but I got tired of hearing nuclear war over and over again and was more concerned watching the characters and everything ELSE to keep worrying about nukes. Its a minor not really necessarily well founded complaint but the big one I have is with the ending....I just don't like it. As intelligent as it is and well crafted, I don't like it and I think maybe if one or two things had been changed it would have been much better but as it stands: it sends a mixed message, mixing valid points with unsatisfied ones. The movie is not a disappointment or a letdown and definitely recommend seeing it at once just be forewarned: the gore and sex scenes in this film are HEAVY. |
Watchmen. Went to see it for the second time tonight. As a fan of the comic, I honestly loved it, despite some of the liberties taken with it. It also, in my opinion, got better with a second viewing.
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I'd assume you count the ending as the confrontation with Veidt in Karnak. To be honest, they made Veidt seem more cold-hearted and detached from humanity and what he did in the movie, whereas he was genuinely well meaning, but clearly insane, in the comic. The movie also seems to side with Rorschach being correct, whereas in the comic it's meant to be more inconclusive and up to the reader as to whether the opinion of Veidt or Rorschach was correct, or if both were wrong. For the most part, I'm conflicted on it because it's made clear that nuclear war was inevitable unless something happened, and by doing what he did, Veidt successfully stopped it, or at least delayed it by a few decades. At the same time, Veidt had no right to do what he did, and he had also come to the arrogant assumption that only he was capable of saving humanity, so his actions were as much an intention to stroke his ego as much as save the world. Rorschach, while having his heart in the right place, would have brought the (at least temporary piece) to a screeching end if he told people what had happened. While the journal in the film more or less shows he does anyway,it's shown in the comic that the paper he gave it to was a right wing propaganda sheet and would have probably been disregarded easily by most people. I guess what I'm trying to say is is that the mixed opinions/points is very much an intentional decision. On a whole, I truly enjoyed the film. It may not be some perfect adaptation, but it is almost certainly the best adaptation one could hope for in the format of a film. |
Good to see Watchmen generating some debate at least. What I'm most intersted in is:
Is reference made to the relationship between Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis? I'd like to see them have a spin-off movie or something. Such a cute couple! |
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Brokeback Mountain with capes. Do you know I've consistantly failed to mention what the last movie I watched was. Well it was Persopolis, the English dub version and I liked it a lot. Perhaps not the sort of animated feature that'd get many people round here that excited I'd guess. |
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And the last movie I watched was... Best In Show This is the second Christopher Guest mockumentary I’ve watched this week. Again, the structure and cast are essentially the same as in Waiting For Guffman and A Mighty Wind – once more, Eugene Levy plays a socially awkward nerd, and Fred Willard a crass, loud idiot who seems to be entirely in love with his own crass, loud idiocy - but it’s a solid formula which produces some highly entertaining and slickly observed results, and this is certainly no exception. Here, Guest takes a dip into the world of canine fanatics and pedigree showing, focussing upon five different entrants into a prestigious dog show – a two-time champion Standard Poodle, a troubled Weimaraner, a friendly Norwich Terrier, a pampered Shih Tzu and a rookie Bloodhound – and the colourful assortment of eccentric owners who’ve brought them this far in the hopes of seeing their beloved pooch be named Best in Show. I did feel sorry for Beatrice the Weimaraner, whose owners, a high-strung, constantly-bickering married couple, were easily the least likeable of the bunch (their outcome in the competition wasn’t exactly unforeseen), but for the most part this was an utter delight, and I’d recommend it very strongly to anybody who enjoys mockumentaries, unconventional comedies, or just movies with a lot of cute doggies in them. |
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Ozymandias should have died. I was supremely pissed off that he was allowed to live when he should have killed and vaporized for everything he had done. The fact that he got away with everything I thought was insulting. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the fact his bombs did go off and millions of people died, I liked how that brought about peace and no one could change it without destroying the peace they established. I liked everything about that part of the ending. What i didn't like was the fact that Ozy should have been killed. Dr. Manhattan killing Rorschach I understand, but why he did not kill Ozy is something I do not understand because its like: you let him get away with EVERYTHING! And the other heroes just let it happen and accepted it. Even if Dr. Manhattan understood what Ozy was trying to say, that still doesn't make Ozy any less responsible for what he did and the fact Manhattan would allow him to live just bugged the crap out of me because he had more reason to die then Rorschach did. That was my problem with the ending. What Ozymandias did was unforgivable, giving cancer to innocent people and intentionally mind hammering Manhattan earns him more reasons that he should have been killed and even MORE incentive for Manhattan to kill Ozy despite the fact he agreed with his plans. That's my beef with its ending. Btw if you're looking for a more "complete review", I have a full length audio review of Watchmen on my youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhWxZAfwZ-w |
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The thing is this: Veidt is, in many ways, made a colder, more heartless man in the movie. In the comic, he shows genuine guilt and remorse at what he has done, as shown through a comic called "The Black Freighter", which parallels Veidts' own conscious and more or less shows his anguish at his actions and the fact that he's certain he's doomed to hell for them. Now, of course, this is still little compensation for him still surviving all he had done (there are other ways he's punished in the comic, though there's no need to go into them since the ending and him not getting caught are still the same), but it is something. No, it's completely unfair and unjust that Veidt didn't get punished for what he did, while another (although crazy) figure like Rorschach allows himself to be killed in order to stop himself from revealing whats happened. But at the same time, life isn't fair. It's fine that you don't like how it ended; you're not supposed to, though that's still little compensation. As for why Jon didn't kill Ozymandias in the end, it's because while he recognizes the miracle of human life, he's tired of being caught in the tangle of the current lives of humans. He acknowledges that life is a miracle, and that it must be preserved, but he's still distant from it and, since he now has no real ties to this world left, chooses to leave and make his own forms of life. The reason he kills Rorschach isn't just because he intends to reveal what Adrian has done, but because he demands Jon kills him as well. Jon has lived his entire adult life taking orders, as shown by the fact that he obeys and does exactly as he's told to by the government, despite disagreeing with what they tell him to do. Unaccustomed to making a choice on his own, he chooses to do what Rorschach demands of him. As for wanting Ozymandias to be killed, there actually was an intention to make this the ending in the first draft of the current script, which ends with Dan confronting Adrian outside in the snow and killing him with an "owlrang". This was dropped for the (what I honestly find better) sequence of Adrian standing there passively while he allows Dan to wail on him out of anger and anguish after seeing Rorschach's death. Also, semi-related for those who haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w Also: http://photos-f.ll.facebook.com/phot...61_5187931.jpg |
The Wrestler
Okay, after seeing this movie. Once again I have to ask what was the academy thinking when they didn't give the Oscar to Micky Rourke? His portrayal of Randy "The Ram" was one the most honest and brutal performances I have ever seen and I mean honest, they way the movie was shot and written and what Rourke went through to prepare for the role, you would think that he really is a broken down old pro wrestler clinging to his past glory. |
The Sound of Music
Yeah, I know, this film is regarded as one of those classics which everyone's supposed to have seen at some point in their childhood, and yet, despite my having been on this earth for close to a quarter of a century now, I only just got round to seeing it, for the first time, the other day. What can I say? It was magical, and the songs are truly delightful. The cinema was nice enough to have provided sheets with most of the lyrics on them, so we could sing along, if we chose to, only possibly they didn't think it all the way through, since once the film had started it was far too dark to read anything in there. Happily that didn't really matter, since I knew the overwhelming majority of the songs off by heart already. Even if you've never actually managed to see the film itself, it takes some doing to remain totally ignorant of the likes of "My Favourite Things", "So Long, Farewell" and, of course, "Do-Re-Mi" (incidentally, Douglas Adams once made an observation about that last one which was pretty much dead-on, and which I myself have been pondering for yonks...why couldn't they have come up with an actual definition for the sound "la" (as opposed to just being "a note to follow so")? Does it have a definition at all?). |
For "la" - how about "a rule you must obey"?
As for me, I last watched Yellow Submarine. My nephew wanted to see it, so I watched it with him. It was the 1999 edition with the "Hey Bulldog" segment added (it wasn't in the original release). |
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Last flick I watched was Slumdog Millionaire, this year's big Best Picture taker-homer, which I only just got round to seeing on Friday. A friend had remarked to me in advance that you could tell this was a Danny Boyle film, since it featured a lot of scenes with young blokes running away from things. I noticed another parallel with Trainspotting, in that in both films Danny tests the tenacity of his protagonists via their willingness to swim through faeces to get what they want - although, unlike in Trainspotting, the relevent scene here is actually extremely triumphant as well as revolting - a reading which it possibly wouldn't be too inaccurate to apply to the film as a whole. It doesn't consistently make for easy viewing, there being quite a lot of grit and brutality therein, but at the same time, it does have this really beautiful underlying fairy tale feeling to it, one which really draws you in and has you gasping and cheering at all the appropriate moments. Some folks have argued that it's this very fairy tale feeling which automatically negates all of the film's attempts to provide any kind of realistically gritty and hopeless depictions of life within the slums - and true, it's very hard to argue that Slumdog isn't essentially an escapist film above all else. But it's a damned fine one, with some really good acting and directing to boot. Better than Trainspotting? Oh jeez, I don't know, it's been a good three years since I last saw that one. Either way, it's a great movie too, and probably due for a revisit soon. |
Last movie I saw was Hotel Rwanda. I know I say this every time, but I think now it may fit best above all else, but I simply cant describe this movie. This truly is one that you just need to see to believe. I think the part that got me most was that this was based on a true story. It's very frightening, or at least it was to me, and really makes you afraid at times about the mortality of some of the characters.
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Knowing
I didn't get the chance to see or read anyone's reviews or comments on the movie only that I guess reviews were rather horrid for this movie. In any case I saw this movie not really aware of what was to be expected of it and it turned out to be a good thing because strangely enough, this movie really shocked me. Parts of it had Nicolas Cage's (regrettably) recent clunky acting and odd moments of weird screams and facial expressions ala "Wicker man" remake but once you got past that, I was surprised to see some pretty well written dialog, a compelling twisting story and to top it all off, an ending that literally blew my mind. Not everyone will like it in fact most will think its down right absurd. Oddly enough, I accept its absurdness and felt this ending was "fitting" for this movie. It really made me think and think about life, religion, this whole 2012 thing and just about stuff in general. I haven't had a movie done that to me in a long time, and it is by no means a must buy for me but I am most certainly glad I saw it. |
The Band's Visit
A truly wonderful slice-of-life drama about an Egyptian orchestra who have travelled to Israel with the intention of peforming at a cultural centre in Petah Tiqwa, only to wind up in the wrong location altogether and find themselves stranded there, at least until the town's transportation resumes the following morning. Throughout their overnight stay, the band members get the opportunity to explore their temporary environs and interact with a few of the locals, touching upon some of their own insecurities and aspirations whilst picking up a tiny taster of their's, and a succession of understatement, whimsy and poignency duely ensues - think something along the lines of the structure of Before Sunrise combined with the sensibilities of Jim Jarmusch. It's all very engaging, touching and enjoyable, and topped off with some really fantastic performances and direction. Trivia: Israel did attempt to have this nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2007, though ultimately (and unfortunately, since it would have been a first-rate contender) it was rejected because of the high proportion of English dialogue it also contained. Thus, Beaufort was nominated instead. |
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Naked Gun 33 1/3 - The Final Insult
Unfortunately, this is a textbook example of the law of diminishing returns - amusing enough in places, but with altogether rather little to offer in the way of particularly fresh or inspired humour and plot direction. What humour there is is very heavily dependent upon parodies of other movies from the early 90s, the problem being that, with the notable exception of the Untouchables-inspired opening sequence (which is a scream), most of the parodies just aren't all that funny, and, in terms of the narrative, feel rather disjointed and abitrary. It's almost as though they picked a whole bunch of movies which they wanted to parody in advance - Thelma and Louise, The Crying Game, Jurassic Park, et al - and modelled whatever storyline they could around that...in which light, having the film climax at an Academy Awards ceremony, though it does have its moments, really doesn't feel like much more than an excuse to stage even more movie parodies totally uninhibited. Like its predecessors, it's fast-paced, loaded with quirky sight-gags, and Leslie Nielson gives a typically enjoyable comic performance, but none of that quite disguises the thinness of the entire affair (nor its frequent, and really quite obnoxious dips into misogyny). All in all, it's probably worth watching if you enjoyed the previous two Naked Gun flicks, but this one just doesn't have that same classic comedy sheen. |
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Oh and the last movie I saw was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm which in my opinion has the best Batman movie musical score out of all Batman films. The opening opera like sequence of the Batman theme is beyond beautiful in my opinion. |
Monsters vs. Aliens
I just got back from seeing this, and it was funny. Seth Rogan and Hugh Laurie were brilliant in their roles, as was Stephen Colbert. I just want to clarify one thing: for anyone who's seen Monsters vs. Aliens, when the reporter appears before the President approaches the robot, was he voiced by someone from your own country? Because here in Australia, he was voiced by one of our own stars. |
Hunchback of Notre Dame
You know, I've only seen this movie once before, back around ten years ago. Back then I didn't think it was all that good. Today, however, I watched it. I gotta say it is much better than I thought it was. Frollo was a much better villain, and the story was great. I find it odd that this got a G rating, though. |
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I just finished watching Remember the Titans, but wasn't paying much attention. I'm kind of distracted today. I remember it being a good movie though, despite my not having much interest in football. I'm much more into basketball or hokey. :P
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Cube
Wow. Until yesterday, I’d known only very vaguely of this late 90s Canadian cult classic, but the little that I did know had been intriguing enough to leave me itching to see it, so it was just my good fortune that I happened to stumble across a copy on video in a charity shop earlier this week. And again, wow. I was absolutely mesmerised by this film. It’s been ages since I last saw a horror/sci-fi flick with so pure and simple a concept, yet with so much freshness, involvement and ingenuity. The basic scenario is truly the stuff of your most grisly and claustrophobic of nightmares, executed here with expert degrees of tautness and tension, and on a pretty limited budget too. It’s a cult classic status well and truly earned, and, to those who haven’t seen it, I can’t recommend it strongly enough. Six individuals (technically there is a seventh, but, eh, I don’t want to give away one of the earliest plot twists, do I?) wake up to find that they have been abducted from their daily routines and planted, seemingly at random, inside a giant cube. The cube itself is an elaborate maze made up of hundreds of interlocking cube-shaped rooms, some of which allow safe passage, while others contain lethal booby traps which will dispose of their entrants in all variety of gruesome manners. None of them know who built the cube, or for what purpose – and indeed, neither does the audience, who are kept in the exact same darkness for the entirety of the film. I should warn you not to get your hopes up if you’re expecting any kind of explanation as to the external significance of the cube, or that of the forces behind it (if, indeed, any such significance exists at all). Truthfully, such explanations would merely detract from the purity of the story, and aren’t really relevant to the task facing the characters at hand; that is, to find their way out by their own means and stay alive. The motley assembly includes a police officer (Quentin), a professional criminal with a special talent for prison breaking (Rennes), a doctor (Holloway), a maths student (Leaven), a mysterious businessman (Worth) and an autistic man (Kazan) – only through a combination of skill, logic and, most crucially of all, co-operation, do any of them stand a chance of making it to the outside world with their lives and their body parts fully intact. Unfortunately, and as if the cold mechanical callousness of the Cube weren’t antagonism enough, human vice starts to seep its way in, in true Lord of the Flies fashion, as individual struggles for power and leadership threaten to disrupt the mutual struggle for survival. What ensues is an extremely gripping, original and enjoyable slice of sci-fi horror with tension, surprises and irony galore – heck, put it in black and white and stick a Rod Serling voice-over at the beginning and the end and you’d have a drama worthy of the original Twilight Zone, but with a distinctly 90s twist. Overall, though, I found it to be a seriously effective exercise in human judgement – like the cube itself, the film is wrought with twists and turns, the greatest of which have to do with the various ways in which the characters are developed. None of them are quite who they appear to be, and, as Cube demonstrates, initial impressions can be truly deceptive. Throughout its entirety, the film continuously pulls the rug from under us, convincing us to invest our faith and adherences in one character whilst distrusting another, only for something to happen which completely disrupts that and forces us to reconsider our perceptions of them. Characters who initially appear to be benevolent and heroic may later reveal themselves to have a darker side, while even the most ostensibly useless or dubious of characters may have a hidden skill or understanding which proves integral to their escape. In the end, it's maybe not 100% perfect (though for what it is, it can't be too far off), but it makes its point with more than enough potency, and it's a seriously involving, impressively-executed ride to be a part of. My only regret is that the DVD of this movie currently appears to be out of print, since I would really have loved to owned it and have heard the director's commentary. There were a couple of direct-to-video sequels, apparently, but since the general word about those two has been a lot more mixed I'm not so sure if I'll bother right now. This one, though, was fantastic, and I really hope it gets a re-release soon. |
(Laputa) Castle in the sky
One of the older of Hayao Miyazaki's anime films and one of the few ones I have yet to see until now. I recently got back from an anime convention called "Anime Detour" in St. Paul, Minnesota and I picked this movie up just before I left. I've seen majority of Miyazaki's work and was a bit weary since I felt his most recent work hasn't been as good as I had hoped. However that was not the case with this film. This was a brilliant example of how a simple story filled with love, heart, and adventure can still spellbind people without huge explosions, gore and guts, or overloaded special effects. I found this movie to be absolutely adorable. The two characters of Patsu and Sheeta were just so sweet, so well done and so enjoyable to watch. They had great dub voice actors and I really felt their performances gave the characters more warmth and charm to their little love that grew as the film continued, not to mention the always enjoyable Mark Hamil as the villain (who I was not aware was even IN this film). The animation is fantastic as always, Miyazaki has one of the best animation styles I have ever seen. The music was also superb, Patsu's little horn piece in the beginning was a sweet and really lovely sounding little piece. My only complaint if any and this is more of a fault of mine for finding it first but, anyone who has seen the anime series "Nadia: Secret of blue water" will find STAGGERING numbers of reference to it. The movie is practically the exact same story as the series, the characters designs, story arcs, even the outfits and hobbies/jobs of the characters are the same as Nadia. I know Nadia came first due to its age so I have a strong feeling Miyazaki was heavily influenced by Nadia judging by all of the similarities. But that's nothing against the film itself and I absolutely loved it and am so glad I bought it when I did. |
Perhaps because of unfortunate choices I have made in my life, I've had little time this year to watch any movies, let alone write about them. It is a most unsatisfactory situation but it is all to the greater good and will turn out well in the end I'm sure. Unlike the 3 I have managed to see which I'm absolutely dying to acknowledge somehow. as they're all fantastic albeit all a bit minor-key movies, if you know what I mean. Anyway I'll rattle through 'em as best I can.
Persopolis is an animated film adapted from the autobiographical (I think) graphic novels of chief protagonist Marji (Marjane Satrapi), an intelligent and fun young lady who comes to the west to escape the stifling fundamentalism of post-revolutionary Iran. To my shame I approached the film with a little trepidation, knowing the history and politics behind the story I expected a lot of tragedy and obviously there's a lot there with events so awful you wonder how anyone could possibly cope. However the predominant feeling was one of familiarity. Persopolis is about growing up and leaving home and making mistakes and becoming wise to what really matters and not letting all the bad stuff get to you. All the stuff we all have to grow through. Marji's felt like a friend I'd never met and that was nice. Now the version I watched was dubbed into English from French and I was a little sorry about that but everyone did OK even bizarre half-naked blitzed rocker turned insurance salesman Iggy Pop. Nice going, Iggy. Now put some clothes on. Lust, Caution is the story of a young actress in Japanese-occupied China who infiltrates the household of a powerful collaborator as part of an assassination plot concocted by her naïve patriotic drama-student friends. I loved this film so much. The tension is built by keeping you guessing on several important issues: Is she really attracted to her target or merely acting? Is he aware that she's deceiving him? At one point she she sings for him and does one of those beautiful expressive dances that seem to involve these funny little shuffling bits. Timing is so important. Save the Green Planet is a Korean film, not Japanese like that IDIOT said in the 'What ticks you off' thread. What a crass error. I'm glad I'm not that jerk. Um...Anyway Save the Green Planet is the story of a young man who kidnaps a successful businessman and tortures him in the belief that he's an alien with hostile intentions to Earth. It's a bit yuck sometimes but manages to be very funny indeed and by the end you're moved to tears. Favourite character is the Tightrope walker girlfriend, who's one of the sweetest characters ever though I also liked the cynical ex-detective who reminded me of my Dad for some reason. It's cheating really but I also listened to the soundtrack of Koyaanisqatsi today by Philip Glass. I love that music so much and must see the actual film again (and its 2 sequels, which I've yet to see) soon. Watch this space. |
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