What general film/series have you just seen.. marks out of 5

[Markgway]

Bonnie and Clyde (1967-USA)

This is a difficult film for me to comment upon because I can't separate the fiction from the reality. The filmmakers took a gang of murderers and turned them into glamourous anti-heroes. The facts are relentlessly fudged to suit this iconic portrayal. Hollywood at its most shameful. The film itself isn't too bad and if it were completely fictional I'd probably have been kinder (though it's no classic under any circumstance). The graphic violence was shocking for its time (and still packs a punch) but the romanticising of true life murder is unforgiveable.

[gasteropod]

Calvaire (2004) - 1.5/5

A waste of time, we've all seen this story before and this adds nothing apart from some nice shots of the woods at the end.

[Markgway]

White of the Eye (1987-UK) *½

Preposterous and pretentious psycho-thriller gets more absurd as it goes along...


Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971-Italy-Spain-France) *

London-set Lucio Fulci giallo. Gave up on this badly directed bore after 30 mins. The version I saw was dubbed into Italian which didn't help.

[Markgway]

The Grey (2011-USA) ***

Very downbeat yet quite compelling drama about survivors of a plane crash fending off wolves and freezing temperatures. There's some debate as to how convincing the wolves' aggressive behaviour is but if that doesn't bother you the film is worth a look. It's NOT an action adventure so don't expect that. There's more debate on mortality and God than man vs wolf violence. Liam Neeson turns in another strong performance and for his fans this is a must see. Not a film I'd watch again though.

[gasteropod]

White of the Eye (1987-UK) *½

Preposterous and pretentious psycho-thriller gets more absurd as it goes along...

'Dad's wearing a bunch of hot dogs!'

[Markgway]

'Dad's wearing a bunch of hot dogs!'

[Yi-Long]

The Expendables 2/5

Kinda a hard one to rate, cause it's 'entertaining' in the fact it's a pretty straightforward action flick the type you rarely see anymore these days, and obviously it scores some likeability-points with all the cameos and shit...

That said, the story is pretty dumb, the characters lack any depth, and for an action-movie the action is shot pretty poorly, making it hard to rate the choreography of it all, with too many cuts between characters/fights and mostly filmed in dark surroundings, which doesn't help much either.

There are obviously cool moments in there, so you won't be having a bad time or anything, but in the end you'll take nothing memorable from it.

Rambo 4 was also a simple straightforward action-movie, but it just scored much higher when it comes to offering a nice simple story with good violent action.

2/5

[gasteropod]

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) - 4/5

Some parts seemed unnecessarily ambiguous (which is why its forum on IMDb is full of questions), but this kept me intrigued throughout and all of the different aged actors playing Kevin were pretty creepy!

[luckystars]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (USA, 2011) – 3.5/5
Not having seen the Swedish adaptation or read the novel, this turned out quite solid, except for the horrible opening credits sequence. A well directed story film with good characters and excellent performances by Daniel Craig and especially Rooney Mara (who is actually quite hot in the film).

Agree with this.

It's hard to rate a film as objectively when its a remake, and you've seen the original. But for me this was not as good a film as the original adaptation of the book. And although good, niether Mara or Craig were a patch on Rapce or Nyqvist's pairing

[Markgway]

The original is on Film 4 on Friday. I hope to see it and the remake this week.

[Markgway]

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974-Spain-Italy) **

Zombies in England! Silly and illogical; though no worse than Lucio Fulci's gory output.

[gasteropod]

Summer Interlude (1951) - 4/5

Beautifully shot and reminded me of Antonioni's '50s output.

[grim_tales]

Men in Black 3 3.5/5

I enjoyed it, amusing and much better than the 2nd one. Josh Brolin was very good as a younger K and Will Smith was good too. The villain was good (sounded like Tim Curry for some reason)
Tommy Lee Jones looked very aged in it - I know the 1st was 15 years ago but he looked very sad eyed, even quite ill

[Markgway]

Layer Cake (2004-UK) **

Slick, but empty gangster-drugs thriller isn't without entertainment value, but its morals and glamourisation of the criminal lifestyle are suspect to say the least.

[Markgway]

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987-USA) **½

Not as good as the first... but better than the third.

[Markgway]

99 Women (1968-Euro-pudding) **

Jess Franco WIP exploitation pic.

More tolerable than expected, tame even; but where's the ending?

[Yi-Long]

Layer Cake (2004-UK) **

Slick, but empty gangster-drugs thriller isn't without entertainment value, but its morals and glamourisation of the criminal lifestyle are suspect to say the least.

I absolutely LOVE that movie. I also didn't really think it 'glamourized' a criminal lifestyle, but you often seem to think that happens in movies like this.

Such a brilliant gem of a movie.

[Markgway]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011-USA-Sweden-UK-Germany) ***

Good, gritty adult thriller with strong performances. Plot is a bit convoluted though, with an overly protracted ending.

[Markgway]

Eyes Wide Shut (1999-UK-USA) **½

Bizarre erotic mystery-drama is never truly satisfying (on any level) but too intriguing to dismiss out of hand.

[bradavon]

Layer Cake (2004-UK) **
but its morals and glamourisation of the criminal lifestyle are suspect to say the least.

Dude it's not based on real life events. It's just a movie. So many martial arts films you love glamorise violence.

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987-USA) **½ - Not as good as the first... but better than the third.

I love them both equally. Part 3 is dog shit. I only own it because it's part of one of those slim box sets and was cheap as chips.

[luckystars]

Eyes Wide Shut (1999-UK-USA) **½

Bizarre erotic mystery-drama is never truly satisfying (on any level) but too intriguing to dismiss out of hand.

I know what you mean, but its still a film I want to revisit every now and again. Saw it in the cinema in 99, and twice(??) since. So due a rewatch...maybe I'll get the Kubrick Blu boxset cheaps...

[gasteropod]

I really like Eyes Wide Shut, great occult atmosphere.

[luckystars]

The Lady 8/10
Superb drama subtlety told without any typical filmmaker pomp from Besson. Acting is top notch. Its similar in style to some of the great tv dramas of the 80's, just straight good acting and storytelling. A great film that does justice in portraying a great woman.

I hope Besson uses the experience of dusting off his Directors hat, to dig deep into his style of the past, and comes back with another self Directed film next, richer in a more filmic visual style. For The Lady however, the film was just right as it was.

[Markgway]

Dude it's not based on real life events. It's just a movie. So many martial arts films you love glamorise violence.

I never said Layer Cake glamourised violence.

Besides the martial arts films you speak of almost always have a strong moral core.

I don't see what being a work of fiction has to do with anything either.

3 is dog shit.

That's too harsh.

I really like Eyes Wide Shut, great occult atmosphere.

That stuff seemed a bit silly to me, but then I've never been into the occult and weird shit in general.

[Markgway]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009-Sweden-Denmark-Germany-Norway) **½

Proof that original does not always equal better. The remake isn't without its flaws, but on the whole is a superior film with stronger acting, greater charisma, and directorial panache. Both films are very close plot wise and if you've seen one the other will hold no surprises. In a sense the remake was unecessary given that it's almost the same film, but in English, as opposed to a relocation or reimagining of the text... but crucially it is an improvement.