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

[grim_tales]

The Ipcress File (1965): 4/5

Good film - not one I'd see again though.

[HungFist]

Black Swan (USA, 2010) – 3/5
Aronofsky’s solid but over-rated film delivers well made theatricality for those who like that style. Strong performance by Portman, but the film feels like it’s moving on rails – as many classic storylines tend to do. While not a copy by any means, the storyline and many key scenes are strikingly similar to Satoshi Kon's far superior thriller Perfect Blue (1998), which was probably inspired by the same source material. While Black Swan follows innocent ballet dancer Nina, who must adapt the role of a Black Swan and starts losing her sense of reality in the process, Perfect Blue follows innocent pop star Mima, who leaves her pure girl imago behind in order to enter the exploitative film biz and starts losing her sense of reality in the process. Aronofsky is safe from copyright infringement claims, though - he owns the remake rights to Perfect Blue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Rj7nn0ZVs

[Markgway]

I will raise you maybe the film of that year

[Markgway]

Eye of the Beholder (UK/Canada, 1998) *½

The Lonely Guy (USA, 1984) ***

Big Nothing (UK/Canada, 2006) **½

[luckystars]

Children of Men (USA-UK, 2006) *½

Laughably heavy-handed ultra-left wing propaganda.

Great film.

I will raise you maybe the film of that year

That comment got me intrigued so I had a look at my 2006 films...I marginally rated Rescue Dawn and Volver over Children Of Men.

Can't see what Mark didn't like about it...

[Markgway]

Can't see what Mark didn't like about it...

I honestly didn't like anything about it (save some imaginative camerawork).

I really didn't care in the slightest about any of the characters, which is a massive problem for a character-driven drama. Even the acting was unimpressive, sometimes poor. Clive Owen was surly and dull, the pregnant girl was like some chippy chav, Julianne Moore sleepwalked thru her glorified cameo, Michael Caine (whom I normally rate) delivers one of his laziest performances, and the less said about Peter Mullen's awful contribution (I won't call it acting) the better. The film's politics are ludicrously heavy-handed; attempting to equate Britain's immigration policy with some kind of Nazi-like fascism is a Guardian-reader's wet dream. The villain's motives are fuzzy, as are those of the mythical saviour project - why should we care when nothing is adequately explained? What's going to happen now to the baby now that it's reached the ship? Owen's sacrifice should have been noble and inspiring, instead I felt absolutely nothing inside. I had a hunch that I wouldn't care for this movie, which is why it took me a few years to get round to seeing it. It was worse than I expected. I've heard it referred to as belonging to the Sci-Fi and Action genres, but I don't believe it's either. For me it's just another desaturated, glum, dystopian drama, begging to be taken seriously but undeserving of any accolades or respect.

[luckystars]

Well it is a grey/gritty dystopian drama.......

"attempting to equate Britain's immigration policy with some kind of Nazi-like fascism is a Guardian-reader's wet dream"

Are you mistaking content for intent?

P.S. This is making me want to revisit the film btw.....every 'filmy' friend I've spoken to about it has said the same thing 'oohh great film'

[Yi-Long]

I remember liking it, not loving it. Did buy the BR for 5 euro a while ago, although I haven't seen it again yet.

[luckystars]

I remember liking it, not loving it. Did buy the BR for 5 euro a while ago, although I haven't seen it again yet.

I was just pleasantly surprised how strong a film it was for a 'lucky dip' purchase....rewatched it pretty soon after the first viewing (something I don't often do...).

Just ordered the Blu-Ray today after making my last post

[saltysam]

Watched Children Of Men a couple of years ago....it wasn't awful but i don't think i'd find myself wanting to watch it again anytime soon.

[Markgway]

Are you mistaking content for intent?

Not sure what you mean?

every 'filmy' friend I've spoken to about it has said the same thing 'oohh great film'

Get new friends then.

[romerojpg]

Because of this talk, I re-watched my Children of Men HD DVD still quality for me.

[Markgway]

Mark of an Angel aka Angel of Mine (2008-France) ***

White Mischief (1987-UK-Kenya-USA) **½

Mr. Woodcock (2007-USA) **

[bradavon]

Children of Men is an admirable failure. It sounds like I liked it as much as Mark. I never considered buying it. I still stand by my review and say it's dull:

http://www.alexmccaffrey.com/Reviews/Ch ... %20Men.htm

Also asking:

"1. The world has turned to chaos/a war zone, but oddly Britain is left comparatively speaking completely untouched. Okay!
2. Why on earth would women becoming infertile turn Britain from the world of 2006 to the world depicted in "Children of Men"?"

Bear in mind I've not seen it since then. Volver is much better than Children of Men.

[Shingster]

The wars are kicking off because of tensions raised from international self-awareness that the human race is becoming obsolete. No more people are being born, imagine the impact that would have pyschologically and socially.

The world has turned to chaos/a war zone, but oddly Britain is left comparatively speaking completely untouched. Okay!

Britain is one of the last great nations left that has maintained a state of civil order, hence it not being a total war zone and hence the reason why there are so many immigrants trying to get in. The suggestion is that we closed our borders and withdrew into an insular state by expelling immigrant factions.

I thought Children of Men was excellent and wrote a capsule review for it back when the BD came out. Must say I couldn't disagree more with Mark's opinion on the performances, which I thought were generally excellent (can't really argue against his other points, you either click with the characters in this film or you don't). Funnily enough I usually find Clive Owen to be quite stiff though, but here he's much better and a little stiffness suited his character anyway.

When Children of Men came out in the autumn of 2006 it received quite the mixed reaction. By and large it was championed by critics but there were quite a number of film fans who took an immediate dislike, perhaps turned off by the overly left-wing political tone and lack of conventional narrative. There are times when the central message of Children of Men is overbearingly rammed down your throat, but if you look beyond the heavy-handed tone there’s a film of tremendous humanity seeping out.

Set in a dystopic future where women have long been infertile and the human race faces extinction within a century, the world has been torn asunder by social apathy and civil unrest. Only the United Kingdom appears to have maintained a semblance of social order, but the government has turned it’s ire on the millions of immigrants who seek solace on its shores, locking them away en masse in internment camps. Theo Faron is a former political activist who now lives a rather apathetic day-to-day live working in an office job in London, bur is world is shaken up when his ex-wife gets in back in touch. She’s the head of a notorious terrorist group who are seeking to smuggle a young girl named Kee out of the country and needs Theo to sort out the transit papers for them to do this, but as conflicting political goals tears the terrorist cell apart, Theo finds himself on the run and having to protect Kee from not only the newly reorganised cell, but also the British government.

Children of Men plays much more effectively when you go into it knowing as little as possible, mainly because Alfonso Cuarón has crafted it in a way where there is next to no exposition and his handheld camera flies around each location in seemingly endless one-take shots that reveal the bare information you need from the peripheral mise-én-scene. This turns the viewer into a raw witness of events, a limiting context which Cuarón uses to create some really shocking bursts of action where we feel the entropy and violence of this “new world” first hand. It’s remarkably effective at times, at others it feels a little too unsubtle, but either way it serves to make Children of Men a genuinely unique experience as an action film. What really makes the film work for me is the emotional journey of its central character, he starts off as this atypically disillusioned, almost smugly cynical man, then his whole world is ripped out from under him as the events he is forced to witness really take him on an emotional journey into a more determined hero. Cuarón’s direction brings the most out of this setting, but Clive Owen’s performance is really remarkable, proving as ever that he is far more at home in naturalistic, sardonic roles.

[degeneration]

I thought it was decent enough, very nice action set pieces, but it just didn't go anywhere. It started and ended in the middle of a story. As a result I was left thinking "is that it?" when it finished. It felt like I'd been teased and the final act of the story was taken away from me.

I'm in the "no plans to watch it again" camp.

[bradavon]

The wars are kicking off because of tensions raised from international self-awareness that the human race is becoming obsolete. No more people are being born, imagine the impact that would have pyschologically and socially.

Fair point.

Britain is one of the last great nations left that has maintained a state of civil order, hence it not being a total war zone and hence the reason why there are so many immigrants trying to get in. The suggestion is that we closed our borders and withdrew into an insular state by expelling immigrant factions.

America folds before Britain? I don't buy it.

[thelostdragon]

Children of Men = Awesome film which was masterfully shot!

[thelostdragon]

Just the planning that went into this tracking shot makes this film so great and worth buying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiyA70jAL14

[luckystars]

Just the planning that went into this tracking shot makes this film so great and worth buying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiyA70jAL14

But Mark said the film was trash

[romerojpg]

Children of Men is an admirable failure.

[Markgway]

Children of Men is an admirable failure.

Yeah, I don't think it's admirable either.

[gasteropod]

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - 3/5

[Markgway]

Drop Zone (1994-USA) **½

[gasteropod]

Suspiria - 5/5

I've just watched this in Italian for the first time and it was quite a different experience - no dodgy acting and lines, the dialogue is more involved - Helena Markos doesn't say half the stuff that she (embarrassingly) does in the English version, for the most part she sits there in silence, then there's creepy laughter and when she does start talking, she's wheezing like in the earlier scene with her behind the red cover. Joan Bennett's few half-hearted yells of 'deaaaath!' are instead screams of 'MORTE!!!!!!!!' repeatedly at the top of her lungs in a disturbing and possessed way. Suzy's character came across quite differently as well, she sounded like a younger girl, and wasn't gormless like she is in the English version.

Also it was great to watch it without the messed up colours and contrast of the remastered version, and I much preferred the sound in this one because the music is too loud on the Blu-ray, more sound effects came through in this version in a very effective way, particularly when the girl is getting stabbed at the beginning, I couldn't believe the impact sounds I was hearing!

I knew it, if only more people could see it like this.